Community - Season 5 [US] **Spoilers!!**

Basq

alroley wrote: »

A little concerned that Alison hasn't tweeted about it - she's the only one.

Funnily enough, I had the same thought earlier!

FunLover18

alroley wrote: »

oh I meant if Alison doesn't want to return.

There's no way they'd want to write her out unless Alison actually didn't want to be on the show any more.

Yeh I know, but she may not come back for the first few episodes like Glover did. She may just not come back.

I just checked to make sure that Ken Jeung tweeted. I don't know if people are getting tired of Chang but I love that guy!!

FlyingIrishMan

For the Reading Rainbows kickstarter there is a new livestream event where Donald Glover and LeVar are going to do a live show of Reading Rainbow on a boat.



https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/readingrainbow/bring-reading-rainbow-back-for-every-child-everywh/posts

IvaBigWun

alroley wrote: »

A little concerned that Alison hasn't tweeted about it - she's the only one.
Community without Annie would be sad

IvaBigWun

A long but worthy read. Sony Pictures Television president of programming and production Zack Van Amburg talks with The Hollywood Reporter about what happened behind the scenes.


http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/community-revival-sony-exec-talks-715907

Sony Pictures Television continues to be the biggest champion of its original programming after the studio reached a landmark deal to revive NBC's canceled cult comedy Community for a sixth season — at Yahoo.


The deal came after weeks of discussions with everyone from former home NBC to Hulu and other suitors, with Yahoo seeing out the Joel McHale-starrer from executive producer Dan Harmon while SPT was already in deep negotiations with fellow streaming service Hulu, which retains online streaming rights to the first five seasons of the show.

Here, Sony Pictures Television president of programming and production Zack Van Amburg talks with The Hollywood Reporter about shopping the series, why Yahoo is a good fit and if the critical darling but ratings-challenged series could continue beyond its upcoming sixth season. (You know, after the first half of #SixSeasonsAndAMovie comes to pass.)



How did this deal come together?

The easiest way to say it is we never give up. We try so hard and have a pretty decent record now of saving and/or rescuing some of our favorite shows, whether it's Damages or Unforgettable. Certainly, Community is right in there in a passion project and it's got a storied past. Dan Harmon was gone; we invited Dan back; Dan came back; [NBC Entertainment chairman] Bob [Greenblatt] picking up the show every year — it was a weird pickup we had last year, where he was sort of apologizing to himself and to the audience for picking it up again [laughs] and was bowing under social pressure to do so. When the news came down that we weren't going to be back on NBC for another year, it wasn't surprising news but it was disappointing for sure. Usually at other studios, that means the end of the road. Once the network says, "We've spoken," unless you're Sony and you just think that's an initial reaction, everywhere else it's sort of final.

We had a series of conversations with NBC and finally Bob, as nicely as he could, said, "Stop f—ing calling me about Community!" [Laughs.] We pushed that one too much and we started to reach out to some of our other partners and networks. I saw it speculated in the press that there was decent interest from Hulu. That was true. We had a pretty advanced conversation. They have been an amazing partner; the show has done great things for them and their support has been beyond appreciated. It made sense that between Hulu and Comedy Central — who both currently carry the show — that maybe that was going to be our savior. We were in pretty advanced conversations with Hulu and we had made a half-dozen or so phone calls to other places. Then out of the blue — and this never happens — I got the best phone call in the world from Yahoo selling us on why Yahoo would be great destination [for Community].

To be honest, we were so far down the path with Hulu that, hopefully not arrogant but [we were], maybe a little bit dismissive of their overture, which made them that much more committed to explaining to us and to Joel McHale and Dan Harmon why this was going to be a cornerstone of the new Yahoo that they're about to unveil to the world. They really want to be close to their users and viewers and wanted it to be a safe destination for creators. It was an excellent and articulate speech.

Yahoo is slowly starting to get into originals, following the likes of Amazon, Hulu, Microsoft and Netflix. What kind of concerns do you have that Community will find an audience here vs. on a more established streaming platform?

Here's the good news: For most of the big services, including cable networks that preexisted, it really just takes one show. I think we've proven that we have a built-in fan base. I'm less concerned about finding audience on Yahoo than I was at 8 p.m. on NBC. We had no lead-ins because we were kicking off the night. And when you take a look at the ratings on NBC, we did better than everything that followed us and preceded us at 8 on Thursday night. The show has a rabid fan base that I think will come to it no matter where it is. More importantly, we have a younger, very savvy audience that understands shows exist in alternative places.

There will be strong online appeal. There's going to be a groundswell of support. The Yahoo people said something very interesting: They're looking to create shows and content for people that didn't know that that's what they wanted. Meaning they're very encouraging on the fact that strong word-of-mouth and good buzz is going to bring an audience. But they also believe they have a real plan to intro Community to a whole new audience that may not have heard of it yet. All those marketing plans are going to be forthcoming, but they were pretty savvy about what their new plan is. In terms of their slow rollout, in our history as a studio, The Shield went to FX at a time when nobody really knew what FX was. Breaking Bad went to AMC at a time where nobody knew what AMC was because we sold that and Mad Men hadn't been on the air yet and there was no original strategy there.

We've been in early on the Netflix side of things and are very encouraged. I have nothing but genuine high hopes for Yahoo, particularly when you talk to the management there. They're really savvy and part of why you haven't seen a lot come from them is because they want to be very strategic and specific about how to be successful. We certainly liked what we were hearing from them.



When we spoke in May during upfronts, you mentioned you were receiving multiple calls about finding the show a new home. Who was part of that first wave of suitors? I'd imagine your first hope was another broadcast or cable network.

I always think the easiest thing to do when a show gets canceled is to convince its home network that they were wrong in their cancellation. The truth about the upfronts is that people are pressured to make decisions, and you try to make the best decision with the information that's in front of you. But I often think what doesn't happen is taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture. We're always hopeful that we can keep a show — as we did with CBS' Unforgettable. I got a nice note this morning from Nina Tassler saying the show is fantastic and she's happy to have it. That was canceled a few years ago and, out of the rush of May, she looked up and said it made sense to keep it. The hope is always to try your best to keep the show on the originating network. That wasn't in the cards. The conversations were as wide as you could imagine. We called other broadcast networks. There wasn't a lot of room on the schedule and it was a strange comedy year for the other broadcast networks. We had targeted conversations cable-wise and most aggressively with Hulu. They made a significant offer on the show, but it was Yahoo that surprised us all and came in so aggressively and positively.

How will Yahoo's deal impact Hulu's streaming pact? Will the first five seasons remain there?

That sixth season is an entirely different streaming pact. The Community that was will continue to be on Hulu. The Community that will be will be on Yahoo.

What are the prospects for Community beyond season six? Is this a final season? Could it hit seven seasons?

I don't know, let's see how our movie does! Isn't that our plan? There's no way we're not making the movie now! I think once we make the movie, let's look up and decide how much more Community the world wants. We promised six seasons and a movie, how much more do you want?! [Laughs.] … I'd be lying if I told you that we have not had some very early and preliminary conversations that are very exciting about what a potential movie could be and who might direct it. It's early but it's completely in our thought process.


Could the movie stream on Yahoo or are you looking for a theatrical release?

I don't know; that's the part that is preliminary. It was not part of our Yahoo conversation. We were singularly focused on getting the series picked up but I think anything is possible.

Is the entire cast returning?

That's our plan, yes. Today we're sending notices to everybody only because we have a separate deal both with Joel McHale and Jim Rash; we've been having lots of conversations with them and Joel has been fantastic. The hope is that the whole cast is coming back.

How does the per-episode budget for Yahoo compare with NBC?

We will not cut any money from what we were doing on the broadcast version of the show. No low-cost digital whatever; Yahoo was spectacular with that and told us how much they stand for quality. You haven't seen a whole slew of announcements out of them but when they make announcements, they want them to be loud and to stand for something. They really were beyond supportive with understanding the production demands of a sixth-year show. They are fully supporting it in their deal and beyond; it's pretty historic.



How big of a role did Harmon play in resurrecting Community?

Dan puts so much of himself into these things. The last thing you want if you're Dan Harmon is a delusional studio executive calling you up saying, "Here's the weather report and here's how we're shopping it." We were mindful of the fact that we had tried to do [the show] without Dan at a time and going forward we wanted to do it with him. We gave him a gentle heads-up that we were going to be having conversations without specifics. When it got down to the final moments of making the deal, Dan was front and center and had a great conversation with Yahoo and had a lot of very thoughtful questions about protecting his baby and how they were going to nurture it along. He was intimately involved in the finals steps. He was not involved in getting us to that place just because it's too hard to mourn the loss of something more than once and he has done that when Bob made the initial call. We didn't want to prolong the pain.

Community's sixth season will debut in the fall on Yahoo.

miralize

If Ayoade signs on to direct the movie... :P

FunLover18

miralize wrote: »

If Ayoade signs on to direct the movie... :P

Harmon has said that Justin Lin would be his first choice. I suppose it depends on what style they go for

miralize

FunLover18 wrote: »

Harmon has said that Justin Lin would be his first choice. I suppose it depends on what style they go for

He's not the worst choice but Ayoade appears to be free(er) now that The Double is out. He's back in the UK doing lots of panel stuff again.

Justin Lin would be great if the film is in any way action heavy, Lin is one of the best directors working today. He understands the dynamics of how to stage and shoot a set piece better than most.

FunLover18

miralize wrote: »

He's not the worst choice but Ayoade appears to be free(er) now that The Double is out. He's back in the UK doing lots of panel stuff again.

The movie won't be filmed until after season 6. C'mon man it's #sixseasonsandmovie not #fiveseasonsamovieandthenanotherseason

miralize

Season 6

....

Movie

....

Season 7 - ∞

FlyingIrishMan

Turns out it's not actually releasing this fall, just writing is being started.

https://twitter.com/danharmon/status/484001563652796417

Probably going to see it around February like usual.

alroley

FlyingIrishMan wrote: »

Turns out it's not actually releasing this fall, just writing is being started.

https://twitter.com/danharmon/status/484001563652796417

Probably going to see it around February like usual.

I'd say a bit later. They filmed July-December for Jan/Feb(the last 2 seasons)

I think we may be seeing season 6 around May/June.

FunLover18

miralize wrote: »

Season 6

....

Movie

....

Season 7 - ∞

Yeh but by the time they get round to filming the movie I'd say Ayoade will have found a new project. I would love to see him direct but only if Lin or the Russo brothers were unavailable.

nkay1985

Would the Russo Brothers be too busy these days to direct a movie?

It's pretty much nailed on now that we'll get a movie in some way, shape or form.

Is anyone else a little worried that they might drag it out too much? That interview seemed to hint at season 7 and who knows what else. Yahoo will hardly be happy to settle for one season. You'd just have to trust that Harmon et al wouldn't let it go to pot.

FunLover18

nkay1985 wrote: »

Would the Russo Brothers be too busy these days to direct a movie?

It's pretty much nailed on now that we'll get a movie in some way, shape or form.

Is anyone else a little worried that they might drag it out too much? That interview seemed to hint at season 7 and who knows what else. Yahoo will hardly be happy to settle for one season. You'd just have to trust that Harmon et al wouldn't let it go to pot.

Presumably Yahoo still work somehow like a network whereby they can cancel shows if they aren't pulling in viewers. Is Yahoo subscription based like Netflix et al?

If Harmon is willing to do more after the movie I'd definitely be interested.

I don't know what the Russos are up to but I do know that Justin Lin is scheduled to direct the next Bourne.

nkay1985

I presume they're working on a follow-up to Captain America: Winter Soldier but I don't know a timeline or anything.

FunLover18

nkay1985 wrote: »

I presume they're working on a follow-up to Captain America: Winter Soldier but I don't know a timeline or anything.

CA3 is due 2016, same weekend as Batman v Superman so they'll be shooting mid 2015 but I wasn't aware that The Russos were confirmed (Just checked imdb, they are).

nkay1985

FunLover18 wrote: »

CA3 is due 2016, same weekend as Batman v Superman so they'll be shooting mid 2015 but I wasn't aware that The Russos were confirmed (Just checked imdb, they are).

Right well that should line up nicely if they wanted to do Community. Here's hoping it's them, Lin or Ayoade, or at least someone with some history with the show.

MOH

Yahoo? Serious?

MOH

MOH wrote: »

Yahoo? Serious?

MOH

Deleted User wrote: »

Thanks, I was too lazy

Basq

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2fODN17LlU

FreudianSlippers

alroley wrote: »

A little concerned that Alison hasn't tweeted about it - she's the only one.
Community without Annie would be sad

I know she was under contract with Sony, but Donald got out of his?
Sony have said they hope all of the cast will return

Glover negotiated his way out at a time where the cast was quite unhappy and wanted Harmon back. He also didn't get paid for his appearances (well got very little) and agreed to do a new show for NBC - I don't think Brie will have a strong position with Yahoo and I'm fairly sure Yahoo wouldn't have agreed to go ahead with the deal without the full cast

FunLover18

The movie seems to be pretty much confirmed at this stage, in case anyone hadn't heard

Community is also headed to Comic-Con

A very good summary of the situation. Seems to suggest neither Oliver or Banks will be back on a regular basis.

IvaBigWun

You know those "Stories from around the Web" links you see at the bottom of most new sites these days and know the way most of them are useless?

Well! This was "suggested" to me on a site earlier and its the first good one of its kind

http://www.pbh2.com/entertainment/hot-alison-brie-pictures/#1

thirty exquisitely hot Alison Brie photos, with some bonus videos

Havent checked them all yet but Im presuming some are NSFW

FunLover18

Yahoo have released a pretty cool trailer for Season 6. No new footage

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/tvnews.php?id=121848

NegativeCreep

Never heard of yahoo screen before but I'll take what I can get! Can't wait for this to come back

alroley

Alison Brie unsure of return to Community

I'm pretty sure that means she will be back though. I can't see why she wouldn't be asked

IvaBigWun

alroley wrote: »

Alison Brie unsure of return to Community

I'm pretty sure that means she will be back though. I can't see why she wouldn't be asked