Hollywood Stocks Splutter in 2022 

►"Disney is a full-on bull/bear debate." Media and entertainment sector stocks are down at the mid-year mark, with many posting bigger drops than the 20 percent fall in the broader-based S&P 500 stock index. THR's Georg Szalai and Etan Vlessing survey a variety of market analysts on how long the pain will last. The analysis. 

—"You made me do things that broke my spirit." Convicted sex offender R. Kelly was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison for using his fame to sexually abuse young fans, including some who were just children, in a systematic scheme that went on for decades. Through tears and anger, several of Kelly’s accusers told a court, and the singer himself, that he had misled and preyed upon them. The story. 

—Back in business together. Kate Winslet is heading back to HBO for limited series Trust, based on Hernan Diaz’s best-selling novel. The Mare of Easttown Emmy winner will star in and exec produce the drama. The project will follow a wealthy financier who reads a novel based on his life and is upset with how he and his wife are portrayed. He hires a secretary to ghostwrite a memoir in hopes of setting the record straight. The story. 

—"An organization that is beholden to the Communist Party of China." A Federal Communications commissioner is urging Apple and Alphabet to remove TikTok from the companies’ app stores. According to a letter addressed to the chief executives of the companies, FCC commissioner Brendan Carr said TikTok poses an “unacceptable security risk” because it mines extensive user data, which is being accessed by employees in China. The story. 

Cameron Diaz Back in Action for 'Back in Action'

►Wily Foxx. Cameron Diaz is coming out of acting retirement after eight years to star with Jamie Foxx in a Netflix feature aptly titled Back in Action. The last time that Diaz appeared onscreen was in the film adaptation of Annie in 2014, which also starred Foxx. The duo also appeared together in 1999's Any Given Sunday. Seth Gordon will direct from a script he wrote with Brendan O’Brien. The storyline for the action-comedy is being kept under wraps, but production is due to start later this year. The story. 

—What if every single person on the planet got a genie and one wish? THR's Borys Kit went scoop mental yesterday, the first of his exclusives was the news that Amazon Studios picking up the rights to Eight Billion Genies, the comic book by Charles Soule and Ryan Browne. The deal is significant for the streamer as it involves not only feature films but series and more. The lofty mission for the property is for it to be the basis of an expansive cross-media universe, starting with a feature. The story. 

—Alice is optioned. The second scoop from good ol' Borys is Paramount optioning the rights to immersive role-playing game Alice Is Missing. The Summer I Turned Pretty writer and producer Becca Gleason is attached to direct and co-write the adaptation. Alice is an immersive and so-called silent RPG played entirely via text message. The game was introduced only two years ago after a successful Kickstarter campaign, but quickly took off. The story. 

—Rich source material. Borys' hat trick scoop is the late Philip K. Dick getting the biopic treatment. The legendary sci-fi author, whose works have been translated into popular movies such as Blade Runner and Minority Report, is the subject of Only Apparently Real. Jon Shestack is producing the film, based in part on a biography written by Paul Williams, the onetime literary executor of Dick’s estate and friend of the author. Michael Richter wrote the script and is also producing. The story.

How An OG YouTube Creator Thinks About the Rise of TikTok

►"I have such confidence in YouTube’s stature as a video platform." Tech reviewer Marques Brownlee, also known as MKBHD, first posted videos to YouTube as a teen in 2009. He now has 15.8 million subscribers and is expanding his business to new ventures, including launching a Discord subscription. THR's J. Clara Chan spoke to Brownlee about the lifecycle of a digital creator and why he's backing YouTube despite all the competition. The interview.

—More subs in a down market? Snapchat has launched a subscription tier that will give users new features but the same advertising experience as non-subscribers. Snapchat+, which launched on Wednesday, costs $3.99 a month and is available in nine countries including the U.S. and Canada. At launch, subscribers will receive new features like the ability to see who has rewatched their stories and pin a “best friend” to their profile. The story.

—No place like home. Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical will have its world premiere as well as open this year’s BFI London Film Festival. The Netflix movie stars Emma Thompson, Lashana Lynch, Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, Sindhu Vee and introduces Alisha Weir as the eponymous Matilda. The story.

—Pucker! British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has launched a dedicated cooking channel, dubbed The Jamie Oliver Channel, on Amazon’s ad-supported streaming service Freevee. The channel will bring together the catalog of Oliver’s cooking and food shows, including  American Road Trip, 30 Minute Meals and Jamie’s Kitchen, among others. It will mark the first time Oliver’s hit cooking shows will be featured together all in one place. The story.

—First-look deal news. Rashida Jones and Will McCormack's Le Train Train has signed a first-look deal with Lionsgate Television, under which they’ll produce scripted programming for a range of platforms. The first project for Jones and McCormack is an adaptation of the British romantic comedy Lovesick, in which a guy tries to contact all of his former sexual partners after finding out he has an STI. The story. 

Film Review: 'Minions: The Rise of Gru' 

►"More of the same, but still fun." THR film critic Frank Scheck reviews Kyle Balda's Minions: The Rise of Gru. This fifth installment in the Despicable Me franchise delivers the origin story of how the devilish little yellow creatures became allied with their villainous cohort. The review. 

—"A dry, tasteless slab of red meat." THR's chief TV critic Dan Fienberg reviews Amazon Prime Video's The Terminal List. Chris Pratt headlines this starry series adaptation of Jack Carr's novel about a Navy SEAL trying to unravel a vast conspiracy related to his team's disastrous final mission. The review. 

In other news...

—Julia Roberts and George Clooney begrudgingly reunite in Ticket to Paradise trailer

—Jason Momoa’s See releases trailer for third and final season of Apple series

—Next South Park made-for-TV film dropping in July on Paramount+

—Jurassic World Dominion screenwriter and Elvis dialect coach are engaged

—TV ratings: BET Awards rebound with double-digit gains

—Jigsaw Productions options Wired writer’s cryptocurrency book

—Ne-Yo leaves ICM for APA

—Reservation Dogs star Devery Jacobs signs with CAA

—Japan’s Wowow to produce live-action spinoff of classic anime series Yatterman

—Gregory Jein, Star Trek model maker and two-time Oscar nominee, dies at 76

What else we're reading...

—Peter Kafka and Rani Molla explain why Netflix made us all wait a month to watch the rest of Stranger Things S4 [Vox]

—With Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis in cinemas, Stephen Thomas Erlewine asks whether Elvis Presley still matters [LAT]

—Rachel Handler's oral history of Robert Zemeckis' sci-fi classic Contact, which includes info on George Miller's mental movie pitch that never was [Vulture]

—The always great Dave Itzkoff has another great profile, this time with Kiwi larrikin Taika Waititi [NYT]

—Fascinating story on Chinese tech unicorn Didi's $60b crash that has led some investors to call China uninvestable [Bloomberg]

Today...  

...in 1933, Clark Gable and Jean Harlow hit the big screen together again in MGM's Hold Your Man as it made its New York City premiere. The film, directed by Sam Wood, was the third of their six films Gable and Harlow starred in together. The original review.

Today's birthdays: Lizzy Caplan (40), Vincent D'Onofrio (63), Molly Parker (50), Marton Csokas (56), Adil El Arbi (34), Angela Sarafyan (39), Tom Burke (41), Bashir Salahuddin (46), Monica Potter (51), Deirdre Lovejoy (60), Rupert Graves (59), David Alan Grier (66), Rick Gonzalez (43), Katherine Ryan (39), Elliot Fletcher (26), Ashley Walters (40), Mark Waters (58), Larry Auerbach (93)