Universal has set an April 7, 2023 release date for Fast & Furious 10, the penultimate film in the Fast Saga, according to Entertainment Weekly.
The Justin Lin-directed action movie was originally slated to open April 2 of this year, but was replaced by F9: The Fast Saga because of delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic. F10 was later pushed back to June 25.
The cast has yet to be revealed, but franchise star Vin Diesel is expected to return, along with Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, Chris Bridges, Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez. Dwayne Johnson isn’t set to return to the franchise, and it’s still up in the air as to whether John Cena will reprise his role as Jakob Toretto, according to the entertainment website.
F9: The Fast Saga, released in June, grossed over $170 million here in the states and over $500 million worldwide.
Music and acting stars Ludacris and Queen Latifah worked together on a film for the first time, and for the Fast & Furious actor, it was one of the highlights of his career.
They just wrapped shooting the thriller End of the Road in New Mexico, in which Latifah portrays a recent widow, who after losing her job, drives her family cross-country to start a new life.
“Filming with Queen was one of the best experiences ever, and I’m not just saying that,” Ludacris tells Billboard. “Her energy is so unmatched. She’s so zen’d the hell out.”
The three-time Grammy winner says he always wanted to collaborate with Latifah, and they had so much fun together: “We was laughing and joking on set every day.”
Luda dropped his new single “Butter.ATL” last Friday which pays tribute to his love of peanut butter, and his hometown, Atlanta. He also appears in a new Jif peanut butter commercial with Gunna.
Ludacris is also executive producing a new children’s animated series, Karma’s World, named after his first daughter. On July 28, his wife Eudoxie gave birth to his fourth daughter, Chance Oyail Bridges.
Twenty-two years ago, he dropped his debut studio album, Incognegro, on his own independent label, Disturbing Tha Peace. Now more artists choose to be independent, and Ludacris says the key to success is social media.
“Come up with clever ways to have things go viral, as opposed to trying to spark something negative,” Ludacris says. “Try to do something positive, funny or that hasn’t been done before that puts people on to your music.”
The team behind Big Little Lies is back for more drama with Nine Perfect Strangers, launching today on Hulu.
The miniseries is set at a boutique health-and-wellness resort whose director, played by Nicole Kidman, is on a mission to reinvigorate the tired minds and bodies of nine stressed city dwellers. Bobby Cannavale, who plays one of the resort’s guests, tells ABC Audio it’s not the kind of place you’re likely to find him.
“Sandals with the kids,” is the closest he’s come to visiting a health spa, although he doesn’t even think that qualifies. “[A] 50 minute massage is 10 minutes too long for me,” he admits. “I don’t like when they’re putting their hands on me and… I’m not into the facials and I can’t do it. They’re not relaxing to me. I like to be in a place that’s nice looking, but people leave me alone.”
Samara Weaving and Melvin Gregg play a couple in need of therapy, and Gregg says tinkering around the house helps him keep his mental health in check.
“I really enjoy like carpentry and like landscape work,” he reveals. “So, that’s how I kind of escape.”
Weaving’s routine for decompressing includes practicing as much self-care as possible.
“Every day,” she tells ABC Audio, “I’m riddled with anxiety, so I’m always try to fix it. Yeah, I’m crazy. I usually do yoga for like twenty minutes a half an hour if I can most days and then I’ll sit and meditate for like ten minutes. That’s always helpful. Therapy every week.
Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson is pregnant. Her husband Colin Jost confirmed the delightful news over the weekend.
The Saturday Night Live star, who was performing two sold out shows at the Ridgefield Playhouse in Connecticut, told the audience on Saturday that he and Johansson are about to become parents.
Allison Stockel and Jared Shahid, the Playhouse’s respective Executive Director and Artistic Director, confirmed to ABC Audio that Jost broke the news at their venue.
“Colin announced from the stage that he and Scarlett are expecting soon. I think it was fun for our audience to hear such big news unexpectedly,” Shahid remarked. “The crowd was very excited – everyone cheered and clapped.”
Both Stockel and Shahid described Jost’s announcement as “casual,” so both of them “assumed it was public knowledge” already.
Shahid also explained to ABC Audio that Jost’s performed a “Yondr show,” meaning all recording devices were not permitted and phones were placed in magnetic pouches during the event, “So no one was able to post about it.”
“It’s been fun to see the story develop over the last couple days,” he added.
The child will be Jost’s first and Johansson’s second. The actress shares six-year-old daughter Rose Dorothy with ex-husband Romain Dauriac.
Johansson, 36, and Jost, 39, confirmed their engagement in 2017 after two years of dating and tied the knot in October 2020.
Jill Scott is an angel who returns to Earth to transform sadness to joy at a junior high school in the upcoming Highway to Heaven movie, based on the 1980s TV series of the same name. The television film features the three-time Grammy winner as Angela Stewart, a temporary guidance counselor.
In the trailer released Tuesday, Stewart says, ”I am not like anyone else. I am an angel. I can see and do things that other people can’t do.” After she meets Cody, a young student grieving over the death of his mother, she brings happiness to his life.
The school principal tells her, “You are too good to be true. Are you a unicorn?”
Angela replies, ”I am actually a real an angel,” and he laughs. Angela then tells him, “My boss has such big plans for you.”
Later in the trailer, she declares her mission is “to come to those who are looking for a miracle.”
Highway to Heaven will premiere on Saturday, November 6 at 8:00 p.m. ET/:00 p.m. CT on Lifetime.
Former That ’70s Show and Orange Is the New Black star Laura Prepon, who was once a dedicated Scientologist, now reveals that she hasn’t “practiced [it] in close to five years.”
Prepon explains to People, “I’ve always been very open-minded, even since I was a child. I was raised Catholic and Jewish. I’ve prayed in churches, meditated in temples,” adding about the L. Ron Hubbard-founded belief system, “it’s no longer part of my life.”
The actress credits what she refers to as her evolution to being the mother of two children with actor Ben Foster, noting, “If motherhood has taught me anything so far, it’s that something can work out for a period of time, and then you move on and evolve.”
The 41-year-old Prepon recalls, “As a new mom, I was riddled with anxiety…My friends who were mothers with older kids said, ‘Laura, this is a phase, you’ll move on…’ And that has transcended into other parts of my life. We’re all evolving. I always see that with my kids.”
Now, Prepon finds peace by meditating daily with her husband. “I’m really liking it, because it’s something that helps me to hear my own voice and it’s something we can do together,” she says.
In her recent memoir, You and I, as Mothers, the actress revealed the “complicated” relationship she has with her own mother, including that her mother taught her how to be bulimic when she was young. She tells People that her mother is suffering from Alzheimer’s.
Prepon says, “I have to come to terms with the fact that this woman who was an incredible force in my life — is fading. It’s very hard to watch. I just try to be there and stay present for the good moments we have.”
Netflix has released the first images of The Crown‘s newest cast members to play Prince Charles and Lady Diana in the in-production fifth season of the Emmy-winning drama.
Dominic West, a veteran of the acclaimed show The Wire, and films including 300, is a dead ringer for a greying Charles in the early ’90s as his marriage to Princess Diana continued to crumble. They divorced officially in 1996.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Tenet veteran Elizabeth Debecki is shown with her head on a pillow, looking haunted. Diana, of course, battled an eating disorder and constant tabloid pressure as their royal marriage splintered amid Charles’ extra-marital romance with his current wife, Camilla Parker Bowles, leading to Diana’s own affair with James Hewitt, played in the series by Daniel Donskoy.
In The Crown‘s fourth season, Emma Corrin plays a younger Diana Spencer, who falls for and eventually marries Josh O’Connor‘s Prince Charles in 1981.
50 Cent is bringing in the “big dogs” for his upcoming Starz series Black Mafia Family.
In an Instagram post on Tuesday, 50 revealed that he had tapped fellow emcee Eminem to play White Boy Rick, the notorious Detroit teenager turned undercover FBI informant, on his new series. “I couldn’t do a show based in Detroit without incorporating the legend @eminem,” 50 wrote in part. As previously reported, BMF follows the real-life story of brothers Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory and Terry “Southwest T” Flenory, who “rose from the decaying streets of southwest Detroit in the late 1980s and gave birth to one of the most influential crime families in the country.” The series premieres Sunday, September 26, at 9 p.m. ET. and stars Demetrius “Lil Meech” Flenory Jr., Russell Hornsby, Snoop Dogg, La La Anthony and Serayah, among others.
In other news, Amazon Prime Video has announced this year’s installment of the Welcome to the Blumhouse movie series. Described as “unsettling thrillers” that center on diverse storytelling, the first set of double features includes Bingo Hell and Black as Night, which will both premiere on October 1. They will be followed by Madres and The Manor, which will debut on October 8.
Finally, Netflix has released the official trailer to the fourth and final season of Dear White People. As previously reported, the upcoming season will be a “’90s-inspired musical event” that will pick up in the “not-so-distant, post-pandemic future” where the cast will be looking back at “the most formative (and theatrical) year of their lives.” Created by Justin Simien, Dear White People stars Logan Browning, Brandon P. Bell, Antoinette Robertson, DeRon Horton, John Patrick Amedori, Ashley Blaine Featherson and Marque Richardson. The final season of Dear White People premieres on Wednesday, September 22.
Netflix has just released an eerie teaser for its anticipated documentary Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed, about the rise of late, legendary soft-spoken painter Bob Ross.
According to the streaming service, this “shockingly untold story” examines the life of the prolific landscape artist and The Joy of Painting host, whose “kind and gentle demeanor…encouraged everyone he met to embrace their creativity and believe in themselves, becoming a cultural phenomenon along the way.”
However, Netflix teases, “Beyond the iconic hair, soothing voice and nostalgic paintings lies a mystery that many have yet to discover.”
The teaser is no less mysterious: “We want to show you the trailer,” a title card reads as off-putting xylophone music tinkles in the background, “but we can’t.”
“Find out why on August 25,” it concludes.
Melissa McCarthy and her husband and producing partner Ben Falcone co-produced the film, which was directed by Joshua Rofé, who also called the shots on the documentaries Lorena and Sasquatch.
Lucasfilm has debuted the first trailer for its animated anthology series Star Wars: Visions, and also has revealed the star-studded voice cast for the series.
The anthology tapped seven of Japan’s leading anime studios to put a unique spin on Star Wars tales — fitting, considering that legendary director Akira Kurosawa‘s films were a major inspiration for George Lucas, and remain so for The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau and its executive producer and anime artist Dave Filoni.
The anthology will feature voices dubbed both in English and Japanese, and both versions will be available on Disney+ starting on September 22.
The cast for the English-language episodes feature the voice talents of stars including Lucy Liu, Star Trek‘s George Takei, and Stranger Things‘ and Black Widow‘s David Harbour, as well as Neil Patrick Harris, Alison Brie and Temuera Morrison, the latter reprising his role as Boba Fett, which he played in two Star Wars movies and The Mandalorian.
The cast, character and title information for each of the nine installments has also been revealed:
“The Duel” — Brian Tee (Ronin), Lucy Liu (Bandit Leader), Jaden Waldman (Village Chief)
“Tatooine Rhapsody” — Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Jay), Bobby Moynihan (Geezer), Temuera Morrison (Boba Fett), Shelby Young (K-344), Marc Thompson (Lan)
“The Twins” — Neil Patrick Harris (Karre), Alison Brie (Am), Jonathan Lipow (B-20N)
“The Village Bride” — Karen Fukuhara (F), Nichole Sakura (Haru), Christopher Sean (Asu), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Valco), Andrew Kishino (Izuma), Stephanie Sheh (Saku)
“The Ninth Jedi” — Kimiko Glenn (Kara), Andrew Kishino (Juro), Simu Liu (Zhima), Masi Oka (Ethan), Greg Chun (Roden), Neil Kaplan (Narrator), Michael Sinterniklaas (Hen Jin)
