“The summer setting is a great vibe for my viewing experiment. The plot plays out slowly, and the warm setting is calming. Of course, it’s intercut with family members hitting each other and screaming, ‘Calm down! You want a cigarette?’ Like I said, ‘Frenchness.’” - Washington Post
Is something going right for a beloved media product? This doesn’t sound like 2024 - and yet. The Onion, which many people had long given up for dead, has been bought, revived, stripped of terrible ad content, given a new platform - and a print subscription. - The Verge
Chaos just as Skydance was heading to the finish line: "Seagram liquor company heir Edgar Bronfman Jr. this week persuaded Paramount’s independent board members to consider his rival bid for the Redstone family’s investment firm, National Amusements Inc., and a minority stake in Paramount.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
Surely $36,000 will make Disney more careful. The fine came “in connection with the death of Juan ‘Spike' Osorio, a lighting technician who fell through a faulty catwalk on the Studio City set of a Marvel TV series.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)
Critics say it’s a textbook political maneuver by tech giants to avoid a fee under what could have been groundbreaking legislation. California lawmakers agreed to kill a bill requiring tech to support news outlets they profit from in exchange for Google’s financial commitment. - Fast Company
The problem is, at the moment, networks aren’t taking risks, as the tough economic conditions of recent years have led to glut of tried-and-tested program decisions. - Deadline
“It is the category of representation with the largest disparity between make-up of the country and make-up of our industry … Yet it is the only significant category not to be formally included in most of our standard measurements of diversity.” - The Conversation
"Pay TV has entered into what may well be the final impasse between distributors like Comcast and content companies like Disney. Here's why this apparent cable bloodbath is happening now, who may be on the chopping block and what this shift may mean for the future of the television industry as a whole." - TheWrap (MSN)
"The fast food chain has been working with Hollywood production companies and studios to create family-friendly, mostly unscripted original shows. The chicken house is also in talks to license and acquire content." (Reality TV comes home to roost …) - Variety
The confusion began in early August when the Greek Ministry of Culture, as is customary, invited a committee of Greek film professionals to select the country’s submission to the international Oscar race. - Deadline
The beverage-heir-turned-entertainment-mogul's purchase offer ($4.3 billion, since raised to $6 billion) is lower than Skydance's $8 billion deal, but Bronfman says his plan to make Paramount a standalone company would avoid the complications of a merger, increase the stock price and be a better deal for second-tier investors. - TheWrap (MSN)
"The latest twist in the chaotic auction came late Wednesday as Paramount's independent board members were mulling whether to keep the door open for Bronfman's bid for the struggling company that owns CBS, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Showtime and the namesake Hollywood movie studio." - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
Lionsgate's trailer featured clips from The Godfather and Apocalypse Now along with unflattering quotes about those movies from famous critics — the idea being that reviewers were wrong about those Coppola films and they'll be wrong about this one, too. But the quotes are invented and most of those critics are dead. - Vulture (MSN)
"The 1979 creature feature … begot not only the unlikeliest and most malleable of franchises but also an astonishing array of cinematic careers — a fact reflected not just in the protracted intervals between installments but also in the huge stylistic variation among them." - The Washington Post (MSN)
