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Jesse Eisenberg regaled a room of journalists with brilliant — but slightly tragic — tidbits from his childhood and career while discussing his latest feature, The Debut.

Julianne Moore, Paul Giamatti, Halle Bailey, Havana Rose Liu, Bernadette Peters, Colton Ryan, Lilli Cooper, Maulik Pancholy and Bonnie Milligan join Eisenberg in The Debut, following a shy woman (Moore) who is unexpectedly cast in a local production of an original musical. Under the spell of the strong-willed and enigmatic director (Giamatti), she loses herself in the role and the high-stakes world of this community theatre production.

The film is premiering at the San Sebastian Film Festival, where an extremely polite Eisenberg (“thank you so much,” he said after each question) appeared for a press conference on Wednesday.

The actor-writer-director, whose last film A Real Pain was nominated for multiple Oscars, said The Debut is partially autobiographical as it pulls on his own experience joining community theater. “The movie takes place in 1990 in central New Jersey, and when I was in central New Jersey in 1990, I was like [Moore’s character] Mona Friedman. I was so shy. I was depressed, and I didn’t have friends. And then I walked into this community theater when I was seven years old, and suddenly everybody was so nice, and they hugged me,” he said, prompting giggles from the room. “Going from a kid who was made fun of in school because I have the same hair as you, curly hair, and the kids were saying mean things to me. And then I walked into the community theater, and everybody said, ‘Wow, your hair is so amazing! Come this way, you should play with me!’”

The experience was, to say the least, transformative. “Suddenly it was like I walked into an alien planet where everybody was nice, and then just like Julianne Moore’s character, I took it too far and became crazy. So really, the movie is charting my life when I was a child. But I just thought it would be so much better to make it about an older woman because Julianne’s amazing, and it’s more emotionally impactful to see a woman.”

Such is his admiration for Moore — who starred in Eisenberg’s first directorial feature, 2022’s When You Finish Saving the World — that she changed his long-held view of acting. “I used to have this negative opinion about acting because I was an actor and I just thought, ‘This is just such a ridiculous job. They pay us too much. We’re vain,’” said Eisenberg. “We want to look pretty in the morning, we want to stay in the nicest places, and we want to not ever lift anything on movie sets, and then we want all the credit for the movie! I was always like, ‘This is a weird job, and it’s not fair.’ And then on my first movie, I saw Julianne Moore rehearsing for a scene.”

He saw her on the monitor, preparing for an office scene. “She was going through a real, deep emotional process to get ready for the scene. I remember looking at it, and I go, ‘Oh, wait a second, that’s really hard.’ Like we’re all out here joking, and I’m having a donut, and she’s in there suffering. I realized, ‘Oh, maybe acting is actually a really valuable thing. Maybe difficult. Maybe it’s challenging. Maybe it takes a lot. And suddenly, in [one] moment, my entire opinion on acting changed because I saw somebody else doing it, and it wasn’t just about me.”

Moore and Giamatti, he said, are two of his favorite actors. “And the movie has this element of a romance, which was not in the script at all,” revealed Eisenberg about Giamatti’s onscreen magnetism. “His character is not supposed to be romantically charming. He’s more supposed to be scary and mysterious. But he just brought this warmth to it, and it plays great in the movie.”

Naturally, the filmmaker was also asked about his refusal to return to the role of Mark Zuckerberg in Aaron Sorkin’s hotly anticipated Social Network (2010) follow-up, The Social Reckoning, which will instead see Succession alum Jeremy Strong in the role. “It’s ironic because people associate me with this website, but they know way more about the website than I do, and I like to keep it that way,” replied Eisenberg about the Facebook founder.

“I’ve talked about it a lot, and Aaron Sorkin’s talked about it a lot. I loved his script, and he’s a genius,” continued the star. “And the movie, I’m sure, is incredible. But for me, it just didn’t feel like something I wanted to act in again. But that has nothing to do with how great the movie is. The movie will be a great movie, and Jeremy Strong will be amazing in the movie. I’m sure. I just didn’t feel like it’s something I wanted to do again.”

The 2026 San Sebastian International Film Festival runs Sept. 18-26.

Cineplex has put itself up for sale while unveiling former Landmark Cinemas head Bill Walker as its new CEO, replacing a retiring Ellis Jacob.

“As part of the strategic review, the board will consider a range of alternatives, including, but not limited to, a potential sale of the company. The board has engaged Goldman Sachs and TD Securities as co-financial advisors in connection with the strategic review,” Cineplex, the Canadian exhibition giant, said in a statement via its board of directors.

Cineplex operates around 1,606 movie screens at 156 locations across Canada, and is a major launchpad for Hollywood tentpoles and other films screening north of the border. Putting up a for sale sign gets Cineplex back to where it was the last time Jacob sought an exit from the exhibition giant in 2019.

At that point, U.K. exhibition giant Cineworld Group unveiled a deal to acquire Cineplex for $2.1 billion to create a company with more than 11,200 movie screens globally. But a year later, as the pandemic took hold on the exhibition industry, Cineworld abandoned the movie theater deal to create one of the world’s largest cinema companies.

Cineplex was subsequently awarded damages of $1.236 billion in lost synergies from the abandoned takeover deal, but was unable to collect those funds after Cineworld went through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy process in the U.S.

That left Jacob and his executive team at Cineplex having to manage their balance sheet and greatly disrupted business in Canada during the pandemic. The latest attempt to possibly sell Cineplex comes amid better times for the Canadian exhibitor as it rides a Hollywood box office rebound.

Jacob, a Canadian exhibition industry pioneer, in mid-2025 announced he will stay on at the movie theater chain until the end of 2016 to assist a transition to new leadership. That includes Walker being named as the new CEO. Walker previously served as CEO of Landmark Cinemas, Canada’s second-largest theatre exhibitor, which operates as part of Kinepolis Group NV, a publicly traded cinema company based in Belgium.

Walker helped seal Landmark’s sale to Kinepolis in 2017, while continuing to run the company under Kinepolis’ public ownership. Jacob will become a special advisor to the Cineplex board as it looked to strategic alternatives to maximize returns to shareholders.

“Bill brings a unique combination of industry expertise, operational leadership, transaction experience and strategic perspective. Given his deep understanding of the theatrical exhibition industry and proven leadership experience, the board is confident that Bill is exceptionally well positioned to lead Cineplex. At the same time, the board believes it is appropriate to conduct a comprehensive review of strategic alternatives available to the company,” Cineplex board chair Phyllis Yaffe said in a statement.

Cineplex added no timetable for its strategic review process has been set as the company added “there can be no assurance” that a transaction will follow as the company continues to operate as usual.

“Having spent much of my career in the exhibition industry, I have great respect for what the Cineplex team has built. I believe the company possesses an exceptional platform for growth, a powerful brand and meaningful opportunities to create value. I fully support the Board’s commitment to evaluating strategic alternatives and look forward to working closely with the board, management team and other stakeholders as the strategic review progresses,” Walker added in his own statement.

The 21st century has not been terribly kind to broadcast TV. The DVR, a spike in cable original programming and, most recently and seriously, the rise of streaming to become the primary way people consume TV, have battered the network model for the past couple of decades.

The stats don’t lie: Over the past year, broadcast networks have averaged only about 21 percent of all TV use in the United States, based on Nielsen’s Gauge measurement. The Oscars are moving to a streaming platform, and the Emmy Awards may follow. Late night shows are suffering deaths by a thousand cuts (or, in CBS‘ case, one big one).

Obviously, there’s a “but” coming, and here it is: Despite the structural forces weighing on the network business, there’s also a good deal of optimism among those who work there. Network shows don’t draw the on-air ratings they once did, but they make up a lot of the difference when they hit streaming platforms. The media giants that own both networks and streaming services seem to have figured out that the two platforms can support one another. And among the people who actually make the shows, there’s a growing sense that the network model of producing shows on a set schedule is a good way to do business.

UTA partner and TV literary agent Mickey Berman, who represents several writers and showrunners, puts things pretty succinctly: “When you look at the combined package, the shows are working and people are watching them.”

Part of the appeal of network TV, both for audiences and creatives, is its consistency: The expectation is that they’ll be on the air every year, usually with 12 to 22 episodes per season. The early years of the streaming boom promised a reprieve from the admittedly grueling schedule of a full network season — but as that model has moved from still fairly regular (if shorter) seasons to eight or 10 episodes every couple of years, the network model has come back into vogue (see also: The Pitt and HBO Max’s recently ordered How to Survive Without Me and FX and Hulu’s The Bear, among other streaming series that have approximated the network model).

“I think for a while, people were a bit seduced by streaming and enjoyed some of the creative freedom and other things about it,” Lisa Katz, president scripted content for NBC and Peacock, tells The Hollywood Reporter. “But over time, broadcast shows have continued to show they’re consistent, and I think that they continue to be high in quality and bring in fans. There’s something about it — maybe the new thing felt great, but NBC is celebrating its 100th anniversary, and there’s a reason it’s had the staying power and the legacy that it has.”

Berman also notes the “tremendous amount of stability” in working on a network series. For writers, actors, directors and other crew members, “They know that if a show works, they’re going to be shooting or writing for a certain period of time with more episodes and hopefully more seasons.”

Michelle and Robert King, the creators and showrunners of The Good Wife, The Good Fight and CBS’ freshman drama Cupertino (among other shows), have moved back and forth between broadcast and streaming. The network business has its pluses, they say.

“Selfishly, one thing about doing broadcast shows is they don’t get lost,” Michelle King says. “There are a few streaming shows that one hears about, but there are so very many that seem to just get lost that no one has heard of. Broadcast shows tend to get marketed. People have heard of them, and people get to see them. We’re super proud of Cupertino, so we’re thrilled that people are going to get to see it.”

Robert King adds that he’s found — somewhat counterintuitively — that they have more control over a network show than they might on a streaming series.

“You don’t have a lot of non-writing producers looking over your shoulder because of the speed with which everything needs to be done,” he says. “I mean, they talk about streaming doesn’t know how to do 20 episodes a year anymore. Writers do. It’s just the non-writing producers want to [sweat] everything. … I like doing 20 episodes because you can be intuitive in the writing and the stories you tell.”

Amy Reisenbach, the president of CBS Entertainment who greenlit Cupertino, says she has fielded calls from creators and showrunners looking to return to a broadcaster after making streaming shows.

“There is nothing like waking up the next day, from a writer’s perspective and executive’s perspective, in my mind, to getting the ratings and getting a [glimpse] into what you did last night,” she says. “And when you’re waking up to 8 million-ish viewers for Tracker and Marshals the next day … I don’t think you can underestimate the power in that and knowing how many people tuned in for your show the night before.”

The stability of network TV extends to the number of scripted series at the networks as well: 56 shows are due to air on the big four broadcasters in the 2026-27 season, up from 50 (plus one limited series, Fox‘s The Faithful) last season. ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC combined canceled only six scripted series (ABC kept all 10 of its shows), while adding a dozen to their rosters.

“There’s been a renewed interest from the talent base in broadcast because of the stability, because of the quicker turnaround, because of the opportunity for more episodes and more seasons, and that’s not just financial,” Berman says. “It’s also about building a relationship with the audience, where they fall in love with characters and can see them on a schedule that they expect. Grey’s Anatomy has been on the air for so long. People love those characters. But even [for shows that haven’t been on for as long], people want to grow with those characters.”

NBC’s Katz also led the charge for a mini-revival of pilot season in the spring, making eight of them and picking up four (dramas Line of Fire and The Rockford Files and comedies Newlyweds and Sunset P.I.). Networks continue to develop shows year-round and using various methods to develop shows, from smaller pre-pickup writers rooms to straight-to-series orders. But the pilot process has a lot of upside, from Katz’s perspective.

“It benefits the show and gives us the opportunity to launch it in the most successful way possible, and to make some adjustments, whether it be in casting or a storyline, when we still have time to do it,” she says. “That’s one of the things I’ve loved about broadcast that’s really challenging in streaming. In streaming, the way that we’re doing it, you have maybe three weeks left of shooting when you’re seeing the first cut. It’s very hard to make adjustments.”

One other key factor fueling the optimism around network shows is that in the past few years, media giants have recognized that broadcast and streaming can be complementary rather than mutually exclusive. That network shows bring in sizable audiences when they reach streaming is hardly new information, but better Nielsen measurement of streaming — and the public release of more data — has helped bring the point home.

For the 2025-26 season, about half of the top 25 shows in cross-platform ratings originated on broadcast networks. Nine network series (not including sports and news programs) averaged 10 million or more cross-platform viewers, and four others came in just below that threshold. With ABC, CBS and NBC’s parent companies each owning a big streaming service (Hulu/Disney+, Paramount+ and Peacock, respectively), the broadcast-streaming symbiosis is good for both aspects of the business. (Fox has a next-day streaming deal with Hulu for its shows, and some are also available on its own platforms, free streamer Tubi and the year-old Fox One subscription platform.)

“We have always considered Paramount+ and CBS parts of a larger ecosystem that includes Pluto as well,” Reisenbach says. “We have a great partnership with Cindy [Holland] and Jane [Wiseman]. They’re obviously working on their shows, which are very different than our shows, but we’re conscious of wanting to be complementary. I’m so appreciative of how grateful they have been for the next-day programming from CBS. They totally get what we do and the kind of shows that we make, and they have created this lane for us.”

The network-streaming relationship and the uptick in series orders has Berman feeling good about the next couple of years for his clients, and for network TV.

“I think in the next couple years, there’s going to be tremendous opportunity to capitalize on that [momentum], and hopefully new models come from that about how our clients participate,” Berman says. “I’m really optimistic. I feel like the worst is definitely behind us, and I’m glad we have a four-year [labor] deal so that we can really build some momentum toward the future.”