Amazon Closes $8.5 Billion Acquisition of MGM

EXCLUSIVE: After helping tell the crazy behind-the-scenes story of the leaked Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee sex tape in Hulu’s Pam & Tommy, director Craig Gillespie looks to have found another wild true story to adapt for the big screen. Sources tell Deadline Gillespie has signed on to direct MGM’s feature adaptation of New York Times best-selling author Ben Mezrich The Antisocial Network. The book tells one of the biggest news stories of 2021, about a ragtag group of amateur investors, gamers and Internet trolls who brought Wall Street to its knees. MGM landed the rights to Mezrich’s book proposal back in January, only a week after the true-life story began taking shape on Wall Street and quickly made it a priority at the studio by tapping Lauren Schuker Blum & Rebecca Angelo to adapt.

Elizabeth Holmes allegedly wasn’t the only one behind the decisions made and the fraud committed at the biotech startup hoping to revolutionize the healthcare industry with its groundbreaking blood-sampling machine. That other person is Sunny Balwani, a wealthy businessman who eventually became the president and COO of his then-girlfriend’s company and was later portrayed by Naveen Andrews in Hulu’s true-crime series, . Following the fallout that surrounded Theranos, Holmes was charged and convicted on multiple charges of fraud.

Naman Ramachandran Amazon Prime Video has doubled down on its investment in Japan with six local originals greenlit and an additional foray into live boxing. At an event in Tokyo on Wednesday, Amazon revealed a reboot of “Takeshi’s Castle,” the iconic game show starring Kitano Takeshi that aired on terrestrial network TBS from 1986-1989. The reboot, with the working title “Takeshi’s Castle Project' will bow in 2023.

EXCLUSIVE: Sugar23 has signed multi-hyphenate Rachel Bloom.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNetflix’s “A Madea Homecoming” and Disney’s “Free Guy” both made their debuts on Nielsen’s Top 10 streaming rankings with more than 1 billion minutes watched in the titles’ first few days of availability.Tyler Perry’s “A Madea Homecoming” was No. 4 on the list of overall streaming programs for the week of Feb. 21-27, with 1.04 billion minutes viewed in the two days following its Feb.

Paramount International boss Raffaele Annecchino has talked up the streamer for “launching quicker than others” in key European markets, as he unveiled a tied-up with global Lupin and Narcos production house Gaumont and set titles from France, Argentina and Germany.

Naman Ramachandran Vidya Balan (“Kahaani”) and Shefali Shah (“Delhi Crime”), two of India’s finest actors, worked together for the first time in Suresh Triveni’s Amazon Prime Video India original “Jalsa.” The result is an acting masterclass.The film is a tense social thriller where the lives of Balan’s Maya, a top journalist and her Shah’s Rukhsana, Maya’s housekeeper, become inextricably linked together after a horrific incident.Balan’s morally upright journalist wrestles with an ethical dilemma through the film. The actor initially turned down the film because she did not want to play someone who seemed morally ambiguous, but isn’t, and eventually the role’s challenges changed her decision.“Maya is successful and she’s in a position of power and there is a certain aloofness to her demeanor,” Balan tells Variety.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNetflix’s “Inventing Anna” jumped to No. 1 on Nielsen’s Top 10 streaming rankings in its second week after launching on Netflix, almost tripling its audience to 3.3 billion minutes watched during the week of Feb.

EXCLUSIVE: We hear that Amazon Studios and Prime Video SVP Mike Hopkins sent a warm, welcoming email to MGM staffers this morning about the streamer’s acquisition of the near-century old studio, telling them that “we look forward to working with you as we create the next phase of MGM’s rich history together.”

Amazon's streaming services to compete against Netflix and Disney+.The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month Amazon certified to the Federal Trade Commission it provided information sought by antitrust investigators regarding the deal, adding it could be free to close the purchase if the commission doesn’t file a legal challenge before a mid-March deadline.One of the oldest studios in Hollywood, MGM has been through bankruptcy and new sets of owners in the past decade while its new releases dwindled.Amazon praised the deal in a blog post Thursday, saying MGM has more than 4,000 film titles, 17,000 TV episodes and awards that “will complement Prime Video and Amazon Studios’ work in delivering a diverse offering of entertainment choices to customers.”Amazon plans to draw on the vast MGM library, with famous characters such as Rocky, RoboCop and Pink Panther, to create new movies and shows.“We are excited for MGM and its bounty of iconic brands, legendary films and television series, and our incredible team and creative partners to join the Prime Video family,” MGM’s Chief Operating Officer Chris Brearton said in a statement.The latest acquisition comes as antitrust regulators scrutinize Amazon for its broader practices and operations.

This story about Zach Baylin first appeared in the Down to the Wire Issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.The assignment was simple, according to “King Richard”producer Tim White. “It was a case,” he said, “of going to a writer and saying, ‘It has to be the one script that everyone in town is talking about.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterChildren’s and young adult literary juggernaut Judy Blume will be the subject of an untitled feature documentary from Amazon Prime Video and Imagine Documentaries, Variety has learned exclusively.Framed as a coming-of-age tale of Blume and the generations of readers who have sparked to her work, the film will cover 50 years and many of her bestselling titles including, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” “Blubber,” “Superfudge,” “Tiger Eyes,” “Wifey,” “Forever…,” “Summer Sisters” and more. It will also examine her impact on pop culture at large, and the occasional controversies over Blume’s frankness about puberty and sex.

As you hopefully already know, Hulu’s “The Dropout,” is terrific, and Amanda Seyfried is incredible in her layered depiction— something between absolute confidence, desperation, and legitimate imposter syndrome—of Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO of Theranos, the embattled tech/healthcare startup that lied to its investors, employees, and partners creating a major fraud sh*tstorm in 2018 when their grift became exposed (read our review here). READ MORE: ‘The Dropout’: Amanda Seyfried Is Outstanding In A Tremendous Indictment Of Tech Hubris, Desperation & Grift [Review] Seyfried is getting her just flowers for her amazing turn as the manipulative, conniving Theranos CEO, but we shouldn’t also forget the show’s co-lead, Naveen Andrews, aka Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani.

Mirror singer and actor Anson Lo has joined the cast of Bizhan Tong’s upcoming action thriller Chungking Mansions. Billed as Hong Kong’s biggest zombie film ever, the Phoenix Waters Productions pic, in co-production with AMM Global and Salon Films Japan, has also added Hong Kong-Canadian actresses Selena Lee and Jeannie Chan, Korea’s Choi Si-Hun and Hong Kong actor Louis Cheung.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer“Reacher” is the first Amazon TV series to top Nielsen’s streaming rankings.For the week of Feb. 7-Feb.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterDiscovery investors voted in approval of the company’s $43 billion acquisition of WarnerMedia from AT&T to create Warner Bros. Discovery during a special meeting of stockholders Friday, marking one of the final formal steps before the transaction can close.The deal, a spinoff of WarnerMedia from AT&T, is expected to be completed early in Q2, with insiders telling Variety the estimated date is between April 11-28. The merger has already received approval from the U.S.

If there is one core intrigue at the heart of the science-fiction franchise “Star Trek,” it is the thrill that comes from the exploration of new galaxies, lavish worlds, and fascinating alien species. Inside everyone is the drive “to boldly go where no man has gone before.” If the show’s title is any indication, then the upcoming “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” from Paramount+ will be going all into that fascination.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer“Star Trek” is returning home to the U.S.S. Enterprise.In the first trailer for “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” the fifth “Trek” series set at Paramount Plus, Capt.