What's news: WB and the Russo brothers are partnering on a reimagining of Free Willy. Paul Feig is set to direct his first horror feature. Paramount+ has set a date for MobLand S2 and Tom Hardy is involved. Love Story creator Connor Hines is moving to Netflix for his next show. And Julianne Nicholson's Mare of Easttown character will appear in Task S2. — Abid Rahman
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Feinberg's First Post-Nominations Read of Emmy Race
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►Off we go! On Wednesday morning, the TV Academy announced its finalists for more than 100 Primetime Emmy Awards categories, as selected by the organization’s 27,000 voters from 31 different peer groups. THR's executive editor of awards coverage Scott Feinberg assesses 63 categories, in his first post-nominations read of the race. The forecast.
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Disney+ President Exits to Join Fubo as CEO
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►"I am excited to lead Fubo in its next phase." Veteran Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ exec Alisa Bowen as has been named as the new CEO of Fubo, replacing company co-founder David Gandler. The appointment follows the sports-first streamer merging to combine its video service with Disney’s Hulu + Live TV. She brings 10 years of executive experience at Walt Disney, most recently as president of Disney+. Bowen also helped build out Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, and before that had executive stints at News Corp., Dow Jones and Thomson Reuters. The story.
—Showola latest. iHeartMedia is entering a consent decree with the Federal Communications Commission over the regulatory organization’s payola investigation, the FCC announced on Thursday. The FCC first announced a probe against iHeart last year over what it called “showola,” investigating claims that iHeart gave increased airplay to artists who played the radio conglomerate’s concerts and music festivals. In its initial reply to the FCC, iHeart denied leveraging airplay for live performances, telling the FCC that “musicians perform at iHeart events for the promotional value, not for additional airplay on Company Stations.” The story.
—Showing support. Connie Leyva, a former California lawmaker, is backing FKA twigs in her lawsuit against Shia LaBeouf, who’s trying to bar her from broadly discussing issues of sexual violence and sharing any information about acts relating to her own experiences of alleged sexual abuse by the actor. Last year, months after she settled her lawsuit against LaBeouf, the singer-songwriter got an arbitration demand from the actor’s legal team. He claimed breach of contract for what he considered a violation of the deal’s NDA over an interview in which she said, “I wouldn’t feel safe” with that chapter of her life behind her. The story.
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George Lucas' Museum Will Offer Free Access to Neighbors
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►Forever giving. Los Angeles’ Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, opening to the public Sept. 22, has announced that it’s offering free annual passes as well as an early preview to its closest residential neighbors in South L.A.’s 90037 ZIP code. George Lucas and his partner Mellody Hobson’s long-awaited $1b, 300,000-square-foot cultural institution — with its fittingly futuristic building, given that it’s made possible by the Star Wars fortune — will feature more than 1,300 objects on display, as well as 11 acres of landscaped space across its campus. The story.
—Change of plans. Los Angeles’ Olympic Organizing Committee is moving the International Broadcast Center for the 2028 Summer Games from Inglewood to Burbank's The Ranch. The move marks a different tack for LA28, which had announced last May that the in-development Hollywood Park Studios in Inglewood would be the home of the media hub, where rights holders ranging from NBCUniversal to Warner Bros. Discovery and others would have bases set up for operations. Preparations to create the media campus will begin in January 2027, with the center being able to have access to 16 soundstages at The Ranch. The story.
—Shuttered. Health and safety violations have led the state of Utah to shut down the “scared straight” school for troubled adolescents, where famed socialite and businesswoman Paris Hilton says she was subjected to brutal abuse after being sent there as a teenager. The Provo Canyon School campus in Springville, Utah, had its operating license revoked after state officials found it to be noncompliant on multiple issues. The story.
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THR Announces Inaugural A-List Aesthetics Event and Digital Issue
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►Looksmaxxing. For its inaugural A-List Aesthetics event and digital issue, THR is celebrating the intersection of celebrity and the all-consuming drive to look one’s best (and youngest) with a Power List anointing the top go-to aesthetic and longevity doctors, surgeons and practitioners who help optimize Hollywood’s vitality, energy and, yes, looks. THR is bringing this definitive list off the page and into the Hotel Bel-Air at an exclusive, intimate brunch and program, presented by SkinCeuticals and skinbetter science, featuring the world-renowned, board-certified practitioners currently driving the industry’s most significant medical breakthroughs, trends and innovations. The story.
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'Free Willy' Reimagining Set at WB, Russo's AGBO |
►Orca-strated nostalgia trip. THR's Mia Galuppo has the scoop that Free Willy is swimming its way back to the big screen for a new generation. Warner Bros. and the Russo brothers’ AGBO are partnering on a reimagining of the 1993 adventure movie, tapping Mary-Margaret Kunze and Jade Halley Bartlett for the screenplay. The original Free Willy follows a troubled preteen who finds his purpose to free an aging orca that was captured from the wild and put into a local aquarium as a tourist attraction. The story.
—Fixed the title. A forthcoming action-thriller movie starring Liam Neeson, Zachary Levi and Quincy Isaiah that centers on Iran is heading for theaters later this year with a new title. Inaugural Entertainment has set writer-director Guy Moshe’s The Fix for wide theatrical release on Sept. 11. Previously known as Hotel Tehran, The Fix follows Larry (Neeson), Tucker (Levi) and a group of former CIA operators who hope to pull off a daring rescue in the Iranian capital to redeem themselves after a failed Afghanistan mission. The story.
—Boarding. Jake Shears is helping a once lost piece of LGBTQ history reach a wider audience, with the Scissor Sisters singer boarding Tinderbox as a producer. The film tells the story of the 1973 Up Stairs Lounge fire, which was the worst mass murder of LGBTQ people in America until the Pulse Nightclub shooting in 2016. Author Robert Fieseler brought attention to the tragedy in his 2018 book, Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation. In addition to producing, Shears will lend music from his albums Jake Shears and B-Sides. The story.
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'Moana' Faces Box Office Test |
►Too soon? Dwayne Johnson and Catherine Laga’aia lead Disney‘s live-action Moana, which aims to make waves in its box office debut this weekend but could face a challenge, coming less than two years after the billion dollar last entry in the franchise, writes THR water nymph Ryan Gajewski. Director Thomas Kail‘s movie is eyeing a domestic weekend start between $60m and $65m with a launch spanning 3,900 theaters in North America. This is dialed back from last month, when tracking for the film suggested Moana’s domestic weekend debut could reach as high as $75m or above. The analysis.
—Back to school. Paul Feig, who is in production on his upcoming The Housemaid sequel, is set to direct the horror feature Detention. The film will be Feig’s first horror movie after gaining fame directing comedies such as Bridesmaids and dipping into the thriller genre with A Simple Favor and The Housemaid. While its logline is being kept under wraps, Detention is said to involve now-grown classmates who reconnect and discover a disturbing secret. The story.
—📅 No surprises on the date. 📅 Paramount's forthcoming animated feature based on the comic Freddy the 13th has scored an appropriate release date. The untitled animated family-horror-comedy movie from director Dan Trachtenberg on Oct. 13, 2028 — which, naturally, is a Friday. The Paramount Animation film adapts Yehudi Mercado’s comic Freddy the 13th, with Mercado tapped to co-direct. The story.
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'MobLand' Sets S2 Return Date With Tom Hardy
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►📅 All is forgiven for now, bruv. 📅 MobLand is pulling Tom Hardy back in for the second season of the Paramount+ series that’s set to premiere on Sept. 18. But the British star’s future as Harry Da Souza for a likely season three renewal hasn’t yet been made official. Hardy’s continued role as Da Souza still remains in the air after his on-set behavior on the second season looks to have spooked producers. MobLand has yet to be officially renewed for a third season by the streamer, with production expected to resume later this year if that happens. The story.
—🟢 Greenest of green lights. 🟢 The creator of Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette is taking on a different kind of drama for his next series project. Connor Hines has scored a straight-to-series order from Netflix for Jupiter Island, a drama set in an exclusive island community that’s home to a number of professional golfers. Hines has also signed an overall deal with the streamer to create and produce series projects. A24 will produce Jupiter Island with Netflix; Hines is writing the show and will executive produce with Julie Gardner of Bad Wolf America. The story.
—🎠Crossover klaxon! 🎠Emmy winner Julianne Nicholson is joining the cast of HBO‘s Task — as a character audiences may already know. Nicholson will reprise her role as Lori Ross from Mare of Easttown in season two of Task. Both shows were created by Brad Ingelsby, and both are set in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Those connections led some people to speculate whether the two shows shared a fictional world, which Nicholson’s casting now confirms. The story.
—📅 Dated! 📅 American Horror Story has set its release date for its highly anticipated 13th season. The hit FX horror anthology will return Thursday, Sept. 24 (at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT on FX and Hulu; streaming globally on Disney+). The season is shaping up to be an all-star reunion with returning favorites Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates, Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, Gabourey Sidibe and Leslie Grossman all among the cast, along with AHS newcomer Ariana Grande. The story.
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'Alien: Earth' Adds 3 as S2 Begins Filming
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►🎠Bursting with pride. 🎠FX‘s Alien: Earth is adding to its cast as filming gets underway. The series has begun production on its second season in London and added Tracey Ullman, Sam Spruell and Jerome Flynn to its cast. They join returning castmembers Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Timothy Olyphant, Essie Davis, Babou Ceesay, Samuel Blenkin, Adarsh Gourav, Jonathan Ajayi, Erana James, Lily Newmark, Adrian Edmondson, David Rysdahl, Moe Bar-El and Sandra Yi Sencindiver, along with fellow season two addition Peter Dinklage. The story.
—Content grab. YouTube creators Alan and Alex Stokes, aka the Stokes Twins, are bringing their sensibilities — and a lot of their videos — to Netflix. The brothers have signed a deal with the streamer that will bring an archive of their YouTube content to Netflix starting July 18. The Stokes are also developing a long-form show for Netflix, slated to premiere in 2027. The content deal with Netflix is non-exclusive. The twins have more than 140m subscribers on YouTube, and their videos will remain there. The story.
—Woof! Peacock’s Love Island USA dominated the Nielsen streaming charts for the second week of season eight, coming close to a series high viewing total. The show delivered 1.83b minutes of viewing time for the week of June 8-14, up 40 percent from its premiere week and 68 percent from a year ago. It was the second-biggest week on record for Love Island USA, behind 1.93b for the final week of season seven last July. No other show or movie crossed the billion-minute mark for the week, which also marked the start of the men’s World Cup and drew big audiences, including for Spanish-language telecasts on Peacock (live sports aren’t included in Nielsen’s streaming ratings). The rankings.
—A new champion. On an unusually crowded Fourth of July TV slate, ABC delivered a ratings upset. The network’s primetime special Nashville’s Star-Spangled Bash — the finale of a 24-hour “Disney Celebrates America” programming block — outdrew the annual Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks on NBC, which is usually the top program on Independence Day. ABC averaged 5.44m viewers for the three-hour Star-Spangled Bash, beating the 4.94m on-air viewers for NBC’s two-hour special. ABC’s win marks the first time since 2010 that a network other than NBC has led primetime on the Fourth of July. The ratings.
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►All the latest content from THR's podcast studio.
—Awards Chatter. THR's executive awards editor Scott Feinberg talks to the great and the good of Hollywood. In this live episode Scott spoke to Robert Richardson. The master cinematographer best known for his collaborations with Oliver Stone (12), Martin Scorsese (7) and Quentin Tarantino (5) reflects on how problems with hearing may have heightened his sight; how he worked with different cameras and film stocks on JFK, cranes on Casino, top-light on Kill Bill, digital and 3D on Hugo and ultra-wide on The Hateful Eight; and Jana Hojdová's new documentary about his life and work. The podcast.
—Awards Chatter. In this episode Scott spoke to David Thomson. The revered British writer on film — a critic, historian and author of more than 40 books, most famously one first published in 1975 under the title A Biographical Dictionary of the Cinema and updated and reissued five times since as The New Biographical Dictionary of Film — reflects on how a childhood stammer led to his fascination with words and desire to speak out; the happy accidents that led to his dictionary, and why there won’t be a seventh edition; and why he believes — and asserts in his latest book, A Sudden Flicker of Light: A Revisionist History of the Movies. The podcast.
—I’m Having an Episode. THR’s Mikey O’Connell attempts to stay on top of the latest TV and entertainment news with a little help from his friends, colleagues and a revolving door of actors, writers, showrunners and filmmakers. In this episode, Mikey interviews Jeff Schaffer, the showrunner behind Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, who stops by with thoughts on the complications of spoofing and celebrating America at this moment and the enduring thrall of Euro Trip's "Scotty Doesn't Know." But First! THR's David Canfield returns to discuss the rather bizarre class of 2026 Emmy nominees. The podcast.
In other news...
—Na Hong-jin’s Korean monster movie Hope goes full sci-fi freakout in wild new trailer
—Cristin Milioti, Keegan-Michael Key's Buddy trailer brings horror to children's TV
—Sisterhood and secrets come to light in trailer for Prime Video's Sterling Point
—Julian Schnabel to get lifetime honor at Lucca Festival
—Fred Armisen, Carrie Brownstein to host Portlandia rewatch podcast
—Nicolas Johnson, son of entertainment attorney Matt Johnson, dies at 28
—Harris Katleman, former top television executive at MGM and Fox, dies at 97
What else we're reading...
—Must-read story from Noah Shachtman and Maddy Varner about James Dolan's Madison Square Garden keeping a database of LGBTQ celebrities [Wired]
—Jessica Toonkel and Ben Fritz report that Netflix is exploring live TV and bundles as it struggles to keep viewers hooked [WSJ]
—Paul Tenorio, Henry Bushnell and Tom Bogert go inside the USMNT’s World Cup, including BBQ bonding, the squad’s shock over Balogun and exit "depression" [The Athletic]
—Mark Stenberg reports that major media companies are preparing to opt out of Google search results as traffic collapses [Ad Week]
—Here's your Friday list: If this year’s World Cup teams were movies [THR]
Today...
...in 2015, Universal/Illumination released Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda's Minions in theaters. A prequel to Despicable Me, and the first installment in the Minions series, the film was a massive commercial hit, making $1.16b at the global box office. The original review.
Today's birthdays...
Isabela Merced (25), Chiwetel Ejiofor (49), Wyatt Russell (40), Fiona Shaw (68), SofÃa Vergara (54), Adrian Grenier (50), Jessica Simpson (46), Marco RodrÃguez (73), Mason Thames (19), DeAnna Madsen (66), Gong Yoo (47), Peter Serafinowicz (54), Golshifteh Farahani (43), Thomas Ian Nicholas (46), Alba Baptista (29), Robert Pine (85), John Simm (56), Brian Jordan Alvarez (39), Gina Bellman (60), Cary Joji Fukunaga (49), Cristina Patterson Ceret (58), Adam Croasdell (50), Janet Julian (67), Benj Thall (48), Gale Harold (57), Annie Mumolo (53), Heather Hemmens (38), Haley Pullos (28), Moon Ga-young (30), Aviva Baumann (42), Lawrence Pressman (87), Jingyi Zhang (27), Chae Soo-bin (32), Gwendoline Yeo (49), Charlie McDowell (43), Laura Elphinstone (43), Emily Skeggs (36), Lucy Gaskell (46)
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Joanna Pettet, the London-born actress who played one of the eight Vassar graduates in Sidney Lumet’s The Group and a spy put to work by her father, David Niven’s James Bond, in Casino Royale, has died. She was 83. The obituary.
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