| | | | | | What's news: WBD chief David Zaslav strikes a new pay deal. Netflix is opening a third experiential space. Glenn Close and Billy Porter have nabbed roles in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. Tubi has acquired a Naomi Osaka sports doc. Disney and Amazon have inked an ad pact. — Abid Rahman
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THR's Drama Actor Roundtable ►"Who gives a f*** what other people think." THR's award-winning Roundtable Series continues, next up are the TV drama actors. Six stars — Walton Goggins (The White Lotus, Righteous Gemstones), Diego Luna (Andor, La Máquina), Eddie Redmayne (The Day of the Jackal), Adam Scott (Severance), Jeffrey Wright (The Agency, The Last of Us) and newcomer Cooper Koch (Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story) — sat down with THR's Lacey Rose to talk embracing the sleepless nights, their fights with fans and the reality that you’re never going to be anybody but you — and that’s perfectly OK. Isn’t it? The roundtable. |
Late-Night Roasts Trump's "Big Stupid Birthday Parade" ►"Almost makes me feel bad for him." If we’re being charitable, Donald Trump's military parade on Saturday was extremely underwhelming. So it was easy pickings for late-night comedians, who took great delight in finding yet another thing to clown the president about. Amid grim news at home and abroad — including ICE raids, soldiers on the streets of Los Angeles, the Israel-Iran conflict and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza — Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon and Jon Stewart took the chance for a small bit of joy for the misery Trump felt over his poorly attended parade. The recap.
—Griftapalooza. The Trump family said it is licensing its name to a new mobile phone service, the latest in a string of ventures that have been announced while Donald Trump is in the White House, despite ethical concerns that the U.S. president could mold public policy for personal gain. Eric Trump, one of Trump’s sons running The Trump Organization, said the new venture, called Trump Mobile, will sell phones that will be built in the U.S., and the phone service will maintain a call center in the country as well. The story.
—Fresh faces. Filmmakers Jason Reitman, Teddy Schwarzman and Tom Dolby, Toho chief Hiro Matsuoka and banker Cindy Huang have been elected to the board of trustees of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the museum announced on Monday. The new board, which will take its seats on July 1, will also include Olivier de Givenchy, Dr. Eric Esrailian, Patricia Bellinger Balzer, Jim Gianopulos, Howard Berger, Arnaud Boetsch, Effie T. Brown (honorary trustee), Sidonie Seydoux Dumas, Sid Ganis (honorary trustee), Donna Gigliotti, Julia S. Gouw, Ray Halbritter, Tom Hanks, Travis Knight, Academy CEO Bill Kramer, Miky Lee, Eva Longoria, Ryan Murphy, Katherine L. Oliver, Alejandro Ramírez Magaña, Shira Ruderman, Ted Sarandos, Regina K. Scully, Kimberly Steward, outgoing Academy president Janet Yang and Kevin Yeaman, as well as president Amy Homma. The story.
—Dramatic escape. Amid Israel’s rapidly escalating armed conflict with Iran, Caitlyn Jenner managed to escape the country on Sunday. Jenner had been in Tel Aviv as guest of honor of the city’s gay pride festivities, which were called off after Israel began a series of strikes on Iran on Friday. All Israeli airspace was closed as Iran responded with a barrage of ballistic missiles aimed at cities like Tel Aviv and Haifa. Jenner was able to leave the country by land and cross into neighboring Jordan, whose airspace has been intermittently open and closed throughout the conflict. The story. |
Meta's Threads Is Declaring War on Spoilers ►Smart! THR's Alex Weprin has the scoop that Threads, the text-focused app from Instagram, is launching a new tool meant to encourage users to discuss TV shows and films on the platform … without fear of spoiling them. In what the Meta-owned platform says is a first for an app of its kind (sorry X and BlueSky), Threads will let users hide text or images that spoil a piece of entertainment (or anything that can be spoiled), simply by marking it as a spoiler. When a user marks it a spoiler, the text or image will be blurred until whoever is seeing the post selects it and asks to know more. The story.
—Compromise. David Zaslav’s generous (and unpopular) pay package is about to change — and at least partly due to popular demand. Amid a split of Warner Bros. Discovery, which will see the company’s TV networks and streamer Discovery+ spun off into a new, separate entity, the WBD compensation committee is revising the structure of Zaslav’s compensation. Zaslav, the WBD president and CEO, will receive less cash and more shares, and no matter how you slice it, his pay is going down. The new deal commenced last week with a stock option award of nearly 21m stock options (60 percent performance-vesting stock options, 40 percent time-based stock options). The story.
—🤝 Ad deal. 🤝 As media buyers and advertisers gather in France at Cannes Lions, Disney and Amazon are unveiling a new pact aimed at improving ad targeting for streaming television. The deal, between Disney’s Real-Time Ad Exchange (aka DRAX, yes, also the name of a Marvel character) and Amazon’s Delivery Service Partner logistics unit, is aimed at allowing a greater array of advertisers to have access to the content inventory across Disney’s platforms. As in, it’ll allow media buyers using Amazon’s DSP to have better tools to target consumers on ad-tier programming across Disney+ (126m subscribers), Hulu (54m subs) and ESPN+ (24m subs). The story.
—BadCo debt worries. With Hollywood leaving behind its mergers and acquisition cycles to favor corporate spinoffs of late, Fitch Ratings on Monday weighed in on whether splitting off, say, a RichCo or a PoorCo from RemainCo will produce the promised rewards of better balance sheets and debt reduction for major studios unbundling ailing linear TV assets from studios and streaming businesses. The ratings firm argued splitting media conglomerates into smaller and less diversified companies, while improving efficiency and possible cost savings, also has downside risks, including reducing cash flow and so the ability to pay down debt. The story.
—So long, farewell. Long-time Paramount executive Barbara Zaneri is departing the company after 25 years. Zaneri, chief program acquisitions officer at the company, is stepping down to focus full-time on a nonprofit group she founded, the Gold Star Services Network. As she departs, Virginia Lazalde-McPherson will take on new duties at Paramount, becoming chief acquisitions officers for Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios. The story.
—Upped. ABC News promoted four employees on Monday. Jennifer Metz is now executive producer, special events and news specials planning and John Santucci is senior executive editorial producer and managing editor, investigative unit and strategic initiatives; they’re both based in New York. In Washington D.C., Katherine Faulders has been named Washington D.C. Bureau managing editor — a newly created position — and Ben Siegel has been upped to deputy political director and coordinating producer. |
'Daily Show' Staffer on Triumph at Pedro Pascal Lookalike Contest ►"It’s been insane." On Sunday, George Gountas enjoyed a life of relative obscurity. True, the 42-year-old resident of Brooklyn has enjoyed a taste of the limelight — literally, as he’s been the lighting designer for The Daily Show since 2018. And yes, he was used to being told he looked like a certain celebrity whose profile has skyrocketed in recent years. But for the most part, he was just George from Greenpoint, father of two. All of that changed yesterday when Gountas, egged on by his wife and Daily Show staffers, entered a Pedro Pascal lookalike contest. THR's Seth Abramovitch spoke to Gountas about handily beating dozens of hopefuls by eerily resembling The Last of Us star. The interview.
—Expanding. Netflix is getting serious about its Netflix House experiential entertainment effort, unveiling extensive details about its first two locations in Pennsylvania and Texas, and planning a third location in the heart of Las Vegas set to open in 2027. Each Netflix House will feature immersive experiences based on films or TV shows from the service, including Wednesday, One Piece, Knives Out and Squid Game, paired with food and retail offerings. The streaming giant says that the first two locations, in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania and Dallas, Texas will open in late 2025, with the Las Vegas location to be based at the BLVD, right on the Strip. The story.
—"It's sobering." Eric Dane revealed in April that he’d been diagnosed with ALS, but he’s already lost function in his right arm and worries about weakness on his left side and in his legs. “My left side is functioning, my right side has completely stopped working,” the Grey’s Anatomy alum said, after sharing he only had “one functioning arm,” in an interview with Diane Sawyer that aired on Monday and Tuesday’s Good Morning America. “I feel like maybe a couple more months and I won’t have my left hand either. It’s sobering.” Dane said his symptoms began over a year ago when he started to notice weakness in his right hand. The story.
—Tragedy. Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, a former contestant on the fashion design competition series Project Runway , died Saturday after being struck by gunfire while attending a “No Kings” demonstration in downtown Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City Police confirmed his death and provided details of what transpired by referring to Ah Loo as an “innocent bystander” who was not the intended target of the gunfire. “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the 39-year-old man who was killed and with the many community members who were impacted by this traumatic incident,” Salt Lake City Police Department chief Brian Redd said in a statement, adding that the response of the officers and detectives was “fast, brave and highly coordinated” when the shooting broke out. The story. |
'Star Wars' "Looks Terrible" in Screening of Long Lost Original 1977 Version ►"I felt like I was watching a completely different film." A long-lost original print of 1977’s Star Wars was recovered from an archive and screened for a group of cinema aficionados and die-hard fans. An audience was finally permitted to watch the first released version of the film — nearly perfectly preserved and unfaded — that creator George Lucas famously suppressed from being publicly shown on a big screen for 47 years. The British Film Institute event in London was introduced by Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy, who joked that the screening was “not illegal.” “What you’re going to see is in fact the first print, and I’m not even sure there’s another one quite like it,” Kennedy said. “It’s that rare.” And the result? An attending film critic from The Telegraph who attended the screening last week admitted the unaltered original “looks terrible” by modern standards. The story.
—"I couldn’t do a movie where the screenplay’s not good." James Gunn has a “number-one reason” why he believes the “movie industry is dying.” In a new interview, the filmmaker and co-head of DC Studios said that a lot of the bad movies being released are due to production dates being set before scripts are completely finished. “I do believe that the reason why the movie industry is dying is not because of people not wanting to see movies. It’s not because of home screens getting so good,” Gunn said. “The number-one reason is because people are making movies without a finished screenplay.” Not having a mandate from Warner Bros. to deliver a certain number of DC projects has also helped Gunn, as the Superman director believes Disney’s previous mandate to increase Marvel films and TV shows “killed them.” The story.
—🎭 Burning through the casting budget. 🎭 Glenn Close and Billy Porter have nabbed roles in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. Close will play Drusilla Sickle, the cruel escort to the District 12 Tributes, while Porter snagged the role of Magno Stift, her estranged husband and the Tributes’ uninspired designer. Francis Lawrence directs the movie adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ best-selling novel that will hit theaters Nov. 20, 2026. Cast members earlier announced include Joseph Zada, Whitney Peak, Mckenna Grace, Jesse Plemons, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Maya Hawke, Lili Taylor, Ben Wang, Ralph Fiennes, Elle Fanning and Kieran Culkin. The story.
—🤝 Sold! 🤝 Michael Douglas and real-life son Cameron Douglas are set to reunite on the big screen. Good Deed Entertainment has acquired domestic rights to family drama Looking Through Water, and is planning a late summer theatrical release. Roberto Sneider helmed the film with Michael Douglas in the lead and that co-stars Cameron Douglas alongside Walker Scobell, David Morse, Michael Stahl-David, Ximena Romo and Tamara Tunie. Looking Through Water centers on a father who attempts to bond with his estranged son by teaming up with him for a father-son fishing competition. The story.
—🤝 Sold! 🤝 Four-time Grand Slam-winner Naomi Osaka's return to pro tennis after a break to give birth to her child will be captured in The Second Set, a documentary feature picked up by Tubi. The film is set to premiere on Fox's ad-supported streamer in August. “The Second Set will deliver an intimate look into the life of Osaka as she navigates balancing her career with first-time motherhood and is described as a love letter to her daughter, Shai,” the doc’s producers said in a synopsis. The Second Set is produced by Nike, with whom the tennis star has a running shoes and clothing line and will debut in August. The story. |
Streaming Overtakes Cable and Broadcast Combined in TV Use ►Milestone. Streaming platforms have led Nielsen’s Gauge rankings of TV use for most of the monthly snapshot’s four-year existence. It had yet to eclipse the combined total usage for cable and broadcast outlets, though — emphasis on had. The Gauge for May shows that streaming captured 44.8 percent of viewing time in the U.S. for May, beating the combined tally of 44.2 percent for cable (24.1 percent) and broadcast (20.1 percent). Other TV use (gaming, physical media playback, some on-demand viewing) made up the remainder. The story.
—Drip, drip, drip. Following last week’s announcement of the first wave of the Bachelor in Paradise season 10 cast, the first Golden stars competing for love on the ABC summer spinoff series have now also landed ashore. Former Golden Bachelor contestants April Kirkwood, Kathy Swarts and Natascha Hardee are joining the already announced Leslie Fhima for season 10. And former Golden Bachelorette contestants Charles “CK” King, Jack Lencioni, Keith Gordon, Kim Buike and Ralph “RJ” Johnson join the previously announced Gary Levingston. The story.
—"A detective duo for the ages." British streamer BritBox has green-lit a six-part contemporary adaptation of Agatha Christie's Tommy & Tuppence. The series, following adaptations of Towards Zero and Murder Is Easy, will be produced by Lookout Point, part of BBC Studios, in association with Agatha Christie Limited. Phoebe Eclair-Powell will write the show in her first drama series commission for television. The story.
—Big year ahead. Wicked, Oscar winner Anora, seasons 2 of Poker Face and Landman, season 3 of Tulsa King, as well as Dexter: Resurrection are among the high-profile titles coming to European streaming service SkyShowtime this year. The streaming joint venture of Comcast and Paramount Global unveiled its slate, including new and exclusive series and first-run Hollywood films, on Tuesday. SkyShowtime also said that “a record number of local originals” will be coming to the service this year. The story. |
Film Review: 'In Cold Light' ►"Gets the dirty job done." THR's Stephen Farber reviews Maxime Giroux's Tribeca spotlight narrative selection, In Cold Light. Maika Monroe, Troy Kotsur Boost, Helen Hunt and Jesse Irving star in the French-Canadian director's fast-paced crime thriller. The review.
—"Actors score, script sags." Stephen reviews Christian Nilsson's Tribeca spotlight narrative selection, Westhampton. American Horror Story actor Finn Wittrock plays a director who returns to his Long Island hometown and confronts unresolved trauma and tragedy. Also starring R.J. Mitte, Jake Weary, Amy Forsyth, Joy Suprano, Dan Lauria, Roxanne Schiebergen and Tovah Feldshuh. The review.
—"A joyless affair." THR's Angie Han reviews Simon West's Bride Hard. It's a Pitch Perfect reunion, with Rebel Wilson playing a secret agent attending the wedding of her childhood best friend (Anna Camp) when it's attacked by gun-toting mercenaries. Also starring Stephen Dorff, Justin Hartley, Anna Chlumsky, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Sherry Cola and Gigi Zumbado. The review.
In other news...
—Tom Sturridge’s Dream faces epic fallout of his misdeeds in The Sandman S2 trailer
—The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox teaser sees Grace Van Patten tells harrowing story
—G-Dragon is headed to North America and Europe for world tour
—Sabrina Carpenter lands second No. 1 single with “Manchild”
—Melanie Rumani, BBC Studios and UKTV global head of acquisitions, dies at 50
—Kim Woodburn, British reality TV star best known for How Clean Is Your House, dies at 83
What else we're reading...
—Jackson McHenry marvels at how HBO's The Gilded Age makes absurdly low-stakes period drama into must-watch television [Vulture]
—Andrew Prokop digs into the surprising people pushing to keep the U.S. out of Israel's war with Iran [Vox]
—Benjamin Mazer looks at how Ivermectin became right-wing aspirin [Atlantic]
—As tariffs close off the U.S., Alexandra Stevenson reports that Chinese goods are flooding Southeast Asian, Latin American and European markets [NYT]
—Berber Jin reports that the tensions between OpenAI and partner Microsoft are becoming untenable [WSJ]
Today...
...in 1987, Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket premiered in Beverly Hills. The anti-war film comprised two acts — the first at the U.S. Marine Corps trailing facility in Parris Island, and the second in Vietnam on the eve of the Tet Offensive. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Ken Loach (89), Monica Barbaro (35), Kendrick Lamar (38), Thomas Haden Church (65), Scott Adkins (49), Will Forte (55), Jon Gries (68), Tramell Tillman (40), Odessa A'zion (25), Greg Kinnear (62), Jason Patric (59), Jodie Whittaker (43), Marie Avgeropoulos (39), John Gallagher Jr. (41), KJ Apa (28), Manish Dayal (42), Jennifer Irwin (50), Mark Linn-Baker (71), Louis Leterrier (52), Michael Showalter (55), Michael Kovach (30), Arthur Darvill (43), Kelly Curtis (69), Tracie Bennett (64), Bobby Farrelly (67), Rebecca Breeds (38), Heather Mazur (49), Jarret LeMaster (46), Joshua Leonard (50), Kami Cotler (60), Mark Umbers (52), Joe Piscopo (74), Staz Nair (34), Lane Bradbury (87), Shô Kosugi (77), Louise Delamere (56), Matthew Alan (47) | | | | |
