| | | | | | What's news: Taylor Russell is exiting The Thomas Crown Affair due to creative differences. John Proctor Is the Villain is set for a feature adaptation. A24 and Ari Aster's Eddington bombed at the box office. James Gunn isn't rushing to find his Wonder Woman, despite rumors. Fox Nation has picked up the TV rights to Real American Freestyle. — Abid Rahman
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CBS' Colbert Axe and Late-Night's Slow Death ►"The youthful audience that once flocked to late night now spends most of their time on social-first video platforms." On The Late Show With Stephen Colbert's cancellation, THR's Alex Weprin writes that it's difficult not to see how an ownership change at Paramount Global impacted the long-running franchise, but the move also reveals stubborn truths about the cost of the programming vs. cheaper and infinite YouTube rivals. The analysis.
—"I honestly don’t know." Jon Stewart is uncertain about The Daily Show's future if the Skydance–Paramount merger goes through. The host of the Comedy Central program (which is owned by Paramount Global) was recently asked by a listener on his The Weekly Show With Jon Stewart podcast, “Do you think Skydance would get rid of The Daily Show after the merger goes through?” Stewart’s response came shortly before The Late Show 's shocking cancellation at CBS. "Unfortunately, we haven’t heard anything from them," Stewart responded. "They haven’t called me and said, ‘Don’t get too comfortable in that office, Stewart.’ But let me tell you something, I’ve been kicked out of shittier establishments than that. We’ll land on our feet." The story.
—"Embrace of diverse viewpoints." Skydance chief David Ellison met with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr earlier this week as the entertainment executive seeks to complete FCC approval for his company’s acquisition of Paramount Global. THR's Alex Werpin reports that Ellison met with Carr, his chief of staff Greg Watson, and Ben Arden, special counsel in the Office of the Bureau Chief of the Media Bureau, on Tuesday, July 15. Ellison "discussed Skydance’s commitment to unbiased journalism and its embrace of diverse viewpoints" in the meeting, as well as concerns about Tencent's stake in the company. The story.
—"A corporation terminating a show in bad faith due to explicit or implicit political pressure is dangerous and unacceptable in a democratic society." The union representing writers on The Late Show is calling for a New York state investigation into Paramount following the cancellation of the show, airing concerns that the move may be a form of bribery. The WGA's East and West Coast branches asked that New York state Attorney General Letitia James open an inquiry into “potential wrongdoing” at the company in a strongly worded statement on Friday. The story.
—What's next? When you’re the highest-rated late-night host on broadcast television and one of the most recognizable people in media, plus have a loyal audience that has grown addicted to watching you five nights a week for years, you have a significant value in the marketplace, even if CBS is showing you the door. THR's James Hibberd considers Stephen Colbert's options post-Late Show. The story.
—"Terrible news for the world of comedy." John Oliver is calling the cancellation of The Late Show "incredibly sad." While speaking to reporters over the weekend, Oliver was asked his thoughts about the news, which CBS revealed in a surprise announcement Thursday. "Obviously, I love Stephen, I love his staff, I love that show — it’s incredibly sad," the Last Week Tonight host responded. "I’m partly excited to see what they’re gonna do for the next 10 months. It’s terrible, terrible news for the world of comedy." The story. |
Trump Files $10B Suit Against News Corp., Murdoch Over Epstein Story ►ICYMI. Donald Trump has sued the Wall Street Journal owner News Corp. for defamation over a report detailing a 2003 letter from him to Jeffrey Epstein in which he wrote that they share a “wonderful secret.” With the lawsuit, filed on Friday in Florida federal court, the WSJ becomes the latest media outlet targeted by Trump for adversarial reporting, joining ABC News and CBS News. It sets the stage for another legal battle in which media’s incentives to stay out of Trump’s crosshairs by settling will be questioned, this time featuring News Corp., owned by close Trump ally Rupert Murdoch, who is personally named in the complaint. The story.
—Settlement. NFL hall-of-famer and podcaster Shannon Sharpe has settled a lawsuit brought by a woman, who accused him of raping her twice across a two-month period last year in her Las Vegas home. Tony Buzbee, a lawyer for the Jane Doe, announced on Friday that a deal was reached to resolve the lawsuit. Terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed. In a lawsuit brought in April in Nevada state court, the accuser alleged that Sharpe “violently sexually assaulted and anally raped” her. She sought at least $50m. The story.
—I never meant to cause you trouble. Andy Byron, the CEO of Astronomer, who also was caught on the Coldplay kiss cam, has now resigned, according to a statement from the data infrastructure company. Astronomer said it is now searching for a replacement for Byron. "Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met," the company said in a statement. "Andy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted. The Board will begin a search for our next Chief Executive as cofounder and Chief Product Officer Pete DeJoy continues to serve as interim CEO." The story.
—Decision. Mark Geragos, the Los Angeles-based lawyer to the stars who made a name for himself representing deeply beloved and maligned celebrities and public figures like Michael Jackson, Sean Combs and Erik and Lyle Menendez, must pay $100,000 to a youth basketball coach for his role in the 2018 Nike extortion scheme, a jury has decided. Gary Franklin had alleged that Geragos and now-disbarred attorney Michael Avenatti derailed a $1.5m settlement by leveraging confidential information from his lawsuit about alleged misconduct in youth basketball to demand a separate $10m payout from Nike to conduct an internal investigation of the company, which later contacted law enforcement. The story. |
'Superman' Flies Past $400M Globally ►Snyderbots in the mud! Superman has transformed into a bona fide crowd pleaser at the box office in a much-needed inaugural win for the Warner Bros.-owned DC Studios, which is run together by James Gunn — also the film’s director — and producer Peter Safran. The big-budget tentpole was all but assured of staying atop the domestic box office in its second weekend, but estimates were all over the place as to how it would hold up. But, buoyed by strong word-of-mouth and reviews, it declined a less-than-expected 54 percent to $57.2m for a pleasing 10-day domestic tally of $235m through Sunday. That’s a narrow decline for the struggling superhero genre and the same as Marvel’s summer 2024 billion-dollar blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine .
THR's Pamela McClintock writes that overseas, where Superman has always faced challenges because of the character’s pro-American traits, the film earned another $45.2m for an international tally of $171.8m and $406.8m globally in a major win for DC and Warners, which has passed up Disney to rank No. 1 in domestic market share for the year to date.
Elsewhere, Columbia and Screen Gem’s R-rated horror reboot I Know What You Did Last Summer came in third with an estimated $13m in line with modest expectations. Overseas, IKWYDLS launched to $11.6m for a global start of $24.6m. Paramount’s Smurfs opened in fourth place with $11m, in line with tepid expectations. Smurfs started off with $22.6m overseas for a global total of $36m, including $2.4m earned last weekend in Australia. A24 and Ari Aster’s divisive Western Eddington opened in sixth place domestically with $4.3m, slightly behind expectations despite plenty of buzz and an all-star cast led by Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal. The box office report. |
Kevin Feige Spills on 'Fantastic Four,' Losing Kang, MCU's Future ►"Do I want to be making big movies for big audiences in 10 or 15 years from now? Yes, absolutely. That’s all I want to do." In a nondescript conference room on the very descript floor of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige invited a select group of journalists to discuss the state of the MCU and the billion-dollar franchise's future. THR's Borys Kit and Pamela McClintock were there and report that ahead of the release of the incredibly important Fantastic Four: First Steps , Feige engaged in a freewheeling conversation with the press, where, among many things, he spoke extensively about the stumbles of the post-Endgame content boom, why Miles Morales won't be coming to the MCU anytime soon, and what's going on with Blade. The conversation.
—"It was really unfair to him." James Gunn is shedding light on the moment he had to tell Henry Cavill he was not returning to play Superman. During a recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the DC Studios boss briefly broke down the confusing timeline that saw Cavill announce he was set to reprise the character before announcing roughly two months later that he was not moving forward in Gunn’s superhero universe. "We were dealing with trying to figure out if we could take the job at DC Studios, and we’re talking to David Zaslav and all the legal people there, and figuring out what our deals would be," he recalled. "And the day our deal closed, all of a sudden they were announcing that Henry was back." The story.
—Nothing to report. Staying with Gunn, the filmmaker revealed he isn’t in a rush to find the next Wonder Woman while responding to rumors that fans shared on Threads. Gunn confirmed that he is not actively looking for actors to star in the movie "nor even discussing it, until a script is finished." He also denied speculation that DC Studios is specifically in search of “an actress with a TV-centric resume, akin to Supergirl’s Milly Alcock," for the titular role. The story. |
Taylor Russell Exits 'Thomas Crown Affair' ►Moving forward. Michael B. Jordan's The Thomas Crown Affair is moving forward despite losing one of its stars, Taylor Russell. The Bones and All actress will no longer star in the film due to creative differences, and her role will be recast. The film is currently in production in London. Thomas Crown Affair, which Jordan directs and stars in, is a remake of the 1968 film of the same name, starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. Drew Pearce wrote the script, following a previous draft written by Wes Tooke and Justin Britt-Gibson. Russell was originally set to star opposite Jordan. The cast also includes Kenneth Branagh, Lily Gladstone, Danai Gurira, Pilou Asbæk and Aiysha Hart. The story.
—It's happening. The hit Tony-nominated Broadway play John Proctor Is the Villain is getting the big screen treatment thanks to Tina Fey and Marc Platt. In a competitive situation, Universal picked up the film rights to the play, with Fey and Platt attached to produce. Playwright Kimberly Belflower will adapt her work for the screen, while Sadie Sink, who earned a Tony nomination for the show, will executive produce. John Proctor is the Villain follows a group of high school girls in rural Georgia who are studying Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and create a feminism club as they try to make sense of the greater #MeToo movement and their own relationships with the men — classmates, teachers and fathers — in their small community. The story.
—📅 Pushed back. 📅 Sony's Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse will now bow in theaters on June 25, 2027, three weeks later than its previous June 4, 2027 date. Insiders say the later date will be better for bringing in school-aged kids for summer break, as some schools would still be in session in early June. It’s also seen as a more appealing date internationally. The Spider-Verse franchise is a crown jewel for Sony. 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won an Oscar for best animated feature, and earned $393.6 million globally. 2023’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was a hit, earning $690.5 million globally, in a demonstration of how the franchise had only gained in popularity in the five years between installments. The story.
—🎭 Remote work. 🎭 Friday Night Lights and John Wick star Adrianne Palicki will lead Remote, a contained horror thriller from Found Footage 3D director Steven DeGennaro. Palicki will pay Jules, a woman who has been living alone in a 30-ft trailer for the past seven months. The cast also includes Roger Guenveur Smith, Chris Johnson, Josh Cruddas and Jessica Perrin. The feature marks DeGennaro’s second film, following Found Footage 3D, which hit the festival circuit in 2016 and landed at horror streamer Shudder. The story. |
Fox Nation Acquires Rights to Hulk Hogan's New Wrestling League ►🤝 Rights spree. 🤝 Fox Nation will be the exclusive broadcast partner for Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff’s Real American Freestyle wrestling league. The inaugural event, RAF01, will take place on Saturday, Aug. 30 at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland, Ohio. A second event, which will also stream on the Fox News subscription digital-video platform, will take place in the fall. The venue for that one is currently TBD. Real American Freestyle, abbreviated RAF by the WWF and WCW legends, is an amateur-style wrestling competition. Think the Olympics, not WWE — but with plenty of pro-wrestling theatrics. Chad Bronstein is the third partner in the league. The story.
—🎭 Family reunion. 🎭 Blue Bloods star Bridget Moynahan will reprise her character of Erin Reagan in the series premiere of Boston Blue, the spinoff series that follows Erin’s brother Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) as he moves from New York to Boston. Moynahan is also set to direct an episode of the new show later in the season; she previously helmed three episodes of Blue Bloods. Boston Blue follows Danny as he leaves the NYPD and takes a new job with the Boston police, where he’s partnered with Detective Lena Silver (Sonequa Martin-Green), who like Danny comes from a prominent law enforcement family. The story.
—🎭 Baby Jason found. 🎭 Crystal Lake, the Friday the 13th prequel series taking shape at Peacock, has cast the actor playing Jason — who will not be fitted with a hockey mask anytime soon. Callum Vinson will play the young Jason in the show. He’s one of five actors who have joined the cast in recurring roles, along with Nick Cordileone, Joy Suprano, Danielle Kotch and Phoenix Parnevik. The A24-produced Crystal Lake stars Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees, Jason’s mother, who (45-year-old spoiler alert) is responsible for the killings in the first Friday the 13th movie before her unkillable son Jason takes over. The story.
—🎭 Leads in place. 🎭 Netflix is adding another splashy series to its Korean originals slate with Variety, a K-pop industry drama starring Crash Landing on You headliner Son Ye-jin and rising actor-idol Jo Yu-ri, best known for her breakout turn in Squid Game seasons 2 and 3. Variety will explore the tensions, ambitions, and fraught relationships between industry power players, the stars and their obsessive fandoms. The upcoming series comes from director Kim Yong-hoon, the filmmaker behind Mask Girl, one of Netflix’s surprise Korean hits of 2023. The black comedy thriller spent four consecutive weeks on the streamer’s Global Top 10 Non-English TV list, peaking at No. 1 in its second week. The story. |
TV Review: 'Washington Black' ►"Weighty themes, buoyant heart." THR's Angie Han reviews Hulu's Washington Black. Adapted from Esi Edugyan's 2018 novel, the miniseries chronicles the globe-trotting adventures of a boy who escapes slavery in Barbados and winds up in Nova Scotia. Starring Ernest Kingsley Jr., Sterling K. Brown, Tom Ellis, Eddie Karanja, Iola Evans, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Rupert Graves and Edward Bluemel. The review.
—"Sudsy fun." Angie reviews Netflix's The Hunting Wives. A Bostonian moves to Texas and falls in with a socialite and her wealthy circle of housewives in this thriller adapted from the novel by May Cobb. Starring Brittany Snow, Malin Åkerman, Dermot Mulroney, Jaime Ray Newman, Evan Jonigkeit, George Ferrier, Katie Lowes and Chrissy Metz. The review.
In other news...
—Tom Troupe, stage and screen actor who appeared in Star Trek and Cagney & Lacey, dies at 97
—Eileen Fulton, As the World Turns star, dies at 91
What else we're reading...
—Alan Feuer and Matthew Goldstein go inside the long and close friendship between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein [NYT]
—Ben Fritz looks at how YouTube won the battle for TV viewers [WSJ]
—With ESPN and wider sports media having shifted right, Drew Lerner writes that it is now time to shut down the grievance machine [Awful Announcing]
—Taryn Luna reports on Gavin Newsom hyper aggressive social media strategy that is punching back at Trump and his allies [LAT]
—Shaimaa Khalil and Kelly Ng report on the rise of the far-right "Japanese First" party that emerged as one of the biggest winners of the recent election [BBC]
Today...
...in 1933, the Ann Harding-William Powell feature Double Harness began playing at Radio City Music Hall in New York. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Josh Hartnett (47), George Wallace (73), David Dastmalchian (50), Betty Gilpin (39), Charlotte Gainsbourg (54), Béla Tarr (70), Chrishell Stause (44), Michael Caton (82), Sara Sampaio (34), Juno Temple (36), Jaime Murray (49), Rory Culkin (36), Jessica Barden (33), Justin Bartha (47), Vanessa Lengies (40), Tian Jing (37), Diane Guerrero (39), Lance Guest (65), Sprague Grayden (45), Alysia Reiner (55), Michael Connelly (69), Ali Cobrin (36), Vinessa Antoine (42), Jasmine Cephas Jones (36), Kym Whitley (64), Ike Eisenmann (63), Stefan Crepon (29), Arija Bareikis (59), Penny Fuller (85), Paloma Guzmán (41), Jalmari Helander (49), Ali Landry (52), Steve Byrne (51), Gabriel Leone (32) |
| Alan Bergman, the three-time Oscar-winning lyricist who teamed with his late wife, Marilyn Bergman, to form one of the most celebrated writing duos in the history of movie music, has died. He was 99. The obituary. |
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