ScreamWire Daily

State attorneys general are increasingly stepping into antitrust enforcement as federal agencies retreat, actively challenging major media mergers — highlighted by a temporary restraining order against Nexstar-Tegna and looming scrutiny of Paramount’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery — forcing dealmakers to factor state-level risk into transaction planning.

Domestic Q1 2026 box office hit $1.77B — the best first quarter since the pandemic — led by Amazon MGM’s Project Hail Mary ($177M in 11 days) and with genre contributor Paramount/Spyglass’ Scream 7 crossing $119.2M; the pace keeps theatrical on track for a $9B+ year.

Bad Robot is scaling down, closing its LA office and relocating to New York after selling its Santa Monica HQ for $31M and shedding staff; the company’s once-lucrative $250M WarnerMedia overall deal (extended non-exclusively) has wound down while a few projects, including Abrams’ The Great Beyond and David Robert Mitchell’s The End of Oak Street, remain in release slates.

Ryan Gosling is understood to be exiting the Daniels’ Universal sci‑fi tentpole due to scheduling conflicts; the project (which secured a California tax credit) remains on track for a November 19, 2027 release and will proceed with the Daniels and Playgrounds producing.

Grimmfest unveiled 2026 poster art by Ilan Sheady and announced its first two programming items: western‑horror short THE BONES EXIST (Kelsey Bollig & Matthew DuVall) and the UK premiere of Damien Fannon’s debut feature IVAN; festival runs Oct 8–11, 2026 in Manchester.

Beyond Fest announced programming for its inaugural Chicago edition in April, expanding the festival’s footprint and bringing curated genre screenings to a new market this spring.

Netflix's Beef Season 2 trailer signals a tonal shift toward a larger, psychosexual domestic revenge thriller set at a country club, with director Jake Schreier and creator Lee Sung Jin expanding the conflict to three couples; season premieres April 16.

Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) announced a hybrid offline/online 2026 lineup as Korea’s festival maintains both theatrical and virtual programming for international genre audiences.

Mike Mignola and Ben Stenbeck expand their Lands Unknown shared universe with a new graphic novel, Uri Tupka and the Devils, due from Dark Horse Comics in November; the folktale anthology continues the dark-fantasy/horror-leaning saga.

Bloody Disgusting debuted a clip from Renny Harlin's Deep Water showing Aaron Eckhart and Molly Belle Wright facing a shark while trying to rescue a plane crash survivor.

SHE BLEEDS GREEN is framed as an allegorical creature feature that embraces body-horror positively, positioning the film as thematically-driven genre cinema likely to appeal to festival programmers and niche horror audiences.

FilmHedge/MediaHedge is launching a film & TV joint‑venture fund with a New York asset manager; an initial capital commitment of up to $200M will be deployed beginning spring 2026 to provide structured production financing against pre‑sales and tax credits.

U.S. payrolls rose by 178,000 in March and the unemployment rate ticked to 4.3%; sectors saw mixed results — movies and music lost about 1,100 jobs while broadcasting/content providers were roughly flat — and average hourly earnings hit $37.38.

Research of 36,000 theatrical titles shows wide‑release runtimes have grown from ~106 minutes in the 1990s/2000s to ~114 minutes recently (blockbusters and $100M+ films skew longer; action now averages ~128 minutes), while sub‑$10M films’ lengths remain steady.

Zach Shields is co‑writing Gladys with Zach Cregger for New Line/Warner Bros.; producers include Cregger, Roy Lee and Miri Yoon via Vertigo, the project leverages deleted backstory material and has writers locked though no production date or director is set — Weapons earned $270M worldwide on a $38M budget.

Screenplay Films greenlit a feature adaptation of Indonesian horror series Zona Merah, shooting April–May 2026; Sidharta Tata and Fajar Martha Santosa co‑direct, original cast members return and Luna Maya joins as star and executive producer as the story is cranked darker into a zombie‑survival feature.

Blumhouse publicly denied Brendan Fraser is involved in Lee Cronin's R‑rated The Mummy via a firm X post—clarifying the revival will not feature the original Rick O'Connell cameo amid speculation; Lee Cronin directs with James Wan and Jason Blum producing and New Line releasing April 17.

Colin Jost will executive produce and star in a Peacock drama from Universal Television written and showrun by Alex Barnow, adapting Season 1 of the Audacy podcast Wolves Among Us about suburban dentist-turned-cocaine kingpin Larry Lavin.

Kathryn Newton and Nick Jonas star in MRC‑financed holiday horror White Elephant, directed by Eli Craig from a script by Craig and JT Billings; production began this week with Radio Silence/Project X partnership RSPX producing alongside high-profile producers including James Vanderbilt and Tyler Gillett.

Peacock is developing a live-action adaptation of the LitRPG novel series Dungeon Crawler Carl with Christopher Yost writing and Seth MacFarlane EPing; the show blends dystopian/apocalyptic sci‑fi and comedic fantasy for the streamer.

Mexican psychological horror Sacrificios by Mauricio Chernovetzky and Alexander Ioshpe will have its Latin American premiere at Fantaspoa; the 92-minute film—starring Jorge A. Jimenez, Noé Hernández and others—explores grief and a supernatural return with a devastating cost.