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STUDIO BEATS OUT FOCUS & SONY IN THE BIGGEST DEAL TO COME OUT OF THE CANNES MARKET |
That Garth Davis-directed, Florence Pugh-starring feature take on Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library has been won by the David Ellison-run Paramount Pictures. The studio acquired the project, which Deadline first revealed, for at least $36M or possibly more.
Paramount beat out Focus and Sony, who were circling to acquire North America and select foreign markets on the project. StudioCanal will retain rights in UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Benelux, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
The deal isn’t closed as Paramount and StudioCanal are still settling the remaining territories. At $70M, it’s the biggest European production in some time. >>>Preproduction Begins This Autumn
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Deadline Exclusives & Originals
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To Infinity& Beyond! - Toy Story 5 is bound to have a friend with moviegoers. A lot of moviegoers. Three-week tracking for the animated feature is at $150M, which if those numbers stick will be a record opening for the venerable franchise. >>>Biggest Opening YTD
Sharyn Alfonsi Lawyers Up - The courthouse or the boardroom could be the next venue for Sharyn Alfonsi and CBS News now that the seasoned journalist has been pink-slipped not just from 60 Minutes but the Bari Weiss-led division too. >>>Preparing For Multiple Scenarios
Chris Hemsworth Revs Up Race Projects - Chris Hemsworth and Ben Grayson’s Wild State media company has set an exclusive partnership with Australia’s Tatts Finke Desert Race to develop various projects surrounding the two-day motorsport event. Among the things in the mix is a narrative feature being developed for Hemsworth. >>>Unscripted Content, Too
More 'Amores' - Guillermo Arriaga‘s original screenplay, on which seminal Mexican film Amores Perros was based, is being turned into a scripted TV series. AF Films has acquired rights to Perro Blanco, Perro Negro and is working with Sofia Vergara’s Hispanic company LatinWe to develop and produce a high-end international drama series. >>>Revisit & Expand
'Hacks' Emmy Plans - As Hacks signs off with its series finale, the HBO Max comedy is getting ready for one last Emmy run with its fifth and final season. The submissions are in, and they include returning favorites and first-time hopefuls. >>>The Strategy
Alice Rohrwacher To Channel Italo Calvino - In the wake of their Cannes Best Director-winning Fatherland, Italy-based producers Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli and their Our Films banner are teaming with Cannes-winning filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher on a feature take of Italo Calvino’s 1957 novel The Baron in the Trees. >>>Mubi Model
It Starts on the Page: 'Stranger Things' - Deadline’s It Starts on the Page features standout drama series scripts in 2026 Emmy contention. Today's selection is the script for “The Rightside Up” (code name “Cedar Lodge”) with an introduction from Matt and Ross Duffer in which they explain why writing the Stranger Things finale was “the hardest and most heart-wrenching thing” they’d ever done. >>>Read The Script
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After a BAFTA Best Actress win for her breakthrough role in 2009’s An Education, plus subsequent awards recognition including three Best Actress Oscar nominations, four Golden Globe nominations, a Tony nom and more, Carey Mulligan now surprisingly turns up in a Netflix TV series. Well, at least for one season, the second for the Emmy-winning anthology series Beef from creator Lee Sung Jin.
Mulligan joined this edition of the Deadline video series The Actor’s Side to talk about why she wanted to join Beef and how it fits in with her impressive filmography. >>>Watch
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Exclusive
Kevin Bacon and Andie MacDowell have joined the cast of Beach Read, 20th Century Studios' adaptation of the New York Times bestselling novel from Emily Henry. Phoebe Dynevor and Patrick Schwarzenegger star with production set to start next month.
Exclusive
SkyMed star Natasha Calis has been tapped for a heavily recurring role as Dr. Astrid on the upcoming eighth season of Netflix's Virgin River, which recently started production in Vancouver.
Exclusive
Britt Robertson (GirlBoss) and Rachel Nichols (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) are set to co-star in SJ Creazzo‘s psychological horror-thriller Night At The Carriage House.
Oscar and Emmy nominee Mary McDonnell has joined the cast of Fox's upcoming Baywatch reboot in a recurring role.
Tony Shalhoub has been set as a recurring guest star on the upcoming CBS series Einstein.
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BY THE NUMBERS
$1.91B - Broadway box office grosses for the 2025-2026 season, up 1% from last year
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MORE NEWS
📺 After ongoing speculation about political pressure forcing the cancellation of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and a soft ratings start for its successor, Byron Allen‘s Comics Unleashed, CBS is looking to change the narrative. In a statement, the network claimed a "$55 million swing" from the $40 million a year in losses from Colbert and the $15 million profit from Allen's "time buy" of the 11:30 PM hour.
🍿 Thursday night previews of A24’s Backrooms came in higher than initial estimates, reaching $10.4M. That tally is close to that of another beloved fan IP-turned-big screen pic, Five Nights at Freddy’s ($10.3M).
🏆 The documentary prizes from the News & Documentary Emmy Awards were handed out Thursday night, with winners including BBC/PBS show Simon Schama: The Holocaust, 80 Years On.
✍️ CNN is the latest to sue Perplexity for copyright infringement, alleging the AI firm “has unlawfully copied over 10,000 CNN stories, videos, images, and other works to power its products and tools.”
📺 The next batch of The Simpsons episodes set to stream exclusively on Disney+ have been revealed, and they again include pop culture sendups like “Extreme Makeover: Homer Edition."
🧑⚖️ The Walt Disney Co. and ABC are once again pushing back on the FCC, this time over the agency’s demand that it file early renewal applications for its broadcast licenses, a move that the company calls a threat to the First Amendment.
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OBITUARIES
🕯️ David May, a two-time Grammy-winning producer who worked many of music’s biggest names and was a former longtime VP at Warner Records and Rhino Entertainment, has died. He was 68. 🕯️ 2026 Passings Gallery
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ON THE RADAR
Fri - Katy Tur on Real Time
Sat - Deadline Contenders TV: Doc + Unscripted; Produced By conference
Mon - SXSW London begins
Tue - CA primary election; At SXSW London: Deadline Reality TV Summit UK, Live Festival Studio
Wed - 25th Tribeca Festival begins; NBA Finals tip off
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Jessie's Girl - Joan Cusack makes her first red carpet appearance in 11 years alongside her character, Jessie, at the Toy Story 5 UK launch event in London.
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