World Movie News: The Last 24 Hours
Danny Boyle’s Ink trailer, an HBO Max and Paramount+ bundle, Jamie Dornan’s Aragorn, AFM deals & Irma P. Hall is mourned.
Morning, all. Today sees the Netflix release of the first full trailer for Danny Boyle’s Ink that arrives in UK cinemas in January, and more news from the new owners of Warner Bros.
The first full trailer for Ink: Netflix has released the first full trailer for Danny Boyle’s Ink, James Graham’s adaptation of his own hit play about Rupert Murdoch’s launch of the modern tabloid, with Guy Pearce as Murdoch and Jack O’Connell as the editor Larry Lamb, who turned a failing newspaper into The Sun in 1969. Claire Foy plays a composite character based on women reporters at the paper. The film opened the Venice International Film Festival in September, and I saw it at the London Film Festival and enjoyed it very much; although it seemed to get quite a mixed reception at my press screening. It opens in select US cinemas on 11 December, followed by Netflix on 8 January. In the UK and Ireland, StudioCanal releases it in cinemas on 8 January.
HBO Max and Paramount+ to launch a bundle: Skydance, the new owner of Paramount and Warner Bros., has confirmed that it will launch a bundle of HBO Max and Paramount+ in early 2027, in a letter to shareholders on Monday. No price, name or launch markets have been announced, with details due in the coming months, and it’s described as a first step towards a single combined service. Together, the services have 203 million subscribers around the world. The company also said it expects to save at least $6 billion in costs within three years of the merger, which follows co-CEO Ynon Kreiz’s promise in October that any job cuts will be handled respectfully and transparently.
Jamie Dornan on playing Aragorn: Jamie Dornan has admitted that he cried when he was cast as Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which is due in December 2027, and says that filming was incredible and that he hopes they’ve done a good job. It’s quite a leap from Fifty Shades of Grey to the future King of Gondor.
More from the American Film Market: Amazon MGM Studios has bought major territories on Bluefly, with Russell Crowe and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Michael Chiklis has joined the cast. Meanwhile, Variety reports that Pamela Abdy, who left her job as Warner Bros.’ film chief when the Skydance merger closed, as I mentioned in October, has delivered a fiery speech in which she said it is getting harder, not easier, to be a woman in the business.
Irma P. Hall: The actress best known as Big Mama in Soul Food has died at 91, her talent agency announced, and no cause of death has been given. She taught in Dallas for two decades before becoming a full-time actress. Her films included A Family Thing and the Coen brothers’ The Ladykillers, and her roles in all three of those films earned her acting honours. Rest in peace.
Birthdays: Anne Hathaway, who won an Oscar for Les Misérables, turns 44 today, and Ryan Gosling of La La Land and Barbie turns 46.
That’s all for today.
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