Entertainment

Netflix feels it has found treasure with Lara Croft.

The streamer debuted Tomb Raider: The Legend Of Lara Croft on Oct. 10, and on Friday it announced the series, which features the voice of Marvel movie veteran Hayley Atwell as the titular adventurer, will be getting a second season.

While season 1 of the anime was more of an origin story, Netflix’s Tudum blog says, “Season 2 looks to advance her character from somewhat of a rookie to her journey to becoming the icon we know today.”

The streamer teases of the sophomore frame, “[W]hen adventurer Lara Croft discovers a trail of stolen African Orisha masks, she joins forces with her best friend Sam to retrieve the precious artifacts.”

Netflix continues, “Lara’s thrilling new adventure takes her around the globe as she delves deeper into the hidden secrets of Orisha history, dodges the machinations of a dangerous and enigmatic billionaire who wants the masks for herself, while discovering these relics contain dark secrets and a power that defies logic. Power that may, in fact, be divine.”

Writer and executive producer Tasha Huo explains, “Season 1, thematically, is about Lara embracing how her dad dealt with grief, which was isolating,” adding, “As we get into Season 2, we’re trying to build Lara’s team over the course of the show, so she goes from isolated hero, who only wants to do things on her own — a lone wolf — to realizing, ‘Actually, I have this really cool team behind me.'”

The video game heroine was previously brought to the big screen in 2001 and 2003 with Angelina Jolie in the title role. In 2018, Tomb Raider was rebooted successfully with Alicia Vikander in the lead.

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The reviews for Venom: The Last Dance haven’t been kind, but the threequel starring Tom Hardy and his gooey alien sidekick scared up a respectable $8.5 million in Thursday sneak peeks in the U.S., according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

The trade reports that while the movie is expected to end the weekend with lower stateside box office receipts than scored by the 2018 original and its 2021 sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, The Last Dance is already roaring overseas, which will help its overall bottom line.

THR says the movie is expected to earn $180 million globally over the weekend, which would be 5% higher than Carnage; it’s already made $14.7 million from China alone.

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While The Golden Bachelor and Bachelorette spin-offs have been hits, don’t expect to see Martha Stewart as a future contestant for the latter. 

In a recent segment of Watch What Happens Live opposite her bestie Snoop Dogg, Steward said plainly she would never appear on the show.

In fact, she said, “Absolutely not,” adding, “the guys aren’t hot enough.”

This apparently earned the icon a miffed DM from the Golden Bachelorette herself, Joan Vassos, she told Access Hollywood.

Vassos told the outlet, “I said, ‘OK, dating is hard out there and I had a great group of guys. She doesn’t know them like I know [them]. I got to know the inside of them as well as the outside. And, both are wonderful.”

Vassos added, “When they got out of the limos that first night and they started walking toward me, every single one of them did something memorable and made me want to get to know them more. I guess Martha didn’t watch or didn’t see what I saw in them, and maybe you have to be in person, I don’t know, but they were special guys.”

Her warm comments about her suitors aside, she also called them “awesome” — but didn’t call them “hot.” 

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Angelina Jolie takes center stage as opera singer Maria Callas in a brand-new trailer for the film Maria.

In the new look released Thursday, Jolie portrays the world-famous opera singer toward the end of her life.

“The film follows the American Greek soprano as she retreats to Paris after a glamorous and tumultuous life in the public eye. ‘Maria’ reimagines the legendary soprano in her final days as the diva reckons with her identity and life,” a Netflix description of the Pablo Larraín-directed project reads.

“I’d like to walk with you through your life,” an interviewer says at the beginning of the trailer, speaking with Jolie as Callas as Puccini‘s “O mio babbino caro” plays in the background.

Callas then reflects back on a life of fame and world renown in her career as an opera singer.

“Perhaps we can speak of your life away from the stage,” the interviewer suggests at one point.

“There is no life away from the stage,” Callas responds.

The trailer then shows several more clips of Jolie onstage and surrounded by cameras.

At another point in the trailer, Callas is informed, in a devastating turn, that her “voice will not return.”

The trailer closes with a shot of Callas seated at a table with her friends and close associates.

“My life is opera,” she says. “There is no reason in opera.”

Jolie stars in the film — her first since starring in Chloé Zhao‘s Eternals in 2021 — alongside Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, Haluk Bilginer and Kodi Smit-McPhee.

Maria is slated for wide release on Dec. 11, streaming on Netflix after playing select theaters on Nov. 27.

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The third and final season of the Prime Video series Good Omens will be short and sweet. The entire season will consist of one 90-minute episode. Neil Gaiman‘s fantasy series follows various characters, all trying to either encourage or prevent an imminent Armageddon, as seen through the eyes of the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley — played respectively by Michael Sheen and David Tennant. Jon Hamm also stars as Gabriel, the leader of the forces of Heaven. Gaiman, who had contributed to the writing of the series finale, will not be involved with the show when production resumes in 2025, after being accused of sexual assault by multiple women back in July …

Apple TV+ has set a premiere date for Prime Target, the new conspiracy thriller starring The White Lotus breakout Leo Woodall and Black Adam‘s Quintessa Swindell. The series, according to the streaming service, follows Woodall as a brilliant young mathematician on the verge of a major breakthrough that will give him the key to every computer in the world. An unseen enemy trying to destroy his idea throws him into the orbit of Taylah Sanders, a female NSA agent played by Swindell, who helps him unravel the conspiracy. The series launches with two episodes on Jan. 22 …

Variety reports Margot Robbie‘s production company LuckyChap is once again teaming up with its Barbie collaborators Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group for a feature film adaptation based on Emily Brontë‘s classic novel Wuthering Heights, in which she’ll star opposite Euphoria‘s Jacob Elordi. According to Variety, MRC is financing the film, LuckyChap is producing, and Emerald Fennell wrote and will direct and produce the adaptation …

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We’re heading back to the Sunflower State with martinis in hand one last time, as the third and final season of the HBO dramedy series Somebody Somewhere returns Sunday. 

Bridget Everett stars as Sam in the show, which is loosely based on her own life, and she reflected on what it’s like to have a TV show that so closely mirrors her experience.

“I think the last couple of years have been liberating and challenging because … I can be like, ‘Well, that’s a character.’ But a lot of times it is me or it is my feeling or is my experience. Sometimes it’s not,” she tells ABC Audio. 

So, what can we expect in season 3? 

Sam’s relationship with Joel, played by Jeff Hiller, has always been at the center of the series. Hannah Bos, co-creator and EP, shares how that will continue this season.

“In season 1, Joel sort of opens her up, then season 3, she’s open a little bit,” Bos says. “She has some room, they’ve influenced each other.”

How will Joel balance his bond with Sam and his budding relationship with Brad, played by Tim Bagley? Hiller hints, “Joel loves Brad and their relationship is beautiful. But there is this special connection that he has with Sam.” Paul Thureen, co-creator and EP, adds, “The story has always been about Sam and Joel, and I love where they end in this season.” 

And it’s not just Sam’s relationship with Joel that sees an evolution this season: Mary Catherine Garrison, who plays Sam’s sister Tricia, says that their relationship will see its own shift. “I think they’ve found this common ground, and they’ve found a way to relate to each other. And it’s like a new chapter for both of them.”

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This is heavy: Back to the Future: The Musical will officially close on Broadway on Jan. 5, 2025. 

The musical won an Olivier Award in the U.K. — where it has been playing for four years — and sold $80 million in tickets over its 18 months and over 500 performances at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City. After it pulls up stakes on the Great White Way, it will be headed to Germany in the 2025-26 season.

Back to the Future: The Musical currently stars Tony Award winner Roger Bart as Doc Brown, Casey Likes playing Marty McFly, Evan Alexander Smith as George McFly, Liana Hunt as Lorraine Baines, Nathaniel Hackmann as Biff Tannen and Jelani Remy as Goldie Wilson/Marvin Berry.

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Cruel Intentions, the cult classic film, is getting a new spin.

The trailer for the upcoming series, which is a new adaptation of the popular 1999 film, was released Thursday.

Like the film, the series packs a lot of drama and scandal and follows a similar plotline.

According to a press release for the series adaptation, the show “follows the elite students of Manchester College, a Washington, D.C.-adjacent university, where reputation means everything, fraternities and sororities are the gold standard, and two ruthless step-siblings, Caroline Merteuil and Lucien Belmont, will do anything to stay on top of the cutthroat social hierarchy.”

“After a brutal hazing incident threatens the entire Greek Life system, they’ll do whatever is necessary to preserve their power and reputation – even if that means seducing Annie Grover, the daughter of the Vice President of the United States,” the synopsis continues.

“Hearts will be broken, loyalties will be tested, and secrets will be revealed in this modern-day royal court that is Manchester College.”

The series stars a new group of actors, including Sarah Catherine Hook as Caroline Merteuil, Zac Burgess as Lucien Belmont, Savannah Lee Smith as Annie Grover and Sara Silva as Cece Carroway.

The 1999 Cruel Intentions film was based on Pierre Choderlos de Laclos‘ novel Les Liaisons Dangereuse, and starred Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon and Selma Blair.

Cruel Intentions will arrive on Nov. 21 on Prime Video.

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Timed to the release of Venom: The Last Dance, cellphone company Human Mobile Devices has melded with the titular alien symbiote seen in the hit franchise. 

Calling its new mobile device, Fusion, the world’s first “symbiotic smartphone,” HMD has created a glass case for it that contains a crawling, oozing Venom-like black liquid that squiggles and dances under the surface.

In reality, it’s not an alien, it’s a very expensive magnetic substance known as a ferrofluid, which is controlled by 160 electromagnetic arrays.

If that sounds like something you’d be afraid of dropping though your butterfingers, you’d be right — but you needn’t worry. While the Fusion phone is now available for preorder, complete with Venom alerts and other themed sound effects, there are only three of the cases in the world and they’re not available for purchase. 

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Ted Danson is making amends with Kelsey Grammer several years after a dispute while the pair acted on Cheers together.

Grammer appeared on Danson and Woody Harrelson‘s SiriusXM podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name on Wednesday, where he reunited with his former co-stars.

“I feel like I got stuck a little bit with you, during the Cheers years,” Danson told Grammer, who seemed to recall the moment.

“I have a memory of getting angry at you once,” Danson continued. “I feel like I missed out on the last 30 years of Kelsey Grammer.”

“I feel like it’s my bad, my doing, and I almost feel like apologizing to you,” Danson said. “No, I don’t feel like. I apologize to you and me that I sat back.”

After reminiscing about their time together, Grammer responded kindly, saying, “My love for you has always been as easy as the day, you know, as easy as the sunrise, so, whatever.”

Cheers ran from 1982 to 1993 and followed the story of the goings-on of a Boston bar. Along with Danson, Grammer and Harrelson, the cast included Shelley Long, Kirstie Alley, Rhea Perlman, John Ratzenberger and George Wendt.

After his time on Cheers, where he starred as Frasier Crane, Grammer starred in the Emmy-winning spin-off Frasier, where he reprised his beloved role from 1993 to 2004. The show was revived in 2023.

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