Just when you thought there was no way The Great British Baking Show could ever recapture the joy of its golden years, the Netflix hit tweaked its own recipe and became, once more, our favorite fall cozy watch. After Dame Prue Leith announced she was retiring from judging the series last winter, producers quickly moved to make one of Great Britain’s greatest food stars of all time Paul Hollywood’s new foil. Nigella Lawson hasn’t just seamlessly slid into her new position, but she’s reinvented it. Unafraid of Paul’s ice blue stare, Nigella has been quick to speak up whenever she disagrees with the king of the Bake Off tent. Not only that, but the current crop of bakers are universally delightful and the challenges have been lovely so far.
Crimson luck within plexian casino and intense gaming sessions
Modern digital entertainment has undergone a massive transformation, shifting from physical venues to sophisticated virtual environments. Many enthusiasts seek out platforms that offer not just games, but a sense of atmosphere and reliability. The pursuit of high stakes and adrenaline often leads players toward specialized hubs like plexian casino, where the mechanics of chance meet high-end digital design. These spaces are designed to cater to various psychological needs, ranging from the casual desire for distraction to the intense drive for significant wins. Understanding how these systems operate requires looking beyond the surface aesthetics into the core software and the logic governing the outcomes.
The complexity of modern gaming platforms lies in their ability to balance user engagement with mathematical integrity. Every spin, every card dealt, and every dice roll is governed by advanced algorithms that ensure fairness while maintaining the thrill of the unknown. Players today are more informed than ever, looking for transparency in odds and speed in transaction processing. As the industry evolves, the distinction between a mere website and a comprehensive gaming ecosystem becomes clearer. High-quality platforms invest heavily in server stability and interface fluidity to ensure that the user experience remains uninterrupted during peak usage times.
The Mechanics of Virtual Probability and Fairness
At the heart of every digital gambling experience is the concept of randomness, which is not actually random in the human sense but rather a highly controlled mathematical distribution. Software developers use specialized tools to ensure that every outcome is independent of the previous one, preventing any predictable patterns from emerging. This mathematical rigor is what builds trust between the operator and the participant. Without this foundation, the integrity of the entire platform would vanish, leading to a rapid loss of the user base. The implementation of verified random number generators is the industry standard for maintaining this delicate balance.
Algorithmic Integrity in Modern Gaming
The logic behind digital outcomes relies on complex equations that simulate true physical randomness. When a player interacts with a machine, the software processes a seed value that determines the result instantly. This process happens in milliseconds, making the interaction feel immediate and organic. Developers must constantly audit these systems to ensure that no biases are introduced through hardware malfunctions or software bugs. Such audits are essential for maintaining the reputation of a digital gaming establishment. By adhering to strict mathematical models, operators can provide a level of consistency that mirrors traditional physical gaming environments.
Furthermore, the technical infrastructure supporting these algorithms must be robust enough to handle massive amounts of data simultaneously. Every click and every bet is recorded and verified against the RNG output to prevent discrepancies. This dual layer of verification—the generation of the result and the subsequent logging of the action—creates a secure loop. This loop is vital for both the player's peace of mind and the operator's regulatory compliance. As technology advances, these systems are becoming even more sophisticated, incorporating encrypted pathways to protect the data integrity of every individual session.
Feature Type
Primary Function
User Benefit
RNG Engine
Generates unpredictable results
Ensures fair play every time
Encryption Layer
Protects sensitive data
Secures financial transactions
Latency Control
Minimizes input delay
Provides smooth gameplay
Audit Logs
Records every single event
Enables transparent reviews
Maintaining this level of technical excellence requires constant vigilance and significant capital investment. It is not merely about having a collection of games, but about creating a stable environment where the rules of probability are applied without exception. When players enter a high-tier environment, they expect the math to be as flawless as the graphics. This expectation drives the continuous improvement of gaming software across the entire sector, pushing the boundaries of what digital simulations can achieve in terms of realism and fairness.
Diverse Gaming Categories and User Preferences
The variety of available entertainment options is a key factor in determining the longevity of a gaming platform. Different users are drawn to different styles of play, ranging from the high-speed action of video slots to the strategic depth of table games. A well-rounded ecosystem must provide a wide spectrum of volatility and pace to satisfy these varying tastes. Some players prefer the quick dopamine hits of repetitive motion, while others find satisfaction in the slow, calculated tension of a long-form card game. Providing a balanced mix is essential for capturing a broad demographic of enthusiasts.
The Psychology of High Volatility Games
High volatility games are characterized by infrequent but potentially large payouts, creating a specific psychological profile for the player. These games are often preferred by those who enjoy the tension of a long buildup followed by a sudden climax. The emotional rollercoaster of near-misses and sudden wins keeps the engagement levels high. However, this style of play requires a disciplined approach to bankroll management, as the dry spells between wins can be significant. Understanding this dynamic is crucial for any player looking to navigate these high-intensity environments effectively.
Strategic betting options allow for customized risk levels.
Beyond the thrill of the win, the visual and auditory elements of these games play a massive role in player retention. Modern developers use cinematic soundtracks and high-definition animations to create an immersive world. This immersion makes the digital experience feel less like interacting with a machine and more like participating in a narrative. When the theme of a game aligns with the player's interests, the sense of presence is significantly amplified. This intersection of art and mathematics is where the most successful digital gaming products reside.
Navigating Financial Transactions and Security Protocols
Financial security is the cornerstone of any successful online gaming operation. Players must feel absolute confidence that their deposits are secure and that their winnings can be withdrawn without unnecessary friction. This necessitates the integration of advanced payment gateways and multi-layered security protocols. The ability to handle various currencies and payment methods is no longer a luxury but a fundamental requirement. As global banking regulations tighten, platforms must also adapt their internal processes to remain compliant while providing a seamless experience for the user.
Optimizing the Withdrawal Experience
The speed of withdrawal is often cited as a primary metric for evaluating a gaming platform's quality. A slow or convoluted withdrawal process can damage trust and drive users away to competitors. To combat this, many modern sites are implementing automated verification systems that can process requests in near real-time. This requires a sophisticated backend that can communicate instantly with financial institutions and verify the player's identity through automated KYC procedures. Efficiency in this area is a direct reflection of the platform's technological maturity.
Initiate the request through the user dashboard.
Undergo automated identity verification checks.
Wait for the platform's internal security review.
Receive funds via the selected gateway.
Security is not just about moving money; it is about protecting the entire user identity. This includes protecting against phishing attempts, account takeovers, and data breaches. Implementing two-factor authentication and end-to-end encryption are standard practices that every serious operator must adopt. By prioritizing these defensive measures, a platform can create a safe haven for its community. The peace of mind provided by these invisible layers of protection is what allows players to focus entirely on the excitement of their gaming sessions without distraction.
Strategic Approaches to Long-Term Engagement
Engaging with digital gaming over a long period requires a shift in mindset from impulsive action to informed participation. Experienced users often view their time in a platform like plexian casino as a form of structured entertainment rather than a primary source of income. This distinction is vital for maintaining a healthy relationship with the activity. Developing a set of personal rules, such as time limits and budget caps, can transform a potentially chaotic experience into a controlled and enjoyable pastime. The most successful players are those who understand the mathematical reality of the house edge and play accordingly.
Another aspect of long-term engagement is the utilization of platform-specific features designed to reward loyalty. Many systems offer tiered memberships or progress tracking that provides additional value to frequent users. These features are not just about extra perks; they are about creating a sense of progression and community within the digital space. When a user feels that their time and loyalty are being recognized, they are more likely to remain part of the ecosystem. This creates a symbiotic relationship where the player receives enhanced value and the platform benefits from a stable, recurring user base.
Furthermore, the study of game mechanics and odds can provide a layer of intellectual stimulation. While no amount of knowledge can change the fundamental math of a random generator, understanding how different rules affect volatility can lead to more informed choices. Some players enjoy analyzing the history of their sessions to identify trends in their own behavior. This analytical approach adds a different dimension to the experience, moving it away from pure chance and toward a more cognitive engagement with the platform's offerings.
Technological Advancements in User Interfaces
The visual interface of a gaming platform is the primary point of contact for every user. As mobile usage continues to dominate the digital landscape, the transition from desktop-centric designs to mobile-first architectures has become mandatory. A high-quality interface must be responsive, intuitive, and visually striking across all device types. This involves more than just resizing elements; it requires a fundamental rethinking of how navigation and interaction work on touchscreens versus mouse-driven systems. The goal is to minimize the cognitive load required to navigate the site, allowing the user to focus on the games.
Modern interfaces also leverage cutting-edge web technologies to deliver high-performance graphics without sacrificing loading speeds. The use of WebGL and other advanced rendering techniques allows for complex 3D environments to run directly in a browser. This eliminates the need for heavy software downloads and makes the gaming experience instantly accessible. When a player logs into plexian casino, they expect a high-fidelity experience that feels premium and polished. This level of detail in the UI design is a testament to the technical prowess of the development team and directly impacts user satisfaction.
Accessibility is another growing priority in the design of digital gaming spaces. Ensuring that players with different physical or cognitive abilities can navigate the platform is both a moral and a practical necessity. This includes features like high-contrast modes, scalable text, and compatibility with screen readers. By designing for inclusivity, platforms can expand their reach and ensure that the joy of gaming is available to a much wider audience. The integration of these accessibility features into the core design philosophy represents the next frontier of user-centric development in the gaming industry.
Future Directions of Digital Entertainment Platforms
The trajectory of the digital gaming industry suggests a move toward even greater immersion and social integration. We are likely to see the rise of more complex multiplayer environments where players can interact in real-time within shared virtual spaces. This social dimension can add a new layer of excitement, as players can share their experiences and compete against one another in a more direct way. The integration of augmented reality could also play a role, bringing the digital game into the physical world in unprecedented ways, further blurring the lines between reality and simulation.
Moreover, the evolution of blockchain technology and decentralized finance could fundamentally change how transactions and ownership are handled. The possibility of truly provable fairness through public ledgers and the ability to own digital assets as unique items could revolutionize the player experience. As these technologies mature, they will likely be integrated into existing platforms, providing new levels of transparency and utility. The intersection of these emerging technologies with the established gaming industry promises to create an era of unprecedented innovation and variety for enthusiasts worldwide.
For as much change and turmoil as the film industry has endured in recent years, its core has not changed: it’s still a business driven by hits, and everyone is looking harder than ever for the next big breakout. The question on everyone’s mind is where you’re supposed to find them in 2026.
Attendees at IndieWire’s Future of Filmmaking Summit in Los Angeles on October 17 will get an answer to that question when our Pitch Me panel convenes Hollywood decision makers to break down their process of vetting pitches. Panelists from the representation, production, and distribution sides of the equation will join IndieWire Editor-in-Chief Brent Lang for a conversation about the search for hits and what separates the truly special projects.
Panelists include:
Erica Lee (President of Production and Partner, Thunder Road)
Julien Levesque (Agent, Gersh)
Ayo Kepher-Maat (VP of Acquisitions and Productions, Independent Film Company)
Rachel Shane (Head of Film and Television, Madison Wells)
IndieWire’s Future of Filmmaking Summit will take place at Penske Media’s headquarters at Lumen West LA. The all-day event will feature a wide-range of panels and networking opportunities centered around the ideas, people, technology, and skills that shape storytelling today. Other programming includes
Detailed strategies alongside bubble bet casino offer rewarding gaming adventures
The world of online gaming is constantly evolving, with new platforms and experiences emerging regularly. Among these, the concept of a bubble bet casino has gained traction, offering a unique blend of chance and strategic gameplay. This approach deviates from traditional casino experiences, focusing heavily on creating a dynamic and potentially rewarding environment for players. It’s a space where informed decisions, coupled with a bit of luck, can lead to significant gains, making it increasingly popular among both seasoned gamblers and newcomers alike.
This type of gaming isn’t simply about placing bets; it’s about understanding the underlying probabilities and adjusting strategies accordingly. The ‘bubble’ aspect refers to a continuously shifting set of odds and potential payouts, challenging players to adapt quickly and capitalize on momentary advantages. This guide will delve into the specifics of this gaming model, outlining strategies, providing insights into maximizing potential winnings, and exploring the overall experience that a bubble bet casino offers. Understanding the nuances of a bubble bet casino can significantly enhance your enjoyment and prospects of success.
Understanding the Core Mechanics of Bubble Bet Systems
At the heart of a bubble bet casino lies a system designed to create a fluid and adaptable betting experience. Unlike static odds found in traditional casinos, the probabilities within a bubble bet environment are dynamic, influenced by player activity and pre-defined algorithms. These algorithms constantly recalculate potential payouts based on the volume of bets placed on specific outcomes, ensuring that opportunities can arise and vanish quickly. Essentially, the ‘bubble’ represents a constantly changing landscape of risk and reward, demanding a proactive and informed approach from players. This core mechanic differentiates these casinos significantly from their established counterparts. It necessitates a departure from set strategies, embracing flexibility and real-time assessment.
The Role of Algorithmic Control
The algorithms governing a bubble bet system are carefully designed to balance risk and reward, ensuring both player engagement and the long-term sustainability of the casino. These systems don’t inherently favor the house or the player but rather aim to create a competitive environment where skillful betting can yield positive results. Understanding the general principles behind these algorithms – such as the influence of bet volume on payout multipliers – is crucial for any player hoping to gain an edge. While the precise calculations are proprietary and often kept secret, public explanations often address the broad concepts. Successful play involves recognizing patterns and predicting how the bubble might shift based on observed trends. It's a dynamic interplay between chance and calculated risk.
Bet Type
Typical Payout Range
Volatility
Strategic Approach
Low-Risk Bets
1.1x – 1.5x
Low
Consistent small wins, building a bankroll.
Medium-Risk Bets
1.6x – 3x
Moderate
Balanced approach, capitalizing on moderate shifts in the bubble.
High-Risk Bets
3x – 10x+
High
Targeted bets on significant bubble fluctuations, requiring precise timing.
The table above presents a simplified overview of common bet types and associated characteristics. Recognizing the balance between these factors is key to developing a personalized strategy.
Developing a Winning Strategy for Bubble Bet Casinos
Success in a bubble bet casino relies heavily on developing a robust and adaptable strategy. Unlike traditional casino games, where established probabilities allow for relatively static betting approaches, dynamic odds require a more nuanced and responsive methodology. A key element involves careful bankroll management, ensuring that players can withstand inevitable losses and capitalize on favorable opportunities when they arise. This is not to equate success to guaranteed winnings, but to leveraging calculated risks for the greatest possible outcome. The unpredictable nature of the 'bubble' demands a willingness to learn, adapt, and refine one’s approach continuously.
Bankroll Management and Risk Assessment
Effective bankroll management is paramount in any form of gambling, but it’s particularly crucial in a bubble bet casino environment. Players should establish a predetermined budget for their sessions and strictly adhere to it, avoiding the temptation to chase losses. A common rule of thumb is to risk no more than 1-5% of your bankroll on any single bet. Furthermore, a thorough assessment of the potential risk associated with each bet is essential. Consider the current state of the bubble, the recent betting trends, and the potential payout relative to the risk involved. Diversifying bets can also mitigate risk, spreading your capital across different outcomes and increasing your chances of securing at least some return. Understanding your risk tolerance is also paramount.
Set a strict budget before you begin playing.
Never chase losses; accept them as part of the game.
Diversify your bets to spread risk.
Start with smaller bets to understand the bubble’s dynamics.
Regularly review and adjust your strategy based on results.
Employing these strategies can significantly contribute to a more sustainable and potentially profitable gaming experience. Ignoring these principles can quickly deplete your resources and lead to disappointment.
Recognizing Patterns and Identifying Opportunities
While the bubble bet system is designed to be dynamic and unpredictable, astute players can often identify patterns and opportunities by closely monitoring the betting activity and payout fluctuations. Paying attention to trends, such as the sudden surge in bets on a particular outcome, can indicate a potential shift in the bubble and present a favorable entry point. However, it's important to distinguish between genuine patterns and random fluctuations – a nuanced task that requires practice and experience. Don’t assume a pattern that seems likely will appear; rather, wait to see if the pattern develops and maintain a realistic outlook.
Utilizing Statistical Analysis (Basic Level)
Even a basic understanding of statistical analysis can be valuable in a bubble bet casino. Tracking the frequency of different outcomes, calculating average payouts, and monitoring payout volatility can provide insights into the overall behavior of the system. This information can then be used to inform betting decisions, identifying potential value bets and avoiding unfavorable situations. However, it’s crucial to remember that past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results; the bubble is constantly changing, and what worked yesterday might not work today. Statistical analysis should be used as one tool among many, not as a foolproof predictor of success. Focus on recent data to predict upcoming fluctuations.
Track the frequency of different outcomes over a defined period.
Calculate the average payout for each bet type.
Monitor payout volatility to assess risk.
Identify potential value bets based on statistical discrepancies.
Continuously update your analysis as the bubble evolves.
Consistent application of these steps can reveal subtle advantages.
The Psychological Aspects of Bubble Bet Gaming
The dynamic nature of a bubble bet casino can be emotionally taxing, as players are constantly confronted with shifting probabilities and the potential for both significant gains and rapid losses. Maintaining emotional control is, therefore, essential for making rational decisions. Avoid impulsive betting driven by frustration or overconfidence, and stick to your predetermined strategy. Recognizing and managing your own biases – such as the tendency to overestimate your chances of winning – can also help you avoid costly mistakes. The excitement of quick wins can easily lead to overexertion, and the frustration of losses can lead to irrational choices.
Future Trends in Bubble Bet Casino Technology
The world of online gaming, and specifically the bubble bet casino sector, continues to evolve rapidly. We can anticipate further advancements in algorithmic technology leading to even more dynamic and responsive betting environments. The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) is particularly promising, potentially enabling personalized betting recommendations and more sophisticated risk management tools. Furthermore, we may see the emergence of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences that immerse players in a more realistic and engaging casino environment. These changes will likely further blur the lines between the physical and digital worlds of gaming. The future will involve increasingly sophisticated platforms and richer user experiences.
The key to long-term success in this evolving landscape will be a commitment to continuous learning and adaptation. Players who are willing to embrace new technologies and refine their strategies will be best positioned to capitalize on the opportunities that lie ahead. The focus will continue to be on providing a unique and engaging gaming experience, attracting a wider audience and establishing bubble bet casinos as a significant force in the online gaming industry. Staying informed about these developments is crucial for any serious player.
Democratic Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico has been racking up endorsements from the likes of Don Henley and the Chicks ahead of the November midterm elections. Now, the state representative has landed the official seal of approval from Texan native Willie Nelson. The two were photographed together backstage at Nelson’s Fourth of July concert this year, and the country maverick features in a new Talarico online campaign video. “I’ve gotten to know James Talarico,” Nelson says in the short clip. “He’s a good man, who will be a good senator for the state of Texas. Please vote and vote for James Talarico.“
Also hopping aboard the Talarico train: Yo La Tengo, who’ll play a benefit concert in Austin on October 27. The entry fee is a $100 donation to Talarico’s senate campaign, and the show will be capped at 500 people. Check out the poster below.
Both Nelson and Yo La Tengo have extensive histories of political engagement. YLT’s goes all the way back to 2004, when they performed at a benefit for John Kerry’s presidential campaign; they also offered to play private acoustic shows in 2024 in exchange for donations to the Harris/Walz Democratic ticket. Nelson enthusiasticallysupported former Texas state representative Beto O’Rourke during his 2018 senate bid and 2022 gubernatorial run—both of which he lost. So of course, Ted Cruz has taken to X to snidely remark, “Willie’s music is great, but historically, this has been the beginning of the end for Democrat campaigns in Texas….”
Two sessions at the forum spoke directly to brewing concerns in the heart of our moviemaking town: one, is AI taking over and two, can anyone in Los Angeles afford to live here, let alone make a movie?
Let me spoil it with the TL;DR that our panelists hold a lot of hope for both concerns, and surprise: it comes down to human relationships and partnerships. Connecting with collaborators, connecting with audiences, connecting with new ideas and perspectives from a diversity of backgrounds… basically everything that Film Independent stands for.
So let’s dig in. Reality Check: AI in the Workplace brought together three industry professionals and an economist, moderated by journalist Carolyn Giardina. Patrick Adler kicked things off with a rousing overview of creative jobs in California and how AI tools are affecting jobs on a broad scale. Speaking as a founding partner of Westwood Economics, his team published a report on the 118,000 creative jobs lost in California since 2022. The report is doing detective work on what differentiates this change in California from the rest of the country, where industries adopting AI tools have actually seen growth in the human workforce. Adler surmised that as AI tools have become more involved in some jobs, more people have been required to manage and implement those tools. But the unique factors of recession and livability for California and Los Angeles specifically could play a role.
Harry Yoon (Editor, Spider-Man: Brand New Day) recognized how AI has made it more streamlined and less tedious to complete “soul-crushing” tasks like transcription or building out new concepts with sound design and ADR drafts to test out new lines, leaving humans to do more of the fun stuff. Mathew Cullen (Founder of Mirada Studios, Motion Theory) has also found that work is streamlined through the use of AI, but that clients tend to be misinformed about what AI can actually do. No matter what they’ve heard, you can’t just prompt your way to a cinematic and artistic result – the role of human experience, human skill and human interaction is still vital.
Reality Check: AI in the Workplace
As a writer on the other hand, Ruth Fowler (Writer, Rules of the Game, Little Disasters) finds that gainful employment has always been challenging, but in the reality of AI involvement she’s being asked to do more free work – take more meetings, create more development documents – before knowing if she’s landed the job. But beyond the usual hustle to get work that covers a year’s salary, she wonders if AI is making writers even more isolated than usual. The experience she has gained from getting notes and pushback from fellow humans only translates to Claude if she trains it to; a newer writer may not benefit from that critique. Meanwhile, busyness and overwhelm make soliciting feedback from humans as difficult as ever.
Yoon and Cullen echoed concerns about what brings humans together at work, as the same tedious tasks AI handles might previously have functioned as training ground for an intern. The mentorship space is being affected, as Cullen reflected on starting his company in 2003 and training up new people. “My intern at the time is now the head of creative at my company. I think about all those interns, and I think about all those people that you know were sort of there, and you’re kind of creating that space for them to show up and figure it out.” Cullen has seen receptionists go on to be producers and directors that have won Emmys, all from the osmosis of being around imaginative people, seeing future possibilities up close.
There were also takeaways that could be used when audience members got home. VFX supervisor and Creators Coalition on Artificial Intelligence founder Jim Geduldick just launched the CCAI site, which includes useful tools for filmmakers like an AI terms glossary, and an impact survey and visualizer and be found here.
The panel tackled concerns about AI changing job descriptions and how much cost savings will matter, especially now that it’s more expensive to hire domestically versus overseas – even London is cheaper than Atlanta. Cullen accepts the encroachment of AI technology but doesn’t like it. Even so, he asserted that the creative business has never been more exciting or more challenging. “From short-form to long-form to interactive form to experiential … longevity is living in that river of change, you know?”
Meanwhile as so much production work moves offshore, how much cheaper is it as an independent filmmaker to take your film abroad? Crossing Borders: The International Landscape for Indies brought together five filmmakers to swap stories and highlight pros and cons for taking your production global. While the US does not currently have any international co-production treaties, our panel highlighted the importance of finding partners in the country that interests you. And by partners, Anna Różalska (EP for Who Will Write Our History and Co-Producer of Arbitrage) means true believers in the project – like-minded collaborators who want to see the story succeed. When shooting a project in Lithuania, Różalska described asking multiple companies to read the script and suggest a budget. Ultimately her choice was motivated by the ideas presented. “It wasn’t about eventually the budget, but about a company that really cared about the project … we could really tell they were very much involved.”
Crossing Borders: The International Landscape for Indies
Shih-Ching Tsou (Director/Producer, Left-Handed Girl) is from Taiwan but lives in New York and had never made a film in her home country. So partnership was key. “It’s not really that exotic, because it’s really scary,” she says of trying to prove herself and her vision in the Taiwanese film industry. “People will look at you and say … ‘I don’t think you know what to do,’ right? So you kind of have to jump in there and kind of prove to them, like this is the way.” Communication and trust are key elements to any partnership, and Munir Atalla (Head of Production & Acquisitions, Watermelon Pictures) asserted that international relationships are no different.
Claire Brooks (Executive Director, Association of Film Commissioners International) shared with passion about the practicalities of identifying potential locations and making the most of the local film commission – even within the United States. “They provide free location services,” Brooks explained. “Some of them will read your script. Some of them have access to funding opportunities – not through their office, but through their national bodies.” And those that don’t can point you to the right place. Miura Kite (President of Global Content, Maria Farinha Films) has partners at a French production company and the two companies bring shows to each other, taking the lead based on who pays for what. “Once you do find people you love working with, try to maximize it in any way.”
In addition, moderator Tatiana Kelly (Producer, The Catcher Was a Spy, Cut Throat City) guided the panel through high level thoughts on attracting foreign investment, selling the finished project worldwide, the marketing potential of attaching stars, and keeping an open mind for the long view – “Talk to people,” Tsou suggested, “you never know who you’re gonna meet.” Brooks told a story about cultural alignment, and how The Substance earned a tax incentive from France because Demi Moore’s character cooks a French dish in one scene. “Read the details,” she summarizes on the importance of knowing what a given region is looking for when considering investment. Also not to be overlooked is cultural differences, unique aspects of local film industries and traditions, and holidays. If France is on vacation for the month of August, that will impact your production schedule.
“Travel a lot,” Różalska recommends. “I think the only way to really like connecting with people from different countries is through understanding their culture.”
While it’s easy to romanticize opportunities that are farther afield, panelists advised taking all considerations into account. Public financing can take 2-3 years. If tax incentives are refunds on expenses already incurred, then consider the interest on those expenses until you get paid. Brooks recommended getting a regional film office involved as soon as possible so they can help discern how the numbers will play out in real time and money. “When are you getting that money and how long are you carrying that loan, and is it worth it?”
Różalska lives in LA, going back and forth to Europe to make films. She was optimistic about the potential for great international film partnerships. “You all live in Hollywood and the whole world is looking up to you,” she said with a smile. Her European origins taught her the value of treaties and the amazing opportunities to collaborate across national borders. “I do believe the best way to make films is to really find different ways to collaborate and really take what’s best from both worlds.”
Maybe the same can be said for AI.
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Another whale shipped out of Marineland has died at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.
The aquarium says Caspian, a 27-year-old female beluga, died on Wednesday despite efforts to save her.
It’s the sixth animal from the closed Niagara Falls, Ont., theme park to die after a massive relocation of whales and dolphins over the summer.
Four other belugas and one dolphin from Marineland have died since they were moved out of the former tourist attraction.
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Shedd says Caspian had not been eating properly and blood samples showed abnormalities in her electrolyte levels. The park added that her blood had become “dangerously acidic.”
The aquarium says those findings helped the veterinary care team understand how sick the beluga was, but they did not establish a cause of death.
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Shedd says Caspian was on life support for nearly four hours before she died.
Shedd recently performed necropsies on Peekachu and Rain, two other Marineland whales that died there, and concluded that they had chronic, pre-existing diseases.
Shedd and four other aquariums in the United States and Spain helped Marineland relocate all 30 of its belugas and four dolphins over the course of six weeks this summer.
Marineland had said it was running out of money and could no longer care for the last captive whales and dolphins in Canada.
A beluga named Jelly Bean and a dolphin named Echo died at Oceanografic Valencia in Spain after the move.
EXCLUSIVE: A number of recent injuries on the set of Season 10 of ABC‘s 9-1-1has put the production’s safety protocols under scrutiny again.
Deadline understands that four performers, including star Oliver Stark, have sustained stunt-related injuries to varying degrees in recent months. While the incidents do not seem to be connected, the unfortunate timing does highlight the challenges with making a stunt-heavy show like 9-1-1 on a broadcast network schedule.
A spokesperson for 20th Television, which produces the series, declined to comment for this story.
In late August, Stark broke his ankle while performing a stunt and required surgery. Sources close to production say that production continued in the wake of the incident and Stark has since returned to work. While reports of the injury surfaced online, the details of the incident have not yet been shared.
Sources tell Deadline that the stunt involved a firefighter swinging from a car over a set piece to the ladder truck. We understand that, during rehearsals, a stunt double sprained an ankle performing the same stunt and declined medical treatment, so no injury report was submitted to production.
On the 9-1-1 set, production sources say it is typical for stunts to be practiced first with heavyweight bags so the stunt coordinators and other crew members can better understand the necessary weight distribution, etc. Then, the set piece is rehearsed with stunt doubles to work out any issues before the actors come in for their own rehearsal.
In Stark’s case, we’re told the mechanics of the stunt were adjusted after the stunt double was injured. Sources indicate that, still, Stark rolled his ankle over another performer in the scene.
Two other injuries followed in subsequent weeks. In one incident, a stunt person injured their arm on a piece of the set that had jagged metal on it, requiring a hospital visit and stitches. Within the last two weeks, another stunt performer was sent to the hospital after a stunt gone wrong. Sources close to production say the hospital trip was “precautionary” after an “awkward landing” on a platform designed to simulate a ground collapse resulted in a broken rib and minor compressed lung. It’s unclear whether this performer has returned to work.
All SAG-AFTRA signatories, including 20th Television owner Disney, are required to follow certain on-set safety protocols. Stunt performers and coordinators are required to complete a general safety and injury prevention program in order to remain eligible for employment on union productions.
The standards and practices for set safety are developed by Contract Services’ industry wide safety committee. The general guidelines for stunts task production management with ensuring they “allow enough time for rehearsals, training, equipment preparations, and inspections,” per the company’s latest stunt safety bulletin. Contract Services also has more detailed guidelines for specific stunt work.
Typically, the stunt coordinator leads all stunt-related preparations including script review, planning, site selection, preparation, testing, rehearsal, modification, and recommendation of the qualified personnel and equipment to be utilized to perform the stunt. The first assistant director is responsible for holding an on-set safety meeting prior to any stunt work so all involved personnel can see a walk-through of the maneuver and discuss protocol in detail. Another safety meeting is required if there are any “substantive changes” to the stunt.
A concentration of injuries on a single season of television doesn’t necessarily indicate negligence, especially on a high-octane show like 9-1-1. However, it is ambitious for a series like 9-1-1 to pull off massive stunt sequences on a regular basis given the restraints of working within the relatively tight production schedule required of broadcast shows, making it more likely for problems to occur.
Two years ago, a crew member died from a cardiac event while driving home from set after the workday ballooned to 14 hours due to complications with a controlled burn that was being used for a stunt. Still, a production source told Deadline at the time that 9-1-1 was “one of the safest that I’ve ever worked on.”
Director Jeff T. Thomas has worked on dozens of television episodes and music videos, some featuring the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Melissa Leo. But with AI, his feature debut is nigh.
Thomas, under his moniker “Jeff Synthesized,” took home the $2.5 million “Future Vision XPRIZE” last month with the AI-generated proof-of-concept trailer for “The Gifted.” The trailer — made under the prompt of depicting “a future worth building toward” within three minutes and judged by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, novelist Neal Stephenson, Google‘s Mira Lane, Salesforce executive John Zissimos and ‘Star Trek’ steward Rod Roddenberry — follows an 11-year-old boy who builds an AI version of his late mother who rebuilds his late mother that quietly begins saving lives, captured through various moments.
Now, with the win, Google and Range Media Partners (through their 100 Zeroes initiative) will help develop the trailer into a full-length feature.
It’s a story partly inspired by Thomas’ own childhood, having lost his mother at 14 due to an undiagnosed brain tumor. But having to navigate designing a hopeful film, one devoid of an antagonist that also heralds a positive view of AI, was a challenge in its own right.
But Thomas hopes the project can be a vehicle for that positive view of AI, both narratively and as a production tool, even as many in Hollywood remain fearful about its impact on jobs and some in the general public worry about its world-ending potential.
“I wanted to follow a character that became obsessive, compulsive about trying to bring his mother back,” he tells Variety. “In the movie that we’ll see, she admits to not being his actual mother, but she does actually end up helping him, helping the world, and hopefully this will be something that will be imitated by technology people, and we can actually do some good in the world.”
The participants — roughly 2,500, with the top five making it in front of the judges — were not required to use AI, but the fact that many of the final submissions was “evidence that AI is preoccupying people’s thoughts,” Tyson tells Variety.
Tyson says he found the trailer a “clever construct” in how it flipped people’s general fears about the technology’s “all-knowing” nature into a tool that connects people to help each other. His fellow judges agreed. “The choice of the number one was unanimous,” he says.
But that doesn’t mean he’s eager for completely AI-generated films, saying people flock to movies because “we want to see what humans can do” and that audiences will demand “human creativity, not machine creativity.”
“[AI] will raise the bar on creativity,” he says. “You can’t just be an artist aping the work of other artists because AI can do that. The value of that will drop in the workplace, but something that’s truly creative that comes out of the deepest parts of the minds of someone who dreamt it — I don’t see AI coming for that anytime soon.”
For Roddenberry, he says he wanted to see a project that could be “the next ‘Star Trek,’” one that left audiences believing the world the three-minute trailer presents is one they could aspire to.
“Is [the story] believable? No,” he admits. “It’s make believe. It can’t connect it exactly to reality, but I think it’s just a beautiful story of how technology, especially something like AI, which is so feared today, can have a positive message in it.”
It’s a philosphy Range subscribes to, CEO Peter Micelli says, investing in the prize to both showcase how people are using AI tools within the film industry and source new stories from contestants across the world. While the eventual “roughly $10 million” film will not be AI generated, he says, it’s a technology that could mimic the look of a film that costs 10 times that figure.
“This reality is here,” Micelli says. “This tool is very, very powerful. And I would be more concerned about us not being involved in these things because we need to be on the ground floor so we can advise our clients and partners that are established in Hollywood on [how] this is a reality, and everyone needs to be aware of what it is.”
Not that Thomas plans on making an AI film, promising his eventual movie will only utilize it as a tool. But he also doesn’t want those in the industry to write off AI as an end-all killer of creativity, pointing to his use of it while directing episodes of Amazon’s “House of David” series and his own experimentation with AI models.
“Audiences are still expecting $25 million-looking episodes, but you might have $10 million, you might have $12 million,” he says. “What AI can do is fill in the gaps between those to still provide the audience with something they want and still allow the studios to make the material for what they can afford. So, creatively wise, I think it will make entertainment better, because you won’t be as limited as we have been up until this point.”
YouTube, Twitch, Meta, and X aren’t saying whether they’ll allow the US government to livestream an execution on their platforms. The four companies didn’t respond to The Verge’s requests for comment after an unnamed Pentagon official said yesterday that the execution of Nidal Hasan, who was convicted of a mass shooting at a Texas military base in 2009, will be livestreamed.
Two platforms responded to The Verge’s inquiries. Jamie Favazza, a spokesperson for TikTok’s US operations, pointed to the platform’s policies banning “shocking and graphic content,” including “the moment of someone’s death.” Kick, a platform known for taking a hands-off approach to content moderation, confirmed that such a livestream would violate its policies. “If this was livestreamed on KICK, it would breach our Community Guidelines,” Kick spokesperson Audrey FitzGerald writes in an emailed statement to The Verge.
Hasan is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on December 3rd at 2PM ET. YouTube, Meta, and Twitch’s community guidelines suggest that this type of content wouldn’t be allowed on their platforms, but it’s unclear whether they would make an exception for the US government.
Meta, Twitch, and X’s community guidelines explicitly state that violent content involving death isn’t allowed, while YouTube bans content that “encourages dangerous or illegal activities that risk serious physical harm or death.” YouTube says livestreams that “feature someone holding or handling a firearm” aren’t allowed, either. Rumble, an online video platform known for hosting far-right influencers, also didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Rodney Muñoz, the Emmy-winning costume designer for Jimmy Kimmel Live!, has died. He was 60.
Muñoz died Oct. 2, his friend Joe Dietl announced in a Facebook post. The cause of death was not immediately available, but Dietl said that Muñoz had contracted COVID-19 during the pandemic, was put into a coma and ventilated and had been dealing with health issues ever since.
On Friday, Jimmy Kimmel penned a tribute on Instagram, writing, “Our dear friend and Costume Designer for almost 30 years, Rodney Muñoz, has sadly passed away.”
“Rodney was one of the most talented people I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. He was a funny, surly, hard-working man whose tough exterior hid a huge and generous heart. Rodney helped many of us through difficult times. He was a devoted son, brother and Uncle; a great baker and a caring friend. No man saw me in my underpants more.”
Muñoz began working on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2002, and he earned his Primetime Emmy for outstanding costumes for a variety/music program or a special in 2010.
He attended New York University from 1988-93, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in costume design for stage and screen. After his studies, Muñoz joined Late Show With David Letterman, where he worked as a costume designer until 2000.
Before Jimmy Kimmel Live!, he worked as a costume designer on projects including Champions of Magic 2, Can’t Stop Dancing and Popstars and as a wardrobe stylist on Fear Factor. He also worked on the costuming for Dietl’s web series Where the Bears Are.
Muñoz additionally styled Kimmel when he hosted the 2018 Academy Awards.
“We will miss Rodney as he joins his beloved parents in whatever comes next,” Kimmel wrote.
Netflix plans a substantial round of layoffs as the streaming giant faces rising competition and pressure to retain its subscribers, according to people familiar with the job cuts.
The cuts are expected to impact 5% of the company‘s workforce, which could be 800 workers, according to one of the sources who were not authorized to comment. The job losses will affect the creative team including those working on features, the source said.
Netflix declined to comment. The planned cuts are believed to be the biggest at the Los Gatos company since 2022. The news was first reported by news outlet Puck.
Netflix has been under scrutiny from investors over how much time its subscribers spend on the streaming service. View hours rose only about 2% in the first half of 2026 compared with a year earlier, even as content spending climbed.
“Overall we’re not growing as fast as I want us to, and we’re working on making that move faster,” said Netflix co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos at the Bloomberg Screentime event last week.
Netflix has noted how engagement can be measured in different ways. For example, its investment in live programming helps spur significant subscription sign-ups, even though it represents a small percentage of watch time on the streaming service, the company has said.
But some investors remain skeptical about the company’s future growth. Rival YouTube remains the leader in streaming viewing hours in the U.S. on TVs, representing 14.2% versus Netflix’s 7.8% in July, according to Nielsen. Netflix stock has also declined 43% compared to a year ago. On Friday, the stock closed at $70.30, down about 2%.
Netflix last conducted major layoffs in 2022 after the streamer reported subscriber losses for the first time in more than a decade. In May that year, the company laid off 150 workers and dozens of contractors and part-time workers in areas including its social media teams. The following month, it laid off 300 people or roughly 3% of its staff.
Recently, Netflix made changes to its games division. In August, the company closed its Hollywood-based gaming studio Night School and said it was in the process of closing its Helsinki, Finland-based gaming studio Moonloot.
Marvel kicked off the con with a celebration of all things television, giving fans a sneak peek at what’s to come from Marvel Television and Marvel Animation. Head of Television, Animation, Comics & Franchise Brad Winderbaum treated attendees to a special look at some Marvel’s most highly anticipated shows, including Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-ManSeason 2, X-Men ‘97Season 3, and the next three years of Marvel Zombies.
Winderbaum also revealed new details about a brand-new Marvel Television show: Zodiac, a top-secret global spy thriller coming soon to Disney+.
A number of familiar faces also joined the panel, with Defenders Finn Jones (Danny Rand), Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones), and Charlie Cox (Matt Murdock) taking the stage to tease an exclusive first look at the upcoming third and final season of Daredevil: Born Again.
Finally, VisionQuestclosed out the panel with creator Terry Matalas and stars Paul Bettany, James Spader, Ruaridh Mollica, and Emily Hampshire. Not only did they treat fans to exclusive footage, but in a thrilling surprise, they showed attendees the entire first episode of VisionQuest, before its global debut on Disney+ on October 14.
Am I the only one who gets a pit in their stomach whenever Wizards of the Coast announces ‘changes’ nowadays? Wizards of the Coast is switching things up with Magic: the Gathering Play Boosters and Collector’s Boosters once again, and fan reactions are predictably mixed. While some of the changes make sense from a play standpoint, and some are exciting in their own right, there’s also a few ‘business’ decisions that draw eye-rolls at best and outrage at worst.
The Good
We’ll start out with some of the better news from the recent Magic: the Gathering press release! First off—God Packs are making their return after a thirteen year hiatus. We last saw God Packs in 2014 as part of the Journey into Nyx set. The chance of pulling one back then was 1 in 1,000. Wizards of the Coast has improved the odds to 1 in 300 this time around. While the God Packs will no longer include fifteen God cards from the Theros block like the God Packs of yore, they will still consist of all Rare and/or Mythic cards.
Wizards of the Coast
Additionally, it’s cool that Japanese Showcase cards will now occasionally crop up in Booster Packs, not just Collector Boosters. We’re also getting increased drop rates on foil rares and foil mythics for Booster Packs, which I shan’t complain about.
Lastly, we’re getting some general branding changes. In 2024, during the Murders at Karlov Manor block, Draft Boosters and Set Boosters were replaced by Play Boosters. Play Boosters are now bowing out for just Booster Packs. Failing anything else, it does simplify things.
The Bad
Okay, so maybe this is just me, but that ‘you did it!’ card at the front of the God Packs makes me want to scream. No thank you! Give me another playable card, please, not a cardboard pat on the head! While the increased odds of pulling a God Pack are a great boon to players and collectors alike, it should be noted that a pack of 14 Rare/Mythic cards could still equate to a pretty low value pack, depending on the set and cards in question. Just because a card is Rare or Mythic, doesn’t mean it has a high price point, or a great amount of utility in play.
There’s also mounting concerns about changes like this further compromising the secondary card market, and making it a predatory playground for scalpers. Who are these changes for? Us? It certainly doesn’t feel that way. It feels like this is to make sure Hasbro’s shareholders can buy more yachts. How long until things are just as dire as they are for Pokémon TCG players, with the market being largely driven by speculative hoarding?
The Ugly
“How does removing cards make opening Collector Boosters more exciting? We’ll be honest here—it doesn’t. But we do know that most people who open Collector Boosters mostly skip past these cards. Not everyone, but enough of a majority. You can see it in virtually any Collector Booster opening video, where the video practically skips over that section of the booster. Removing them isn’t about shrinking the experience; it’s about making room—in terms of both printing capacity and player psychology—for cards people actually get excited about.” -Blake Rasmussen, Communications Director
Well, that is one hell of a way to spin getting three fewer cards in each pack! While the announcement post goes out of its way to state that none of the changes being made will result in higher Booster Pack prices, paying the same amount of money for less cards, is in fact paying more! I guess one way to make room in a pack is to empty that son-of-a-gun out. This is banana nuts, c’mon.
The blog post seems tone-deaf to the fact that the problem players have with Foils is not, “oh, I got an Uncommon/Common Foil, lame.” I don’t know what influencers are being watched by higher-ups, but from someone within the community, the long-standing problems with Foils is entirely with quality, not the literal presence of the Common and Uncommon Foils in a pack. Foils increasingly come pre-Pringle’d, already curving in the middle when you draw one out of the pack. Often in the secondary market, you’ll see Foils go for less than their basic counterparts. You know what Magic: the Gathering tournament organizers really don’t like you to use? Bent cards.
Also, didn’t they justify raising the price of Booster Packs years ago because they’d started coming with guaranteed Foils? That was a flawed premise to begin with, but now they’re taking that out, and…hold on, let me check my notes again…yes, still charging the same price. It’s almost like they want us to make proxies. Or just play Magic: the Gathering Arena.
Less is Not Actually More…
The world is not exactly in the midst of an economic upturn. While years of mounting prices have excluded more and more players from enjoying Magic: the Gathering to its fullest extent, we seem to be reaching a peak of inaccessibility. Universes Beyond is certainly lining Hasbro’s enormous, well-tailored pockets, but a lot of these changes are making the MTG fanbase that’s been here for years steadily lose faith in the product, or at least the ‘return on investment’ aspect of things.
Crimson Desert’s review scores were lower than expected because the press weren’t given the optimal experience, a Pearl Abyss executive says.
In an interview with The Game Business, the studio’s European CEO Lybee Park was asked why she felt the player response to game was extremely positive but the Metacritic score was 77 (which is not necessarily bad, but perhaps lower than expected).
Park replied that, in her opinion, she didn’t feel that critics were given the optimal version of the game, and also weren’t given enough time to explore it properly.
“I do believe both parties have fair points, especially the critics,” she said. “They had to play a build that was not the exact same version as the launch game.
“Also, they had limited time. Usually the classical approach when they review the game is following the main quest line, but with Crimson Desert, our unique charm is spread all over our in-game world. All those tiny details that are hidden, the freedom to actually explore even further beyond the common expectations.
“So all those unique bits and interesting new, freshened-up bits, I don’t think critics had a fair chance to explore those and experience them while in those reviewing periods.”
Since the release of Crimson Desert in March, developer Pearl Abyss has been continually improving it with patches and updates, including new difficulty levels, storage changes and graphical improvements.
“For platform expansion, the core focus is ensuring that Crimson Desert’s signature graphics, action, and open-world experience are fully preserved, rather than executing a simple port,” the studio said.
“In the case of Switch 2, the game has reached a playable baseline, and we are currently conducting technical reviews regarding performance optimization and quality standard compliance, targeting a release in the first half of next year.”
Skydance‘s CEO Business Leadership Team unveiled on Monday features only Co-Chairs, with everyone in the group sharing oversight of a division alongside someone else. All pairs come from the same side of the merged Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery company (WBD’s Casey Bloys & JB Perrette for DTC and James Gunn & Peter Safran for DC; Paramount’s Dana Goldberg & Josh Greenstein for film) except for one crossover duo: Paramount’s George Cheeks and WBD’s Perrette, who will serve as co-Chairs of Skydance TV.
The move marks the latest shared leadership position for Cheeks and also a new role he has not been in yet — at least by title — as Chief Content Officer of Skydance TV, a unit spanning Skydance’s three TV studios, Warner Bros. TV, CBS Studios and Paramount TV Studios, CBS and about 30 basic cable networks. As Skydance TV Chief Business officer, Perrette will oversee the division’s ad sales, distribution, content sales and international operations.
For a decade now, Harvard Law graduate Cheeks has been the business partner to a creative executive, whether it was as Co-President of Universal Cable Prods. and Wilshire Studios alongside Dawn Olmstead or as NBC Entertainment Co-Chairman alongside Paul Telegdy. Now he is the creative executive alongside Perrette with a title matching that of Skydance DTC Chief Content Officer Bloys, one of TV industry’s most accomplished development executives.
That caps a long evolution for Cheeks that can be traced back to one of his first Hollywood jobs, while having Perrette as Chief Business Officer across DTC as well as TV Studios and linear networks corrects a structural flow that existed at both Paramount and WBD.
The Business Guy
After stints at entertainment law firms Loeb & Loeb and Hansen Jacobson Teller and the BA & legal department of Castle Rock Entertainment early on, Cheeks landed a business and legal affairs job at MTV Networks. There, along with drafting deal memos, he also started doing script coverage for then-top programming executives Tony DiSanto and Liz Gateley.
Cheeks got his first formal assignment on the creative side — and showed his talent relations skills — when, as EVP Business Operations for NBC and Universal TV, he was put in charge of NBC Late Night in 2014. Lorne Michaels took a liking to him (while disliking his predecessor) and took him under his wing, valuing his creative sense by asking for his feedback on writer packages and taking him to auditions.
Cheeks has acknowledged that getting the NBC Late Night gig changed his career, fueling his aspirations to straddle business and creative. He would later be handpicked as the main liaison to NBCUniversal’s other uber TV producer, Dick Wolf, for similar reasons (the procedural king wanted to switch executives), proving that he can work well with top-level talent.
Still, when Bonnie Hammer announced Cheeks and Olmstead’s appointment as UCP co-Presidents in early 2018, she called Olmstead a “talented creative executive” while praising Cheeks’ “business savvy” as “second to none.” Similarly, Steve Burke’s statement about Cheeks’ promotion as NBC Entertainment co-Chairman alongside Telegdy later that year called him “a strategist and masterful dealmaker.”
That is a perception Cheeks carried over in his 2020 move to then-ViacomCBS as President and CEO of CBS Entertainment, with David Nevins initially serving as the division’s Chief Content Officer. That changed in 2021. Overseeing CBS-branded operations in various roles over the past five years — including another shared one as co-CEO of Paramount Global — varnished Cheeks’ creative credentials as he worked closely with such executives as CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach and CBS Studios President David Stapf.
Now Cheeks, who also has been overseeing Paramount’s basic cable networks, will be focusing on programming and marketing content while expanding his portfolio to include Warner Bros. TV, Paramount TV Studios as WBD’s cable brands, leaving most of the business areas to Perrette. (Given his business background, Cheeks is still expected to get involved in some decisions.)
Bundling Linear & Streaming Business Ops
Legacy media companies such as Skydance are faced with managing the transition from linear TV to streaming, and Perrette serving as Chief Business Officer across both direct-to-consumer and linear networks/TV studios will help facilitate that as the two areas have become intertwined in many key areas such as carriage agreements, ad and content sales.
For instance, in affiliate distribution deals for linear networks, carriers increasingly insist on bundling the streaming service. The same goes for ad buyers who package ad time across linear and digital.
And then there is content licensing, which could be a lot more efficient if the studios’ distribution divisions and their sibling streamers are overseen by the same business op executive. For instance, CBS and Paramount+ had been siloed, with Paramount+ automatically asking for exclusivity on virtually all CBS series. A holistic approach would help determine whether certain shows need to stream exclusively on Paramount+ or, based on their engagement and other metrics, they could be licensed to other platforms too, bringing in revenue that can be used to produce more shows.
Straddling both areas will also give the business executive in charge more ownership over next-day CBS series to better integrate them into the platform alongside the Paramount+ originals. (CBS fare, a big viewership driver in-season, is expected to stay largely on Paramount+ until the streamer’s merger with HBO Max is completed within the next couple of years.)
Additionally, the new streamlined structure with Perrette across both linear and streaming business ops makes for simplified and expedited decision-making. At WBD, where he was CEO of global streaming, it was a quartet of executives collaborating on these decisions: Perrette, CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer Bruce Campbell and President of International Gerhard Zeiler.
‘The Odd Couple’ 2.0?
In addition to being the only cross-company pair in the top Skydance executive echelon, Cheeks and Perrette share another distinction — Cheeks is the only former Paramount Global and Perrette the only former Discovery executive in the group.
As for compatibility, both are bringing in good track record. Perrette already has his successful partnership with Bloys, and Cheeks has showed that he could work with anyone.
Cheeks joked about it when asked in 2019 how he gets along with Telegdy, a flamboyant, larger-than-life personality.
“We literally could not be more different. It’s like Casting 101: ‘Let’s cast this dude and that dude and they’re so different, they’re an odd couple,’” he said at NATPE.
Cheeks clearly impressed Hollywood moguls with his performance as he keeps getting cast as half of executive couples.
A court has turned down a bid from Julia Ormond’s lawyers to issue a bench warrant for the arrest of CAA co-founder Michael Ovitz, who walked out of a June deposition after being prodded about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
New York state court justice Adam Silvera found on Thursday that Ovitz shouldn’t be held in contempt of court, though he was ordered to complete the questioning.
During the deposition, Ovitz was asked about his continuing association with Epstein after the disgraced financier’s conviction for sex crimes. At one point, he stopped engaging. “I’m not going to discuss anything about Jeffrey Epstein,” he said. “You can ask all the questions you want, you’re going to get no answers.”
The inquiry related to Ovitz’s assertion that he would’ve cut ties with Weinstein had he known about the former movie mogul’s history of sexual misconduct. Ormond, who rose to prominence in the ’90s after starring in Legends of the Fall, First Knight and Sabrina, had claimed that CAA’s top brass turned a blind eye to Weinstein’s crimes and failed to warn her about him before a 1995 meeting that led to her being assaulted. Ovitz was CAA’s chairman in the period immediately preceding the alleged incident.
In the deposition, Ovitz said he would’ve investigated any allegation of sexual misconduct by Weinstein against one of his clients. Asked what he would’ve done if the claim was substantiated, Ovitz replied that CAA “surely wouldn’t have done business” with him.
“I didn’t like his methodology of business,” Ovitz added. “He was a bully and — and he and I got into it multiple times. I talked to him as little as possible.”
Lawyers for Ormond then turned to Ovitz’s relationship with Epstein. Tensions flared when Ovitz was questioned about whether he continued to associate with the disgraced financier after he learned that Epstein was convicted of sex crimes. He stood up from his chair, pointed at Ormond’s lawyer and said, “I’m done with this. OK? You are out of line.”
In Thursday’s order, the court said that Ovitz “inappropriately terminated” the questioning. “Ovitz is warned that proper deposition procedures must be followed,” Silvera wrote.
Still, the judge stopped short of issuing a bench warrant since Ormond’s lawyers weren’t sufficiently impaired by Ovitz leaving the deposition before it ended.
“The decision makes clear that Mr. Ovitz was not entitled to storm out of the deposition, and that he is not above the law,” said Kevin Mintzer, Meredith Firetog and Effie Blassberger, lawyers for Ormond, in a statement. “We look forward to resuming the deposition and trust that Mr. Ovitz will behave himself.”
Jeffrey Mitchell, a lawyer for Ovitz, stresses that his client “has nothing to do with the Ormond case, her claims or events that happened after he left CAA in 1995.” He adds, “At the deposition, it was [Ovitz’s] view that Ormond’s lawyer Kevin Mintzer was being intentionally abusive and trying to smear his name and he left as a result.”
CAA has also maintained that the case doesn’t concern Ovitz, whose legal fees are being paid for by the agency.
Friendly communications between Ovitz and Epstein surfaced earlier this year when the Justice Department released a trove of materials on the disgraced financier. The emails from 2012 showed that the pair planned to meet at Epstein’s Manhattan home and off the coast of St. Barts.
With the upcoming U.S. midterm elections less than a month away, CNN is putting its weeknight primetime anchors on Sunday night.
Beginning Sunday, October 11, at 8 p.m. ET, the network will rotate its primetime anchors each weekend as they host special editions of their shows during its Midterms 2026: Countdown to Election Night coverage.
CNN NewsNight host Abby Phillip kicks off the rotation, which will feature a familiar lineup of newsmakers, reporters, analysts, experts, and more to break down all things election in each edition of the primetime special.
Following Phillip, other weekends include coverage from Laura Coates and Kaitlan Collins. The final Sunday before the midterm elections will have two specials, with Erin Burnett at 6 p.m. ET and Anderson Cooper at 8 p.m. ET.
Regular Sunday night anchor Jessica Dean will take over from Cooper at 10 p.m., closing out the evening with a two-hour edition of CNN Newsroom.
“Every election is shaped by the issues and conversations unfolding well before Election Night. These specials will bring together CNN’s trusted anchors, reporters in the field, and experts to help audiences make sense of what’s at stake, hear directly from the people driving the conversation, and understand the forces shaping the midterms,” said Charlie Moore, svp, primetime programming.
In addition, the two-hour specials, airing on CNN, CNN International, CNN en Español, and streaming for subscribers, will include an interactive element: viewer feedback, where the audience can engage with the anchor and panelists in real time at cnn.com/EngagePolitics.
The NCISfranchise is finally back on the 2026 TV schedule, and it’s better than ever. Tuesday night not only saw the season premieres of original and NCIS: Origins, but also the series premiere of new NCIS: New York. It also marked the return of some old fan favorites. Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly, and LL Cool J are all back in the franchise, and I’m pleased to report that it was a smart idea.
Deadline reports that the NCIS franchise saw a 39% uptick in audience from last year’s Tuesday premiere, averaging 5.49 million viewers. This included Weatherly’s much-anticipated return to NCIS, which saw his character Tony DiNozzo getting a major job upgrade. The Season 24 premiere brought in 6.45 million viewers and is the series’ most-watched episode since the Season 21 finale in May 2024. That is a 21% increase year-over-year.
Meanwhile, LL Cool J’s return as Sam Hanna in the franchise’s newest spinoff also saw some pretty great numbers. The premiere of NCIS: New York reached 5.62 million viewers in the 9 p.m. hour, which is up 53% year-over-year in the time period over Origins, which occupied the timeslot during its first two seasons. It was pushed back to the 10 p.m. hour to give New York the NCIS launching pad. New York also stars Scott Caan, but instead of reprising his Hawaii Five-0 character, he plays a new character, NCIS Special Agent Nick Schaeffer, despite crossovers with NCIS: LA.
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Last but certainly not least, NCIS: Origins also saw a rise in viewership from last season. The Season 3 premiere raked in 4.39 million viewers in the 10 p.m. hour, up 20% compared to its second season premiere in the 9 p.m. hour. It’s also up 56% from NCIS: Sydney’s premiere in the 10 p.m. slot last year. I’d take a good guess that it’s partly due to the fact that Harmon is once again portraying Leroy Jethro Gibbs. He’s made appearances in the first two seasons of Origins, but he’s set to be in all 10 episodes of the prequel’s third season, and fans are clearly happy.
Considering how nostalgic NCIS’ fall lineup is, I can understand why all three shows are doing so well. You have the return of three fan-favorite characters, two of whom have been around for over 20 years, and the other just kicked off a brand new series. It is really fun that all these returns are happening at the same time, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Clearly, CBS knew what it was doing.
The only thing that would make this even better is if a franchise alum were to return for NCIS: Sydney when the new season premieres early in 2027. However, you never know what could happen. Sydney has yet to have a proper crossover because of where it takes place and the show films in a different country, but it’s always possible. For now, catch NCIS, NCIS: New York, and NCIS: Origins Tuesdays on CBS beginning at 8 p.m. ET, or streaming with a Paramount+ subscription the next day.
Phoebe Bridgers has reunited with boygenius bandmates Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus for a stripped-back performance at New York’s Cherry Lane Theatre, including an acoustic rendition of “On Video,” her new original song for the A24 film PRIMETIME.
The three-song set is part of Sound Check at Cherry Lane Theatre, a performance series produced by A24, A24 Music and Cherry Lane Theatre. Alongside “On Video,” performed with longtime producer Ethan Gruska, Bridgers played “Haunted” and “Lost Boys” with boygenius mates Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker. The trio last performed together on camera during Saturday Night Live in November 2023.
The Cherry Lane session joins previous Sound Check performances from Tame Impala and Blood Orange. All installments are available on A24’s YouTube channel.
Bridgers makes her acting debut in PRIMETIME, directed by Lance Oppenheim. “On Video” plays over the film’s end credits, extending the sound of Ari Balouzian’s noir-inspired score into the movie’s closing moments. The track also appears on the official PRIMETIME soundtrack.
Starring Robert Pattinson as To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen, PRIMETIME is now playing in U.S. theaters, with Australian cinemas set to open the film on Oct. 29 and the U.K. release scheduled for Oct. 30.
Bridgers is in the midst of her phone-free arena tour in support of her latest album, Lost Weekend, which visits Charlotte, N.C. tonight (Oct. 9). She’s also already been announced as one of the headliners for the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona in June 2027.
Bela Bajaria was a few months into her job as the leader of Netflix’s international content expansion campaign in 2019 when she fully realized the significance of the opportunity ahead.
The production of local original content was not destined to be a side business for Netflix — it is the business, and increasingly so as the world’s largest subscription streaming platform relies on growth outside the U.S. to drive future profits. Netflix’s oft-stated goal is to be the platform that has something for every subscriber and every viewing mood — morning, noon and night. By that definition, Netflix has to invest enormous resources in programs, films and events that matter to subscribers. And that can’t be done all in English for a global subscription platform that reaches 190-plus countries (and transacts business in 45 currencies).
“There’s no road map for this — local programming is unprecedented at this scale,” Bajaria, now Netflix’s chief content officer, tells Variety.
For the extraordinary contributions made by Netflix to the global content landscape, Bajaria will receive the Vanguard Award from Variety and Mipcom during the international content marketplace and summit that runs Oct. 12-15 in Cannes. The kudo will be presented at the Palais des Festivals on Oct. 12 and will include an onstage conversation with Cynthia Littleton, Variety’s co-editor in chief.
“We understand that great storytelling can come from anywhere, and now the discovery and technology give you access to all of these stories from around the world,” Bajaria says. “Every Netflix production is a very deeply local production — that means from local creative executives in that creative community who live there, who speak the language, who grew up in that business.”
Today, Netflix has a $20 billion content budget and offices in 27 countries. The streamer produces TV and original movies in 50 different languages for more than 50 countries. It also commissions thousands of hours of local-language content each year. Shonda Rhimes, the powerhouse show runner who signed on with Netflix in 2017, calls Bajaria “decisive” and “frank” in ways that mesh well with her own style.
“There’s not ever an issue when you’re talking to her and she’s afraid to act. Especially in this era we’re in with television, and everybody’s feeling so uncertain, it’s very rare to spend time with a decisive person like that,” Rhimes tells Variety. “I love being able to talk to somebody who can give me a definitive yes or no. Bela’s that person.”
Bajaria came to Netflix in 2016 to spearhead the streamer’s push into unscripted content. That was a big professional shift for someone who’d spent most of her career in scripted TV, over more than 15 years at CBS and later as the head of NBC’s Universal Television.
Bajaria grew up in London and in Zambia before her family relocated to Torrance when she was 9. In 2019, when she was promoted to lead Netflix’s international originals strategy, Bajaria seized the unique chance to assemble a worldwide network of content hubs.
Bajaria got out her passport and hit the road (and the skies) to meet with producers and executives in far-flung corners. It was exhilarating, she recalls. Her travel schedule has not let up since.
“I’ve been at Netflix for almost 10 years. Netflix has grown a lot over the last decade, but the ambition and the goal have always been the same: We want to be the most creative entertainment company in the world,” says Bajaria. “When we started opening the country offices and hiring local teams, we always wanted to have shows and films that people loved, no matter which country they lived in, the language they speak or whatever mood they were in.”
In 2019, the rationale was that “to become a global company and to do local storytelling, it’s going to take the investment and local hiring. It wasn’t really one region at a time. We had a few pockets of people in different regional offices, but it was like OK, even if we have people in Singapore for Asia, we really need a Tokyo office, a Seoul office, a Bangkok office. In India, we had a couple of people in Mumbai, but it really was more U.S. people, so we went in and started to build it up,” Bajaria recalls.
Typically, Bajaria focused on hiring a plugged-in creative executive with great contacts. The arrival of Netflix in many regions, including South Korea and areas of Africa, has been a watershed moment that helped turbocharge local production infrastructure, jobs and expenditures. At present, the company has done business with more than 2,000 local production outfits during the last 10 years.
Bajaria was promoted to chief content officer in January 2023, taking oversight of Netflix original films as well as TV series, live events and a burgeoning lineup of sports rights. She may oversee the biggest programming slate in the history of moving pictures, but she’s never too busy to weigh in when asked and to be forthcoming when it matters most, in Rhimes’ experience.
“She’s very frank with me,” Rhimes says. “I don’t do well with platitudes, and I don’t do well with people talking in metaphors or trying to say something in a passive way. Bela’s like ‘That didn’t work for me,’ and I really appreciate that in a world in which I think most people don’t want to tell you exactly what they think.”
Rhimes moved her company’s home base to Netflix from Disney in 2017, about 18 months after Netflix threw open its doors to international business in January 2016.
Today, Netflix, as of its latest disclosures, counts about 95 million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada, or about 29% of its 325 million total subscribers at the end of 2025. Europe, the Middle East and Africa combined account for about 109 million subscribers, followed by Asia-Pacific (65 million) and Latin America (59 million).
Rhimes says there’s a special kind of cultural wallop that comes from launching a show on the scale of “Bridgerton” or 2022’s “Inventing Anna” on a platform that offers simultaneous global reach. Rhimes’ previous hit dramas, such as ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal,” traveled the world but never with the impact of being available everywhere all at once, a la “Bridgerton.”
Year one of the costume drama set in Regency-era England — which dropped on Christmas Day 2020 — rocketed star Regé-Jean Page to stardom. The experience opened up Rhimes’ vision for storylines and backdrops for Shondaland’s creations.
“That was such a tremendous feeling to know that it was conversation everywhere — literally globally,” Rhimes says of the “Bridgerton” bow. “There’s something about it that allows me to think less in terms of American stories and more in terms of placing things in a more international way.”
Bajaria is quick to reel off statistics that give a sense of Netflix’s scope.
Among other notable numbers:
Netflix has generated 425,000 production jobs around the world in 10 years.
In Mexico, Netflix does biz with more than 50 local production companies. They’ve committed to spending $1 billion on content targeted for Mexico from 2025-2028.
Netflix has committed $2.5 billion to spend on Korean content from 2023-2027.
How in the world does Bajaria keep up with it all? As a veteran creative executive, she also knows how to pick the right time to get involved on a detail level with programs.
“When I click play, I’m watching it as fresh eyes,” she says. “There’s no great plan for why I watch this or I don’t watch that. [Netflix executives] send things to me. As I’m traveling, I’m watching something constantly. The interesting thing is — either you get transported and engaged in the story, or you don’t. It’s never, ‘Well, it must be because of a language barrier or it’s culturally specific.’ No, the show or the movie just didn’t work. Storytelling is universal. Either you go for the ride or you don’t.”
Bajaria emphasizes that the focus is on developing regional and language-specific hits and to seed franchises that keep subscribers engaged. When a local-language program or movie blows up, a la Korea’s “Squid Game” or France’s “Lupin” or, early on, Spain’s “La Casa de Papel,” it’s a gamechanger for viewership and subscribers.
But the shows first and foremost have to connect with local audiences.
“There’s always this constant at the end of the day. Whether you’re in São Paulo or London or Bangkok, there’s a filmmaker or creator who has a vision and something to say and you back that vision. Ultimately that is the core part of the job we do — supporting the vision or storytelling,” Bajaria says.
“There’s great fandom for anime that we make from Japan, and people love Korean content. And there’s definitely times when people discover something like ‘Chestnut Man’ from the Nordics or ‘Blood of Sacrifice’ from Sweden. Then they start discovering more things from that country,” she says.
“As people are more open to things from different countries or discover a different genre, like maybe anime, then that opens up a whole world,” she says.
During her early tour to build up Netflix’s hubs, She learned something she found comforting: Every time I’d go in like oh it’s a new country, I’m learning all these things about cultural nuances and a lot of different factors.’ But at the end of the day, it came down to, oh right we support great talent and great voices. That is the same sitting in Hollywood or sitting in another country.”
***
Beyond ‘Squid Game’
10 local-language originals that have resonated globally for Netflix
Series
Alice in Borderland Japan, 2025 (3 seasons) An aimless gamer in Tokyo is thrust into a survival game.
All of Us Are Dead Korea, 2022 (1 season) High schoolers battle a zombie virus.
Delhi Crime India, 2019 (3 seasons) Police probe high-profile crimes in the sprawling city.
Lupin France, 2021 (Season 4 premieres Oct. 23) A “gentleman thief” works to avenge an injustice inflicted on his father by a wealthy family.
La Palma Norway, 2024 (1 season) A Norwegian family struggles to survive a record-breaking tsunami.
Senna Brazil, 2024 (1 season) The rise and fall of Brazilian Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna.
Who Killed Sara? Mexico, 2022 (3 seasons) A wrongly convicted man seeks revenge on the family that framed him.
Movies
Exterritorial Germany, 2025 An ex-special-forces soldier seeks to free her son after he disappears in the U.S. consulate.
Society of the Snow Spain, 2024 Plane crash victims form unbreakable bonds to survive in the Andes.
Under Paris France, 2024 A female scientist battles a killer shark who turns up in the Seine.
Former Trump loyalist Cassidy Hutchinson has been a focal point after testifying before the House Jan. 6 committee, where she expressed concerns about the Capitol attack and Donald Trump’s role in it. She discussed Trump’s actions leading up to the riot and revealed that he wanted to join his supporters as the violence unfolded.
Hutchinson is now facing renewed scrutiny as the Justice Department reportedly seeks a criminal indictment over allegations that she lied to Congress during her testimony. According to Bloomberg Law, prosecutors are pursuing an indictment, while UPI reported that evidence has been presented to a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C.As of October 9, 2026, no indictment has been publicly announced, and the allegations have not been proven.
In January 2025, the Washington Post reported that a Mike Johnson aide discouraged subpoenaing Hutchinson over concerns about exposing sexually explicit messages allegedly sent by lawmakers.
Find out more about her, her testimony, and her personal life below.
Who Is Cassidy Hutchinson?
Hutchinson was a former aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. She testified in a public hearing before the January 6th Committee in 2022.
What Did Cassidy Hutchinson Say About Trump?
Hutchinson testified that Trump was aware of the potential violence and did not take action to prevent it. She described how, on the day of the January 6th insurrection, Trump allegedly expressed a desire to go to the Capitol with his supporters, despite safety concerns.
She also recalled instances where Trump appeared dismissive of the safety concerns raised by his staff and law enforcement. Hutchinson described how Trump downplayed or ignored the threat posed by the mob of his supporters.
Additionally, Hutchinson testified about efforts by Trump and his allies to pressure state officials and others to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Is Cassidy Hutchinson Married?
It is unclear whether Hutchinson is married or currently in a relationship. However, she has briefly discussed her past dating life in an interview with Rachel Maddow in 2023. During the interview, Hutchinson took the opportunity to deny a claim made by Matt Gaetz, who had suggested they briefly dated.
“I will say, on behalf of myself, I never dated Matt Gaetz. I have much higher standards in men. And Matt, frankly is a very unserious politician.” -Cassidy Hutchinson leaves nothing to question about her regard for Rep. Matt Gaetz pic.twitter.com/MGzSzl33IU
In her memoir Enough, Hutchinson previously mentioned that Gaetz had been flirtatious with her on several occasions during her time in the Trump administration. However, Gaetz denied her account, stating he did not recall the details from her book but insisted they had shared a brief romantic encounter instead.
Hutchinson, in discrediting the claim, told Maddow, “I have much higher standards in men… Matt is, frankly, a very unserious politician.”
She continued, “And I don’t really have much else to say to somebody who is more concerned about a sound bite than actually passing legislation. Matt Gaetz, in my opinion, is somebody that I personally do not hold in high regard in terms of trust, and I do not think that Matt Gaetz has the best track record for relationships.”
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Promocje i bonusy – co warto wiedzieć
Struktura bonusu powitalnego
Nowi użytkownicy otrzymują pakiet, który zawiera pierwszy depozyt i darmowe spiny na określone gry. Zwykły układ to podwyższenie procentowe wpłaty — zazwyczaj sto procent — aż do określonego limitu. Dokonujesz wpłaty dwieście złotych, saldo bonusowe otrzymuje drugie dwieście. Darmowe spiny są przyznawane partiami, a które sloty je zdobędą, jest uzależnione od bieżącej konfiguracji promocyjnej. Szczegółowe kwoty, ewentualny kod promocyjny i listę gier sprawdzisz w zakładce promocje — tam stale są aktualne parametry.
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Każdy bonus podlega warunkom obrotu — wskazują one, ile razy trzeba postawić otrzymane środki przed wypłatą. Wymóg trzydziestokrotności przy bonusie stu złotych wymaga zakładów na łączną sumę trzech tysięcy złotych. Nie każda gra liczy się jednakowo: automaty zwykle wnoszą sto procent, gry stołowe często dużo mniej, a niektóre tytuły mogą być wykluczone. Dlatego przed wybraniem „aktywuj” zapoznajemy się z regulaminem — oszczędza to frustracji przy próbie wypłaty.
Ochrona gracza i ochrona gracza
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Pracujemy na bazie ważnej licencji hazardowej — numer ewidencyjny umieszczamy w stopce strony, nie chowamy go w zakamarkach. Licencja narzuca regularne audyty generatora liczb losowych i przestrzeganie zasad odpowiedzialnej gry. Automaty oraz gry stołowe poddawane są testy w niezależnych laboratoriach, więc wyniki są nieprzewidywalne, a nie zaaranżowane. Jeśli dojdzie do sporu, możesz odwołać się do organu nadzorującego — to realne zabezpieczenie prawne, nie tylko oznaczenie na stronie.
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Cała transmisja między twoim urządzeniem a serwerami przebiega przez szyfrowane połączenie TLS. Dane osobowe i finansowe nie wyciekają. Wewnętrznie kontrolujemy dostęp do wrażliwych informacji tylko do upoważnionych pracowników — nie każdy support widzi pełny profil. Polityka prywatności wyjaśnia punkt po punkcie, jakie dane zbieramy, po co i jak długo je zachowujemy. W każdej chwili możesz poprosić wglądu lub usunięcia danych, zgodnie z przepisami o ochronie danych osobowych.
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W panelu konta są dostępne narzędzia, które wspierają trzymać wydatki i czas w ryzach. Skonfigurujesz dzienny, tygodniowy lub miesięczny limit depozytów oraz limit przegranych — gdy go przekroczysz, system zatrzymuje dalsze wpłaty. Opcja samowykluczenia umożliwia zamknąć konto na wybrany okres, od kilku miesięcy do kilku lat. Działamy z zewnętrznymi organizacjami pomocowymi, a linki do nich zobaczysz w dedykowanej zakładce. Historia transakcji i aktywności jest zawsze pod ręką, więc w każdej chwili możesz sprawdzić, ile poszło na grę.
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Wymóg KYC to warunek licencji i zabezpieczenie przed oszustwami oraz praniem pieniędzy. Przed pierwszą wypłatą będziemy wymagać skanu dokumentu tożsamości — dowód osobisty lub paszport — oraz dokument z adresem, na przykład rachunek za prąd. Zdjęcia przesyłasz przez bezpieczny formularz w panelu konta. Proces weryfikacji zajmuje zazwyczaj do dwudziestu czterech godzin, a po niej maksymalna wypłata wzrasta. Daje ci to wyższy poziom bezpieczeństwa finansowego i żadnego ryzyka blokady konta w przyszłości.
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Gry mobilne – swoboda bez barier
Dostosowanie i kompatybilność
Witryna dostosowuje się automatycznie do wyświetlaczy smartfonów i urządzeń przenośnych, bez względu na platformę. Nie potrzebujemy pobierania programów — przeglądarka i połączenie wystarczą. Interfejs stworzyliśmy tak, by istotne opcje były dostępne pod kciukiem, a przyciski miały rozmiar chroniący przed przypadkowym kliknięciem. Gry działają w HTML5, więc animacje i grafika zachowują płynność nawet na starszych sprzętach — sprawdzaliśmy to na urządzeniach sprzed kilku lat.
Odczucia użytkownika na telefonie
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Różnice między desktopem a telefonem
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Punkty lojalnościowe i ich wymiana
Za każdy obstawiony zakład zdobywasz punkty lojalnościowe — niezależnie od tego, czy runda skończyła się wygraną, czy przegraną. Liczba punktów wynika z typu gry: automaty dają więcej na złotówkę niż stoły. Zebrane punkty wymieniasz na bonusowe środki albo darmowe spiny w sklepie dostępnym w panelu. Wymiana działa natychmiast, a otrzymane środki podlegają standardowym wymaganiom obrotu. System wynagradza regularną aktywność, nie tylko grube stawki, więc rekreacyjni gracze też błyskawicznie zbierają pierwsze nagrody.
Rangi VIP i przywileje
W zależności od liczby punktów uzyskanych w okresie rozliczeniowym awansujesz na kolejne poziomy VIP. Każdy poziom aktywuje dodatkowe korzyści: wyższe limity wypłat, szybsze przetwarzanie transakcji, indywidualnego opiekuna czy wejściówki na ekskluzywne turnieje. Zaproszenia wysyłamy e-mailem, a raz osiągnięty status pozostaje przez określony czas, nawet jeśli aktywność trochę zmaleje. Dla najbardziej lojalnych klientów szykujemy prezenty okolicznościowe i zaproszenia na eventy stacjonarne — miły dodatek do cyfrowej rozrywki.
Zawody i rywalizacja między graczami
Regularnie uruchamiamy turnieje slotowe, gdzie nagrody trafiają za najwyższą sumę wygranych albo największą liczbę punktów zdobytych w określonym czasie. Uczestnictwo jest często bezpłatne i automatyczne — grasz w wytypowane automaty i widniejesz w tabeli. Wyniki odświeżają się na żywo, co podkręca emocje. Pula nagród może rozchodzić się na kilkudziesięciu graczy, a wypłata to zwykle gotówka bez obrotu. W osobnych zakładkach prezentujemy turnieje na żywo przy stołach z krupierem — tam ma znaczenie na przykład najdłuższa seria wygranych rąk w blackjacku.
Sposoby płatności i przetwarzanie transakcji
Metody wpłat
Trzymamy metody, którymi się posługujesz na co dzień: natychmiastowe przelewy, karty debetowe i kredytowe, e-portfele oraz BLIK. Wpłaty zapisywane są od razu, najniższa wpłata to zwykle kilkadziesiąt złotych. Nie dodajemy dodatkowych opłat od wpłat, a całość szyfrujemy tak, że nikt postronny nie podejrzy transakcji. Integracja z Przelewy24 sprawia, że złotówki zostają złotówkami — pośrednik przelicza automatycznie, bez ręcznego przewalutowania i spreadów.
Proces wypłat i termin realizacji
Wypłaty dokonujemy sprawnie, ale każda podlega wewnętrzną weryfikację. Status wniosku aktualizuje się w ciągu kilku godzin, a końcowa transakcja trafia na konto zwykle w jeden do trzech dni roboczych — szybciej na portfele elektroniczne, nieco dłużej przy przelewie bankowym. Przed pierwszą wypłatą trzeba potwierdzić tożsamość, o czym informujemy w sekcji weryfikacji. Przez cały czas możesz śledzić status zlecenia w panelu gracza, bez odgadywania, na którym etapie zostało zatrzymane.
Ograniczenia, prowizje i dodatkowe kwestie
Każda metoda płatności ma swoje dolne i górne granice pojedynczej transakcji — tabela z kwotami wisi w regulaminie kasyna. Wypłaty wygranych są nieodpłatne, ale przy bardzo częstych transferach bez obrotu może wystąpić opłata manipulacyjna. Szczegóły odnajdziesz w sekcji bankowej, nic nie jest schowane. Staramy się o niskie progi wejścia, żeby gracze z mniejszym budżetem też mogli się poczuć swobodnie. Listę metod odświeżamy regularnie, obserwując, czym płaci polski użytkownik.
Co odróżnia Crusado Casino na rynku
Lokalny charakter do polskiego gracza
Od pierwszego dnia projektowaliśmy platformę pod polskiego użytkownika. Strona jest w całości po polsku, a regulaminy i komunikaty to nie tłumaczenia maszynowe — piszą je rodzimi specjaliści, obeznani z branżą. Płatności obsługujemy w złotówkach, a BLIK i szybkie przelewy traktujemy priorytetowo. Support rozumie lokalny kontekst i realia rynku, więc pomoc jest celniejsza. Nawet święta i promocje sezonowe zahaczają o polski kalendarz — dzięki temu kasyno nie przypomina zagraniczną franczyzą, tylko platformą stworzoną blisko gracza.
Jawność i uczciwość gier
Nie chowamy, że kasyno zawsze ma matematyczną przewagę — to składowa hazardu, a nie tajemnica. Dlatego zamieszczamy teoretyczne wskaźniki zwrotu dla gier, jeśli dostawca je udostępnia. W automatach RTP kształtuje się koło 96 procent, co znaczy, że w długim okresie kasyno przechowuje około czterech procent stawek. W grach stołowych wartość jest uzależniona od strategii gracza. Udostępniamy wyniki audytów RNG, a każdy może przejrzeć wnp.pl historię swoich zakładów i wyników — to eliminuje podejrzenia o manipulację bez potrzeby przeszukiwania po forach.
Błyskawiczne wypłaty i sprawna obsługa
Dla wielu graczy tempo wypłaty to kluczowy wskaźnik jakości kasyna. U nas wewnętrzne procedury są dostosowane tak, że decyzja zapada w kilka godzin, nie dni. Pierwsza wypłata wymaga weryfikacji, ale kolejne przechodzą automatycznie, o ile dane się nie zmieniły. Integracja z szybkimi systemami płatności gwarantuje, że przelew na portfel elektroniczny jest w stanie trafić tego samego dnia. Automatyzacja procesów i stały monitoring kolejek mają wpływ na konkretne doświadczenie — wypłata nadchodzi, a zaufanie wzrasta.
How much would you pay for Darth Vader’s lightsaber that defeated Luke Skywalker in the best Star Warsmovie ever made?
A lightsaber used in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back is going up for auction, according to the Associated Press.
The saber — which was also used in Return of the Jedi — is part of the Ultimate Star Wars Auction being held by Heritage Auctions on Nov. 12.
The prop is expected to fetch at least $1 million, but a higher bid seems likely. In July, a Luke Skywalker lightsaber from Empire sold for $3.75 million (though that one had the added benefit of coming with Skywalker’s severed hand). A previous Vader lightsaber sale from Empire sold for $3.6 million last year.
A couple dozen other lightsaber props will also be sold at the auction. Interestingly, by comparison, the lightsabers used by Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi and Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith are only expected to sell for at least $10,000 each.
While Skywalker’s lightsaber holds the record amount for a Star Wars prop, some other high-value sales have included Red Leader’s X-wing fighter miniature going for $3.1 million in 2023, a full-size R2-D2 droid going for $2.8 million and Han Solo’s blaster from A New Hope fetching around $1 million.
Ten names have boarded Season 2: David Wronko, Erik Athaval (American Hostage), Elyse Levesque (Ready or Not, Orphan Black), Graham Harvey (The Night Agent), Jacinta Forest Lewitski, Lyla Porter-Follows (High Potential), Martin Roach (Cross), Paul Greene (When Calls The Heart, Autumn and the Black Jaguar), Ryan Northcott (Anna Pigeon) and Scott Porter(Ginny & Georgia, Friday Night Lights, Hart of Dixie).
Athavale will portray energetic minister Reverend Alden, who leads Walnut Grove’s Congregational church. Levesque will play Emma Perry, wife of Luther Perry and mother to Maud and Thomas, who secretly calls the shots for her husband’s business. Harvey will play Johnny Johnson, son of Norwegian immigrants and farm boy who has never attended school. Lewitski will play Hannah Walker, Lena Nelson’s farm manager, who is part Dakota and plays first base for the Prairie Clippers. Porter Follows will portray Mrs. Lena Nelson, an outspoken young widow in charge of the farm her husband left behind.
Roach will portray civil war veteran Simon Hughes, a widower who owns the Blacksmith Shop. Greene will play Luther Perry, husband to Emma Perry and father of Thomas and Maud. Luther is a grain buyer and town baker who poses a threat to the farmers. Northcott will play William Oleson, husband to Margaret Oleson (Charlotte Sullivan) and father to Nellie Oleson (Willa Dunn). And, last but not least, Porter will portray Uncle Peter, older brother to Charles aka “Pa” Ingalls (Luke Bracey)
All but Porter’s are recurring guest stars. Uncle Peter is a guest star role in the second season.
L-R: Skywalker Hughes as Mary Ingalls, Alice Halsey as Laura Ingalls behind the scenes of episode 207 of ‘Little House on the Prairie’
Eric Zachanowich/Netflix
In On the Banks of Plum Creek, Mrs. Nelson is married to a Mr. Nelson, and both are Norwegian neighbors to the Ingalls in their new home in Minnesota. They share a daughter named Anna. Pa also works for Mr. Nelson in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s novel.
Mixing hopeful family drama and survival tale suspense, Little House on the Prairie tells the story of one family’s adventure and origin story settling the American West. It is based on Wilder’s semi-autobiographical book series.
Rebecca Sonnenshine (The Boys, Vampire Diaries, Archive 81) serves as showrunner and executive producer. Executive producers include Joy Gorman Wedtels for Joy Coalition, Trip Friendly for Friendly Family Productions, Dana Fox and Pascal Verschooris, who also directs the Season 2 finale episode. More directors include Kat Candler (201), Kyle Patrick Alvarez (202), Julie Anne Robinson (203), Liza Johnson (204), Sarah Boyd (205), Ellen Kuras (206) and Sydney Freeland (207),
The adaptation is produced by CBS Studios and Anonymous Content Studio.
Reporting Live movie review: A bridge collapse in Visrgaon that kills 16 children and a pregnant woman sets investigative journalist Sandhya (Parineeti Chopra) and video journalist Vinod (Deven Bhojani) on a dangerous trail. What initially seems to be a tragic accident soon leads them to the murky world of illegal sand mining, where sand is treated as ‘brown gold’ because of the enormous money involved in its trade. As Sandhya and Vinod dig deeper, they uncover a powerful and ruthless sand-mining syndicate determined to keep its operations and the crimes surrounding them hidden.
Their investigation takes them far deeper than they anticipate. With every new lead, Sandhya and Vinod find themselves closer to people who have enough power to make their lives extremely difficult. Their families are threatened, their own safety is constantly at risk and even the newsroom becomes an obstacle as powerful interests attempt to prevent the story from seeing the light of day. Yet, against all odds, the two continue chasing the truth.
And this is where Reporting Live has a promising premise. A story about journalists taking on an illegal sand-mining racket has the potential to be a gripping, grounded investigative thriller. The film clearly wanted to explore not just the criminal operation but also what happens when journalists attempt to expose people powerful enough to control the narrative. Unfortunately, the problem lies in the script.
Reporting Live is riddled with clichés, especially in the way it portrays its newsroom. The editor-in-chief caught between journalism and the channel owner’s interests, stories being stopped, journalists being reprimanded and a powerful owner using his influence to determine what gets reported — we have seen versions of this newsroom countless times before. Even though these situations may have a basis in reality, the film presents them in such familiar ways that very little feels fresh.
The first half, however, is considerably better. The portions that reveal how the illegal sand-mining operation works are interesting . As Sandhya and Vinod begin uncovering the racket and understanding just how much power and money are involved, the film manages to pull you in. There is a sense of discovery that works in its favour.
But the script gradually loses control of all the threads it introduces. The sand mafia, newsroom politics, the channel owner’s vested interests, threats to the journalists and their families — everything eventually becomes a bit of a hodgepodge. Instead of tying these elements together into a taut thriller, the film often resorts to a bit of melodrama. Too many developments seem to fall conveniently into place, leaving very little actual thrill.
The performances do provide some support. Deven Bhojani is predictably good as Vinod, bringing an understated quality to the role. Parineeti Chopra is mostly one-tone as Sandhya, but she is convincing as a journalist who refuses to stop until she gets the story. Unfortunately, the script does her no favours.
Adil Hussain, as editor-in-chief Vidur, is dependable as always. He brings credibility to a familiar character and remains one of the more convincing elements of the newsroom portions. Shekhar Suman, as channel owner Shyam, is quite menacing. He walks a difficult tightrope between seeming like a politically correct media proprietor and someone with his own vested interests, and manages to pull it off convincingly in parts.
But, all said and all, Reporting Live has a story worth telling but a script that doesn’t know how to make the most of it. For a film that promises a dangerous fight between journalists and a powerful criminal syndicate, there simply isn’t enough tension or thrill by the end. The film is more promising on paper than it is on screen.
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The film follows investigative journalist Sandhya and video journalist Vinod as they uncover an illegal sand-mining syndicate after a bridge collapse in Visrgaon kills 16 children and a pregnant woman. As they dig deeper, they face immense threats from a powerful criminal syndicate and obstacles within their own newsroom.
Reporting Live features Parineeti Chopra as field reporter Sandhya and Deven Bhojani as video journalist Vinod. The cast also includes Adil Hussain as editor-in-chief Vidur, Shekhar Suman as channel owner Shyam, and Amol Palekar.
Reporting Live is set to stream on Netflix on October 9, 2026.
Shreyanka Mazumdar is Chief Sub Editor of the entertainment team at News18. With an unbridled passion for all things Bollywood, she loves deep-diving into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment wo…Read More
First Published:
October 09, 2026, 12:40 IST
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For actors, portraying a real-life person is a huge challenge. But portraying a real-life singer-songwriter-actress-icon like Dolly Parton when she’s standing right in front of you is a whole other realm.
That was the experience and the challenge for the actors and co-creators of “Dolly: A True Original Musical,” which previewed in Nashville last year and comes to Broadway’s St. James Theatre in previews starting on December 7, 2026, and opens officially on her 81st birthday, January 19, 2027. But while it was certainly a daunting task, it was a deeply enriching one for the people who have brought the musical to life.
Parton was there for every step of the process, right up until her death from cancer this past August, and was every bit as positive, charming and encouraging as her iconic image would lead one to expect, according to two of the actresses who portray her — Carrie St. Louis (“Just in Time,” “Rock of Ages,” “Kinky Boots”) and Katie Rose Clarke (“Merrily We Roll Along,” “Light in the Piazza”) — and Tony-winning director Bartlett Sher and lead producer Adam Speers. All four sat down with Variety’s Jem Aswad for an interview at Variety’s “Business of Broadway” event earlier this week.
Jem Aswad, Katie Rose Clarke, Bartlett Sher, Carrie St. Louis and Adam Speers speak onstage during the “Dolly: A True Original Musical” panel at Variety Business of Broadway presented by CNB held at Mandarin Oriental on October 05, 2026 in New York, New York.
Kristina Bumphrey
In vivid detail, they recalled their extraordinary and unique experiences with Parton as she helped them to shape her story and their depictions of her — complete with some of the most intimate and accurate Dolly impersonations the world is likely to hear. An edited transcript of this remarkable conversation appears below.
The show, which examines Parton’s career in three eras, was written by Parton with Maria S. Schlatter, directed by Sher and executive-produced by Speers (who previously worked with Parton on the London incarnation of “9 to 5”) with Parton, her manager Danny Nozell, and Gavin Kalin Productions. It has been trimmed down from its three-hour-plus Nashville incarnation, but the version that is coming to Broadway was overseen and approved by Parton herself.
Katie, Carrie, what sort of advice did Dolly give you? And have you ever had the experience of speaking with the person you’re portraying?
St. Louis No, and certainly not at that level! I remember the first time I had to sing in front of her. Of course, it’s so nervewracking because you want to do her justice and honor her, but also it has to feel truthful and real and not like a caricature. The thing that was so beautiful about Dolly was, she made me feel so confident; she believed in me more than I believed in myself. I remember one day Katie and I mentioned that we still got nervous around her, and she said [in Dolly’s speaking voice], “Oh, don’t you start!,” you know? She would always kind of [gently slap] me and be like, “What are you talkin’ about? I’m just a normal girl!” And I said, “You’re right, my nana always says we all put our pants on one leg at a time.” And she looked right back at me and said, “Not me — I jump into mine with heels on!” (Laughter)
She was just extraordinary. She was the first person in the building in the morning and the last person to leave. And on every break, you’d think she might go out and, I don’t know, attend to the 100 million other things that she was doing, but no: She would walk around the room and speak to every actor that was there, one-on-one. If people were playing the guitar, she’d start jamming and singing with them. She was just so normal and allowed us the room to explore and try things. She never said, “That’s not how I’d say that” — she would just say, “You make me look better than I am!,” which was not true. But she was just so wonderful and so confident in us.
Clarke During one of my first rehearsals with her, we were on a break and Carrie and I had this really sweet moment where she shared some vulnerable things with us, and let her guard down. And when I was walking back into the rehearsal room with her, she grabbed my arm and put it through hers and was just kind of patting my hand. I said, “Dolly, I’m just never going to be over it. This is just wild to me.” And — same story — she goes, “Ooh, don’t you get it? I’m just a regular girl.” I felt like that was a clue to how to approach playing her, telling her story, and sharing her life on stage.
I don’t think I ever really stopped being nervous to sing in front of her. Oh my gosh, “Jolene” — I have this huge hangup about singing “Jolene.” I would mess up the lyrics every time in rehearsals — “Sorry, Dolly!” [Imitates Dolly’s voice] “That’s okay, you’re doin’ great!” She was always harmonizing with us, Carrie and I would be singing with her around the piano and she would just sing along with us and she’d give us different harmonies to try. It was an unbelievable experience. We all keep saying to each other, thank God we had that summer with her.
St. Louis What I think is really beautiful about our show is that you’re able to see the more private moments that the public maybe doesn’t know about. Because as bigger than life as she was, she was also pretty private, and she’s sharing a lot of these special, intimate details of her life — like her relationship with her husband, Carl, that were never seen in public. She would share these stories with Katie and me in the hallway, just talking about what he was like when they were dating and, how he courted her and things like that. She’s just a girl who was swept off her feet at the laundromat. It’s been really wonderful to be able to know that we’re telling her story honestly.
How is the Broadway show different from the Nashville version?
Speers We tried to put everything into the Nashville show: Dolly was 79 years old at the time, and she’d been in the spotlight for over 50 years, and I think one of the things we learned in our [Nashville iteration] was how much story there is. So [for Broadway], instead of telling the story of a global icon, what we really wanted to do was to tell a story of a human being. We expanded the areas that explained who she was as a human in order to dramatize that, rather than dramatizing the rags-to-riches [aspect]. It’s a story about how a human discovered who she wanted to be.
Sher And she wrote over 10,000 songs, so there were a few to pick from. Our early workshops had over 50 songs in the show and would take three-and-a-half hours, so it was a huge amount of material to find our way through and hone in on the story that we have now. She was a big part of helping us to figure that out.
Speers You still made her write another one!
Sher Well, there’s a song early in the show called “Puppy Love,” which we have her singing at her radio debut at WIVK [in Knoxville, TN in 1956 at age 10]. That’s what we have in our show, but the song she actually sang at WIVK was “Little but Loud,” which was written by Little Jimmy Dickens, the famous Grand Ole Opry star.
I said, “Dolly, why don’t we do ‘Little but Loud’? It’s such a great song and has so much information in it — ‘Little but loud, I’m poor but I’m proud,’” and all that sort of stuff. And we had a very intense, collaborative conversation about why she thought it should be a song that she had written. And then she went off and within two days wrote me a brand new song, which is now in the show, called “Mountain Girl” that is absolutely amazing. That’s what it was like working with her. She wrote a song every morning when she prayed.
Did she record those songs or just remember them?
Sher She had a whole system where she would take them to her team and they’d record them right there, or she’d call them up and say, “Meet me at the studio” and they’d go right in and record them.
Speers She told me she did that so that every night when she went to bed, the world was a slightly different place for her being in it.
Sher If you sat with her to watch the show, she always harmonized with [the actors] onstage — while you were sitting next to her, which I promise you is a pretty intense experience, to be sitting next to Dolly Parton while she’s singing along with herself. It was an incredible, incredible experience.
St. Louis She was very, very involved. She was there every day in Nashville. Her dressing room was next to mine and Katie’s, so she’d come in at intermission and be like, “You’re doing real good out there, Dolly!” and I’d say “Thanks, Dolly!”
Speers She’s all over this: She was my co-producer, she’s obviously responsible for the music and lyrics and she’s the co-author of the book. So she’s baked into this entire process, not just in what you see on stage, but also how we’re behaving off stage — we’re driven by how Dolly Parton wanted to treat everyone.
What do you think were her priorities in telling her story?
Speers I don’t want to speak for Dolly, but I can tell you what I think: It’s a story of hope, and I don’t think there is a more hopeful story out there than that of Dolly Parton, who came from absolutely nothing to become one of the most famous people in the entire world. So explaining how she did that, how she remained authentic, how she followed her heart to be a kind, generous, hardworking individual is the story we wanted to tell.
Sher We talked with her endlessly about what the show was about. I did one of those old-school director things and sat down with her and said, “Dolly, if you were to put in one sentence what you think this show is about, what would it be?” And she said, “I’m Jezebel and God loves me anyway!” (Uproarious laughter) And that’s very much her. She embodied so many contradictions, so many parts of who we are. And that was a pretty good answer.
Knowing how polite and diplomatic she was, how would she make her point if she didn’t agree?
Clarke In the rehearsal room, whenever there was something we were trying to figure out or stumbling over, all of a sudden, from behind the table, she’d pipe up and say, “Well, what if we just did this and this? I don’t know…” And everybody would say, oh yeah, that’s absolutely right.
And there were many times where we would start to do a scene and she would say, “Here’s what really happened,” and she’d tell us this whole story and we’d have “Storytime With Dolly” because she would be so willing to share every detail. I don’t know if some of these stories are public knowledge. So to be able to sort of sit at her feet and just listen to her life was an unbelievable gift.
We would be around the piano and she’d start singing a line and I wouldn’t quite get the phrasing, and then she’d sing it a totally different way, and I would copy that, she’d change it up every time. She was like a collaborator.
Katie and Carrie, what are the hardest songs to sing?
Clarke Oh gosh. Well again, I had such a block with “Jolene,” but I think the hardest one to get through was “I Will Always Love You.” That was a really emotional one.
On this one amazing day, we were just sitting around the piano, and she really met me where I was at and said, “You’re an actress. I want you to act it. Don’t be afraid to get it wrong.” And then she started singing it for me. And then, all of a sudden, before we know it, we’re all sitting there and she’s singing, “I Will Always Love You” with the piano, and the entire room was crying because it was just so beautiful. I have that recording on my phone — forever!
And the more I am saturated with her music and thinking about who she was and who she is, the more in awe of her I am. What she modeled as a human being on earth — what a lesson for all of us. She’s just such a hero. I do find it to be difficult to get through “I Will Always Love You” without getting too emotional.
St. Louis Wow. For me, it’s probably “Coat of Many Colors,” because in every interview she said it’s her favorite song she ever wrote. No pressure singing that for her! The message of that song is so simple but so beautiful and poignant because it’s about her own mother, and her relationship with her mother and feeling rich in love and not needing anything else.
I remember the first day of our rehearsal for the Nashville run, I had a one-hour music rehearsal on the schedule. I said, “Okay, I know the music, I’m feeling ready.” But then Bart said, “So what we thought we’d do today is have Dolly sing all of your songs in the show, and then you’re going to sing them right after her.” And I thought [sarcastically], “Amazing! Can’t wait! That sounds like exactly what I want to do today!” (Laughter)
So we went through the first couple of songs, and then we got to “Coat of Many Colors.” It was for me to learn her phrasing and kind of take in her version of it, but when she started, I stopped thinking about the phrasing and just realized that Dolly Parton, at 80 years old, is singing “Coat of Many Colors” to me by the piano. And I started sobbing, of course, because it was just so beautiful and she sounded perfect.
She finished and looked up and said [Dolly voice], “Are you cryin’? You can’t be cryin’!,” and I was like, I’m sorry, this is the most beautiful thing that’s ever happened to me. But then Bart said, “Carrie, now you go.” So I just sang the song and trusted the material. I was told by a voice coach once to just serve the song, and that’s all you can do. So I did that — and I looked up and Dolly Parton was crying, and she said she was very touched by it. Yeah, it was maybe the greatest day of my life. And I’m honored to get to sing it every night.
Speers I think Bart and I spent almost a week a month between [fall 2025] and June of this year, going down to Nashville and working with Dolly and her book co-writer Maria [Schlatter]. We’re really pleased that Dolly was a huge part of working out what we wanted the show to be post-Nashville [production] — what we learned from Nashville and how we were going to shape it for Broadway.
The last conversation that Bart and I had with her, which was about 10 days before she passed, she was very open with us both: “You’ve got to keep going! This is the show that I want to be on Broadway!”
Sher All of us have been so lucky to work on this with her in Nashville. But one crazy detail I always remember is that it’s the only time in my Broadway career where the person I’m working with is also on the license plates. (Laughter) Her picture is on the license plates for the state of Tennessee! It’s kind of a lot!
And at the same time, how amazing and extraordinary she was. I think it’s a big lesson for all of us in this crazy country, which is such a mess, to see how someone can bring everybody together. It’s a very special thing.
After the disaster that was Secret Invasion, Marvel decided to overhaul its television strategy.
Going forward, the plan is to focus on shows fans can enjoy without needing to catch up on the broader MCU story.
Photo: Marvel
Additionally, instead of creating shows that were essentially movies split up into numerous segments, Marvel vowed to tell stories that could be serialized and continue for multiple seasons.
Photo: Marvel
Now, Marvel has finally laid out its future plans.
Here Comes ‘Zodiac’
Marvel Television took the stage at New York Comic Con today and finally shed light on its future plans.
Photo: Marvel
The big news coming out of today’s event is that a new series titled Zodiac will hit Disney+ in 2028.
While no details were given about the project, the series logo seems to hint at a connection to S.H.I.E.L.D.
Three ‘Marvel Zombies’ Specials
Also unveiled at Comic-Con were Marvel’s plans for a trio of Marvel Zombies specials.
Photo: IMDB
The first, which is tied to Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier, will stream next Halloween.
2028, on the other hand, will see the release of the Moon Knight-inspired The Fist of Khonshu.
Photo: Marvel
Finally, in 2029, The Last Guardian will hit the small screen.
Other Projects
In addition to previewing upcoming content, Marvel also highlighted Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, which will debut on January 13, 2027, Daredevil: Born Again Season 3, and VisionQuest.
As always, be sure to check back with MickeyBlog. We will continue to update you on all the news coming out of The Walt Disney Company.
Photo: MickeyBlog
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Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for Lanterns season 1
James Gunn’s Man of Tomorrow is shaping up to be a major chapter in the DC Universe, and not just because it’s set to bring back David Corenswet’s Superman alongside Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor in what will reportedly be an uneasy alliance against Brainiac, one of the most powerful cosmic DC villains of all time. The sequel is confirmed to feature even more heroes, including Aaron Pierre’s next DCU appearance as John Stewart following his debut in HBO’s Lanterns.
Based on the finale episode of Lanterns season 1, we now have a pretty good idea about how and why John Stewart’s Green Lantern will appear in Man of Tomorrow. Not only that, but it follows that John’s efforts on the big-screen could very well set the stage for a very different second season of Lanterns in the DCU’s future.
A second season of Lanterns has yet to be officially confirmed, though a writers’ room has been formed to explore what future stories could look like. That being said, Lanterns season 1’s ending and John’s confirmed involvement in Man of Tomorrow have arguably laid a solid foundation already for what the show’s future will look like.
2
Man of Tomorrow Will Be John Stewart’s True Superhero Debut
Aaron Pierre as John Stewart in season 1 of Lanterns
At the end of Lanterns season 1, John Stewart lays out a new status quo for himself and Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner, the current Green Lantern of Sector 2814 chosen by the Guardians of Oa when John Stewart turned down the ring in 2016. Now having chosen to be a Lantern on his own terms wielding Hal Jordan’s old power ring, John says that while Guy can keep the rest of Sector 2814, he’s going to protect Earth as a more independent Green Lantern, implying to Guy that if the Guardians have a problem with it then he’ll expose their role creating the rogue genocidal Manhunters.
In light of this new deal, John Stewart finally looks ready to be the kind of Lantern he wants to be by the end of this first season, and the behind-the-scenes features for the Lanterns finale makes it crystal clear following new comments from writer Tom King:
“The other Green Lanterns are cops, but John Stewart is a superhero.”
Keeping that in mind, that feels like a key distinction that will be made in 2027’s Man of Tomorrow. In the upcoming DCU movie directed by DC Studios head James Gunn, John Stewart could very well take Guy’s place on the Justice Gang, the team of heroes who helped Kal-El in 2025’s Superman. Even if John doesn’t join the team and Guy is still around, Man of Tomorrow will more than likely be John’s time to shine, proving himself as a true hero in the DCU.
Overall, a Superman-centered movie featuring Brainiac feels like an epic opportunity for John to demonstrate what sets him apart as that “superhero” rather than another “space cop”. Likewise, a big-budget superhero movie will no doubt be a great vehicle, allowing Stewart to really let loose with his ring, creating all kinds of constructs made from the green light of willpower (which were certainly more limited on the more grounded HBO series).
Sector 2814 · Ring Active How Well Do You Know Lanterns? “In brightest day, in blackest night…”
💍The RingPowered by will
🔦The Corps3,600 sectors
🌌OaThe Guardians
👮Earth BeatSector 2814
⚠Yellow PerilThe fear entity
01
Lanterns is one of the tentpole TV series launching James Gunn and Peter Safran’s rebooted DC Universe. On which streaming platform does it air?
✓ Correct! HBO Max — Warner Bros. Discovery’s flagship streamer and the natural home for DCU prestige TV alongside Peacemaker and The Penguin. Lanterns is positioned as the DCU’s high-end serialised drama counterpart to Gunn’s theatrical Superman relaunch, sharing canon with the films. Disney+ runs Marvel; Netflix and Apple are rival streamers.
✗ Ring malfunction! The answer is HBO Max. Netflix has had various superhero shows but not DCU. Disney+ is Marvel’s home. Apple TV+ doesn’t house DC. HBO Max is Warner Bros. Discovery’s streamer and the TV home of the Gunn/Safran DCU — Lanterns joins Peacemaker and upcoming DCU series there.
02
Unlike most Green Lantern adaptations, Lanterns pairs two Earth-based ring-bearers in a buddy-cop framework — a weathered veteran and a newer recruit partnered together on Sector 2814 duty. Which two Lanterns lead the show?
✓ Correct! Hal Jordan and John Stewart — two of the most beloved Earth-assigned Lanterns — are paired as the show’s central duo. Hal is the hot-shot test-pilot veteran, John the disciplined ex-Marine architect with a sharper sense of justice. The pairing draws heavily from the Geoff Johns comics era and lets the show explore two very different philosophies of what a Green Lantern should be.
✗ Ring malfunction! The answer is Hal Jordan and John Stewart. Guy Gardner (played by Nathan Fillion) is a separate DCU character who appears in the 2025 Superman film. Kyle Rayner is a beloved Lantern but not part of this show. The Lanterns duo is the Hal/John pairing — a pointedly contrasting veteran and recruit on Sector 2814 duty together.
03
The role of Hal Jordan — the weathered, test-pilot-turned-space-cop original Earth Lantern — went to a veteran actor best known as Coach Eric Taylor on Friday Night Lights and for leading Bloodline. Who plays Hal?
✓ Correct! Kyle Chandler — Emmy winner for Friday Night Lights, star of Bloodline, and part of the Monsterverse (Godzilla: King of the Monsters) — plays an older, weathered Hal Jordan. James Gunn wanted a seasoned, grounded presence rather than a rookie. Ryan Reynolds played Hal in 2011’s widely-mocked Green Lantern film (a different continuity); Nathan Fillion plays Guy Gardner in the 2025 Superman film.
✗ Ring malfunction! The answer is Kyle Chandler. Ryan Reynolds’ Hal was the 2011 film (a separate, mostly-disowned continuity). Nathan Fillion plays Guy Gardner in the 2025 Superman film — not Hal. Chris Pine isn’t in the DCU. Chandler’s weathered, Friday-Night-Lights gravitas is exactly the mature Hal energy Gunn wanted for the show.
04
John Stewart — ex-Marine sniper, architect, and one of DC’s most iconic Black heroes — is played by a British actor who broke out in Barry Jenkins’ The Underground Railroad and Jeremy Saulnier’s Rebel Ridge. Who is he?
✓ Correct! Aaron Pierre — the British actor who earned raves as Caesar in The Underground Railroad (2021) and carried Netflix’s Rebel Ridge (2024) with a performance frequently compared to early Denzel Washington. Gunn called his casting “a no-brainer.” Winston Duke, Sterling K. Brown and John Boyega are all great actors but not in the role.
✗ Ring malfunction! The answer is Aaron Pierre. Winston Duke is M’Baku in the Marvel universe. Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us, American Fiction) is Marvel-adjacent too. John Boyega famously played Finn in Star Wars. Pierre’s Rebel Ridge performance — playing a disciplined ex-Marine — is essentially his audition for John Stewart, and Gunn’s team cast him off it.
05
James Gunn has repeatedly pitched Lanterns as a grounded, small-town murder-mystery thriller — where the space-cop rings are secondary to a detective case on Earth. Which acclaimed HBO series is his go-to tonal comparison?
✓ Correct! Gunn has explicitly called Lanterns his “True Detective in the DCU” — a slow-burn, atmospheric, character-driven case with superhero elements layered over a grounded murder mystery. Showrunner Chris Mundy actually did True Detective: Night Country duties, bringing that DNA directly. Watchmen (Damon Lindelof) was also cited, and Lindelof has consulting writer credits, but True Detective is the primary comp.
✗ Ring malfunction! The answer is True Detective. Gunn has named it as the explicit tonal blueprint — a slow-burn, character-driven murder mystery with superhero elements layered over it. Chris Mundy, the show’s runner, worked on True Detective: Night Country, bringing the DNA directly. Watchmen was a secondary comp (Damon Lindelof consults), but True Detective is the primary pitch.
06
When James Gunn and Peter Safran took over as DC Studios co-CEOs in 2022, they announced a rebooted slate of interconnected films and TV shows — with Lanterns among the launch titles. What is this first DCU phase officially called?
✓ Correct! Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters — announced in January 2023 as the Gunn/Safran DCU’s opening slate. It includes Superman (2025), The Authority, Supergirl, The Brave and the Bold, Paradise Lost, Waller, Creature Commandos, and of course Lanterns. Crisis on Infinite Earths is a comics event; Flashpoint and Dark Knights are other DC storylines, not the chapter branding.
✗ Ring malfunction! The answer is Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters. Crisis on Infinite Earths is a famous DC comics crossover event (and Arrowverse crossover) but not a DCU chapter label. Flashpoint was referenced in The Flash (2023) from the now-defunct DCEU. The Gunn/Safran era officially named its launch phase Gods and Monsters — Superman 2025, Lanterns, and related titles.
07
Green Lanterns serve the Guardians of the Universe, an ancient race who created the Corps’ 3,600-sector peacekeeping force and charge the Lantern rings from a central Power Battery on their home planet. What is the Guardians’ homeworld called?
✓ Correct! Oa — the small blue-skinned Guardians’ home at the centre of the universe. It houses the Central Power Battery from which all Green Lantern rings draw their energy, and serves as the Corps’ academy and operational base. Krypton is Superman’s destroyed homeworld; Themyscira is Wonder Woman’s hidden Amazon island; Apokolips is Darkseid’s hellscape.
✗ Ring malfunction! The answer is Oa. Krypton is Superman’s homeworld. Themyscira is Paradise Island where Wonder Woman was raised. Apokolips is Darkseid’s grim world in the Fourth World mythos. Oa is specifically the Guardians of the Universe’s planet — home to the Central Power Battery that fuels every Green Lantern ring in all 3,600 sectors.
08
Every Green Lantern recites the same oath when charging their ring — a four-line rhyming incantation that’s become one of the most famous pieces of verse in comic-book history. How does it famously begin?
✓ Correct! “In brightest day, in blackest night / No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil’s might / Beware my power — Green Lantern’s light!” The oath dates back to 1940’s All-American Comics #16, was refined through the Silver Age, and is considered one of DC’s most sacred bits of verse. Every canonical adaptation includes some version of it.
✗ Ring malfunction! The answer is “In brightest day, in blackest night…” The full oath: “No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil’s might / Beware my power — Green Lantern’s light!” It’s been canon since 1940 and remains one of comics’ most instantly recognisable pieces of verse — recited in every major Green Lantern adaptation.
Ring Depowered · Report to Oa Your Corps Rank
💍
/ 8
Honor Guard veteran — or still in Corps training?
Furthermore, if John Stewart does help defeat Brainiac or otherwise prove himself as a legitimate protector of Earth, one can imagine this might help solidify his relationship with the Guardians and his decision to be more independent. After all, his decision to break the chain of command and be a Lantern on his own terms will likely frustrate the Guardians, who see themselves as absolute authority in the universe. However, John potentially helping to take down a major cosmic threat like Brainiac in Man of Tomorrow could make it much harder to dismiss his value.
Seeing as how the Guardians wanted John to be a Green Lantern in the first place, ever since he was a child, perhaps they could learn to live with his more independent approach, especially when combined with John’s thinly veiled threat to expose the Manhunters’ true origins. Thanks to John’s role in Man of Tomorrow, the hoped-for Lanterns season 2 could have a fascinating starting point, ready to define his place as a Green Lantern while still operating outside the official confines of the Corps and its leadership.
1 After Man of Tomorrow, Lanterns Season 2 Will Be A Completely Different DCU Show
Regardless of what happens with John Stewart in Man of Tomorrow, Lanterns season 2 will certainly need to tell a very different kind of story compared to the first season. After all, the Rushville incident has pretty much been wrapped up, and the entire status quo has now changed as mentioned above.
The hope is that John and Guy Gardner’s new deal will give Stewart another connection to the wider Green Lantern mythology, potentially raising the cosmic stakes even higher, even if the show remains primarily Earth-bound. Likewise, despite Earth being his claimed jurisdiction, it would be pretty cool to see John visit other worlds like Oa, even if the time spent there is brief.
Ultimately, a larger scale conflict or mystery would make perfect sense for John Stewart, especially following his Man of Tomorrow appearance. Even if he remains independent of the Guardians, a growing reputation could bring him into contact with new allies, enemies, and conflicts much bigger than those seen in the first season. While a more grounded atmosphere and investigative elements could still be featured, the potential for much bigger events beyond a conflict confined to a small town in Nebraska feels very likely.
In short, Man of Tomorrow can be the connective tissue that allows Lanterns to evolve naturally from its first season to a much bigger second season (in more ways than one). The Superman sequel can help establish John as a legitimate superhero in the DCU, which Stewart will then be able to take into his next mission on HBO Max. Although a second season of Lanterns has yet to be confirmed and John’s full role in Man of Tomorrow remains a mystery, the pieces are definitely there for the two projects to complement each other incredibly well.
All episodes of Lanterns season 1 are now streaming on HBO Max from DC Studios.
European consumer protection authorities have announced a series of “coordinated actions” aimed at 10 video companies, accusing several of the biggest names in the industry–like Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft–of “dark patterns” that are designed to put minors and individuals at risk of gaming addiction.
If you’ve ever purchased in-game currency, then you’re probably aware of how one of these tactics works. For example, Destiny 2’s in-game currency, Silver, comes in bundles of 500, 1,000, and 1,500 units, but buying a fancy new skin for a set of armor ornaments costs between 600 and 1,500 Silver. That way, you’re forced to purchase extra Silver that you don’t need, and you can exchange any remaining Silver back for cash, creating what is essentially a one-way exchange rate conversion. Destiny 2 isn’t an outlier in this space, as multiple big games like Fortnite and Call of Duty all have their own currencies, available through exploitative bundle deals. The key takeaway is that the setup of these bundles ensures that you’ll always be short a few digital bucks on the one item you really want.
One of the few games that is changing its approach to in-game currency is Fortnite, as starting October 14, players can purchase the exact amount of V-Bucks they need. This change will also roll out to Rocket League and Fall Guys across Xbox, Nintendo, PC, Android, iPhone, and the Fortnite web Item Shop, but for now, it won’t be supported on PlayStation.
The European-wide enforcement says that it’s focused on practices that obscure real-world spending in video games, such as the use of premium in-game currencies, selling virtual currencies in set quantities that rarely align with item prices and thus force players to overspend, and insufficient parental control mechanisms. Under the coordination of the European Commission, the goal is to promote transparency and fairness, as well as protect the rights of consumers and minors when playing video games.
Minecraft Minecoins are just one of many premium in-game currencies out there.
So far, the following companies have been targeted by the Italian Competition Authority-led actions:
Activision Blizzard
Crytek
InnoGames GmbH
King
Mojang
Plarium Europe S.à.r.l.
PLR Worldwide Sales Limited
Riot Games
Supercell
Ubisoft
Activision Blizzard remains the primary point of focus, with games like Diablo Immortal and Call of Duty being singled out, expanding on previous investigations carried out on those titles. Manipulative user interface design tactics and poor customer support have also been cited as areas of concern. “These practices make it difficult for gamers, particularly vulnerable consumers, such as minors and individuals at risk of gaming addiction, to understand and keep track of how much money they are spending,” the EC press statement reads.
If successful, this action could set a new regulatory precedent with stricter oversight of monetization strategies in free-to-play and live-service games across all European markets. This follows a recent trend across the world, where consumer protection, UI design, and contract transparency has come under the spotlight. Several years ago, the Federal Trade Commission began an investigation into “roach motel” subscriptions in live-service games that only required a single click to sign up for season passes or recurring subscriptions, but canceling them required the digital equivalent of jumping through multiple hoops.
Meanwhile, Sony has claimed that it doesn’t mislead customers into purchasing digital licenses for games (instead of actual ownership of the product) as it moves closer towards its all-digital future, and it is also set to pay out nearly $8 million to PlayStation customers as part of a settlement regarding digital game prices.
Set in Genoa during the tragic days in July 2001 when the G8 summit led to deathly clashes between protesters and police, “Once Upon a Future” tells the story of Nicole, an 18-year-old girl who is eight months pregnant and takes three protesters into her home. Using a fable-like tone, the film provides a fresh perspective on the G8 violence that became a watershed moment in the anti-globalization movement.
“’Föa’ begins with a wound that history never quite managed to close,” Sorrentino said in a statement to Variety. “Margherita Ferrari turns the memory of Genoa into something intimate and dreamlike, where the past quietly returns to question the future.”
“Föa – Once Upon a Future,” which stars emerging talents Gaia Ravina, Clara Tramontano, Iker Urgoiti and Gabriele Falsetta, was co-produced by Sorrentino′s production company Numero 10, with The Apartment and PiperFilm. PiperPlay is handling international sales.
“At a time when imagination needs to be protected, supporting new authors and their singular visions feels more important than ever,” Sorrentino continued. “I am particularly proud that Numero 10 begins this journey with a film told through such a powerful female gaze — a story that reminds us that even after the future seems to have disappeared, it may still be waiting for us.”
The film started as Ferrari’s graduation short at Rome’s Centro Sperimentale film school, after which she had the opportunity to pitch the expanded project to Sorrentino. Below, Ferrari speaks to Variety about what sparked “Once Upon a Future” creatively and its fortuitous production journey.
How did the “Föa – Once Upon a Future” story germinate?
On July 20, 2001, I was only 4. I remember the windows and the typical green shutters of our living room in Genoa had to be closed because outside there was smoke and noise. So, even though it was summer and sweltering inside, we had to barricade ourselves in, staying in the dark. Shut away. That image came back to me during the pandemic. I had sought out that same feeling — of solitude, isolation and even powerlessness — while something much bigger than me and all of us, something powerfully collective, was happening outside. On a more personal level, I’ve always felt a certain disillusionment regarding the limits of my own power; how little impact I can actually have on the world or on contemporary reality. It’s a feeling that hits me every time I speak about this subject.
Tell me more.
I know I’m not just talking about me. I see this reflected in so many of my peers, and perhaps in people in general, who are experiencing the world as it is today. So there is that, combined with the lingering wound of those days and all the traces they left behind. Speaking as someone from Genoa, I felt a desire to tell a story that, even though it’s set in 2001, is really about the future and about today. How do you do that? Usually, fairy tales are set in the distant past. Yet they’re actually meant to speak to the present. So, that’s more or less how it all came about.
Starting with the title, “Föa – Once Upon a Future,” this film is a fable of sorts. Talk to me about this narrative choice, which is unusual in dealing with historical fact.
The Genoese term “Föa” actually means “story,” in the sense of a made-up story, a little tale or a fable. That aspect interested us [myself and my co-writers] partly because we wanted to blend history with a capital H, the kind you study in books, with a fictional tale about a character who doesn’t exist. It also suggests that to tell the truth about reality, you somehow need invention and metaphors, and therefore cinema and fables too. We also wanted to approach this historical event from a more emotional, dreamlike perspective, focusing on the almost unconscious traces that were left within us by those days. This applies even to those, like us, who experienced the aftermath of the Genoa G8 events. In a way, we always felt like we were inside Nicole’s womb, so to speak. The child Nicole is carrying in the film would be 25 or 26 years old today. In a sense, he has been carrying the same question we have, which is: “What will the future awaiting us actually be like?”
I’d like to add that I hope this film offers more than just the questions that are raised by those events. I hope it allows the audience to imagine that things might turn out a bit better. It’s like in fairy tales, I always envisioned a moment of relief at the end, a breath of fresh air that leaves room for that possibility.
What was it like to have Paolo Sorrentino as your producer?
Paolo was very involved during both the initial writing phase and the editing process. But not on set. He treaded lightly in that phase. He just stopped by once to say hello. I tried to get him involved, but he didn’t want to. Basically, he was very keen on not being intrusive and to respect the boundaries of the set. I view that gesture as an act of great tenderness on his part. Even though I’ve always loved getting his advice, it never scared me, I find Paolo to be very patient. I think he had often already thought out certain solutions before we did. But he waited for me, or for me and the editor, to get there on our own, to reach the direction in which the film needed to go. He helped me pursue and protect my vision all the way to the end, while supporting my work as a director through every single phase. It was a beautiful creative process from the start. It also helped me grow, helped me bring the film to the screen and become the person I am today. That’s more or less how it went.
Paranormal Activity, Levi Holloway’s hit, critically acclaimed stage chiller inspired by the famous Paramount film franchise, has been extended for eight additional weeks at Broadway‘s August Wilson Theatre. The play, directed by Felix Barrett will now play through February 28, 2027.
Since beginning previews on August 14 and opening August 25, Paranormal Activity, starring Cher Álvarez and Travis A. Knight as the spooked couple, has been playing to full or nearly full houses. Last week, the show was at 98% of capacity and grossed $910,556
The crowd-pleaser arrived on Broadway directly from a limited pre-Broadway engagement in Boston at the Emerson Colonial Theatre in July, and prior to Boston had played sold-out engagements at Chicago Shakespeare Theater in Chicago, Center Theatre Group at The Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington D.C., and American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.
A production in Toronto at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre began on June 9 and ran through July 5. The production premiered at the Leeds Playhouse in the UK before transferring to the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End, where it is currently selling tickets through Saturday, November 7.
The synopsis: “James and Lou move from Chicago to London to escape their past, but they soon discover that places aren’t haunted, people are… With an original story inspired by the film franchise, Paranormal Activity reimagines the modern ghost story with an intimacy that only live theatre can provide.”
Paranormal Activity is a Melting Pot production in association with Paramount Pictures.
On Oct. 9, 1971, 20th-Fox unveiled William Friedkin’s The French Connection in theaters. The Gene Hackman thriller went on to land 8 nominations at the 44th Academy Awards, claiming five wins including for best actor, director, writing, editing and picture. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review, headlined “Fox’s ‘French Connection is a first-rate thriller,” is below:
The French Connection has already been open for three weeks in New York, where it is reported to be doing land-office business. It’s easy to see why. The picture is a first-rate thriller about the investigation and crackdown of a heroin-smuggling operation, set mostly in New York, and scripted by Ernest Tidyman from the Robin Moore book. And the director, William Friedkin, knew what he was about. Almost from the beginning, you can feel your stomach muscles tightening because you’re afraid of missing something, and as the movie goes along, you can sense the audience sliding forward in their seats, straining to catch every detail.
It’s an astonishingly well-edited film, with a spectacular chase sequence in which Marcel Bozzuffi, the screen’s newest man-you-love-to-hate (he was the homosexual murderer in Z), is in an elevated train with his pistol at the conductor’s head while Gene Hackman, as a police detective, chases him by car from below, careening at top speed around pedestrians and track supports and other cars. (Philip D’Antoni, the producer, also produced Bullitt.) And it’s filled with sharp, funny bits of business in the action and dialogue: Bozzuffi tearing a piece of bread from a loaf clutched by a man he’s just shot in the face; Fernando Rey, the mastermind behind the connection, fishing in the bay behind his home in Marseilles; the inflection that Hackman gives to the word “cute.”
The film is most impressive, however, for the fact that Friedkin, after The Birthday Party and The Boys in the Band and the predominately backstage The Night They Raided Minsky‘s, has finally gotten outdoors not simply for surface dazzle, as in Minsky’s, but to give depth and texture to his story. In recent years, New York has become such a familiar location in American movies that I think it’s safe to say that, even for non-New Yorkers, the New York back grounds lately have hardly been notice able. But Friedkin and his cinematographer, Owen Roizman, have suc ceeded in integrating the action and the backgrounds, often wittily, as in a sequence when Bozzuffi and Rey dine in high style while outside the restaurant, staking them out, Hackman gnaws on a limp slab of pizza.
The score by Don Ellis is shrewdly and sparely used, and the movie is uniformly well-acted, by a cast that also includes Roy Scheider, Tony LoBianco, and Harold Gary. The character of Det. “Popeye” Doyle is less The French Connection‘s protagonist than its chief participant, and so Gene Hackman is still denied a true star role; but Hackman is rousingly good in it. Hackman, who was so fine as Clyde’s brother in Bonnie and Clyde and as the ski coach in Downhill Racer and as the son in I Never Sang for My Father, has quietly be come one of the most memorable actors in our movies. Now if they could only find a leading lady for him. — Craig Fisher, originally published on Oct. 29, 1971.
The Hollywood Reporter‘s original review of The French Connection.
The animated television property turned into a feature-length adventure movie also features Greg Cipes, Meredith Bull, and Jack McBrayer in its voice cast. Treasure Trekkers is directed by Kevin Munroe.
Munroe, who previously directed TMNT and Ratchet & Clank, co-wrote the screenplay with original series creators Balthazar and Thierry Marchand. The movie comes from Canadian animation studio Squeeze Productions and French sales company Goodfellas.
The film expands the world of the 2019 television series, which followed a group of heroic mice searching for valuable artifacts in hidden civilizations. Cumming voices King Clarence, a ruler who wants to remove emotion from his kingdom and impose strict control over its people. His character becomes the main threat facing the film’s young protagonist.
What is Treasure Trekkers with Alan Cumming about?
The story follows Mip, a 12-year-old monkey who grows up in a society divided between cats and rodents. Mip doesn’t know where he comes from and has trouble fitting into the community where he was raised.
His life changes after he gets his hands on an ancient map that activates a mysterious portal and transports Mip to Empathra. It’s an enchanted world facing serious problems under King Clarence. After arriving, Mip learns that the kingdom has become increasingly hostile under Clarence’s rule. He eventually joins two experienced scouts, Mo and Mac, and becomes a Treasure Trekker.
Together, they travel through dangerous landscapes and search for ancient relics before Clarence’s forces can reach them. Along the way, Mip discovers that his differences are actually an advantage. Mip naturally understands and influences the emotions of others. Instead of fighting every enemy he encounters, he uses empathy to calm hostile characters and stop conflicts without violence. As Mip and his allies continue their journey, they begin challenging the king’s control and inspire others to resist his rule.
EXCLUSIVE: 1-2 Special has acquired all North American rights to Jacqueline Lentzou’s A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra, which had its world premiere at the 2026 Venice Film Festival in Orizzonti, where it was awarded the Best Director Prize.
The film, which is among the first films to score a domestic deal out of Venice, recently had its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival, with upcoming appearances set for the BFI London Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival, and the Busan International Film Festival. 1-2 Special will release the film in theaters next year.
Inspired by true events from 2008, the well-received Greek drama “follows Jo (Evita Andriopoulou)—wild, melancholic, and only 15—whose ordinary life is about to be altered forever. Throughout the day, as she misses the school bus, attends class, and finds a new friend in classmate Phaedra, subtle signs and symbols from the dream world quietly surface around her, but she fails to recognize them before a shocking incident forces Jo to undergo an ethereal transformation.”
The deal was negotiated by Ola Byszuk of Lucky Number on behalf of the filmmakers with 1-2 Special.
The film is Jacqueline Lentzou’s second feature following Moon, 66 Questions, which played at the 2021 Berlinale and New Directors/New Films and which was awarded a Critic’s Pick by the New York Times.
Pic was produced by Avion Films (Annabelle Aronis), Atalante Productions (Ioanna Bolomyti), Kelek Film (Arda Çiltepe, Steffen Goldkamp), 4A4 Productions (Andrea Queralt), Haris & Co (Elli Papadiamanti), and Jacqueline Lentzou.
Before her death at 80 in August, Dolly Parton recorded a special tribute to music teachers, and on Thursday (Oct. 8) the Country Music Association shared a clip of the moment introduced by Zac Brown in which the late country icon heaped praise on the instructors whose passion has inspired the next generation to pick up instruments.
“Not long before we lost her, Dolly recorded a special message for the teachers in this room,” said Brown during Wednesday’s (Oct. 7) ceremony for the Country Music Association Foundation’s 10th annual Music Teachers of Excellence event, held at Parton’s recently opened Nashville SongTeller Hotel. “She took the time to speak directly to you and I can’t think of a better way to begin this night.”
Parton, whose legacy includes an unparalleled catalog of classic country hits, was a lifelong advocate for literacy and education and Brown said her commitment to creating opportunities for others was part of the magic of her life.
“Well, hey there, it’s Dolly! And I am so happy to welcome you to Nashville as the CMA Foundation celebrates 10 years of Music Teachers of Excellence,” Parton said brightly in the clip. “I’ve always believed that music brings people together. But none of that happens without dedicated teachers who encourage, inspire and believe in the next generation. And that’s why we’re celebrating tonight. And to every music teacher of excellence, I want to thank you for your passion, patience and care that you give your students each day. Congratulations on this incredible milestone and keep making beautiful music together.”
Parton died on Aug. 25 following what was described as short battle with cancer and the CMA teacher’s award event marks the second posthumous video appearance from the beloved country legend. Last month, Parton made a surprise appearance at the 2026 Americana Awards and Honors at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in a message taped before her death accepting the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
“I’m honored to be receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association,” Parton said in the video. “Roots music, or what is now called Americana music, is what I grew up playing back in the Smoky Mountains. It’s that same music that drew me back to East Tennessee in 1997 to write and record my album, Hungry Again. And that project really opened the door to a series of bluegrass and acoustic albums that changed the course of my career in so many ways.”
Social and political upheaval erupts in The Social Reckoning when Facebook employee Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) exposes the company practice of prioritizing clicks over user safety, and encouraging the formation of hate groups. She reaches out to Wall Street Journal investigative reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) as a whistleblower. She provides documentation to him, and ultimately testifies before congress in 2021.
Just after the 2020 presidential election Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong), dismantles the Facebook Civic Integrity Team, which was charged with oversight of election safety, misinformation, and public discussion. Zuckerberg claims he is a “free speech absolutist” and as such his sites are just the market, just a public place like the village green or a coffee shop bulletin board. This removes accountability for ensuring the assertions (particularly around politics) made on the site are true, and Facebook can also not be held responsible for hate speech. More profitable engagement is guaranteed with the guardrails gone.
The disastrous consequences of this avaricious decision peaked during the Jan 6, 2021 insurrection as congress was certifying the presidential election win for Joe Biden. Haugen and Horwitz documented the unscrupulous practices at Facebook, which the Wall Street Journal detailed in an investigative reporting series called The Facebook Files.
The rise of social media is explored in the 2010 drama The Social Network, written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher. It is Zuckerberg’s (then played by Jesse Eisenberg) origin story of creating Facebook in his dorm at Harvard. The plucky nerd (and sociopath) soared to great heights, inspired by his girlfriend dumping him. 16 years later, Sorkin both wrote and directed The Social Reckoning and brother, do we miss Fincher. The film does click along smartly and will keep your attention, but there are fatal flaws. Sorkin has a self-important signature The West Wing style that simply doesn’t feel authentic here. This film might work better as a documentary, or with a different director.
“…the company is prioritizing clicks over user safety, and is encouraging hate groups…”
Women characters are treated dismissively. Horwitz makes a snarky comment to Haugen when she chides him for “mansplaining” that is incredibly tone deaf. Sorkin’s characters are flat, one-note archetypes. He makes Zuckerberg into an android. Haugen is brilliant, but cold. Horwitz is technically inept (a man who went to Columbia University can’t figure out the GPS in his rental car). The personal touches meant to make Horwitz and Haugen relatable are hokey and could be dispensed with.
This failure is not on the actors. Strong nails the dead-eyed look of Zuckerberg, but does so at the expense of the performance. He feels like furniture. Jeremy Allen White is a breath of fresh air, but even his considerable natural charm can’t save the weak dialogue. Comedian Bill Burr plays a fictional advisor to Zuckerberg named Charlie Garrigan (loosely based on investor Roger McNamee,) as the voice of reason challenging Zuckerberg. It’s a solid performance, but Burr has limited range as an actor and we just see him and not the character. Mikey Madison is miscast as Haugen. She’s a powerful actor, as she showed in Anora, and while she did what she could with the material here, the character doesn’t gel.
Historically speaking, there was no “reckoning.” Zuckerberg’s current estimated net worth is $257 billion. He’s so wealthy the numbers have lost their meaning. Moving up or down a few billion in the market is just an average Tuesday for him. This “scandal” wasn’t even a speed bump on his meteoric ascent to becoming the fifth richest person in the world.
Revisiting Jan 6, 2021 in the context of social media is depressing. It seemed bad then, but the situation has gotten so much worse. In 2026 If you expose social media shenanigans, they grin and send you more targeted marketing. Then 24 hrs later something orders of magnitude worse happens and everyone forgets. Instead of a news cycle, we have an outrage cycle that winds up burning out your ability to feel it. It’s a sad note that a turning-point of one man’s greed and profound inhumanity damaging the world feels like “the good old days” by comparison to the crisis we are in now.
OTTAWA – Carter Yakemchuk isn’t known for showing a lot of emotion but the Ottawa Senators defenceman had plenty to celebrate on Thursday night.
He fired a heavy one-timer through traffic for the power-play game-winner in the Senators’ 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.
“I was just trying to get one through from the point,” Yakemchuk said. “(Claude Giroux) made a nice pass and I just whacked one and lucky it went in.”
Yakemchuk, 21, is looking to become a lineup regular and knows he needs to prove to head coach Travis Green that he’s ready.
Green was happy to see Yakemchuk get the goal but admitted he hadn’t been thrilled with his overall game.
“He fumbled the puck a few times on the power play,” Green said. “Probably wasn’t quite at his best but sometimes you’ve just got to stick with those guys a little bit and they’re going to have some nights where they’re going really good and they’re going to have some nights when they’re not great.”
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Despite the struggles, Ottawa’s coaching staff continued to put Yakemchuk out there and Green credited coach assistant coach Ben Sexton for sticking with him.
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“Good players find ways to come up with key moments in a game, and he definitely did,” Green said.
The Senators are hopeful Yakemchuk will gain confidence with each game he plays. With Jake Sanderson and Artem Zub still dealing with injuries, Ottawa needs its depth players to step up.
Yakemchuk played four regular-season games and one playoff game last season.
“He looks a little more comfortable, he’s gotten a little better,” admitted Green. “He’s worked hard over the summer. He’s still young. He’s still going to have nights where he might not be at his best.
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“That’s just a young guy trying to make the league.”
Yakemchuk wasn’t the only one wanting to make a good impression.
Hoyt Stanley made his NHL debut Thursday after getting the call-up from AHL Belleville.
“I felt good, obviously pretty nervous,” Stanley said. “Like the first two shifts, the coaches kind of came up to me and said, ‘Play your game, play hard, simple, don’t be too nervous.’ Easier said than done.”
The injury woes continued for the Senators. Already missing Sanderson, Zub and Andre Burakovsky, Ottawa could now be adding William Eklund to the list.
Eklund left the game early in the first period after taking a hit from Flyers defenceman Simon Benoit. Eklund needed assistance to leave the ice and was unable to put weight on his left leg.
Green did not have an update on Eklund’s status following the game.
The Senators have high expectations for the left-winger, who was acquired from the San Jose Sharks during the off-season. He started the game on the top line alongside Tim Stutzle and Drake Batherson.
Ottawa is back in action Saturday when it hosts the Nashville Predators.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 9, 2026.
The last few years have seen a growing wave of vulnerability disclosures heading towards the cybersecurity industry, and the people working on fixing these flaws are often struggling to keep up. And while AI is a major contributor to this problem, but also an essential part of the solution.
Speaking at the recent Linux Foundation Open Source Summit, Jamie Thomas, IBM’s Chief Client Innovation Officer for Enterprise Security, warned there is “a bit of a tsunami in vulnerability disclosures,” with approximately 66,000 unique entries expected to emerge in 2026 alone.
At the keynote, titled The Future of Open Source Security in the Age of AI, Thomas stressed this represents a fourfold increase compared to seven years ago.
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So, how can the cybersecurity industry possibly keep up with this pace, Thomas asked, especially when the expectations placed on developers and security professionals continues to grow?
The answer seems to be the same as with everything these days – AI.
Attackers are moving faster than ever
The volume of attacks is definitely an issue, but it’s not the only issue. Cybercriminals are also a lot faster at exploiting them, giving defenders an ever-shrinking window to identify and remediate different security issues.
Citing publicly available data, Thomas said the time required to exploit a vulnerability shrunk from days to as little as 29 minutes.
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“And in fact, we’re seeing a rapid increase in cyberattacks, as well as malware attacks,” she said.
For businesses that rely heavily on open source, this is definitely cause for serious concern. A vulnerability in a widely used component can potentially affect hundreds, if not thousands, of downstream applications and businesses. To add insult to injury, cybercriminals don’t really wait for the cybersecurity community to publicly disclose a vulnerability before they can exploit it.
“We’re seeing the time to exploit is actually negative,” she said. “Many times we’re getting a disclosure and we don’t have a patch yet.”
That is the position the defenders are in, right now. They are expected to respond to a rapidly growing number of security issues in a shrinking timeframe, while attackers take advantage of automation to accelerate their operations.
AI is making life harder for open-source maintainers
And then, along comes AI for the sucker punch.
Sure, AI-powered tools are capable of identifying vulnerabilities and improving software security, but they are also more than effective when it comes to creating a pile of inaccurate, duplicated, and otherwise unactionable vulnerability reports.
Where does that leave open source maintainers, you might ask? Large companies typically have dedicated security teams, and even those struggle with an influx of low-quality reports, as you’ll see below. Many open source projects, on the other hand, are maintained by small groups of devs, sometimes even by a single individual.
Earlier this year, the developers of curl, the popular open-source command-line tool and software library, terminated their HackerOne bug bounty program, saying the financial incentives had people submitting poorly researched, and sometimes entirely fake, reports. The influx, which included AI-generated submissions, was simply unmanageable for the project’s security team.
Even the almighty Google bent the knee, recently being forced to temporarily suspend its Open Source Software Vulnerability Rewards Program following a significant increase in invalid and irrelevant reports (many of which were AI-generated, apparently). As of October 1, 2026, the company is no longer accepting new submissions and will reassess the program in early 2027.
Even Linux creator Linus Torvalds complained about the problem, recently saying AI-powered bug hunters have made the Linux security mailing list “almost entirely unmanageable.” He criticized the enormous duplication of reports, saying different researchers were using the same AI tools to identify vulnerabilities that were already fixed, or at least reported.
IBM wants AI to become part of the solution
So what’s the solution? According to Thomas, the security community should not abandon AI-powered vulnerability discovery but should instead use the same technology to help maintainers handle the growing workload.
This is where the Linux Foundation’s Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) initiative, could step in. A collaboration between tech firms, developers, and the wider open-source community could allow OpenSSF to strengthen the supply chain security, and for IBM, the priority is now to reduce the burden on maintainers. That can be done by making vulnerability management more efficient and that, in turn, can be done with AI-powered tools filtering out duplicate and bogus reports, assessing the severity of different bugs, and identifying issues that need urgent attention.
AI can also help remediate issues, help developers understand vulnerable code, suggest fixes, and evaluate whether patches introduce additional problems. This is an important caveat, since some earlier reports found the majority of AI-generated remediation suggestions caused more problems than they solved.
I frequently see casino poker style games regarded as if they are entirely pure luck or full competitive poker, but the reality sits somewhere more interesting. These games combine the structure of poker hand rankings with a house-banked format, which means you are playing against the casino’s dealer or paytable rather than trying to out-bluff other players. At Coolcat Casino, that creates a much more approachable experience than a traditional poker room, while still giving you meaningful decisions such as which cards to hold, when to raise, and when to fold. My goal here is to help you read the lobby, understand the odds, and avoid the mistakes that quietly drain bankrolls. Before you claim any bonus or make a deposit, it helps to know exactly what kind of poker style game you are getting into. I will walk through the main categories, the mathematics, bonus conditions, banking expectations, and mobile security so you can make confident choices.
What Casino Poker Style Games Truly Are
Casino poker style games are casino-banked or machine-based variants of poker in which you are not required to beat other players. In a standard poker room, your winnings comes from other people’s errors, but in a casino poker game you are playing against the dealer, a fixed paytable, or a mix of both. Because of that, the decision tree is less complex and the pace is more rapid. Video poker is the purest machine form: you get five cards, decide which to keep, and receive payment according to the value of the final hand. Table poker types like Caribbean Stud or Casino Hold’em entail an initial ante, a choice to raise or fold after seeing cards, and dealer qualification rules. Comprehending this transition is essential because it changes what good play entails. You do not search for tells or bluffing opportunities; you are looking for numerically favourable hold, raise, and fold junctures. I think that this directness is exactly why many players at Coolcat Casino start with these games before moving into more volatile slots or live dealer tables.
The Main Poker Style Categories at Coolcat Casino
When I open the Coolcat Casino lobby, I usually divide the poker style offering into three practical groups. The first group is video poker, which typically offers titles such as Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, Joker Poker, and sometimes multi-hand versions. These games have a common five-card draw mechanic but differ in wild cards and paytable rewards. The second group is table poker, where the casino’s dealer handles cards and you make raise or fold choices. Common examples include Caribbean Stud, Three Card Poker, Let It Ride, and Casino Hold’em. The third group is the crossover space of poker-themed slots or progressive jackpot games, which are not true poker but use poker imagery and hand-based bonus rounds. I always recommend checking the game information tab before playing because the rules can vary sharply even between two variants that have a name. At Coolcat Casino, the lobby filters typically let you jump directly to video poker or table games, which cuts down on time if you already know you are after a low-volatility video poker session or a faster table poker run.
Offers, Betting Terms and Poker Player Suitability
Bonuses at Coolcat Casino generally follow the same broad pattern I encounter across online casinos: a welcome match deposit, sometimes a no-deposit chip for new accounts, free spins or free chips on selected games, and reload or cashback offers. The crucial detail for poker style players is that video poker and table poker games often contribute a lower percentage toward wagering requirements than slots, and some may be excluded entirely. A 100% match bonus with 35x wagering means you must stake 35 times the bonus amount before withdrawing, but if video poker contributes only 10%, the effective requirement multiplies. I always review the promotion terms before I click claim, and I search specifically for game weighting, maximum bet limits, and any list of excluded titles. If the terms are not clear, I bypass the bonus or contact support rather than risk locking a withdrawal. That habit preserves your bankroll more than any video poker strategy, because a good bonus can become a bad deal when the contribution rules work against poker style games.
Financial Options, Withdrawal Times and Realistic Boundaries
Coolcat Casino typically provides a mix of card payments, e-wallets, and, in many regions, Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency, but the exact list changes depending on your location and the cashier. From experience at similar casinos, I anticipate Visa and Mastercard deposits to process instantly, while e-wallets like Skrill or Neteller also credit quickly. Withdrawals are where timing matters most: e-wallets are often the fastest, usually within 24 to 48 hours after approval, cards may take three to five business days, and bank transfers can take five to seven business days or longer. KYC verification is a standard step, so I always have proof of ID and address ready before requesting a first withdrawal. Minimum and maximum withdrawal limits vary, and UK players should check the official cashier page because those limits are not always shown until you are logged in. I also watch for fees on inactive accounts or multiple withdrawals, since those small details can influence how you manage your bankroll.
Card Rankings and Payout Charts You Need to Know
Poker hand rankings have the same basic ladder across casino games: high card, pair, two pair, three of a kind, straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, straight flush, and royal flush https://coolcatscasino.org/. What differs in casino poker style games is how those hands activate payouts. In video poker, the paytable awards only for the hands listed, often commencing at a pair of jacks or better, and the payout is a fixed multiple of your bet per coin. In table poker, beating the dealer with a pair might return even money, but a straight or better usually earns an ante bonus that can go from 1:1 to 5:1 or more relying on the game and the paytable. I always review the paytable twice before playing because a Three Card Poker paytable might pay 5:1 on a straight, while a Caribbean Stud table gives 4:1 for a flush and 5:1 for a full house. Learning the hand rankings is just the start; understanding which hands create the real value is what distinguishes a confused session from a controlled one at Coolcat Casino.
Video poker machines Payout Tables and How to Read Them
Video poker machines is where I spend the most time because the paytable provides almost everything you need to know before you risk a single pound. A paytable displays the coin payouts for each hand from a pair of jacks up to a royal flush. For Jacks or Better, a 9/6 version offers 9 coins for a full house and 6 for a flush, and that full-pay version usually returns around 99.5% with correct strategy. If you spot a game offering 8/5 or 7/5 instead, the house edge grows significantly, so examining those two numbers is the quickest way to find a good machine. Deuces Wild pays four deuces heavily and typically pays less for natural quads, so the strategy shifts completely. I always check the help screen for the exact paytable because titles can appear identical while hiding different payouts. At Coolcat Casino, the video poker lobby usually carries enough full-pay and near-full-pay options that a strategy-focused player can find a sensible game without wasting hours searching.
Poker Table Games and Their Strategic Differences
Table poker games look similar at first glance, but the raise and fold decisions differ enough that I view each one as its own skill set. Caribbean Stud demands you to fold or make a raise of twice your ante, and the dealer must qualify with at least an ace-king for your ante to pay. Three Card Poker separates into two bets: the ante-play pair and the optional pair plus side bet, with the dealer qualifying on queen high or better. Casino Hold’em applies Texas Hold’em rules but you play against the dealer’s hand, and the payout is based on the strength of your final hand. Let It Ride offers you three opportunities to withdraw one-third of your wager as community cards are revealed. These structural differences mean a good Caribbean Stud strategy is nearly useless for Three Card Poker. I always look at the dealer qualification rule first, then the raise multiples, and finally the side bet payouts before deciding where to sit. That simple routine removes most of the confusion that new players have when they jump between Casino Hold’em and Caribbean Stud.
Výplatní poměr, Volatility and House Edge: Analýza the Mathematics
The mathematics behind casino poker style games can be popsán with three pojmy: return to player, volatility, and house edge. RTP is the percentage of total wagers a game vrací to players over time, so a 99.5% full-pay Jacks or Better game drží only 0.5% as the house edge. Volatility describes how wildly your balance swings, and video poker má tendenci to be lower volatility than slots, while table poker games can swing more because of ante and raise decisions. I používám these numbers to zvolit the right game for my session. If I have a small bankroll and want a longer session, I upřednostňuji full-pay Jacks or Better or a low-volatility Deuces Wild variant. If I want a chance at a bigger hand-based bonus and can accept larger swings, I přecházím toward Caribbean Stud or Three Card Poker. At Coolcat Casino, exact RTP figures are often shown in the game’s help file or can be checked on the official page, but the most important habit is to porovnávat paytables rather than domnívat se every version of a game nabízí the same return.
Play on Mobile, Protection and What Sets Coolcat Casino Different
Most of my Coolcat Casino sessions occur on a mobile browser, as the games are made to run without needing a heavy download. The poker style games, especially video poker, translate well to a smaller screen as the buttons are large and the decisions are obvious. On the security side, I look for a valid licence badge in the footer, SSL encryption on the payment page, and a responsible gambling section with deposit limits, time reminders, and self-exclusion options. UK players should confirm if the casino holds a UK Gambling Commission licence or functions under another recognised regulator, since that impacts dispute resolution and player protection tools. What makes Coolcat Casino apart for me is not one feature in isolation but the combination of a focused poker style selection, clear game filters, and a cashier that compensates players who study the terms before they play. If you view poker style games as decisions rather than luck, the platform offers you plenty of room to take those decisions sensibly. simply explained
After turning Spain’s tax agency into the unlikely engine of a noir-tinged comedy, “Celeste” creator Diego San José and director Elena Trapé are taking aim at something far more sacred in Spain: soccer.
The six-part second season of the Movistar Plus original brings Carmen Machi (“La Mesías”) back as Sara Santano, the tax inspector who spent Season 1 trying to prove that a globe-trotting Latin music star owed €20 million ($22.4 million) in Spain. This time round, the series rewinds to an earlier point in Sara’s career and revisits Figueroa, the Argentine soccer star whose earlier tax case marked the only professional failure of Sara’s otherwise distinguished career.
The social equation flips with him. Sara embodies one of Spain’s least-loved public figures; Figueroa is a soccer idol whose failings can be forgiven as long as he delivers on the pitch.
Imagina Sales (The Mediapro Studio Distribution) is handling international sales on Season 2 and will bring the series to Mipcom ahead of its Oct. 26 world premiere at Barcelona’s Serielizados Fest.
Season 1 won Spain’s Ondas and Feroz awards for best comedy, while Series Mania’s International Panorama awarded it best series and best actress for Machi last year. It also launched on Arte in France and Flow in Argentina.
Produced by Movistar Plus and 100 Balas, and The Mediapro Studio company, the new season is again directed by Trapé, with San José writing alongside Oriol Puig and Fernando Delgado-Hierro.
San José and Trapé spoke to Variety ahead of Mipcom about the new season.
Why make Season 2 a prequel and return to the Figueroa case?
San José: It really has nothing to do with the person she is pursuing. The decision to go back in time had to do with Sara Santano herself. The Sara we leave at the end of the first season is a woman whose wounds have healed. For a writer, that’s not the most interesting version of her. We wanted a character with wounds and cracks.
So we went back to Figueroa as an excuse to go back to Sara. The case is really a pretext. The advantage of Figueroa isn’t Figueroa. It’s that her husband is alive. That allows us to tell a completely different personal story.
If the first season is about solitude, the second is about the end of love — what happens when two people sleep separately, still care for one another, but are no longer in love.
When you were making Season 1, had you already planted the Figueroa case with a second season in mind?
San José: No. Everything to do with making a second season came after the first was already finished. So at the writing stage we had to approach it almost as an exercise in architecture, or juggling. The first challenge was to make a good season even for somebody who hasn’t seen the first one, so the story works simply as a story.
Then we set ourselves another challenge: making sure everything fits and resonates. If somebody watches both seasons and takes out a magnifying glass looking for something that doesn’t fit, they shouldn’t find it. We also wanted Season 2 to help explain things from the first that were already there.
Sara is exemplary, but she also breaks her own rules. What interests you about pushing her across those lines?
San José: Stories become interesting when characters do things they don’t normally do. Sara is an exemplary inspector, but we put her in circumstances where she breaks her own rules.
She is as obsessive and methodical as an FBI agent looking for a serial killer in Manhattan. We’ve taken the classic codes of film noir and moved them somewhere gray and everyday like the tax office. It’s about giving a tax office the adrenaline and muscle of the Pentagon. That collision between the ordinary and something as explosive as Dirty Harry is part of the DNA of the series.
Even when the characters make questionable choices, the series seems more interested in understanding than judging them. Was that important to you?
San José: Above all, we’ve tried to understand them. I don’t think any of the characters in either season is bad.
Even the alleged tax evaders have understandable interests. The ways they defend them may be wrong, but we’ve tried not to make anyone stupid.
All the characters in “Celeste,” on both sides of the investigation, are emotionally broken. I don’t think you can hate somebody who isn’t happy when they go to bed. If things aren’t going well for you, I think an embrace comes more naturally than an elbow.
Elena, how do you convey that emotional vulnerability without tipping into melodrama?
Trapé: If by sentimental you mean melodramatic, the tone and the way the characters’ feelings emerge are so subtle, delicate and restrained that it’s very difficult for that to happen. That is already very clearly established in Diego’s writing.
It’s also fundamental that Diego is with me on set every day. Any doubt, any ambiguity, any moment when you ask, “Do we push this further or are we already there?” becomes part of our creative dialogue.
“Celeste” Season 2 Javier Perez Garcia
The series has a particular affinity for losers. What draws you to them?
San José: We all have a losing side, and not everybody has a winning side. What equalizes all of us is that we all know what it is to lose. Defeat is what makes us connect.
Both seasons have a special sympathy for losers. We made a heroine out of someone who is clearly looked down on in real life. Tax inspectors are badly regarded in our society.
The fact that a 62-year-old woman who is a tax inspector can at the same time be Dirty Harry is already a bet on turning the loser into somebody who gets a spotlight in fiction that she doesn’t get in real life. The series is made to weave a nice suit for losers who don’t usually get one.
The singer Celeste is no longer central to the story. Why keep the title?
San José: We never attached much importance to the title containing the name of the most important character. “Celeste” for us has become almost more of a color than a figure from music.
People even sometimes refer to Carmen Machi as Celeste: “Have you seen that series about the inspector, ‘Celeste’?”
The first season connected with more people than even we expected, so we wanted to keep the same brand.
Elena, after the response to Season 1, what did you want to achieve with the second season?
Trapé: There’s a solidity to this season that I really like. As the characters gain more volume and nuance, and the plot develops, you enter a universe that keeps expanding. It becomes something more mature.
One challenge of the first season was establishing its very particular tone. This time we, the crew and Carmen already knew it. That gave us much more room to play.
Watching it now, I feel we’ve grown. It feels like a very solid season.
You’ve now made “Celeste” and “Yakarta” together, with Javier Cámara earning an International Emmy nomination last month for the latter. Could there be a “Yakarta 2”?
San José: My plan, as a viewer, is for Elena to make something without me, because I’d like to see it. The downside of working with Elena for three or four years is that I don’t get to watch things by Elena.
We’ve made two series together, three seasons in total, and I’m extremely happy with them. But now it’s Elena’s turn to do her own thing.
If Elena wants to make “Yakarta 2,” it will happen. That depends on Elena.
Trapé: What I hope neither of us rules out is working together again. Whether it will be “Yakarta 2” or something else, I don’t know.
San José: I think if Javier Cámara wins the International Emmy, it’s going to be difficult to sit down to dinner without somebody saying, “Why don’t you make a ‘Yakarta 2’?” So let’s make Javier responsible for that.
Actor Allu Arjun celebrated eleven years of the Telugu period film Rudhramadevi, calling his role as Gona Ganna Reddy iconic.
News18
Pan Indian star Allu Arjun, who played a brief but pivotal role in director Gunasekhar’s Telugu period film ‘Rudhramadevi’, featuring actress Anushka Shetty in the lead, on Friday, called his role in the film ‘iconic’ on the occasion of the film completing 11 years.
Taking to his X timeline to post working stills from the film, Allu Arjun, who played the role of a prince called Gona Ganna Reddy in the film, wrote, “11 Years of #Rudhramadevi. #GonaGannaReddy. An Iconic character in my filmography. Thank you everyone for being a part of this journey. EYY … GAMMUNUNDAVOYY.”
The actor also posted a couple of working stills from the film on the occasion.
Earlier in the day, the production house that produced the film, Gunaa Teamworks, chose to celebrate the film’s completion of 11 years with a poster.
Taking to its X timeline, the production house wrote, “11 Years of Rudhramadevi — The Legacy of a Warrior Queen! A saga of courage, power, and valour that continues to live in our hearts. A @Gunasekhar1 film. #Rudhramadevi #11YearsOfRudhramadevi #Gunasekhar #AnushkaShetty #gunaateamworks #AlluArjun #RanaDaggubati.”
For the unaware, ‘Rudhramadevi’ was a period action film that was based on the life of Rudrama Devi, a woman ruler from the Kakatiya dynasty in the Deccan region of the country.
Written and directed by Gunasekhar, the film featured Anushka as Rudhramadevi. Apart from Anushka Shetty, the film also featured Allu Arjun, Rana Daggubati, Vikramjeet Virk, Krishnam Raju, Prakash Raj, Suman, Nithya Menen, Adithya, and Catherine Tresa in pivotal roles.
On the technical front, the film had music by Isaignani Ilaiyaraaja and cinematography by Ajayan Vincent. Editing for the film was by one of the best in business, Sreekar Prasad. Art direction was by Padma Shri awardee Thota Tharani and costumes in the film were designed by Neeta Lulla. Dialogues in the film were penned by the Paruchuri Brothers and action sequences were choreographed by Peter Hein and Vijay.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – IANS)
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The Telugu period film Rudhramadevi celebrated its 11th anniversary, prompting lead and supporting cast members to mark the milestone.
Pan-Indian star Allu Arjun played the brief yet pivotal role of the prince and iconic character Gona Ganna Reddy in the film.
The historical period action film Rudhramadevi was written and directed by Gunasekhar, with Anushka Shetty starring in the lead role.
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First Published:
October 09, 2026, 15:50 IST
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Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff’s journey from aspiring young performers to a groundbreaking hip-hop act is set to be explored in a new television drama.
The Hollywood star and his longtime musical collaborator, who both featured in the 1990s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, will have their early story revisited in 215, a scripted series from Smith’s Westbrook Studios.
According to Deadline, the drama will focus on Smith’s early life and his rise to success alongside DJ Jazzy Jeff as an innovative crossover hip-hop act.
The series will follow a quick-witted teenage rapper, his DJ partner and the friends who support them as they pursue a record deal.
From Philadelphia to hip-hop success
Together, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince scored major hits, including Parents Just Don’t Understand, released in 1989, and Summertime, released in 1991.
The upcoming drama will explore the pair’s beginnings against the backdrop of Philadelphia’s late-1980s and early-1990s hip-hop scene.
The project marks the latest scripted series connected to Smith’s rise to fame, following the original The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and its reimagined reboot, Bel-Air.
Terence Carter, president of television at Westbrook Studios, said the project reflects the company’s focus on character-driven storytelling and distinctive settings.
“215 is especially meaningful to us because it draws from the rise of DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince and celebrates Philadelphia during such a defining era in the city’s late-’80s/early-’90s hip-hop scene,” Carter said.
He added that the partnership with The Malar Group would allow the companies to develop a slate of projects, beginning with a story rooted in friendship, ambition and the specific time and place that shaped the musical duo.
‘The untold origin story’
The Malar Group founder Sayan Navaratnam described 215 as the “untold origin story” of a show that audiences around the world have embraced for decades.
“We’re excited to partner with Westbrook Studios on a slate of film and television projects driven by distinctive creative vision and exceptional storytelling,” Navaratnam said.
He added that the project stood out because it explored the story of two people who believed in each other, overcame significant challenges and built something lasting.
“215 marks the start of a broader collaboration with Westbrook Studios, and we look forward to this project and the stories still to come,” he said.
Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers is getting a rebrand for his MCU comeback in Avengers: Doomsday. 7 years after Steve Rogers seemingly exited the MCU with Avengers: Endgame, the Star-Spangled Man is returning to the fray in Doomsday. This time, Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson will be the one suiting up as Captain America and leading his own Avengers team, even with Steve coming out of retirement. While Steve passed on his trusty shield to his longtime wingman, he fortunately still holds one of the MCU’s most powerful weapons as he remains worthy of Mjolnir, Thor’s hammer, which he held for the first time in Endgame.
Marvel Studios released a brand new logo for Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers in Avengers: Doomsday that officially abandons the Captain America mantle. The logo rewrites MCU history, as Steve is no longer represented by his patriotic shield (although the U.S. color scheme remains intact); instead, he is symbolized by Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, after finally becoming worthy in Avengers: Endgame.
Marvel Studios
Interestingly, the Mjolnir featured on the new logo is the very same one that was pieced back together in Thor: Love & Thunder and wielded by Jane Foster. Many previously theorized that Steve Rogers would be carrying the one borrowed from Thor: The Dark World during Avengers: Endgame Heist, which the former Captain America was ultimately tasked with returning to Asgard.
Marvel Studios
For the first time ever, Mjolnir, not Captain America’s vibranium shield, is being used as Steve Rogers’ primary symbol in Doomsday. That is, of course, because Chris Evans’ Steve is just Steve in his return to the MCU, returning to the action without a superhero moniker, while Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson remains the one-and-only Captain America and the leader of the Avengers’ next generation.
Marvel Studios
The stars and stripes of the American flag have been Steve Rogers’ symbol even before Howard Stark forged the legendary vibranium shield. The design dates back to World War II and his days selling war bonds, with dancing and singing on USO promotional tours (during which Phase 4 confirmed that he had a major life event).
Marvel Studios
The logo declares that Steve is “Mjolnir Worthy” with a symbol in the background that appears Asgardian in nature, effectively making him a more magical, fantasy hero moving forward, not the patriotic one reflected by his former uniform.
Marvel Studios
Granted, a mantleless Steve Rogers is nothing new for the MCU, as, while he never formally received the name, he embodied the essence of Nomad in Avengers: Infinity War. Following the events of Captain America: Civil War, Steve was wearing a stripped-back version of his old uniform, but Doomsday is taking things a step further by kicking any stars or stripes altogether.
Marvel Studios
Doomsday seems to be featuring Steve at two different points in his life, as one trailer features Chris Evans beardless and holding his newborn son, while others have him with a full beard and longer hair, akin to his Infinity War aesthetic. Avengers: Endgame Encore indicated that Doomsday will return to moments after Steve’s dance with Peggy Carter, as they are interrupted by the TVA’s Loki.
Marvel Studios
It seems there will be a time-skip between Steve’s meeting with Loki and his return to the fight in Doomsday, and he is bearded with long hair when he reunites with Chris Hemsworth’s Thor and takes Mjolnir straight from his hands. That will seemingly extend to a long-term loan for the rest of Doomsday while the God of Thunder himself wields the new-and-improved model, Stormbreaker, although it seems that neither Asgardian weapon will be effective against Doctor Doom.
Marvel Studios
By all accounts, there is no sign that Steve will have any kind of suit or mantle in Doomsday, as there probably won’t be time for any superhero tailoring as Incursions wreak havoc across the Multiverse and the end of all life inches closer.
Marvel Studios
Steve’s new look has been widely memed in the MCU fandom as he is completely lacking any superhero suit, tossing aside any stars and stripes or tactical gear in favor of a muscle-fit T-shirt and olive-brown trousers. Fortunately, Steve is as worthy as ever to wield Mjolnir and its accompanying powers of Thor into battle.
Marvel Studios
What Is Steve Rogers’ Avengers: Doomsday Return Really All About?
Fans already know that Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom has a score to settle with Steve Rogers in Avengers: Doomsday, as he somehow caused the Incursion that led to his wife and son’s deaths. That may indicate that Steve found his 20th-century home with Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter on Earth-828, rather than the past of Earth-616, and that his presence there ultimately caused an Incursion.
During the Doomsday trailer, Doom tells our heroes that they have lived “stolen lives” and that it is time for them to “give them back.” That line is likely aimed at Steve Rogers, who cheated time in Endgame to get his happy ending with a wife and son, which may have stolen that very same thing from Doctor Doom.
Chris Evans has already confirmed he will return in Avengers: Secret Wars, meaning Steve Rogers will survive Doomsday and exist on Battleworld. However, as Doctor Doom reigns supreme on the patchwork world, one can only imagine the torment carved out for Steve that he will need to be freed from.
In the 2015 Secret Wars comic storyline, Doom takes Sue Storm as his wife and Franklin and Valeria Richards as his children, stealing the perfect happy family from his archrival, Reed Richards. Perhaps Marvel Studios will flip the script on that concept by having Doom marry Peggy Carter and adopt Steve’s unnamed son as his own, as yet another means of torturing the man he blames for his loss.
James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DCU has rapidly expanded with an ambitious slate of blockbusters assembled under Chapter One: Gods and Monsters. While foundational projects like Superman and Supergirl have already debuted on the big screen, DC Studios is quietly developing several other movies to flesh out its cinematic lore. Among these expansions are villain-centric horrors like James Watkins’ R-rated Clayface and Gotham City deep dives like Andy Muschietti’s inaugural standalone Batman featureThe Brave and the Bold. However, a mysterious spin-off is poised to inject a dangerous new energy into the superhero saga – with its newly unveiled title hinting at a brutal ride that may push the boundaries of the franchise even further.
Bane and Deathstroke from DC ComicsDC Comics
Deathstroke in DC ComicsDC Comics
Bane in DC ComicsDC Comics
DC Studios reportedly started developing a movie centered around Deathstroke and Bane in 2024, and the highly anticipated villain team-up has been steadily gaining momentum behind the scenes. Captain America: Brave New World scribe Matthew Orton is attached to pen the script, while Peacemaker director Greg Mottola is heavily rumored as the frontrunner to direct. While the project hasn’t issued any major updates for a while, a new report fromDeadline has confirmed that the movie has locked in a definitive title – one that perfectly encapsulates the uncompromising nature of the two iconic heavyweights at the center of the feature.
The forthcoming Batman spin-off is confirmed to be in early development alongside a wave of other DCU entries, including The Brave and the Bold, Teen Titans, Swamp Thing, and Wonder Woman. It is reportedly being forged under the official title Savage Hunters – a title that leans into Deathstroke and Bane’s shared backgrounds as apex predators of the DC universe. The Savage Hunters moniker underscores the duo’s formidable status, as Deathstroke, the world’s most relentless and chemically enhanced mercenary assassin, collides with Bane, a master tactician who hunts his prey with brute force and psychological warfare.
While Savage Hunters is officially locked in as a key installment of the DCU, the details surrounding the project remain incredibly thin on the ground, prompting speculation about its story and placement in the burgeoning timeline. Industry insiders have suggested that the movie’s events will pick up directly after the aftermath of Peacemaker Season 2, embedding Deathstroke and Bane into the fallout of Christopher Smith’s misadventures. However, it is not confirmed that the storylines will intertwine, as the continuity of the franchise is famously complex. What is certain, however, is that DC Studios is building a diverse slate of both standalone and interconnected blockbusters that promise to explore new corners of the universe.
