Entertainment

The events of John Wick: Chapter 4 led audiences to believe that Keanu Reeves‘ titular hitman was literally dead and buried, but if the movies have taught us anything, Baba Yaga is pretty hard to kill.

Producers Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee helped turn the unknown property to a four-film franchise. The pair also backed Peacock’s upcoming spinoff prequel series, The Continental.

“I’d be shocked if we didn’t see Keanu as John sometime in the future,” Iwanyk explained, adding, “I just don’t know what it would look like.”

Lee expressed a return “has to be right,” and Iwanyk agreed. “I think that we all would love to bring the band back together because we all truly love each other. We’ve been on this journey and it’s been crazy,” Iwaynk expressed.

He added the caveat, “But we also know that we have an incredible amount of goodwill from the audience. And so if the audience starts thinking that we’re just cashing paychecks on John Wicks, we don’t want them to turn on us.”

Iwanyk explained, “If we can figure out what it looks like and what the story is, then there will be another one. Right now, we don’t know what that is, but that could change the next hour or can never change.”

He continued, “At the end of every movie, Keanu just giving 180%. He’s so beat up. It’s like, ‘I can never do this again.’ Then he gets some rest. And then the critics like the movie. It’s commercially successful. We go on a press junket, we’re reminded why we all like [each other] personally, and you kind of go, ‘God, we got to do this again sometime, right?'” 

The Continental, starring Colin Woodell, Mel Gibson and Ayomide Adegun, debuts Friday, September 22, on Peacock.

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In the new Warner Brothers teaser for the upcoming musical drama The Color Purple, Oprah Winfrey, Jon Batiste and other cast and crew share their experience filming the beloved project. 

Winfrey, star of the original 1985 film and producer of the 2023 adaptation, opened up about the film’s significance.

“There’s nothing that’s been more important or vital to me culturally, artistically than The Color Purple,” she said. “It is a solid base of spiritual and emotional power for me.”

Winfrey added that the musical’s story is for anyone who has felt “unseen and unvalued.”

Director Blitz Bazawule echoed Winfrey’s sentiment about the film’s cultural impact, saying that the original “is one of the cornerstones of culture — certainly Black culture.” 

Ciara, who plays Nettie, acknowledged the “modern twist” Bazawule has added to the revamped version while “still capturing the essence of what this film means.” 

Fantasia, who plays Nettie’s sister, Celie, said that with the film, they aim to “connect with the younger generation.”

“It’s a human story and that’s what makes it ultimately great and enduring,” Jon Batiste added. 

Joining the singers as part of the cast are stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Corey Hawkins, Colman Domingo, H.E.R., Halle Bailey, Danielle Brooks, Taraji P. Henson and a host of other top entertainers. 

The Color Purple is produced by the 1985 film’s director Steven Spielberg, Scott Sanders and Quincy Jones. The film’s screenplay is written by Marcus Gardley, based on the stage musical and the 1982 novel of the same name by Alice Walker. The film, due out December 25, chronicles the story of lifelong struggles of Black women living in the South during the early 1900s.

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Arsema Thomas‘ role as young Lady Danbury in the Bridgerton spinoff, Queen Charlotte, came as relatively unexpected for the star, who had initially planned a career in public health. Although she changed course to pursue acting, Thomas decided to amplify a different passion: her activism.

The 29-year-old actress joined natural product brand Tom’s of Maine as a spokesperson for their Incubator Program, which serves as a resource for young leaders from marginalized communities who drive environmental solutions. In conversation with ABC Audio, Thomas shared that advocacy for underrepresented voices has been a lifelong value, fostered by her parents.

Her mother, who is Ethiopian, and father, who is Nigerian, reminded her that her voice matters — as do those that aren’t listened to.

“In our household, my dad always corrected me, he would say, ‘These people are not voiceless, they’re just not listened to.'”

Those words of wisdom stuck with Thomas: “If I use my privilege to make sure that everybody can be heard, then the world makes more sense.“

Something that also makes sense to Thomas is the local-action approach to social advancements, like that of the Incubator Program, which she calls “the most powerful way of fomenting change.”

Because “Black and brown, queer, indigenous bodies are always the ones who are marginalized — everywhere.” So why not start small to achieve big, Thomas explained of her thought process.

The partnership is just one way the actress plans to continue her advocacy work — and in doing so, fulfilling her life’s mission.

“I realized that I don’t have … any business being in this world, unless the reason is for something outside of me,” she said.

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Nicolas Cage becomes the world’s recurring dream in the new trailer to the dark comedy Dream Scenario, which is set, appropriately, to The Cranberries‘ hit “Dreams.”

The movie from Oscar-winning Everything Everywhere All at Once studio A24 recently debuted to acclaim at the Toronto Film Festival.

In the film from writer-director Kristoffer Borgli, Cage plays Paul Matthews, a “remarkable nobody” of a college professor who becomes world-famous when he starts popping into strangers’ sleepy-times.

Paul’s mysterious appearances take him from a curiosity to a viral sensation. But things take a nightmare turn, literally, when his dream guest spots go from benevolent cameos to horrifying starring roles. And when Paul starts haunting their sleep, angry former fans start haunting him in real life.

Dream Scenario, also starring Emmy winner Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera, Tim Meadows, Dylan Baker and Kate Berlant, opens in theaters November 10.

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Shannen Doherty shed some tears over the weekend after she received a standing ovation while participating on a panel at 90s Con with her fellow Beverly Hills, 90210 cast members.

The actress, who starred in the hit ’90s show with Tori Spelling, Jennie Garth, Jason Priestley, Ian Ziering and the late Luke Perry, thanked fans in the audience as they and her cast mates applauded her. Garth, Brian Austin Green, Gabrielle Carteris, Priestley, Ziering and Spelling were present at the event in Tampa, Florida.

“Thank you so much,” she said. “You guys know how much I love crying constantly. And I do, it seems. So, thank you.”

Breanne L. Heldman, the senior editor of TV at People, who was in attendance and moderated some of the panels at the convention, said the energy in the room was “outrageous.”

“Both the actors and the fans got up and gave her this huge standing ovation,” Heldman told Good Morning America. “All the actors stood up; I stood up; the applause was loud. She got very emotional. She definitely was feeling the love and it meant so much to her. It was a really powerful moment.”

In June, Doherty revealed with an Instagram video that she had surgery in January to remove a metastatic tumor in her head.

“This is what cancer can look like,” she wrote in the caption of the post.

Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. In 2020, she told GMA that the disease had spread and returned as stage 4.

Doherty didn’t share a health update while at 90s Con, but told fans that she is fighting every day.

“I have a fight for my life that I deal with every day,” Doherty said. “I think I am really great.”

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For a show dealing with slipping through time, a most appropriate switch-up: Loki will now kick off Thursday, October 5, at 9 p.m. ET.

It had been previously announced that the show would debut the following day, but like it did with another Disney+ show, the streaming service slotted its new Loki episodes to drop early so fans on the East Coast won’t have to stay up until 3 a.m. ET, as some did for season 1.

Along with the announcement on social media came a behind-the-scenes look at the sophomore frame of the show, which was filmed before the SAG-AFTRA strikes.

Apart from eye-popping visuals — and not a little goofing around on-set — the peek has Everything Everywhere All at Once Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan noting how “grateful” he is to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a key role in season 2.

Executive producer Kevin R. Wright teases, “Loki has always been a villain. What we want to explore is also Loki finding out what heroism really looks like.”

Star Tom Hiddleston notes of his titular god of mischief’s progression from the first season to this one, “He’s found a new family. There’s a new capacity to make connections. He realizes that those connections are all that matter in the end.”

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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On Monday evening, September 18, Chris Pratt reposted a speech he gave a week prior, as the keynote speaker for Pepperdine University’s remembrance ceremony on the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Pratt was invited after he posted to Instagram last year a photo of the nearly 3,000 flags representing the victims of the attacks that the university installed in Alumni Park on its Malibu campus.

It was there, this year, that Pratt recalled for an audience of more than 1,000 Pepperdine students, faculty, staff, and alumni, his horror at seeing the attacks on TV from New Zealand, where he was filming.

The Jurassic World and Marvel movie star urged the audience not to forget the “9/11 effect” — the feeling of patriotism the country felt after the attacks, and had a message for the younger generation too young to have felt it firsthand.

“And I say this gently to those who are immersed in their own worlds and who think their country doesn’t need them — and I say this with some urgency — it is your torch to carry. Your country needs you,” Pratt expressed.

“I feel called to be of service…To help other people better…comprehend what has and what continues to make America the great shining beacon on the hill.”

He added, “We need each other, man. We’re on the same team. We are the United States of America. When we are ‘One Nation Under God’ we are indivisible.”

In reposting the speech, Pratt noted in part, “…Let’s carry the torch forward, ensuring that the lessons of 9/11 continue to shape our future and inspire generations to come.”

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While other daytime talk shows have paused shortly after announcing their returns, Sherri Shepherd launched the second season of her syndicated show, Sherri, on Monday, September 18 as promised, and she opened the program by explaining why her show doesn’t violate WGA strike rules.

The 56-year-old actress and comedian began by declaring that she’s a SAG-AFTRA actress and marched with some of her colleagues while in Los Angeles recently.

“But here’s the thing, talk shows in general fall under a different union contract code, so we’re allowed to come back unless you’re a WGA show,” she continued. “The Sherri show is not a WGA show and we have never employed WGA writers, so us coming back to work isn’t crossing the picket line.”

“As a comic, my comedic take on the headlines is my voice. I write the jokes. I’m the writer … Producers help me shape my words. That’s why we don’t have WGA writers at Sherri,” Shepherd explained. “My heart is breaking for all of the people that can’t work right now and I hope our industry can get this strike resolved soon.”

“I stand in solidarity with my union,” she added.

Addressing a couple of the union’s issues, Shepherd noted, “Residuals during times that I was not working kept the lights on. My residual payments helped me care for Jeffrey when he was born at 25 weeks. So good residual payments are important to actors.”

“And the big sticking point is Artificial Intelligence — which could replace working actors from working. And it could replace writers. I’m here to tell you, A.I. can’t replace all of this sass,” she joked.

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Dr. Ben Song encounters UFOs, Nazis, witches and spies as he continues his thrilling journey through time in the action-packed season 2 trailer for NBC’s Quantum Leap sequel, released on Monday, September 18. The new version follows Song — a world-renowned physicist played by Raymond Lee — as he travels through different moments in time hoping to return home. Eliza Taylor and Peter Gadiot join the cast of Quantum Leap‘s second season, which premieres October 4 on NBC…

Netflix has nabbed the Richard Linklater-helmed Hit Man, starring Glen Powell and Adria Arjona, according to Deadline. The plot follows Powell as an undercover Houston police officer who poses as a hitman to arrest those trying to hire him, until he falls in love with a mysterious and gorgeous young woman — played by Arjona — who wants him to kill her husband. Powell and Linklater co-wrote the screenplay, based on the 2001 Texas Monthly magazine article of the same name by Skip Hollandsworth…

After a month-long hiatus, the Writers Guild of America will meet on Wednesday, September 20 with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to resume negotiations, the WGA confirmed in an email to its members. “The WGA and AMPTP now have a confirmed schedule to bargain this week, starting on Wednesday,” the guild in the message. “You might not hear from us in the coming days while we are negotiating, but know that our focus is getting a fair deal for writers as soon as possible. We’ll reach out again when there is something of significance to report.” The two sides last met at the AMPTP headquarters in Sherman Oaks on August 18…

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Whoopi Goldberg came to comedian Hasan Minhaj‘s defense during the Monday, September 18 episode of ABC’s The View.

“That’s what we do … tell stories and we embellish them,” noted Goldberg, 67. “If you’re gonna hold a comic to the point where you’re gonna check up on stories, you have to understand, a lot of it is not the exact thing that happened because why would we tell exactly what happened? It ain’t that interesting.”

“There’s information that we will give you as comics that will have grains of truth, but don’t take it to the bank,” she added. “That’s our job, a seed of truth. Sometimes truth and sometimes total BS.”

Goldberg’s comments come after, in a New Yorker profile, Minhaj, 37, admitted to making up some of the stories he told in past standup specials.

“Every story in my style is built around a seed of truth. My comedy Arnold Palmer is 70% emotional truth — this happened — and then 30% hyperbole, exaggeration, fiction,” Minhaj said. 

“No, I don’t think I’m manipulating [the audience],” the former Daily Show correspondent added. “I think they are coming for the emotional roller-coaster ride…To the people that are, like, ‘Yo, that is way too crazy to happen,’ I don’t care because yes, f*** yes — that’s the point.”

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