🎬 Palme d'Agriculture

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👋 Good morning! Your tax dollars at work: drones blasting 'Marriage Story' at confused wolves. After wolves killed 11 cows in Oregon, the U.S. Department of Agriculture responded by blasting that gut-wrenching Adam Driver/Scarlett Johansson argument scene from drone-mounted speakers to scare off predators. And it's working—only two cows have died since this cinematic warfare began. New award category incoming: the Cannes Palme d'Agriculture.

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CLOSEUP
📚 Amazon’s going all in on young adult content…

One platform's trash is another's treasure. While HBO Max cancels teen shows and linear TV abandons the genre entirely, Prime Video is going all-in on YA content. It's a contrarian strategy aimed at Gen Z viewers who are notoriously hard to capture and even harder to keep. Some context:

• HBO Max axed both its ‘Gossip Girl’ and ‘Pretty Little Liars’ reboots, plus Mindy Kaling's ‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’

• Linear TV has essentially abandoned the genre that once defined networks like CW and Freeform

• Only 56% of Gen Zers pay for streaming (vs. 75% of all Americans), making them the toughest demo to crack

• Netflix currently dominates the 18-34 demo (23% of its audience) with Prime Video not far behind (16%)

But Prime’s bet is paying off. ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ just tripled its viewership from S1 to S3, pulling 25M global viewers in week one. The Jenny Han adaptation is now Prime Video's #5 most-watched returning season, sitting behind only heavyweight franchises like ‘Reacher’ and ‘The Boys.’

Meanwhile, Amazon’s got an advantage here: book sales data. They know what's trending before anyone else. When ‘Fourth Wing’ flew off shelves, they pounced. This insider knowledge gives them confidence to bet big while others pull back.

The bigger play is building a 'fan-led community.’ Prime Video is creating an ecosystem through live events and fan experiences. And they're not trying to compete with TikTok—they're making shows designed to be dissected, shipped, and obsessed over there. TikTok becomes free marketing instead of competition.

Looking ahead… The pipeline's loaded with adaptations including ‘Fourth Wing,’ ‘Off Campus,’ a ‘Legally Blonde’ prequel series, and projects from ‘Gossip Girl’ veterans Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. Prime Video's so confident, they're already writing S2s for three new shows before even renewing them.

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Former Zillow exec targets $1.3T

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WIDESHOT
🎬 ESPN & NFL, Disney, and Paramount…

🏈 The NFL just traded its TV network for 10% of ESPN. In a complex equity swap, the NFL is trading its underperforming media assets (NFL Network, RedZone, and NFL Fantasy) to ESPN in exchange for a 10% stake in ESPN itself, essentially exiting the content distribution business it's struggled with since 2003. Disney gets these crown jewel properties to boost their upcoming $29.99/month streaming service, plus the NFL is now literally invested in ESPN's success, strengthening Disney's hand when football broadcast rights come up in 2028. The deal gives ESPN a massive edge in the streaming wars, where live sports rights are increasingly vital to attracting and keeping subscribers. Next up: regulatory approval, which could take 9-12 months.

🤖 Disney just scrapped AI plans for 'Moana' and 'Tron.' The studio spent 18 months negotiating with AI company Metaphysic to create deepfakes for ‘Moana’—they wanted to layer Dwayne Johnson's face onto his body double so The Rock (who approved the plan) could essentially be in two places at once during production. For ‘Tron: Ares,’ executives planned an AI character that would improvise dialogue in real-time while filming as Jeff Bridges' sidekick. Disney ultimately killed both experiments for two reasons: legal concerns about who owns AI-generated content (there's no clear precedent yet) and fears of bad publicity with SAG-AFTRA contracts up for negotiation next year.

📺 Skydance is gutting Paramount's old guard and starting fresh. Earlier this week, David Ellison unveiled his post-merger leadership team, and it's basically a complete housecleaning—only one current executive survives. Netflix veteran Cindy Holland takes over streaming (Paramount+ and Pluto TV), while Skydance's Dana Goldberg will co-chair the film studio and oversee the revived Paramount TV Studios label. Former NBCUniversal chief Jeff Shell becomes president, and the Ellison family will control five board seats to partner RedBird Capital's four, cementing their power over the company. Some have pointed out the streaming-heavy experience across the lineup, perhaps signaling where they see the company's future. When the dust settles, the 113-year-old studio will look nothing like the company Shari Redstone inherited from her father.

LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️

• ‘Bad Apples’ starring Saoirse Ronan will open the New Directors section at this year’s San Sebastián Film Festival. (more)

• Timothée Chalamet and director James Mangold are revving up a motocross heist film, ‘High Side,’ based on an unpublished short story. (more)

• Matt Smith will play the villain opposite Ryan Gosling in Lucasfilm’s ‘Star Wars: Starfighter,’ directed by Shawn Levy and set for a May 28, 2027 release. (more)

• Ben Kingsley, Andy Serkis and Joel David Smallbone join presidential origin story ‘Young Washington,’ set for release July 2026. (more)

• David Tennant and Robert Carlyle star in ITV’s ‘The Hack,’ a drama about the News of the World phone hacking scandal (more)

• Netflix is developing a ‘T.J. Hooker’ movie with Jarrad Paul and Andy Mogel writing a modern, meta reimagining of the ’80s cop series. (more)

• Mel Gibson will release ‘The Resurrection of the Christ’ in two parts, hitting theaters March 26 and May 6, 2027. (more)

• Molly Shannon joins Will Ferrell’s Netflix golf comedy as co-creators Ramy Youssef and Josh Rabinowitz exit over creative differences. (more)

• Spider-Punk animated feature is in the works at Sony, co-written by Daniel Kaluuya and Ajon Singh. (more)

• KJ Apa will star as Jimmy Stewart in ‘Jimmy,’ a biopic chronicling the Hollywood icon’s life and WWII heroism. (more)

• Djimon Hounsou and Halle Berry will star in Africa-set trafficking thriller ‘Red Card,’ written by George Gallo and Nick Vallelonga. (more)

• Lee Chang-dong will direct ‘Possible Love’ for Netflix, his first film in eight years, reuniting with stars of ‘Secret Sunshine’ and ‘Peppermint Candy.’ (more)

TV Development 📺

• ‘King & Conqueror’ starring James Norton and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has sold to Prime Video in the U.S. and HBO Max in multiple territories. (more)

• Jacob Soboroff is joining MSNBC as senior political correspondent amid its upcoming split from NBC and move to Versant. (more)

Business 🤝

• Nielsen and WPP Media have partnered to integrate audience insights across TV, streaming, and ads via Nielsen ONE. (more)

• Fox One will launch Aug. 21 at $19.99/month, offering live Fox, Fox Sports and Fox News programming. (more)

• Amazon is cutting 110 jobs as it folds Wondery into Audible and a new “creator services” team amid a podcast-to-video pivot. (more)

• Roku launches Howdy, a $2.99/month ad-free streamer offering library titles from WBD, Lionsgate and more. (more)

Other News 🚨

• TIFF adds 55 new films to its Centerpiece lineup, including ‘Blue Moon,’ ‘Motor City,’ and Charli xcx’s ‘Erupcja.’ (more)

• NYFF has unveiled its Main Slate lineup for this year’s festival. (more)

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