| | | | | | What's news: It's magazine day! This week's cover stars are Aziz Ansari, Seth Rogen and Keanu Reeves, the creative talent behind the hotly anticipated comedy, Good Fortune. Peacock’s Office spinoff The Paper has been renewed for a second season. Paramount and Activision have signed a major movie deal for the Call of Duty franchise. Jane Krakowski will take over the lead role in Oh, Mary! And Jimmy Kimmel Live! is taping five shows in Brooklyn. — Abid Rahman
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Why Aziz, Seth and Keanu Are Praying for a Little 'Good Fortune' ►On the cover. Several weeks into filming Good Fortune — a low-key comedy written by, directed by and starring Aziz Ansari — co-star Keanu Reeves threw the production into complete chaos by snapping his kneecap. Ansari took in the unfolding nightmare and began to panic. Good Fortune was his plan B. Plan A had been a very different film, a passion project about aging and death called Being Mortal, which was shuttered three weeks into production after its star, Bill Murray, was found to have engaged in “inappropriate behavior” with a female assistant. In any case, Ansari had no plan C. After near-cancellation and a blown-up directorial debut, Ansari reveals to THR's Seth Abramovitch how he finally came to make his new angel-themed comedy that breaks every Hollywood commandment: "It still feels like something from The Studio." The cover story. |
Fox, Skip Bayless Settle Sexual Misconduct Suit ►Move to dismiss. A lawsuit against Fox Sports from a hairstylist accusing longtime talk show host Skip Bayless and network executive Charlie Dixon of making unwanted sexual advances has settled. Noushin Faraji moved on Thursday to dismiss claims for sexual battery, hostile work environment and retaliation, among others, with her lawyers proceeding with the prospective class action over failure to pay minimum wage on behalf of other workers. Terms of the settlement weren’t disclosed. “We are pleased that this matter has been resolved,” said Fox in a statement. “There will be no further comment.” The story.
—🤝 Settlement. 🤝 Disney has agreed to pay $10m to settle a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission accusing it of illegally collecting personal data from children on YouTube. The agency challenged the entertainment giant’s mislabeling of certain videos made for youngsters, which allowed it to serve targeted ads. The deal opens the door for similar payouts from big entertainment companies that may have also failed to specifically designate their content on YouTube as made for children. In a statement, a company spokesperson said the settlement doesn’t involve Disney-owned and operated platforms and is “limited to the distribution of some of our content” on YouTube. The story.
—More legal woes. Disney has been sued for pay discrimination by one of its former top lawyers, expanding a legal battle over claims from female employees who say they’re paid less than their male counterparts for similar work. The lawsuit points to systemic pay inequality at Disney, which last year settled a class action from roughly 9,000 workers in California across the company’s production and distribution arms, broadcast stations and theme parks, among various other corporate divisions. Under the deal, Disney agreed to pay $43.25m and retain experts to address salary disparities between men and women employees. The story. |
Spin Sale Collapses After Buyer Doesn't Wire Money ►Spinning out of control. It was supposed to be a new chapter for Spin magazine — and it sounded, at least in terms of the diminished expectations of the current media landscape, like a theoretically decent one, too. Next Management Partners, the Santa Monica-based venture capital firm that owns the Bob Guccione Jr.-edited magazine brand, had a deal in place to sell the publisher to the Dennis Cunningham-run Airtab, a Florida-based events platform that connects bookers with local artists. THR's Erik Hayden reports that talks had been ongoing for the past eight months, both sides had incurred about six-figures on legal bills hammering out the details, a major concert had been planned and a 1,200-word embargoed deal announcement was ready to go — but the closing cash was never sent. The story.
—Allez! French media giant Canal+ has entered exclusive negotiations to acquire a 34 percent minority stake in UGC, one of France’s largest cinema chains, with an option to take full control of the company in 2028. The deal would combine Canal+’s production and distribution arm, StudioCanal, with UGC’s exhibition network of 55 theaters across France and Belgium, including the UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles in Paris, one of the most visited cinemas in the world. UGC also owns a significant library of films and television series, including French blockbusters Amélie, the Serial (Bad) Weddings franchise and the hit TV series HPI – High Potential. The story.
—Arrested. Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan was arrested at Heathrow Airport on Monday after arriving on a flight from Arizona and faces an investigation over recent anti-trans social media posts on X. "On Monday, 1 September at 13:00 hours officers arrested a man at Heathrow Airport after he arrived on an inbound American Airlines flight. The man in his 50s was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence. This is in relation to posts on X," the Metropolitan Police told THR in a statement on Tuesday. Linehan was not named directly in the statement, but multiple outlets, including the BBC, reported that Linehan was the person arrested. And Linehan himself wrote about the arrest on his Substack. The story. |
'SNL' Adds 5 to Main Cast ►🎭 Fresh meat. 🎭 A few days after four people departed the Saturday Night Live cast, the NBC sketch series is bringing several new members into its ensemble — including one already familiar to viewers of recent seasons. Ben Marshall, an SNL writer since 2021 and a member of Please Don’t Destroy, will join the cast as a featured player for the 2025-26 season. Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson and Veronika Slowikowska have also been named featured players. The announcement of the new featured players comes after a week that saw castmembers Heidi Gardner, Michael Longfellow, Emil Wakim and Devon Walker leave the show in the largest cast turnover since 2022. The story.
—Breaking up the band. The Please Don’t Destroy era at SNL is coming to an end. Ben Marshall, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy have starred in a series of Please Don’t Destroy filmed sketches since they joined the SNL writing staff in 2021. With Marshall joining the show’s cast as a featured player, the news came that Higgins is leaving the show to pursue other opportunities, while Herlihy will remain a writer. Sources tell THR that with the trio no longer all employed at SNL, no more Please Don’t Destroy sketches are planned. The story. |
Judy Reyes Boards 'Scrubs' Revival at ABC ►🎭 New residency. 🎭 Another member of the Sacred Heart Hospital staff will be on call for ABC’s Scrubs revival. Judy Reyes has signed on to the show to reprise her role as Carla Espinosa, Sacred Heart’s head nurse and Dr. Chris Turk’s (Donald Faison) wife. She’ll recur on Scrubs and be billed as a special guest star, while continuing her series regular role on another ABC series, High Potential. Reyes joins Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke and Faison in the revival, which ABC formally picked up in July after several months of development. It’s set for a midseason premiere in 2025-26. The story.
—Feeling confident! Peacock’s The Paper, a spinoff series to NBC’s classic comedy The Office, has been renewed one day ahead of its release date. The series hails from former Office showrunner Greg Daniels and Michael Koman. All 10 episodes will be available to stream on Peacock on Thursday. The renewal was announced on the Today show Wednesday morning. The move is a big vote of confidence from NBC. A source says Daniels has already started ideas for the second season and the network wanted to keep up the momentum. The early renewal will also give the show a regular cadence, so it can premiere the same time next year. The story.
—Going on location. Jimmy Kimmel is heading back to Brooklyn in the fall. Jimmy Kimmel Live! is taping five shows in front of a live studio audience from the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House in New York, the host announced during Tuesday night’s show in his return from summer hiatus. The tapings will run from Sept. 29 through Oct. 3, and one of the guests will be none other than Stephen Colbert, as the latter late night host prepares for his nine-month final season of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert following its shocking cancellation earlier this summer by CBS. The story.
—The gang's all here. Dancing With the Stars has its full cast for season 34. The ABC/Disney+ series, set to premiere Sept. 16, will bring 14 celebrities into the ballroom, with 10 of them revealed Wednesday on Good Morning America. They are author and influencer Hilaria Baldwin (who’s also Alec Baldwin’s wife); Olympic gold medalist Jordan Chiles; retired NBA star Baron Davis; recent The Traitors winner Dylan Efron (brother of Zac); actor and musician Corey Feldman; Boy Meets World/Girl Meets World star Danielle Fishel; The Parent Trap and Freakier Friday actress Elaine Hendrix; singer Scott Hoying of Pentatonix; singer Lauren Jauregui of Fifth Harmony; and comedian and actor Andy Richter. The story.
—Oh hamburgers! South Park returns this week, airing a fresh new season 27 episode on Wednesday night that looks to bring back fan favorite Butters, Satan and yes, the new season’s long-awaited addition, Donald Trump, as it wades into the latter’s tariffs and how they impact the residents in the small Colorado mountain town. In a brief promotional spot, viewers find Butters in hot water at the principal’s office. It seems that he’s been trying to get his hands on a Labubu doll as a gift for his girlfriend’s birthday. But then he runs afoul of … Trump’s tariffs. The story. |
'Call of Duty': Paramount, Activision Strike Major Film Deal ►🤝 Heading to the big screen. 🤝 In a move that Paramount CEO David Ellison calls a “dream come true,” the Call of Duty video game franchise will become a big screen movie franchise, thanks to a major deal between the entertainment studio and Activision. The two companies have inked a deal that will see the studio develop, produce and distribute a live-action film based on the game franchise, "designed to thrill its massive global fan base by delivering on the hallmarks of what fans love about the iconic series, while boldly expanding the franchise to entirely new audiences." The deal is a big one, with Call of Duty among the most popular video game franchises in the world. 500m copies of its various games have been sold over the years, with the series being the top-selling game franchise in the U.S. for the past 16 years. The series is a first-person shooter, spanning various eras from World War II and Vietnam to the current day and decades in the future. The story.
—No, not that League of Gentlemen. Dexter Fletcher, perhaps best known for helming Elton John biopic Rocketman, is attached to direct The League of Gentlemen, Paramount Pictures’ reimagining of a 1960 British heist movie. Bek Smith, who earned a story credit on the billion-dollar-grossing Moana 2, wrote the script. The feature project is described as a modern-day remake of the 1960 movie of the same name. That film, which adapted a 1958 novel by John Boland, told of former British Army officers who rob a bank in London. Jack Hawkins and Richard Attenborough were among the stars. The story.
—11-minutes! Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite (review below) lit up the screen at the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday night as the Netflix action pic had its world premiere inside Sala Grande. The audience gave the nuclear disaster thriller an enthusiastic thumbs up with an extended 11-minute standing ovation. Amid chants of “bravo,” Bigelow clasped her hands and bowed her head with gratitude as cast members like Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson embraced their filmmaker. “Thank you,” Bigelow said as she soaked in the reception. “Wow.” The recap.
—📅 Dated! 📅 Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia, widely hailed as a return to form for the 2013 Oscar winner, has locked down its theatrical release date in North American cinemas. Mubi will open La Grazia in theaters on Dec. 5, teeing up a potential Oscars campaign for its inimitable Italian star, Toni Servillo. La Grazia opened the 82nd Venice Film Festival last week and was greeted with mostly rave reviews. The story.
—Landing spot. Filmmaker Tom Shadyac, known for such comedy films as Liar Liar and Bruce Almighty, is behind the documentary Memphis to the Mountain that is set to launch later this month. Director Zachary Barr’s three-part project will begin streaming Sept. 5 on Hulu and Disney+. Sender Films and Shady Acres Entertainment produced the doc that landed at content studio Andscape. Memphis to the Mountain follows a group of young climbers from an overlooked neighborhood in South Memphis who set out to summit the 16,000-foot rock tower of Mount Kenya, Africa’s second-highest peak. The story. |
Jane Krakowski to Star in 'Oh, Mary!' on Broadway ►🎭 Oh Jenna! 🎭 Jane Krakowski will take over the lead role in Oh, Mary! this winter. The 30 Rock star will play Mary Todd Lincoln for an eight-week run starting Oct. 14. Jinkx Monsoon, who is currently starring in the show, will finish her run Sept. 28. Hannah Solow, an understudy who has been with the production since its Off-Broadway run, will play the title role from Sept. 30 through Oct. 12. The role of Mary Todd Lincoln was originated by Cole Escola, who won a Tony Award for their portrayal, and also wrote the play. However, several actors have stepped into the role throughout the play’s run, including Tituss Burgess and Betty Gilpin. The story.
—Fit for... Purpose played its final Broadway last week and brought in just over $1m, marking the highest gross of its run. With that gross, the play, written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, also broke a house record at Hayes Theater, besting the tally brought in by Appropriate, another Jacobs-Jenkins play, last season. Purpose played to 100 percent capacity last week and had an average ticket price of $219.52 last week, the highest of its run. The play, about a prominent Black family contending with their political legacy, opened March 17 and won the Tony Award for best play, as well as the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Art , starring James Corden, Neil Patrick Harris and Bobby Cannavale, started previews Aug. 28 and brought in a strong $668,504 across three performances at the Music Box Theatre. The Broadway box office report.
—🎭 Broadway veteran. 🎭 Sarah Hyland will join the cast of the Broadway musical Just In Time opposite Jonathan Groff. The Modern Family star takes over the role of singer Connie Francis from Gracie Lawrence, who was Tony nominated for her portrayal. Lawrence, who leads a pop group alongside her brother Clyde, will play her final performance in the role on Oct. 5. Hyland begins Oct. 8. Additionally, Erika Henningsen will play her final performance as Sandra Dee on Sept. 14. Sadie Dickerson, a Missouri State University graduate, will make her Broadway debut as she takes over the role starting Sept. 16. The story. |
Film Review: 'A House of Dynamite' ►"Leaves you breathless." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Kathryn Bigelow's Venice competition entry, A House of Dynamite. The Netflix thriller captures from multiple perspectives the White House response to an unattributed missile launch headed for a major U.S. city in the harrowing 20 minutes until projected impact. Starring Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, Jonah Hauer-King, Greta Lee and Jason Clarke. Written by Noah Oppenheim. The review.
—"Power to the people." David reviews Gus Van Sant's Dead Man's Wire. In this fact-based crime thriller, that premiered out of competition in Venice, a regular American screwed over by bloodsucking money men strikes back. Starring Bill Skarsgard, Dacre Montgomery, Al Pacino, Colman Domingo, Myha’la, Cary Elwes, Kelly Lynch, John Robinson, Todd Gable, Marc Helms, Michael Ashcroft, Neil Mulac and Daniel R. Hill. Written by Austin Kolodney. The review.
—"Lives up to a classic." THR's Jordan Mintzer reviews François Ozon's Venice competition entry, The Stranger. Benjamin Voisin stars as one of literature's most famous existential killers in a film that takes liberties with the text to explore the effects of French colonialism in Algeria. Also starring Rebecca Marder, Pierre Lottin, Denis Lavant, Swann Arlaud, Hajar Bouzaouit and Abderrahmane Dehkani. Written by François Ozon, based on the novel by Albert Camus. The review.
—"A profound and piercing portrait of loss." Jordan reviews Ross McElwee's Remake. The 78-year-old director of Sherman's March and Bright Leaves returns to Venice with a film revisiting both his earlier work and a catastrophe in his personal life. Written by Ross McElwee. The review.
—"A sweet celebration, if not a profound one." THR's Angie Han reviews Nick Hooker's Karl. Tilda Swinton, Penélope Cruz and Tom Ford are among talking heads in a portrait of the late fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, directed by the filmmaker behind AKA Mr. Chow and premiering at the Telluride Film Festival. Written by Nick Hooker, Anna Price and William Middleton. The review.
In other news...
—Slow Horses S5 Trailer: Gary Oldman is ready for his performance review
—Samuel L. Jackson joins Sylvester Stallone in Tulsa King S3 trailer
—Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson face nuclear attack in Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite trailer
—London: Jay Kelly, Hamnet, Frankenstein, After The Hunt added to lineup
—VMAs set preshow details and presenters
—New Yorker Fest: Jon Stewart, Emma Thompson, Christopher Guest talks added to lineup
—NYFW: Machine Gun Kelly, Iman and Zac Posen to be honored
—Esa-Pekka Salonen back with the Los Angeles Philharmonic
What else we're reading...
—Dan Gallagher and Asa Fitch write that Google’s big court win is an even bigger win for Apple [WSJ]
—In the age of "poptimism", Kelefa Sanneh looks at how music criticism lost its edge [New Yorker]
—Alissa Wilkinson wonders whether the Sphere version of The Wizard of Oz is the future of cinema, or the end of it [NYT]
—The New York Times has put together a photo essay of China's 80th anniversary military parade [NYT]
—Peter Beaumont and Alice Speri report that the leaked "Gaza Riviera" plan has been dismissed as an "insane" attempt to cover ethnic cleansing [Guardian]
Today...
...in 2010, 20th Century Fox released Robert Rodriguez's Machete in theaters. The exploitation action film starring Danny Trejo as Machete Cortez was a box office hit and spawned a 2013 sequel, Machete Kills. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Charlie Sheen (60), Noah Baumbach (56), Jean-Pierre Jeunet (72), Holt McCallany (62), Garrett Hedlund (41), Steve Schirripa (68), Jack Dylan Grazer (22), Kaia Gerber (24), Maria Bamford (55), Nick Wechsler (47), Valerie Perrine (82), Clare Kramer (51), Costas Mandylor (60), Ashley Jones (49), Paz de la Huerta (41), Christine Woods (42), Lisa McGrillis (43), Nina Kiri (33), Nichole Hiltz (47), Leah McKendrick (39), Amy Lindsay (59), Jessalyn Wanlim (43), Yûki Kaji (40), AJ Raval (25), Eloise Webb (22), Ashley Boettcher (25), Annie McEnroe (70), Trevor St. John (54), Adam Brooks (69), Rita Volk (35), Vivek Oberoi (49), Angus Sutherland (43), Drena De Niro (58) |
| David Keighley, the first chief quality officer for Imax and a veteran of the large-format cinema platform for more than 50 years, has died. He was 77. The obituary. |
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