After being embroiled in a years-long copyright dispute, the final  Sherlock Holmes book is hitting the public domain in January, 2023. The copyrights for the book of short stories was originally set to expire 75 years after its 1927 release, but the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act tacked on another 20 years. The famous detective stories are in good company in 2023. Duke University's Center for the Public Domain released a list of other titles that are losing copyright protection, including stories from Agatha Christie and Virginia Woolf, and movies from Fritz Lang and John Ford. 

Fantasy author George R. R. Martin wrote in a blog post that post-merger changes at HBO Max have led to future Game of Thrones spin-offs getting shelved.  This does not include House of the Dragon, which delivered the most viewership of a season finale since the original series and has been renewed for a second season. Other projects in the GoT universe, however, are on hold for the time being. Martin wrote: “Some of those are moving faster than others, as is always the case with development. None have been greenlit yet, though we are hoping… maybe soon. A couple have been shelved, but I would not agree that they are dead. You can take something off the shelf as easily as you can put it on the shelf." 

The theatrical version of Babylon is a mammoth 189-minutes long, so it might interest some movie-goers to learn that director Damien Chazelle cut a two-hour version on his iPhone that was filmed in his backyard during rehearsals. Chazelle said it was a personal challenge, and an "uncommon" experience for the actors involved. Rehearsals aren't usually done in directors' yards, apparently. Whether this abbreviated cut will ever see the light of day, however, remains to be seen.