👋 Good morning! Robert Downey Jr. and Timothée Chalamet want you to clear your calendar for 'Dunesday.' Both actors have December 18 releases ('Avengers: Doomsday' and 'Dune: Part Three') and floated the portmanteau at a screening this week. Some are running with it. Others say Barbenheimer was lightning in a bottle; this feels more like two guys rubbing socks on carpet. The box office will have the final word.
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. Oh, and if you’re an Academy voter, Oscar nomination ballots close at 5pm PT today. 🗳️ Now, let’s get into it. 👇
TOP STREAMED
📊 This week’s top-streamed originals…
Netflix’s ‘His & Hers’
FILM 🎥
Netflix: People We Meet on Vacation
HBO Max: Zack Snyder’s Jusice League
Disney+: Luca
Prime Video: Playdate
Paramount+: Finestkind
Hulu: Prey
Apple TV: The Family Plan 2
Peacock: Praise This
TV 📺
Netflix: His & Hers
HBO Max: The Pitt
Disney+: Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Prime Video: Fallout
Paramount+: Landman
Hulu: 11.22.63
Apple TV: Pluribus
Peacock: The Traitors
How last week’s releases are stacking up…
🔪 His & Hers: (Netflix) The Tessa Thompson/Jon Bernthal thriller pulled 5M US views and 21.4M hours streamed domestically in its first four days per Luminate. Globally, it brought in 19.9M views in the same time frame per Netflix, dethroning 'Stranger Things' as the most-watched English-language show. Strong opening for an Alice Feeney adaptation.
🛫 People We Meet on Vacation: (Netflix) The first Emily Henry adaptation pulled 3.8M US views in its opening weekend per Luminate. Globally, it hit 17.2M views in its first 3 days per Netflix, topping the streamer's English-language movie chart. Netflix has two more Henry adaptations in the works.
🏰 The Traitors: (Peacock) S4 pulled 4M US views in its opening weekend per Luminate, up from 2.7M for S3's premiere. That's a 48% jump. Peacock's hottest franchise keeps growing.
Top-streamed chart (U.S.) Jan. 9 to Jan. 15. Data provided by Luminate.
CLOSEUP
🔒 Matthew McConaughey is trademarking himself…
The Oscar winner is taking a novel legal approach to combat deepfakes: trademarking his own face, voice, and mannerisms. Alright, alright, alright—that's now intellectual property.
The filing rundown: McConaughey has had eight trademark applications approved by the USPTO over the past several months—including a seven-second clip of him standing on a porch, a three-second clip in front of a Christmas tree, and audio of his iconic ‘Dazed and Confused’ line.
Deepfakes of celebrities are flooding the internet—hawking crypto scams, starring in AI-generated slop, or just saying things they never said. McConaughey’s attorneys hope the trademarks can be weaponized against unauthorized AI duplications, even those that aren't explicitly selling anything. The goal: if McConaughey's voice or likeness shows up anywhere, it's because he signed off on it.
Why go this route? It's still the Wild West out there. State publicity rights protect actors from having their likeness stolen to sell products, but AI-generated content on YouTube lives in a legal gray area—creators can monetize deepfakes through ads without technically "selling" anything. Also, federal legislation like the NO FAKES Act has been collecting dust in Congress, with no vote in sight, leaving celebrities to MacGyver their own protections.
Looking ahead… CAA is reportedly building something similar for its entire client roster through its CAA Vault initiative, so if this untested legal strategy holds up in court, expect every A-lister's face to get the ™️ treatment by year's end.
INTERMISSION: A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR
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CLOSEUP
🤝 Netflix just locked up Sony’s entire film slate…
Netflix and Sony Pictures Entertainment announced a $7B+ global Pay-1 licensing deal that will bring all of Sony's theatrical releases to Netflix worldwide after their theatrical and premium VOD windows. Full global rollout hits by early 2029. Here’s what’s included:
All Sony Pictures theatrical releases globally (Sony Pictures Classics included, Crunchyroll not invited)
Upcoming titles like 'The Legend of Zelda,' 'Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse,' and Sam Mendes' four Beatles biopics
Select library and TV titles
It's a win-win: Sony stays the lone major studio without a streaming platform, pocketing $7B+ while dodging the overhead of running one. Netflix shells out a steep price tag, but gets predictable costs and a reliable pipeline of proven theatrical hits without having to make them. The partnership already produced 'K-Pop: Demon Hunters,' which became Netflix's most-watched film ever at 500M views. Call it the streaming equivalent of a handshake where everyone keeps their fingers.
The bigger picture: The "build your own streamer" era is winding down, and Netflix is positioning itself at the center of what comes next. If the Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition closes, Netflix would control its own originals, Sony's entire output, and the WBD library. At this rate, the only thing they won't have streaming rights to is your home movies. Give it time.
ICYMI
⚡️ Quick hits…
Dave Filoni and Kathleen Kennedy during a Star Wars celebration in Japan. (Photo: Christopher Jue/Getty Images)
🚀 Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down as Lucasfilm president after nearly 14 years, with Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan taking over as co-presidents. Kennedy stays on to produce the next two 'Star Wars' films. Filoni, a George Lucas protégé, becomes chief creative officer while Brennan handles the business side.
⚖️ A Delaware judge dismissed Paramount's motion to fast-track its lawsuit against Warner Bros. Discovery in the ongoing merger saga. Paramount wanted WBD to show its math on how it valued Netflix's $83B offer, but the court said Paramount failed to prove "irreparable harm." The tender offer deadline gets extended again.
👔 Gap hired former Paramount exec Pam Kaufman as its first-ever chief entertainment officer. She'll lead something the company is calling "fashiontainment" across film, TV, music and gaming. It's the latest brand cutting out the Hollywood middleman and building its own in-house content machine.
☢️ Prime Video greenlit 'Fallout Shelter,' a competition series set inside the Vault-Tec bunkers from its hit show. Contestants will navigate challenges, moral dilemmas and presumably a lot of radiation jokes while competing for a cash prize. Add it to the list of streamers mining popular IP for unscripted spinoffs, à la 'Squid Game: The Challenge.'
LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️
Halina Reijn is reteaming with A24 to write and direct ‘Please,’ which will mark Grammy nominee Gracie Abrams’ acting debut. (more)
Michael Angelo Covino will direct Netflix comedy ‘The Last Fix,’ his follow-up to ‘Splitsville.’ (more)
Glen Powell is teaming with Sam Esmail on Amazon MGM sci-fi mystery ‘Tesseract,’ which Esmail wrote and will direct. (more)
Cate Blanchett will reprise her role as Valka in the live-action sequel ‘How to Train Your Dragon 2.’ (more)
Adria Arjona and Kingsley Ben-Adir are set to star in Sarah-Violet Bliss’ erotic thriller ‘Scorn,’ now gearing up to shoot in the U.K. (more)
Taylor Kitsch and Diego Luna lead prison-siege thriller ‘Eleven Days,’ which is heading to EFM with new sales outfit Lucky Number 8 Media. (more)
TV Development 📺
Hans Zimmer will compose the original score for HBO’s ‘Harry Potter,’ with Bleeding Fingers Music scoring the upcoming series. (more)
NBC ordered a crime drama pilot inspired by profiler Ann Burgess, whose work also influenced ‘Mindhunter.’ (more)
Anne Hathaway will star in and executive produce Paramount+’s six-part limited series ‘Fear Not,’ based on a Vanity Fair true-crime story. (more)
Amazon Prime Video ordered animated comedy ‘Odd Jobs,’ from ‘Solar Opposites’ creators Mike McMahan and Dominic Dierkes. (more)
Dakota Fanning will star in and executive produce a new Apple TV thriller series from Alex Cary and Sony Pictures TV. (more)
Business 🤝
Disney+ struck a two-year first-look pact with Stephen Graham and Hannah Walters’ Matriarch Productions. (more)
Issa Rae set a three-year first-look film and TV producing deal with Paramount, following her eight-figure WarnerMedia pact. (more)
Legendary Entertainment sold a $150M stake to Japan’s TBS at a $4B+ valuation to develop Japanese IP for global film and TV. (more)
Other News 🚨
RELEASE RADAR
📅 This weekend’s new releases…
🎥 THEATRICAL
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple: Post-apocalyptic horror sequel directed by Nia DaCosta, starring Ralph Fiennes.
Dead Man’s Wire: Crime thriller inspired by a 1977 hostage standoff, directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Bill Skarsgård.
Night Patrol: Horror thriller about an L.A. cop uncovering a deadly secret, starring Jermaine Fowler and Justin Long.
📺 STREAMING
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: (HBO Max) Game of Thrones prequel following a hedge knight and his squire.
Hijack: (Apple TV) S2 of Idris Elba's real-time thriller.
The Rip: (Netflix) Action thriller starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
PONIES: (Peacock) Cold War spy thriller, starring Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy: (Paramount+) Sci-fi series starring Holly Hunter and Robert Picardo.
🔮 BOX OFFICE PREVIEW: The back-to-back sequel to last summer's '28 Years Later' swaps Danny Boyle for Nia DaCosta, and strong reviews (94% RT) say the franchise is in good hands. The original fizzled fast though, and this one doubles down on violence, so expect a solid but smaller opening that plays mostly to the core fanbase. 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' should finally give up the top spot after four straight weekends at No. 1.
VIDEO VILLAGE
📺 Latest trailers
MARTINI SHOT
🍸 Latest viral moments
That's a wrap! If someone forwarded this your way, do yourself a favor and subscribe below. We'll be back in your inbox Monday. Have a great weekend!
-The Dailies Team