movies

Targeted New Ad Campaign Frames Upfronts In New York As “Week-Long Metaphor For DirecTV”

Published

4 hours ago

May 11, 2026

A targeted ad campaign by DirecTV is likening this week’s upfronts in New York to “a week-long metaphor” for the pay-TV service.

Through a combination of outdoor placements, promotional teams on the streets and airline seatbacks, the distributor’s advertising unit is plugging the company’s multi-channel packages. (Watch a 30-second ad above.)

The new campaign kicked off Sunday on flights to New York. Along with out-of-home presence on flights and screens around the city, it spans experiential activations, digital video, and ads across trade publications and social media. Trucks equipped with LED screens and digital billboards will also carry the message, and vehicles will offer advertisers free rides around Manhattan.

The initiative will wrap with seat-back content on flights leaving New York after the three packed days of upfront presentations. This year’s Monday-to-Wednesday upfronts corridor looks a lot like the 2025 edition, with tech giants Amazon, YouTube and Netflix joining media giants in pitching ad buyers.

“For one week, every major programmer and streamer comes together in one place,” DirecTV Advertising Chief Advertising Officer Amy Leifer said in a statement. “The Upfronts have always been about showcasing the best of TV, and when we stepped back and looked at the week as a whole, we realized that’s exactly what we do at DirecTV every day..”

Creative agency TBWA\Chiat\Day LA and media agency Starcom US worked with DirecTV on the campaign.

“When we looked at Upfronts week, it started to feel like a perfect, if slightly unintentional, demonstration of what DirecTV does,” said TBWA\Chiat\Day LA Group Creative Director Mark Peters. “So, we just had fun with pointing that out.”

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‘Reacher’ Receives Early Season 5 Renewal At Prime Video

Published

9 minutes ago

May 11, 2026

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Prime Video has renewed its hit series Reacher for a fifth season ahead of its Season 4 premiere expected for later this year. The streamer touts the show’s “continued success and global appeal of the action-packed drama” as the reason for the early renewal, which was announced Monday.

The series adaptation of Lee Child’s bestselling Jack Reacher novels follows Reacher (Alan Ritchson), a drifter carrying no phone and the barest of essentials as he travels the country and explores the nation he once served, usually ending up in situations requiring his keen mind and hard-hitting fists.

Season 4 will be based on the 13th book in Child’s book series, Gone Tomorrow. When a chance encounter with a distraught stranger on a subway goes horribly wrong, Reacher is drawn into a complex and deadly game that pits him against ruthless foes from the highest echelons of power.

New to the cast for Season 4 are Chris Marquette, Sydelle Noel, Agnez Mo, Anggun, Kevin Weisman, Marc Blucas, Kevin Corrigan and Kathleen Roberston. Production on the new season wrapped in March.

“From Lee Child’s globally beloved novels to its standout on-screen adaptation, Reacher has evolved into a true powerhouse franchise,” said Peter Friedlander, Head of Global Television, Amazon MGM Studios. “The series’ ability to combine high-octane action with compelling character storytelling continues to resonate with tens of millions of viewers around the world. We’re excited to move forward with a fifth season ahead of Season Four’s debut and to build on this incredible momentum.”

Reacher is produced by Paramount Television Studios and Amazon MGM Studios. The series is written for television by Nick Santora, who also executive produces and serves as showrunner. In addition to Santora and Child, Ritchson serves as an executive producer alongside Don Granger, Scott Sullivan, Mick Betancourt, Lisa Kussner, Sam Hill, Amy Pocha and Seth Cohen. Carolyn Harris and Kenny Madrid are the executives in charge of the series for Paramount Television Studios.

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Canela Media Launches AI-Driven Vertical Video App Zully, Aiming For Bilingual Microdrama Fans

Published

20 minutes ago

May 11, 2026

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Hispanic upstart Canela Media has launched Zully, a new app for microdramas in both Spanish and English.

While Canela is smaller than legacy players TelevisaUnivision and Telemundo, it has a different business model. Without linear TV networks or expensive line items like sports rights, it is digitally focused, claiming a monthly audience of 60 million active users across AVOD, FAST, social media and YouTube. Isabel Rafferty-Zavala founded the company in 2019 and runs it as CEO.

The company announced Zully at its upfronts presentation to advertisers in New York. The luncheon event was held Monday afternoon at a restaurant across the street from Radio City Music Hall, which hosted NBCUniversal’s presentation earlier in the day.

Like its Hispanic-media competitors, and a growing number of others investing in the $11 billion market for micro-series, Canela sees a lot of upside in the space. Serialized vertical video series with episodes lasting just a few minutes apiece first established itself in Asia but has drawn significant investment Stateside in recent years. Some skeptics continue to wonder about its long-term sustainability, but a number of scaled players like Fox have dipped a toe into the market. NBCU announced a Bravo vertical video initiative coming to Peacock at its upfront Monday.

Canela’s approach differs from many others by virtue of being heavily reliant on artificial intelligence. A clip from one series, Pride of the Rancho, was shown at the upfront. A cross between a Jane Austen romance and Yellowstone, its live-action scenes were entirely AI-generated. While that can be tricky territory for guild signatories trying to reassure talent that they aren’t being supplanted by cheaper, non-human production methods, an emerging content outlet like Canela has fewer traditional restraints.

The company’s main hub of production is in Mexico, and the microdrama operation is aiming to generate as many as 30 series per month. Unlike others mixing scripted and unscripted, third-party and original, Canela is launching as a 100% scripted, fully owned-and-operated platform. The company says its progress to date in reaching younger, “culturally fluent” audiences will come into play with achieving scale with Zully. Like other Canela programming, Zully series will be free and ad-supported, though a subscription tier is a possibility down the line.

The app is “a natural extension of everything we’ve built at Canela Media over the past seven years,” Rafferty-Zavala said. “We’ve spent years deeply understanding how audiences express culture, move across platforms, and connect with stories, insights rooted in our leadership in the U.S. Hispanic market, where younger, diverse viewers are shaping what drama looks like for everyone.”

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David Koepp To Script Remake Of Michael Crichton’s ‘Westworld’ Movie

Published

34 minutes ago

May 11, 2026

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EXCLUSIVE: After bringing Michael Crichton‘s theme park vision to the screen scripting 1993’s Jurassic Park and two sequels, screenwriter David Koepp is looking to tackle another one. Deadline hears Koepp will revisit Westworld, the 1973 film written and directed by Crichton about an adult fantasy park that allows monied guests with a hankering for the Old West to go up against a coterie of robots wielding six-guns. The vacation turns nightmarish when a crack-shot robot malfunctions and starts drawing down on guests, for real.

The movie starred Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin and James Brolin. Crichton made the original film for MGM, but this one is for Warner Bros, the studio that used the concept for the TV series by Lisa Joy and Jonah Nolan.

Koepp is writing the script and a major filmmaker is circling.

Koepp, who most recently scripted Jurassic World: Rebirth, hooked back up with original Jurassic Park helmer Steven Spielberg on Disclosure Day, which opens June 12 through Universal and is expected to be one of the blockbusters of this coming summer.

He’s repped by CAA and attorney David Fox.