| | | | | | What's news: Four studios are bidding for Zach Cregger's Resident Evil reboot feature. George Nolfi will pen New Jedi Order. Mufasa is closing in on $650m worldwide. "Napalm Girl" photographer Nick Ut tried to stop Sundance from screening a movie about the photo. Dark Horse Comics will no longer publish Neil Gaiman's works. — Abid Rahman
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What's Behind Right-Wing Support for Justin Baldoni ►"Unyoked from "woke."" Justin Baldoni would seem to be a bogeyman for America’s right wing. He broke out as a heartthrob on the satirical telenovela Jane the Virgin, known for its progressive themes, and then branded himself as one of the country’s foremost male feminists on his Man Enough podcast, the tagline for which was “undefining masculinity.” But after Blake Lively, who starred opposite him in his directorial hit It Ends With Us, alleged workplace mistreatment including sexual harassment, he’s been unyoked from “woke.” THR's Gary Baum reports that Baldoni shares a powerful attorney with some of his key newfound backers in conservative media. The story.
—"Intimidation tactic." Baldoni's team is firing back against a motion from Lively's attorneys to impose a gag order against their lawyer Bryan Freedman, who’s accused of effectively continuing the alleged smear campaign against the actress by leaking information and issuing false statements to the press. Counsel for Baldoni and his associates say the moves were necessary to protect their clients from fallout over the New York Times article that they characterize as sparking the dispute with cherry-picked and spliced texts and emails. The story. |
Spotify, UMG Ink New Deal ►🤝 Multiyear pact 🤝 Spotify and Universal Music Group announced a new multiyear deal on Sunday, establishing a direct license between the streamer and music label in the U.S. and several other countries. The agreement will be focused on “growth, innovation and the advancement of artists’ and songwriters’ success,” a press release said. The release also noted that artists, songwriters and listeners will benefit from “new and evolving” offers to come from the deal, including “new paid subscription tiers, bundling of music and non-music content and a richer audio and visual content catalog.” The story.
—Dropped. Dark Horse Comics will no longer publish the comic adaptations of Neil Gaiman's works, including the author’s Anansi Boys series. The publishing house cited the recent allegations of sexual abuse against Neil Gaiman as their reason behind the decision on Friday. New York Magazine published a cover story earlier this month detailing new claims of sexual assault and abuse from eight women. The report came several months after the July 2024 podcast Master, which reported on earlier graphic accusations by five women, four of which were among those cited by New York. The story.
—🤝 On the move 🤝 Major League Soccer is moving its studio shows to Connecticut as part of an expanded production deal with IMG. MLS will produce programming for MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+ and all of its studio shows from WWE headquarters in Stamford, Conn. WWE, of course, is owned by TKO Group Holdings, which has a deal to acquire IMG set to close in the coming months. The American soccer league says that it intends to add new programming to mix with the new production hub. MLS previously produced its programming from a studio space in East Harlem in New York. The story.
—📅 Good news, finally! 📅 KCON, the world’s no. 1 K-pop festival, is slated to return to Los Angeles in summer 2025, Korean entertainment giant CJ ENM announced on Jan. 23. The festival, which visits cities around the world, will kick off the 2025 season in Chiba for KCON Japan from May 9-11. It will then head to Southern California for KCON L.A. from Aug. 1-3. Exact venue details have yet to be released, but KCON L.A. has historically taken place at the L.A. Convention Center for daytime programming and the Crypto.com Arena for its nighttime concerts. The story. |
Sundance: J.Lo Tears Up at 'Kiss of the Spider Woman' Premiere ►"One of the things the movie is about is the attempt to bridge the incredible, difficult differences that separate us so often." Sundance veteran Bill Condon returned to Park City to present the world premiere of his new movie musical, Kiss of the Spider Woman, at Eccles Center Theatre on Sunday night. When it was over and all the credits had rolled, his star Jennifer Lopez was moved to tears, the capacity crowd delivered two standing ovations and a star was born thanks to a revelatory turn from Tonatiuh. The recap.
—"Getting f–ked, Chasing dreams." A mob of people in pink hats took to the streets at Sundance this year. No, it’s not 2016, but the stunt was a reference to the infamous protest event that took place at the festival and in cities around the world following the first inauguration of Donald Trump. THR's Ryan Fish reports that on Sunday outside the Egyptian Theater on Main Street, a large group of flash mob dancers in hot pink hats broke out into a choreographed routine to celebrate the new one-shot, half-hour comedy Chasers, a TV series pilot debuting at the festival. The story.
—"The most vulnerable journalists in the world are local freelancers." The retired Associated Press photographer Nick Ut, who is credited with taking the famous “Napalm Girl” photo in 1972, tried to stop Sundance from screening a movie that asserts the real photographer is not him but a little-known Vietnamese stringer, filmmakers told THR on Sunday. The Pulitzer-Prize winner’s lawyers recently sent a cease-and-desist letter to the festival and filmmakers behind the new movie The Stringer, they said; the film world-premiered on Saturday anyway. The story. |
Zach Cregger to Tackle 'Resident Evil' Reboot ►Bidding war! THR's Borys Kit has the scoop on the Resident Evil reboot sparking the first intense Hollywood auction of 2025. Four studios, including Netflix and Warner Bros., are fighting for a package that will see the Barbarian filmmaker Zach Cregger write and direct a new movie based on the horror video game. Constantin Film, which has held the screen rights to the title since the late 1990s and has been behind the previous movies, will produce the reboot along with PlayStation Productions. Shay Hatten, who worked on John Wick: Chapter 4 and Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, is co-writing. The story.
—New scribe in place. On a roll, Borys also had the big scoop on Lucasfilm tapping George Nolfi (The Bourne Ultimatum and Ocean’s 12) to write New Jedi Order, the Daisy Ridley-centric Star Wars movie. The hiring signals continued faith in the project, which was announced to great fanfare almost two years ago, but has seen several high-profile writers exit. Doc filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is due to make her narrative feature debut with the project, with Ridley due to reprise the role of Rey Skywalker, the character she played Disney’s sequel trilogy. The new story is said to take place 15 years after the events seen in 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, with Ridley’s character now a mentor to a new crop of Jedis. The story.
—📅 Dated! 📅 The Scary Movie franchise has set its return to the big screen. Marlon Wayans announced via Instagram on Friday that a new film in the series is set to hit theaters from Paramount Pictures on June 12, 2026. He is returning to the franchise with brothers Shawn Wayans and Keenen Ivory Wayans to pen the script for the new project that was announced last year at CinemaCon. Known for satirizing horror flicks, the Scary Movie films launched with the first title hitting theaters in 2000 and spawning four sequels. The story. |
Box Office: Mel Gibson's 'Flight Risk' Leads Quiet Weekend ►Solid take off. The Mel Gibson-directed Flight Risk flew to a $12m on Sunday, opening from 3,161 theaters to top a quiet weekend at the domestic box office in another needed win for Lionsgate following Den of Thieves 2: Pantera earlier this month.
Flight Risk is the first film Gibson has directed since 2016’s Hacksaw Ridge. The action-thriller hit theaters just days President Donald Trump named him a new ambassador to Hollywood, alongside Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone. THR's Pamela McClintock writes that reviewers haven’t taken to the modestly budgeted movie. Ditto for audiences, which slapped it with a C CinemaScore.
Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King, despite being in its sixth weekend, continued to display sharp claws. It held at No. 2 with $8.7m from 3,420 theaters to finish Sunday with a domestic total of $221.1m and $627.7m globally. Sony and TriStar’s Keke Palmer and SZA-fronted comedy One of Them Days, now in its second weekend, held in nicely to place third with an estimated $8m for a domestic cume of $25m from 2,675 cinemas. The box office report. |
Film Review: 'Rabbit Trap' ►"Bad bunny." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Bryn Chainey's Rabbit Trap. Set in 1976 Wales, Chainey’s first feature centers on an avant-garde musician (Rosy McEwen) and her sound recordist husband (Dev Patel) living in a remote cottage, where a strange local child forms an unhealthy attachment to them. The review.
—"Light on fresh insights, but heartfelt and moving." David reviews Amy Berg's It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley. Told in part from the perspective of the women the late singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley loved, the doc draws on interviews, rare performance clips, previously unseen footage and intimate recollections. The review.
—"A convincing argument for childlessness." David reviews Mary Bronstein's If I Had Legs I'd Kick You. Rose Byrne, Conan O’Brien, Danielle Macdonald and A$AP Rocky star in this feverish dark comedy thriller about parenting in extremis and existential black holes. The review. |
Film Review: 'Twinless' ►"A high-wire act of humor and compassion." THR's Lovia Gyarkye reviews James Sweeney's Sundance U.S. dramatic competition entry, Twinless. In Sweeney's second feature, which stars Dylan O’Brien, Lauren Graham, Aisling Franciosi and Chris Perfetti, two young men at a grief support group form an unlikely friendship. The review.
—"Harrowing and heartbreaking." Lovia reviews Geeta Gandbhir's Sundance U.S. documentary competition entry, The Perfect Neighbor. In her latest feature, the Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power filmmaker uses police body cam footage to explore disputes in a Florida community that take a fatal turn. The review.
—"The fun is in the details." Lovia reviews Emilie Blichfeldt's The Ugly Stepsister. In her Sundance-bowing feature, the Norwegian director reimagines the fairytale from the perspective of a stepsister desperate for beauty. The review. |
Film Review: 'Prime Minister' ►"Timely and bracing." For THR, Caryn James reviews Michelle Walshe and Lindsay Utz's Sundance world cinema documentary competition entry, Prime Minister. The doc provides a window into former New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern's work and life choices during her five-year term as her country's head of government. The review.
—"True grit." THR's Sheri Linden reviews Kate Beecroft's East of Wall. Scoot McNairy and Jennifer Ehle join a cast of nonprofessional actors playing versions of themselves in a docu-fiction feature shot on the plains and Badlands of South Dakota. The review.
—"A different kind of superhero movie." THR's Leslie Felperin reviews Kim A. Snyder's The Librarians. This doc film spotlights the librarians on the front line of the culture war waged by right-wingers in certain American states. The review.
—"Intriguing if emotionally staid, with a few crazy twists." THR's Jordan Mintzer reviews Alireza Khatami's Sundance world cinema dramatic competition entry, The Things You Kill. Premiering at Sundance, the latest feature from Iranian-American director of Terrestrial Verses follows a college professor whose private life gradually unravels. The review. |
TV Review: 'Watson' ►"Uneven and unfocused." THR's Angie Han reviews CBS' Watson. Morris Chestnut stars as the famed detective's sidekick, who's grieving the apparent death of his mentor while running a Pittsburgh clinic specializing in rare disorders. The review.
—"The first rule of Paradise: Don't talk about what Paradise is." THR's chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg reviews Hulu's Paradise. This Is Us' Dan Fogelman created the eight-episode presidential murder drama, which stars Sterling K. Brown, James Marsden and Julianne Nicholson, and isn't exactly the series it initially seems to be. The review.
In other news...
—The Baldwins reality series: First-look trailer touches on Rust tragedy
—Stephen Amell runs the West Coast firm in Suits: LA trailer
—Berlin Fest adds final titles to Panorama, Forum, and Generation sidebars
—TCM Classic Film Festival to honor George Stevens Jr. with the Robert Osborne Award
—Banijay names Steve Matthews head of scripted, creative, Johannes Jensen business head
—Jim Tauber, longtime film executive, dies at 74
What else we're reading...
—Nicole Sperling and Matt Stevens report that the wildfires have given new urgency to discussions about reviving film and television production in L.A. [NYT]
—Raffaele Huang looks into why Silicon Valley is raving about Chinese AI model DeepSeek [WSJ]
—Reporting from Greenland, Mark Leibovich talks to locals, including Prime Minister Múte Egede, about their thoughts on Trump's dangerous plans for the country [Atlantic]
—Hoai-Tran Bui talks to Lucy Liu about her new film Presence, working with Steven Soderbergh, and taking career risks [Inverse]
—Laura Martin explains why TV spy thrillers like The Night Agent, The Agency, Slow Horses and Black Doves are booming right now [BBC]
Today...
...in 2012, Lionsgate released Julie Anne Robinson's One for the Money in theaters. The crime comedy, based on Janet Evanovich’s best-selling books, starred Katherine Heigl and was panned by critics. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Rosamund Pike (46), Alan Cumming (60), James Cromwell (85), Bridget Fonda (61), Mimi Rogers (69), Patton Oswalt (56), Frank Miller (68), Tricky (57), Tamlyn Tomita (59), Susanna Thompson (67), Josh Randall (53), Roxane Duran (32), Amy Hargreaves (55), Julie Caitlin Brown (64), Freddy Carter (32), Brooke Butler (36), Kim Su-an (19), Todd Louiso (55), Richard Bremmer (72), Bobby Deol (56), Iyana Halley (32), Phil Rosenthal (65), Paulina Gerzon (30), Alex Norton (75), Joshua Mikel (41), David DeSantos (50), Anastasia Zabarchuk (28), Hrothgar Mathews (61), Olivier Renaud (40), Devin Druid (27), Renée Humphrey (50), Susanne Blakeslee (69) |
| Jan Shepard, who guest-starred on Rawhide, The Virginian, Gunsmoke and two dozen other TV Westerns and played opposite Elvis Presley in movies eight years apart, has died. She was 96. The obituary. |
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