Disney's Theatrical Commitment

►Au revoir, Disney+ Premier Access? The remainder of Disney's 2021 movie slate including Eternals and West Side Story will get the theatrical treatment for a 45-day window, while the animated movie Encanto will have a 30-day window, the company said Friday. The move follows a big Labor Day box office haul for Marvel pic Shang-Chi, suggesting that big blockbusters can still bring people to theaters even in a COVID-impacted world.

--Meanwhile, Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid has scored a Memorial Day Weekend 2023 opening. The story.

Apple Takes On The Preschool Set

►Muno, Brobee and the Yo Gabba Gabba crew are getting a new life. Apple TV+ has ordered a new series based on the former Nickelodeon show, which featured a human character, DJ Lance Rock, and a crew of puppets (Muno, Brobee, Plex, Foofa and Toodee) performing songs and sketches and dancing. The tech giant has picked up 20 half-hour episodes and acquired the original series’ 66-episode library. The story.

In other TV news...

+More Maher: The premium cable outlet has picked up two more seasons of the late-night show Real Time with Bill Maher, which will take it through 2024 — and into its third decade at HBO. Real Time debuted in February 2003. The renewal comes midway through the show’s current multi-season order, which runs through 2022. More.

+Nickelodeon's NFL play: The ViacomCBS cable outlet and CBS Sports will launch a weekly football highlights show, NFL Slimetime, on Sept. 15. Nickelodeon will also air a wild card playoff game in January for the second consecutive year; the channel scored strong ratings for its inaugural NFL telecast earlier this year. More.

+Speaking of the NFL: The NFL returned to television in a big way on Thursday. The opening game of the 2021 season scored its biggest total audience — including TV and streaming — in six years. More.

TIFF roundup

►Awards watch: Hopefuls like Jane Campion's Power of the Dog and Kenneth Branagh's Belfast are riding momentum out of Venice and Telluride, while buzzy premieres like The Eyes of Tammy Faye and Dear Evan Hansen will look to make a big splash in Toronto, Scott Feinberg writes. The story.

►TIFF's COVID clampdown: From mobile units to couriers and house calls (even to hotels), TIFF is offering festgoers a range of options for rapid testing via medical service providers throughout the city. More.

Interviews...

+Jessica Chastain on her Tammy Faye trepidations: “I’m going to fail so spectacularly.” It took nearly a decade for the actress to bring her passion project to the screen, but even after immersing herself in the role — she visited the evangelist’s church once a week during production — she had to get past her own fear, Mia Galuppo writes. The interview.

+Jane Campion on The Power of the Dog’s toxic masculinity and why she won’t make a Marvel movie. The director, whose first film in over a decade will screen at TIFF, also discusses bringing the Benedict Cumberbatch-starring film to Netflix, starting a pop-up film school in New Zealand and her fleeting sense of power in the industry. The interview.

+How Dune cinematographer Greig Fraser created the look of Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic. "You don't want to be the guy who messes up the photography in Dune," the Oscar-nominated Fraser tells THR's Carolyn Giardina in Friday's TIFF Visionaries Talk. More.

Here's THR's full TIFF daily.

 

Is Comic-Con the Linear TV of Fandom Events?

►A cliffhanger: The San Diego event has long reigned supreme, but as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to complicate in-person gatherings, a wave of virtual experiences from studios and streamers is filling the void and could become the new standard.

--“While it was created because of the pandemic, through the process there were so many [lessons] about going straight to the fan base, launching globally all at once and the value of keeping it within the DC Comics branded banner,” recalls former Warner Bros. TV Group president and chief marketing officer Lisa Gregorian, who helped spearhead the company's DC Fandome event. “Suddenly, we had the technology tools, access to talent and audience participation to go live ourselves, and the question became: How do we create something really special to super serve the fans globally?” The story.

+What about the trade shows? The uncertainly surrounding the 2021 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show, currently slated to take place Oct. 9-13 in Las Vegas, keeps growing. Sony Electronics — traditionally one of the event’s largest exhibitors — said on Tuesday that it has made the decision to withdraw, followed by another large exhibitor, Canon, which announced that it pulled out on Friday. The story.

►A split decision in Epic v. Apple: In a highly anticipated decision, a California federal judge has handed down a nuanced ruling with respect to how Apple controls its app platform. Apple has escaped the determination that it is a monopolist, but thanks to conduct that a judge finds to be anti-competitive, Apple must now allow developers to tell consumers how to make purchases outside of apps. More.

►Critic’s Notebook: How post-9/11 Hollywood has mirrored our anxieties — and redefined its love of disaster. In everything from first-person documentaries to tentpole spectacles, a broad spectrum of filmmakers — among them Spike Lee, Paul Greengrass and Kathryn Bigelow — have grappled with the horror of the attacks, the geopolitical ramifications and, less directly, the emotional fallout, Jordan Mintzer writes. The notebook.

In other news...

--Andy Garcia has joined the magnum-muscled cast of the latest installment of The Expendables, the action franchise from Lionsgate and Millennium Media.

--MGM has snatched up rights in most of world outside of North America for Queen Bees, aka At Last, Michael Lembeck’s comedy drama starring Ellen Burstyn, Jane Curtin, Loretta Devine, Ann-Margret, and James Caan.

--A year on from its seismic review that saw more than 120 wide-ranging changes to its voting, membership and campaigning process, the British Academy has unveiled a number of considerably smaller tweaks to its BAFTA film awards voting rules, while also extending and amending eligibility criteria put in place during the pandemic.

--English actress Kathryn Prescott, known for her roles in A Dog’s Journey and Finding Carter, has been hospitalized after being struck by a concrete truck.

What else we're reading...

--"On TV, 9/11 was last huge story for ‘Big 3’ network anchors" [AP]

--"How Disney Channel sold patriotism to kids after 9/11" [Jezebel]

--"A photographer's vision of the World Trade Center" [Vanity Fair]

--"A key legacy of 9/11? The way conspiracy theories spread online" [Washington Post]

Today's birthdays: Harry Connick Jr, 54, Moby, 56, Brian De Palma, 81, Ludacris, 44, Taraji P. Henson, 51.