Nicholas Galitzine in Talks to Play Ichabod Crane in Sweeney’s Hollow

Evening News · Thursday 5 November 2026

Nicholas Galitzine is in final negotiations to play Ichabod Crane opposite Sydney Sweeney in Sony’s gothic reimagining Hollow, Deadline reports. Also tonight: the Eleventh Doctor and Eleanor Fong set sail in a new Big Finish box set, Gillian Anderson and Rebecca Hall face off in The Portrait, Grimes turns up in the first AI-made film heading for cinemas, Sky casts the Vanger family for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the government steps into Sky’s ITV deal, Bill Nighy voices a time-travelling dinosaur, and Pixar names a new president.

The News That Matters

Nicholas Galitzine in talks to play Ichabod Crane opposite Sydney Sweeney in Hollow

• What happened: Nicholas Galitzine is in final negotiations to play Ichabod Crane in Sony Pictures’ Hollow, opposite Sydney Sweeney, Deadline reported, citing sources. Sony had no comment. Belmont Cameli also stars
• The story: Lindsey Anderson Beer will direct and adapt her own debut novel, a reimagining of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow told by Katrina Van Tassel (Sweeney). Rather than the romantic prize, Katrina is the centre of a dangerous mystery and a supernatural love triangle, in a story that mixes gothic atmosphere, psychological intrigue and erotic thriller
• Who’s making it: Beer’s Lab Brew produces with LuckyChap and Sweeney’s new company Honey Trap, its first film as producer, under its first-look deal with Sony. The novel is published by Putnam in autumn 2027
• UK availability: In development; UK date not yet confirmed

Johnny Depp played Crane for Tim Burton in 1999, so Galitzine has big boots to fill, but the British actor has been on a roll this year, from He-Man to Peter Berg’s war drama, reviewed in our Mosquito Bowl Super Review. Until Sony confirms, treat this as a report.

Doctor Who: the Eleventh Doctor and Eleanor Fong head Into the Shadows

• What happened: Big Finish has announced Doctor Who – The Eleventh Doctor Adventures: Into the Shadows, a new box set of three audio adventures for the Eleventh Doctor (Miles Taylor) and his companion Eleanor Fong (Hijack and Casualty star Jasmine Bayes)
• The stories: Set between series six and seven of the TV show, the Doctor and Eleanor are trapped on a sinking convict ship in Alan Ronald’s Prisoners of the Deep, meet an ordinary man mistaken for the last of the Time Lords in Joshua Scales’s Johnny Jeffries is the Doctor!, and investigate a spiritual leader with a dark secret in Scales’s The Slithers of Doubt. Both travellers are also keeping secrets from each other
• Price: £19.99 as a download, or £29.99 with a collector’s edition CD box set limited to 1,500 copies
• UK availability: Out in January from Big Finish; available to pre-order now

A Doctor mix-up story is always fun, and the trust issues between this new TARDIS team give the set a hook. Yesterday Big Finish also sent Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor up against Soviet Cybermen, as we covered in our Doctor Who News.

Gillian Anderson and Rebecca Hall face off in psychological thriller The Portrait

• What happened: Gillian Anderson and Rebecca Hall will lead The Portrait, written and directed by Sara Colangelo (The Kindergarten Teacher), Deadline reported. It is based on Ilaria Bernardini’s novel, and WME and Rocket Science are launching sales at the American Film Market
• The story: Anderson plays Valeria, an acclaimed writer whose secret lover of many years, the wealthy businessman Martín, falls suddenly ill. Desperate to be with him, she commissions his artist wife Isla (Hall) to paint her portrait, which gets her inside the family’s grand London townhouse
• Who’s making it: Talia Kleinhendler and Osnat Handelsman-Keren produce, reteaming with Colangelo, and call it “a stylish Hitchcockian thriller”
• UK availability: Filming in the UK is planned for early 2027; UK date not yet confirmed

Two of Britain’s sharpest screen actors in a two-hander about a mistress and a wife is a juicy set-up. Anderson’s most famous role is back in the news too, with Ryan Coogler’s X-Files reboot at Hulu, as covered in our 25 October Morning News.

Grimes appears in Gods Don’t Give Gifts, the first AI-made film heading for cinemas

• What happened: The musician Grimes has a cameo in Gods Don’t Give Gifts, the R-rated sci-fi horror made with artificial intelligence by YouTuber Zack London (Gossip Goblin) and AI studio Fable, Variety reported. She plays Zaynith Alda, a demanding aristocrat who wants an illicit “dreamspool” that lets people live alternate realities
• How it happened: London said the pair met through X. Grimes licensed her likeness for free and refused payment, which her spokesperson confirmed, telling the team to put the money towards the other actors. Fable has held screenings for Academy animation voters and hopes for a best animated feature nomination
• The film: Set in a post-apocalyptic “Second Cycle of Humanity”, where people move their minds into machine bodies, it runs about 107 minutes and opens in cinemas on 4 December
• UK availability: UK cinema date not yet confirmed

Watch the trailer

Whatever you think of AI-made cinema, this is a test case the whole industry is watching: if it sells tickets, more will follow.

Jonathan Pryce, Lena Olin and James D’Arcy join Sky’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

• What happened: Sky’s series of Stieg Larsson’s novel has cast the Vanger family, Deadline and Variety reported: Jonathan Pryce as Henrik Vanger, James D’Arcy as Martin, Lena Olin as Isabella, Alun Armstrong as Harald, Jessica Raine as Cecilia and Paul Ready as Birger, with Camille Cottin as Mikael Blomkvist’s editor Erika Berger
• More cast: Ariyon Bakare, Lee Ross, Steve Wall, Justin Salinger, Allan Corduner and Rochenda Sandall also join, with Doctor Who’s Danny Horn as the young Henrik
• The road so far: Sky named David Oyelowo and Viola Prettejohn as Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander in September, as noted in our October Insider. Left Bank Pictures, the company behind The Crown, is making it, and it moves the story to the present day
• UK availability: Coming to Sky in the UK and Ireland; UK date not yet confirmed

Pryce as the old patriarch who sets the mystery going is perfect casting, and Christopher Plummer is a hard act to follow.

Update: Government formally intervenes in Sky’s deal for ITV’s media arm

• What’s new: Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has issued a public interest intervention notice on Sky’s planned purchase of ITV Media and Entertainment, the government said on 4 November. Last month she was only considering it, as we reported in our 15 October Screen Wrap
• What it means: Ofcom must report on media plurality and the range of broadcasting, and the Competition and Markets Authority on competition, by 5pm on 27 January 2027. Nandy can then decide whether to order a deeper investigation
• The deal: Comcast-owned Sky agreed to buy ITV’s broadcasting and streaming business, which includes ITV1 and ITVX, for up to £1.6 billion
• UK availability: No change for viewers: ITV1 and ITVX carry on as normal while the review runs

This is the biggest shake-up of British commercial TV in years, and the review will decide whether one company should own both Sky and ITV’s channels.

Bill Nighy, Hayley Atwell and Maisie Williams voice The Last Dino

• What happened: Bill Nighy, Hayley Atwell and Maisie Williams lead the English-language voice cast of The Last Dino, a CG-animated family film directed by Federico Milella, Variety reported
• The story: Rex, son of the King of Dinosaurs, is thrown 65 million years into the future, where dinosaurs are extinct and being smart matters more than being strong. He teams up with an unlikely crew to find his way home
• Who’s making it: Ben Smith (StarDog and TurboCat) wrote it. Luxembourg’s Fabrique d’Images produces with Belgium’s Freaks Factory, UK company Terrible Lizard Productions and India’s Broadvision Perspectives. It premieres to buyers at the American Film Market next week
• UK availability: Sky Original will release it in the UK and Ireland in 2027; date not yet confirmed

A dinosaur out of time with Bill Nighy in the cast sounds like an easy family half-term choice when it lands.

Pixar names Jonathan Garson president as Jim Morris steps back

• What happened: Disney veteran Jonathan Garson will succeed Jim Morris as president of Pixar Animation Studios from 4 January 2027, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter reported. Morris, who led the studio for 12 years, becomes president emeritus
• What stays the same: Morris remains an executive producer on Incredibles 3. Pete Docter stays as chief creative officer, and Jonas Rivera moves into a bigger creative executive role
• UK availability: No change for viewers; Pixar’s films stream on Disney+ in the UK

Leadership changes at Pixar matter because the studio is leaning hard on sequels; the next big test is how it balances them with new ideas.

Who would you rather see as Ichabod Crane, Nicholas Galitzine or Johnny Depp? Tell us below.

Back tomorrow with What to Watch Tonight at 7:30am and the Morning News at 8am.