After a swirl of reports this week describing her planned retirement from the top post at Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy sat down with Deadline's Mike Fleming to address her future. She says she has been working on a succession plan for a couple years, eyeing candidates from within with Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman. (That puts someone like Dave Filoni, who knows the universe inside out, in a strong position. Kennedy declined to name any names.)
Kennedy is 13 years into her run steering Lucasfilm, with a goal of broadening George Lucas’ Star Wars vision after Disney bought it from him for $4 billion in cash and stock in 2012. It’s a challenge Amazon now will try with James Bond after purchasing creative control from 007 gatekeepers for around $1 billion beyond the $8 billion they paid for MGM.
Arguably the most successful female producer/executive in Hollywood history, Kennedy has produced more than 70 films, which have collected 120 Oscar nominations (eight with her name on them) and 25 wins. Kennedy herself was awarded the honorary Oscar with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. While it has always been a challenge to please the Star Wars faithful and there have been some misfires, the five Star Wars films she has produced have grossed nearly $6 billion, with streaming series successes topped by The Mandalorian and Andor.
Deadline caught up with Kennedy just before she headed off to be honored with husband Frank Marshall at the Oscar Wilde Awards. >>>"I Will Die Making Movies" |
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Musical Youth - The Iron Claw director Sean Durkin and A24 have found their next project on which to team. Saoirse Ronan and Austin Butler are set to star in Deep Cuts, a movie based on the debut novel of Holly Brickley. Durkin is on board to direct and adapt. Ronan will produce. Set in the 2000s, Deep Cuts is a love story about two music-obsessed twentysomethings navigating the messy realities of ambition, belonging and adulthood. >>> Novel Just Published Survey Says U.K. Crews Not OK - Around 40% of UK film and TV crew are frequently being asked to break working rights regulation, according to a Bectu survey. Bectu is now calling for a meeting with broadcasters, streamers and producer trade body Pact over the issue of “breaking turnaround,” which is when crew are required by their employer to return to work within less than 11 consecutive hours in each 24-hour period. >>> Safety Issue
Vampire 'Winter' - Netflix has acquired the wildly popular Audible Originals podcast Impact Winter, to be developed for series with Hunger Games helmer Francis Lawrence directing. The series is created by Travis Beacham, whose script work includes Carnival Row, Pacific Rim and Clash of the Titans. The ambition of the series is 30 Days of Night meets The Last of Us. >>> Sister Vs. Sister
Ritter's Killer New Arc - Jessica Jones and Orphan Black: Echoes star Krysten Ritter has been tapped for a high-profile guest arc on Showtime’s new drama series Dexter: Resurrection, sources tell Deadline. The series chronicles a new chapter for Michael C. Hall’s serial killer Dexter Morgan. >>>Sommelier With A Secret
Speculation Over BBC Top Spot - Charlotte Moore’s shock decision to quit the BBC has opened up the most powerful creative job in British television — and within minutes speculation was rampant about who could succeed the outgoing content chief. (Kate Phillips, head of unscripted, has stepped in on an interim basis.) >>> WhatsApps Pinging
My Dinner With James Bond - Deadline columnist Peter Bart has not only discussed contract negotiations over dinner with Sean Connery, bargained with Barbara Broccoli and known most of the Bond actors personally, he has also actually greenlit a Bond film. Here, Bart offers observations from his experiences — and a few suggestions. >>>One Actor's Concerns |
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Audiences, and the rest of the residents at Woodstone Mansion, now finally understand why Isaac Higgintoot (Brandon Scott Jones) has held a grudge against Alexander Hamilton for nearly 250 years. Thursday night’s episode of Ghosts takes us back to 1776 to see the drama between Isaac and Alexander unfold in real time, as Isaac recounts the story to Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) while advising him against focusing too much on his culinary nemesis who seems to be thriving while Jay’s restaurant is struggling to bring in customers. As it turns out, Isaac has looked down upon the Founding Father for all this time because he stole Isaac’s neck ruffle — one he’d reserved two weeks in advance, no less — to show him up at John Jay’s house on the night of what was supposed to be the official signing of the Declaration of Independence. In the Q&A below, Jones broke down the episode with Deadline and teased the rest of Season 4. >>> Read The Interview |
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Exclusive
Simon Helberg will be tapping into his Big Bang engineering credentials for his next series role. He has been cast as a series regular opposite leads Billy Magnussen and Sarah Goldberg in AMC and AMC+’s untitled Jonathan Glatzer Silicon Valley drama.
Exclusive
Krysten Ritter has lined up a killer new role…literally. The Jessica Jones and Orphan Black: Echoes star has been tapped for a high-profile guest arc on Showtime’s new drama series Dexter: Resurrection.
Sharon Stone has officially joined the cast of HBO‘s Euphoria for Season 3. “There is little more exciting than going to work with this team of thrilling talent,” shared Stone in a statement to Deadline.
Exclusive
Warm Bodies and A Discovery Of Witches actress Teresa Palmer has joined dark comedy 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank, which is being directed by Frankie Shaw for Amazon MGM’s Orion label.
Zendaya has joined the cast of Shrek 5, in a major get for the franchise, as announced on the series’ official X page. The in-demand actress voices the daughter of Shrek (Mike Myers) and Fiona (Cameron Diaz). |
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More News ⭐ Ad inventory for Sunday's Oscars has sold out, Disney has confirmed, with a source indicating that pricing held steady with 2024 levels at $1.7 million and $2.3 million for 30 seconds. This year's show will stream live on Hulu along with its ABC broadcast airing, with the same ads running on both outlets.
📺 Pay-TV provider Fubo posted mixed fourth-quarter results and highlighted its pending acquisition by Disney during a conference call with Wall Street analysts. A forecast for a decline in subscribers, from almost 1.7 million now to less than 1.5 million in the first quarter, helped drive the company's shares down 20% in early trading.
⚖️ GB News has won a landmark legal battle with UK media regulator Ofcom over a report by presenter Jacob Rees-Mogg about Donald Trump. In a High Court ruling, a judge found that Ofcom was unlawful in determining that GB News breached broadcasting rules in two separate editions of Mogg’s State Of The Nation show.
🚨 No cause of death has been determined so far for Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa, but New Mexico police say the situation “remains an open investigation.” With affidavits calling the death of the two-time Oscar winner, his wife and their dog late Wednesday “suspicious enough in nature,” the Santa Fe Sheriff’s office reiterated Thursday that “there were no apparent signs of foul play.”
🦚 NBCUniversal is developing what is being described as a subscription “mobile first” news platform in the fourth quarter of this year. Cesar Conde, chairman of the NBCU News Group, talked briefly of the plans at a Semafor conference.
📺 The CW will start turning a profit in 2026, majority owner Nexstar Media Group reaffirmed. A pivot to sports, which now makes up 40% of overall programming has helped push the network toward the black. |
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Obituaries
🕯️ Israeli filmmaker Renen Schorr, founder of the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film School, died Wednesday at 72. 🕯️ Olive Sturgess, whose many acting credits through the 1950s and ’60s included numerous TV Westerns and the Roger Corman horror spoof The Raven starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff and Jack Nicholson, died February 19 in Los Angeles. She was 91. 🕯️ Pilar Del Rey, a veteran character actor who appeared with James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor in Giant and guested on dozens of classic TV series, died February 23 of natural causes in Los Angeles. She was 95. 🕯️ 2025 Deaths Photo Gallery: Hollywood & Media Obituaries |
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On the Radar
Fri - Rahm Emanuel on Real Time
Sat - Shane Gillis hosts SNL
Sun - The Oscars
Mon - Stand Up for L.A. benefit |
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A 'Wicked' Award - Cynthia Erivo was honored at the Essence Black Women In Hollywood Awards at Fairmont Century Plaza on Thursday. |
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