Welcome to B.H.’s Screen Time, where every week, we’ll give you the cliff notes on what’s happening in the entertainment industry. From various stages of development chatter and our take on the newest releases, to a fun throwback worth revisiting, think of it as an insider’s digest meets movie club.
Coming Soon
To fill The Crown-shaped hole in all our hearts, Netflix is now developing its American counterpart with Kennedy starring the Academy Award-nominated Michael Fassbender.
Fresh from Paramount+’s The Agency and Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag, Fassbender leads as Joe Kennedy Sr – the famed patriarch of the equally famed family that you’ve no doubt come across everywhere, from headlines and textbooks to biopics and memes.
This forthcoming historical drama is based on Fredrik Logevall’s book JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century (1917-1956), kicking off “long before a Kennedy lived in the White House.” Instead, it’ll pick things up around the 1930s, right as Joe Sr, wife Rose, and their nine children “begin to capture the attention of a nation.”
“The story of the Kennedys is the closest we have to American mythology i somewhere between Shakespeare and The Bold and the Beautiful,” showrunner and executive producer Sam Shaw (Castle Rock, Masters of Sex, Manhattan) tells Tudum.
“But Fredrik Logevall’s stunning, nuanced biography pulls a veil on the human strivings and burdens behind the myth, revealing as much about our present moment, how we got here and where we’re going, as about the Kennedys themselves.”
As per the official logline:
Kennedy reveals the intimate lives, loves, rivalries, and tragedies that shaped the most iconic dynasty in modern history, and helped create the world we live in today. Beginning in the 1930s, the first season charts the improbable ascent of Joe and Rose Kennedy and their nine children, including the rebellious second son, Jack, who struggles to escape the shadow of his golden-boy older brother.
Netflix’s Kennedy release date: TBA.
In other Netflix news, the streaming giant will soon be dropping what is essentially comedy’s answer to The Last Dance with the Eddie Murphy documentary Being Eddie.
Revisiting the icon’s meteoric rise from teen comic phenom and breakout star of Saturday Night Live to box office fixture, it’ll apparently paint an “intimate portrait” of the man himself as he opens up his home and “dives deep into his groundbreaking career” that’s spanned almost half a century.
Friends, co-stars, directors, and fellow comedians set to appear include Arsenio Hall, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Jamie Foxx, Jerry Seinfeld, Kevin Hart, Pete Davidson, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Tracy Morgan
Netflix’s Being Eddie release date: November 12th, 2025.
Somehow, Idris Elba’s Sam Nelson has found himself in yet another hostage situation for Hijack season 2 – and the newly rebranded Apple TV hasn’t just provided an official release date, but also a teaser trailer.
In the thrilling eight-episode sophomore instalment, a Berlin underground train and its commuters are being held ransom, while authorities scramble to save hundreds of lives. And once again, corporate negotiator Sam Nelson is at the heart of the crisis on board, where one wrong decision could spell disaster.
Wonder where season 3 will take place… a cruise ship?
Hijack has been created by George Kay (Lupin, Criminal) and Jim Field Smith (Criminal, Litvinenko), and produced by 60Forty Films alongside Idiotlamp Productions. Field Smith also serves as lead director for the series.
As for cast members, Idris Elba – who earned an Emmy Award nomination for his work on season 1 – has been reunited with Christine Adams, Max Beesley, and Archie Panjabi; while also welcoming Christian Näthe, Clare-Hope Ashitey, Lisa Vicari, Toby Jones, Karima McAdams, and Christiane Paul.
Apple TV’s Hijack season 2 release date (international): January 14th, 2026.
We have an ominous feeling about the emerging genre of media covering the making of notable movies – the rather convoluted cousin to the garden variety biopic – but regardless of how we may personally feels, pictures like I Play Rocky are arriving all the same.
Starring Anthony Ippolito, who – incidentally enough – portrayed a young Al Pacino in the Paramount+ limited series The Offer – as hinted by the title alone, this one follows young Sylvester Stallone as a struggling actor with partial facial paralysis and a speech impediment.
But through sheer will and determination, as we now know, the man carved a place for himself in Hollywood with one of the most memorable (and bankable) mainstream film franchises in cinematic history. One that began with the biggest box office success of 1976, Academy Awards, and the launch of a major career – and has since evolved into its own money-making ecosystem spearheaded by a new generation in Michael B. Jordan.
The first-look image published this week (see: above) shows Ippolito in vintage Rocky Balboa attire – grey sweats, thermal top, black Chucks – jogging on the beach with a lookalike of Stallone’s real-life dog Butkus. Minor spoilers: at his most financially dire, Sly was forced to sell his four-legged companion for $40, but later re-purchased the beloved canine for $15,000.
Anthony Ippolito is joined by Stephan James as Carl Weathers, AnnaSophia Robb as Sasha Czack, Matt Dillon as Frank Stallone Sr, PJ Byrne as Irwin Winkler, Toby Kebbell as Robert Chartoff, Tracy Letts as Sandy Maddox, and Jay Duplass as John G. Avildsen. As for a director, production is currently being helmed by Peter Farrelly (Green Book), who’s working from a screenplay penned by Peter Gamble.
I Play Rocky release date (international): TBA.
And to round out this week’s edition, Simu Liu recently revealed the long-gestating Sleeping Dogs movie now has a completed screenplay.
Once upon a time, the hit Square Enix video game (not to be confused with last year’s Russell Crowe flick) – which married inspiration from classic Hong Kong crime cinema like Infernal Affairs with a Grand Theft Auto-style open-world gameplay – was on track to receive the big-screen treatment with action legend Donnie Yen (Flash Point, Ip Man, Rogue One) attached.
Like many of these projects, however, there have obviously been some pre-production hiccups and obstacles. Though this does appear to be a viable glimmer of hope, and from Marvel’s benched Shang Chi leading man himself, no less.
The official synopsis for the 2012 video game is as follows:
Set in contemporary Hong Kong, the story follows Wei Shen – a Hong Kong-American police officer and martial artist who goes undercover and infiltrates the Sun On Yee Triad organisation.
Fingers crossed it’ll be worth the wait and not another soulless hedge, like those stinky Uncharted and Borderlands adaptations.
Sleeping Dogs movie release date: TBA.
Apple Doubles Down on Formula 1 With Exclusive US Broadcast Rights
There has been plenty of evidence to suggest Apple were looking to snap up the broadcast rights for Formula 1; least of all being the multi-hundred-million-dollar ad they produced with Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris. But now, as the elite motorsport’s agreement with ESPN nears its expiration date, the three-trillion-dollar tech giant has actually inked a five-year partnership.
Starting from 2026, Apple TV will become the exclusive home of F1 races in the United States, deepening the company’s existing ties with the grid.
“We’re thrilled to expand our relationship with Formula 1 and offer Apple TV subscribers in the U.S. front-row access to one of the most exciting and fastest-growing sports on the planet,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services.
“2026 marks a transformative new era for Formula 1, from new teams to new regulations and cars with the best drivers in the world, and we look forward to delivering premium and innovative fan-first coverage to our customers in a way that only Apple can.”
Stefano Domenicali, Formula 1 President & CEO, added: “This is an incredibly exciting partnership for Apple and the whole of Formula 1 that will ensure we can continue to maximise our growth potential in the US with the right content and innovative distribution channels.”
While exact figures have yet to be publicly disclosed, we have a rough idea of what this deal is worth.
According to the Financial Times, the race car series generated approximately US$85 million a year from its ESPN partnership. Analysts at Citi, however, have estimated this new US broadcast deal could be worth US$121 million annually – though keep in mind that figure was calculated before the release of Apple’s F1 movie. So work upwards.
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Under the stewardship of American owners Liberty Media, Formula 1’s global media rights revenue increased by almost 8% in 2024 to $1.1 billion; while ESPN viewership has doubled from 554,000 viewers per race in 2018 (the year after Liberty Media took the reins) to around 1.1 million viewers per race in 2024.
The decision is rather surprising given Apple is never one to do things by halves. That’s precisely why they coughed up US$2.5 billion to become synonymous with Major League Soccer (MLS) globally for the next decade or so.
“We’ve looked at sports for a long time, mainly because my personal feeling is there’s never been a better time to be a sports fan and never been a worse time,” Eddy Cue told B.H. during MLS All-Star Week.
“Everyone always wants the ability to watch multiple games at once, but it’s really hard to do because again, they’re all distributed in different ways, different rights, all that kind of stuff. With us, it’s really easy.”
Elsewhere, the Apple veteran – who is a board member of Scuderia Ferrari – added: “We’re a global company. We have customers in every country in the world… and it’s not exciting for me to have something that you can have but you can’t have.”
In other words, plating themselves up a slice of the pie (however sizable it may be) as opposed to taking the whole baking tin seems antithetical to the company’s well-documented MO. Though I suppose there’s a first for everything. And who knows: perhaps this will simply be the foot in the door they need to eventually unseat the likes of Sky Sport and Fox.
This marks the second major blow ESPN has been dealt in recent months after losing the UFC broadcast rights to Paramount.
