movies

Prime Video Builds ‘Marília-Verse’ Around Late Icon Marília Mendonça

Published

1 minute ago

August 17, 2026

Having secured rights to Marília Mendonça’s music and life story, Prime Video is preparing its own ‘Marília-verse’ of projects about the late Brazilian superstar singer, who tragically died in a 2021 plane crash at 26. The streamer has found its leading lady for the biopic, plucking an unknown first-timer to play the sertanejo icon.

Amazon MGM Studios is producing the Marília film about the star’s life, and it will stream on Prime Video next year. Before the movie, there is a documentary series entitled Marília Mendonça: Sentimento Louco, which launches this year.

Mendonça was the Brazilian singer and songwriter who rose from a modest background in the Brazilian state of Goiás. She went from singing in church as a teenager to becoming one of the biggest Brazilian artists of all time and a leading light in the sertanejo music scene, a genre that is hugely popular in Brazil and often likened to country music. Mendonça forged a path as a female artist, turning her personal stories into songs and is hailed for having given a voice to thousands of women.

Her tragic death in November 2021 in a plane crash en route to a concert caused a national outpouring of grief and a huge, ongoing interest in her life and music.

The lead role in Marília went to Marina Versos, which given the profile of the star is remarkable as she is a first-timer. Julia Priolli, Head of Creative for Brazilian Originals at Amazon MGM Studios, says Versos rose to the top after an exhaustive search to find the film’s title star. It was a big call as legions of fans will always have strong opinions on who plays a beloved icon.

“We were testing people for over a year, there were more than 1,000 tests,” Priolli explains to Deadline. “Her friends were like, ‘You should apply,’ and she said, ‘No, this is not for me, I’m not an actress.’” She relented and submitted a tape, and got called in.

“She sent us the video, and everybody fell in love with her. We brought her to São Paulo and she did a lot of screen tests, and we were sure it was her.”

The Prime Video doc and movie will capture her life story in different ways. “She went against all the stereotypes, she was more like the girl next door,” Priolli says about Mendonça. “It’s difficult to film because she went through so many different phases.”

The movie’s cast includes Hermila Guedes, Klara Castanho, Marcelo Serrado, Sophia Valverde, Daniel Haidar, Alejandro Claveaux, George Sauma, André Torquato, Luccas Oliver, Igor Armucho, Davi Bensá and Marcus Gouveia.

Dainara Toffoli directs the biopic, which was written by Carina Schulze and Patrícia Andrade.

The Amazon exec adds the Mendonça projects fit with Prime Video’s wider push into YA content, and also a focus on ripped-from-the-headlines stories.

“We have understood that our audience is really, really connected to true stories,” she says. “It doesn’t matter if it’s crime or if it’s someone’s inspirational story… if the story is real, people relate to it.”

In true crime, Prime Video Brazil enjoyed success with Tremembé, with a second season coming, but the emphasis on real-life stories goes beyond crime, which is where Marília enters the picture.

“We are starting this biopic strategy with Marília Mendonça and some upcoming stories not announced yet, it’s a huge thing for us.”

The Marília-verse will span more than the doc and biopic, Priolli adds. “We always thought about Marília as a broader ecosystem. We’re announcing the movie and the documentary now, but we’re also developing other projects that are still in development.”

The Marília-verse is also part of an effort by Prime Video to shine a light on parts of the country not regularly seen.

“We felt that we needed this diversity and to portray different parts of Brazil,” Priolli says. “Brazil is huge, there are so many stories to be told, and the Marília-verse is part of this bigger strategy.”

Meanwhile, Amazon MGM Studios and Prime are bettingg on Versos becoming a breakout talent. Priolli says: “She never acted before. It has been really intense. She started to prepare in January with a singing coach, an acting coach, a performance coach. She’s ready. She’s going to be a big star.”

movies

MPA And TikTok Owner Reach Agreement On Curbing IP Use In Deepfakes

Published

7 minutes ago

August 17, 2026

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The Motion Picture Association said that it had reached an agreement with TikTok owner ByteDance on a restriction framework over the use of studio intellectual property in AI video and images.

The agreement follows a cease and desist letter that the trade association fired off in February to ByteDance over its use of IP in Seedream 5.0 Lite and Seedance 2.0. Users were prompting the Chinese AI tool to repurpose copyrighted material from major studios, including a video in which Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt are fighting.

MPA Chairman Charles Rivkin said in a statement, “For the past several months, we have had constructive engagement with ByteDance to implement meaningful guardrails on Seedance and Seedream, and this MOU reflects our shared determination to continue our work together to further fortify those guardrails.”

The agreement applies to image models provided by TikTok, the TikTok USDS Joint Venture, CapCut and Dreamina, per the MPA. The trade association said that recent launches of Seedream 5.0 Pro and Seedance 2.5 have shown ByteDance’s “continued advances in IP protections.”

John Rogovin, the general counsel for ByteDance, said in a statement, “This MOU establishes an important framework for continued collaboration as the technology evolves, across a variety of products and platforms.”

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‘The Terminal List’ Reveals Season 2 Premiere Date & First-Look Photos

Published

55 minutes ago

August 17, 2026

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Prime Video‘s The Terminal List is kick-starting promotions for Season 2 with a set of first-look photos featuring Chris Pratt as James Reece (above and below). All eight episodes will premiere on Wednesday, October 21.

From the best-selling novels by Jack Carr of the same name, The Terminal List centers on Navy SEAL Commander James Reece as he battles unknown conspiratorial forces seeking to upend the world order.

Season 2 comes from Carr’s second novel, True Believer, where he puts Reece on a journey of violent redemption, finding a new purpose after finishing his list. The psychological revenge story of Season 1 expands into a globe-trotting espionage thriller, taking Reece across the Indian Ocean, Southern and Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.

Joined by returning fan favorites like Raife Hastings (Tom Hopper), Katie Buranek (Constance Wu), Mohammed Farooq (Dar Salim), Jules Landry (Luke Hemsworth), and newcomer Freddy Strain (Gabriel Luna), Reece will uncover a conspiracy that reaches from Moscow to Langley and ties into his own family’s history.

The cast also includes Costa Ronin, Olga Kurylenko, Yul Vazquez, Martin Sensmeier, Arnold Vosloo, and Shiraz Tzarfati.

The Terminal List is executive produced by Chris Pratt through Indivisible Productions, writer and showrunner David DiGilio, author Jack Carr, Antoine Fuqua and Kat Samick through Fuqua Films, former Army Ranger and writer Max Adams, and former Navy SEAL, writer, actor, and technical advisor Jared Shaw. The series is produced by Amazon MGM Studios, MRC, and Civic Center Media.

Additional photos can be seen below.

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DramaBox Sets Brazilian Series From Cimarron & Three Colombian Shows

Published

1 hour ago

August 17, 2026

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EXCLUSIVE: DramaBox is going deeper into the Latin American verticals world.

We can reveal the microdrama platform has put into production a Brazilian series starring telenovela actor Duda Reis with regional production powerhouse Cimarrón and is rolling out a trio of productions from Colombia: Mi Barco del Amor Zarpó Sin Ti, Besando al Hermano Equivocado and Soy la Novia de mi Peor Enemigo.

The Brazilian show has begun filming in São Paolo with Cimarrón’s Diego Robino and Lourenço Sant’Anna producing. A Q4 release date has been slated.

Production details are scarce, but will star Reis, whose credits include TV Globo’s telenovelas Vai na Fé, Vale Tudo and Coração Acelerado, and Flávio Leming, whose has acted in the likes of Record’s series Reis and Se Eu Fosse Você 3.

We understand it follows a woman who marries a stranger, not knowing he is the billionaire who destroyed her past.

Cimarrón’s Star+’s titles include Star+’s Impuros, Amazon Prime Video’s September Mornings and Dom, and Society of the Snow, which was a Netflix co-production nominated for an Academy Award in 2024. The company produced 17 titles across Latin American in 2025. Sant’Anna is also known for I’m Still Here, the Brazilian feature film that won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film last year, while Robino produced Netflix’s The Two Popes, which received three Academy Award nominations in 2020.

For DramaBox, the microdrama app that’s been downloaded more than 460 million times since launch in 2023, the production is part of a wider expansion into Brazil. With microdrama production much shorter than regular TV series, DramaBoz recently released its first Brazilian original, has another scheduled to launch late this month and two others are in post-production.

Colombian expansion

A similar expansion is ongoing in Colombia, where three titles are debuting this month, each of which was developed with Willy Barragán’s Dos Ke Tres Films.

Mi Barco del Amor Zarpó Sin Ti dropped on August 4 and stars Mattias Vega, Laura Cano, Johanna Fadul and Jose Luis Uribe Ochoa, while Besando al Hermano Equivocado goes live on Monday (August 17), with Eros Castillo, Karol Saavedra, Alejandra Tejada and Miguel Ángel Ramos leading the cast.

The third, Soy la Novia de mi Peor Enemigo, premieres on August 27.

Mi Barco del Amor… follows a woman trapped in a loveless marriage who discovers that her husband still loves his ex-girlfriend, then files for divorce and revives her career as a fashion designer, while Besando al Hermano Equivocado sees a woman ending up romantically involved with the wrong brother after an unexpected mix-up. Soy la Novia de Mi Peor Enemigo follows a sassy young woman who makes a one-night mistake with her childhood nemesis, and then team ups with him annoy their exes

“Directing for DramaBox has been a deeply enriching experience,” said Barragán. “The vertical format allows for an immediate, intense connection with the audience, and the support from producer John Lozada and the entire team has been exemplary. I am grateful for the trust DramaBox placed in us and look forward to our future collaborations.”

This comes after DramaBox launched its first Colombian original, Su Amor Fue una Mentira, which was from Albereda Films and directed by Felipe Paredes.

“Colombia possesses an extraordinary pool of talent, and these productions are a testament to that,” said Marcela Kartaszewicz, Head of Comms at DramaBox. “Each show brings a distinct voice to the vertical format while delivering the intense emotion and strong character performances our audience craves. We are proud to expand our presence in the country by partnering with local creators who master this fast-paced, immersive format.”