‘Star Wars’ Movies Head To Disney Linear Networks, Will Be Shared With Turner Nets Under New Deal

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling‘s combined star power helped power “Barbie” to $1.4 billion in worldwide ticket sales, an all-time high gross for distributor Warner Bros. The studio is clearly hoping to duplicate this success with its upcoming “Ocean’s 11” prequel movie, which is set to reunite Robbie and Gosling on the big screen. The film will be the first “Ocean’s” project since the Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett-led “Ocean’s 8” in 2018.

Lionel Messi Gets Animated With Sony

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Martin Scorsese has not seen Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” or Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” but that didn’t stop him from celebrating the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon during a recent interview with the Hindustan Times. Scorsese himself has ties to “Barbie,” as it stars and was produced by his “Wolf of Wall Street” breakout Margot Robbie and shot by his longtime cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto. The latter filmed “Barbie” after wrapping up work on Scorsese’s own “Killers of the Flower Moon.” “I do think that the combination of ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘Barbie’ was something special,” Scorsese said.

Jenna Ortega is having an incredible past few years with the success of Wednesday, as well as her addition to the Scream franchise.

In a boosterish, 12-page slide deck issued this morning, top station group owner and CW parent Nexstar Media Group made the case for broadcast television and saluted last month’s Disney–Charter carriage deal.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Anonymous Content enacted a small round of layoffs on Friday, representing about 8% of the workforce at a company of around 170 people. The talent management and production shop reduced staff across all divisions, including representation, television, motion picture, literary, media rights and branded entertainment. Insiders familiar with Anonymous cited the Hollywood labor strikes and a volatile larger entertainment marketplace as reasons for the job cuts.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Oscar-winning cinematographer Greig Fraser was “devastated” when Warner Bros. announced that “Dune: Part Two” was shifting its release date from Nov. 2023 to March 2024.

This is Day 86 of the SAG-AFTRA strike. 

SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, is attending New York Comic Con on Oct. 14 for the panel “AI in Entertainment: The Performer’s Perspective”.

In the long history of horror films since the dawn of cinema, it would be hard to imagine any of them quite having the particular impact of 1973’s The Exorcist which became the first horror film ever to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, along with nine other nominations including Best Actress for Ellen Burstyn. It eventually won two Academy Awards for William Peter Blatty’s screenplay based on his 1971 novel, and for the bone chilling Sound work. When I saw it as a young kid in its original incarnation at the National Theatre in Westwood (now no longer existing), there were lines like you have never seen wrapping completely around the block. Warner Bros. even put a nurse on duty in the lobby for those who passed out, no mere gimmick because it actually happened. Nothing I have seen since in the genre has matched that one for me, but it wasn’t for Hollywood not trying. There are countless imitations, even a couple of failed direct sequels including the dreadful 1977 followup, Exorcist II: The Heretic, and the forgettable Exorcist III: Legion in 1990. There have been TV series attempts, an origin angle with Exorcist: The Beginning in 2004, and countless others using the come-on Exorcist in their title. Earlier this year we even had another film, based on the Vatican’s longtime real life demon slayer, The Pope’s Exorcist which thanks to a dedicated performance by Russell Crowe worked quite well on its own terms

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor At least one of the big companies that distribute CNN via cable or satellite is unnerved by how closely the company’s new live-streaming service looks like its TV network. Big satellite distributor DirecTV has let executives at Warner Bros. Discovery know via letter that its executives believe the similarities between the two products violate the carriage contract between the two companies, according to a person familiar with the matter.

EXCLUSIVE: Amidst one of the most creatively fertile periods in his career to date, actor Michael Cera has taken on new agents at CAA.

Warner Bros. Discovery France boss Pierre Branco has become the latest international exec to depart.

Naman Ramachandran Disney sci-fi epic “The Creator” and Lionsgate U.K.’s horror franchise entry “Saw X” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office — and the race was almost too close to call. “Saw X” won the three-day total with £1.92 million ($2.31 million), while “The Creator” was just behind with £1.89 million ($2.27 million).

Late-night talk shows are returning after a five-month absence brought on by the Hollywood writers strike, while actors will begin talks that could end their own long work walk-off.

One down, and more to come.

This is Day 82 of the SAG-AFTRA strike. 

Selena Gomez is cooking some holiday specials for the Food Network.

EXCLUSIVE: Following major roles in everything from Netflix’s Sex/Life to the hit Prime Video pic Red, White & Royal Blue and New Line/Warner Bros’ Black Adam, actress Sarah Shahi has signed with agency Independent Artist Group, at the same time inking with Untitled Entertainment for management.

On the heels of a staggeringly triumphant run with Barbie, the fantastical comedy which she co-wrote and directed for Warner Bros, Greta Gerwig has been appointed by the American Film Institute to serve as Guest Artistic Director of AFI Fest 2023.

SAG-AFTRA is set to sit down with the studios today to restart talks on a deal for the actors.

Back at the bargaining table Monday for the first time in more than two and a half months, SAG-AFTRA and the Hollywood studios and streamers have a long way to go to make a deal – even with the momentum gained by the end of the writers’ strike.

“Gangs of New York.”“I realized that I couldn’t work if I had to make films that way ever again,” Scorsese told GQ in a profile published last week.“If that was the only way that I was able to be allowed to make films, then I’d have to stop,” he said. “Because the results weren’t satisfying. It was at times extremely difficult, and I wouldn’t survive it.

“I have a deep, deep fear of humiliation. And also, you sort of know it’s down to you. You can say it’s a s**tty script or the director’s a d**k or blah, blah, blah, but at the end of the day, no one’s going to care about the reasons. You’re the one who everyone’s going to say is lame. And the vast majority of people will say you’re lame even when you tried your best.”

BreAnna Bell ABC‘s “The Golden Bachelor” seems to have reenergized “The Bachelor” audience as the show opened to solid ratings on Thursday night, delivering the strongest debut performance from a “Bachelor” franchise series since 2021. Produced by Warner Bros. Unscripted Television in conjunction with ABC, the more mature take on the dating show debuted to an audience of 4.36 million total viewers.

It was everything everywhere all at once Thursday in New York City: Striking actors getting ready for contract talks were joined by writers who have just wrapped up theirs at a rally in Manhattan that also highlighted Asian American Pacific Islander culture in film and television. 

K.J. Yossman Rachel Griffiths has been cast as the lead in “Madam,” a new dramedy series about an escort agency. Griffiths, best known for her roles in “Six Feet Under” and “Brothers & Sisters,” stars as McKenzie ‘Mack’ Leigh, who sets up an ethical brothel in New Zealand after her philandering husband and mountain of debt leave her struggling to provide for her family.

Andrew Wallenstein President and Chief Media Analyst While “Barbie” may have been a huge opening salvo in Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz’s plan to turn toy brands into media IP, it’s just the beginning of a versatile long-term strategy that will extend far beyond the cinema to TV and gaming for the likes of “Monster High” and “Hot Wheels.” That was Kreiz’s message at his keynote Q&A at the Variety Entertainment & Technology Summit last week in Los Angeles, where he celebrated the big win the Warner Bros. movie delivered for the toy company’s iconic doll — but put it in a broader context.

Just as studios were quick to start suspending overall and first-look deals just days after the start of the WGA strike, several began to restore suspended pacts right after the strike ended Wednesday morning.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Lead negotiators for SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers will head back to the table on Monday, Oct. 2, after a bitter concurrent strike led by the Writes Guild of America was resolved on Tuesday. “SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP will resume negotiations for a new TV/Theatrical contract on Monday, Oct.

During an interview with GQ, director Martin iScorsese revealed that Warner Bros. asked him to alter the ending of his film The Departed so that a sequel could be birthed.

This is Day 76 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

EXCLUSIVE: Theresa Caputo, star of long-running TLC series Long Island Medium, has a new show on a new home.

Not wasting any time, just a couple of minutes after the WGA announced that the strike is ending, Bill Maher revealed that his Real Time will return this week. It will be the first late-night show to come back.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Rodrigo Prieto, the Oscar-nominated cinematographer, will be honored with the 2023 Árbol de la Vida – lifetime achievement award at the 13th edition of the GuadaLAjara Film Festival on Nov. 1. Taking place at the Theater at the Ace Hotel in Downtown L.A., the Mexican D.P.

This is Day 76 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.