What's news: Mission Impossible movies and The Batman poised to resume production as U.K. lifts quarantine rules for film and TV production, Stan Lee's likeness and post-Marvel IP sold, lawsuits begin to fly over nixed Cineworld-Cineplex merger, a big week ahead for Disney, Elisabeth Moss and Margaret Atwood talk Handmaid's Tale, is Kanye 2020 for real? Plus: Remembering Nick Cordero and Ennio Morricone. --Alex Weprin

 Film, TV Productions To be Exempt From U.K. Quarantine Rules

►U.K. allows film, TV productions to be exempt from quarantine rules. The government announced the exemption Sunday in hopes of allowing production of international blockbusters to get underway. The exemption only applies to those traveling to England. Exempted individuals are set to live and work in controlled "bubbled" environments that will only include their production and accommodation locations.

--The U.K. government said that Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has already spoken with Tom Cruise about how the exemption will allow production to resume on Mission: Impossible 7 and 8, which are being shot at the Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Hertfordshire. Jurassic World: Dominion and The Batman may also prepare to return to production. The story.

+U.K. arts sector to receive $2 billion rescue package from government. The new deal includes £880 million ($1 billion) in grants for the financial year to April 2021, a package that will be shared between theaters, music venues, heritage sites, museums, galleries and independent cinemas. The government is also offering £270 million ($336 million) in repayable loans. Decision on how the money is distributed will be made with the support of bodies such as the British Film Institute. The story.

+Also: The British Film Institute has set a COVID-19 support fund for sales companies. The $625,000 fund will help sales companies adapt to new business practices, such as virtual markets... Netflix has donated $625,000 to a new fund established by Sam Mendes, the Society of London Theatre and U.K. Theatre to help the U.K.'s pandemic-affected theater workers...

►Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment sells comic book giant's name, post-Marvel IP to Genius Brands. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the agreement between Genius Brands and Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment will create a joint venture to exploit over 100 original Stan Lee creations to create a "Stan Lee Universe." The Stan Lee IP collection will be built from all characters and IP created by Lee outside of Marvel Entertainment, now owned by Walt Disney.

--The Stan Lee Universe joint venture will hold the worldwide rights to the name, physical likeness, physical signature, live-action and animated motion picture, TV, online, digital, publishing, comic book, merchandising and licensing rights to Stan Lee and his IP creations. The story.

+Flashback: Last year Lee's daughter sued POW! Entertainment, alleging alleged that POW executives took advantage of Lee's deteriorating condition before he passed away by either inducing him to sign documents under fraudulent pretenses or forging his signature. The suit sought to reclaim name and likeness rights. More.

Canada's Cineplex sues Regal owner Cineworld over abandoned takeover. Cineplex is seeking damages, arguing the firm "breached its contractual obligations" in abandoning a planned takeover, while Cineworld says it "intends to counter-claim." The story.

+Johnny Depp's lawyers have failed to stop the American actor's ex-wife, Amber Heard, from attending his libel trial against the British tabloid newspaper The Sun until she is called to give evidence.

--In a court order published on Saturday, trial judge Andrew Nicol said that excluding Heard from the London courtroom before she testifies in the case "would inhibit the defendants in the conduct of their defense." The story.

 Remembering Nick Cordero, Ennio Morricone

►Nick Cordero, standout actor in Broadway musicals, dies of COVID-19 complications at 41. Nick Cordero, the charming Tony-nominated actor known for his work in Bullets Over Broadway, Waitress and A Bronx Tale the Musical, died Sunday after a grueling battle with the coronavirus, his wife announced. He was 41. The obituary.

+Zach Braff, Viola Davis, Josh Gad and others from the world of Hollywood and broadway mourned Cordero. The tributes.

►Ennio Morricone, prolific Italian composer for the movies, dies at 91. Renowned for scoring Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Westerns, the Oscar winner also produced the sounds and music for Days of Heaven, The Mission, Cinema Paradiso and The Hateful Eight. The obituary.

Obituaries: Edwin T. Vane, a longtime television executive at NBC, ABC and Group W Productions, died June 26 in Los Angeles of natural causes, his family announced. He was 93... Earl Cameron, the pioneering Black actor from Bermuda who starred in the 1951 British film Pool of London and later appeared in movies from Thunderball to Inception, has died. He was 102...

 Big Week Ahead For Disney...

►It's a big week for Disney: On Tuesday, NBA players will arrive at Disney World to begin preparing for a pandemic-abbreviated season, to be played in a "bubble" at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex. Major League Soccer's season will also kick of this week at the complex. On Saturday, meanwhile, Disney World will begin its phased reopening...

►Dish and ViacomCBS strike a new carriage deal. There were rumblings a couple of months ago that ViacomCBS channels could go dark on the satellite service, but the two companies have come to a new deal to keep CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and other channels on the pay-TV platform. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but Dish has shown itself to be a tough negotiator in recent years, freely dropping channels if it wasn't able to get favorable terms.

►John Boyega, Felicity Jones, Jack Reynor, Jodie Turner-Smith unite for thriller Borderland. The Guard Brothers will direct the film, which follows an Irish paramilitary seeking vengeance after the killing of his wife at the hands of British armed forces. The film will shoot on location in the UK in early 2021. Rocket Science is arranging the financing and handling international sales. Endeavour Content are co-repping the domestic rights. More.

►Analyst downgrades Spotify, citing stock gains since Joe Rogan podcast deal. Bernstein analyst Todd Juenger downgraded his rating on the stock of music streaming giant Spotify from "market perform" to "underperform," citing its run-up since a big podcasting deal with Joe Rogan. But he raised his stock price target from $134 to $172. The stock in pre-market trading on Monday was down slightly at $269, giving it a market capitalization of about $51 billion. More.

►Is Kanye 2020 for real? Kanye West decided to interrupt America's socially distanced July 4th celebrations by tweeting that he was planning to run for president in 2020, as in this year, the election that's taking place in four months. "We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States," West tweeted Saturday evening, along with the hashtag #2020VISION. The announcement was quickly endorsed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk who tweeted at the 43-year-old, "You have my full support!" 

--On the one hand, five years ago much of America laughed when Donald Trump descended an escalator in Trump Tower and declared that he was running for president. So why couldn't Kanye? On the other hand... it's too late to get on the ballot in many states, and even write-in campaigns require a certain amount of structure. Is Kanye 2020 Trump 2016 all over again? Or is it closer to Kid Rock's faux 2017 Senate run, which turned out to be a promotion for an album? We'll likely find out sooner rather than later.

►Handmaid's Tale: Elisabeth Moss and Margaret Atwood on whether there's a promised land for characters of Gilead. Heading into season four, the author and Hulu show's star/EP also discuss this precarious cultural moment and why they "don't think we're going to be writing a pandemic storyline." The interview.

►Netflix greenlights Pharrell Williams gospel docu-series Voices of Fire. The unscripted project will follow Pharrell’s uncle, Bishop Ezekiel Williams, as he sets out to find undiscovered talent. News of the series was announced at Essence Festival on Sunday by Williams and the Bishop. More.

+Floor Is Lava creators talk about the surprise Netflix reality hit. Creators Irad Eyal and Megan McGrath answer the biggest burning questions about Netflix's goofy game show, including what their proprietary "lava" is made of. The interview.

►The NHL may soon join MLB and the NBA in returning to play. The NHL and NHL Players' Association agreed Sunday on protocols to resume the season, a major step toward the return of hockey this summer. More.

In other news...

--Neil Young is "NOT ok" with his music being played at President Donald Trump's Mount Rushmore event on Friday.

--Vienna Blood, the period crime drama set in 1900s Austria that also aired on the BBC in the U.K. and PBS in the U.S., will get a second season.

--Shaun the Sheep has gone truly global. Aardman's much-loved animated farmyard creation and his flock of woolly friends are heading to China following a deal with Tencent Video.

--AT&T's WarnerMedia said on Monday that it has named Priya Dogra its new president of WarnerMedia Entertainment Networks, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) & Asia Pacific (APAC), based in London.

--Singer-songwriter Ryan Adams is breaking his silence and speaking out more than a year after facing allegations of sexual misconduct.

--Hong Kong director Derek Tsang's Better Days won the top prizes at the first—and perhaps only—virtual edition of Italy's Far East Film Festival (FEFF).

--Bill Pullman filmed a PSA for the Alamo Drafthouse theater chain in which he urges people to wear what he dubs a "freedom mask" as they celebrate the Fourth of July.

--A northern Illinois auto museum has no plan to stop displaying a Dodge Charger from the Dukes of Hazzard television show with the Confederate battle flag painted atop the vehicle.

What else we're reading...

--"How Netflix beat Hollywood to a generation of Black content" [NY Times]

--"Is anyone watching Quibi?" [Vulture]

--"Tom Hanks on surviving coronavirus: 'I had crippling body aches, fatigue and couldn't concentrate'" [The Guardian]

--"We now interrupt your regularly scheduled convention programming" [NY Times]

--"The future of the Black play-by-play announcer" [The Ringer]

Today's birthdays: 50 Cent, 45, Sylvester Stallone, 74, George W. Bush, 74, Kevin Hart, 41, Tia and Tamera Mowry, 42.