Film and TV Briefing: Friday 5 September 2025
Welcome to this week’s round-up of news, commentary and industry announcements that you may have missed from the past week.
If you are looking for advice in relation to any of the issues mentioned, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
In the news
Will Smith and his company, Westbrook, agree first-look film deal with Paramount (The Hollywood Reporter)
Paramount and Activision agree deal to bring ‘Call of Duty’ to the big screen (The Hollywood Reporter)
Brad Pitt’s Plan B launches European subsidiary led by ‘Baby Reindeer’ exec (Deadline)
ITV Studios launches new label focussing on entertainment and formats (Variety)
Google hires filmmaker in residence to boost its gen AI video tool, Flow (The Hollywood Reporter)
London Film Festival announces programme, opening with third ‘Knives Out’ film (The Guardian)
10 films to look out for at the Toronto Film Festival 2025 (The Guardian)
‘Superman’ sequel, 'Man of Tomorrow’, to be in theatres in less than two years (Variety)
London Film Festival adds four titles to this year’s line up (Deadline)
Jude Law discusses playing Putin in ‘The Wizard of the Kremlin’ (The Hollywood Reporter)
‘The Roses’ tops UK and Ireland box office with ‘Jaws’ re-release second (Variety)
Summer box office finishes at $3.67bn, in line with 2024 (Deadline)
Filming boom benefitting South West, according to experts (BBC)
Features and commentary
Variety’s Venice Film Festival reviews (Variety)
Entertainment data provider, Luminate, releases report on ‘Animation and AI’ (Variety)
Industry announcements
Equity issues statement on Spotlight High Court ruling (Equity)
Update on broken turnaround following cross-industry meeting (Pact)
Joint statement with Pact on broken turnaround (Bectu)
Legal updates
Disney settles FTC lawsuit for $10m over alleged mislabelling of videos made for children (The Hollywood Reporter)
