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Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
HBO Max to Launch in 12 Countries in July as WBD Streamer Closes in on 100 Markets (Exclusive)
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) will launch its streaming service HBO Max in a dozen countries, mostly in Europe and some in Asia, in July to bring the streamer to a total of around 90 territories and further accelerate its global growth strategy, 'as the platform approaches availability in 100 markets.' The Hollywood Reporter has learned that the new markets are the Baltic countries, namely Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as Albania, Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malta, and Tajikistan. More from The Hollywood Reporter Banff: BBC Ukraine War Doc 'Hell Jumper' Wins Grand Jury Prize It's Not You, It's WB: A Brief History of Warners' 21st Century Mergers and Breakups Canadian Industry Rebuffs Trump's DEI Rollback The news, coming a day after WBD unveiled that it would split next year into a studios and streaming company and a global networks business, follows the April 15 launch of the WBD streamer in Turkey where BluTV, which the conglomerate acquired at the end of 2023, evolved into a service with a broader content slate. Earlier in the year, the streamer had become available in Australia. Additional launches are planned in 2025 and into 2026, WBD said, adding that 'momentum continues to build for HBO Max.' The conglomerate ended the first quarter of 2025 with 122.3 million streaming subscribers, an increase of 5.3 million from the previous quarter. 'Our continued global expansion of HBO Max is helping fuel the great momentum we continue to see for the service,' says JB Perrette, CEO and president of Global Streaming & Games at Warner Bros. Discovery. 'These 12 countries will be followed by a few additional markets later this year, and launches in Germany, Italy and the U.K. early next year. Each new market further positions HBO Max as a worldwide destination for the best in entertainment.' HBO Max will launch in the new countries with a lineup of content from HBO, Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios, as well as Max originals, among others. Among the film library are the likes of A Minecraft Movie and the Harry Potter movies and such series as The Last of Us, The White Lotus, The Pitt, Peacemaker, 90 Day Fiancé and Gold Rush, and such classics as Friends and The Big Bang Theory, along with upcoming series, such as Task and IT: Welcome to Derry. In select countries where the streamer launches next month, sports will also be available on HBO Max, including tennis Grand Slam tournaments, cycling's Grand Tours, and major winter sports events. The rights vary between the countries. HBO Max is bringing its two subscription plans to the new markets, namely its Standard Plan, which allows subscribers to stream on two devices at once with full HD resolution and up to 30 downloads for offline viewing, and its Premium Plan, which allows subscribers to stream on four devices at once with 4K UHD and Dolby Atmos, as available, and up to 100 downloads for offline viewing. News of the July markets comes as Europe has emerged as a key growth engine for the streamer over the past 12 months after its first full year of enhancements. Europe has been the fastest-growing international region for Max, soon to be rebranded HBO Max, subscriptions, and is the streamer's biggest market outside the U.S., according to sources. THR understands that more than 2.5 billion hours have been streamed on the WBD service in Europe since launch, with the time spent on the streamer on a weekly and monthly basis having risen. Hours streaming sports in the in the broader Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region on Max and Discovery+ are understood to have risen 14 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2025, and the Australian Open was the most viewed sporting event on the streamer in EMEA since the Paris Olympics. Among the top series on Max in Europe have been House of the Dragon, The Penguin, The Last of Us, Dune: Prophecy, and The White Lotus. Actually, most new European subscribers checked right into the White Lotus, making it what one source says the streamer's 'most acquisitive title' in the region. The streamer's top films in the region have included Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, Dune: Part Two, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Beyond WBD's global Hollywood hits, the streamer has also succeeded with local original productions (LOPs). THR understands that 70 percent of all its EMEA subscribers have watched at least one LOP, with locals accounting for more than 15 percent of total first views on the streamer in the region. Poland leads the way, with four of the top 5 most-streamed LOPs coming from the country. Ranked from the top, they are understood to be The Eastern Gate, The Thaw, Spain's When No One Sees Us, X-rated Queen, and A Decent Man. Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
Boston Globe
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
In ‘Sorry, Baby,' writer, director, and star Eva Victor sought new ways to make sense of trauma recovery
'It's a story about trying to heal, more than about healing,' says Victor, who was previously best known for acting in ' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The film's deft touch (the assault is never seen) and finely tuned balance of pain and humor earned it critical acclaim: at the Sundance Film Festival, it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize and won a screenwriting award; it was also nominated for three awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Advertisement When 'Sorry, Baby' opens, Agnes (Victor) is a literature professor at the school where she got her graduate degree… and where she had been assaulted by her thesis advisor. She welcomes old grad school friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie), who is visiting both to check up on Agnes and to share big news: she's having a baby. Advertisement When Lydie asks if it's hard still being at the school, Agnes responds, 'It's hard being anywhere.' When Lydie tells Agnes about the baby, Agnes's first reaction is to ask, 'Are you scared?' Those are telling responses, Victor says. 'There's a selfishness to trying to heal from trauma that's necessary. You have to focus on yourself, so relationships become unbalanced.' The film shifts back in time to the year of 'the bad thing' and its aftermath, working its way back forward as Agnes experiences a series of setbacks in her efforts to find level ground, before finally finding some equilibrium thanks to the support of Lydie and Gavin (Lucas Hedges), a quirky and lonely but sweet and sincere neighbor. 'Healing is super nonlinear and one thing can set you back two years,' Victor says. 'There's a jury duty scene where Agnes is forced out of her cave too soon, which makes her retreat more. I put Agnes through a lot, because that's what happens.' Before the pandemic, Victor had made their name by getting laughs, working at the feminist satire website Reductress and the Story Pirates, an arts education group that adapts children's stories into short comic sketches, and by posting comedic videos of cultural commentary that went viral. In 2020, 'with life on pause, I thought about what I want to do before I die,' they recall, while also watching dozens of 'beautiful, intense, and devastating movies' by directors like Jane Campion, Mike Leigh, and David Lynch. 'I liked how heightened but human they were, and how movies can double down on what it means to be a person.' Inspired, Victor decided to take their own trauma story 'head on.' Advertisement 'But I got to build a world around this character, so the whole story supports her journey, and her attempt at survival is the center of the story,' Victor says, adding that the perpetrator, played by Louis Cancelmi, only has a few scenes, then disappears 'so the focus was in the right spot.' They sent the screenplay to Barry Jenkins ('Moonlight'), who had followed Victor on social media. He and his team produced the movie and encouraged Victor to direct. 'That was quite meaningful, because I got to make this on my own terms,' Victor says. 'With this kind of trauma, someone decides where your body goes without your permission, so getting to say, 'My body goes here' and then having a crew of people say 'We'll light that spot, we'll support you' was great.' Victor stayed in Boston while prepping the film, which shot in and around Ipswich, piecing together different towns to make one fictional town. 'I was inspired by the cold and the gray, but also the New England small college town energy,' Victor says. 'It reminded me of Their co-stars were impressed by Victor as both a writer and director. 'This film has so much space for human beings as they are, without the extra stuff around it,' says Ackie, whose recent films like 'Blink Twice' and ' Advertisement The one stylized choice was telling the story in a non-linear way, but Ackie found 'it explains Agnes's emotional landscape and informs the viewer in a way that I didn't anticipate.' Victor says they introduced Agnes several years on so that we could see her, despite the obvious pain she's suffering, able to experience joy with Lydie. 'We flatten people who've been through this kind of trauma — we don't want to face the fact that this could happen to any of us, so we make them into tragic figures in our heads and then try to simplify people and dismiss them,' Victor says. 'I wanted audiences to meet Agnes first as a full person.' For all its pathos, Ackie says, 'Sorry, Baby' is genuinely funny. 'There are countless awkward moments everyone feels internally every single day — I feel awkward all the time, and what's funny is how actual human beings handle those moments.' The seamless shifts in tone 'made us feel like we collectively pulled off a magic trick,' adds Hedges, who plays Agnes' neighbor with a wonderful guilelessness. Watching the film and seeing how Victor directed the 'bad thing' — showing Agnes going into her professor's house then staying focused on the exterior as time passes until she finally emerges and, in a state of shock, walks to her car and drives home — he says he felt, 'I've never seen this, something where I felt so involved in something that I'm not seeing.' Victor says not showing what happened was not just about avoiding trauma porn. 'We're watching the house in the way that Agnes is experiencing the moment — this sense of doom creeps up on us — and the trauma response of freezing is a dissociative thing.' Advertisement And having a devastated Agnes tentatively recount the assault to an empathetic Lydie — the first scene Victor wrote — makes audiences take her at her word. 'The reason the rest of the film isn't a tragedy is because of Lydie's support and love and the way she listens to Agnes.' While they were telling this extremely personal story, Victor didn't wrap their head around the idea that people would eventually see the film. 'I don't think I totally understood how exposed I'd be,' they say. But Victor has no regrets. 'It was a powerful and meta way to make decisions for myself and for my body and to have people support that and now to celebrate it is really meaningful.'
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Roman Polanski's ‘An Officer and a Spy' to Play in U.S., Six Years After Venice Premiere
Roman Polanski's 'An Officer and a Spy' is finally getting a U.S. release, six years after premiering at the 2019 Venice Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize under Lucrecia Martel's jury. The film, which won four of its 12 César nominations including Best Director in 2020, is now set for a two-week limited engagement, starting August 8, at New York City's Film Forum. Film Forum isn't handling the release beyond showings at its own venue, IndieWire has learned, which were booked by 'An Officer and a Spy' producer Alain Goldman. News of the engagement was included deep into Film Forum's summer programming announcement that went out Monday, June 9 (and also highlighted by World of Reel). More from IndieWire 'Horsegirls' Review: The World's Most Unexpected Sport Provides a Clever Way Into This Very Personal Dramedy Chanel Returns to New York City for Its Star-Studded 18th Annual Tribeca Artists Dinner 'An Officer and a Spy' is led by Louis Garrel, who portrays French army Captain Alfred Dreyfus after his trial. The politically scandalous Dreyfus affair took place around the turn of the 19th century in France, with Dreyfus banished to Devil's Island after being found guilty of treason, accused of spreading military secrets to Germany. It was later discovered that the trial's verdict was decided upon, and with little evidence, due to Dreyfus' Jewish faith amid a climate of antisemitism in France. In the film, Jean Dujardin plays the French head of counter-espionage, Georges Picquart, who eventually helped reveal Dreyfus' innocence amid Picquart's own arrest and imprisonment for his views. The scandal was first depicted onscreen by Georges Méliès in 1899. Polanski's film comes with a personal bent: The Oscar-winning director, who has been accused and charged of various counts of sexual assault and has since exiled himself from Hollywood after numerous legal battles, distributed press notes before the premiere of 'An Officer and a Spy' at Venice, citing the parallels between his career and Dreyfus' legacy. 'I can see the same determination to deny the facts and condemn me for things I have not done,' Polanski wrote. 'My work is not therapy. However, I must admit that I am familiar with many of the workings of the apparatus of persecution shown in the film, and that has clearly inspired me.' 'An Officer and a Spy' went on to receive four nominations at the European Film Awards as well as its 12 César noms — the most that year at the French film honors — after a theatrical release in Europe. The film hasn't been seen in the U.S. until now. Polanski's last movie to receive a U.S. release was 2017's 'Based on a True Story.' Other assault allegations have followed the director since he sexually assaulted Samantha Geimer in 1977 when she was 13, leading North American distributors to distance themselves from his work. Geimer has since forgiven and even defended Polanski. 'An Officer and a Spy,' however, is not even Polanski's most recent movie. His 2023 'The Palace,' also a Venice Film Festival premiere, starred Mickey Rourke and John Cleese and garnered the kind of excorciating reviews for its eat-the-rich satire that all but guaranteed the film would never play in the U.S. It was a box-office bomb in Europe. Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie Nicolas Winding Refn's Favorite Films: 37 Movies the Director Wants You to See
India Today
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
22 years later, Black Friday wins over Anurag Kashyap's daughter: No bigger reward
Anurag Kashyap's 2004 release 'Black Friday' is one of those cult classic titles that has become a fan favourite over the years. The film, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and was a nominee for the Golden Leopard award at the Locarno International Film Festival, features Kay Kay Menon, Pavan Malhotra, and an exclusive chat with India Today, Anurag Kashyap, who is one of the executive producers on the Prime Video title 'Stolen', spoke about his daughter Aaliyah's love for 'Black Friday'.Sharing an anecdote about what he finds most rewarding as a filmmaker, Kashyap said: 'What is rewarding is, my daughter watched 'Kennedy' when she was 20, and she said, 'I absolutely love this film.' Now she's married, she will be 25 soon, and one day she watched 'Black Friday' and discussed it with me. She asked me when I made this film, and I said, 'Some 22 years ago.' So for me, what is a bigger reward than this that my daughter is impressed by a film her father made 22 years ago?' 'Stolen' also has Nikhil Advani as one of the executive producers, along with Kashyap, Vikramaditya MMotwane, and Kiran a lighter moment, when asked which of these directors' film sets he would have loved to be on, Kashyap said, "I would have loved to be on the sets of 'Kal Ho Na Ho'. Because I knew a different Nikkhil Advani, and I was sure Nikkhil cannot pull off 'Kal Ho Na Ho'. He is somebody from a different school doing a film because he is just getting a chance and he won't be able to pull it off and he made what a fantastic film. So for me, it's like I would want to see the first Nikhil Advani film to notice how he was doing things.''Stolen' is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. You May Also Like
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Al Pacino stars in new exorcism movie 'The Ritual' produced by NMSU professor Ross Marks
The new exorcism horror movie "The Ritual" starring Al Pacino has strong ties to Las Cruces. New Mexico State University professor Ross Marks recruited top-tier talent to star in the first film he has produced while not also directing. More: Luis Valdez to appear at El Paso's Plaza Classic Film Festival with 2 film screenings Marks, the founder of the Las Cruces International Film Festival, announced that Pacino agreed to star in "The Ritual" which opens nationwide on Friday, June 6. 'I am incredibly proud of this project and the opportunity to collaborate with a legendary actor like Al Pacino,' Marks said in a news release. 'This film is not just a work of art, it's a mirror reflecting the complexities of the human experience.' "The Ritual" is described as a horror film about two priests, one in crisis with his faith and the other confronting a turbulent past, who must overcome their differences to perform a risky exorcism. The film is based on a true story about the last officially ordained exorcism in the United States. More: Las Cruces film makers debut '3' at Las Cruces International Film Festival The film also stars Dan Stevens, Ashley Greene, Abigail Cowen and Patricia Heaton. The film was written and directed by Las Cruces International Film Festival alum David Midell. The Clarion Ledger, part of the USA Today network, reported that filming for the supernatural horror movie took place in the historic St. Mary Basilica in Natchez, Mississippi. Marks said the the film was born at the LCIFF, which recently celebrated its 10th year. Marks first became familiar with Midell during the 2020 LCIFF when Midell's 2019 film "The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlin" was screened. That film won the LCIFF Grand Jury Prize. 'I was so impressed by David and his film that I offered to help get his next film off the ground," Marks said in a news release. "David gave me the script for 'The Ritual,' and I knew right away the film would make for great cinema. I asked David who he wanted in the lead role, and he said without hesitation, Al Pacino. Through some industry contacts, I was able to get the script to Al, and we were off and running." Marks said pivoting to producing was initially a challenge, sacrificing the creative control and direct relationships with actors that are enjoyed by a director. "Producing is about mentorship and finding and creating the resources necessary for the director to succeed," Marks told the Las Cruces Sun-News in an email. "In some ways, it's all the fun of making a movie without the added stress and headaches of being director. Having directed many movies, I have a strong sense of what a director needs and how to provide it." Marks has since produced "Love on Tap", directed by former NMSU student Keagan Karnes. Marks is current in the process of producing "The Mensch" for director David Shapiro and "A Silent Violence" for director Norberto Barba. Those films will both be shot in Las Cruces in the fall. Movies: Renée Victor, 'Coco' and 'Weeds' star, dies at 86 "I am able to make more movies and employ more New Mexicans as a producer," Marks wrote in an email. "I can produce 3-4 movies a year. I can only direct one movie every year or so." This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: 'The Ritual': NMSU professor produces new Al Pacino exorcism movie
