| | | | | | What's news: Hey now! Oasis are planning to reform to play gigs in 2025. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's L.A. home has hit the market. James Spader is returning to the MCU. Zoë Kravitz’s Blink Twice underwhelmed at the box office. — Abid Rahman
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Cheryl Hines' Enthusiasm for Trump Could Not Be More Curbed ►Acquiesce. Cheryl Hines, who shot to fame playing the beleaguered wife of Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm, has faced her share of real-life headaches as the wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. But the actress is about to face her biggest challenge yet after her husband suspended his campaign for president and threw his support to Donald Trump. In a statement released shortly after her husband made his announcement, Hines tells THR, "I deeply respect the decision Bobby made to run on the principle of unity." THR's Seth Abramovitch writes that despite the show of unity, Kennedy’s decision to align himself with Trump will make for, at best, some awkward dinner table conversations at home; at worst, it may result in a full-scale shunning of Hines by the Hollywood establishment. The story.
—Don't look back in anger. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's home has hit the market, with the divorcing duo’s Beverly Hills mansion posting on Zillow for an asking price of $68m. The 38,000 square foot house — dubbed Crestview Manor — sits on five acres and is a tasteful stunner with open floor plans, mountain views, a large pool, 12-car garage and rather cool “indoor sports complex” that includes a state-of-the-art gym, boxing ring and pickleball court. The story.
—🏆 Be here now 🏆 The 2024 Location Managers Guild Awards were presented Saturday night. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 and Oppenheimer were among the film winners while Fallout, Fargo and Ripley were among the TV winners. Dead Reckoning – Part 1 — filmed in Norway, the UK and Italy — won outstanding locations in a contemporary feature film. Oppenheimer, filmed throughout New Mexico, followed its Oscars dominance with the award for outstanding locations in a period feature film. The winners. |
Will Italy's Right Wing Take Revenge on the Venice Film Festival? ►Some might say. Just two years into her reign as Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni’s far-right administration has targeted the country’s cultural institutions in an effort to "liberate" them from the left. THR's Scott Roxborough writes that industry insiders worry that the Venice Film Festival, the world’s oldest film fest, may be next: "I fear they might just be getting started." The story.
—Let there be love. Action star Ronda Rousey has apologized for her 2013 tweet about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The former MMA fighter shared a statement on social media, expressing her regret over sharing a conspiracy theory video that suggested that the shooting had been staged. “I can’t say how many times I’ve redrafted this apology over the last 11 years,” she wrote. She also wrote that she initially wanted to include her apology in her memoir Our Fight , which came out earlier this year. However, her publisher “begged me to take it out, saying it would overshadow everything else and do more harm than good.” Rousey believes she deserves “to be hated, labeled, detested, resented and worse for it. I deserve to lose out on every opportunity; I should have been canceled, I would have deserved it." The story.
—It's getting better man! Sally Field has returned to social media, thanks to Kamala Harris‘ presidential bid. The Oscar-winner posted two separate posts on her Instagram, sharing that she is back on the platform following Harris running for president alongside Tim Walz as her vice president nominee. “I’ve not been on social media. Not since it became public toilet paper for our former crook of a President. But ‘hope is making a comeback.’ So here I am,” Field wrote. The story.
—🎭 Super-sonic 🎭 Dan Fogler is stepping out of the Wizarding World and into the Batcave. The Fantastic Beasts actor will play longtime Batman executive producer Michael Uslan in a stage play based on Uslan’s 2011 memoir, The Boy Who Loved Batman. Nederlander Worldwide Productions is the lead producer. The memoir tracked Uslan's journey from New Jersey to Hollywood, where he acquired the film rights to Batman, then thought to be a worthless proposition. Uslan has been credited on every Batman-related movie — including Batman-adjacent films like Joker and Justice League — since Tim Burton’s 1989 original. The story. |
'Ted Lasso' Moves Closer to S4 Return ►Little by little. It looks like fans may get a Ted Lasso season four after all. Warner Bros. Television has picked up the options on three castmembers from the show’s original three-season run, who had contracts under U.K.’s acting union Equity. Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein and Jeremy Swift have been approached to reprise their respective roles of Rebecca Walton, Roy Kent and Leslie Higgins. Once those options are secured, the studio would have to create new deals for the show’s other main actors, who are represented by SAG-AFTRA. This includes co-creators/executive producers and stars Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt, as well as Juno Temple. The story.
—The masterplan. James Spader is returning to the MCU. The Emmy-winning actor is set to reprise his role as the voice of robotic villain Ultron in Marvel Studios’ untitled Vision series, the follow-up series to its acclaimed WandaVision show. He first played the role in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. Paul Bettany is reprising his role as Vision, the android who fell in love with the Scarlett Witch and then was destroyed by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. In WandaVision, he returned via magic and the power of grief but also as a rebuilt android, now ghostly white. The story.
—Cast no shadow. Drew Barrymore has one thing she wants to work on going into her daytime talk show’s upcoming season: giving her guests more personal space. In a new interview, The Drew Barrymore Show explained why she finds herself getting physically up close and personal when interacting with her guests. “Well, I’ll try to practice physical distance, which is not my strong point,” Barrymore admitted. “Do you know how hard the pandemic was for me? I was alone in a studio by myself! I like to be around people!” The story. |
Box Office: 'Blink Twice' Underwhelms, 'The Crow' Collapses ►Slide away. New players at the late summer box office struggled to find their footing as the high season winds down. Holdovers Deadpool & Wolverine, Alien: Romulus and It Ends With Us easily beat new offerings on the August marquee, including suspense thriller Blink Twice and The Crow reboot.
Marking Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut and starring Channing Tatum, Blink Twice opened in fourth place with $7.3m, the low end of expectations, after receiving a B- CinemaScore from audiences (conversely, it earned relatively strong reviews). Blink Twice reportedly cost a modest $20m to produce before marketing, so doesn’t appear to be in financial peril.
The Crow — opening 30 years after the original hit the big screen — couldn’t crack the top five and instead placed No. 8 with $4.6m behind the 15th anniversary celebration of Tim Burton’s Coraline, which grossed $5.1m. Distributed by Lionsgate, The Crow's budget is a reported $50m before marketing. Bill Skarsgard takes on the titular role in this modern-day reimagining of the original graphic novel by James O’Barr. The Crow likewise received a B- CinemaScore but, unlike Blink Twice, was rebuffed by reviewers. The box office report. |
How Did 'Romulus' Create Its Most Controversial Character? ►Live forever! For sci-fans of a certain age, it was the surprise of the summer. That would be the reappearance of [spoiler] as a “synthetic” android in Alien: Romulus, a secret held back from the film’s marketing and even its San Diego Comic-Con panel. THR's Seth Abramovitch writes that the resurrection of the landmark AI figure became a chilling metaphor for the technology that created him. Warning: Spoilers! The story.
—🎭 Cigarettes and alcohol 🎭 Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa's action comedy The Wrecking Crew is filling out its cast. Temuera Morrison, best known for playing Boba Fett in the Star Wars franchise, and Spider-Man actor Jacob Batalon are the latest big names to join the feature from Amazon MGM Studios. Frankie Adams, Miyavi and Stephen Root are also joining the crew roster, which additionally includes Claes Bang. Blue Beetle filmmaker Ángel Manuel Soto is directing the feature, which heads into production in October in New Zealand. The story.
—The fame. Nesta Cooper, star of Apple's See, is adding screenwriter to her résumé as she gets set to adapt and star in MEM, a sci-fi thriller based on Bethany C. Morrow’s novel of the same name. Los Angeles-based Marginal MediaWorks and Sphere Media are behind the book-to-screen adaptation to shoot in Montreal next year. The MEM project marks Marginal’s first international co-production and centers on a scientist in Montreal who discovers how to extract memories from people and turn them into zombie-like creatures known as Mems. Cooper’s recent credits include Cold Copy, Roxine Helberg’s Tribeca journalism thriller, and Mike Cahill’s Bliss. The story.
—Put yer money where yer mouth is. Peter Dinklage is so proud of his The Toxic Avenger reboot that he just wants more people to finally get to see it. The Emmy-winning actor was recently asked if the film could get a wide release soon, given it was “a really big hit” after it opened the Fantastic Fest last year. “No, I’m not a producer on it. I don’t know,” Dinklage admitted in a new interview. "I do want it to get out there into the world because it was a really big hit at Fantastic Fest in Austin." The horror-comedy, which received a 92 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes from 25 reviews after its global premiere at Fantastic Fest in September 2023, has yet to receive a release date. The story.
—Just getting older. Denzel Washington fans may be wondering if the actor is nearing retirement following recent comments he made in an interview. Speaking to Empire, the Oscar winner opened up about his reason for joining Ridley Scott‘s upcoming Gladiator 2, set around 20 years after the original film. “There are very few films left for me to make that I’m interested in, and I have to be inspired by the filmmaker, and I was tremendously inspired by Ridley,” Washington confessed to the publication. The story.
—Stop crying your heart out. Ryan Reynolds admitted he was “mortified” to have to cut Rob McElhenney‘s Deadpool & Wolverine cameo, especially after he flew all the way to London to film the sequence. McElhenney is not only the actor’s close friend but also the co-owner of Welsh soccer club Wrexham, making it an even more difficult decision. McElhenney was initially set to appear as a Time Variance Authority soldier in the record-breaking Marvel movie. “While editing a movie, they say you "sometimes have to kill your darlings," Reynold wrote on Instagram Friday. The story. |
Oasis Reunion? Speculation Grows Over Massive Comeback Gigs ►Champagne supernova! Have the Gallagher brothers finally buried the hatchet? There is growing speculation that Liam and Noel have put aside their legendary differences to reunite Oasis and undertake what is sure to be one of the most anticipated series of gigs in the U.K. in decades. Several media reports over the weekend suggest Oasis is set to play a series of concerts in the summer of 2025, with “multiple vast gigs” planned for Heaton Park in Manchester and Wembley Stadium in London. There are even early murmurings of Oasis even potentially headlining Glastonbury next year. The story.
—Listen up. Rapper Macklemore canceled his October concert in Dubai on Saturday, citing the United Arab Emirates’ involvement in the Sudan war. The singer said the decision came from a drive to “advocate for the most marginalized around the world.” Macklemore wrote that he came to the decision after “numerous conversations with trusted organizers and friends and my own reading/ research,” and urged his fans to read a lengthy statement explaining his reasoning. The story.
—Rock 'n' roll star. Nearly 70,000 fans inside Bucharest, Romania’s National Arena, got the surprise of a lifetime during a stop on Ed Sheeran‘s The +–=÷× Tour (aka The Mathematics Tour) on Saturday night as Chris Hemsworth joined in, playing the drums on the track “Thinking Out Loud.” The unique moment, a first for Hemsworth, was captured for an upcoming episode on the second season of the actor’s National Geographic’s Disney+ original series Limitless With Chris Hemsworth. Though the episode has no premiere date yet, it’s expected in 2025. The story.
—The shock of the lightning. The Reading & Leeds Festival apologized for cutting Lana Del Rey‘s set short on Saturday night. Del Rey was performing as the penultimate headliner of the Reading portion of the Reading & Leeds festival, when during a fireworks show at the end of her set, the singer’s microphone turned off. Per reports online, she sat and watched the pyrotechnics with her fans for the remaining five minutes, and was not able to finish performing. The story.
In other news...
—Emily in Paris is actually in Rome for S4’s part 2 trailer
—Nkechi Okoro Carroll, Glynn Turman receive top awards at AAFCA TV honors
—Justin and Hailey Bieber welcome first child
What else we're reading...
—A.J. Goldmann looks at how the Venice Film Festival has morphed into the "Oscars launchpad" [NYT]
—Andrea Fuller, Alexa Corse, John West and Kara Dapena chart Elon Musk's descent into far-right politics using his own Twitter feed as a guide [WSJ]
—With news of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov's arrest in France, Eleanor Thornber and Jeff Stone reveal how the app has become a magnet for extremists and criminals [Bloomberg]
—Brock Colyar talks to Charli XCX about her outsized cultural (and political) influence and how she wants to bring on "brat autumn" [Vulture]
—Kambole Campbell unpacks how Bette Davis' classic film All About Eve is inspiring a captivating feud in pro wrestling promotion AEW [BBC]
Today...
...in 1973, Paramount unveiled John Hancock's baseball drama Bang the Drum Slowly at its world premiere in New York. The film went on to nab an Oscar nomination in the supporting actor category for Vincent Gardenia at the 46th Academy Awards ceremony. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Mike Colter (48), Chris Pine (44), Melissa McCarthy (54), John Mulaney (42), Keke Palmer (31), Andy Muschietti (51), Shirley Manson (58), Barbet Schroeder (83), Cassie Ventura (38), Dylan O'Brien (33), Amanda Schull (46), Annette Badland (74), Macaulay Culkin (44), Danielle Savre (36), Brett Cullen (68), Nazneen Contractor (42), Alison Steadman (78), Kirk Fox (55), Meredith Eaton (50), Charlie Gillespie (26), Wanda De Jesus (66), Kari Lizer (63), Taylor Richardson (23), Tommy Bastow (33), Evan Ross (36), Carl Marino (54), Gene Stupnitsky (47), Chris Burke (59), Gracie Dzienny (29), Patrick Kennedy (47), Chelsea Spack (35), Gaynor Faye (53) |
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