Movie productions may be on shutdown during the coronavirus pandemic, but an industry that may lose $20 billion is still at work. As per Deadline, Netflix just paid $20 million for The Starling, a drama starring Melissa McCarthy, Kevin Kline, Chris O’Dowd, and Timothy Olyphant after taking part in auction with other companies. That may sound like a lot, but there’s more: The only thing they’d seen of it was a script and a four-minute sizzle reel, aka a montage of key scenes usually used for promotional purposes.

Directed by Ted Melfi, who helmed Hidden Figures as well as the McCarthy-featuring St. Vincent, it sounds like heavy stuff. The plot, according to Deadline:

McCarthy and O’Dowd play a married couple trying to rebuild their relationship after suffering a tragedy. While her husband heads off to deal with his grief in recovery, Lily Maynard tries to heal in the real world, one that becomes surreal when she grows a beautiful garden in their backyard, only to find herself repeatedly attacked by a starling that has built a nearby nest. She turns to a psychiatrist-turned-veterinarian with baggage all his own (Kline) who tries to help Lily with her bird problem and ends up making a larger impact on her life

Why the big payment? Deadline theorizes that it may be because they’re desperate to ensure there’s new content after the outbreak lifts, as there will definitely be a big lack from what could wind up being months of inactivity. And though they only saw a script and a reel, at least The Starling was able to complete its shoot prior to the near-national quarantine. On top of that, McCarthy is still enjoying the aftermath of her Oscar-nominated dramatic turn in the still pretty funny Can You Ever Forgive Me? Sounds like we’ll see how she fares once the filmmakers are able to piece it together in post.

(Via Deadline)

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Get ready to take your at-home outdoor sanctuary to the next level.

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“We most definitely have over $1,000 worth of returned items per week.”

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Put the scissors down!

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The first two episodes of The Last Dance featured some fantastic stories, from Scottie Pippen’s instantly iconic “I’m not gonna f*ck up my summer” quote about putting off surgery to Michael Jordan’s 63-point playoff outing in 1986 being fueled by a bad golf game the day before with Danny Ainge.

Those helped set the tone for what figures to be a highly entertaining documentary, that will provide first-hand accounts and perspectives on some stories we’ve heard before (and, hopefully, some we haven’t). Missing from the first two episodes was the presence of Dennis Rodman, but for those wanting all the details of wild stories involving The Worm, have no fear.

The third and fourth episodes will look back on the Pistons-Bulls rivalry in the late 80s and early 90s — during which Rodman was on the Pistons — and then look into Rodman’s time in Chicago. One story we know will appear was teased in partial form by ESPN and the NBA, as Michael Jordan tells the story of Rodman’s request for a vacation after Scottie Pippen returned to the lineup.

The best part of this are the reactions from Rodman, Pippen, and Phil Jackson, who all get to watch Jordan tell the story on a phone. Jordan’s exasperated, “if anybody f*ckin needs a vacation, I need a vacation,” is incredible, as is “if you let him go on vacation, we’re not gonna see him; if you let him go to Vegas, we’re definitely not gonna see him.” This will surely be among the highlights of the upcoming episodes, but the entire Jordan-Pistons rivalry is fascinating and hearing all parties involved looking back and then finally getting to Rodman stories figures to make this week even more must-see TV.

Two of the most powerful people in Hollywood right now are Joe and Anthony Russo, and with good cause: They made some of the biggest movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including delivering the goods with the one-two Avengers punch of Infinity War and Endgame. But they came from lowly beginnings. Indeed, one of the reasons they nabbed the MCU gig was because of their work directing some of the most genre-heavy episodes of Community. So why not finally make a movie about the Greendale Community College study group?

Good question! And Collider asked about it! While speaking about Extraction, the Russos-produced action thriller that just debuted on Netflix, Joe pointed out that also new to that streamer is no less than Community. And it’s been doing really well. So why not finally give the show, which ended in 2015, the full six-seasons-and-a-movie treatment it never quite got? Says Joe:

“We’d certainly be willing to do it. We love our Community family. That cast, we’re all still very close to all of them. It’d certainly be schedule-depending for us. But I believe there will be a Community movie, especially now that it’s doing so well on streaming. Someone like Netflix could step up and make that movie.”

Of course, a big screen Community wouldn’t be best if it was too big. “I don’t think you’d want to see it with a really big budget,” Joe pointed out.

“Part of what is so compelling about the show is that it’s very quaint, it’s Greendale as an underdog. I don’t think you’d want to suddenly execute it with crazy high production value and set design. Unless we were going somewhere fantastical or doing one of our genre exploration concepts. But I think you’d easily pull that movie off for a budget.”

Joe also spoke about the ways directing a comedy about a study group prepared them to helm MCU titles. For one thing, Community is an ensemble show, just like their Captain America: Civil War and their Avengers diptych. There wasn’t just the main group; there was everyone else at the college. “Sometimes we’d have 20, 30 speaking roles in an episode of Community that’s 21 minutes long,” Joe pointed out. He also spoke about how the show regularly had “bottle” episodes — one-offs where they’d do, for example, action movie send-ups.

Another thing we learned from working on Community is that we were just constantly exploring and subverting genre. It seemed every week we were chasing up our style and our tone, the look and feel of it, the score, the way the characters behaved. We were able to explore genre on a very deep level. When you’re subverting genre, you’re studying it to such an extent that you’re really understanding the nuances of it. That was critical and certainly the paint ball episodes were a huge part of our Marvel career.

So there you have it: There’s nowhere near a definitive word on whether or not they can get the gang back together, but at least it’s on the mind of two people who can get stuff done in this industry…at least when the industry, and the rest of society, is back on its feet.

(Via Collider)

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Tonight, in the With Spandex WWE Raw open discussion thread:

Seth Rollins seemed lost after his WrestleMania defeat, but he found a new target: WWE Champion Drew McIntyre.

The Monday Night Messiah issued cryptic warnings, promising to “stomp out all doubt,” then followed through quite literally last week on Raw. Left vulnerable after a chop block by Angel Garza following his victory over Andrade, McIntyre felt the wrath of Rollins’ superkick and a devastating Stomp.

Rollins’ gaze lingered on the WWE Title, making his next mission clear without a word.

How will McIntyre respond to Rollins’ dastardly actions? (via WWE.com)

On tonight’s card: Rey Mysterio vs. (Buddy) Murphy, Apollo Crews vs. MVP, and Aleister Black vs. Austin Theory in qualifying matches for the men’s Money in the Bank ladder match. Plus, as you read in the intro, “How will Drew McIntyre respond to Seth Rollins’ attack?” With kicks! Sorry, I should’ve typed “spoiler alert.”

As always, +1 your favorite comments from tonight’s open thread and give them a thumbs up and we’ll include 10 of the best in tomorrow’s Best and Worst of Raw column. Make sure to flip your comments to “newest” in the drop down menu under “discussion,” and enjoy the show!

In case you missed it, the first two episodes of “The Last Dance” aired Sunday night on ESPN, giving viewers a deeper look into the legend of Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls. But the documentary also showed the often-fraught relationship between general manager Jerry Krause and the players.

The late Krause was hired as general manager in 1985, one year after the Bulls had drafted Jordan. The stout executive was undoubtedly an architect of Chicago’s six titles, but he did some things along the way that caused him to become hated by many fans and a villain in history. He brought in Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, Dennis Rodman and more, but he also traded away Charles Oakley, a close teammate of Jordan. There was also Pippen’s disrespectful 7-year, $18 million contract extension that made him just the sixth-highest player on the Bulls and the 122nd-highest in the league by the time it was ending, and the fact that Krause openly considered trading Pippen on multiple occasions. Krause also did not get along with head coach Phil Jackson — he explicitly didn’t invite him to the wedding of his stepdaughter and he reportedly tried to force him out of the organization following the 1997-98 season. Jackson of course won his sixth title with the Bulls that year and then departed to the Los Angeles Lakers where he won five more championships.

In a roundtable discussion on SportsCenter after the episodes aired, ESPN sportswriter Jackie MacMullan, who has covered Jordan for more than three decades, spoke about Krause’s role in the organization and how it deteriorated over time.

“[Jordan] and [Pippen] were both so disrespectful to this man, but there were times when, really, I felt like Jerry deserved it,” she said on the show. “He wanted to be one of the club, and he just wasn’t going to be. And so he decided, ‘Well, I’m going to break up the club.’”

MacMullan also explained how Krause got the nickname, “Crumbs.”

“Jerry Krause wanted those players to love him — they didn’t,” MacMullan said. “They used to call him ‘Crumbs,’ because he’d have a muffin or something and all the crumbs would spill down his shirt.”

The New York Times wrote that doughnuts were a particular favorite snack of the general manager’s — the flakes from the doughnut would stick on his face and shirt, and the name stuck. “Crumbs” was not meant to be an endearing nickname, but rather yet another example of how players — Jordan, in particular — despised everything about Krause. In the documentary, there are plenty of snide comments and toward the former general manager. Jordan is seen mocking Krause’s physical appearance, asking him in front of everyone, “Are those the pills you take to keep you short or are those diet pills?” Then there was the time Jordan joked that they’d have to lower the rim for Krause if he wanted to join them in the layup line during pre-game warm ups.

During that last Bulls’ championship run in 1998, Krause wanted to tear the team down and rebuild. Obviously, this did not go over well with Jackson, Jordan, Pippen and others, further leading to more bad blood between the general manager and the team he was in charge of. After Jordan left the organization in 1999, the Bulls could never hit the same heights of success again. Krause, facing immense pressure from fans and media, resigned from his post. But, as the first two episodes of “The Last Dance” showed, the stories of his missteps continue to be told.