| | | | | | Geopolitics can make Hollywood's titanic battles seem small, and today is one of those days. That said, this Weekender edition has both breaking news that matters now as well as the features worth revisiting. Lets start with what's next at Paramount...— Erik Hayden
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Now It's His Turn State attorneys general. Foreign approvals. Consumer lawsuits. Even without the Justice Department stepping in, Paramount faces several roadblocks to completing its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros.
All eyes turn to two people next: Makan Delrahim, a savvy legal operator who's familiar with the ins-and-outs of D.C. dealmaking and is the architect of Paramount's merger blueprint, and Rob Bonta, California's top prosecutor who will likely lead the effort among state attorneys general to block the deal. Winston Cho on the legal battle.
The stakes...
TV - Including co-productions, Warner Bros. Television Group's various production units and Paramount's studios together have more than 100 series currently airing or about to premiere and another 25 to 30 more either greenlit for future dates or in development. Rick Porter's story.
FILM - While exhibitors didn’t necessarily trust Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos when he pledged to give Warner Bros. movies a 45-day exclusive run in theaters, they find it hard to fathom that Warners and Paramount will be able to release a combined 30 films a year. Further, they believe the merger would vest one studio with far too much power. Pamela McClintock's read.
ALSO: Netflix, of course, now finds itself with nearly $3 billion more on its balance sheet to play with at the same time that two of its competitors will be in integration mode, potentially giving it an opportunity to steal some big projects and to continue pursuing its aggressive agenda in streaming. “This year, we’ll invest approximately $20 billion in quality films and series,” co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said Thursday. Alex Weprin's story.
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Clock Is Ticking SHOT: As Bari Weiss pursues her reimagining of CBS News, insiders are wondering how the network's flagship newsmagazine 60 Minutes will manage the transition.
CHASER: Assuming the Paramount deal goes through, major change is coming for CNN. Weiss is widely expected to expand her remit. That being said, CNN is a substantially stronger business than CBS News, despite neither outlet dominating the ratings charts.
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$100M Spacey Battle What actually killed Kevin Spacey's appearance from the sixth season of House of Cards? The star's testimony will reopen scrutiny of his downfall but the real stakes are over how production companies will be able to insure their investments. And now, a trial is underway that will decide whether MRC is owed upward of $100 million. Winston Cho's report.
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Being Benicio Hollywood's soft-spoken powerhouse on "trying to enjoy" his first Academy Award nom in two decades and the great childhood trauma he thinks about every single day. "You’re an interpreter," he says of his approach to acting. "If you don’t understand the writer, you cannot do it." Seth Abramovitch's cover story. |
Epstein's Spin Machine Jeffrey Epstein has kept public relations professionals busy with crisis management work ever since Palm Beach police first arrested him on prostitution charges in 2006. The latest tranches of Justice Department documentation provide fresh insight into who they were, what they did and how much they were paid. Gary Baum's report.
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AI v. Activists Seedance. Sora. Billions in VC cash. With each day bringing new visions of Armageddon, studios, talent and lawmakers are fiercely pushing back against a rewrite no one agreed to. The number of AI studios blanketing Hollywood, along with the VC dollars to power them, is increasing at an astonishing rate. Steven Zeitchik's report.
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A Few Questions For Jason Blum, Blumhouse mogul
Speaking to scaling projects, you’re redoing or re-imagining The Exorcist, you’re relaunching Saw, you tried to make a play for the rights to Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Are you focusing more now on name IP?
"Part of the company is definitely focusing on more name IP. Because in a post-COVID world, the originals that are working are fewer and far between, and the ones that are, are much bigger. In the last two and a half years, there’s been one movie under $5 million that’s broken out…"
Which one is that?
"The only super low budget movie that crossed over was Longlegs. And that was two years ago now. Obviously the originals that have completely connected with the audience last year, Sinners and Weapons, are much, much bigger movies. But the other movies that are really, really working are IP."
Borys Kit's Q&A.
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Quoted "I wanna be clear about something: We will not profit from the White House event independently." — TKO president Mark Shapiro, estimating his company may lose $30 million on a UFC fight at the White House. "Merging with Paramount Skydance is like a shotgun wedding with your dumb cousin. I fear for the health of the kids." — Gregory Orr, grandson of Warner Bros. founder Jack Warner. "We investigated and found that the trader was employed as an editor for the streamer’s show." — A rep for prediction platform Kalshi, accusing an editor of MrBeast of insider trading based on Jimmy Donaldson’s videos. "I couldn’t live truthfully until I told it in my own words, on my own terms." — ex- Call Her Daddy host Sofia Franklyn, on penning a memoir about a break up with podcast co-creator Alex Cooper. "How are we going to define podcasts in six weeks, six months, six years?" — Sue-Anne Morrow, the national director of contract strategic initiatives and podcasts at SAG-AFTRA, on organizing the space. "The way audiences discover and connect with nonfiction storytelling continues to evolve." — Tom McDonald, exec vp content for Nat Geo, which is now turning to creators to boost its digital effort. |
What's in a Name? "From wry self-effacement, the Screen Actors Guild has suddenly opted for self-erasure. The guild's flagship awards ceremony, scheduled for streaming on Netflix on March 1, will now be henceforth known as 'The Actors Awards presented by SAG-AFTRA.' The demotion from network to Netflix may be a necessary concession ... but the decision to rebrand, or rather un-brand, the SAG awards is a judgment call, and a bad one." Thomas Doherty's column. |
Laughing at Death "The late Willie Garson, who played Carrie’s gay best friend Stanford Blatch on Sex in the City, was closeted about his terminal illness. But in private he helped me make the best of my own diagnosis." Annabelle Gurwitch's essay. |
'I Have Tourette Syndrome' "I didn’t find out I had Tourette Syndrome from a doctor — I found out from a 20/20 special. When I was in school, a young Black kid who was constantly speaking out and acting out in class, my mother and I didn’t know what I had until we saw people interviewed about their condition on television ... Now, my position as the second-ranking elected official in New York City, the highest ranking Black leader in city government, means I’m in a very visible space with a very visible disability." Jumaane Williams' guest column. |
The Surreal Life At 95, legendary avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky — most famous for his unfinished Dune — is finally looking back. The Chilean-born polymath still resists easy definition: surrealist filmmaker, playwright, mime, comics architect, poet, mystic. To call him a director feels reductive. To call him a cult figure ignores the scale of his influence. Seth Abramovitch's story. |
Life After Gilead Max Minghella, the actor formerly known as Commander Blain on The Handmaid’s Tale, takes on an even more morally compromised character in Industry. "Normally the way it goes for me is, I get sent a script and immediately think, 'I don’t want to see myself in this,'" he says. Seija Rankin's profile. |
Around Town Artist Lauren Halsey (alongside Chris Rock) teamed with Citizens of Humanity for an event in L.A. Zach Braff, Donald Faison, John C. McGinley, Sarah Chalke and Judy Reyes premiered the Scrubs revival in L.A. Eva Victor joined Elle Fanning for a screening of Sentimental Value at Vidiots. KPop Demon Hunters' May Hong, Arden Cho, Ji-young Yoo, Michelle Wong, Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans celebrated their wins at the Annie Awards. Blake Cooper Griffin toasted his debut book in West Hollywood, along with support from Anthony Carrigan. Wagner Moura, Adolpho Veloso and Clint Bentley made an appearance at Netflix's Train Dreams pop-up gallery in L.A. on Wednesday. All 42 photos from this week's premieres and parties. |
The Bottom Line Snapshots from THR's team of critics: Morgan Neville’s Paul McCartney documentary Man on the Run is "revelatory" and a "deftly crafted portrait." Paramount's Scream 7 is "dead creatively, if not commercially." Luke Grimes' Yellowstone spinoff Marshals "struggles to escape its predecessor’s shadow." HBO's Jason Bateman, David Harbour and Linda Cardellini murder mystery DTF St. Louis is "coarse and semi-funny, then sentimental and semi-moving." Kevin Kline and Laura Linney's MGM+ theater comedy American Classic is "blandly sunny and dully old-fashioned." Amazon's Civil War miniseries The Gray House, starring Mary-Louise Parker, is a "a throwback mess." ABC's Scrubs revival is "still funny in bursts." |
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