International Insider: Netflix-WBD Reaction; Comedy & Microdrama Madness; Red Sea Begins

Welcome back to your weekly International Insider. The TV industry has been in London this week, while the film world went to the Red Sea, and, in the past hour, Netflix and Warner officially got cozy. Sign up to the newsletter here, and let’s begin.

Netflix ❤️ WBD

Albanian army mobilizes: Back in 2010, Jeff Bewkes, who led former Warner Bros parent Time Warner for a decade, famously dismissed Netflix as a threat to traditional Hollywood, saying, “It’s a little bit like, is the Albanian army going to take over the world? I don’t think so.” Think again, Jeff. That little Albanian army has in the past hour confirmed it is buying Time Warner descendent Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) for an enterprise value of $82.7B – a fraction less than AT&T paid to buy Time Warner in 2016. Not only has Netflix struck a deal, but it also managed to beat out WBD’s Hollywood studios rivals. Paramount is furious about the development, claiming the auction was run in bad faith, while Comcast has also missed out. We immediately sprang into gear to assess what might all mean for the international community, speaking with many sources this morning from all corners of industry and globe. Fair to say the indie world is terrified for what this latest round of mega M&A means, with one source telling Andreas it represents “the death of Hollywood.” Netflix’s natural aversion to theatrical releasing is certainly alarming to the film community, but perhaps we’re looking at some sort of change in approach for the Los Gatos company. One European film source said it was “hard not to see this as depressing,” but that wasn’t the read everywhere. An international studio source claimed it would be “more depressing for Universal or Paramount to have taken over Warner Bros, as it would kill another quality distributor.” Analysts outside the U.S. posited several major issues for the deal. François Godard from Enders had a stark warning, born out evidence from history. “My first reaction is, watch out, Netflix,” he said. “The merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery destroyed value, and the risk is that this new deal will also produce a result smaller than the addition of the parts.” There are also questions about the future of HBO Max, which has been rolling out internationally with major launches for 2026 confirmed just this week at an upmarket do in London that I attended, and what happens to the Discovery channels business that will spin out of WBD before the Netflix deal closes. We also heard views from an irate European film body and antitrust experts in the EU. We’ve got journalists working on many more stories as this one shakes out today. The industry just turned Upside Down, and I’m not talking about Stranger Things.

Laughing Matters In London

Comedy’s no tragedy: Major players from the U.S. and the international world converged at Content London this week – and comedy and microdramas were the confusing bedfellows dominating most of the conversation. Disney global originals chief Eric Schrier told delegates that Rivals streamer Disney+ had been developing UK comedies for the first time in a minute – news that came soon after our U.S. Deadline counterparts revealed Nicholas Hoult and Daisy Edgar-Jones are starring in Mosquito, a relationship laugher about a sardonic couple from Tony McNamara. Peacock then got in on the act, confirming it was a developing a first comedy series with Comcast stablemate Sky. For a market saturated with crime dramas and procedurals, I can only commend those looking to lighten the mood. Content London, the international TV calendar’s final stop each year, has been bringing U.S. execs to the UK capital’s Kings Cross area for a long time now, and Max and I were on the ground to bring you developments from HBO Max, whose originals chief Sarah Aubrey called for the international equivalent to Emmy-winning medical drama The Pitt, and Amazon MGM Studios, whose outgoing unscripted boss Barry Poznick recalled how he talked Barbara Broccoli into the idea for competition show 007: Road to a Million back in 2022. Fox TV chief Michael Thorn talked about “blinking greenlights” – click here to find out what he meant – and we also heard from Adolescence one-shot master Philip Barantini, who appeared to officially write off a second season of the Netflix UK hit. Another Philip – Sky’s Phil Edgar-Jones (father to Daisy) updated on the casting for SNL UK. You can read all of our Content London coverage here.

The Macro View Of Microdrama

Viral vertical: The other big trend at Content London – and, indeed, more broadly, was the buzz around microdramas. I’ve found myself writing about the vertical video world more and more, and this week many producers in London could talk about nothing else. The likes of Korea’s Vigloo, Brazil’s Kwai and the Jana Winograde-led MicroCo were in town to explain their operations, with the latter saying: “This is one of the first things in a long time that has come along and feels new and exciting.” Western companies are flocking to the genre, which has been a multi-billion-dollar business in Asia for several years already. Will the U.S. and Europe have learned the lessons of Quibi, which spent big on originals and failed spectacularly during the pandemic? There is much talk around the schlocky quality of vertical video, but my sense is that’s exactly what draws people to it. On Tuesday morning, I broke the story of British microdrama maker Onset Octopus joining the Micro-Series Certified Alliance, a standard-bearer group of L.A., while Stewart wrote this cool profile of Dan Löwenstein (pictured), the man behind microdrama masterpieces such as The Mafia’s Obsession. There’s still clearly plenty of skepticism about vertical video in general, summed up by one scathing below-the-line commenter under Stew’s story, who wrote, “Sounds like a Ponzi scheme.” That’s ignoring the actual billions being spent to access microdramas, but you get the point.

Red Sea Heating Up

Studio system: The Red Sea International Film Festival, one of the calendar year’s final festival destinations, began this week as a deluge of talent touched down in Jeddah for two weeks of screenings, talks and fancy red carpet pictures. Deadline touched down and immediately opened up our Red Sea Studio, from where we’ve heard from the likes of Naomie Harris, who shared her thoughts on AI, Natasha Lyonne, who gave us more on the potential future for Poker Face, and Anora director Sean Baker, who talked about needing “side gigs” to financially supplement his life as an indie film maker, even despite his Oscar win this year. You can be sure the Studio star power wattage will continue to crank up, as more big names head to the Middle East. On the red carpet, the likes of Harris, Baker, Queen Latifah, Ana de Armas and Uma Thurman strutted out as British-Yemeni boxing pic Giant premiered. However, it was Michael Caine who stole the show, appearing on stage in a wheelchair to collect an honorary award. Accompanied by his three grandchildren, he was his typically self-effacing and charming self, addressing the audience by saying: “Thank you for the welcome. My name is Michael Caine.” Swim deeper in our Red Sea coverage here.

The Essentials

🌶️ Hot One: Maxton Hall – The World Between Us Season 3 quietly wrapped its shoot. I had first-look images and an update on the YA hit’s future.

🌶️ Another One: The BBC, ZDF and AGC Television are co-financing Hamburg Days, a Beatles biopic series based on a book about the great band’s early days.

🤢 Feeling peaky: Banijay UK has sued Peaky Blinders maker Caryn Mandabach over a disputed tax bill a year after acquiring the production house, Jake revealed.

🤬 Blasted: The UK association of child actor agents lashed out at the Equity union for what it claimed was a refusal to prioritize or fight for the next generation, as Max was first to report.

🗣️ Interview: Banijay UK’s Patrick Holland spoke with Stewart about balancing budgets and big ambitions in Britain’s difficult drama market.

🖋️ Signed: Love Island and The Traitors star Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu with WME and Atlas Entertainment, leaving her previous reps, Ingenuity Live, after just a few months.

🏆 Winner: Harry Lighton’s debut feature Pillion dominated the British Independent Film Awards in London.

🍿 Box office: Zootopia 2 sprinted past $600M globally.

International Insider was written by Jesse Whittock and edited by Zac Ntim.