Film Production
LAFF inks film licensing deals with Sony, Disney, Miramax
MUMBAI: Continuing to assemble impressive programming assets as it prepares to debut on 15 April, over-the-air broadcast television network devoted to comedy – LAFF – has inked three individual film licensing agreements with Sony Pictures Television, The Walt Disney Studios and Miramax. The deals will bring the network some of the biggest comedic stars and performances of recent times.
Stars and titles headed to LAFF from the Sony Pictures Television library include: Jerry Maguire starring Tom Cruise; Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle, Punchline and Nothing in Common, which co-stars Jackie Gleason; Gleason’s classic pairing with Richard Pryor in The Toy; Pryor and Gene Wilder teaming for Stir Crazy; Steel Magnolias starring Julia Roberts; Robin Williams in The Fisher King and Moscow on the Hudson; Steve Martin in Roxanne and Mixed Nuts; John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as Neighbors and also This is Spinal Tap, About Last Night and St. Elmo’s Fire.
Library movies from The Walt Disney Studios include: Splash, starring Tom Hanks; Robin Williams and John Travolta in Old Dogs; Ellen DeGeneres chasing Mr. Wrong; Jungle 2 Jungle, starring Tim Allen and Martin Short; Eddie Murphy as The Distinguished Gentleman; John Cusack in High Fidelity and Grosse Pointe Blank as well as Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and its sequel Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, Cool Runnings, Mr. 3000 and The Ref.
Films and stars from the Miramax library include: Kevin Smith’s breakthrough comedy Clerks; Flirting With Disaster, starring Ben Stiller; Keeping Up With The Steins with Jeremy Piven and Cheryl Hines; Kristen Stewart, Kristen Wiig, and Bill Hader in Adventureland; Robert Altman’s Pret-A-Porter, with Julia Roberts and Tim Robbins; an all-star cast in Beautiful Girls; Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler and Jason Biggs in Jersey Girl; Matthew Broderick in The Night We Never Met and William H. Macy and Steve Zahn in Happy, Texas.
LAFF will feature a mix of contemporary off-network sitcoms and popular theatrical motion pictures, with a target audience of adults 18-49.
Film Production
Disney to cut 1,000 jobs under new chief executive
The entertainment giant’s freshly installed boss inherits a restructuring already in motion, with marketing and corporate roles bearing the brunt
CALIFORNIA: Walt Disney is preparing to slash up to 1,000 jobs in the coming weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported, as the entertainment giant’s freshly installed chief executive moves swiftly to trim fat and tighten the ship.
The cuts, less than 1 per cent of Disney’s global workforce of 231,000, will fall hardest on marketing and corporate roles. The planning, notably, began before D’Amaro formally took the top job in March, suggesting the new boss inherited a restructuring already in motion rather than one of his own making.
Driving the push is Asad Ayaz, Disney’s newly appointed chief marketing officer, who in January assumed command of a unified, company-wide marketing operation spanning film, television and streaming. His consolidation drive has been given a suitably cinematic internal name: Project Imagine.
The move is modest by Disney’s recent standards. Between 2023 and 2025, under former chief executive Bob Iger, the company eliminated roughly 8,000 positions across several brutal rounds of cuts, saving $7.5 billion, comfortably exceeding its own targets. As recently as June 2025, several hundred more jobs were axed across Disney Entertainment, hitting film and television marketing, publicity, casting, development and corporate finance.
Disney’s structural headaches are well-documented: shrinking streaming margins, a weakened box office, and fierce competition from Amazon and YouTube gnawing at its flanks. The company is merging its Disney+ and Hulu teams into a single app, has brought in consultants from Bain & Co to guide its broader cost strategy, and is betting heavily on digital growth.
The wider entertainment industry offers little comfort. Sony Pictures, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery have all taken the knife to their workforces in recent years, and further cuts loom if Paramount’s acquisition of Warner goes through.
For D’Amaro, the message is clear: there will be no honeymoon period. The magic kingdom still has some cost-cutting spells left to cast.
