Entertainment

Apple TV+’s critically-hailed sci-fi epic Foundation has been picked up for a second season by the streaming service, so cast members need to get their dancing shoes ready. 

That’s because Lee Pace, who plays the series’ villain, Emperor Day, has a habit of starting dance-offs on set — even though one led to his Guardians of the Galaxy character’s defeat. And while he told ABC Audio he didn’t get a chance to repeat the activity on Foundation, he’s got his eyes on a certain co-star for season two.

“Jared Harris, I’m calling you out!” Pace said with a laugh about his Emmy-winning co-star. “Let’s see what moves you got!”

For her part, co-star Lou Llobell, who plays Gaal [Gail] Dornick, is ready. “I will take Lee on,” she joked. “I can’t promise anything, but, that would be a great experience.”

Llobell also praised her co-star, who at 6 foot 5 made a visually intimidating foil for the actress, who plays a genius mathematician from a backwater planet with knowledge that threatens the galactic empire, ruled by Pace’s Brother Day.

“Lee was great,” the actress enthuses. “I mean, he’s an amazing person off-camera as well, and we all get along like the whole cast got along so well, which I’m very grateful for.”

Llobell adds, “But…it was pretty intimidating to see. I mean, I’m five foot two and Lee’s like, six foot however. And so looking up at him and it was perfect for me in that moment, especially for me playing Gaal as well.” 

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory fans will soon learn the untold origin story of Mr. Willy Wonka himself.

While Roald Dahl‘s 1964 novel didn’t explore Wonka’s background — nor did its 1971 movie adaption — a 2005 retelling of the book starring Johnny Depp took a crack at it.  The reboot framed the eccentric chocolatier’s ambitions around his joyless upbringing, where he was raised by his candy-hating father, who was a dentist.

Timothée Chalamet stars as the titular candy confectioner in the upcoming 2023 movie and on Sunday, he shared a first look of the anticipated film to his Instagram.

“The suspense is terrible, I hope it will last,” he captioned the post, a direct quote spoken by the late Gene Wilder in the 1971 movie.  

One still shows Chalamet glancing devilishly to the side while standing in the snow.  His costume seems to blend the styles worn by Wilder and Depp’s respective Wonka interpretations, with the Dune star wearing a brown top hat similar to the one seen in the 1971 film and a maroon jacket that more closely resembles the one Depp wore in the reboot. In addition, Chalamet’s brown and curly hair reflects the way Wilder styled his in the 50-year-old classic — unlike the sleek brunet bob Depp rocked over 15 years ago.

A second photo is a closeup of what appears to be a cane, with its intricate top opened up like a flower, revealing a little purple box tied in a red ribbon at the center.

Wonka — also starring Olivia Colman, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson and Keegan-Michael Key — is currently filming and will tell the story of how the titular character came to open a world-famous chocolate factory, including how he met his future employees, the Oompa-Loompas.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Timothe?e Chalamet (@tchalamet)

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

After months of speculation, Matthew McConaughey has hinted that he might sit out Texas’ upcoming gubernatorial election.

When asked about running for governor in 2022 during his chat on the New York Times‘ Sway podcast, McConaughey, 51, replied, “Is politics an embassy for me to be of the most use to myself, to my family, to the most amount of people in my life moving forward?”

“Taking sides on a political issue right now, to me, precedes the discussion of something larger and much more important,” he said, touching upon the country’s identity crisis. “Do we really want to be a United States of America?… It’s a question we got to answer.”

“Why is our nation’s trust level so low with our leaders, with ourselves, with each other?,” he remarked. “Before I start hopping in the middle of politics going, ‘Well, this is where I stand here, and this is where I stand here.’ Everybody needs to be in the conversation to answer [these] questions.”

“I do not think we’re in a good place [as a nation,]” McConaughey added, but the self-described optimist said he’s excited for the future because “we’re in a place where it’s an amazing opportunity right now.”

McConaughey also offered his opinions on hot-button issues like mask mandates, voting rights and Texas’ restrictive abortion ban. Calling it “a small investment” to wear a mask, the actor voiced support for mandates. He also declared “it should be easier to vote” for all Americans “of age” and without a “criminal record.”

He was less forthcoming about the subject of abortion, however.  Although he expressed disapproval of Texas’ abortion law, McConaughey declined to reveal his stance on the matter because, “We’ve been trying to figure out that, and how to play God with that situation, since the beginning.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Anthony Anderson may be making a return to the upcoming revival of Law & Order.

In an upcoming episode of Rachel Ray‘s syndicated talk show, obtained by Deadline, Anderson, who played Detective Kevin Bernard for two seasons, says he’s already been approached about making a return on the Emmy-winning crime drama.

“I did have a conversation with Dick Wolf,” Anderson says of the show’s creator. “I will just say that. So, we’ll see what the future holds.”

As previously reported, NBC has greenlit season 21 of Wolf’s Law & Order, 11-and-a-half years after it was abruptly canceled. Like previous seasons, the show will once again center on “the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.”

Although casting details have yet to be announced, the new season of Law & Order is expected to feature many of the same characters from the original series, including Jack McCoy, who was played by Sam Waterson.

Anderson’s interview with Rachel Ray will air October 14. Check your local listings to watch live.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NOTE LANGUAGE) It’s pretty much a fact that parents of young children will have to sit through their fair share of endless kids’ songs sing-alongs — “Baby Shark,” anyone?

For Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, however, his three-year-old daughter Tiana made him sit through a never-ending rendition of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” during a recent car ride.

The singing kept going for so long, the Jungle Cruise star even took out his phone to capture the moment.

“Keep in mind I started shooting this after 15 minutes straight of listening to this song,” he captioned the hilarious Saturday video update, which shows Tiana singing away in her car seat. “I even tried to draw the note out at the end to give the feeling that the song was ending… Clearly it wasn’t. Ever. Going. To End,” the Rock lamented.

The video shows the ultra-relatable moment where Johnson thinks Tiana has run out of steam, but she instead sparks up another round, which causes her father’s eyes to momentarily widen in dread.  However, the former WWE star shakes it off by encouraging his little one, “Just keep singing, baby!  I love it!”

The video ends with hr Rock muttering just loud enough for the camera to hear that he thinks “life is but a nightmare,” a play on the song’s final verse.

While Johnson may never want to hear that nursery rhyme again, he offered some sound advice to parents who may be struggling with a similar problem, which is, “Sometimes we just gotta sit back, laugh and surrender to rowing the boat gently down the f****** stream.”

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by therock (@therock)

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The eagerly awaited James bond film No Time to Die, originally slated to hit theaters in 2020, fell short of expectations, but still delivered one of the year’s biggest debuts by topping the box office with an estimated $56 million.

The 25th Bond film, starring Daniel Craig in his final bow as 007, was predicted to pull in $60-$70 million. Its predecessor, Spectre, opened to $70.4 million in in 2015. The franchise’s biggest haul belongs to Craig’s Skyfall which raked in $88.4 million back in 2012.

It’s a rosier picture overseas, where No Time to Die debuted two weeks ago. It’s earned $257.3 million so far for a global total of $313.3 million.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage, which debuted last week with a record-breaking $90.1 million domestic haul, fell to second place with an estimated $32 million. That brings its current totals to $141 million stateside, a shade under $185.6 million globally.

Landing in third was The Addams Family 2, which scared up an estimated $10 million in its second week, bringing its current worldwide tally to $35.7 million.

Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings took fourth place with an estimated $4.2 million in its sixth week of release. Its domestic haul now stands at just south of $212.5 million, bringing its worldwide total to over the $400 million mark.

Marvel is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

Rounding out the top five is the Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark, delivering and estimated $1.5 million in its second weekend. The film, which is also available to stream for free on HBO Max, has brought in an anemic $10.3 million worldwide.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Kim Kardashian hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time this weekend and held nothing back, roasting the entire Kardashian-Jenner clan.

After explaining her purpose for hosting — to prove she was “more than that reference photo my sisters showed their plastic surgeons,” Kim revealed the “one thing [she’s] really proud of,” is that “no one can ever call me a gold digger.”

“Honestly, I’m not even sure how you become one, so I asked my mom’s [Kris Jenner‘s] boyfriend Corey [Gamble].”

“I’m an influencer, but would never tell anyone what they can or can’t do,” she insisted. “Remember, I’m a Kim, not a Karen,” adding that “with all the K names, it’s really impressive that my mom didn’t pick Karen.”

“I don’t know how she saw that one coming and not Caitlyn,” she quipped, referring to her former step father Caitlyn Jenner.

Kardashian followed with a jab at her ex-husband Kanye West. After declaring that she married “the best rapper of all time” and  the “richest Black man in America” as well as “a talented, legit genius,” she joked that her decision to divorce him “came down to just one thing — his personality.”

Kim also took aim at her sister Kourtney in a sketch called “The People’s Kourt,” which featured a cameo from sister Khloé, as a defendant, and Kris pressing charges against her younger daughter, Kendall Jenner, for having “no drama.”

The family took the barbs in stride, with Kris gushing on Instagram that her daughter “crushed one of the hardest stand up gigs in the world.”

“Proud is an understatement!!!” Khloé wrote on her Instagram Story.

“ORDER IN THE KOURTNEY!” Kourtney posted on her Instagram Story. “Ahhhhh! This is everything!

Kendall and Kylie Jenner each shared clips of their sister onstage. Kylie captioned her video, “Yes!!!!!”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Evangeline Lilly stars as a terminally ill wife-to-be in the new indie thriller South Of Heaven alongside Jason Sudeikis, who plays her just-released from jail beau who is trying to walk the straight and narrow, when of course everything goes very, very “south.” 

While Lilly notes Sudeikis is known for playing “the most likable, jovial, sweet and charming” characters, Lilly told ABC Audio that audiences can expect to see a different side of him. 

“He takes a real turn in this movie he plays a very serious character who’s grappling with his demons,” she explained.

South of Heaven, helmed by director and film professor Aharon Keshales, wrapped production in 2020 — just hours before life changed for everyone. Recalling how everything went down, the award-winning actress shared, “I was being told ‘You can’t get on a plane. Nobody can fly. There is this crazy thing going around’ and I was like ‘what are you talking about?'”

“I flew home to Canada. The next day, the world shut down,” she said. 

Included in that shut down were movie theaters, which is why Lilly expressed that it’s time to reconsider the theater-going experience by being able to “celebrate that we can” and “reinforce that we want to go out.”

“Also to support independent filmmaking,” she added. “That’s one of the only places where original stories are being told. And I think these little independent stories are important and they are the kind of films that I love and if we don’t go and support them in the theater they will just disappear altogether.” 

In addition to theaters, South of Heaven is available on VOD, digital outlets and in theaters. 

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Five kick-butt actresses join Sebastian Stan in the action-packed new trailer for The 355.

The title refers to the code-name of George Washington‘s female spy in the Revolutionary War — and also the name of the movie’s multinational group of female spies. 

The movie’s conceit is that each woman is their country’s top agent — Jessica Chastain is American with the CIA; Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o reps the U.K.; Diane Kruger is German; Penelope Cruz represents Spain; and Bingbing Fan is the top Chinese operative — who all unite to save the world.

“They can start World War III from their keyboard” Chastain’s character explains, in a trailer that’s both heavy on action and Mission: Impossible-esque spycraft.

For his part, Lupita’s Marvel movie co-star Stan is Chastain’s CIA counterpart but despite his onscreen action chops, the women clearly run the show in the coming attraction. 

The 355 opens January 7.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Netflix is prepping a spin-off of the hit Fox series That ’70s Show with a Gen-X twist, ABC Audio has confirmed.

That ’90s Show already has snagged ’70s vets Debra Jo Rupp and Kurtwood Smith, who played, respectively, Kitty and Red Forman, the parents of Topher Grace‘s Eric, for a show that will follow them into the ’90s as they tend to their visiting granddaughter. 

The streaming giant notes, “It’s 1995 and Leia Forman, daughter of Eric and Donna, is visiting her grandparents for the summer where she bonds with a new generation of Point Place kids under the watchful eye of Kitty and the stern glare of Red. Sex, drugs and rock ’n roll never dies, it just changes clothes.”

Original series creators Bonnie and Terry Turner are returning for the new show, and the thought is that some other familiar faces from the original series could appear.

That 70s Show, which also starred Laura Prepon, Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher and Wilmer Valderrama, ran for eight seasons for Fox, wrapping up in 2006. Its 2002 spin-off That 80s Show lasted only one season.

Recently, Rupp appeared in Disney+’s WandaVision, and Smith will be seen in the Hulu series The Drop Out, about the Elizabeth Holmes Theranos scandal.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.