Streaming

The start of this carriage dispute even nixed a US Open viewing session on a screen at New York’s Hudson Yards. While DirecTV, DirecTV Stream, and U-verse customers miss the services they pay for and Venu Sports remains on hiatus, both sides point fingers over the blackout.

Disney / ESPN:

...we will not enter into an agreement that undervalues our portfolio of television channels and programs.

DirecTV:

Disney is again taking an anti-consumer approach, demanding that customers from DirecTV and other TV distributors be forced to pay for channels they don’t watch...

Netflix is about to look back at the history of WWE co-founder Vince McMahon with a six-episode series premiering September 25th. Just after Netflix signed a 10-year $5 billion dollar deal with WWE in January, McMahon was accused of sex trafficking and abuse and resigned as executive chairman of its parent company, TKO.

The series covers McMahon’s transformation of WWE from a small, regional business into a global entertainment powerhouse, and the explosive sexual misconduct allegations that led to his eventual resignation.

And not even from the press! Besides Westworld and Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton created ER and his widow is now claiming that everyone involved in a potential reboot or sequel to the series instead boxed Crichton’s estate out and gathered to make The Pitt instead — including lead actor Noah Wyle.

Edgar Bronfman Jr. did have some of the credentials to run Paramount. That’s why the heir turned film producer, music mogul, and chairman of FuboTV plus a group of investors made a last minute bid. Now that he’s withdrawn Skydance and David Ellison, son of Oracle’s Larry Ellison, are all but assured to be the new owners of CBS, MTV, and crucially to me — Star Trek.

George Clooney and Brad Pitt “...gave money back to make sure that we had a theatrical release” in thousands of theaters, but just ahead of a big Olympics marketing push, the Wolfs plan changed to a limited one-week run before its Apple TV Plus debut.

NYT:

Apple executives in Cupertino were already questioning the entertainment units over the amount of money being spent on movies, and the people said there was a thought within the company to not risk a public disappointment should the movie not succeed at the box office.

I have said before, and still firmly believe, that Every Frame a Painting is the best YouTube series of all time. And now, after eight years of silence, it’s back! (Apparently the folks at XOXO this weekend got a preview of the duo’s short film, too, which fills me jealousy.)

BRB watching all the EFAP videos again for the 9,326th time.

The Watchers, a supernatural thriller based on the book A.M. Shine, hits Max on August 30th, reports Deadline.

Prior to The Watchers, Shyamalan served as a second unit director on father M. Night Shyamalan’s film Old and directed six episodes of Servant, his Apple TV Plus series.

Rather than celebrating the ten year anniversary of BoJack Horseman’s premiere by bringing the show back, Netflix has greenlit a new animated series from Raphael Bob-Waksberg that will feature art from Lisa Hanawalt.

Disney just created a committee to find Iger’s replacement as he’s repeatedly said he doesn’t plan to stay CEO long. But he also said that before his last replacement, Bob Chapek, was terminated and Iger returned. So maybe it will be someone new! Or maybe it will just be Bob with a mustache.

At Opening Night Live 2024, Netflix showed off a trailer of Squid Game: Unleashed, the upcoming Squid Game mobile title. The trailer makes the game look kind of silly, which feels at odds with the themes of the actual show.

The game is set to release later this year. The show’s second season is coming soon, too, on December 26th.

The somber Studio Ghibli film, which follows two young siblings navigating a post-WWII Japan, arrives on Netflix on September 16th.

Though there will be plenty of treasure hunting in Netflix’s Tomb Raider animated series, its latest trailer puts the focus on big action set pieces and Lara Croft’s brawling chops.

Mortals will die in Netflix’s Kaos as the greek gods lash out at humanity for their lack of faith, but the series’ latest trailer kinda makes hades look more like a monochromatic drag than a tortuous hellscape.

After Fubo filed an antitrust lawsuit against the trio for its upcoming Venu streaming service, Puck’s Eriq Gardner sat in on an evidentiary hearing overseen by NY District Judge Margaret Garnett:

From the several days of testimony I witnessed — packed with executives, consultants, and economists — it feels like a preliminary injunction might just be on the table... Garnett seems genuinely concerned by the extraordinary influence that could be wielded by an alliance of the sector’s behemoths. 

DoorDash is bundling Max’s $9.99 / month ad-supported plan with its annual DashPash membership in the US, which costs $96 / year. Uber One offers a similar bundle with Disney Plus in the UK.

The new store lets “a select number” of Next Pro artists design merch that SoundCloud will create and sell for them, all while artists collect 100 percent of the profits. So far, the SoundCloud Store features merch from artists like Wiz Khalifa, Denzel Curry, Bktherula, and others.

In addition to revealing a new Marvel-themed Fortnite season, Disney and Epic Games also announced at D23 that three Disney villains (Maleficent, Cruella de Vil and Captain Hook), three Incredibles characters (seemingly Mr. Incredible, Mrs. Incredible, and Frozone), and two Star Wars characters (IG-11 and Moff Gideon — and a new Grogu backbling) are coming to the game.

Disney invested $1.5 billion in Epic Games earlier this year.

While Fox will show most of it, Simpsons executive producers said at Disney’s D23 showcase that some episodes from the show’s 36th season will only show on Disney Plus, according to Variety.

The episodes include a Christmas one titled “O Come All Ye Faithful” on December 17th. The streamer will also get an exclusive Halloween-themed short in October.

At its D23 showcase, Disney Imagineering showed off HoloTile, a very fancy floor that lets you move things on it or stay in place while you walk. It uses tilting, circular discs that spin in synchrony, moving the “floor” as you walk.

The middle video below shows what each of those pieces looks like.

The world likes Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman’s team-up, which injected Deadpool into the MCU and brought Jackman’s Wolverine (and lots of other Marvel characters) along for the ride.

Deadpool & Wolverine has made $1.029 billion at the global box office, through today, putting it just a little behind 2019’s Joker as the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time, according to Deadline.

Correction: Deadpool & Wolverine made $1.029 billion, not $1,029 billion.

During the Horizons: Disney Experiences panel at this year’s D23 event, Kevin Feige announced that Marvel’s next collab will, unsurprisingly, revolve around Doctor Doom. But the most promising thing about the event’s trailer is the number of X-Men (like Emma Frost) who popped up.