Tag: HollywoodReporter

Slow Horses, Apple TV’s wry cult spy series, isn’t planning on, well, slowing down anytime soon.

The show, starring Gary Oldman as the crotchety and flatulent Jackson Lamb; Jack Lowden as River Cartwright; and Kristin Scott Thomas as MI5 director Diana Taverner, hit a bit of a snag at the end of its most recent fifth season, when lead writer and executive producer Will Smith walked away from the show for other pursuits.

While Slow Horses, which films in Britain, doesn’t operate with a traditional showrunner, Smith served as the de facto captain at the helm. His departure raised some questions about the future of the slow-burn series. However, executive producer Doug Urbanski says the production, in part because there isn’t a lone showrunner, had built up a creative foundation that meant if they couldn’t figure out the best way forward, they should all resign.

“Will leaving really meant that we just had to solve it, and I think we did, as you will see with season six about to premiere,” Urbanski says. “Some people have seen it already and have said they think it’s the best season yet. Now we’ve heard that season after season, but it is very good.”

After the first couple of seasons flew under the radar, Slow Horses has in recent years cemented itself among shows consistently vying for critical recognition. For its most recent season, the show nabbed nine Emmy noms, including lead and supporting actor nods for Oldman and Lowden, as well as best drama series.

“There’s not one award that I’ve been nominated for that I haven’t been surprised by, and the same goes for Gary,” Urbanski reveals. “Awards add another sort of pressure to the whole thing. … So we don’t really think about awards, and we don’t make the show for awards. But the recognition is nice.”

The sixth season of Slow Horses is set to premiere Sept. 16. Co-executive producer Gaby Chiappe was tapped to serve as lead writer for the season, which will be the first in the series to adapt two of author Mick Herron’s books for a single season — usually one book nets out to one six-hour run of a season.

Urbanski says in order to keep the character and story momentum of previous seasons going, combining the sixth and seventh books in Herron’s series made the most sense. “We thought the two books each were thin enough,” he explains, adding that Herron’s novels remain the creative foundation for the series. “Often some of the best dialogue and scenes you see in the show are stuff that Mick Herron has already authored.”

With nine books on the shelf and a seventh season of TV based on the eighth novel already in production, the runway for the series after that point remains a question for fans. Urbanski says, however, the creative team is committed to keeping the show going, so long as they’re able to continue balancing its delicate tone and everyone involved — Apple, Oldman, etc. — wants to keep showing up.

“We’re all having the family conversation,” Urbanski says. “But get this: Most TV shows don’t have books, so we can figure this out. … And there’s another thing: Mick Herron hasn’t stopped writing. I can’t speak for Mick, but you never know, more books might be coming.”

This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from the House of the Dragon season three finale.]

Exiting the penultimate season of House of the Dragon, several season one alums who started the series are no long with us: Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower, Harry Collett as Jacerys Targaryen, Fabien Frankel as Criston Cole, just to name a few. One original cast member, however, is very much still with us, even if it looked pretty touch-and-go for a while there: Corlys Velaryon, the Sea Snake, played with royal gravitas by Steve Toussaint.

The Sea Snake started season three in the midst of the largest naval battle ever seen in the Game of Thrones universe. He survived that, despite a brief period where it appeared he’d been killed in action. Later, after Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) refused to legitimize his bastard sons, Corlys publicly calls out the queen’s hypocrisy with her own children, and somehow manages to keep his head on his shoulders. Later still, after waging a private war against the crown’s defectors, Corlys ends up in the hands of the Hightowers in Tumbleton — and he survives that only by the good grace of Gwayne (Freddie Fox) exchanging Corlys to Daemon (Matt Smith) as a peace offering.

Alas, the peace does not hold even for a minute, as Daemon takes Corlys back as a prisoner, and embarks on a fiery campaign against Tumbleton. By the end of it, Daemon faces death’s door, but is pulled away just in the nick of time by — you guessed it — the Sea Snake himself.

If that felt like a rollercoaster to ride, imagine living it. Better yet, imagine being Toussaint, one of the most stalwart cast members of the Game of Thrones prequel, inhabiting that ride. Below, the actor speaks with The Hollywood Reporter about all of that and more.

***

I have spoken to a lot of actors this season about their character’s deaths. It’s a nice change of pace to speak with an actor who still has some HOTD job security!

So far! (Laughs.) You never know how long it’s going to last. I kept getting stuff from friends and family and social media going, “Are you still alive? Do you live? Come and tell me.” So it’s nice that I can say that yes, for now, I’m still here. Who knows what tomorrow may bring. But for now, I’m still employed. They can’t get rid of me that easy. 

Corlys begins the season fighting for Rhaenyra’s cause, and ends the season as a prisoner of that same cause. It’s quite the journey for the Sea Snake.

It is. There have been so many different facets to him that we’ve had a chance to explore this season, particularly him showing humility and vulnerability with his son, Alyn. One of the big things, of course, is that he apologizes for his earlier actions to Alyn in that scene in episode one. The other thing that’s consistent about him is, of course, taht Corlys is so steadfast in doing what he considers to be the right thing, no matter the personal cost. That’s been fascinating about him.

Then at the same time — and this is from Corlys’s point of view — when he then says to the queen, “Look, I’ve lost all of this stuff. I’ve lost my wife. I’ve lost my kids. I now have lost my home and much of my fleet. Could you at least legitimize my two sons?” She sort of goes, “Not just yet.” There is a sense of righteous indignation on his part because I think for him, the only thing he can do is to try and put his sons in a position where they can better themselves, where carrying his name will help them.

So it has been fascinating to see how he’s dealt with what he considers to be a betrayal by the realm. Of course, initially, he avoids King’s Landing and goes off on this rampage mopping up dead pirates and trying to calm his rage. It was a really lovely journey and lovely to explore these different facets of this character.

You’re at the heart of my favorite scene of the finale: the hostage negotiation between Daemon and Gwayne, with you as the bargaining chip. What was it like, inside the scene?

It was lovely. What was so good about it was you don’t quite know where Corlys is going to come down. Several times when I read the scene through, and then when we rehearsed it, I said to both Andrij Parekh who directed the scene, and then to David Hancock, one of our execs, “What is it that Corlys has said here that’s so bad?” Because when we were shooting it, Matt obviously plays the lines, but sometimes he likes to ad lib some stuff as well. He was just going wild with some of the insults he was throwing at me.

Do we want to know?

I don’t know. (Laughs.) I was like, well, I don’t know what he said that’s so bad, because it made sense to me! Corlys is at a point where he’s seen so many battles, seen the futility of war, and there is actually no need for him to shed any more blood than is necessary. So it’s unfortunate for him, of course, that he’s up against Daemon who’s like, “Oh no, everybody has to die.” It was lovely. We had a lot of fun. I don’t know how many times we actually shot that in the end, but the peaks and troughs of the scene were really lovely to play. They’re two wonderful actors to work with anyway. So yeah, it was a lot of fun.

Were you disappointed to miss out on the big battle at the end of the season, or was the sea battle in the premiere hard enough work for you?

I was happy to take a break. The premiere battle was so tough. We must have shot something like three or four weeks, maybe longer, of the battle itself, which ends up being about 10 minutes. I was quite happy just to be watching the dragons flying over and then doing a bit of running and jumping [in the finale]. That was good for me. I wouldn’t have minded cutting somebody up from the navel to the throat just to show that Corlys can! But no, I leave it to those guys to do that stuff.

By the end of the season, Corlys — freshly imprisoned by Daemon — actually seeks out Daemon and is the one to talk sense into him: We’ve lost, and it is time to go. Where is the Sea Snake’s head at when he convinces Daemon to leave?

What I saw when I watched the scene is what happens to Daemon after that explosion where he suddenly comes to. I think Daemon realizes they’re not going to win. So he starts looking for fights because I think he wants to go down fighting. He’s just looking to fight until somebody chops him down. It’s a death wish, I believe. Corlys saves him from himself. He sees in Daemon someone who is formidable, someone who is worthy and someone who is a vital instrument for the queen’s cause. I think that’s what Corlys is thinking when he saves Daemon. Their relationship has always been a bit up and down. Where will it go after they leave this scene? I’m not sure. 

It should be an interesting return to King’s Landing, at the very least.

Right, because the last time Corlys was with Rhaenyra, he called her out in public. And normally, people die for that. Now of course, at that stage, Corlys still had some use to the queen, but I’m as interested as anybody else to see what the relationship is like between him, Rhaenyra and Daemon. I do not have a clue, frankly.

You could always read the book and find out! But if you’re going purely on instinct, as the man who inhabits this character, what’s your feeling on how things will shake out for you in season four?

I feel like he comes back and is like, “Let’s put that shit behind us or let’s deal with that later. Right now we have a war to win, and that’s more important than anything else.” As you said, I haven’t read the books. I made that decision very early on that I wasn’t going to read the book while I was playing this. And I have tried in the past or just saddled up to Ryan [Condal] and sort of go, “What’s the story?” And he’s like, “I can’t tell you, but it’s good stuff. You’ll like it.” 

What do you want to see when it comes to that good stuff? Is there anything left on the bucket list to make sure you achieve in the final season?

(Pauses.) No, not really. We’ve seen him angry, we’ve seen him sad, seen him loving with his wife. I can’t think of any one particular thing that I’m like, “Oh yeah, we have to do that.” I’m just happy to be surprised.

Is it too late to go for a dragon ride?

Oh, you’re right.

Maybe he’s just a late bloomer!

Exactly. Or even he goes for a joyride with his son, Addam. Yes, that’s it. You’re right. That’s the one. I’m going to have to start putting that into Ryan’s ear.

I’m picturing Corlys on one dragon, Addam and Alyn on the other, and you part ways across the Narrow Sea like the Westeros version of the end of Furious 7.

From your mouth to Ryan Condal’s ears!

***

House of the Dragon season three is now streaming on HBO Max; read THR‘s finale coverage.

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The 2026 FedEx Cup Playoffs commence on Aug. 13 as the top 69 golfers (formerly 70; Daniel Berger withdrew due to injury) compete in the St. Jude Championship. The four-day tournament, the first of three playoff events, has a $20 million purse at stake ($3.6 million for first place) and, of course, advancement to the BMW Championship. This year’s St. Jude Championship will air across CBS, ESPN and Golf Channel, all three of which can be livestreamed via DirecTV (with a five-day free trial) or Hulu + Live TV.

At a Glance: How to Watch FedEx St. Jude Championship 2026

Since three primary TV networks share broadcasting rights of the tournament (CBS, ESPN and Golf Channel), neither Paramount+ (which will simulcast CBS’s two weekend windows) nor ESPN+ (which will simulcast ESPN’s linear TV coverage on Thursday and Friday mornings) will suffice for full event coverage — only partial. In a similar vein, live TV streaming service Fubo includes both CBS and ESPN (and also offers a five-day free trial), however, due to a carriage dispute, it does not currently carry Golf Channel.

Where to Watch FedEx St. Jude Championship 2026: Broadcast Schedule

The 2026 St. Jude Championship will be broadcast across CBS, ESPN and Golf Channel from Thursday, Aug. 13 through Sunday, Aug. 16.

Note: ESPN+ (which is also available via DirecTV’s five-day free trial period) will air early morning coverage leading up to the National TV coverage listed above.

Where to Stream FedEx St. Jude Championship 2026 Live Online

The tournament will be broadcast across CBS, ESPN and Golf Channel, all of which can be livestreamed on any streaming service that carries said networks, namely DirecTV (with a five-day free trial) and Hulu + Live TV (more on each plan below). Since the tournament runs for four days and DirecTV’s free trial runs for five, new subscribers can enjoy full PGA Tour event coverage (via its Choice, Ultimate and Premier Signature packages) at no cost.

Alternatively, Fubo includes both CBS and ESPN (and also offers a five-day free trial), however, due to a carriage dispute, it does not currently carry Golf Channel, meaning select windows of coverage will be absent.

Lilly Wachowski, who co-directed The Matrix franchise, is opening up about the struggle to get financing for her new film that features a “wall-to-wall trans cast.”

During a recent interview on KCRW’s The Business podcast, the filmmaker acknowledged that it’s unfortunately “not the greatest time in the industry to be trying to make these kinds of things because all of these opportunities are dwindling for folks with those kinds of stories to tell,” specifically those with “underrepresented voices and marginalized points of view.”

Wachowski used her next project, The Hunted, as an example, saying it’s been a challenge because when she showed the script around Hollywood, nobody wanted to finance the dystopian political thriller that’s budgeted at roughly $10 million.

“People like it, but they really don’t want to make it because it’s [got a] wall-to-wall trans cast,” she said of the film. “I have to get creative and figure out different ways that I can get this in front of people.”

Wachowski added that the script, which she co-wrote with her partner, Mickey Ray Mahoney, “was extremely important for me to write.” She continued, “It was a response to what is happening in the world for trans people, and it gave me a hugely cathartic receptacle to dump all of my anger and rage and frustration into.”

Despite her funding obstacles, Wachowski said she’s pivoted to other ways to get this story in front of people “that maybe isn’t a $10 million movie,” such as holding a live table read at Los Angeles’ Dynasty Typewriter theater earlier this month.

“I’m just going to go out and I’m going to grab that trans joy with all of my friends. And we’re going to hopefully experience this together.” Wachowski said of The Hunted table read. “It’s not the thing that I had imagined it was going to be, but the end result is the same.”

In addition to Wachowski and Mahoney, The Hunted is being produced by Lawrence Mattis and Sarah Marie Flores at Anarchists United and Natasha Lyonne at Ariadne Collective.

Wachowski is best known for helming 1999’s The Matrix, 2003’s The Matrix Reloaded and 2003’s The Matrix Revolutions alongside her sister, Lana Wachowski. She’s also directed 1996’s Bound, 2005’s Speed Racer, 2012’s Cloud Atlas and 2015’s Jupiter Ascending, as well as co-created the TV series Sense8.

Saturday Night Live UK has set its return on Sky and NOW.

After a well-performing inaugural season earlier this year, the live comedy sensation returns on Sept. 12 with six brand-new episodes, the trailer for which was released Wednesday. Additional episodes are planned for early 2027.

Broadcast live each week, the U.K. spinoff of NBC’s hit sketch series will once again welcome a different celebrity host and musical guest for every episode, alongside topical sketches, live music performances and a British take on the iconic Weekend Update segment. Last season’s celebrity hosts included Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan, Riz Ahmed, Jack Whitehall, Nicola Coughlan, Aimee Lou Wood, Hannah Waddingham, and Ncuti Gatwa.

Fey’s episode was watched on Sky by over 220,000 people in Britain — though episode ratings trailed off after that — as the cast made use of our over-performing rolodex of U.K. talent. U.S. viewers were able to watch the episodes on Peacock.

Returning for the second season are all 11 members of the inaugural cast: Hammed Animashaun, Ayoade Bamgboye, Larry Dean, Celeste Dring, George Fouracres, Ania Magliano, Annabel Marlow, Al Nash, Jack Shep, Emma Sidi and Paddy Young.

On the production side, Laura Claxton has been promoted to co-head Writer, joining existing head writer Jonno Johnson. Liz Clare returns as director. Heather MacVean joins as costume designer and Sinead Oldnall is heading up the U.K. talent team as director of onscreen Talent.

Lorne Michaels serves as executive producer on the show and James Longman is lead producer.

“I’m incredibly proud of our team and the show,” said Michaels when the show was renewed. “It keeps getting better every week. I’m grateful to Dana Strong and Sky for believing in and supporting SNL U.K. I’m excited for the season ahead.”

Watch the trailer for the new season below.

A homeless drifter from Russia with a mysterious past arrives in a remote village in central Ukraine in writer-director Natalka Vorozhbyt’s (Bad Roads) metaphorical film Demons, which world-premieres at the 79^th edition of the Locarno Film Festival on Friday, Aug. 13.

The drifter’s name is Slavik, and he seems to be the embodiment of Russia. In the village, he meets Nina, who represents post-Soviet Ukraine and the country’s independence.

What kind of adventure and drama can the protagonists and viewers expect? “Nina, a strong and independent woman much older than Slavik, takes the stranger into her home,” teases a synopsis. “At first, their strange companionship resembles an unlikely love story. But as their relationship unfolds, love turns into betrayal, and the village begins to reveal its hidden rules.” Those rules are summarized this way: “A place where witches may live next door, and the dead sometimes speak with the living.”

Vorozhbyt says that Demons and the relationship at its core unfolds on several levels. One is socio-political, where the relationship “becomes a metaphor for the relationship between Russia and Ukraine,” she explains.

The cast includes Ruslana Pysanka, Aleksey Mitin, Tatiana Stepanova, Ruslan Garmash and Mykola Ponomarenko. Demons features cinematography by Volodymyr Ivanov, with editing by Milenia Fiedler and Andriy Gulyanych. Celluloid Dreams is handling international sales.

THR can now exclusively premiere the trailer for Demons. You may want to mentally prepare for borscht, a flying vehicle, violence against a TV set blood and graves – and much more.

WTSL, the Silver Lake-backed firm led by Patrick Whitesell, has made a strategic investment in Alex Cooper’s Unwell media company. 

The exact figure was not disclosed, but the funding values the business, which includes Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast and other media, at $500 million. The plan is to use the investment to grow the company, including through acquisition. 

“Trust has become the ultimate distribution channel and seventy million women a month tune-into Unwell,” Cooper said. “We’re scaling on all fronts, combining nimbleness, social-first premium content, and our understanding of culture to serve this highly influential audience. With WTSL’s backing, the company is now also poised to accelerate our media platform’s growth through acquisitions and investments.”

WTSL, which is led by Whitesell and Jason Lublin with clients including Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, will also lend expertise and industry relationships. This is the first outside investment the company has taken, a person familiar with the matter tells The Hollywood Reporter. Unwell has been profitable for the past three years since it launched, this source says.

“Alex, Matt, and the team have demonstrated an exceptional ability to anticipate where audiences are headed and create entertainment experiences that resonate deeply,” Whitesell said. “The company’s growth, audience connection, and cultural relevance set it apart, and we believe Unwell is uniquely positioned to help define the present and future of media.”

Cooper founded Unwell with her husband, Matt Kaplan in 2023. In addition to Cooper’s top-charting show and several other podcasts, including Madeline Argy’s Pretty Lonesome, the company includes branded merchandise and beverages, live events and a film and TV production arm that includes projects such as the documentary Call Her Alex, dating reality series Love Overboard and  Let’s Marry Harry, and the Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special. All ventures are focused on a Gen Z audience. 

Unwell has also struck a number of partnerships, including a multiyear creative and media partnership with Google, which also coincided with the launch of the company’s own advertising agency, The Unwell Creative Agency. Cooper also struck a $125 million deal with SiriusXM for Call Her Daddy and her podcast network. 

The company has met some controversy recently, after Bloomberg and Vanity Fair both reported claims about staff turnover and uneasiness among the staff.

“Paramount has deep roots in Southern California. My vision is to stay true to our roots,” wrote David Ellison in a letter to lawmakers representing the state in February.

What a difference a few months makes. Now the mogul is locked in a protracted legal battle with the attorneys general of California and 11 other states as he attempts to consummate a $111 billion mega-merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. And he’s in a race against time before a ticking fee penalty of $7 million a day kicks in at the start of October if the deal isn’t done.

And each week, it seems, there’s a new leak suggesting the Paramount CEO may be exploring other options to move his company’s headquarters — and taking the idea seriously.

On Monday, it was Puck that kicked off another cycle when reporting that Ellison told staffers in a senior leadership meeting he plans to move the company headquarters out of state if the antitrust suit isn’t settled by Oct. 1, when that penalty fee begins. This leak underscores that urgent timetable and could be seen as both a negotiating tactic and a real consideration to pull up anchor for new shores.

As The Hollywood Reporter reported in July, Tennessee has been one of the states courting Paramount. Now add Texas, Georgia or another state to the list. The insinuation is that even if the merger eventually goes through, the two historic Hollywood studios could (theoretically) be moving out of their historic homes.

So the notion that Ellison would abandon Paramount’s historic place in Hollywood (literally: Paramount’s 65-acre lot, parts of it a century old, is the only big studio in the neighborhood, after all) to finalize his mega-merger isn’t a new one. But this narrative also represents a notable change in tune from Ellison, a California native himself and the product of two California universities, who not long ago was courting state politicians to win their approval for his mega-transaction. In the same letter where he laid out his vision for Paramount staying “true to our roots,” he pointed out that it was his regime that relocated the company’s headquarters from New York to the Paramount studio lot in L.A. Paramount also made a commitment to produce more movies for theatrical release, “all of which means more activity in Hollywood and local jobs,” he claimed.

The letter was sent to lawmakers Sen. Adam Schiff and Rep. Laura Friedman in response to their concerns about what the merger would mean for jobs in the state. “Our pledge to continue to license Paramount and Warner Bros. film and shows means there will be additional opportunities available for creative talent in Los Angeles,” Ellison continued. “Our pledge to continue to be active buyers of content from third-party studios and independent producers also means more good-paying jobs in Los Angeles.”

For the politicians who received that February letter, the threat to leave the state is prompting a bit of whiplash. “The reason Paramount has been an entertainment powerhouse for over a century is the crews, the writers, the artists, and the local businesses in my district. They are the best in the world at what they do,” said Friedman in a statement to THR. “It would be a massive mistake for Paramount to leave them behind, and it’s wrong to treat the workforce that built Paramount as a bargaining chip in a legal matter.”

In his own statement, Schiff said his “north star” was to “protect the jobs of the hardworking Californians” in entertainment. “I hope that Paramount will stick to their commitments to build a stronger Hollywood and keep production here,” he added.

And Ellison isn’t the only one at Paramount to have paid lip service to the virtues of working in California. Two of Paramount+’s major upcoming new shows, the Clueless sequel starring Alicia Silverstone and the original series Ascent starring Viola Davis, are filming in L.A. They’re joining other series under the Paramount corporate umbrella, like Matlock, Tracker and NCIS: Origins, that already shoot in the state. As a result, Paramount landed more than $37 million in the last round of California film and television tax credits.

“We’re proud to continue investing in the local creative community and production talent who bring our stories to life,” said CBS Studios president David Stapf in a statement on Monday, before the latest reports of Paramount’s roving eyes emerged.

How real is the threat to flee the state, then, or is this a laughable pressure tactic? As THR has previously reported, it’s not impossible to imagine Ellison relocating the company headquarters, but the rubber would meet the road on attempting to persuade executives to move their studio work to, say, Nashville or Austin or Atlanta. All told, about 17 percent of the Paramount’s workforce is based in L.A. alone, according to a study from CVL Economics, while 13 percent of Warner Bros. Discovery is based in the area. Good luck to those Paramount execs trying to meet an up-and-coming writer-creator for a casual coffee on Music Row or convincing anyone major other than Taylor Sheridan (who is soon to bid goodbye to the studio anyway) to briefly pop by for a meeting in Texas.

That’s not to mention the significant ill will that would be produced by kicking a local industry while it’s down, all while Ellison’s representatives have been presenting him for some time as the savior of Hollywood and its jobs, if only his deal goes through. (“We will continue to fight against any attempt to derail a deal that plainly benefits consumers, creators, and the industry as a whole,” a Paramount spokesperson said in response to a town hall where Hollywood workers aired concerns about job loss as a result of the mega-merger.)

The production downturn in California has been so severe that it’s created a grassroots movement to improve production conditions and become a major campaign narrative for L.A.’s mayoral candidates. “Paramount has been an iconic part of Los Angeles for more than a century, and we will work to ensure that Paramount remains rooted in Los Angeles, continues to invest in our city, and continues to support good-paying jobs for Angelenos,” Mayor Karen Bass, who is running for re-election, said in a statement to THR about the company’s latest rattle of the chains. It’s become a marketing tactic for television series and films to flaunt that they were made locally, rather than in, say, Romania or Australia.

For now, Ellison is attempting to ward off a trial with a stick, rather than a carrot, but the message keeps shifting. Maybe we should take his word for it that he means business on leaving California. But he said the opposite not too long ago.

Aug. 11, 8:48 p.m. Added a statement from L.A. Mayor Karen Bass.