Europe Stakes Claim as the World's Digital Cop

►"In the democratic world [the DMA] will become the de facto standard." THR's Scott Roxborough looks at how Europe is staking its claim to be the world’s digital cop, with a series of new laws aimed at regulating Big Tech. Following last year’s Digital Services Act, which targeted abuse on social media, comes the Digital Markets Act, which went into effect on March 7 and has the much broader goal of combating unfair competition and preventing market dominance by the American tech giants. The analysis. 

—Urged to dismiss. Defense attorneys for Alec Baldwin urged a New Mexico judge on Thursday to dismiss a grand jury indictment against the actor in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of Rust. The indictment in January charged Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Halyna Hutchins on Oct. 21, 2021. Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to the charge. His attorneys in a new court filing accused prosecutors of “unfairly stacking the deck” against Baldwin in grand jury proceedings that diverted attention away from exculpatory evidence and witnesses. The story.

—ICYMI. Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says he wants to pull together a group of investors to buy TikTok. Mnuchin, who also has connections to Hollywood, announced his plans on CNBC Thursday morning. The House of Representatives passed a bill this week that would force TikTok owner Bytedance to divest the video platform, and while the bill’s future in the Senate is uncertain, potential buyers like Mnuchin are already beginning to pull together game plans, should it pass. The story.

—"I’d like to take the opportunity to show support and call for an immediate ceasefire and permanent ceasefire in Gaza." Renée Rapp called for a ceasefire in Gaza during the GLAAD Media Awards, held Thursday night at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles. The Mean Girls star's call for action was met with applause, and she added a plea for the audience "to continue to advocate for yourselves, continue to advocate for your friends, your queer friends and for those who can’t advocate for themselves." The story. 

—"This blatant exploitation of a vulnerable woman." Newly unsealed court filings in Wendy Williams' lawsuit against Lifetime parent company A+E Networks over the release of the Where Is Wendy Williams? doc appear to show that the company allegedly shot the film without obtaining consent from the former talk show host’s court-appointed guardian. The complaint claims that the contract A+E Networks brokered to shoot the doc was not valid, since Williams did not have the legal or mental capacity to authorize her participation at the time. The story. 

—Convicted. South Korean actor O Yeong-su, who played Oh Il-nam in Netflix's Squid Game, has been convicted of sexual misconduct and given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, for sexually harassing an actress in 2017. A district court judge in the city of Seongnam ruled Friday that the 79-year-old actor was guilty of inappropriately touching an actress, including hugging her, holding her hand and kissing her cheek. In addition to his suspended sentence, the Golden Globe winner will be required to complete 40 hours in a sexual violence treatment program. The story. 

'Black Mirror' S7 to Hit Netflix in 2025

►London calling. Black Mirror will return to Netflix for season 7 in 2025. The six-episode season of Charlie Brooker’s dark, satirical anthology series will include a sequel to the season 4 sci-fi adventure “USS Callister.” The news was revealed at the Next on Netflix event in London on Thursday. The preview event brought a slew of casting and content announcements and featured various Netflix executives and stars. The story. 

—Lovely jubbly. Also at Next at Netflix, the streamer confirmed new shows from Slow Horses producers See-Saw Films, Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight and His Dark Materials writer Jack Thorne. Among the new series, Jamie Dornan will play twin brothers in The Undertow, a U.K. adaptation of the Norwegian series Twin. In political thriller The Choice, Julie Delpy will play a fictional first French female president, opposite Suranne Jones as the British PM. Knight will be bringing his latest period drama, House of Guinness, to Netflix. The story.

—🎭 Bro show 🎭 Netflix has greenlit a limited series starring and executive produced by Jason Bateman and Jude Law. The two actors will play brothers in Black Rabbit, a drama from creators Zach Baylin (King Richard, Bob Marley: One Love) and Kate Susman. Bateman is also set to direct the first two episodes. The series has been in development since October 2022 and is based on an original idea from Baylin and Susman. The story.

—🎭 Cobenheads ahoy! 🎭 Rosalind Eleazar, Jessica Plummer, Richard Armitage and Lenny Henry will star in Missing You, one of its two upcoming Harlan Coben novel adaptations. Earlier in the year, the streamer had said that it would make limited series based on the author’s novels Missing You and Run Away, produced by Quay Street Productions. Missing You follows hot on the heels of the success of Coben's hit series, Fool Me Once. The story. 

Muschiettis, Skydance Launch Horror Label

►🤝 Banner year 🤝 THR's Borys Kit has the scoop on Andy and Barbara Muschietti, the filmmaking siblings behind the $1b grossing It movies, teaming up with Skydance to launch horror label, Nocturna. The Muschiettis will co-own the label and will run its creative direction. The focus of Nocturna will be on high quality, genre features for both theatrical and streaming, with the goal of producing two films per year. The first project will be They Will Kill You, written by Kirill Sokolov and Alex Litvak, with Sokolov attached to direct. The story. 

—🤝 "Artists-first" 🤝 French star Omar Sy is joining forces with Fast X director Louis Leterrier and Gangs of London producer Thomas Benski to launch Carrousel Studios, a new European independent studio. All three men are represented by CAA and CAA Media Finance set up the financing for the venture. Carrousel will have offices in Paris, London, Los Angeles and Senegal, and focus on action, thrillers, sci-fi, fantasy and comedy projects for film and TV. The story. 

—📅 Quick turnaround 📅 Emma Stone's third feature collaboration with Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos has landed a summer release date from Searchlight Pictures. The studio announced Thursday that sci-fi anthology movie Kinds of Kindness will hit theaters June 21. The film stars Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie and Hunter Schafer. The story. 

—📅 Time to lead 📅 Universal will release Ke Huy Quan’s next movie With Love on Feb. 7, 2025. The action feature marks the Oscar-winning actor’s first time leading a major movie. Plot details are scant at the moment, but veteran stunt coordinator and fight coordinator Jonathan Eusebio makes his directorial debut with the project. With Love is produced by 87North, the stunt-centric banner behind Nobody, Violent Night and The Fall Guy. The story. 

—"We need to get it to where we’re both super happy with it." Patty Jenkins gave a promising update on her long-presumed-dead Star Wars movie Rogue Squadron on Thursday. The Wonder Woman director says she’s back in active development on the project and is working on a draft for Lucasfilm. Jenkins had been announced as the director of Rogue Squadron in December 2020, then in November 2021, THR reported the film was delayed due to Jenkins’ commitments to other projects, and it was officially taken off of Lucasfilm’s production schedule. The story. 

—"Masterpiece." A24 revealed Alex Garland's provocative action drama Civil War at SXSW on Thursday night. Screening to a packed audience at Austin’s Paramount Theater, Civil War was revealed to be a tribute to war journalism that veers away from the politics that led to the central conflict. THR's full review is below, but early reactions from the premiere screening hit social media yesterday, and A24 may have another banger on their hands. The reactions. 

'The Bear' Will Film S3 and S4 Back to Back

►Heard, chef! FX’s The Bear has quietly been renewed for a fourth season. While FX declined comment on the pickup, sources note that seasons three and four will film back to back in a bid to keep the show on its annual release target as the cast and creatives continue to line their calendars with feature work as a result of the show’s widespread success. Season three of The Bear was announced in November, with the series slated to return this year. Season four will likely air in 2025. The story. 

—Saved! Snowpiercer's final season will see the light of day after all. AMC has picked up rights to all four seasons of the post-apocalyptic drama — including the completed but never aired fourth season. The series first aired on TNT, but the Warner Bros. Discovery network canceled the show in January 2023 as it and sister channels TBS and TruTV left the scripted business. The first three seasons of Snowpiercer will begin streaming on AMC+ later this year, with the final season set to premiere on both AMC and AMC+ in early 2025. The story. 

—The end is in sight. A day after unveiling plans for a prequel series tracing the Origins of Power Book II: Ghost characters Ghost and Tommy (Omari Hardwick and Joseph Sikora), Starz revealed that the second series in the Power franchise will come to a conclusion with its upcoming fourth season. The final season of Ghost will be split into two parts, with the first arriving June 7, followed by the second half starting Sept. 6. The show’s June debut is tied to the 10th anniversary of the debut of the flagship series in the Power franchise. The story. 

—🎭 Back to ABC 🎭 Modern Family star Ty Burrell has been tapped to star in Forgive and Forget, a multicamera comedy that has been ordered to pilot at ABC. From writer Eugene Garcia-Cross (The Santa Clauses), Forgive and Forget revolves around Hank (Burrell), the perennial life of the party, who, after an unexpected diagnosis, reconnects with his responsible adult son Ben in hopes of making new memories together. The story. 

—Feeling the love. Netflix debuted the sixth season of Love Is Blind on Valentine’s Day, and the show captured a lot of viewers’ hearts — or at least their eyes. The dating show easily led Nielsen’s original streaming series rankings for Feb. 12-18, drawing 907m minutes of viewing time in the U.S. It also finished third overall, behind library shows Bluey (1.17b minutes on Disney+) and Young Sheldon (1b on Netflix and Max). Those two swapped spots from the previous week. Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air hit the rankings for the first time. The streaming rankings. 

Bassem Youssef on the Risk of Alienating Everyone

►"I could either lose my career forever in Hollywood or lose my connection with my Arab people." THR's Mikey O'Connell spoke to comedian Bassem Youssef, the satirist once dubbed "Egypt's Jon Stewart," on how he is navigating his current priorities — speaking out for Gaza in the media and his comparatively apolitical stand-up tour — as best he can. The interview. 

—"The kind of heckles I get are like, 'Be sadder!'" THR's Lacey Rose spoke to comedian Neal Brennan ahead of his new Netflix special, Crazy Good, that drops on April 9. Brennan discusses the perks or upside of "bad mental health," the perplexing expectations surrounding the modern-day stand-up and why he’s gotten more comfortable in the spotlight. The interview. 

Film Review: 'Civil War'

►"A subversive and unsettling exercise." THR's Lovia Gyarkye reviews Alex Garland's Civil War. Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny and Nick Offerman star in the Ex Machina and Annihilation director's latest feature about a group of journalists chronicling a violent conflict in the United States. The review.

—"Rocky overall, but with a handful of knockout moments." Lovia reviews Ben Brewer's Arcadian. Nicolas Cage stars alongside Jaeden Martell and Sadie Soverall in a SXSW-premiering post-apocalyptic feature about a father who will do anything to protect his sons. The review.

—"Never dull, but more educational than inspired." THR's chief film critic David Rooney reviews John Ridley's Shirley. Regina King, the late Lance Reddick, Lucas Hedges and Terrence Howard star in this Netflix drama chronicling Shirley Chisholm’s historic 1972 run for the Democratic presidential nomination. The review.

—"A modest charmer." THR's Angie Han reviews Roshan Sethi's A Nice Indian Boy. After getting engaged to a white photographer raised by Indian parents, an Indian American doctor faces the challenge of introducing him to his traditional family, starring Karan Soni and Jonathan Groff. The review.

—"Good intentions, uneven execution." Angie reviews Sarah Zandieh's Doin' It. A 30-something gets a job teaching sex ed to high schoolers despite the fact that she's still a virgin in this film starring and co-written by Lilly Singh. The review.

—"A fresh and lyrical take on the genre." THR's Dan Fienberg reviews Contessa Gayles's Songs From the Hole. Taking a poetic approach, Gayles views James Jacobs' life, imprisonment and dreams of freedom through a music-video lens in this SXSW-premiering documentary. The review.

Thank Pod It's Friday

►All the latest content from THR's podcast studio.

—Awards Chatter. THR's executive awards editor Scott Feinberg talks to the great and the good of Hollywood. In this live episode, Scott spoke to Tony Goldwyn. The actor-turned-filmmaker reflects on his deep Hollywood roots, juggling acting roles like the ones he played in Ghost and Scandal with directing gigs like A Walk on the Moon and Conviction, and his latest film Ezra — which he directed and stars in — about a boy with autism. Listen here.

—It Happened in Hollywood. THR senior writer Seth Abramovitch goes behind the scenes of the pop culture moments that shaped Hollywood history. In this episode, Seth spoke to Stephen Frears. The Brit filmmaker joins the pod to discuss the making of his 1988 hit, Dangerous Liaisons, that was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won three, for costume design, art direction and adapted screenplay. Listen here.

In other news...

—Bill Skarsgard seeks revenge in first The Crow trailer

—Food, Inc. 2 trailer: Acclaimed documentary is "back for seconds"

—David Corenswet, Lucy Boynton revisit their doomed love story in The Greatest Hits trailer

—Eva Longoria among two recipients of $50m Jeff Bezos Award

—Juliette Binoche named European Film Academy president

—Ron Nyswaner to receive WGA East’s Walter Bernstein Award at Writers Guild Awards

—Joseph Quinn to receive CinemaCon breakthrough performer of the year award

—Joe Jonas sells New York City condo with huge terrace for $5.36m

—Santa Monica Pier’s Pacific Park sells to investment group

—Sam Mercer, producer of M. Night Shyamalan films, dies at 69

​​​What else we're reading...

—Constance Grady goes deep into Kategate and wonders, after the debacle over Harry and Meghan, who is the British royal family willing to protect? [Vox]

—Dais Johnston meets a Dune superfan who has seen Part Two 14 times (!) already and Part One over 200 times (!!) [Inverse]

—In an opinion piece reflecting on Jonathan Glazer's Oscars speech, Naomi Klein writes that The Zone of Interest is about the danger of ignoring atrocities – including in Gaza [Guardian]

—Angela Yang reports that Pornhub has disabled its website in Texas amid a legal battle with the state's attorney general's office [NBC News]

—Here's your Friday list: "The 53 best movies under 90 minutes" [Vulture]

Today...  

...in 1985, Albert Brooks unveiled his R-rated, dark road-trip comedy Lost in America in theaters. The original review.

Today's birthdays: David Cronenberg (81), Eva Longoria (49), Brian Tee (47), Jai Courtney (38), Frances Conroy (71), Kim Raver (55), Alia Bhatt (31), Judd Hirsch (89), Dave Burd (36), Pierre Coffin (57), Will.i.am (49), Joaquim de Almeida (67), Renny Harlin (65), Kellan Lutz (39), Eva Amurri (39), Tom Bateman (35), Pollyanna McIntosh (45), Sosie Bacon (32), Anna Shaffer (32), Monica Dolan (55), Sean Biggerstaff (41), María Hervás (37), Cas Anvar (58), Robyn Malcolm (59), Renoly Santiago (50), Jack Alcott (25), Greg Nicotero (61), Cara Pifko (48), Francesca Mills (28), Lisa Langlois (65), Chelsea Rendon (31), Mark McGrath (56)