Welcome back to What I’m Hearing, a shorter all-Thursday Thoughts edition, since I’m headed to Sundance with my orange beanie and the snow boots I scored at a swag lounge in 2015. Hit me up if you’d like to see a depressing movie together and debate whether Netflix will buy it.

Also, we’re sold out for Monday’s live taping of The Town in Park City, but email me for the waitlist. New status-defining Puck merch might be available for those in attendance.

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Let’s begin…

Many believe no, or at least that the dominance of global streaming platforms is slowly killing off the regional sales market that kept the indie business afloat, not to mention the art-house cinemas that supported festival films and led to occasional theatrical windfalls. But this year will actually be an interesting test. Coming out of the strike year, traditional distributors need product. There are weekends—like this weekend, actually—where there are zero wide theatrical releases scheduled in the U.S. Picking up a few films at Sundance and spreading them across the calendar like chips on a roulette table might lead to a jackpot, or at least a business devoid of the usual competition. “I hope that a bunch of Sundance movies wind up in theaters quickly—in the next six months,” producer Jason Blum said at the festival’s opening press conference today. Theater owners certainly agree.

Couple that plea with recent developments at Netflix, which is making fewer films in-house and thus may look more at outside pickups; plus Amazon, which has pledged to put more movies in theaters; plus Apple, which won the best picture Oscar on CODA, a Sundance bet, and seems to be interested in anything with a major movie star; and there are at least a few signs that trudging through the snow and returning home with the flu (or worse) won’t soon be all for nothing.

The union backchanneling begins: My interview with the five Hollywood labor union leaders, which I ran last week, sparked more than a few freak-out emails and calls from people terrified of another strike. I get it, the language from the union leaders—especially Matthew Loeb, head of IATSE, whose studio deal expires this summer—was pretty charged and adversarial, considering that most people around town (myself included) have predicted that the studios will settle with the below-the-line guilds to avert another punishing shutdown. But I’ve since learned that there’s already pretty heavy backchanneling going on between IATSE and the Teamsters, on one side, and Carol Lombardini and the AMPTP on the other, in advance of formal negotiations. Bryan Lourd at CAA is involved, I’m told, as are several lawyers, leaders of the WGA and DGA, Teamsters reps, and elected officials. No word yet on whether a compromise is close, but it’s somewhat reassuring to hear how this is being prioritized.

A post-Succession megadeal (with an unusual mandate): Man, remember the good old days of, say, 2021, when hot TV writers could command huge overall deals that might (or might not!) require them to immediately produce something of value? Alas, those are mostly gone… unless you’re Jesse Armstrong, the Succession creator, who just won his third consecutive Emmy for outstanding drama series.

I’m told HBO is closing a huge new four-year deal with Armstrong that puts him in the upper tier of showrunners. And there’s a twist: HBO C.E.O. Casey Bloys has explicitly told Armstrong not to jump into a new project. Bloys wants Armstrong to continue his post-Succession break (it’s been about a year since they wrapped the final season) and then, when inspiration strikes, they’ll figure out the next project. Very retro!

A related observation from awards season events: UTA seems to be getting especially good at setting up agent barricades around their hot clients at parties. I know, all the reps do it, lest some CAA or WME slickster start chatting up a supporting actor nominee about all the scripts he isn’t seeing. If I were an agent, my worst nightmare would be exiting the men’s room and spotting Kevin Huvane pretending to care about my client’s vision for her future. But UTA seemed to be about three deep around Armstrong at the HBO party on Monday, just like last year with Mike White. Smart business, but an unfortunate part of the agenting game.

The Peltz pelting begins: Mark your calendars! Bored billionaire Nelson Peltz has promised the “dense white paper” revealing his brilliant ideas for Disney will be released in “a couple of weeks,” per CNBC. Peltz—whose Trian Partners filed a preliminary proxy statement today asking that he and ex-Disney C.F.O. Jay Rasulo be added to the board—is still keeping details of this groundbreaking plan secret, other than a demand for “accountability” and streaming profit margins of 15 percent to 20 percent by 2027. But I’m sure he and Rasulo are filled with ideas that Bob Iger and the current board haven’t ever considered. “We’re going to be Batman and Robin,” Peltz said. Someone should start by telling him those heroes are DC, not Marvel.

Amazon’s RSN lifeline: I’ve heard a bit of skepticism over Amazon’s decision to throw a $115 million life raft to bankrupt Diamond Sports Group and its 18 regional sports networks, which air local games for the MLB, NBA, and NHL. Such a big tech player should be going after national rights, as it did with NFL Thursday Night Football, not these lesser games in markets like St. Petersburg and San Diego.

But besides putting another toe in the water for sports, and a local ad play (as Julia Alexander recently noted), I think Amazon cares most about its Prime Video Channels lineup. Local games would be a distinguisher in the fight against Apple, Roku, YouTube, and others to become the default home screen for all television—the place you go first to determine what to watch. If Prime Video carried my favorite local teams, that would certainly be my first stop when turning on the TV most nights.

More: The RSN play also answers the question of whether Amazon is willing to invest in a sports media asset, rather than owning it outright, as tech companies in general seem to prefer. So the obvious next question is: If Amazon would buy a piece of RSNs, would it also buy a piece of ESPN as it launches its over-the-top service? Iger, who is said to be talking to the NFL and NBA about exactly that, would probably love to have Amazon as another interested party. A preferred relationship with ESPN could be a fantastic lure for Prime Video Channels, but… “Would Disney be willing to go exclusive with Amazon for a DTC offering?” asked analyst Michael Nathanson in a client note. “Highly unlikely. Would the ability to offer some kind of discount/incentive to Prime subscribers be enough to whet the company’s interest? Maybe.”

Amazon’s pivot to Jesus: Speaking of Amazon, the juxtaposition of Prime Video’s Emmys shutout on Monday and its announcement two days later of a slate of faith-based shows from The Wonder Project— including House of David, about everyone’s favorite king of the Israelites—should tell you everything you need to know about the current version of Amazon’s content strategy. Populist, populist, populist. Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video and the studio, is said to be looking a lot more closely at the greenlights by Jen Salke and her deputy Vernon Sanders. And in agency meetings, Amazon executives have repeated that they want broad, down-the-middle programming.

Roy Price vs. Amazon: On that note, have you seen these Roy Price posts? Price, if you’ve forgotten, was head of Amazon Studios until he was ousted in 2017 after a showrunner went public with claims of inappropriate behavior. He’s publicly discussed his former employer in the years since, but lately he’s been particularly critical. “Another strike out year for Amazon at the Globes,” Price wrote the morning after that show, pointing out that when he ran the studio, Amazon “won best series 4 years out of 6.”

Then, Monday night on Instagram: “I remember when the Emmys were a celebration for Amazon not just a humiliating celebration of HBO and Netflix where Amazon wins nothing.” Ouch. I wondered why the fresh hostility, so I called up Price in New York, and he insisted “there’s no strategy to it,” he’s just surprised and disappointed. “If you like the Yankees, you want to see them win,” he said. Okay, but he must know that Amazon did earn 41 Emmy nominations, and it has been chasing broader and less Emmy-friendly shows recently.

True, he argued, but “even Netflix, which has embraced a broad mandate, they certainly had a showing.” I then asked if the real motive here might be to get himself back into the conversation for a programming job someday. “Sure,” he said, “What you got?”

Let’s cancel the Junketeers Awards: This is becoming a frequent complaint from me, but why, exactly, are the Critics Choice Awards still a thing? “Never again,” one studio head texted after witnessing a hangar-sized tsunami of creepy behavior on Sunday by CCA members, most of whom are junketeers or television people, not critics. Talent are used to a little ogling at these things, but per multiple sources, this was a full-on petting zoo. CCA members and sponsors constantly asked for selfies, insisted on hugs or even a few kisses on the cheek. A source spotted a person literally petting Jennifer Aniston’s dress. Not to mention the Fyre Festival dinner consisting of pizza slices in a bag. The Globes were nearly run out of town over non-journalistic behavior, but at least the Globes are watched by 9.4 million people. The Critics Choice, after all this, averaged just 1 million viewers. Again, why?

Box office over/under: There’s something called I.S.S. in theaters and an expansion of Poor Things to 1,200 screens? Too pathetic to make a prediction.

Got a question, comment, complaint, or a good title for the secret Ryan Coogler/Michael B. Jordan horror movie? Email me at Matt@puck.news or call/text me at 310-804-3198.