Variety 06/05/2024

Each Actors on Actors starts with a dream — that one big “get.” This year, with “The Crown” having aired its final season, we had an impossible vision: to bring together the two actors who’d played Princess Diana. Both performers, Emma Corrin and Elizabeth Debicki, are in high demand, and their schedules seemed to make it unfeasible. But with only weeks to go before we were to film, something shifted. Corrin, who can be seen in FX’s “A Murder at the End of the World” on Hulu, flew from London to L.A just to talk to Debicki about channeling the people’s princess. Their conversation did not disappoint. The two Dianas looked back on how they found her voice, summoned her poise and grappled with her relationship with the paparazzi. And…

The next evolution in the streaming wars? It’s a new spin on the old cable TV model: cross-company bundles of streaming services. Consumers like bundles, especially if they’re getting a price break. Media companies like bundles because they help reduce churn (i.e., cancellation rates) and lower customer-acquisition costs, even it means working with wouldbe rivals. Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are teaming for a Disney+-Hulu-Max combo to bow this summer, and Disney, WBD and Fox Corp. are hoping to launch the Venu Sports bundle of live channels in the fall. (Pricing for those packages is TBD.) And on May 29, Comcast started selling Stream Saver — a bundle of Peacock, Netflix and Apple TV+ at a discount of 35% or more — exclusively to its TV and broadband customers. “Netflix…

Tribeca Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal doesn’t follow a North Star as she and her team sift through tens of thousands of submissions each year. But as they whittle down those applicants to the 100 or so films comprising the final lineup, themes tend to emerge. “It’s not like we set out to say, ‘This is what we want to do.’ As an activist film festival, we always look for [political] films,” says Rosenthal, who created Tribeca Festival with Robert De Niro in the wake of 9/11. “This year, there’s a mental health narrative. I don’t know if that’s a post-COVID thing.” Tribeca, now in its 23rd year, will take place from June 5-16 and highlight films led by Kristen Stewart, Lily Gladstone and Jenna Ortega. “Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in…

Nelson Peltz lost the battle with Disney. But he may have won the war. Peltz, the headline-grabbing activist hedge-fund billionaire, waged an aggressive five-month-long campaign seeking to nab two seats on Disney’s board. His argument was that investors deserved fresh thinking to boost the company’s financial performance. The stated goal of Peltz’s Trian Partners: “Fundamentally and crudely, we want the stock to go up,” he said in a video posted in February to Trian’s “Restore the Magic” website. Disney’s stock price did go up: It jumped 33% from the time Peltz announced his renewed proxy fight in late November to the day before the company’s April 3 shareholder meeting. That was due, in part, to CEO Bob Iger announcing new strategic initiatives, including the fall 2025 launch of ESPN’s stand-alone…

You’re watching your favorite show, and one of the main characters is in a jam. He’s held captive by mercenaries and, for the past two episodes, has struggled to escape a labyrinthine prison. It’s unclear whether our hero will live or die, but the next episode opens with a warning: “The following contains a depiction of suicide. Viewer discretion is advised.” Welp, you think, I know how this story ends. So what happens when trigger warnings need spoiler warnings? As content disclaimers trend in television, some viewers are taking issue when they give away crucial plot details or ruin surprises. Take Netflix’s “Baby Reindeer,” which dulled a shocking assault scene with a preemptive warning reading, “The following episode contains depictions of sexual violence which some viewers may find troubling.” Or…

The hair was a whole thing. In “Run Lola Run,” the 1999 German thriller that made Franka Potente a star, the actress hurtles through the streets of Berlin, seemingly propelled by her flaming-red tresses. “My hair had been jet-black from my previous job, so they bleached it eight times,” she says, shaking her head slightly. “For Lola, we tried all these different colors before they found this red dye that came from London. But it would wash out, so I couldn’t wash my hair during the production because it would mess up the continuity.” And making the low-budget movie meant long hours and, as the title suggests, a lot of running. “Run Lola Run” finds its 20-something protagonist in a race against the clock to help her boyfriend replace a…