Tag: notes

August Notes


Film Development

THe following information is curated from various outlets and Mailing lists I am on. I do not claim nor take any credit for the information that lies within. Therefore if you have a problem with one of the articles or something within contact THAT Company/writer not me.


Netflix’s untitled Newfoundland thriller adds Kaleb Horn, Ruby Stokes and Willow Kean as filming begins. (more)Michael Peña joins Chris Hemsworth and Lily James in Amazon MGM’s submarine thriller ‘Subversion.’ (more)‘A Quiet Place Part III’ will be written, directed, and produced by John Krasinski, hitting theaters July 9, 2027. (more)Mark Ruffalo will reprise his role as the Hulk in ‘Spider-Man 4,’ joining Tom Holland’s next MCU outing. (more)Charlize Theron and Channing Tatum will star in and produce family comedy ‘Dance Parents,’ which landed at Universal after a bidding war. (more)
Topher Grace has joined Cristin Milioti in Casper Kelly’s horror indie ‘Buddy.’ (more)
Netflix will release Richard Linklater’s Cannes-hit ‘Nouvelle Vague’ in U.S. theaters on Oct. 31 before streaming on Nov. 14. (more)
Lee Isaac Chung is in talks to direct a new ‘Ocean’s’ prequel for Warner Bros, following the success of ‘Twisters.’ (more)
Lily James joins Chris Hemsworth in Amazon MGM’s ‘Subversion,’ a ‘Die Hard’-style submarine thriller directed by Patrick Vollrath. (more)
Jim Parsons joins true-crime thriller ‘The Leader,’ inspired by the Heaven’s Gate cult, now filming with Tim Blake Nelson and Vera Farmiga. (more)
Briarcliff Entertainment acquires animated feature ‘Stitch Head,’ set for U.S. theatrical release on Oct. 29. (more)
Jim Jarmusch’s ‘Father Mother Sister Brother’ lands global deals ahead of its Venice premiere. (more)
Bend It Like Beckham sequel in the works more than 20 years after the original

‘Bad Apples’ starring Saoirse Ronan will open the New Directors section at this year’s San Sebastián Film Festival. (more)
Timothée Chalamet and director James Mangold are revving up a motocross heist film, ‘High Side,’ based on an unpublished short story. (more)
Matt Smith will play the villain opposite Ryan Gosling in Lucasfilm’s ‘Star Wars: Starfighter,’ directed by Shawn Levy and set for a May 28, 2027 release. (more)
Ben Kingsley, Andy Serkis and Joel David Smallbone join presidential origin story ‘Young Washington,’ set for release July 2026. (more)
David Tennant and Robert Carlyle star in ITV’s ‘The Hack,’ a drama about the News of the World phone hacking scandal(more)
Netflix is developing a ‘T.J. Hooker’ movie with Jarrad Paul and Andy Mogel writing a modern, meta reimagining of the ’80s cop series. (more)
Mel Gibson will release ‘The Resurrection of the Christ’ in two parts, hitting theaters March 26 and May 6, 2027. (more)
Molly Shannon joins Will Ferrell’s Netflix golf comedy as co-creators Ramy Youssef and Josh Rabinowitz exit over creative differences. (more)
Spider-Punk animated feature is in the works at Sony, co-written by Daniel Kaluuya and Ajon Singh. (more)
KJ Apa will star as Jimmy Stewart in ‘Jimmy,’ a biopic chronicling the Hollywood icon’s life and WWII heroism. (more)
Djimon Hounsou and Halle Berry will star in Africa-set trafficking thriller ‘Red Card,’ written by George Gallo and Nick Vallelonga. (more)
Lee Chang-dong will direct ‘Possible Love’ for Netflix, his first film in eight years, reuniting with stars of ‘Secret Sunshine’ and ‘Peppermint Candy.’ (more)

TV Development


‘South Park’ will leave HBO Max Aug. 5 and stream exclusively on Paramount+ worldwide. (more)‘The Holiday’ is being adapted into a limited series at Apple TV+ with new characters and a fresh cast. (more)Justina Machado joins S2 of ‘Matlock’ in a recurring role, reuniting with her ‘Jane the Virgin’ showrunner. (more)
‘King & Conqueror’ starring James Norton and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has sold to Prime Video in the U.S. and HBO Max in multiple territories. (more)
Jacob Soboroff is joining MSNBC as senior political correspondent amid its upcoming split from NBC and move to Versant. (more)
Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells will star in a Hulu series adaptation of ‘Stay Tuned,’ about a couple trapped inside binge-worthy TV worlds. (more)
Robert Carlyle will play Sherlock Holmes in S2 of ‘Watson,’ opposite Morris Chestnut’s modern-day Dr. Watson. (more)
Andrea Savage is set to write, executive produce, and star in Fox multi-cam comedy ‘Perf.’ (more)
Boyd Holbrook will star opposite Omar Sy in Netflix’s new 8-episode action series ‘Extraction.’ (more)

Dan Levy’s Netflix comedy ‘Big Mistakes’ begins filming in New Jersey and rounds out its cast, including Laurie Metcalf and Rachel Sennott. (more)



Bloodaxe: Prime Video Announces Additional Casting for New Viking Dramav

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’s fourth season will be its last

All about the Friday Night Lights reboot — and what the original cast has said about returning

CANCLED

‘And Just Like That…’ will end for good after its S3 finale drops August 14 on Max. (more)

‘Fubar’ has been canceled by Netflix after S2. (more) Fubar: Cancelled by Netflix; No Season Three for Arnold Schwarzenegger Action Series

Disney+ canceled shows in 2025: See which series got the axe, from Goosebumps to Extraordinary

San Diego Comic Con

The Biggest News From San Diego Comic-Con 2025
Posters and Stills

Photos We Love: San Diego Comic-Con 2025

Renewed

Business🤝
Nielsen and WPP Media have partnered to integrate audience insights across TV, streaming, and ads via Nielsen ONE.(more)Fox One will launch Aug. 21 at $19.99/month, offering live Fox, Fox Sports and Fox News programming. (more)Amazon is cutting 110 jobs as it folds Wondery into Audible and a new “creator services” team amid a podcast-to-video pivot. (more)Roku launches Howdy, a $2.99/month ad-free streamer offering library titles from WBD, Lionsgate and more. (more)

News and Articles

Comedian Matt Rife buys home of couple who inspired The Conjuring, becomes ‘guardian’ of haunted Annabelle doll

Anne Rice’s Talamasca: AMC Reveals Teaser and Premiere Date, Eric Bogosian to Crossover

21 TV shows that brought back dead love interests, from Grey’s Anatomy to Teen Wolf

CLOSEUP
🎞️ It’s a Kodak moment of truth…
Digital didn’t kill film, but Chapter 11 might. The 133-year-old company just warned it might not survive its current debt crisis.
The iconic camera company is drowning in nearly $500M of short-term debt, plus another $200M in pension obligations. After posting a $26M quarterly loss (down from a $26M profit this time last year), Kodak’s stock nosedived 26% this week.
Kodak is Hollywood’s primary film supplier for motion picture film stock after Fujifilm exited the marketDirectors like Nolan, PTA, and Tarantino have championed celluloid as high art, with studios backing expensive 70mm and IMAX film releasesThey’ve pivoted before: Kodak survived 2012 bankruptcy by ditching cameras and doubling down on film and commercial printing
The cruel irony: Film is experiencing its renaissance right now. ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘Sinners’ both dominated in IMAX 70mm. And Ryan Coogler’s viral Kodak collab video explaining his format choices proved audiences actually care about the medium. Processing labs have even reported increased volumes, and theaters have been reinstalling projectors to support the format.
Looking ahead… Despite the doom and gloom, Kodak says it’s “confident” it can figure out ways to pay off its debts. The company’s trying to stay afloat by ditching its pension plan (freeing up ~$300M) and pivoting to manufacturing pharmaceuticals (yes, really). But if that fails, studios might need to collectively subsidize film manufacturing.

 European creators blasted the EU’s implementation of its landmark AI Act, claiming the bloc “sold out” creative industries that contribute 7% of EU GDP in favor of GenAI giants like ChatGPT and Deep Seek. The coalition of writers, actors, musicians and producers warns that the new rules fail to stop AI companies from scraping protected content en masse without proper compensation.

Josh Brolin says it’s time for Stephen Colbert to ‘watch the f—ing Goonies‘: ‘Now that you don’t have a job’

Christina Applegate and Katey Sagal recall ‘cynical’ vibe on Married… With Children set
Sterling K. Brown teases Paradise season 2, Shailene Woodley casting in first look (exclusive)
Untamed: Season Two; Netflix Renews Drama Starring Eric Bana

SAG-AFTRA has renewed its deal with Nielsen to keep using its data for measuring streaming viewership and guiding union negotiations. (more)Fox Corp. has acquired a one-third stake in Penske Entertainment and extended its ‘Indycar’ media rights deal with Fox Sports. (more)

Bill Cosby pays tribute to TV son Malcolm-Jamal Warner following his death

3 Body Problem: Season Two; Claudia Doumit & Ellie De Lange Join Netflix Sci-Fi Series

Sony’s ‘Social Network’ sequel is circling Mikey Madison and Jeremy Allen White to play Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen and WSJ reporter Jeff Horwitz. Jeremy Strong’s the frontrunner for Zuckerberg after Jesse Eisenberg passed, with Aaron Sorkin writing and directing this deep dive into the 2021 Facebook Files scandal.

Jason Momoa bursts with pride watching his son act in Dune: Part Three: ‘He’s gonna blow me away’

Long Story Short: Trailer and Season Two Renewal Revealed for New Netflix Animated Series

Matt Damon sticks it to nemesis Jimmy Kimmel by winning Who Wants to Be a Millionaire with Ken Jennings

The Terminal List: Dark Wolf: Prime Video Unveils Trailer and Poster for Prequel Series

Jason Momoa shaves for first time in 6 years ahead of Dune 3 return: ‘Only for you, Denis’


🎬 Paramount won’t make movies for streaming…
Cindy Holland, Paramount’s new streaming chief
The Skydance-led studio is getting more specific about its plans. At an LA press conference this week, they revealed key parts of their strategy that break from industry convention: theatrical-only for movies, open doors for streaming TV. Some details:
The movie strategy…
No streaming films. Streaming chief Cindy Holland stated bluntly: “Made-for-streaming movies are not a priority for me.”Theatrical ramp-up is the goal, with Paramount aiming for a slate of 15 films ASAP, then 20 annually. Priorities include ‘Top Gun 3’ and new ‘Star Trek’ projects, plus original films like the just-acquired Timothée Chalamet-James Mangold biker heist movie ‘High Side.’Co-chair Dana Goldberg challenged reporters to name one live-action streaming film that’s had real cultural impact.
The streaming strategy…
Outside producers can now pitch to Paramount+. Historically, all of Paramount+’s original series have come from its own production units (CBS, Showtime/MTV, Nickelodeon) but will now buy from third parties to get the best content.Past relationships are paying off. The ‘Stranger Things’ creators, the Duffer Brothers, are reportedly considering jumping from Netflix to Paramount, reuniting with Holland who originally greenlit their hit series when she was at Netflix.Holland’s message is clear: Paramount+ wants bingeable TV shows, not forgettable streaming movies.
The bigger picture: Paramount’s making a contrarian bet. While rivals pour money into streaming-exclusive films, they’re betting theaters create cultural moments and streamers need series to succeed.

Where is The Middle cast now? Here’s what’s new with the stars of the long-running family sitcom

Justin Timberlake reveals ‘debilitating’ diagnosis

Fubar: Cancelled by Netflix; No Season Three for Arnold Schwarzenegger Action Series

Avatar: Fire and Ash trailer shows new villain Varang and the volcanic Ash Clan

Jason Momoa filmed Chief of War on lava fields — then, the volcanoes erupted: ‘You’re stirring up a lot of spirits’
Eddie Murphy reveals his role in upcoming Pink Panther movie: ‘I’m the new Clouseau’
When does Spider-Man: Brand New Day come out? All about Tom Holland’s return (and which Marvel characters are joining him)

📺 Amazon just threw cash at the “Netflix of AI”…
Couch potatoes could soon be couch producers. Amazon has invested in the startup behind Showrunner, a streaming service that lets viewers create their own animated TV episodes. Dubbed the “Netflix of AI,” it’s got 100,000 people on the waitlist. Here’s the pitch:
Users type prompts to generate animated episodes up to 22 minutes long, with AI handling voices, dialogue, and character consistency.Users can make original shows from scratch or build new episodes using other users’ characters and worlds—they can even insert themselves into shows as a character.If someone remixes your creation, you pocket 40% of what they spend.It’s free for now, but not for long. The platform will eventually charge $10-40/month for credits to generate scenes and episodes.
It’s got some limitations, though. Showrunner can only handle animation for now (live-action would melt the servers). It works best for simple episodic stuff, not prestige TV with complex story arcs. Even CEO Edward Saatchi admits: “Maybe nobody wants this and it won’t work.”
Studios are listening: Fable claims they’ve locked down one studio partnership and are in talks with Disney about licensing IP for fan remixes. They’re selling studios on a simple idea—let fans pay to play with your shows while you collect licensing fees and keep ownership of everything they create. It’s basically monetized fan fiction at a time when traditional TV is bleeding viewers to gaming and social media anyway.
The bigger picture: While Hollywood debates whether AI belongs in writers’ rooms, Showrunner’s taking a different angle: just give it to the viewers. The company’s pitching it as a way for Hollywood to stay competitive with social media and gaming.
Looking ahead… The platform’s live now with two original shows—Silicon Valley satire ‘Exit Valley’ and Ikea rom-com ‘Everything Is Fine.’ Whether this becomes the future of fandom or the next Quibi is anyone’s guess, but 100,000 people are apparently ready to find out.

🎬 The Problem with Hollywood
Armageddon Time James Gray On Why Studios Should Be Able To Lose Money On Art Specialty Divisions
The numbers don’t lie. Box office receipts are tanking, Oscar viewership has cratered, and audiences have stopped caring about movies. Here’s exactly what went wrong.
Hollywood is in full-blown crisis mode, and for once, we can pinpoint exactly when it all went sideways. The industry made a catastrophic bet on franchise tentpoles and comic book dominance—and it’s backfiring spectacularly.
Director James Gray recently laid out the brutal reality in an interview that should be required viewing for every studio executive. The diagnosis? Hollywood killed its own audience.
The MBA Death Spiral Here’s the fundamental mistake: Hollywood reduced filmmaking to pure spreadsheet logic. “This film did not make a ton of money, thus we don’t make that film. This film will make a ton of money, thus we make that one.“
Sounds reasonable, right? It’s actually industry suicide.
When you only make “movies that only make a ton of money and they’re only one kind of movie,” you “begin to get a large segment of the population out of the habit of going to the movies.“
The result: Cultural irrelevance.
The Superhero Stranglehold The numbers tell the story:
Superhero fatigue is hitting box office hard
Theatrical diversity has vanished from multiplexes (Personally this blogger has not seen this)
Academy Awards viewership is at historic lows (because the 2 most boring sports/games …Golf and baseball are more interesting!)
Cultural engagement with cinema is collapsing
Hollywood forced audiences into smaller and smaller segments instead of serving the broad-based appetite that once made movies a universal cultural experience.
ARMAGEDDON TIME – Official Trailer – In Select Theaters October 28
The Memory Test Failure. Want proof that modern blockbusters aren’t working? Try quoting a memorable line from Aquaman. You can’t. These movies are forgettable content, not lasting art.
Meanwhile, everyone can still quote lines from movies that “didn’t make a billion dollars” but “maintained broad-based interest“—films like The Ice Storm, There Will Be Blood, or No Country for Old Men.
The Oscar Mystery Solved. Academy executives sit around asking “Why is viewership going down?” The answer is staring them in the face: “We did not make the investment in broad-based engagement with the product.“
You can’t build cultural relevance on superhero movies alone.
The Streaming Paradox. Even more damning: “The streaming movies that do the best are the movies that come out in theaters first.” Theatrical releases still matter—but only when they’re worth caring about.
The $300 Million Solution Nobody Wants to Hear The fix requires something that makes every MBA executive physically ill: Studios need to lose money on purpose.
They should “be willing to lose money for a couple years on art film divisions” because “in the end, they will be happier because it’ll come back.“
It’s about rebuilding audience habits, broadening the customer base, and investing in long-term cultural relevance over quarterly earnings reports.
The question isn’t whether this analysis is correct. The question is whether Hollywood has the vision to act on it before it’s too late.

Amazon’s going all in on young adult content…

One platform’s trash is another’s treasure. While HBO Max cancels teen shows and linear TV abandons the genre entirely, Prime Video is going all-in on YA content. It’s a contrarian strategy aimed at Gen Z viewers who are notoriously hard to capture and even harder to keep. Some context:
HBO Max axed both its ‘Gossip Girl’ and ‘Pretty Little Liars’ reboots, plus Mindy Kaling’s ‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’Linear TV has essentially abandoned the genre that once defined networks like CW and FreeformOnly 56% of Gen Zers pay for streaming (vs. 75% of all Americans), making them the toughest demo to crackNetflix currently dominates the 18-34 demo (23% of its audience) with Prime Video not far behind (16%)
But Prime’s bet is paying off. ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ just tripled its viewership from S1 to S3, pulling 25M global viewers in week one. The Jenny Han adaptation is now Prime Video’s #5 most-watched returning season, sitting behind only heavyweight franchises like ‘Reacher’ and ‘The Boys.’
Meanwhile, Amazon’s got an advantage here: book sales data. They know what’s trending before anyone else. When ‘Fourth Wing’ flew off shelves, they pounced. This insider knowledge gives them confidence to bet big while others pull back.
The bigger play is building a ‘fan-led community.’ Prime Video is creating an ecosystem through live events and fan experiences. And they’re not trying to compete with TikTok—they’re making shows designed to be dissected, shipped, and obsessed over there. TikTok becomes free marketing instead of competition.
Looking ahead… The pipeline’s loaded with adaptations including ‘Fourth Wing,’ ‘Off Campus,’ a ‘Legally Blonde’ prequel series, and projects from ‘Gossip Girl’ veterans Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. Prime Video’s so confident, they’re already writing S2s for three new shows before even renewing them.

N3ws and Notes July


NBC cancels ‘Grosse Pointe Garden Society’ after S1. 

📺 2025 Emmy nominations are here…

Network scorecard… 🏆 Emmy Noms 2025: The Streaming Wars

HBO/Max: 142 (‘The Penguin’: 24, ‘The White Lotus’: 23)Disney total: 137 (across ABC, FX, Hulu, Disney+, etc.)Netflix: 120 (‘Adolescence’: 13, ‘Monsters’: 11)Apple TV+: 79 (beat most traditional networks)Prime Video: 12 (rough showing this year)
Check out the full list of nominations here. 👈👀
Looking ahead… The 77th Emmy Awards air Sept. 14 on CBS with comedian Nate Bargatze hosting.

The Nomination Leaderboard
The top tier reveals a streaming landscape where traditional boundaries have completely dissolved:
27 – Severance (Apple TV+) – The workplace dystopia.
24 – The Penguin (HBO) – Batman’s universe.
23 – The White Lotus (HBO) – Mike White’s luxury resort satire.
23 – The Studio (Apple TV+) – The new comedy that mocks Hollywood.
16 – The Last of Us (HBO) – The mushroom zombie apocalypse.
14 – Andor (Disney+) – Star Wars finally delivers.
14 – Hacks (HBO Max) – The veteran comedy proves staying power.
tw profile: New York Post

Pee-wee Herman’s iconic red bicycle to be permanently displayed at the Alamo trib.al/p6hWGlf

Little House on the Prairie: Reboot Series in Production, Seven Join New Netflix Show
Wednesday: Season Three Renewal Announced Ahead of Second Season Premiere on Netflix
Callum Vinson joins Peacock’s ‘Friday the 13th’ prequel series ‘Crystal Lake’ as a young Jason Voorhees. (more)

🚫A $3B contract dispute is holding ‘South Park’ hostage. ‘South Park’ creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone believe they had a handshake deal with Paramount for a massive 10-year overall deal worth $3B, but incoming owner Skydance is exercising veto power over the arrangement during the merger approval process. The dispute has already caused the show to vanish from international Paramount+ streaming, delayed the new season premiere, and prompted furious fans to cancel subscriptions while trading tips on Reddit for workarounds. Parker and Stone have hired aggressive litigator Bryan Freedman to fight back. At the heart of the conflict: Skydance wants to slash the deal from 10 years to 5 amid concerns about cash reserves, while Parker and Stone maintain they had a legitimate agreement that’s being improperly interfered with.


🖕 South Park’s $1.5B Middle Finger to Trump

Interesting timing. Trey Parker and Matt Stone just inked a $1.5 billion streaming deal with Paramount on Monday, then dropped a nuclear bomb on Wednesday with a season premiere showing naked President Trump in bed with Satan.
The White House is absolutely losing its mind, and Parker’s response at Comic-Con was peak South Park: “We’re terribly sorry.”

Deadline@DEADLINE


‘South Park’ creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone kept it short and sweet with their deadpan response to the reaction over last night’s very topical Season 27 premiere | #SDCC 2025


The Numbers Are Staggering The five-year Paramount+ deal breaks down to $300 million annually just for streaming rights:
$1.5 billion total for global streaming over five years
50 new episodes guaranteed through the deal
Previous seasons moving to Paramount+ for the first time in the U.S.
Deal preserves South Park’s status as one of the world’s most valuable TV franchises
The White House Meltdown, Trump’s team went absolutely ballistic over the premiere, with spokesperson Taylor Rogers calling South Park “a fourth-rate show” that “hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years.”
But here’s the kicker: the episode also torched Paramount’s $16 million Trump settlement, with Jesus literally telling South Park residents: “You guys saw what happened to CBS? Do you really want to end up like Colbert?”
Parker revealed at Comic-Con that Paramount tried to censor the episode: “They said, ‘OK, but we’re gonna blur the penis,’ and I said, ‘No you’re not gonna blur the penis.'” Translation: Even with $1.5 billion on the line, these guys bow to nobody.
🎭 Sean Astin is running for SAG-AFTRA president. ‘The Lord of the Rings’ star, whose mother, Patty Duke, led the Screen Actors Guild in the 1980s, is teaming up with Michelle Hurd (running for secretary-treasurer) and Joely Fisher (running for LA Local president) on “The Coalition 2025” slate. Current president Fran Drescher, who steered the union through 2023’s brutal 118-day strike, reportedly isn’t seeking reelection. Meanwhile, Fisher’s stepping down from her current national secretary-treasurer role to focus on local LA leadership, citing the “downturn in local Los Angeles production” since the strikes wrapped. The group isn’t running unopposed: SAG-AFTRA New England’s Chuck Slavin is running for president with Peter Antico, and potentially others. Whoever wins inherits some tough challenges: upcoming contract negotiations in 2026, evolving AI protections, and shrinking job opportunities for 160,000 members as production continues fleeing California.

📽️ Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League is taking movie nights private. League’s new venture, Metro Private Cinema, opens in NYC’s Chelsea this fall with 20 theaters seating 4-20 people each, complete with gourmet meals, dedicated attendants, and curated film selections. A four-person room runs $200 for four hours, plus $100 per person for food—and since screenings are private, audiences can talk, text, or even belt out show tunes without getting the stink eye (cinema purists everywhere just felt a disturbance in the force). It’s just one example in the industry’s broader effort to revitalize the movie-going experience in the era of streaming. While some chains are building entertainment hubs with restaurants, pickleball courts, and bowling alleys, League’s betting on his vision of ultra-intimate luxury that transforms movie nights into exclusive experiences you’d host for your closest friends.

Billion-dollar alert: Disney’s live-action ‘Lilo & Stitch’ has officially crossed the $1B mark at the global box office, becoming 2025’s first Hollywood film to hit the milestone. It’s Disney’s fourth billion-dollar film in just 13 months, joining ‘Moana 2,’ ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ and ‘Inside Out 2’ in the exclusive club.

🤖 A new bill wants to put AI companies on the hook for using creators’ work. Senators Josh Hawley and Richard Blumenthal introduced bipartisan legislation that would ban AI companies from training their models on copyrighted works or personal data without explicit consent, giving creators the power to sue for unauthorized use. This comes on the heels of a court ruling last month that gave AI companies broad legal cover to train on copyrighted material under fair use doctrine, essentially letting them buy a single book and upload its entire contents to their training database rather than negotiating expensive licensing deals with publishers. This bill would hit the brakes on that, forcing AI companies to pony up and pay for the creative work they’re currently getting for free.

🪓 Blumhouse laid off six staffers across film, television and casting last week, including junior-level executives and support staff. The cuts come two weeks after ‘M3GAN 2.0’ flopped at the box office, though none of the fired employees actually worked on the film.
Film Development 🗒️

“Tom Holland is supposedly close to signing on as the new James Bond”

A ‘Legend of Zelda’ movie has cast Bo Bragason as Zelda and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Link in the live-action film, releasing May 2027. (more)
Diego Luna will star opposite Taylor Kitsch in hostage thriller ‘Eleven Days,’ directed by Peter Landesman. (more)
Millie Bobby Brown and Gabriel LaBelle will star in Netflix rom-com ‘Just Picture It.’ (more)
Netflix is developing a live-action series based on ‘Captain Planet and the Planeteers,’ with Tara Hernandez set to write and produce. (most)
Barbie is getting a theatrical animated film from Illumination and Mattel, her first after decades of straight-to-video releases. (more)
Neon boards Chloe Domont’s legal thriller ‘A Place in Hell,’ starring Michelle Williams, Daisy Edgar-Jones, and Andrew Scott. (more)
Viola Davis and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II will star in and produce a reimagining of ‘House of Games’ at Amazon MGM Studios. (more)
Cynthia Erivo and Michael Bay team up to adapt sci-fi thriller ‘Saturation Point’ for Universal, with script by Minnie Schedeen. (more)
Bill Burr is developing a Fox sitcom titled ‘Earthquake,’ based on the life of comedian Nathaniel “Earthquake” Stroman. (more)
Penn Badgley and Meghann Fahy will star in Amazon MGM rom-com ‘You Deserve Each Other,’ directed by Marc Silverstein and Abby Kohn. (more)
David Dastmalchian will play villain M. Bison in Legendary’s live-action ‘Street Fighter,’ directed by Kitao Sakurai. (more)
Taika Waititi is set to direct a new ‘Judge Dredd’ movie, with Drew Pearce writing the script in a hot package now hitting studios. (more)
Ryan Gosling and Will Ferrell will star in the action comedy ‘Tough Guys,’ about two henchmen who go rogue, for Amazon MGM Studios. (more)
Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman will star in rom-com ‘The Love Hypothesis,’ based on Ali Hazelwood’s bestselling novel for Amazon MGM. (more)
Netflix has acquired Matt Lawton’s rom-com spec script, ‘I Don’t Know Who You Are Anymore.’ (more)
Jack Lowden will star in an Apple TV+ drama based on the ‘Berlin Noir’ novels, with Tom Shankland directing and Playtone producing. (more)
Amazon MGM is rebooting ‘Basic Instinct’ with original screenwriter Joe Eszterhas penning a new take for United Artists. (more)
Road House 2’loses director Guy Ritchie ahead of its September production start, with Jake Gyllenhaal still set to return. (more)
Vanessa Hudgens stars in ‘Quiet Storm,’ a ’60s-set thriller. (more)
‘Eleven Days’ casts Taylor Kitsch as a Texas prison chief in Peter Landesman’s indie hostage thriller. (more)
Greta Lee will direct and write ‘The Eyes Are the Best Part’ for Searchlight, adapting Monika Kim’s hit horror novel. (more)
‘Night at the Museum’is getting a reimagining at 20th Century Studios, with Tripper Clancy set to write an all-new story. (more)
‘Last Days’ from ‘Fast & Furious’ director Justin Lin lands at Vertical, with an October 24 theatrical release. (more)
The Odyssey’ recasts Cosmo Jarvis with Logan Marshall-Green due to scheduling conflicts ahead of Christopher Nolan’s shoot. (more)
Chris Pratt will return to voice the lasagna-loving cat in a sequel to ‘The Garfield Movie.’ (more)
Jon M. Chu will direct a live-action ‘Hot Wheels’ movie for Mattel, Warner Bros., and Bad Robot following his ‘Wicked’ success. (more)
Theo Rossi will make his feature directorial debut with action-heist film ‘Shell Game,’ which he also co-wrote and will produce. (more)
‘The Thomas Crown Affair’remake adds Kenneth Branagh and Lily Gladstone alongside star-director Michael B. Jordan. (more)
🏁 Vin Diesel wants Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner back for “Fast 11” finale: CGI resurrection or recast?
👠 Original “Devil Wears Prada” cast (Streep, Hathaway, Blunt, Tucci) officially returning for sequel.

‘Eruption’ from Michael Crichton and James Patterson is being adapted by Kaz and Ryan Firpo for Sony, following its bestseller debut. (more)
‘Fantasy Camp’ comedy pitch lands at United Artists, with Nate Bargatze set to star and produce the basketball-themed film. (more)
Andrew Garfield will star in Luca Guadagnino’s AI-themed comedy-drama ‘Artificial’ at Amazon MGM, joined by Cooper Koch and Yura Borisov. (more)
‘Alpha Gang’ adds Chris Pine, Lily-Rose Depp, Kelvin Harrison Jr., and Doona Bae to its cast as the Zellner Brothers’ alien comedy wraps production. (more)
Legendary has cast Vidyut Jammwal as Dhalsim in its live-action ‘Street Fighter’ movie. (more)
Amazon MGM and Hasbro are developing a live-action ‘My Little Pony’ movie, the franchise’s first non-animated feature. (more)
‘Practical Magic 2’ begins filming with Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing returning, and new cast including Lee Pace and Maisie Williams. (more)
A ‘Ghost Eaters’ adaptation is in the works at Screen Gems with Maggie Levin set to write and direct, and Scott Derrickson producing. (more)
Elegance Bratton is in talks to direct an Arthur Ashe biopic with Skydance Sports joining as producer. (more)
Amazon MGM has set ‘Verity’ starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson for theatrical release on October 2, 2026. (more)
🔨 “Oldboy” sequel reportedly in development – follows original Park Chan-wook film, not 2013 remake (iconic scene above^).
💊 “23 Movies Brought to You Mostly By Cocaine“ list reveals drug-fueled ’70s/’80s Hollywood comedy productions.
🎬 Brad Pitt and Eric Bana made $50/$100 betting deal for accidental hits during no-stunt-double duel scene, for Troy.
📺 Jennifer Aniston stars in Apple TV+ series inspired by Jennette McCurdy’s “I’m Glad My Mom Died” memoir.
🏃 Glen Powell’s viral morning routine with Ashton Hall promotes “The Running Man” trailer launch.
🎩 First “Cat in the Hat” animated trailer drops starring Bill Hader – theaters February 27, 2026.
🟢 Pixar’s longest-running gag continues: Mike Wazowski gets blocked in every “Monsters Inc.” poster and promotional material.
BoulderLight Pictures and Divide/Conquer are teaming on a new ‘Amityville’ movie, with ‘Deadstream’ duo Joseph and Vanessa Winter set to direct. (more)
Ariana Grande and Josh Gad will voice characters in ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go!’, Warner Bros.’ animated take on the Dr. Seuss classic. (more)
Eva Longoria will direct and produce ‘Anita de Monte Laughs Last’ for Searchlight Pictures, adapting Xochitl Gonzalez’s bestselling novel. (more)
Harris Dickinson’s ‘Urchin’ (winner of Cannes’ Best Performance prize) has been acquired by 1-2 Special for North American release this fall. (more)
David Mikalson lands an A24 deal to direct ‘The Goblin,’ his viral buddy comedy script likened to ‘Ted’ meets ‘E.T.’ (more)
Aaron Taylor-Johnson will star in Robert Eggers’ ‘Werwulf,’ with Lily-Rose Depp in talks to join the ‘Nosferatu’ reunion. (more)
TV Development 📺
Jack Henry Robbins is developing the Hulu comedy series ‘Nepo Baby,’ based on his viral character and infamous family ties. (more)
Made Up Stories is adapting ‘The Soulmate,’ Sally Hepworth’s thriller novel, into a TV series with Imogen Banks and Asher Keddie. (more)
Business🤝
Kathleen Remington is exiting CAA to launch a new literary management company after 20+ years as a top screenwriter agent. (more)
NBCUniversal wrapped its 2025-26 upfronts with record ad volume, driven by live sports like the Olympics, Super Bowl, and FIFA World Cup. (more)
Dakota Johnson & Ro Donnelly have signed a first-look TV deal with Sony Pictures Television for their banner, TeaTime Pictures. (more)
Other News 🚨
Nielsen’s monthly Gauge report showed broadcast TV fell below a 20% share of total TV viewing time for the first time ever. (more)
🎬 “Coyote vs Acme” officially releases 2026 after Ketchup Entertainment purchased shelved Warner Bros film for $50M.
Finn Little will reprise his role as Carter in the ‘Yellowstone’ spinoff centered on Beth and Rip for Paramount+. (more)
Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jay Duplass have joined Prime Video’s YA series ‘Sterling Point,’ created by Megan Park. (more)
⚡ First look at Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter in new HBO series as filming officially begins.
Netflix orders a live-action ‘Assassin’s Creed’ series from Roberto Patino and David Wiener, based on the hit video game franchise. (more)
Samuel L. Jackson will star in ‘NOLA King,’ a ‘Tulsa King’ spinoff greenlit at Paramount+ and set to debut after his character’s intro in S3. (more)
FX has ordered limited series ‘Cry Wolf,’ starring Olivia Colman and Brie Larson as women entangled in a high-stakes abuse allegation. (more)
‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’is renewed for S3 with a new show runner. (more)
tw profile: GOLUGOLU@_molu___tw
DARK humour 😭
tw profile: GOLUGOLU@_molu___tw
DARK humour 😭


 
6:17 AM • Jul 10, 2025 82.1K Likes   6.6K Retweets   
 🔥 Stranger Things S5 Drops Official Teaser
The Netflix show’s final season trailer arrives with demons, tornados and flamethrowers.


Stranger Things 5 | Official Teaser | Netflix
Objectively, you should not be excited about the return of Stranger Things. Over the years, the Netflix smash has come to represent everything bloated about television’s streaming era – a show that began as fun piece of fluff and morphed into a mythology-heavy marathon that takes years to produce and hours to consume.
What started as a one-and-done collection of 1980s film references became something else entirely when success demanded expansion. The Duffer brothers found themselves pulling an entire mythology out of thin air, creating a bloated universe full of bottle episodes about punky young superheroes and self-indulgent installments that grind on for hours.
And because the episodes were so gargantuan, they took years to make. This is why you shouldn’t be excited about Stranger Things. Whatever happened in the last batch has long since receded from memory, and rewatching feels less like television and more like a Man v Food challenge.
The Most Trailer Ever Made
And yet the first trailer for the final episodes has dropped and damn it if I’m not suddenly really excited about it.
What happens in the trailer? It’s hard to say.
Joe Keery turns a wheel in a van.
Lights flicker ominously.
There are flamethrowers and lightning storms, four-legged monsters prowling through kitchens like Jurassic Park raptors, machine guns and fast cars, crying and flying and Vecna throwing a burning tornado at the sky
…all accompanied by Deep Purple’s thunderous “Child in Time.”
Does it make sense? Not really. Is it overloaded with mythology and superfluous characters that demand a diagram to track? Almost certainly. But could I feel my heart start to race as it unfolded? Absolutely. The Stranger Things trailer isn’t the best trailer I’ve ever seen, but it might qualify as the most trailer I’ve ever seen – and sometimes that does the trick.
The Spectacle Machine
More than anything, it reinforces the direction Stranger Things has been heading for nine years. There will be not a single atom of subtlety in these episodes. Any nuance will be forced out by a powerhouse of spectacle. Things will explode. There will be CGI by the gallon. Characters will operate exclusively in emotional red zones. For better or worse, you will end this series exhausted.
However, there is one small hint that – despite the heavy metal frenzy that whirls around it – Stranger Things knows how it will stick the landing.
The Heart Beneath the Chaos
It comes in the form of a snatch of dialogue between Hopper and Eleven. It isn’t much (“Let’s end this, kid”) but it’s a sign the key relationship of the entire series is back on track.
Despite all the excess – the monsters, the nostalgia – Stranger Things was always a show about parenthood. It’s the story of a man who finds a weird little girl with nowhere to go, who helps him rebuild himself after experiencing devastating bereavement. Any time it has leant into the found-family dynamic between Hopper and Eleven, Stranger Things has found an emotional wallop that cannot be overwhelmed by the whiz-bang chicanery surrounding it.
This is where Stranger Things began and where it must end.
 
STATISTIC
📉 Writers are facing fewer jobs than ever…
The Writers Guild West’s 2024 report, released on Friday to members, reveals a troubling paradox: writers’ earnings are up but jobs keep disappearing. Some numbers:
Total earnings rose 12.7% to $1.5B (recovering from 2023’s strike-hit $1.3B)Only 5,228 writers reported income in 2024 vs. 6,910 in pre-strike 2022—a devastating 24.3% decline over two yearsTV and streaming jobs got hit hardest: down 28.5% total since 2022, including an 11% drop in 2024 aloneFilm work was a little more resilient, but still dropped 16% from pre-strike levels
The takeaway: Fewer writers are working now than even in pre-strike 2022, suggesting this isn’t temporary recovery but permanent downsizing.
🇩🇰 Denmark thinks your face is special (legally)…
Impersonator Miles Fisher (left) and deepfake Tom Cruise (right) (Source – Chris Ume)
Denmark could become the first European country to legally recognize that your face, voice, and body belong to you, and only you. The Danish government announced plans to amend copyright law, giving people the right to control AI-generated deepfakes of themselves. Here’s what the legislation covers:
Everyone gets copyright protection over their physical appearance and voiceTech companies must remove unauthorized deepfake content or face “severe fines”Any realistic digital imitation needs explicit permissionVictims can seek damages for violationsParodies and satire remain protected
Reality check: Skeptics question how Denmark could actually enforce these rules, especially against international tech platforms and content creators operating outside Danish jurisdiction.
The US has its own version in the works: the NO FAKES Act, which aims to give Americans federal IP rights over their voice and visual likeness. The bipartisan bill is currently sitting in committee, still in early legislative stages.
Speaking of timing, just two weeks ago, UK actors union Equity released an open letter signed by prominent performers urging progress on AI protections for performers. The letter claimed “thousands of performers” have been “digitally scanned on set without their informed consent” and gathered nearly 1,500 signatures, showing this isn’t just theoretical—it’s happening now on UK productions.
Looking ahead… Denmark will vote on the legislation in the fall before using its upcoming EU presidency (each country rotates as president every six months) to push similar legislation across Europe. If successful, this could accelerate similar efforts in the US, especially as American talent unions push for stronger digital protection clauses.

💸 HBO just changed how it pays its talent. The premium network ditched its decades-old “net profits” system (notorious for making it nearly impossible for talent to earn backend money even on hits) and replaced it with a new bonus structure tied to clear metrics like viewership thresholds, Emmy wins, and show renewals. While HBO previously made up for those stingy backends by cutting massive overall deals (think eight-figure paydays for ‘The Last of Us’ creator Craig Mazin), the new system codifies exactly how much talent can earn from success. HBO isn’t alone: Disney, Amazon, Apple, and even Netflix are all moving to their own versions of performance-based compensation models. It’s yet another clear sign that Peak TV’s free-spending era is over, as debt-laden studios pivot from “pay everyone like they’re making the next ‘Game of Thrones’” to “prove it’s a hit first, then we’ll talk.”
🦸‍♂️ Warner Bros. and DC have something to celebrate…
‘Superman’ director James Gunn
After years of stumbling in the superhero sandbox, DC Studios finally has a genuine win. James Gunn’s ‘Superman’ exceeded expectation with its $122M domestic debut, proving there’s still life in the cape-and-tights game.
The rescue mission: When Warner Bros. tapped James Gunn and Peter Safran to co-lead DC Studios in late 2022, they were calling in the cleanup crew. CEO David Zaslav decided to emulate Disney-Marvel by creating a separate studio with dedicated leadership. Gunn, fresh off his Marvel success with the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ trilogy, was tasked with fixing an entire cinematic universe running on fumes.
DC’s recent track record was brutal: Since 2019’s ‘Shazam!’, a string of disappointments—‘Wonder Woman 1984,’ ‘The Flash,’ ‘Black Adam’—left the brand damaged. The previous Zack Snyder-era’s dark, brooding tone alienated general audiences, and with broader superhero fatigue affecting even Marvel, launching a ‘Superman’ reboot seemed risky.
This weekend’s vindication…
Best opening ever for a first ‘Superman’ installmentWarner Bros.’ second $100M+ opener this year (after ‘A Minecraft Movie’)Strong premium format performance (47% of business)A- CinemaScore and 93% audience rating suggest audiences were hungry for earnest superhero storytellingSolid demographic spread, suggesting broad appeal
Looking ahead… ‘Superman’s’ success validates Warner Bros.’ expensive gamble on Gunn’s vision. With ‘Supergirl’ already in the can for June 2026 and ‘Clayface’ in pre-production, DC Studios is taking a “slow and steady” approach that’s the antithesis of their previous spray-and-pray strategy.
“[It’s] all part of a bold 10-year plan. The DC visionis clear, the momentum is real, and I couldn’t be more excited for what’s ahead.”
🏈 The sports doc goldmine is drying up…Netflix’s ‘Drive to Survive’ (Source: Tudum)The sports documentary industry, which seemed like a goldmine after Netflix’s ‘Drive to Survive’ (2019) and ‘The Last Dance’ (2020), is rapidly consolidating. The initial success triggered a tidal wave of copycat projects, but what was once a thriving ecosystem for independent producers is becoming a game only the biggest players can afford.The market’s now cooling fast. Last year, U.S. series orders for sports content nosedived from 104 in the first half of 2024 to just 64 in the second half—a brutal 38% drop that outpaces the broader industry downturn.How it’s playing out for independent producers…Major sports leagues are bringing production in-house: The Premier League and Kansas City Chiefs are launching their own studios, capturing the revenue and control that used to go to outside producers. Manchester City made their own behind-the-scenes doc, posted it on YouTube, and got 1.3M views.Archive footage costs are skyrocketing: One minute of English Football League content now costs £10,000 ($13,500), pricing out smaller producers.Access is tightening: The biggest stars and stories that streamers want are increasingly controlled by leagues and teams directly.Streamers are getting pickier: After a period of over-saturation, limited slots now go to mega-budget projects about global superstars that independents often can’t access.”At the moment, it’s not an easy part of the industry to be involved in. The halcyon days of sports docs around four or five years ago are over.” —Simon Lazenby, Sky Sports F1 presenter and producerIt’s an unexpected reality check for a genre that was thought to be recession-proof. They had built-in passionate audiences, clear narrative arcs, and global appeal—everything streamers craved.Looking ahead… Independent producers are adapting by focusing on lesser-known athletes, using co-productions and tax credits, and hunting for stories that major leagues haven’t prioritized yet. But the fundamental economics have changed—the era of easy access to major sports stories is ending. 
 🦸‍♂️ Kevin Feige calls BS on superhero fatigue…

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige isn’t buying the “superhero fatigue” narrative that’s been swirling around Hollywood. Just look at DC’s ‘Superman’ hitting $407M globally, he says: “It’s clearly not superhero fatigue.”
In a candid interview ahead of ‘Fantastic Four’s’ release this weekend, Feige admits Marvel created its own problems by flooding the market with content. But he’s got a game plan to fix it:
Supply, not demand, was the problem: Marvel produced 50 hours of content from 2008-2019. After 2019’s ‘Avengers: Endgame’ that jumped to 127 hours in six years. “For the first time ever, quantity trumped quality,” Feige admits.
Quality and standalone focus: Marvel’s focusing on better, self-contained stories that newcomers can jump into without watching previous films or shows. The goal: eliminate the “homework” feeling that hurt films like ‘Thunderbolts*’ ($382M globally) where “nobody knew that title and many characters were from shows.”
Budget engineering: Marvel’s slashed budgets by roughly a third from 2022-2023 levels. Marvel studied Gareth Edwards’ ‘The Creator’ which looked like a $200M blockbuster but only cost $80M. Feige’s team met with Edwards’ crew to learn efficiency tactics.
Production location shifts: The next ‘Avengers’ films are shooting at London’s Pinewood Studios—a decision made years ago when stage space was scarce during the streaming boom. Feige says future projects will likely target Georgia and New York for competitive incentives, but probably not California despite the state’s new $750M tax credit.
Looking ahead… Marvel’s capping films at 2-3 annually (some years just one) while slashing TV to a single live-action show per year. This weekend’s ‘Fantastic Four’ will be another test for Marvel’s standalone storyline and quality-over-quantity theory. Early reviews are calling it “one of the best things Marvel has ever made,” setting up a crucial demand test, especially after DC’s ‘Superman’ proved audiences are still hungry for superhero content.

⚰️ Universal’s Failed Dark Universe Revival
Sometimes the most spectacular failures are the ones that never actually happened. Universal’s Dark Universe—their audacious attempt to turn classic monsters into the next Marvel Cinematic Universe—died so quickly that most fans never realized how close we came to witnessing either a masterpiece or a magnificent disaster of unprecedented proportions.
That infamous 2017 cast photo wasn’t just marketing material—it was a prophecy written in Photoshop. The image featured Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe, Sofia Boutella, Johnny Depp, and Javier Bardem, but none of these A-listers were actually in the same room together. It was the perfect metaphor for a universe that existed only in spreadsheets and studio executives’ fever dreams.
The photo represented something far more ambitious than anyone realized at the time. Universal planned to reboot Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Phantom of the Opera, and Hunchback of Notre Dame, creating an interconnected web of gothic horror that would span decades.
The Mummy – Official Trailer (HD)
What We Almost Witnessed
The scope of Universal’s vision makes the MCU look quaint by comparison. Beyond the obvious tentpoles, the Dark Universe would have fundamentally redefined how audiences experienced horror:
Johnny Depp’s Invisible Man would have been the franchise’s wildcard entry. Ed Solomon of Men in Black was set to pen the script, positioning the character within the shared universe. Imagine Depp’s eccentric energy channeled into a character who could literally disappear—the meta-commentary writes itself.Angelina Jolie’s Bride of Frankenstein represented the crown jewel of the franchise. Bill Condon signed on to direct with a Valentine’s Day 2019 release date, with the original script beginning in the 1870s and transitioning to the Bride re-awakening in the present day. This wasn’t just another monster movie—it was positioned as a feminist reimagining of one of cinema’s most iconic female characters.The Russell Crowe Strategy proved Universal understood the assignment from day one. Crowe’s Jekyll would likely have been the Dark Universe’s equivalent of Nick Fury, the man who would bring all disparate franchises together as the leader of Prodigium. Unlike Marvel’s gradual world-building, Universal was engineering their nexus character from the first film.Javier Bardem’s Frankenstein’s Monster would have anchored the franchise’s emotional core. Bardem was featured in the cast photo alongside the other leads, confirming his central role in the universe. The pairing with Jolie’s Bride promised a love story spanning centuries—Titanic with reanimated corpses.The Channing Tatum Van Helsing represented the franchise’s action-hero pivot. Tom Cruise was initially set to play Van Helsing before moving to The Mummy, with Tatum being eyed for the role by 2017. This casting choice signals how Universal planned to balance horror with blockbuster sensibilities.
Channing Tatum as Van Helsing in the Dark Universe? – SDCC 2017
The Precision Behind the Madness
Universal’s strategy contained sophisticated elements that Marvel hadn’t attempted. The studio was creating a horror-action hybrid that would have redefined both genres simultaneously.
Director Alex Kurtzman explained the underlying appeal: “audiences would be enamored with and even relate to the darker sensibilities of figures like Dracula and The Wolfman, especially compared to the perfect physicality and heroics of traditional superheroes”. This wasn’t just monster movies—it was an exploration of what heroism looks like when your protagonists are literally cursed.
The ambitious scope becomes clear when examining Kurtzman’s casting wishlist: “I’d love to bring Michael Fassbender in. I’d love to bring Jennifer Lawrence in. I’d love to see Charlize Theron in there, Angelina Jolie”. Universal wasn’t just making monster movies—they were assembling the most expensive therapy session in Hollywood history.
The Mummy — How to Fumble a Cinematic Universe | Anatomy of a Failure
The $410 Million Funeral
With a worldwide box office haul of $410 million, The Mummy was a failure at the box office and solidified the Dark Universe as a shared cinematic franchise that should not have happened. But the numbers don’t capture the cultural impact of what died with that failure.
Tom Cruise’s unprecedented creative control became the franchise’s fatal flaw. Cruise wielded “nearly complete creative oversight” and was said to have felt like the “real director,” handling action sequences and “micro-managing” when Kurtzman struggled with the scope. This wasn’t collaboration—it was a hostile takeover disguised as star power.
The domino effect proved swift and merciless. Shortly before filming began in October 2017, production on The Bride of Frankenstein was delayed, clearly in direct response to The Mummy’s critical and box office failure. By 2019, the entire Dark Universe was officially declared dead.
In the end, Universal’s Dark Universe succeeded in the most unexpected way possible: by becoming itself a cautionary tale worthy of its own monster movie franchise.
🎬 Subscription fatigue meets short attention span…
Simon-Kucher’s recent Global Streaming Study 2025 hit 12,000 users across 11 countries and uncovered something streaming execs probably don’t want to hear: their customers are getting restless.
88% of users are consuming the same or more streaming content compared to 2024—basically, everyone’s still glued to their screensBut 42% think they’re spending way too much on streaming platforms35% are planning to ditch at least one service within the next year48% of those considering cancellations would stick around if cheaper, ad-supported options were available37% globally say TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are eating into time they used to spend binge-watching Netflix and friends
The takeaway: People want all the content but none of the cost, and they’re increasingly cool with trading premium series for 60-second TikTok videos. It’s subscription fatigue meets short-form attention spans—a perfect storm for streaming giants to weather.

🏃 Edgar Wright’s ‘Running Man’ Remake
THE RUNNING MAN | Official Trailer (2025)
Sometimes the most dangerous projects are the ones that demand surgical reconstruction. For Edgar Wright, tackling The Running Man isn’t about honoring Schwarzenegger’s ’80s cheese-fest. It’s about excavating Stephen King’s prophetic nightmare and translating it through pure visual storytelling.
When Wright describes his process as waiting until stories “haunt you,” Running Man represents his most haunted project yet. King’s 1982 novel predicted our media-saturated hellscape with terrifying accuracy, but the original film buried that prescience under muscle-bound spectacle and one-liners. Wright’s insight is characteristically sophisticated: audiences are finally ready for the story King actually wrote, not the action movie Hollywood thought they wanted.
The Running Man (1987) Trailer #1 | Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso, Richard Dawson
The Visual Grammar Revolution
Wright’s Running Man strategy builds directly from his core philosophy: “I’m trying to tell the story visually… most screenwriting books focus on dialogue, but film is fundamentally a visual medium.” For a story about media manipulation, this becomes the perfect scalpel. The genius emerges in Wright’s understanding that King’s novel is about perception versus reality—the exact thematic territory Wright mastered in Last Night in Soho. But where Soho used dreams and memory, Running Man will weaponize television itself as the unreliable narrator. Expect Wright’s signature playlist-driven approach to revolutionize the deadly game show format. “Having the playlist before we put pen to paper changes everything,” he revealed about his process. For Running Man, this means chase sequences choreographed like Baby Driver’s car ballets, but with the existential dread of The World’s End.
The Tetris Pass Philosophy
Wright’s obsessive editing style—what he calls playing “f*cking Tetris” with every line and cut—promises to transform King’s relentless pacing into pure cinematic momentum. “The edit is the final draft,” Wright insists, and Running Man’s life-or-death stakes demand that level of precision.
His “surgical bits of dialogue” approach will likely strip away exposition in favor of visual storytelling. Don’t expect characters explaining the dystopia—expect Wright to show how entertainment becomes oppression through his trademark visual comedy turned nightmare.
The real masterstroke? Wright’s ability to find emotional anchors in genre chaos. “The genre only works if you care about the people going through it,” he observed. Running Man won’t just be about surviving the game—it’ll be about maintaining humanity while the cameras roll.
Wright spent decades perfecting the balance between technical virtuosity and emotional truth. Now he’s applying that surgical precision to King’s most media-savvy prophecy. The result promises to be Wright’s most politically urgent film disguised as his most entertaining thriller.
Read / listen to our interview with Edgar Wright here.
America’s got a new AI action plan…

(Source: White House)
The Trump administration just rolled out America’s AI Action Plan—a hefty 28-page blueprint with 90+ policy actions designed to cement U.S. dominance in artificial intelligence. While the plan wasn’t aimed at Hollywood, the entertainment industry is paying close attention to one key issue: copyright.
President Trump made his stance crystal clear: requiring AI companies to pay for copyrighted content used in training is simply “not doable.” His reasoning:
“You can’t be expected to have a successful AI program when every single article, book or whatever you’ve studied, you’re expected to pay for. We appreciate that, but you just can’t do that because it’s not doable.”
 
President Donald Trump at Wednesday’s AI Summit
The plan document itself doesn’t address copyright protections, but President Trump’s public stance effectively backs the tech industry’s “fair use” argument despite ongoing lawsuits from studios like Disney and NBCUniversal against AI firms.
Hollywood’s major unions are pushing back hard. The Human Artistry Campaign—representing SAG-AFTRA, DGA, WGA, and IATSE—says “taking creators’ works without consent or payment degrades the incentive to create.” The coalition wants a licensing system like ASCAP or BMI, where AI companies would pay royalties to creators.
The bigger picture: The plan aims to accelerate AI innovation and beat China in the tech race. Supporters argue this could spark breakthrough advances in medicine, manufacturing, and scientific research. But while tech advocates see this as essential progress, Hollywood faces questions about job security and industry disruption, especially as the administration shows its priorities favor AI development over creator rights.
Looking ahead… The plan’s 90+ actions are designed to be implemented over the next year. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court may ultimately decide whether AI training constitutes “fair use” as ongoing lawsuits work their way through the courts
🤖 Netflix just ran its first official AI experiment on actual viewers. The streaming giant used generative AI to create a building collapse scene in its Argentinian sci-fi series ‘El Eternauta,’ which dropped earlier this year. The use of the tech helped complete the visual effects 10 times faster than traditional methods, while enabling scenes that would have otherwise hit the cutting room floor due to budget constraints. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos revealed the milestone last week, noting that without AI tools, “the cost just wouldn’t have been feasible for a show in that budget.” While Sarandos was careful to frame this as “real people doing real work with better tools” rather than job replacement, it’s Netflix’s public beta test for weaving AI into premium content production. It’s a win for Netflix, but it’s the exact scenario that has had creatives anxious about the implementation of the technology in the industry.
📉 The late-night numbers don’t lie…

‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’
In the wake of CBS canceling Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show,’ observers continue to speculate whether the decision was political or financial as the network claims. But as more financial details surface, the bigger question is: are we watching late-night TV collapse? Some numbers:
Late-night ad revenue plummeted from $439M in 2018 to roughly $220M in 2024, while Colbert’s ad revenue collapsed from $75.7M in 2022 to just $57.7M in 2024.
The show loses $40M+ annually with production costs exceeding $100M per season, despite leading ratings for nine straight seasons.
Colbert earns roughly $15-20M annually, meaning even significant pay cuts couldn’t close a $40M+ loss gap.
Unlike scripted shows, topical late-night content has no syndication or streaming value after it airs.
Younger demographics are fleeing to podcasts and TikTok, leaving late-night shows with aging viewership that advertisers value less.
Networks have been retreating for a while. NBC reduced Fallon to four nights per week and axed Meyers’ live band. Meanwhile, CBS abandoned its 12:35 AM slot entirely after James Corden’s departure.
What it means: CBS might be the first network to pull the plug, but other networks are facing the same brutal math. The late-night model that worked for decades simply doesn’t add up anymore.
Heres MY 2 cents so to speak (I’m guessing however we should call it our quarter due to inflation) any way… Colbert is the BORING lame not to mention political Late night show. Fallon is the fun one and Kimmel is a backseat to Fallon. (I love the games he does and its so silly. In will admit I usually only watch a late show when someone I actually like is on, usually actors as Gods forbid if Kimmel puts on a musician I’ve heard of let alone someone from the rock or metal genre. I think I need Up mostly watching when a Marvel movie comes out!.

News and Notes


In memorium : Anne Burrell

*News and Notes is a curated post of news from various mailing lists I am on (Entertainment weekly, and the Dailies just 2 of them). I take NO Cred whatsoever for writing any of it. My apologies if you have heard of some of the news already. There’s loads including some articles again I take no credit for except if I can find the part I DID write in response to something

Good morning! Before 1975, summer was a box office dead zone. Studios expected low ticket sales, and dumped their duds while audiences hit the beach. But that all changed forever fifty years ago when Steven Spielberg’s ‘Jaws’ hit theaters on June 20, 1975. The shark thriller became the first $100M blockbuster, invented summer tentpole season as we know it, and created the “creature feature” template that every monster movie since has basically copied.

Canceled – Alert: Missing persons unit, The Cleaning Lady, The Wheel of Time, The Bondsman, Suits L.A., Doctor Odyssey, The Irrational, Rescue Hi-Surf, The equalizer, Poppa’s House, FBI Most wanted and International, Hysterkia!

Renewed– Mobland, Welcome to Wrexham, Dexter: Original Sin,Yellowjackets, Bridgerton, Fallout, Found, Night COurt, The Studio, The Last of Us, Grey’s Anatomy, Will Trent, Shifting Gears, 9-1-1, The Rookie, The Simpsons, Family Guy,Bob’s Burgers’, American Dad, Wizards Beyond Waverly Place , Watson, School Spirits Paradise, Dark winds, Tracker, Elsbeth,” “Ghosts, Fire Country, NCIS, NCIS: Origins, NCIS: Sydney,” “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage,” and Hollywood Squares, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

ENDing – Star Trek: Strange new Worlds

I thought Grey’s was supposed to end a season or 2 ago! really pissed about Hi-surf
  • Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. return in I Know What You Did Last Summer first look (is this a ’90s horror revival?)
  • Bob Odenkirk compares Stephen Colbert to Conan O’Brien after Late Show cancellation: ‘We’re gonna see lots more’
  • Star Trek: Year One series with Paul Wesley’s Kirk is ‘100 percent’ the dream post-Strange New Worlds plan (exclusive)
  • It: Welcome to Derry screens first 10 minutes of premiere at Comic-Con — here’s what you missed
  • Denis Villeneuve (Dune, Arrival) officially the next James Bond director: “To me, he’s sacred territory.”
    Who would you like to see as the next James Bond in Denis Villeneuve’s film?
     #1 where the hell is Henry Cavill #2 hello I’ll take Aaaron Taylor Johnson or theo james and #3 the 2 Game of thrones actors but #4 and % HELL MOFO NO to Robert Pattison and Boyega the rest I am not sure who the hell they are but better get someone that EVERYONE around the globe is familiar with or I asure you it will bomb! Those faces are what to me would be the suave, smooth sophistication of the original PRE Craig Bond. However if they are going to go for a gritty bond then TOM HARDY, Luke Evans oh and a #5th gritty or not He’s not english but Irish Kevin J. Ryan (from Copper & Harry Wild)
  • Amazon just proved it won’t Marvel-ize James Bond. Denis Villeneuve has been tapped to direct the next 007 film, beating out Edward Berger, Paul King, Jonathan Nolan, and Edgar Wright in a selection that reportedly “stunned” even Amazon executives who were kept out of the loop. The hire comes months after Amazon MGM gained creative control from the Broccoli family in February, ending a 60+ year dynasty and sparking fan fears about possible “cinematic universe treatment” diluting the franchise’s prestige. Instead, Amazon went with the most pricy and least available guy. Villeneuve won’t even start writing until he finishes ‘Dune: Messiah,’ likely pushing Bond to 2028. The message is clear: Amazon would rather wait for prestige than rush out another franchise film.
  • NO PROVEN Harm on the markert YET No proven market harm: Authors argued AI would flood the market with cheap knockoffs, destroying demand for original works. But they couldn’t show their book sales actually dropped—courts wanted hard data, not speculation. It may take a year or so but once the market is flooded with garbage scripts and people stop going to the theater (or buying books) altogether. If courts keep embracing this “fair use for training” doctrine, studios may need to fundamentally rethink how they protect their IP. The “human learning” defense: Courts are buying the argument that AI training is like a person reading books to become a better writer. You don’t pay royalties every time you remember a book, so why should AI? I understand the argument for it, an slightly agree with it however wouldn’t there be about the same amount of people (or less) in the world with a photographic memory to remember a whole book? How many AI are there in total (meta, Amazon, apple, Google, maybe 2-3 more? ) have read all these pirated books etc? The problem is that AI really isn’t intelligence. Its still a program, and Algorithm and that sort. It can be manipulated. For the teachers I’d look out and see if there’s a way to find out if the students are using it to do their homework , reports etc.

‘Lilo & Stitch 2’ is officially in development at Disney following the live-action film’s $923M global success. (more)

  • 🎬 Marvel’s homework assignment for Avengers: Doomsday is getting absurdly long — here’s what you need to know. 
  • 🏄‍♂️ Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch just surfed to the biggest Memorial Day opening ever ($183M domestic). Here’s a list of past openings.
  • 📄 Your mission: Download the best spy movie scripts ever written, like North by Northwest (1959), The Third Man (1949), and Casino Royale (2006).
  • 🎤 Tom Cruise’s hour-long BFI lecture dives deep into filmmaking craft and cinema magic — watch it all right here.
  • Owen Wilson is rejoining Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro for ‘Meet the Parents 4.’ (more)
  • Jon Bernthal joins Tom Holland in ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day,’ bringing the Punisher into the Marvel-Sony big-screen universe for a 2026 release. (more)
  • Russell Crowe joins Henry Cavill in Chad Stahelski’s ‘Highlander,’ taking on the iconic Ramirez mentor role in the Amazon MGM and UA reboot. (more)
  • 🥋 China’s kung fu classics are getting the AI treatment. Chinese studios announced plans to digitally remake 100 martial arts films using artificial intelligence, including Bruce Lee’s ‘Fist of Fury,’ Jackie Chan’s ‘Drunken Master,’ and Jet Li’s ‘Once Upon a Time in China.’ The government-backed “Kung Fu Movie Heritage Project 100 Classics AI Revitalization Project” (quite a mouthful) comes with $13.9M in funding to upgrade image and sound quality and reshape visual aesthetics while preserving original storytelling. One partner is creating what they claim will be “the world’s first full-process, AI-produced animated feature film” based on John Woo’s ‘A Better Tomorrow,’ complete with a cyberpunk makeover. While Hollywood navigates complex AI implementation discussions, China is pushing forward rapidly with state-supported AI film production.
  • Netflix is in talks with James Bobin to direct ‘Dragon’s Lair,’ a Ryan Reynolds-led adaptation of the classic 1980s arcade game. (more)
  • ‘Meet the Parents 4’ is officially a go, with Paramoun
  • Blumhouse has acquired a stake in ‘Saw’ from Twisted Pictures, reuniting the horror franchise with original creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell. (more)
  • Alcon Media Group has acquired Village Roadshow’s film catalog, including ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ and ‘The Matrix’, in a $418M deal. (more)
  • t joining Universal to co-produce and handle international rollout of the 2026 sequel. (more)
  • Bring one of these to Yonkers, NY  Netflix is doubling down on its brick-and-mortar bet. The streaming giant just announced a third Netflix House location coming to Las Vegas in 2027, adding to its Philly and Dallas spots opening late 2025. These massive 100,000 square-foot venues will pack in escape rooms, mini golf, VR games, and experiences based on shows like ‘Squid Game.’ It’s Netflix’s latest move to build that Disney-level fan obsession where people actually want to buy the merch and live in those fictional worlds. With streaming growth slowing down in the U.S., Netflix is creating must-visit experiences that’ll give fans serious FOMO if they don’t show up and hang out in their favorite shows IRL.
  • ‘ParaNorman’ returns to theaters Halloween 2025 with a remastered re-release and a new short voiced by Finn Wolfhard and Anna Kendrick. (more)
  • Paramount Animation and Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort are developing ‘I Eat Poop,’ with Josh Cooley in talks to direct the animated adaptation. (more)
  • Juliana Canfield has been cast as the female lead in Warner Bros.’ upcoming action-thriller film ‘F.A.S.T.,’ written by Taylor Sheridan. (more)
  • Crystal Lake has added Devin Kessler, Cameron Scoggins, and Gwendolyn Sundstrom to the cast of Peacock’s ‘Friday the 13th’ prequel series. (more)

Chris Evans admits to Avengers: Doomsday FOMO: ‘You feel like you weren’t invited to the party’

  • A24 greenlights 19-year-old horror influencer Kane Parsons’ ‘The Backrooms,’ a sci-fi horror film starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve. (more)
  • Mel Brooks will reprise his role as Yogurt and produce a ‘Spaceballs’ sequel, set to hit theaters in 2027 via Amazon MGM Studios. (more)
  • Vanessa Kirby and Sebastian Stan will star in and produce ‘Ruins,’ a Miramax-acquired adaptation of Amy Taylor’s upcoming novel. (more)
  • Ashley Nicole Black has been tapped to write ‘Ma 2,’ the Blumhouse sequel starring Octavia Spencer. (more)
  • Voltage Pictures has acquired global rights to ‘The Sicilian,’ a new action thriller starring Michele Morrone, Megan Fox, and Iain Glen. (more)
  • ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ is renewed for a fifth and final season at Paramount+. (more)
  • Glenn Close and Billy Porter join the cast of ‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.’ (more)
  • Glen Powell will star in an untitled firefighter drama for Amazon MGM, directed by Ron Howard and written by Christina Hodson. (more)
  • Tom Rhys Harries will star as the shape-shifting villain in DC Studios’ ‘Clayface,’ set to hit theaters September 11, 2026. (more)
  • Harold & Kumar’ sequel is in the works at Lionsgate, with ‘Cobra Kai’ creators set to write, direct, and produce. (more)
  • ‘Land of the Lost’ is getting a reboot at Netflix, with Legendary Television reviving the cult 1970s sci-fi adventure series. (more)
  • ‘Tucci in Italy’ is renewed for S2 at Nat Geo. (more)
  • YouTube has launched ‘Open Call,’ a new tool letting brands invite creators to pitch branded content directly through the platform. (more)
  • Warner Bros. Games restructures around ‘Harry Potter,’ ‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘DC,’ and ‘Mortal Kombat,’ with new leadership over each franchise. (more)
  • Tubi surpassed 100M monthly users for the first time, hitting 1B viewing hours in May and setting new Nielsen records. (more)
    Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio will executive produce ‘Carthage Must Be Destroyed,’ an action thriller directed by Ted Griffin. (more)
  • Netflix’s ‘Little House on the Prairie’ reboot has added Jocko Sims, Warren Christie, Alyssa Wapanatâhk, and more to its cast. (more)
  • Matt Cornett, Ramon Reed, and Chris Klein lead indie comedy ‘Bad Counselors,’ with Missi Pyle and Brec Bassinger also joining the cast. (more)
  • HBO has cast Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout, and Arabella Stanton as Harry, Ron, and Hermione in its upcoming ‘Harry Potter’ TV series. (more)
    Marvel Studios is in early talks with ’Thunderbolts*’ director Jake Schreier to helm its upcoming ‘X-Men’ movie. (more)
  • Renny Harlin will direct survival thriller ‘Black Tides,’ based on real orca attacks. (more)
  • Sebastian Stan and Leo Woodall will star in true-life thriller ‘Burning Rainbow Farm’ from Justin Kurzel. (more)
  • Michelle Rodriguez and Richard Gere will star in thriller ‘Left Seat.’ (more)
  • Aaron Eckhart will star in ‘Midair,’ a plane-set thriller from director Timo Vuorensola. (more)
CLOSEUP
🤖 The entertainment giants have had enough…
Disney’s court filing includes dozens of these comparisons — Midjourney’s AI Yoda (left) vs. the original (right).
Disney and Universal just dropped the hammer in what could be the entertainment industry’s biggest legal war since Napster. The Hollywood titans are suing AI image generator Midjourney for what they’re calling straight-up theft of their most valuable characters. Here are the legal smackdown details:
Court filings show side-by-side comparisons of real movie scenes next to AI knockoffs that look identical. Think pristine copies of Darth Vader, Yoda, and those yellow Minions.The studios point out these characters took decades of creative investment and billions of dollars to develop, only to watch Midjourney copy them instantly.Disney and Universal are seeking up to $150,000 per infringement (and there are dozens of examples in the lawsuit).The studios tried playing nice with cease-and-desist letters last year—Midjourney basically ghosted them.
The receipts: The lawsuit includes some damning details. Midjourney’s CEO essentially confessed in a 2022 interview, admitting they “grab everything they can” from the internet and “dump it in a huge file” without seeking permission from copyright holders. The studios are basically saying: “Your honor, here’s the defendant admitting to the crime.”
The bigger shift happening: This is Hollywood’s first major offensive against AI companies. Up until now, the loudest voices against AI companies have been creatives—actors, writers, artists—while the actual studios mostly stayed quiet. Now the studios have entered the fight directly. It’s 11 Midjourney employees vs. entertainment empires with their army of lawyers and bottomless legal budgets.
Looking ahead: The timing here isn’t coincidental. Midjourney’s video service is set to launch sometime this month, and the studios are asking the court for an injunction to kill it before it goes live. This lawsuit isn’t just about past infringement—it’s about stopping the next level of threat. If Disney and Universal win big, expect other studios to follow with a flood of similar cases.

Amazon and Roku are teaming up to dominate TV advertising. The two tech giants, who’ve historically been rivals in streaming devices and content, unveiled a landmark partnership launching Q4 2025 that gives brands access to over 80% of U.S. connected-TV households through a unified platform spanning Prime Video, Roku Channel, and other streaming services. Early trials showed ads reached 40% more unique viewers while cutting repetitive exposure by 30%, tripling advertiser value. We’ve been seeing a lot of this shift from the “winner-takes-all” mentality of the streaming wars. As platforms realize fragmented audiences hurt everyone’s bottom line, expect more former rivals to become frenemies chasing advertising dollars.

Now this next one pissed me off

IN 2020 when Quibi came out I enjoyed it. The shows were short maybe no longer than 15 minutes. A great idea for waiting rooms. I was able to watch a few shows , one starred Liam Hemsworth if I remember right I think it was titles a Most Dangerous Game, and another I thin had Travis Fimmel called 50 States of Fright (he was in 3 episodes) and there is a 2nd season however I don’t recall what streaming service it was on. There were other shows that were being planned and can find anything that was Quibi . Now that I’ve seen it I’ve got to go down a rabbit hole and do a search if anyone picked up the productions to come.

In 2020 when Quibi came out I enjoyed it, and thought it was a great idea. The shows were short maybe no longer than 15 minutes, great for waiting rooms, commute and when you just need to kill a bit of time.

I was able to watch a few shows, one starred Liam Hemsworth, if I remember right the title was A Most Dangerous Game, and another had Travis Fimmel in a few episodes called 50 States of Fright and there is a 2nd season, however I don’t recall what streaming service it was on. There were other shows that were being planned like Die Hart which I believe is on Prime (but don’t quote me) If you want to read more about the defunct app (too bad they didn’t bring it back) Quibi you can read my review and thoughts on it here. Now that I’ve looked at it again I’ve got to go down a rabbit hole and do a search if anyone picked up the productions to come.

🎬 The format Hollywood mocked is now hiring…While traditional film and TV production continues its exodus from LA, an unlikely savior is keeping some Hollywood workers busy: cheesy, soap-opera-style “vertical dramas” designed for your phone screen.These aren’t your prestige HBO series. Think werewolf romances, billionaire contract marriages, and titles like ‘Mafia Daddy’s Surprise Sextuplets’ (yes, that’s real)—all filmed vertically in 60-90 second episodes that viewers binge on apps like ReelShort and DramaBox. Some numbers:ReelShort alone generates over $1B annuallyThey tripled their workforce to 1,000+ people in just this past yearMonthly production jumped from 4 shows to 30+ since early 2023Soundstages report these vertical projects now make up 40-50% of their bookingsThe whole market could hit $5B in the next few yearsWhy it’s booming: Unlike Quibi’s spectacularly expensive faceplant, these apps cracked the mobile engagement code. Users get hooked on free episodes, then pay “coins” to unlock cliffhangers. Here’s what they got right: Don’t fight the format—embrace the cheese. While Quibi tried to bring prestige TV to phones, verticals honor their trashy roots and lean into maximum melodrama.The Hollywood lifeline: With LA production at historic lows, these non-union gigs have become a genuine employment lifeline. Shoots wrap in a week (not months), which means more projects and more opportunities. Actors can work multiple sets in a day, writers who master the cliffhanger formula are pulling six-figure salaries, and crew members are finding steady work when traditional productions have dried up.Looking ahead… Legacy players are finally paying attention. TelevisaUnivision unveiled 40 microdramas at their upfront in May, streaming executives are reportedly exploring the space, and some agents are researching how their clients might slum it in werewolf content.  
 
Wick is Pain (2025) Official Trailer – Keanu Reeves, Chad Stahlelski
🎬 First trailer for John Wick documentary Wick Is Pain drops, exploring intense behind-the-scenes training, releasing May 9.🔪 First teaser for Dexter: Resurrection drops, premiering July 11 on Paramount+ (yes, Michael C. Hall returns).
🎬 Drew Struzan: The Master’s Final Canvas
Drew Struzan: The Master of Movie Poster Art | Iconic Illustrations and Enduring Legacy
Even if you’ve never heard the name Drew Struzan, his art has likely shaped your movie-going memories. The legendary poster artist behind some of cinema’s most iconic images—from the swashbuckling adventure of Indiana Jones to the time-traveling excitement of Back to the Future—is now facing a heartbreaking battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Born in 1947, Struzan’s journey began in poverty, drawing on toilet paper with pencils because “that was the only paper around.” This humble beginning would forge one of Hollywood’s most celebrated visual storytellers. After studying at ArtCenter College of Design, he chose illustration over fine art with a simple pragmatic reason: “I need to eat.”
His career launched in the 1970s with album covers for artists like Alice Cooper, The Beach Boys, and Black Sabbath before transitioning to movie posters. It was his work on the 1978 re-release of Star Wars that would establish his legendary status. His distinctive airbrushed style became a defining aesthetic of the 1980s and 1990s, creating over 150 posters for films that became generational touchstones.
From Blade Runner to E.T., from The Shawshank Redemption to the entire Harry Potter franchise, Struzan’s painterly approach brought warmth and humanity to Hollywood marketing during an era when his hand-crafted artistry stood against the rising tide of digital design. Despite officially retiring in 2008, he occasionally returned for special projects, including recent work on Star Wars: The Force Awakens and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.
Now, at 78, the hands that once wielded airbrushes with masterful precision can no longer create. His wife Dylan recently shared the devastating news on his Facebook page, writing that “Drew can no longer paint or sign things for you. He is not enjoying a well-deserved retirement but rather fighting for his life.”
Drew StruzanGood morning all. I’m Drew’s wife, Dylan Struzan. I come to you with a heavy heart. Several years ago, Drew was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. As you may know, the early stages are a slow…www.facebook.com/drewstruzan/posts/1193923778759477?ref=embed_post
Her words paint a poignant picture of an artist whose legacy transcends the posters themselves: “Drew has left a strong legacy of love and joy in the form of his work. It has always been a love letter of sorts. His aim was to make the Earth a better place in which to live by creating something beautiful. But like a flower, his season is ending.”
Struzan’s impact earned him numerous accolades, including a Saturn Award, the Inkpot Award, and induction into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. Yet perhaps his greatest achievement was capturing the magic that made audiences fall in love with movies before they ever stepped into a theater. As Dylan noted, those touched by his work are his true legacy, keeping his memory alive as his own fades.
In an industry that has largely moved beyond hand-painted posters, Struzan’s battle with Alzheimer’s marks not just a personal tragedy, but the end of an artistic era—a master’s final canvas painted not with brushes, but with the enduring power of the images he gave the world.

New York Times just launched its ambitious ranking of the 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century, polling over 500 filmmakers and industry heavyweights

  • Doug Liman is set to direct a feature adaptation of Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’ for Paramount, marking the first film version of the epic novel. (more)
  • Noah Gardner & Aidan Fitzgerald will write the live-action ‘Magic: The Gathering’ movie for Legendary and Hasbro Entertainment. (more)
  • Callina Liang lands the role of Chun-Li in Legendary’s live-action ‘Street Fighter’ adaptation. (more)
  • Tom Segura will star in and produce ‘El Tigre,’ an R-rated comedy about a tourist mistaken for a cartel boss, directed by Tyler Cornack. (more)
  • Johnny Knoxville will host Fox’s reboot ‘Fear Factor: The Next Chapter.’ (more)
  • Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Richard Madden will lead Netflix’s ‘Trinity,’ a conspiracy thriller from ‘Bodyguard’ creator Jed Mercurio. (more)
  • Alan Ritchson teams with Bunim/Murray for ‘Predator vs. Prey,’ a survival competition series pitting reality TV all-stars against each other. (more)
  • WBD acquires Stephen King’s ‘The Institute’ for HBO Max in Europe, with the thriller series set to premiere this July across several territories. (more)
  • ‘MobLand’ is renewed for S2 by Paramount+. (more)
  • 📚 Reese Witherspoon’s first two book options “Wild” and “Gone Girl” earned $600M+ and three Oscar noms.
  • 🏁 Fast & Furious franchise’s 10 titles make zero sense — from “2 Fast 2 Furious” to “Fast X” with no naming logic whatsoever (IG video).
  • 🎈 Rumors: Harrison Ford in talks for live-action “Up” remake as Carl — grumpy old adventurer seems tailor-made casting.

TOGETHER WITH BROOKS ELMSHollywood is COLLAPSING — and That’s the BEST News Ever for Storytellers.WGA writer & indie filmmaker Brooks Elms leads the AUTEUR 2.0 Movement. Studios are shrinking. AI is replacing entire crews. As production costs plummet, Hollywood’s iron grip on the $350B global story market is breaking. Soon, anyone with cinematic vision and grit can reach audiences directly—no agents, no execs, no waiting.You saw it with YouTube: a TV studio in every phone. Now 2M+ creators earn $100K+ per year. Next? AI will allow indie filmmakers to realize big-budget visions at micro-budget costs. This is a MASSIVE power shift—to YOU.Want in? Brooks’ free AUTEUR 2.0 Playbook shows how to tell bold stories, build loyal fans, and get paid to live your dream. Get the Playbook Here. 👈
How David Fincher and Stanley Kubrick Use Multiple Takes for Opposite Reasons
Brad Pitt explains his take on the difference at 45:38 here.


Brad Pitt | Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
In the mythology of demanding directors, two names tower above the rest: Stanley Kubrick and David Fincher. Both are notorious for their endless takes, their relentless pursuit of perfection, and their ability to push actors to their breaking point. But according to Brad Pitt, who worked extensively with Fincher on Se7en and Fight Club, these directors couldn’t be more different in their approach—or their intent.
“That’s the Kubrick way,” Pitt explained in a recent interview, describing Fincher’s occasional marathon sessions. But then he made a crucial distinction: Fincher doesn’t use multiple takes to “beat the acting out of the actor” the way Kubrick famously did. Instead, Fincher’s retakes serve an entirely different master: precision.


He’s the most demanding director in the history of Hollywood
The Architect vs. The Excavator
Fincher approaches filmmaking like an architect with blueprints. He knows exactly what he wants, down to the smallest detail, and he’ll shoot until reality matches the vision in his head. “He’s brilliant and he knows what he wants,” Pitt observed. “Usually there’s a technical aspect of it”—whether it’s nailing a complex steadicam move, hitting precise timing, or capturing a specific emotional beat.
This isn’t about wearing down the actor; it’s about building up to perfection.
Kubrick, by contrast, operated more like an archaeological excavator. He believed that beneath an actor’s prepared performance lay something more authentic, more raw—but it could only be unearthed through exhaustion. His legendary 127 takes of Shelley Duvall’s breakdown scene in The Shining weren’t about getting the technical details right. They were about psychological excavation, digging until the performance collapsed into something real.
Note: a version of the scene below took 40 takes, according to Pitt:


Tyler Durden Sigma Walk
When Process Becomes Purpose
The difference becomes clear when you examine what each director was actually seeking. Fincher’s multiple takes are a means to an end—he stops when he gets what he envisioned. Pitt recalls doing “like 40 takes” for a single steadicam shot in Fight Club, but the reason was purely technical: the complexity of the camera movement, the timing, the choreography of actors and equipment.
Kubrick’s takes, however, often seemed designed to exhaust the very concept of “performance” itself. He famously made Tom Cruise walk through a door 95 times in Eyes Wide Shut—not because the 95th take was technically superior, but because he wanted to strip away Cruise’s movie-star polish and find something more vulnerable underneath.


Stanley Kubrick Explains The Real Reason Why he did SO MANY TAKES
The Collaboration vs. Confrontation Dynamic
What’s most revealing about Pitt’s observation is how these different approaches affect the actor-director relationship. Despite Fincher’s reputation for demanding endless retakes, Pitt describes their collaboration without resentment: “It never triggered your insecurities.”
This points to something crucial: when an actor understands that retakes serve the story rather than psychological manipulation, the process remains collaborative. Fincher’s demands feel technical, professional—challenging but not personal.
Kubrick’s method, by contrast, was inherently confrontational. He used repetition as a tool of psychological pressure, deliberately creating an adversarial dynamic. The point wasn’t just to get a great performance; it was to break down the actor’s defenses entirely.

The Modern Evolution of Perfectionism
Pitt’s insights reveal how the culture of filmmaking perfectionism has evolved. Today’s demanding directors like Fincher, Denis Villeneuve, or Christopher Nolan might shoot numerous takes, but they’re generally working with their actors toward a shared vision. The multiple takes serve the craft, not the psychology.
Kubrick represented an older, more autocratic tradition—one where the director’s vision justified almost any means of extraction. His methods produced undeniable masterpieces, but at considerable human cost.
The next time you hear about a director shooting 40 or 50 takes, ask yourself: are they building toward something specific, or are they tearing something down? Are they an architect perfecting blueprints, or an excavator digging for buried treasure?
The difference, as Brad Pitt learned, isn’t just about the number of takes—it’s about the intention behind them. And that intention shapes not just the final performance, but the entire experience of making the film. In cinema, as in life, how you get there matters as much as where you end up.
Related: Who is the best director between Kubrick and Fincher?

The Fall of Will Smith
The Oscar slap will forever define March 27, 2022, but Will Smith’s downfall didn’t start with Chris Rock. It began decades earlier with a pattern of spectacular misjudgments that reveal how Hollywood’s biggest star became his own worst enemy.
Smith famously called turning down The Matrix one of his “beautiful scars.” When the Wachowskis pitched him Neo in 1997, their vision didn’t translate. “We’re thinking like… imagine you’re in a fight. You, like, jump. Imagine if you could stop jumping in the middle of the jump,” Smith recalled them explaining.
He chose Wild Wild West instead—a decision that cost him an estimated $200 million and cultural immortality. “As it turns out, they’re geniuses, but there’s a fine line in a pitch meeting between genius and what I experienced in the meeting,” Smith later admitted.
Christopher Nolan Art & Updates@NolanAnalystWill Smith reveals that he turned down the lead role in Inception. 6:59 PM • Jun 15, 2025  651 Likes   42 Retweets  39 Replies
The Inception Confession: History Repeats
In a bombshell revelation this week, Smith admitted: “Chris Nolan brought me Inception first and I didn’t get it. I’ve never said that out loud.” The pattern was identical—another visionary director, another incomprehensible pitch, another billion-dollar mistake. “Now that I think about it, it’s those movies that go into those alternate realities, they don’t pitch well,” he explained. “But I’m hurt by those two.”
Smith developed a calculated approach to his career: alternate between massive blockbusters and prestige projects. Independence Day led to Six Degrees of Separation. Men in Black preceded Ali. This strategic rotation kept him relevant across demographics while chasing both box office gold and Oscar recognition.
Smith set for himself the goal of becoming “the biggest movie star in the world,” studying box office successes’ common characteristics. But this formula created a dangerous obsession with winning over artistry.
The Wild Wild West Disaster: When Ego Overrode Instinct
“I had so much success that I started to taste global blood and my focus shifted from my artistry to winning. I wanted to win and be the biggest movie star,” Smith confessed about Wild Wild West. “I found myself promoting something because I wanted to win versus promoting something because I believed in it.”
The $170 million bomb earned five Razzie Awards and taught Smith a brutal lesson. “Wild Wild West is just a thorn in my side. To see myself with chaps…I don’t like it.”
Then there was the father-son failure. “That was the most painful failure in my career,” Smith said of 2013’s After Earth. “Wild Wild West was less painful than After Earth because my son was involved in After Earth, and I led him into it. That was excruciating.”
The M. Night Shyamalan disaster earned a 12% on Rotten Tomatoes and sparked a family crisis. “At 15 years old, when Jaden asked about being an emancipated minor, my heart shattered,” Smith revealed. “We never discussed it, but I know he felt betrayed. He felt misled, and he lost trust in my leadership.”
The Bizarre State of Will Smith’s Career
The Pattern of Self-Sabotage
Smith’s career reveals a man perpetually at war with his own instincts. He rejected Django Unchained, passed on Rush Hour, and built an empire on spectacle while yearning for respect. “I think that my strength is I can do everything well,” he once said—but his greatest weakness was believing he always knew better than the visionaries pitching him.
The Oscar slap wasn’t an aberration—it was the culmination of decades of ego-driven decisions. A man who built his career on control finally lost it completely, in front of the entire world. Smith had spent 30 years making beautiful mistakes in private; on March 27, 2022, he made his ugliest one in public.
Note from the Publisher: If it wasn’t for “the slap,” Will Smith’s book likely would have a been as talked about as McConaughy’s Greenlights. Check it out here.

News and notes


4–6 minutes
June 13 2025

Big Bold Beautiful Journey teams Colin Farrell with Margot Robbie for September theatrical release.

😇 Good Fortune casts Keanu Reeves as bumbling angel meddling with Seth Rogen’s gig worker, October 17.

Pedro Pascal Is In Everything

Too much or just the right amount?

Pedro Pascal has achieved what scientists previously thought impossible: universal internet approval. After two decades grinding through guest spots on Buffy and NYPD Blue, the Chilean-American actor has somehow become the internet’s official “cool, slutty daddy” at age 49.

His transformation began with Game of Thrones Season 4 as Oberyn Martell, the charismatic Dornish prince whose head-crushing fate launched a thousand memes. Critics immediately recognized his star power, noting how his career “skyrocketed” after playing the passionate, doomed royal.

Pascal’s “internet daddy” status stems from his paternal roles combined with undeniable hotness. Playing protective father figures in The Mandalorian (Baby Grogu’s space dad) and The Last of Us (Ellie’s apocalypse dad) cemented his reputation. “These are daddy parts. That’s what it is,” Pascal explained with characteristic self-awareness.

The meme evolution began with a 2020 crying clip from his play I, My Ruination, showing him transitioning from laughter to hysterical tears. But the sandwich meme changed everything—a few seconds of Pascal zoning out while eating a PB&J during LadBible’s “Snack Wars” became the perfect reaction for dissociating during mundane activities.

TikTok user @fiendish.goose compared Pascal’s vacant sandwich-eating to a melancholy animated mouse, creating the “mouse moment” phenomenon. One TikTok garnered 8 million views, proving that literally anything Pascal does goes viral.

What makes Pascal’s dominance remarkable is how it coexists with genuine success. His $600,000-per-episode Last of Us role earned critical acclaim, while upcoming projects include Marvel’s Fantastic Four reboot and Gladiator II. Time magazine named him one of 2023’s most influential people.

Pascal’s genius lies in embracing rather than fighting his internet persona. His Vanity Fair lie detector test became legendary when he admitted checking fan accounts and declared himself a better daddy than Oscar Isaac. Plus his vocal support for his transgender sister Lux proves substance beneath the memes.

One fan perfectly captured the phenomenon: “the year is 2033 and pedro pascal is in every movie and every tv show, he basically owns the world!!” At this rate, they’re not wrong—and frankly, we’re here for our new sandwich-eating overlord.

See everything he’s got coming out right here.

Nintendo has delayed its live-action ‘Legend of Zelda’ movie to May 7, 2027, citing production reasons. (more)

HBO’s ‘Harry Potter’ series has added nine characters, including Molly Weasley, and Lucius Malfoy, and Draco Malfoy. (more)

Nick Jonas will star as Paul Stanley in ‘Shout It Out Loud,’ a McG-directed film about the formation of KISS. (more)
OH HELL TO THE.KISS LOVING NO!!!!!
THERE ARE SO MANY BETTER OPTIONS!!!
I SUPPOSE THEYRE GONNA PUT A GIRL IN GENE SIMMONS ROLE!?!?

Scott Caan and Elizabeth Debicki have joined Brad Pitt in David Fincher’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ sequel for Netflix. (more)

Russell Crowe, Jacob Tremblay, Shailene Woodley, and Annabelle Wallis will star in Netflix’s ‘Unabom,’ a Ted Kaczynski thriller. (

Octavia Spencer is set to reprise her role in a Blumhouse sequel to the 2019 horror hit ‘Ma.’ (more)

Blumhouse is in talks to acquire the ‘Saw’ franchise from Twisted Pictures, potentially giving James Wan partial ownership of his horror creation. (more)

Mikey Madison is in talks to replace Sydney Sweeney in A24’s reimagining of ‘The Masque of the Red Death.’ (more

M3GAN’ director Gerard Johnstone will helm a ‘Monster High’ movie for Mattel and Universal, blending teen horror with iconic monster lore. (more)

Samuel L. Jackson will star in ‘NOLA King,’ a ‘Tulsa King’ spinoff for Paramount+, expanding Taylor Sheridan’s crime universe. (more)

Disney just discovered that Zillennial nostalgia is worth $600M and counting. ‘Lilo & Stitch’ crossed that milestone globally this weekend, proving that Zillennial nostalgia is officially having a moment. Zillennials—the micro-generation born between 1997-2012 who bridge millennials and Gen Z—have deep emotional connections to 2000s properties that executives had written off as “not classics.” Unlike previous generations who formed attachments through theatrical releases, these viewers grew up during Disney’s direct-to-DVD golden age, bonding with characters through sequels, Disney Channel marathons, and video games. The film’s massive haul signals that studios may be sitting on a gold mine of overlooked 2000s IP. With Zillennials now in their peak earning years, expect executives to start fast-tracking properties that speak to this audience. Looking ahead, ‘Freaky Friday’ this August will test whether this theory holds true.

🦸‍♂️ Disney just put Marvel on a content diet. After ‘Thunderbolts*’ earned just $181M domestically in five weeks (compared to ‘Doctor Strange 2’s’ $187M opening weekend alone), Disney’s pulling a classic Economics 101 move—cutting supply to boost demand. Marvel’s pushing back its upcoming ‘Avengers’ movies, canceling three mystery projects, and skipping Comic-Con’s Hall H entirely this year. It’s a solid scarcity play: no new announcements, no hype machine, just radio silence. This summer’s ‘Superman’ and ‘Fantastic Four’ aren’t just testing whether people still want superhero movies—they’re massive-budget lab experiments that could determine the entire genre’s future. If David Corenswet’s ‘Superman’ crashes or Pedro Pascal’s ‘Fantastic Four’ flops, it could signal audiences have genuinely moved on from costumed heroes altogether. Marvel’s betting that making fans wait—and wonder—will reignite the enthusiasm that turned Comic-Con panels into cultural events.

*This is curated content. I receive Some entertainment news in my inbox. I take no credit for writing what’s within this post at all. All credit(s) go to cinematic fanatic and the dailies