Disney+’s EMEA content chief Angela Jain announced the feature-length Hulu Original at Series Mania on Wednesday, saying that the Grammy-winning artist feels finally ready to speak.
In the late 2000s, Duffy was one of the biggest names in music, with her multi-platinum album Rockferry and its lead single “Mercy” hitting the top of the charts across the globe. Then, she disappeared.
For 10 years, Duffy vanished from the public eye. And in 2020, in a harrowing Instagram post that shocked Britain, the musician shared that a decade earlier, she had been drugged, kidnapped, and taken to another country, where she was violently and sexually abused.
“She’s barely been seen or heard from since,” said Disney+. “Until now.”
“Documenting her life in this way for the first time, the documentary will be a retrospective film traversing Duffy’s life, from her upbringing in Wales, through to her meteoric rise to fame and her withdrawal from public life following her unfathomable experience,” according to the streamer. “The original documentary film will be driven by new, unprecedented access to Duffy, along with a rich and nostalgic archive, and interviews with family, friends and close peers in the music industry.”
The documentary is executive produced by Fernando De Jesus for Rare TV, who will produce the film in partnership with executive producer Matthew Worthy for Stellify Media. The film was commissioned out of the U.K. for Disney+ by Angela Jain, head of content, and Sean Doyle, vp, unscripted for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It’ll be directed by Gill Callan from Northern Ireland.
“Fifteen years ago, Duffy was one of the most famous singers in the world. Her voice was distinctly recognizable and powerful. Songs “Mercy” and “Warwick Avenue” from her debut album led to three Brit Awards, a Grammy and Duffy being at the peak of her career. And then she disappeared,” said Doyle. “This film will give Duffy the chance to tell her story in her own words. I am grateful to our collaborators at Rare TV for this unprecedented access, along with Stellify Media for handling this project with sensitivity and care. We set out in a search for impactful, female-led stories in collaboration with Northern Ireland Screen, and it’s a privilege that Duffy’s is the first we’re able to help tell.”
“But above all, I’m especially in awe of Duffy — for her honesty and courage to share her story,” he added.
Duffy, the Welsh singer-songwriter who had a massive hit with “Mercy” in 2008 and then retreated from the limelight, is set to tell her story in a new Disney+ documentary.
The announcement was made at Series Mania on Wednesday by Angela Jain, Disney+’s head of content for EMEA, in a keynote address. In 2020, Duffy revealed in a social media post that she had stepped away from music in 2011 after being kidnapped and raped.
Duffy “disappeared off the face of the earth and hasn’t really spoken about what happened in that time, other than about five or six years ago in a social media post,” Jain said, calling the feature-length doc a “really powerful project.”
“She has entrusted us with her story, so we really have a huge responsibility to handle this with care and sensitivity, because she’s speaking about what happened to her for the first time,” she added. Production is starting soon on the documentary.
After the initial revelation, Duffy shared details of the kidnapping in a 3,000-word post on her website. “It was my birthday, I was drugged at a restaurant, I was drugged then for four weeks and travelled to a foreign country,” she wrote. The perpetrator, whose name she did not reveal, “made veiled confessions of wanting to kill me.”
Duffy continued: “It didn’t feel safe to go to the police. I felt if anything went wrong, I would be dead, and he would have killed me. I could not risk being mishandled or it being all over the news during my danger. I really had to follow what instincts I had.”
She eventually did tell the police, but said in the post that she has felt “petrified” ever since. Of a potential return to music, Duffy said at the time: “I’m doing this to be freed, for all of me to be freed. What follows remains to be seen.”
Alex Rodriguez, Tom Brady, Jason Kelce, Richard Sherman, J.J. Watt and Charles Barkley are among the on-screen sports talent landing nominations for the 47th Annual Sports Emmy Awards. The full list of nominees, announced Wednesday by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, is led by ESPN, which earned 62 nominations (bolstered by programs including “E60”).
This Sports Emmys eligibility period covers the calendar 2025 year.
“From the intensity of live competition to the depth of long-form storytelling, this year’s Sports Emmy nominees capture the full spectrum of what makes sports television so powerful,” said Amy Schmelzer, Head of Sports Emmys, in a statement. “These creators are not only advancing the craft through technical and creative excellence, but also deepening the connection between fans and the moments that define our culture. We look forward to celebrating the meaningful impact they continue to have on audiences everywhere.”
The Sports Emmys’ 47 categories include Outstanding Live Special, Outstanding Studio Host, Event Analyst, and Emerging On-Air Talent, among others.
“This class of Sports Emmys nominees showcases the dynamic evolution of sports television, pushing creative boundaries and redefining how stories are told on and off the field,” said NATAS president/CEO Adam Sharp. “As sports programming continues to rank among the most popular and valuable content in media — dominating television viewership and driving streaming growth — these nominees represent the best of the industry. Whether through groundbreaking technical innovation or compelling, character-driven storytelling, we are proud to recognize their outstanding achievements at this year’s Sports Emmy Awards.”
Host and lifetime achievement honoree will be announced later. The Sports Emmys will take place on Tuesday, May 26, at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York.
Here are this year’s nominations:
Outstanding Live Sports Special: Championship Event College Football Playoff: National Championship (ESPN [Two Circles]) Fox MLB: World Series – Toronto Blue Jays vs Los Angeles Dodgers (Fox) The Masters (CBS) NBA Finals (ESPN) Super Bowl LX (NBC | Peacock)
Outstanding Live Sports Special: Non-Championship Event Fox MLB: The 95th All-Star Game (Fox) 151st Kentucky Derby (NBC | Peacock) Monsters Funday Football (ESPN [Beyond Sports | Pixar | NFL]) NHL in ASL: 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series (NHL Productions) NHL on ESPN: 4 Nations Face-Off (ESPN)
Outstanding Live Sports Series Fox NFL (Fox) Monday Night Football (ESPN | ABC) Monday Night Football with Peyton & Eli (ESPN [Omaha Productions]) Sunday Night Football (NBC | Peacock) Thursday Night Football (Prime Video [Amazon MGM Studios])
Outstanding Sports Playoff Coverage College Football Playoff (ESPN) Fox MLB: The American League Playoffs (Fox | FS1) Fox NFL: The NFC Playoffs (Fox) NBC NFL Playoffs (NBC | Peacock) NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament (CBS | TNT)
Outstanding Edited Sports Event Coverage 4 Nations Face-Off: Unveiled (NHL Productions [NHL Productions | Radan Films | NHLPA]) NFL Game Day All Access: Super Bowl LX (YouTube [NFL Films]) Official Film of the 2025 Masters (CBS) Road To The Super Bowl (NBC [NFL Films]) UFC The Walk: Topuria vs Oliveria (UFC)
Outstanding Edited Sports Special E60: Paid to Play – Understanding College Sports in 2025 (ESPN) The Hall of Fame Knocks Class of 2026 (NFL Network) The Madhouse – NASCAR’s Return Into Bowman Gray Stadium (FS1 [Fox Sports Films | NASCAR Studios]) Not So Fast, My Friend: A Lee Corso Special (ESPN) Welcome to the NHL: Meet The Prospects (NHL Productions)
Outstanding Edited Sports Series: Hosted E60 (ESPN) Eli Manning Presents: The Undercovers – Baker Mayfield | Justin Jefferson | Micah Parsons (Prime Video [Amazon MGM Studios | Range Media | Ten Till]) NFL Films Presents (FS1 [NFL Films]) Pablo Torre Finds Out (Meadowlark Media) TNT Sports Conversations (TruTV)
Outstanding ESports Championship Coverage 2025 Apex Legends Global Series Championship (ESL FACEIT Group) 2025 Call of Duty League Championship Weekend – OpTic Texas vs Vancouver Surge (ESL FACEIT Group) League of Legends Worlds 2025 Final – T1 Esports vs KT Rolster (LoL Esports [Riot Games]) VALORANT Champions 2025 Grand Final – NRG vs Fnatic (Valorant Esports [Riot Games])
Outstanding Sports Documentary: Short Final Finishers (East 89th St Productions [Tribeca Studios | Bluff Road Films]) Home Turn (NASCAR Productions [Bluefoot Entertainment]) NFL Explained: Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show (NFL Media Group) NFL Films Presents: The Arctic Challenge (FS1 [NFL Films]) The Shuffle (HBO Max [NFL Films])
Outstanding Sports Documentary: Long Butterfly in a Blizzard (Bracing For Impact, LLC [Flagship Independent | Big Lift Media]) Champions Of The Golden Valley (Olympics.com [XTR Studios | Sturgefilm | Tideshift | Optimist | Taleem]) Clemente (The History Channel [Vinegar Hill | Uninterrupted | Vantage Pictures | Cookie Jar & a Dream Studios | APX Content Ventures | The History Channel]) E60: Southpaw – The Life and Legacy of Jim Abbott (ESPN) Elway (Netflix [Skydance Sports | NFL Films | Omaha Productions | MakeMake Productions]) Surviving Ohio State (HBO Max [Sports Illustrated Studios | 101 Studios | Smokehouse Pictures])
Outstanding Sports Documentary Series Alex vs ARod (HBO Max [Religion of Sports]) Allen Iv3rson (Prime Video [Amazon MGM Studios | Unanimous Media | NBA Entertainment | Jersey Legends (a division of Authentic Studios)]) America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys (Netflix [Skydance Sports | NFL Films | Stardust Frames Productions | Netflix]) Believers: Boston Red Sox (ESPN [Religion of Sports | Artists Equity]) Cocaine Quarterback: Signal-Caller for the Cartel (Prime Video [Amazon MGM Studios | Unrealistic Ideas])
Outstanding Sports Documentary Series: Serialized Built in Birmingham: Brady & the Blues (Whisper TV [Religion of Sports]) The Clubhouse: A Year with the Red Sox (Netflix [One Potato Productions | Boardwalk Pictures]) Formula 1: Drive to Survive (Netflix [Box to Box]) Full Court Press (ESPN [ESPN | Omaha Productions | Words + Pictures]) Quarterback (Netflix [NFL Films | Omaha Productions | 2PM Productions]) WWE: Unreal (Netflix [Omaha Productions | NFL Films | Skydance Sports | WWE])
Outstanding Sports Studio Show: Daily First Things First (FS1) NBA Today (ESPN) NFL LIVE (ESPN) The Pat McAfee Show (ESPN) SportsCenter (ESPN)
Outstanding Sports Studio Show: Weekly College GameDay (ESPN) Inside the NBA on TNT (TNT) Monday Night Countdown (ESPN) The NFL Today (CBS) Thursday Night Football (Prime Video [Amazon MGM Studios])
Outstanding Sports Studio Show: Limited Run College GameDay – College Football Playoff (ESPN) Football Night in America: NFL Postseason (NBC | Peacock) Fox MLB: The Postseason (Fox | FS1) Inside the NBA Playoffs on TNT (TNT) Road to the Final Four (CBS | TNT)
Outstanding Sports Journalism Aspiration: Pablo Torre Finds Out (Meadowlark Media) Kobe: The Making of a Legend (CNN Originals) Save: The Katie Meyer Story (E60 [ESPN]) What Is Riley Gaines Hiding?: Pablo Torre Finds Out (Meadowlark Media)
Outstanding Sports Feature: Short Form All Heart — Fox CFB: Big Noon Kickoff (Fox) Behan Strong — NCAA March Madness (CBS) Faces Forever Young — World Figure Skating Championships (NBC | Peacock) Just Getting Started — Fox CFB: Big Noon Kickoff (Fox) Luckie — College GameDay (ESPN) RJ — Fox MLB: The Postseason (Fox) A World Away — College GameDay (ESPN)
Outstanding Sports Feature: Long Form Chuskit & Saldon: Frozen Dreams of Ladakh (Olympics.com [XTR Studios]) Girl Climber (Red Bull Studios [Louder than Eleven]) Imillaskate: The Cholita Skaters of Bolivia (Optimist [Pachamama Sabia]) Ride With Me (Golf Central Live from The Open [Golf Channel]) SC Featured: Love, Abby (SportsCenter [ESPN]) Tim Green – A Voice Reclaimed (NFL Films Presents [FS1])
Outstanding Sports Open/Tease America’s Game — Super Bowl LX (NBC | Peacock) America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys (Netflix [Skydance Sports | NFL Films | Stardust Frames Productions | Netflix]) Brick by Brick — Fox IndyCar: The 109th Indianapolis 500 (Fox) Celtics City (HBO Max [Ringer Films | Words + Pictures | Left/Right | NBA Entertainment]) The Harder Choice — The 126th Army-Navy Game (CBS) Nerves at Augusta National — The Masters (CBS)
Outstanding Interactive Experience: Sports Fan Optionality on Prime Video (Prime Video Sports [Prime Video | Amazon MGM Studios]) NASCAR Driver Cam on HBO Max (HBO Max) The NBA Experience on Peacock (Peacock) NHL in ASL (NHL Productions) SportsCenter For You (ESPN [WSC Sports | Google])
Outstanding Digital Innovation: Sports MLB App in XR (MLB) NFL on NBC Madden NFL Cast (Peacock) Prime Insights (Prime Video [Amazon MGM Studios]) VIP — Yankee Stadium (Apple TV [SoHi Media]) World of Red Bull in Apple Immersive (Red Bull Media House, NA [Apple])
Outstanding Technical Team: Sports Event College Football Playoff National Championship (ESPN) Fox IndyCar: The 109th Indianapolis 500 (Fox | FS1) Fox MLB: World Series – Toronto Blue Jays vs Los Angeles Dodgers (Fox | FS1) The Masters (CBS) Super Bowl LX (NBC | Peacock)
Outstanding Technical Team: Sports Studio College GameDay – College Football (ESPN) Fox NFL (Fox) NBA on Prime Video (Amazon MGM Studios) NFL Draft (ESPN)
Outstanding Sports Camera Work: Short Form Brick by Brick — Fox IndyCar: The 109th Indianapolis 500 (Fox) The Harder Choice (The 126th Army-Navy Game [CBS]) 151st Kentucky Derby (NBC | Peacock) A Parisian Rhythm with Omar Sy — Roland-Garros on TNT Sports (TNT | TruTV) Silent Super Bowl — NFL Films Presents (FS1 [NFL Films])
Outstanding Sports Camera Work: Long Form America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys (Netflix [Skydance Sports | NFL Films | Stardust Frames Productions | Netflix]) Celtics City (HBO Max [Ringer Films | Words + Pictures | Left/Right | NBA Entertainment]) Cocaine Quarterback: Signal-Caller for the Cartel (Unrealistic Ideas [Amazon MGM Studios | Unrealistic Ideas]) I Skied Down Mount Everest (Red Bull Media House GmbH [East Studio]) Raise The Flags: 50 Years of Buccaneers Football (Heroes & Fables [NFL Films | Skydance Sports | Prime Video Sports | Tampa Bay Buccaneers]) Training Camp with the Buffalo Bills — Hard Knocks (HBO Max [NFL Films])
Outstanding Sports Editing: Short Form 4 Nations Face-Off: For Crest and Country — NHL on ESPN (ESPN) The Bay — NBA All-Star on TNT (TNT) Brick by Brick — IndyCar: The 109th Indianapolis 500 (Fox) It’s Time — NHL Stanley Cup Final on TNT (TNT) A Parisian Rhythm with Omar Sy — Roland-Garros on TNT Sports (TNT | truTV) Stanley Cup Playoffs Opening Round: Devils vs Hurricanes – Snap Shot (NHL on ESPN [ESPN])
Outstanding Sports Editing: Long Form American Thunder: NASCAR at Le Mans (NASCAR Studios [Amazon MGM Studios | NASCAR Studios]) America’s Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys (Netflix [Skydance Sports | NFL Films | Stardust Frames Productions | Netflix]) Butterfly in a Blizzard (Bracing For Impact, LLC [Flagship Independent | Big Lift Media]) Celtics City (HBO Max [Ringer Films | Words + Pictures | Left/Right | NBA Entertainment]) Saquon (NFL Films [Amazon MGM Studios | NFL Films | Skydance Sports | Expanded Media | LBI Entertainment | Vision26 Studios]) We Beat the Dream Team (TNT | HBO Max [USA Basketball | NBA Entertainment | Blue Ox Films]) WWE: Unreal (Netflix [Omaha Productions | NFL Films | Skydance Sports | WWE | Netflix])
The Dick Schaap Outstanding Sports Writing Award: Short Form Brick by Brick — IndyCar: The 109th Indianapolis 500 (Fox) Choices – Lee Corso’s Final Headgear Pick — College GameDay (ESPN) It’s Time — NHL Stanley Cup Final on TNT (TNT) 151st Kentucky Derby (NBC | Peacock) In Motion and Memory — IndyCar: The 109th Indianapolis 500 (Fox) Wimbledon (ESPN)
Outstanding Sports Writing: Long Form Above the Tide: 20 Years After Katrina — E60 (ESPN) Celtics City (HBO Max [Ringer Films | Words + Pictures | Left/Right | NBA Entertainment]) Going Inside (TNT) In Season with the NFC East — Hard Knocks (HBO Max [NFL Films]) The Superdome At 50 — NFL Films Presents (FS1 [NFL Films])
Outstanding Music Direction: Sports Hard Knocks: In Season with the NFC East (HBO Max [NFL Films]) Home Turn: Daytona Beach, FL (NASCAR Studios [Bluefoot Entertainment]) Memphis to the Mountain: Acclimatization | Elevation (Andscape [Sender Films]) NCAA Final Four: San Antonio – Unwritten Reimagined (CBS [Sony Music]) NHL Stanley Cup Final on TNT: It’s Time (TNT) Surviving Ohio State (HBO Max [Sports Illustrated Studios | 101 Studios | Smokehouse Pictures]) Thursday Night Football (Amazon MGM Studios [Amazon MGM Studios])
Outstanding Sports Audio/Sound: Live Event Apple TV: Friday Night Baseball (Apple TV [MLB Network]) Fox MLB (Fox | FS1) Fox NASCAR (Fox | FS1) Fox NFL (Fox) Sunday Night Football (NBC | Peacock)
Outstanding Sports Audio/Sound: Post-Produced Believers: Boston Red Sox (ESPN [ESPN | Religion of Sports | Artists Equity]) Cocaine Quarterback: Signal-Caller for the Cartel (Unrealistic Ideas [Amazon MGM Studios | Unrealistic Ideas]) E60: Above the Tide – 20 Years After Katrina (ESPN) Earnhardt: Dale (Imagine Documentaries [Amazon MGM Studios | Imagine Documentaries | Everyone Else | NASCAR Studios | Dirty Mo Media]) Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Buffalo Bills (HBO Max [NFL Films]) NHL Stanley Cup Final on TNT: It’s Time (TNT)
Outstanding Sports Graphic Design: Event/Show Fox NFL (Fox) Monsters Funday Football (ESPN [Beyond Sports | Big Studios | Pixar]) NBA on NBC & Peacock (NBC | Peacock) NBA on Prime Video (Amazon MGM Studios [Amazon MGM Studios]) Thursday Night Football (Amazon MGM Studios [Amazon MGM Studios])
Outstanding Sports Graphic Design: Specialty Believers: Boston Red Sox (ESPN [ESPN | Religion of Sports | Artists Equity]) MLB Now Open (MLB Network) NFL on CBS: The Evolution of the Big Head – Merging Human Artistry with AI Innovation (CBS) NFL Slimetime (Nickelodeon) WWE: Unreal (Netflix [Omaha Productions | NFL Films | Skydance Sports | WWE | Netflix])
Outstanding Studio Or Production Design/Art Direction: Sports Celtics City (HBO Max [Ringer Films | Words + Pictures | Left/Right | NBA Entertainment]) Fox NFL Sunday: Case of the Missing Best Team | The Dynasty Blueprint | The Waiting Room (Fox) Monsters Funday Football (ESPN [Beyond Sports | Big Studios | Pixar]) NBA on Prime Video (Amazon MGM Studios [Amazon MGM Studios]) NFL Slimetime (Nickelodeon) The NFL Today: The Virtual Time Machine – Rebuilding the Legacy of The NFL Today (CBS)
The George Wensel Technical Achievement Award College Football – POVORA Wireless Tilt Control CapCam: Stabilized CapCam with Remote Tilt Control (ESPN [Povora]) Fox IndyCar: Augmented Reality (Fox | FS1) Fox MLB: The Postseason – UmpCam AR Strike Zone System (MLB | Major League Baseball [Fox Sports | Bolt6 | Virtual Eye]) The Last Crescendo – The 4th Judge: First-Ever AI Power Boxing Judge (DAZN) TGL Presented by SoFi: SmartPin Cam (ABC | ESPN | ESPN2 | ESPN+) 2025 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo – AIQ: Where Data Meets Dirt (Teton Ridge)
Outstanding Promotional Announcement: Sports City of Fury – Fatal Fury in Times Square (BigTime Creative Shop [Truffle]) ESPN Sports Forever (ESPN | ESPN+ [Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners | ESPN Creative Studio | Division7 | The Herd]) Fastest Racing on Earth — Fox IndyCar (Fox | FS1 | FS2 | Fox News | Fox Business | BTN | Deportes | [Special Group | Biscuit Filmworks | Cabin Edit | Eleven Sound | Ethos | Pariah | New Math]) Milan-Cortina Olympics on NBC & Peacock (NBC | Peacock) NBA on NBC & Peacock (NBC | Peacock) Unforgettable Awaits – 2025 NBA Finals (Warner Brothers Discovery)
Outstanding Public Service Content: Sports Champion – Super Bowl LX (National Football League [72andSunny | Morton Jankel Zander, Inc.]) ESPN Take Back Sports Movement (ESPN) Line ‘Em Up (JOAN Creative [JOAN Studios]) Notre Dame: What Would You Fight For? (NBC | Peacock)
Outstanding Sports Personality: Studio Host Rece Davis (ESPN) Rich Eisen (NFL Network) Ernie Johnson (TNT | CBS) Scott Van Pelt (ESPN) Laura Rutledge (ESPN) Kate Scott (CBS | Paramount+)
Outstanding Sports Personality: Studio Analyst Charles Barkley (TNT) Clark Kellogg (CBS | TNT) Mina Kimes (ESPN) Pedro Martinez (TNT) Candace Parker (TNT | TBS) Alex Rodriguez (Fox | FS1)
Outstanding Sports Personality: Play-By-Play Joe Buck (ESPN) Joe Davis (Fox | FS1 | NFL Network) Ian Eagle (CBS | TNT | Netflix | Amazon) Jim Nantz (CBS) Mike Tirico (NBC | Peacock)
Outstanding Sports Personality: Sideline Reporter Tom Rinaldi (Fox | FS1) Holly Rowe (ESPN) Laura Rutledge (ESPN) Lisa Salters (ESPN) Tracy Wolfson (CBS | TNT)
Outstanding Sports Personality: Emerging On-Air Talent Andraya Carter (ESPN) Katie George (ESPN) Jason Kelce (ESPN) Matt Ryan (CBS | Paramount+ | Netflix) Richard Sherman (Prime Video) J.J. Watt (CBS)
Outstanding Sports On-Air Personality In Spanish Andrés Cantor (Telemundo | Universo | Peacock) Carolina Guillén (ESPN) Miguel Gurwitz (Telemundo | Universo | Peacock) Fernando Palomo (ESPN) Sammy Sadovnik (MLS Productions)
Outstanding Sports Studio Show In Spanish Ahora o Nunca (ESPN) ESPN FC (ESPN) Fútbol Picante (ESPN) Linea de 4 (Univision | TUDN) Premier League Extra (Telemundo | Universo | Peacock) Rumbo Al Mundial (Telemundo | Universo | Peacock)
Outstanding Sports Feature Story In Spanish Atxa Delgado — Mundo Originals (Mundo NFL [SWAY | Cobra Films]) Greenland: Venezia (ESPN) Los Colores del Istmo — Mundo Originals (Mundo NFL [SWAY | Cobra Films]) María Llena Eres de Fuerza (ESPN) SC Reportajes: Rafael Campos — SportsCenter (ESPN)
Vincent D’Onofrio is calling for Marvel and Sony to clear out the red tape so that his “Daredevil: Born Again” character, the villainous crime lord Kingpin, can face off against his longtime comic book nemesis, Spider-Man, on the big screen.
In a reply to a fan on social media calling for a live-action showdown between Spidey and Kingpin, D’Onofrio wrote, “If Sony and Marvel ever get their sh*t together maybe. It’s a complicated rights issue. Hope so.”
While D’Onofrio’s Kingpin is part of Disney and Marvel’s IP machine, Sony owns the film rights to the red and blue wall crawler. However, the studio lends out the character to Marvel so he can appear in films like “Avengers: Infinity War.”
Kingpin and Spider-Man have technically appeared in a movie together, but it was the 2018 animated film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” Liev Schreiber voiced Kingpin, who faced off against Shameik Moore’s Miles Morales.
D’Onofrio was most recently seen as Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin, in the new season of “Daredevil: Born Again,” which premiered on Disney+ Tuesday night. In the new season, Fisk is the mayor of New York City, stirring civil unrest with the help of his ultra-violent Anti-Vigilante Task Force.
The highly anticipated “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” will mark the next appearance of Holland’s web-slinging hero. Hitting theaters on July 31, the film also stars Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal and Mark Ruffalo. It’s directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. The sequel picks up after the events of 2021’s “No Way Home,” which saw the whole world forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man.
Sony’s released the trailer for “Brand New Day’ on March 17. In just four days, it crossed 1 billion views, becoming the first movie trailer ever to reach the milestone.
Kuku, which has built a substantial presence in Indian digital entertainment through its audio and short-form video platforms, is stepping into theatrical cinema for the first time with “Indian Institute of Zombies,” a Hindi-language horror comedy due in cinemas on May 8.
The film unfolds on an elite engineering campus, weaving together zombie horror, youth comedy and social satire. Kuku is positioning it as a genre first for Indian cinema, with the theatrical setting central to its strategy – the company sees the communal big-screen experience as distinct from, rather than an extension of, its existing digital offerings.
The ensemble cast includes Jessie Lever, Anupriya Goenka, Mohan Kapur, Ranjan Raj, Shivani Paliwal, Shantanu Anam, Rose Sardana, Sachin Kavetham and Tanishq Chaudhary, among others. The screenplay was written by Hussain Dalal and Abbas Dalal, whose previous credits include “Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva” and “Farzi.” Direction is by Gaganjeet Singh and Alok Dwivedi of Low Gravity Productions, a team with a background in streaming series and ad films.
The story originated internally at Kuku, with the project framed as the opening move in what the company intends to be a growing theatrical slate.
Kuku’s two main platforms occupy distinct corners of the Indian digital market. Kuku FM has scaled into a major destination for audio storytelling, while Kuku TV has carved out a following among younger audiences through the microdrama format, delivering narratives built for mobile viewing.
“Kuku has always been obsessed with how India consumes stories,” said Lal Chand Bisu, CEO of Kuku. “We built scale in personal consumption through Kuku FM and created a new microdrama category in India with Kuku TV. Theatres for us represent the next frontier and we are excited to make our first steps in it. ‘Indian Institute of Zombies’ marks the first of our many, rooted in youth culture, genre innovation and mass Indian tastes.”
Alongside its creative ambitions, the company is also making a case for artificial intelligence as a structural part of how it makes films. Rather than deploying AI at the margins, Kuku says it has built the technology into the project’s foundations – informing how the story was developed and structured, how production logistics were modelled, and how creative decisions were tested and refined throughout the process.
Kunj Sanghvi, senior VP at Kuku, explained the thinking behind both the genre choice and the technology strategy. “‘Indian Institute of Zombies’ is a film for everyone who has ever been on a college campus. We hope our audiences get to experience their adventurous and brave side as they watch this hilarious film on zombies. We observed the success rates of horror comedies at the cinemas, the lack of a breakout Indian zombie film yet and the insatiable appetite for campus stories across age groups in India,” he said.
“We don’t see AI as a replacement for creativity, but more as an amplifier. By deeply integrating AI into our filmmaking process, we’re able to iterate faster, visualize better and make sharper decisions earlier,” he added.
The comedian has been tapped to pen a new Lord of the Rings movie, alongside Philippa Boyens and Peter McGee, which will be the second of two upcoming films in the blockbuster franchise. Colbert joined Peter Jackson to announce the news on social media Tuesday night.
“The thing I found myself reading over and over again were the six chapters early on in The Fellowship [of the Ring] that y’all never developed into the first movie back in the day,” Colbert said in the video (below). “It’s basically chapters ‘Three Is Company’ through ‘Fog on the Barrow-downs,’ and I thought, Oh wait, maybe that could be its own story that could fit into the larger story. Could we make something that was completely faithful to the books while also being completely faithful to the movies that you guys had already made?
“And I started talking it over with my son Peter, who’s also a screenwriter, and we worked out what we thought would work, especially as a framing device for that story,” he continued. “It took me a few years to scrape my courage into a pile to give you a call, but about two years ago I did. You liked it enough to talk to me about it, and ever since then, the two of us have been working with the brilliant Philippa Boyens on how to develop this story.”
Colbert, a lifelong Tolkien devotee, added that the team at Warner Bros., including Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca, also “loved it.”
The installment, with the working title The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, will come after Lord of the Rings: Hunt for Gollum, which is currently in development from director Andy Serkis. Colbert will work with Jackson, Fran Walsh and Boyens — the Oscar-winning trio who initially brought the blockbuster The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies to life — on the film from author J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved books.
“Fourteen years after the passing of Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure. Meanwhile, Sam’s daughter, Elanor, has discovered a long-buried secret and is determined to uncover why the War of the Ring was very nearly lost before it even began,” the synopsis reads.
Colbert is best known for hosting The Late Show on CBS, but it will air its final episode on May 21 after the network decided to cancel the long-running late night talk show last year.
As for Hunt for Gollum, the cast includes Kate Winslet in an undisclosed role, Ian McKellen returning as Gandalf and Andy Serkis reprising the role of Gollum, in addition to directing the film. Elijah Wood has also strongly hinted he will be back as Frodo.
The Hunt for Gollum, which takes place between The Hobbit trilogy and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, follows Aragorn and Gandalf’s quest to search for Gollum to learn more information about Bilbo’s ring, which turns out to be the One Ring that threatens all of Middle Earth during the events of Lord of the Rings.
Zane Weiner is also producing the first Gollum film, alongside Jackson, Walsh and Boyens.
Calling it now fight fans, we may have an all-time action classic on our hands.
Lionsgate released the first official trailer for its upcoming Hong Kong action film The Furious, and the words brutal and intense will be seared on to your brain after watching it.
Kenji Tanigaki‘s film is an amalgam of the very best of Asian action cinema and features Chinese actor Xie Miao (aka Mo Tse, who starred with Jet Li in The New Legend of Shaolin and My Father Is a Hero) and Indonesian star Joe Taslim (yes, the guy from The Raid films and also Sub-Zero in the Mortal Kombat movies). The cast also includes Indonesian action favorite Yayan Ruhian (another breakout star from Gareth Evans’ Raid films) and Thai actress Yanin Vismitananda (Europe Raiders, Triple Threat).
Though The Furious is only Japan-born Tanigaki’s third outing as a director, the filmmaker is something of a legend in Hong Kong cinema having been the stunt co-ordinator or fight choreographer for films such as Flash Point, Hidden Man, Raging Fire and Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, as well as the Hollywood film Blade II.
The plot of film revolves around Wei (Xie), a father desparately searching for his daughter after she was kidnapped by an international organized crime group. Helping Wei is Navin (Taslim), a journalist with secrets of his own. Together they fight their through the criminal underworld to rescue Wei’s daughter.
The Furious premiered as part of the Midnight Madness sidebar of the 2025 Toronto Film Festival and was a huge hit with viewers, finishing as runners up in the People’s Choice Award. After its debut at TIFF, Lionsgate acquired the worldwide rights (excluding China, Hong Kong and Macao) to the film.
“NCIS” has not been shy about letting some of its tertiary characters die a dramatic death, but when it comes to letting any of the show’s main cast come to a sad end, there’s been more of a historical hesitation there. So the fandom was little prepared when the big surprise of the show’s 500th episode Tuesday night turned out to be Director Leon Vance, portrayed by Rocky Carroll, going gentle into that good night.
Much of the episode focuses on Vance flashing back on recent events to a seemingly antagonistic interrogator, who eventually reveals himself to be a young version of Ducky, the coroner whom, of course, the director knows to have gone on to the great beyond. At that point, Vance slowly but surely comes to accept his fate, even cracking a joke as he wonders whether having a blinding white light is a little bit “on the nose.”
Will the audience accept it as readily as Vance? And more importantly for our immediate purposes, has Rocky Carroll? With pun definitely intended, Carroll has been a rock of the show through his 18 seasons, gradually being built up from a recurrent player to a mainstay few fans imagined they’d have to learn to live without. But the actor says he is fully reconciled, having had a few months to consider it. Plus, he didn’t have to have a tearful farewell when he filmed his final shots; Carroll is a frequent director on the show, and already has returned to the set to film an episode yet to air in this, season 23.
Carroll got on with Variety for an in-depth exit interview, showing much of the good humor and grace that endeared him to “NCIS” showrunners for 18 years (and possibly more seasons to come, if, in true “NCIS” fashion, he is likely to return in flashbacks or as someone’s conscience).
First off, when did you film this farewell episode, and was it hard to keep it a secret in the weeks or months since?
As we get closer to the air date, my biggest concern has been, because of the advent of social media, being able to keep a secret like this, when sometimes leaks come from the most unsuspecting sources. So the fact that this hasn’t been blasted over the internet so far, or that the majority of people outside of CBS and a small circle of people still don’t know about it, is pretty cool. I think it’s gonna be a huge shock for people. I’ve been able to wrap my mind around it and come to terms with it because I’ve known about this since November, when I was first told about what was going to happen. And the last scene, where Director Vance realizes that he’s been talking to basically the grim reaper, the angel of death, and walks toward the light, that was shot on Dec. 11. And we’re in the middle of March, so I’ve had a little time to wrap my mind around it and come to terms with it.
Brian Dietzen, Rocky Carroll and Gary Cole in episode 500 of NCIS
CBS
And how do you feel now, having had that little bit of time to accept it?
I’ve been able to kind of come full circle with it. And I really think it’s a great episode. I’m not just saying this to be a team player, but if you’ve gotta send a character off, what a way to go. It really is exactly what our executive producer, Steven D. Binder, said. He wanted to write not only a great episode, but a real love letter to the character that really summarized his journey and his impact on the show, and I think we achieved that.
For selfish reasons, I have to remind people: I’ve been a character on this series for 18 years. Most Hollywood careers don’t last 18 years. So to be able to play one character on one of the most popular shows in the world for 18 seasons, that’s the equivalent of living to be 105. You know, if you’ve known somebody who lived to be 105, when you go to that funeral, there’s a part of you that’s like, “OK, yeah, this is sad, but I mean, geez! The guy lived to be 105.” So I feel that way with my character.
With the series, eventually all things do come to an end, and my character’s end came before the end. It would be wonderful to say, “Yeah, I was there for the the very last take of ‘NCIS’ when they finally boarded up the windows and said, ‘OK, that’s it. No more. Everybody go home.’” But, you know, the show was already on the air for five seasons before I started. And I’ve said this many times before: When I came on the show at the end of season 5, I literally thought to myself, “Well, at least you made it on the tail end of the series. It’ll probably go seven seasons — if you’re lucky, maybe eight — and at least you will have gotten a couple good seasons out of it.” That was literally my thought process when I joined the cast. So by that math, the last 16 years have basically been overtime for me.
For people who are O.G. “NCIS” viewers, there may still be a few of them who think of you as one of the new guys, even though you have been around for at least 80% of the series’ life. That’s partly because it wasn’t clear at all when you came in that you were going to be a key cast member.
It was a slow feeling-out process, because when my character came in, he was very, very much an unknown character. He and Gibbs, Mark Harmon‘s character, were very adversarial. You didn’t know: Is this a wolf in sheep’s clothing? Is this a bad guy that’s eventually going to wreak havoc? So the fact that this character, who originally kind of in as the boss from hell, like the stepdad nobody wants, suddenly over the years has become a real member of this “NCIS” family, is a real testament to the writing. And when Steve Binder, the executive producer, told me what the storyline is, he said, “One of the reasons why we selected Vance to meet his demise is because of who you are and what you mean and how significant your character is. As macabre as this sounds, who better to kill off than somebody that everybody would go, ‘Oh no, not him’? You got the most ‘Oh no, not him’ votes. And that’s when we knew we had to do it.”
You sound like you had understandable moments of doubt about whether you were ready to go.
All this happened pretty quickly. I was told in November that “two episodes from now, we’re shooting this episode where your character meets his demise.” And I was like, this is happening in two episodes? So I’ve got basically about four weeks to get ready to do this.” So I had this kind of knee-jerk response, where I remember one of the first things I was saying to our executive producers was: “We lose characters all the time, but we sent Gibbs off to Alaska. Tony and Ziva, Bishop, all these characters, they were all able to kind of go on their own free will, always with the thought that they’re gone, but not not dead. So if you wanted this character to go, why are we being so final about it, when everybody else just gets sent off to another country?” So, yeah, that was my rebuttal.
And what was the answer to that? Obviously, they had to be telling you that it would not have the same impact just to make you another character we imagine retired and living happily ever after.
Yes, absolutely. And again, it’s the 500th episode — the studio, the network, everybody involved said, “We don’t have to put this show on the map — it’s on the map — but we have to remind people why it is one of the most watched shows in the world and has been on as long as it has. Let’s do something spectacular for the 500th episode. And this is what we’ve come up with.” Once the creative in me and the director in me read the script and got a real good gist of it, I was like, “It actually is a great idea.” It’s a terrific storyline. And you know, actors love dying on camera anyway. And I would say the great thing about dying on camera is that weeks later, you get to sit and do an intervie and talk about it.
Look, if this had happened in my third season playing this character, I’d be devastated. But if somebody had told me 18 years ago, “Here’s the deal: We’re gonna hire you to play this character. We’re gonna give you 18 consecutive seasons of work on the most watched show in the world. At the end of season 18, something’s gonna happen to your character. Will you accept this offer?” — there’s not a single actor on the planet who wouldn’t say, “Oh, hell yeah. Sign me up. Eighteen years of work. Are you kidding me?”
From talking to Steve Binder before speaking with you, it sounds like this idea had been brought up a long time ago and they just couldn’t pull the trigger, so to speak.
NCIS – 23-504 – “All Good Things” – Rocky Carroll on NCIS, Tuesday, March 24 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
CBS
It was a very macabre compliment, but he said, “Because of who you are, Rocky, and because of what you brought to the character, we’ve been talking about killing off Vance for the last 10 years. This idea didn’t just come about in 2025. We’ve been thinking about killing this character or having this character meet some sort of untimely death for over a decade. But we couldn’t because it was you.” And I think they figured, “Look, 23 seasons in, who knows how much more time we have. If we don’t do it now, there may not be a season that allows us to do something of this magnitude, because we’re in overtime here.”
They were clearly trying to figure out a way to make it a happy ending, in its fashion. having set up the death of Vance’s wife so long ago…
If your grandfather precedes your grandmother in death, then once your grandmother goes, the first thing we say is, “Oh, they’re together now.” Or it’s “Ronnie and Nancy are together again.” It’s the first thing we think whenever somebody that we love dies: they’re gonna be with the other people that we’ve lost and cared about in the circle, together on the other side now.
What did you think of the idea of having a young Ducky break you the news? The things that it brought to mind were kind of a combination of “It’s a Wonderful Life” with the “Twilight Zone” where Robert Redford turns out to be the very nice angel of death.
Yeah, my mind went immediately to “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Were David McCallum still with us, he would’ve been the ultimate. But I love how Steve Binder structured it. We brought back Adam Campbell, who plays young Ducky, because in the spirit world, you get to pick how old you want to be when you come back. It worked on so many different levels, and just having that little bit of a plot twist of saying that in the afterlife you get to come back whatever age you want. It’s like how you can eat what you want and not gain weight — there’s some upsides to being on the other side.
Let’s talk about the evolution of your character a little bit, which also goes back to the question of the longevity that was not anticipated by any anyone.
Even to this day, I’ve never been in all the shows produced [in a season. Because Don Bellisario, who creatied this show, basically commissioned the writer at the time, Jesse Stern, to create this character. There had already been two other NCIS directors, one played by Alan Dale and the other played by Lauren Holly. It’s one of those posts where, in real life, the NCIS director, their tenure is about three years. So in the real NCIS world, the running joke is, “You are the longest tenured director in history.”
The character was meant to be this character who occasionally would come down from his office and whip people into shape. It was never supposed to be a key component to the show. And part of the thing that I had going for me — I tell people this all the time — was that I didn’t know much about the show and didn’t know 99% of the people connected to the show. But the one person I did know was Mark Harmon, because we had done “Chicago Hope” together, so if you’re only gonna know one person on a hit show, it’s good that it’s the lead actor, and somebody that you had a great relationship with. And I think whatever chemistry we were generating as these characters, once that started to make itself apparent, the writers said, “Hey, this is fun to play off of. There are so many unspoken elements about the dynamic — the male dynamic, the race dynamic, all the different things that we don’t even have to hang a light on, that just are.”
Showrunners past and present have described a warmth you have that was too good to ignore in terms of bringing the character forward. And it’s fun for audiences to see someone who you think of as a badass warm up.
Yeah. Over time is, we were able to craft it so the character didn’t just become this stock “here comes the boss from hell; here comes Mr. Slate from ‘The Flintstones,’ breathing fire.” I tried to infuse it with an undercurrent of humor, where it’s the boss from hell who kind of does it with a wink and a nod. He kind of relishes it, and he only uses it when he has to, but if you catch him in a candid moment, you know you might actually get something funny out of it. So we played with that. And you know, my first foray here in Hollywood was doing a sitcom, so that was the world I came from, so I wanted to kind of ride the rails with this character.
There has always has been so much comedy in the show with the wisecracking of the core cast. But of course, you were not doing one-liners initially. Do you remember when the point came where you were finally allowed to be a little bit funny too?
I think one of the first episodes where we did that was an episode called “Knockout.” It might have been the first or second full season of my character, where you got to see his home life and his family and his wife and kind of see him in domestic bliss. And the wife is the one that when he walks in the door, it’s like, “Hand me the toothpick, take it outta your mouth.” We domesticated the character a little bit, and Vance got to see him in the world where he didn’t rule his house with an iron fist the way he does NCIS. That was the beginning of it, and we just started to kind of have more fun with it.
I thought as this character went on, it’s gonna get old very quick if he’s just adversarial with everybody. But if there’s a wry sense of humor behind it, where he kind of enjoys putting people in the hot seat and has has fun with it… just an undercurrent of that where it’s less about really trying to undress somebody verbally and more about, “Just remember who’s the boss. Remember who has the upper hand. When all is said and done, you may win the argument, but I could still reassign you to the NCIS desk in Alaska if I wanted to. So just take that with you.” You always had that kind of quirk about it, and we started to revel in that and allow the character to be much more three-dimensional and humorous and candid.
But I think the biggest thing that gave us the longevity with the character is that once Vance’s wife died, he and Gibbs now had the same tragedy in common. They both lost their wives, and any issues between them were sort of secondary now because of the grief and tragedy of sharing that. Suddenly it humanized that character more than anything else could have.
Do you have a favorite episode, or is that too tough?
Because I’m well over 300 episodes, it’s hard. It’s like asking Tom Brady, “Do you remember your favorite pass?” Like I said, it’s 18 years of being able to go to work and having a great job doing what you love to do.
I think it’s baked into our business: When you’re an out-of-work actor, or when you’re auditioning and you’re trying to land a show, or you’re on a show and you don’t know if it’s gonna go more than one season, or it may go six episodes and get canceled, there’s always such uncertainty. And when something like this happens, and finally there’s a bit of stability — we’re around for five years; we’re around for 10 years; now, we’re in season 15; now we’re in season 20 — it’s so easy to self-sabotage in our business. Because when you finally get into a scenario where the grass is green, either the actor or somebody who represents the actor suddenly plants the seed that maybe there’s a shade of green that’s even nicer. “I know this is what you think is your dream job, but maybe you’re not as happy as you think you are. Maybe we need to push all our chips in the middle of the table and say, ‘I can’t work under these conditions! Even though I’ve been begging for this job for my entire life.’” We do this to ourselves. Or all of a sudden, our agent goes, “OK, we know you love your job and you love the cast and the writing, you love everything about it, but you must be miserable. They’re just not servicing you enough. You’re not getting enough lines …”
So having for the last 18 years I have been able to say, “You know what, I’m doing exactly what I love to do, and I love my job. And I’m sorry for the people who work for me or who represent me, but I’m not that guy who wakes up every day and goes, ‘How can I get a bigger trailer? How can I get more lines? How can I get more? How can I have a greener pasture than the one that I’m I’m sprawled in right now?” I’ve been able to just really be present and enjoy it. And I think for most creative people, it’s just baked into the business: Very seldom do you realize just how good something is until it’s over. And I was determined to really enjoy and relish this and be present while I was doing it, not 10 years after the show when I’m doing some retrospective with the cast and I’m going, “Man, that was a really good time. I wish I had really embraced it.” It’s like, no, no, that wasn’t gonna be me.
At “NCIS” they like their ghosts and apparitions. So do you think the door would certainly be open for your return on that level? Because they have brought Mike Franks back for cameos and people like that who suddenly pop up. Do you foresee that happening with you, or would you rather just be done with it?
Oh, I think we coined the term ghost stars. We have more ghost stars on our show than anybody. So I absolutely foresee it. And I also direct three, sometimes four episodes every season. And I think that will continue. So for me, it’s really goodbye for now. It’s not as final as as it feels. Even when I shot the final scene on Dec. 11, when we finished the episode and shot the final scene, and all of us as a crew were all saying goodbyes and hugs, I just remember saying, “Guys, I’ll be back in a month to start doing prep work and pre-production for the episode that I’m directing.” So, I’m not here for every meal now as a relative, but I come back for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’ll be around.
So you have already been back to direct?
The answer is yes. Literally a month after we shot this show, I was back in January to direct what I think is maybe the third-to-last episode of this season.
Do you have the impulse to try to jump into another series as a regular, at all?
No, my impulse now is to is to do exactly what I did while I was on the show. … I’ll be in New York when the episode airs doing a live Q&A at the SAG screening room in midtown Manhattan. There’re gonna be 150 SAG members who’ve not seen the episode; it’s gonna air in real time at 8 p.m. and then the lights are gonna come up and I’m gonna walk out and go, “Well, that just happened. What do you guys think?” And we’re gonna talk about it and I’m just gonna have fun with it.
And I’m gonna be able to do what most actors never get to do, and have the luxury and the wherewithal to not worry about “God, I hope the phone rings and somebody calls me. I gotta get another gig.” If the next six months or five years go by and I’m not on a call sheet, working 12-hour days, it’ll be okay. You know, fortunately, 18 years of consistent work on the most watched show in the world gives you a little bit of cushion. I might be doing a production in a 50-seat theater somewhere in Hollywood and having the time of my life. For the last 18 years, I’ve had the best part-time job in Hollywood. So there’s not a whole lot to be upset about.
On Tuesday afternoon the bomb dropped. OpenAI was closing down Sora, and its Disney deal was over. The big video-generation tool that was supposed to turn Disney+ into a user-generated paradise — or a field of memeslop, depending on your point of view — is no longer. And maybe, with it, OpenAI’s Hollywood ambitions are gone too.
Three veteran Hollywood Reporter editors — editorial director David Katz and senior editors Steven Zeitchik and Julian Sancton — convened to make sense of the news.
Steven Zeitchik: Gentlemen, we have the biggest story in Hollywood and tech in many months. Sora is dead and Disney+ won’t be Sora-fied. What’s your first reaction?
David Katz: From a Disney perspective I’m thinking of [new CEO] Josh D’Amaro and what a crazy development it is for him. They probably sold this to Wall Street as a future-proofing 100X opportunity. And now they have to explain why the opportunity went away.
SZ: The next earnings call is going to be a trip — giant Gilda Radner-style “never mind” incoming. Of course he can just put the blame on Bob Iger — gently — and say this was his predecessor’s questionable decision.
DK: It’s a lot for a new CEO to deal with but it’s true he wasn’t the man in charge when the deal was done. And at least it does get him out of something that was unpopular in Hollywood. They will — presumably — get their billion-dollar investment back, even if now it can’t earn that supposed multiple and all that Valley-style growth they were eyeing.
Julian Sancton: I think it’s clear how much Disney was annoyed by this. They put out a statement saying “we respect OpenAI’s decision to exit the video generation business and to shift its priorities elsewhere,” which seems like a pretty big screw-you.
SZ: The question is whether it’s just a screw you to OpenAI or a screw you to memeslop generally. To me a company sitting on that much IP doesn’t just walk away from the chance to mine it all with the help of AI and user-generated video.
DK: The “make money without doing anything” approach.
SZ [laughs]: I mean, that’s what Wall Street expects from a conglomerate these days. This could just be a chance for a mulligan. Like, OK, we didn’t make it work with OpenAI. But if want to swing from the tee again, Google and Byte Dance have a golf course waiting.
JS: D’Amaro just has to wait until the egg clears from his face.
DK: But you can also see them sitting it out, at least for a beat. Josh can use it as a talent play. He tells all the writers and actors and directors “my Disney isn’t selling out to Big Tech.”
SZ: Ya Disney is definitely not a hero here to the creative community, but they’re maybe just a … little less of a villain. He could use it to get some currency back a little bit. I just wonder if faced with the crossroads between writers and Wall Street, Disney will ultimately really choose writers.
DK: If past is precedent, it will choose the Street.
SZ: And let’s not forget regardless of what Disney does a competitor can now jump in. David Ellison has talked all about having many more hours of engagement with, and revenue from, Paramount shows than the hour or two a week they presently have. I could see them making a deal with someone and the arms race is back on.
JS: Yeah I think we could still see an escalation here. This is too tempting for them.
SZ: It could be like a nuclear non-proliferation treaty. A country proclaims “No new weapons!” and everyone gets excited. And then the country waits a minute and go builds a whole new arsenal. I do want to pivot and ask about the OpenAI of it all. They’ve been so eager to make inroads in media and Hollywood for so long, dating back to the ChatGPT and The New York Times lawsuit and continuing with all their studio meetings over the last few years. Is this really the end for them?
JS: Well they say they’re not getting out of video-generation, if we believe them, which I’m not sure that I do. They have declared the “code red” and trying to catch up to Anthropic on enterprise and defense and all of that. I can see where this is a distraction from that priority. Or from saving others parts of the business.
DK: And the compute is so expensive. They could have just made a calculation it wasn’t worth it.
SZ: Even if it’s a cash-centric issue, I just don’t understand how you spend so many billions building something and then ditch it before it could become a business and start to really spin off revenue. They’ve already made all the investment.
JS: But what are they good at it? Mainly name recognition. I’m not sure that makes you good at creating a viable business, even in memeslop.
SZ: But all that name recognition has a business value — see under ChatGPT. it’s just crazy that a company with 900 million subs — a company so massively popular with consumers — would say, eh, we really don’t want to be in the business of how consumers interact with the Internet, which is video. And they had the best partner to do it — the company that owned a lot of the most popular video in the world. Something is not adding up.
JS: You’re saying OpenAI doesn’t have a clear, well-chosen lane and strategy.
SZ [laughs]: I guess it’s not that surprising given how all over the place they’ve been. I’m just surprised they’re ditching this lane.
JS: We’ll see. There’s a lot more time for this to go all over the road.
Disney+ has begun production on “The Koreans,” a reimagining of the acclaimed FX series “The Americans,” with Lee Byung-hun and Han Jimin set to star as North Korean spies living undercover in South Korea.
Set against the wave of democratization and cultural modernization that swept through South Korea in the early 1990s, the series centers on a middle-class family concealing a treasonous secret. Though appearing to be ordinary citizens to their friends, neighbors and even their own children, both parents are in fact elite North Korean operatives working to destabilize the South from within. The series will track the pair as they are pulled between allegiance to their homeland, their sense of self and their bonds as a family, while a relentless Korean counterintelligence agent edges closer to exposing them.
Lee Byung-hun, known for “Squid Game” and “No Other Choice,” and Han Jimin, of “Heavenly Ever After” and “Love Scout,” lead the cast. Ahn Gilho, whose credits include “The Glory” and “Memories of the Alhambra,” directs. The series is produced by Imaginus, behind “Tempest,” “Typhoon Family” and “Can This Love be Translated?,” alongside Studio AA, a co-producer on “Tempest.”
The screenplay is adapted by Park Eunkyo, known for “Made in Korea” and “Mother,” from the original FX series created by Joe Weisberg and showrun by Weisberg and Joel Fields, which starred Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys. The original series took home the Golden Globe for best drama in 2019 and earned AFI TV Program of the Year honors in each of its first five seasons, from 2014 to 2018.
“The Koreans” will release exclusively on Disney+ internationally and on Hulu in the U.S..
The announcement positions the series as the latest addition to Disney+’s expanding Korean content slate, which currently includes “Made in Korea,” “Tempest” and “The Tyrant.” The streamer also has several further Korean originals in the pipeline, among them “Perfect Crown” starring IU and Byeon Wooseok, “Portraits of Delusion” (working title) with Suzy and Kim Seonho, and “The Remarried Empress” starring Shin Mina, Ju Jihoon, Lee Jongsuk and Lee Seyoung, as well as second seasons of “A Shop for Killers” and “Made in Korea.”
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