| | | | | | What's news: Hot Ones studio First We Feast is going independent. Nexstar is set for another round of layoffs. The Onion's bid to buy Infowars has been thwarted. A Friday Night Lights reboot is heading to Peacock. Conclave and Wicked lead the nominees for the Critics Choice film awards. Michael Gracey is in talks to direct the live-action Tangled film. — Abid Rahman
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WBD Takes Step Toward Separating TV Channels ►Sign of the times. Warner Bros. Discovery has become the latest Hollywood studio to rework its corporate structure with an eye toward a possible spin off of its legacy TV assets. WBD on Thursday said it was looking to create a global linear TV division, separate from its streaming and studios division. The move is yet another sign of just how embattled the pay TV business is. WBD follows rival Comcast, which unveiled a plan to spin off its less lucrative cable networks away from its film and TV units and parks businesses. Disney CEO Bob Iger has also talked publicly about the future of the studio’s legacy TV networks, including ABC, adding that they “may not be core” to the company. The story.
—🤝 Going indie 🤝 Hot Ones is taking its viral heat elsewhere. Over a year into BuzzFeed’s quest to sell First We Feast, the operation behind the hit digital talk show, the studio has gotten the funding to buy its independence in a deal said to be worth eight figures. Thanks to the consortium of investors, led by founder Chris Schonberger and Hot Ones host Sean Evans — and including Crooked Media, Mythical Entertainment, Soros Fund Management and others — First We Feast will now operate as an independent media company and content studio. The story.
—🤝 Getting ready 🤝Paramount Global has reached a new contract deal with DeDe Lea to run its government lobbying efforts. The new agreement, set to run to Dec. 31, 2028, comes ahead of the studio merging with Skydance Media and a new Trump administration in Washington, D.C. possibly opening the way for stepped-up industry consolidation. In 2019, when CBS and Viacom merged to create then-named Viacom CBS, Lea became executive vp global public policy and government relations. The story.
—"We believe this agreement is the strongest contract the Union has negotiated in the last decade." The Animation Guild's executive board is praising its tentative agreement with Hollywood studios after a handful of negotiation committee members posted on social media that they will vote not to ratify it. The board noted in a message to members on Wednesday that it had voted to recommend the ratification of the provisional deal, which was reached with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on Nov. 22. The story. |
Let's Skip the Luigi Mangione Movie ►"How about Hollywood just leave this one alone?" Who would be the perfect actor to play the hot young Ivy League graduate who is suspected of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week? Some say Now You See Me’s Dave Franco should star. Others pick You hunk Penn Badgley. Oh, and American Crime Story maestro Ryan Murphy must produce, right? Or how about not. Thompson’s murder has drawn an online mob of cheering and fan-casting of suspect Luigi Mangione. But, writes THR's James Hibberd, we need to think this through. The analysis.
—Cuts incoming. Nexstar is set for another round of layoffs at its broadcast and sales divisions as part of a corporate cost-cutting initiative. “Our broadcasting and sales divisions are streamlining their organizations to reduce our operating expenses and accelerate collaboration across the company,” the company said in a statement. The local TV giant looks to be strengthening its balance sheet in the face of a soft advertising market and losses at The CW that have narrowed in recent quarters. The story.
—Messy. The distributor for Strange Darling has sued its marketing partner on the indie horror fan-favorite for fraud and breach of contract. Bob Yari’s Magenta Light Productions, in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court that seeks at least $10m, accuses Spellbinder of failing to contribute its half of the $2m marketing spend for the film. It also claims that the company kept some of the funds and bought social media followers and views on various platforms to create the appearance of a successful marketing campaign. The story.
—Booo!!! The Onion will continue to try to find a path to buying Infowars after a federal bankruptcy judge rejected their bid late Tuesday. Though the satirical news site’s bid for the Alex Jones site had been selected in November, Judge Christopher Lopez, of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, said Tuesday that there were problems with transparency during the sealed bidding at the November auction, according to multiple media outlets. He further found that the sealed bidding process did not maximize the value for Jones’ creditors, who include the families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims. The story. |
THR's Cinematographers Roundtable ►"It’s like wrangling cats, isn’t it?" THR's award-winning Roundtable Series continues, next up are the film cinematographers. Six of 2024's leading DPs — Ed Lachman (Maria), John Mathieson (Gladiator II), Alice Brooks (Wicked), Paul Guilhaume (Emilia Pérez), Greig Fraser (Dune: Part Two) and Jomo Fray (Nickel Boys) — sit down with THR's Beatrice Verhoeven to discuss their paths into the profession, their stance on VFX and the biggest challenges they faced on their projects this year. The roundtable. |
Peacock Catches 'Friday Night Lights' Reboot ►Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose. A potential reboot of Friday Night Lights is staying within the NBCUniversal family. Peacock has won a bidding war for the project, which is now in development at the NBCU-owned streamer. Universal Television, which produced the critically beloved 2006-11 series, has been working on a new version of the show, but it wasn’t set up at a network or streamer before now. The new version will reunite several key members of the original show’s creative team: series creator and pilot director Peter Berg, showrunner Jason Katims and executive producer Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment. All three will exec produce the reboot, along with Imagine’s Kristen Zolner, with Katims again serving as showrunner. The story.
—Behind the laughter. Ahead of Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary celebration in February, Peacock will take a deeper dive into the show’s five decades of history. The platform will stream SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, a four-part series delving into the behind-the-scenes life of NBC’s long-running sketch comedy show, on Jan. 16. Won’t You Be My Neighbor? filmmaker Morgan Neville is among the executive producers of the project, which will feature a number of SNL alumni and a trove of previously unseen footage, as the filmmakers were given unfettered access to the show’s archives. The story.
—Expanding universe. The Curious Case of Natalia Grace is set to return in January with its final season, and the runaway hit Investigation Discovery series has also now also spawned a spinoff. The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter will “follow Natalia as she reckons with the aftermath of that phone call and navigates an entirely new set of challenges,” per the third season’s description. The Final Chapter will air across two nights on Jan. 6, and Jan. 7, from 9-11 p.m., streaming on Max. The following week, ID will then premiere The Curious Case Of…, a new six-part spinoff series featuring legal analyst Beth Karas. The story.
—🎭 Touch of class 🎭 Amazon Prime Video's The Wheel of Time is bringing a key character from its source material to the screen. The streamer's series has added Emmy winner Shohreh Aghdashloo to its cast. In Wheel of Time‘s third season, due in March, Aghdashloo will play Elaida do Avriny a’Roihan, an important character in the fantasy novels by Robert Jordan on which the series is based. Elaida is described as “a ruthlessly powerful Aes Sedai as proficient in politicking as she is in channeling. The story.
—Dave goes FAST. For his next move, David Letterman is jumping in to the increasingly crowded free, ad-support TV channel (FAST) space. The late-night great’s production company Worldwide Pants has inked a deal with Samsung TV Plus to bring around 4,000 hours of original video to the company’s streaming service, the firms said Wednesday. “I’m very excited about this,” stated Letterman, who glibly added, “Now I can watch myself age without looking in the mirror!” The output for the 24/7 on-demand channel titled Letterman TV appears to rely heavily on archival clips from his nearly 33-year late-night run. The story.
—🤝 Five-year deal 🤝 Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's Jamie Oliver Group and production giant Fremantle have signed a new five-year agreement. Fremantle has been Oliver’s TV distribution partner since 2002, saying it “has been instrumental in ensuring his wide-ranging and award-winning content portfolio is seen by a huge global audience on multiple platforms in over 200 territories worldwide.” The company currently distributes 83 Oliver series and formats to more than 100 clients, with more than 15m hours of Oliver content streamed to 7m users in the U.S. alone. The story. |
Critics Choice Awards 2025: Film Nominees ►🏆 Best of the big screen 🏆 The Critics Choice Association has revealed the film nominees for the 2025 Critics Choice Awards. Conclave and Wicked lead this year’s nominees with 11 nods each, including for the top prize of best picture. Dune: Part Two and Emilia Pérez each landed 10 nods, followed by The Brutalist with nine and Anora and The Substance with seven nominations each. The Critics Choice Association last week announced nominations in its TV categories, with Shogun scoring a leading six nods. The nominees.
—"The combination of these new voices and some of these filmmakers who might be more household names, speaks to the the power of independent cinema." The 2025 line-up for the Sundance Film Festival has been announced. This year’s fest features the latest projects from Oscar winners, studio filmmakers, and indie stalwarts like Justin Lin, Ira Sachs, Barry Levinson, and Questlove while the U.S. Dramatic Competition section is made of selections from directors new to the Park City fest. Of the 87 feature films announced thus far, 36 titles (41 percent) are directed by first-time feature film directors. The lineup.
—Things are getting hairy. Disney has landed a director to lead its live-action adaptation of Tangled. The Greatest Showman filmmaker Michael Gracey is in negotiations to helm the new version of the studio’s animated feature. The original Tangled hit theaters in 2010 and centers on Rapunzel, who was voiced by Mandy Moore. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, who is directing Sony’s reboot of I Know What You Did Last Summer, wrote the latest draft of the screenplay for the new Tangled film. Producers include Kristin Burr for Burr! Productions, along with Emmy-winning producer Lucy Kitada. The story.
—🎭 Award-winning addition 🎭 Eddie Redmayne has joined Julia Roberts and Elizabeth Olsen in Warner Bros. Pictures’ Panic Carefully. Sam Esmail, the creator of the well-regarded thriller series Mr. Robot, wrote the script for the feature and is directing. Plot and character details are being kept in the hard drive, but the project is described as a paranoid thriller that has tonal influences of Silence of the Lambs and involves the hunt for a cyberterrorist. The film is also a reteaming of Esmail and Roberts after Netflix hit Leave the World Behind. The story.
—🎭 Four more 🎭 Giancarlo Esposito, Harold Perrineau, Taryn Manning and Ryan Hurst have joined the cast of Out Come the Wolves, an indie drama which is marking the directorial debut of producer Danny Peykoff. The feature is currently shooting in Portland, Oregon and stars Orlando Norman and Spence Moore II, along with Heidi Grace Engerman and Cassady McClincy Zhang. Sam Rechner, West Mulholland and Curran Walters are also on the call sheet. Set against the East Bay punk music scene in the mid 1990s, Wolves is a story of grit and dreams in a world of violence and desperation. The story. |
Film Review: 'Kraven the Hunter' ►"Few will be cravin,’ even fewer ravin.’" THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews J.C. Chandor's Kraven the Hunter. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Russell Crowe, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger and Alessandro Nivola star in this Sony/Marvel action thriller about the vigilante son of a Russian gangster. The review.
—"Strong performances carry a series overly proud of its own cleverness." THR's chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg reviews Netflix's No Good Deed. Creator Liz Feldman returns to her Dead to Me bag of tricks for the twist-filled story of a couple (Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano) navigating grief, a failing marriage and the brutal challenges of the Los Angeles real estate market. The review.
—"Dazzling, thrilling and ultimately overwhelming." THR India's Anupama Chopra reviews Bandreddi Sukumar's Pushpa 2: The Rule. Star Allu Arjun and writer-director Sukumar return for the follow-up to their 2021 Telugu-language hit, about a lowly laborer who rises the ranks of a powerful smuggling operation. The review.
In other news...
—The Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner reveals cancer diagnosis
—Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco are engaged
—Kathleen Kennedy to be honored with ASC’s Board of Governors Award
—Denis Villeneuve to receive Visionary Award at Palm Springs Film Fest
—Telemundo Studios names Jacqueline Castro vp of production
What else we're reading...
—Stephen Battaglio breaks down how MSNBC's ratings have collapsed post-election [LAT]
—Sam Adler-Bell tries to make sense of the murder of Brian Thompson, and looks at what it means for Americans to welcome the CEO's death [Intelligencer]
—Denise Chow, Tavleen Tarrant and Patrick Martin dug through Luigi Mangione's Reddit account and found posts describing back pain and spinal surgery [NBC News]
—After Jay-Z was named in a Diddy lawsuit, Kyndall Cunningham looks at whether other celebrities will be next [Vox]
—After Oppenheimer dominated the race from the get-go last year, A.A. Dowd writes that it's shaping up to be a very strange Oscar race this year [Ringer]
Today...
...in 2014, Warner Bros. released Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice in theaters. Based on the 2009 novel by Thomas Pynchon, the film was a critical hit and nominated for two Oscars, including best adapted screenplay. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Jennifer Connelly (54), Bill Nighy (75), Regina Hall (54), Lucas Hedges (28), Rajinikanth (74), Dionne Warwick (84), Mädchen Amick (54), Wings Hauser (77), Chris Perfetti (36), Sarah Douglas (72), Gianmarco Saurino (32), Sheree J. Wilson (66), Gabrielle Ruiz (40), Lucas Jade Zumann (24), Gbenga Akinnagbe (46), Delaney Williams (62), Gianni Russo (81), Wallis Currie-Wood (33), Kenneth Cranham (80), Monica Barladeanu (46), Holly Gagnier (66), Sky Katz (20), Peter Haber (72), Donny Boaz (44), Curtis Lum (37), Devyn Nekoda (24), Morgan Eastwood (28) |
| Ted Weiant, who directed Stephanie Zimbalist in a Los Angeles production of A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia and handled more than 500 performances of the playwright’s most popular work, Love Letters, has died. He was 77. The obituary. |
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