🎬 Copyright Wars

In partnership with

👋 Good morning! Joseph Kosinski wanted to capture cinematic POV shots for 'F1,' so Apple did what Apple does best and built him a custom camera using iPhone parts. To film at actual racing events without disturbing the precise specs of these million-dollar machines, the module had to be disguised as the standard F1 camera housing and engineered to exact weight specifications. Real F1 teams like Ferrari and Red Bull unknowingly carried Hollywood magic at 180 mph, all controlled by an iPad in the pit lane.

Welcome to The Dailies and congrats on making it to Friday! We’ll get you up to speed on Hollywood’s latest while you finish that coffee.

TOP STREAMED
📊 This week’s top original series and films…

• Top streamed overall: ‘A Minecraft Movie’ dominated viewing across platforms this week with 312.6M minutes watched

Data for Jun 20-Jun 26 provided by Luminate Data

CLOSEUP
⚖️ AI companies are winning the copyright wars…

The entertainment industry is losing the opening battles in what might be the most consequential legal war yet. This week alone, federal judges have handed AI companies two major victories, essentially ruling that tech giants can legally use copyrighted books to train their AI systems without the author’s permission, as long as the AI creates something new and different—what courts call "transformative" use.

• Meta vs. Sarah Silverman & Co.: A judge ruled Meta's use of nearly 200,000 pirated books (including Silverman's memoir) to train its Llama AI was "fair use."

• Anthropic's big win: Another judge gave Amazon-backed Anthropic the thumbs up, calling the company’s book-scraping "spectacularly transformative" when training its Claude AI.

Why are creators losing the legal argument?

• The "human learning" defense: Courts are buying the argument that AI training is like a person reading books to become a better writer. You don't pay royalties every time you remember a book, so why should AI?

• No proven market harm: Authors argued AI would flood the market with cheap knockoffs, destroying demand for original works. But they couldn't show their book sales actually dropped—courts wanted hard data, not speculation.

The piracy issue: While AI training got the green light, both courts said illegally downloading the content isn't protected. Both Meta and Anthropic used pirated books from illegal sites—Meta downloaded nearly 200,000 works while Anthropic swiped millions. Anthropic faces potential damages of hundreds of millions for this book piracy.

Looking ahead… The entertainment industry's best shot might be the ongoing Disney/Universal vs. Midjourney case, where visual copying is easier to prove than abstract "learning." But if courts keep embracing this "fair use for training" doctrine, studios may need to fundamentally rethink how they protect their IP.

INTERMISSION: A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

Don’t snooze on student loans

June is the sweet spot to start planning how you’ll cover what FAFSA doesn’t.

You’ve got time to compare options, talk it over with a co-signer, and find a private loan that actually fits your life.

Think beyond tuition—the right student loan can cover housing, meal plans, and even your laptop.

View Money’s best student loans list to find a lender, apply in as little as 3 minutes, and start the semester on the right foot.

COMPARE STUDENT LOANS

WIDESHOT
🎬 The Academy, Bond, and Disney & Charter…

🏆 The Academy's voter base is going global. The Academy invited 534 new members this week, with a record 55% based outside the United States across 60 countries. If all invitees accept, international members would make up 21% of total voting power, up from previous years. The shift reflects the increasing influence of global tastes on Oscar voting, moving away from traditional Hollywood insider preferences. The change could fundamentally alter what films get greenlit, as studios recognize that the path to awards credibility now runs through international voices. We're already seeing hints of this trend, with Cannes Film Festival selections increasingly translating to Oscar nominations, signaling that global festival circuits are becoming more influential in shaping Academy recognition.

🕴 Amazon just proved it won't Marvel-ize James Bond. Denis Villeneuve has been tapped to direct the next 007 film, beating out Edward Berger, Paul King, Jonathan Nolan, and Edgar Wright in a selection that reportedly "stunned" even Amazon executives who were kept out of the loop. The hire comes months after Amazon MGM gained creative control from the Broccoli family in February, ending a 60+ year dynasty and sparking fan fears about possible “cinematic universe treatment” diluting the franchise’s prestige. Instead, Amazon went with the most pricy and least available guy. Villeneuve won't even start writing until he finishes ‘Dune: Messiah,’ likely pushing Bond to 2028. The message is clear: Amazon would rather wait for prestige than rush out another franchise film.

🤝 Cable and streaming just made a deal they both needed. Disney and Charter struck a deal adding Hulu's ad-supported tier to Spectrum TV packages while bringing back eight Disney cable channels that were axed during their brutal 2023 dispute. Charter customers will also get ESPN's upcoming streaming service thrown in for free. It's a classic industry compromise: Charter pays more to bundle streaming services and survive cord-cutting, while Disney accepts lower per-subscriber revenue in exchange for millions of new Hulu users and massive advertising reach. Charter's already bundling Max, Peacock, and Disney+ with traditional TV, essentially trying to become a one-stop entertainment shop to compete with the likes of Netflix by making streaming feel effortless and "free" to consumers.

LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️

• Daisy Edgar-Jones will star as Elinor Dashwood in a new ‘Sense and Sensibility’ adaptation from Focus Features and Working Title. (more)

• Aaron Sorkin is writing and directing ‘The Social Network Part II,’ a follow-up based on The Facebook Files. (more)

• ‘Lilo & Stitch 2’ is officially in development at Disney following the live-action film’s $923M global success. (more)

• 50 Cent has joined the cast of ‘Street Fighter,’ starring alongside Jason Momoa, Noah Centineo, and others in the video game adaptation. (more)

• Paul Dano is set to write and direct a new untitled comedy for Universal, reuniting with ‘Swiss Army Man’ filmmakers the Daniels as producers. (more)

• Neon has acquired North American rights to Park Chan-wook’s new thriller, ‘No Other Choice,’ ahead of its expected Venice premiere. (more)

• Amazon lands Don Winslow’s ‘Collision’ with Jake Gyllenhaal set to star and produce the thriller from ‘The Final Score.’ (more)

• Steven Caple Jr. launches Grey Skies banner with ‘Ghost Fleet’ set as his first film under a new first-look deal at Paramount. (more)

• Bert Kreischer will star in Netflix’s new comedy series ‘Free Bert,’ co-starring Arden Myrin and Ava Ryan. (more)

• Martin Freeman & Iain Armitage will star in psychological sci-fi thriller ‘The Adam Trials.’ (more)

• Dave Bautista will star in rom-com ‘The Romantic’ for Paramount, playing a burly author hiding behind a fake female pen name. (more)

TV Development 📺

• Apple TV+ is producing a docuseries on UConn’s legendary women’s basketball dynasty, fresh off their 2025 NCAA Championship win. (more)

• Leo Woodall will star opposite Rachel Weisz in Netflix’s limited series ‘Vladimir.’ (more)

• MGM Television is developing a series based on ‘Park Avenue,’ Renee Ahdieh’s glitzy debut novel, with Johanna Lee writing. (more)

• Jessica Madsen will star as Gunnhild in Prime Video’s Viking drama ‘Bloodaxe,’ opposite Xavier Molyneux in the Michael Hirst-created saga. (more)

Business 🤝

• BET will cut staff across several departments as part of Paramount’s 3.5% U.S. workforce reduction. (more)

• Sony has signed a three-year deal to globally distribute ‘Artists Equity’ theatrical films from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. (more)

• ‘Hacks’ co-creators Lucia Aniello and Paul W. Downs have signed a new overall deal with Warner Bros. TV and HBO Max to develop more series. (more)

• Disney lays off under 2% of its product and technology team in a resource rebalancing effort under new tech chief Adam Smith. (more)

RELEASE RADAR
📅 What to watch this weekend?

🎥 THEATRICAL

• F1: Formula 1 sports drama starring Brad Pitt, directed by Joseph Kosinski. Opens during this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.

• M3GAN 2.0: Blumhouse’s sci-fi horror sequel starring Allison Williams, directed by Gerard Johnstone.

• Sorry, Baby: Black comedy-drama from A24 starring Eva Victor and Naomi Ackie, produced by Barry Jenkins.

📺 STREAMING

• Squid Game: (Netflix) The final season of the Korean survival thriller.

• Smoke: (Apple TV+) Crime drama miniseries from Dennis Lehane starring Taron Egerton and Jurnee Smollett.

• The Bear: (Hulu) S4 of the Emmy-winning kitchen comedy-drama starring Jeremy Allen White.

• Countdown: (Prime Video) Crime drama from Derek Haas, starring Jensen Ackles.

🔮 BOX OFFICE PREVIEW: ‘F1’ is set to take the top spot with a projected $45-55M opening, riding strong presales and an 84% Rotten Tomatoes score to what could be Apple’s first real theatrical breakthrough. Meanwhile, ‘M3GAN 2.0’ will likely take second place in the $18-25M range—solid for Blumhouse’s bottom line, but well behind the original’s $30M debut.

VIDEO VILLAGE
📺 Latest trailers

MARTINI SHOT
🍸 Latest viral moments