Beginning in 2029 — the same year the Oscar telecast moves to YouTube — the Academy Awards will move to downtown Los Angeles, to L.A. Live, a sports-and-entertainment complex adjacent to the Crypto.com Arena, home of the Lakers basketball team and the Kings hockey team. - The New York Times
"You can’t create an AI film that resonates with an audience without understanding how to craft an incredible story. We found the people making the very best AI-assisted films in our community are working professionals in the industry." - The Hollywood Reporter
Sora stumbled upon AI’s massive potential by giving users free rein over popular characters — from “Rick & Morty” to Pikachu — in any scenario they can imagine. But that, of course, was a nightmare scenario for studios. - Yahoo
“Jurors (in Los Angeles) found the tech companies to be both negligent and having failed to provide adequate warnings about the potential dangers of their products. The jury awarded the plaintiff in the case damages of $6m, with Meta to pay 70% and YouTube the remainder.” - The Guardian
“Matt Brittin, 57, who has a background in tech, rather than traditional broadcasting, spent almost two decades at Google, becoming the company’s president in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.” - AP
Disney and OpenAI announced the blockbuster three-year licensing deal in December, saying that over 200 Disney-owned characters would be available for use in Sora-generated videos. At the same time, Disney said it would be making a $1 billion equity investment in the AI company. - Ars Technica
A Grammy-award winning South African composer who wrote and performed the iconic opening chant in “Circle of Life” for Disney’s “The Lion King” movies is suing a comedian for allegedly damaging his reputation by intentionally misrepresenting the song’s meaning on a podcast and in his stand-up routine. - AP News
“At 11am, the ABC News channel switched to broadcasting the BBC News channel as staff walked out in protest. The ABC News channel filled the schedule with repeats of Planet America and the National Press Club, but broadcast Question Time as normal.” - The Guardian
“OpenAI said it will discontinue Sora, the generative-AI video creation app it launched last year, without providing a reason for the decision. … The announcement comes just three months after Disney inked a groundbreaking deal with OpenAI” licensing the conglomerate’s characters for use with Sora. - Variety
“It’s the story of an awards season unlike any other — one that stretched over 14 months and came to an end in, of all places, a train station in downtown L.A., with a ceremony that many felt went off the rails, even as its very occurrence was something of a miracle.” - The Hollywood Reporter
Los Angeles County lost more than 42,000 entertainment jobs from 2022 to 2024; and Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery made just 15 theatrical movies combined that filmed in the country over the last two years. - The Hollywood Reporter
It certainly won’t happen fast. “Restoring the physical infrastructure is going to take a lot of money and some time but it can be done,” said the VOA’s White House bureau chief. “What is more difficult is recovering from the trauma that our newsroom has gone through.” - AP
“Today, CBS News Radio provides material to an estimated 700 stations across the country and is known best for its top-of-the-hour news roundups. The service will end on May 22, the network said Friday.” - AP
"The Voice of America has been breaching the Constitutional and statutory rules that require that outlet not to push propaganda or censorship," one of the lead attorneys on the lawsuit, Norm Eisen, tells NPR. - NPR
For one thing, they met some of the Hail Mary crew on Solo. "We met Neal Scanlan and the creature shop team that we worked with to make Rocky, for example. We had such a great experience with them, making these aliens and robots together.” - The New York Times
