CAA to Lay Off Dozens Amid Strikes, Majority Stake Sale Talks

With nearly one week to go until the Toronto International Film Festival 2023 (or TIFF 2023) kicks off, the A-listers who are and aren’t attending have been revealed.

. The film, originally slated to release Nov. 3, will now be delayed until March 15, 2024.

Variety exclusively reported last month that the company was eyeing a 2024 date for the sci-fi tentpole. Legendary Entertainment co-produced “Dune: Part Two” with Warner Bros. Film Group, and both parties had to agree on a new release date.

Selome Hailu The staff of Fifth Season has been hit with layoffs for the second time this year. 30 staffers — roughly 12% of Fifth Season’s workforce — were let go on Thursday, following the layoffs of eight staffers in April.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Patti Stanger has signed with Independent Artist Group (IAG) for representation, Variety has learned exclusively. She continues to be managed by Rob Lee of Mainstay Entertainment and is also repped by Darin Frank of Sloane Offer.

Michaela Zee Paramount Global has decided to no longer sell a majority stake in its BET Media Group. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company announced Wednesday that it would end the bidding process for the unit — which includes VH1 and BET Studios, streamer BET+ and the BET channel —because “a sale wouldn’t result in any meaningful deleveraging of its balance sheet, the people said.” Paramount Global had received bids ranging from approximately $2 billion to $3 billion.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Layoffs have hit the streaming marketing team at HBO and Max. A source close to the situation told Variety Wednesday that the cuts are in the double digits, but no specific number was available at the time of publication. The insider says the content division is not impacted by these layoffs.

Hasbro has set its leadership team for its “asset-lite” entertainment division.

Filmmaker Joachim Rønning took to Instagram to let followers know that Monday was suppose to be the first day of production for his upcoming Disney movie, Tron: Ares, however, “we are shut down with over a hundred and fifty people laid off,” he says due to WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One director Christopher McQuarrie has explained why a major character had to die – warning spoilers below.Ilsa Faust played by Rebecca Ferguson, who has been in the franchise since 2015’s Rogue Nation, was surprisingly killed off by the lead villain Gabriel (Esai Morales) during a fight scene in Venice.In a new interview with Empire, McQuarrie discussed why he and Tom Cruise felt the need to kill off Ferguson’s character.“We knew that that emotional arc was of a certain emotional tone… Ilsa is a wonderful character, and a character of which I am enormously proud, and Rebecca is an actor of such unmitigated power and presence,” the director said.“And yet, where we had gone with the character from Rogue to Fallout…[the] place you took that character would either make less of her, it would suddenly become frivolous… or she would just become a romantic interest, and it was never about creating a character who was defined by her love story with Ethan Hunt.“Their relationship transcends a traditional loving story… They’re doomed to be together and yet doomed never to be together… It felt like that story was looking for its resolution and so we said this has got to happen.”McQuarrie went on to explain the decision to conclude her story dovetailed with their desire to give a sense of genuine stakes in the movie.“What really needs to happen in the story is the stakes have to be real, they can’t be implied,” he added.

“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” arrived in theaters last month with plenty of intrigue.

EXCLUSIVE: Creative Artists Agency will be instituting staff reductions, Deadline has learned. The round of layoffs, expected early next week, will impact about 60 people across a number of divisions, I hear. That is a fraction of the agency’s global headcount, which is in the thousands.

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Emily Blunt could’ve joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, in Iron Man 2. The Oppenheimer star is now opening up about what she thinks of Scarlett Johansson who ended up playing the role across multiple films.

Scarlett Johansson became a fan-favorite superspy and deadly assassin when she suited up as Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, you might be surprised to learn that the role almost went to Emily Blunt.

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Wealthy hotel bosses have been accused of playing with lives by ignoring a report which, it is claimed, warned asbestos may have been present at the accommodation.

Muse have revealed why they swapped a song from their setlist at their recent concert in Malaysia.The band altered their setlist after The 1975 were banned from Kuala Lumpur last month due to frontman Matty Healy’s on-stage criticism of the Malaysian government’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws.Muse were the first major international act to perform in Malaysia on Saturday (July 29) since the incident, and according to an organiser of their Kuala Lumpur concert, the band were proactive in ensuring that their performance fits into the country’s guidelines.“They called us shortly after the incident went global. After discussions, they decided to pull one song out of the setlist due to the title of the song.

Sarah Silverman called out actors who are still working on Indie projects instead of showing solidarity with WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikers.

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