movies
Warner Bros. Fires Off Cease And Desist Over Fox Nation’s ‘The Vow’
Fox News Media is rejecting Warner Bros.‘ claim that the upcoming Fox Nation reality series Chris Harrison‘s The Vow infringes on its copyright and trademarks to The Bachelor.
The dating series, set to debut in November, is hosted by Harrison, who hosted The Bachelor from 2002 to 2021.
In a cease-and-desist letter reviewed by Deadline, Ahassim Rashid, VP and intellectual property counsel for Warner Bros. Entertainment, owner of The Bachelor, claimed that the teaser for The Vow contained unauthorized uses of the studio’s IP. The attorney cited images of red rose petals “falling in the background with text in the foreground,” and noted that WB had licensed that motif to third parties for separate advertisements and promotion. The attorney also objected to the use of the words “The Bachelor” in the teaser, followed by the image of a man in a tux holding a rose. Also cited was the image of a “mansion in the background meant to evoke the iconic ‘Bachelor Mansion.’”
Rashid wrote that the teaser “represents a plain attempt to capitalize on and ‘ride on the coattails’” of The Bachelor.
In reply, Fox News Media‘s exec VP and general counsel Katherine Moran Meeks contended that Warner Bros.’ attorneys “wrongly assume that Warner Bros. holds any intellectual property rights whatsoever in a falling roses motif or in the words ‘The Bachelor’ when used colloquially to describe a single man.”
In the Warner Bros. letter, its attorney wrote that they have “no objection” to Fox and Lionsgate “releasing a dating show hosted by Chris Harrison in and of itself.” But Moran Meeks also claimed that Warner Bros. was targeting Harrison in “this malicious and vindictive manner.”
Fox News Media argued that the use of the falling rose petals are scènes à faire, or “stock elements long associated with the romance genre that have featured in films from American Beauty to Moulin Rouge to Beauty and the Beast. The network also contended that the use of the words “The Bachelor” is protected speech. “Even assuming this fleeting use of ‘The Bachelor’ is also a tongue-in-cheek reference to your show, that kind of ‘word-play, ambiguity, irony and allusion’ receives full protection of the First Amendment and cannot support a claim for trademark infringement,” Moran Meeks wrote.
Warner Bros. has yet to comment further. The Hollywood Reporter first reported on the tussle over the new show.
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movies
‘Fast & Furious’ TV Series Greenlit At Peacock (Exclusive)
EXCLUSIVE: Start those engines because the Fast & Furious franchise is coming to television.
Deadline understands that Peacock has greenlit its first television series based on the hit movie franchise, which has made more than $7B at the global box office over the last 25 years.
The series comes from Mike Daniels and Wolfe Coleman, who will write and serve as co-showrunners.
The project was one of a number announced at NBCUniversal’s Upfront event in May in New York by franchise star Vin Diesel, who will exec produce the series.
“As you all know, we are very precious about these movies but over the last decade, we’ve realized that the fans have wanted more, they wanted us to expand the legacy characters, their stories,” he said at the Upfront. “And for the last decade, the desire has been for us to enter the TV space.”
Diesel said he came around on the idea after Universal Studios chief Donna Langley also took oversight of NBCUniversal’s TV operation last year.
“That’s when I knew that the integrity of the characters, the international appeal, what makes us all feel like family will be protected in the TV space,” he added.
The series is set to premiere in 2028. Fast Forever, the eleventh and final film in the franchise, is set for release on March 17, 2028.
It comes from Universal Television. Daniels and Coleman will exec produce alongside Diesel and One Race’s Sam Vincent, Original Film’s Neal H. Moritz and Pavun Shetty and Jeff Kirschenbaum and Chris Morgan.
Daniels recently served as showrunner for Peacock’s PONIES, and has worked on series including Shades of Blue, Sons of Anarchy and NBC’s upcoming The Rockford Files reboot. Coleman has exec produced series including 9-1-1: Lone Star and also worked on Shades of Blue.
At the Upfronts, Diesel announced that that there were three other Fast & Furious series projects in the works; one comes from The Endgame’s Nick Wooton and House of the Dragon’s Charmaine DeGraté and the others come from Griselda showrunner Ingrid Escajeda and Lucifer showrunner Joe Henderson.
All of this comes as NBCUniversal is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the franchise, which started with The Fast and the Furious in 2001 that starred Diesel as Dominic Toretto, Paul Walker as Brian O’Conner, Jordana Brewster as Mia and Michelle Rodriguez as Letty.
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movies
Dubai Basketball Doc In The Works From Tom Brady’s Shadow Lion
EXCLUSIVE: Shadow Lion, the company founded by NFL legend Tom Brady, is working on a new documentary chronicling Dubai Basketball’s championship rise.
The company has set Yalla, Dubai: From Startup to Championship, a documentary that follows the team from its launch in 2023 to becoming ABA League champions in their second full season.
Dubai Basketball, which was founded by Chairman Abdulla Saeed Juma Al Naboodah and General Manager Dejan Kamenjašević, won the ABA League title after defeating Partizan 3-1 in the finals in June.
The film features roughly 40 terabytes of archival material and newly captured footage from Dubai, Slovenia and beyond and will feature interviews with Abdulla Saeed Juma Al Naboodah, Kamenjašević, former Head Coach Aleksander Sekulić, current Head Coach Xavi Pascual, captain Klemen Prepelič, NBA veteran Dāvis Bertāns and Dubai Basketball’s Global Ambassador Tristan Thompson.
It is directed by Sami Khan (Starting 5), who exec produces alongside Shadow Lion’s Gilad Haas, Jeff Fine, Lior Haas, David Zabinsky and Philip Byron. Graham McKay and Dan Levy serve as co-executive producers.
“We’re excited to tell this extraordinary and largely untold story,” said Gilad Haas, co-founder of Shadow Lion. “At Shadow Lion, we’re drawn to stories that transcend the game itself, and Dubai Basketball is a remarkable example of that. This is a team built from the ground up by people who came together around a shared love of a sport they each grew up playing in different corners of the globe. The deeper you go, the more compelling the story becomes.”
Khan added, “Dubai Basketball’s story has all the elements of a great sports film – an impossible ambition, a group of outsiders, enormous setbacks and an improbable championship. But what struck me most is how personal this story is for the people who built and became part of this team. Their journey reflects something much larger about Dubai and the idea of coming from somewhere else to pursue a dream. It’s an honor to have the opportunity to tell that story.”
Dubai Basketball Chairman Abdulla Saeed Juma Al Naboodah said, “Dubai Basketball was created with a clear ambition: to build something for Dubai and that can reflect the values of Dubai on the international stage. Winning the ABA League in only our second season was an important moment for Dubai Basketball, but also another step in a much bigger journey. This documentary gives people the opportunity to see how that journey started and the work behind it.”
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movies
Starz Goes Dark On Verizon FiOS Amid Carriage Dispute; Verizon Responds
UPDATED with Verizon statement: Starz on Wednesday warned of the potential loss of all of its channels, Starz on Demand and the Starz app through Verizon FiOs amid negotiations with Verizon on a distribution agreement. Now, the company says those channels have gone dark.
“Since an agreement was not reached, customers have lost access to Starz ’s programming,” Alison Hoffman, President, Starz Networks said in a statement late tonight. “Despite extensive efforts by STARZ to reach a renewal agreement and preserve uninterrupted access for Verizon Fios customers, Verizon has chosen to remove Starz.”
The statement continued, “Verizon has mischaracterized our position, shown an unwillingness to negotiate and has been unproductive in progressing towards a mutually beneficial outcome.”
Verizon issued a statement in response, saying it is “disappointed that STARZ has chosen to remove its premium channels from the Verizon Fios TV lineup. While STARZ is currently selling its service direct to consumers for as low as $2.50 a month, they are demanding Verizon customers pay double that amount for access to the same content.”
The statement continues, “Verizon proudly offers a rich, diverse array of programming across our platform, and our focus remains on protecting our customers and delivering content at a fair value. We remain open to reaching a sensible resolution to restore these channels,” adding “their baseless claims attempt to distract from a fair contract negotiation.”
PREVIOUSLY at 4:36 p.m.: “Starz has been negotiating in good faith with Verizon on a distribution agreement that would ensure our shared customers continue to have uninterrupted access to Starz’s premium programming,” said Alison Hoffman, President of Starz Networks. “As an independent programmer dedicated to women and underrepresented audiences, Starz is vital to a competitive media marketplace, providing diverse programming alternatives to content from larger conglomerates. Limiting access to Starz would reduce competition and consumer choice. Unless an agreement is reached imminently, our viewers should be prepared for Verizon to remove Starz.”
RELATED: 2026 Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series On Broadcast, Streaming & Cable
Starz ended 2025 with 17.6 million subscribers but no longer is reporting subscriber numbers. Unlike other programmers carrying live sports or news, it has a streaming service that accounts for about three-quarters of its subscribers base. In prior carriage disputes, distributors have encouraged their customers to sign up for Starz on streaming platforms. That dynamic makes the current dispute less likely to rattle the broader industry than showdowns between the likes of YouTube TV or Charter and broad entertainment programmers like Disney.
It’s worth noting that FiOS customers can sign up for Starz on streaming, which is not affected by the current dispute.
RELATED: 2026 TV Series Renewals Photo Gallery
RELATED: 2026 TV Cancellations Photo Gallery: Series Ending This Year & Beyond
Tom Tapp contributed to this report.
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