In a new episode of their “Dare We Say” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly), actresses Josie Totah and Alycia Pascual-Peña, who starred on Peacock’s short-lived reboot of “Saved by the Bell” revealed that the basketball legend almost appeared on the show. Bryant had been a fan of the original series and was scheduled to film a cameo on the reboot just days before the helicopter crash that killed him and his daughter....
The “Shallow” Oscar winner announced on April 27 that her new single “Hold My Hand” will be featured in the “Top Gun” sequel, premiering at Cannes before debuting in theaters on May 27. “When I wrote this song for ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ I didn’t even realize the multiple layers it spanned across the film’s heart, my own psyche, and the nature of the world we’ve been living in,” Gaga tweeted....
Larry Wilmore, host of Peacock’s “Wilmore,” puts it bluntly. “You’ve had your hosts like Arsenio [Hall], or some other Black hosts who did more entertainment-style shows,” he said, “but you didn’t have a show with a Black cast that competed in the John Oliver-type [space] where it’s supposed to be a smart take on the news.” “Wilmore,” which debuted September 18, is similar to his Comedy Central series “The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore,” which launched in January 2015 and ran until August 2016, a few months before Trump’s election....
But if there were preseason jitters, it was on their side of the camera. “I actually think we are a lot more nervous than the players are. I’ve entered every single season doing this show, even if we’re at a school where we filmed the year previously, and all the players are pretty much different. I’m filled with a very similar set of anxieties,” Whiteley told IndieWire. “Who are the main players that we’re going to focus on?...
This is a Pixar thing to the very last gill, of course, and easily recognized as such; the rounded character design is a dead giveaway even before you get to the paranoid (yet lovingly aloof!) parents and the unbridled joy of discovery. And yet, Casarosa’s feature debut — a modest and personal coming-of-age story about two pre-adolescent fish boys eating pasta and obsessing over a Vespa together during that last perfect moment of childhood — seems to have less in common with the studio’s previous movies than it does the whimsical shorts that often play before them (including Casarosa’s own “La Luna”)....
“[Industrial Light and Magic is] always on the lookout for talented artists and have in fact hired the artist that goes by the online persona ‘Shamook,’” a Lucasfilm representative said in a statement. “Over the past several years ILM has been investing in both machine learning and A.I. as a means to produce compelling visual effects work and it’s been terrific to see momentum building in this space as the technology advances....
“People will ask me, ‘Are you excited to go back?’ Excitement isn’t the word. I feel like I’m in a very pensive and meditative state when it comes to ‘Black Panther 2.’ His passing is still extremely raw for me,” Nyong’o said. “And I can’t even begin to imagine what it will be like to step on set and not have him there.” She added, “But at the same time we have a leader in Ryan, who feels very much like we do, who feels the loss in a very, very real way as well....
“All we told her to do was just welcome her son home; she hasn’t seen him in a while,” Scorsese said. “The key there is ultimately the warmth between all of them and particularly my mother playing his mother; he may be a psychopathic killer, but he’s still her son. When people talk about improvisation, this really was improvisation. We had a few ideas on set we played…but basically once we started shooting, she picked up on something and started speaking....
Also on Friday night, Francis Lee’s “Ammonite” (November 13, Neon) which had been selected by Cannes and Telluride, debuted at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto. The next day, on Saturday, at closing ceremonies in Venice, “Nomadland” took home the festival’s Golden Lion, while Vanessa Kirby won Best Actress for Kornél Mundruczó’s “Pieces of a Woman,” which had just played at TIFF and was scooped up by Netflix to add to its fat awards slate....
The “Batman Returns” alum is reprising his role of Bruce Wayne in the upcoming DC installment “The Flash,” marking Keaton’s first time wearing the Batsuit since the 1992 Tim Burton film and 1989’s “Batman” prior. To note, Ben Affleck is also re-donning the Caped Crusader costume for “The Flash” movie that sets up a multiverse aspect of the DCU, not to be outdone by Marvel’s latest phase of time-bending alternate worlds explored in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness....
The opening season of the series — appropriately named “MUBI Podcast” — will span six episodes, beginning with the debut episode launching on June 3. Hosted by Rico Gagliano, the overall theme for the season is “Lost in Translation” and is centered around helping introduce significant works in international cinema to a wider audience, something that’s long been part of the overall MUBI goal. You can listen to a trailer for the new show below:...
This week had a range of alternative offerings, led by the Disney+ debut of “Mulan.” At an estimated $200 million cost, it is by far the most expensive feature film to skip domestic theaters for Premium VOD. This is also the second week of “Bill & Ted Face the Music” (United Artists), as well as first for “I’m Thinking of Ending Things,” the start of Netflix’s fall awards-intended original releases....
That declaration draws from more than your usual science fiction fare. The Arab spring, African Diaspora movements, centuries of music, and the present blossoming of the continent’s art all influence “Neptue Frost,” a film that fights against exploitation, colonialism, and anti-gay laws. Following the death of their aunt, Neptune (Elvis “Bobo” Ngabo/Cheryl Isheja) flees from their Rwandan village, crossing bodies of water and rural roads in a trek through a country dominated by a totalitarian force known as The Authority....
The streamer’s co-CEO and content chief Ted Sarandos reminded that Netflix has “always been a supporter of the art” of comedy during the “Future of Entertainment” panel at the ongoing Cannes Lions advertising conference, at which Sarandos received the Entertainment Person of the Year award. Chappelle’s 2021 special “The Closer” led to a social media boycott of the streaming platform and Netflix employee walkouts. Gervais released “SuperNature” earlier this year, which also featured jokes about trans people....
Winners were already announced in December, but stay tuned for plenty of surprises, as presenters include Bong Joon Ho, Frances McDormand, Chloe Sevigny, Alfre Woodard, Sacha Baron Cohen, Norm Lewis, and Martin Scorsese. Sunday night, a special award is also being given to Spike Lee, director most recently of “Da 5 Bloods.” Among the highlights of the ceremony, below, are words from Spike Lee, who spoke about the siege upon the Capitol, and its consequences....
Cuomo revealed his current thinking during a Monday briefing, during which he announced that gyms would be allowed to reopen August 24. “It’s the level of risk. If you look at our metrics, we started with the most essential business that posed the least risk. And then it was the gradation to the least essential businesses that posed the most risk,” Cuomo said, according to Deadline. He continued: “I am sure there is a whole group of people who say, ‘I cannot live without going to the movies....
During a visit this week to “Live With Kelly And Ryan” (via NME), Kidman spoke about the “Being the Ricardos” backlash and how it almost led her to back out of the project. Kidman stars as Ball opposite Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz. The film is Sorkin’s third directorial feature following “Molly’s Game” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” Sorkin directs from a script her wrote. Years ago, Cate Blanchett was circling the role of Lucille Ball....
How the Academy will pull off this feat is the question, and many observers and award pundits are not giving first-time Oscar producer Will Packer the benefit of the doubt. The Oscars have ricocheted from excellent to shoddy many times over the decades and there are some who have little faith that this year’s show, which seems in desperate search of ratings, will do right by the eight winners (Best Editing, Production Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Original Score, Sound, Live Action, Animated, and Documentary Shorts) whose acceptance speeches will be edited into the show....
Audiences — or at least the heads of programming —seemingly can’t get enough stories about terrible places to work. But the comedies are also probing deeper into work culture, and the ways in which it bleeds into personal lives. “Mythic Quest” investigates the company behind a successful multi-player game, digging into the thorny issue of mentorship amid the laughs in a way “30 Rock” never quite did. On fellow Apple TV+ series “Severance,” employees at Lumen agree to have a chip implanted in their brains that keep their work and personal lives completely separate....
Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, Bakish doubled down on many points he made during the marathon Paramount investors day presentation last month. He said his company — with its legacy businesses, franchises, and SVOD service — is fit to become a streaming-era leader (even though it’s currently nowhere close to the top). However, he also used his time to point out something that “was missed in some of the post-investment call narrative....
