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👋 Good morning! For his 63rd birthday, Steven Soderbergh is doing what any film obsessive would: curating a nine-week screening series at New York's Nitehawk Cinema. Starting Feb. 18, he handpicked one film per decade: Lubitsch's 'Trouble in Paradise,' Hitchcock's 'Notorious,' all the way through PTA's 'Phantom Thread.' New Yorkers can grab tickets for each Wednesday screening, which includes a 63-minute happy hour featuring cocktails made from Singani 63, the Bolivian spirit he's been importing since shooting 'Che.' The series is called ‘A Man Under the Influence.’ Peak cinephile birthday behavior.
Welcome back to The Dailies. You're over the hump! Top off that coffee and settle in. We've got Netflix facing Congress, Disney's new leadership, and more to break down. 👇
CLOSEUP
🏛️ Netflix faced its first Washington grilling…
Ted Sarandos is sworn in before the Senate antitrust subcommittee (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos got his Senate moment yesterday, facing skeptical questioning from senators about the company's $83B Warner Bros. acquisition. Senators can't reject the deal themselves. But they can make Netflix explain why buying one of its biggest competitors and content suppliers isn't a problem while the DOJ takes notes.
Here’s what happened in the hearing…
Theatrical windows: Sarandos committed to maintaining a 45-day theatrical window for Warner Bros. films. That's Netflix vowing to do something it has avoided for two decades. It's a promise, not a contract (at least not yet), but now exhibitors have something to point to when regulators come asking.
Hollywood's take: The Directors Guild, Producers Guild, and Writers Guild all submitted statements to the subcommittee. None were glowing endorsements. The guilds raised concerns about job losses, reduced competition, and fewer stories reaching audiences. The WGA went hardest, calling for lawmakers to block it entirely.
Market math: Netflix argued it's really competing against YouTube, Amazon, and Apple, those "deep-pocketed tech companies trying to run away with the TV business." By that logic, Netflix would control less than 11% of total TV viewing even with HBO Max. Critics have a different calculator: within paid streaming specifically, the combined company would control around 30% of viewing. Both sides are technically right depending on what you call a competitor.
The conspiracy theory: Senator Mike Lee floated a theory that belongs in a corporate thriller: maybe Netflix doesn't want to close this deal at all. Maybe it's using the year-plus regulatory review as an all-access pass to Warner Bros.' playbook on upcoming projects, content strategy, and recommendation algorithms.
The no-show: Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison declined to testify about his competing bid.
Senators covered more ground too. You can watch the full testimony here.
Looking ahead… The DOJ review will take over a year. The European Commission is investigating too. So are state attorneys general in California and elsewhere. Whatever Sarandos promised about theatrical windows becomes ammunition for regulators writing conditions.
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EXECUTIVE SUITE
👑 After 20+ years of Bobs, Disney’s trying a Josh…
Josh D'Amaro during SXSW March, 2025 (Adam Kissick/Getty Images)
Disney's CEO succession saga is finally over. The board unanimously selected Josh D'Amaro, the 54-year-old parks chief with nearly 30 years at Disney, to replace Bob Iger as CEO. RIP to the Bob dynasty: Iger and Chapek, 2005-2026.
Keeping both horses in the stable: Dana Walden, the other finalist who runs entertainment and streaming, gets a newly created President and Chief Creative Officer role overseeing both film and TV. The board nixed the possibility of a co-CEO arrangement early on. Her $24M pay package trails D'Amaro's $38M, but she now controls all of Disney's storytelling while he runs the business side.
Why the split structure? Disney's trying to avoid pulling a Chapek again. If your memory's hazy, that's the 2020 succession where Iger's handpicked successor Bob Chapek clashed with him so badly the board fired Chapek after two years and brought Iger back. The board would prefer to forget that one.
This time: The parks guy gets the CEO title, content executive ensures the creative doesn't tank, and Iger sticks around as senior advisor through 2026 to make sure nobody starts any fires. It's basically a corporate three-way trust fall. The transitions take effect March 18.
TREND WATCH
📚 Streamers fed the romance beast, now it’s hungry…
‘Heated Rivalry’
Book-to-screen deals for romance IP that couldn't find buyers a few years ago are now routinely hitting six and seven figures. Romance was dismissed as low-budget volume content, something to pad out a slate between the prestige stuff. Now top literary agents say it's the most in-demand adaptation category, ahead of true crime and thrillers. Some recent examples of the boom:
Emily Henry, the hottest author in the space, has five adaptations in the works. Her beach read 'People We Meet on Vacation' just premiered on Netflix.
'Heated Rivalry,' the breakout HBO hockey romance, triggered what agents call an "immediate" market shift for queer-led titles. Buyers are suddenly interested in backlist properties they previously ignored.
Sports romance and paranormal romance are hot subgenres with multiple projects in development. Action romance (think Mr. & Mrs. Smith–style) is also gaining traction.
How we got here: Netflix and Amazon spent years building younger, predominantly female audiences with cheap romance content like 'The Kissing Booth' and 'To All the Boys.' They trained viewers to expect a constant stream of romantic stories and fed that appetite until it became "insatiable" (in one agent's word). Now those same platforms are competing against traditional studios for the IP they made valuable, driving prices they essentially inflated themselves.
The theatrical gap: Romance adaptations dominate streaming but have largely vanished from theaters since the rom-com era ended. Emerald Fennell's 'Wuthering Heights' (February 13) could be a useful test case for whether romance can work theatrically again. If it does, the genre suddenly has two profitable revenue streams.
LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️
Benedict Cumberbatch will star in ‘Last Flight,’ a thriller launching to buyers at EFM. (more)
Megan Park has sparked a major bidding war for her next film ‘Die Alive,’ with studios and streamers vying for the LuckyChap-produced project. (more)
Netflix has snapped up Harrison Query’s action thriller ‘Kill Switch,’ with Jake Gyllenhaal set to star. (more)
Tracie Laymon will write and direct a live-action adaptation of ‘Tony The Tattooed Man,’ for Mattel Studios. (more)
Netflix has acquired the dramatic feature pitch ‘Stradivarius,’ from Itamar Moses, with Edward Berger set to direct. (more)
Apple Original Films has set an April 10 debut for Keanu Reeves–led dark comedy ‘Outcome,’ directed by Jonah Hill. (more)
Helena Bonham Carter, Caitríona Balfe, and Emma Laird have joined Anthony Hopkins in Richard Eyre’s romance ‘The Housekeeper.’ (more)
Jessica Chastain and Chris Pine will lead Mary Gaitskill adaptation ‘This Is Pleasure,’ launching at EFM. (more)
Nancy Meyers is returning after 11 years with a star-studded Warner Bros. comedy, set for a Christmas 2027 release. (more)
Edward Berger’s A24 drama ‘The Riders,’ has added Michael Smiley, Danny Huston, Camille Cottin, and Ulrich Thomsen to its cast. (more)
TV Development 📺
Disney+ will livestream ‘American Idol,’ for the first time starting March 30, alongside ABC, and is launching an official companion podcast. (more)
Fox has given a straight-to-series order to Stephen Fry-led spy drama ‘The Interrogator,’ set for the 2026–27 season. (more)
Ray Romano is set to star in HBO Max family drama pilot ‘How To Survive Without Me.’ (more)
Sylvester Stallone and Cole Hauser are teaming with MGM Television on series ‘Blood Aces,’ with Hauser starring as Benny Binion. (more)
Ildy Modrovich will showrun and exec produce Amazon MGM’s TV adaptation of ‘Dear Debbie.’ (more)
Business 🤝
Fubo hit 6.2M combined subscribers after closing Disney’s Hulu merger and striking a new ESPN reseller deal. (more)
Jacqueline Sacerio has joined Range Studios as President of Scripted Television, succeeding Heather Kadin. (more)
David Grutman has struck an overall TV deal with Wheelhouse, following his Alix Earle series landing at Netflix. (more)
Other News 🚨
Nielsen is launching a co-viewing measurement pilot starting with Super Bowl LX to better capture total live-event viewership. (more)
Streamers are projected to spend $14.2B on sports rights in 2026, with Amazon Prime Video leading the pack, according to Ampere Analysis. (more)
WGA, SAG-AFTRA, NewsGuild, and DGA have endorsed New York legislation requiring AI disclosure in news. (more)
The Horror Movie Report (Film Pro Digital edition) includes a searchable database of 1,000+ film festivals that program or prioritize horror. 20% off today with code DAILIES. (more)*
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-The Dailies Team