Tag: Entertainment-Variety

Tomorrow Studios is developing a live-action adaptation of the cult anime “Samurai Champloo,” with original series creator Shinichirō Watanabe attached to the project, the studio’s executive producers told Variety exclusively.

The adaptation would mark the next major swing from producers Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements, who built Tomorrow Studios into a premier destination for anime-to-live-action adaptations on the back of their Netflix hit “One Piece.” The news comes as “One Piece” Season 2 premieres Tuesday on Netflix, with the first two episodes set for a special theatrical run in approximately 200 movie theaters across the U.S., Canada and Japan beginning March 10.

“We had dinner with [Watanabe] in Japan and said, if we move forward on doing ‘Samurai Champloo,’ we really want you to be a part of the creative,” Clements told Variety. “We were thrilled that he was willing to do that.”

The project is in early development, and Tomorrow Studios has not yet taken it out to networks, though Clements said the studio has received “a lot of incoming calls” about the property. The adaptation will retain the core elements fans love while updating the material for a contemporary television audience. Clements said music will be central to the process — the original anime’s hip-hop-inflected score was a defining characteristic — and that the studio plans to bring in a major recording artist early to help establish the show’s sound.

The production company previously adapted Watanabe’s other signature work, “Cowboy Bebop,” for Netflix in 2021, though that series was canceled after one season. Clements acknowledged Watanabe was less involved creatively on that project.

“We’ve learned,” said Adelstein. “Having the creator there to bless the creative is really important.”

That lesson has been central to the success of “One Piece,” where manga creator Eiichiro Oda functions as an active producer across every stage of production — from scripts and casting to editorial and VFX reviews. When Season 1 debuted in 2023, Oda wrote a letter to fans expressing his emotional response to seeing his work realized on screen, which Clements credits with helping win over skeptical devotees of the source material.

“When he says, ‘I was in it and it’s real,’ it does help,” Clements said.

That goodwill paid off. Season 1 spent eight weeks on Netflix’s Global Top 10, reached No. 1 in more than 75 countries and made history as the first English-language Netflix series to debut at No. 1 in Japan. It has surpassed 100 million views and ranks among Netflix’s most downloaded series of all time. A second season seemed to be a foregone conclusion.

Season 2 picks up immediately where the first left off, with Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates entering the treacherous Grand Line. Clements described the scale as “unrelenting” from the opening scene, with roughly 1,500 crew members across production design, stunts, visual effects, practical effects, hair, makeup and costume all working to bring Oda’s world to screen.

The new season adds a substantial roster of new cast members, including Katey Sagal as Dr. Kureha, Joe Manganiello as the villainous Mr. 0, Charithra Chandran as Miss Wednesday, David Dastmalchian as Mr. 3, Sophia Anne Caruso as Miss Goldenweek and Camrus Johnson as Mr. 5, among others. Locations this season include Loguetown, Reverse Mountain, Whisky Peak, Little Garden and Drum Island.

Perhaps the most anticipated addition is Tony Tony Chopper, the fan-favorite reindeer doctor, brought to life through a combination of prosthetics, VFX and performance capture from actress Mikaela Hoover, whose facial expressions were recorded and mapped onto the digital character.

“Chopper is so popular, we took extreme care in every part of it,” Clements said, noting that Oda had emphasized the Japanese concept of kawaii — a specific kind of joyful, endearing quality — as the emotional target the character needed to hit. “Our VFX team’s desire is to make chopper move you — you just need to watch the season.”

Season 3 is currently in production. Clements confirmed she was reviewing dailies the morning of the interview and offered little else, other than to say the show continues to surprise even its own producers.

“Even you’re surprised every day with what you’re going to see,” she said. “It’s always a new idea.”

Beyond “One Piece,” Tomorrow Studios is in the midst of a broader expansion. The studio closed 2024 with a straight-to-series order for “So Far Gone” at Netflix, and announced “Reversal of Fortune” with writer Jack Thorne and “Funny You Should Ask” starring Regé-Jean Page, both for Apple TV+, along with a TV adaptation of Ace Atkins’ New York Times bestseller “Don’t Let the Devil Ride,” with “Luke Cage” showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker writing. Adelstein and Clements said the studio expects to be in production on those projects in the second half of 2026.

The studio also scored a ratings win for ABC’s “Shifting Gears.” Previous credits include “The Better Sister” for Prime Video, “Snowpiercer” for TNT/AMC+ and “Physical” for Apple TV+. Tomorrow Studios is a partnership between Adelstein and ITV Studios, with Adelstein serving as founder and CEO and Clements as partner and president.

“One Piece” Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.

There are clichés that critics go back to, and when I realize I’m guilty of overusing one (sometimes once can be too often), I’ll vow never to use it again. Here’s one I did that with: lauding something as “the movie we need right now.” That’s a phrase so cringe I’m ashamed I ever used it. The reason I bring this up is that “Project Hail Mary” is a cosmic adventure that feels diagrammed, if not programmed, to be The Movie We Need Right Now.

It’s a lavishly scaled feel-good environmental outer-space thriller, starring Ryan Gosling as a science geek who is sent many lightyears away to save Earth. So it’s a movie that recalls such lone-astronaut-in-the-void hits as “Gravity” and “The Martian.” (It’s adapted from a novel by Andy Weir, who wrote the book “The Martian” is based on.) The film was directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who started off as animators (“The Lego Movie”) and have the skills to turn the mysteries of space into a catchy techno fantasy. Gosling, who has already anchored one space-travel movie (Damien Chazelle’s unfairly maligned 2018 Neil Armstrong drama “First Man”), makes the hero, Ryland Grace, a charismatic space bro, sheepish and funny and relatable. And the movie, which turns on Ryland’s relationship with an alien who joins him onboard, is like “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” remade as an intergalactic buddy movie. “Project Hail Mary” wants to be the kind of great escape we need right now, and I have no doubt that many will hail it as one.

So forgive me if I say that it’s not a very good movie. There’s certainly an abstract commercial grandeur to it. I saw it on an IMAX screen (it will open on many of those), where it becomes the kind of bedazzling warm bath your eyeballs can sink right into. But here’s the rub. “Project Hail Mary” is way too long (two hours and 36 minutes), because there’s not much variation to it. It’s baggy and incredibly derivative of movies you’ve seen before — like “Interstellar,” from which it lifts the premise of a space voyage as the last chance for human survival (in this case, the sun and other stars are dying, which means that we’ve got to travel to the lone star that isn’t in order to figure out why).

More crucially, everything to do with the onboard alien is far too cute and formulaic. We don’t think so at first, because his spacecraft is a daunting dazzler (it looks like a giant oil rig made of pick-up sticks), and the creature doesn’t have one of those beguiling faces. In fact, it has no face at all. It’s made of rock (it looks like the Thing recast as a five-legged spider), with a flat slate where its features should be. How will Ryland and the alien, who he nicknames Rocky, communicate? By mimicking each other’s body poses. Then by hooking the alien up to a computer, which translates his thoughts into one-liners that, within half an hour, are adorable enough to be sitcom-worthy. I should add that there are hugs. Too many of them. “Project Hail Mary” never stops figuring out ways to make you fall in love with it.

The film opens with Ryland waking up in the spaceship, after decades of lying in an induced coma; he’s got greasy long hair and a beard, and doesn’t remember who he is or how he got there. But it will all come back to him. His two colleagues, including the ship’s captain, have both died in hypersleep. The film then flashes back to Earth, where we’re given the elaborate “Interstellar” setup (in this case, it’s global cooling), and we get to know Ryland as the antic misunderstood genius he is.

He’s a middle-school science teacher in nubby sweaters, because his research as a molecular biologist was rejected by the establishment as too radical. But it turns out that he was right about everything. When the sun begins to lose heat, he’s recruited by the powers that be in Washington, represented by Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller), an official of stoic Euro command who’s the head of the Hail Mary project to save Earth. A mysterious line has been found linking Venus and the sun. It’s dubbed the Petrova line, and Ryland discovers that it’s made up of single-cell organisms, called Astrophage, that can be used as rocket fuel. That’s how they’ll be able to travel to Tau Ceti, a thriving star about a zillion miles away. Ryland is only supposed to be a consultant. That he ends up as part of the onboard mission hinges on a twist of desperate treachery.

Gosling’s performance in the Earth sections is quite winning, because he plays Ryland as an anxious brainiac who’s in over his head. But one of the key flaws of Drew Goddard’s screenplay is that once Ryland is on the ship, that neurotic aspect of him isn’t sustained. It kind of melts away, so that he’s just Ryan Gosling, icon of witty golden-god valor. (He has no flight training but masters the ship in no time.) The film feels padded, whether it’s stopping in its tracks for Eva to do a full-blown karaoke version of Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times” or spilling over into a finale that doesn’t know where to end. The sentimental dilemma of whether Ryan, at one point, is going to go forward with the mission or turn the ship around to save Rocky is string-pulling of a very generic order. “Project Hail Mary” will likely be a hit, but the movie we need right now — or, really, anytime — is one whose drama extends beyond its ability to push our buttons.

The Málaga Film Festival’s work-in-progress showcase kicks off on Wednesday with 12 projects by filmmakers from Spain and Latin America.

Organized by Festival de Málaga in collaboration with the Albacete Film Festival’s talent lab Abycine Lanza, the Málaga Work in Progress (WIP) event presents 16 projects, including six Spanish titles and 10 works from Latin America that reflect “the diversity of identities and languages in the Ibero-American sphere.”

The Málaga WIP programs aim to support financing for fiction and documentary films at the advanced or first-cut stage by introducing them to leading industry professionals, support the completion of films in post production and encourage their promotion and dissemination by seeking incentives for post production process and international distribution.

Selected projects are screened for professionals attending the festival and in the Málaga Festival Industry Zone (MAFIZ) as well as sales agents, international distributors, festival programmers, international funds and producers.

The two sections, Málaga WIP Spain and Málaga WIP Iberoamerica, will be presented during the festival over March 11-13.

Below is the full list of this year’s Málaga WIP titles from both sections.

WIP Spain

“The Fissure” (“L’Excletxa”), by Àlex Lora Cercós

Production company: Inicia Films

Set in a small town in northern Catalonia, “The Fissure” follows Pol Khaled, a troubled teenage boy raised by his Catalan mother after his Moroccan father disappears. Following a violent incident, Pol is drawn to faith as he seeks order and belonging, but growing tensions force him to confront belief, violence, loss, and responsibility.

“Bed of Grass” (“Lecho de Pasto”), by Carmela Román

Production company: Mala Pécora Producciones Audiovisuales

In a video essay format, a voice revisits “Japón,” an unfinished short about two women fleeing for love, to reconstruct a relationship erased by depression and trauma. Jane and Cleo watch the film as the memory of a past life.

“The Convulsions” (“Las Convulsiones”), by David Gutierrez Camps

Production company: Timber Films

Rob and Zoé have fulfilled their dream of living in nature in the Pyrenees, seeking self-sufficiency with their permaculture garden. The couple faces a challenge when their daughter Louise loses consciousness, but Rob clings to his dream of building a wind turbine. The family searches for solutions and experiences a moment of connection by generating their own energy, only for another unexpected crisis to occur.

“Taranta,” by Samuel Nacar

Production company: Sarao Films

Taranta is a portrait of the world surrounding the Santana factory in Linares, following its inhabitants as the city undergoes an unusual process of reindustrialization. The film accompanies four young people — two from Linares and two Chinese engineers — just as the old Santana factory, a symbol of the city, reopens.

“Lóngquán,” by Adrià Guxens

Production company: Pausa Dramatica Films

During the Lunar New Year celebrations, Junyi, a young Catalan of Chinese descent, gets a call from his mom: his grandmother has suddenly fallen ill and wants to see him. Though he barely remembers her, Junyi sets off on a journey that will make him question his roots and his increasingly blurred sense of identity.

“El Retorno de Júpiter,” by Maggie Civantos

Production company: Bastardas Films

Carlos and Carla, a young couple on the brink, decide to spend the weekend at a spiritual retreat. There they encounter Aura and Lucio, a brazenly New Age couple, who offer them a magical, cathartic and dangerous experience.

WIP Latin America

“The Guy Across the Street” (“El Chico del Frente”), by Marilina Giménez
Producer: Martín Rodríguez Redondo (Argentina)

A lesbian filmmaker, a trans poet and a non-binary artist gather the traces of a young trans man who disappeared. In their struggle for justice, they turn fantasy into a trench and friendship into a banner, asking the urgent question: where is Tehuel?

“The Residence” (“La Residencia”), by Mariel Garcia Spooner
Producer: Marcela Bejarano (Panama)

When three friends in their mid-60s discover that one of them is about to lose everything due to a bank debt, they face the possibility of ending up in a state-run nursing home. Refusing to surrender, they decide to start their own business: a social club for seniors.

“Black Eyed Maria” (“María Ojos Negros”), by Benjamin Brunet
Producer: Alejandro Ugarte (Chile)

In southern Chile, Nicole begins a search for her origins that leads her to uncover the hidden past of María, a woman marked by intimacy, silence and unresolved wounds where love and pain coexist.

“A Brief Extinction” (“Meteorito”), by Sebastián Múnera
Producer: Valeria Mejía (Colombia)

On the ruins of an illegal hacienda, two opposing communities collide as tensions rise over land and memory, exposing the fragility of justice and survival in a territory marked by violence.

“Little Tragedies” (“Pequenas Tragédias”), by Daniel Nolasco
Producer: Cecília Brito (Brazil)

In 2011, Daniel Nolasco left his small hometown. Ten years later, he reflects on the departure of a group of queer friends from the same rural setting, revisiting stories of loss, migration and belonging through an intimate and political lens.

“Puro R.A.P.” by Angel Arturo Corro
Producer: Elvira Del Carmen Rodriguez Alonso (Panama)

Zandert, Aldahir, Seis Lunas, UFO and Big G are immersed in the world of freestyle rap battles, striving to build careers in a country where making a living from art is nearly impossible. Through rhythm and rivalry, they seek transformation and recognition.

“Bagman” (“Valijero”), by Esteban Trivisonno
Producer: Agustin del Carpio (Argentina)

Pedro (35), a recovering addict trying to rebuild his life, takes on a risky job delivering four mysterious suitcases in one week. Each delivery pushes him closer to the edge in a city that offers little mercy.

“The Inheritance of Fire” (“La Mujer, el Diablo y el Fuego”), by Aurora Caballero and David Muñoz Velasco
Producer: David Muñoz Velasco (México)

A town that seems frozen in time; three myths that embody perpetual mysticism, the search for justice, and the violence that permeates the inhabitants of a town in the Guerrero mountains.

“Cow” (“Vaca”), by Brian Jacobs
Producer: Jimena Hospina (Peru)

In an Austro-German colony lost in the Peruvian jungle, Hannah (35) plans to move to Germany to start a new life, away from her mother and her partner Eva (51), who manages the local cattle slaughterhouse. Unable to leave Eva alone, Hannah decides to find her a replacement partner before departing. She meets Betina (28), a mysterious woman who arrives in town with an unwanted pregnancy. The three women enter a love triangle where desire and illusion collide with their unresolved maternal wounds.

“Cuscu” (“Cuscú”), by Risseth Yangüez Singh
Producer: Juan Said Isaac Zepeda (Panama)

In an evocative journey through family memory and inherited silences, the director explores identity, race and belonging while confronting generational denial and the emotional weight of unspoken histories.

The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) and its affiliated audiovisual content market TIFFCOM have unveiled dates for their 2026 editions.

The 39th TIFF will run for 10 days from Oct. 26 through Nov. 4, with the accompanying TIFFCOM market operating for three days from Oct. 28-30.

Both events will return to their established Tokyo locations. TIFF’s main venues will remain in the Hibiya-Yurakucho-Marunouchi-Ginza area, while TIFFCOM will again be housed at the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center Hamamatsucho-Kan.

A call for entries is scheduled to open on April 7, with further details to be posted on TIFF’s official website.

The 2026 edition follows a strong 38th installment, which ran Oct. 27–Nov. 5, 2025. That edition drew a galaxy of stars to the opening night red carpet at the Takarazuka Theater, including Juliette Binoche, Fan Bingbing, Paul Schrader and Japanese screen legend Yoshinaga Sayuri, who received the TIFF Lifetime Achievement Award. The festival also saw the debut of the Asian Students’ Film Conference, a new showcase for emerging talent from film schools across the region, while TIFFCOM expanded its Tokyo Gap-Financing Market and rebranded its story market as Tokyo IP Market: Adaptation & Remake, reflecting growing international demand for Japanese intellectual property.

TIFF is hosted by Unijapan. TIFFCOM is organized jointly by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), and Unijapan.

Japan is the Country of Honor at this year’s Cannes Film Market. The country experienced a box office boom in 2025 with “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle – Part 1” anchoring a banner year for Japan’s theatrical market, helping push total box office receipts to a record JPY274.45 billion ($1.79 billion), up 32% from 2024’s approximately JPY206 billion ($1.34 billion).

The keenly anticipated Toho film, “Godzilla Minus Zero,” is scheduled to release in Japan on Nov. 3, the penultimate day of the festival, continuing the tradition of releasing on Godzilla Day.

Malaysia’s SkyBlue Cinematix has secured the exclusive worldwide brand integration rights for “Varanasi,” the upcoming large-scale action epic from “RRR” filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli.

The deal positions SkyBlue Cinematix, the entertainment and content integration arm of Malaysia-based SkyBlue Group, as the sole global architect of brand partnerships within the film.

“Varanasi” is one of the first Indian productions shot in the 1.43:1 Imax format. The film is touted as a high-octane, globe-trotting action-adventure that blends ancient legend with contemporary storytelling. A worldwide theatrical rollout across more than 120 countries is planned for April 7, 2027.

The film stars Mahesh Babu in the lead role, alongside Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Prithviraj Sukumaran. Academy Award-winning composer M.M. Keeravani is attached to provide the original score.

“‘Varanasi’ is mounted on an enormous scale, both creatively and technically. Every collaboration helps the film reach wider audiences meaningfully. I hope our partnership with SkyBlue Cinematix integrates global brands organically and respectfully into its rooted world,” Rajamouli said.

Rather than conventional product placement, SkyBlue Cinematix said it will deploy what it calls “Authentic Narrative Weaves” – deeply embedded brand integrations intended to align with the film’s mythology-rooted storytelling across both ancient and modern settings.

Dato’ Manikandamurthy Velayoudam, chair of SkyBlue Group, called the mandate both an honor and a responsibility. “This film is not merely a production – it is a global cinematic movement. We are proud to serve as the strategic engine powering its worldwide brand partnerships,” he said.

SkyBlue Group is an international media and infrastructure company with more than 18 years of operations spanning Malaysia, the U.A.E., India, and Nigeria. Its media holdings include over 1,400 transit media touchpoints under Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority concession and digital out-of-home networks in Malaysia. SkyBlue Cinematix is currently expanding into Turkey, South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand.

Rajamouli is best known internationally for the “Baahubali” duology and “RRR,” the latter of which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Argentina’s Pez Cine and Lechiguana Films are linking to Uruguay’s El Cielo Cine and Spain’s Imval Producciones to produce “The Friends of My Parents,” Romina Tamburello’s first solo feature which bids fair to repeat the upbeat critics¡ reaction and audience success of “Vera and the Pleasure of Others,” acquired for world sales by M-Appeal.  

Also penned by playwright, novelist and filmmaker Tamburello, “The Friends of My Parents” is being brought to market at this week’s Malaga Festival MAFF co-production forum before segueing to the Guadalajara Co-Production Meeting in April. 

An “intimate, autobiographical comedy,” Tamburello told Variety, “The Friends of My Parents” turns on Cecilia, 36, separating quietly, who is asked by her parents to help them find “reliable” swinger clubs. 

Battling multiple prejudices, she begins visiting places and discovers “a universe of diverse sexualities, nurturing relationships, and unexpected friendships” – in sharp contrast to her own emotional breakdown, the synopsis  adds.

Cecilia will be played by Camila Peralta, nominated for best actress and best new actress for “Cambio, Cambio” and best actress for “Clara se pierde en el bosque” at the Argentinean Film Critics Association Awards and nominated for best new actress for “Puan” by Argentina’s Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences – all in 2024. 

She will be joined by Alejandra Flechner, an Argentinean Academy Award supporting actress winner for her performance in “Argentina, 1985” and by Luis Ziembrowski, a star of Demián Rugna’s international breakout “When Evil Lurks.”

“My Parents’ Friends” centers on a territory rarely explored by cinema: desire in old age. Based on my parents’ real-life experience as swingers after their cancer diagnosis, the film confronts generational prejudices with humor and tenderness, challenging the place of aging bodies on screen as living, erotic, and complex entities,” said Tamburello.

According to producer Santiago King at Pez Cine, the film “stages one of cinema’s last great taboos: sexuality in old age. Through humor and emotional honesty, it portrays bodies marked by time as territories of desire, not decline,” King added. “This combination of autobiographical intimacy and contemporary perspective gives it a strong auteurist identity and clear international appeal.”

Under development from 2024 at Pez Cine, which has backed Tamburello’s work since 2017, “The Friends of My Parents” adapts the same-titled novel by Tamburello, published in 2024 by Penguin Random House Argentina. 

The project, currently undergoing a rewriting process with script doctor Yolanda Barrasa, has won development awards at Argentina’s Espacio Santafesino, Entre Ríos Film Festival (FICER), and Bariloche Audiovisual Festival (FAB). Winner of a Second Feature Film Competition at the INCAA Argentine film-TV agency, “The Friends of My Parents” was selected for the 3rd Extremadura Film Residency, which sparked the co-production with Imval.

“The Friends of My Parents” continues the liberal sex positive line of “Vera and the Pleasure of Others,” written and directed by Tamburello and Federico Actis (“The Architecture of Crime”). 

Produced by Pez Cine, it turns on Vera, 17, who rents out an empty apartment to teens looking to have sex and spying on them as she begins to explore her own sexual pleasures, on her own and then with clients. Celebrating its world premiere at the 2023 Tallinn Back Nights Film Festival, it won best direction in the Argentine Competition at the 2023 Mar del Plata Festival, the Critics’ Award at the 2024 D’A Film Festival Barcelona in Spain and the Audience Award at that year’s Vancouver Intl. Film Festival.    

A decided crowdpleaser, “Vera” is available on the streaming service of Argentine cable operator Flow where it has played in its Top 10 of most-watched films and series.     

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Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Kelsey Plum and Paige Bueckers are among the athletes suiting up for Team USA at the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2026 Qualifying Tournament, taking place March 11-17 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The U.S. women’s national team will attempt to qualify for the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, taking place this September in Berlin. First they’ll have to get through this round-robin group, facing off against Puerto Rico, Senegal, Italy, New Zealand and Spain.

Want to watch the Women’s Basketball World Cup qualifiers? This week’s games will air on TNT, TBS and truTV, with extended coverage available on HBO Max. You can watch the Women’s Basketball World Cup qualifying games on TV with any cable package that includes the Warner Bros. Discovery channels.

Don’t have cable? You can livestream the U.S. women’s basketball team (USWBT) games online through DirecTV. The live streaming service offers 100+ live TV channels that you can watch online without cable and the DirecTV “Choice” plan includes a live feed of TNT, TBS and truTV. You can watch the FIBA Women’s World Cup qualifying games live as they air on those respective channels, streaming the matches on your phone, computer, tablet or TV.

Grab a five-day free trial to DirecTV here and use it to watch the women’s basketball qualifying tournament online free without cable.

You can also livestream the USWBT World Cup qualifiers online with Hulu + Live TV. The streaming service includes full access to Hulu’s library of shows and movies plus more than 95 live television channels that you can watch online. The Hulu + Live TV channel lineup includes TBS, TNT and truTV. Hulu + Live TV currently offers a three-day free trial that you can use to stream the women’s basketball games online for free.

HBO Max subscribers will also be able to watch the basketball tournament live and on-demand. You can sign up for an HBO Max account here, with plans from $10.99/month.

You can also get this current bundle offer, which includes HBO Max, Hulu and Disney+ together for just $19.99/month. That’s a savings of 43% off versus paying for each streamer separately.

Women’s World Cup basketball is getting a prime slot on television for the first time in U.S. broadcasting history, thanks to a new rights agreement between FIBA (the Fédération Internationale de Basketball) and TNT Sports. The multiyear deal will give TNT Sports (and parent company Warner Bros. Discovery) the exclusive U.S. English language rights for all men’s and women’s tentpole tournaments, including the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2026, the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027, and FIBA EuroBasket 2029.

In addition to Indiana Fever star Clark, the roster for the U.S. FIBA Women’s World Cup qualifiers team includes 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers; WNBA all-star (and recent cast addition to “The Hunting Wives”) Angel Reese; 2024 Olympic gold medalists; Kahleah Copper, Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young; and Dearica Hamby and Rhyne Howard, who won the 3×3 bronze medal at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris. Clark, Bueckers and Reese are making their senior national team debuts.

The Americans are the reigning Women’s World Cup champions, having defeated China for the gold medal in 2022. Team USA defeated France for the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.