What's news: Glen Powell is set to star in Richard Linklater's Lou Gehrig movie. Benicio Del Toro will star in his first TV comedy series for Apple. A new Ali G film is coming to theaters in October. Netflix has renewed Beauty in Black. Sony is eyeing Ridley Scott's Treasure Island. And the lineup for Venice has been revealed, including Alex Gibney's 4-hour Elon Musk doc. — Abid Rahman
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Even Republicans Now Want to Save Hollywood |
►Bipartisan effort. David Ellison’s trip to D.C. on July 13 to court Republican members of a key House committee shone a spotlight once again on the federal film tax incentive, a potentially game-changing legislative effort to claw back some of the film and TV production work that the U.S. has lost to overseas locales. Despite the drama and passions stoked by Ellison's Paramount trying to seal its megamerger with Warner Bros. Discovery, THR's Katie Kilkenny writes that some GOP lawmakers are now backing the legislation to keep shoots in the U.S. The story.
—Feu vert. Some good news for David Ellison: Competition enforcers in the European Union have signed off on Paramount‘s bid for WBD, another key approval as the company fights a legal challenge from a coalition of 12 states. The European Commission cleared the deal on Wednesday after Paramount agreed to withdraw from United International Pictures, its film distribution joint venture with Universal Pictures. The studio also said it wouldn’t enter into any film distribution deal with Universal for the next ten years. The story.
—Pratt fall. Failed L.A. mayoral hopeful and former reality TV star Spencer Pratt released a lengthy, AI-assisted screed taking down the lawsuit filed by 12 state attorneys general against the Paramount-WBD deal. In a lengthy TikTok video, which splices in AI-generated cutaways, Pratt channels Alex Jones by sitting behind a desk and yelling into the camera as he argues the state’s leaders want jobs out of California. The story.
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Saved! Cinerama Dome to Reopen in Early 2028 |
►🤝 Sony to the rescue. 🤝 After years of dormancy, Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome is officially getting a new owner. Sony Pictures Entertainment has announced plans to restore and reopen the iconic theater, with the Sony-owned Alamo Drafthouse Cinema set to operate the location. Renovations will start next month, with a reopening planned for early 2028. As part of the deal, Sony will also take over operations of the former ArcLight Theater that sits next door to the Cinerama Dome. The 14-screen theater, which has 35mm and 70mm projection capabilities, will be operated by Alamo Drafthouse, which Sony purchased in 2024. The story.
—The games are afoot. Amazon is making a move to embed its Amazon Luna cloud gaming service within its Prime Video platform, enabling much easier discovery for the video game offering. Games, including titles like Hogwarts Legacy, EA Sports FC 26 and Clue will be available starting today inside Prime Video, for users with an Amazon Fire TV device. The story.
—Cash quest. THR's Alex Weprin and Steven Zeitchik have the scoop that Primordial Soup, the AI film and content studio launched by filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, is raising cash as AI-first filmmaking continues to proliferate. Earlier this month Primordial Soup Labs, Inc., which lists Aronofsky and his producing partner Dylan Golden as executive officers, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a $15m equity raise. The document said that the company had sold just over $11m of that total so far, with the first sale taking place July 1. The story.
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Peacock Turns Its First-Ever Profit!
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►The long nightmare is over. Almost six years after NBCUniversal first launched Peacock, the streaming service reported its first ever profitable quarter. Peacock reported its Q2 earnings early Thursday, with EBTIDA of $189m, and subscribers growing to 48m, driven by the NBA playoffs, FIFA World Cup, and Love Island. Overall, parent company Comcast’s content and experiences businesses reported revenue of $10.7b, up 22.9 percent from a year ago, and adjusted EBITA of $1.3b, up 7.1 percent. The results.
—Woof! YouTube ads earned Google more than $11b from April to June 2026 — up 13 percent from the same period last year — and that wasn’t even Alphabet‘s biggest second-quarter highlight. Alphabet revenues in total grew 24 percent year-to-year to $120b. All told, Google’s ad revenue (Google Search, YouTube, and Google Network) rose to $81.6b. The lion’s share of that is good, old-fashioned Google Search, which alone accounted for $63.3b. Another $12.9b came from subscriptions and nearly $25b from cloud services. The results.
—Thanks Chris! The Odyssey, shot entirely on Imax film cameras and seen by cinema-goers on Imax premium large format screens, helps explain the lift the film technologies company received from Hollywood’s premium screen gold rush with its second quarter financial results out on Thursday. Imax had revenue of $102.8m in the quarter, up 12 percent from $91.7m in the year-ago period, while net income rose 30 percent to $15.9m, compared to a year-earlier $12m. The results.
—Missing out. Spanish-language media giant TelevisaUnivision reported a 29 percent U.S. advertising revenue drop and an 11 percent total U.S. revenue decline to $722m in the second quarter when NBCUniversal’s Telemundo, its rival, featured the Spanish-language rights to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The results.
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The 2026 World Cup by the Record-Breaking TV Numbers
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►Woooooooooof! Pretty much from the opening kick, the 2026 men’s World Cup was setting viewing records in the U.S. Having the World Cup in North America — which from a TV perspective meant afternoon and evening timeslots for nearly every match, a huge advantage over the past few World Cups — certainly helped fuel the ratings. Changes to the way Nielsen measures on-air viewing in recent years also helped around the margins. But even with those advantages, writes THR's Rick Porter, both Fox and Telemundo blew past expectations for how successful a TV event it would be. The analysis.
—Surprise! Netflix has renewed Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black for a fourth season ahead of its season 3 debut later this year. Back in December, when the streamer revealed the season 3 renewal news for the popular drama, it was believed that the third season would be the final chapter in the Bellarie family saga. "There was so much more I wanted to explore and I’m grateful I get to keep telling this story," said Perry. The story.
—Across the sea. Korean hitmaker Yeon Sang-ho’s Parasyte universe is getting an all-new host body to infect. Netflix has unveiled Parasyte: Tamiya, an upcoming Japanese season of the hit sci-fi horror series that is a K-drama reimagining of artist Hitoshi Iwaaki’s best-selling manga. Yeon returns as the lead creative force behind the show, having developed its story and co-written all episodes with his regular collaborator Ryu Yong-jae. The new season is already in post-production and will premiere in 2027. The story.
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Del Toro to Star in Stiller-Judge's Apple Comedy Series |
►🎭 Crack open a few small beers. 🎭 Benicio Del Toro has been cast as the star of the upcoming Apple TV comedy Protective Custody, also starring and executive produced by Ben Stiller. Mike Judge, Steve Hely and Dave King will write the series, which marks the first leading role in a comedy series for Del Toro. Protective Custody will follow “a disgraced financier accused of massive fraud who is thrown into protective custody, where he must navigate prison politics, salvage his reputation and confront the consequences of his actions while awaiting trial." The story.
—🟢 Hoots mon! 🟢 Paramount+ is gearing up to transport viewers to the Scottish Highlands. The streamer has greenlit the series Laird, a family drama starring and executive produced by Kenneth Branagh. The series will follow a local estate owner, the Laird of Castle Drummoch (Branagh), who challenges the ambitions of an American billionaire intent on buying up large swaths of the glens. MobLand showrunner and The Agency co-creator Jez Butterworth created the project alongside his brother John-Henry Butterworth, as well as The 100 producer Georgia Lee. The story.
—🤝 Sold! 🤝 Apple TV has acquired the rights to adapt Rebecca Yarros' new, unreleased, novel Peculiar Stars. The streamer still needs a writer for its adaptation. Yarros will executive produce the series through her Full Measures Productions banner. The logline for the book reads, "After a cyclone strands a young woman on a deserted island with a member of her fiancé’s family, survival upends everything she thought she knew about love. But when they’re finally rescued, and re-enter their world of privilege, expectation and secrets, homecoming proves far more dangerous than the island they left behind." The story.
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Powell to Star in Linklater's Lou Gehrig Movie
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►🎭 Batter up. 🎭 Glen Powell is set to star in Universal's movie about Lou Gehrig that Richard Linklater is attached to direct. Gehrig played first base for the Yankees and was part of the famed 1927 lineup known as “Murderers’ Row” that included Babe Ruth. Gehrig died in 1941 at age 37 after battling ALS. Artificial writer Simon Rich is penning the script. Producers for the untitled project include Lorne Michaels and Erin David for Broadway Video through its first-look deal with Universal. Additionally, Powell will produce with Dan Cohen under Barnstorm’s first-look deal with the studio, while Linklater is in talks to produce for Detour Filmproduction. The story.
—📅 Booyakasha! 📅 Sacha Baron Cohen is ready to bring back Ali G to get a little respect. Amazon MGM Studios announced Wednesday that it will release Ali G: Who Iz I? in theaters Oct. 23. Plot details have not yet been shared for the movie that will mark Cohen’s directorial feature debut. The star, who most recently led this year’s Netflix comedy Ladies First, has been working on the project on and off for the past few years, shooting it in various cities. The story.
—Deal edging closer. Ridley Scott and Hugh Jackman are taking their Treasure Island movie to Sony, which is in talks to acquire the package from the duo. Scott will direct from a script by Adolescence's Jack Thorne, with Jackman starring in the feature based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s work. Stevenson tale told of a young cabin boy named Jim who finds himself in possession of a treasure map. Soon, he is on a hunt for lost treasure, dealing with Long John Silver, a one-legged cook who is secretly a pirate and who leads a murderous mutiny. The story.
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Jonathan Levine in Talks to Direct 'Days of Thunder 2'
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►In pole position. THR's Borys "Skewpz" Kit has the scoop on director Jonathan Levine in talks to helm Paramount's Days of Thunder 2. Tom Cruise is on board to star in the follow-up to his 1990 racing drama and is producing with Jerry Bruckheimer. Paramount’s tapping of Levine, whose deal is in the midst of negotiations, is a strong vote of confidence in Mr. Irrelevant, its upcoming sports drama that Levine helmed. That movie, which stars David Corenswet and has a prime Christmas Day wide release, has been hitting stratospheric highs during test screenings earlier this spring. The story.
—KABOOM! "What was David Zaslav thinking?" That’s the question anyone watching the hilarious first trailer for the highly anticipated Coyote vs. Acme will be asking themselves, especially after the WBD CEO infamously tried to vault the completed film for a tax write-off. The two-minute clip sets up a David vs. Goliath legal battle with a Looney Tunes twist as perennially unlucky Coyote links up with a struggling billboard attorney (Will Forte) to sue the Acme Corp. for their faulty products. The story.
—📅 Dated! 📅 A crime feature starring Tiffany Haddish is set to make a splash in theaters. Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired The Girl in the River and will release the thriller in theaters and on digital platforms Sept. 4. Maggie Grace, Devon Sawa and Ralph Macchio round out the cast for writer-director Brando Benetton’s movie. The film centers on an experienced criminologist and a young psychologist who head to a small Mississippi town after a girl is murdered and her twin sister goes missing. The story.
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Venice Reveals All-Star Lineup
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►🤌 Bomba! 🤌 The line-up for the 2026 Venice Film Festival, unveiled on Thursday, looks like another star-studded affair featuring plenty of titles with strong award-season potential. Bold-faced names including Robert Pattinson, Penélope Cruz, Alicia Vikander and, according to artistic director Alberto Barbera, Oasis rockers Noel and Liam Gallagher, will be heading to the Lido this year. The 83rd Biennale will also feature new features from festival faves, including Werner Herzog, Hirokazu Koreeda, Lee Chang-dong, Nanni Moretti, and Martin McDonagh. The lineup.
—Thorough. Alex Gibney‘s long-gestating Elon Musk doc is finally ready for showtime. Musk, Gibney's years-in-the-making portrait of the controversial oligarch, will premiere in Venice — and it arrives at a scale perhaps befitting the world’s first trillionaire: 232 minutes, just shy of four hours. Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera revealed the selection in Rome Thursday while unveiling the festival’s 2026 lineup, and he paused to make sure the audience appreciated just how much Elon has been packed into Gibney’s examination. “I invite you to look at the duration of the movie — four hours,” Barbera said with a wry smile. The story.
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Is It Curtains for Broadway Musicals?
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►"A lot of my colleagues have never had a show that has lasted more than a year." The Aug. 8 closing announcement for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway sent shock waves through the industry, not just because of the closure itself but because of what it says about the future of the musical genre. THR's Caitlin Huston talks to insiders about the challenges facing Broadway in an environment of rising costs and changing audience behaviors. The analysis.
—Proof positive. Ayo Edebiri and Don Cheadle's Proof played the final performance of its limited run July 19, with grosses rebounding back up to $934,473. Soon-to-close Cats: The Jellicle Ball also upped its box office tally last week, with the musical bringing in $823,972 across just seven performances, compared to the prior week’s $766,808 across eight performances. Capacity jumped up to 97 percent from 82 percent the prior week. Hamilton was the highest grossing show, bringing in $2.2m, followed by Death of a Salesman with $2.06m, The Lion King with $1.9m, MJ with $1.8m and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child with $1.6m. The Broadway box office report.
—End of an era. Oskar Eustis, the long-serving artistic director of the Public Theater and a prominent player in the theater world, will step down after 23 years at the helm. Eustis, who oversaw the creation of Tony-winning shows including Hamilton and Fun Home at the Off-Broadway theater, will not renew his contract after it concludes July 31, 2028, which is the 60th anniversary of the Public. The story.
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TV Review: 'Stuart Fails to Save the Universe' |
►"Occasionally fun, frequently frustrating." THR's Angie Han reviews HBO Max's Stuart Fails to Save the Universe. In this Big Bang Theory spinoff, Kevin Sussman reprises his role as the awkward comic book store owner, who comes into possession of a dimension-hopping device that could destroy all of reality as he knows it. Also starring Lauren Lapkus, Brian Posehn and John Ross Bowie. Created by Chuck Lorre, Zak Penn and Bill Prady. The review.
—"Comes together gratifyingly in its second half." THR's chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg reviews Hulu's Furious. This Epstein-era serial killer thriller is an eight-part cat-and-mouse series loosely based on the 1987 Debra Winger/Theresa Russell film Black Widow. Starring Emmy Rossum, Lola Petticrew, Scoot McNairy and Quincy Tyler Bernstine. Created by Elizabeth Meriwether. The review.
In other news...
—Amazon reveals trailer to crossover event, The Chosen in the Wild With Bear Grylls
—Christine Vachon, Ewan McGregor, Kenneth Branagh at Edinburgh industry event
—Victoria Monét announces new album Frequency of Love
—Matt Rife sets 4-night comedy cruise for 2027
—Sarajevo Film Festival unveils 51 films in competition
—Lego at Comic-Con: Star Wars and Pokémon activations, Star Trek and Donkey Kong sets
What else we're reading...
—Miles Surrey writes that the massive success of The Odyssey shows when studios should ignore online chatter [Bloomberg]
—Rachel Metz, Jeff Stone, and Natalie Lung report that the concerning OpenAI bot hack of Hugging Face took hours rather than the weeks it should have taken [Bloomberg]
—Ana Lucía González Paz, Prina Shah and Garry Blight have a feature on the most powerful passports in the world [Guardian]
—With the constant heat waves and very little AC, Tariro Mzezewa wonders whether U.S. travelers should give up on summer vacations in Western Europe [NYT]
—With the Commonwealth Games set to open in Glasgow, Matthew Henry looks at the precarious future of the 96-year-old sporting event [BBC]
Today...
...in 2004, Warner Bros. unveiled Halle Berry in Catwoman, a would-be blockbuster that disappointed with critics and audiences and grossed $82m globally. The original review.
Today's birthdays...
Daniel Radcliffe (37), Kathryn Hahn (53), Marlon Wayans (54), Shawn Levy (58), Woody Harrelson (65), Charisma Carpenter (56), Ronny Cox (88), Paul Wesley (44), Lili Simmons (33), Shane McRae (49), Eriq La Salle (64), Samantha Beckinsale (60), Gratiela Brancusi (37), Tom Mison (44), Pippa Bennett-Warner (38), Britne Oldford (34), Edie McClurg (81), Kelvin Harrison Jr. (32), Belinda Montgomery (76), Stephanie March (52), Larry Manetti (79), Kathryn Gallagher (33), Claudia Salas (32), Lydia Cornell (73), Silvia Colloca (49), Evelyn McGee-Colbert (63), Rob Stewart (65), Rick Glassman (42), Natasha Yarovenko (47), David Kaufman (65), Tosin Cole (34), Helena Howard (28), Abigail Donnelly (24)
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