| | | | | | What's news: The Netflix-WBD deal proposal has a whopping break-up fee of $5.8b. Maurice DuBois is exiting CBS News. MS NOW is planning to launch a DTC platform. 4 countries are set to boycott Eurovision over Israel's inclusion. Playwright Jeremy O. Harris has been arrested in Japan. And Sony is planning a new Men in Black movie. — Abid Rahman
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Netflix to Acquire WB in Deal Valued at $82.7B ►🤝 Hollywood blockbuster! 🤝 Netflix has officially agreed to buy Warner Bros. in a megadeal valued at $82.7b. The companies announced the deal early Friday, altering the course of the entertainment business. Netflix said that it expects to maintain the current operations of WB "including theatrical releases for films," though specifics aside from topline deal numbers remain scarce. Netflix says the deal would give users more choice and let it "optimize its plans," it will also expand its studio operations, while creating better value for talent and shareholders, with $2b-$3b in annual cost savings.
The deal proposal has a break-up fee of $5.8b, meaning that if the acquisition is scuttled in any way, Netflix still has to pay WBD those billions.
Not only is it understood that Netflix made the highest offer in terms of financial valuation, a Netflix deal would also allow WBD to go through with the planned separation of its networks business and allow WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels to become CEO of that Global Networks business.
WBD shareholders will receive $23.25 in cash and $4.50 in shares of Netflix common stock for each share of WBD common stock, with the linear networks business, including CNN, TNT HGTV and Discovery+ still set to be spun out. That move is now expected in Q3 2026. The story. |
How the Ellison Era Is Transforming Paramount ►Feelings don’t matter. In a juicy newsy piece, THR's Pamela McClintock reports that a lot has changed at Paramount, one of the rapidly dwindling number of legacy studios, since David Ellison's Skydance Media took over. Pamela writes that at the new Paramount, prestige films are out, testosterone-heavy tentpoles are in and Brett Ratner is back on the call sheet. The story.
—"It has been the honor of a lifetime." CBS Evening News co-anchor Maurice DuBois will exit CBS News later this month, as newly-minted CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski plot an overhaul of the evening newscast. DuBois announced the move on his Instagram, writing that his last day at the anchor chair will be Dec. 18. DuBois has been with CBS for more than two decades, mostly as an anchor at its flagship New York station WCBS. The story.
—🤝 Sold! 🤝 Versant is pushing into the free streaming market and adding an operator of digital over-the-air networks to its portfolio. As part of an investor presentation Thursday, the company — which will formally complete its separation from NBCUniversal in January — announced a pair of acquisitions and a FAST service on its Fandango platform. Versant is acquiring Free TV Networks, which owns several digital broadcast and FAST channels to bolster its TV offering, and INDY Cinema Group, which will become part of Fandango and offer movie theater operators a software platform that supports a number of operations related to their business. The story.
—"A digital hub for progressives." At the same investor conference, Versant revealed that MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, is planning to launch the new direct to consumer platform next summer. Details remain scarce, but the company says that it will be “centered around community, membership, and democracy and as a digital hub for progressives,” rather than a traditional streaming platform, though the company says it will include live-streaming of the linear channel. Instead, the plan is to create “a home for progressives on digital,” one that can stitch together MS NOW content alongside podcasts, YouTube and short-form video, alongside interactive content and community features. The story. |
4 Countries Set to Boycott Eurovision Over Israel Inclusion ►Crisis. The European Broadcasting Union, the body that organizes the eclectic, but hugely popular Eurovision Song Contest, decided on Thursday that Israel be allowed to participate in next year’s event as planned. Several European countries, including Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and the Netherlands, announced they will boycott next year’s Eurovision in protest. Broadcasters from a number of European countries had called for Israel to be excluded from the competition due to the war in Gaza. The story.
—Dano-mite. Riddle me this: which A-list director thinks Paul Dano is “incredible?” Not Quentin Tarantino. But there are assuredly quite a few. One of them going public with his praise is Matt Reeves, who directed Dano in the 2022 hit The Batman. “Paul Dano is an incredible actor, and an incredible person,” Reeves wrote on X Thursday, a few days after a viral podcast appearance in which Tarantino said that Dano’s performance in There Will Be Blood lowered his opinion of the movie, which starred Daniel Day-Lewis in an Oscar-winning performance. The story.
—✊ "Union-busting like it’s 1925." ✊ Condé Nast’s unionized workers aren’t done protesting the controversial firings of several of their colleagues. And they’ve taken their fight to a celebration of the company’s most venerated publication, The New Yorker. On Thursday evening more than two dozen unionized New Yorker staffers descended on a special screening of the Netflix documentary The New Yorker at 100 at Manhattan’s Paris Theater to protest what the union has termed "illegal firings." The story. |
Hollywood Hits Saudi's Red Sea Fest ►Star-studded. The fifth edition of Saudi Arabia's Red Sea International Film Festival opened Thursday night with a glittering red carpet and the Middle East premiere of Giant, Rowan Athale’s boxing biopic about British-Yemeni champion “Prince” Naseem Hamed. Guests walked the carpet at Culture Square, were Adrien Brody, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Kirsten Dunst, Vin Diesel, Jessica Alba, Queen Latifah, Dakota Johnson, Ana de Armas, Riz Ahmed, Naomie Harris, Giancarlo Esposito, Uma Thurman, Rita Ora, Olga Kurylenko, Daniel Kaluuya, Nina Dobrev and Kriti Sanon — alongside industry legends such as Juliette Binoche, Sir Michael Caine, Stanley Tong and Rachid Bouchareb, who received the festival’s Red Sea Honoree Awards. The story.
—Arrested. Jeremy O. Harris, the Tony-nominated playwright and tastemaker best known for Slave Play and co-writer of A24’s Zola, has been detained in Japan for nearly three weeks following his arrest on drug-smuggling charges in Okinawa. Until a few days ago, Harris had been expected to travel to Red Sea Film Festival to promote director Pete Ohs’ Erupcja, a surreal road movie in which he appears opposite pop star Charli XCX (Harris and XCX are also credited as co-writers and producers of the film). The festival did not comment on his absence, but Harris has been quietly dropped from the event’s programming. The story.
—Heading to the desert. Production is set to begin this month on Chasing Red, a young-adult romance starring Riverdale’s Madelaine Petsch and The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Gavin Casalegno — the first feature to shoot at Saudi Arabia’s newly opened AlUla Studios under a partnership between Film AlUla and Stampede Ventures. Located in the country’s northwest, AlUla is a desert region famed for its dramatic sandstone canyons, ancient Nabataean tombs and UNESCO World Heritage sites, which the country has ambitious plans to leverage as a magnet for film and television production. The story. |
AFI Names Top Films of 2025 ►🏆 Best of the best. 🏆 The American Film Institute has revealed its picks for the best 10 films and TV shows of 2025. Its top films are, in alphabetical order: Avatar: Fire and Ash, Bugonia, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Jay Kelly, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, Sinners, Train Dreams and Wicked: For Good. AFI’s top 10 TV shows of the year are, in alphabetical order: Adolescence, Andor, Death by Lightning, The Diplomat, The Lowdown, The Pitt, Pluribus, Severance, The Studio and Task. In addition, AFI is honoring It Was Just an Accident, from dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who earlier this week was sentenced by Iran to a year in prison in absentia, with a special award. The winners.
—Neuralyze the last entry. Sony is hoping to extend its Men in Black franchise. Chris Bremner has been hired to pen the screenplay for a new feature in the sci-fi series. The studio has yet to attach a director or any castmembers. Barry Sonnenfeld’s 1997 film Men in Black starred Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. The hit movie launched a franchise that saw Smith and Jones return for 2002’s Men in Black 2 and 2012’s Men in Black 3. The property was rebooted in 2019 with Men in Black: International, starring Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. Neither Smith nor Jones appeared in director F. Gary Gray’s feature, which underperformed at the box office. The story.
—Together again. Canadian-Korean director Shelly Hong and writer Lynda Simmons are reteaming to bring the novel Getting Rid of Rosie to the big screen. Hong will direct the movie adaptation with the title Get Over It, likely in mid-2026 in Toronto or Hamilton, Ontario, as her debut feature. That follows Hong co-writing a screenplay with Simmons as part of a book optioning deal. Simmons penned Get Rid of Rosie as her debut novel, and is billed as a female-led supernatural comedy. The story.
—🎭 Filled out. 🎭 A new comedy feature is set to explore the foibles of the wellness space. Catherine Cohen and Heléne Yorke will star in director Jeremy Redleaf’s indie film Transcendent. Principal photography recently wrapped on the comedy project. Leading the supporting cast are Rebecca Henderson and Ben Sinclair. Additionally, the cast includes Alex Moffat, Chris Gethard, Alysia Reiner, Dave Alan Basche, Gus Birney, Maddie Corman, Jordan Carlos, Glo Talvarez, Mark Gessner and Catherine Curtin. The story.
—🎭 All set. 🎭 Terrifier 3 actress Krsy Fox, B movie queen legend Adrienne Barbeau, and Clown in a Cornfield’s Aaron Abrams are starring in Hannah Goes to Hell, an indie horror from SlackJaw Film. Anne Welles, who previously wrote and directed horror comedy An Accidental Zombie Named Ted, is directing the feature that will shoot in Los Angeles later this month. Welles and Fox are producing the feature via their SlackJaw Film, which was founded by the duo to create dark and impactful female-forward stories in the genre space. The story. |
Kate Walsh Books 'Grey's Anatomy' Return ►🎭 Addison's back! 🎭 Kate Walsh will again reprise her role as beloved, veteran doctor Dr. Addison Montgomery when Grey’s Anatomy returns with season 22 in 2026. She will appear in one episode, titled “Strip That Down,” airing on Jan. 29. Walsh last appeared in a multi-episode arc in seasons 18 to 19. Walsh left Grey’s Anatomy as a series regular in 2007 to lead ABC spinoff series Private Practice, and has since recurred on Grey’s. The show is known for inviting former stars back to Grey Sloan. This season also saw the return of Dr. Jackson Avery, played by Jesse Williams. The story.
—🎭 Heavy hitters. 🎭 Hulu’s upcoming limited series Count My Lies continues to assemble a high-profile cast. The latest addition to the drama is Game of Thrones star Kit Harington, who will play a lead role opposite Lindsay Lohan and Shailene Woodley. He’ll play Jay Lockhart, half of a “gorgeous and charismatic” married couple in New York and husband to Violet (Lohan). Count My Lies is based on a novel by Sophie Stava and is being adapted by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger. The story.
—🎭 A bit of dry and Laurie. 🎭 Hugh Laurie will star in the next season of Apple TV's global espionage thriller Tehran, and, ahead of the season three release, the streaming giant also renewed the series for a fourth season. Season three of Tehran stars Laurie as Eric Peterson, a South African nuclear inspector. He stars alongside Niv Sultan, who reprises her role as Mossad agent Tamar Rabinyan, as well as regulars Shaun Toub and Shila Ommi and new additions Sasson Gabai, Phoenix Raei and Bahar Pars. The series will drop weekly from Jan. 9 through Feb. 27, 2026. The story.
—New home. The Clue scripted series from Sony Pictures Television (by way of Hasbro Entertainment) has landed at Peacock. Currently in development, the scripted show hails from Dana Fox, who will serve as showrunner, and Nicholas Stoller, who will direct. Both will executive produce. A competition-series adaptation of the classic board game is in the works at Netflix. (There was also, briefly, a teen-led scripted version on TV in 2011.) Sony acquired the film and TV rights to the Hasbro game in 2024. The story.
—Woof! Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein came to life with a strong opening weekend on Netflix. The film starring Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi topped Nielsen’s streaming charts for the week of Nov. 3-9 with 1.26b minutes of viewing in the U.S. Frankenstein debuted on the streamer on Nov. 7 after a short theatrical run and amassed the highest weekly viewing tally for a movie on the Nielsen charts since Happy Gilmore 2 in early August. Also on the movie charts, The Fantastic Four: First Steps had its streaming premiere on Disney+ on Nov. 5 and racked up 556m minutes. The streaming rankings. |
Film Review: 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2' ►"This makes it two nights too many." THR's Frank Scheck reviews Emma Tammi's Five Nights at Freddy's 2. The follow-up to 2023's surprise smash hit horror film that was adapted from the popular video game. Starring Josh Hutcherson, Piper Rubio, Elizabeth Lail, Freddy Carter, Theodus Crane, Wayne Knight, Mckenna Grace, Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard. Written by Scott Cawthon. The review.
—"Sensuous and exquisitely unpredictable." THR's Sheri Linden reviews Urška Djukić's Little Trouble Girls. Djukić’s debut feature, Slovenia’s Oscar submission, centers on a shy 16-year-old’s eye-opening school trip as part of a girls’ choir. Starring Jara Sofija Ostan, Mina Švajger, Saša Tabaković, Nataša Burger, Staša Popović, Mateja Strle, Saša Pavček, Irena Tomazin Zagorinik, Damjan Trbove and Mattia Cason. Written by Urška Djukić and Maria Bohr. 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 live episode, Scott spoke to Sydney Sweeney. The two-time Emmy nominee reflected on her breakthrough roles on TV's Euphoria and The White Lotus and in the film Reality, getting into producing with Anyone But You, and challenging herself as never before by producing and starring in a new biopic about boxer Christy Martin, for which she is currently garnering Oscar buzz. The podcast.
—Awards Chatter. In this live episode, Scott spoke to Jeremy Allen White. The winner of multiple Emmys, Golden Globes and SAG awards reflects on why he walked away from dancing and towards acting in his teens, what he learned from his 11-season run on Shameless, how he landed his star-making role as chef Carmy Berzatto on The Bear and how, subsequently, his own conflicted feelings about fame helped him to play Bruce Springsteen during the darkest period of the music legend's life in Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere. The podcast.
—Awards Chatter. In this live episode, Scott spoke to Nicholas Britell. One of the leading film composers of his generation reflects on how he was shaped by both classical and hip-hop music, how his best known scores for TV (the main title theme for Succession) and film (Barry Jenkins' Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk) came to be, and how his score for Noah Baumbach's new film Jay Kelly was composed and employed differently than any of his others. The podcast.
—I’m Having an Episode. THR’s Mikey O’Connell attempts to stay on top of the latest TV and entertainment news with a little help from his friends, colleagues and a revolving door of actors, writers, showrunners and filmmakers. In this episode, Mikey hosts comedian Sarah Sherman who talks about her wild new HBO special (Sarah Squirm: Live + In The Flesh), John Waters core and being SNL's resident weirdo. Also THR's Lacey Rose joins Mikey to debate how Gwyneth Paltrow became a cultural obsession as the Goop goddess returns to acting in Marty Supreme. The podcast.
—It Happened in Hollywood. THR senior writer Seth Abramovitch goes behind the scenes of the pop culture moments that shaped Hollywood history. In this episode, Seth spoke to Larry Smith. The Eyes Wide Shut cinematographer describes executing Stanley Kubrick’s exacting vision on what would be the filmmaker's final film. The podcast.
In other news...
—SXSW: Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters to open festival
—Santa Barbara: Cynthia Erivo feted with Kirk Douglas Award
—YouTuber Cleo Abram signs with UTA
What else we're reading...
—Cynthia Erivo, Ryan Coogler, Rosalía, Stephen Graham and Bad Bunny are among the FT's most influential people of 2025 [FT]
—Esther Zuckerman reports on the Zootopia fans obsessing over "WildeHopps", a fanfic relationship between the bunny and fox lead characters [NYT]
—Alexandra Bruell reports that the NYT is upping its battle with AI company Perplexity with a new copyright infringement suit [WSJ]
—Critic Angelica Jade Bastién believes Black actresses are the ones carrying Oscar favorite One Battle After Another [Vulture]
—Here's your Friday list: 100 most powerful women in entertainment 2025 [THR]
Today...
...in 1997, Miramax unveiled Good Will Hunting, a heartfelt drama starring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Robin Williams that went on to win two Oscars at the 70th Academy Awards, including for Williams’ performance. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Owen Cooper (16), Lynne Ramsay (56), Linus Sandgren (53), Lydia Leonard (44), Amy Acker (49), Paula Patton (50), Tom Sturridge (40), Frankie Muniz (40), Gabriel Luna (43), Nick Stahl (46), Jessica Paré (45), Catherine Tate (56), Dolly Wells (54), Lauren London (41), Ricardo Diaz (42), Margaret Cho (57), Keri Hilson (43), Ross Bagley (37), Clara Rugaard (28), Taz Skylar (30), Sophie Simnett (28), Amara Zaragoza (45), Benjamin Norris (35), Ben Levin (38), Shalom Harlow (52), Hadley Robinson (31), Kali Rocha (54), Alex Kapp (56), Daniel K. Isaac (37), Johan Renck (59), Alberto Guerra (43), Alexandra Beaton (31), Brad Carter (52) |
| Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, the actor who starred in the Mortal Kombat franchise and Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle television series, has died. He was 75. The obituary. |
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