For all the talk that people don’t go to the movies before Christmas, and that moviegoing mushrooms from Christmas Day onward, Moana 2 and Wicked are expected to hold over quite well this weekend, with respective takes of $28M and $20M. That would be 45% drops for each, which is explained in part by the relative weakness of two incoming fanboy movies. Sony Marvel's $110M extended Spider-verse outing Kraven the Hunter and Warner Bros/New Line’s $30M feature animated movie Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim are on course for debuts of around $15M and $6M to $7M, respectively. The single-digit start for Lord of the Rings is in the vein of recent Sony Crunchyroll films. Meanwhile, the $15M start for Kraven the Hunter is around the feeble level of Sony-Marvel’s Madame Web back in February over its first three days. Moana 2 is going into its third week while Wicked is playing into its fourth. >>>Holiday Multiples |
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| Deadline Exclusives & Originals |
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New 'Tangled' - Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) has entered negotiations to direct a live-action Tangled film for Disney. A modern retelling of the classic Rapunzel fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, Tangled is being described as a revival of Disney’s Oscar-nominated 2010 animated feature of the same name, which was the 50th put out by the studio. >>>Expected To Follow Line Of Animated Version
Disney Hoped For Moore - Disney’s hunt for its next European content supremo reached the very highest echelons of the BBC, but the Mouse House looks to have emerged empty-handed. Deadline can reveal that BBC content boss Charlotte Moore, the most powerful person in British TV and audio commissioning, held talks over a move to Disney, but ultimately turned down the opportunity. The hunt goes on for Liam Keelan's replacement. >>>House Of Mouse Aiming High
Appearing Act - Harry Houdini was well known for his disappearing acts, but now the master escape artist and illusionist is set to make a big screen appearance for Walt Disney Studios. Scott Sanders and Danny Strong are on board to produce Becoming Houdini, a spy thriller movie based on the life of the legend himself. Beginning with the young Erik Weisz’s (Houdini’s real name) journey to fame and long lasting fascination, the project from The Color Purple and Dopesick producers is set to be written by John Wick Chapter 4 and The Three Musketeers scribes Michael Finch and Alex Litvak. >>>Origin Story Of Sorts
Scoring Drive - Peacock has made it into the end zone with clear eyes and a full heart after scoring the Friday Night Lights reboot series. Deadline understands that the NBCU streamer beat out Netflix to land a new adaptation of the high school football series in a competitive battle that has played out over the last few days. >>>Universal Television Producing
Int'l Oscar Shortlist Preview - The shortlist of 15 films to vie for a Best International Feature Film Oscar nomination at the 97th Academy Awards is set to be announced on December 17. In all, movies from 85 countries are eligible for the prize. There is decidedly a pack of frontrunners this season, and the rest feels a bit up for grabs, but there are gems from all corners. >>>Potential Candidates
Skål! - Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner David Auburn (Proof) has been tapped to write a new draft of Another Round, the English-language remake of Thomas Vinterberg’s Oscar-winning Danish drama from 2020 that has Chris Rock on board to direct. >>>Beat Out 200 Scribes
'Dune: Part Two' Screenplay - Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the year’s most talked-about scripts continues with Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures‘ Dune: Part Two, the anticipated follow-up to 2021’s six-time Oscar-winning Dune. Denis Villeneuve directed from a screenplay he and Jon Spaihts wrote based on Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi novel. >>>Read The Screenplay
'All We Imagine As Light" Screenplay - And here's All We Imagine as Light, from Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia. The film was awarded the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes Film Festival after becoming the first Indian film to appear in competition there in 30 years. >>>Read |
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Apple TV+’s Bad Sisters has two episodes left to go in its second season, which involves several new wild card characters in a murder mystery different from that of Season 1.
Two years after the first season of the dark comedy, Grace Williams (Anne-Marie Duff), née Grace Garvey and soon-to-be Reilly, has found a new love. Yet traces of her dead husband John Paul (Claes Bang), who the other four Garvey sisters call “The Prick,” still threaten to overturn the peace that the five siblings, particularly Grace, have found since his death, which drove the plot of the first season.
Creator Sharon Horgan, who stars as eldest Garvey sister Eva, spoke in the below interview with Deadline about shaping Season 2, the tragic death early on in the season and how she wanted to differentiate the second installment from the first. She also shares her thoughts about what a third season might look like. >>>Read The Interview |
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Exclusive
Following his scene stealing role as the antagonist of this past season of HBO’s Industry, Kit Harington looks to have found another fun role to play, as sources tell Deadline the Emmy-nominated actor is set to join Mark Wahlberg in Apple Original Films' sequel to its hit action comedy The Family Plan.
Eddie Redmayne is set to join Julia Roberts in the Warner Bros. thriller Panic Carefully sources confirmed to Deadline. Elizabeth Olsen is also on board with Sam Esmail directing. Esmail also penned the script. |
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More News
🏢 Warner Bros. Discovery is creating a new corporate structure, slimming down from three divisions to two and establishing a clear separation between linear networks and the streaming and studios businesses.
📽 As the Sundance Film Festival is considering a big move for 2027, it announced programming for the upcoming 2025 edition. The feature film and episodic programs find the Robert Redford-founded gathering very much in its traditional wheelhouse with a mix of big-name projects, politics, and what might just be the next big thing.
🚲 Some of the biggest talents in documentary film will be unveiling new work at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, including Oscar winners Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Davis Guggenheim, and Mstyslav Chernov. No Sundance premiere documentary may attract more attention than Pee-wee as Himself, from director Matt Wolf.
✒️ Just one day after the Travis Braun-topped 20th anniversary list came out, the Black List Wednesday revealed the inaugural Adaptation List. The selection highlights 61 novels published since the first list came out in 2005 that are primed to be made into big screen and small screen projects.
❤️ What if the story of how you met your husband became a runaway hit Netflix series starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody? This is the current reality for Nobody Wants This creator Erin Foster, who joined Deadline along with Brody to discuss the delicate balance of portraying a real-life love affair with poetic license, including one particular scene taken directly from experience. |
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On the Radar
Thu - Critics Choice Awards film nominations; Billboard Music Awards
Fri - Blue Bloods series finale; Producers Guild children’s & shortform nominations; Costume Designers Guild Awards nominations; Dexter: Original Sin Series Premiere
Sat - Chris Rock hosts SNL
Sun - Yellowstone Season 5 finale |
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Obituaries
🕯 The Amazing Kreskin, whose clever, occasionally self-deprecating and always good-humored mentalist routines made him a talk show favorite of such hosts as Johnny Carson, Mike Douglas, David Letterman and Howard Stern, died Tuesday, December 10, in New Jersey. He was 89. 🕯 David Bonderman, whose global investment firm TPG has been a major player in media and entertainment, died Wednesday at 82. 🕯 José de la Torre, star of Netflix's Spanish series Toy Boy, died after fighting a mystery illness. He was 37. 🕯 Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2024 |
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Double Dexter - ‘Dexter: Original Sin’ star Patrick Gibson, left, and original ‘Dexter’ Star Michael C. Hall at the New York premiere of Showtime’s follow-up series. |
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