🎬 Instant Movie Remixes

👋 Good morning! Tom Cruise apparently looked at skydiving and thought, "This needs more fire." The 62-year-old action star just earned a Guinness World Record for most burning parachute jumps by an individual—16 fiery descents while filming ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.’ His method: Leap from a helicopter with a fuel-soaked parachute, light it on fire mid-air, cut away the flaming mess, then deploy a backup chute before becoming sidewalk pizza. All 16 times. Normal stuff for a 62-year-old action star.

Welcome aboard The Dailies! You made it to Friday without setting yourself on fire—already doing better than Tom Cruise. Grab your coffee and we’ll catch you up on Hollywood’s latest.

TOP STREAMED
📊 What U.S. audiences were watching this week…

CLOSEUP
🤖 ‘John Wick,’ but make it PG-13 and anime…

Lionsgate finally pulled back the curtain on its AI strategy after months of speculation. The studio's Runway partnership last September was Hollywood's first major AI deal, but most assumed it would just streamline post-production work. Vice Chairman Michael Burns just revealed what they’re actually exploring: transforming every movie in their catalog into endless variations for different audiences and markets.

• Instant remixes: The studio can reimagine a signature franchise like ‘John Wick,’ tell the AI "Do it in anime, make it PG-13," and boom—three hours later, you've got a completely new kid-friendly version ready for market. Suddenly their entire library becomes a goldmine of endless variations and spin-offs.

• Budget magic: Burns says the cost savings will also allow them to greenlight new movies they otherwise couldn't make. That expensive 10,000-soldier battle scene costing millions? AI can create it for thousands, turning what would be $100M productions into $50M budgets.

Burns emphasized they'd still pay actors and all other rights participants for each AI-generated version—but even with those payouts, the economics are wildly favorable for the studio.

The bigger picture: We may be witnessing the death of the "one movie, one audience" era. Content could become liquid—flowing into whatever container the market demands. Your favorite R-rated bloodbath becomes a kid-friendly cartoon, that three-hour epic shrinks to a tight 90 minutes, and live-action adventures morph into anime at the speed of algorithms. Looking ahead, Burns says they're "banging around the art of the possible" to "see what sticks."

INTERMISSION: A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

LANDMAN, the hit drama starring Billy Bob Thornton, Ali Larter, Demi Moore, and Jon Hamm, explores how roughnecks and billionaires are fueling a boom so big it’s reshaping our climate, our economy and our geopolitics. The Chicago Sun-Times raves “Thornton gives a Top 5 career performance in headlining an outstanding ensemble”, and NPR calls the series a “masterful bit of storytelling magic.” Emmys eligible in all categories, including Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

Now Streaming on Paramount+.

WIDESHOT
🎬 Broadway, Meta, and ESPN…

🎭 George Clooney’s bringing Broadway to your living room. Clooney's play ‘Good Night, and Good Luck’ will air live on CNN tomorrow (Saturday), marking a rare real-time broadcast of a Broadway production. The show has been a box office monster—recouping its $9.5M investment in just seven weeks and breaking Broadway's weekly gross records with $4M+ weeks. It's a perfect match: Cable networks desperately need appointment viewing as ratings drop, while A-listers like Clooney (who pitched this broadcast idea himself) are successfully conquering Broadway and hunting for new revenue streams beyond ticket sales. The live broadcast airs the night before the Tony Awards (where Clooney is nominated) and just one day before the play closes.

🥽 Meta is basically sliding into Hollywood's DMs with a briefcase full of cash. The tech giant is courting major entertainment companies like Disney and A24, offering serious money for episodic shows and standalone videos based on their existing franchises and popular properties. The content will launch alongside Meta's new "Loma" headset next year—a sub-$1,000 device that reportedly looks more like oversized eyeglasses than the bulky goggles currently on the market. Unlike Apple, which basically said "build it and they will come" with the Vision Pro, Meta is paying upfront for exclusive content while letting studios double-dip by selling regular 2D versions of the content to streaming platforms after the VR exclusivity window expires.

🏀 Cable’s ride-or-die is switching teams. ESPN is introducing its "Sports Forever" campaign during the NBA Finals to build hype for its standalone streaming platform launching fall 2025. ESPN has been cable TV's most valuable asset—the main reason millions kept paying for expensive cable packages. By going direct-to-consumer, ESPN is essentially lighting a match to the traditional cable model that built its empire over 45 years. Their strategy? Pure nostalgia bait—the campaign literally opens with clips from ESPN's very first 1979 broadcast where anchor Lee Leonard promised viewers "sports heaven." It's a smart trust-building move before they ask people to pay for yet another streaming service. The bigger picture: even the biggest cable loyalists are finally jumping ship to streaming.

LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️

• Nick Jonas will star as Paul Stanley in ‘Shout It Out Loud,’ a McG-directed film about the formation of KISS. (more)

• TriStar is developing a sequel to ‘One of Them Days,’ with Keke Palmer, SZA, and the original creative team expected to return. (more)

• ‘Ally Clark,’ a conspiracy thriller starring and produced by Viola Davis, is in development at Amazon MGM with Phillip Noyce set to direct. (more)

• Russell Crowe, Jacob Tremblay, Shailene Woodley, and Annabelle Wallis will star in Netflix’s ‘Unabom,’ a Ted Kaczynski thriller. (more)

• Octavia Spencer is set to reprise her role in a Blumhouse sequel to the 2019 horror hit ‘Ma.’ (more)

• Blumhouse is in talks to acquire the ‘Saw’ franchise from Twisted Pictures, potentially giving James Wan partial ownership of his horror creation. (more)

• Mikey Madison is in talks to replace Sydney Sweeney in A24’s reimagining of ‘The Masque of the Red Death.’ (more)

• ‘Powerless,’ a YA fantasy romance series based on Lauren Roberts’ bestselling books, is in development at Amazon. (more)

• ‘M3GAN’ director Gerard Johnstone will helm a ‘Monster High’ movie for Mattel and Universal, blending teen horror with iconic monster lore. (more)

• Saban Films has acquired U.S. rights to crime thriller ‘In Cold Light,’ starring Maika Monroe, ahead of its Tribeca premiere. (more)

• Josh Greenbaum has been tapped to direct a new ‘Care Bears’ movie for Warner Bros. (more)

• ‘Maserati: The Brothers,’ starring Anthony Hopkins, Al Pacino, and Andy Garcia, has been acquired by Magenta Light Studios . (more)

TV Development 📺

• ‘Isle of Man Tourist Trophy’ film and docuseries are in the works at Amazon MGM, with Channing Tatum starring and Brad Pitt producing. (more)

• ‘Better Call Saul’ co-creator Peter Gould is developing ‘Disinherited’ at FX, a drama pilot starring Victoria Pedretti and Kiera Allen. (more)

• Samuel L. Jackson will star in ‘NOLA King,’ a ‘Tulsa King’ spinoff for Paramount+, expanding Taylor Sheridan’s crime universe. (more)

• Nicole Kidman will star in and produce a Prime Video series adaptation of murder-mystery ‘Girls and Their Horses.’ (more)

Business 🤝

• Warner Bros Discovery is cutting more jobs in its cable TV divisions, marking another round of layoffs amid ongoing restructuring. (more)

• Concord Originals has acquired historic studio RKO, gaining rights to classics like ‘Suspicion’ and over 5,000 titles for future adaptations. (more)

• AMC Theatres will begin running commercials before movie trailers starting July 1, adding a new “platinum spot” ad window to boost revenue. (more)

RELEASE RADAR
📅 What to watch this weekend?

🎥 THEATRICAL

• Dangerous Animals: Survival horror from director Sean Byrne.

• Ballerina: Spin-off from the ‘John Wick’ universe starring Ana de Armas.

• The Ritual: Adaptation of 'Begone Satan!' starring Al Pacino and Dan Stevens.

• The Phoenician Scheme: Wes Anderson’s latest, starring Benicio del Toro.

📺 STREAMING

• 78th Tony Awards: (CBS/Paramount+) Hosted by Cynthia Erivo.

• Stick: (Apple TV+) Golf comedy series starring Owen Wilson.

• Predator: Killer of Killers: (Hulu) Animated sci-fi from Dan Trachtenberg.

• Tires: (Netflix) S2 of the comedy from Shane Gillis and Steve Gerben.

• Straw: (Netflix) Thriller from Tyler Perry starring Taraji P. Henson.

🔮 BOX OFFICE PREVIEW

Ana de Armas's 'Ballerina' and Disney's 'Lilo & Stitch' are locked in a tight race for the top spot this weekend, with projections showing the ‘John Wick’ spin-off ($32-40M) barely edging past the alien family film's third weekend ($32-36M). Lionsgate desperately needs a win after a string of flops. Wes Anderson's 'The Phoenician Scheme' expands wide after posting the year's best per-theater average. The overall weekend is tracking toward a solid $130-140M total.

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