Peacock At 18M Paid Subscribers, Up From 15M In Sept.; Jeff Shell Says Universal Now Rivals Disney Animation, Sees “Big Check” Coming For Hulu Stake

[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]

For over a decade, there’s been an exhausting attempt to remake John Carpenter‘s 1981 dystopian flick “Escape From New York,” which had Kurt Russell flexing his action chops for the first time. However, the project has seen its fair share of developmental hiccups over the years, with it now attached to 20th Century Studios instead of New Line Cinema.

EXCLUSIVE: Jack Huston is set to make his feature directorial debut with Day of the Fight, a project that will reteam him with his Boardwalk Empire colleague Michael Pitt, who will star.

NBC Universal chief Jeff Shell was coy yet clearly jazzed today about the possible merger of prolific horror producers Jason Blum and James Wan’s respective companies — Blumhouse and Atomic Monster – saying “I can’t confirm it,” but, “If that should happen, we are going to be in an absolutely impregnable position.”

She gets it! Pete Davidson has been linked to a bevy of successful women, including Ariana Grande, Kim Kardashian and Emily Ratajkowski — and his former colleague Chloe Fineman knows how the romances came to be.

A platoon of titles hits the specialty circuit this weekend, getting in ahead of steamroller Avatar: Way of Water and the year-end deadline for Oscar eligibility. This is a soul-searching, what-lies-ahead moment for a market still much too inconsistent for comfort, but that can be pondered later. At the moment, indie distributors are quite busy “with all these movies, and these plans to release theatrically. We are not going anywhere,” said one executive.

Stephen Colbert, Jennifer Garner, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen and Julia Louis-Dreyfus are among the celebrity names expected at tonight’s White House State Dinner for French President Emmanuel Macron.

Rosemarie DeWitt (The Staircase), Rob Benedict (Supernatural), and Elliot Knight (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II) have joined the Season 4 cast of Amazon’s The Boys. DeWitt will play Hughie’s (Jack Quaid) mom opposite returning series star Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) who plays Hughie’s dad.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have a new studio named Artists Equity, and Affleck has high aspirations for it. How high? Deadline reports that at the New York Times‘ DeadlBook Summit in NYC yesterday, Affleck says he and Damon aim to produce commercial but quality films for streaming that “people remember 20 years later.” So, basically, not the “assembly line process” of Netflix and other streamers.

Checkmate! Pete Davidson and Emily Ratajkowski have a “fun” romance — but that doesn’t mean they aren’t challenging each another.

Joe Pesci is looking back at his time filming Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and recalled getting “serious burns” during one of the memorable scenes from the holiday movie.

Date night at the Garden. Pete Davidson and Emily Ratajkowski were photographed court-side at the New York Knicks game on Sunday, November 27.