Hollywood
Trump explodes at Netflix, demands Susan Rice ouster as $83B merger hangs in the balance
Fiery ultimatum shakes streaming giant as politics collides with blockbuster Warner deal
NEW YORK: Donald Trump has called on Netflix to dismiss former UN Ambassador and board member Susan Rice immediately. His ultimatum arrives as the streaming company seeks to finalise an $83 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery’s studios and streaming platforms.
Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump described Rice as a “political hack.” He warned the company to remove her or “pay the consequences,” though he did not specify what those repercussions might be. He dismissed her professional standing, stating, “She’s got no talent or skills – Purely a political hack! HER POWER IS GONE, AND WILL NEVER BE BACK.” He concluded his post by questioning her compensation and the value she brings to the company.
The friction appears toa be rooted in Rice’s recent comments during an interview on Preet Bharara’s “Stay Tuned with Preet” podcast. During the discussion, Rice suggested that a Democratic victory in the midterm elections would bring an “accountability agenda” for corporations that she believes bypassed regulations during the Trump administration. She stated that if these corporations think the Democrats will “play by the old rules” or forgive them for policies and principles violated, “I think they’ve got another thing coming.”
The scale of the $83 billion acquisition would represent a monumental shift in the media landscape, bringing together assets such as CNN, HBO, and Warner Bros. Studios under the Netflix umbrella. While the political rhetoric intensifies, Netflix has not yet responded to requests for comment regarding president’s statements or the future of Rice’s position on its board. Industry analysts are now watching closely to see if these political tensions will influence the regulatory approval process required for such a significant merger.
Hollywood
Utopai Studios partners Huace to deploy PAI for long form content
Deal includes revenue sharing as Huace adopts AI engine across global ops
MUMBAI: Lights, camera… algorithm, the script just got a silicon co-writer. In a move that signals how storytelling itself is being re-engineered, U.S.-based Utopai Studios has partnered China’s Huace Film & TV Co. Ltd. to bring artificial general intelligence into the heart of long-form content creation.
At the centre of the deal is PAI, Utopai’s cinematic storytelling system, which Huace will deploy as a core engine across its production pipeline from development and creative iteration to global localisation. The partnership includes a large-scale annual usage commitment from Huace, alongside a usage-based revenue-sharing model, underscoring both ambition and commercial confidence on both sides.
For Huace, one of China’s largest film and television companies, the bet is not on automation alone but on scale with control. With distribution spanning over 200 countries and a presence across more than 20 international platforms, including Netflix and YouTube, the company brings a vast content ecosystem where even marginal efficiency gains can translate into significant output shifts. Its extensive TV IP library further positions it as fertile ground for AI-assisted storytelling workflows.
The choice of PAI follows what Huace described as a rigorous evaluation of existing AI tools, many of which remain limited to fragmented use cases such as video generation or editing. What tipped the scales, according to the company, was PAI’s ability to handle long-form narrative complexity maintaining continuity, structure, and creative coherence across entire story arcs rather than isolated clips.
Utopai, for its part, is using the partnership to anchor its international expansion strategy, pitching PAI as an enterprise-ready system built for customisation, privacy, and regulatory adaptability across markets. That positioning becomes particularly relevant as global media companies increasingly scrutinise how AI integrates into proprietary workflows.
The timing is notable. Earlier this month, Utopai upgraded PAI to support three-minute 4K video generation and advanced multi-shot sequencing features designed to tackle one of AI storytelling’s biggest hurdles: consistency across scenes.
What emerges is not just another tech collaboration, but a glimpse into how the grammar of filmmaking could evolve. Because if stories were once crafted frame by frame, the next chapter might just be coded scene by scene.
