🎬 No Watch, No Vote 🗳️

👋 Good morning! Hollywood just flooded Sacramento lawmakers with 100k+ letters in support of expanded film tax credits—and it's actually working. A key Assembly committee just greenlit the first expansion bill with a unanimous 7-0 vote, aiming to bump California’s film incentives from $330M to $750M annually. The Senate votes this morning, and word is Newsom’s still all in, making this legislation a top priority.

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🎞 Here’s what’s on the reel today:

• China’s Biggest Hit Learns English

• Academy Voters Get Homework

• Disney Calls In a Showrunner

• Critics of Critics Emerge

• Last Looks: 👀 Bite-sized scoops on developing stories/projects

• Video Village: The latest trailers

• Martini Shot 🍸

CLOSEUP
🇨🇳 China’s biggest hit is about to start speaking English…

What happens when the highest-grossing animated film ever stops relying on subtitles? ‘Ne Zha 2,’ the record-smashing Chinese animation blockbuster ($2.11B global haul) is getting an English makeover. Distributors are recruiting "well-known" voice talent for a dubbed version—abandoning the subtitles-only approach that's been typical for Chinese releases in Western markets. The industry's burning question: just how much higher can this already stratospheric hit climb?

Breaking barriers: The film has already conquered 1,000 North American screens and 162 in Australia with just subtitles. Now it's making history at London's prestigious Odeon Leicester Square—a venue usually reserved for Bond and Marvel films.

This isn't just a one-film strategy—it's national policy. Fu Ruoqing, chair of state-owned China Film Group, explicitly outlined China's mission to "build itself into a film power" by 2035. While Hollywood has historically adapted their movies for Chinese audiences, the tables are suddenly turning.

Big picture: China's not stopping at cartoons. With five Chinese films across various genres scheduled to shoot in IMAX this year and ‘Ne Zha 2’ already crowned the most successful Chinese release in Europe in two decades, Hollywood's facing a new competitor backed by the world's second-largest economy. Studio executives might want to start Mandarin lessons.

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WIDESHOT
🎬 Academy rules, showrunners, and ‘Sinners’…

🏆🗳️ The Academy is finally closing the “I’ll just vote for Meryl” loophole. The Academy just dropped its rulebook for the 98th Oscars (March 2026) that includes a handful of changes. Most notably, voters must now watch ALL nominees in a category before they can vote. The Academy will track viewing via their members-only streaming app, and for films watched elsewhere (screenings, festivals, etc.), members must fill out a form declaring when and where they watched. Aside from this groundbreaking idea that people should see what they're judging, here are the other shifts coming to Hollywood's big night:

• Name recognition: Ballots will finally display the actual humans nominated instead of just film titles.

• Casting gets its moment: Official rules establish a 10-film shortlist for the inaugural Casting Oscar.

• AI boundaries: Using AI tools won't help or hurt your Oscar chances, but "human creative authorship" must be "at the heart" of the work.

• No trash talking: Members are officially banned from publicly criticizing techniques used in eligible films (they saw your tweets about ‘The Brutalist’).

• Cinematography joins the shortlist club: The category will now use preliminary voting to narrow to 10-20 finalists, just like Visual Effects and Makeup.

🎬📺 Turns out directing a blockbuster doesn’t make you a showrunner. Disney+ just hired ‘Lost’ legend Carlton Cuse to run a new ‘Star Wars’ series—a clear sign the streamer is finally embracing TV’s old-school model. For years, Disney+ handed the wheel to first-timers with film backgrounds, dubbing them “head writers” (don’t call them showrunners!)—folks like Jon Favreau (‘The Mandalorian’) and Jac Schaeffer (‘WandaVision’) who’d never run a series before. It was part of a strategy to blur the line between film and TV, treating everything as interchangeable “content.” While those initial shows succeeded, by mid-2021 the cracks started showing. Several MCU series struggled with consistency issues, and the departure of Marvel production exec Victoria Alonso in 2023 signaled deeper problems with the film-TV pipeline. Cuse joins a growing list of seasoned showrunners now steering marquee Disney+ projects—a sign the pendulum is swinging back as streamers finally acknowledge that television is its own beast with its own production demands.

🎬🧛‍♂️ Critics of critics have emerged. Ryan Coogler's ‘Sinners’ notched a $48M opening weekend (best for an original film since 2019's ‘Us’) and scored an "A" CinemaScore (first time a horror has received this score since Reagan was president… yes, actually). Yet somehow, outlets like NYT labeled it "box office success, with big asterisk" while fixating on its $90-105M budget and path to profitability. The coverage has sparked frustration across social media, with many pointing out the irony: Hollywood expresses desire for more original theatrical films, but then subjects them to impossible financial standards when they arrive. Some noted Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’—which opened lower at $41M with similar economics and rights reversion deal—faced no such scrutiny. While the debate rages, ‘Sinners’ continues to perform strongly, earning $7.8M on Monday (second-best ever for an R-rated horror film) with 45% of revenue coming from premium formats.

LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️

• Michael Bay and Sydney Sweeney are teaming up to develop a movie adaptation of Sega’s classic arcade game ‘OutRun’ for Universal. (more)

• Netflix will wrap ‘Heartstopper’ with a feature film finale, instead of a fourth season. (more)

• Ray Nicholson and Tom Francis will co-star in Peter Berg’s WWII football drama ‘The Mosquito Bowl’ for Netflix. (more)

• Netflix has greenlit ‘Enola Holmes 3,’ with Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, and Helena Bonham Carter all returning. (more)

• Sarah Michelle Gellar and Elijah Wood join Samara Weaving in ‘Ready or Not: Here I Come,’ the sequel to the cult-favorite horror comedy. (more)

• A live-action ‘Toys‘R’Us’ movie is in the works from Story Kitchen, aiming to capture the brand’s nostalgic magic in a modern adventure film. (more)

• Noah Jupe will star in ‘Play Dead,’ a survival thriller from director Jaume Collet-Serra, set to film in Australia this May. (more)

• Lionsgate has acquired ‘Renegotiate,’ a time-loop action thriller spec by Mark Townend, in a heated bidding war with major producers attached. (more)

• Kevin Spacey and DJ Qualls will star in ‘1780,’ a Revolutionary War thriller set in the Pennsylvania wilderness and directed by Dustin Fairbanks. (more)

• Amazon MGM is adapting James Patterson’s upcoming thriller ‘Billion-Dollar Ransom’ into a feature film with Stephen Gaghan writing. (more)

• Steven Soderbergh is shopping a new documentary centered on John Lennon’s final interview, recorded just hours before his death. (more)

TV Development 📺

• Netflix adds ‘Cold Case: The Tylenol Murders’ to its true-crime lineup, revisiting the infamous 1980s poisoning case. (more)

• Fox is launching ‘The Snake,’ a new traitor-style competition show hosted by Jim Jefferies. (more)

• Netflix is pulling back the curtain with ‘WWE: Unreal,’ a new reality series diving into the behind-the-scenes drama of the WWE writers room. (more)

• Will Sharpe and Ayo Edebiri will star in ‘Prodigies,’ a new Apple TV+ romcom about two former child prodigies. (more)

Greenlights, Renewals, & Cancellations ✅ ❌

• CBS has greenlit ‘DMV’ starring Harriet Dyer and ‘Einstein’ with Matthew Gray Gubler. (more)

• CBS has ordered ‘CIA,’ set in the ‘FBI’ universe starring Tom Ellis. (more)

• ‘A Shop for Killers’ is renewed for S2 at Disney+. (more)

• ‘The Summit’ and ‘Poppas’ House’ are cancelled at CBS after S1. (more)

• ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ is renewed at ABC. (more)

• ‘The Golden Bachelor’ has been renewed for S2 at ABC. (more)

• ‘Dancing With the Stars’ is renewed for S34. (more)

Business 🤝

• Paul Feig has signed a multiyear first-look TV deal with Warner Bros. Television, shortly after inking a film deal with Lionsgate. (more)

Other News 🚨

• Hollywood agency CAA is branching out from talent representation, now courting billionaire families as its newest high-powered clients. (more)

• The 2026 SAG Awards will stream live on Netflix March 1. (more)

• Talent agent Mark Measures has been charged with stealing $1.8M from 160 actors and misusing funds to cover personal expenses. (more)

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