WWE superstar Drew McIntyre is taking his talents to the big screen. Deadline reports that McIntyre has joined the cast of the upcoming Amazon MGM Studios film Highlander. He will play Angus MacLeod, the brother of Henry Cavill‘s character. The film is being directed by Chad Stahelski and also stars Russell Crowe, MarisaAbela, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, Max Zhang and Dave Bautista …
Luke Wilsonhas joinedWill Ferrell‘s upcoming Netflix series. The currently-untitled show will be Ferrell’s first-ever TV comedy, where he will star as a fictional golf legend. Wilson will play a fellow golf pro who has beaten Ferrell’s character at the tour championship twice before. Molly Shannon will also star in the 10-episode series …
Speaking of Netflix, its series The Diplomathas upped stars Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford to series regulars for the upcoming fourth season. This comes ahead of the show’s season 3 premiere on Oct. 16 …
‘One Battle After Another’ main poster (Alon Amir)
Paul Thomas Anderson‘s One Battle After Another topped the box office this weekend, taking in $22.4 million.
The comedy action thriller, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is loosely based on Thomas Pynchon‘s 1990 novel Vineland, about a former revolutionary living off the grid who is forced out of hiding when his enemy resurfaces.
Coming at number two this week is the children’s film Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie with $13.7 million. The week’s only other new release to crack the top 10 is the horror sequel The Strangers: Chapter 2, coming in at number five with $5.9 million.
1. One Battle After Another — $22.4 million 2. Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie — $13.7 million 3. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie – Infinity Castle — $7.1 million 4. The Conjuring: Last Rites — $6.86 million 5. The Strangers: Chapter 2 — $5.9 million 6. Him — $3.65 million 7. The Long Walk — $3.4 million 8. Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale — $3.3 million 9. Spider-Man/Spider-Man 2/Spider-Man 3 — $2.25 million 10. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey — $1.25 million
Jimmy Kimmel appears on his show, ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ (Randy Holmes/Disney)
Broadcast groups Nexstar and Sinclair have announced they are ending their preemptions of Jimmy Kimmel Live!
The broadcast groups, which own a combined total of around 60 ABC affiliate stations, according to their websites, both announced Friday afternoon that the show will return to airwaves on the affiliate stations starting Friday evening.
In a statement, Sinclair said, “Our objective throughout this process has been to ensure that programming remains accurate and engaging for the widest possible audience.”
It added, “We take seriously our responsibility as local broadcasters to provide programming that serves the interests of our communities, while also honoring our obligations to air national network programming.”
The company added that during the preemption, it “received thoughtful feedback from viewers, advertisers, and community leaders representing a wide range of perspectives.”
“We have also witnessed troubling acts of violence, including the despicable incident of a shooting at an ABC affiliate station in Sacramento,” Sinclair continued, saying “these events underscore why responsible broadcasting matters and why respectful dialogue between differing voices remains so important.”
The company said it proposed suggestions to ABC moving forward, including “measures to strengthen accountability, viewer feedback, and community dialogue, including a network-wide independent ombudsman.”
According to the statement, ABC has yet to adopt the measures. Sinclair said it believes “such measures could strengthen trust and accountability.”
It added, “While we understand that not everyone will agree with our decisions about programming, it is simply inconsistent to champion free speech while demanding that broadcasters air specific content.”
Nexstar released a statement on Friday, announcing the return of Kimmel’s show to its airwaves and saying the company “remains committed to protecting the First Amendment while producing and airing local and national news that is fact-based and unbiased and, above all, broadcasting content that is in the best interest of the communities we serve.”
The statement continued, “We stand apart from cable television, monolithic streaming services, and national networks in our commitment — and obligation — to be stewards of the public airwaves and to protect and reflect the specific sensibilities of our communities.”
The broadcaster added that its “commitment to those principles has guided our decisions throughout this process, independent of any external influence from government agencies or individuals.”
The Walt Disney Co., the parent company of ABC, previously announced Kimmel would return to its airwaves on Tuesday evening after his late-night show was preempted by the network for nearly a week.
After that announcement, Sinclair and Nexstar each released statements of their own, saying then that they would continue to preempt the show.
“Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming. Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return,” Sinclair stated at the time.
In a separate statement at the time, Nexstar said, “We made a decision last week to preempt ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ following what ABC referred to as Mr. Kimmel’s ‘ill-timed and insensitive’ comments at a critical time in our national discourse. We stand by that decision pending assurance that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve.”
It added, “In the meantime, we note that ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ will be available nationwide on multiple Disney-owned streaming products, while our stations will focus on continuing to produce local news and other programming relevant to their respective markets.”
In a more than 15-minute monologue at the top of his show on Tuesday, Kimmel gave an impassioned defense of free speech, needled the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and President Donald Trump, and explained his previous comments about the response to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
ABC first announced that Kimmel’s show would be preempted “indefinitely” on Sept. 17, following Kimmel’s comments regarding Kirk’s death.
Before the network’s decision to preempt the show was announced last week, FCC Chair Brendan Carr suggested that Kimmel should be suspended over the comments.
“There’s calls for Kimmel to be fired. I think, you know, you could certainly see a path forward for suspension over this and again, you know, the FCC is going to have remedies that we could look at,” Carr said on a podcast with conservative commentator Benny Johnson at that time.
Unions that represent entertainment professionals and TV writers condemned the move.
The actors Justin Timberlake, Andrew Garfield and Jesse Eisenberg attend a photocall to promote the film ‘The Social Network’ on October 5, 2010, in Berlin, Germany. (Anita Bugge/WireImage via Getty Images)
The Social Network sequel is officially a go.
Aaron Sorkin will write and direct the upcoming sequel film, which has the title The Social Reckoning, ABC Audio has learned. Additionally, Sony Pictures has set the theatrical release for the upcoming film as Oct. 9, 2026.
The star-studded ensemble cast will consist of Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White, Bill Burr and JeremyStrong. The latter will play Facebook creator and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The Social Reckoning will serve as a companion piece to the 2010 hit film. This movie will tell the “true story of how Frances Haugen (Madison), a young Facebook engineer, enlists the help of Jeff Horwitz (White), a Wall Street Journal reporter, to go on a dangerous journey that ends up blowing the whistle on the social network’s most guarded secrets,” according to a synopsis.
Horowitz wrote a series of articles in October 2021 known as The Facebook Files. They exposed the inner workings and harms caused by Facebook.
The Social Network was nominated for 10 Academy Awards including best picture. It won three, including the best adapted screenplay award for Sorkin’s script. That film starred Rooney Mara, Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer and Jesse Eisenberg, who played Zuckerberg.
Host Nate Bargatze speaks during the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater, Sept. 14, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Emmys host Nate Bargatze is responding to critical reviews of a key part of his hosting performance earlier this month.
“A lot of the reviews did not like the Boys & Girls Clubs thing,” Bargatze said on a recent episode of The Nateland Podcast.
At the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sept. 14, Bargatze explained he would start the show with a base $100,000 donation to The Boys & Girls Clubs of America and would add $1,000 for every second under 45 seconds an acceptance speech took and subtract $1,000 for every second over 45 seconds.
The setup did not go as planned, and at times throughout the show the total donation number dipped below zero. In the end Bargatze decided to kick his donation up to $250,000, while CBS added another $100,000.
The charity challenge drew mixed reactions online.
“It came from a real place of heart,” Bargatze said Wednesday. “Everybody at home loved it. Everybody at home liked it. It was fun. It was entertaining seeing money go down.”
Bargatze said he anticipated all the stars at the event would see it as a lighthearted joke the way he did.
“In my head, I wasn’t trying to put anybody on the spot. I wasn’t trying to make someone donate money. In my head I kind of thought, like, make it fun. Do what John Oliver did, where John Oliver, like, stuck it to me,” he said, referencing Oliver’s comically hurried speech, forcing Bargatze to donate more money.
“We had the kids there. We’re not using the charity as a tool,” he continued, saying he wanted it to be “fun.”
Bargatze said CBS, which aired the Emmys, was “amazing” and supportive of the idea.
The comedian said the intention of the gag was not to “overshadow any of their speeches” and said he thought that companies behind the winning shows would donate to make up for the stars’ longer speeches.
“In my head, I pictured it as they could then go long but then be a hero,” he said of his perception that studios would foot the bill. “So it was like a win-win … and then the night becomes about love, and you’re giving to these kids that are there.”
Bargatze said the setup to the bit may have been the issue. “I don’t know if I just didn’t explain it enough in the room,” he said.
Bargatze also said his decision to donate at the end of the night was not planned. “I wasn’t going to give that money at the end. Like I wasn’t thinking I was going to have to. But the way it went, I was like, ‘Well I can’t—I’m not going to not,” he said.
In an Instagram post the night of the Emmys, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America wrote, “Saying thank you in 45 seconds or less just won’t do. From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU, @natebargatze & @cbstv, for including our Club Kids in such an unforgettable night. Your generosity and jokes made it magic and we’re beyond grateful to be part of it.”
Ryan Seacrest & Vanna White on ‘Celebrity Wheel of Fortune’ (Disney)
Celebrity Wheel of Fortune returns to ABC starting Sept. 26. This marks the first time that new Wheel of Fortune host Ryan Seacrest has done the celebrity version of the game. While co-host Vanna White has been there since the beginning, she says it’s not up to her to show Seacrest the ropes.
“Honestly, the celebrities are the ones who are showing him the way, because they are full of energy and full of life and used to being in front of the camera,” White tells ABC Audio. “So he’s working with them throughout the whole show. You know, I’m just turning my little letters!”
Some of the stars competing this season for a chance to win $1 million for their favorite charity include Dancing With the Stars‘ Derek Hough, WNBA champ Candace Parker, the stars of The Hunting Wives and New Kid on the Block‘s Joey McIntyre among others.
Over the six seasons of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, White says one of her favorite stars to play the game was skateboarding legend Tony Hawk.
“When my son was 12, he went to his camp and Tony signed a helmet for him,” she recalls. “So I brought in the helmet to show him. And it just, that was special to me because it was something from my son, my family.”
White also gives Seacrest the thumbs-up as the new regular Wheel of Fortune host; he took over for Pat Sajak this year.
“He’s wonderful to work with. He is so professional. He’s so good at what he does,” she says. “And after working with Pat for 42 years, I was scared having somebody new … but he stepped into his shoes … he is doing an awesome job.”
The official trailer for A House of Dynamite has blown onto the scene. Netflix has released a new trailer for the upcoming ensemble thriller film directed by Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow. The movie arrives to the streaming platform on Oct. 24 after a limited global theatrical run starting on Oct. 10. Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, Jonah Hauer-King and Greta Lee make up the film’s cast …
Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse is swinging into a brand-new release date. Rather than it being another delay, however, the Sony Pictures Animation film has now been moved up by one week. The upcoming Spider-Verse movie will arrive in theaters on June 18, 2027, the same day Pixar’s film Gatto is scheduled to release …
The winners of the contest to find the four-legged star of the upcoming movie Air Bud Returns have been announced. Air Bud Entertainment has revealed that two golden retrievers named Charlie and Summer have been selected as the winners of The Search for the Next Air Bud nationwide casting event. The dogs will now undergo training before making their debut in Air Bud Returns, which will arrive in theaters in fall 2026 …
The movie, which is Scarlett Johansson‘s directorial debut, follows a 94-year-old whose fib told during a time of immense grief takes on a dangerous life of its own.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Erin Kellyman co-star in the film, and they say it was wonderful to watch Squibb act every day on set.
“She was so brilliant to work with. It was really a lesson every day,” Kellyman said.
Ejiofor said while “everybody knows that she’s a terrific actress,” Squibb’s performance in Eleanor the Great “is really something special.”
“The range of emotions that she can take the audience on, from, you will be laughing with her — hysterically laughing, side splitting — and then you’re really emotional, and you’re with her at the next moment. It’s really incredible.”
While you’d be hard-pressed to find someone unfamiliar with Johansson as an actress, the Eleanor the Great cast has the distinct understanding of who she is as a director.
Ejiofor says Johansson was a great communicator and very charismatic on set.
“Those two things in combination just means that she’s able to really get people on board and is able to communicate her vision,” Ejiofor said, adding that Johansson’s vision was “quite complicated in its themes and some of the tonalities and some of the shifts in it. And she was really very specific about what she wanted from each moment and the kind of experience that she wanted the film to be.”
Ejiofor said it was helpful to be directed by someone who is also an actor themselves.
“You can’t slip anything past her because she sees it, but she can also really direct the action,” Ejiofor said. “It’s a rare skill.”
Eleanor the Great is now available to watch in theaters.
Any TV star would want Taylor Swift to make a cameo appearance on their show, but the stars of the new Hulu series Chad Powers think it would actually make sense for the superstar to pop up on their show.
Chad Powers stars Glen Powell as a college football star named Russ Holliday, who torpedoes his career after disgracing himself during a championship game. He then disguises himself as a completely different player named Chad Powers and joins another team, where he’s successful, but can’t reveal his secret identity.
The football theme of the show should make it attractive to Taylor, the stars argue. While speaking to Variety, co-star Perry Mattfeld joked, “We’ll make sure she sees the series and she’ll get it. I’m hoping because of Travis [Kelce], she’ll watch and then we’ll connect and talk offense.”
Powell added, “You already got me thinking about Season 2 cameos. T-Swift comin’ in hot.” We’ll see if it gets a second season: the first one premieres Sept. 30.
Disney is the parent company of ABC News and Hulu.
The table read for ‘Spaceballs 2.’ (Amazon MGM Studios)
Rick Moranis has officially returned to acting as production has started on Spaceballs 2.
The actor has ended his live-action acting hiatus to be part of the cast of the upcoming sci-fi parody comedy film. Amazon MGM Studios made the full casting announcement for the sequel movie on Thursday.
Joining Moranis in the film’s cast are Josh Gad, Keke Palmer, Lewis Pullman, Anthony Carrigan, GeorgeWyner, Daphne Zuniga and Bill Pullman. They will all act alongside the film’s previously announced star, MelBrooks.
While Moranis, Zuniga, Bill Pullman, Brooks and Wyner will reprise the roles they originated in the 1987 cult-classic film, Gad, Palmer, Lewis Pullman and Carrigan join the project as brand-new characters whose identities are being kept under wraps.
Amazon MGM Studios also shared a photo of the Spaceballs 2 cast and crew at a table read. “Spaceballs The Table Read,” the company captioned the post.
Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar director Josh Greenbaum is helming the film from a script Gad co-wrote with Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez. Details of its plot “are being kept under lock, key, and an industrial-strength Schwartz shield,” according to a press release.
While Moranis has voiced a few animated characters over the past couple decades, Spaceballs 2 marks his first live-action film role since 1997.
Brooks first announced the film was happening in a video message shared in June.
“After 40 years we asked, ‘What do the fans want?’ But, instead, we’re making this movie,” Brooks said in the announcement video. He signed off by saying, “May the Schwartz be with you!”
Spaceballs 2 is expected to arrive in theaters in 2027.
