| | | | | | What's news: Supriya Ganesh is leaving The Pitt. J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot is leaving L.A. for NYC. A TV adaptation of The Corrections starring Meryl Streep has landed at Netflix. David E. Kelley is adapting and Matt Reeves is directing a TV adaptation of A Bonfire of the Vanities. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie made a huge opening day gross of $34m. And OpenAI has acquired tech business streaming show TBPN. — Abid Rahman
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Louis C.K. Is Back in Business With Netflix ►No such thing as cancel culture, Part I. Louis C.K. is headlining a show at The Hollywood Bowl as part of the streamer’s Netflix Is a Joke festival on May 5. And his upcoming comedy special, Ridiculous, will premiere on the platform this summer. The special is directed and executive produced by the comedian. This marks the first time that Netflix has worked with the comedian since his 2017 special Louis C.K. 2017. The move appears to mark a turning point for the comedian, who had been exiled from many mainstream comedy spaces following a 2017 NYT report at the height of the #MeToo movement in which five women accused him of sexual misconduct. The women alleged that he masturbated in front of them or on the phone with them. C.K. later admitted to the behavior, saying he believed at the time it had been appropriate because he had asked first. The story.
—No such thing as cancel culture, Part II. THR's Ethan Millman reports that Kanye West was on top of the world Wednesday night, or at least that’s the image the ever-controversial rapper projected for his comeback show at SoFi Stadium, where he spent the entire night atop a dome lit up with a projection of the earth spinning beneath him. It’s a stark metaphor for a man who not even a full a year ago released “Heil Hitler” — one of the most openly antisemitic songs an artist of his prominence has ever recorded — just months after using a Super Bowl ad to direct viewers to a website to hawk swastika-emblazoned t-shirts. The story.
—✊ Tentative deal. ✊ The union for writers behind the free streaming network CBS News 24/7 have reached a tentative contract deal with management at CBS and Paramount. The deal was reached after a tense bargaining period that saw CBS News 24/7 writers stage a 24-hour walkout following the expiration of their contract on March 9. The parties finalized the tentative three-year contract on Tuesday, the WGA East, which represents the staffers, announced Thursday. The union is not releasing details of the pact until after union members participate in a ratification vote, which will take place within the next few days. The story.
—On the move. A new phase for Bad Robot is coming into view. The once high flying production company led by J.J. Abrams is scaling down operations and reorganizing as it shuts down its Los Angeles office and moves to New York, where Abrams now resides. The move comes after the company sold its longtime Santa Monica headquarters for $31m in November and had shed employees in recent years. At its height, the Bad Robot building had hundreds of people working inside it, including members of its in-house visual effects company, Kelvin Optical. The company was founded in 1999 has been responsible for a myriad of hits, starting with 2001’s Alias, and eventually adding 2004’s Lost, 2008’s Fringe, 2011’s Person of Interest and 2016’s Westworld on the TV side. The story. |
Altman: OpenAI Still Talking With Disney ►"I love our partnership with Disney, and we’re working hard with them to find a world where they can still do something amazing." When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman made the decision to shut down Sora, the company’s AI video generation tool, he called former Disney CEO Bob Iger to give him a heads up. Iger was the one who spearheaded the partnership, which would have given Sora access to hundreds of Disney characters, and with the entertainment company investing $1b in the AI giant. With OpenAI getting out of the video generation business, the Disney deal was toast before it even officially kicked off. “I get it,” Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro told Altman, the OpenAI CEO recalled in his first interview after the decision was made. “It’s super sad always to disappoint a partner or users or a team, all of which are doing incredible work,” Altman said. Altman, speaking on the Mostly Human podcast, left the door open to a future deal. The story.
—🤝 Sold! 🤝 OpenAI is getting into the media business. The AI giant has acquired TBPN, the red-hot streaming show that covers big business, with a heavy emphasis on tech. The show will continue to stream on YouTube, X and every other platform where it is available. OpenAI CEO of applications Fidji Simo told employees at the company that it will have editorial independence. So why is OpenAI buying the Gen Z CNBC? It’s about helping the company communicate. "As I’ve been thinking about the future of how we communicate at OpenAI, one thing that’s become clear is that the standard communications playbook just doesn’t apply to us," Simo wrote in a note to staff. The story. |
'The Corrections' Series Starring Meryl Streep Lands at Netflix ►🎭 Long time coming. 🎭 Twenty-five years after The Corrections became a publishing phenomenon, a series adaptation of Jonathan Franzen’s novel has found a home at Netflix. Meryl Streep will star in a limited series based on the novel, which Franzen is adapting. American Fiction filmmaker Cord Jefferson will direct. Netflix gave a striaght-to-series order to the project, which comes from Paramount Television Studios. Franzen’s novel earned waves of critical acclaim after it was published in 2001. It won the National Book Award for fiction and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction the following year. The story.
—What a team! David E. Kelley’s next project for Apple TV will take on one of the quintessential novels of the 1980s. The prolific showrunner is teaming with The Batman filmmaker Matt Reeves for a series based on Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities. The project is in development at Apple, with Warner Bros. TV as the studio. Kelley is adapting the novel, and Reeves is on board to direct. They’ll executive produce along with Sarah Geismer of Reeves’ 6th and Idaho Productions and Matthew Tinker of Kelley’s eponymous company. Vanities is Kelley’s second show based on one of Wolfe’s novels. He previously adapted A Man in Full for a 2024 Netflix limited series, which starred Jeff Daniels. The story.
—Squeezing blood from a philosopher's stone. HBO is set to air an exclusive behind-the-scenes special of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, their upcoming TV adaptation of J.K. Rowling‘s wizarding world books. Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic offers “an in-depth look at the making of the first season” and will debut Sunday, April 5 on HBO Max in the U.S., the U.K., and Ireland. The story.
—🎭 Killer voice. 🎭 Succession star Brian Cox has joined season two of Paramount+ series Dexter: Resurrection, and is set to play the retired serial killer. The New York Ripper — real name Dom Frant — was introduced as an in-universe character on the first season when Dexter (Michael C. Hall) and Claudette Wallace (Kadia Saraf) found a file on the mass-murderer in Leon Prater’s (Peter Dinklage) vault. The Ripper/Frant was not depicted on screen. The story.
—One final spell. Disney Branded Television’s sequel series Wizards Beyond Waverly Place will conclude with its third season, slated to release this summer. The show goes into production next week. The original series launched the career of Selena Gomez, who is set to make her directorial debut with the season three premiere. She will also reprise her role as Alex Russo in multiple episodes throughout the season. Wizards Beyond Waverly Place continues the story of Wizards of Waverly Place, which aired for four seasons — along with a TV movie — on Disney Channel from 2007 to 2012. The story. |
Jamie Bell to Play Duke In New 'Peaky Blinders' Series ►🎭 Shelby shuffle. 🎭 Netflix is doubling down on the Peaky Blinders universe. The original Peaky Blinders, a BBC series, did very well on the global streaming service — so well that Netflix greenlit an original film to serve as its sequel and also ordered two season of a new continuing series. The new show is set 10 years after Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, taking place in 1950s Britain. The new show is also getting a new Duke Shelby: Jamie Bell will take the role over from The Immortal Man‘s Duke, Barry Keoghan. Stranger Things' Charlie Heaton will fight alongside Bell/Duke in this next-gen Peaky gang. Jessica Brown Findlay, Lashana Lynch and Lucy Karczewski are also confirmed for the cast. The story.
—Staffing changes. Supriya Ganesh, who has played Dr. Samira Mohan in the first two seasons of the HBO Max hit The Pitt, is departing the show. Meanwhile, Ayesha Harris, who recurs as night shift resident Dr. Parker Ellis, has been promoted to a series regular for the third season. Ganesh’s exit from the series is said to be a story decision — the fictional PTMC is a teaching hospital, and staff turnover is common at such facilities in real life. Ganesh’s character has also spent a good amount of time this season pondering the next steps in her medical career after her plans to move back to her home state of New Jersey were disrupted. Her departure follows that of Tracy Ifeachor’s Dr. Heather Collins after season one. The story.
—Meeting the audience where they are. Coachella-goers will get more than just the music at this year’s festival, as HBO Max is bringing a special screening of the new season of Euphoria to the desert. Timed to the show’s season three premiere on April 12, the streamer is hosting a special fan screening during Coachella’s first weekend, set for 11:59 p.m. PT on the 12th following the fest’s final performance. The event makes Euphoria the first-ever television series to screen its premiere episode on the Coachella campgrounds and is open on a first-come, first-served basis, with a festival wristband required for access. The story.
—It's elementary. The first week of March was a big one for streaming shows set in 19th century England. Amazon Prime Video’s Young Sherlock got off to a solid start in its premiere week, recording 678m minutes of watch time in Nielsen’s streaming ratings for March 2-8. The series, which follows Sherlock Holmes (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) as a college student and budding detective, was the top series debut of the week. Bridgerton, meanwhile, spent a second week as the overall No. 1 title, coming in at 1.99b minutes of viewing. It was one of three series to score more than a billion viewing minutes, along with The Night Agent (1.12b) and The Pitt (1.11b). The streaming rankings. |
Gosling Exits the Daniels' Universal Film ►No deal! Ryan Gosling casting in the Daniels' untitled event film has been nixed due to scheduling conflicts. The Universal project, which secured a tax credit in California, was not able to shift from its targeted summer start with a release date already on the calendar for Nov. 19, 2027. The film falls under an overall deal with the studio for the Oscar-winning Daniels’ Playgrounds banner with their longtime producing partner Jonathan Wang, and it marks the duo’s follow-up to the pop culture phenomenon that was Everything Everywhere All at Once, which won seven Academy Awards including best picture, best director and best original screenplay for Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. The story.
—Lets-a-go! The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is off to an impressive start at the box office, serving up a huge opening day gross of $34m domestically as it unfurled in theaters Wednesday to get a jump on Easter weekend. That’s the biggest opening day of the year to date, coming less than two weeks after Project Hail Mary set the earlier opening record with $33.1m. Galaxy’s haul was also ahead of the $31m earned by the first Super Mario Bros. Movie on its first Wednesday before Easter. The 2023 pic quickly became a box office sensation on its way to topping out at $1.36b globally and delivering a marquee new franchise for Universal, Illumination and Nintendo. The box office report.
—More details. Korean auteur Bong Joon Ho’s much-anticipated foray into 3D animated filmmaking is beginning to come into focus. The multi-Oscar winner and his producers on Thursday revealed a title, story summary, target release date and even a first-look image of the mysterious project, which he’s been developing since 2019 but has kept quiet about until now. The film is titled Ally, and it will be completed in the first half of 2027 for a worldwide theatrical release later that year. Bong co-wrote the screenplay with 36-year-old filmmaker Jason Yu, a protégé who directed the well-received Korean horror feature Sleep from 2023. Ally follows "a curious and endearing piglet squid living in the uncharted depths of the South Pacific Ocean." The story.
—🎭 Bunny's breakout. 🎭 Mike Vogel, Alexa PenaVega, Dennis Haysbert and Devon Franklin are set to lead the cast of Sean McNamara’s drama Home. The movie began production this week in Vancouver and will shoot in April and May ahead of its planned Thanksgiving release. Home centers on Johnny J (Vogel), a charming con man sentenced to community service. His path changes when he bonds with an immigrant child named Gustavo, and Johnny soon must risk everything to help protect the youngster and create a home for him. Lincoln Fox, the child actor who received a Grammy Award from Bad Bunny during a much-discussed moment in this year’s Super Bowl halftime show, marks his feature acting debut with the role of Gustavo. The story. |
Megan Returns to Sold-Out 'Moulin Rouge' ►Thee comeback. Megan Thee Stallion is back on stage in Moulin Rouge! The Musical. The Grammy-winning rapper returned to the spotlight inside New York’s Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Thursday evening after missing Wednesday’s performance and exiting mid-show on Tuesday night after falling ill. At the time, her rep said she was rushed to the hospital where she was being treated. On Thursday night, Megan triumphantly returned to the stage in the role of Zidler. The gig marks not only her first ever Broadway performance but also the first time a woman has performed the role in the beloved and long-running jukebox musical. The story.
—Heading to the stage. Benson Drive Productions has begun development on a musical adaptation of the novel The Danish Girl, which was also turned into the 2015 Academy Award-winning film, starring Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander. The stage production will feature book and lyrics by Nora Brigid Monahan, an original score by Alex Parker, musical director for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s LW Entertainment, and direction by Georgie Rankcom, the U.K. associate director of Oh, Mary! The Danish Girl novel and film are loosely inspired by the true life story of Lili Elbe, a Danish painter, transgender woman, and an early recipient of gender-affirming surgery, and her love story with her partner, Gerda Wegener. The story.
—🎭 Last-minute legends. 🎭 Wallace Shawn and his partner, Deborah Eisenberg, stepped into his Off-Broadway play Wednesday night to replace two castmembers who were ill. Shawn and Eisenberg appeared, with scripts, in What We Did Before Our Moth Days at the Greenwich House Theater, opposite castmembers John Early and Josh Hamilton. Shawn and Eisenberg were replacing actors Hope Davis and Maria Dizzia for the night, and will appear again Thursday night, while the actors are still out of the show. Shawn, who penned the play, and Eisenberg had three hours’ notice before going onstage, according to the production. The story.
—"We are all Susans." Heated Rivalry is everywhere, including Off-Broadway. A theatrical parody of the hit Canadian show will get an Off-Broadway run this May, after eight sold-out concert presentations in March. The show, written by Dylan MarcAurele, follows key plot points in the show, now set to songs like “Big Ass, Cold Heart” and “Shane Hollander Slap That Stick,” with the added character of Susan, who is a “lovable wine mom,” avid fan and somewhat unreliable narrator of the story. THR's Caitlin Huston spoke to MarcAurele on developing the show. The interview. |
TV Review: 'The Testaments' ►"Periodically potent, frequently derivative." THR's chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg reviews Hulu's The Testaments. One Battle After Another star Chase Infiniti anchors this loose adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel, returning viewers to Gilead less than a year after the original series, The Handmaid’s Tale, ended. Also starring Lucy Halliday, Ann Dowd, Rowan Blanchard, Eva Foote, Amy Seimetz, Brad Alexander, Mabel Li and Isolde Ardies. Created by Bruce Miller, from the book by Margaret Atwood. The review. |
Thank Pod It's Friday ►All the latest content from THR's podcast studio.
—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 Andrew McCarthy. The reluctant heartthrob from John Hughes’ 1986 teen classic Pretty In Pink revisits Brat Pack mania and the last-minute ending that changed everything. 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 interviews actress Olivia Munn, star of Apple's Your Friends and Neighbors, who discusss why she nearly quitting acting and how one of her best lessons came from an experience with a very bad director. Also THR's Mia Galuppo joins to talk about the 2026 films most likely to keep people going to theaters after the success of Project Hail Mary. The podcast.
In other news...
—Beef S2 trailer: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan star in highly anticipated follow-up
—Far East Film Festival reveals lineup, set to honor Fan Bingbing, Koji Yakusho
—TCM Classic Film Festival to honor Glenn Close
—Hailee Steinfeld welcomes first child with husband Josh Allen
What else we're reading...
—Philip Kennicott writes that the proposed Trump presidential library in Miami would be a giant tower of grift [Washington Post]
—John Bartlett, Thomas Graham and Tom Phillips report on how Korean culture is taking Latin America by storm [Guardian]
—Kyle Chayka talks to the team behind those ubiquitous pro-Iran, LEGO-themed viral videos on social media [New Yorker]
—Maury Povich interviews "the new Dick Cavett" and "millennial Jon Stewart" Adam Friedland [Interview Magazine]
—Here's your Friday list: 47 iconic New York movie and TV sites to visit [THR]
Today...
...in 2014, Universal released James Wan's Furious 7 in theaters. The film featured Paul Walker in his final film role and made a massive $1.52b at the global box office. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Eddie Murphy (65), Adam Scott (53), Matthew Goode (48), Sofia Boutella (44), Alec Baldwin (68), Cobie Smulders (44), Ben Mendelsohn (57), Amanda Bynes (40), Catherine McCormack (54), Jamie Bamber (53), Rachel Bloom (39), David Hyde Pierce (67), Jennie Garth (54), Josh Safdie (42), Elsie Fisher (23), Eric Braeden (85), Angela Featherstone (61), Natacha Karam (32), Lesley Sharp (66), Sarah Jeffery (30), Marsha Mason (84), Jennifer Rubin (64), Ruby Bentall (38), Will Mellor (50), Sebastian Bach (58), Tomas Arana (71), Alice Lowe (49), Hayley Kiyoko (35), Elizabeth Gracen (65), Ella Bleu Travolta (26), Chrissie Fit (42), Paris Jackson (28), Christiane Seidel (38) |
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