☀️A24 Buys Again: a Teen Comedy
F1 looks to 2x media rights 💰 / Sofia Carson's officially a NETFLIX star / CANNES lineup reveal
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LINKEDIN here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY, April 10, 2025.
Where I’m pretty psyched to say I can now cross “Las Vegas emergency medicine visit” off my bucket list. Oddly I would have thought that would have occurred during CINEMACON and not the NAB conference. 🤔
But either way — a sincere thanks to The Ankler folks and others for looking after me so well as I recover from my unplanned searing back pain experience (somehow that wasn’t on my itinerary).
As there was no way that I was able to sit in a chair for a hour straight yesterday morning — my sincere thanks goes to Ankler Executive Editor Alison Brower for stepping in for me to host what I’m told was a great and varied conversation with Nick Khan and Paul “Triple H” Levesque about all things WWE yesterday (I’ll be listening to it myself soon as an Ankler Pod conversation).
ALSO: While I was saying “ow!” in my hotel room every 3 minutes on Tuesday, Alison had the chance to check out that cool new project at THE SPHERE to bring The Wizard of Oz to the huge screen in partnership with GOOGLE and others. Gotta say this is pretty cool, and by the time Avatar 5 gets here — Cameron’s all over this, no?
NOW: I’m giving the keys over to The Ankler’s David Lidsky for the rest of the morning items here up top, as I sleep in and get ready for my flight.
THEN: Here is your Cannes lineup for May. Ari Aster, Kelly Reichardt, Wes Anderson, Julie Ducournau, Jochim Trier and Richard Linklater are among the filmmakers competing for the Palme D’Or.
Memo to KALSHI: Let’s get a prediction market going for what NEON and “Palme D’Oracle” Tom Quinn will buy this year and will it win the company its sixth Palme D’Or in a row.
NEON already picked up Trier’s Sentimental Value for North America (MUBI has UK/IRE, LATAM, India and Turkey).
Scarlett Johansson and Harris Dickinson will showcase their directorial debuts out of competition.
SO: With yesterday’s market sugar high over, the Dow’s down 2% and S&P 500’s off 3.5% on today’s open.
BUT: The CHINA FILM ADMINISTRATION has confirmed it will “moderately reduce” the number of U.S. films it imports. A Minecraft Movie, The Amateur and a rerelease of Furious 7 are slated to open in China Friday. So much winning. 🤦
ALSO: Mommy and daddy, the tech oligarchs are fighting again! Sam Altman and OPENAI have countersued Elon Musk, alleging harassment, saying “Musk has tried every tool available to harm” OPENAI. The trial is set for spring 2026. 🍿
OOF: WEIGHTWATCHERS stock slimmed down from 53 cents to 18 cents yesterday — when the market ripped after the tariff 180 — on reports that it’s preparing to file for bankruptcy. Ozempic, of course, is what’s killing its business.
YIKES: The startup COLOSSAL BIOSCIENCES — think Jurassic World Rebirth but in real life — claims to have genetically engineered creatures akin to the extinct dire wolf. The three pups are “in an undisclosed secure location in the U.S.” according to the AP, which, uh, does not make me feel better.
COLOSSAL, which has raised almost $450M to date, is also working on the de-extinction of the wooly mammoth, thylacine and the dodo.
If these guys have seen any of the Jurassic movies, gonna go ahead and guess they didn’t get the point.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
With Minecraft taking the box office cake this weekend — let’s do a straight up “What’s #2?” pick ’em.
HOUSEKEEPING
I’m keeping my 🤞 and flying home to NYC today, so I’ll see you again on Sunday night when I’m (hopefully) done writing under the influence of muscle relaxers.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
