Lucy Lawless didn't want your Star Wars fan campaign

Xena star Lucy Lawless found herself at the center of a fan campaign to replace the since-ousted Gina Carano in The Mandalorian.

Carano had been playing a character named Cara Dune and was set to be spun off into her own show. But then she opened her dumb mouth on social media about some hot button political issues and revealed herself to be a bit of a gross person. So she lost her job.

The fans loved the character, so Lawless was put up as the focus of the fan campaign. The problem for Lawless: it cost her a different Star Wars role:

“Well to be honest with you, I was already in discussions about something on — it wasn’t ‘The Mandalorian’ — something Star Wars-affiliated,’ Lawless said. “[The fan campaign] might have hurt me in some way, because then [Lucasfilm] couldn’t hire me because it would seem to be pandering to…I’m just guessing here, I don’t know anything, but in some ways, it can be unhelpful, because if they pander to this fan group, then how are you going to pander to every other fan group, do you know what I mean?”

Good one, guys.

True Lies finds its cast

There are two True Lies TV productions currently in the works. One has Arnold Schwarzenegger as a spy who discovers his daughter is also a spy and the two team up to save the world every week. or something. It's not really True Lies, but it's not far removed. That show is coming to Netflix.

But then there is also the True Lies TV series. Written by Matt Nix (no stranger to spycraft thanks to his work on Burn Notice), the show is being made for CBS. Already announced as playing Harry, the main guy (as played by Schwarzenegger), is Shameless star Steve Howery. But today the rest of the cast have been revealed.

Playing his wife Helen is Ginger Gorganza (played by Jamie Lee Curtis in the film). Taking on the Tom Arnold role is Mike O'Gorman. Omar Miller and Erica Hernandez fill out other roles as spies. This version of True Lies is more of a team effort. Think more the Mission: Impossible TV show and less James Bond (which was more the direction the film took).

The big question remaining: Why is the film never found on a streaming service? It was a huge release that made a heap of money at the box office. Why has it all but disappeared?

TeeVee Snacks

BMF has been renewed for a second season. It debuted this past week. Read: TV Line
The new untitled Brad Pitt / George Clooney thriller has landed at Apple. It will get a cinema release and a later release on Apple TV+. Spider-Man director Jon Watts will direct. Read: Deadline
Aaron Sorkin reckons disgraced producer Scott Rudin got what he deserves. Read: Vanity Fair
There is still no deal in the NBCUniversal / YouTube channel carriage dispute. They have less than 6 hours until the deal expires (at the time of hitting send on this newsletter). Read: The Streamable

Without telephone for company

Huge numbers of people are watching Squid Game. So when an episode of the show featured a business card with a visible phone number, viewers started calling it. The problem was the number wasn't a dummy number or a promotional gimmick - it was just some guys number.

That shouldn't happen. It's actual harassment.

In the US, this is avoided by having all shows using the fake 555 pre-fix with phone numbers. In hearing about the Quid Game incident, UK telecommunications regulator Ofcom made a public statement about UK TV shows and movies using phone numbers: they have a set list of numbers that are given to productions to use.

Tudum numbers

On Monday Always Be Watching dedicated its entire newsletter to the Netflix Tudum event. Interestingly, the email that day had the lowest open rate of any ABW email I have sent this year (usually there's an approx 40% open rate for every email, which is delightfully pretty high for email). On Monday it dropped to a 28% open rate.

While that ABW email was clearly a bit of a dud (sorry), the Tudum event itself was pretty damn successful. How many people watched Tudum? Across 29 Netflix YouTube channels, Twitter, Twitch, Facebook, TikTok, and Tudum.com, there were 25.7 million views. That is just the live event. Watching videos on social media channels after the event added 300 million views - but plot twist... those 300 million views were only in the 15 minutes following the event.

How many people watched the event in total? There were almost 695 million views and over 3.3 billion impressions across 184 countries.

That's successful content marketing.

Trailer Park

Judy Justice debuts on Nov 1 on IMDb TV.

RL Stine's series Just Beyond debuts on Disney+ Oct 13.

Ridley Jones s2 debuts on Netflix Nov 2.

Maya and The Three debuts on Netflix Oct 22.

A spirited princess with the heart of a warrior embarks on a mission to fulfill an ancient prophecy and save humanity from the wrath of vengeful gods.

Sexy Beasts returns to Netflix Oct 7 for season 2.

The Billion Dollar Code debuts on Netflix Oct 7.

In 1990s Berlin, an artist and a hacker invented a new way to see the world. Years later, they reunite to sue Google for patent infringement on it.

This is a promotional video for an upcoming movie based on 70's Japanese TV series Shin Kamen Rider. It recreates the opening titles from the show. The 2023 film is from Shin Godzilla director Hideaki Anno.