What's news: Candle Media has sold Hello Sunshine to Mediawan. Penske Media’s Golden Globes is suing the Golden Globe Foundation. Discovery+ is upping its prices. Girls is returning to HBO. Hulu gives a series order to Ryan Coogler's X-Files. And Netflix has debuted the first trailer for Greta Gerwig‘s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, and people have thoughts. — Abid Rahman
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Netflix Lays Off Around 1,000 Employees
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►Brutal. Netflix staff were informed that the company will undergo significant layoffs Wednesday, a source confirms to THR's Alex Weprin, as the streaming giant seeks a reset amid efforts to keep its global business growing. The company is expected to cut about 6 percent of its workforce, per a WSJ report, making it the largest staff reduction at the company since 2022. Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters announced the cuts in a memo to staff Wednesday morning. The story.
—🤝 Snuffed out. 🤝 Reese Witherspoon and European studio Mediawan have teamed up to buy Hello Sunshine back from Candle Media. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the agreement unites Hello Sunshine with Mediawan and its network that includes Chernin Entertainment and Plan B Entertainment. Candle Media acquired Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, which produces series like Big Little Lies and The Morning Show, in a deal valued at $900m in 2021. The story.
—New salvo. Penske Media’s Golden Globes has sued the Golden Globe Foundation, the latest escalation in a legal battle over ownership of the awards show. The lawsuit marks another front in a fight stemming from the Globes’ messy divorce from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group of non-American journalists that founded the awards show in 1943. Producer Dick Clark Productions — which shares the same ownership as THR — and Eldridge bought the Globes from the embattled association. That purchase is in court, with the HFPA alleging Penske Media and Eldridge fraudulently acquired the show as part of a larger plan to monopolize the awards market. The story.
—🤝 Content deal. 🤝 TikTok is deepening its commitment to the microdrama format with a new deal aimed at producing vertical stories starring creators. The company has inked an agreement with Made By Us Studios, the production arm of major creator management company Made By All, to co-produce creator-led vertical series for TikTok and its microdrama app PineDrama. It’s the social media company’s second major microdrama deal after it announced a partnership with Issa Rae’s Hoorae Media to co-develop microseries in April. The story.
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THR's First Animation Power List |
►An opening sketch. Animation has never been bigger or more difficult to pin down. In the past year alone, a K-pop-fueled Netflix phenomenon swept the Oscars, a Chinese sequel became the highest-grossing animated film of all time and a stick-figure animator built an audience of 34m-plus without ever setting foot in a studio. Which is why THR is launching its first-ever Animation Power List, a representative snapshot of the most important and influential figures working in animation today, across film, television and online. The list.
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Blair Pleads Not Guilty to Airline Assault
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►The latest. Selma Blair pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault at a Monday evening court appearance in Queens, New York less than 24 hours after the actress was arrested at JFK Airport for an alleged violent outburst on a Delta flight that injured two flight attendants and sent one to the hospital. Blair is also set to face separate charges from the FBI as the agency is responsible for investigating all assaults aboard aircraft. Blair’s bail was set at $20,000 cash or $60,000 bond, and the actress was released after making bail following the appearance. The story.
—Sentenced. The man found guilty of helping to orchestrate the 1996 murder of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison on Tuesday. Duane “Keffe D” Davis is the first and only person to have been convicted over Shakur’s death, with the former Southside Crips gang leader found guilty of murder, not on allegations of pulling the trigger himself, but as operating as the “shot caller” in the ordeal. The story.
—"Do not become an actor." Drake Bell is calling out SAG-AFTRA after he didn’t qualify for health insurance with the actors union. The Drake & Josh alum took to Instagram to share a screenshot of his account on the SAG-AFTRA health plan website, showing how he didn't qualify for coverage. The website said Bell has earned $17,480.53, but needs $11,452.47 more to qualify for coverage. As of 2026, SAG-AFTRA requires minimum earnings of $28,090 for its health plan. The story.
—Oh Kelly... Steve Ballmer's bête noire Pablo Torre promised us security footage from Kelly Clarkson’s now-viral visit to Art of Play in Brooklyn. Well, we did get the video on Tuesday night, but no audio — bummer. The American Idol star was in the toy store for exactly four minutes, 50 seconds. What we could see of the brief visit does not bode well for the singer. The story.
—Horrific. More tragedy and ride closures at Six Flags. The theme park chain is temporarily shutting down an additional nine coasters at six parks following the death of a rider who reportedly fell from a ride at Six Flags Over Georgia on Monday. While details of the death have not officially been confirmed, local media reports say a rider fell, or was thrown, from the 200-foot, 70-mph Goliath coaster. The story.
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Skydance's Sprawling TV Empire
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►150 series and counting... One of the key talking points CEO David Ellison and Paramount executives repeated in the run-up to its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery is that the combined company would produce 30 feature films each year. That’s a big output — but it pales compared to the number of TV productions the now combined company, Skydance, controls. THR's Rick Porter writes that the merged company's TV operations are more than 50 percent larger than Warner Bros. TV's slate — some tough choices may be ahead on what to combine and bet on. The story.
—Something good! Paramount is taking over the Bay Theater, the long-shuttered cinema at Palisades Village formerly leased by Netflix, adding to a wave of revivals of dormant movie theaters across L.A. Paramount Pictures and developer Rick Caruso on Tuesday announced plans to reopen the theater later this year, bringing first-run theatrical releases from all studios, classics and experiential events to the neighborhood cinema that has been closed since the wildfires ravaged the area last year. The story.
—Something bad! Discovery is upping the prices for its streaming service, while its fate at Skydance remains unknown. Discovery+ will increase its ad-supported plan by $1 to $6.99 a month and its ad-free plan by $2 to $11.99 a month in the U.S. A spokesperson confirmed that while these are taking effect under the new company, the price changes were planned before the close of the Paramount and Warner Bros. merger. The story.
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The Paternity Scandal That Outcrazied 'The Bachelor' |
►"I’ve tried to guess her next move — I’ve been wrong every time." THR's Jackie Strause goes inside the bizarre three-year ordeal behind Love Trapped, one of Apple’s biggest podcasts of 2026, that chronicled the recent history of Clayton Echard, a former polarizing star of The Bachelor. The people who lived through the fake pregnancy scandal reveal how an unbelievable accusation became a criminal case — and a Hollywood hot property. The story.
—🟢 The truth is still out there. 🟢 A reboot of The X-Files shepherded by Ryan Coogler has landed a series order at Hulu. The Sinners filmmaker wrote and directed the pilot episode, and will be an EP on the series, with Jennifer Yale serving as showrunner. Onyx Collective and 20th Television produce along with Coogler’s Proximity Media. Danielle Deadwyler and Himesh Patel will star in the series as "two highly decorated but vastly different FBI agents who form an unlikely bond when they are assigned to a long-shuttered division." The story.
—📅 Longtime coming. 📅 Mark Harmon and Michael Weatherly will be back on screen together for the first time in a decade. The duo will reunite for an episode for NCIS: Origins. The reunion finds Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Harmon) returning to NCIS’ D.C. headquarters to enlist the help of new director Tony DiNozzo (Weatherly) after Gibbs was shot by unknown assailants in the Origins season premiere on Oct. 6. The reunion episode will air Oct. 20 on CBS and stream on Paramount+. The story.
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'Girls' Is Returning to HBO
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►🟢 One conspicuous absence. 🟢 A decade after ending a run as one of the most discussed shows of the 2010s, Girls is returning to HBO. The Skydance outlet has picked up a five-episode, limited-run revival of the series, with creator and star Lena Dunham and castmates Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke, Zosia Mamet and Andrew Rannells all set to return. Not mentioned in the returning cast is Adam Driver, who played Hannah’s (Dunham) on-and-off boyfriend in the series. The story.
—🟢 Doubling up. 🟢 The live-action game show Surprise & Seek has been renewed for two season at Amazon Kids+, with season 2 getting a Halloween-themed makeover. The show, which hailed from INE Entertainment, led by Eric Day and Mark Koops, was the first unscripted original series for Kids+. The show transforms “the classic game of hide-and-seek into an epic adventure.” The story.
—🟢 Lana! LANAAAAAAAAAA! 🟢 HBO has ordered a new original half-hour animated comedy series, and gave it a two-season pickup to boot. The premium studio says that it has picked up Merrick & Treves, from veterans of FX’s Archer and Adult Swim‘s Frisky Dingo. Merrick & Treves is a period animated series, set in Queen Victoria’s top secret Royal Temporal Constabulary. The show “follows a team of unlikely heroes as they voyage back and forth through time in an effort to stop Jack the Ripper." The story.
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Gerwig Debuts 'Narnia' Trailer
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►"I love watching movies in the theater." In keeping with what will be its biggest theatrical debut release in history, Netflix debuted the first trailer for Greta Gerwig‘s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew in the Imax theater atop the AMC Lincoln Square on New York’s Upper West Side on Tuesday, and THR's Hilary Lewis was there. Gerwig, who also wrote the film, participated in a Q&A with Stephen Colbert, and revealed how she landed the fitting Led Zeppelin song in the preview. The recap.
—"This might be the most conflicted I’ve ever felt about a trailer." Adapting C.S. Lewis’ beloved children’s book series The Chronicles of Narnia is no easy task, and certainly one that’s primed for some online controversy. So it’s probably no surprise that the trailer for The Magician’s Nephew — chronologically the first novel in Lewis’ seven-book series — is getting some strong reactions on social media. The reaction.
—"One of the best horrors of the year!" The first reactions to DC Studios‘ much-talked about R-rated body horror film Clayface have hit social media and the early consensus seems to be genre fans will be very happy. Clayface doesn’t hit theaters until Oct. 23, and the critcs’ review embargo isn’t until Oct. 21, but DC held a number of screenings and a premiere on Tuesday night, and allowed brief social media reactions to the film. The word on the street suggests the film is compares favourably with the body horror classic The Fly. The reaction.
—"Nails the vibe and energy of anime in live-action." Also revealing first reactions is Paramount's Street Fighter, the latest big screen adaptation of Capcom‘s iconic video game. If you’re into dumb fun, then this film might be right up your alley, judging by the early opinion on the film. The film hits theaters on Oct. 16, and critics’ reviews drop today. The reaction.
—📅 Get in! 📅 Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Soccer is heading to North American and U.K. cinemas after finishing the summer as China’s biggest box office hit. Singapore-based distributor Encore Films said Wednesday that the comedy legend’s long-awaited Shaolin Soccer spinoff will open Oct. 23 in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Ireland. The rollout will include the original-language version and a newly produced English dub featuring voice performances by Chow, Jimmy O. Yang and MC Jin. The story.
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TV Review: 'Crystal Lake' |
►"Bloody well exceeds the low bar set by the movies." THR's chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg reviews Peacock's Crystal Lake. Emmy-winner Linda Cardellini plays Pamela Voorhees, mother of a missing special needs child, in this prequel/adaptation/reimagining of the landmark Friday the 13th slasher films. Also starring William Catlett, Davin Kessler, Cameron Scoggins and Gwendolyn Sunstrom. Developed by Brad Caleb Kane. The review.
In other news...
—Baywatch series reboot trailer dives back into lifeguard drama
—Olivia Rodrigo announces "Expectations" remix with Chappell Roan
—A Very Good+ Night of Comedy benefit books Jerry Seinfeld, Louis C.K. and Marcello Hernández
—Rosé set to perform at LACMA’s Art+Film Gala
—USC’s themed entertainment program hires Epic Universe's Steve Tatham as director
—New York Public Radio CEO Christy Tanner steps down
—Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes tie the knot in Arkansas
—Lucian Piane, former RuPaul’s Drag Race music oroducer, dies at 46
What else we're reading...
—Emmy Martin reports on wild events at OpenAI, where the F.B.I. has arrested an employee accused of planting a listening device in the office [NYT]
—Logan Murdock talks to Michael Che about his new comedy special and why he isn't considering leaving "Weekend Update" anytime soon [Ringer]
—Jeff Stein reports that the FTC, finally, is beginning to probe the U.S. sports gambling industry [Washington Sun]
—Bill Hutchinson reports that Anthropic's AI model made a false tip in an unsolved Philadelphia murder [ABC News]
—Geoffrey Macnab reports on legendary British filmmaker Peter Greenaway's new film being stuck in post-production hell for three years and counting [Guardian]
Today...
...in 1954, Paramount held the world premiere of White Christmas at Radio City Music Hall in New York. The Michael Curtiz-directed musical went on to earn an Oscar nomination for Irving Berlin song “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep” at the 27th Academy Awards. The original review.
Today's birthdays...
Steve Coogan (61), Lori Petty (63), Usher (48), Ben Whishaw (46), Jon Seda (56), Max Thieriot (38), Udo Kier (82), Rowan Blanchard (25), Greg Evigan (73), Mekai Curtis (26), Stacy Keibler (47), Chang Chen (50), Ariela Barer (28), Jay Pharoah (39), Christine Quinn (38), Skyler Shaye (40), Edwin Kho (37), Natalie Maines (52), Zoya Akhtar (54), Stephen A. Smith (59), Benh Zeitlin (44), Thomas Dolby (68), David Oakes (43), Jack Farthing (41), Mackenzie Mauzy (38), David Kaye (62), Owen Kline (35), Ruaridh Mollica (27)
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