What's news: Pixar, Lionsgate and Paramount led the way in the latest round of California tax credits. Joe Rogan and Spotify renew partnership. Netflix has renewed The Hunting Wives and picked up a spinoff series based on Bridgerton character Lady Violet. And the 2027 Super Bowl will stream on Disney+. — Abid Rahman
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L.A.'s Studio Lot Values Are Cratering |
►The bad news. Six years ago, Los Angeles soundstages emerged as some of the most coveted properties in real estate. Studios were pouring money into original movies and TV shows, and seemingly every square foot of production space appeared to be spoken for, as it had been for a long time. Now, some of those same properties are sitting in foreclosure as the region sees historically low film and TV production levels, reports THR's Winston Cho. The story.
—The good news! Pixar, Lionsgate and Paramount led the way in the latest round of tax credits granted to productions by California’s film office for shooting in the state. Combined, the 35 movies that will spend roughly $635.3m across 1,049 shoot days were awarded $226.1m. They include 28 independent movies, eight of which have budgets above $10m. Pixar took the largest award, receiving $40.1m for an untitled animated feature. Lionsgate’s Michael 2 (working title), the sequel to the studio’s Michael Jackson biopic, nabbed $30.8m. The story.
—The kinda OK news? A soundstage facility broke ground in Illinois this week, with its owner and Gov. JB Pritzker touting the state’s generous tax credit as a key reason for its existence. When it’s finished, Hollywood River Studios will feature six soundstages with 144,000 square feet of production space along with an office building and warehouse facilities. The facility is in Wood River, Illinois, about 15 miles north of (and across the Mississippi River from) St. Louis, Missouri. The story.
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Xbox Forms New Film and TV Division |
►Chicken jockeying for position. Asha Sharma’s Xbox is going (even more) Hollywood. The company has created a new entertainment division, called XP (for “Experience Points”), that is “focused on helping Xbox franchises reach fans beyond gameplay through film and television adaptations, consumer products, partnerships, and live experiences.” Kayleen Walters, currently president of Minecraft studio Mojang and formerly of Lucasfilm and EP of A Minecraft Movie, will be XP’s president. Maria Angelidou-Smith joins Xbox as Mojang CEO. The story.
—In it for the love of the games. Tony Driscoll, who headed up Paramount Games Studio, has been named Skydance‘s president of games and experiences. He’ll inherit the well-established WB Games (the Mortal Kombat and Batman series, Hogwart’s Legacy) into his portfolio; the relatively new Paramount Games Studio was itself a combination of Paramount’s gaming assets and Skydance’s. The story.
—🤝 Re-up. 🤝Joe Rogan has renewed his partnership with Spotify. The top podcast host has entered into a new multiyear licensing agreement with the platform, which will continue to see episodes of his show distributed on Spotify and widely. Spotify and Rogan first inked a deal in 2020, which saw The Joe Rogan Show exclusively available on Spotify. In 2024, as Spotify dissolved its other exclusive deals, The Joe Rogan Show became distributed widely. The story.
—Doubling up. Spotify and Louis Theroux’s Mindhouse Studios are set to release twice as many episodes of The Louis Theroux Podcast, with season nine launching Oct. 14 and new installments arriving weekly. The next season of the interview series brings together an eclectic lineup, including A-list Hollywood director Judd Apatow, Monty Python legend Eric Idle, and heavyweight boxer Tyson Fury. The story.
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The Most Powerful Man in Music Isn't Afraid of AI
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►"Seen it, done it, got the T-shirt." Universal Music Group boss Lucian Grainge has survived Napster, piracy, Kanye, and a $64b hostile takeover bid, not to mention a friendly rivalry with his son. AI is just the next disruption to tame, he tells THR's Ethan Millman. The interview.
—Grammy predictions! For THR, Alan Light writes that this season's Grammy Awards race has brought new music from such heavy hitters as Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars and Harry Styles. But the album of the year race may come down to the two Olivias: Dean and Rodrigo. The analysis.
—It’s Ella Langley’s race to lose. This year’s best new artist race might have looked very different if the Grammys hadn’t quietly changed one important rule. Until this year, artists only got three shots at being “new.” Now they get four — a small tweak that put several contenders back in play. Most notably, Ella Langley. The analysis.
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Disney+ Will Stream the 2027 Super Bowl
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►Leaning into The Big Game. Next year’s Super Bowl LXI will be the first for ESPN in the sport media brand’s history, and its parent company is going all-in to make it as widely accessible as possible. That includes a simulcast on ABC, of course, alternate broadcasts like the Manningcast, and, Disney announced Wednesday, streaming simulcast available on Disney+ in both English and Spanish. Disney will also make two Monday Night Football games available to stream on Disney+ later this fall, expanding the roster of included live sports as well as Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest. The story.
—📅 Dated! 📅 CBS News has scheduled a town hall with Vice President J.D. Vance ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil will moderate the Oct. 17 event in Michigan, where elections for key seats in the Senate and House are taking place. Michigan voters, who also will be electing their first new governor in eight years, will be in attendance from across the political spectrum. They will be able to ask questions and share their thoughts. The story.
—Broadcast debut. Alex Warren has been tapped to host the 2026 Kids’ Choice Awards, where Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter lead the list of nominees for the orange blimp statuette. The show, officially titled CBS Presents Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards, will air live at 8-9:30 p.m. ET/5-6:30 p.m. PT on Nov. 14 from Television City in Los Angeles. This year marks the first time that the show will air on CBS in addition to Nickelodeon. The story.
—📅 Coming back. 📅 Angel Studios' Homestead: The Series is reemerging from its bunker. Comprised of eight episodes, Homestead: The Series season two will premiere on Nov. 3. The prepper series is the sequel to the 2024 movie Homestead starring Neal McDonough, itself based on the bestselling Black Autumn book series by Jeff Kirkham and Jason Ross. The story.
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Netflix Picks Up 'Bridgerton' Lady Violet Prequel
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►🟢 Back to the Regency well. 🟢 Netflix has picked up another spinoff of Bridgerton. Like 2023’s Queen Charlotte, the new limited series will focus on the younger days of a character from the main series — in this case, Lady Violet Bridgerton. The currently untitled show will chronicle the romance between Lady Violet (née Ledger) and Viscount Edmund Bridgerton. No cast has been announced yet. Ruth Gemmell plays Violet in Bridgerton; Connie Jenkins-Greig played a younger version of the character in Queen Charlotte. The story.
—🟢 Quick on the trigger. 🟢 The Hunting Wives have hit their mark — and landed an early renewal. The Netflix series from Rebecca Cutter starring Malin Akerman and Brittany Snow, who lead a cutthroat yet soapy set of Texas housewives, has nabbed a season three renewal ahead of season two’s return. Season two, which was announced in September, returns Thanksgiving Day with the original (surviving) cast reprising their roles. The third season will be another eight episodes, with a release date and cast yet to be announced. The story.
—🟢 No-brainer. 🟢 USA Network‘s rebuild of a scripted series roster continues with the renewal of Anna Pigeon. The cable outlet has picked up a second season of the show, which stars Tracy Spiridakos as a crime-solving national park ranger. The renewal for Anna Pigeon, which is based on a series of novels by Nevada Barr, comes before its Oct. 9 season finale. The series premiere drew 2.35m viewers over seven days, making it the best debut for a USA scripted show since 2018. The story.
—📅 Court date. 📅 The second season of Hulu's buzzy and divisive heightened legal drama All’s Fair, starring Kim Kardashian, Naomi Watts, Niecy Nash-Betts, Teyana Taylor, Sarah Paulson and Glenn Close, is back with a wild trailer and a release date: Nov. 4. The Ryan Murphy co-created series comes back with a vengeance in season two, when the all-female firm of high-powered divorce lawyers picks up where season one left off. The story.
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Is the World Finally Ready for 'The Devils'? |
►Good Lord! It was so shocking that censors demanded it be removed in its entirety. Its director later feared the footage had been destroyed. Now Warner Bros. has restored the notorious “Rape of Christ” sequence to Ken Russell’s The Devils: frenzied nuns pull down a huge crucifix and sexually defile its sculpted figure of Jesus. THR's Seth Abramovitch looks at how footage feared destroyed was recovered and restored to the notorious film, more than half a century after censors demanded its removal. The story.
—🎭 Santi found. 🎭 Julio Peña has joined the cast of Amazon MGM Studios‘ Throttled, an upcoming film based on the book from Lauren Ashers’ Dirty Air series. The actor joins previously announced stars Nicole Wallace and Josh Heuston. In the upcoming romance, Peña will play Santi Alatorre, “the older brother of Maya Alatorre (portrayed by Wallace) and a driver on the racing circuit whose teammate and fiercest rival, Noah Slade (Heuston), falls into a forbidden romance with Maya." The story.
—Heading Down Under. Twilight and Mafia Mamma filmmaker Catherine Hardwicke has been tapped to direct American River, a female-led Western for Bronte Studios. The project, penned by Eric Esau, is set to start shooting in Australia during the second quarter of 2027. Set at the dawn of the Gold Rush in California in 1848, American River follows four women from vastly different backgrounds as they are thrown together by circumstance. The story.
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►"A fun spooky-season surprise." THR's chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg reviews Netflix's Below. The six-part series focuses on a fisherman in a remote village, his quirky family and an aquatic monster capable of easily sinking ships. Starring Josh Hartnett, Mackenzie Davis, Charlie Heaton, Natasha Henstridge, Willow Kean and Ruby Stokes. Created by Jesse McKeown. The review.
—"Donald Trump's wildest fantasy." THR's Frank Scheck reviews Renny Harlin's The Beast. A U.S. president and a severely wounded Secret Service agent battle it out with hordes of terrorists in this action-thriller. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Joel Kinnaman and Guy Burnet. Written by Umair Aleem. The review.
In other news...
—THR honors The Koreans star Han Ji-min with Trailblazer Award at Busan Fest gala
—Alexander Skarsgard’s Wicker gets immersive with 4DX screening event
—Jack Reynor to be honored at the Oscar Wilde Awards
—Creator Maurice Kamara signs with UTA
—Marilyn Monroe and Sydney Sweeney are related
—Michael Kearns, actor, activist and Jerker director, Dies at 76
What else we're reading...
—Phil Hoad looks at whether Sacha Baron Cohen’s new Ali G film can restore the personality-driven comedy genre to big screens or end it altogether [Guardian]
—Josef Adalian wonders if Amazon Prime Video can fix a broken Emmys telecast [Vulture]
—Laura Miller reviews The Big Short and Moneyball author Michael Lewis' new book on the catastrophe that was DOGE [Slate]
—Max Tani reports that AI nonprofit The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism will spend $10m on mainstream and independent coverage of artificial intelligence [Semafor]
—Even in the Golden Age of American corruption, this Dana Mattioli, Drew Hinshaw, Rebecca Ballhaus and Joe Parkinson story about Kimberly Guilfoyle is a jaw-dropping [WSJ]
Today...
...in 2010, Sony Pictures Classics released Charles Ferguson's Inside Job in theaters. The doc about the 2008 financial crisis was critically acclaimed and won an Academy Award. The original review.
Today's birthdays...
Sigourney Weaver (77), Matt Damon (56), Tom Rhys Harries (🏴34), Martin Henderson (52), Paul Hogan (87), Karyn Parsons (60), Edward Zwick (74), Nick Cannon (46), David Yates (63), Bruno Mars (41), Anne-Marie Duff (56), Bella Thorne (29), Molly C. Quinn (33), Kristanna Loken (47), Percy Hynes White (25), Jeremy Davies (57), Ian Hart (62), Emily Procter (58), Chevy Chase (83), Angus T. Jones (33), Peter Greene (61), Travis Wester (49), Stephanie Zimbalist (70), Ardal O'Hanlon (61), Michael Dudikoff (72), Barbara Palvin (33), Dylan Neal (57), J.R. Ramirez (46), Susanna Fogel (46), Eddie Hargitay (48), Nick Bakay (67), Darrell Hammond (71), R.L. Stine (83), Amy Beth Hayes (44)
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Frank Mancuso Sr., who rose from jobs as a theater usher and film buyer in Buffalo, New York, to become the chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures and then MGM, has died. He was 93. The obituary.
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