| | | | | | What's news: Game 7 of the NBA Finals was watched by 16.35m viewers. Maria Taylor will lead NBC's NBA coverage. Sarah J. Maas has signed a licensing agreement with IMG. Johnny Knoxville is set to host Fox's reboot of Fear Factor. Starz has renewed Outlander: Blood of My Blood. — Abid Rahman
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Get Ready for More Commercials in Movie Theaters ►Terrible news. For decades, there has been no better way for Hollywood marketers to drum up interest in their films than to play trailers for thousands of fans settled in their seats at cinemas across the country waiting for the main attraction to begin. THR's Pamela McClintock writes that this age-old tradition is being disrupted by an aggressive push to sprinkle in a sampling of commercials between trailers and the regular parade of supplemental spots promoting concessions and rules of the road (as in, no texting!). Alas, it seems more ads are on their way. The story.
—Respect their authoritah. As Paramount’s lucrative licensing deal for South Park expires, allowing the show to be shopped, a new legal battle is brewing. Jeff Shell, the RedBird Capital executive who will be the incoming president of new Paramount if the merger with Skydance is completed, has been accused by an attorney for South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone of interfering in contract negotiations with potential suitors. In a June 21 letter obtained by THR, Park County, the entertainment company run by Parker and Stone, threatened legal action for directing Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery to modify certain terms of their offers in a “manner calculated to benefit Paramount at the expense” of the company. The story.
—🤝 BFD. 🤝 Sarah J. Maas, best-selling author known for her blockbuster literary franchises including A Court of Thorns and Roses, has signed an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with IMG Licensing. Under the multiyear deal, IMG Licensing will develop and manage a robust licensing program spanning Maas’s entire fictional universe with the aim of creating new touchpoints for her fervid fan base. With over 70m English copies sold worldwide and translations in 38 languages, Maas is one of the most influential authors of her generation with a knack for the “romantasy” genre. Hit books of hers also include the Throne of Glass and Crescent City series. The story.
—🤝 New home. 🤝 Apple TV+ has signed a multiyear, first-look feature film deal with The North Road Company’s Chernin Entertainment. The agreement follows Peter Chernin’s media banner producing Apple TV+’s upcoming TV series Chief of War, starring Jason Momoa, and the documentary series The War for Football for the streaming platform. In 2022, the prolific production banner run by Peter Chernin signed a first-look deal for film with Netflix, and earlier called Fox home. North Road houses Chernin Entertainment, the U.S. assets of Red Arrow Studios, the non-fiction label Words + Pictures, North Road Television and Kinetic Content. The story.
—Three more. Saudi Arabian director Haifaa al-Mansour, indie producer Effie T. Brown and Universal Pictures vp creative technologies and Academy Science & Technology council chair Annie Chang will be joining the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 55-seat board of governors as governors-at-large next month, the Academy announced on Monday. The trio were appointed by outgoing president Janet Yang — who is herself, along with Devon Franklin and Rodrigo García, one of the three current governors-at-large who are about to finish their second consecutive three-year term, and therefore are mandated by Academy rules to step away from the board for at least two years — and were then confirmed by the full board to three-year terms. The story. |
Hollywood South? Texas Makes Its Bid With Incentive Expansion ►State v. state. Amid a tit-for-tat battle to host Hollywood, Texas has bolstered its incentive program for movies and TV shows that positions a Southern bloc of states as a premier destination for entertainment and media. Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday let a bill become law that increases by $100m the amount allotted to productions every two years. With the funding greenlit through 2035, the expansion will shower as much as $1.5b in subsidies to Hollywood over the decade. The move comes as Texas’ neighbors increasingly attract money from productions thanks to generous incentive programs. Last year, Netflix announced plans to expand its New Mexico production campus in a bid to increase its presence in the state. The story.
—Indie saviors. With the production slump in California, independent films are increasingly being tapped to receive tax credits to shoot in the state, reports THR's Winston Cho . Of the 48 titles selected to receive filming subsidies, only five are feature films, announced the California Film Commission on Monday. They account for roughly an even split of the $96m in tax credits that the state is allocating this round, down from years past when they made up a larger share of the total allotment. The rising frequency of independent films qualifying for California’s film and TV incentive program reflects a broader trend in which big-budget, studio films are opting to shoot in states and countries with cheaper labor that give more subsidies to host Hollywood. The story.
—🤝 Renewal. 🤝 On Friday, Los Angeles’ Board of Public Works voted to renew the contract for the region’s film office for five more years in the face of opposition from some local public advocates. In a noisy room in L.A. City Hall filled with both FilmLA supporters and antagonists, the board unanimously voted to extend the contract even as its members made several suggestions for the nonprofit going forward. Noting that his group was not authorized to make any specific changes to the contract, Board of Public Works president Steve S. Kang, for instance, proposed that industry stakeholders regularly meet and share concrete suggestions to amend the FilmLA contract by July 1, 2026. As production levels remain low across the area, local film and TV advocates have singled out FilmLA for reform. The story.
—Clear path. Michele Mulroney is running for president of the Writers Guild of America West — unopposed, at least for now — after current president Meredith Stiehm termed out after nearly four years at the helm. The union announced the news alongside the names of other initial candidates running for officer and board positions in its 2025 elections on Monday. Crucially, the election will determine the leaders that will guide the WGA West through its 2026 contract negotiations, its first with major film and television studios since the 148-day strike in 2023. The story.
—✊ Union agreement. ✊ Nonfiction entertainment workers who are members of the Writers Guild of America East have ratified a first union agreement with prestige documentary company Story Syndicate. Story Syndicate employees who belong to the WGA East, roughly 30 in total, many of them producers, unanimously voted to greenlight the deal after it was reached on June 6. The story. |
Game 7 Gives NBA Finals a Six-Year Ratings High ►Small market W. The first game seven of an NBA Finals since 2016 delivered a big audience for ABC — and helped the series avoid some historic ratings lows. The Oklahoma City Thunder’s 103-91 win over the Indiana Pacers averaged 16.35m viewers, according to fast national figures from Nielsen (that number could change slightly in the final ratings, due early Tuesday). It peaked at 19.28m from 9:45-10 p.m. ET as the Thunder wrapped up their win. The 16.35m viewers makes Sunday’s contest the most-watched NBA Finals contest since 2019, when the last two games of that series each drew better than 18m viewers. The ratings.
—Big market aura. One more data point for the “live sports is the engine of linear TV” argument (not that it needed many more): TNT’s NBA playoffs telecasts accounted for nearly all of Warner Bros. Discovery’s gains in Nielsen’s TV distributor rankings in May. WBD had 7 percent of all TV use in the U.S. in May, up from 6.7 percent a month earlier. The gain was powered by a 69 percent increase in TNT viewing compared to April, with the NBA playoffs accounting for most of that surge. Nielsen says that the eight New York Knicks games on TNT in the May reporting period (which ran from April 29-May 26) drew 7b minutes of viewing time — more than a fifth of the total for all NBA playoff games (31.4b minutes) on WBD and Disney outlets for the month. The story.
—In the big chair. NBC Sports has named Maria Taylor the lead studio host for its forthcoming NBA coverage. NBC Sports will regain rights to the NBA when the new season tips off later this year. Taylor will host NBC’s studio shows on Sundays and Tuesdays, joined by analysts Carmelo Anthony and Vince Carter. She will also host select WNBA games beginning in 2026. The move has been expected, with Taylor already hosting NBC’s Football Night in America, as well as contributing to NBC Olympics coverage. Taylor has been a rising star at NBC Sports since joining from ESPN in 2021. The story. |
Shane Gillis to Host 2025 ESPY Awards ►"I like sports, so this should be a good time." Shane Gillis is set to host this year's ESPYs, the ESPN awards show celebrating athletes. Gillis, who played one season of Division I college football at little-known Elon University in North Carolina, will MC the ceremony that takes place on July 16. The in-demand comedian is basking in the success of his Netflix comedy Tires, which premiered its second season earlier this month, and is still hanging around in the top 10. The story.
—Fearless squared. Johnny Knoxville is set to host Fox's reboot of Fear Factor (fully titled Fear Factor: The Next Chapter) when it premieres during the 2025-26 season. Knoxville famously was a breakout star of the MTV show Jackass which, like the original Fear Factor, was a boundary-pushing staple of 2000s reality TV. He’ll step into the shoes of Joe Rogan, who hosted the first iteration of the show on NBC from 2001-06 and again in 2011-12, and Ludacris, who emceed MTV’s version of Fear Factor from 2017-18. The story.
—Help ma boab! Starz is keeping its Outlander franchise alive for another season. The newly independent cable and streaming outlet has ordered a second season of Outlander: Blood of My Blood, a prequel to its long-running drama. The renewal for the Sony Pictures TV-produced series comes about six weeks before Blood of My Blood’s Aug. 8 series premiere; production on season two began Monday. Blood of My Blood, which Starz ordered in conjunction with the final season of Outlander in early 2023, is a prequel — in both of its fictional world’s timelines — that follows the parents of the main series’ lead characters. The story.
—📅 Dated! 📅 Marc Maron’s new comedy special will be available to stream on HBO Max starting Aug. 1. The special, entitled Marc Maron: Panicked, will be Maron’s second special for HBO and his sixth stand-up special overall. Details about the content of the special are sparse, but HBO describes the show saying “comedian and podcaster Marc Maron offers up his nuanced perspective on our increasingly uncertain world.” The story. |
'28 Years Later' Showcases the Evolution of Boyle and Garland ►No retreads. When 28 Days Later hit the scene in 2002, it changed the landscape of horror cinema. It is perhaps all too easy to take director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland’s film for granted today, particularly in the wake of the zombie movies and TV shows that followed. For THR, Richard Newby writes that given the variations of the zombie over the decades, the influence of the video game Resident Evil on Garland’s script, and the glut of zombie media that followed 2002, it feels fair to say 28 Days Later became the most consequential film of its subgenre since George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. With the newest entry in the 28 franchise, anyone expecting a retread of 28 Days Later , or its less intimate, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo-directed sequel, 28 Weeks Later, might be surprised to find, unlike so many recent horror legacy sequels, Boyle and Garland have no interest in covering old ground. The story.
—Not a good sign. Mahershala Ali walked the red carpet in New York on Monday in support of Jurassic World Rebirth, while also touching on the status of his highly anticipated Marvel project Blade. The vampire thriller has been stuck in development hell for years, as two different directors have exited the project, while Ali has been attached to star since 2019. It was also hampered by the actors and writers strikes, alongside Disney’s changing studio strategy, and last year was entirely removed from the 2025 theatrical calendar. At the premiere, Ali told THR that when it comes to Blade, “I’m just taking it a day at a time. I’m doing the best work I can,” pointing to upcoming film Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother as one that scratched his “stunts itch.” But he added, “I would love for Blade to happen; we’ll see, I don’t know where Marvel is at right now. I’m just looking for the next great part, I really am.” The story.
—📅 Dated! 📅 Monster Summer, director David Henrie‘s coming-of-age adventure film, is set to make its streaming debut via Paramount+ With Showtime on July 1. Mason Thames, Mel Gibson, Kevin James, Lorraine Bracco and Patrick Renna star in the movie that Pastime Pictures released theatrically last October, just in time for Halloween. Monster Summer centers on a group of friends teaming with a retired police detective to save their island from a mysterious presence. The story. |
THR's 25 Best Drama Schools ►Thesp be serious. While drama schools have largely emerged from the shadow of COVID-19, many are now in the midst of figuring out how to respond to different audience behaviors post-pandemic, funding changes and the evolving needs of an arts education. Amid this changing environment, institutions have been updating their curricula to better prepare their students and put a greater emphasis on on-camera training and on actors creating their own work. THR spoke with industry members and educators to determine its global ranking of the best schools for an acting degree while weighing factors including overall training, cost, alumni success and industry connections. The list.
In other news...
—Liam Payne featured in Netflix’s Building the Band trailer
—Sterling K. Brown stars in Hulu adventure epic Washington Black trailer
—Secret Live of Mormon Wives prepare to "expose it all" in reunion special teaser
—Dakota Johnson, Adria Arjona star in trailer for Splitsville
—Cardi B finally announces new album Am I the Drama?
—Brandy and Monica announce first-ever co-headlining tour
—Maroon 5 set to return with new album, arena tour
—Jilly Pearce to head unscripted programming at ABC and Hulu
—Paw Patrol studio Spin Master names new CEO
What else we're reading...
—Emma John recounts her experience of Rachel Zegler performing the Evita balcony scene to huge crowds outside a London theater [Guardian]
—As the finish line draws closer, Alexis Soloski talks to Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk about the final season of the Netflix phenomenon and why he's happy it's almost all over [NYT]
—A better future is possible as Jess Weatherbed reports that China shut down AI tools during nationwide college exams [Verge]
—Amber DaSilva reports that AI slop YouTube channels are causing Google's AI slop-riddled tools to highlight slop AI content [Jalopnik]
—Rafael Motamayor reflects on the sound and editing in Disney+'s Andor and in particular the incredible Mon Mothma dancing scene [Vulture]
Today...
...in 1987, Mel Brooks launched Spaceballs in theaters. The Star Wars spoof, starring Bill Pullman, John Candy, Rick Moranis and Daphne Zuniga, became infamous in its own right. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Mindy Kaling (46), Harris Dickinson (29), Dan Gilroy (66), John Gilroy (66), Iain Glen (64), Minka Kelly (45), Erin Moriarty (31), Peter Weller (78), Nancy Allen (74), Carla Gallo (50), Vanessa Ray (44), Joe Klocek (30), Ariana Madix (40), Stassi Schroeder (37), Sherry Stringfield (58), Amber Rose Revah (39), Tilky Jones (44), Lotte Verbeek (43), Rosie Jones (35), Beanie Feldstein (32), Mary Holland (40), Dominique Tipper (37), Candice Patton (37), Joe Penny (69), Michele Lee (83), Lydia West (32), Sherry Miller (70), Nicole Muñoz (31), Amir Talai (48), Raven Goodwin (33), Betsy Randle (70), Amirah Vann (45), Joanna Kulig (43), Saralisa Volm (40), Aaron Dominguez (31), Lucien Dodge (41) |
| Mick Ralphs, the founding guitarist-songwriter of Bad Company and Mott The Hoople, has died. He was 81. The obituary. |
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