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Robert Greenblatt Inks Deal With Universal TV, Sets First Project

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EXCLUSIVE: “Who said you can’t go home again?,” says former NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt, who is returning to NBCUniversal as a producer after eight years. He has signed a first-look deal with Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, to develop and produce TV projects through his production company, The Green Room. Jon Wu continues as the company’s Head of Filmed Content.

The first project under the pact is The Lies I Tell, a series adaptation of the 2022 bestselling novel by Julie Clark, with Ken Olin attached to executive produce.

Greenblatt has remained in business with Universal Television after he left NBCU in 2018 following a seven-year stint as Chairman of NBC Entertainment, during which he oversaw all primetime, late-night and scripted daytime programming for the network, as well as Universal Television, Universal Television Alternative Studio and Universal Stage Productions.

He serves as an executive producer of HBO’s hit period drama The Gilded Age, which is produced by Universal Television. A passion project for Greenblatt, he greenlighted the series from Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes for NBC during his time at NBCU. He then picked it up for HBO during his WarnerMedia stint overseeing the premium cable brand and launching HBO Max.

“Bob is a well-respected creative force in the industry. Welcoming him back to Universal Television feels both exciting and fitting,” Erin Underhill, President of Universal Television, said. “His taste, vision and relationships have shaped some of television’s most enduring hits, and we can’t wait to collaborate with him on what comes next.”

For Greenblatt, who previously had a first-look deal with Lionsgate Television, the pact with Universal Television marks another reunion, with Pearlena Igbokwe, Chairman, Television Studios, NBC Entertainment & Peacock Scripted. She was Greenblatt’s Head of Drama Development during his tenure as President of Showtime Networks, and he brought her over to NBCUniversal shortly after taking over NBC in 2011, first as Head of Drama for NBC and subsequently as President of Universal Television.

“I’m overjoyed to be coming back to NBCU to produce shows with my old friends at Universal Television,” Greenblatt said. “Pearlena Igbokwe – with whom I worked closely for 15 years at Showtime and NBC – has built Universal Studio Group into an extraordinary, world-class studio. Jon Wu and I look forward to working with her and her extraordinary teams, headed by Erin Underhill at UTV. This is an exciting time for producers in television, and we’re thrilled to have this incredible group supporting us. Who said you can’t go home again?”

Jon Wu and Ken Olin

Jon Wu and Ken Olin

Courtesy/Al Seib

The Lies I Tell is a cat-and-mouse thriller about a chameleon-like con artist, Meg, and a journalist, Kat Roberts, who has been waiting ten years for the woman who upended her life to return. And now that she has, Kat is determined to be the one to expose her. But as the two women grow closer, Kat’s long-held assumptions begin to crumble, leaving Kat to wonder who Meg’s true target is.

Ken Olin, Roxanne Olin, Greenblatt, Wu, and Clark executive produce.

Greenblatt’s runs as a top executive at NBC and Showtime yielded such hits as The Voice, This Is Us, The Blacklist, The Good Place, One Chicago, The Sound of Music live musical and the Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors movies (NBC) as well as Dexter, Weeds, Nurse Jackie, Shameless and Californication (Showtime).

A four-time Tony-winning producer, Greenblatt is a lead producer of the revival of Ragtime at Lincoln Center this season. Last season, he produced Smash, the musical, on Broadway with Steven Spielberg, based on the TV series he had previously greenlighted at NBC. As a TV producer, Greenblatt is a six-time Emmy nominee, including four times in the Outstanding Drama Series category, three times for Six Feet Under and once for The Gilded Age.

Wu, who will serve as an executive producer alongside Greenblatt on all The Green Room projects under the Uni TV deal, was previously VP of Film and Television at Hello Sunshine, where he served as the on‑set producer for Season 2 of The Morning Show and Season 1 of Surface, both for Apple TV. He also executive produced the movie Where the Crawdads Sing. Previously, Wu worked in the feature film division at 20th Century Fox.

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‘Legacy Of Spies’: First Image Of Matthew Macfadyen As George Smiley

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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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‘Toy Story 5’ Pulls in 20 Million Views In First 5 Days On Disney+

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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’ Cryptic Post Before You Can See Everything Release

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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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