Bobby Flay Plans New Food Network Competition Series, ‘Bobby’s Triple Threat’

Elin Hilderbrand‘s New York Times bestselling novel The Perfect Couple is being developed into a limited series at Netflix by 21 Laps (Stranger Things, Shadow and Bone) as part of their overall deal. Jenna Lamia (Good Girls, Resident Alien) will serve as showrunner and executive producer.

Odds were against “Godzilla Vs. Kong” being a box office success back in March 2021 thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Discovery is letting go of 29 staff in Europe, including key programming execs, as it moves to phase out HBO Max European originals and shift towards a new local commissioning model, Deadline can reveal.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Warner Bros. Television has optioned Coco Mellors’ debut novel “Cleopatra and Frankenstein” to develop as a series, Variety has learned exclusively from sources. Mellors is onboard to adapt her book for the screen with Maggie Kiley attached to direct and executive produce via her overall deal with WBTV. WBTV declined to comment. In the book, twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank’s life is full of all the excesses Cleo’s lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a green card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives, and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could’ve predicted.

Carson Burton “Ghostober,” the multi-platform spooky television event, is returning this year with more than 55 hours of new series, specials and returning shows for the Halloween season. The programming for the event includes ghost hunts, supernatural tales and pumpkin carvings fromTravel Channel, Food Network and Discovery+. “Ghostober” will feature programming starring the likes of Zak Bagans, Eli Roth, Sunny Anderson, John Henson and paranormal investigator Jack Osbourne. “Fans have come to view ‘Ghostober’ as the unofficial start of the holiday season and with our 25+ US networks, we can promote all of its in-demand content to more than 35% of cable’s nightly primetime audience,” Kathleen Finch, chairman and chief content officer of US Networks Group at Warner Bros. Discovery, said. “Ghostober is a proven success with record levels of engagement across social media and this year we’ve increased the number of hours across our platforms to super-serve the audience. We are officially the home of Halloween.” 

EXCLUSIVE: An iconic monster is headed to Disney+. Disney Branded Television is in very early development on King Kong (working title), a series for Disney+ tracking the original story of the famous ape. Deals have just closed for the project, from James Wan’s Atomic Monster, which would mark the first live-action series set in the Kong universe.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor When Brian Stelter signed off from the last installment of CNN’s “Reliable Sources” Aug. 21, the number of mainstream vehicles analyzing an increasingly confusing media industry shrank even further.  Stelter bid farewell the same day Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan ended her run — asking such notables as Carl Bernstein and Jeffrey Goldberg on air whether the press is doing enough to cover topics ranging from disinformation to climate change. The lead story of his hour was a dire one: his program’s own cancellation after three decades. “It’s going to be on you to hold CNN accountable,” Stelter told viewers in the show’s waning moments, later adding: “The free world needs a reliable source.” 

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Ready your wands: a new Harry Potter immersive experience is making its U.S. debut this fall, allowing muggles all over the country to become wizards for the day.

200 “Sesame Street” episodes and feature film “Batgirl,” which was slated to be released this year. On Monday, the service also axed six animated projects that were earmarked for HBO Max, including “Batman: The Caped Crusader,” from “The Batman” director Matt Reeves, J.J.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Scott Foley has joined the cast of the upcoming HBO Max series “The Girls on the Bus,” Variety has learned. Foley joins previously announced cast members Melissa Benoist, Christina Elmore, and Natasha Behnam in the show, which was ordered straight-to-series at HBO Max in February after having been set up at both Netflix and The CW. “The Girls on the Bus” is inspired by a chapter in Amy Chozick’s book “Chasing Hillary.” It is described as a comedic character-driven drama that chronicles four female journalists who follow every move of a parade of flawed presidential candidates, while finding friendship, love, and scandal along the way.

Scott Foley (The Big Leap) has been tapped for a key recurring role opposite Melissa Benoist in The Girls On The Bus, HBO Max’s political drama series from Warner Bros. TV.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorCNN sure likes to keep ’em guessing.After canceling media-affairs show “Reliable Sources,” which often tilted at the content of Fox News Channel, CNN plans to air a previously-announced documentary mini-series about that network’s owners.“The Murdochs: Empire of Influence,” a seven-part documentary series previously planned for the now-scuttled streaming site CNN+, will debut on CNN”s flagship cable outlet in the fall. The original series will debut with a two-episode premiere on Sunday, September 25.The series was produced with The New York Times and Left/Right and is based on the New York Times Magazine article “How Rupert Murdoch’s Empire of Influence Remade the World,” by journalists Jonathan Mahler and Jim Rutenberg. They serve as consulting producers on the series. The program aims to examine the rise of Rupert Murdoch, his global influence and the battle for succession among his children. In an announcement about the series in February, CNN said the series “charts the high-stakes deal making, political maneuvering and dynastic betrayals — and how the ambitions of one family birthed one of the largest media empires in history.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorThinking about a job in broadcast news? The two top spots have long been co-anchoring one of the nation’s big morning programs or leading the evening newscasts. These days, there appears to be room for a third.Each weekday at 1 p.m. on ABC, Amy Robach.

Batman: Caped Crusader, an animated series from executive producers Bruce Timm, J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves, will not be moving forward at HBO Max, sources have confirmed to Deadline. It is among six animated projects, along with family action comedy Merry Little Batman, The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Toons Movie,  Bye Bye Bunny: A Looney Toons Musical, Did I Do That To The Holidays: A Steve Urkel Story and The Amazing World Of Gumball: The Movie (working title) that will no longer be produced by HBO Max, but will be shopped, sources say.

Selome Hailu HBO Max has canceled upcoming animated feature film “Driftwood,” Variety has learned. From Cartoon Network Studios, the film was greenlit just three months ago.The family adventure movie is one of many titles being lost at the streamer — just last week, nearly 40 series and films were removed from the platform, such as “Little Ellen,” which had 20 completed episodes that were yet to be released.

The cast of star-director Kevin Costner's new Western epic Horizon is getting bigger, with Luke Wilson signing on to star.The 50-year-old actor has signed on to star in the new film that Costner will both star in and direct, while also producing and co-writing the script with Jon Baird (via Deadline). Wilson joins a cast that also includes Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington and Jamie Campbell Bower, with Warner Bros./New Line distributing. Star-director: The cast of star-director Kevin Costner's new Western epic Horizon is getting bigger, with Luke Wilson signing on to star Luke cast: The 50-year-old actor has signed on to star in the new film that Costner will both star in and direct, while also producing and co-writing the script with Jon Baird (via Deadline ) Co-star: Wilson joins a cast that also includes Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington and Jamie Campbell Bower, with Warner Bros./New Line distributingThe film takes place over a 15-year period of, 'pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American west.'The story will be told through the perspectives of several different characters, following a number of factors in their journey including the 'onslaught of natural elements' and their interactions with Native American characters.

House of the Dragon made history in its debut Sunday evening on HBO and HBO Max, as the Game of Thrones prequel garnered 9.99 million viewers - the largest ever in the network's history - Warner Bros. Discovery said Monday.The ratings for the debut marked the biggest numbers ranging back before the streaming era, and shows that later debuted on the since-shuttered HBO Now and HBO Go, according to Variety.

Johnny Depp is set to make a surprise appearance at the MTV VMAs 2022, it has been claimed.The Pirates of the Caribbean actor recently returned to work for the first time following his court win against ex-wife Amber Heard.Following the news that he will be getting behind the camera for a biopic on acclaimed artist Modigliani, the 59-year-old is reportedly set to take on a role that is slightly different.According to reports, he has been in talks to dress up as a Moonman mascot at this weekend’s Video Music Awards, held in New Jersey.Kendrick Lamar and Lil Nas X lead nominations at the upcoming ceremony, with Nicki Minaj and Red Hot Chili Peppers being honored on the night.TMZ reports that the stars will be joined by Depp, dressed up as the iconic Moonman, and he will be unveiled at some point during the broadcast.The Captain Jack Sparrow star is no stranger to MTV award shows and has been nominated multiple times.In fact, he has taken home five MTV Movie Awards trophies over the years, including three for Pirates of the Caribbean, and the coveted MTV Generation Award in 2012.It was recently suggested that Depp could be in for a shock comeback to the Fantastic Beasts fold, following his departure in 2020.He originally starred Gellert Grindelwald in the first two outings of the Harry Potter spin-off, before he was replaced in 2022 sequel, The Secrets of Dumbledore over his highly-publicized legal battles.The Edward Scissorhands actor was asked to step down from the wizarding spin-off franchise after he lost a High Court battle against the Sun newspaper, over an article that labelled him a ‘wife beater’.‘I wish to let you know that I have been asked to resign by Warner Bros from my role as Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts

EXCLUSIVE: Cathy Yan (Birds of Prey, Dead Pigs) will executive produce and direct the live-action series Paprika, based on the Yasutaka Tsutsui novel of the same name, for Amazon Studios and Hivemind, Deadline has learned.

EXCLUSIVE: Elin Hilderbrand’s best-selling novel The Hotel Nantucket is in development at Warner Bros. TV with Sue Kroll set to executive produce, Deadline has learned.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer“Joker” was a very New York movie — so much so that tourists flocked to the Bronx staircase where Joaquin Phoenix danced in a montage.But the sequel, “Joker: Folie á Deux,” will shoot in Los Angeles, thanks to $12.6 million in tax credits to Warner Bros. from the state of California.The California Film Commission announced its latest round of credit allocations on Monday morning, awarding $93.7 million to 18 projects.