| | | | | | What's news: Disney and ITV have inked a deal to carry each other’s streaming services. Linda Yaccarino has left X. Love Island USA's Cierra Ortega has addressed the racism storm around her. HBO Max has greenlit Big Bang Theory spinoff Stuart Fails to Save the Universe. A Night at the Museum reboot is in the works. — Abid Rahman
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Meet the Trump-Loving Union Boss Who Thinks He Can Save Hollywood ►"We have never had access like this." Though industry outsiders might associate the Teamsters work in Hollywood more with 18-wheelers than star trailers, the organization’s members are an inescapable presence on film and TV sets. At a time of acute strife in the entertainment industry, Sean O'Brien, the colorful, combative and controversial leader of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, is providing an unexpected line to the White House. THR's Katie Kilkenny and Steven Zeitchik look into whether Hollywood actually want O'Brien as its diplomat. The profile.
—✊ It's over! ✊ SAG-AFTRA is putting its video game strike in the rearview mirror. The 11-month strike waged by the performers’ union was brought to a tidy end on Wednesday as members voted overwhelmingly to ratify a labor agreement with major interactive companies, which collectively are behind franchises like Call of Duty and Marvel’s Spider-Man . More than 95 percent of voting members supported the deal reached in early June, while less than five percent voiced their opposition. The union’s strike began in July 2024 and stretched on until June 2025, when negotiators reached a tentative deal and SAG-AFTRA subsequently suspended the work stoppage. The agreement — whose predecessor originally expired in November 2022 — took an unusually long time, three years, to hammer out. The story.
—Into the belly of the beast. The AI Hollywood race is intensifying as Luma AI, which is behind one of the more novel of a new wave of video generators, says it’s planting a flag in Los Angeles. The Northern California company is starting “Dream Lab LA,” a studio space where it hopes to explain its mission to the entertainment business while recruiting and training filmmakers to use its tools. As part of the announcement, Luma has hired Verena Puhm, a producer and writer with BBC and CNN credits, to head up the lab, as well as the L.A.-based filmmaker Jon Finger to work as creative workflow executive. The story.
—Spotlight on doc ethics. The producers and distributors of Retrograde, a documentary following the final nine months of America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan, are claiming First Amendment protections in a bid to dismiss a lawsuit faulting them for the killing of one of the title’s subjects by the Taliban. At the heart of the lawsuit: The death of Omar, a member of a group of Afghan minesweepers tasked with protecting Green Berets in the region who was allegedly tracked down from a scene in Retrograde . A major issue in the lawsuit from the estate of an Afghan man, who was killed by the Taliban after he was seen in Matthew Heineman's doc involves whether the subject's face should've been blurred. Disney and National Geographic say they're shielded under the First Amendment. The story. |
Silicon Valley Stalks the Cineplex ►"When you have a big war chest, you have a better chance at succeeding because you can take big shots." Theatrical slates are shrinking at Hollywood's legacy studios. But, writes THR's Pamela McClintock, a slew of challengers — like Amazon, Apple and, maybe soon, David Ellison’s Paramount — are racing to fill the breach. The analysis.
—🤝 Innovative deal. 🤝 Disney and the U.K.'s ITV will launch a new, first-of-its-kind initiative to carry each other’s streaming services. In the form of a promotional selection, the partnership will be billed as a “Taste of ITVX” and a “Taste of Disney+” on their respective platforms, the companies confirmed Thursday. From Jul. 16, a curated and regularly refreshed selection of hit shows and movies from Disney+ and ITVX will be available to viewers on both platforms. Disney+ customers in the U.K. will be able to stream some of ITV’s most popular scripted and unscripted content, including the award-winning Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Spy Among Friends and reality show Love Island . At the same time, ITVX viewers will be introduced to a rotating rail of Disney+ shows and movies. Among them will be the first season of FX’s The Bear, Lucasfilm’s Andor as well as Hulu's Only Murders in the Building. The story.
—ICYMI. Linda Yaccarino has left X. The former NBCUniversal ad sales executive said Wednesday that she was exiting the Elon Musk-owned social platform after two years. Yaccarino did not give a reason for the decision to leave the tech company, which was previously known as Twitter. She is exiting the company just a few months after it was sold to another of Musk’s ventures, the artificial intelligence firm xAI, in a $45b deal. The story.
—What’s next for Linda? When Linda Yaccarino joined Twitter two years ago, she left a comfortable job as one of the advertising industry’s most powerful players to bet that she could help Musk grow Twitter into a digital behemoth. It’s been a long two years. Advertisers revolted. Checkmarks vanished then reappeared. A premium tier was launched. Musk rebranded Twitter as X as he revealed plans to make it into an “everything app.” Generative AI exploded, and Musk folded his Grok AI into the platform. Then Musk’s AI company xAi bought X outright. Now Yaccarino is out, and the industry is wondering what comes next. The analysis. |
J.J. Abrams' 'Duster' Series Canceled by HBO Max ►Brutal. HBO Max has canceled its 1970s-set action-comedy series Duster after one season. The drama from showrunners J.J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan starred Josh Holloway as a getaway driver working for an Arizona crime syndicate and Rachel Hilson as an FBI agent. The show, which premiered in May, had terrific Rotten Tomatoes scores — 92 percent positive from critics and 83 percent positive from audiences — yet apparently didn’t succeed in drawing a large enough audience. The show didn’t chart, at least, in the Nielsen Top 10. The outcome is likely to be particularly disappointing for Holloway, who patiently waited for years for the star vehicle to get on track after plenty of false stops and starts. The story.
—🏆 Tillman! 🏆 The long-awaited second season of Severance scored the most nominations for the annual Television Critics Association Awards. The Apple TV+ drama leads the 2025 field with five nominations, including for program of the year and best drama. Britt Lower, Adam Scott and Tramell Tillman were also nominated for their individual performances. Netflix’s Adolescence, HBO Max’s Hacks and The Pitt, and Apple TV+’s The Studio were close behind, collecting four nominations each. Winners will be announced later in the summer, along with the TCA’s career achievement (for an individual) and heritage (for a program) awards. The nominees.
—"I am not a victim." Love Island USA 's Cierra Ortega is speaking out after abruptly departing season seven of Peacock’s hit reality series a week before the finale due to a racism controversy. “Now that I’ve been back in the U.S. for about 48 hours and I’ve had the chance to process, I now feel like I’m at a space where I can speak about this without being highly emotional because I am not the victim in this situation,” she began in a more than four-minute video posted on Instagram. Producers never fully explained Ortega's exit, however, it came amid backlash after an old social media post from her resurfaced, showing her using a racial slur. Fans of the show had been calling for her removal from the show due to the offensive post. The story.
—Expanding to infinity. HBO Max has formally greenlit Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, another The Big Bang Theory spinoff comedy that will center on comic bookshop owner Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman), who had a heavily recurring role on the original CBS series. The show comes from TBBT co-creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady and Zak Penn — and unlike the original series and its other spinoffs, Young Sheldon and Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, it will feature a heavy dose of sci-fi alongside its comedy. Stuart Fails to Save the Universe is the first series pickup for the newly re-renamed HBO Max, whose changeover from Max went live on Wednesday. The story. |
'Queer Eye' Set to End With S10 at Netflix ►End of an era. Netflix is winding down its longest-running unscripted series to date. The streamer says that the upcoming 10th season of Queer Eye will be its last. Production on the now-final season began Wednesday in Washington, D.C. An update of the early 2000s Bravo series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Queer Eye premiered in 2018 with a Fab Five of Antoni Porowski (food and wine), Jonathan Van Ness (hair, makeup and personal hygiene), Karamo Brown (relationships, culture), Tan France (fashion) and Bobby Berk (design) helping people remake their lives. Berk departed after season eight, with Jeremiah Brent taking over as the design expert for the final two seasons. The story.
—It's happening. Netflix is leveling up its Korean content slate once again, commissioning a live-action adaptation of Solo Leveling, the wildly popular web novel, webtoon and anime franchise that has become one of Korea’s biggest crossover hits in recent years. The fantasy-action series will star fast-rising actor Byeon Woo-seok, with production led by Kakao Entertainment and SANAI Pictures. Byeon, who has emerged as one of Korea’s most in-demand young stars, has long been fan-cast in the role of Sung Jin-woo, Solo Leveling’s brooding antihero. The story.
—🎭 Same, same, but different. 🎭 CBS’ Blue Bloods spinoff Boston Blue will feature another character from the original series, albeit played by a different actor. Mika Amonsen has joined the show’s cast as Sean Reagan, the youngest son of series lead Donnie Wahlberg’s character, Danny Reagan. Amonsen will take over the role played by Andrew Terraciano throughout Blue Bloods’ 14-season run on CBS. The first-year series, which began production this week, follows Danny as he moves on from the NYPD to take a position with the Boston police. The cast also includes Sonequa Martin-Green, Gloria Reuben, Ernie Hudson, Maggie Lawson and Marcus Scribner. The story. |
New 'Night at the Museum' Movie in the Works ►Another trip to the AMNH. 20th Century and Shawn Levy's 21 Laps are revisiting Night at the Museum. The original franchise starred Ben Stiller as the overnight security guard at the American Museum of Natural History where, thanks to an ancient Egyptian curse, the exhibits come alive at night. Rami Malek, Robin Williams and Owen Wilson were among the actors who played re-animated exhibits. Tripper Clancy has been tasked to write the new take. Plot details for the reimagining are currently under wraps. The original film came out in 2006 and was followed by Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009) and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014). All three films, which grossed over $540m at the domestic box office, were directed by Levy. The story.
—Directorial debut. Greta Lee, who broke out with her performance in the acclaimed romantic drama Past Lives, is stepping behind the camera. The actress will make her directorial debut with Searchlight Pictures’ adaptation of The Eyes Are the Best Part, a psychological horror novel by Monika Kim. Lee will also write the script. Published in June 2024 by Erewhon Books, the novel is a described as a story about a family falling apart as well as the making of a female serial killer from a Korean-American perspective. Set in Los Angeles, the book tells the story of a woman named Ji-won, whose life unravels after her father has an affair and then leaves the family. She finds an inventive way to satiate her rage and hunger. The story.
—New doc banner. Actress Jami Gertz and producer Bayan Joonam are joining forces for a new non-fiction banner, Laugh Cry Wow. The company's inaugural project, Magic City: An American Fantasy, will debut on Starz. The five-part series, which premiered at SXSW, tells the story of Atlanta strip club, Magic City. Dubbed the “Black Studio 54,” the club, opened in 1985, has become the launching pad for the careers of hip-hop stars and helped to shape the sound and culture of the city. Drake, 2 Chainz, Nelly, Killer Mike and more were interviewed for the doc. The story.
—🤝 Rights deal. 🤝 In a preemptive deal, Solipsist Films has taken the film rights to Top Secret Service, an upcoming action-comedy comic book from writer Zack Keller and illustrator Giovanna La Pietra. The high-concept comic is described as in the spirit of Midnight Run and 48 Hrs., with adding in the political suspense of Air Force One . The goal for the movie is to pair two young actors with an older actor as the President of the United States. Per the logline, “When an elite kill team assaults a remote Montana ranch, two young Secret Service agents must protect the retired president they were assigned — only to discover he’s the last living link to a decades-old alien contact cover-up and the key to unlocking dangerous extraterrestrial tech the world was never meant to find.” The story.
—🎭 Filling out. 🎭 Kyle MacLachlan and Justin Long have joined Penn Badgley and Meghann Fahy in You Deserve Each Other, an Amazon MGM romantic comedy based on the novel by Sarah Hogle. The feature, budgeted in the mid-$20m range, is in production in New York with Marc Silverstein and Abby Kohn, the writers who have been behind rom-com hits Never Been Kissed, and He’s Just Not That Into You, directing. Also joining the call sheet are Ana Gesteyer, Timothy Busfield, Delaney Rowe, Lisa Gilroy, and Alyssa Limperis. Fifth Season is one of the entities producing the feature. The story. |
TV Review: 'Too Much' ►"More thoughtful than passionate." THR's Angie Han reviews Netflix's Too Much. Megan Stalter and Will Sharpe star in a London-set love story co-created by Girls mastermind Lena Dunham and her husband Luis Felber, inspired by their own whirlwind courtship. Also starring Michael Zegen, Emily Ratajkowski, Lena Dunham, Rhea Perlman, Andrew Rannells, Rita Wilson and Richard E. Grant. The review.
—"An amusing but unnecessary gamble." THR's chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg reviews Paramount+'s Dexter: Resurrection. Creator Clyde Phillips ditches the ending of Dexter: New Blood to take his serial killer protagonist to New York City, where he encounters familiar faces and new threats. Starring Michael C. Hall, Jack Alcott, David Zayas, James Remar, Uma Thurman, Peter Dinklage, Kadia Saraf, Dominic Fumusa and Emilia Suarez. The review.
—"An Iranian singer rages against the machine." THR's Jordan Mintzer reviews Soheil Beiraghi's Bidad. The writer-director's fourth feature follows a rebellious young performer in Iran who pays a hefty price for her insubordination. Starring Sarvin Zabetiyan, Amir Jadidi, Leyli Rashidi and Ali Mollagholi Poor. The review.
In other news...
—Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man to open London Film Festival
—Charlie Coleman joining Amazon MGM Studios as head of international theatrical marketing
—Wolf Kasteler promotes Allie Jenkins and Chelsea Hayes to senior vp
—Tom Neuwirth, cinematographer on Cagney & Lacey, dies at 78
What else we're reading...
—Hayden Field writes that Elon Musk is making grand promises about Grok 4 in the wake of a Nazi chatbot meltdown [Verge]
—Nathan Taylor Pemberton digs into the rise of the toxic online right, where cruel, offensive shitposting is de rigueur [NYT]
—Absolutely insane news from Mark Gurman and Riley Griffin, who report that Meta has poached Apple's top AI engineer for a $200m package [Bloomberg]
—Luis Prada reports that Denmark is fighting AI by giving its citizens copyright to their own faces, voices and likeness [Vice]
—John Gittelsohn reports that the horrific ICE raids are derailing Los Angeles' economy as workers go missing [Bloomberg]
Today...
...in 1981, John Carpenter unveiled his R-rated dystopian thriller Escape From New York in theaters. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Isabela Merced (24), Chiwetel Ejiofor (48), Wyatt Russell (39), Fiona Shaw (67), Sofía Vergara (53), Adrian Grenier (49), Jessica Simpson (45), Marco Rodríguez (72), Mason Thames (18), DeAnna Madsen (65), Gong Yoo (46), Peter Serafinowicz (53), Golshifteh Farahani (42), Thomas Ian Nicholas (45), Alba Baptista (28), Robert Pine (84), John Simm (55), Brian Jordan Alvarez (38), Gina Bellman (59), Cary Joji Fukunaga (48), Cristina Patterson Ceret (57), Adam Croasdell (49), Janet Julian (66), Benj Thall (47), Gale Harold (56), Annie Mumolo (52), Heather Hemmens (37), Haley Pullos (27), Moon Ga-young (29), Aviva Baumann (41), Lawrence Pressman (86), Jingyi Zhang (26), Chae Soo-bin (31), Gwendoline Yeo (48), Charlie McDowell (42), Laura Elphinstone (42), Emily Skeggs (35), Lucy Gaskell (45) |
| Dave Flebotte, the Emmy-nominated writer and producer who worked on Tulsa King, Desperate Housewives, Boardwalk Empire and The PJs, has died. He was 65. The obituary. |
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