The Toronto International Film Festival

►It's TIFF Time: It isn't exactly a normal event or a normal year, but Toronto will be hosting (at least some of) Hollywood in-person this time around. While dealmakers will mostly do business online for the second straight year, filmmakers tell THR's Etan Vlessing that they are thrilled at the opportunity to screen their movies in front of a live audience: "It will be an incredibly special moment." The story.

+Slightly rough start: The festival had to scramble on opening day to repair a virtual cinema screening platform that stalled for select festival lineup titles. “We are aware of an issue that impacted a select number of films on TIFF Digital Cinema Pro, where the films do not play successfully in your browsers,” TIFF organizers said in a statement on Thursday. More.

+Dear Evan Hansen opens the fest: "'Wow. Here you all are!,' Stephen Chbosky, director of the movie version of the hit Broadway play Dear Evan Hansen for Universal Pictures, proclaimed from the stage of the Roy Thomson Hall as he opened the 46th edition of the festival on Thursday night.

--As mask-wearing and socially-distanced fest-goers in Roy Thomson Hall struggled to get into the mood, Chobsky celebrated the return of audiences to movie theaters as TIFF launched its 2021 edition.  “You guys get to have the bragging rights forever to say you were here, not only for the opening night of Dear Evan Hansen, not only for the opening night of TIFF, but as far as I’m concerned, the opening night of cinema in theaters in North America. You’re here,” he told the Roy Thomson Hall audience. The story.

+THR's review: Michael Rechtshaffen writes that "a weakness for the formulaic, combined with a noticeably weighty running time, continually bumps up against the film’s many fine points." The full review.

►MSNBC head Rashida Jones says “our innocence was under attack” on 9/11. Speaking to THR at TIFF, the first Black exec to lead a major TV news channel recalls covering the 2001 terrorist attacks as a 20-year-old college student working at a local TV station in Norfolk, Virginia. More.

►TIFF hot list: Dealmaking will likely be subdued thanks to the COVID-19 effect (again), but from an action thriller about beekeeping (you read that correctly) to a time-traveling rom-com, there are plenty of projects to entice buyers. Here's this year's hot list.

--Meanwhile: CineAsia, the exhibition and distribution industry conference usually hosted every fall somewhere in Asia Pacific, has canceled its 2021 edition amid Delta variant outbreaks throughout much of region. More.

►A Paramount shakeup, just in: Jim Gianopulos will be leaving Paramount as Chairman and CEO, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Brian Robbins, who currently runs kids network Nickelodeon for parent company ViacomCBS, is expected to take over. A source familiar with the matter says that Robbins will continue to oversee the company's kids division in addition to his new Paramount responsibilities. The story.
 

Another Childhood Reboot

►An icon, reimagined: Before there was Ted, there was Teddy Ruxpin, the animatronic teddy bear that became a childhood staple for kids raised in the ’80s. And now the talking teddy is ready to make the leap to film and television.

--DJ2 Entertainment, the production company behind adaptations of video game properties including Sonic the Hedgehog, Life Is Strange and Tomb Raider, has acquired rights to the iconic toy with plans to develop the character for the big and small screens. The story.

►News from CBS' TCA day: David and Jessica Oyelowo are putting down roots at ViacomCBS. The couple has inked an exclusive overall deal with ViacomCBS and its MTV Entertainment Studios to develop scripted and unscripted fare via their Yoruba Saxon shingle. Under the pact, the pair of actors will work alongside 101 Studios as a production partner.

--The first project under the agreement is Bass Reeves, a limited series in which the Selma, The Butler and Nightingale actor will star as the Wild West lawman. The story.

+Justin Hartley is solidifying his future post-This Is Us. The actor behind Kevin Pearson will star in and exec produce The Never Game, based on the novel by Jeffrey Deaver, for CBS. The drama, which reunites Hartley with This Is Us director/EP Ken Olin, has scored a pilot production commitment from the network.

--The Never Game was one of multiple announcements CBS made during its virtual time with the Television Critics Association on Thursday. Other news included the return of Big Brother: Celebrity Edition for winter 2022 (with cast being announced later); Usher, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Julianne Hough to host Global Citizen competition series The Activist; and a New Year’s Eve special set to air live from Nashville and feature some of country music’s biggest stars. The details.

In other TV news...

+XOXO: HBO Max is extending the run of its Gossip Girl update. The WarnerMedia-owned streaming service has renewed Gossip Girl for a second season. The pickup comes midway through the show’s 12-episode first season, the second half of which is slated to begin in November. The story.

+She's back: Judge Judy Sheindlin is heading back to the bench. After a brief hiatus, television’s most famous legal personality announced that she’ll premiere her new daily series, Judy Justice, Nov. 1 on Amazon’s IMDb TV. More.

+TV's Top 5 podcast: During this week's podcast, hosts Lesley Goldberg and Daniel Fienberg are joined by Y: The Last Man comic creator Brian K. Vaughan and showrunner Eliza Clark to discuss the FX on Hulu series. Listen.

+Behind The Screen podcast: This week Carolyn Giardina speaks with the director of 9/11: One Day in America, which was developed and executive produced by 72 Films with National Geographic, and made in partnership with the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York. Listen.

A 'Halloween' Surprise

►Peacock is getting some killer IP: Halloween Kills will premiere day-and-date in theaters and on Peacock on Oct. 15, Universal said Thursday.Jamie Lee Curtis once again plays Laurie Strode, while Nick Castle returns as the killer Michael Myers, with David Gordon Green directing the follow-up to the 2018 film, which earned $255.4 million in theaters.

--Universal previously released the animated kids’ movie The Boss Baby: Family Business day-and-date on Peacock, which runs at $4.99 or $9.99 per month. The Boss Baby sequel pulled in $57 million at the domestic box office. The story.

►New Christopher Nolan drama: Filmmaker Christopher Nolan has a new film project and for the first time in over a decade, there is no studio behind it ready to act as distributor. Multiple sources say that Nolan has a film project centered on J. Robert Oppenheimer, the scientist who is considered one of the fathers of the atom bomb that he helped develop during World War II.

--However, as opposed to past projects, Nolan’s new movie isn’t being automatically set up at Warner Bros., the home of all his films since 2008. Other than his period thriller The Prestige, made for Disney in 2006, his involvement with Warners goes back to 2002 with Insomnia. In addition to Warners, Nolan is talking with Universal and Sony. The story.

►An Orphan prequel: Paramount Pictures has picked up the domestic rights to horror thriller Orphan: First Kill from eOne and Dark Castle. The movie, now in post-production, is a prequel to Dark Castle’s 2009 movie, Orphan, which was distributed by Warner Bros. EOne and Dark Castle co-financed the prequel that was directed by William Brent Bell, who previously helmed The Boy and The Devil Inside. More.

In other film news...

+Two Netflix feature pickups: A feature adaption of the novel We Were Never Here is in the works at Netflix. The project comes from Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter’s Berlanti/Schechter Films and Molly Sims’ Something Happy Productions... Stephen Curry and Erick Peyton’s Unanimous Media will team with Netflix for a feature adaption of Jewell Parker Rhodes’ YA sports novel Black Brother, Black Brother...

+From the pitch to the peak: Juno Temple, perhaps best known for her starring role in Apple’s hit soccer series Ted Lasso, has joined Ewan McGregor, Sam Heughan and Mark Strong in Doug Liman’s upcoming frosty adventure, Everest.

+In other horror news: Malignant, director James Wan’s much anticipated return to the horror genre, has scored a rare day-and-date streaming release in China.

+Speaking of, here's Frank Scheck's review of the horror film, writing that "while Malignant clearly reflects the filmmaker’s love for classic giallo, it feels less an homage than the sort of half-baked imitation conceived as the result of a dare." The review.

+Diane Kruger and rising star Talia Ryder are set to don ballet shoes for writer-director James Napier Robertson’s Joika, which has also landed a number of key territory deals and now has a production date in its sights. 

+Imax wants that Netflix magic: Former Netflix exec John Turner has been tapped by Imax as head of documentaries for the giant screen exhibitor.

Margaret Brennan Returns to Sunday Mornings

►Politics, anyone? Margaret Brennan returns to CBS' Face The Nation this weekend following her maternity leave. She comes back to CBS with a new title (chief foreign correspondent) and with her name added to the title of the Sunday show. When she went on leave in the spring, she thought she would return to a country with the pandemic firmly behind it.

--“I thought I was going to come back to a pretty different picture as to what COVID would be for America at this moment,” Brennan told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview. “I had the last dose of my vaccine the week before I gave birth, and my baby is four months old and I am coming back and it is still full-force concern about COVID.” The interview.

►Media Res CEO Michael Ellenberg on The Morning Show, its COVID pivot and going toe-to-toe with Disney. The former HBO drama head also discusses rising budgets, why indie studios still matter and the red-hot market for book rights.

--Oh, and about the Hello Sunshine sale: "What it speaks to is, in a larger sense, independent companies still matter. We’re in the most consolidated period in Hollywood since the 1930s, and there are going to be a few independent companies that really matter. Hello Sunshine is one, and Media Res, we believe, is one." The interview.

►Fox suit update: Thanks to a ruling on Thursday, Jennifer Eckhart will be able to proceed in a lawsuit against Fox News over its responsibility for a correspondent’s sexual misconduct. Eckhart, a former associate producer on Fox Business Network, alleges she endured years of sexual harassment including lewd messages from Ed Henry, former White House correspondent. Henry was fired as a result of her charges, but the termination wasn’t enough to stop Eckhart from going to court against Fox News.

--U.S. District Court Judge Ronnie Abrams sees enough in her complaint to allow a claim for harassment under New York State Human Rights Law although the judge is dismissing a second claim for sex trafficking. The story.

In other news...

--CNBC has signed a new deal with Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money and Squawk on the Street regular. The deal also includes a multiplatform element, with Cramer set to write articles and create web videos for CNBC’s website. The company will also launch a new subscription product, the CNBC Investor Club with Jim Cramer, and will work with Cramer to create and launch new live events and conferences.

--Jim Lanzone will become CEO of Yahoo, which last week spun out from its former parent company Verizon, and is controlled by the private equity firm Apollo. Lanzone starts at Yahoo on Sept. 27.

--With Nielsen’s accreditation for measuring national TV ratings about to be suspended, a TV trade association is pushing forward to seek out new ways of measuring audiences. Nielsen itself, meanwhile, has admitted to some shortcomings and is pledging to speed up advancements in its product.

--Art Metrano, the stand-up comedian with a mock magic act who was the butt of jokes as the pompous cop boss Ernie Mauser in the second and third Police Academy films, has died. He was 84.

--Liz McCann, the colorful Broadway producer who guided such productions as The Elephant Man, Amadeus and The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? on the way to nine Tony Awards, has died. She was 90.

What else we're reading...

--"Can TV get big again?" [N.Y. Times]

--"Smart glasses by Facebook and Ray-Ban mix cool with creepy" [WSJ]

--"Michael C. Hall is taking another stab at Dexter" [Entertainment Weekly]

--"Not so normal people" [Air Mail]

Today's birthdays: Ryan Phillippe, 47, Colin Firth, 61, Bill O'Reilly, 72, Big Daddy Kane, 53, Jack Ma, 57.