| | | | | | What's news: Aaron Sorkin will write and direct a sequel to The Social Network. Daisy Edgar-Jones will lead a new feature adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. CBS was the big winner at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards. The BBC is introducing a paywall to it website for U.S. users. Martin Cove has apologized for biting his Cobra Kai co-star. — Abid Rahman
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That's It, The F-Word Is Officially Boring ►Effing and jeffing. And just like that, Donald Trump ruined something else. To be fair, Democrats also played a role in spoiling it. And if we’re being totally honest, the whole thing was on the verge of collapse anyway. We’re talking about the f-word, of course. Trump furiously threw it out during a live interview on Tuesday about the Israel-Iran war and followed it up with an emphatic, “Do you understand that?” THR's James Hibberd writes that political leaders cursing into hot mics was just the final boss of "f**k" losing all its punch and provocation. The story.
—🏆 Congrats! 🏆 CBS, ABC, CNN and National Geographic are among the top winners at night one of the 2025 News & Documentary Emmy Awards on Wednesday. ABC World News Tonight With David Muir took home the award for outstanding live news program for the third year in a row, while CNN’s The Whole Story With Anderson Cooper won outstanding recorded news program for the second year in a row. Collectively, CBS earned the most Emmys for the night with five, including 60 Minutes winning three of those awards. ABC, CNN and National Geographic followed with four awards each, and The New York Times took home three. The winners.
—Pay up, innit. U.S. users of the BBC will have to pay for their news from now on. The U.K. news channel, with BBC Studios, is introducing a paywall model starting at $49.99 per year or $8.99 per month. Those who subscribe will get unlimited access to the BBC’s news articles, feature stories and the 24/7 livestream of the BBC News channel. The broadcaster added on Thursday that this could be extended to ad-free doc series and films, early release podcasts and newsletters in the coming months. The organization’s website reaches 139m visitors globally, including nearly 60m in the U.S. alone. The story.
—Another blow. In most circumstances, it’s illegal for companies to use copyright-protected material to train their AI systems without permission or payment, a court said, while finding that a lawsuit from Sarah Silverman against Meta doesn’t present one of those cases. U.S. District Judge Vince Chabria on Wednesday sided with Meta on the novel legal question of whether AI companies are covered by fair use, the legal doctrine in intellectual property law that allows creators to build upon copyrighted works absent licenses. It’s the second decision this week finding in favor of an AI firm on the issue, with another federal judge on Monday ruling against authors in a separate lawsuit by concluding that Anthropic is on solid legal ground over the legality of training. The story.
—Doubling down. Brian “The Liver King” Johnson has been released from jail in Austin and has uploaded new videos that once again seemingly reveal his intent to fight Joe Rogan. Johnson was arrested Tuesday for making a terroristic threat following two days of bizarre videos where he repeatedly said that he wanted to engage in fisticuffs with the comedian podcaster. In one new video (below), Johnson discusses his arrest and does not say Rogan’s name, but does reference the podcaster’s Comedy Mothership club to make it clear who he’s talking about. In other videos, he refers to “somebody whose name rhymes with Rogan” or even “Seth Rogen.” He continues to suggest a fight in his future and that “the videos will never stop.” The story.
—"I regret my actions." Martin Kove has made an official apology to his Cobra Kai co-star Alicia Hannah-Kim for biting her arm at a fan convention this weekend. “I deeply regret and apologize for my actions regarding the incident with Alicia, a genuinely kind and wonderful person who didn’t deserve to be put in this position,” Kove said in a statement. According to an incident report filed by a Puyallup police officer and obtained by THR, the biting occurred after Hannah-Kim approached her former co-star Kove at Washington State’s Summer Con in Puyallup and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. The story. |
Denis Villeneuve to Direct Next James Bond Film ►"I’m a die-hard Bond fan. To me, he’s sacred territory." Denis Villeneuve is going from Dune to 007. The filmmaker has been tapped to direct the next James Bond movie, the first from Amazon MGM Studios. Tanya Lapointe, Villeneuve’s artistic partner and wife, will serve as an executive producer. As previously announced, Amy Pascal and David Heyman will serve as producers. Bond is one of the most sought-after franchises for filmmakers. Reportedly, directors who met for this film also included Edward Berger, Edgar Wright and Paul King. It’s unclear when Bond will begin production, but the search is underway for a screenwriter who will work with Villeneuve to bring the newest incarnation of the secret agent to the big screen. The story.
—Bad luck Zuck. Aaron Sorkin is plotting a return to Facebook. The screenwriter behind The Social Network has written a sequel script he intends to direct as a feature for Sony. The first Social Network movie was based on Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires, while the sequel is inspired by a series of articles Jeff Horwitz wrote for The Wall Street Journal known as "The Facebook Files," which were published in October 2021 and explored the harms caused by the social network. (WSJ is not involved in the movie.) Todd Black, Peter Rice, Sorkin and Stuart Besser are producing the sequel. Jesse Eisenberg earned an Oscar nomination in a career-making role for The Social Network , in which he played Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. It is unclear if he will reprise the role for the sequel. The story.
—🎭 Fresh take. 🎭 A new movie based on Jane Austen’s classic novel Sense and Sensibility is in the works, with Daisy Edgar-Jones to star as one of the Dashwood sisters. Focus Features and Working Title Films are backing the fresh take on the popular 18th century novel, with Georgia Oakley directing a script by author Diana Reid. Sense and Sensibility centers on the impoverished Dashwood family and portrays the romantic experiences of sisters Elinor and Marianne as they and their widowed mother navigate life for the once-wealthy family after the death of the father and husband. Edgar-Jones will play the role of Elinor. The story.
—🎭 Queen Brat. 🎭 Kim Kardashian is helping to bring the Bratz franchise back to the screen. Amazon MGM Studios has nabbed the package for a new live-action feature based on the MGA Entertainment toy property, with Kardashian and Picturestart set to produce. Kardashian is in talks to star in the film that is keeping plot details under wraps. Charlie Polinger and Lucy McKendrick are penning the screenplay. The Bratz fashion doll toy line launched in 2001 and has sold 200m dolls worldwide. MGA was behind Lionsgate’s live-action Bratz movie that hit theaters in 2007. The story. |
TIFF: Steven Soderbergh, Nia DaCosta Films to Get World Premieres ►50th edition. Steven Soderbergh’s dark comedy The Christophers and Nia DaCosta’s latest film, Hedda, are set for world premieres at the Toronto Film Festival in September. Ian McKellen, Jessica Gunning, Michaela Coel and James Corden star in Soderbergh’s movie about the estranged children of a famous artist who hire a forger to finish their father’s unfinished paintings so they can be sold after his death. Soderbergh directed The Christophers based on a script by Now You See Me scribe Ed Solomon. Also getting a first look in Toronto is DaCosta’s Hedda, a reimagining of the Henrik Ibsen stage play Hedda Gabler that stars Tessa Thompson, Nina Hoss and Imogen Poots. Thompson will play Hedda Gabler, considered one of the greatest dramatic roles in theater history. The story.
—Racing ahead. If the box office pundits are correct, Apple Original Films‘ critically acclaimed F1: The Movie will leave Blumhouse and Atomic Monster’s sequel M3GAN 2.0 in the dust with an impressive domestic opening of $40m to $50m. Warner Bros., which is distributing and helping Apple to market the big-budget summer tentpole, is being more conservative in suggesting in the high $30m range. Overseas, the action sports drama is forecasted to take in $75m for a worldwide opening of $115m or more against a net production budget of at least $200m before marketing. The box office report.
—🎭 Leading the way. 🎭 British actress Bella Maclean, best known to audiences for her role in the Disney+ adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals, has landed a lead role in Ray Panthaki’s new indie, In Starland. The feature follows a middle-aged man, played by Sing Sing breakout Clarence Maclin, struggling to break free from the confines of his small town. That is, until, he meets a group of bold young artists — Maclean among them — that transform his perspective. Black-ish actor Marcus Scribner and Top Dog‘s Maxwell Cunningham will also star. Panthaki’s upcoming project, co-written with Jason Kavan, is his directorial debut. The story.
—🎭 Busy, busy. 🎭 Elio star Yonas Kibreab is plotting his next move. The 13-year-old actor will voice star in Pinocchio & the Water of Life, an indie animated feature he will also executive produce. The film is a steampunk-inspired take on the classic story of the wooden puppet who dreams of becoming a real boy. Victor Lakisov directs from a script by Mark DeCarlo and Ryan Rowe, based on the characters created by Italian author Carlo Collodi, who introduced the world to Pinocchio in 1883’s The Adventures of Pinocchio. Per the logline, the film follows “Pinocchio and his sidekick Coot as they try to save his puppet friends from the villainous Faustino—who livestreams their destruction in nightly pay-per-view events.” The story. |
'Very Young Frankenstein' Comedy in the Works at FX ►He goes by "Fronkensteen." FX is developing a comedy titled Very Young Frankenstein, inspired by Mel Brooks’ 1974 comedy classic Young Frankenstein. Brooks is among the project’s executive producers along with producing partner Kevin Salter and three alumni of FX’s What We Do in the Shadows — Stefani Robinson (who will serve as showrunner should the project move forward), Taika Waititi and Garrett Basch. Disney’s 20th Television is the studio. Michael Gruskoff, who produced the film, is also an EP. Young Frankenstein was a parody of/homage to classic monster movies, the 1930s Frankenstein films in particular. The cast included Gene Wilder, Cloris Leachman, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Kenneth Mars, Teri Garr and Peter Boyle, who played the monster. Details of the FX project are being kept quiet for now. The story.
—Gilding the lily. The third season premiere of The Gilded Age delivered the show’s best opening to date. The June 22 debut of the HBO drama gathered 2.7m cross-platform viewers in the U.S. over three days. That’s a 27 percent improvement on the season two premiere (2.1m viewers over three days) in October 2023. The series debut in 2022 drew in 2m viewers over the same amount of time. As is usually the case with HBO series, most of The Gilded Age’s viewers watched after the initial airing, which drew 430,000 viewers on the HBO cable channel, according to Nielsen. The remaining 2.27m streamed the episode on Max (which likely accounted for the majority of viewing), watched a DVR recording or caught an on-air replay. The ratings.
—📅 Dated! 📅 Ryu Seung-ryong, the veteran Korean star whose lead performance in Disney+’s Moving helped make it the platform’s most-watched Asian original to date, returns to the streamer next month in Low Life, a colorful period crime drama set against the backdrop of 1970s South Korea’s murky underworld. The 11-part series will premiere July 16 with a three-episode debut, followed by weekly releases leading up to a two-part finale on August 13. Written and directed by Kang Yun-seong, the screenwriter behind Disney+’s Big Bet and director of Korean blockbuster The Outlaws, Low Life follows a ragtag pair of small-time schemers — an uncle and nephew— who stumble across a tantalizing rumor: a sunken treasure ship laden with riches has been found just off the Korean coast. The story. |
'Boop! The Musical' to Close on Broadway ►It's over. Boop! The Musical will play its final Broadway performance on July 13. The closing announcement is the fourth new musical in the past several weeks, following Smash, Dead Outlaw and Real Women Have Curves. All are new musicals that came to Broadway this spring, that were hoping for boosts from the Tony Awards, but did not take home any trophies. Boop star Jasmine Amy Rogers was nominated for a Tony Award this year, and the show also received nods for best costume design and best choreography. The musical, directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, opened at the Broadhurst Theater April 5, after starting previews March 11. Capacity at Boop has been hovering around 70 to 80 percent for the past several weeks, and the musical has yet to crack $1m in weekly grosses. Last week, the show brought in about $600,000, but grosses have dropped as low as about $400,000. The story.
—About those closures. THR's Caitlin Huston writes that the spate of closing notices can also be a boon for grosses. After announcing that the show will end its run June 29, Real Women Have Curves saw its grosses shoot up about $140,000 last week to reach $508,544, which is the highest gross it has hit since starting previews at the James Earl Jones Theatre April 1. Capacity increased to 81 percent from 64 percent the prior week. Smash closed on June 22 and saw a $400,000 uptick from its grosses the prior week. The show, which opened April 10, ended its run grossing $977,805, one of the highest grosses of its run and playing to 84 percent capacity at the Imperial Theatre. Dead Outlaw will end its run June 29, after opening at the Longacre Theatre on April 27. Last week, the musical played to 75 percent capacity and saw a slight increase in its grosses to reach $475,175. But these totals are still below the running costs of a typical musical. The Broadway box office report. |
TV Review: 'The Bear' S4 ►"Burnt-out." THR's Angie Han reviews season four of FX/Hulu's The Bear. Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach return for a fresh batch of episodes that see the staff scrambling to turn around their restaurant before the money runs out. The review.
—"Bigger is not necessarily better." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Gerard Johnstone's M3GAN 2.0. Violet McGraw returns as the orphaned niece of a roboticist (Allison Williams) whose rogue automaton companion must be reassembled to bring down an even deadlier doll. Also starring Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis, Aristotle Athani, Timm Sharp, Ivanna Sakhno and Jemaine Clement. The review.
In other news...
—Blue’s Clues host Steve Burns launches podcast
—THR's best hotels in Southern California
—Elon Musk retakes ownership of Gene Wilder’s former L.A. home
—Thomas H. Brodek, former film producer and ABC executive, dies at 86
What else we're reading...
—Stephen Battaglio reports that C-SPAN is looking for financial help as streaming takes a toll [LAT]
—With a sequel to The Social Network in the works, Julianna Ress has nine pressing questions for this film that no one really asked for [Ringer]
—Ben Fritz and Joe Flint wonder if Brad Pitt’s F1 movie can finally deliver Apple a big-screen hit [WSJ]
—Ben Kamisar looks at what Zohran Mamdani's rise in New York City means for the Democratic Party nationally [NBC News]
—Josh Dawsey, Dana Mattioli and Micah Maidenberg report that Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin is looking to capitalize on the Trump-Musk split [WSJ]
Today...
...in 1963, Universal unveiled, in color, the 91-minute feature King Kong vs. Godzilla in theaters stateside. The Toho production title had been billed in ads as “the most colossal conflict the screen has ever known!” The original review.
Today's birthdays: Paul Thomas Anderson (55), Aubrey Plaza (41), Brandon Sklenar (35), Jacob Elordi (28), Nick Offerman (55), Jason Schwartzman (45), Ariana Grande (32), Chris O'Donnell (55), Jennette McCurdy (33), Will Attenborough (34), Matt Letscher (55), Ana Ularu (40), Sean Hayes (55), Mark McKinney (66), Ian Tracey (61), Gedde Watanabe (70), Eric Nelsen (34), Pamela Bellwood (74), Wyatt McClure (17), Brittney Karbowski (39), Michael Paul Chan (75), Giavani Cairo (34), Chris Isaak (69), Natsuki Hanae (34), Andrew Bachelor (37), Steven Brand (56), Rebecca Budig (52), Dany Boon (59), Gino Vento (39), Joanne Tucker (43), Amanda Cerny (34), David Brisbin (73), Valerie Pachner (38), Parry Shen (52) |
| Lea Massari, the Italian actress and European cinema icon famous for her roles in Michelangelo Antonioni‘s L’Avventura, Dino Risi’s A Difficult Life and Louis Malle‘s Murmur of the Heart, has died. She was 91. The obituary. |
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