A neat YouTube restoration, the Independence Day creator wants Doctor Who, and HBO lands a name actor for Harry Potter wizard
Just getting straight to the news of the day this morning, but I do want to drive readers attention to the comments section of the newsletter. Today, below the News Desk, I have a section writing about YouTube restorations. If you’ve uncovered some fantastic restorations, let us know in the comments.
News Desk
Nicholas Hoult will play wizard Gilderoy Lockhart in the second season of HBO’s Harry Potter series, adapting Chamber of Secrets, with filming due to start this autumn. Read: The Hollywood Reporter
Paramount chief David Ellison has reportedly gamed out a detailed plan — with a specific date — to move the studio out of California in a threat tied to his battle with state attorney general Rob Bonta over the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger. But David Ellison says it is his enemies that are playing politics. Read: Puck
Danny Boyle‘s Netflix tabloid drama Ink, starring Guy Pearce as Rupert Murdoch and Jack O’Connell as Sun editor Larry Lamb, will open in cinemas on December 11 before hitting Netflix on January 8. #Oscars Read: The Hollywood Reporter
Netflix’s sci-fi thriller The Last House drew 27.5 million views in three days to top the charts, making it the platform’s fifth-biggest movie debut of 2026 — despite a 28% Rotten Tomatoes score. Read: Variety
CBS has launched an Emmy campaign for the axed The Late Show with Stephen Colbert with a celeb-packed FYC video, pointedly leaving out Jimmy Kimmel, who publicly backed Stephen Colbert in last year’s race. Read: Deadline
Lucy Davis, who played Dawn in the UK The Office, has revealed she is living with incurable stage-four breast cancer that has spread to her bones, urging others to get unusual symptoms checked. Read: The Guardian
Joseph Gordon-Levitt will star in and produce Gaijin, a Hulu drama inspired by chef Ivan Orkin‘s real life, following an American culinary-school dropout who moves to Tokyo with his young son after his wife’s death to open a ramen shop. Read: Deadline
Scott Bakula and Logan Marshall-Green have joined Michelle Monaghan in the very hetero Netflix hockey drama The Sticks, about a grieving widow who takes over the small-town team her late husband built. Read: The Hollywood Reporter
Nintendo has announced a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, rebuilt exclusively for Switch 2. Read: Polygon
Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick says the $100 Grand Theft Auto VI Ultimate Edition is outselling the $80 standard version in pre-orders, which he put down to avid early adopters. Read: Polygon
Dean Devlin’s Electric Entertainment has denied it has talked with the BBC over taking on Doctor Who. The Stargate/Independence Day creator says that they are interested. This would mark Devlin’s first foray into children’s entertainment. Read: Radio Times
Roku has launched Fairground AI, a 24/7 FAST channel streaming nothing but AI-generated “movies” — with AI-generated ads to match. Watch out The Asylum. Read: AV Club
Seth MacFarlane will release his latest ego-centric project Seth MacFarlane Sings The Muppets, a 14-track covers album drawn from the Muppet films and shows, on 18 September to mark The Muppet Show‘s 50th anniversary. Please, won’t somebody please sever this rainbow connection. Read: WDW News Today
Nacelle has shared a first look at its new Biker Mice from Mars animated series, co-produced by Ryan Reynolds‘ Maximum Effort, ahead of a 2026 Netflix debut. Read: Instagram
ITV has renewed comedy panel show Sorry I Didn’t Know, which focuses on Black history, for a seventh season, a decade on from its debut. Read: C21Media
This restoration is neat-o!!!
YouTube has long been a repository for TV shows that are largely forgotten or don’t have much of a business case for being remastered, legaled, and prepped for digital release.
In the last year or so there has been a rise in enthusiasts using digital tools to remaster some of these shows, upscaling them to HD and 4K to make them look better than ever before. These shows tend to err more on the side of sci-fi and animation (for the expected, obvious reasons).
Last night while trawling around, I found some remastered episodes of the 1994 The Tick cartoon. This was a cartoon series that ran just three seasons, with a whopping 36 episodes made. It was a parody of superheroes (Batman from the comics and 1966 TV show being a main source of inspiration) and focused on a well-meaning, nigh invulnerable dunderhead named The Tick who protects ‘The City’ alongside his best friend sidekick Arthur (an accountant who purchased a moth superhero suit, which mostly makes him look like a bunny).
The cartoon was very funny – especially in the second and third series where it became increasingly silly. Despite decent ratings, the show was cancelled because it drew an audience of adults and not the kids that the network wanted watching its Saturday morning cartoons.
Here’s one of my favourite episodes, which has The Tick one morning waking up with a fully-grown moustache, which eventually leads us into a parody of The A-Team, Nick Fury, Charlie’s Angels, and Shaft.
Darn right!
Trailer Park
Last Seen is the first Australian Apple TV original series. It is based on the Texas-set book The Dispatcher, but will be set in Victoria. Patrick Brammall (Evil, Colin From Accounts) stars. It debuts Sept 9 on Apple TV.
Police detective Ian Ridley’s (Brammall) life fell apart 11 years ago when his young daughter, Maggie, disappeared without a trace. Now working as a police dispatcher, the only thing that has kept him going is his implacable refusal to accept that she might be gone forever. When he receives a distress call from a teenage girl he is certain is Maggie, he will stop at nothing to find her and reunite his broken family, whatever the cost.
Ludwig returns to the BBC for season 2 August 20.
MobLand returns to Paramount+ for season 2 Sept 18.
Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is streaming on Netflix Sept 17.
Lizzie Borden took an axe... The first female monster from Ryan Murphy's famed Anthology series.
Top of The World debuts on CNN Sept 7 and the next day on the cutting edge, future-of-the-business CNN app.
Dang! debuts on Netflix Sept 8.
Meet the Dangs! DANG! follows siblings Andrew and Eunice, whose fun, messy lives in New York City are interrupted when their worst nightmare comes true: their high-achieving older sister Ruthie shows up and wants to hang out with them.
This isn’t really a trailer, but is promo for Netflix’s A Different World revival show, debuting Sept 24. Here’s pop singer Brandy singing the theme song…
That’s the newsletter for the today.
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