| | | | | | What's news: TikTok is hurtling towards a U.S. ban. Joan Plowright has died. Stephen King has called for the Oscars to be canceled. Netflix's Narnia will release in Imax theaters. Trump has named Jon Voight, Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone Hollywood "special ambassadors." Amazon says 50m viewers worldwide have watched Beast Games. — Abid Rahman
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David Lynch 1946 - 2025 ►"There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us." David Lynch, the writer-director whose films and TV series including Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks portrayed a seemingly bucolic America, only to reveal it as teeming with the mysterious and macabre, has died. He was 78. In August, he revealed that he was suffering from emphysema after many years of smoking and that he couldn’t leave home for fear that he would get COVID-19. Nobody who saw Lynch’s works could mistake them for anyone else’s. Unlike other leading auteurs, he didn’t belong to a movement or fit easily into a genre. Critic Pauline Kael called him "the first populist surrealist." The obituary.
—"A gracious man and fearless artist." A host of filmmakers, actors, musicians, artists and other creatives took to social media to pay tribute to David Lynch after news of his death was released. Steven Spielberg, James Gunn, Ron Howard, Kyle MacLachlan, Naomi Watts, Sting, Judd Apatow and Billy Corgan were among the people who remembered Lynch and his work on Thursday. The reaction.
—"Unique and visionary artist." The international film community is also paying tribute to David Lynch. On Friday, the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals honored the American auteur for his impact on contemporary cinema. Lynch was a Cannes regular. He won the Palme d’Or for Wild at Heart in 1990 and best director honors for Mulholland Drive in 2001. He served as jury president in 2002. Venice presented Lynch with its Golden Lion for career achievement in 2006, screening Inland Empire, his last feature film as a director. Isabella Rossellini, who had her breakthrough role in Blue Velvet , and who was the director's romantic partner for several years, posted a recent photo of the two of them on her Instagram early Friday morning, including the simple caption: "I loved him so much." The reaction.
—"Rare is the artist whose work is such a game-changer that the only way to describe it is to transform their last name into an adjective." THR critic Jordan Mintzer offers his tribute to David Lynch, a visionary filmmaker who spoke to our darker selves. Jordan writes that by laying bare American life's hidden horrors and absurdities, Lynch held up a distorted but unsettlingly truthful mirror. The critic's appreciation.
—"His artistic signature is unmistakable." A forthcoming book on David Lynch's musical and literary influences is topping Amazon’s Comparative Literature book chart following the news of the iconic filmmaker’s death. Out Feb. 6, David Lynch's American Dreamscape: Music, Literature, Cinema explores how the late auteur inspired a generation of creatives, including singer Lana Del Rey and author David Foster Wallace. The book. |
What We Lost in the Fires, What We Saved in the Fires ►"On Thursday morning, I woke up, and I just couldn’t stop crying." Hollywood pays tribute to the irreplaceable artifacts and cultural touchstones that were destroyed in the fires, including The Wizard of Oz piano, Altadena’s historic Black haven, The Reel Inn and Ray Kappe’s Keeler House. The story.
—"And I grabbed her Emmy because she was so proud of it." Industry denizens who lost their homes in the fires reveal a deeply personal possession they raced to rescue — from Joan Rivers’ Emmy to an irreplaceable totem of rock history to a herd of horses — in the harried moments before they fled. The story.
—Postcard from the edge. It’s too soon to know how the region — and the entertainment industry — might recover from the devastating fires. For THR, Matthew Specktor writes that nothing will be as it was, and solidarity is the only defense against the next disaster. The story. |
Wildfires Benefit Concert Lineup Revealed ►Stellar. Billie Eilish and Finneas, Earth, Wind & Fire, Gracie Abrams, Green Day, Gwen Stefani, Jelly Roll, Joni Mitchell, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Lil Baby, Pink, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rod Stewart, Sting, Stephen Stills, Stevie Nicks and Tate McRae, are set to perform at FireAid, the upcoming benefit concert in the wake of the devastating wildfires. Also taking the stage together for the first time: Dave Matthews and John Mayer. More acts and special guests will be confirmed in the coming days. The show was originally slated for the Intuit Dome on Jan. 30, but will now also include nearby Inglewood venue The Forum. The story.
—"This person is a SCAMMER and a LIAR." Disgraced Grey’s Anatomy writer Elisabeth Finch is facing an online backlash after announcing on social media that she was collecting funds for wildfire relief directly to her Venmo account. Finch’s post was flagged by Jamie Denbo, a veteran actress, TV writer and co-executive producer for Grey’s. She reshared it and slammed Finch while revealing some of her fraudulent past behavior, including faking having cancer and losing a kidney, that was detailed on the recent Peacock docuseries Anatomy of Lies. The story.
—"No glitz with Los Angeles on fire." Stephen King is the latest celebrity to urge the top film Academy to cancel the Oscars in the wake of the wildfires. “Not voting in the Oscars this year,” King wrote on Bluesky, the social platform he joined after ditching X recently. "IMHO they should cancel them," the famed author added. King did receive significant push back for his comments. Even among King's followers in the left-leaning Bluesky, people were largely against the idea of scrapping the show. The Academy has consistently said it has no intention of canceling the Oscars. The story. |
TikTok Shocker: Ban Upheld By Supreme Court ►Seismic. In a ruling that will ripple across digital media, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a law effectively subjecting TikTok to a national ban on Sunday. Absent an 11th-hour lifeline from Donald Trump, who has said he can reach a deal to rescue the app, the massively popular social media platform used by roughly half the country will be shut down. The justices, in a ruling issued on Friday, concluded that the law isn’t in direct conflict with the First Amendment because it’s aimed at TikTok’s ownership of a company alleged to be controlled by China rather than its free speech rights. The law directs ByteDance, the app’s parent company, to sell TikTok by Jan. 19. If not, web-hosting services and mobile app stores will be barred from carrying TikTok. The story.
—"BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!" Donald Trump has named Jon Voight, Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone as Hollywood’s “special ambassadors,” with the aim of boosting domestic production of film and TV shows as the entertainment industry increasingly opts to shoot in other countries. The message signals that Trump may intervene in the flight of production away from the country and to other locations with more generous tax incentives for film and TV shows. Other countries, including the U.K., Canada and Australia, have steadily been beefing up their programs aimed at luring Hollywood productions. The story. |
Justin Baldoni Files $400M Suit Against Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds ►"Duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni." A legal showdown continues to erupt over misconduct allegations in the filming of It Ends With Us, with Justin Baldoni suing Blake Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for orchestrating a campaign to smear him. Baldoni, in a lawsuit filed Thursday, alleges extortion, defamation and claims related to breach of contract, among several others. He’s joined by his film studio, Wayfarer, and its chief executive Jamey Heath, and their public relations representatives, Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel. They seek at least $400m. The story.
—"Another chapter in the abuser handbook." Hours after Justin Baldoni filed the lawsuit in New York federal court, Blake Lively's legal team fired back. “This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim. This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender,” read the statement from the legal firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. The story.
—Baldoni v. Nicepool. In the increasingly bitter legal battle between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively, the character of Nicepool from the Marvel smash hit Deadpool & Wolverine has entered the fray. Baldoni's team say Nicepool was created to mock the It Ends With Us director. Sources tell THR's Aaron Couch and Borys Kit that scenes involving the character were shot late in production on Deadpool 3 . But Nicepool was developed before tensions between Baldoni and Lively boiled over. The story. |
Joan Plowright 1929 - 2025 ►"She enjoyed a long and illustrious career across theatre, film and TV over seven decades." Joan Plowright, the distinguished actress of the post-war British stage whose considerable skill as a performer was at times eclipsed by her fame as the third and last wife of Laurence Olivier, has died. She was 95. Plowright died on Jan. 16 surrounded by family in her native U.K. A Tony Award winner in 1961 for Tony Richardson and George Devine’s A Taste of Honey and an Oscar nominee for Mike Newell’s Enchanted April (1991), Plowright belonged to a celebrated group of British actresses (Judi Dench and Maggie Smith among them) who came into their own in the 1960s and ’70s. The obituary.
—"I’m Blessed dawg to not be in a casket or paralyzed." DeRon Horton, one of the series regulars on Netflix‘s Dear White People, is recovering from a gunshot wound that broke and shattered his arm. The 32-year-old actor took to Instagram on Thursday to post harrowing details of the incident along with graphic photos of his injury from the hospital, including the gunshot wound, his bloodied arm, a long incision and series of stitches on his forearm. Though he doesn’t provide a location of the shooting, Horton did share that it happened a few days before the Christmas holiday. The story.
—Harrowing attack. Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan was stabbed in a scuffle with an intruder at his home early Thursday and underwent surgery at a hospital. The 54-year-old actor, who starred in Netflix’s Sacred Games, was taken to the hospital from his home in Mumbai, the country’s financial and entertainment capital, where he lives with his movie star wife Kareena Kapoor and two sons. Two of the six wounds were deep, with one near his spine, the Press Trust of India news agency cited a doctor at Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital as saying. The story. |
Netflix Relents and Gives Greta Gerwig's 'Narnia' Imax Release ►Huge change in policy. Netflix has partnered with Imax for a global release of Greta Gerwig’s Narnia two weeks ahead of the film’s streaming debut. The film, based on the Chronicles of Narnia book series by C.S. Lewis, is currently set for an Imax release on Thanksgiving Day 2026, before a debut on Netflix during the Christmas period that year. The landmark deal is a win for Imax, which partners with Netflix as it seeks another limited, promotional theatrical run for one of its movie titles. With Narnia, the two-week exclusive window for Imax was crucial to establishing a long enough run to satisfy theater circuits that operate Imax auditoriums. The story.
—🏆 No big surprises 🏆 On Thursday, the Producers Guild of America revealed the 2025 PGA Awards nominations across film and TV categories. For the guild’s top film prize, the Daryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures, the nominees are Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Pérez, A Real Pain, September 5, The Substance and Wicked. On the TV side, the drama series nominees are Bad Sisters, The Diplomat, Fallout, Shogun and Slow Horses. The nominations.
—🏆 Usual suspects 🏆 The American Society of Cinematographers has announced its nominees for the 39th annual ASC Awards. The Brutalist, Conclave, Wicked, Hacks, Only Murders in the Building and Masters of the Air are among the nominees. Winners will be honored at the gala on Feb. 23 at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. The ceremony will also be live-streamed on the ASC’s website. The nominations.
—🎭 Hubby found 🎭 Joel McHale has joined the cast of Spyglass Entertainment's Scream 7. The Community and Yellowjackets star will play Mark Evans, the husband to Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott. Earlier, Isabel May was tapped to play Campbell’s daughter in Scream 7. The seventh edition of the Scream franchise has retooled after losing its young stars Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera. Kevin Williamson — the creator of the franchise who penned the script to the Wes Craven-directed original, as well as Scream 2 and Scream 4 — is directing. Guy Busick, who wrote 2022's Scream and Scream VI, wrote the script. The story. |
Amazon Claims Big Worldwide Audience for 'Beast Games' ►Beast mode. The massive YouTube reach of Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson seems to have translated some to Amazon Prime Video. The streamer says some 50m viewers worldwide have watched Beast Games, a competition series co-created and hosted by Donaldson, in its first 25 days of release (which includes the first half of a 10-episode season). Prime Video says the show is its second-largest new series debut of 2024, behind Fallout — which hit 65m viewers over its first 16 days, according to the streamer. As with other data Amazon has provided about its series, the company doesn’t say whether the 50m figure is an average viewing figure (a la Nielsen ratings for traditional TV) or the number of people who have watched a few minutes of Beast Games . About half of viewing has come outside the U.S., per Amazon. The story.
—Abrupt end. Apple TV+'s comedy The Completely Made–Up Adventures of Dick Turpin will not return. The show has ceased production on series two. British tabloid The Sun first reported the news, adding that titular star Noel Fielding — well known among U.S. audiences as a co-host of The Great British Baking Show — pulled out three-quarters of the way through the shoot. Filming started on a second series in the fall, but 51-year-old Fielding did not return after the Christmas holidays, The Sun reported. The cast and crew have now been stood down. The story.
—More cozy crime coming up. Fox has renewed Murder in a Small Town, the show based on the Karl Alberg series of novels by L.R. Wright, for a second season. The pickup marks Fox’s first renewal of live-action scripted show for the 2025-26 season. Murder in a Small Town follows Karl Alberg (Rossif Sutherland), who moves to a quiet, coastal town as an escape from the burdens big-city police work. He quickly learns, however, that his new home has more than its share of secrets, and he will need to use all the skills that made him a world-class detective in solving cases that continue to wash up on his shore. The story. |
Film Review: 'Back In Action' ►"Familiar but fun." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Seth Gordon's Back In Action. Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, Andrew Scott, Kyle Chandler and Glenn Close star in this caper about a pair of retired undercover agents dragged back into the spy game along with their unknowing children. The review. |
Thank Pod It's Friday ►All the latest content from THR's podcast studio.
—Awards Chatter. THR's executive awards editor Scott Feinberg talks to the great and the good of Hollywood. In this episode, Scott spoke to The Room Next Door star Tilda Swinton. The enigmatic Scottish Oscar winner, who doesn't consider herself an actress, reflects on her formative collaborations with Derek Jarman, how she wound up juggling the artiest of art house films with the biggest of big studio films and why she was so drawn to working with Pedro Almodóvar. Listen here.
—Awards Chatter. Scott also spoke to Mike Leigh. The legendary English filmmaker reflects on the origins and specifics of his mysterious method of writing and directing; why he was forced to spend 17 years between his first and second theatrical features working in television, and the pros and cons of that; and how it feels to see his latest film Hard Truths, which was rejected by the Cannes, Venice and Telluride film fests, being so well received. Listen here.
In other news...
—You S5 teaser sees Penn Badgley going "back to where it began"
—John Cena, Logan Paul hit the road in Roku’s What Drives You talk show trailer
—Erin Doherty battles Stephen Graham outside the ring in A Thousand Blows trailer
—Outlander prequel Blood of My Blood showcases two new romances in first teaser
—Laverne Cox reunites with estranged father as a trans woman in trailer for Clean Slate
—Jessica Alba and Cash Warren split after 16 years of marriage
—Jeannot Szwarc, director of Somewhere in Time and Jaws 2, dies at 87
—Bob Uecker, light-hitting catcher turned comic actor and broadcaster, dies at 90
—Eric Weissmann, entertainment attorney who repped Robert Altman and Elizabeth Taylor, dies at 94
What else we're reading...
—Eliyahu Kamisher, Laura Curtis, and Kara Carlson report that burning Teslas in L.A. are adding to the toxic mix hindering the wildfire cleanup [Bloomberg]
—Chris Lee outlines why Paramount risked (and lost) so much money on Robbie Williams biopic Better Man [Vulture]
—Mike IsaacNico Grant and Kate Conger report that YouTube and Instagram are preparing to profit if TikTok is banned [NYT]
—Matt Zoller Seitz reflects on David Lynch's work and how it contemplated "life, death, and the indescribable realms in between" [Vulture]
—Here's your Friday list: "All 12 David Lynch films and TV shows, ranked" [Indiewire]
Today...
...in 2014, Universal released Tim Story's Ride Along in theaters. The buddy cop action comedy starred Ice Cube and Kevin Hart and was a big box office hit and spawned an equally lucrative sequel in 2016. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Song Kang-ho (58), Jim Carrey (63), Zooey Deschanel (45), Leigh Whannell (48), Kelly Marie Tran (36), Amy Sherman-Palladino (59), Brian Helgeland (64), Kevin Reynolds (73), Steve Harvey (68), Willa Fitzgerald (34), Isa Briones (26), Lucy Boynton (31), Naveen Andrews (56), Joshua Malina (59), Don Gilet (58), Denis O'Hare (63), Charithra Chandran (28), Freddy Rodríguez (50), Cathy Belton (55), Hale Appleman (39), Jonathan Keltz (37), Susanna Hoffs (66), Ryan Gage (42), Sadie Soverall (23), Nigel Lindsay (56), Indya Moore (30), Harry Collett (21), David Blue (43), Braxton Beckham (24), Kathrine Herzer (28), Genndy Tartakovsky (55), D.J. Caruso (60), Linda Kash (64), Adriana Ugarte (40), Max Adler (39), Bart Freundlich (55), Mason Temple (29), Joseph C. Phillips (63), James Waterston (56) |
| Ronnie Yeskel, the Emmy-nominated casting director who worked on the Quentin Tarantino films Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction and shows including L.A. Law and Curb Your Enthusiasm, has died. She was 76. The obituary. |
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