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October 24 - October 30

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Keeping up its strong ties with Shrinking talents Jason Segel and James Ponsoldt, Apple Original Films has landed global rights to the psychological thriller Sponsor, with Segel set to star and Ponsoldt directing. Apple Studios will also produce the new feature that is set to be shot in California. The film hails from an original idea co-written by Segel and Ponsoldt, who also serve as executive producers on Apple's Emmy-nominated comedy Shrinking, which returns for its third season in January 2026. The pair previously collaborated on the 2015 feature The End of the Tour, which Ponsoldt directed and in which Segel starred as writer David Foster Wallace...

Origin of Image-Based Lighting. The LED Volume is derived from the concept of Image-Based Lighting (IBL) invented by Paul Debevec in 1998, which refers to mapping an HDR image onto a photosphere enveloped around a subject to serve as primary light source in CGI. LED volume walls can be flat, curved or horseshoe-shaped, and can include ceiling panels and wild walls. When setting up a stage, it is imperative to consider the requirements and goals of the production, which dictate power requirements, what panels might be removed or added and the off-camera area dedicated to tech stations, hardware and gear storage. No one solution fits all. Shooting with an LED wall requires extensive preparation from every department, a render engine (Unreal, Unity, Stagecraft, Disguise, Pixera) and a sophisticated workflow. While an LED Volume can nearly wrap around a scene at 360 degrees, the gap between the wall and floor remains a formidable issue. From the camera's perspective, the disconnect may break the illusion of continuous space if not properly mitigated. Rod Bogart, principal color scientist in the Virtual Production Tools team at Epic Games, notes that the easiest way to keep the consistency of color through the pipeline is to ensure that the color space from one thing to another matches. The recommended approach is to have both in a wider color gamut so the result can represent more of what goes on in the real world. Unmatched color spaces will lead to visual artifacts such as banding, loss of saturation, contrast and color shifts. (Courtesy Luca Cioci, Charlie Flitton, Wara Pornkulwat and Victoria K. Warren)...

Leave it to Shane Black to turn the lonely act of screenwriting into a contact sport. The Lethal Weapon and Iron Man scribe has launched The Gauntlet, a competition that puts aspiring writers through a rigorous series of critiques and rewrites — sort of American Gladiators for the Final Draft set. "It's a competition," he says, "but I like to think of it as more friendly than that. It's about a community of writers." Developed with the script-consultancy ScriptHop, the contest puts entrants' work through a detailed review by readers and advisers drawn from Black's own circle of industry veterans —including longtime friends like The Woman King scribe Dana Stevens and Meet the Parents' Jim Herzfeld. "They're people I've known for 40 years," he adds, "people I trust to really roll up their sleeves and give usable notes. If it's not good, you'll be told in diplomatic terms exactly why — by people who know." Nine scripts made it through the inaugural Gauntlet — the first hurdle was the $380 entry fee — which aims to connect its winners with agents, managers and even studios. A "golden ticket" it's not — though, yes, there is an actual silver-tinted, ticket-shaped metal card sent to Hollywood insiders, complete with a QR code linking to those nine scripts. As for Black, who has spent decades toggling between writing (The Long Kiss Goodnight, The Last Boy Scout) and directing (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man 3, The Nice Guys), he insists he's not trading filmmaking for mentorship — just rooting for a return to strong, original storytelling. "There's a lot of success right now for movies that aren't based on IP," he says. "The idea is to make your script too good to ignore."...

The next feature collaboration between Dwayne Johnson and Benny Safdie is about to bring the Chicken Man to life. In a competitive situation, Amazon MGM Studios' United Artists and Scott Stuber have landed Lizard Music, a package that has Johnson attached to star and Safdie attached to direct. Safdie is set to write the film's script based on author Daniel Pinkwater's novel of the same name. Producing the project are Stuber and Nick Nesbitt for UA, Safdie for Out for the Count Productions, Johnson for Seven Bucks Productions and David Koplan for Magnetic Fields Entertainment...

California has set aside $342 million in tax credits in a bid to jumpstart production of big-budget films, including a record $43.9 million for the next installment in the "Jumanji" franchise. The state is also committing $37.2 million for "Heat 2" from Michael Mann, as well as $38.4 million for the next film from the Daniels, the Oscar-winning team behind "Everything Everywhere All at Once." The Daniels' film, from Universal, was already approved for $20.8 million in March, but thanks to the expansion of the state's incentive program this summer, now finds itself the recipient of a nearly $18 million windfall. According to a spokesman for the California Film Commission, the Daniels' film withdrew from the program after receiving the initial allocation and "reapplied." The state will now cover 35.8% of qualified expenses instead of 19.5%. The project's employment figures have not changed...

For generations, Jim Henson's creations have taught us that "things are not always what they seem." Now, fans can own a piece of that wondrous world. Today, The Jim Henson Company and Julien's Auctions make history by launching their collaboration. This event marks the first-ever official auction of the company's most treasured archives, giving fans the chance to own a piece of that wondrous, imaginative world. The auction will be held live at The Jim Henson Company's Hollywood headquarters and online at juliensauctions.com on Tuesday, November 25, 2025. For the first time, select puppets, props, and memorabilia from The Jim Henson Company's extensive archive will be made available to the public. This collection of over 400 rare and important items will offer fans, institutions, and collectors a unique opportunity to own a piece of the visionary worlds that Jim Henson built. ..