Entertainment

Oscar-winning indie studio A24 just dropped the trailer to Y2K, a horror comedy that, as its name suggests, centers on what some thought would be the end of the world, the so-called Y2K bug. 

While in reality it didn’t come to pass, in the film it does. Unfortunately for high school losers Eli and Danny — Jaeden Martell from the It films and Deadpool 2‘s Julian Dennison — it comes after they’ve managed to sneak into a New Year’s Eve party with the popular kids. 

One of those is Rachel Zegler‘s Laura, the object of Eli’s affection. 

When the clock strikes midnight, all hell breaks loose in the comedy directed by and co-starring Saturday Night Live vet Kyle Mooney. 

Airliners crash into each other in mid-air and anything with a microchip turns murderous during the “global computer apocalypse.” Chumbawamba‘s “Tubthumping” sets the mood for the early-aughts chaos, as Tamagotchi seize power tools with deadly results, and Eli, Danny, and Laura go on the run.

And for an added nostalgia hit, Clueless‘ Alicia Silverstone plays Eli’s mom.

The film was co-produced by Jonah Hill and Christopher Storer, the latter of whom created the Emmy winner The Bear. 

It hits theaters December 6.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Lucasfilm has struck down the prospects for a second season of The Acolyte.

The Disney+ show, starring Amandla Stenberg and created by Leslye Headland, launched on June 4 with two episodes, generating 4.8 million views for the first two chapters, enough to rank at #7 on Nielsen’s Top 10.

As the series progressed, it continued to divide fans and viewership dropped, and the show that also starred Squid Game‘s Lee Jung-Jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen and The Matrix‘s Carrie Ann-Moss, ended its eight-episode run on July 16 with the lowest finale viewership numbers for any Star Wars series on Disney+.

The $180 million show scored decently with critics, but even with a seemingly endless campaign of coverage from geek sites, the majority of Star Wars fans didn’t respond, according to its Rotten Tomatoes scores.

The aggregator lists The Acolyte‘s Critics Score at 78%, but the Audience Score at just 18%.

The Acolyte was set 100 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, and centered on the mystery behind the murders of a group of Jedi. Stenberg played the dual role of sisters Osha and Mae, and Headland said in many interviews she was eager to continue the show for a second season.

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

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Apple TV+ has announced the premiere date for season 2 of Sharon Horgan‘s dark comedy Bad Sisters. The new season will kick off with two episodes on Nov. 13. The series follows the Garveys — an Irish family with five sisters — portrayed by Horgan, Anne-Marie Duff, Eva Birthistle, Sarah Greene and Eve Hewson. Claes Bang, Brian Gleeson, Daryl McCormack, Assaad Bouab and Saise Quinn round out the ensemble cast …

The Amber Ruffin Show‘s Amber Ruffin and Wet Hot American Summer‘s Michael Ian Black have been tapped for team captain roles on CNN’s American adaptation of the long-running BBC panel series Have I Got News for You. Ruffin and Black, along with host Roy Wood Jr., “will guide a rotating collection of guests including notable entertainers, political figures and comedians through an array of comic games and quick-witted panel conversations that test their knowledge of current events,” according to the cable news outlet. The 10-episode limited series will premiere Sept. 14 …

Michaela Coel, creator and star of HBO’s I May Destroy You, is reteaming with the premium cable channel for her next series, First Day on Earth. According to the show’s official logline, Coel will play British novelist Henri, whose “work has dried up, her relationship is going nowhere.” She ends up taking a job in her parents’ homeland, Ghana, West Africa, where she tries to reconnect with her father and the country of her heritage. When things don’t go as planned, she’s forced to create a new sense of identity — “one that might leave her stronger, but could also break her.” Filming is scheduled to begin in 2025 …

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Stranger Things‘ Millie Bobby Brown is reportedly developing a feature adaptation of her debut novel, Nineteen Steps, for Netflix, sources tell Deadline.

Brown will reportedly produce and star in the feature, which The Theory of Everything‘s Anthony McCarten will direct.

The New York Times bestseller, co-written by Brown and Kathleen McGurl, is set in WW2 era London and based on the experiences of Brown’s grandmother.

Over the course of the book, Nellie Morris navigates life during wartime, while embracing a romance with an American airman named Ray. Despite living through the Bethnal Green Tube disaster — one of the worst civilian disasters in the U.K. during the war, killing 173 people as they sought shelter during an air raid — Nellie finds love and happiness against all odds.

Brown gained acclaim for her role as Eleven in the Netflix series Stranger Things, which returns for its fifth and final season in 2025. She recently starred in the fantasy feature Damsel, which also aired on the streaming service.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

In a feature in GQ, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice star Michael Keaton had a pretty plain-spoken response to Warner Bros. infamously shelving Batgirl, a film that would have had him reprising as Batman.

“Big, fun, nice check,” he said when he was asked what his feelings were about the shelving of the movie that also starred Brendan Fraser.

Keaton’s return to the rubber suit came instead in the box office disappointment The Flash.

He says of the studio’s shelving the former film, “No, I didn’t care one way or another. Big, fun, nice check,” the actor said while reportedly rubbing his fingers together.

That said, he did feel for directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah: “I like those boys. They’re nice guys. I pull for them. I want them to succeed, and I think they felt very badly, and that made me feel bad.”

Keating added with a shrug: “Me? I’m good.”

On the topic of superheroes, Keaton gave flowers to his friend and Beetlejuice franchise director Tim Burton, who took a chance casting Keaton as the Dark Knight for 1989’s Batman.

“Tim deserves enormous credit. He changed everything.” The Spider-Man: Homecoming star continued, “I can’t necessarily say this, but there’s a strong possibility there is no Marvel Universe, there is no DC Universe, without Tim Burton. He was doubted and questioned.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Oscar-nominated actress Kirsten Dunst has come a long way since playing chipper cheerleader Torrance Shipman in 2000’s hit Bring it On, but on Sunday evening she showed she can still bring it.

The actress surprised fans at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery during a Kirsten Dunst Sleepover Party at the venue. It was Cinespia’s 25th anniversary celebration of both Bring It On and The Virgin Suicides.

The Wrap says Dunst emerged to cheers, then did some cheering of her own, reciting her line from the beginning of Bring It On: “I’m T-t-Torrance, your captain, Torrance!” She added a “Let’s go Toros!” for good measure.

The trade says Dunst expressed she was “overwhelmed” by the event, calling it “the craziest thing I’ve ever witnessed in my life.”

She added, “My friends and family are here, I’m going to watch with you guys. I haven’t seen any of these movies since I was a teen myself, with an audience. I’m so honored.”

Dunst has two young sons with her husband, Jesse Plemons.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Zoë Kravitz doesn’t know when she’ll be called back into action by director Matt Reeves for the sequel to his blockbuster The Batman, but she has some hopes for the next time she plays Selina Kyle aka Catwoman.

While promoting her directorial debut, Blink Twice, Zoë tells Collider, “Matt goes into his hole when he writes. [H]e’s a super intense, detail-oriented director, so I just keep myself busy with things like [Blink Twice] until people call me.”

She says of The Batman, in which she starred opposite Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader, “The whole concept of Selina in that film was it’s an origin story. So obviously there’s a lot more to explore.”

Zoe added, “It was a woman coming into her power and wanting to explore what it feels like when she can be playful and sit into that power. Hopefully, it will be very fun one day.”

In the meantime, Reeves is producing The Penguin, Colin Farrell‘s small-screen spin-off of his Batman character. It debuts on HBO and Max Sept. 19.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The Athenaeum Center for Thought & Culture in Chicago will be hosting the Democratic National Convention beginning Monday, and The Daily Show news team will be there.

Michael Kosta kicks things off Monday at 10 p.m. CT, and his special guest will be Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Desi Lydic will co-host Tuesday evening and welcome Illinois Congresswoman Lauren Underwood. On Wednesday, Jordan Klepper returns with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore.

On Thursday, Jon Stewart takes the anchor desk for a live episode, a half hour later than usual, airing at 10:30 p.m. CT following the closing of the DNC.

The Daily Show news team includes Ronny Chieng, Dulcé Sloan and Lewis Black, with new additions Troy Iwata, Josh Johnson and Grace Kuhlenschmidt.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Talk show hosts past and present took to social media to mourn Emmy winner and talk show icon Phil Donahue, who died Sunday night at 88 years old. 

Oprah Winfrey posted to Instagram a throwback photo of her hugging the man whose talk show dominance she challenged in the 1980s. “There wouldn’t have been an Oprah Show without Phil Donahue being the first to prove that daytime talk and women watching should be taken seriously,” O said on Instagram, calling him a pioneer. “I’m glad I got to thank him for it. Rest in peace Phil.”

Montel Williams called Donahue the “godfather of talk shows” who “forever changed the landscape of television.” 

Sally Jessy Raphael called this a “very sad day” and said her former fellow chat show contemporary “was one of the finest broadcasters in American television.” Like Winfrey, Raphael posted a throwback picture of her and Donahue, echoing Oprah’s sentiment: “If there wasn’t a Phil, there would have never been a Sally.”

Piers Morgan posted a photo of himself interviewing the “clever, interesting man,” calling him “One of the true trail-blazing [sic] icons of American television.” 

Watch What Happens Live host Andy Cohen hailed Donahue as a “singular talent who revolutionized daytime television, and the talk show itself,” thanking him for being “an outspoken advocate for the gay community at a time when we had none.”

Holly Robinson Peete posted a photo of her and husband Rodney Peete with Donahue and his wife of 44 years, Marlo Thomas. Holly said in part on X, “One of the highlights of our marriage was meeting and double dating with Phil and Marlo. The stories!!! Truly one of the best couples we’ve ever met. What a legend Phil was. A pioneer! He will be so missed.” 

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Danielle Fishel, who played Topanga on Boy Meets World and its follow-up, Girl Meets World, revealed on her podcast that she’s been diagnosed with breast cancer. 

The 43-year-old host of Pod Meets World explains her prognosis is very good, because it was caught “so, so early.” 

On the Aug. 19 episode, she began by referencing her former co-stars turned pod co-hosts Rider Strong and Will Friedle, explaining they were among the first to know she was “recently diagnosed with DCIS, which stands for ductal carcinoma in situ, which is a form of breast cancer.”

She added, “It’s very, very, very early, it’s technically stage zero.” She also revealed she is having surgery to remove the “high-grade DCIS with micro-invasion” that doctors found.

“I’ve had to make a lot of decisions over the last couple of days,” Fishel said before adding that at first she only planned on telling her immediate family and friends. She thought she’d prefer to “suffer in silence” and “suck it up,” only telling others after she’d beat it.

That said, Fishel changed her mind after reading material from author Glennon Doyle, who argues that women need to help others in the beginning or during the “messy middle” of a battle as opposed to waiting until they’re out of the experience.

Doctors caught the DCIS so early because Fishel made her annual mammogram appointment the day she received the reminder text that it was time to do so.

“They found it so, so, so early that I’m going to be fine,” she insisted, explaining part of her reason behind going public was to encourage other women to follow suit. 

She said she’s meeting with multiple doctors, including oncologists, radiation specialists and hormone therapists to plan the next steps.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.