Another Disney IP box office check-in this weekend, this time on whether its animation-to-live-action remake pipeline shows signs of rust. Meanwhile, as the dust settles on Emmy noms, one Apple TV series has put a hex on voters. — Erik Hayden
Ticker: Tom Quinn sells Neon stake; Ted Sarandos stocks up on YouTubers; Ariana Grande bows out of Horror Story; Anthony Hopkins goes classical.
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First Sam Altman. Then Mark Zuckerberg. Think of it as Sora déjà vu. Meta has removed a feature from its new Muse AI photo and video tools that had sparked outrage from Hollywood power players like CAA and SAG-AFTRA. The tech giant late Friday said that it had pulled functionality that let users create AI content by tagging another user to remix their content. The company made it applicable to all public Instagram profiles unless users actively opted out of the feature. Alex Weprin's story.
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There's a sea change in the Los Angeles soundstage landscape, as Winston Cho scoops with details on what's next for the biggest power players in the space. Cho reports:
"Lenders are moving in on studio complexes owned by Hackman Capital Partners, the biggest independent owner of soundstages in Los Angeles, as production levels in the region hover around all-time lows. A lender consortium led by Deutsche Bank has kicked off the process of selling Television City, a storied lot in the central L.A. Fairfax Avenue corridor. They’re owed more than $357 million.
The obvious buyer of Television City? Rick Caruso, owner of neighboring shopping mall The Grove who’s long eyed the property and is believed to have been outbid by Hackman Capital when TV City was up for sale.
Separately, Manhattan Beach Studios, which Hackman bought in 2019 for $650 million, is fielding offers after Deutsche Bank filed a notice of default in June. The complex’s proximity to El Segundo and North Orange County, major hubs for the defense industry, may prove valuable. The industrial company that put in the bid isn’t looking to operate soundstages, the source said." The report.
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THEN: Pivot to Video (2015-2018) 💀
NOW: Pivot to Video (2026-) 👍
As Alex Weprin observes, media is back to considering its post-text future: "For the first time, TV's grasp on video is up for grabs, and the zero-sum nature of TV (people may have their phones out while they watch, but the big screen only has one video app open at a time) means that creators, digital upstarts and legacy outlets can steal viewers from traditional TV. When a viewer is streaming Megyn Kelly on their TV, it may be coming at the expense of Fox News; When someone chooses to watch Bon Appetit's YouTube channel it may be coming at the expense of Food Network; When a parent turns on Ms. Rachel for their kids it may be at the expense of Nickelodeon; MrBeast's high-stakes games may come at the expense of game shows on ABC; And, yes, a report from The New York Times could be replacing journalism from CNN..." The column.
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"It was never about simply becoming the biggest," Banijay CEO Marco Bassetti tells Scott Roxborough in an interview upon the closing of the $8.5 billion Banijay-All3Media merger, which builds a true TV colossus and brings together nearly 200 production companies and labels across 25 territories. Amid a $2.1 billion bid by Comcast-owned Sky to acquire British network ITV, the Banijay-All3Media deal is a sign that traditional TV is scaling up in an effort to survive. And dealmakers appear to believe that now is the time.
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"We wanted to make sure the neighbors that have been seeing the museum built from the ground up for the past eight years are the first ones inside." — Tracey Bates, CEO of George Lucas' L.A. museum, on offering select free access.
"Our goal is not to create an AI slop machine for Gen Z." — Karandeep Anand, CEO of chat bot firm Character.ai, as it enters the microdramas production space.
"We are probably busier right now than we’ve been over the last year and a half." — Jeanette Stanton, who leads Oklahoma's film office, after The Lowdown and Tulsa King shoots and ahead of Miles Teller and Snoop Dogg arriving soon.
"The Pitt has hundreds of performers and we simply, just strategically, can’t submit everybody." — Casey Bloys, HBO chief, in a post-Emmys nominations interview on performers self-submitting in categories.
"I just was seeing my name pop up on things and was like, 'That’s wild.'" — Kelty Greye, an unsigned artist who had recorded "The Middle" cover in her bedroom, upon seeing it used as the major sync in Supergirl.
"You’ve got to think that he could pick a gun up and shoot you. He’s got to have a kind of threat about him." — Debbie McWilliams, who cast 14 James Bond movies, on what the next star needs to bring to the role.
Logline of the Week
[Jupiter Island]
"On the ultra-exclusive Jupiter Island, the privileged world of professional golfers and their wives fractures when a mysterious outsider arrives — and a secret threatens golf’s reigning power couple." - The drama from Connor Hines, creator of Love Story, received a straight-to-series order from Netflix.
Job Listing of the Week
Disney+ President
With Alisa Bowen exiting the role to become the chief of Fubo, there may a big C-suite job to fill in the Disney streaming universe that's now open.
By the Numbers
(Most-read stories on THR.com this week)
1) "The Odyssey First Reactions"
2) "Dutton Ranch Duo Talk Season 2 After Cliffhanger"
3) "On the Set of MGM+'s From Ahead of Final Season"
Deals of the Week
- In a change, L.A.’s Olympic Committee is moving the International Broadcast Center for the 2028 Games from the in-development Hollywood Park Studios in Inglewood and inked a deal with Warner Bros.' The Ranch in Burbank. Details.
- Broadway cleaners reached a tentative agreement with the Broadway League, shortly after hosting a rally and strike vote. The deal includes $5 an hour wage increases, a 21 percent increase, by the end of the new four-year contract, as well as improved paid leave and protection for its employer-paid family health care. Details.
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Hacks is going out in a big way, landing the most Emmy nominations in a single year in the comedy category for its final season. The HBO Max comedy landed 24 nods, besting the record previously held in 2025 by Apple TV's The Studio and in 2024 by The Bear (which each had 23 nominations). It has also surpassed Schitt’s Creek record for most noms for a comedy series’ last season, which landed 15 noms in 2020 for its final run. Hacks' run + Full Emmys list.
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Scott Feinberg's read on a big surprise of noms day: "Widow’s Bay is a particularly fascinating case: the rookie horror/comedy wasn’t even a part of the Emmys conversation until very late in the game — indeed, several of its episodes rolled out after the eligibility deadline — but it caught fire at just the right moment and wound up with 19 noms, more than all programs except for The Pitt (which landed a field-leading 25 noms for its second season)." Feinberg's column + Emmys predictions.
+ Apple TV programming chief Matt Cherniss makes the case that the show is a comedy: "Widow’s Bay does a lot of things when you’re watching the show, right? It scares you, it makes you think, and it makes you laugh — and it makes me laugh a lot."
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After the Emmy noms were unveiled, critics Daniel Fienberg and Angie Han discuss the thrills and frustrations:
Han: "Outside of Apple’s lineup, I was pleased that the cast of HBO Max’s The Pitt got their due, even if part of me gets a little grumpy when one show dominates the acting categories too thoroughly. (At least it’s not as bad as those years when Emmy voters seemed to believe Succession and The White Lotus were the only dramas in existence.) And to see HBO’s DTF St. Louis make such a strong showing in an otherwise pretty weak limited series field. Then there were the ones that just sort of made me laugh, like Connor Storrie scoring a 'We’re so sorry the Emmy rules won’t let us nominate Heated Rivalry' nod for hosting SNL. Or All’s Fair, quite possibly the most dreadful show I’ve seen in the past year, scoring two nominations (albeit in makeup and hairstyling, two very specific areas in which the show was fine)."
The full conversation.
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Music editor Ethan Millman trailed Wes Anderson at the Hollywood Bowl while photographer Mark Griffin Champion snapped portraits for The Hollywood Reporter. The occasion?
Millman writes, "Earlier this week, Wes Anderson could be found meandering through an empty Hollywood Bowl, his hands folded behind his back as he made his way to the stage, giving a warm grin as he looked off at the 17,000-plus seats. The Bowl team is giving him a brief tour ahead of a slate of concerts hitting the venue this weekend, where those seats will be filled with fans likely decked out in Margot Tenenbaum-inspired fur coats or Moonrise Kingdom-esque coonskin caps, as Wes-heads will be in tow to celebrate the sounds of his beloved filmography. 'There's so many great people in this thing, but having Jackson Browne perform this song, these two songs, that's a little surreal for me,' the ever press-shy Anderson says." The story.
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Welcome back to the OG billionaires’ retreat. Each July, executives disembark from private jets in Idaho for investment banker Herb Allen’s exclusive “summer camp for moguls” in Sun Valley. The Allen & Co. event was once free of reporters but now is more like an annual chase for crumbs of news among journalists on-site. (It’s always a good bet that People Inc. mogul Barry Diller will deliver the most quotable lines.) There may be less mystique to this moguls’ confab when, increasingly, there are many more stops to jet off to each year. But being at the Allen & Co. conference also serves an optics purpose. It’s a place where execs — name tag and sunglasses on, to-go coffee cup in hand — can be seen. That, too, tells a story of power and who holds it now.
This year those attendees included: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and CEO Andy Jassy, Apple’s Tim Cook, YouTube chief Neal Mohan, Disney moguls past and present (Josh D’Amaro, Bob Iger, Michael Eisner), Fox mogul Lachlan Murdoch, Comcast’s top brass Brian Roberts and Mike Cavanagh, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and chairman Bret Taylor, Sony Pictures’ Ravi Ahuja, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, NBA commissioner Adam Silver, Mattel’s Ynon Kreiz, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, Thrive Capital’s Joshua Kushner and Karlie Kloss and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman. And then there’s regulars like Jeffrey Katzenberg, ex-Yahoo chief Jerry Yang, producer Brian Grazer, entrepreneur Wendi Deng Murdoch, and journalists Bari Weiss, Gayle King, Anderson Cooper, David Ignatius and many more here.
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Larry David and Colin Jost took part in the ACC Golf Championship in South Lake Tahoe. David Wain and Zoey Deutch attended a CAA screening in L.A. for their film Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass. Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon premiered The Hawk in L.A. J.K. Simmons, Chris Brancato and Swizz Beatz walked the carpet for MGM+’s The Westies in NYC. Bachelorette alum Kaitlyn Bristowe joined author Julie LaPlaca’s book launch event for The Love Producer at FIT in NYC. All 23 photos from the week in premieres and events.
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Upcoming Releases
Notable movies heading to theaters
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One-liners from THR's team of critics
"If The Five-Star Weekend were a cookie recipe of the kind its protagonist, food influencer Hollis Shaw (Jennifer Garner), has become known for, it’d be one that sounds great on paper, looks pretty coming out of the oven and tastes…y’know, fine." Meanwhile, Netflix's Little House on the Prairie reboot is "heart-filled and honorable." HBO’s Burning Man docuseries The Man Will Burn is "engaging, but rarely digs deep." Disney's live-action, Dwayne Johnson-starring Moana is "a buoyant surprise." Warner Bros. horror entry Evil Dead Burn is "a movie that revels in its meanness." Director Mads Mengel's debut feature The Guest sees Trine Dyrholm give "a scorcher of a performance."
And finally,
A Hollywood Flashback
"If late-night has indeed become television's newest daypart battleground, then let the wars begin. And, in a business built on Darwin's theory of evolution, questions abound about who is the strongest and who will survive..."
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