Month: July 2024

NCIS: Tony & Ziva: Paramount+ Reveals Full Spin-Off Cast as Filming Begins

Dan Uff July 16, 2024 1

NCIS: Tony & Ziva has its cast, including the young actor who will play the pair’s soon-to-be teenage daughter. Isla Gie, Amita Suman, Maximilian Osinski, Nassima Benchicou, Julian Ovenden, Terence Maynard, Lara Rossi, and James D’Arcy have joined Cote de Pablo and Michael Weatherly as series regulars for the NCIS spin-off series, which has just started filming in Budapest. Ten episodes are planned for the first season.

Below is the official press release:

Paramount+ today announced the cast of series regulars set to join Cote de Pablo and Michael Weatherly in the upcoming Paramount+ original series NCIS: TONY & ZIVA. Produced by CBS Studios, the newest installment of the world’s #1 television franchise has officially begun production in Budapest. NCIS: TONY & ZIVA stars de Pablo and Weatherly, reprising their fan favorite roles of Ziva David and Tony DiNozzo, and reunites them on screen for the first time in 10 years.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1536"] Via: CBS/Paramount+[/caption]

In addition to de Pablo and Weatherly starring in the titular roles, the new series regulars joining NCIS: TONY & ZIVA and their roles are as follows:

Isla Gie (Foundation) as TALI: Tony and Ziva’s precocious 12-year-old daughter who is sick of being treated like a child. She’s more intuitive and vigilant than the adults around her give her credit for and she’s ready to prove this to them.

Amita Suman (Shadow and Bone) as CLAUDETTE: The Chief Technical Officer at Tony’s private security company and the only reason the place runs as smoothly as it does. There’s no problem Claudette can’t solve or code she can’t crack.

Maximilian Osinski (Ted Lasso) as BORIS: A Russian ex-pat and a brilliant computer hacker, one of the best and most elusive in the world. Boris lives outside the law and polite society and enjoys the anonymity and freedom that affords.

Nassima Benchicou (Emily in Paris) as MARTINE: A former French intelligence agent with the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE). She is elegant and cunning, playing both sides of any conflict masterfully to protect her own self-interest.

Julian Ovenden (Bridgerton) as JONAH: A former computer programmer for the NSA and now the Secretary General of Interpol. Charming, decisive and confident, Jonah sees the ways in which the world is broken and knows he can fix it.

Terence Maynard (Coronation Street) as DR. LANG: A deeply experienced therapist, gentle and probing, Dr. Lang treats patients with severe traumas and helps them find comfort and agency.

Lara Rossi (The Watch) as SOPHIE: A highly skilled professional with a background in the Special Air Service (SAS), Sophie brings a unique blend of maternal warmth and hyper-vigilance to her role as a caretaker for Tali.

James D’Arcy (Agent Carter) as HENRY: A high-ranking official at Interpol, Henry has spent his career in law enforcement chasing international criminals. Career-focused with no wife or family of his own, Henry has always been happily married to his job.

NCIS: TONY & ZIVA picks up after Ziva’s supposed death when Tony left the NCIS team to go raise their daughter. Years later, Ziva was discovered alive, leading her to complete one final mission with NCIS before she was reunited with Tony and their daughter in Paris. Since then—and where we find them in NCIS: TONY & ZIVA—Tony and Ziva have been raising their daughter, Tali, together. When Tony’s security company is attacked, they must go on the run across Europe, try to figure out who is after them and maybe even learn to trust each other again so they can finally have their unconventional happily ever after.

NCIS is the world’s most successful television franchise with more than 300 million viewers around the world across all platforms, including broadcast, cable, streaming and syndication (according to Nielsen and international Television Audience Measurement companies in key territories). Since the launch of Paramount+, NCIS has consistently ranked among the top-five series on the service, in terms of hours consumed. In spring 2024, NCIS celebrated its 1,000th episode across the franchise.

NCIS: TONY & ZIVA is produced by CBS Studios and executive produced by John McNamara, Michael Weatherly, Cote de Pablo, Laurie Lieser, Christina Strain, Shelley Meals and Mairzee Almas. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

Report: Disney+ Hacked and Private Data Leaked online

CompuScoop Staff July 16, 2024 0

Website Cord Cutters News is reporting that a report on Disney+ being hacked by a group called Nullbulge that states that the group has hacked the streaming service and leaked 1.2 terabytes of information from Disney’s internal communications run through Slack.

According to the data, they accessed Disney’s company chat system, which includes messages from employees at ESPN, Hulu, and Disney+.

The group of hackers said they are upset with how Disney handled its negotiations with artists last year, how it uses AI, and its customers. This is according to a statement the group sent to The Wall Street Journal.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the data includes conversations from Disney employees about corporate website maintenance, software development, assessments of potential new employees, and even personal data like photos of employee’ dogs.

The group also recently posted information about Disneyland Paris, which included revenue data.

Via: Cord Cutters News

Report: Paramount talking to co-founder of Pluto to sell the service back to him

CompuScoop Staff July 16, 2024 0

A new age is dawning for Paramount Global. The company has agreed to terms on a complex merger deal with Skydance Media, and is considering the best ways to streamline operations as it seeks $2 billion in cost savings. Paramount executives were on the hunt for savings before the Skydance deal won official approval from the company’s higher-ups, and have engaged with outside buyers about a number of its assets. A new report from Streaming Media Blog states that one of those assets is the free, ad-supported streaming service Pluto TV, which Paramount has discussed selling back to its co-founder Tom Ryan.

Citing “multiple sources,” Streaming Media Blog says that talks have taken place between Paramount and Pluto’s co-founder — and current Paramount head of streaming — Tom Ryan about selling the service back to him. These discussions began before the Skydance merger was officially accepted by Paramount’s top brass.

Paramount has not revealed monthly active users on Pluto TV in some time, but it did say that the streamer combined with Paramount+ to boost global viewing hours by 27% in the final quarter of 2023. In early July, a study by SRG found that Pluto TV had cracked the top 20 list of “Must Have” TV brands for the first time in its history.

Ryan’s talks with Paramount sound as if they’re in the preliminary stages. Reportedly no numbers have changed hands, nor has an official valuation been placed on Pluto. But according to Jeff Shell, who will take the role of Paramount president when the Skydance merger is completed, incoming management will sign off on deals crafted by current Paramount officials if the price is right.

“There are assets here which we think are not strategic to where we’re going that if we were to get a buyer to pay a price that we thought was compelling, we would absolutely do that,” Shell said after the merger deal was announced. “I know current management is also talking about a couple of transactions that if they get the right price, we’ll be supportive of.”

Apple Approves First Retro PC Emulator for iPhone, iPad, and Vision Pro

CompuScoop Staff July 15, 2024 0

Apple this weekend approved free PC emulator "UTM SE" for the App Store on iPhone, iPad, and Vision Pro. The app allows users to emulate old versions of Windows OS, macOS, Linux, and more to fire up classic software and games on Apple devices.

As the first of its kind to be allowed on the App Store, UTM SE offers several unique features like VGA mode support for graphics and terminal mode for text-only OSes, emulation of x86, PPC, and RISC-V architectures, support for pre-built machines, and the ability to create custom bootable machines.

Apple initially rejected the app in June, despite changing its global App Store policy in April regarding retro game emulators. According to the developers, Apple said the app violated rule 4.7 of its App Review Guidelines because "PC is not a console," regardless of the fact that there are retro Windows/DOS games for the PC that UTM SE can be useful in running.

Apple also deemed UTM SE unsuitable for third-party marketplaces in the European Union, because it violated rule 2.5.2 of its Notarization Review Guidelines. That rule states that apps have to be self-contained and can't execute code "which introduces or changes features or functionality of the app, including other apps."

After Apple's rejection, UTM's developer said they would not keep going back and forth because the app would become "a subpar experience." However, after help from the AltStore team and another developer to work on some changes, UTM SE was finally approved by Apple on Saturday.

As with other emulators, UTM SE requires that users supply the operating systems they want to emulate, but the UTM site includes guides for Windows XP through Windows 11 emulation, as well as downloads of pre-built virtual Linux machines. UTM SE can be downloaded from the App Store [Direct Link].

Via: MacRumors.com