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From discounted designer gems to the best of premium beauty, summer’s steepest savings have arrived courtesy of Nordstrom’s Anniversary Sale. Early access for the annual event opens on a rolling basis starting Tuesday, July 14 (more on this ahead), with public sale access between Saturday, July 18 and Sunday, August 9.

Below, everything to know about the 2026 Anniversary Sale, including 20 of the most sought-after styles for this season and beyond.

Nordstrom Anniversary Sale Dates and Early Access

While the 2026 Nordstrom Anniversary Sale opens to the general public on Saturday, July 18, rewards members can enjoy early access as soon as Tuesday, July 14. Customers’ access dates depend on their membership tier in The Nordy Club, the retailer’s free-to-join loyalty program. Access dates for the 2026 sale are as follows:

Influencer status can be achieved either by opening a Nordstrom Credit Card or reaching a purchase balance of $500. Ambassador status is unlocked with a minimum annual spend of $5,000, and Icon status is achieved once reaching a minimum annual spend of $15,000 using your Nordstrom card. The sale ends for everyone on Sunday, August 9.

Nordstrom Credit Card Benefits​ and Sign Up Bonus

For those considering signing up for Nordstrom’s credit card, the Anniversary Sale is the most strategic time to do so. Card members get automatic Influencer status, which opens the sale’s early access window on July 16, two days ahead of general access. Additionally, through Aug. 9, new cardmembers will receive $60 off their next purchase.

For beauty fans, Nordstrom is also offering cardmember-exclusive cosmetics savings of up to 30 percent on top brands like Dyson, Clé de Peau Beauté and Clarins. These Early Access Beauty Exclusives — only available July 18 — join Nordstrom’s larger collection of Anniversary Sale Beauty Exclusives, offered to all shoppers. Non-cardholders can apply for a credit card now at Nordstrom.com.

Nordstrom Anniversary Sale 2026: Shop 20 Best Deals

New television production and distribution outfit RoseBerry Media has launched Epis, a mobile-first global streaming service aiming to bridge the gap between traditional TV and streaming and the growing business of mobile-first microdramas and vertical video.

Epis (short for “episodes”) bills itself as the world’s first premium vertical streaming service. It is launching with more than 100 titles across various formats, from reality TV and true crime to drama.

The line-up includes vertical originals including Two Marys; The Swindler and the Billionaire Murder, a true crime format from Silvio Productions of Israel, known for its Shadow of Truth format on Netflix; and the comedy-drama series Revenge Is a Dish from Lime Pictures, the British outfit best known for its hit soap operas Hollyoaks and The Only Way Is Essex.

The Epis platform will also feature several TV formats adapted for vertical viewing on mobile, including the BBC 3/Netflix dating format Sexy Beasts, produced by All3Media’s Lion Television, in which contestants don beastly makeup before pairing off in an effort to find romance trying to find romance; You Can’t Kill Me, adapted from Fremantle‘s Channel 4 true crime miniseries The Fall: Skydive Murder (2024); and House in Flames, a vertical adaptation of the Fremantle-produced Channel 5 thriller Heat (2023), starring Danny Dyer.

RoseBerry said it is planning more than 25 original vertical productions for this year.

RoseBerry co-founder and CEO Guy Hameiri said epis is founded on the “simple belief” that mobile-first vertical entertainment can be premium entertainment. “Audiences have changed how they consume content, but they have not stopped wanting great stories,” he said. “With epis, we are bringing together world-class creative talent, proven television IP, original productions and advanced technology to create a curated, mobile-first service for audiences who want stories worth watching, whether they have five minutes or fifty.”

Epis is keen to distinguish itself from Microdrama apps such as ReelShort, DramaBox or FreeFlow with its focus on premium, “TV quality” productions and formats. RoseBerry has signed deals with several traditional TV players, including Fremantle, Banijay, All3Media, A+E Global Media, and Cineflix Rights to repurpose selected shows from their libraries for premium vertical services.

While Epis will operate as a stand-alone service, RoseBerry is also positioning the app as a testing site, a place where producers can try out vertical formats, adaptations, and monetization models in real time, with an eye to licensing them to vertical video feeds on other premium sites, such as Netflix Clips or Disney+ Verts.

“It gives us and our partners a DTC [direct to consumer] destination, a testing and data analysis ground and a source of audience intelligence, while supporting a broader studio model designed to help the industry create, understand and monetise premium vertical television across multiple distribution windows,” said Hameiri.

Timed to the Epis launch, RoseBerry has appointed Gidon Katz, the veteran TV exec behind the launch of the Peacock and Now TV streaming platforms, to its advisory board.

In the world of creators, authenticity reins supreme. A genuine connection to a topic or concept can be the difference between a show or channel that resonates with audiences — or one that viewers will pass by.

That’s true for creator content on YouTube, and it’s increasingly true for branded content too.

Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry know a thing or two about that. As the hosts of The Colin and Samir Show, they cover the ins and outs of creators and the creator economy every week.

Now, for their latest project, they are bringing a dose of what they talk on their show to life in a tangible way, via a partnership with the automotive brand Lexus.

The duo will host Colin & Samir Start Over, a series that sees them traveling across the country in the Lexus GX 550 and Lexus RZ 550e, reconnecting with the outdoors, and trying new things to inspire their creativity.

And, yes, there is a personal inspiration. Both Colin and Samir lost their houses in last year’s L.A. fires, and that shock ultimately inspired the concept they brought to Lexus.

“I think it was this moment of true reflection of, okay our entire routine has been completely shaken up. Were we doing what we wanted to be doing? Were we living every day the way we wanted to be living it?” Rosenblum says in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “And when we had the opportunity to pitch Lexus, we thought, can we pitch an experience that is new and different and takes us out of our routine?”

“There’s a level of authenticity that is a part of this campaign that’s just like the actual moment in our life, and what we were desiring was reinvention,” Chaudry adds. “Having this dramatic of a thing happen in your life, you’re just faced with this premise of what now? Who am I now? And we were really honest about that with our audience. We have multiple videos on our channel that address this moment for us, and this question of reinvention. And we just told that story to the Lexus team and said, what would I do with a car right now? I would drive around and do a bunch of things that I want to do to explore my creativity again, and get out of L.A. and just go on adventures.”

As it happens, Chaudry also had another connection to Lexus: During the pandemic, he auditioned for a Lexus commercial. “I was miserable at it. I didn’t know anything about it,” he recalls. He spoke about the experience on their podcast, which a YouTube partner manager listened to.

“Just based on the timing, Lexus was looking for creators to work with, and looking for creators with an authentic connection to Lexus, and beyond the fact that I auditioned for the campaign, it was also the first car I ever drove, was my mom’s Lexus, and I talked about that as well, and so I was very publicly talking about this funny audition story with Lexus, and it just sparked something, a connection in our partner manager’s head, as that request came from the other side of Google and asked us if we would want to pitch something to Lexus,” he said.

The duo also worked with Creative Works at Google on the project. The in-house consultancy is in the business of connecting brands and creators on campaigns, a business that Kevin Babcock, the head of creative partnerships for U.S. Creative Works at Google, says has been booming in recent years.

Our team is always looking for great partnerships between creators and brands to bring them together to to really achieve a brand’s marketing objectives, and the partnership with Lexus has been a great one over the years,” Babcock says. “So, when the opportunity was flagged to us, actually by Colin and Samir’s partnership manager at Google, Andrew, we thought actually the timing really aligned really well to initiatives that Lexus was asking us for support on.”

“At Lexus, we believe meaningful progress comes from the courage to evolve and the pursuit of new experiences,” adds Lisa McQueen, senior manager of Lexus marketing. “Our partnership with Colin and Samir reflects a shared commitment to reinvention, thoughtful storytelling, and creativity with purpose. Through this series, we’re exploring how the journey itself can inspire new perspectives and shape what comes next.” 

Lexus will roll out new episodes of Colin & Samir Start Over throughout the year, and the pair hope that it stands on its own as something their fans will want to watch.

“We wanted to make something that felt very native to YouTube that used a lot of the same storytelling tactics that we’ve used in our videos, even down to the initial hooks,” Rosenblum says. “We thought a lot about the first line of every single asset, so that if someone’s sitting down watching YouTube on their TV and an ad plays, we’re getting their attention.”

And as chroniclers of the creator economy themselves, they are hoping that it could even inspire some other brands and creatives to participate.

“I think it’s just like a really fun and abundant time, and there’s going to be a lot of experimentation and I think there’s going to be a lot of good creative that comes out of this,” Chaudry says. “I couldn’t be more excited for creators to have a new outlet on the platform to tell stories, because not every creator, not every idea fits into what you are distributing as a distribution platform. This content is different for us, it’s a variation of what we make, but to express ourselves in this way in this context is really fun, and I think more creators want to do this.”

You can watch the first episode of Colin & Samir Start Over, below.

Fanatics Studios is entering the documentary space with what it hopes will be a perfect 10.

The joint venture between Fanatics and OBB, alongside Cookie Jar & a Dream Studios, which is Dick’s Sporting Goods’ in-house production studio, has greenlit a documentary following Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Suni Lee‘s return to competition, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The documentary is untitled and being shopped to platforms.

Lee was diagnosed with a chronic kidney disease that nearly ended her career in 2023, two years after her breakthrough at the (postponed due to COVID) 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she won the all-around gold and a bronze medal for the uneven bars. After Lee battled back for the Paris 2024 games, adding two more bronze medals to her trophy case and a team gold, much speculation swirled that she would retire. Well, she hasn’t done that.

“This is more than a documentary; it’s an invitation to come along for the journey. I know there’s more in me, and this is my chance to challenge myself, test my limits, and see what I’m truly capable of,” said Lee. “This isn’t about proving anyone wrong. It’s about showing up for myself and discovering what’s possible. Through the setbacks and the victories, I’m giving myself one more chance to find out what happens when I keep going.”

The 2028 Summer Olympics take place on home soil in Los Angeles — just saying.

“We created Fanatics Studios to bring fans closer than ever to the most groundbreaking and beloved stories in sports. From our first conversations with Suni, it was immediately clear that there is an amazing story to tell that goes deeper than what fans see in competition,” said Michael D. Ratner, CEO of Fanatics Studios and founder & CEO of OBB. “This documentary gives audiences unprecedented access to one of the most accomplished athletes of her generation as she navigates extraordinary personal and professional challenges. We’re proud to partner with Suni and Cookie Jar & a Dream Studios to capture this defining chapter of her life and career.”

The documentary is executive produced by Michael D. Ratner, Scott Ratner, Kfir Goldberg and Raquel Dominguez for Fanatics Studios; Lee, Madison Smith, Britt St. George and Kaila  McWilliams; and Mark Rooks and Rebecca Covington for Cookie Jar & a Dream Studios. Anna Chai (Gutsy, Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross) is attached to direct.

Fanatics Studios recently produced The Fanatics Flag Football Classic and is producing Wednesday’s 2026 ESPY Awards.

This fall’s New York Comedy Festival is taking shape with some big-name headliners.

NYCF — launched by Carolines club founder Caroline Hirsch — will see more than 200 comedians perform in 100+ shows at venues across New York from Nov. 6-15. Headliners include Marc Maron, Ilana Glazer, Jordan Klepper, Ms. Pat, Saturday Night Live breakout Sarah Sherman with Patti Harrison, Ziwe, Ben Bankas, Mojo Brookzz, Comic Relief x The Moth, Dropout Improv, Adam Friedland, Gayme Show! starring Matt Rogers and Dave Mizzoni, Jess Hilarious, Jordan Jensen, Joanne McNally, Daniel Sloss and more. Additional shows will be announced soon.

The fest’s full schedule features stand-up shows, live podcast recordings, film and TV screenings, sketch and improv showcases, industry panels and fundraising events like Stand Up for Heroes at venues like Carnegie Hall, Beacon Theatre, Town Hall, Kings Theatre and various other clubs and stages across five boroughs.

“Each year, the New York Comedy Festival serves as both a celebration of comedy’s biggest voices and a showcase for the talent shaping its future,” said Caroline Hirsch, founder of the New York Comedy Festival. “This year’s lineup brings together established stars, fan favorites, and a remarkable new generation of comedians. We’re very proud to continue making New York City the epicenter of the comedy world, where artists, industry leaders, and fans come together to experience the very best the art form has to offer.”

NYCF is sponsored by Bread Financial, NBC + Peacock, Hard Rock Hotel New York, ABC7, iHeart Radio, New York Post, NYC Tourism + Conventions, Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment, The Onion, SiriusXM and Variety. More intel on tickets and pre-sales can be found here.

The schedule so far is below.

Friday, Nov. 6
7 p.m. – Gayme Show! Starring Matt Rogers and Dave Mizzoni at BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center
7 p.m. + 9:45 p.m. – Ms. Pat at The Venue on Music Row at Hard Rock Hotel NY
7 p.m. – Ziwe at Town Hall

Saturday, Nov. 7
7 p.m. – Joanne McNally: Pinotphile at Town Hall
7 p.m. + 9:45 p.m. –Ms. Pat at The Venue on Music Row at Hard Rock Hotel NY

Sunday, Nov. 8
7 p.m. – Sarah Sherman & Patti Harrison at Town Hall
7:30 p.m. – Marc Maron: Yammering Into The Void Tour at The Beacon Theater

Thursday, Nov. 12
7 p.m. – Ben Bankas at Town Hall
8 p.m. – Jordan Jensen at The Beacon Theater

Friday, Nov. 13
7 p.m. – Adam Friedland at Town Hall
6:45 p.m. – Ilana Glazer Live! at The Beacon Theater
7 p.m. + 9:45 p.m – Jess Hilarious: The Don’t Play Wit’ Me Tour at The Venue on Music Row at Hard Rock Hotel NY
8 p.m. – Dropout Improv at Kings Theatre

Saturday, Nov. 14
3 p.m. – Comic Relief & The Moth Present: Funny Story at Town Hall
7 p.m. – Daniel Sloss: Bitter at The Beacon Theater
7 p.m. – Sh&t Show hosted by Jordan Klepper at Town Hall
7 p.m. + 9:45 p.m – Jess Hilarious: The Don’t Play Wit’ Me Tour at The Venue on Music Row at Hard Rock Hotel

Sunday, Nov. 15
6:30 p.m. – Mojo Brookzz: Outta Pocket Comedy Tour at The Beacon Theater

James Franco has found his way back on social media, but this time, it’s to reveal “some serious shit” that he claims has been going on.

On June 3, the scandal-plagued Oscar-nominated actor popped up on TikTok with a new account, as he’s mostly remained off social media since his 2018 following sexual misconduct allegations. In his first video, he clarified that it’s really him and not AI, writing in the caption, “I can’t say too much right now. But stick around and I promise it will all make sense.”

To any average TikTok user, their first thought might be: Is James Franco crazy? Don’t worry, because he already clarified in that first video that he’s not. “I maybe seem crazy, like, why? What’s going on? What’s the gimmick? No. This is real,” he said.

However, in the many bizarre and cryptic videos that he’s posted since the beginning of June, they tell a different story. Appearing often frantic, Franco has continued to state that he thinks he’s being watched or followed and that he’s worried he might disappear.

This led fans to speculate what was really going on, with many predicting that it’s all tied to promotion for an upcoming movie project. But on June 15, Franco revealed in another video that all the secrecy has to do with an alien he allegedly witnessed on his property.

After saying that he’s going to expose the footage of the extraterrestrial encounter, Franco started teasing the date, July 13. “OK, they hacked my account. I got it back. They want me to stop. People think I’m acting crazy. Whatever. I’m not acting crazy. I saw something. They tried to hack my account and I got it back,” he said in a panicked video on June 25. “They don’t want me to show what I’m gonna show. I’m gonna show it. I already told you, 7/13.”

Once the big day arrived on Monday, Franco said in the much-anticipated video that this was “thrust upon me” to reveal. “I saw something, and I thought, you know what? I can’t keep this quiet,” he stated. “I need to get this out for that very reason that people are trying to stop me.”

However, I’m not sure the footage that Franco has been hyping up for a month was what fans were expecting. In the black-and-white clips, an alien-like figure can be seen roaming outside his house as well as coming up close to his windows.

But truthfully, the footage didn’t seem too convincing, and fans in the video’s comment section agreed. “Clearly fake but I’ll say it again, I’m excited for whatever movie this is for,” one person wrote, while another added, “God damnit James Franco, you made us wait for this?!” Users also note that you have to be a paid subscriber to Franco’s account to see additional footage.

It seems fans will just have to wait and see if Franco really is just trolling the internet in his free time or if this is all part of a larger project — a movie perhaps? “A lot more footage dropping soon! It gets very crazy!!!” a message read at the end of Monday’s video.

The Hollywood Reporter reached out to Franco’s rep for more information and to confirm it’s the actor’s real TikTok account, but did not hear back at the time of publication. Also, according to Franco’s IMDb page, he’s currently working on several films, but none appear to be centered on extraterrestrial life.

Once known for his prolific output, Franco has barely featured in mainstream film and television projects since the sexual misconduct allegations against him became public. The actor’s last major film project was the Coen brothers’ comedy Western anthology film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs for Netflix in 2018. Franco’s last TV project was the HBO series The Deuce, which ended in 2019. He will feature in two upcoming films distributed by Lionsgate, however, including John Rambo in 2027 and the yet to be dated Golden State Killer, a film directed by and starring fellow Hollywood pariah Vincent Gallo.

It’s been clear for months that David Ellison is a supporter of the idea of a federal film tax incentive, which has been gathering support in the legislature. Why wouldn’t he be? As the head of one studio and the aspiring leader of a combined Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery, his entertainment empire stands to benefit from the U.S. offering a stackable incentive on top of states’ individual tax credit programs.

But on Monday, the same day that California attorney general Rob Bonta and 11 other state regulators filed suit to block the proposed $111 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, new details of Ellison’s actions to support such a bill came to light beyond his former declaration of support.

The Paramount Skydance CEO and his chief legal officer, Makan Delrahim, are meeting with Republican members of the House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee about a bipartisan bill on Monday night, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. (Politico’s Daniel Miller was the first to report on the trip.) The trip is one of several that Ellison has been making in support of the bill, a source in D.C. confirmed.

Previously, Sen. Adam Schiff and Rep. Laura Friedman were gathering support for a federal tax incentive bill, though President Donald Trump’s enmity with Schiff was largely seen in the industry as a liability. While it was unclear on Monday night which legislators would be carrying the bill that Ellison is lobbying for, a separate source noted that Friedman and Schiff are still involved.

While it’s not surprising that Ellison is backing the initiative, his involvement may be helpful in swaying Trump to consider the idea. Since proposing a “100 percent tariff” on movies made in other countries a couple of times in 2025, the president has been largely silent on the topic of domestic film and TV production. Still, he appears to remain interested in domestic entertainment production, in May meeting with one of his “special ambassadors” to Hollywood, actor Jon Voight and his team of Steven Paul and Scott Karol, about the federal film incentive idea.

Trump remains friendly with David and his father, Larry Ellison, in June of 2025, calling David “great” and saying he would “do a great job” running a combined Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery. On June 12, the Department of Justice signed off on the proposed transaction, though the lawsuit filed Monday by 12 state attorneys general throws a wrench in Ellison’s plans.

Nansun Shi, the pioneering Hong Kong producer and executive who helped shape the territory’s cinematic golden age as the co-founder of Film Workshop and who later produced Infernal Affairs — the cult crime thriller Martin Scorsese would remake as the Oscar-winning The Departed — died Monday at Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital. She was 75.

Film Workshop, the production house Shi launched with director Tsui Hark in 1984, said that she had been in declining health since 2022 due to complications affecting her immune system and that recurrent infections in recent months had resulted in “multiple organ dysfunction.” Shi died peacefully at 8:51 p.m. local time with family and loved ones at her side, the company said, adding that memorial and funeral arrangements would be announced.

Across a career spanning more than four decades, Shi ranked among the most influential figures in Hong Kong film — a key contributor to its glorious 1980s heyday, an architect of its early-2000s revival and one of the first local producers to construct genuine international distribution pipelines for Chinese-language cinema, at a time when few of her peers looked beyond the region. She was also among the earliest Hong Kong producers to shoot in mainland China, in an era when the two industries barely collaborated.

Born and educated in Hong Kong, Shi studied statistics and computing at the Polytechnic of North London before returning home to begin her career in television, working for broadcasters including TVB and Rediffusion in the mid-1970s.

Her movie career began in 1981, when she joined the upstart commercial comedy banner Cinema City as executive director, overseeing administration, financing and — crucially — overseas sales and festival strategy while Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest still ruled the local business. Colleagues affectionately nicknamed her “Housekeeper” for the way she kept the young company’s sprawling operations in efficient order. Her credits from the period include the hit comedies Aces Go Places II and Till Death Do We Scare.

In 1984, she departed alongside Cinema City’s most ambitious young talent, Tsui Hark, to establish Film Workshop — a home for projects too idiosyncratic for their former employer’s commercial pipeline, and, in time, one of the most storied banners in Hong Kong film history. Beginning with Tsui’s Shanghai Blues (1984), its output grew to include Peking Opera Blues, A Chinese Ghost Story, the Once Upon a Time in China series and John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow (1986) and The Killer — key titles in the action canon that powered Hong Kong cinema across the globe. Shi married Tsui in 1996 and the couple divorced in 2014, but never stopped making films together.

In 2002, Media Asia chairman Peter Lam recruited Shi as vice president, and alongside Andrew Lau and John Chong, she produced Infernal Affairs, the rigorously inventive undercover-cop thriller directed by Lau and Alan Mak and starring Andy Lau and Tony Leung Chiu-wai. The film helped revitalize a then-flagging Hong Kong industry, spawned two sequels and was remade by Scorsese in 2006 as The Departed, which went on to win the best picture Oscar.

Shi’s later producing work with Beijing-based Bona Film Group included the Overheard thrillers, Derek Yee’s The Great Magician and Ann Hui’s A Simple Life, which won Venice’s 2011 best actress prize for star Deanie Ip. In 2007, she co-founded the international sales agency Distribution Workshop with Jeffrey Chan, which she ran until her death. Her later festival contenders included Flora Lau’s Bends, which bowed in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2013.

Through it all, Shi kept Film Workshop running as an independent banner, producing Tsui titles including the Detective Dee films, Flying Swords of Dragon Gate and The Taking of Tiger Mountain. Her final credit came on Tsui’s Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants, the Lunar New Year box office hit from 2025.

Shi served on the main competition juries of both Cannes and Berlin, and she received regular recognition from across the international film world. France named her an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2013; Locarno presented her its Premio Raimondo Rezzonico for best independent producer in 2014; Italy’s Far East Film Festival in Udine gave her its lifetime achievement honor in 2015; the Berlinale bestowed its Berlinale Camera in 2017; and China’s Pingyao festival honored her contribution to Chinese cinema in 2019. She was also a perennial presence on The Hollywood Reporter‘s annual Most Influential Women in Global Film list.

In 2025, the Hong Kong Film Awards presented Shi and Tsui with a joint lifetime achievement award — a final shared bow for a partnership that helped define the city’s cinema across more than 40 years.

It’s been clear for months that David Ellison is a supporter of the idea of a federal film tax incentive, which has been gathering support in the legislature. Why wouldn’t he be? As the head of one studio and the aspiring leader of a combined Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery, his entertainment empire stands to benefit from the U.S. offering a stackable incentive on top of states’ individual tax credit programs.

But on Monday, the same day that California attorney general Rob Bonta and 11 other state regulators filed suit to block the proposed $111 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, new details of Ellison’s actions to support such a bill came to light beyond his former declaration of support.

The Paramount Skydance CEO and his chief legal officer, Makan Delrahim, are meeting with Republican members of the House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee about a bipartisan bill on Monday night, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. (Politico’s Daniel Miller was the first to report on the trip.) The trip is one of several that Ellison has been making in support of the bill, a source in D.C. confirmed.

Previously, Sen. Adam Schiff and Rep. Laura Friedman were gathering support for a federal tax incentive bill, though President Donald Trump’s enmity with Schiff was largely seen in the industry as a liability. While it was unclear on Monday night which legislators would be carrying the bill that Ellison is lobbying for, a separate source noted that Friedman and Schiff are still involved.

While it’s not surprising that Ellison is backing the initiative, his involvement may be helpful in swaying Trump to consider the idea. Since proposing a “100 percent tariff” on movies made in other countries a couple of times in 2025, the president has been largely silent on the topic of domestic film and TV production. Still, he appears to remain interested in domestic entertainment production, in May meeting with one of his “special ambassadors” to Hollywood, actor Jon Voight and his team of Steven Paul and Scott Karol, about the federal film incentive idea.

Trump remains friendly with David and his father, Larry Ellison, in June of 2025, calling David “great” and saying he would “do a great job” running a combined Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery. On June 12, the Department of Justice signed off on the proposed transaction, though the lawsuit filed Monday by 12 state attorneys general throws a wrench in Ellison’s plans.