Friends stars are in talks for an HBO Max reunion special - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 11-12-2019, 10:08 PM

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/li...bo-max-1254331

"A deal is far from done," but talks are underway to reunite Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Matthew Perry and creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman for an unscripted reunion special, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Sources caution that a deal is far from done and agreements with cast and creatives still need to be hammered out," reports The Hollywood Reporter's Lesley Goldberg. "When and if deals are completed, the challenge then becomes sorting out everyone's schedules. Of course, the talks could fizzle and the whole concept could fall apart." The news comes weeks after Jennifer Aniston posted on Instagram the first public image of all six Friends together for the first time since the 2004 series finale. Between 2004 and last month, only a portion of the cast have reunited at various times, including five cast members (excluding Perry) in tribute to legendary director James Burrows in 2016. WarnerMedia Entertainment and direct-to-consumer chairman Bob Greenblatt is said to be the driving force behind the reunion, especially since HBO Max has acquired rights to Friends reruns. The cast and creators have long maintained that they would not reunite for a scripted reunion special.

TMC · 01-16-2020, 03:23 AM

A Friends unscripted reunion special on HBO Max is "still a maybe"

HBO Max chief content officer Kevin Reilly said at the TV press tour "there's interest all the way around, and yet we can’t get interest all aligned to push the button on it. Today, unfortunately, it’s still a maybe.” According to The Hollywood Reporter's Lesley Goldberg, "talks are currently underway for an unscripted reunion special that would feature Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, as well as series creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman. Sources caution that a deal is far from done and agreements with cast and creatives still need to be hammered out. When and if deals are completed, the challenge then becomes sorting out everyone's schedules. Of course, the talks could fizzle and the whole concept could fall apart."

Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman says putting together an HBO Max reunion special is "complicated"

"If it happens, we will certainly be involved in it. But I don't know," Marta Kauffman told ET Saturday at the Producers Guild Awards, where she was honored with the 2020 Norman Lear Achievement Award. Without going in specifics, she added: "It's complicated. It's very complicated. It's everything. It's a very complicated thing to do." ALSO: Kauffman reveals the one Friends episode she'd recommend above all others.

TMC · 02-07-2020, 01:05 AM

HBO Max closing on a deal to pay the Friends cast big bucks for an unscripted reunion special

The long-awaited reunion special is expected to help launch the HBO Max streaming service, which shelled out $425 million for the streaming rights to Friends. Deadline reports each of the six Friends stars "will be paid in the $3 million-$4 million range for appearing in the special." However, The Wall Street Journal reports each Friends star is getting between $2.25 million and $2.5 million for the special after initially balking at an offer to pay $1 million each. On Tuesday, Matthew Perry tweeted "Big news coming..." But that could've been hinting Lisa Kudrow's announcement earlier Thursday that Perry has become the sixth and final Friends star to join Instagram. Or Perry could be joining Instagram in advance of the Friends reunion special. According to Deadline's Nellie Andreeva, "the total spent on talent in the special, said to be about $20 million, is in line with what Netflix has been shelling out for top comedians to headline hourlong specials, including Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Ellen DeGeneres and Amy Schumer." Andreeva adds that Friends co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane are expected to be involved in the special.

Ellen DeGeneres is likely to host HBO Max's Friends reunion special

Ellen, who has often mentioned a Friends reunion, films her talk show near the Friends set on the Warner Bros. lot and has a production deal with HBO Max. Jennifer Aniston recently shocked Friends fans on The Warner Bros. lot while guest-hosting Ellen.

David Schwimmer on a Friends reunion: "I honestly, I really wish I could confirm or deny"

"I can’t. There’s nothing official to report, unfortunately," Schwimmer said on BBC's The One Show this week while remaining coy when pressed about reports of an HBO Max reunion.

HBO Max's Friends reunion is officially a go

Each of the Friends stars will be paid between $3 million and $4 million (or $2.5 million and $3 million) to participated in an unscripted reunion special. The six Friends haven't been together on TV since the series finale in 2004. Five of the six Friends celebrated the news with identical "It’s happening" Instagram posts, while Matt LeBlanc posted an image of the M*A*S*H cast.

Courteney Cox on Friends reunion: "We're all going to get together for the first time, in a room, and actually talk about the show"

Cox told Kevin Nealon on his Hiking with Kevin YouTube show what to expect on the HBO Max unscripted Friends reunion. Cox pointed out that all six Friends have only gotten together for dinner twice since the show ended in 2004, including last fall. "So the exciting thing is that we're all going to get together for the first time, in a room, and actually talk about the show, and it's going to be on HBO Max, and I'm so excited. We're going to have the best time. It's going to be great," she said. "But we really haven't all done that and actually sat there and talked about and reminisced about this incredible experience that we had. It's gonna be fantastic."

TMC · 03-18-2020, 11:04 PM

Friends reunion special delayed over coronavirus, but it could still help launch HBO Max in May

Filming on the untitled reunion special was scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday. But due to the coronavirus crisis, the special has been delayed until May. According to Deadline, HBO Max is "believed" to be launching in late May. So it's possible the Friends reunion special could still be used to launch the WarnerMedia streaming service. "Given the severity of the health crisis, which ground all Hollywood production to a halt in a matter of days, it is currently doubtful that any film or TV production could resume by May though the situation is being evaluated week by week and even day by day," says Deadline's Nellie Andreeva. "Right now, there are strict federal and state guidelines limiting public gatherings to help curb the spread of the virus, which are expected to be in place for weeks."

Friends' delayed reunion special won't be available when HBO Max launches in May

The WarnerMedia streaming service plans to launch next month without its most-anticipated offering. The HBO Max Friends reunion special was originally supposed to tape March 23 and 24, but filming was pushed back to May due to the coronavirus crisis. It's unclear when it will be taped. "We want to share some background information about the production dates for the upcoming unscripted Friends reunion special for HBO Max," HBO Max said in a statement Friday. "As was previously reported, production is delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that the special will not be available on the streamer on Day 1 of launch. But it is coming! The cast and producers are all very excited to go into production, as this will be the first time since the show ended that the whole cast will be together, and on the original sets to reminisce. There are loads of great surprises in store and lots of rare behind-the-scenes footage they are eager to share. We will keep you informed as plans solidify and once we have a firm premiere date. Lastly, in order to avoid any misunderstanding about what this special is, we want to make it very clear that this is not a new, original episode of the series. The cast will be appearing as themselves, not as their beloved characters. And though fans will have to wait a bit longer for the reunion, they can watch all 236 episodes of the series on day one of HBO Max launch in May!"

TMC · 05-12-2020, 12:55 AM

HBO Max's Friends reunion special will likely film in late summer

“At first we thought, shows will be delayed for a month or two at the most, and now it seems like it’s going to be far longer than that,” WarnerMedia Entertainment boss Robert Greenblatt tells Variety of the coronavirus shutdown delay. “We’re holding out for being able to get this special done hopefully by the end of the summer, if the stars align and hopefully we can get back into production. We do think there’s a value to having a big, raucous live audience to experience these six great friends coming back together and we didn’t want to just suddenly do it on a web call with, you know, six squares and people shooting from their kitchens and bedrooms.”

Jennifer Aniston's Friends selfie was taken hours after HBO Max made its pitch for a reunion special

Turns out there is more to the story of Aniston's selfie that broke Instagram when she posted it on Oct. 15. "A starry group came together for a meeting at Courteney Cox’s Malibu beach house on Oct. 5, 2019. Had the papa*razzi gotten wind, pandemonium would have surely ensued," reports Variety. "Cox invited her five Friends co-stars — Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer — for a rare reunion dinner. The gathering was memorialized in a grainy six-shot selfie that Aniston posted a week later when she joined Insta**gram. Before the former co-stars got down to reminiscing, however, there was business to attend to. The top brass from WarnerMedia had made the trek earlier in the day to Cox’s home to discuss the latest plans for the Warner Bros. TV sitcom that made its stars household names in the mid-’90s. Bob Greenblatt, Kevin Reilly and Sarah Aubrey — the executives leading the charge for WarnerMedia’s ambitious HBO Max streaming venture that bows May 27 — came by to explain exactly what the company’s new on-demand streaming service was and how it would showcase the 236-episode library of Friends. They outlined their vision for a global platform to compete with Netflix, Amazon, Disney and others in TV’s new frontier of the direct-to-consumer cavalcade. Then the trio broached the idea of some form of Friends reunion event to propel the service."

SitcomsHeydayfan · 05-22-2020, 01:48 AM

I recently read this may not happen after all because there's an 8 figure disagreement on the finances.

How GREEDY can the cast be?? They've made hundreds of MILLIONS from this stupid show! They should do the reunion for FREE!

80sTrivia · 05-22-2020, 07:30 AM

Hopefully, the reunion will take place...one day...

SitcomsHeydayfan · 05-23-2020, 04:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 80sTrivia

Hopefully, the reunion will take place...one day...

Not unless they get ZILLIONS of dollars!

JamesG · 07-21-2020, 03:12 PM

JamesG · 08-07-2020, 04:47 PM

"Friends" Reunion Special Delayed (Again) at HBO Max
by Michael Ausiello
August 7, 2020

HBO Max has postponed the "Friends" reunion special yet again, TVLine has learned.

According to an HBO Max insider, the ongoing shutdown related to the coronavirus pandemic has pushed production of the special into fall (at the earliest).

https://tvline.com/2020/08/07/friend...premiere-date/

JamesG · 11-12-2020, 05:04 PM

"Friends" Reunion Special to Film (Finally!) in March, Matthew Perry Says
by Dave Nemetz
November 12, 2020

They’ll be there for you… in about four months or so, it looks like.

Filming of the long-awaited (and long-delayed) "Friends" reunion special has been “rescheduled for the beginning of March,” star Matthew Perry revealed on Twitter on Thursday.

“Looks like we have a busy year coming up,” the former Chandler Bing added. “And that’s the way I like it!”

https://tvline.com/2020/11/12/friend...filming-march/

SitcomsHeydayfan · 11-13-2020, 03:38 AM

Liberals are calling Friends racist because it has an ALL white cast!

11-12-2019, 10:08 PM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 126,454	Friends stars are in talks for an HBO Max reunion special https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/li...bo-max-1254331 "A deal is far from done," but talks are underway to reunite Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Matthew Perry and creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman for an unscripted reunion special, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Sources caution that a deal is far from done and agreements with cast and creatives still need to be hammered out," reports The Hollywood Reporter's Lesley Goldberg. "When and if deals are completed, the challenge then becomes sorting out everyone's schedules. Of course, the talks could fizzle and the whole concept could fall apart." The news comes weeks after Jennifer Aniston posted on Instagram the first public image of all six Friends together for the first time since the 2004 series finale. Between 2004 and last month, only a portion of the cast have reunited at various times, including five cast members (excluding Perry) in tribute to legendary director James Burrows in 2016. WarnerMedia Entertainment and direct-to-consumer chairman Bob Greenblatt is said to be the driving force behind the reunion, especially since HBO Max has acquired rights to Friends reruns. The cast and creators have long maintained that they would not reunite for a scripted reunion special.

01-16-2020, 03:23 AM	#2
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 126,454	A Friends unscripted reunion special on HBO Max is "still a maybe" HBO Max chief content officer Kevin Reilly said at the TV press tour "there's interest all the way around, and yet we can’t get interest all aligned to push the button on it. Today, unfortunately, it’s still a maybe.” According to The Hollywood Reporter's Lesley Goldberg, "talks are currently underway for an unscripted reunion special that would feature Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, as well as series creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman. Sources caution that a deal is far from done and agreements with cast and creatives still need to be hammered out. When and if deals are completed, the challenge then becomes sorting out everyone's schedules. Of course, the talks could fizzle and the whole concept could fall apart." Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman says putting together an HBO Max reunion special is "complicated" "If it happens, we will certainly be involved in it. But I don't know," Marta Kauffman told ET Saturday at the Producers Guild Awards, where she was honored with the 2020 Norman Lear Achievement Award. Without going in specifics, she added: "It's complicated. It's very complicated. It's everything. It's a very complicated thing to do." ALSO: Kauffman reveals the one Friends episode she'd recommend above all others.
	Last edited by TMC; 01-20-2020 at 02:12 AM.

02-07-2020, 01:05 AM	#3
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 126,454	HBO Max closing on a deal to pay the Friends cast big bucks for an unscripted reunion special The long-awaited reunion special is expected to help launch the HBO Max streaming service, which shelled out $425 million for the streaming rights to Friends. Deadline reports each of the six Friends stars "will be paid in the $3 million-$4 million range for appearing in the special." However, The Wall Street Journal reports each Friends star is getting between $2.25 million and $2.5 million for the special after initially balking at an offer to pay $1 million each. On Tuesday, Matthew Perry tweeted "Big news coming..." But that could've been hinting Lisa Kudrow's announcement earlier Thursday that Perry has become the sixth and final Friends star to join Instagram. Or Perry could be joining Instagram in advance of the Friends reunion special. According to Deadline's Nellie Andreeva, "the total spent on talent in the special, said to be about $20 million, is in line with what Netflix has been shelling out for top comedians to headline hourlong specials, including Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Ellen DeGeneres and Amy Schumer." Andreeva adds that Friends co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane are expected to be involved in the special. Ellen DeGeneres is likely to host HBO Max's Friends reunion special Ellen, who has often mentioned a Friends reunion, films her talk show near the Friends set on the Warner Bros. lot and has a production deal with HBO Max. Jennifer Aniston recently shocked Friends fans on The Warner Bros. lot while guest-hosting Ellen. David Schwimmer on a Friends reunion: "I honestly, I really wish I could confirm or deny" "I can’t. There’s nothing official to report, unfortunately," Schwimmer said on BBC's The One Show this week while remaining coy when pressed about reports of an HBO Max reunion. HBO Max's Friends reunion is officially a go Each of the Friends stars will be paid between $3 million and $4 million (or $2.5 million and $3 million) to participated in an unscripted reunion special. The six Friends haven't been together on TV since the series finale in 2004. Five of the six Friends celebrated the news with identical "It’s happening" Instagram posts, while Matt LeBlanc posted an image of the MASH cast. Courteney Cox on Friends reunion: "We're all going to get together for the first time, in a room, and actually talk about the show"* Cox told Kevin Nealon on his Hiking with Kevin YouTube show what to expect on the HBO Max unscripted Friends reunion. Cox pointed out that all six Friends have only gotten together for dinner twice since the show ended in 2004, including last fall. "So the exciting thing is that we're all going to get together for the first time, in a room, and actually talk about the show, and it's going to be on HBO Max, and I'm so excited. We're going to have the best time. It's going to be great," she said. "But we really haven't all done that and actually sat there and talked about and reminisced about this incredible experience that we had. It's gonna be fantastic."
	Last edited by TMC; 02-27-2020 at 07:01 AM.

03-18-2020, 11:04 PM	#4
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 126,454	Friends reunion special delayed over coronavirus, but it could still help launch HBO Max in May Filming on the untitled reunion special was scheduled for next Monday and Tuesday. But due to the coronavirus crisis, the special has been delayed until May. According to Deadline, HBO Max is "believed" to be launching in late May. So it's possible the Friends reunion special could still be used to launch the WarnerMedia streaming service. "Given the severity of the health crisis, which ground all Hollywood production to a halt in a matter of days, it is currently doubtful that any film or TV production could resume by May though the situation is being evaluated week by week and even day by day," says Deadline's Nellie Andreeva. "Right now, there are strict federal and state guidelines limiting public gatherings to help curb the spread of the virus, which are expected to be in place for weeks." Friends' delayed reunion special won't be available when HBO Max launches in May The WarnerMedia streaming service plans to launch next month without its most-anticipated offering. The HBO Max Friends reunion special was originally supposed to tape March 23 and 24, but filming was pushed back to May due to the coronavirus crisis. It's unclear when it will be taped. "We want to share some background information about the production dates for the upcoming unscripted Friends reunion special for HBO Max," HBO Max said in a statement Friday. "As was previously reported, production is delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that the special will not be available on the streamer on Day 1 of launch. But it is coming! The cast and producers are all very excited to go into production, as this will be the first time since the show ended that the whole cast will be together, and on the original sets to reminisce. There are loads of great surprises in store and lots of rare behind-the-scenes footage they are eager to share. We will keep you informed as plans solidify and once we have a firm premiere date. Lastly, in order to avoid any misunderstanding about what this special is, we want to make it very clear that this is not a new, original episode of the series. The cast will be appearing as themselves, not as their beloved characters. And though fans will have to wait a bit longer for the reunion, they can watch all 236 episodes of the series on day one of HBO Max launch in May!"
	Last edited by TMC; 04-11-2020 at 12:36 AM.

05-12-2020, 12:55 AM	#5
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 126,454	HBO Max's Friends reunion special will likely film in late summer “At first we thought, shows will be delayed for a month or two at the most, and now it seems like it’s going to be far longer than that,” WarnerMedia Entertainment boss Robert Greenblatt tells Variety of the coronavirus shutdown delay. “We’re holding out for being able to get this special done hopefully by the end of the summer, if the stars align and hopefully we can get back into production. We do think there’s a value to having a big, raucous live audience to experience these six great friends coming back together and we didn’t want to just suddenly do it on a web call with, you know, six squares and people shooting from their kitchens and bedrooms.” Jennifer Aniston's Friends selfie was taken hours after HBO Max made its pitch for a reunion special Turns out there is more to the story of Aniston's selfie that broke Instagram when she posted it on Oct. 15. "A starry group came together for a meeting at Courteney Cox’s Malibu beach house on Oct. 5, 2019. Had the paparazzi gotten wind, pandemonium would have surely ensued," reports Variety. "Cox invited her five Friends co-stars — Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer — for a rare reunion dinner. The gathering was memorialized in a grainy six-shot selfie that Aniston posted a week later when she joined Insta*gram. Before the former co-stars got down to reminiscing, however, there was business to attend to. The top brass from WarnerMedia had made the trek earlier in the day to Cox’s home to discuss the latest plans for the Warner Bros. TV sitcom that made its stars household names in the mid-’90s. Bob Greenblatt, Kevin Reilly and Sarah Aubrey — the executives leading the charge for WarnerMedia’s ambitious HBO Max streaming venture that bows May 27 — came by to explain exactly what the company’s new on-demand streaming service was and how it would showcase the 236-episode library of Friends. They outlined their vision for a global platform to compete with Netflix, Amazon, Disney and others in TV’s new frontier of the direct-to-consumer cavalcade. Then the trio broached the idea of some form of Friends reunion event to propel the service."
	Last edited by TMC; 05-13-2020 at 07:48 PM.

05-22-2020, 01:48 AM	#6
SitcomsHeydayfan Member Senior Member Join Date: Apr 19, 2018 Location: The Show Me state Posts: 2,966	I recently read this may not happen after all because there's an 8 figure disagreement on the finances. How GREEDY can the cast be?? They've made hundreds of MILLIONS from this stupid show! They should do the reunion for FREE!

05-22-2020, 07:30 AM	#7
80sTrivia Member Forum Celebrity Join Date: May 23, 2002 Posts: 21,714	Hopefully, the reunion will take place...one day...
	__________________ Perfect Gift Books for Pop Culture Fanatics: Thank You for Being a Friend: A Golden Girls Trivia Book The Bouquet Residence: A Keeping Up Appearances Trivia Book Cooking With the Golden Girls: Fun & Delicious Recipes from a Hilarious Miami Kitchen Love in the Afternoon: The Ultimate Soap Opera Trivia Book The Last Great Decade: The Ultimate 90s Trivia Book Betty White: A Celebration

07-21-2020, 03:12 PM	#9
JamesG Freakshow Moderator Forum Icon Join Date: Feb 01, 2008 Location: Brooklyn, NY Posts: 57,136

08-07-2020, 04:47 PM	#10
JamesG Freakshow Moderator Forum Icon Join Date: Feb 01, 2008 Location: Brooklyn, NY Posts: 57,136	*"Friends" Reunion Special Delayed (Again) at HBO Max* by Michael Ausiello August 7, 2020 HBO Max has postponed the "Friends" reunion special yet again, TVLine has learned. According to an HBO Max insider, the ongoing shutdown related to the coronavirus pandemic has pushed production of the special into fall (at the earliest). https://tvline.com/2020/08/07/friend...premiere-date/

11-12-2020, 05:04 PM	#11
JamesG Freakshow Moderator Forum Icon Join Date: Feb 01, 2008 Location: Brooklyn, NY Posts: 57,136	*"Friends" Reunion Special to Film (Finally!) in March, Matthew Perry Says* by Dave Nemetz November 12, 2020 They’ll be there for you… in about four months or so, it looks like. Filming of the long-awaited (and long-delayed) "Friends" reunion special has been “rescheduled for the beginning of March,” star Matthew Perry revealed on Twitter on Thursday. “Looks like we have a busy year coming up,” the former Chandler Bing added. “And that’s the way I like it!” https://tvline.com/2020/11/12/friend...filming-march/

11-13-2020, 03:38 AM	#12
SitcomsHeydayfan Member Senior Member Join Date: Apr 19, 2018 Location: The Show Me state Posts: 2,966	Liberals are calling Friends racist because it has an ALL white cast!