'Wuthering Heights' Set To Seduce; WBD Investor Rips Netflix Deal; Berlin Fest Boss Speaks

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View on web New reader? Subscribe SUBSCRIBE. IT'S FREE. 'WUTHERING HEIGHTS' SET TO SEDUCE THE WORLD IN THE U.S., THE FILM IS TRACKING BEST WITH WOMEN OVER 25 The first big weekend of the 2026 box office arrives Friday with three major studio movies aimed at three different demos: women, families and guys over 25. The tallest of them all is the Jacob Elordi-Margot Robbie pic Wuthering Heights. Warner Bros. is eyeing a $70M-$80M global opening. The Burbank lot won the MRC production for $80M over its potential future parent, Netflix, which offered $150M. The pic's release, aptly timed to Elordi's Best Supporting Oscar nomination for Netflix's Frankenstein, also reps the first fire-breathing mega-wide studio release for Oscar-winning Promising Young Woman filmmaker Emerald Fennell. It will arrive at 3,600 locations Stateside with $40M to maybe $50M over the four-day Presidents Day weekend and another $30M from 11,600 screens in 79 territories. In total, 18,000 screens around the world will be showing Elordi's Heathcliff and Robbie's Cathy getting amorous in the West Yorkshire moors (the pic was shot in the Yorkshire Dales). >>> Full Analysis EFM PREVIEW   EXCLUSIVE First Look At ‘Heated Rivalry’ Star François Arnaud In New Movie ‘Someone’s Daughter’ Nick Jonas To Star In Action-Thriller ‘Bodyman’ EXCLUSIVE Voltage Launches Randall Emmett-Directed ‘Conspiracy Of Thieves’ With Emile Hirsch, Busta Rhymes Deadline Exclusives & Originals King & Flanagan Reteam - Warner Bros is reuniting frequent collaborators Mike Flanagan and Stephen King on a new adaptation of The Mist, based on King’s acclaimed 1980 novella. Flanagan has kept busy with King’s works, directing Gerald’s Game, The Shining sequel Doctor Sleep and Life of Chuck. >>> 'Carrie' Adaptation In Works 'Sex' Sells - Magnolia Pictures has closed a 7-figure U.S. rights deal for I Want Your Sex, with a big theatrical released planned for later this year. One of the big buzz titles of the recent Sundance Film Festival, the Gregg Araki-directed erotically charged drama stars Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman. >>> Competitive Situation BookTok Sensation - Prime Video is adapting New York Times bestseller and BookTok hit ‘Boys of Tommen’ with the producers of Twilight, The Summer I Turned Pretty and One Day bringing the stories to the screen. The show was revealed by internationals boss Nicole Clemens, who set out her stall to Deadline for the first time since taking on the role. >>> Second Major Greenlight 'Mrs. Maisel' Meets 'The Griffin Sisters'  - After acquiring rights to Jennifer Weiner’s New York Times bestseller The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits in a competitive auction, Universal Pictures has brought on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel's Amy Sherman-Palladino to write and direct a feature adaptation. >>> Stacey Sher Producing Billy Returns - Beloved British musical Billy Elliot is returning to the West End. Stephen Daldry, the show’s director, exclaimed down the phone from New York: “Oh my God… Still dancing after all these years. It’s coming back. We’re very excited.”>>>Breaking Baz What The 'Adolescence' Boy Might Have Been Watching - A year on from Adolescence debuting to acclaim, Louis Theroux is investigating the manosphere for Netflix. The documentarian is fronting a 90-minute feature and has opened a podacst studio. >>>Responds To Bob Vylan Criticism Doc Talk Podcast: 'Melania' - On the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, hosts John Ridley and Matt Carey dig into the Melania numbers and another set of figures – the toll of layoffs at The Washington Post. What Melania and the Post have in common, of course, is Jeff Bezos, who owns the heralded newspaper and serves as executive chair of Amazon, the company that shelled out millions to acquire the Melania Trump documentary. >>> Listen THE DEADLINE INTERVIEW Berlin Head Tricia Tuttle Talks Building A Selection That Chimes With The Market: “We Want The Two Parts Of The Berlinale’s Brain To Work Coherently” The Berlin Film Festival opens Thursday with Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat’s No Good Men in which she also stars as the protagonist female camera operator battling sexism in Kabul in the weeks leading up to the withdrawal of U.S. troops in August 2021. Festival Director Tricia Tuttle first connected with Sadat during her 10-year-stint at the London Film Festival, which programmed her first two films Wolf and Sheep and The Orphanage. “With our opening night, we want to surprise. I think it’s always good to try to do something different every year,” she says. “I really loved her first two films. She screened them in London, first when I was deputy, and then when I was director. The new film is very different. It’s a political film, but also really affects the heart. I think audiences are going to respond to it.” >>>Read The Interview CASTING ABOUT Exclusive Apple TV's spy series Safe Houses looks to have landed some top tier talent as Jennifer Connelly and Ana de Armas are in negotiations to star. The series hails from Homeland scribe Gideon Raff.   Exclusive Ariela Barer (The Last of Us) has joined the cast of A24's Deep Cuts, in the high-profile recasting of Odessa A’zion.   Exclusive Sandra Bernhard has been cast in the upcoming fourth season of The White Lotus.   Exclusive Octavio Pisano is returning to NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for a stint in Season 27. He is currently in New York shooting an episode as Joe Velasco. Rhys Darby (Flight of the Conchords) has been cast in the CBS and Warner Bros. pilot Regency, from writer and executive producer Tara Hernandez (The Big Bang Theory).   BY THE NUMBERS   124.9M - Average viewers for this year's Super Bowl, down 2% from 2025 MORE NEWS 💰 Activist investor and Warner Bros. Discovery shareholder Ancora Alternatives LLC threatened to vote against the media company's pending Netflix deal. The firm says it could launch its own proxy fight if the WBD board does not engage with a hostile bid from Paramount. 🏆 The traditional Oscar Nominees Lunch at the Beverly Hilton was back in force Tuesday with a huge turnout, and not just the massive number of nominees, but also their plus-1s, studio heads, various friends of the Academy, AMPAS Governors, journalists and many others. 🐢 Paramount and Mattel have signed a multi-year deal to develop a wide range of consumer products based on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The deal will start in 2027.  💰 Britney Spears has sold the rights to her entire music catalog to Primary Wave. Although the amount Primary Wave paid for Spears’ music catalog is unknown, sources told the publication it was around the same as the $200M deal Justin Bieber secured when he sold his music to Hipgnosis Songs Capital in 2023.    HIRINGS, PROMOTIONS & EXITS   Exclusive Tricia Wood Joins Walt Disney Studios As EVP & Head Of Casting Fremantle Hires Jhamal Robinson & Emily Knight For Senior U.S. Roles Kinsey Fabrizio To Become CEO of Consumer Technology Association ON THE RADAR Wed - Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni expected in court Thu - Berlin FF & EFM begin Sat - Valentine's Day Sun - Last Week Tonight returns; NBA All-Star Game; Spirit Awards Mon - Presidents' Day PHOTO OF THE DAY Classy Moment - The nominees for next month's 98th Oscars gathered Tuesday for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ annual Oscars Nominees Luncheon and class photo, a portion of which is above. This email was sent to punjabsvera@gmail.com by Deadline. 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