| | | | | | What's news: It's magazine day! Jonathan Bailey takes a big swing at movie stardom. The Emmy Producers roundtable. Netflix debuts its bold new strategy in France. F1: The Movie dazzles — Julian Sancton
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Jonathan Bailey Is Breaking Hollywood’s Rules — and Winning ►On the cover. In a Hollywood struggling to mint new movie stars, the 37-year-old, internet-anointed, classically trained, openly gay Bridgerton and Wicked breakout defiantly forged his own path. Can he bring his fanatical fanbase to Jurassic World Rebirth and emerge as a full-fledged A-lister? “You have to unlearn a lot of narratives about yourself that an industry tells you,” he tells THR's Mia Galuppo, including, ”If you’re gay, there’s a glass ceiling.” The cover story.
—"I'm jealous of every show I watch." THR's Mikey O'Connell convenes the Emmy Producers' Roundtable, with Mindy Kaling (Running Point), John Wells (The Pitt), Tracey Wigfield (The Four Seasons), Paul W. Downs (Hacks), Brett Goldstein (Shrinking), Stephen Graham (Adolescence) and Liz Meriwether (Dying for Sex). For one raucous hour, these writer-producers swapped war stories on the script notes that they took, fought against and wish to this day that they’d ignored. The roundtable. |
Tyler Perry Sued for Alleged Sexual Assault, Battery ►$260 million claim. Derek Dixon, an actor in some of the mogul's productions, alleged Perry repeatedly made unwanted sexual advances, saying he was pinned against a wall and groped. A lawyer for Perry said the filmmaker is being "shaken down." Winston Cho reports.
—"Someone is lying here." The federal attorneys prosecuting Sean “Diddy” Combs at his Manhattan racketeering and sex trafficking trial were taken to task on Tuesday along with the jailed former hip-hop mogul’s team of top defense lawyers when Judge Arun Subramanian furiously reprimanded all counsel on both sides of the case and then opened a probe after sealed evidence only seen by their eyes leaked to the tabloid press, specifically TMZ and the Daily Mail. THR’s Kevin Dolak has the story.
—Dr. Death. Salvador Plasencia, a doctor who illegally supplied Matthew Perry with 20 vials of ketamine, fueling an addiction that led to the Friends star’s fatal overdose, has agreed to plead guilty, according to court documents. If convicted at trial, Plasencia would have faced a potential sentence of up to 40 years in prison. The story.
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Netflix Is the New Cable TV. Its Major Deal In France Marks the Next Step ►Sacrebleu! Netflix is working on new offerings and deals to future-proof its content lineup and business. In line with that, it made notable headlines on Wednesday, unveiling a carriage deal with French broadcaster TF1 at Cannes Lions that will see the global streamer offering live broadcasts and on-demand content from the partner starting in the summer of 2026. The story.
—Hammer to fall. In a memo to employees extolling Amazon’s use of generative AI, CEO Andy Jassy noted that it may lead to a reduction in the company’s workforce. "Those who embrace this change, become conversant in AI, help us build and improve our AI capabilities internally and deliver for customers, will be well-positioned to have high impact," the memo reads. The story.
—Game theory. Warner Bros. Games, the interactive studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, is restructuring around its core IP franchises. The studio says that going forward it will focus on Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, DC, and Mortal Kombat, promoting multiple internal studio heads as part of the restructure. The story. |
The Long Tail: Network Series That Keep Viewers Tuning in Days — and Weeks — Later ►Tail of the Tape. THR's master ratings analyst Rick Porter takes a close look at how hits like Tracker, High Potential, Matlock and many more fare over a 35-day window. Initially, that seemed an incredibly long time to measure data that’s meant to help advertisers understand how many people are seeing their commercials. But as the streaming era has fully taken hold, it turns out five weeks is not an overly long time to measure viewing. The analysis.
—New studio alert 🚨 The newly formed Further Adventures is betting that it can help take digital creators and independent filmmakers to the next level, providing investment, production capabilities and partnerships to help develop new intellectual property: "Creators need support developing more premium content." THR's Alex Weprin has the exclusive. |
‘Harold & Kumar’ Getting New Sequel (Exclusive) ►New high. Harold and Kumar are getting another case of the munchies. Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg and Josh Heald, the creators behind Netflix sensation Cobra Kai, have closed a deal to write a new installment of Harold & Kumar, the buddy stoner comedy movie series that was popular in the early 2000s. John Cho and Kal Penn, who played the title characters, are expected to reprise their roles, though no deal has been signed with the actors. The story.
—So hot right now. Glen Powell is continuing to blaze a scorching career path. Amazon MGM Studios has landed the actor to star in an untitled firefighter movie for director Ron Howard (who passed his first trial by fire with 1991's Backdraft). The studio preemptively acquired the original pitch from Christina Hodson, who is writing the script. The story focuses on two disparate childhood friends who are now accomplished firefighters and face a deadly series of Texas wildfires while navigating their relationship. The story.
—Zombies vs. Dragons vs. Aliens. Will How to Train Your Dragon eat 28 Years Later and Pixar’s Elio for lunch this weekend? Box-office projections are all over the place for Danny Boyle's long-awaited 28 Days sequel as Elio braces for a soft opening, and possibly the lowest in the storied studio's history. The story. |
The Best Films and TV Shows of 2025 (So Far) ► Top Ten Movies. THR's indefatigable critics select (and defend) their favorites from the from the first half of the year. They include include a bracing take on the New York rom-com, an intimate John Lennon doc and a Steven Soderbergh-helmed ghost story. The list.
—Top Ten Shows. THR's Daniel Fienberg and Angie Han's TV picks include an Arctic heartwarmer, an ER-set comfort watch, two shows that explore the outer reaches of cringe comedy, and the Star Wars spinoff that serves as "a lesson in how to make IP feel essential." The list.
—"Fast and sleek." THR's Lovia Gyarkye reviews the high-octane Brad Pitt-Damson Idris two-hander F1: The Movie. The Joseph Kosinski-directed film, which lands in theaters June 27 before a streaming release on Apple TV+, is "a deft addition to a sturdy lineage of motorsport flicks, from Rush and Gran Turismo to Ford v Ferrari and, most recently, Ferrari," she writes. The review.
—"Cute but inessential." Angie Han reviews Pixar's latest offering, Elio, about a kid who gets his wish of being abducted by aliens. "Elio is a perfectly nice kiddie sci-fi adventure that does everything a movie with that description is supposed to do," writes Han. "But much like Elio, I frequently found myself longing for the more transportive experience, of the sort that Pixar used to make a house specialty." The review.
In other news...
—BBC names Kate Phillips as its new chief content officer
—Who's the Boss? Jeremy Allen White rocks out in the trailer of Bruce Springsteen biopic 'Deliver Me From Nowhere'
—The Film Academy taps Tom Cruise, Debbie Allen and Wynn Thomas for honorary Oscars, and Dolly Parton for the Hersholt Award
—Comedy influencer Druski will co-star with Theo Von in a movie with Kenya Barris, based on viral short 'The Diggers'
—Jerrod Carmichael expects more vulnerability from comedy
—Captain Kirk is back from the dead in new 'Star Trek' comic ‘The Last Starship’
What else we're reading...
—Tucker Carlson is driving a wedge into the MAGA coalition with his opposition to American intervention in Iran, writes Greg Sargent [The New Republic]
—Alex Morris examines the inverse correlation between wealth and empathy [Rolling Stone]
—OpenAI's Sam Altman has accused Meta of attempting to poach his staff with "crazy" $100m sign-on bonuses, reports Robert Booth. [The Guardian]
—Joshua Rothman wonders whether AI is bringing the age of reading to an end. [The New Yorker]
—Georgina Torbet proves the gaping hole in our understanding of the universe. [BBC Science Focus, via Apple News]
Today's birthdays: Paul McCartney (83), Kim Dickens (60), Carol Kane (73), Richard Madden (39), Isabella Rossellini (73), Alana de la Garza (49), Jeremy Irvine (35), Brian Benben (69), Jonathan Levine (49), Christopher Lloyd (the writer) (65), Itziar Ituño (51), Jamel Debbouze (50) |
| Loren Ruch, the content chief at HGTV and host of its HGTV House Party, has died. He was 55. Ruch had been battling acute myeloid leukemia. Earlier in his HGTV tenure, Ruch produced shows like Brother vs. Brother and the HGTV Dream Home specials. . Ruch previously worked at other Discovery-owned cable channels: Food Network, Travel Channel, DIY Network, Cooking Channel and Great American Country. The obituary. |
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