| | | | | | What's news: Netflix is committing $1b on content spend in Mexico over the next 4 years. Cynthia Erivo will host the Tonys. A+E Networks is launching a new digital division. Kitao Sakurai will direct the Street Fighter movie. Blackpink's Jisoo will star in Netflix's Boyfriend on Demand. — Abid Rahman
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Amazon Takes Creative Control of James Bond Franchise ►🤝 Shaken and stirred 🤝 The James Bond movie franchise has got a shake up, with Amazon MGM Studios and Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli forming a new joint venture to house the movie property’s intellectual property rights. Under the terms of the agreement, Amazon MGM Studios will gain creative control of the franchise, while Wilson and Broccoli will remain co-owners of the 60-year-old property. In 2022, Amazon acquired MGM, including a vast catalog with more than 4,000 films and 17,000 TV shows. Since the MGM acquisition, Amazon has held rights to distribute all the Bond films, and following completion of the joint venture transaction will control the creative on future productions. News of the joint venture comes amid continuing speculation about Bond 26 , the next iteration of the spy franchise, after Daniel Craig hung up the tuxedo for good in 2021’s No Time to Die. The story.
—"This country holds a special place in Netflix's own history." Netflix has committed to invest $1b in Mexico for the production of series and films over the next four years, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said during a press conference with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Thursday. Netflix will also invest $2m in Mexico City’s iconic Churubusco Studios, one of the oldest and largest production facilities in Mexico, to “elevate” its facilities. The streamer has a long history in Mexico. After becoming available in Mexico in September 2011, Netflix, in 2015, produced its first series outside the U.S. in the country, namely Club de Cuervos. In 2019, Netflix opened its first offices in Mexico and then decided in 2020 to set up its Latin American headquarters there. The story.
—Moving forward. A federal judge has advanced a lawsuit against Disney from investors who claim that they were misled about the extent of the entertainment giant’s losses stemming from its lofty subscriber growth and profitability targets in the era of ousted CEO Bob Chapek. U.S. District Judge Consuelo Marshall on Wednesday denied a bid by Disney to dismiss the lawsuit, finding that former company executives who allegedly devised a plan to make it appear that its streaming platform could reach Netflix-like scale may have “engaged in deceptive conduct.” The story.
—Shift in emphasis. A+E Networks is bringing its digital content under one roof, launching a new digital division to be led by Ann McGowan as its GM. The new division will unify A+E Networks digital efforts, including its YouTube channels, SVOD platforms including A&E Crime Central, History Vault and Lifetime Movie Club, and short-form social video content. A+E Networks has become a major player on YouTube and on FAST channels, leveraging the content it produces on its linear channels. As the pay-TV bundle has declined, A+E Networks has poured even more resources into its digital and production efforts. The story.
—On the move. Daria Cercek is exiting her post at Paramount Pictures to head Disney’s live action theatrical division. She will report to David Greenbaum, president of Disney live action features and 20th Century Studios. In the role, Cercek will oversee Disney’s live-action theatrical slate. She joins the company after serving as the co-president of Motion Picture Group at Paramount Pictures with Mike Ireland since 2021. The story.
—Upped. Sony Pictures Television has promoted two veteran executives to lead the studio’s distribution business. Mike Wald and Jason Spivak have been named co-presidents of distribution and networks, where they’ll be in charge of Sony Pictures TV’s combined television and home entertainment distribution unit. They’ll report to SPT chairman Keith Le Goy, who headed distribution before moving into the top job in January. The story.
—Recovery. Imax released its fourth quarter earnings on Wednesday and posted higher net earnings on rising overall revenues. That came as tentpoles like Gladiator II, Venom: The Last Dance and Mufasa: The Lion King performed best on its screens during the latest financial period. A year earlier, Imax had Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Wonka on the cinema technology company’s big screen network. Overall fourth-quarter revenue came to $92.7m, up 8 percent from a year-earlier $86m. Amid a box office recovery for Hollywood coming out of the pandemic, Imax is looking to leverage increasing demand for new and upgraded theater systems worldwide. The results.
—Strong start. Max‘s long-awaited stand-alone launch in Southeast Asia proved to be a success, with Warner Bros. Discovery’s streamer capturing 1.4m subscribers in the region in Q4 2024, according to new research. In a report published by Media Partners Asia, Max entered five Southeast Asian markets — Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines — in November 2024 and captured 26 percent of Q4 net customer additions for streaming services in SEA. Despite a strong start for Max, the streamer has a long way to go to get near Netflix, the dominant player in SEA. The report states that Netflix ended the 2024 calendar year with just less than 12m customers combined across SEA’s five markets. The story. |
NAACP Image Awards 2025 ►🏆 Family affair 🏆 Beyoncé and her daughter Blue Ivy Carter were among the winners during Night 2 of the 2025 NAACP Image Awards preshow ceremonies. On the heels of her record-breaking night at the Grammys earlier this month, Beyoncé was named best female artist and also won best album for Cowboy Carter. Blue Ivy, meanwhile, won the award for best character voice-over performance in a film for her role in Mufasa: The Lion King. Three other recent Grammy winners also were honored with NAACP Image Awards on Wednesday: Kendrick Lamar won best hip-hop/rap song for “Not Like Us,” Doechii was named best new artist, and Chris Brown won best male artist and best international song for “Hmmm” feat. Davido. The winners.
—Busy, busy. Cynthia Erivo will host the 78th annual Tony Awards this June. This marks the first time hosting the ceremony for Erivo, who is a Tony Award winner for her starring role in the 2015 revival of The Color Purple, which also led to Emmy and Grammy Awards. Erivo is nominated for an Academy Award at this year’s Oscars ceremony for her role as Elphaba in Wicked. The story. |
Daniel Craig Drops Out of DC's 'Sgt. Rock' ►No dice. Former Bond Daniel Craig is no longer attached to star in Sgt. Rock, the DC Studios feature project that would have reunited him with his Queer director Luca Guadagnino. The feature has a script from screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes, who penned Guadagnino’s Challengers and Queer. Reasons for Craig’s departure remain unclear. Some said the actor’s schedule ran into roadblocks with that of his wife, actress Rachel Weisz. Other sources said that the actor soured on the role after Queer failed to perform not only at the box office but also in the awards season race. The story.
—🎭 Plumb role 🎭 Janelle Monáe is set to star in and produce the Universal's adaptation of Tanya Smith’s heist memoir Never Saw Me Coming: How I Outsmarted the FBI and the Entire Banking System—and Pocketed $40 Million . The actress and singer will produce the project about an unsuspecting woman who hatches a clever white-collar scheme that manipulates the U.S. banking system out of millions through Wondaland Pictures’ first look deal with Universal, with Smith to executive produce. When the FBI finally cornered Smith, they refused to believe a black woman could be the architect of sophisticated financial crimes, as they smugly asserted “these are not the kind of crimes black people are smart enough to commit,” according to a synopsis from the producers. The story.
—🎭 The rights girls 🎭 Alia Shawkat is joining Kristen Stewart in a lead role for The Wrong Girls, Dylan Meyer’s directorial debut for Neon now shooting in Los Angeles. Written and directed by Meyer, the film follows Frankie (Stewart) and Molly (Shawkat) as best friends living paycheck to paycheck, only to see a case of mistaken identity throw their lives into chaos. The Wrong Girls also has supporting roles played by Seth Rogen, Kumail Nanjiani, LaKeith Stanfield, Zack Fox and Tony Hale. Neon plans to release the film theatrically in the U.S. and shop the international rights. The story.
—Helmer in place. Kitao Sakurai, the filmmaker perhaps best known for writing, directing and exec producing The Eric Andre Show, has been tapped to direct Street Fighter, Legendary Entertainment’s feature adaptation of the classic video game from Capcom. Capcom is deeply involved with the adaptation, with Legendary co-developing and co-producing alongside the video game developer and publisher. The film has a March 20, 2026, release date from Sony. Sakurai recently reteamed with Eric Andre for the Netflix comedy feature Bad Trip, which he co-wrote and directed. The story.
—🎭 The human element 🎭 Jack O’Connell, currently vamping it up in the trailer for Ryan Coogler’s upcoming Sinners, has joined the cast of the Legendary’s latest installment of its Godzilla-King Kong creature feature franchise. Grant Sputore is directing the project, which is part of the company’s Monsterverse. Dave Callaham wrote the script. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but Legendary has said the story will feature “several new human characters alongside the beloved and iconic Titans Godzilla and Kong as they face off against a cataclysmic world-ending threat.” The story. |
Claire Danes, 'My So-Called Life' Creator Reteam for HBO Drama ►🎭 Together again! 🎭 Three decades after My So-Called Life finished its first and only season, its creator and star are teaming up again. Claire Danes is set to star in an HBO drama from MSCL creator Winnie Holzman. The project, titled The Applebaum Curse, is in early development at the premium cable outlet. Holzman will write the script and serve as showrunner, with Danes set to star. Both will executive produce. HBO describes The Applebaum Curse as a drama series about a dysfunctional family, with Danes in the lead role. The story.
—📅 Dated! 📅 Season two of The Last of Us has — at last — a specific premiere date. The seven-episode season of the drama will debut April 13 on HBO. That means the season will complete its run in late May, just under the wire for Emmy eligibility this year. The premiere will come two years and one month after the finale of The Last of Us' first season in March 2023. That season was one of HBO’s biggest since the end of Game of Thrones, drawing some 30 million cross-platform viewers per episode, and won eight Emmys. The story.
—Next up. Sex and the City and Emily in Paris creator Darren Star is on board to adapt Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas’ Climbing in Heels novel as a drama series for Peacock. Star and Goldsmith-Thomas, a producing partner to Jennifer Lopez and president of Lopez’s Nuyorican Productions, will co-write and executive produce the series as part of an overall deal with Universal Television. St. Martin’s Press will publish the Climbing in Heels novel on April 29, and Darren Star Productions and EGTV Productions will produce the TV drama. The story.
—🎭 Boombayah! 🎭 Netflix has lined up its next high-concept, high-demand Korean drama. K-pop superstar Jisoo, of mega-group Blackpink, has signed on to star in Boyfriend on Demand, a romantic-drama series about an overworked young Korean woman who seeks escape in a virtual reality dating program “where she meets the boyfriends of her dreams.” Popular singer-turned actor Seo In-guk will star opposite Jisoo as Park Kyeong-nam, Mi-rae’s colleague and rival webtoon producer. Boyfriend on Demand is directed by Kim Jung-sik, known for the smash-hit web series Work Later, Drink Now and No Gain No Love. The story. |
TV Review: 'Zero Day' ►"Not quite a 'Zero,' but far from a hero." THR's chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg reviews Netflix's Zero Day. Robert De Niro, Angela Bassett, Joan Allen, Connie Britton, Jesse Plemons and Lizzy Caplan star in a political thriller series about politicians trying to find answers after a deadly cyberattack. The review.
—"Entertaining (but not 2.5 times better than The 400 Blows)." Daniel reviews Hulu's A Thousand Blows. Malachi Kirby, Stephen Graham and Erin Doherty lead the ensemble of the six-episode Victorian boxing drama from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, which already has more hours in store. The review.
—"Fun and funny comfort viewing." THR's Angie Han reviews The CW's Good Cop/Bad Cop. The hour-long dramedy centers around a brother-sister detective duo solving crimes with their police-chief father in a small town in the Pacific Northwest. Starring Leighton Meester, Luke Cook and Clancy Brown. The review. |
Film Review: 'The Monkey' ►"Too pleased with itself for its own good." THR's Frank Scheck reviews Osgood Perkins' The Monkey. The horror filmmaker follows his smash hit Longlegs with this adaptation of a Stephen King story, headlined by Theo James and Tatiana Maslany. The review.
—"A taut and sensitive tribute to working-class heroes." THR's Sheri Linden reviews Petra Volpe's Late Shift. Leonie Benesch's toplines this day-in-the-life medical procedural set in the surgical ward of a Swiss hospital. The review.
—"Call the undertaker." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Lucio Castro's After This Death. Mía Maestro, Lee Pace, Rupert Friend, Gwendoline Christie and Philip Ettinger star in the Argentinian director’s slow-boil mystery set during the fall in upstate New York. The review.
—"Thought-provoking and loquacious." THR's Jordan Mintzer reviews Radu Jude's Berlin competition entry, Kontinental ’25. The latest feature from the director of Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World follows a woman dealing with her guilt after her actions drive a homeless man to suicide. The review.
In other news...
—Hulu's Good American Family: Ellen Pompeo narrates a new story with Natalia Grace series trailer
—Karen Read tells her story in Body in The Snow docuseries trailer from ID
—Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban’s L.A. home burglarized
—Beyoncé adds new dates to Cowboy Carter Tour
—Blackpink announces 10-city stadium world tour
—Carroll Guido Groffman Cohen Bar & Karalian elevate Celine Hollenbeck, Jenna Akemi Kon to partner
What else we're reading...
—Andrea González-Ramírez is disgusted by the Trump administration's "memefication of deportation" [The Cut]
—Max Tani reports that the New York Times is going all-in on internal product and editorial AI tools [Semafor]
—Liyan Qi and Erich Schwartzel do a deep dive on Ne Zha 2, the Chinese animated movie that has scored a whopping $1.2b at the box office so far [WSJ]
—Kyle Buchanan goes inside No Other Land, the Oscar-nominated film that no studio will touch [NYT]
—Jessie Schiewe looks at why more Angelenos are looking to build "SuperAdobes," a type of traditional earth architecture that is more fireproof [LAT]
Today...
...in 1963, Orson Welles’ adaptation of Franz Kafka’s The Trial hit theaters in New York. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Rihanna (37), Mike Leigh (82), Brenda Blethyn (79), Olivia Rodrigo (22), Miles Teller (38), Jason Blum (56), Daniella Pineda (38), Lauren Ambrose (47), Jocko Sims (44), Ron Eldard (60), Chelsea Peretti (47), Cindy Crawford (59), Anthony Head (71), Andrea Savage (52), Lili Taylor (58), Ray Nicholson (33), Tracy Spiridakos (37), Jay Hernandez (47), French Stewart (61), David Herman (58), Jay Hayden (38), Anjli Mohindra (35), Michael Zegen (46), Louis Ferreira (58), Majandra Delfino (44), Dan Schachner (51), James Wilby (67), Bronson Webb (42), Rodney Rowland (61), Peter Strauss (78), Andrew Shue (58), Ric Roman Waugh (57) |
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