Film Production
Sony Pictures Classics acquires Rebecca Miller’s ‘Maggie’s Plan’
MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all rights in North America, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, CIS, Hungary, Romania, China and various other Asian territories to Rebecca Miller’s Maggie’s Plan.
Written and directed by Miller with a script based on a story by Karen Rinaldi, the film premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and will screen at the upcoming New York Film Festival.
Miller’s comedy-drama follows a young woman whose determination to have a child catapults her into a nervy love triangle with a heart-throb academic and his eccentric critical-theorist wife.
The film stars Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore in the lead along with Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, Travis Fimmel, Ida Rohatyn, Wallace Shawn and Mina Sundwall.
Maggie’s Plan is produced by Rachael Horovitz, Damon Cardasis and Miller, with executive producers Philip Stephenson and Temple Williams of Freedom Media, Lucy Barzun Donnelly and Alexandra Kerry of Locomotive, Michael J. Mailis and Susan Wrubel of Hyperion Media.
“I’m absolutely thrilled that Sony Classics will be distributing Maggie’s Plan. They are an iconic company and the perfect home for this film,” said Miller.
Horovitz and Cardasis added, “We’re so happy to be teaming up with Sony Pictures Classics. Their long history of bringing quality thoughtful cinema to the screens is one we feel honored to be part of.”
“With Maggie’s Plan, Miller has done the impossible. She has created a totally relatable world that is both fresh and new. The screenplay is surprising and precise, a warm human comedy. The performances are spectacular. It is our good fortune to be working with Rebecca, producers Rachael and Damon and once again with Greta, Ethan, and Julie. We are confident the public will embrace Maggie’s Plan,” said Sony Pictures Classics.
The deal was negotiated between Sony Pictures Classics, CAA and Cinetic Media with International sales being handled by Protagonist Pictures.
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.
