Film Production
Something Special licenses Battle in the Box’s US rights to UK’s Interstellar
Mumbai: Seoul-based international format agency Something Special’s president Jin Woo Hwang announced that they licensed the US rights for ‘Battle in the Box’ to UK production company, Interstellar. Interstellar produced the UK version which aired this past summer with host-comedian Jimmy Carr on U&Dave TV (owned by UKTV, a subsidiary of BBC). The show was created by Nmedia and is globally represented by Something Special. It originally aired in South Korea on MBN with top ratings.
The program is about two celebrity teams who enter an empty box divided by a movable wall armed only with a toothbrush to live with for 24 hours. Teams earn space and luxuries by conquering physical and mental challenges. Victory expands their living area, but more room for one team means less for the other. With challenges occurring around the clock, the celebrities must be strategic to secure their space.
Hwang stated: “Something Special is thrilled how Battle in the Box was received in the U.K. and now has an opportunity to go to the U.S. This unique game show format, created by their partner Nmedia, launched in S. Korea on MBN and was a major hit. Take two pairs of celebrities and put them in an expandable box for 24 hours, what could go wrong? We love working with Interstellar and look forward to even more versions of Battle in the Box.”
Interstellar MD David Williams stated: “Bringing the brilliant Battle in the Box to U&Dave in the UK has been an absolute joy. We cannot wait to take everything we’ve learned about this groundbreaking reality and gameshow format and apply it to a host of new famous faces in the US. American celebrities beware, the Box is coming for you!”
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.
