It's happening: Bluey is coming back... but as a movie!
It'll be a long wait until 2027... please don't mention it to my kid.
On a notepad on my desk I have a list of Australian TV industry specific news announcements that I have been waiting upon. Currently it looks like this:
New ABC Managing Director - Hugh Marks?New Channel Nine CEO - Matt Stanton?
Launch date announcement for Max in Australia
New owner of Foxtel - DAZN?
What is the future of Bluey?
Today it appears that I can cross another off my list.
In April, global smash hit animated kids show Bluey aired a half-hour special The Sign. The broadcast of it was shrouded in a mystery: Was it the last episode ever of Bluey? The show was seemingly no longer in production and creator Joe Brumm was a bit cagey about it, suggesting that the unnamed voice actors (likely his daughters) are getting older with voices ageing out of the roles.
It turns out that there was one sneaky final episode that dropped a week later, which involved a time jump that showed a young adult Bluey and her daughter.
(There has also been a release of batches of (really terrible) minisodes that run about a minute apiece, which has new voice work from the adult cast, but seem stitched together with off-cuts from voice recordings of the girls.)
Today we know that the show is coming back. Only not as a show - it’ll be a feature film made in conjunction with Disney. Hopefully it’ll be better than that Chunky Chimp movie.
I’m not going to mention it to my three year-old daughter as she’ll be seeing the film as a six year-old when it sees release in 2027. Having a three year-long conversation about whether the film is out yet is not something I’m especially keen on.
If released today, the film would be HUGE. Bluey, the TV show, was this year’s #1 streaming series among total US viewers and is similarly huge in Australia, the UK, and other international territories. Impressive for a 7-minute long kids show.
Whether that enthusiasm holds out to 2027 seems unlikely, but every year there’s always an entirely new audience for the show, so maybe it legs it out.
The movie will be released into cinemas globally, with the film later made available on Disney+ in the US and in Australia on the ABC and iView.
Read more: Variety
Impressive effort
Paul Pastor (apparently he’s the co-founder and chief business officer of Quickplay - a cloud-based TV delivery) penned an opinion piece guest article for THR to say that Hollywood needs to be smarter about short-form video. He doesn’t say anything too wild, but it is probably good that people in the industry hear it again and again:
Simply syndicating content, or placing ads on these platforms, while a necessary strategy, only further strengthens the position of YouTube and TikTok in reinforcing the network effect of these platforms, building an expanding moat for them while surrendering what will likely prove to be the next big media opportunity.
Disney, Warner, Fox, and Paramount, as well as other streamers, sports rights holders and content aggregation platforms, need to rapidly invest in both a content and product strategy to address consumers’ short form content needs — or risk losing their mindshare completely. Such investments can also serve their broader strategic objectives to build stickier platform ecosystems that help them reach new audiences, drive user engagement, and offer new monetization opportunities.
What is incredible about Pastor’s work here? He managed to make it 10 paragraphs before calling for Hollywood to revisit the Quibi playbook.
It’s practically the Godwin’s Law of conversation around short-form video.
The Roland Emmerich adaptation of Lawrence of Arabia is expected to film during January to March 2026, in Jordan and the UK. He will likely use Rome’s Cinecittà studios for interior scenes. Read: Screen Daily
Hollywood agency CAA has partnered with YouTube on tools to help clients manage their likeness on the platform in this day and age of AI. The tools will eventually roll out beyond CAA. Read: THR
Netflix has announced a 5-part docuseries about Mike Tyson with Tyson involved. A high profile documentary for Tyson to craft the narrative… gross. Read: thefutoncritic
11.4 million viewers turned in for the final episode of Yellowstone - a series high. Read: thefutoncritic
James Wan is making a TV series based on Pacific Drive. Sadly, it is the video game and not the 90s Australian soap of the same name. Read: Variety
The program for the 2025 TV festival ATX has been announced. It will include Jon Hamm on stage talking about Mad Men, along with celebrity script readings of The Golden Girls and Designing Women. Is it just me, or is Designing Women on the cusp of having a cultural moment? Read: Indiewire
RIP Diane Delano at age 67. The actor was best known for a 12-episode recurring role in Northern Exposure playing Maurice’s love interest Officer Barbara Semanski, but had a decades-long career with over 130 credits including multi-episode arcs on shows including LA Law, ER, Popular, and Days of Our Lives. Read: Variety
The very important documentarian Philomena Cunk returns for Cunk on Life - it debuts Jan 2 on Netflix.
Deadpan documentarian Philomena Cunk confounds philosophers and academics in her quest to understand the meaning of life in this feature-length special.
Asura debuts on Netflix Jan 9.
In 1979 Tokyo, four distinct sisters uncover their aging father's affair, causing their happy facades and bottled-up emotions to slowly unravel.
XO Kitty returns for season 2 Jan 16 on Netflix.
Single’s Inferno returns Jan 14 on Netflix for more bikini clad hot tub action (I presume) in season 4.
That’s the newsletter for today.
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Check out Dan’s video podcast Best Movie Year, currently looking back at the films of 1987. This week’s movie: Sylvester Stallone’s arm-wrestling family melodrama Over The Top.
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