The Mid-Terms Effect, Godzilla, Skyler Gisondo, Trudie Styler & More

American voters issued a stunning rebuke of the Trump Administration on Tuesday night by electing Democrats to take control of both chambers of Congress come January. Among the many implications for Hollywood in the 2026 midterm election results, the efforts to enact a federal tax incentive for U.S. film and television production might have just hit an unexpected roadblock.

Lawmakers introduced the bipartisan Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act in September to create a first-of-its-kind tax credit designed to lure production back to the United States. The hope has been that the legislation could be attached to an end-of-year budget bill facing a vote by December 11 and land on the President’s desk soon after.

Read the analysis here

Read ‘A Night of Many Firsts in Mid-Term Elections’ here

Read ‘What Stood Out In Media Mid-Terms Coverage’ here

With 2023’s monster hit Godzilla Minus One, Takashi Yamazaki became only the second director after Stanley Kubrick and 2001: A Space Odyssey to take home the Visual Effects Academy Award, and his film became the only Godzilla movie in 70 years to win an Oscar.

Naturally, that all calls for a sequel, doesn’t it? The filmmaker wasn’t sure since he didn’t want to disappoint the legions of fans of the first film, a Japanese Kaiju cinema masterpiece which, unlike most of the Godzilla films, really succeeded in part because of the emotional human story it also had to tell. Well, it is nice to say he hasn’t forgotten that aspect, even as Godzilla Minus Zero, set two years after the first, has gone much bigger and was “filmed for IMAX”. The fabulous Scope visual palette is still there but adding the IMAX brand turns out to complement it rather than smother it.

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You’d think in the last year, especially given that he’s coming off a successful outing as Jimmy Olsen in James Gunn’s Superman, that Skyler Gisondo would imagine himself as pretty cool. Though, jokingly, by his own account, nothing quite topped appearing in Phoebe Bridgers’ “Lost Boys” music video. “I never felt cooler in my life than being in a Phoebe Bridgers music video,” he tells Deadline, recalling how the appearance prompted texts from people he hadn’t heard from in 15 years, saying, “Dude, I had no idea you were so cool.”

On the day of our conversation, Gisondo is in Florida, perched at a nearby playground beneath a vibrant blue sky. Bright-eyed, handsomely freckle-faced and dressed in colorful attire, he is all smiles and eager to chat. Ironically, it’s a decidedly sunny setting for a conversation about Primetime, Lance Oppenheim’s dark, satirical thriller.

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Trudie Styler arrives at the London offices of Maven Screen Media, her joint production company with Celine Rattray, bearing gifts: bottles of organic extra virgin olive oil.

Featuring Styler and husband Sting’s names on the label, they are the last of a batch made from the 2025 olive harvest at Villa Il Palagio, their beloved 16th Century estate in Tuscany.

She is not here to talk about her long love affair with Italy, however, but rather back-to-back directorial feature film credits Up Against It and The Reception as well as her and Rattray’s commitment to championing female-driven storytelling.

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Mikyung (Michelle) Kwon is not afraid to take a risk. As CEO of Studio N, the Korean production arm of Webtoon Entertainment, she’s helped to build a prolific slate of webcomic screen adaptations including Netflix hits Bloodhounds and The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call as well as last year’s Korean box office hit My Daughter is a Zombie.

But now the former CJ ENM and Disney Korea exec is taking what she says is the biggest creative gamble of her career to date with Disney+ romantacy series The Remarried Empress. The hugely anticipated show dropped its first four episodes on November 3 on Disney+ and Hulu, one day earlier than the originally scheduled November 4 premiere date thanks to early buzz from fans. The show’s trailer surpassed a whopping 13 million views in the first 48 hours on YouTube when it launched in September.

“This project will define my life,” Kwon tells Deadline of Studio N’s most ambitious and expensive production to date. “I have a lot of anxiety and expectation at the same time right now.”

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For the better part of three decades, Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), and the gang have kept audiences company through the ups and downs of growing up. Now, Toy Story 5 finds the franchise entering a new chapter, with Jessie (Joan Cusack) taking center stage and technology changing the way children play. Writer-director Andrew Stanton helps usher in a new group of characters: Lilypad (Greta Lee), a frog-framed tablet, and Blaze (Mykal-Michelle Harris), a confident young girl who marches to the beat of her own drum.

Alongside the familiar faces, the new toys bring fresh possibilities to a story that still has plenty to say about childhood and the evolution of social connection. Below, Stanton talks to Deadline about developing another entry, digging deeper into Jessie’s backstory, and the cherry on top of the cake: Taylor Swift’s new pop-country single, “I Knew It, I Knew You.”

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