| | | | | | What's news: Karla Sofía Gascón is not among the list of presenters for the BAFTAs. Sean Combs is suing NBCU for $100m over the doc Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy. Rebecca Kutler is MSNBC's new president. John Lithgow is in talks to play Albus Dumbledore in HBO's Harry Potter series. — Abid Rahman
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Berlin 2025 Gets Underway ►Wunderbar! THR's crack team of reporters and critics are on the ground in Berlin as the 75th Berlinale opens its doors today. Click here to read our Berlin Day 1 Digital Fest Daily.
—"How it affects us is hanging over all American filmmakers." Berlin Film Festival's international jury president Todd Haynes was asked about Donald Trump within a matter of minutes at the event's first press conference on Thursday. Haynes was joined by fellow jury members Bina Daigeler (Germany), actor Fan Bingbing (China), director Rodrigo Moreno (Argentina), film critic and author Amy Nicholson (U.S.) and director, actor and screenwriter Maria Schrader (Germany). “We’re in a state of particular crisis right now in the U.S. but also globally,” Haynes said. "I think everyone I know in the U.S. and friends abroad are witnessing this barrage of actions in the first three weeks of the Trump administration with tremendous concern, shock." The story.
—Trouble ahead. It looks like Berlin is getting the sequel nobody wanted. A polarized debate over the crisis in Gaza, of the sort that derailed last year’s Berlinale closing ceremony, is set to return to the Potsdamer Platz red carpet. THR's Scott Roxborough writes that pro-Palestinian boycotts and a silent protest for the release of an Israeli actor still held by Hamas could (again) overshadow the Berlinale's celebration of cinema. The story.
—How Berlin made Tom Tykwer. Despite only making three films set in the German capital — 1998 breakout Run Lola Run, the mid-career highlight 3 (2010) and now The Light, the opening film of the 75th Berlin Film Festival — no other director so exemplifies Berlin, in all its messy glory and contradictions as Tom Tykwer. Scott Roxborough profiles Tykwer and talks to him about his long relationship with the city and its film festival. The interview. |
Shonda Rhimes Resigns From Kennedy Center Board ►Chaos. Shonda Rhimes resigned from the Kennedy Center Board on Wednesday. The Grey’s Anatomy creator and Shondaland CEO was also treasurer of the arts institution. Her resignation follows President Trump’s election as chair of the Kennedy Center after a vote from the board. The board also terminated the contract of Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter and announced Richard Grenell, formerly Trump’s ambassador to Germany, as interim president. The story.
—"Not for me." Ben Folds is resigning as artistic adviser to the National Symphony Orchestra in light of the events at the Kennedy Center. The singer-songwriter and former frontman of Ben Folds Five revealed his decision in a post on Instagram on Wednesday. The Kennedy Center oversees the National Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Washington National Opera, in addition to presenting theatrical shows, the Kennedy Center Honors and more. The story.
—No Karla. Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldaña, Jesse Eisenberg, Joe Alwyn, Isabella Rossellini, Colman Domingo and Ralph Fiennes are among the presenters set for the 2025 BAFTA Film Awards. Notably missing from the attendees list was Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón, whose awards campaign has catastrophically imploded following the discovery of controversial posts made on social media. The story.
—"Grossly exploiting the trust of their audience." NBCUniversal’s Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy has sparked a defamation lawsuit from disgraced rap mogul Sean Combs, who says the documentary features false allegations of serial murder, sexual assault and sex trafficking against him. Combs, in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in New York state court, points to accusations that he murdered Kim Porter, who shares four children with the singer, and had sex with minors, among other claims he’s concerned will bias potential jurors in his trial. He seeks at least $100m. The story.
—The latest. Blake Lively's legal team has issued subpoenas to crisis PR firm consultant Jed Wallace, as well as AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and other multiple entities, in search of more evidence of Justin Baldoni's alleged smear campaign against her. The subpoenas also come a week after Lively’s legal team dropped a request in Texas to depose Wallace, who could be added to their New York lawsuit against Baldoni and others. In turn, Wallace filed an 11-page alleged defamation suit against Lively, which opens him up to discovery and to being deposed by Lively’s lawyers. The story. |
Fox, Tubi See $800M In Super Bowl Advertising ►Wowza. Fox and Tubi brought in more than $800m in advertising sales for the presentation of Super Bowl LIX. In addition to the record 127.7m viewers who watched the Super Bowl across all platforms, Fox notes that Kendrick Lamar’s performance was the most-watched Super Bowl halftime show in history with an average of 133.5m viewers across television and digital platforms from 8:30 p.m. – 8:45 p.m. ET, up 3 percent from the prior year. The story.
—Standoff. As Paramount Global aims to negotiate a new carriage deal for brands like CBS, MTV and Comedy Central with YouTube TV, its co-CEOs are signaling that a blackout of its channels on the service could be in the cards. In a note to employees on Wednesday, Paramount co-chiefs George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins said that the company would begin to notify subscribers that its channels may be dropped by YouTube amid the standoff. YouTube TV, which has emerged as a pay TV giant with 8m subscribers to plans that now cost $82.99 a month, has become a key player in a space with competitors like Charter and Comcast. The story.
—It's official. As it prepares for its next chapter apart from Comcast, MSNBC has formally found its new leader. Rebecca Kutler, who held the title of interim president at the cable news channel, was officially promoted on Wednesday, top executive Mark Lazarus told employees. Kutler will succeed Rashida Jones, who served as MSNBC’s chief from 2021-2024 during the Biden presidency. Kutler joined MSNBC in 2022 after a 12-year tenure at CNN during the Jeff Zucker-led era, where she rose from executive producer on shows like Inside Politics with John King to senior vice president. The story.
—In the crosshairs. The Trump administration’s campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the media and entertainment sector has turned its attention on Comcast. The media conglomerate has confirmed that FCC Chair Brendan Carr has notified Comcast in writing that his agency is to investigate the company’s DEI practices. “We have received an inquiry from the Federal Communications Commission and will be cooperating with the FCC to answer their questions,” a Comcast spokesperson told THR on Wednesday in a statement. The story. |
Amazon's 'Rings of Power' Renewed for S3 ►Time jump incoming. Amazon Prime Video has officially confirmed The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for a third season. Season three is in pre-production and will begin filming this spring at the hit fantasy drama’s new production home at Shepperton Studios in the UK. Fans have been eagerly awaiting the news since the show’s second season finale aired in October. THR can reveal the series will also have a major time jump going into the new episodes, and Sauron is now crafting the iconic One Ring. Here is the exclusive logline: “Jumping forward several years from the events of season 2, season 3 takes place at the height of the War of the Elves and Sauron, as the Dark Lord seeks to craft the One Ring that will give him the edge he needs to win the war and conquer all Middle-earth at last.” The story.
—🎭 Sterling choice 🎭 HBO is in talks with John Lithgow to play Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, for its upcoming Harry Potter series. News of Lithgow’s potential involvement follows THR's reporting that British actor Paapa Essiedu is in discussions to play Professor Severus Snape. Should Lithgow be cast as Dumbledore, it would be a break from the Harry Potter film series, which employed British actors almost exclusively. Richard Harris played Dumbledore in the first two movies, and Michael Gambon took over the role after Harris died in 2002. The story.
—🎭 Hunting Nazis is good 🎭 Jeremy Strong is set to star in a series adaptation of Ira Levin’s novel The Boys From Brazil at Netflix. The Crown creator Peter Morgan is adapting the novel, which was previously made into a 1978 feature film starring Laurence Olivier and Gregory Peck. The role will be the first series work for Strong since Succession ended its four-season run on HBO in 2023. He’s set to play Liebermann, a Nazi hunter who receives a tip that Dr. Josef Mengele, the infamous “Angel of Death” from the Auschwitz concentration camp, is living in Brazil. The story. |
Margaret Qualley, Josh Brolin and Guy Pearce Join Ridley Scott's 'The Dog Stars' ►🎭 Filling out 🎭 Ridley Scott's forthcoming dystopian thriller The Dog Stars is continuing to cast up after previously landing Jacob Elordi as the lead. Margaret Qualley, Josh Brolin and Guy Pearce are in final talks to star in the movie for 20th Century Studios. Mark L. Smith wrote the script, adapting Peter Heller’s 2012 apocalyptic novel of the same name. The Dog Stars centers on a civilian pilot living on an abandoned airbase with his dog and an ex-Marine amid a devastating pandemic. A random transmission picked up by the pilot’s radio from his 1956 Cessna offers hope for a better life. The story.
—🎭 Period heavies 🎭 Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe have signed up to The Weight, a historical period epic film, set in Oregon, circa 1933. Hawke plays Samuel Murphy who, after the death of his wife, is imprisoned in a labor camp run by Clancy, an unscrupulous overseer (Crowe). Murphy only wants to escape and regain custody of his daughter, Penny, but becomes entangled in Clancy’s perilous gold smuggling scheme, facing threats from both the treacherous wilderness and potential betrayal within his own group. Padraic McKinley will direct The Weight from an original screenplay by Shelby Gaines, Matthew Chapman, and Matthew Booi, based on an original story by Booi and Leo Scherman. The story.
—🤝 Sold! 🤝 Mubi has secured the rights in a multi-territory deal for Eddie Huang’s documentary Vice Is Broke. The doc had its world premiere opening the documentary section at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. The film examines the rise and fall of Vice Media, which filed for bankruptcy in June 2023 after once being valued in the billions. Huang, who previously hosted Huang’s World for Vice, offers a first-person account of the company’s trajectory, blending cultural analysis with an exploration of the corporate and personal ramifications of its collapse. The story.
—🏆 Cast of winners 🏆 The Casting Society, which “honors excellence in casting across feature film, television (scripted and unscripted), commercials and theater” unveiled its winners during its annual Artios Awards ceremony on Wednesday night. The film winners include Wicked, A Complete Unknown and Conclave, while TV winners include Hacks, Shogun and RuPaul’s Drag Race. Emilia Perez won the award in the new international feature category. The Wild Robot won best animated feature. The winners.
—🏆 Solemn night 🏆 The Society of Composers and Lyricists announced its 2025 awards recipients at the sixth annual SCL Awards. Held at the Skirball Cultural Center, composers and lyricists gathered together for a dinner and ceremony hosted by singer-songwriter Colin Hays. The evening opened with a performance of “Lean on Me” – meant to bring the community together after the recent wildfires that have devastated Los Angeles. Among the top awards for the night were Daniel Blumberg for The Brutalist, Diane Warren for The Six Triple Eight, Kris Bowers for The Wild Robot and Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Luca Guadagnino for Challengers. The winners. |
Film Review: 'Captain America: Brave New World' ►"No, he's not Steve Rogers, but it's not Anthony Mackie's fault." THR's Frank Scheck reviews Julius Onah's Captain America: Brave New World. The fourth standalone Captain America film is the first to feature Anthony Mackie in the title role and also stars Harrison Ford. The review.
In other news...
—Viola Davis is a president who hunts down terrorists in Amazon's G20 trailer
—The Wheel of Time readies for battle in S3 trailer
—Eric McCormack battles unseen killer in Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue trailer
What else we're reading...
—Alberto Nardelli and Jennifer Welch crunch the numbers and believe Trump's Ukraine plan will cost European countries $3.1t (that's trillion) over the next decade [Bloomberg]
—Andrea Chang, Roger Vincent and Marisa Gerber go behind the staggering economic toll of the L.A. wildfires [LAT]
—Carol Rosenberg and Charlie Savage report that some migrants that were sent by Trump to Guantánamo are being held by military guards [NYT]
—Jason P. Frank talks to Terry Sweeney, who back in 1985 was SNL's first openly gay cast member [Vulture]
—Riley McAtee writes that Apple's Severance is that rare mystery box show that doesn’t just ask questions—it provides answers, and good ones [Ringer]
Today...
...in 1998, New Line unveiled The Wedding Singer in theaters in time for Valentine’s Day audiences. The Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore rom-com went on to earn $123m globally at the box office. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Mena Suvari (46), Stockard Channing (81), Robbie Williams (51), Kim Novak (92), Ferdinand Kingsley (37), Henry Rollins (64), Alaqua Cox (28), Donald Sumpter (82), Costa-Gavras (92), Carolyn Lawrence (58), Neal McDonough (59), Sophia Lillis (23), Kelly Hu (57), Tracy Ifeachor (40), Sydney Chandler (29), Tony Dalton (50), Ewa Aulin (75), JB Blanc (56), David Naughton (74), Hugh Dennis (63), Richard Tyson (64), Pernilla August (67), Daniel Portman (33), Andy Buckley (60), Andrew Bryniarski (56), Ian Reed Kesler (48), Lucy Brown (46), Michael Buscemi (65), Park Hee-soon (55), Joe Estevez (79), Scott Paulin (75) |
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