| | | | | | What's news: Six acclaimed filmmakers don THR's series of digital covers. Megyn Kelly blasts Amy Poehler over her Globes win. NBC is pulling an episode of SVU that features Timothy Busfield. And a Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series in the works. — Abid Rahman
Do you have THR's next big story? Confidentially share tips with us at tips@thr.com. |
THR's Directors Roundtable ►On the digital cover. THR's award-winning Roundtable Series continues, next up are the directors. Six filmmakers — Kathryn Bigelow (A House of Dynamite), James Cameron (Avatar: Fire and Ash), Ryan Coogler (Sinners), Yorgos Lanthimos (Bugonia), Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value) and Chloé Zhao (Hamnet) — who have 22 Oscar nominations and three best director Oscars between them, discuss with THR's Scott Feinberg the lengths they go to get the job done, ignoring the rule book and bringing back people from the dead. The roundtable. |
Sports Powerhouse Fanatics Pushes Into Entertainment ►🤝 New production studio. 🤝 Fanatics, the Michael Rubin-led sports juggernaut, is getting into the entertainment business in a major way. The company is partnering with OBB Media to launch a new joint venture, Fanatics Studios, with a flurry of major deals lined up to support the studio at launch, including with LA28, ESPN, WWE and MLB. The venture plans to produce live events, unscripted and scripted original series, feature films and digital content. The deal with the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games includes plans to produce a slew of content around the event, including an official Olympics film, with a planned theatrical release. The story.
—🤝 Carriage pact. 🤝 HBO Max staked its claim on a big chunk of Europe on Tuesday, launching in both Germany and Italy, two of Europe’s biggest territories, as well as handful of smaller countries, including Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Israel, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. Ahead of the rollout, HBO signed multiyear carriage deals with Amazon’s Prime Video deal that will see the premium service added as an add-on subscription to Prime Video customers in Italy, Germany and Austria. HBO Max also extended their existing European Prime Video deals in France, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden and Belgium. The story.
—🤝 Studio investment. 🤝 Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s ambitious effort to develop a production base in Louisiana for his G-Unit Studios took another step forward as the state revealed a finalized deal for an investment and redevelopment plan. Under the agreement, Jackson’s company will invest $124m to renovate venue space Stageworks, update a production campus formerly owned by Millennium Studios and build a “dome-style immersive venue and green space park” in the city of Shrevepor. The state said it agreed to provide $50m “in performance-based funding” for infrastructure at those sites. The story.
—"We also want to make New York affordable to make the arts as well." New York mayor Zohran Mamdani made his way to a Brooklyn soundstage facility on Thursday to unveil his latest appointment, the new leader of the city’s film office. Rafael Espinal, who led the Freelancer’s Union for the last five years, has been tapped to lead the Mamdani administration’s Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, which coordinates with labor unions and studio production in the city. The story.
—Trump adjacent. In a major realignment atop one of the biggest tech companies in the world, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that his company has named Dina Powell McCormick as its new president and vice chairman. Powell McCormick had been sitting on Meta’s board of directors, but the company says that amid its push into AI, her skills were needed on the executive team. Powell McCormick was most recently vice chair, president, and head of global client services at the merchant bank BDT & MSD Partners, and previously worked as a senior executive at Goldman Sachs. She was also deputy national security adviser to Donald Trump during his first term. She is married to Pennsylvania GOP senator Dave McCormick. The story. |
Globes Producers on Song Choices and That CBS News Joke ►"[CBS] deserves some credit for accepting her as she is. If she’s going to go out there and poke fun at herself and poke fun at celebrities, and then she should be able to poke fun at the network." THR's nicest man Chris Gardner spoke to live TV veterans Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner, who recap Sunday night’s Golden Globes show. The duo dish on the production and reveal if they’d like a three-peat with host Nikki Glaser: “Honestly, she’s one of the hardest working people in show business.” The story.
—"They gave it to one of their own." It seems Megyn Kelly doesn’t agree with the winner of the best podcast award at the Golden Globes. Amy Poehler won the inaugural award at the ceremony Sunday night for her Good Hang podcast. However, not even 24 hours later, Kelly took to Monday’s episode of The Megyn Kelly Show to rip into the comedian and her interview-style podcast. After showing a recent clip from Good Hang , with guest Gwyneth Paltrow, Kelly added in a sarcastic tone, "They’re so relatable. They have busy lives. They get tired earlier, just like you, stars like Gwyneth Paltrow, just like you. Riveting, right? Well, maybe she won because of her insightful interviews — no, wait, that wasn’t it, the preparation she does, perhaps." The story. |
Jafar Panahi Talks Iran Protests, Possible Return to Prison ►"I’m going to go to prison for a year, and I’ll come out with a new script." At two THR-hosted panels at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, international Oscar contenders, including Iranian auteur Jafar Panafi discussed repression in Iran, war in Gaza and the personal risks behind their most urgent films. Panahi said the anti-government protests sweeping Iran are inevitable as the country’s authoritarian regime is crumbling on many fronts. The story.
—🏆 Sounds good. 🏆 The Motion Picture Sound Editors has revealed its nominations for the 2026 Golden Reel Awards, which honors achievements in sound editing, sound design, music editing and foley artistry across film, TV and gaming. Among the TV nominations, shows like Adolescence, The Pitt, Severance, Stranger Things, Task, Andor, The Last of Us, Pluribus, The Studio, Only Murders in the Building and Alien: Earth received nods, while in the film categories, movies like Kpop Demon Hunters, Sirat, Bugonia, F1, Frankenstein, One Battle After Another and Sinners were nominated. The nominees.
—Settlement. Grammy-winning music executive Antonio “L.A.” Reid has settled a lawsuit from Drew Dixon, a former Arista Records executive who accused him of sexual assault and retaliation on multiple occasions across the early 2000s. Terms of the last-minute settlement, reached on Monday ahead of the start of jury selection and opening statements, weren’t disclosed. “Mr. Reid has amicably resolved this matter with Ms. Dixon without any admission of liability,” Imran Ansari, a lawyer for the mogul, said in a statement. The story. |
NBC Pulls 'SVU' Episode Amid Timothy Busfield Abuse Allegations ►The latest. NBC has shelved an episode of Law & Order: SVU in which Timothy Busfield guest stars after the actor and director was accused of abusing a child actor in an arrest warrant. The episode, titled “Corrosive,” had been scheduled to air Jan. 15 on NBC. The network has pulled that installment and will move up the scheduled Jan. 22 episode, “Fidelis Ad Mortem,” to this week’s spot. There’s no word on when (or if) “Corrosive” will be rescheduled. The pulling of the episode comes after Albuquerque, New Mexico, police issued an arrest warrant for Busfield alleging that he abused two boys on the set of the Fox drama series The Cleaner in 2024, where he directed several episodes. The story.
—More to come. Games of Thrones author George R. R. Martin has hinted at more sequels in the works ahead of the prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms bowing on HBO Max Jan. 18. "There are more stories to tell about Dunk and Egg and their education and what’s going to befall them in future years," Martin told the A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms companion video podcast that launched Monday with a pre-premiere episode. The new podcast series from HBO Max is hosted by Jason Concepcion and Greta Johnsen and features interviews with the series creatives, cast and crew, with Martin, the mind behind the book and TV phenomenon GOT, as the first guest. The story.
—🤝 Overall deal. 🤝 Production on Tires season 3 is underway in West Chester, Penn., and with it comes a new overall Netflix deal for Shane Gillis and John McKeever. The duo will develop film, series and unscripted projects for the streamer, and Gillis will add two new Netflix stand-up comedy specials. Tires stars Shane Gillis, Steve Gerben, Stavros Halkias, Kilah Fox and Chris O’Connor. For the 12-episode third season, season two guest star Thomas Haden Church, who plays Shane’s dad, will be promoted to series regular. The story. |
'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' Series Coming From Sky ►Heading to the small screen. Comcast-owned Sky confirmed on Tuesday that an eight-part series adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is on its way from Left Bank Pictures (the team behind The Crown and Dept Q), based on Stieg Larsson’s globally bestselling Millennium novels that have sold more than 100m copies worldwide. Dragon Tattoo was famously adapted for film in 2011 by screenwriter Steven Zaillian and filmmaker David Fincher. The neo-noir mystery thriller follows disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist and troubled computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, who team up to solve a 40-year-old cold case. The story.
—5 things we learned. Stranger Things is over (regardless of online conspiracy theories, it is over), but a new documentary should ease some separation anxiety from our collective split with Eleven, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, Nancy, Jonathan, Steve, Robin and Max. We’ll always be friends. One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, directed by Martina Radwan, is now available to stream on Netflix. THR's Tony Maglio saw the doc and picked out 5 big things from the making of ST5. The story.
—TML heads rejoice! Tell Me Lies fans: Hulu has a surprise for you. Instead of having to wait another week for more intoxicating drama from Lucy (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen (Jackson White), the streamer has dropped a third episode along with the show’s two-episode return. The third episode of the highly anticipated third season, titled “Repent,” is also now available to stream along with the planned first two episodes — titled “You F*cked It, Friend” and “We Can’t Help It If We Are A Problem.” The rest of season 3 will be released weekly until the finale on Feb. 17. The story. |
Rachel Reid Announces Next Installment in 'Heated Rivalry' Story ►Excellent timing. While Heated Rivalry the series continues to grow in popularity, the show’s material is officially getting a new installment. Rachel Reid, the best-selling author of Heated Rivalry, is releasing the seventh book in her Game Changers series, her publisher officially announced Monday. Screenshots of a Barnes & Noble product page had been floating around over the week, but nothing had been officially confirmed. Unrivaled will be a sequel to Heated Rivalry and The Long Game, which both focus on hockey players Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, rival professional players turned lovers (sorry, Shane). The story.
—"You think of male romance, you think it’s for gay men but there’s been all walks of life, predominately women, who enjoy it." Heated Rivalry breakout Connor Storrie made his late night television debut Monday night with an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers. The 25-year-old actor — in the midst of a meteoric rise alongside co-star Hudson Williams following the release of the Canadian queer hockey series — sat down for a chat with Meyers about the whirlwind of the last month and change. The recap.
—"It’s a little bit queer coded." THR's Etan Vlessing spoke to Heated Rivalry costume designer Hanna Puley about dressing the stars of the steamy hit gay drama. From that comfy fleece jacket gone viral online to brash Hawaiian shirts and tank tops, Puley dishes on Shane and Ilya’s outfits. The interview. |
'People We Meet on Vacation' Writers on Making the "EmHen Hive" Proud ►"It was daunting to see the number of comments on the [film] announcement." THR's Lexy Perez spoke to Yulin Kuang, Amos Vernon and Nunzio Randazzo, scribes behind the new Netflix rom-com, People We Meet on Vacation. The trio talk about capturing the “spirit” of author Emily Henry's bestseller, the intimidation of adapting a story with a loyal fandom and keeping the “torch moving forward” for the modern rom-com. Warning: Spoilers! The interview.
—"I allowed myself to be terrified." THR's queen of chat Jackie Strause spoke to Landman star Paulina Chávez about the penultimate episode of season 2. The actor in Paramount+'s mega-hit oil drama, who was on the receiving end of a violent sexual attack headed into the season 2 finale, unpacks the harrowing scene and consequences ahead. Warning: Spoilers! The interview.
—"I would say we’ve done a really good job of blocking out the noise." THR's Brian Davids spoke to filmmaker Ric Roman Waugh about his new feature Greenland 2. With the Trump administration eyeing the real Greenland, the director is just focused on getting his movie out — and maybe even finding a way to make a third one. The interview.
—"She’s not a good person, but she’s not a psychopath." For THR, Derek Lawrence spoke to actress Rebecca Rittenhouse about her latest TV show, Netflix's His & Hers. Rittenhouse dives into the "complicated" psychology at play and shock ending to the limited series. Warning: Spoilers! The interview.
In other news...
—Portobello trailer teases fall of the king of 1980s TV in first Italian HBO Max original
—Mickey Rourke stars in 3 Days Rising trailer
—These are the best Peacock subscription deals
—Kelly Reichardt named guest of honor at Swiss doc fest Visions du Réel
—Colleen Barstow, theater owner and independent cinema advocate, dies at 64
What else we're reading...
—Reeves Wiedeman's profile of boy wonder David Ellison is the talk of Hollywood and for good reason [Vulture]
—We truly live in the era of grift, and this Maggie Severns, Natalie Andrews, Josh Dawsey and Eliza Collins story on paid influencers becoming the new Washington lobbyists in the age of Trump just proves it [WSJ]
—In a massive deal for the industry, Samantha Subin reports that Apple has picked Google's Gemini to run AI-powered Siri coming this year [CNBC]
—Suzanne Vranica reports that OpenAI is set to run another expensive Super Bowl ad as chatbot competition heats up [WSJ]
—Despite Elon Musk and right wing racist hysteria, Sonja Jessup reports that London is safer than it has ever been as the murder rate falls to its lowest level in more than a decade [BBC]
Today...
...in 2012, Warner Bros. Pictures released Todd Graff's Joyful Noise in theaters. The musical comedy, starring Queen Latifah, Dolly Parton, Keke Palmer, Jeremy Jordan and Courtney B. Vance, received mixed reviews and stalled at the box office. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Shonda Rhimes (56), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (65), Ruth Wilson (44), Orlando Bloom (49), Patrick Dempsey (60), Natalia Dyer (31), Michael Peña (50), Liam Hemsworth (36), Jill Wagner (47), Penelope Ann Miller (62), Suzanne Cryer (59), Julian Morris (43), Beau Mirchoff (37), Andy Allo (37), Nicole Eggert (54), Ross McCall (50), William B. Davis (88), Janet Hubert (70), Alice Winocour (50), Trace Adkins (64), Bill Bailey (61), Tecla Insolia (22), Bogdan Farcas (46), Malcolm Storry (78), Iria del Río (39), Will McCormack (52), Pawel Szajda (44), Kris Thykier (54), Denise Burse (74), Gorka Otxoa (47), James Carroll Jordan (76), Genevieve Gaunt (35), Jake Canuso (56) |
| | | |
