Franchise Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

David Corvo, considered the driving force behind Dateline, NBC’s top-rated and longest-running primetime series, is stepping down as Senior Executive Producer at the end of the year. He will remain with NBC News as an adviser on various projects, reporting to Rebecca Blumenstein, President of Editorial at NBC News.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor David Corvo, the guiding force behind hundreds of hours of NBC’s signature “Dateline” newsmagazine, will step away from the role at the end of 2023, bringing to a close a TV-news career that has spanned four decades. Corvo has been with “Dateline” in some capacity since joining NBC News in 1995 as a vice president responsible for primetime news programming.

This year’s Tokyo Film Festival closes this evening with the world premiere of Godzilla Minus One, the latest edition in Toho’s monster franchise, directed by filmmaker Takashi Yamazaki. 

The world of horror is rife with reboots and remakes. It’s gotten to the point where franchises are rebooted or remade in short order if the first attempt doesn’t succeed.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Amazon MGM Studios, the renamed joint venture of Amazon Studios and MGM, has acquired rights to James Ponti’s popular children’s book series “City Spies” and is developing a film based on the first novel. The idea is for the initial installment to launch a global franchise, described by the company as a “four-quadrant action-adventure that will delight audiences of all ages and as a universe-building property for the studio.” The story follows a 12-year-old coding prodigy, who is recruited by an eccentric MI6 agent to join the City Spies, a team of kids from around the world who feel unnoticed in their own lives.

Just like Michael Myers, the Halloween franchise never truly dies.

After three films, and dwindling box office returns for each successive movie, the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise may officially be over. Variety reports (via Total Film) that David Yates, who helmed all three of “Harry Potter” prequels (and the final four in the original franchise) revealed in a new interview that the series is “parked.” And it’s news to him that the plan all along was for “Fantastic Beasts” to be a five-film series.

Fantastic Beasts filmmaker David Yates told Total Film that the Harry Potter spinoff feature franchise “is parked.”

The Fantastic Beasts movies are essentially done, at least for now.

The cast of NCIS: Sydney is coming very soon!

Zack Sharf Digital News Director The “Fantastic Beasts” movie franchise is “parked,” director David Yates said in a new interview with Total Film magazine. The franchise, headlined by Eddie Redmayne, is a prequel to “Harry Potter” that was designed by author J.K. Rowling as a five-film series.

Shawn Levy stopped by “Happy Sad Confused” to promote his new film “All The Light You Cannot See,” but he talked about loads of other stuff, too. And yes, Marvel fans, he talked a lot about his upcoming MCU installment, “Deadpool 3.” When prompted about how much heart and emotion the film might have, perhaps a little facetiously, Levy quipped back, “there’s a f*ckload more than you think.” Sounds like the third “Deadpool” film may be the best so far.

Naman Ramachandran New Philippines anime franchise “Solemn Vow” has set several partnerships across the Southeast Asian region. Conceptualized as an anime series with a strategy for spinoffs into manga, games, music and merchandise, the franchise, created by Lawrence Panganiban, has formed partnerships with Philippines-based Enigma Kai and media startup Fire and Ice, and Singapore-based companies Anito Studios and Silver Media, in collaboration with Japanese animation giant Toei Animation Philippines, which will handle production.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jean-Claude Van Damme claimed in a recent interview with The Telegraph that Vin Diesel was not interested in having him star in the “Fast & Furious” franchise. The ongoing action series has employed action movie veterans such as Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham over the years, and Van Damme said the franchise was also interested in getting him on board. It was Diesel who allegedly said no.

“Scream” franchise began in 1996 with the late great Wes Craven at the helm, chronicling notorious killer Ghostface as they terrorized high school students and murdered classmates in the small town of Woodsboro.The man (or woman) donning the mask reminiscent of artist Edvard Munch’s 1893 painting “The Scream” is often someone connected to their victims. With six “Scream” flicks and more in the works, the horror franchise has been in theaters for more than 25 years and its legacy has forever become a staple of the spooky season.Main character Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) has been at the center of Ghostface’s murder spree for much of the series, but every time she almost always comes out unscathed as the ultimate Final Girl.While there are a lot of killers in the series to keep track of, this handy guide will keep you straight.Keep reading to learn about every murderer in the franchise. Warning: Spoilers ahead for the “Scream” movies. Read at your own risk …Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) was Sidney’s boyfriend for the first flick and is the original Ghostface.

Valerie Wu Intern Fans of the iconic British secret agent James Bond will have to wait a while to see who the next 007 will be, according to franchise producer Barbara Broccoli. In a recent interview with The Guardian, Broccoli shared that executives “haven’t even begun” modernizing the franchise, adding that there is a “big road ahead” before the James Bond character is “reinvented for the next chapter.” Broccoli praised what Daniel Craig, who retired from the role of James Bond in 2021 after the release of “No Time to Die,” brought to the character.

Divergent author Veronica Roth is opening up about the film adaptation of her book series and the final film that never got made.

Jaden Thompson Veronica Roth, the author of the popular dystopian YA series “Divergent,” isn’t upset that the final film adaptation in the franchise never came to fruition, she revealed in a new interview with People. The final book “Allegiant” was set to be split into two films, with the first releasing in 2016; the second part, however, never made it to the big screen. Roth said she that she has accepted this fact, given that she felt the films were going in a different direction than her novels.

EXCLUSIVE: The expansion of the Basketball Wives franchise looks to be a slam dunk for VH1.

Encanto became a success story for Disney and although there have been hints of the possibility of a sequel, nothing has been confirmed yet.

Amber Dowling “Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent” announced the cast for its initial season at MIPCOM on Monday, confirming six full-time leads for the Canadian iteration of the longest-running scripted drama brand in TV history. The all-Canadian cast includes Aden Young (“Rectify”) as Det. Sgt.

Naman Ramachandran Hansal Mehta‘s “The Buckingham Murders,” which premieres at the BFI London Film Festival, will be the first in a franchise. Written by Aseem Arrora, Raghav Raj Kakker and Kashyap Kapoor, the film follows Jasmeet Bhamra (portrayed by Kareena Kapoor Khan), a detective and mother who, after losing her own child, must investigate the murder of a 10-year-old in Buckinghamshire, going down a rabbit hole of secrets, where almost everyone in the small town becomes a suspect.

If non-starter franchise TV isn’t at a nadir, all one needs to do is look at the recent Marvel TV reckoning—the Studio finally coming to terms with the fact that they have to tell television in a TV format using experienced TV people and changing creative course—to understand that it’s in trouble creatively. Both Marvel and Lucasfilm (“Star Wars”) have fumbled around and squandered their I.P.

David Gordon Green may have made “Halloween Ends” last year, but does the “Halloween” franchise ever really end? Deadline reports that Miramax Television emerges victorious in a steep bidding war against Blumhouse Productions and A24 for the TV rights to “Halloween.” The deal with Trancas International Films allows Miramax to develop and co-produce a TV series based on the IP, including a first-look agreement on other TV projects for the international marketplace.

Miramax has prevailed in the bidding war for television rights to the “Halloween” horror franchise, meaning Michael Myers could soon be slicing and dicing his way across the small screen or assorted streaming platforms. The indie studio beat out other contenders, including A24, which was also in the mix for the rights, according to an insider with knowledge. The auction was held by Malek Akkad’s Trancas International Films, which controls the franchise’s TV rights.

Filmmaker Gareth Edwards is coming off his epic sci-fi original film, “The Creator,” a film that saved millions of dollars in VFX by essentially doing it all after the fact. Meaning instead of setting up expensive green screens, blue screens, and mo-cap suits to capture the spots where VFX would typically be inserted, Edwards and his team just shot the movie generally as one would in the wild and then basically Photoshopped on all the VFX afterward (that’s not the most technical version, but probably the most accurate the audiences will understand; read our ‘Creator’ review here).

SPOILER ALERT: The following story contains details from tonight’s episode of Bachelor in Paradise.

“The Golden Bachelor” has defied the skeptics by racking up record ratings.

Universal/Blumhouse/Morgan Creek’s The Exorcist: Believer will continue horror’s head-spinning roll at the autumn box office with a $30M-$36M domestic start at 3,600 locations.