Category: Entertainment

It’s not just about the money when it comes to building a film and TV production hub, and Portugal knows it. That was one of the key messages of a panel of local representatives who discussed “Portugal on Screen: A High-Growth Market for Streamers & Global Content Players” during a session at the inaugural StreamTV Europe in Lisbon, which drew a crowd.

Ana Marques, executive director of the Portugal Film Commission, highlighted the appealing mix of locations, financial incentives and a focus on sustainability as key to making the country attractive for foreign productions. Among the popular fare made in Portugal, she mentioned local Netflix hit drama Turn of the Tide, which has seen three seasons, House of the Dragon, which has featured the historic village of Monsanto as a location, Star Wars series The Acolyte, which was shot on the Portuguese island of Madeira, movie Heart of Stone, and Netflix’s Damsel.

“We want to be aspirational because of our wonderful locations,” Marques said. “We also have our incentives, so we want to be attractive, and we want to be sustainable. Sustainability is really important for us.”

She highlighted how in 2024, the country launched a new and “competitive” incentives scheme for bigger productions “in response to the demand.”

Creating in concert with foreign partners is another key part of the puzzle. “We love to co-produce,” Susana Gato, executive president of APIT, the Association of Independent Television Producers, explained.

A case in point that she pointed to is Cold Haven, a co-production with Iceland. The psychological thriller series, whose Portuguese title is Refúgio do Medo, was produced by SPi in Portugal and Glassriver in Iceland.

The panel also highlighted that Portugal has more than 60 co-production agreements.

Technology is also part of Portugal’s focus in ensuring it is an appealing and successful production hub in the age of digital media and AI. Gil Azevedo, executive director of the Unicorn Factory Lisboa, an initiative launched by Lisbon’s mayor to turn the city into a leading innovation hub. “It’s been about gaining scale, and Technology is also part of Portugal’s focus in ensuring it is an appealing and successful production hub in the age of digital media and AI. Gil Azevedo, executive director of the Unicorn Factory Lisboa, an initiative launched by Lisbon’s mayor to turn the city into a leading innovation hub. “It’s been about gaining scale, and [we see] AI as a lever to move faster,” he said. “It’s about democratizing access, and we have great technology companies in Portugal.”

Marques said at times, as in many countries, Portugal could be even more agile, but her team continues to work with the government and other key partners and stakeholders to continue fine-tuning the country’s appeal for productions. “Despite the film commission only working since 2019, being really recent, we have noticed big interest in Portugal and about the Portuguese conditions to film here,” she shared. “We are now launching a new program for the next four years, so until 2029, with 350 million euros ($412 million) with two different incentives.” And she and her team are ready for more film and TV productions to make the journey to Portugal.

‘Looksmaxxing’ influencer and streamer Clavicular has been hospitalized after suffering a suspected overdose Tuesday evening, a source confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

The “looksmaxxing” influencer and online streamer, whose real name is Braden Peters, was taken to the hospital, where he’s currently in “stable condition,” THR has learned. He was still in the hospital as of Tuesday night.

Earlier in the day, Clavicular was livestreaming on Kick when it abruptly cut off, sparking concern among fans. Video was later shared on X of the streamer being carried by several people to a black car as an ambulance arrived at the scene.

THR has also reached out to the Miami Police Department and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department for more information.

Clavicular gained recognition for his self-obsession with being aesthetically pleasing and for promoting extreme “looksmaxxing” — an online trend, popular among young men, focused on maximizing physical attractiveness. The trend ranges from healthy grooming to dangerous practices, such as bone-smashing using a hammer to enhance facial features, which Clavicular has advocated.

Earlier this week, the controversial streamer made headlines when he walked out of a 60 Minutes Australia interview after correspondent Adam Hegarty asked him if he identifies as an incel and about his connection to Andrew Tate. Clavicular clearly got defensive with the line of questioning, and in response, tried to suggest the interviewer was a cuckold.

Clavicular has also found himself in some legal trouble, as he’s reportedly being investigated by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for a video appearing to show him shooting an alligator. He was also arrested last month in Florida on misdemeanor battery charges after authorities issued a warrant for his arrest. They said the influencer provoked the fight between two women and exploited them by posting it online, The New York Times reported.

Kanye West has gone ahead and postponed his show in France as leadership continued to weigh banning the rapper from entering the country.

“After much thought and consideration, it is my sole decision to postpone my show in Marseille, France until further notice,” West, who now goes by Ye, wrote on X Tuesday night. He was initially scheduled to perform on June 11 in Marseille at Stade Vélodrome as part of his 2026 comeback tour.

The Hollywood Reporter reported earlier Tuesday that France was looking to potentially ban the “Flashing Lights” artist from performing in the country. Marseille Mayor Benoît Payan and French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez argued that West has no place in the French country following his past antisemitic remarks and for releasing a song last year called “Heil Hitler.”

This came after the artist was barred from entering the United Kingdom shortly after being announced as the headliner for all three nights of Wireless Festival in July. Following his booking, several major sponsors pulled out of the music festival, and the event was later canceled.

The “Heartless” artist has been widely condemned for his antisemitic rhetoric in recent years. In addition to his “Heil Hitler” song, he also used a Super Bowl ad in 2025 to direct viewers to his Yeezy website that had swastika-emblazoned t-shirts.

West has since apologized for his antisemitic statements in an ad in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year, but hasn’t addressed the controversy any further.

The rapper also hasn’t shared any details regarding whether the France show will be postponed to a later date.

Zach Cregger is reuniting with Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group’s New Line division for his next original feature.

Cregger, who directed last year’s acclaimed Oscar-winning horror hit Weapons for the company, has written, and will direct, The Flood, an original sci-fi thriller on which the studio is moving at full speed, scheduling an Aug. 11, 2028 release date.

The project reunites him with his Weapons producers Roy Lee and Miri Yoon of Vertigo Entertainment and interestingly has him working with avowed Cregger fan Steven Spielberg. The latter’s Amblin Entertainment is also producing Flood.

The announcement, by Warners’ Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, came in the last few minutes of the studio’s presentation at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.

And while reveal and subsequent PR release was light on detail, including keeping the plot on a distant space station, it is known that the project was originally set up at Netflix. And the filmmaker’s previous projects have been modern-set horror thriller freakouts, this one is described as being very much in the science fiction mold.

“Zach is the rarest of filmmakers, fluent in every genre he touches, and we’re excited to continue our partnership” said New Line president Richard Brener in a statement.

Cregger stated, “I’m incredibly excited to continue my partnership with Mike, Pam, Richard, and the teams at Warner Bros. and New Line. They are true champions of bold creativity, united by a shared ambition to deliver unforgettable theatrical experiences for audiences. That’s the dream for any filmmaker.”

Weapons, which New Line/Warners won in a fierce bidding war, blew up last August’s box office, becoming an unexpected hit and sensation. It earned almost $270 million worldwide on a $38 million budget and introduced the character Aunt Gladys into the pop culture ecosphere.

Amy Madigan was recognized with an Academy Award for her role. A prequel is now in the works. Cregger won’t direct, but is co-writing with Zach Shields. A Sept. 8, 2028 release date has been set, making it a very Cregger-heavy 2028 for New Line.

Amongst Weapons‘ fans was Spielberg, who has been quietly working with Cregger for a while. In an interview with film magazine Empire, the filmmaking legend said Weapons was so good as a horror movie that it quelled his desire to make a movie in the genre.

“When I see a great horror film like Weapons, I don’t have an itch I need to scratch,” he said. “I see Weapons, and it doesn’t make me want to make a horror film that’s as scary or scarier than Weapons. It satisfies me so completely, it actually arrests my desire to someday make a really, really scary movie.”

Flood keeps Cregger in the New Line fold. Beyond Weapons, he was a producer on the division’s sci-fi thriller Companion, released in early 2025. His next feature, Resident Evil, based on the hit video game franchise, is coming from Sony in September and is already building buzz thanks to intense trailer previewed Monday at CinemaCon.

Dune: Part Three opens with no shortage of firepower, as the CinemaCon crowd learned Tuesday.

Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Jason Momoa and director Denis Villeneuve took the stage at the Las Vegas event to discuss the sequel. They then unveiled the first seven minutes from the highly anticipated film during Warner Bros.‘ presentation.

The footage featured Javier Bardem as Stilgar as he led his troops against a seemingly insurmountable enemy. The intense battle scenes featured an endless array of shots fired and plenty of actual fire.

After those seven minutes, additional footage included Chalamet’s Paul Atreides confronting Zendaya’s Chani in a tense moment.

“You’ve conquered the galaxy,” Momoa tells Chalamet in the new footage. “You’ve destroyed thousands of worlds.” This leads Chalamet to ask, “What are your thoughts on that?” to which Momoa replies, “I think you’re way beyond redemption.”

Later, Zendaya asks Chalamet, “How does it feel to be human like everyone else, Paul Atreides?”

In introducing the scenes, Villeneuve called the film a thriller and teased, “It’s more intense and definitely more emotional.”

Chalamet said of Paul, “He’s become his worst vision,” and the star teased his character “becoming an all-powerful emperor of the dark universe.”

Zendaya explained, “The years don’t seem to have been kind to anyone on Dune. It’s been an ungentle and unkind few years. There’s so much left to fight for.” She continued about Chani, “That youthful outlook is completely gone.”

Momoa acknowledged that his role in the film is much different from the last time viewers saw him, given that Duncan Idaho died in the first one, and Momoa is back as a clone: “I’m sent as a gift to Paul to see how he handles someone that he hasn’t seen and see how he takes that.”

Chalamet added, “It was deeply moving to be on a sci-fi trilogy on the scale of Lord of the Rings.”

For Zendaya, the footage represents the actress appearing in two days in a row of major releases teased at CinemaCon, with the Euphoria star also having shown up in Sony’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day footage.

The news comes a month after the first trailer dropped for the film, and limited seats for Imax 70mm screenings for the film quickly sold out.

Dune: Part Three stars Chalamet, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Javier Bardem, Florence Pugh, Taylor-Joy, Rebecca Ferguson and Momoa. The film takes place 17 years after Part Two and follows Emperor Paul Atreides as he struggles with the consequences of his holy war, trapped in a cycle of violence while facing conspiracies from the Bene Gesserit, Tleilaxu, and his wife, Irulan.

Warner Bros. and Legendary release Dune: Part Three on Dec. 18, which has been the source of plenty of eyebrow raising as Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday is coming on the same date (an event that’s been dubbed “Dunesday”). Exhibitors are hoping to get an exclusive look at Dune‘s box office rival when Disney has its presentation on Thursday.

Thanks to the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics, NBCUniversal — with an assist from the recently spun off Versant — dethroned YouTube for the largest share of TV viewing in February.

Nielsen released both its monthly Gauge summary of viewing by platform and its Media Distributor Gauge for the reach of TV use by company on Tuesday. The stats were held back for several weeks due to some Nielsen clients pushing back on a change in how the ratings provider assembled its Gauge data.

Briefly: Nielsen was planning to supplement its data with that from a group called the Advertising Research Foundation that would likely have shown a dip in streaming’s share of total TV use. A number of clients balked at that idea, and in late March, Nielsen decided both to hold back on releasing the monthly numbers and not make any changes to its current Gauge methodology until the 2026-27 TV season, when it will more closely align with the company’s currency ratings products that are used to set ad rates across the industry.

“The Gauge and Media Distributor Gauge (MDG) do not reflect Nielsen’s currency TV ratings,” a note with the February release reads. “Nielsen is working on updates to The Gauge and MDG reports to better reflect and include currency enhancements for the Fall TV season, at which time Nielsen will provide additional back data to clients to assist in the transition.”

To those numbers for February: NBCUniversal and Versant combined for 13.1 percent of all TV use in the February reporting period (which covered Jan. 26-Feb. 22), with the Super Bowl and Olympics accounting for a huge portion of the spike from 8.5 percent in January (Nielsen reports the two companies together because NBCU sells ads for both.) NBCU had 10 percent on its own, while Versant accounted for 3.1 percent.

The combined total ended a year-long streak for YouTube at the top of the media distributor charts, despite YouTube’s share of all viewing rising a little in February (12.7 percent, up from 12.5 percent in January).

Streaming platforms had 48 percent of all viewing in February, with a big gain for NBCU’s Peacock accounting for much of the growth. Peacock had its highest monthly share in the five-year history of the Gauge, scoring 3 percent of all TV viewing thanks to the Super Bowl and Olympics. Aside from small upticks for YouTube, Disney (5 percent) and Tubi (2.2 percent), most streamers lost a bit of share compared to January.

Broadcast viewing edged up to 21.7 percent (from 21.5 percent) in February, again likely attributable to the Super Bowl and Olympics. Outside of those, CBS’ Grammy Awards telecast was the most watched program of the month. With the NFL and college football seasons over, cable took a step back to just 20 percent of all viewing, despite an overall increase in cable news viewing and big, winter games-fueled growth for USA Network.

The Gauge and Media Distributor Gauge numbers for February are below.