
Charlie Hunnam as Alec Leamas in ‘Legacy of Spies’
During Bob Bakish’s years as CEO of Paramount, the company licensed marquee properties like Yellowstone and South Park to third-party buyers in multi-year, eyebrow-raising deals.
David Ellison, who took the helm of Paramount after its merger with Skydance last year, told Wall Street analysts Monday that the company will continue to sell rights to select programming “for the foreseeable future.” He emphasized that the company is not taking a “one-size-fits-all” approach, arguing the ability to keep third parties in the mix makes Paramount “much more desirable” to creative talent.
Ellison fielded a question on the topic during a 35-minute call with Wall Street analysts to discuss the company’s first-quarter results. In a letter to shareholders released prior to the call, the company touted the performance of Paramount Television Studios and CBS Studios. While some of its titles stream on Paramount+, PTVS had “several notable milestones” in the quarter including a limited-series order for The Corrections at Netflix and a third-season renewal of Cross for Prime Video.
The studio’s 2026 slate also includes new series like Ride or Die, Reacher spinoff Neagley for Prime Video; 12 12 12, Brothers and Neuromancer for Apple TV; and Hollywood Arts for Netflix. It also has new seasons of established series Reacher; XO, Kitty; Foundation; and Emily in Paris.
“We actually think that is an incredibly meaningful part of our business and and intend for that to to continue,” Ellison said of licensing. “There are certain series and shows that you’ll want to keep exclusively on your owned and operated platform. But there are other series that absolutely make sense to sell to third parties. I think one of the things that is surprising is some of those series, when they come back to your owned and operated platforms, will actually increase in viewership. So you really can’t take a one-size-fits-all approach to this problem. It really has to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.”
For original series at the studios, Ellison added, “we’re in the business of being the No. 1 home for the most talented artists in the world. And when it comes to – take a showrunner, for example – it’s really critical to be in a position to where you are offering that particular piece of talent that you’re working with, the most opportunities to get their show made. And we think it is power from a platform perspective to say, ‘We can sell into our owned-and-operated, but if for any reason, it doesn’t make sense for owned and operated, we can also sell them to third parties.’ We own those shows, they generate revenue for us, and it also makes you a much more desirable place from a talent perspective.
The balanced approach, Ellison said, has “served us really well and we plan on that to continue for the foreseeable future.”
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We’ve got first glimpse at Matthew Macfadyen descending into the John le Carré universe to play iconic spymaster George Smiley.
The BBC and MGM+‘s Legacy of Spies has dropped first-look images including the Succession star donning those trademark glasses and Charlie Hunnam as Alec Leamas, which can be seen below.
The eight-part drama marks Smiley’s long-anticipated return to television, a first in four decades, when he was played by Alec Guinness, although he was portrayed in the 2011 movie version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by Gary Oldman.
Legacy of Spies is adapted from The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and draws on additional material from 2017’s A Legacy of Spies.
When Leamas, a highly experienced Circus field operative, recruits Doris Quinz, a young and dynamic East German woman, to smuggle high-value Stasi documents into the West, it sets in motion a series of events that threaten to explode in the crucible of Cold War Berlin. Pursuing Leamas and Doris are Josef Fiedler and Hans-Dieter Mundt, two Stasi operatives whose ferocious desire to shut down the intelligence leak is matched only by their internal rivalry and an iron will to outmatch each other. Pulled into the action is Liz Gold, an idealistic young woman whose courage and conviction force Leamas to navigate a world where loyalties fracture and betrayal is inevitable.

Charlie Hunnam as Alec Leamas in ‘Legacy of Spies’
The images have been released to coincide with the end of production in the Czech Republic.
The show is one of the most highly-anticipated UK-U.S. co-pros of the upcoming year and also stars Daniel Brühl as Josef Fiedler, Devrim Lingnau Islamoğlu as Doris Quinz, Agnes O’Casey as Liz Gold, Felix Kammerer as Hans-Dieter Mundt, Dan Stevens as Bill Haydon, Jake Dunn as Peter Guillam, Anjana Vasan as Connie Sachs, Charlotte Ritchie as Ann Smiley, Joe Alwyn as Jim Prideaux.
Back in June, we revealed that Hugh Laurie would also star in Legacy of Spies. He is playing Control, the fiendish and commanding head of The Circus and Smiley’s morally fickle superior.
Legacy of Spies is set to launch on BBC iPlayer and BBC One in the UK, and on MGM+ in the U.S., Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Brazil and Spanish-speaking Latin America. The series will also air on SBS in Australia, Sky New Zealand and Sky Switzerland, and CANAL+ across France & French-speaking territories, Central & Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Legacy of Spies was commissioned by Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama. The series is produced by The Ink Factory (The Pigeon Tunnel, The Night Manager), in co-production with Amusement Park Film (All Quiet on the Western Front) and in association with 127 Wall Productions and Paramount Television Studios, for the BBC and MGM+. The series is written by Stephen Cornwell (Message from the King, A Most Wanted Man) and Clarissa Ingram, Michael Lennox (Say Nothing, Crystal Lake) will serve as an executive producer and is lead director, with Claudia Llosa (The Vampire Lestat, The Milk of Sorrow) serving as second director and co-executive producer. The executive producers are Stephen Cornwell, who is also showrunner, Graham Yost (Justified, Silo), Simon Cornwell (The Pigeon Tunnel, The Night Manager), Michele Wolkoff, Malte Grunert (All Quiet on the Western Front), Chris Rice, Macfadyen, Hunnam, Clarissa Ingram, and Joe Tsai. Susanne Bier and Mike Lesslie are also executive producers. The executive producers for the BBC are Gaynor Holmes and Nick Lambon. Nick Cornwell is executive producer for the John le Carré estate. Sam Costin and Llosa, are co-executive producers and Nancy Bray is producer for The Ink Factory. Fifth Season is handling global sales.
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Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 5 cleared 20 million views in its first five days of streaming around the world on Disney+, enough to feasibly make it the No. 1 film on the OTT service. The Andrew Stanton directed movie began streaming on Disney+ on Sept. 23.
The launch builds on the strength of Toy Story, which is the most-watched film franchise on Disney+ with over 2B hours streamed globally per the studio.
In addition, Disney’s highest grossing movie of 2026 YTD at $1.1 billion global has driven 168M hours of lift to the franchise since the teaser trailer was released.
The fifthquel also ranks among the top ten theatrical film premieres on Disney+ worldwide to date, joining the other four Toy Story movies, all of which consistently rank among the top 20 movies on Disney+ each year. Again, all according to Disney.
The highest grossing animated movie in MPA history, Zootopia 2 ($1.866B), clocked 32M views globally in its first seven days on Disney+. The movie began streaming on March 11. Back in September 2024, Disney’s Inside Out 2 ($1.698B), drew 30.5 million views worldwide on Disney+ in its first five days on the streamer.
The Toy Story franchise has grossed more than $4B at the worldwide box office. Across all retailers, Toy Story generates more than $1B in annual global retail sales and reaches fans across every Disney park and cruise ship, including four fully immersive lands, 23 attractions, and two hotels. The franchise has generated more than $50B in total economic impact worldwide over the past 30 years.
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Elizabeth Holmes shared a cryptic message on social media Sunday, just weeks ahead of the release of You Can See Everything, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s documentary about her.
The disgraced Theranos founder, who is currently serving an 11-year sentence for fraud, took to X to share a message from prison in her own words. Since her 2022 sentencing, she’s been posting on the platform with help from her social media team. “Mostly my words, posted by others,” her bio reads.
Now, Holmes stated on Sunday that “all posts in my own words will be marked -EAH” going forward, and that all “posts without that signature are from the team managing this account.”
“I was silenced for a long time. And then imprisoned. I am fighting to prove my innocence and come home to my babies and the love of my life. I have now been imprisoned for 1,216 endless days and nights. During that time, as we fight for freedom, my loved ones have helped manage my account. Billy [Evans, her partner] is one of the people carrying that responsibility for me. He fights fiercely for me and our family. I love him beyond space and time,” she wrote in the post, which also included a photo of her and Evans, with whom she shares two children.
Holmes was convicted by a federal jury in 2022 of wire fraud and conspiracy for lying to investors about her blood-testing company, Theranos. ABC News reported last week that she’ll be moved from a Texas prison to a halfway house in 2027.
Next month, audiences will get a candid look at Holmes in the 34 days before her incarceration in You Can See Everything, which sees Fielder and a film crew move in with Holmes and her husband. The Hollywood Reporter recently reported that the doc was given an R-rating for “language” and “graphic nudity.”
“I am profoundly grateful for the support we receive as we fight to expose the truth and challenge deeply entrenched perceptions,” Holmes concluded in her Sunday post on X, which was marked with her initials. “Opening letters from my supporters at the end of unforgiving days constantly ignites the fire in my heart. ‘The truth will set you free.’ John 8:32.”
You Can See Everything hits theaters Oct. 16.
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