Hot Rumor: J.A. Bayona Frontrunner to Direct Next 'Jurassic World' Movie Due 10 Years After 'Fallen Kingdom'

Happy Friday, folks!

Not much time for a big wind-up this evening, but real quick…

TheWrap reports that Sony is poised to win the bidding war for a Battlefield, a military-themed action movie from director Christopher McQuarrie and producer Michael B. Jordan, who may also star in the film.

Several projects in this vein are in the works around town, from G.I. Joe at Paramount to Call of Duty at, um, Paramount. But Jordan and McQuarrie would be a tough package for Paramount to top, regardless of who is cast in Call of Duty.

This week, we learned who will play Duke in G.I. Joe — Bradley Cooper, who obviously has a relationship with Danny McBride based on his involvement in the final season of The Righteous Gemstones.

I also had a handful of scoops confirmed, from Eddie Murphy’s team-up with Matthew Weiner at Peacock and the theatrical release date for the hot TIFF slasher movie River to last year’s news that A24 is developing a TV series based on Kathryn Bigelow’s 1987 vampire movie Near Dark.

Speaking of “near-dark,” I started shvitzing in the early morning hours of Oct. 1 when I opened Netflix to watch Seinfeld and discovered that the show had gone dark — i.e., been removed from the service. Thankfully, it was just a blip, and the series returned an hour or two later. Netflix’s rights were due to expire Oct. 1, but reports suggested the streamer had extended the deal, which is why I panicked at first. Oy gevalt!

I’ll be writing more about all the WB moves soon, but time is tight, so here’s a rumor that’s hot off the presses thanks to a tip from the faraway land of Isla Nubar.

I wish you all a great weekend, but only premium subscribers may enter the Sneider-Verse to read more…

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