EXCLUSIVE: Monarch Media has enlisted Kali Bailey to adapt the screenplay for The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, a live-action feature adaptation of the children’s book by L. Frank Baum.

First published in 1902, Baum’s book follows Santa Claus from an abandoned baby in a magical forest near Oz, to his beloved role of spreading peace, love and lots of toys at Christmastime. Recognized as one of the greatest fantasy writers of the 20th century, Baum is best known for his 14-book series, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which of course inspired the 1939 film classic The Wizard of Oz.

Monarch principals Steve Barnett, Alan Powell and Vicky Patel will produce the new movie.

This isn’t Bailey’s first time working with the Monarch Media team, having co-written the company’s coming-of-age film A Week Away, which spawned the Angel Network series of the same name. She went on to co-direct multiple episodes of the spinoff series and also wrote and directed the Angel Network sci-fi film The Lightning Code.

Speaking to the origins of the Life and Adventures movie, Monarch’s Barnett said: “I’ve been obsessed with the origins of Santa Claus for a long time, so discovering that the incredible L. Frank Baum had explored that backstory was really exciting. Santa is one of the few fictional, global icons, and this story taps into that shared mythology. Kali has created a sweeping, four-quadrant adventure that feels timeless yet fresh—a big, emotional ride that will connect with everyone around the world, across cultures and generations.”

Monarch’s credits include producing the Richard Linklater film Hit Man, starring Glen Powell, and the animated feature Tangles, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Seth Rogen and others, which premiered to critical acclaim at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Their comedy Babies, directed by Lauren Miller Rogen, and starring Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, David Strathairn, Sharon Stone, Ed Helms and Issa Rae, is slated to premiere at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival and will be released theatrically this fall.

Monarch is also producing an untitled Nick Jonas holiday rom-com for Netflix, to be directed by Ari Sandal, and is currently prepping a remake of coming-of-age film A Walk to Remember.

Bailey is repped by First Story Entertainment and attorney Joshua Lastine of Lastine Entertainment Law.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II shares his take on the online discourse over Disney and Marvel’s decision to cancel Wonder Man after one season, and the continued postponement of the Blade reboot.

In a new interview, the actor is asked about the conjecture that fans are making about the Disney+ series and the Marvel superhero film, both led by Black men.

“I think the optics are obvious. If I’m a big business, if I’m Disney, if I’m Marvel, I don’t want to be attached to these optics,” Abdul-Mateen told Vanity Fair. “So it should be a priority to change that narrative and to do what it takes to responsibly change that narrative with quality stories, with quality resources.”

He continued, “I felt that our show did have quality story, did have quality resources, did have quality actors and people, and did produce quality results that the viewers responded to positively, that the voters responded to positively. So our show does deserve some study and some real, hard information about why a show like this did not continue forward, because it had all of the ingredients that one would want in a show.”

Despite Marvel renewing Wonder Man for a second season, it recently announced that the studio had walked back on that renewal and the series would not move forward past Season 1.

Abdul-Mateen also recently earned an Emmy nomination for his work on the Disney+ series.

Similarly, the Blade reboot, which had Mahershala Ali attached to star, has been stuck in development for years, and Marvel’s Kevin Feige recently stated he felt “like a gigantic loser and failure” for not being able to get it done.

Ali subsequently called out Marvel and said that if the studio “wanted to do it, we would’ve done it,” adding, “I have to move on, and I have moved on.”

Marvel first confirmed the Blade reboot with Ali back in 2019, but the project has since been met with multiple delays, including directors Bassam Tariq and Yann Demange’s exits from the film and the 2023 WGA strike.

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix‘s VP Comedy — and the streamer’s second longest serving programming executive — Andy Weil is leaving to join Amazon MGM Studios as Head of Comedy. Amazon MGM Studios‘ Head of Global Television Peter Friedlander just announced the hire internally in a memo, which you can see below. Weil’s first day is September 14.

The Head of Comedy search was launched a month ago by Friedlander who was Weil’s former boss at Netflix. At the time, Friedlander tweaked his original plan for the studio’s scripted operation structure, creating three areas, Drama, Comedy and Young Adult, each reporting to him, alongside the previously established Worldbuilding & Genre Series, led by Blair Fetter, and Animation (Melissa Wolfe). Weil joins Amazon veteran Kara Smith, who was named Head of Drama at the time of June’s restructuring announcement. The Head of YA job is still vacant.

Weil is the latest Friedlander hire of a senior executive he had worked with at Netflix, following the appointments of Fetter, Jenn Levy as Head of Nonfiction and Mandy Schaffer as Head of Business Affairs. He is the first current Netflix executive to make the move; the rest had left the streamer before they were recruited by Friedlander.

A well-regarded comedy executive, Weil had been at Netflix for more than 11 years; he joined the platform’s comedy team as Director, Original Series, in June 2015 from Universal Television.

By then, Weil already had been a rising star — he was 27 when NBCUniversal brought him in as VP Comedy in late 2011 after he had served as head of scripted television for BermanBraun. At Uni TV, Weil shepherded hit Brooklyn Nine-Nine and also worked on two other acclaimed comedies, The Mindy Project and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, the latter of which was developed for NBC before moving to Netflix.

During his Netflix tenure, Weil served as No. 2 comedy executive, first under Jane Wiseman and then Tracey Pakosta, and was promoted to VP in February 2020. He took the reins of the department on an interim basis after Wiseman’s October 2020 exit until Pakosta’s arrival a month later.

In addition to Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, the many Netflix comedy series Weil oversaw over the years include Master of None, BoJack Horseman, Nobody Wants This, The Four Seasons, Russian Doll, The Upshaws, The Ranch, Trigger Warning with Killer Mike, Tires, A Man on the Inside, Big Mistakes, Free Bert, Lady Dynamite, The Kominsky Method, Leanne, The Vince Staples Show, On My Block, A Different World and the upcoming A Hundred Percent and I Suck at Girls. He also was the executive on Netflix’s sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror.

While Prime Video has established itself in the drama and YA space with a string of global hits such as Reacher, Fallout, The Summer I Turned Pretty and Off Campus, Amazon MGM Studios’ streamer is yet to scale up in the half-hour comedy space. Its modestly-sized current comedy slate include two hits in the YA arena, Overcompensating and Elle, as well as the Emmy-nominated anthology Jury Duty. There is also the recent breakout hourlong comedy-drama Ride of Die, which is awaiting word on Season 2 renewal.

Here is Friedlander’s email

Team,

I’m pleased to share that Andy Weil will be joining us as Head of Comedy TV reporting to me. His first day is Monday, September 14th.

Andy comes to us from Netflix, where he spent more than 11 years leading comedy development, after previously working at Universal Television. He has deep creative instincts, strong relationships across the comedy community, and a proven track record of identifying and developing standout series such as Master of None, Nobody Wants This, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Black Mirror, Bojack Horseman, and Tires. I’m looking forward to seeing what he builds as we continue to grow our comedy footprint.

Please join me in welcoming Andy to the team.

-Peter