🎬 Happily Ever After?

👋 Good morning! Welcome aboard the Dailies.

Whether you're a seasoned subscriber or a new arrival, we're thrilled to have you here. Twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, we'll deliver the most important industry scoops directly to your inbox.

🎞 Here’s what’s on the reel today:

• Closeup: Disney & Charter’s Deal Unraveled

• Drew Barrymore Gets the Boot

• Maher Joins the Fray

• WGA Puts Its Detective Hat On

• Hollywood’s AI Boom Has a Bumpy Ride

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

• Release Radar: What to watch this weekend

• Video Village 📀

• Martini Shot 🍸

But first, it’s Thursday, so let’s take a look at what people were watching this week… 👀

MOST STREAMED THIS WEEK

✨ Happily Ever After?✨ 
Unpacking Disney & Charter’s Latest Deal 🤝

Disney and Charter Communications, two media juggernauts, have finally ended a dramatic showdown and signed a fresh carriage agreement. Let’s break it down:

🚀 Wins for Disney: Even though Charter had the upper hand initially, Disney's coming out strong. Their Disney+ with ads plan will reach around 12 million more Charter pay TV subscribers. Disney will be pocketing all the ad sales from the plan, adding a whopping $400-500 million to their yearly revenue. 💰 ESPN will get more viewers, and the soon-to-launch ESPN streaming service will have a Charter-fueled start. 📺

📊 Charter's Gains: Charter's TV viewers will now get Disney+ and ESPN+ as part of their package. The big news? Charter has successfully dumped eight Disney channels, including faves like Disney Junior and Freeform. This move might save them some bucks and give users a clutter-free experience. 🚫📺

🤔 The Streaming Shift: There's a clear pivot towards streaming. Charter has dropped several Disney channels, hinting at an uncertain future for these channels. Will they survive? Only time will tell. But Disney's streaming services are the talk of the town, with both giants seeing value in this digital age 🌐.

🤷 Who Won? Charter agreed to higher rates in its new deal with Disney, but achieved its key goals, notably integrating streaming services to counter content slipping from the pay-TV realm. Viewed as a 'glass half full' scenario, Charter might feel victorious having cut down on unwanted network costs. However, as Disney secures rate hikes for its primary channels and retains its ad-tier for Disney+, the house of mouse seems poised for the bigger win. 🏆

💭 The Bigger Picture: While this deal is making waves, analysts are thinking about its impact on the broader entertainment world. Charter's new stance might make negotiations tougher for other media execs. The media landscape is changing, and both Disney and Charter are adapting. But who's leading and who's following? That's the million-dollar question. 🌍

TLDR; it's a fresh chapter for these two giants. They're both adapting, evolving, and shifting strategies. And while they're both finding ways to win, the real winners? The viewers, who get to enjoy a world of new content and choices. 🍿🎬

Drew Barrymore Gets the Boot 📖✋Drew Barrymore just faced some more heat. 😲 After deciding to keep her talk show rolling amidst the WGA strike, The National Book Foundation decided to give her the boot as host for their 74th awards bash happening this November in New York City. 🍎 Their reason? They wanna keep the spotlight on the literature and authors. Can't blame them, right? And oh, remember that poll we had last week? 📊 A whopping 80% of you voted 'Not cool, Drew,' showing you weren't too thrilled about her move. Her show faced some protestors outside CBS Studios this week, with one of her own writers joining in! Talk about drama. 🎭✍️ On the flip side, the show's claiming everything's kosher with WGA and SAG-AFTRA guidelines, but two audience members did get kicked out for showing some union love with WGA pins. Whoa! 🚫📌

Maher Joins the Fray 🎥✍️ Right on the heels of Drew Barrymore's drama, Bill Maher's joining the "show-must-go-on" brigade, relaunching "Real Time" on HBO but without its writing crew. 📺🚫✍️ Posting on social media, he acknowledged the difference in the show's format without its usual written flair. Late-night TV shows have been quiet due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. While he's opting out of the usual monologue and written segments, he's staying true to the off-the-cuff panel discussions. He's clear though, it's gonna be a different "Real Time."

WGA Dives Into Writers' Residual Check Issues 🕵️💰The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is putting its detective hat on, investigating complaints about those delayed or seemingly skimpier-than-usual residual checks writers have been getting. 📉 Some seasoned writers and showrunners have voiced concerns about the timing and amount of their residuals. 💸✉️ The spotlight's on shows from big names like NBCUniversal, CBS Studios, and HBO. Residuals represent a crucial, steady income for many in Hollywood, especially when new gigs are on pause. With the WGA strike on its 134th day and no fresh talks in sight, tensions are rising! 🎬📝🔥

Hollywood's AI Boom Faces a Legal Bumpy Ride 🤖💼 So, there's drama in the tech-meets-Hollywood world. Notable authors have taken legal action against tech giants Meta and OpenAI. The core of the dispute? These AI powerhouses are accused of tapping into copyrighted books to soup up their systems. 📚⚖️ While historical verdicts in similar cases have been mixed, this unique intersection of AI and Hollywood narratives adds an enthralling layer to the saga.

Meanwhile… The Senate Takes Notice 🤖💼🏛️ Down at the Capitol, Chuck Schumer's AI Insight Forum had everyone buzzing about the rapid evolution of AI and the need for safeguards. Elon Musk, never one to stay silent, advocated for an AI "referee" for tech fairness. 🔍 Meredith Stiehm, the president of WGA West, delved into the guild's AI worries, particularly concerning the use of scripts in training models. Meanwhile, the Motion Picture Association navigated the tightrope of balancing innovation with potential hazards. Musk, with his signature optimism, hinted that this gathering might just go down in history as a pivotal juncture for AI's journey. And for those eager for concrete action, Schumer said to expect fresh legislation sooner than you think. 📆📜

Development 🗒️

• ‘Beetlejuice 2,’ which was interrupted by SAG strike, only has a day and a half left of shooting once the strikes are resolved. (more)

• Hulu orders a country music docuseries called ‘It’s All Country,’ hosted by Luke Bryan and executive produced by Bryan and Peyton Manning. (more)

• A Damar Hamlin documentary film entitled ‘Did We Win’ is in the works. (more)

• ‘Lego Masters’ renewed for S5 at Fox. (more)

• Elysian Film Group, Anonymous Content, and Bleecker Street jointly acquire the UK rights to Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘The Boy and the Heron.’ (more)

• Netflix acquires Lucy Walker’s ‘Mountain Queen’ doc. (more)

• Netflix acquires Anna Kendrick’s ‘Woman of the Hour’ at TIFF. (more)

Releases 📅

• ‘The Little Mermaid’ amasses 16M views in its first five days after debuting on Disney+. (more)

• The final season of ‘Archer’ is disrupted by Disney-Charter deal. (more)

• Angel Studios, the studio behind ‘The Sound of Freedom,’ is planning to release its next film, ‘The Shift’ in theaters Dec 1. (more)

• ‘The Marsh King’s Daughter’ delays its release to avoid a battle with Taylor Swift’s concert pic at the box office. (more)

First Look 👀

• New image of Chris Pine in ‘Poolman’ is unveiled. (take a look 👉here👈)

  Business 🤝

• UFC and WWE officially merge to form a new company, TKO Group, which debuted on the New York Stock Exchange. (more)

• The H Collective is debuting H3 Entertainment to blend Metaverse, Web3, and AI into filmmaking, emphasizing responsible tech use. (more)

• Fox Corp.'s board faces a lawsuit from shareholders accusing them of intentionally broadcasting false claims about the 2020 election for profit, despite significant legal risks.(more)

Dual Strike News 🪧

• More studios suspend overall and first-look deals as the WGA strike continues. (more)

• Amid ongoing strikes, entertainment workers have withdrawn over $44 million from their retirement funds. (more)

• Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw donate $1.5M in support of strikers. (more)

• California state Assembly passes a bill that would provide unemployment insurance for striking workers. (more)

• Jamie Lynn Spears will compete on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ and plans to donate her salary to WGA and SAG. (more)

• Around 50 WGA members picketed outside CBS's 'The Talk' in Studio City, protesting the show's continuation without union writers during the ongoing strike. (more)

• TikTok accidentally bans videos related to writers strike. (more)

Other News 🚨

• This year’s VMAs viewership was up 37% from last year’s awards ceremony. (more)

• Marvel VFX workers unanimously vote to unionize. (more)

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What to watch this weekend? 👀

THEATRICAL 🎥

• A Haunting in Venice: In post-World War II Venice, Hercule Poirot, now retired and living in his own exile, reluctantly attends a séance. But when one of the guests is murdered, it is up to the former detective to once again uncover the killer.

• Dumb Money: The ultimate David vs. Goliath tale, based on the insane true story of everyday people who flipped the script on Wall Street and got rich by turning GameStop (yes, the mall videogame store) into the world's hottest company.

STREAMING 📺

• El Conde: (Netflix) Centers on Augusto Pinochet who is not dead but an aged vampire. After living 250 years in this world, he has decided to die once and for all.

• A Million Miles Away: (Prime Video) A biopic about Jose Hernandez and his path from a farm worker to becoming an engineer and an astronaut.

• Love At First Sight: (Netflix) Hadley and Oliver begin to fall for each other on their flight from New York to London. The probability of ever finding each other again seems impossible, but love - and London - may have a way of defying the odds.