Hollywood
James Franco and Seth Rogen’s ‘The Interview’ trailer released
MUMBAI: Columbia Pictures, via Sony Pictures Entertainment just released the first preview trailer of its upcoming action comedy The Interview starring James Franco and Seth Rogen.
In the action comedy, Dave Skylark is king of the celebrity interview and host of the hit night time talk show ‘Skylark Tonight.’ The brain behind Dave’s empire is his producer and best friend, Aaron Rapoport. Unfulfilled, Aaron yearns to do meaningful work. He scores the chance of a lifetime when he secures an interview for Dave with Kim Jong-Un, the mysterious and ruthless dictator of a nuclear-armed North Korea. As Dave and Aaron prepare to leave for North Korea, they are approached by the CIA and asked to assassinate Kim. They accept the mission, becoming two of the least qualified men ever to assassinate – or interview – the most dangerous man on earth.
The film stars Academy Award nominee James Franco (127 Hours) as Dave Skylark and Golden Globe Award nominee Seth Rogen (50/50) – who also co-wrote and co-directed the film with his longtime collaborator Golden Globe Award nominee Evan Goldberg – as Aaron Rapaport, with Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex). Randall Park and Timothy Simons from the HBO comedy Veep also star.
Hollywood
Paramount Skydance posts $8.15bn in Q4, warns of ‘below Wall Street estimates’ Q1 growth
Linear TV drag offsets subscriber gains and price rises at Paramount plus
LOS ANGELES: Paramount Skydance forecast first-quarter revenue below Wall Street expectations, blaming a continued slide in its legacy television business even as it predicts robust growth in streaming this year.
The David Ellison-led group said revenue for the first three months of 2026 would land between $7.15 billion and $7.35 billion, narrowly missing analysts’ expectations of $7.36 billion, according to data from LSEG. The outlook underscores the structural strain facing traditional broadcasters as audiences abandon pay TV for on-demand platforms.
Paramount Skydance struck a confident note on streaming, pointing to subscriber growth and price increases at Paramount plus as key drivers. The platform ended 2025 with 78.9 million paid subscribers and expects further gains this year, helped by the addition of the Ultimate Fighting Championship to its exclusive lineup.
The company’s fourth-quarter results reflected the same fault lines. Total revenue edged up to $8.15 billion, just above estimates, while its TV Media unit posted a 5 per cent fall to $4.71 billion, hit by weaker advertising and declining affiliate fees. Paramount expects further softness in the segment this year, broadly in line with industry-wide pay-TV headwinds.
By contrast, filmed entertainment revenue jumped 16 per cent, largely due to the consolidation of Skydance licensing into the group’s accounts.
Investor attention, however, remains fixed on the corporate chessboard. Paramount Skydance described its bid for Warner Bros Discovery as an “accelerant” to its long-term strategy, though it declined to comment further on the talks.
Warner Bros Discovery’s board is weighing whether Paramount’s revised $31-a-share offer for the entire company tops a competing $27.75-a-share proposal from Netflix for its streaming and studio assets. The contest centres on prized film and television libraries housing franchises such as Harry Potter and Game of Thrones.
(Note: The cover image is AI-generated and is for representational purposes only.)
