| | | | | | What's news: Marvel is moving back the release dates of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Alex Garland will write and direct A24's movie adaptation of Elden Ring. Netflix has landed a series based on The Secret of Secrets, the latest Dan Brown Langdon novel. Paramount is looking to open a Top Gun experience in Las Vegas. — Abid Rahman
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Diddy Trial: Kid Cudi Testifies About Car Bombing ►"After the fire, I said, ‘This is getting out of hand. I need to talk to him.'" Rapper and actor Kid Cudi testified Thursday that he believes Sean “Diddy” Combs was behind the bombing of his Porsche in 2012 and that the disgraced mogul trespassed in his Los Angeles home after Combs learned both men were romantically involved with R&B singer Cassie Ventura. Prosecutors called Kid Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, as they tried to show the jury how Combs used his employees as a means of controlling women and using his financial and business resources to carry out a violent attack. The story.
—"The law is a dirty game." For THR, YouTube personality Tisa Tells gives her unfiltered take on Sean Combs' trial so far, including who’s really running the defense’s strategy. Tisa, who doesn’t use her last name due to personal safety concerns, has been seated inside the courtroom since the proceedings’ start, providing updates during breaks and recaps that can go for hours. The story.
—"Awe at their grace and strength to put themselves through this once again, on behalf of all of us survivors." A group of women who say they are fellow survivors of abuse by Harvey Weinstein issued a statement Thursday in support of the three accusers who have taken the stand as part of his criminal retrial and weighed in on what they see as a changed environment. Weinstein is currently on trial on two charges of criminal sexual act in the first degree and one count of third-degree rape. The story.
—Tragedy. Daniel Williams, the former drummer of the band The Devil Wears Prada, and Dave Shapiro, the owner of Sound Talent Group, were among those killed in a plane crash in San Diego early Thursday morning. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the total number of fatalities is unknown at this point, but there were six people on board the private jet, the Associated Press reported. Sound Talent Group confirmed three employees died, including Shapiro, 42, but didn’t share the other victims’ names. The story.
—📅 Programming note! 📅 A star-studded lineup of talent returns in the new season of Off Script With The Hollywood Reporter. The Emmy-nominated series returns Friday night with a group of top stand-up comedians: Jamie Foxx, Chelsea Handler, Hasan Minhaj, Seth Meyers, Sarah Silverman and Roy Wood Jr. The show premieres at 9 p.m. PT/midnight PT on IFC and will be available to stream the same day on AMC+. New episodes will continue weekly on Fridays. The story. |
Inside NBCU's Epic Theme Park Kick Off ►"It’s taken us probably a decade to be at this moment." NBCUniversal lit up the skies above Orlando on Wednesday with fireworks, flames, water, and drones, in what it called (in understated fashion) a “celebratory moment” for the grand opening of its newest multi-billion dollar bet: Epic Universe. But first, it had to trot out Steven Spielberg. THR's Alex Weprin was there at the opening of the multi-billion-dollar park that takes the fight to Disney. The story.
—They'll take you right in to the danger zone. Paramount Global is partnering with Advent Allen Entertainment to create and launch a fully immersive experience based on its Tom Cruise-led Top Gun franchise. The experience will be built on an undeveloped site at The Strat Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, and while details remain, uh, classified for now, the companies promise a combination of rides and storytelling, utilizing advanced technology and, of course, jet simulators. The story.
—Messy. YouTube's hiring of longtime Disney executive Justin Connolly to serve in a newly-created role as global head of media and sports has sparked a lawsuit against the Google-owned company. Disney, in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, alleges breach of contract, tortious interference with contractual relations and unfair competition. It seeks a court order to block the hiring, arguing that Connolly could leak confidential information or trade secrets belonging to Disney ahead of a licensing renewal with YouTube. Connolly and Disney last year entered into a deal in which he agreed to stay with the company until the end of 2027, according to the complaint. Under the terms, he was barred from engaging in dealings with competitors and had a one-time right to terminate the agreement for any reason as long as he provided written notice of his intent to exercise the provision. The story.
—🤝 Sold! 🤝 U.S. private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners said Friday that it has reached an in-principle agreement to acquire The Telegraph Media Group at a total enterprise valuation of $673m to become the U.K. media company’s sole controlling owner. The ownership of the conservative newspaper and its related offerings has been in question after the Abu Dhabi-backed RedBird IMI agreed to buy The Telegraph newspaper and the Spectator magazine in 2023, with the U.K. government then cracking down on foreign state investment in British newspapers, forcing a sale. The Telegraph wrote that RedBird Capital, which provided part of RedBird IMI’s funding for the original deal, was expected to be joined in the new ownership consortium by British media investors. The story.
—Unshackled! Lionsgate has released its Q4 financial results for Lionsgate Studios — a standalone public film and TV company comprised of its Motion Picture and TV production divisions — after completing the spinoff of the media giant’s studio business from Starz to create separately traded companies and stocks. The Hollywood studio, now excluding the Starz results, recorded a fourth quarter net profit attributable to shareholders at $21.9m, compared to a year-earlier $47m loss, on overall revenue rising 22 percent sharply to $1.06b, against a year-earlier $879.9m. The results. |
'Doomsday' and 'Secret Wars' Delay Release Dates ►📅 On the move. 📅 Marvel Studios' marquee team of heroes need a bit more time to reassemble. Avengers: Doomsday is pushing back its release date in theaters from May 1, 2026, to Dec. 18, 2026, while Avengers: Secret Wars will now open on Dec. 17, 2027 instead of May 7, 2027. Disney, however, isn’t giving up the coveted start-of-summer-slot in 2026 and has set 20th Century’s The Devil Wears Prada 2 to take Doomsday's date and open on May 1. Insiders say Doomsday and Secret Wars are two of the biggest titles Marvel has ever made, and the date shifts help the production schedules (Doomsday is currently shooting). Disney and 20th Century also announced they will open Ridley Scott’s star-studded apocalyptic thriller The Dog Stars on March 27, 2026. The story.
—Reacher's reward. THR's Borys Kit has the scoop that Skydance is in negotiations to pick up Fortune, an adventure movie package that has Reacher headliner Alan Ritchson attached to star. Pending deals signing, Neil Widener and Gavin James, who worked on the (almost) billion dollar-grossing A Minecraft Movie, will write the script based on their own short story. Jerry Bruckheimer will produce, as will Ritchson. Details are scant, but the project has been described as Memento meets Raiders of the Lost Ark. The story.
—The new CBMs. After hits like The Last of Us and Minecraft, A24 is doubling down on video game adaptations. The studio known for auteur-driven films has officially confirmed it is partnering with Bandai Namco Entertainment on a live-action feature movie of Elden Ring. A24 regular Alex Garland, who most recently released Warfare with the studio, will write and direct the feature. Last month, it was reported that A24 is developing a live-action adaptation of the video game Death Stranding with Quiet Place: Day One director Michael Sarnoski. The story. |
'Lilo & Stitch' Eyes Record $165M Opening ►Box office Stitch-up. THR's Pamela McClintock writes that July Fourth fireworks are coming early to the summer box office, thanks to the combo of Disney’s Lilo & Stitch and Paramount’s latest Mission: Impossible movie. Three weeks ago, tracking had Lilo & Stitch's four-day opening number was $120m. Now, it’s $165m, a jaw-dropping gross that would, in an ironic twist, see Lilo & Stitch supplant Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick ($160m) as the biggest Memorial Day opener of all time, not adjusted for inflation. Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, with a current RT critics score of 79 percent, is expected to more than make up for the lackluster $54.7m bow of the previous film in the series, as well as supplant the $61.2m three-day launch of Fallout to set a new franchise opening record by a mile. The box office report.
—🤝 Sold! 🤝 Neon has acquired the North American rights to Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, which premiered in competition at Cannes on Tuesday. The film marks Panahi’s first since being released from prison in Iran and was partly inspired by his second incarceration there. Neon also released Panahi’s The Year of the Everlasting Storm and plans a North American theatrical release for his latest work in 2025. The story.
—🏆 Félicitations! 🏆 Iraqi filmmaker Hasan Hadi has won the Directors’ Fortnight People’s Choice Award at the Cannes Film Festival for his poignant, darkly comic debut feature The President’s Cake . The $8,400 cash prize is the only audience-voted award across the official selection and parallel sections in Cannes and marks a major breakthrough for the New York-based Hadi. The film is being sold internationally by Films Boutique, with UTA handling North American rights. Based on Hadi’s own childhood in 1990s Iraq, the film follows nine-year-old Lamia, who is tasked with baking a cake to honor Saddam Hussein’s birthday — a seemingly simple assignment with life-or-death stakes. Amid crippling sanctions, food shortages and a climate of fear, Lamia’s attempt to gather ingredients becomes a journey of quiet rebellion and resourcefulness. The story.
—🎭 Filling out. 🎭 Vicky Krieps and Christian Friedel have joined the ensemble cast of The Idiots, the new film from Polish directors Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert. Friedl’s White Lotus co-star Aimee Lou Wood, and Johnny Flynn headline the project in a cast that also includes Barbara Marten, and Rainer Bock. Szumowska and Englert co-wrote The Idiots together with Kasper Bajon and Bríd Arnstein, basing the story on Andrew D. Kaufman’s 2021 novel The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky, which follows the lives of the famous Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky and his wife Anna during a period that inspired him to write his classic The Idiot. The story. |
ESPN Will Look Quite Different Next Week ►All change. This week is probably not among the “Top 10” in ESPN history. On Monday, the final SportsCenter in Los Angeles signed off, and on Friday, long-running afternoon debate show Around the Horn will see host Tony Reali crumple his stat sheet, the last page in his daily research packet that lists the career win total of the day’s panelists (and is later either recycled or signed and sent to a fan), for one final paper toss. We’re rooting for Reali to hit the camera lens one last time. THR's Alex Weprin and Tony Maglio look ahead to a new-look ESPN. The story.
—Da binge code (does that work?). After a bidding war, Netflix has landed a series based on The Secret of Secrets, the latest Robert Langdon novel from author Dan Brown. Carlton Cuse is set as showrunner and will executive produce with Brown; the two will also be writers on the series. Secret of Secrets is Brown’s sixth novel in the Langdon series, which began with mega-bestseller The Da Vinci Code, is set to hit shelves in September. The Netflix series is the latest screen adaptation of Brown’s novels featuring the Harvard symbologist frequently drawn into international intrigue and shadowy conspiracies. Tom Hanks starred as Langdon in three movies directed by Ron Howard that made a combined $1.47b in worldwide box office. A series based on The Lost Symbol and starring Ashley Zukerman as Langdon streamed on Peacock in 2021, but was canceled after a single season. The story.
—Go watch Andor, now! Go, go, go! The Nielsen streaming charts once again said “Hello, You.” The Netflix thriller starring Penn Badgley returned to the rankings at No. 1 with the release of You’s fifth and final season on April 24. The show gathered 1.67b minutes of viewing for the week of April 21-27, a little below the 1.73b minutes for the opening of season four in February 2023. You had a comfortable lead over the week’s second-place title, Netflix’s Ransom Canyon (1.29b minutes). Star Wars series Andor hit a series high with the debut of its second season, clocking 721m minutes of watch time on Disney+. Its previous high was 674m minutes for the week of its season one finale in November 2022. The streaming rankings. |
Corden, NPH and Cannavale to Star on Broadway This Fall ►🎭 Is it art, though? 🎭 James Corden, Neil Patrick Harris and Bobby Cannavale will return to Broadway this summer in the revival of the play Art. The production marks the first revival of the play, written by Yasmina Reza and translated by Christopher Hampton, which follows three longtime friends who launch into a debate about art after one of them purchases a large, expensive and completely white painting. The play, directed by Scott Ellis, is slated to run at Broadway’s Music Box starting Aug. 28, with an opening night Sept. 16. The production is slated to play a 17-week limited engagement through Dec. 21, 2025. The play first ran on Broadway in 1998 starring Alan Alda, Victor Garber and Alfred Molina, who won a Tony for best actor. The story.
—🎭 Pulling double duty. 🎭 Tom Hanks will star in an Off-Broadway play this fall, which he also wrote. The play, entitled World of Tomorrow, will play The Shed in Manhattan for an eight-week run. The play features a series of short stories centered on the character of Bert Allenberry, a scientist from the future who embarks on a quest for true love and continues to return to the same day, the 1939 World’s Fair in Queens, over and over again. The play is originally based on short stories written by Hanks, with the play written by Hanks and James Glossman. Hanks will play Bert Allenberry. The story.
—As you were. George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck remained the top grossing show on Broadway last week, bringing in $3.95m and playing to more than 100 percent capacity at the Winter Garden Theater. The play announced last week that it plans to stream the show live on CNN on June 7. As has been the trend, Othello, starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, was the second highest grossing show of the week, with $3.2m and playing to 100 percent capacity. The play commanded the highest average ticket price on Broadway with $384.23, compared to $315.52 at Good Night, and Good Luck, the next highest on the boards. In its closing week, Redwood , starring Idina Menzel, saw its grosses gain momentum, swinging up $200,000 to gross $818,697 and playing to 85 percent capacity. The Broadway box office report. |
Film Review: 'Fountain of Youth' ►"Not destined to become a national treasure." THR's Frank Scheck reviews Guy Ritchie's Fountain of Youth. John Krasinski, Natalie Portman, Domhnall Gleeson, Eiza Gonzalez and Stanley Tucci star in a Apple TV+ film about a brother and sister searching for the titular mythological spring. The review.
—"A wobbly soufflé but flavorful." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Rebecca Zlotowski's A Private Life. Jodie Foster and Daniel Auteuil escape injury in a messy but pleasurable French-language genre collision. Co-starring Virginia Efira, Mathieu Amalric, Vincent Lacoste, Luàna Bajrami, Noam Morgensztern, Sophie Guillemin, Frederick Wiseman, Aurore Clément, Irène Jacob and Ji-Min Park. The review.
—"Takes bracing big swings (that don't always connect)." THR's Leslie Felperin reviews Matteo Zoppis and Alessio Rigo de Righi's Cannes Un Certain Regard selection, Heads or Tails? John C. Reilly plays Buffalo Bill in a wacky Italy-set western. Also starring Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Alessandro Borghi, Peter Lanzani, Mirko Artuso, Gabriele Silli and Giai Garko. The review.
In other news...
—Titan submersible implosion examined in trailer for Netflix doc The OceanGate Disaster
—Atsuko Okatsuka wants to be the one who crumbles in Father trailer
—Topher Grace is an opium kingpin in Netflix’s The Waterfront trailer
—David E. Kelley to receive visionary tribute at Gotham TV Awards
—WB's president of physical production Michele Imperato Stabile to retire
—Publicity vet Ina Treciokas launches Ingenuity Group
—Innovative Artists promotes 4 to agent
What else we're reading...
—Christopher Grimes talks to Jesse Armstrong about his upcoming HBO film, the tech bro takedown Mountainhead [FT]
—Victoria Song wonders what in the world Jony Ive and Sam Altman are building [Verge]
—Devon Ivie talks to the band All-American Rejects, who think their backyards and house party tour can fix the broken concert industry [Vulture]
—Jesse McKinley writes that without a prenup, David Geffen’s divorce could get interesting and put into question his $8b fortune [NYT]
—Here's your Friday list: "12 times the Cannes Palme d’Or was awarded to the wrong film" [THR]
Today...
...in 2013, Todd Phillips' The Hangover Part III was released in theaters. Despite bad reviews, the third and final in the Hangover trilogy would make $362m at the global box office. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Ryan Coogler (39), Drew Carey (67), Richard Ayoade (48), H. Jon Benjamin (59), Melissa McBride (60), Joan Collins (92), Tom Tykwer (60), Guinevere Turner (57), Jewel (51), Lisa Joy (48), LaMonica Garrett (50), Ramona Young (27), Alberto Frezza (36), Karen Duffy (63), Bob Mortimer (66), D.J. Cotrona (45), Lane Garrison (45), Lea DeLaria (67), Megan Cusack (29), Matt Lintz (24), Kelly Monaco (49), Colleen Flynn (63), Linda Thompson (75), Deion Smith (29), Mark Arnold (68), Myko Olivier (38) |
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