Entertainment

While the world seemingly slowed to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, Irish comedian Aisling Bea spent lockdown hard at work writing the next season of This Way Up.

Bea, 37, spoke with ABC Audio about her critically acclaimed comedy series that she wrote and stars in, which airs its second season tonight on Hulu.  The stand-up comedian said writing the next installment during the early days of lockdown allowed her to explore more than just her emotions, but understand what the world was experiencing.

“If the theme of the first series is loneliness, the second one is words and communication, and how we miss each other,” said Bea. “And what we don’t know that one person might say and how you read it and how that affects relationships.”

Beyond writing the second season during a global pandemic, the actress confessed it wasn’t easy to shoot, either.  She said a good chunk of their budget and time was eaten up by necessary COVID protocols, which meant the crew had less to spend on filming.

“Sometimes in a day I would do scenes where there might be a suicide scene, Aine being the funniest in the world, and a sex scene… All in one day,” she recalled. “There’s no processing time… And from a creative point of view, I got through it. But it wasn’t pleasant.”

While unable to tease too much about This Way Up‘s second season, Bea revealed what she focused on when writing the series.

“Don’t make it a TED talk. I love TED talks, but there’s moments I realize ‘Ooh… I’ve accidentally made this a TED talk,'” she remarked, adding that, despite the upcoming serious moments, season two will be “entertaining.”

This Way Up season 2 is streaming now on Hulu.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Shonda Rhimes isn’t leaving Netflix anytime soon.

According to Variety, Rhimes, who initially signed a multimillion-dollar TV deal with the streamer in 2017, has now extended her partnership to include feature films, gaming and virtual reality content. As part of the deal, Netflix will support and invest in Shondaland’s mission to “create DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility) programs that can increase industry workplace representation for underrepresented groups both domestically and in the UK.”

The robust deal comes after the global success of Rhimes’ Regency-era romance Bridgerton. The Regé-Jean Page-led show became one of the most viewed series on the streamer, with 82 million households watching during its first 28 days on the service. Not surprisingly, Bridgerton, which currently is in production for season two, has already been renewed for seasons three and four.

In a statement, Rhimes says moving Shondaland to Netflix was “taking a leap into the unknown” that paid off.

“Today, Shondaland at Netflix is creatively thriving, profitable as an asset and engaging audiences around the world with stories that fearlessly challenge viewers and keep them highly entertained all at once,” she adds. “The entire team at Netflix have been tremendous partners during every step of the process, supporting my creative vision and showing a continued dedication to the innovation that has made Netflix such a powerhouse. The Shondaland team and I are thrilled and excited to be expanding our relationship with our content partners at Netflix.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Naya Rivera‘s family is honoring her memory, and who she was as a daughter, sister, mother and artist, on the one-year anniversary of the Glee star’s tragic death.

Naya’s mother, Yolanda Previtire, told ABC News’ Juju Chang and Good Morning America the sadness associated with losing her daughter often becomes too much for her and her family to deal with.

“Sometimes we’re afraid of the sorrow being so heavy that we’re afraid for our own self, ’cause this is hard. There are no words to describe what we’re going through,” Yolanda said. “All we know is we have each other.”

Yolanda also noted that the family is in therapy to help with the shared trauma.

Naya’s younger sister, Nickayla Rivera, told GMA that what keeps them going is “taking that one day at a time and living it to the fullest, loving each other to the fullest, and not regretting anything. Because I know if we could go back, we’d hug a little bit harder.”

Yolanda added, “I feel Naya’s energy constantly telling me, ‘Mom, be happy. Don’t cry. I’m OK. Go get Josey. Have fun.’ And I feel that it’s coming from her.”

Naya Rivera went missing on July 8, 2020, at California’s Lake Piru, where she’d spent the day with her son, Josey Hollis Dorsey, who was four at the time and will be six in September. After failing to return the boat they had rented for the day, a search began for Naya and Josey. The child was found, wearing a life jacket, alone in the vessel, with Naya nowhere in sight.

Naya’s body was found five days after she went missing. The actress’ death was ruled an accidental drowning and she was laid to rest on July 24, 2020. She was 33.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Marvel Studios has just released the trailer to its animated What If…? series for Disney+, which features the last performance of the late Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman as King T’Challa.

For Marvel Comics fans, issues of What If…? broke with the usual narratives and saw characters swap storylines and powers — and that’s what the series will do.

The MCU’s cast members returned to play their animated alter-egos. Here, Boseman’s T’Challa/Black Panther will swap places with Chris Pratt‘s Star-Lord, buddying up with Michael Rooker‘s Ravager leader Yondu. 

Similarly, Hayley Atwell‘s Peggy Carter swaps places with Steve Rogers in taking the super soldier serum, becoming Captain Carter, and Michael B. Jordan‘s Killmonger is shown rescuing Tony Stark from the Afghanistan ambush that opened Iron Man. 

Acclaimed actor Jeffrey Wright voices the all-seeing The Watcher, whose divinity over time explores each story.

The series also features the voices of other MCU stars, including Josh Brolin again portraying the Mad Titan Thanos; Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury; Chris Hemsworth as Thor; Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones; and Dominic Cooper, who played Howard Stark in Captain America: The First Avenger and the Agent Carter series.

At least according to the snippet, it seems Howard dons the “cave suit” that his son wore on the big screen in 2008’s Iron Man — Captain Carter is shown riding the iron giant’s shoulder as it flies through the air. 

Back in 2019, ABC Audio broke the story that Cooper was working on What If…, and he explained, “[I]t was very exciting to play. And it’s very comical how those relationships which you’ve already established change if those ‘what ifs’ happened. And that’s what’s really exciting about that.” 

The series debuts on Disney+ on August 11. 

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

FX opened the lid Thursday on the twisted world of its upcoming spin-off series, American Horror Stories. Based on Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk‘s star-studded, Emmy-winning series American Horror Story, the new series will showcase a new creepy story every week, as opposed to the flagship show’s seasonal shifting setting.

American Horror Stories features a diverse cast, including AHS: Coven veteran Billie Lourd, Paris Jackson, Merrin Dungey, and Kaia Gerber, also known as the daughter of Cindy Crawford and entrepreneur and producer Rande Gerber.

The new anthology series premieres July 15, exclusively on FX on Hulu.

American Horror Story has earned 16 Emmys since it launched in 2011, including acting wins in the Limited Series or Movie category. James Cromwell earned the outstanding Supporting Actor trophy in 2013 for his work in AHS: Asylum, and Jessica Lange took the Outstanding Lead Actress and Kathy Bates the Outstanding Supporting Actress trophies for 2014’s American Horror Story: Coven.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The cast for Bachelor in Paradise season 7 has been revealed.

After skipping the 2020 season due to the pandemic, the popular Bachelor spin-off — which features fan favorites from both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette returning for another shot at love — is finally back, with 19 contestants ready to find romance at a beachside Mexican resort.

This season, the only two contestants to have previously competed on Bachelor in Paradise are Joe Amabile from Becca Kufrin‘s season of The Bachelorette, and Tahzjuan Hawkins from Colton Underwood‘s season of The Bachelor.

Fresh off competing for Katie Thurston‘s heart on the current Bachelorette season is Karl Smith. The rest of this season’s contestants all appeared in Bachelor or Bachelorette seasons featuring Peter Weber, Clare Crawley, Tayshia Adams or Matt James.

In addition to a new cast, ABC News previously confirmed that a series of celebrities would be taking over hosting duties on Bachelor in Paradise in the wake of longtime host Chris Harrison‘s departure from the franchise. They include NSYNC singer Lance Bass, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt star Tituss Burgess, rapper Lil Jon and comedian David Spade.

Bachelor in Paradise season 7 premieres Monday, Aug. 16, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Here are the contestants:

Abigail Heringer of The Bachelor 25 (Matt’s season)
Brendan Morais of The Bachelorette 16 (Clare and Tayshia’s season)
Deandra Kanu of The Bachelor 24 (Peter’s season)
Ivan Hall of The Bachelorette 16 (Clare and Tayshia)
Jessenia Cruz of The Bachelor 25 (Matt)
Joe Amabile of The Bachelorette 14 (Becca’s season)
Karl Smith of The Bachelorette 17 (Katie’s season)
Kelsey Weir of The Bachelor 24 (Peter)
Kenny Braasch of The Bachelorette 16 (Clare and Tayshia)
Mari Pepin-Solis of The Bachelor 25 (Matt)
Maurissa Gunn of The Bachelor 24 (Peter)
Natasha Parker of The Bachelor 24 (Peter)
Noah Erb of The Bachelorette 16 (Tayshia)
Serena Chew of The Bachelor 25 (Matt)
Serena Pitt of The Bachelor 25 (Matt)
Tahzjuan Hawkins of The Bachelor 23 (Colton’s season)
Tammy Ly of The Bachelor 24 (Peter)
Victoria Larson of The Bachelor 25 (Matt)
Victoria Paul of The Bachelor 24 (Peter)

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

It looks like fans want to get back to theaters, and according to Fandango, what they want to see is Black Widow.

Advanced ticket sales for standalone adventure starring Scarlett Johansson‘s titular super-spy are the biggest of the year for the retailer, outpacing Fandango sales numbers of A Quiet Place Part II and F9, which are the pandemic period’s biggest hits to date. In fact, the ticket sales for Black Widow are even besting those for pre-pandemic Marvel hits Spider-Man: Homecoming and Doctor Strange.

Fandango conducted a survey of 4,000 advance ticket buyers for Black Widow, noting — no surprise — that 97% are champing at the bit just to see a new Marvel Studios movie in theaters. Of course, 96% say they’ll stay for Black Widow’s post-credit scene — perhaps prompting the question, what’s wrong with the other 4%?

Eighty-one percent say they want to see Black Widow on the biggest screen possible, and 79% say they’ve wanted to see ScarJo in a stand-alone movie for “a very long time.”

Black Widow, which also stars Florence Pugh, Rachel Weisz and David Harbour, opens Friday. 

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

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson just revealed on Instagram that his much-anticipated action comedy Red Notice will drop on Netflix on November 12. 

“I’m officially serving you your notice,” Johnson told his 252 million followers, capping it with the “siren” emoji.

In Red Notice, Johnso plays “the FBI’s top profiler,” on the hunt for Gal Gadot‘s character, “the world’s most wanted art thief,” with Ryan Reynolds playing, “the greatest conman the world has ever seen.” 

Johnson previously starred with Gadot in the fifth Fast & Furious installment, and with Reynolds in the Fast spin-off Hobbs & Shaw.

Star and co-producer Johnson shouted out his pals, saying, “Thank you to my insanely talented (and highly unattractive) costars @gal_gadot & @vancityreynolds [Reynolds] for our globetrotting heist,” revealing a photo of the movie’s stars. Wonder Woman star Gadot looks stunning in a red gown, flanked by Reynolds in a white dinner jacket, and Rock in a black tuxedo. 

For his part, Reynolds tweeted, “True story. They made my entire tuxedo out of one of @TheRock’s socks.”

Ryan added, “last piece of gossip: @GalGadot is wonderful.”

Johnson also thanked “205 million+ Netflix subscribers who are already making #RedNotice the most highly anticipated movie on the platform in 2021.” He added, “This is my career first streaming film and I wanted to make it big and special for all the fans worldwide.”

Red Notice was supposed to debut in theaters for Universal Pictures, but Netflix scooped up distribution rights in 2019. The film’s title refers to INTERPOL’s alert for the world’s most wanted fugitives.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by therock (@therock)

True story. They made my entire tuxedo out of one of @TheRock’s socks.

Also, true… #RedNotice has a release date of Nov. 12th on @Netflix.

Last piece of gossip: @GalGadot is wonderful. pic.twitter.com/pJuMMV64RF

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) July 8, 2021

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Black Widow star O-T Fagbenle admits he took a bit of a crash course in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to channel his character of Rick Mason, an ally from Natasha Romanoff’s/Black Widow’s S.H.I.E.L.D. past.

“I didn’t know anything about the dude,” Fagbenle reveals to ABC Audio, before sharing he also had a hand in cultivating his character.

“My Bible for [Rick Mason] was Eric [Pearson]’s script and figuring it out between me, Cate [Shortland], our director, and Scarlett [Johansson] — what our backstory was,” he says.  “That’s really what brought Rick Mason to the screen.”

Fagbenle, who calls Mason “Black Widow’s Q [from 007 lore], or like what Batman is to Alfred,” says his character’s connection to Romanoff is bigger than the “covert operations specialist” figure from the comics.

“[He’s] the person who like hooks up with all the gadgets and stuff — you need a ship, you need a plane, whatever,” Fagbenle says. “But what was interesting to me… is that he’s got a relationship with Natasha Romanoff which isn’t just platonic — isn’t just a work relationship.”

“There’s a deeper dynamic going on there,” he continues. “And I think that’s one of the things that’s interesting about the movie, is you get to see the 3D view of Black Widow.”

While bringing Rick Mason to life could be described as somewhat challenging, Fagbenle says keeping mum on his MCU character for three years, was actually pretty easy.

“It wasn’t that hard for me,” Fagbenle laughs. “Like on Tuesday, I’m spending time with my mom. And then in the evening, I’m talking to my niece and nephew and I’m doing work… I’m doing other stuff. So when people ask me, I’m like, ‘Oh, I can’t talk about that.’ And then I’m getting on with the rest of my day.”

Marvel Studios’ Black Widow hits theaters tomorrow.

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

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Angela Bassett, who played Chadwick Boseman‘s onscreen mother in Black Panther, wasn’t able to reveal much about the movie’s upcoming sequel, Wakanda Forever, but did promise that the film will honor the late actor.

Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Bassett — who plays Ramonda, the mother of Boseman’s character, King T’Challa, aka Black Panther — revealed just how much work and detail is being poured into the sequel, the production of which has just begun.

“There have been about five incarnations of the script and I hear another one’s coming,” she disclosed.  Because of the current fluid state of the plot, Bassett said of the movie, “I don’t know what it’s going to look like at all.”

However, Bassett assured fans the film will honor Boseman.

“Of course, with our dear king going on to glory, a lot of things had to be shifted and changed, so thankfully, Ryan [Coogler] and Joe Robert Cole, they’re just such masterful storytellers that they’ve found a way into this world,” Bassett promised. “And, hopefully it will be satisfying, I think, for the fans and it will be honorable of our Chad. We love our king.”

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige announced last year that the role of T’Challa would not be recast following Boseman’s death in August at age 43 after a private battle with cancer.  Instead, Feige vowed Wakanda Forever would focus on “furthering the mythology and the inspiration of Wakanda.”

The sequel is slated to premiere in theaters a year from today — July 8, 2022.

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

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.