Hollywood Signal
The Candyman rights notice nobody has reported
A notice ending a US grant on the story behind Candyman took effect on Tuesday. Plus the Goncourt winner and Belgium’s cocaine supercop.
Bradley Hope
Hollywood Signal
Friday Briefing #21: The Box Office Is Breathing Again
Hollywood finally got a week that felt less defensive. Theaters have a real hit on the board, another ambitious film still drawing crowds, and just enough momentum for executives to talk about growth again instead of only cuts. None of that cancels Sony’s layoffs, the labor question, or the fight...
Hollywood Signal
IP Surveillance #22
The market this week is drawing a harder line than it used to. Buyers still want IP, but they increasingly want it to arrive either pre-legitimized by prestige, talent, or institutional weight, or pre-scaled by franchise logic and audience behavior. That is why A24 moved early on Patrick
Friday Briefing
Friday Briefing #20: The New King of the Mountain
Netflix folds. Paramount wins WBD. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms sticks the landing. Project Hail Mary first reactions are extraordinary. And Glen Powell's new movie is dead.
IP Surveillance
IP Surveillance #20: The Paramount-WBD Leviathan
Netflix walks away. Paramount wins. The merger that changes everything — plus Tayari Jones, a Trotsky thriller, and a video game franchise finally going live-action.
Friday Briefing
Friday Briefing #19: The Last Studio Standing
The bidding war for Warner Bros. enters its final stretch. Plus: Presidents Day box office, SAG-AFTRA talks, Spirit Awards, and why micro-dramas are a billion-dollar problem.
IP Surveillance
IP Surveillance #19: The debut boom
Five debut thrillers with adaptation DNA, a grown-up Nancy Drew, podcasts built for the screen, and a Guardian long read about a novelist who may have stolen a woman's life.
IP Surveillance
IP Surveillance #17
Welcome to IP Surveillance #17, your weekly scan of the books, articles, podcasts, games, and alternative IP that Hollywood should be watching — before everyone else does. A24 just paid seven figures for a spec erotic thriller with Nicole Kidman circling. Mike Flanagan is back with Stephen King. Amy Sherman-Palladino
Friday Briefing
Friday Briefing #17: The Ghost of 2023
SAG-AFTRA returns to the bargaining table. Paramount launches a hostile bid to block Netflix's Warner Bros. acquisition. Britney sells her catalog. And the Super Bowl box office takes its annual hit.
Friday Briefing
Friday Briefing #16: The Creator-to-Mogul Pipeline
IP Surveillance
IP Surveillance #16
Welcome to IP Surveillance #16, your weekly scan of the books, articles, podcasts, games, and alternative IP that Hollywood should be watching — before everyone else does. From federal agents who can't be investigated to Russian intelligence recruiting arsonists on Telegram, the IP emerging right now is built on
IP Surveillance
IP Surveillance #15
Apple just made the biggest fantasy IP deal since Game of Thrones. This week: Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere lands at Apple TV+, Markiplier's Iron Lung hits theaters, and the webtoon pipeline goes mainstream.