English Entertainment
ABC Family announces second season of ‘Wildfire’
MUMBAI: ABC Family has picked up a second season of the original drama series Wildfire.
A total of 13 one-hour episodes will be produced for the second season order with production set to begin this August in New Mexico, announced ABC Family president Paul Lee.
The drama, produced by Lions Gate Television in association with Piller and The Segan Company, centers on the struggles of a young woman (played by newcomer Genevieve Cortese) to turn her life around. The series also stars Dennis Weaver, Greg Serano, Nana Visitor, Micah Alberti, Andrew Hoeft, James Read, Ryan Sypek and Nicole Tubiola.
“We are thrilled to be renewing Wildfire. It has done tremendously well for us, drawing in key demos week after week and serving as a great launching pad for Beautiful People. Gen Cortese is fabulous in the lead – our audiences just love this show,” said Lee.
“ABC Family has been a perfect home for this series. We’re very proud of the show and appreciate the tremendous support we’ve received from the network,” said Lions Gate Television president, programming and production Kevin Beggs.
The series continues to deliver strong ratings for its seventh original episode; posting its best numbers since week two with 2 million total viewers.
Wildfire follows eighteen-year-old Kris Furillo (Cortese) who, after serving time at a juvenile detention center, is given the opportunity to start a new life. Her talent with horses is recognized by a volunteer and local trainer (Serano), who arranges a job for her at the Ritter’s family run ranch.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
