Topic overview
Film, television, streaming, music, creators, and media companies.
Thursday, September 3, 2026
Franchises expand as entertainment companies manage disruption
The clearest business move was Netflix’s expansion of Dungeons & Dragons into gothic horror with a confirmed Ravenloft series centered on Strahd. Elsewhere, entertainment companies managed downside and disruption as Fox ended its relationship with Maria Bartiromo, HBO Max moved Supergirl quickly to streaming, and Toronto’s new Rogers Stadium suffered severe storm damage.
The day’s creative upside came from catalog and franchise maintenance, with Beyoncé adding unreleased and multilingual material to B’Day and Katseye sustaining its show despite two absences. The quieter remainder included a completed streaming drama in Furious and the loss of jazz singer Cassandra Wilson.
99 stories from 13 sources
Dive DeeperAug 24 - 30, 2026
Paramount's Warner Bros. Deal Defined a Week of Media Upheaval
Parton's death prompted nationwide mourning, tributes, theatrical screenings, renewed interest in her work, and renewed attention to her philanthropy and control of her songwriting rights. The week's response showed how her influence crossed music, film, business, and civic life.
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Summary
FX has confirmed that production has begun on the second season of Noah Hawley's science fiction horror series Alien: Earth. The show will continue expanding the Alien universe in television form.
Starting production turns the series' continuation from an expectation into a concrete commitment by FX.
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The Alien franchise is becoming a continuing television property rather than a one-season experiment.
Summary
Pingyao International Film Festival has appointed Hong Kong director Ann Hui and Italian critic and programmer Carlo Chatrian to lead the Fei Mu and Roberto Rossellini award juries. The appointments come ahead of the festival’s 10th edition, scheduled for Sept. 24 to 30 in Pingyao, China.
Pingyao is using two internationally recognized film figures to give its anniversary edition greater artistic
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The jury choices signal an effort to raise Pingyao’s international profile through credible, cross-border leadership.
Summary
Director Dave Green walks through a scene in which a frustrated Wile E. Coyote seeks legal help, showing how the film develops the cartoon character’s grievances into a story.
The film shifts Wile E. Coyote’s repeated failures from sight gags into a legal premise.
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The movie’s central gamble is whether a familiar cartoon rivalry can sustain a broader narrative without losing its absurdity.
Summary
Adria Arjona has described an intensive training regimen for the upcoming Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow, including weightlifting and boxing. The preparation has fueled speculation that she could play Wonder Woman, though her role remains undisclosed.
The training details confirm that Arjona’s role demands substantial physical preparation, but they do not
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The studio is generating franchise interest while preserving control over one of the film’s biggest unanswered questions.
Summary
Disney Plus is adapting Rick Riordan's The Kane Chronicles books for television. Riordan will be heavily involved in the series, as he was with the Percy Jackson adaptation.
Disney is extending its Riordan-based strategy beyond Percy Jackson, using direct author involvement to protect
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Disney is building a connected pipeline of author-led fantasy adaptations instead of relying on a single hit series.
Summary
Don Lemon will launch The Don Lemon Channel, a free, ad-supported streaming channel distributed across streaming and linear platforms. The move follows his recent growth on YouTube and other digital outlets.
Lemon is turning an audience built online into a broader distribution business rather than returning
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The launch tests whether a prominent news personality can use a digital following to build a scalable television-style media brand.
Summary
Neil Druckmann has hinted that The Last of Us will continue in video games even after HBO's third season. The comments point to more stories in the franchise, though they do not spell out whether that means a third mainline game or another project.
The television adaptation is not the endpoint for the series. Naughty Dog still appears to
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Fans have a reason to expect the game franchise to outlast the television show.
Summary
Rick Santelli, CNBC’s longtime economic-indicators analyst, will retire from the network on Oct. 2. He became widely known for his forceful commentary on federal policy and its effects on ordinary Americans.
Santelli’s retirement ends one of CNBC’s most distinctive on-air voices at a time when economic
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CNBC is losing a veteran personality who helped translate economic policy into television built around individual point of view.
Summary
Nanni Moretti’s It Will Happen Tonight, starring Louis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca, has secured wide international presales through Paris-based sales company Playtime. The film is set for its world premiere in competition at Venice, while its plot remains largely under wraps.
Broad presales give Moretti’s film commercial momentum before audiences and buyers see the finished work
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The early deals reduce distribution risk and show that Moretti’s name still carries substantial value in the international art-house market.
Summary
Rogers Stadium, a Toronto concert venue that opened in 2025, sustained severe damage during a thunderstorm. The status of its next scheduled concert, featuring AC/DC, remains unclear.
The damage immediately threatens the venue’s operating schedule and raises questions about repairs, safety inspections
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A new venue’s early reliability is now at issue, with a major concert serving as the first test of its recovery.
Summary
Iranian director Mohsen Gharaei is preparing to shoot Centrifugal Force, a film about the difficult choices facing a generation of Iranians. He is presenting Falling House in Venice’s Orizzonti sidebar, where the drama has received a positive response.
Gharaei is using the Venice platform for Falling House to advance a second project focused
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The project extends a visible strand of Iranian cinema that turns present-day social constraints into internationally marketable drama.
Summary
Prime Video’s The Boys of Tommen has added Jonathan Forbes, Cobhan O’Brien, Harvey Moloney, Tristan Heanue, and Lewis Brophy to its cast. The actors will play relatives connected to the central characters, including Johnny Kavanagh’s father and Shannon Lynch’s younger brothers.
The additions deepen the series’ family network and expand the roles surrounding its main characters.
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The expanded family cast points to a series designed around interconnected character arcs rather than a narrow two-lead story.
Summary
Coyote vs. Acme combines live action and animation in a courtroom comedy modeled on legal thrillers such as The Verdict and Erin Brockovich. Its Looney Tunes premise turns a lawsuit against the Acme Corporation into a satire of corporate power.
The film's appeal comes from making institutional abuse legible through a familiar cartoon target: a
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The film uses a broad comic premise to tap into a real and durable backlash against corporate impunity.
Summary
The U.K. box office took in $161.3 million in August, its strongest performance for the month since 2018. Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey drove much of the result.
Two major studio releases restored momentum to a traditionally softer month and lifted the market
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A stronger August points to continued theatrical resilience when studios concentrate major releases in the market.
Summary
Maggie Gyllenhaal said she tested AI to make Dakota Johnson look like Marilyn Monroe in her short film Flesh Impact. She abandoned the experiment after deciding that the technology erased the humanity of Johnson's performance.
The failed test exposes a central creative limit of generative transformation: technical resemblance can undermine
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The episode shows why AI adoption in filmmaking will hinge on whether it preserves performance rather than merely reproducing an image.
Summary
Bendita Film Sales has acquired international rights to Norma Vila's psychological horror film Carapace, ahead of its premiere in the Sitges competition. The debut feature stars Nagore Aranburu and Haizea Carneros.
The deal gives a first feature immediate access to international genre buyers before its festival
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A pre premiere rights deal turns Sitges into both a launchpad and a commercial test for emerging genre filmmakers.
Summary
Yorgos Lanthimos’s “Poor Things,” featuring Emma Stone’s Oscar-winning performance, is scheduled to leave Netflix on Sept. 7.
The approaching removal turns a widely praised film into a time-sensitive viewing choice for Netflix
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Viewers who want to watch “Poor Things” on Netflix have a fixed deadline before they must find another service or format.
Summary
Jocelyn Bioh adapts the social rivalries of “Mean Girls” to a Ghanaian beauty pageant, alongside updates on Harry Styles at Madison Square Garden, “Paranormal Activity” on Broadway, and a new film starring Dakota Fanning and Jake Johnson.
The Ghanaian pageant setting relocates the “Mean Girls” formula into a distinct cultural and competitive
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The adaptation shows how recognizable pop premises can gain new stakes when rebuilt around a different place, industry, and social hierarchy.
Summary
Na Hong-jin’s monster movie combines violent small-town comedy with an examination of big-budget Hollywood imperialism.
The film uses blockbuster scale to expose the power dynamics behind blockbuster culture. By colliding
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“Hope” tests whether a monster movie can deliver commercial thrills while interrogating the industry and cultural power that make those thrills possible.
Summary
Fox News has ended its relationship with anchor Maria Bartiromo after more than a dozen years. The departure follows controversy surrounding the longtime television personality.
Fox News is removing a high-profile veteran despite Bartiromo's established place in its lineup. The
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A prominent exit signals that Fox News is willing to trade familiarity for tighter control over its brand and on-air roster.
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