In true form for Nolan, the film is a bit of a mind-bender. Interstellar presents us with a near-future Earth that is becoming uninhabitable due to an unbeatable blight that’s wiped out nearly all food crops. A team of astronauts sets out to space in search of another planet that could support life, using a wormhole to reach a galaxy beyond our own, and space-time weirdness ensues. It’s a great movie and was well-received at the time of its release (even if it left a ton of people confused about what had actually happened), going on to rake in roughly $731 million globally, according to Variety.

If you didn’t get a chance to catch it in IMAX the first time around, it’s definitely worth taking a trip to the theater for this one.

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Scarlett Johansson plays Kelly Jones, a PR expert who NASA brings in to improve public perception ahead of the launch. Along with butting heads with launch director Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) and turning the crew into global celebrities, Kelly is handed a particularly difficult task: to secretly create a fake version of the Moon landing, just in case the mission goes sideways.

The rest of the cast, which includes Woody Harrelson, looks solid too. For one thing, the delightful Jim Rash (Community) plays the very much not Stanley Kubrick director of the phony Moon landing. The movie's director is Greg Berlanti, who was behind Love, Simon and a string of DC Comics TV shows.

Fly Me To The Moon will arrive in theaters on July 14, almost 55 years to the day after Apollo 11 launched.

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With the rule in place, "film and television, music and book publishers, sports leagues and broadcasters" can ask the court to order ISPs to block websites that share stolen content. Rivkin, arguing in favor of site-blocking, explained that the practice doesn't impact legitimate businesses. He said legislation around the practice would require detailed evidence to prove that a certain entity is engaged in illegal activities and that alleged perpetrators can appear in court to defend themselves.

Rivkin cited FMovies, an illegal film streamer, as an example of how site-blocking in the US would minimize traffic to piracy websites. Apparently, FMovies gets 160 million visits per month, a third of which comes from the US. If the rule also exists in the country, then the website's traffic would, theoretically, drop pretty drastically. The MPA's chairman also talked about previous efforts to enforce site-blocking in the US, which critics previously said would "break the internet" and could potentially stifle free speech. While he insisted that other countries' experiences since then had proven those predictions wrong, he promised that the organization takes those concerns seriously.

He ended his speech by asking for the support of theater owners in the country. "The MPA is leading this charge in Washington," he said. "And we need the voices of theater owners — your voices — right by our side. Because this action will be good for all of us: Content creators. Theaters. Our workforce. Our country."

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The company has released the first trailer for Next Stop Paris, which it's calling "the first AI-powered love story." TCL used human writers, as well as actors for motion capture and voice performances. While it has artists in the US, Canada, UK and Poland working on the project, it relied heavily on generative AI.

“I am excited by this opportunity to differentiate us with original programming. AIGC [artificial intelligence generated content] for us is the beginning," Chris Regina, TCL's chief content officer, told Broadcasting+Cable. "It’s a new approach and it makes sense coming from a tech and hardware company that that’s where we’re going to start.”

The plot of Next Stop Paris, such as it is, sees a young woman going on her honeymoon to Paris alone after her fiancé ran off with someone in their wedding party. She meets a stranger on the train and the pair explore the French capital together.

TCL is hoping that original content can help draw viewers to TCLtv+ and help build a brand identity for the company. While it's not entirely fair to judge a film based on a trailer, the Next Stop Paris clip gives a terrible first impression for both the project and TCLtv+.

The look of the characters changes throughout, from a moderately realistic style to the hyperrealism we often see from the likes of Midjourney, and they project all of the emotion of a pair of dead fish. Lip syncing is almost non-existent and the characters walk in a very unnatural way.

The trailer feels like the worst kind of fever dream. Saying this looks like garbage would be an insult to garbage. If "content is king," as Regina put it, Next Stop Paris looks like a pauper.

The Hallmark Channel gets a lot of flak for its romance movies and romcoms, but at least there's an earnestness and high level of care behind the network's output, which does a lot to fill a gap in the theatrical slate. TCL is trying to muscle into that space too.

"There's an audience there that's watching our service and we see a hole in the marketplace with theatrical rom-coms not as prevalent," Regina said. "They're a guilty pleasure. You get under a blanket and watch in front of your TV set. So that's the driver." On top of that, TCL plans to make its original content shoppable and have AI-generated "characters in our shows that can be brand ambassadors and influencers for advertisers."

Thankfully, TCL isn't only working on AI-generated guff. "We are looking at doing traditional content. So movies, scripted shows, unscripted content, specials," Regina, who wrote Next Stop Paris with TCL chief creative officer Daniel Smith, said. "The next thing we have brewing isn't AI at all." That's good, because whatever's next can't look much worse than Next Stop Paris.

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The news represents a significant change to Prime Video, which hadn't previously served ads next to movie and TV content as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The streaming service is currently included for free with a Prime or $9 per month if purchased separately, offering third-party content (movies, TV series, etc.) and Amazon Original content produced by Amazon Studios. That includes series like The Boys and The Citadel, along with movies including Air, Manchester by the Sea and The Big Sick.

It didn't say how many ads you'll have to watch, though Variety suggests "limited advertisements" could mean around four minutes per hour. "We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers," the company said. "Ads in Prime Video content will be introduced in the US, UK, Germany, and Canada in early 2024, followed by France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia later in the year. No action is required for Prime members. We’re not making changes in 2024 to the current price of Prime membership."

The news follows a report early this summer that Amazon was planning some kind of ad-supported Prime Video tier. Now, it turns out that's just the regular subscription, with the new tier effectively an add-on.

Amazon justified the decision, saying it will allow it to "continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time." It also cited the "vast selection of movies and series, including Amazon Originals and live sports, along with critically acclaimed series like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel". The company recently spent millions to acquire rights to NFL Thursday Night Football and acquired MGM Studios in 2021 for $8.5 billion.

Amazon has already dallied with ads, as it currently shows them next to live sports streaming on Prime. Amazon also offers the FreeVee ad-supported site with over 100 Prime Video original series, available on its Fire TV stick, on other devices and as an app.

Ad-free Prime Video certainly made Amazon's $139 per year ($15 per month) Prime membership compelling. With that now watered down, and Amazon also introducing new fees for same-day deliveries, it will be interesting to see if there's any impact on subscriber numbers.

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Members will get access to a library of up to 100 ad-free Sony Pictures films at no extra cost. Sony says the lineup includes movies such as Looper, Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, Elysium and Resident Evil Damnation. The library will receive periodic updates. The company also plans to add some anime content from Crunchyroll to Sony Pictures Core, and it notes that benefits for all PS Plus subscribers are on the way.

Many observers have long suggested that Sony should grant PS Plus subscribers the ability to stream some movies as part of the subscription, so it's nice that's finally happening. Given Sony's big push to turn its gaming franchises into movies and TV shows, it makes more sense than ever to offer that perk. On the other hand, Sony announced this update only a few weeks after it increased the price of the annual PS Plus Premium plan from $120 to $160.

PS4 and PS5 users will be able to buy some Sony Pictures films during an early access window. Right now, folks in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand can buy Gran Turismothrough their console before it's available for digital purchase elsewhere. Snap up that film through Sony Pictures Core, and you'll get in-game credits for Gran Turismo 7too.

The app has been available on Bravia TVs and some Xperia devices for a while. Until now, the app has been called Bravia Core, but Sony is rebranding it on those devices next year.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that the PlayStation version of the app includes one of the key features that Bravia and Xperia users have been able to enjoy. On those devices, the Bravia Core app employs Sony's Pure Stream tech, which can stream video at up to 80 Mbps. For comparison, Netflix recommends speeds of up to 25 Mbps for 4K video. Sony says the higher bit rate enables it to offer “near lossless” video streaming at a quality akin to 4K Blu-ray discs. That claim more or less holds up: I found that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse looks astoundingly good with Pure Stream enabled.

However, as things stand, there are no video quality settings in the Sony Pictures Core app on PlayStation devices. Here's hoping Sony enables Pure Stream there in the future.

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While mobile gaming is not entirely new to Netflix, it’s still trying to find its place in the company’s business model. Right now, the Netflix app prompts users to download and play games like Exploding Kittens: The Game or Ghost Detective on the app store where you can play on the platform. But eventually, Netflix subscribers will be able to play games directly on their smart TVs and computers. This push into gaming by the streaming giant is preceded by the company’s recent release of a dedicated controller app for iOS devices that lets a player use their phone as a gamepad with a paired TV.

From the start, Netflix has never charged for its games or posed additional fees within its gaming domain. To play on your phone, you only need a subscription. And while we don’t know if that is going to ever change in the near future, Netflix’s focus on making games based on hit shows could help maintain interest in them, especially in between seasons. The bet on superconsumers’ could also lead the company to a path of buying its way into gaming.

As of now, Netflix offers more than 70 games on its platform and it plans to expand that more into the end of 2023. Netflix will continue to license non-show related games like Classic Solitaire, according to the WSJ.

It has been less than two years since the company began dabbling in mobile gaming and yet, Netflix has already become a player in indie publishing. And we’ve seen the company deliver on its promise of developing games based on hit shows. Netflix Stories: Love is Blind, an interactive story title based on the reality television series just came out last month. Now it appears ready to lean even harder into gaming.

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As part of the move, Apple will reportedly remove its dedicated (iTunes-based) Movies and TV Shows apps from the Apple TV set-top box’s interface. In addition, it plans to axe all video-related sections from the iTunes app on iOS and iPadOS. The TV app already duplicates the functionality of renting and buying digital video content, making the alleged change more about streamlining and removing redundancies than altering any core features.

The updated app will reportedly include a left-side panel for video categories, similar to what’s found on Netflix and other streaming rivals. Apple’s TV app consolidates video content from the Apple TV+ subscription service, rented and purchased movies, live sports networks and compatible third-party services like Amazon Prime, Paramount+ and Starz.

Apple has increasingly invested in video content, spending billions on programming like Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which premiered in theaters last week. (The film will arrive on Apple TV+ “at a later date.”) Original series on Apple TV+ include Ted Lasso, Severance, The Morning Show, Silo and Foundation, among others. The company reportedly (and abruptly) canceled The Problem with Jon Stewart this month following disagreements about Stewart’s planned editorial content surrounding AI and China.

In other Apple developments, the company sent out invites today for an event on October 30. The “Scary Fast” streaming event is expected to focus on new Macs. These could include a refresh of the aging iMac line and MacBook Pro, possibly running on a new M3 chip.

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New Regency Pictures and Friday the 13th: The Game and Evil Dead: The Gamedeveloper Diversion3 Entertainment have teamed up to bring Barbarian to PC and consoles. Despite the multiplayer format of the studio's previous projects, this will be a single-player, narrative-focused title which will "expand on the settings, characters and creatures of Barbarian." There's no release timeframe as yet.

“We’re very excited to work with the team at New Regency to expand on the settings, characters and creatures of Barbarian,” Tim Hesse, an executive producer at Diversion3 Entertainment, told Variety in a statement. “The film did a magnificent job of not only scaring audiences with its unexpected and horrifying twists and turns, but also in establishing strong characters thrown into terrifying situations. We look forward to exploring these themes further in the game.”

A straight adaptation of the film's story probably wouldn't work as a game. But there's certainly potential for it to work as a tension-filled survival horror title given (mild spoilers) how much of the Barbarian takes place in terrifying underground tunnels.

For the uninitiated, here's the trailer for Barbarian. Happy Halloween.

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Given that these movies have been around for as long as three years, it’s unlikely that they’ll set the box office charts alight. But the theatrical releases mean you’ll have a chance to enjoy these films as originally intended.

They could also help pad out Disney’s bottom line a bit during a rough spell for the company. Among other issues, Disney is slated to release just one Marvel movie next year, Deadpool 3. In addition, the three Pixar films will act as a lead up to the studio’s next film and perhaps help get very young viewers accustomed to going to the movies. Inside Out 2 will arrive in theaters on June 14.

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