‘Funko Fusion’ Video Game Sets September Release; First Trailer Mashes Up ‘Jurassic World,’ ‘Back to the Future,’ ‘Umbrella Academy’ and More IP

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Food Network has a new magical treat in store for viewers this holiday season: The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned cable channel has ordered a baking competition inspired by the beloved “Harry Potter” franchise.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The theme of Disney‘s 2024 upfront presentation to advertisers Tuesday was “connections” — and not just because of the running bit started by “Deadpool” star Ryan Reynolds and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” star Rob McElhenney, which involved their constant replaying of a five-second ad spot that said “Connections!” with a Disneyified logo and voiceover. No, the symbol of unity across Disney’s brands was made up of a slew of announcements from Marvel, and about such other high-wattage projects as “Star Wars,” “The Bear,” “Only Murders in the Building,” the “Wizards of Waverly Place” sequel series, “9-1-1,” Ryan Murphy’s new slate of FX titles and more franchises with intersecting talent. Disney kicked off the event when Oscar-winning “Poor Things” star Emma Stone introduced the Mouse House’s big boss, Bob Iger — a job like that would traditionally go to a top ABC star.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer A sequel to Amazon’s “Road House” movie is in the works with Jake Gyllenhaal reprising his leading role as Dalton. While Amazon is keeping quiet on any other details for now, it still made sure to give the news of the high-profile project it’s due with Amazon MGM Studio chief Jennifer Salke revealing it at the top of its first-ever upfront presentation to advertisers Tuesday.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer A sequel to Amazon’s “Road House” movie is in the works. Per Amazon MGM Studios, the first film “has attracted nearly 80 million worldwide viewers to-date.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Game developers that have worked on Sid Meier’s “Civilization,” “XCOM” and “The Sims” have launched their own life sim-focused venture, Midsummer Studios, with backing from investors including Trevor Noah’s Day Zero Productions. Founded by Firaxis Games vets Jake Solomon (creative director) and Will Miller (game director), as well as chief operating officer and chief financial officer Nelsie Birch, Midsummer launches with $6 million raised in seed funding led by Transcend Fund, along with Tirta Ventures, Betaworks Ventures, 1Up Ventures, F4 Fund, Krafton and Day Zero Productions.

EXCLUSIVE: Following his breakout role in Netfflix’s The Lincoln Lawhyer series, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo is looking to go from the defending clients to evading dinosaurs as he is in negotiations to join Universal and Amblin Entertainment’s new Jurassic World movie. Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey are also set to star. Gareth Edwards will direct.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Nebula is aiming to break into the big-league movie biz with the launch of Nebula Motion Pictures, the new studio arm of the creator-community-focused indie streaming service, and tapping director and cinematographer Valentina Vee as the company’s director of motion pictures. Under her new overall deal, which marks the first pact of this kind for Nebula, Vee will move in-house at Nebula and focus on the formation of the new film studio alongside Nebula Production vice president Trenton Waterson, an alum of Marvel Studios, to build and scale Nebula Pictures.

In a highly competitive situation, Legendary has closed a deal with Mob Entertainment to develop and produce a live-action film based on its hit horror video game franchise Poppy Playtime, Deadline can confirm. Legendary will develop and produce along with Don Murphy & Susan Montford’s Angry Films, and Mob Entertainment.

Selena Kuznikov Light up the Bat-Signal! Prime Video‘s animated series “Batman: Caped Crusader” will premiere Aug. 1. The streamer will release all 10 episodes of the first season.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Netflix is teaming up with Roblox to launch its own “digital theme park” on the online gaming platform. Dubbed “Nextworld,” the web-based universe will feature characters and content from Netflix IP including “Stranger Things,” “One Piece,” “Cobra Kai” and “Rebel Moon.” The offering debuts in early access Wednesday on Roblox.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Creator of “The Walking Dead” franchise Skybound Entertainment has tapped Activision Blizzard vet Kaleb Ruel as vice president of marketing for its in-house video game studio. During his tenure at Activision Blizzard, Ruel was a key part of the record-breaking launch of “Diablo IV,” which marked the fastest-selling game in Blizzard’s history at $666 million in sales within its first five days.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. will release the first of its new batch of “The Lord of the Rings” films in 2026, which will focus on Andy Serkis’s Gollum. Original “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy filmmaker Peter Jackson and his partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are producing the movie and “will be involved every step of the way” on the movie, Warner Bros.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer New transmedia company Iconic Arts launched Tuesday with $3.1 million in financing at a $20 million pre-seed valuation. The entertainment studio boasts support from screenwriter Eric Roth, Grammy winning artist Will.i.am and exec vets of Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment and JP Morgan.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Microsoft‘s Xbox will shut down four studios run by its Bethesda Softworks publisher, including Arkane Austin, Alpha Dog Studios, Tango Gameworks and Roundhouse Games. Xbox Game Studios chief Matt Booty announced the restructuring in a memo to staff Tuesday, writing that the closures were “grounded in prioritizing high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda’s portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds which you have nurtured over many decades.” “We are making these tough decisions to create capacity to increase investment in other parts of our portfolio and focus on our priority games,” Booty wrote.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer EA reported its fourth-quarter and full fiscal year 2024 earnings Tuesday, revealing results that matched the video game company’s own guidance and analysts’ estimates, but forecasts for harder quarters ahead. Full game sales between Jan 1 and March 31 of this year were $333 million (down from $372 million in the comparable Q4 fiscal 2023 quarter), while live services and “other” revenue totaled $1.45 billion (down from $1.5 billion a year ago, and from last quarter’s record growth of $1.7 billion). Profit for the quarter was $182 million compared to a loss of $12 million in Q4 2023.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Food Network has renewed “24 in 24: Last Chef Standing” for Season 2 ahead of the new primetime competition’s first season finale. Hosted by Esther Choi and Michael Symon, “24 in 24: Last Chef Standing” follows 24 talented and fearless chefs who take on 24 food challenges in 24 consecutive, non-stop hours, per Food Network’s description for the series.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The Cinemart, the production company behind Amazon’s “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets” and Netflix’s “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal,” has signed an overall deal with Banijay‘s Truly Original. Under the new pact, The Cinemart will expand its development and production operations in premium documentaries and other genres of unscripted programming through Truly Original, a subsidiary of Banijay backed by co-CEOs Steven Weinstock and Glenda Hersh.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Disney CEO Bob Iger says the company is shrinking the MCU with a new mission to drop the number of Marvel TV series to two a year and the film output to no more than three movies per year. Iger said this is part of Disney’s overall strategy to reduce output and focus on quality, a strategy “that’s particularly true with Marvel.” On the TV side, Iger says that a portion of the upcoming series set for release are “a vestige of basically a desire in the past to increase volume.” “We’re slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two, or a maximum of three.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer When Amazon‘s “The Boys” debuts its fourth season next month, things are shaping up to be crazier than the time they blew up a whale and that other time they blew up a giant penis, as it seems Butcher (Karl Urban) and Homelander (Antony Starr) are ready to burn their whole lives down — and take everyone else with them. In “The Boys” Season 4 trailer, Butcher reveals to Hughie (Jack Quaid), Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and the rest of the Boys that time is running out for him, and with the few numbered days he and his weakened heart have left, he’s looking to unleash a deadly virus on the supe community.

UPDATED, 8:15 am: Netflix has dropped the official trailer for Jurassic World: Chaos Theory, the animated follow-up sequel series to Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, and there’s one name that is conspicuously missing. Jenna Ortega, who voiced Brooklynn in Camp Creatceous, is not listed in the voice cast for Chaos Theory, or seen in the trailer, and we’ve confirmed she will not be returning for the new series. Chaos Theory picks up with Brooklynn seemingly killed by a dinosaur attack. According to Ben (Sean Giambrone), she was targeted, and the other members of the Nublar Six are now in danger.