What's news: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker to hit Disney+ a couple months early, there's a Brothers In Arms TV series in the works, online piracy rises amid coronavirus lockdowns, Lego strikes a deal with another Universal, Brad Pitt, Adam Sandler and many others cameo on SNL at Home. Plus: The Homeland series finale: A critic's notebook and an interview with creator Alex Gansa and director Lesli Linka Glatter. --Alex Weprin

 'Rise Of Skywalker' Hitting Disney+ Early

►Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hitting Disney+ two months early. The final movie in the "Skywalker Saga" will debut on Star Wars Day, May 4th (May the 4th be with you... get it?) after originally being slates for later in the summer. The shift is latest move by Disney to bolster its streaming service right when it is needed most: as potential subscribers are mostly stuck at home.

--So far, Disney brought Frozen 2 to Disney+ in March, a couple of months early, and the company will break the theatrical window to bring Artemis Fowl to the service soon (the movie had been set to debut in theaters at the end of May). In an interview early this month (though it feels like a year ago), Disney executive chairman Bob Iger said the company may shift some other films to streaming as well.

One reason to release these movies legally...

►Online piracy spikes amid coronavirus lockdown. Lockdown and stay-at-home orders due to the novel coronavirus have been a big boost for online pirates, with a new study showing double-digit growth in digital piracy across major territories in Europe and North America. The data, published Monday by London-based piracy analysts Muso, shows visits to illegal film streaming and download sites shot up by 41.4 percent in the United States and by 42.5 percent in the U.K. in the last seven days of March, compared with the last seven days of February. The story.

►Brothers in Arms TV adaptation in the works. Video game developer Gearbox Entertainment has teamed with showrunner Scott Rosenbaum (Queen of the South, V, Gang Related) to adapt its shooter franchise for the small screen. Rosenbaum will serve as showrunner of the new series, as well as executive producer alongside Gearbox co-founder and CEO Randy Pitchford.

--"I love the stories we told in the games, and we do have more stories to tell, but a TV show lets us explore this subject matter and the effect on the relationships and people in broader ways," Pitchford tells THR's Patrick Shanley. The story.

 

 Lots Of Cameos On 'SNL At Home'

►On Saturday Night Live at Home: This week's cold open featured a celebrity cameo from Brad Pitt playing Dr. Anthony Fauci. During the cold open, Pitt's Fauci attempted to clarify several of President Donald Trump's recent comments concerning COVID-19...  Pitt was not alone in the cameo department. The episode also featured appearances by Paul Rudd, Miley Cyrus, Adam Sandler, Charles Barkley, and others. The rest of the sketches...

►Lego strikes another Universal deal: Just a couple of days after Lego announced that Universal Pictures would be taking over film rights to the toy franchise, the company said that it has struck a deal with Universal Music Group on a partnership tied to a new toy line. The deal is completely separate from the film deal, as UMG is controlled by French media giant Vivendi. The story.

►How I'm Living Now: Lesli Linka Glatter, Homeland director. Glatter was all packed for a a seven-month shoot in Hungary when COVID-19 grounded her latest project. Now, the TV veteran is working with the Directors Guild Of America's coronavirus task force and collaborating with other Hollywood leaders on a project to provide financial relief for out-of-work crew members. Glatter recently spoke with THR from her Pacific Palisades home about her ambitious quarantine watch list — as well as shooting the April 26 Homeland finale, which marked her first series finale as a director. The interview.

Speaking of Homeland...

 The 'Homeland' Finale

►Homeland creator Alex Gansa discusses the twisty, optimistic coda to his series finale. Gansa, who wrote the episode with co-creator Howard Gordon, spoke with THR earlier in the week about the bittersweet and relatively optimistic manner in which he chose to end his Showtime series, as well as the storytelling possibilities built into that final twist and what he hopes the show says about America and its position in the world today. The interview.

+Critic's notebook: Homeland ends on its own terms, for better or worse. "Do I personally buy the place Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon — with series MVP director Lesli Linka Glatter — steered things in this conclusion to the eighth season? Maybe not. But they do," Daniel Fienberg writes. "The reality is that Gansa and Gordon have always been more convinced by Carrie Mathison's (Claire Danes) nobility and professional excellence than I have." The notebook.

+About last night: Westworld reveals Aaron Paul's true (and terrifying) purpose... Killing Eve team dives inside that emotional and violent) reunion...

►Trump still wants a Fox News "alternative." In one of a few tweetstorms attacking the press Sunday, President Trump took aim at Fox News, tweeting that "Fox keeps on plugging to try and become politically correct," and attacking anchor Chris Wallace and Fox Corp. board member "RINO Paul Ryan." "The people who are watching FoxNews in record numbers (thank you President Trump), are angry. They want an alternative now. So do I!" he wrote.

--Of course, no realistic alternative is in sight. Cable news viewers skew old, and watch live on pay-TV. Conservative alternatives like OANN and Newsmax are carried in far fewer homes, and where they are carried tend to be far away on the channel lineup.President Trump may want a Fox News alternative, but TV watching habits are hard to break, as he certainly knows, based on his regular tweets about CNN and Morning Joe.

Obituary: The Hollywood Foreign Press Association on Saturday revealed that Jorge Camara, past president of the organization, has died. News of his death was shared in an internal memo by the HFPA, which indicated that Camara had been battling health issues in recent years. More.

The week ahead...

--In TV: Ryan Murphy's Hollywood debuts on Netflix Friday... Mindy Kaling's Never Have I Ever debuts on Netflix today... Parks and Recreation will return for a one-off special Thursday on NBC... More...

--Earnings: Alphabet (including YouTube) will report Tuesday, Facebook and Spotify report Wednesday, Comcast, Amazon, Apple and Twitter all report Thursday...

--Labor: SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP begin negotiations on a new film and TV contract today...

In other news...

--Banijay Rights, the global sales arm of French production giant Banijay Group, which is behind such hit formats as Survivor, Wife Swap and Temptation Island, on Monday named John Richards CFO.

--Kesha, Barbra Streisand, Matt Bomer, Adam Lambert and more stars took part in GLAAD's Together in Pride: You Are Not Alone, a fundraiser hosted by Billy Eichner and Lilly Singh that aired online Sunday.

--More than 400 figures from the creative community have warned that the U.K. will become a "cultural wasteland" unless the British government provides urgent financial support for the creative industries.

--NBA players will be allowed to return to team training facilities starting Friday, provided that their local governments do not have a stay-at-home order prohibiting such movement still in place as part of the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

--Michael Madsen is doing his part to encourage people to stay inside during the coronavirus quarantine by revisiting his diabolical Reservoir Dogs character, Mr. Blonde.

--Nick Cordero's wife Amanda Kloots on Friday took to Instagram to share a follow-up on the recent amputation of the Broadway star's leg due to blood clotting, which was a complication of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

--Kristin Cavallari took to social media on Sunday to announce that she and husband Jay Cutler are divorcing after 10 years together.

What else we're reading...

--"Should anyone own the rights to HOLLYWOOD?" [LA Times]

--NBC News chairman Andy Lack writes in an op-ed: "Journalism is under attack from coronavirus and the White House. But we're winning." [NBC News]

--Chris Matthews says his departure from MSNBC was "highly justified" in his first interview since retiring from the network [Vanity Fair]

--"Live Nation closes gap in refund policy after fan complaints" [NY times]

--"Anna Wintour made Condé Nast the embodiment of boomer excess. Can it change to meet this crisis?" [NY Times]

Today's birthdays: Cory Booker, 51, Sheena Easton, 61, Mica Paris, 51, Nigel Barker, 48, Nick Kyrgios, 25.