The expanded agreement delivers a hefty slate of exclusive, first-run scripted series alongside an extended movie output deal, meaning Sony’s biggest TV titles and films will land on Sky platforms following their theatrical and home entertainment windows. It’s a move that reinforces Sky’s position as the country’s premium home for bold, buzz-driven entertainment.

Leading the charge is The Lady, arriving on NEON and Sky On Demand from 24 February. The four-part drama charts the shocking rise and catastrophic fall of Jane Andrews, a former royal dresser who entered Buckingham Palace as Sarah Ferguson’s aide before becoming the centre of one of Britain’s most infamous murder cases. It’s true-crime-tinged prestige drama with serious edge — exactly the kind of appointment viewing Sky thrives on.

Later in 2026 comes American Hostage, a tense psychological thriller set in the 1970s and starring Jon Hamm as Indianapolis radio reporter Fred Heckman. Inspired by real events, the series plunges into a claustrophobic 63-hour hostage crisis that turns a broadcaster into the linchpin of a high-stakes standoff. It’s sweaty, pressure-cooker drama built for bingeing.

On the film front, Sky has also extended its long-running movie deal with Sony Pictures, significantly boosting the depth and range of titles available across Sky, NEON and Sky Open. Audiences can expect a stacked pipeline of recent hits, upcoming releases and fan-favourite library titles following their cinema and home entertainment runs — including Materialists, 28 Years Later, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, I Know What You Did Last Summer (the recent 2025 release), the Karate Kid franchise (including Karate Kid: Legends), Caught Stealing and Anaconda. It’s a genre-spanning mix designed to satisfy casual viewers and cinephiles alike.

Sky also remains the exclusive New Zealand home of the Outlander universe, one of its most-watched and most-loved franchises. The final season of Outlander arrives on 7 March, while prequel series Outlander: Blood of My Blood is set to return for a second season. For fans, the entire saga continues to live in one place, with the full catalogue available across Sky and NEON.

Beyond shiny new releases, the Sony partnership supercharges Sky’s library offering with hundreds of hours of must-watch television. That includes Community (exclusive to Sky), alongside heavy hitters like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul (both exclusive to Sky and NEON), plus The Tudors, Dawson’s Creek and S.W.A.T., which lands on Sky for the first time.

Sky Head of Entertainment Fiona Murray says the expanded deal reflects a clear, data-driven commitment to delivering world-class storytelling. The partnership, she notes, brings scale, stability and a steady stream of premium drama and film to Sky customers — ensuring Sky and NEON remain the go-to platforms for the best international content.
From Sony’s side, Adam Herr, SVP Distribution Asia-Pacific, describes the agreement as a natural evolution of a long-standing collaboration, built on a shared ambition to deliver must-watch television and cinema to New Zealand audiences.

For viewers, the message is simple: more prestige drama, more blockbuster movies, and more reasons to stay glued to Sky and NEON.

Image: SKY TV

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While we’re aware that Tom Cruise will once again return to the role of naval aviator Capt. Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, new details have now arisen regarding Jennifer Connelly’s casting.

Connelly is now confirmed to be portraying the character of Penny Benjamin, a single mother, local bar owner, and daughter of a former US Navy Admiral, who is to be Maverick’s love interest in the film, and whose character share’s a past with the roguish pilot.

Back in 1986’s Top Gun, the character of Penny Benjamin, ‘the Admiral’s daughter’, was first mentioned by Commander Tom “Stinger” Jardian (James Tolkan) when he was grilling Maverick and his RIO Goose (Anthony Edwards) after they had disobeyed orders to bring back in fellow pilot Cougar (John Stockwell). This scene is a classic part of the film, as not only did it showcase Maverick’s habit of breaking the rules, and his history as a womanizer, but the performance of the legendary Tolkan as Stinger gives it terrific energy, rhythm and comedy.

And now in Top Gun: Maverick we’ll get to see both Maverick and Penny rekindle that one time fling, as Maverick returns to TOPGUN to instruct a new generation in the art of aerial combat.

Alongside the details regarding Connelly’s Penny Benjamin, we can also now confirm the identity of Jon Hamm’s character. Hamm will be portraying a Navy Vice Admiral and a former fighter pilot with the callsign of Cyclone, who is Maverick’s superior officer in the film. Hamm’s Cyclone also has a very no-nonsense approach to Maverick’s rule-breaking and the two of them will surely clash during the events of the film.

Top Gun: Maverick is far and away one of 2021’s biggest blockbusters and audiences will be in for a real treat with this one. Not only will they get a high-adrenaline thrill ride thanks to the appearance of fifth-generation fighter jets such as the F/A-18 Super Hornet, but to see Tom Cruise back in action as Maverick is going to be all kinds of cool.

Top Gun: Maverick will arrive in cinemas on July 1.

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“There is a bomb in Centennial Park. You have thirty minutes.” The world is first introduced to Richard Jewell (Paul Walter Hauser) as the security guard who reports finding the device at the 1996 Atlanta bombing—his report making him a hero whose swift actions save countless lives. But within days, the law enforcement wannabe becomes the FBI’s number one suspect, vilified by press and public alike, his life ripped apart. Reaching out to independent, anti-establishment attorney Watson Bryant, Jewell staunchly professes his innocence. But Bryant finds he is out of his depth as he fights the combined powers of the FBI, GBI and APD to clear his client’s name while keeping Richard from trusting the very people trying to destroy him.

Clint Eastwood has been behind the camera now for more than five decades, and his skills as a director ceases to diminish. And now as only Eastwood can he turns his attention to the life of Richard Jewell, a security guard who was hailed as a hero in the aftermath of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bombing before being quickly vilified as the villain of the event. It’s a story that carries plenty of heavy-hitting drama and its ripe for Eastwood’s directorial eye and his focus on examining American values and society. With a documentary-like focus, along with his simple and to-the-point filmmaking style, Eastwood takes audiences back to 1996 and a brazen media circus that quickly envelops into flames and is ready to destroy an innocent man’s life. Richard Jewell is an important film that explores themes of duty, justice and the media and even though it’s a portrait of the past it’s entirely contemporary in its significance.

Standing front and centre as our protagonist is rising star Paul Walter Hauser and he gives an utterly magnificent portrayal as Richard Jewell. Richard can essentially be described as a simpleton. A slightly eager to please every man who has fantasist like ambitions of working in law enforcement and whose over-zealous enthusiasm for flaunting an authority he does not possess rubs people the wrong way. After initially being labelled a hero he soon finds himself in the crosshairs of a rabid media circus, undergoing a ‘trial by media’ and harassment by overzealous law enforcement. Hauser’s performance makes this film all the more moving as Jewell because he can’t see the facts and isn’t willing to accept that he’s a suspect. It’s painful to see him trying to ‘help out’ the FBI agents who are trying to convict him as he simply doesn’t understand the severity of the situation that he’s been placed in. Hauser’s performance is one that pulls at your soul and when he does eventually pull himself together and starts to fight for his innocence you’re just hoping that he finds a way to pull through and beat a system of seemingly insurmountable odds.

While Hauser is the central character of Richard Jewell, the heart of the film comes from the presence of Kathy Bates as Jewell’s mother Bobi Lee, and her’s is an especially heart-wrenching performance. Bates’ Bobi Lee is the good neighbour, a perfect picture of wholesome everyday American values who looks after her son and who has raised him with an adherence to a Norman Rockwell type of patriotism and responsibility. Celebrating her son’s heroic turn, she basks in the delight of the good he’s done….until it all turns sour and it’s then that she just can’t deal with it all. With his ‘trial by media’, Richard’s life is torn apart and in turn so is Bobi Lee’s. It’s Bobbi Lee who bears the brunt of the media’s full attack and Bates’ sincere performance and the pain and anguish at having to face down this baying beast gets into your heart and is sure to move you to tears.

Standing next to Hauser’s Jewell in his hour of need is Sam Rockwell as attorney Watson Bryant. And it’s a part and performance that clarifies why Rockwell is one of the most in-demand actors working today. As the irascible, mouthy, and in-your-face Watson, Rockwell jumps off the screen and is a scene-stealer in every single regard. His character is very much the objective centre of this film and as he tries to keep the baying dogs from Jewell’s doorstep, he also has to contend with a system that has blinded itself to the truth amidst an angry mob mentality. As Watson, Rockwell goes toe-to-toe with the other actors in his scenes in Richard Jewell and his hunt for the truth to clear Richard’s name gives this film its substance.

Stepping back from the director’s chair, Olivia Wilde makes a return in front of the camera with Richard Jewell as reporter Kathy Scruggs and she’s a straight-up bitch here. Wilde portrays Scruggs as an overly ambitious, fast-talking egotist who is willing to go to extreme lengths to get what she wants and has no qualms about using people to get there. While she’s the first one to break the Richard Jewell story and swiftly follows through to get more out of it, her hubris gets checked when she discovers that there is no way Jewell could have committed this crime, and she’s left reeling with the fact that she’s condemned an innocent man. Richard Jewell is a film that gives Wilde a challenge when it comes to performance and she rises to meet it.

Bringing the narrative of Richard Jewell together is Jon Hamm as FBI Agent Tom Shaw who feels the full brunt of the Atlanta bombing with it happening on his home turf, and because of this feels indebted to make sure he finds the perpetrator no matter the cost. As Shaw, Hamm takes the gloves off here and his turn as the pursuer crafts him into the role of the villain as he viciously hunts Jewell, even though he’s in all likely innocent. While Eastwood doesn’t out and out vilify Hamm’s Shaw, he does lay it on pretty thick here with Shaw as the idea of law and order left unchecked and which caught up in an unstoppable pressure cooker of hate and obsession, can’t see through to the truth. Hamm doesn’t disappoint in the role, and you can tell that working with Eastwood was a career highlight for the actor, and this most definitely influences the intensity of his performance.

With Richard Jewell Eastwood puts his homeland under a microscope as only he can and examines what happens when due process gets dropped in favour of mob madness. This film is an incredibly harsh critic to the media, and while a definite period piece, we all to often feel the repercussions of a 24-hour news cycle that increasingly favours sensation over the truth. Stylistically, Richard Jewell is a quintessential Eastwood film and is delivered in a similar style to his works like Gran Torino and The Mule, where he tells the story of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary times. Richard Jewell is also extremely heavy on the emotion and when the credits do begin to roll there won’t be a dry eye in the house.

Filmmakers don’t get more impressive than the likes of Clint Eastwood and Richard Jewell is another fine entry in his long list of credits. It’s a moving, evocative and extremely relevant film to our current time period and is a must-watch for true cinema aficionados.

Image: Roadshow Films

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The new trailer is here and it’s a real mindbender. Check it out below:

Here’s the official synopsis:

Seven strangers, each with a secret to bury, meet at Lake Tahoe’s El Royale, a rundown hotel with a dark past in 1969. Over the course of one fateful night, everyone will have a last shot at redemption… before everything goes to hell. A young concierge (Lewis Pullman) greets the strangers: a down-on-his-luck priest (Jeff Bridges), a singer (Cynthia Erivo), an impressionable Southern girl (Cailee Spaeny) and her older sister (Dakota Johnson), a vacuum cleaner salesman (Jon Hamm), and a charismatic cult leader (Chris Hemsworth).

Following on from the first trailer we know get a deeper dive into Goddard’s twisting 1960s mystery world as seven strangers are forced together for a wild and unpredictable night. Goddard appears to have grabbed the noir genre and has really spun it 360 degrees in the other way.

Along with his trippy narrative he’s also got a stellar cast with some knockout performances, chief among them is Hollywood’s leading hunk, Chris Hemsworth, who delivers a sinister and scary performance as a cult leader by the name of Billy Lee who has his eyes set on the younger sister of Dakota Johnson Southern criminal Emily Summerspring.

In addition to Hemsworth and Johnson the cast also features Jeff Bridges, Jon Hamm, Cynthia Erivo, Cailee Spaeny and newcomer Lewis Pullman…and all of them have their secrets to hide in what will be a very tense piece of noir infused cinema.

The film’s unique setting of the El Royale, a bi-coastal hotel that is situated directly between Nevada and California also has plenty of secrets of its own, and with the addition of a stunning soundtrack featuring the likes of Deep Purple and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons you can be sure that this will be a rocking good time.

Get ready to have your mind warped when Bad Times at the El Royale arrives in cinemas on October 11.

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