Film and TV Briefing: Friday 23 May 2025

In the news

SAG-AFTRA files complaint against Fortnite’s use of AI to recreate voice of Darth Vader (BBC)

Google unveils new generative-AI video generation tool, Flow (IndieWire)

House of Lords demands greater protection for creatives against proposed AI legislation (BBC)

BBC report urges “significant and sustainable” investment in British comedy (BBC)

Writers Guild of America publishes screenwriting diversity report (Deadline)

Darren Aronofsky’s Primordial Soup teams up with Google DeepMind  (Deadline)

Google invests in, and partners with, generative AI studio, Promise (Deadline)

Neon buys Cannes Film ‘It Was Just An Accident’ (Deadline)

Films Boutique sells Cannes Film ‘The President’s Cake’ to multiple territories (Variety)

Quentin Tarantino signs book deal for ‘Making of’ series (Deadline)

Gary Lineker’s ‘The Rest is Football’ podcast dropped by BBC (BBC)

NBCUniversal open ‘Epic Universe’ theme park in Florida (The Hollywood Reporter)

 

Features and commentary

Paul Mescal claims cinema is moving away from “alpha leading male characters” (Variety)

Behind Warner Bros.’ $125 Million Arbitration Win Over ‘Matrix Resurrections’ (The Hollywood Reporter)

Cannes Film Festival reminds us that world cinema and ‘globalism’ are not the same (The Guardian)

Cannes Film Festival: Deadline’s Reviews (Deadline)

 

Industry announcements

Ofcom opens consultation on public service broadcaster quotas (Ofcom)

Channel 4 to move into in-house production (The Hollywood Reporter)

Disney and TelevisiaUnivision enter into distribution deal spanning Mexico and USA (The Hollywood Reporter)

Saudi Film Commissions unveils new state-of-the-art production complex in Riyadh (Variety)

 

Legal updates

Production company behind ‘Afterburn’ awarded $7.7 million over financing fraud (The Hollywood Reporter)

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