Updated every Friday 12:00 PM
October 25 - October 31

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Apple TV+ announced the premiere date for the new conspiracy thriller “Prime Target” starring SAG Award winner Leo Woodall (“The White Lotus,” “One Day”) and Quintessa Swindell (“Black Adam,” “In Treatment”). Created by award-winning writer Steve Thompson (“Sherlock,” “Vienna Blood”), who also serves as executive producer, the new drama is produced for Apple TV+ by New Regency with Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions. The eight-episode series will premiere globally on Apple TV+ on January 22, 2025, with the first two episodes, followed by one episode weekly, every Wednesday through March 5, 2025...

Tech companies are slowly but surely coaxing filmmakers into tinkering with their AI tools. James Cameron is on Stability AI’s board of directors, and Lionsgate struck a deal with Runway to use it as a pre-production tool (just don’t say A24 is using it). Now Blumhouse is the latest to take the artificial intelligent plunge, and they’ve convinced a few other filmmakers to join them. Blumhouse partnered with Facebook-owner Meta to get three filmmakers to test out the tech giant’s new AI tool Meta Movie Gen. The tech is meant to use simple text prompts to produce videos and sounds, edit existing video or photos, and do so at 1080p HD video and audio quality. But per a blog post, the tech won’t be integrated into public products on Facebook until next year, and they first wanted filmmakers to test it and provide feedback as part of a pilot program. So Blumhouse got Aneesh Chaganty (“Searching,” “Run”), The Spurlock Sisters (“Breakline”) and Casey Affleck (“I’m Still Here,” “Light of My Life”) to produce short films that incorporate AI elements as generated by Movie Gen into their films. The filmmakers also worked with researchers at Meta to try out the tools. The pilot program will continue into 2025 with more filmmakers offering feedback down the road...

J.A. Bayona’s Oscar-nominated “Society of the Snow,” Netflix series hit “Money Heist” and Prime Video’s “Red Queen” have spearheaded the success of Spanish content worldwide, per a new report unveiled at Mipcom by Spanish trade and investment body ICEX and entertainment analytics org, Parrot Analytics. For 2024, Spanish content is expected to deliver $1.4 billion in global revenue, reflecting a steep demand across key regions and confirming the country’s dominance in the non-English content market. Spain is Mipcom’s country of honor in this year’s edition...

Slamdance, the indie film festival established almost 30 years ago in response to the cultural monolith of Sundance, is unveiling its first ever awards show franchise. The Indies will focus on narrative and documentary features from filmmakers in North America. Eligible movies must have played at one or more domestic film festivals held over the calendar year. There’s an added guardrail to keep The Indies as cutting edge as possible: movies that set world premieres at Sundance, SXSW or Tribeca are not eligible for a trophy. Categories under consideration this year include: Best Narrative Feature Film, Outstanding Storytelling Craft, Outstanding Technical Achievement, Outstanding Ensemble and Casting, Best Documentary Feature, Outstanding Storytelling Craft, Outstanding Use of Archival Footage and Outstanding Cinematography...

AFI Fest hopes to certify its status as L.A. landmark festival. While Los Angeles remains a robust hub of repertory cinemas, AFI Fest, the city’s longest-running festival, essentially stands as the last major game in town for studios looking to spotlight their prestige titles. Among those banners returning is Sony Pictures Classics, which has programmed its two remaining features for the year: Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door,” which stars Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton and nabbed the Golden Lion after its Venice Film Festival premiere; and “I’m Still Here,” a political drama from director Walter Salles and Brazil’s entry in the Oscars international feature category...

Over the last three years, the Project Unloaded Youth Council, comprised of kids and young adults ages 16-20, have tracked the number of guns seen on broadcast television (CBS, NBC, Fox, and ABC for this study). The group found 33 percent of all TV episodes studied in fall 2024 featured at least one firearm, itself a 33 percent increase from fall 2023. The council studied every hour of broadcast primetime television during the final week in September (Sept. 25-Oct. 1, 2022; Sept. 24-30, 2023; and Sept. 22-28, 2024) for each of the past three years. The council members logged the type of show, whether a gun was shown, whether it was fired, and in what context a gun was shown and fired. Far and away this year, CBS led the pack and was found to be responsible for more than half — 55 percent — of broadcast TV episodes with guns shown, and 61 percent of episodes with a gun fired...