🎬 New Buyer Alert

👋 Good morning! File this under "method acting gone beautifully mad": Timothée Chalamet just revealed he's been secretly training in ping-pong for six years to prepare for Josh Safdie's 'Marty Supreme,' which surprise-screened at NYFF this week to rave reactions. He’s been all in: since 2018 (before the film even had financing), he's been hauling ping-pong tables to every film set. 'Wonka' in London, 'Dune 2' in Budapest and Abu Dhabi, even Cannes Film Festival. During COVID lockdown, he threw out his living room furniture to install a full table-tennis setup.

Welcome back to The Dailies. It's Wednesday, which means you're officially over the hump. Grab your coffee and we'll catch you up on the latest film and TV industry news.

CLOSEUP
🎬 A new big spender has crashed the party…

The company that just outspent everyone at TIFF didn't exist three months ago. Row K Entertainment launched in August and immediately went on a shopping spree, dropping more money at the festival than any established distributor. Take a look at their TIFF haul:

• 'Cliffhanger' reboot with Pierce Brosnan (eight figures, biggest festival deal)

• 'Dead Man's Wire' - Gus Van Sant directing Al Pacino in a true-crime thriller

• 'Poetic License' - Maude Apatow's directorial debut (acquired for $6.5M)

• 'Charlie Harper' - Romantic drama starring Nick Robinson and Emilia Jones

The West Hollywood distributor is backed by MassMutual and run by ex-Paramount exec Megan Colligan. They see opportunity in a massive market gap that everyone else created and nobody's filling: star-driven mid-budget films that aren't sequels, superheroes, or streaming bait. These films can gross $50-100M worldwide, generating reliable profits that work great for a lean distributor, but not worth the overhead for major studios.

How the gap formed: Studios shifted to $200M tentpoles since modest profits don't move stock prices like billion-dollar franchises do. Streamers pivoted from spending lavishly to focusing on profitability, making fewer and more strategic bets. Meanwhile, the traditional distributors that handled mid and low-budget films have also scaled back, and players like A24 and Neon have moved upmarket to bigger-budget prestige projects. No wonder Sundance saw record-low sales this year.

The volume crisis: Some weekends now have no major studio releases at all—unthinkable five years ago. 2025 has had some bright spots, but it's been a low-volume year overall. Paramount has released far fewer films than it used to and Warner Bros. doesn’t currently have another major release for months. This past weekend would've grossed under $50M if Taylor Swift hadn't surprise-dropped her concert film. Row K sees the opportunity in these competition-free weekends.

Looking ahead... Row K plans to release 10 films annually. If their bet pays off, expect more companies to jump into the middle market. If it doesn't, well, at least Pierce Brosnan got paid.

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🚨 Your friends are worried about you…

They've noticed you can explain the entire Paramount-Skydance merger but go silent when someone mentions "the Fed." You know which studios are bleeding money but not why your grocery bill keeps climbing.

Morning Brew speaks human. Business, finance, tech, world news—all translated from Corporate into English.

WIDESHOT
🎬 Paramount+, SNL, and Hello Sunshine…

💪 Paramount+ is shopping outside the family for the first time. The streamer just won a seven-way bidding war for 'Discretion,' a legal thriller starring Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning. It's the first big move from new content chief Cindy Holland under the streamer's new leadership. It’s a pretty big strategy shift for Paramount+: the streamer’s finally buying from outside studios instead of only using in-house content. The A24 project moved from unpublished short story to series order in under four months. Holland sealed the deal by tapping her old Netflix relationships, outbidding former colleague Peter Friedlander who now runs TV at Amazon. The female-driven thriller is meant to balance out Taylor Sheridan's male-heavy lineup on the platform.

🤳 Your “For You” page is now SNL's casting department. Saturday Night Live kicked off S51 this past weekend with five new cast members who didn't come from the usual comedy clubs and improv theaters. Instead, they built their followings on TikTok, podcasts, and streaming platforms. Among the fresh faces are TikTok creator Veronika Slowikowska, Jeremy Culhane from Gen Z comedy platform Dropout, and stand-up Kam Patterson from the Austin comedy scene. After 50 years of scouting Second City stages and UCB classes, Lorne Michaels is now treating viral videos and podcast clips like audition tapes, further proof that the line between the creator economy and Hollywood is basically gone.

🛍️ Hello Sunshine is pivoting from scripts to shopping. Reese Witherspoon's media company is closing its unscripted TV division and promoting consumer products chief Maureen Polo to CEO. They'll still produce some scripted shows (like an upcoming Legally Blonde show), but this company founded by one of Hollywood's biggest stars now sees more growth potential in retail brands like The Home Edit (yes, the company that organizes closets) than in traditional production. Four years after being acquired for $900M by Candle Media, Hello Sunshine is struggling, having delivered just 10% of expected earnings in 2023. It's not alone: LeBron's SpringHill, Kevin Hart's HartBeat, and Will Smith's Westbrook have all struggled similarly. Those insane streaming-era valuations for celebrity media companies look wildly optimistic in hindsight.

ICYMI
⚡️ Quick hits…

🔥 Michael Mann's 'Heat 2' found a new home at Amazon MGM-owned United Artists after Warner Bros. couldn't meet his $170M budget (they offered $135-140M). Jerry Bruckheimer and Scott Stuber are now producing, with Leo DiCaprio circling.

🗣️ The MPA called out OpenAI for Sora 2 copyright issues, demanding OpenAI take "immediate action" as copyrighted content keeps flooding the platform. The trade group says it's OpenAI's job to prevent infringement, not wait for studios to opt out.

🏆 The creator economy is getting its own Oscars: Instagram launched "Rings" to honor just 25 top creators annually. It's yet another sign that the creator economy has matured into a real industry—one that now rivals traditional media's cultural influence.

📺 Paramount made it official: Bari Weiss will lead CBS News following their $150M Free Press acquisition. CEO David Ellison says he wants CBS to become "the most trusted name in news" for audiences seeking balanced, fact-based reporting.

LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️

• Johnny Depp’s film ‘Modi,’ starring Riccardo Scamarcio, has been acquired by Vertical for North American release. (more)

• Matt Dillon will play Frank Stallone Sr. in Amazon MGM’s Sylvester Stallone biopic ‘I Play Rocky,’ directed by Peter Farrelly. (more)

• Rebecca Sugar will write and direct an Annapurna animated feature based on ‘Moomin.’ (more)

• Ashley Judd will star in the indie drama ‘21 Down’, inspired by college football player Caden Cox. (more)

• Disney has acquired Katherine Rundell’s fantasy series ‘Impossible Creatures’ in a major seven-figure deal, with the author set to adapt it. (more)

• Chris Pine and Jenny Slate will star in Rachel Lambert’s indie romance ‘Carousel,’ which recently wrapped production in Ohio. (more)

• Tony Leung and Léa Seydoux’s Venice winner ‘Silent Friend’ has been acquired by 1-2 Special for North American release. (more)

• Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine is co-developing Mattel and Amazon MGM’s live-action ‘Polly Pocket’ movie starring Lily Collins. (more)

TV Development 📺

• FX has cast Karl Glusman, Alan Ruck, and Katja Herbers in Peter Gould’s drama pilot ‘Disinherited.’ (more)

• Netflix has ordered a competition series based on the classic murder mystery game ‘Clue,’ featuring contestants solving real-life whodunits. (more)

• NBC is developing a ‘Wordle’ game show hosted by Savannah Guthrie and produced by Jimmy Fallon. (more)

• Alex Honnold will host ‘Get a Little Out There With Alex Honnold,’ a 2026 travel adventure series exploring Nevada for the Outside network. (more)

Business 🤝

• Paramount’s domestic distribution chief Chris Aronson is exiting the studio, staying through Dec. 1 to oversee ‘The Running Man’ release. (more)

• John Gore Studios has acquired Hilary Bevan Jones’ Hilltop Screen and hired Francis Hopkinson as creative director. (more)

Other News 🚨

• California has passed a law requiring streaming services to keep commercials at the same volume as shows and movies starting July 1, 2026. (more)

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