| | | | | | What's news: UMG boss Lucian Grainge has fired back at claims made by Drake. The Traitors is heading to NBC for a version featuring normies. James Gunn has revealed why Superman is heading to digital release so soon. The newly solo Starz saw profits and revenue slide in Q2. — Abid Rahman
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The Duffer Brothers in Talks to Depart Netflix for Paramount ►Whoa. Matt and Ross Duffer, two of Netflix’s most valuable players, may be heading to Paramount. The Duffers, who became name-brand creators at Netflix when the first season of Stranger Things bowed in 2016 and has since become a crown jewel for the streaming service, are eyeing an overall deal at Paramount. The move would reunite them with Cindy Holland, who championed Stranger Things during her time at Netflix and is now oversees streaming at Paramount, but the deal would also include theatrical feature films. Whether or not a deal consummates, it is a major flex from the new Skydance-owned Paramount and comes one week after David Ellison assumed control of the company, with the CEO telling reporters Wednesday, “One of our biggest priorities is restoring Paramount as the No. 1 destination for the most talented artists and filmmakers in the world.” Matt Thunell, head of the new Paramount TV Studios, also worked with the Duffers at Netflix. The story.
—Fighting back. Paramount Pictures has countersued the cousin of a writer on Top Gun: Maverick, who alleges he co-wrote the screenplay, opening another front in the legal battle over alleged copyright infringement in the writing process for the film. In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in California federal court, the studio alleges Shaun Gray deliberately hid his role in penning key scenes, with the aim of asserting claims for idea theft and seeking joint ownership of the screenplay. It accuses him of fraud and infringing on its copyrights. With the success of Top Gun: Maverick, Gray “saw an opportunity to shake down” Paramount, states the complaint. The story.
—Investing in the Sheridan-verse. Taylor Sheridan and Paramount Pictures are expanding their production footprint in Texas. Hillwood has partnered with Sheridan’s SGS Studios and Paramount Television to open a 450,000-square-foot filming hub in a bid to lure large-scale productions to the state. The development marks what’s believed to be the largest operating studio facility in Texas, amplifying the increasingly international battle to host Hollywood. The campus contains six soundstages and can simultaneously accommodate four large-scale productions. The plan is for it to be the home of shows in the Sheridan-verse, including Landman, Lioness, and The Madison. The story. |
Grainge Fires Back at Drake's "Farcical," "Nonsensical" Claims ►"Groundless and indeed ridiculous." Lucian Grainge‘s patience is seemingly wearing thin as Universal Music Group's legal battle with Drake rumbles on. In a declaration filed on Thursday, the UMG CEO, fired back at Drake’s latest push to secure more documents related to the company’s relationship with Kendrick Lamar, describing the specific claims made by Drake as “farcical,” “nonsensical” and “groundless and indeed ridiculous,” with Grainge pointedly remarking that the company had spent “hundreds of millions” in supporting the Canadian rapper’s music career. In a separate letter submitted by UMG’s lawyers to the Southern District, the company said, "Drake’s motion is a transparent attempt to use discovery to harass UMG and force it to waste time and resources out of spite" and called on the court to deny the motion. The story.
—🤝 Deal! 🤝 Chord Music Partners, the Universal Music Group-backed music acquisition company, has secured an investment from Searchlight Capital partners, the companies announced on Thursday. Neither Chord nor Searchlight disclosed financial details of the investment such as how much Searchlight invested or how much of a stake in Chord it now owns, saying only that the deal “will accelerate the Company’s growth through the expansion of its recorded music and publishing catalogs, as well as enhance Chord’s ability to identify and execute new acquisition opportunities.” The story.
—Look out, Joe Rogan! The latest episode of Travis and Jason Kelce’s podcast New Heights exploded in popularity thanks to the duo’s in-depth interview with Taylor Swift. The pop mogul announced her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, and gave what might be her longest and most candid interview ever, clocking in at more than two hours. Wednesday’s episode has already racked up more than 10m views on YouTube in less than 20 hours. The episode is already the most popular episode of the podcast ever, surpassing the previous No. 1, which had Jason’s spouse and podcaster Kylie Kelce as the guest. The story.
—Oooof. Newly-solo Starz released its second quarter financials on Thursday, with revenue down and a swing to an operating loss. Starz saw overall revenue fall to $319.7m, down 7.4 percent from a year-earlier revenue at $347.6m. The standalone company posted an operating loss at $27m, against a year-earlier operating income of $10.1m. Following a split from Lionsgate, Starz saw streaming revenue dip to $221m, compared to $234.4m in the year-earlier period. And linear and other revenue came in at $98.6m, against a year-earlier $113.2m. Starz’ OTT service shed 120,000 subscribers in the second quarter, compared to the first quarter of 2025, and ended the latest financial period with 12.2m streaming subscribers. Total U.S. subscribers were 17.6m, a fall of 410,000 customers from the first quarter. The results. |
'AJLT' Series Finale Sees Carrie Go Out With a Whimper ►"With exactly nothing going on and precious screen time devoted to frippery like an elite bridal fashion show and obnoxious idiots we will never see again, the concluding episode mirrors And Just Like That itself: frequently pointless, often meandering and bloated with fantasy wealth." For THR, critic Robyn Bahr dissects the surprise series finale of HBO Max's And Just Like That. Robyn writes that after a season that wasted potential and time, the final episode of the Sex and the City sequel series forced our heroine Carrie Bradshaw to image a future without male companionship. Yawn. The critic's notebook.
—"This is where we wanted to leave her." THR's queen of chat Jackie Strause spoke to And Just Like That showrunner Michael Patrick King about the show's finale. King explains why he chose to end the beloved franchise (even though everyone's still talking about it). Warning: Spoilers! The interview. |
Can Ike Make Elon Likable? ►"It’s a trip to play someone who is alive and very powerful, and I hope I don’t get put into some kind of mecha gulag or something." THR's Seth Abramovitch spoke to The Studio break out Ike Barinholtz, THR's Comedy Player of the Year, about the hit Apple TV+ show. Barinholtz also discusses his upcoming role as Elon Musk in Luca Guadagnino’s OpenAI-biopic Artificial. The interview.
—Gen pop treachery. The realm of The Traitors is expanding — in both who gets to play the game and where the show runs. NBC has picked up a version of the game that will feature civilian players, rather than the reality TV veterans and other celebrities who have populated Peacock’s iteration of The Traitors. Alan Cumming, who hosts the Peacock show, will also lead the NBC version. Production on the network’s version is set to begin next year; the show is taking applications for potential contestants now. There’s no word yet on an air date. The story.
—📅 First-look! 📅 Hot rabbi is back. Netflix has unveiled the first-look images of the highly anticipated second season of Nobody Wants This. And the photos show Noah (Adam Brody) and Joanne (Kristen Bell) looking cozy and in love, Joanne sitting on the sidelines to watch Noah’s Matzah Ballers play basketball, and Joanne continuing to podcast with her sister, Morgan (Justine Lupe). Notably missing from the first-look photos is Leighton Meester. In February, it was announced she was cast in the forthcoming season to play Joanne’s former middle school nemesis, who is now an Instagram mommy influencer, Abby. Season two is slated to hit the streamer on Oct. 23 and has 10 episodes. The story.
—Bana week. Netflix’s Untamed claimed the top overall spot on the streaming charts for its premiere week, and Kpop Demon Hunters continued its momentum with its best mark so far. Untamed, starring Eric Bana as a National Park Service agent investigating a murder in Yosemite, logged 2.1b minutes of viewing for the week of July 14-20 (it debuted July 17). The show led the overall rankings by a sizable amount, coming in about 750m minutes ahead of Sullivan’s Crossing (1.36b) in second place. Kpop Demon Hunters finished third overall and led all movies with 949m minutes, its highest total in the four weeks after its June 20 release. In Netflix’s internal figures, the movie has had a remarkably consistent run over the summer, which likely means it will stick around for a while longer in Nielsen’s charts (which lag behind real time by four weeks) as well. The streaming rankings. |
Larson, Collins, Quaid and Golding Set to be 'Close Personal Friends' ►🎭 Hotties only. 🎭 Brie Larson, Lily Collins, Jack Quaid and Henry Golding are set to star in Close Personal Friends, a comedy that Jason Orley will direct for Amazon MGM Studios. The feature is the latest from Orley, who previously wrote and directed the Pete Davidson coming-of-age movie Big Time Adolescence and is known for his many collaborations with the comedian. For Close Personal Friends , which has gone through several title changes, Orley co-wrote the story with Isaac Aptaker, with the latter penning the script. Much of the story is being kept under wraps, but it is known to center on one couple that meets and befriends a celebrity couple while on a trip to Santa Barbara. Personal lines get crossed, among other things, and awkward hilarity ensues. The story.
—"There was a lot of things that are beyond our control." James Gunn’s Superman is gearing up for a digital release on Friday, and the director says there’s a reason behind its quick virtual arrival. The DCU film hit theaters on July 11, with the film being out for only a little over a month before it was available to buy/rent on Friday via Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and Fandango at Home, among other platforms. When speaking with Screen Rant, Gunn said the film had such a quick streaming turnaround due to the release of Peacemaker season two. “Well, it’s very complicated, but the truth is it is because of Peacemaker ,” he said when asked what drove the “mindset” of releasing the film on streaming so “soon after” Superman’s theatrical release. The story.
—Regina George type of move? On Oct. 3, Taylor Swift asked me what day it was and I said… uhhh Mean Girls Day? Album release day. For the past two decades, Oct. 3 has always been unofficially known as Mean Girls Day, referencing the iconic 2004 film starring Lindsay Lohan. However, Swift has decided to switch things up. The pop superstar revealed on Wednesday that her 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl, will also be released on Oct. 3 — essentially claiming that day as her own this year. But she has a good reason. The Grammy winners shared on a recent episode of the New Heights podcast, hosted by her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, and his brother, Jason Kelce, that the album’s release date, 10/3, adds up to 13, which has famously been Swift’s lucky number as she was born on Dec. 13, 1989. The story. |
'Vicious' Removed From Theatrical Calendar ►📅 Heading to streaming. 📅 The Dakota Fanning-led horror movie Vicious is set to debut via streaming later this year, after it was previously removed from Paramount Pictures‘ theatrical release calendar. Writer-director Bryan Bertino’s feature will premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin next month before its release on Paramount+ and digital formats Oct. 10. Kathryn Hunter, Mary McCormack, Rachel Blanchard, Devyn Nekoda, Klea Scott and Emily Mitchell round out the cast. Vicious centers on Polly (Fanning), who receives a gift from a late-night visitor and becomes trapped in a world where reality is not what it seems. The story.
—🤝 Sold! 🤝 Night Patrol is ready to roll out. RLJE Films and Shudder have acquired the rights to the horror thriller directed by Ryan Prows with a plan to release the movie theatrically in 2026. The acquisition, brokered by XYZ Films, comes ahead of the movie’s world premiere at the 2025 Fantastic Fest film festival. The festival’s line-up was unveiled Thursday. “Night Patrol is an audacious, high-stakes horror-thriller with a powerhouse ensemble cast and heart-pounding tension,” said RJLE chief acquisitions officer Mark Ward in a statement. The story.
—🤝 Sold! 🤝 Filmmaker James Cullen Bressack‘s found footage Fantastic Fest title The Workout has found a theatrical home. The film will arrive in limited release Aug. 27 via Anchor Bay Entertainment, followed by VOD (through Insurgence) and Blu-ray on Oct. 28 via Anchor Bay. According to the logline, The Workout “chronicles Army Ranger Wyatt Park (Peter Jae) and his pregnant wife Becca (Galadriel Stineman) as they film a workout video in their private gym that becomes violently interrupted by a mob hit. Becca is killed, but their unborn child is miraculously saved. Grief-stricken and enraged, Wyatt and his brother-in-law Levi (Josh Kelly) launch a merciless mission of vengeance, documenting every moment for the child to one day understand what happened.” The story. |
Broadway Box Office: 'Hamilton' Celebrates 10 Years ►Anniversary bump. Mamma Mia! brought in close to $1.6m in its first week of seven performances, making it the fourth-highest grossing show in the industry last week. The musical, which opens Aug. 14, played to just over 100 percent capacity at the Winter Garden Theatre with an average ticket price of $148.46. Other high earners included Hamilton, which brought in $1.7m in a week that included its 10th anniversary on Broadway celebration, featuring a special Aug. 6 matinée performance, where more than 1,200 attendees were lottery winners who had purchased $10 tickets, and an invite-only evening performance, as well as a block party on the street afterwards. The Broadway box office report.
—🎭 Heading to the stage. 🎭 Katie Holmes has a date with the stage in Southern California. The veteran star is set to topline a new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s iconic work Hedda Gabler at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre. The casting reunites Holmes with the Globe’s artistic director, Barry Edelstein, who directed her in the Off-Broadway production of The Wanderers in 2023. Hedda Gabler will kick off the 2026 season on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage at the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center in San Diego’s Balboa Park. Performances begin Feb. 7 and will continue through March 8. Opening night is Feb. 12. Edelstein will direct the fresh take, which was commissioned by the Globe and adapted by veteran playwright and screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson. The story. |
Film Review: 'Night Always Comes' ►"Atmospheric and well-acted if a little one-note." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews Benjamin Caron's Night Always Comes. Vanessa Kirby, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Julia Fox and Eli Roth star in Benjamin Caron’s Netflix thriller about a Portland woman fighting to claw out a future for herself and her family. Also starring Zack Gottsagen, Stephan James, Randall Park, Michael Kelly, Sean Martini and J. Claude Deering. The review. |
Thank Pod It's Friday ►All the latest content from THR's podcast studio.
—Awards Chatter. THR's executive awards editor Scott Feinberg talks to the great and the good of Hollywood. In this episode, Scott spoke to Severance star Adam Scott. The lovable screen actor reflects on his slow evolution from starving artist to Knocked Up and Step Brothers scene-stealer to TV stalwart, what he learned on Party Down and Parks and Recreation, and how Ben Stiller's 2013 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty started him on the path to playing Mark — 'Innie' and 'Outie' — on the most Emmy-nominated TV show of the 2024-2025 season. Listen here.
In other news...
—Megadeth announces final album, farewell tour
—Black Bear names Lionsgate vet David Spitz head of U.S. theatrical distribution
—Paw Patrol studio Spin Master promotes Marc De Vellis to digital games head
What else we're reading...
—A wildly disturbing story from Jeff Horwitz about Meta's flirty chatbot engaging with vulnerable people and children [Reuters]
—Patrick Kingsley, Fatima AbdulKarim and Natan Odenheimer report that violent and often fatal Israeli settler attacks in the West Bank have hit a record high [NYT]
—Mark Chiusano profiles Zohran Mamdani, the hot favorite to become the next mayor of New York City [Time]
—Ben Brasch and David Ovalle report that the percentage of Americans who say they consume alcohol is now 56 percent, the lowest point in at least 86 years [Washington Post]
—Here's your Friday list: "The 44 most powerful players in podcasting in 2025" [THR]
Today...
...in 2012, Walt Disney Pictures released Peter Hedges' The Odd Life of Timothy Green in theaters. The fantasy dramedy starred Jennifer Garner, Joel Edgerton, Dianne Wiest, CJ Adams, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ron Livingston, David Morse, and Common, and was a moderate box office hit. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Jennifer Lawrence (35), Ben Affleck (53), Alejandro G. Iñárritu (62), Joe Jonas (36), David Zayas (63), Natasha Henstridge (51), Zeljko Ivanek (68), Peter Hermann (58), Ben Silverman (55), Anthony Anderson (55), Debra Messing (57), Emily Kinney (40), Con O'Neill (59), Barbara Bouchet (82), Sarah Bock (19), Noshir Dalal (47), Tess Harper (75), Matthew Wood (53), Carlos PenaVega (36), Samuel Roukin (45), Lubna Azabal (52), Jessica Lindsey (47), Tony Robinson (79), Christine Adams (51), Ayan Mukerji (42), Belinda Peregrín (36), Adele Lim (50), Quinton Aaron (41), Courtney Hope (36), Maddie Corman (55), Jacek Koman (69), Gry Bay (51), Natalie Press (45), Ann Ryerson (76), Ella Thomas (44) |
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