Dianne Wiest & Stockard Channing Returning For ‘Practical Magic 2'; Lee Pace, Maisie Williams, Xolo Maridueña And Solly Mcleod Also Set
The pair reprise their roles as Aunt Jet and Aunt Franny, the eccentric and wise matriarchs who took in witch sisters Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian Owens (Nicole Kidman) following the death of their parents and taught them everything they know about magic, mischief, and self-reliance.
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Production on the sequel is now underway, with Bullock and Kidman returning. Joey King has now locked down the role of Sally's daughter, after being tipped as being in talks. Rounding out the cast, we have Lee Pace (Foundation), Maisie Williams (The New Look), Xolo Maridueña (Blue Beetle), and Solly McLeod (The Dead Don't Hurt). Character details for the newcomers are under wraps, as is the plot of the sequel, to be released in theaters worldwide on September 18, 2026.
First announced last summer, the new Practical Magic movie is being directed by Susanne Bier (The Perfect Couple, Bird Box). Akiva Goldsman, who co-wrote the original film, has returned to write the script with Georgia Pritchett (Succession). Bullock and Kidman are producing alongside the original film's Denise Di Novi.
In a statement on today's castings, the Practical Magic filmmaking team said, 'Twenty-five years ago, Sally, Gillian, Aunt Jet and Aunt Franny flew off the pages of Alice Hoffman's beloved novel and into theaters around the world, and we are thrilled to bring the Owens family back to the big screen with Joey, Lee, Maisie, Solly and Xolo joining the next chapter in our story. The enduring affection for these characters has been our inspiration to deliver the next installment in the Owens' story to new fans, and those who've been with us since the beginning.'
Directed by Griffin Dunne, Practical Magic adapted the 1995 novel from Alice Hoffman. The story introduces Sally and Gillian Owens as sisters who come from a long line of witches. Raised by their eccentric aunts in a magical household, they must confront a deadly curse and their own powers when love and danger collide. The original film grossed over $68M worldwide.
Wiest is repped by CAA; Channing by Markham, Froggatt and Irwin, CAA, Anonymous Content, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller; Pace by WME and Peikoff Mahan; Williams by Curtis Brown Group, Ocean Avenue, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman; Maridueña by UTA, Valor Entertainment Group, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller; and McLeod by CAA, The Artists Partnership, and manager Arjun Rose.
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27 Cool Movies Facts
In It: Chapter Two, a record 5,000 gallons of fake blood (the most for any movie ever) were used to shoot that iconic bathroom scene. To get the shot just right, Jessica Chastain basically had to bathe in a kiddie pool of fake blood, which she said was freezing. Megan Mullally was fired from her role in Finding Nemo for refusing to do her high-pitched Karen Walker voice from Will & Grace. According to Mullally, the studio originally agreed that she could do whatever voice she wanted for the undisclosed character, but as time went on they kept requesting the one she used for Will & Grace. She refused, so they fired her. In Singin' in the Rain, Gene Kelly insulted Debbie Reynolds' dancing so much that she once hid from everyone under a piano, crying. Reynolds only had a few months to learn what Gene Kelly had been doing his whole life, yet he "came to rehearsals and criticized everything I did and never gave me a word of encouragement." She also worked so hard that her feet literally started bleeding. One day she had enough and hid under a piano on the studio lot, crying, and Fred Astaire found her. He started working with her on the dance routines: "I watched in awe as Fred worked on his routines to the point of frustration and anger. I realized that if it was hard for Fred Astaire, dancing was hard for everyone." In Home Alone, the prop department originally created a fake tarantula to put on Daniel Stern's face, but the director made them use a real one. Also, the tarantula's name was Barry. While prepping for the scene, the animal trainer on set said, "Just don't make any sudden, threatening moves, and you'll be fine.' Daniel responded, "But I'm going to be screaming in Barry's face. Do you think he'll feel threatened by that?!' The animal trainer simply said, "Barry doesn't have ears. He can't hear. Relax." In Crazy Rich Asians, Henry Golding almost turned down the main role because he thought it called for a "legitimate actor," and that just wasn't him. Golding was a travel host for seven years. Crazy Rich Asians was going to be his first movie ever, so when they offered him the chance to audition he thought he "wasn't good enough," saying, "Oh my god. I've heard of this, but it's for someone else who's a legitimate actor that the studio is going to gamble on." In A Star Is Born, Bradley Cooper spent six months with a dialect coach trying to imitate Sam Elliott's he even knew Sam was going to be cast as his on-screen brother. Bradley Cooper worked on his character's voice for four hours a day. When Sam Elliott agreed to be in the film, Cooper responded, "Thank god he said yes, because I would have had to rewrite the whole thing. Six months of work on my voice would have gone down the drain." In Miracle on 34th Street, actor John Payne, who played Fred Gailey, loved the movie so much that he actually wrote a sequel to it when he was older. In Maureen O'Hara's autobiography, she said, "We talked about it for years, and he eventually even wrote a screenplay sequel. He was going to send it to me but tragically died before he could get around to it. I never saw it and have often wondered what happened to it." In The Incredibles 2, Frozone's wife (Honey) was set to finally make an appearance, but they unfortunately cut her scene for two key reasons. According to writer-director Brad Bird, the scene with Honey (which would have occurred in the opening fight sequence) was removed because: "1. We felt like we stayed away from the big action scene too long and that we were killing the momentum we were gaining by having the big action scene, and 2. We decided the off-camera-ness of it is part of the joke, and then Honey can kinda be anyone you imagine her to be." In Hostel, writer-director Eli Roth came up with the premise for the film after discovering a Thai website where people can pay to torture and kill another human. Roth was talking to a friend about the worst, sickest things they'd ever seen on the internet. "He told me about this website, in Thailand, where for $10,000 you could shoot someone in the head... I thought it would be a great subject to do a documentary on, but I thought, 'do I want these people knowing where I live?' If it's real, they've got my address, and if it's fake, they've probably run off with my credit card!" In Batman Returns, Michelle Pfeiffer literally had to be vacuum-sealed into her Catwoman costume, which made it very difficult to move and breathe. She described the process as one of the most uncomfortable things she's ever done: "They had to powder me down, help me inside, and then vacuum-pack the suit. They'd paint it with a silicon-based finish to give it its trademark shine. I had those claws, and I was always catching them in things. The face mask was smashing my face and choking me." In Mammia Mia! Here We Go Again, Cher was basically forced to be in the sequel by the head of Universal Pictures. Cher recalled the events, saying, "I've never planned a single thing in my entire life. It's like this Abba album. I did the film. I didn't ask to do it. My friend Ronnie Meyer called and said, 'You're doing Mamma Mia' and hung up. In Hocus Pocus, the main role of Max almost went to Leonardo DiCaprio, but he backed out to film two other movies. The role ultimately went to Omri Katz. Director Kenny Ortega talked about Leo's audition, saying, "He's just the most sincere and most centered and a wild child at the same time. He was feeling awkward and was like, 'I just feel really bad being here because I'm up for two other movies and I really want them both and I don't want to lead you on.'" DiCaprio ended up booking both of those films (This Boy's Life and What's Eating Gilbert Grape), resulting in his first Oscar nomination. Flynn Rider's appearance for Tangled was designed during a "Hot Guy Meeting" where women from the studio picked out their favorite physical attributes from pictures of Hollywood's leading men. Directors Nathan Greno and Bryon Howard described the whole process, saying, "When we were designing the character, we were trying to get the look down, so one of the things we did was bring a lot of the females in from the building. We wanted this guy to be really, really handsome, so we put up photos all over the walls of the most handsome men in all of Hollywood history and sort of picked out which features sort of worked best. We just listened and let the women have at it. In the end, we put all this stuff together, so he's this very handsome fellow." Chris Farley was originally cast as Shrek, and he even recorded most of his lines for the movie before his death. Chris Farley recorded about 85% of his lines before dying in December of 1997. There was talk about having someone impersonate Farley for the remaining 15%, but they ultimately brought in Mike Myers to do his own version: "We spent a year banging our heads against the wall until Mike Myers came on board. Chris's Shrek and Mike's Shrek are really two completely different characters, as much as Chris and Mike are two completely different people. Myers asked that the script be completely rewritten so that he wouldn't be starring in the Chris Farley version of the film.' Jackie Cooper couldn't make himself cry while filming a particular scene in Skippy, so the director threatened to have Cooper's dog killed if he couldn't produce tears. The film's director, Norman Taurog, was also Cooper's uncle. Cooper wrote in his autobiography that the whole exchange was traumatizing for him: "I could visualize my dog, bloody from that one awful shot. I began sobbing so hysterically that it was almost too much for the scene. [Taurog] had to quiet me down by saying perhaps my dog had survived the shot, that if I hurried and calmed down a little and did the scene the way he wanted, we would go see if my dog was still alive.' Cooper earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in 1931. He was 9 years old. To this day, he's still the youngest nominee for Best Actor in the history of the Academy Awards. In Candyman, Tony Todd had to fill his mouth with real bees during that trademark scene, and he got stung 27 times because of it. Todd wore a mouth guard to keep the bees from crawling down the back of his throat. He also was sprayed with the pheromone of a queen bee to try to keep all the honeybees on set happy. Cleopatra was one of the most expensive movies to ever be made. It had an original budget of $5 million, but after two years the film still wasn't finished, and more money kept being put into it, totaling over $370 million by today's standards. The movie almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox. Filming began in September of 1960, but "two years later the film was not yet finished, and Fox executive Darryl F. Zanuck said the cost was $35 million, though Variety later estimated that the true figure was closer to $44 million." Lon Chaney, who played the title characters in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera, did his own makeup for the roles. Chaney acted in more than 150 films and was also recognized as one of the best makeup artists in the business. He even wrote the entry for 'make-up' in the 1929 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. In Home Alone, that picture of Buzz's girlfriend was actually a picture of the art director's son wearing a wig. Devin Ratray, the actor who played Buzz, admitted that the girl in the picture was actually the son of the movie's art director: "[They] decided it would be unkind to put a girl in that role of just being funny-looking. The art director had a son who was more than willing to volunteer for the part. I think if he had known it would become the highest-grossing family comedy of all time, he might have had second thoughts about it." For Moonlight, Naomie Harris had only three days to shoot all of her scenes because of visa issues. Still, her performance was so good that she was nominated for an Academy Award. In an interview, Harris revealed that she "couldn't get a visa to come and film [in America], so that was a problem." It was ultimately resolved at the last minute, and she claimed this actually helped her performance: "I didn't have any time to kind of get in my head. I was just doing it. I wasn't, like, waiting around in my trailer, thinking, 'Oh my god, I've got an emotional scene to do today.' I just had to get on and do it and work." In The Muppet Christmas Carol, Michael Caine insisted that the only way he'd play Scrooge was if he pretended like the Muppets were real people and that he was acting in the Royal Shakespeare Company. Before shooting, director Brian Henson (Jim Henson's son) met with Michael Caine to talk about how he might portray Scrooge in the film. Caine said, "I'm going to play this movie like I'm working with the Royal Shakespeare Company. I will never wink. I will never do anything Muppet-y. I am going to play Scrooge as if it is an utterly dramatic role and there are no puppets around me." Tiffany Haddish turned down Jordan Peele's offer to audition for Get Out because she refuses to be in scary movies. Tiffany Haddish had worked with the writer-director before, so he sent her the script and asked her to audition for the movie. Her response was pretty simple: "I don't do scary movies, dog. I don't do that. You know, that's demonized kind of stuff. I don't let that in my house." In Die Hard, Bruce Willis's role was actually offered to 73-year-old Frank Sinatra first. Sinatra was contractually obligated to get first dibs because he starred in the film's prequel in 1968. In 1968, Frank Sinatra starred in a movie called The Detective, which was based on a book. Over a decade later, a sequel to that book was published. That new book was the inspiration for the 1988 movie Die Hard, which technically made it a sequel to Sinatra's movie. Because Sinatra starred in that first movie, he was contractually obligated to get first dibs on the sequel. He was 73 at the time, so he graciously turned down the role. Angela Lansbury recorded the song "Beauty and the Beast" in a single take, even after staying up all night on a flight. Paige O'Hara, who voiced Belle, revealed what happened in an interview, saying: 'I remember the day we were in the recording studio with the amazing Broadway singers in the background chorus and the amazing orchestra. And then Ms. Lansbury – who I have admired my whole life – came in after being up all was a trooper. We were all worried she would be too exhausted, and then she comes out and sings 'Beauty and the Beast' in one take.' While filming Move Over Darling, James Garner picked up Doris Day from the ground and accidentally broke two of her ribs. Doris Day said that James Garner was so big and strong that he "picked me up under his arm a little too enthusiastically and cracked a couple of my ribs. I made that movie mummified with adhesive tape, which made it difficult to breathe and painful to laugh." The two remained friends for years, and she even joked about the incident with him later on, saying, "Jim, if we don't speak for a while, I forgive you for breaking my ribs. Both of them. Don't give it another thought." Steven Spielberg refused to collect a paycheck for Schindler's List, saying it would have been "blood money" and that all profits should be returned to the Jewish community. Spielberg said that he always planned on giving away the money he made from Schindler's List to help support the Jewish community: "I'm committed to Holocaust education. But I wanted to strengthen the Jewish community as it is today, to engage Jewish youth, to support the arts, to promote tolerance, and to strengthen the commitment to social justice." And finally, but most importantly, The Princess Diaries was actually produced by Whitney Houston. And the movie's sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, was even co-written by Shonda Rhimes. Iconic, tbh!
New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
Lupita Nyong'o reveals ‘massive' health issue that doctor said she could do ‘nothing' to prevent: ‘No more suffering in silence'
Oscar darling Lupita Nyong'o is stepping back into the spotlight — this time to highlight a condition so common yet so rarely discussed. In a raw, powerful Instagram post on July 15, the actress, 42, revealed a battle she's been quietly fighting for over a decade. 'In March 2014, I won an Academy Award,' she wrote, referring to her win for her supporting role in '12 Years a Slave.' Advertisement 5 In a powerful Instagram post on July 15, Lupita Nyong'o, 42, revealed a battle she's been quietly fighting for over a decade. REUTERS 'That same year, I discovered I had uterine fibroids.' Nyong'o went on to say she had up to 30 fibroids surgically removed. Advertisement She asked her doctor if there was anything she could do to prevent them from coming back. 'She said: 'You can't. It's only a matter of time … until they grow back again,'' she wrote. Uterine fibroids are non-cancerous tumors that grow within or around the uterus — they range from pea- to melon-sized. 5 'We're struggling alone with something that affects most of us,' she wrote. 'No more struggling in silence!' Getty Images for Airbnb Advertisement 'We're struggling alone with something that affects most of us,' Nyong'o wrote. 'No more struggling in silence!' Though benign, fibroids can have a major impact. They may lead to heavy, prolonged menstrual bleeding, pelvic and back pain, frequent urination, constipation, bloating and potential complications with fertility and pregnancy. Advertisement They're also widespread: 8 in 10 black women and 7 in 10 white women experience fibroids by the age of 50. 'We need to stop treating this massive issue like a series of unfortunate coincidences,' Nyong'o declared. 'We must reject the normalization of female pain. I envision a future with early detectors for teenagers, better screening protocols, robust prevention research and less invasive treatment for uterine fibroids.' 5 Uterine fibroids are non-cancerous tumors that within or around the uterus — they range from the size of a pea to a melon. Studio Romantic – What are uterine fibroids? Uterine fibroids, made of muscle and fibrous tissue, are extremely common — especially during reproductive years. While they're not cancerous, they can still cause significant symptoms and complications for many women. There are four main types, depending on where they grow: Intramural: In the muscular wall of the uterus Subserosal: On the outside of the uterus Submucosal: Just under the lining of the uterus (can cause heavy bleeding) Pedunculated: Attached to the uterus by a stalk Advertisement Fibroids can be symptom-less or they can wreak havoc on a woman's quality of life. 5 Fibroids are extremely common, especially during reproductive years. While they're not cancerous, they can still cause significant symptoms and complications for many women. nenetus – Symptoms may include: Heavy or prolonged periods Severe menstrual cramps Pelvic pain or pressure Frequent urination or difficulty emptying bladder Constipation Back or leg pain Pain during sex Bloating or a feeling of fullness Enlarged abdomen or uterus Infertility or complications during pregnancy Risk factors Advertisement Black women are two to three times more likely to develop fibroids and experience more severe symptoms. Most women are diagnosed between 30 and 50. Having a mother or sister with fibroids increases your risk. A diet heavy in red meat, obesity, earlier menstruation, vitamin D deficiency and no history of pregnancy puts you at greater risk. Treatment options Advertisement Treatment depends on the severity of symptoms, the size/location of fibroids, the woman's age and whether she wants to preserve fertility. Non-surgical options: Watchful waiting: For small or asymptomatic fibroids Medications: Hormonal birth control (pills, IUDs, shots): Helps with bleeding, not size GnRH agonists (e.g. Lupron): Temporarily shrink fibroids by stopping estrogen production — can cause menopause-like side effects Tranexamic acid: Reduces bleeding during periods NSAIDs (e.g. ibuprofen): Manage pain, not fibroid size 5 'We must reject the normalization of female pain. I envision a future with early detectors for teenagers, better screening protocols, robust prevention research and less invasive treatment for uterine fibroids,' Nyong'o The Met Museum/Vogue Advertisement Minimally-invasive procedures: Uterine artery embolization (UAE): Cuts off blood supply to fibroids to shrink them MRI-guided focused ultrasound (FUS): Uses high-intensity ultrasound waves to destroy fibroids Endometrial ablation: Destroys the lining of the uterus — not ideal for women who want to get pregnant Radiofrequency ablation: Uses heat via a small probe to shrink fibroids Myomectomy: Removes fibroids but preserves the uterus — ideal for women who want children. May be done laparoscopically, abdominally or hysteroscopically. Hysterectomy: Complete removal of the uterus — the only definitive cure for fibroids. May be recommended for severe symptoms or large fibroids in women who don't want to get pregnant. If you want to address your menstrual and hormonal health with traditional Chinese medicine, try a 15-minute virtual consultation with an acupuncturist and herbalist for Elix, a menstrual wellness brand. Can fibroids come back? Fibroids can recur after most treatments except hysterectomy. Recurrence is especially common in younger women and those with several fibroids.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Mike Fleming Jr: Hemdale Back From Dead With Provocative ‘Torn'; Donald Trump's Beak-Wetting Right Out Of ‘The Godfather Part II'
EXCLUSIVE: Hemdale Films, the one film production company to generate back-to-back Best Picture Oscar winners (Platoon and The Last Emperor), is re-emerging for the first time in forever. Revived by Eric Parkinson as a releasing label, Hemdale will release Torn: The Israeli-Palestine Poster War on NYC Streets. The provocative documentary by director Nim Shapira focuses on the street war that broke out between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups that tore down each other's messages about the 250 hostages taken by Hamas during the October 7 terror attack in Israel. The posters inflamed heated passion among those who put them up to raise awareness of the hostages and those who tore them down to show their opposition to Israel's subsequent Gaza offensive. It led to heated arguments and often violence. Hemdale will open the film in theaters September 5 in New York and Los Angeles with a rollout to follow in the fall and a digital release later on. Shapira focused on 10 deeply personal stories for a film that unravels the ideological conflict and explores the limits of empathy in today's fractured public discourse. Pic has so far had over 50 pre-release screenings across the U.S. and Canada, igniting discourse in major cities including New York, Boston, Chicago, Toronto and San Francisco. More from Deadline What's Next In The Trump-CBS, Paramount-Skydance Saga Trump Celebrity Supporters: Famous Folks In Favor Of The 47th President Sesame Workshop Says Unknown Hacker Responsible For Posting Antisemitic And Racist Posts To Elmo's X Account So how did Hemdale, the once highflying independent company started by John Daly and actor David Hemmings — best known for playing a Roman senator in Ridley Scott's Gladiator — emerge from film history to be back in the game 30 years after becoming defunct? First brought in to the label at the behest of owner Credit Lyonnais in 1991, Parkinson kept a candle in the window all these years for Hemdale, after the company became functionally idle following the sale of its Oscar-winning film library to MGM in 1996. Parkinson said he walked away with the Hemdale name rights, then waited for the right film to relaunch the brand as a releasing division under Hannover House, the 32-year-old independent media company. Hemdale was started by Daly, who sold insurance, and Hemmings way back in 1967. They first managed rock bands like Black Sabbath, which coincidentally just played its final concert for the Ozzy Osbourne-fronted metal band. Hemdale financed live productions like Grease, and promoted boxing matches like the Muhammad Ali-George Foreman clash 'Rumble in the Jungle.' But the true passion for Daly and Hemmings was film, and they had an enviable run. For a while. The hits ranged from The Terminator to Hoosiers, Salvador, River's Edge, At Close Range, Platoon, The Last Emperor and Return of the Living Dead. As is often the case with taste-making indies, money was always a problem. I recall James Cameron once telling me that he had to find the money to end his seminal film with Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor and her 'You're terminated, f*cker' factory scene. Daly told Cameron he didn't have the money for that, and to end the picture earlier, when Michael Biehn's Kyle Reese places the explosive in the gasoline tanker driven by the cyborg played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. You wonder if that franchise would have become all that it did, had they cheap-ed out on the ending. Cameron, who earlier sold his rights to producer Gale Anne Hurd for $1 with the caveat he could not be replaced as director, would not be denied. That predated Parkinson, who arrived on the scene in 1991 as a crisis manager planted by the French bank Credit Lyonnais to protect its investment in Hemdale and other Hollywood holdings. 'My title was President of the 'to be formed Home Video Division,'' he recalled. 'And the video division did great. We generated a lot of money. We were able to pay down the debt from $110 million to $58 million, and I attribute a lot of that to Terminator and tying in the re-release of Terminator with Terminator 2. After a period of time, Credit Lyonnais lost interest in the movie business because of the amount of money it invested, mostly in Giancarlo Parretti, and MGM. They took a lot of the companies, Orion, Dino De Laurentiis, Embassy Pictures, Hemdale, Cannon Pictures, all those companies that had loans. They rolled them all into MGM to try to make that business work. After five years there was a forced unwinding of Hemdale, and that hit John and David harder than anybody else. It had been there whole lives. I was still a young guy in my late 30s, and I made the deal that at some point in time, if I had meritorious pictures, then I would relaunch the label. The brand name was the only thing that wasn't sold with the assets.' He reincorporated Hemdale, and waited for the right acquisition to come along. He sparked to Torn. 'It had to be something I felt would honor the memory of John's commitment to quality. And that's not to say that Hannover House releases don't have quality, but let's be honest, some low-budget horror films aren't going to be quite as commercially or critically meritorious as something that potentially has an Oscar nomination.' Parkinson hopes Hemdale can become active again, not just as a distributor but as a maker of movies. They are percolating Tempus Porta, a film gearing up to shoot in Malta, and they're attempting to work with Oliver Stone again on A Child's Night Dream. That's a novel Stone wrote before he served as an infantryman in Vietnam, getting wounded twice in combat and winning the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and other medals, experiences that informed his Best Picture- and Best Director-winning film Platoon. Stone's son Sean has been pining to direct it. There is a perception out there that the legal settlement between Donald Trump and Paramount Global that will put $16 million toward Trump's presidential library will clear the way for swift passage of the Skydance acquisition. But how to rationalize the black eye to CBS News and its signature news show 60 Minutes? One could take a cue from a pivotal scene from arguably Paramount's greatest ever film, The Godfather Part II. That would put Don Trump in the role of Don Fanucci, known as The Black Hand. That was the extortionist in the Little Italy neighborhood who confronts young Don Corleone and his mates by demanding that he be allowed to 'wet his beak' by extracting sums, and taking dresses for his daughters. Once tormented by network news, Trump has found an easy mark now that he's got the leverage. That included a payout from ABC News over another dubious legal claim, and getting Amazon and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos to reportedly pay large for a documentary on First Lady Melania Trump that I cannot imagine is wanna see if you aren't part of the Trump family. Had Trump not been elected, all of these parties would have told Trump's lawyers to pound sand. This becomes mostly about legacy. Just because you have leverage doesn't mean you have to use it for self-serving purposes. As we're seeing now with Trump's threats to strip Rosie O'Donnell of her citizenship, this complex man just cannot rise above pettiness. All this beak-wetting goes in the column with his felonies and the other unsavory stuff. It should not mar 60 Minutes, which hopefully will remain a beacon of American democracy, long after Trump leaves office and while Trump argues his own legacy. It will be diminished by the petty beak-wetting, the price to get out of the way of a Skydance-Paramount Global deal that seems the best thing for Hollywood. This should not permanently stigmatize 60 Minutes or CBS News. If anything, the line from Michael Mann's The Insider is more relevant than ever, the one about 'Our standards have to be higher than anyone else, because we are the standard of everyone else.' Hollywood is fortunate to have a guy like David Ellison taking the reins, that rare man with unlimited capital who loves to make movies. Everyone appreciates that the storied Paramount lot on Melrose won't be sold off, and Paramount's picture and TV businesses have the best chance for success since Sumner Redstone's estate lawyer Philippe Dauman strangled the studio's ambition in favor of stock buybacks. But Ellison should remember that, even more than the movies he makes, his legacy might well be shaped by whether or not he protects 60 Minutes and CBS News from becoming the doormat of conservatives. Best of Deadline Everything We Know About Amazon's 'Verity' Movie So Far 'Street Fighter' Cast: Who's Who In The Live-Action Arcade Film Adaption 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Emmys, Oscars, Grammys & More
