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  • Disney’s Next Big Product Line Sees Its Star Characters Collide With NFL Teams

    Disney’s Next Big Product Line Sees Its Star Characters Collide With NFL Teams

    The Walt Disney Co. is protective of its iconic characters and intellectual property. The National Football League is too. The league wants its teams showcased in the best light, and Disney wants its characters to shine.

    On Thursday afternoon, in New York’s Jacob Javits Center, the world of Disney collided with the world of the NFL, all in service of an unusual new consumer product line, one that mixes some of Disney’s characters with all 32 NFL teams.

    That’s how Darth Vader, flanked by a pair of Storm Troopers, found himself on stage at Fanatics Fest alongside NFL legend and Las Vegas Raiders owner Tom Brady, Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, with Marvel chairman Kevin Feige looking on from the audience.

    Vader was the first pick in the “Disney Fan Draft,” held on the floor of the convention, which served as a launchpad for the “Disney | Champion NFL Collection,” which pairs Disney characters with an NFL team.

    Darth Vader, Fernando Mendoza, Tom Brady and Roger Goodell at the Disney Fan Draft at Fanatics Fest.

    Alex Weprin

    The apparel line launched at the Fest with eight teams (and characters), with all 32 launching in August.

    In addition to Vader and the Raiders, the collection includes the Buffalo Bills and Beast from Beauty and the Beast; the Dallas Cowboys and Toy Story’s Woody; the New England Patriots and Marvel’s Captain America; the New York Giants and Wreck-It Ralph; the New York Jets and Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear; the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Captain Hook; and the Washington Commanders and Toy Story’s Hamm.

    “The Disney | Champion NFL Collection reflects our continued commitment to creating consumer products and experiences that sit at the intersection of culture, fandom, and storytelling,” Paul Gitter, executive VP global brand commercialization for Disney Consumer Products, tells The Hollywood Reporter. “As we build toward ESPN’s ‘Year of the Super Bowl,’ we’re expanding how fans engage with Disney across sports through moments that drive relevance, connection and long-term brand affinity.”

    According to Bret Healey, director of graphic design at Disney Consumer Products, the Disney products team really did draft the characters for each team. While what happened on stage at Fanatics Fest was in service of the show, the Disney team put a lot of thought into each pairing.

    “We did the draft based on the team first: What’s the team’s personality? What are their colors? What’s their team name? What are their fans like? What’s their city like? What are their ‘like ‘if you know you know’ moments? So I took that all into consideration with my team, and we essentially drafted all 32 of the teams together,” Healey says.

    And while many of the characters are Disney “all-stars,” so to speak, he says that they were deliberate in their choices.

    “Whichever character worked best for that team, that’s the story we were going to tell, even if they are a tertiary character,” he says.

    Consumer products are one of the core parts of Disney’s corporate flywheel. The business generated revenue of $974 million in the company’s latest quarterly report, with operating income of $479 million, enormous margins that reflect Disney’s heavy focus on licensing through partners like Champion.

    With its latest effort, the company is banking that it can bring some NFL fans along for the ride too.

  • Netflix Unveils ‘Queenstown,’ Its First New Zealand Series

    Netflix Unveils ‘Queenstown,’ Its First New Zealand Series

    After more than 10 years of streaming content to the country, Netflix has kicked off production on its first original series ever commissioned in New Zealand. On Friday, the company unveiled Queenstown, an eight-episode drama set amid the luxury ski scene of the titular South Island resort town.

    Unfolding amid the moneyed gloss of the town’s ski-resort elite, the series follows a privileged family and the people who work for them as their lives collide over power, loyalty and desire — or, as Netflix put it, “a wealthy family at war with itself.” Production is underway on location in Queenstown itself.

    Queenstown was created and written by Chloe Stearns (Wolf Like Me, The Falling Girls, Evergreen), who executive produces. Glendyn Ivin (The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Penguin Bloom) serves as lead director and executive producer, with New Zealand filmmaker Roseanne Liang (Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender) also directing.

    Emmy nominee Rufus Sewell (The Diplomat, Scoop, The Father) leads the ensemble alongside Frances O’Connor (Wednesday, The Missing), Australian actress Alycia Debnam-Carey (Apple Cider Vinegar, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Godzilla x Kong: Supernova) and New Zealand actor Te Kohe Tuhaka (Chief of War, The Convert, Kōkā).

    “Shooting our first locally-commissioned series here in New Zealand is a huge moment for us,” said Amanda Duthie, Netflix’s content director for Australia and New Zealand. “This is a bold, propulsive story of power, class and family set against the opulent world of a luxury ski town, and we can’t wait for our members to fall in love with this series the way we have.”

    Jodi Matterson (The Dry, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart) — who launched her Silent Firework banner in 2024 after exiting Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories — executive produces alongside Libbie Doherty (Bluey, Crazy Fun Park) of Runaway Unicorn, with Jeremy Platt and Erika North rounding out the exec producer team.

    Matterson and Doherty, in a joint statement, hailed Stearns as “an extraordinary new voice” — and predicted the series will become “audiences’ next obsession.”

    The commission marks a notable step for Netflix’s originals strategy Down Under, which has so far centered on Australia with hits including Heartbreak High, Boy Swallows Universe and Apple Cider Vinegar. New Zealand, by contrast, has long served the streamer primarily as a spectacular production location — Sweet Tooth and Jane Campion’s Oscar-winning The Power of the Dog both shot there — without ever hosting a homegrown series of its own. The Queenstown production is backed by the New Zealand Film Commission and the country’s Screen Production Rebate. A premiere date has yet to be announced.

  • Paramount+ Subscribers Fail to Block Warner Bros. Merger as States Will Try Again Friday

    Paramount+ Subscribers Fail to Block Warner Bros. Merger as States Will Try Again Friday

    A handful of Paramount+ subscribers failed to win an order blocking the merger with Warner Bros. Discovery on Thursday, but a coalition of states will give it another try on Friday.

    The plaintiffs sued in April, alleging that they had faced price hikes and risked losing viewing options as a result of the transaction. At a hearing on Thursday, Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin denied their bid for a preliminary injunction.

    “It’s extraordinary preliminary relief, and plaintiffs failed to submit a single item of evidence in support of the motion,” the judge said. “Moreover, I have some serious doubts about plaintiffs’ standing to pursue these antitrust claims.”

    Paramount will face a harder test on Friday, as a coalition of 12 attorneys general are seeking a temporary restraining order to pause the merger. The states filed their suit on Monday, alleging that the $111 billion merger will harm competition in the theatrical and basic cable markets.

    Earlier on Thursday, Paramount filed its opposition, arguing that the states are unlikely to prevail on their case and should not be granted a restraining order.

    Jeffrey Kessler, Paramount’s lead lawyer, was in the courtroom in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday afternoon to oppose the subscribers’ lawsuit. He argued that the subscribers’ attorney, Joseph Alioto, has recently filed five similar actions seeking to block major mergers — four involving some of the same individual plaintiffs — and has lost every one.

    “It’s very clear in this circuit and elsewhere that to get a preliminary injunction, you have to make a clear showing with evidence,” Kessler argued. “And when there is no evidence, then you cannot get a preliminary injunction.”

    Paramount has filed a motion to dismiss the suit, which Martinez-Olguin took under submission. She asked Alioto how he would amend the suit if given the option. Alioto said he would seek to obtain the discovery that has been turned over to California and the other states attorneys general.

    “We’re a private group,” he said. “We’re not a government. We don’t have the tools of a government.”

    Alioto previously filed lawsuits on behalf of private parties who were trying to block the Microsoft-Activision merger, the Capitol One-Discover merger, the Nippon Steel-U.S. Steel merger, the Kroger-Albertsons merger, the United Airlines-Continental merger and the T-Mobile-Sprint merger.

    Responding to Kessler’s argument about the prior lawsuits, Alioto said, “That’s true — that these plaintiffs have filed other cases, and we’re proud that they did.”

    “They were sent to me by Senator Harry Reid because the Department of Justice would not challenge these mergers,” he said.

    The state attorneys general and Paramount previously agreed to link the private party suit to the states’ case, which means that Martinez-Olguin will handle the state matter as well.

    The Writers Guild of America also filed a federal antitrust suit against the merger on Tuesday, while the Freedom of the Press Foundation and the Public Integrity Project lodged a shareholder derivative suit seeking to block the merger in Delaware Chancery Court.

  • Leaks Reveal Suno Fed Thousands of Hours of Deezer, YouTube and Pond5 Data Into Its AI

    Leaks Reveal Suno Fed Thousands of Hours of Deezer, YouTube and Pond5 Data Into Its AI

    In brief

    • A hacker using the Shai-Hulud worm breached Suno in 2025 and leaked source code showing the platform scraped over 113,000 hours from YouTube Music, 62,000 from stock library Pond5, and 12,000 from Deezer, among other sources.
    • The same intrusion reached customer emails, phone numbers, and Stripe payment data for what the hacker describes as hundreds of thousands of users.
    • Suno’s own California compliance disclosure had already acknowledged that its training data may include music “subject to intellectual property protection”

    A hacker broke into AI music platform Suno and walked out with source code that documents, in precise detail, exactly where the company’s training data came from.

    The breach was first reported by 404 Media, which reviewed the leaked files. It confirms what the music industry had been saying in courts since 2024.

    The intruder claims to have used a piece of malware called the Shai-Hulud worm—named after the enormous sandworms in Frank Herbert’s Dune. Suno, one of the largest AI music generators online, lets users type a text description and receive a full song in seconds; building that capability required a substantial training dataset—a collection of audio files used to teach the model what different genres and styles sound like.

    The leaked material consists of scraping instructions and internal logs from 2023 and 2024, offering a rare look at how those pipelines are actually assembled.

    The dataset breakdown is specific. According to internal file comments reviewed by 404 Media, the training library included 113,879 hours of YouTube Music, 152,162 hours of tagged YouTube tracks, 62,117 hours from stock music library Pond5, 12,287 hours from Deezer, and 17,615 hours in a dataset labeled genius_hq, associated with material collected through Genius. The code also documented plans to download roughly 1 million hours of podcast audio via RSS feeds.

    One internal file tracking YouTube Music ingestion alone logged 2,013,545 music clips. That’s millions of recordings covering decades of audio—and the appetite wasn’t limited to music.

    The hacker claimed to have accessed records associated with hundreds of thousands of customers, including emails, phone numbers, and Stripe-related information. Suno disputes that sensitive personal information was compromised.

    The company says it identified the incident in November 2025 and called it “limited.” Suno determined the exposure primarily involved outdated source code no longer in use and concluded that individual customer notifications weren’t required under applicable privacy laws. Users are only finding that out now, through news coverage.

    Here’s the thing: Suno had already told anyone willing to read its own website that something like this was happening. Under California’s AB 2013 law—which requires AI companies to disclose their training practices—the company publicly acknowledged that its training data may include music “subject to intellectual property protection,” and listed the corpus at tens of millions of publicly available music audio files. What the hack adds is specificity: The legal filing was vague by design, and the leaked code is not.

    The scope of AI music training was already becoming clear before anyone breached anything. In June 2026, The Atlantic published four searchable databases documenting music used to train AI models—one containing 12 million tracks, another with 9 million, and two more with around 100,000 each. You could look up your favorite artist before a hacker handed anyone source code.

    The Recording Industry Association of America had alleged in a 2025 amendment to its original 2024 lawsuit against Suno that the company was ripping songs directly from YouTube—an accusation Suno contested under a fair use defense. The suit sought $150,000 per infringement incident. The hacked source code corroborates the RIAA’s central allegation.

    Udio, which was targeted in a parallel lawsuit filed by the same major-label coalition, settled with Warner Music in November 2025 and is now transitioning to a licensed platform. Suno’s case with Sony and UMG remains active in federal court; the company’s valuation sits at $5.4 billion with around 100 million users on the platform.

    Suno did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Decrypt.

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  • Balaji seeks Malaysia deal, threatens exit after Network School probe

    Balaji seeks Malaysia deal, threatens exit after Network School probe

    Network School founder Balaji Srinivasan is seeking a memorandum of understanding with Malaysia after authorities probed his Forest City tech community over allegations it was hosting Israeli citizens using second passports.

    Malaysia’s Home Affairs Ministry said Tuesday it was investigating Srinivasan’s start-up community in Johor following claims it included Israelis in violation of immigration laws. Initial checks found all 266 foreigners held valid documents.

    Srinivasan said the agreement would give Network School legal certainty to continue investing in Malaysia. Without it, he said, the community could take its capital to countries that are more welcoming.

    “I’d like to have a document which says not just abstractly that tech is welcome … but rather that we’re personally welcome,” Srinivasan said in a video directed at Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Thursday.

    The episode highlights a tension faced by many crypto utopias, which aspire to build digital-native communities with their own institutions and economies, but still depend on conventional states for legal certainty.

    Balaji, the former chief technology officer of Coinbase, launched his Network School in August 2024 in Johor’s Forest City, which is located about an hour from Singapore. It is marketed as a physical community of tech builders, creators and founders.

    Srinivasan did not give the specifics of what a deal with Malaysia could include, but suggested it could be a memorandum of understanding or a modification of a special economic zone provision.

    “If not, then we will readily go somewhere else because I don’t want to be where we’re not welcome,” he said.

    Srinivasan also announced that he is putting any further investment in Malaysia, including a $122 million plan to expand its community, on hold until it gets “sufficient assurance” that such issues don’t recur.

    Instagram post led to immigration probe

    Claims that the Network School was harboring Israeli citizens have been traced back to a social media post on Friday from activist group “Malaysian Protest 4 Palestine,” which accused the school of becoming a “gathering place for Israeli entrepreneurs.”

    Israeli passport holders are forbidden from entering Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country, without written permission from the Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs, as Malaysia does not recognize Israel and does not have any diplomatic relations with the country.

  • Berlinale Title ‘Members of the Problematic Family’ to Open Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (EXCLUSIVE)

    Berlinale Title ‘Members of the Problematic Family’ to Open Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (EXCLUSIVE)

    Tamil-language drama “Members of the Problematic Family” will have its Australian premiere as the opening night film of the 2026 Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM), following the film’s world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year.

    IFFM, billed as the largest Indian cinema showcase in the Southern Hemisphere, will run Aug. 13-23, with the opening night screening set for Aug. 14 in Melbourne. Director R. Gowtham and lead actor Karuththadayan will travel to Melbourne for the opening night celebrations and the film’s Australian premiere.

    “Members of the Problematic Family” is also nominated in the festival’s IFFM Awards jury competition, in the best indie film and best director categories.

    The film centers on Prabha, a troubled young man whose sudden and unexplained death triggers a ripple effect across his extended family and community. When his mother, uncle and cousins gather for a 16-day mourning ritual, long-buried tensions and complicated family bonds rise to the surface. The ensemble drama traces the unpredictable shape of grief and family dynamics, aiming for an emotionally candid portrait of loss and the ties that hold communities together.

    “’Members of the Problematic Family’ is a deeply personal story that examines grief, family and the complexities that exist within every community,” Gowtham said. “It is an honor for the film to open the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne following its premiere at Berlinale. IFFM has become one of the most important platforms for Indian cinema internationally, and I am excited to share our film with Australian audiences alongside our wonderful cast.”

    “IFFM has always celebrated the extraordinary diversity of Indian cinema by bringing together stories from every corner of the country and every language,” festival director Mitu Bhowmick Lange added. “’Members of the Problematic Family’ is an exceptional debut that is both deeply rooted in Tamil culture and profoundly universal in its exploration of grief, relationships and the human condition.”

    The 2026 edition of IFFM will present its usual slate of films, conversations and cultural programming spanning Indian cinema’s various languages and regional traditions.

  • Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP Prices Fall After Trump’s Speech Today

    Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP Prices Fall After Trump’s Speech Today

    President Trump delivered a primetime address to the nation on July 16, 2026, mixing an economic progress report with a lengthy, controversial announcement about declassified intelligence tied to elections.

    Trump opened by touting economic gains under his administration. “Our country is safer, stronger, and far wealthier than it has ever been before,” he said, contrasting it with what he called “the worst inflation in 48 years” at the start of his term.

    He cited a recent inflation reading: “This week it was announced that inflation saw the largest monthly decline in more than 6 years.” He also pointed to stock market highs, tax provisions in his “Big Beautiful Bill” eliminating taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security, and a drug pricing initiative he calls “Most Favored Nations.” “Drug prices are coming down by 70, 80, and 90%,” he said.

    Declassifying Election Intelligence

    The core of the speech centered on a set of documents Trump said his administration would begin releasing that night. “I’m announcing the immediate declassification and release of critical intelligence revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure,” he said.

    Trump claimed the documents show China “carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history,” alleging the country acquired 220 million U.S. voter files. He also alleged that intelligence officials suppressed this information from him and Congress, saying one internal email described efforts to “deliberately massage daily briefings to withhold Chinese briefings regarding the election.”

    This claim arrives after federal investigators previously concluded foreign interference had no practical impact on the 2020 election’s outcome, and numerous state audits found no evidence supporting the broader fraud claims Trump has made since his 2020 loss.

    Trump also referenced a Department of Homeland Security review he said identified “approximately 278,000 noncitizens who are registered to vote in federal elections,” and alleged a fraudulent voter registration operation in Michigan tied to a 2020 FBI investigation.

    Targeting the Media

    Trump criticized NBC and ABC for declining to air the speech. “In a rare move, NBC and ABC fake news have both said that they would not cover this speech,” he said, adding, “Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses.”

    The Push for the Save America Act

    Trump closed by calling on Congress to pass the Save America Act, which would require photo voter ID and proof of citizenship for voter registration, and would largely eliminate mail-in ballots except for cases involving illness, disability, military deployment, or travel.

    “This landmark bill requires all voters must show a photo voter ID,” he said, urging Americans to “pick up your phone tomorrow, call your representatives in the House and Senate, and demand they pass the Save America Act without delay.”

    Crypto Markets Slip During the Speech

    The crypto market pulled back, with total market capitalization falling 1.41% to $2.19 trillion. Bitcoin held relatively steady near $63,450, down 1.95% on the day, while altcoins took a harder hit. Ethereum slipped toward $1,848, XRP fell to $1.08, and Solana dropped to $75, each down roughly 2% to 3%. The Fear and Greed Index sat at 33, still in “Fear” territory, with the Altcoin Season Index at 52 out of 100.

  • Ethereum eyes $2K after Arthur Hayes’ 1293 ETH buy – Will bulls deliver?

    Ethereum eyes $2K after Arthur Hayes’ 1293 ETH buy – Will bulls deliver?

    Arthur Hayes reinforced the Ethereum accumulation narrative after Lookonchain reported that he purchased 1,293 $ETH worth approximately $2.48 million.

    Source: Lookonchain

    The transaction followed another notable move, where a separate whale transferred 21.3K $ETH valued at about $40.95 million from Fidelity Custody into a newly created on-chain wallet.

    Source: Onchain Lens

    Rather than signaling exchange withdrawals, the transfer reflected capital moving from traditional institutional custody onto decentralized rails.

    This shift suggested the holder intended to deploy the assets on-chain or maintain direct custody.

    Together, both transactions highlighted growing confidence among large investors despite Ethereum trading below the psychological $2,000 barrier.

    Exchange flows stayed mixed despite outflow trend

    Ethereum’s spot Netflow data painted a mixed short-term picture while preserving a broader accumulation backdrop.

    The latest daily reading showed a net inflow of approximately $5.51 million on 16 July, indicating more $ETH entered exchanges during that session.

    Even so, the wider chart revealed that exchange outflows had dominated across most trading sessions over recent months, with repeated negative netflow spikes outweighing isolated inflow periods.

    Those persistent outflows suggested investors had continued removing $ETH from trading venues instead of preparing immediate sales.

    Recent inflows therefore appeared limited within the broader trend rather than marking a structural shift in market behavior.

    If exchange balances continue declining over time, available liquid supply would likely remain constrained, supporting Ethereum’s longer-term supply dynamics.

    Source: CoinGlass

    Whale-sized trades kept dominating spot activity

    Spot Average Order Size remained inside the “Big Whale Orders” zone, confirming that large transactions continued dominating Ethereum’s spot market activity.

    The indicator suggested institutional participants and high-net-worth investors accounted for a significant share of executed trades rather than retail-sized orders.

    This reading aligned closely with the latest purchases from Arthur Hayes and the sizeable transfer from Fidelity Custody to a fresh wallet.

    Instead of representing isolated transactions, the activity reflected a broader pattern of whale participation across the market.

    Growing involvement from large buyers often improves market depth and reinforces confidence during recovery phases.

    Even so, sustained accumulation would still require consistent follow-through before translating into a decisive breakout above key resistance levels.

    Source: CryptoQuant

    Can Ethereum finally reclaim $2,000?

    At the time of analysis, Ethereum [$ETH] traded near $1,920 after recovering strongly from its early-June low around the $1,564 support level.

    Buyers steadily pushed price toward the major $2,000 resistance, although that barrier continued capping advances during the latest session.

    The Relative Strength Index climbed to 66.54, while its moving average stood near 58.08. Those readings showed strengthening buying interest without entering overbought territory above 70.

    Price also formed higher lows throughout July, reflecting improving market structure after the sharp correction.

    Even so, the latest candle closed slightly lower, indicating buyers encountered resistance as $ETH approached $2,000.

    If bulls reclaimed that level, price could challenge the next resistance near $2,400. Otherwise, another rejection could draw $ETH back toward the $1,800 support before another recovery attempt.

    Source: TradingView

    To sum up, Ethereum’s latest whale activity strengthened the broader accumulation narrative instead of weakening it.

    Institutional capital continued shifting onto decentralized rails, while large spot orders remained dominant across the market.

    Although the $2,000 resistance still requires confirmation, the improving technical structure suggested buyers could attempt another breakout if accumulation persists and demand continues supporting price.

    Final Summary

    • Whale accumulation and institutional wallet activity continued supporting Ethereum’s improving market structure.
    • $ETH approached $2,000 as buying strength increased, though resistance remained firmly intact.
  • Qatar rejects Israeli reports of military action against Iran

    Qatar rejects Israeli reports of military action against Iran

    NewsFeed

    Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi says that Qatar has rejected Israeli media reports claiming the Qataris agreed to participate in military action against Iran. Doha says the false allegations seek to undermine its role as a regional mediator.

    Published On 16 Jul 2026

  • ‘Paper Tiger’ With Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson to Open New York Film Festival

    ‘Paper Tiger’ With Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson to Open New York Film Festival

    James Gray’s crime drama “Paper Tiger,” starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller, will make its North American premiere as the opening night film of the 64th New York Film Festival on Sept. 25.

    This is Gray’s fourth film to screen at the prestigious festival, following “The Immigrant” (2013) and “Armageddon Time” (2022), both official main selections, and “The Lost City of Z” (2016), which was the closing night film.

    “Paper Tiger,” Gray’s first film since 2022’s “Armageddon Time,” joins a long lineage of opening night selections such as RaMell Ross’ “Nickel Boys” (2024), Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” (2019) and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite” (2018) over the last decade.

    Thirteen of the 64 films chosen to open the New York Film Festival between 1963 and 2025 have gone on to earn Academy Award nominations for best picture. Only one opener has claimed the top prize: Hugh Hudson’s “Chariots of Fire” (1981). The dozen other best picture nominees span six decades: “The Big Chill” (1983), “Pulp Fiction” (1994), “Secrets and Lies” (1996), “Mystic River” (2003), “Good Night, and Good Luck” (2005), “The Queen” (2006), “The Social Network” (2010), “Life of Pi” (2012), “Captain Phillips” (2013), “The Favourite” (2018), “The Irishman” (2019) and most recently, “Nickel Boys” (2024).

    Neon premiered “Paper Tiger” at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it received a seven-minute standing ovation. In his Variety review, chief film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote that the movie “has the dread-fueled engine of a neo-New Hollywood vérité thriller.”

    Set in 1986, the film follows two brothers, Irwin (Teller) and Gary Pearl (Driver). Irwin becomes entangled with the Russian mob after embarking on a get-rich-quick scheme to clean up the Gowanus Canal, and his former cop brother, Gary, is the only one who can get him out of trouble.

    “James Gray has been a fixture at the New York Film Festival for many years, and we are thrilled to welcome him back as our Opening Night filmmaker with a career-best achievement,” said NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim in a statement.

    Gray added, “I’m immensely grateful to be welcomed back to this remarkable festival. This deeply personal film is rooted in New York City; from my upbringing to life-changing family experiences. To be here, at the heart of art and cinema, with our cast and crew — many of whom are New Yorkers — is a privilege.”

    Gray and members of the cast and crew will be in attendance.

    The NYFF Main Slate selection committee is chaired by Lim, along with Florence Almozini, Justin Chang and Rachel Rosen. NYFF64 single tickets will go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, Sept. 15 at noon ET, with presale access for FLC members and pass holders before then.

    More NYFF selections will be announced in the coming weeks.