What's news: Mellody Hobson has resigned from the board of LA28. The FCC has signed off on Middle East sovereign wealth funds backing Paramount’s bid for WBD. Resident Evil is tracking for a $50m opening. Jalen Brunson will guest star in Law & Order: SVU. And Universal is now leaning toward releasing Alex Gibney's buzzy, four-hour Musk doc after all. — Abid Rahman
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Disney Names New Streaming Boss |
►Major shake-up. Disney Entertainment is making some significant changes to its senior leadership, with Adam Smith being named chairman of direct-to-consumer for the division, overseeing all elements of the DTC business, including product, engineering, advertising technology, programming, viewer experience, partnerships, and data and analytics for Disney+ and Hulu. Meanwhile, Joe Earley, who had been co-president of DTC, will move to a new role as president of Disney Entertainment Television franchise and content strategy, reporting to Deb OConnell. In a memo on Thursday, OConnell also announced that Eric Schrier will leave his post as head of DTC international originals, strategic programming and emerging media. The story.
—Omnishambles. THR's Gary Baum has the scoop that Mellody Hobson, the prominent business executive and wife of George Lucas, has resigned from the board of L.A.’s embattled 2028 Olympic Games organizing committee. The Lucas Museum, where she is co-founder, opens to the public on Sept. 22, following a series of opening events. LA28 has been navigating a well-publicized cycle of financial, logistical and political challenges. The story.
—Dipping. Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch saw his fiscal 2026 compensation package dip to $31m, as the executive attempts to steer his company into the future through its $22b Roku deal. Fox on Thursday released its fiscal 2026 proxy filing, disclosing a pay package of $31m for Murdoch, down from $33m a year ago. Fox’s president and COO John Nallen saw his compensation package rise from $15.3m last year to $18.1m this year, while CFO Steve Tomsic’s pay was just about flat, dipping to $10.1m from $10.3m. The story.
—🤝 Cash grab. 🤝 Dodgers owner Mark Walter has now exited from his second pro sports team in just over a month. The mogul, whose TWG Global portfolio of companies is facing inquiries from the DOJ and the SEC, has offloaded his stake in Premier League club Chelsea as part of a larger deal. Walter had been part of the Todd Boehly-led consortium in 2022 that had acquired the football club from Russian businessman Roman Abramovich. Walter sold his ownership stake in the Lakers at a valuation of $12.5b in August. The story.
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Bonta Bites Back at Paramount's Threat to Leave California
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►"They own it. It lies at their feet." Paramount‘s threat to leave California if the group of state attorneys general don’t come to terms on a settlement does not seem to be budging Attorney General Rob Bonta’s point of view on the antitrust suit, which seeks to block Paramount’s $111b merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. Bonta was asked about the threat and the status of the suit during a panel at The Atlantic Festival on Thursday afternoon at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in lower Manhattan. Bonta reminded the audience that Paramount’s threat to leave isn’t new, but that it is ultimately up to the company. The story.
—Another hurdle cleared. The FCC has signed off on equity investments from three prominent Middle East sovereign wealth funds that are backing Paramount’s bid for WBD, removing a potential regulatory hurdle to the company’s proposed acquisition. The commission approved Paramount’s petition to allow more than 25 percent of the studio’s ownership to be held by foreign investors, which include Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. The sovereign wealth funds are collectively providing roughly $24b in financing to help bankroll Paramount’s bid. Their investment, along with that of others, will result in foreign investors collectively holding 49.5 percent of the combined company. The story.
—"Welcome to Congress." THR's Katie Kilkenny reports that Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, NBCUniversal Entertainment chairman Donna Langley, SAG-AFTRA president Sean Astin and “Special ambassador” to Hollywood Jon Voight were in Washington D.C. this week to lobby Congress to push through the federal film and television tax credit incentive this year. The Hollywood execs as well as other industry figures were in the capital as bipartisan momentum builds behind the proposal. The story.
—✊ New additions. ✊ The WGA has elected writers behind Big Mouth, Baywatch and The Bold Type to serve on the union‘s board of directors. In addition to re-electing five incumbent candidates, union members voted in writers Andrew Goldberg, Mark Swift and Nikita Hamilton as new board members in their 2026 elections, which concluded on Tuesday. All three were previously tapped by the union‘s board nominating committee to run. The election saw existing board members Melinda Hsu, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Chris Hazzard, Cathryn Humphris and Danny Tolli retaining their seats on the board for another two-year term. The story.
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Universal Holds Internal Talks to Keep Gibney's Musk Doc
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►Backlash. Universal, which has found itself caught in the middle of a battle between the world’s richest man and a hard-hitting investigative documentary by Alex Gibney, is now leaning toward releasing the buzzy, four-hour Musk feature after all. Execs at the studio are now discussing internally how to deal with what’s become a political football, sources tell THR's Steven Zeitchik. The studio has been both publicly and privately silent about its plans leading up to a THR story that reported that Universal was backing away from releasing the feature in markets outside of North America. Some insiders believed that the studio would ultimately relinquish the film and return rights to the movie to its producers. The story.
—The hype is real. Resident Evil looks to get off to a running start in its opening weekend at the box office. Sony Pictures releases writer-director Zach Cregger‘s horror-survival video game adaptation on Friday in roughly 3,500 North American theaters, with the studio projecting a debut frame of $40m for the three-day weekend. This is in line with third-party tracking services, although some of those have upped their expectations in recent days as interest heats up, with the possibility that the opening gets close to $50m or higher. It carries a $75m production budget. The box office report.
—99 problems but a pitch ain’t one. THR's Borys "Scoopz" Kit has the scoop on 20th Century Studios hiring Josh Cooley, the animation filmmaker known for Toy Story 4 and Transformers One, to pen the live-action adaptation of video game 99 Nights in the Forest. The studio picked up theatrical film rights to the popular game, developed by Grandma’s Favourite Games and hosted on Roblox in the spring. The project marks the first time the Disney division is tackling a feature adaptation of a video game. The story.
—🎭 Leguizamaissance continues. 🎭 Borys also has the scoop that The Odyssey star John Leguizamo is returning to Universal for its big-screen take on Miami Vice. Leguizamo has joined Miami Vice ’85, adding to the crime thriller’s cast that already includes Michael B. Jordan, Austin Butler, Alden Ehrenreich, Whitney Peak, Camila Morrone and Danny Ramirez. Sources say that Leguizamo will be the piece’s main villain. Joseph Kosinski is directing the feature, which is eyeing a November production start and shoots in New York and Miami. The story.
—🎭 Filling out. 🎭 Wyatt Russell has joined the cast of John Carroll Lynch’s upcoming comedy film Happy. The Thunderbolts* star will appear alongside Asa Butterfield, Mark Strong, Kyra Sedgwick, Brittany O’Grady and Patti Harrison. The feature follows Myles (Butterfield) into a “spectacularly dysfunctional introduction to his girlfriend’s family,” a plot synopsis reads. The story.
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Kimmel Might Stick Around, but End of Late Night Is Getting Closer
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►Borrowed time. THR's Alex Weprin writes that every late night show outside of Saturday Night Live has been canceled or had budgets slashed, teeing up an uncertain future for one of TV's defining formats … even if it ultimately lives on online. The analysis.
—🟢 Greenest of green lights. 🟢 Netflix is staying in business with Liz Feldman. The streamer has ordered a new series called All the Rage from Feldman and Kelly Hutchinson, long-time friends who also worked together on the Feldman-created Dead to Me and No Good Deed. Netflix has also extended its overall deal with Feldman, where she has been for the past six years. All the Rage is a dark comedy, and will center on Emma and Eli, old friends who reconnect after a long period of estrangement "and find new purpose in taking down the man who tore them apart." The story.
—🎭 Court order. 🎭 Fox has greenlit a drama series starring Edie Falco, but it won’t arrive until the 2027-28 season. The network has placed a straight-to-series order for a legal drama with the working title Katie Greaves, with Falco in the title role. The Emmy-winner play a former New Hampshire public defender who left that role after a personal tragedy but finds herself pulled back into the courtroom. The series is produced by Fox Entertainment Studios and Scott Free Productions and created by Sharr White, who will also serve as showrunner. The story.
—🤝 Content deal. 🤝 One of the biggest kids YouTube brands has inked a wide-ranging content and development deal with Disney. The studio has cut a deal with Like Nastya, which has garnered more than 450b views across its 25 YouTube channels, with more than 450m current subscribers. The deal will add a curated selection of Like Nastya library content to Disney+ but will also include a new animated preschool series for Disney Jr. and Disney+, as well as new and original live action content for kids, tweens, teens and families. The story.
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Jalen Brunson to Guest Star on 'Law & Order: SVU'
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►🎭 Dun, dun! 🎭 In a true baller move, Jalen Brunson is finally, officially set to guest star on this season of NBC‘s Law & Order: SVU alongside his unlikely BFF Mariska Hargitay. Brunson, the NBA champion New York Knicks point guard, will appear on the fifth episode of the upcoming season, NBC says. Brunson’s episode will air on Nov. 5. His role is being "kept under wraps." The story.
—🤝 Rights deal. 🤝 At long last, Major League Wrestling is headed to Tubi under a new deal. The pro-wrestling promotion’s flagship series MLW Fusion will stream (for free) live on the on-demand/FAST platform. New episodes will premiere each Thursday in the same time slot. The story.
—🎭 Five more! 🎭 FX's Far Cry series has added several more well-known actors to its cast. The new additions to the video game adaptation from creators Noah Hawley and Rob Mac are Brendan Gleeson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hamish Linklater, Sam Spruell and Jamie Demetriou. They join an ensemble that also includes Mac, Lizzy Caplan and Steve Buscemi. As with previous cast announcements, details on each actor’s role aren’t being released for the time being. The story.
—🎭 Filling out. 🎭 Prime Video has added five new cast members to Rose Hill, its upcoming adaptation of Elsie Silver’s small-town romance novels. Siobhan McGroarty, Sophia Reid-Gantzert, West Mulholland, Gigi Zumbado and Curtis Hamilton have joined the series. Set in a Canadian mountain town, Rose Hill, based on Silver’s books Wild Love, Wild Eyes, Wild Side and Wild Card, follows the romantic highs and lows of best friends West Belmont and Ford Grant. The story.
—Big change. For the six years Nielsen has been releasing weekly streaming ratings, the charts have had a significant lag time: The numbers released on a given Thursday reflected viewing from four weeks earlier. As of this week, however, Nielsen is cutting that lag time by more than 60 percent, from 28 days to 11. It’s not quite real time, but it’s a much more current snapshot of what people are watching on streaming services than the previous setup. HBO's Lanterns makes its first appearance in the weekly charts for Aug. 31-Sept. 6, tallying 500m minutes of watch time for that week. Prime Video’s Reacher (1.25b minutes) led the overall rankings and had its fourth consecutive week over 1b minutes. The streaming rankings.
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TV Review: 'Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story'
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►"Lots of killers, tons of filler." THR's Angie Han reviews Netflix's Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story. Ella Beatty plays the infamous axe murderess in the latest chapter in the Monster anthology series. Also starring Vicky Krieps, Charlie Hunnam, Rebecca Hall, Sarah Paulson, Jessica Barden, Joey Pollari and Billie Lourd. Created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan. The review.
—"Filled with great moments and frustrating choices." THR's chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg reviews HBO's JAŸ-Z in 8. The rapper and his friend/collaborator/series director Rick Rubin make their way through Shawn Carter's highlights, song by song, in eight beautifully shot black-and-white episodes. The review.
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Film Review: 'Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo'
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►"A sluggish neo-noir oddly lacking in tension." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Takashi Miike's Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo. The Japanese cult director follows Abel Ferrara and Werner Herzog in charting the downward spiral of a corrupt detective with a drug habit, this time navigating the yakuza underworld. Starring Shun Oguri, Lily James, Shotaro Mamiya, Liv Morgan, Jun Kunimura, Hiroshi Tachi, Shuhei Nomura, Nanase Nishino and Yuka Kouri. Written by Daisuke Tengan. The review.
—"Grim but riveting." David reviews Tim Blake Nelson's The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd. Amanda Seyfried and Scoot McNairy lead the death row drama that premiered in Toronto. Also starring Missi Pyle, Devyn Tyler, Elizabeth Marvel, Tim Blake Nelson, Grant Harvey, William Jackson Harper and Wunmi Mosaku. Written by Tim Blake Nelson. The review.
—"Will most appeal to kids too young to see it." THR's Frank Scheck reviews Michael Lewen's Tiny Fugitives. Jackass star Johnny Knoxville plays a counselor desperately trying to retrieve some of his charges, who've made a break for it. Also starring Benjamin Pajak, Aaron Harris, Isa Bernal Steiner, Jai Soundar, Alyssa Gervasi, Briana Templeton, Rob Yang, Blake Anderson and Jay Baruchel. Written by Michael Lewen and Jacob Kaplan. The review.
—"Little that you haven't seen before." Frank reviews Mi Steinbach's Strange Neighbors. Premiering at the Oldenburg International Film Festival, the documentary examines the disparity between the wildlife on a small island and the factories, ships, and refineries closely adjacent to it. The review.
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►All the latest content from THR's podcast studio.
—Gerbil. The Richard Gere gerbil rumor won’t die. Why? Did a movie star really show up at a hospital in the 1980s with a rodent in his rectum he’d inserted for sexual pleasure? Investigative reporter Allen Salkin spent six-years examining documents and interviewing Hollywood players, doctors and everyone involved to answer everything — including why it matters more than ever. THR presents Gerbil, a new podcast series that explores the origin and spread of the tenacious urban legend, and what it says about our society. The podcast.
In other news...
—The Kardashians S8 trailer: Kim reveals health scare
—MTV VMAs: Lisa, Shaboozey and Raye among performers
—Tokyo: Fest unveils gala and anime selections, featuring Wild Horse Nine and Grotesqqque
—Busan: Alfonso Cuarón to make first visit to South Korea
—Zurich: Cary Joji Fukunaga, Sine Plambech named feature and doc jury presidents
—Dan Abrams-led media company Law & Crime signs with WME
—Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi welcome second child through adoption
What else we're reading...
—Josef Adalian wonders if Amazon Prime Video can fix a broken Primetime Emmy Awards telecast [Vulture]
—Alissa Wilkinson writes that movies like The Social Reckoning reflect growing discontent with Silicon Valley founders. But "such films may be at the mercy of the companies themselves" [NYT]
—Ian Bogost digs into the litany of existential problems facing U.S. colleges, writing that "successive, overlapping crises reveal that American higher education makes no sense" [The Atlantic]
—Rebecca Bellan reports that OpenAI caught its models leaving notes to successors to hide bad behavior [TechCrunch]
—Here's your Friday list: Dancing With the Stars: The 35 best dances ever [THR]
Today...
...in 2015, Lionsgate released Denis Villeneuve's Sicario in theaters. Written by Taylor Sheridan, the action drama starred Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin and Daniel Kaluuya, was a critical and commercial hit and spawned a 2018 sequel. The original review.
Today's birthdays...
James Marsden (53), Jason Sudeikis (51), Aisha Tyler (56), Jada Pinkett Smith (55), Billy Eichner (48), Holly Robinson Peete (62), Aidan Gallagher (23), Christina Chong (43), Christopher Heyerdahl (63), Alison Lohman (47), Patrick Schwarzenegger (33), Tara Fitzgerald (59), Adeel Akhtar (46), Beth Grant (77), Charity Wakefield (46), Babs Olusanmokun (42), Anna Thomson (73), Chris Riggi (41), Sepideh Moafi (41), Nina Arianda (42), Tim McInnerny (70), Michael Landes (54), Frankie Avalon (86), Keeley Hazell (40), Denis Ménochet (50), Priya Bapat (40), Travis Schuldt (52), Jinkx Monsoon (39), Anna Deavere Smith (76), Jackson Robert Scott (18), Nicole da Silva (45), Jeremiah Birkett (62), Carrie Genzel (55), Sophina Brown (50)
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Rosalind Ashford, one of the three original members of Martha and the Vandellas who sang on such Motown classics as “Dancing in the Street,” “Heat Wave” and “Jimmy Mack,” has died. She was 83. The obituary.
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