Entertainment

(NOTE LANGUAGE) Steven Spielberg‘s classic horror-thriller Jaws gave birth to what we’ve come to know as the “summer blockbuster.” While accepting a lifetime achievement award at the Berlin Film Festival Tuesday, the director hinted at a return to the genre.

When Bono presented the filmmaker with his award, the 76-year-old director called the U2 frontman’s introduction, “one of his most beautiful songs.”

Spielberg also told attendees he wasn’t ready to say “that’s a wrap.”

The Oscar winner expressed, “I feel a little alarmed to be told I’ve lived a lifetime because I’m not finished. I want to keep working. I want to keep learning and discovering and scaring the sh** out of myself and sometimes the sh** out of you.” He quickly added, “I gotta get back to some of those earlier scary movies but that’s another story for later on.”

The legendary director said he felt like “no time had passed” since making his first feature film at 25 years old, noting he still feels the “electric joy” on every first day he has on a movie set.

“As long as there’s joy in it for me and as long as my audience can find joy and other human values in my films, I’m reluctant to ever say that’s a wrap,” he said.

Spielberg joked he’d “like to beat Manoel de Oliveira‘s record and direct my last film when I’m 106,” at which the audience applauded. “My dad, my father Arnold lived to 103 1/2, so theoretically I got the genes,” he added with a smile.

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A24, the studio behind Oscar-nominated indie movies like I, Tonya, and Everything Everywhere All at Once is opening up its prop vaults from the latter movie for charity.

The studio’s A24 Auctions website has posted costumes and props from the Golden Globe-winning and Academy Award-nominated film, all benefitting three charities chosen by directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.

So, if you’ve ever wanted to get your hands on some of the movie’s infamous hot dog hands, check out the Laundry & Taxes collection and kick in some dough to the Laundry Workers Center, which “aims to combat abuses such as landlord negligence, wage theft, and hazardous and exploitative working conditions…”

The same charity will benefit from winning bids for Deirdre’s calculator from Everything Everywhere All at Once, as well as costumes and other props worn by Oscar nominees Jamie Lee Curtis and Michelle Yeoh.

The Transgender Law Center will be the recipient of money raised from the purchase of items in the In Another Life collection, offering wares like Yeoh’s character Evelyn’s giant baby onesie and other goodies.

The memorabilia in the Mementos from the Multiverse portion of the auction, which include a googly-eyed rock, Waymond’s fanny pack and even Raccacoonie, the talented chef who’s not nearly as nice as Ratatouille‘s gourmand rat Remy, will benefit the Asian Mental Heath Project.

The auction opens runs from February 23 to March 2.

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Ernie Hudson reprised his role as Winston Zeddemore in the hit Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and his character is a beloved part of the franchise. However, it wasn’t always that way.

In an interview with SiriusXM’s Gary Dell’Abate and Rahsaan Rogers on The Howard Stern Wrap Up Show, the veteran actor explains he was “pushed aside” by the studio when it came to marketing the 1984 original.

“I was the guy who was brought in, and so finding my place in the middle of that,” he said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The actor added director Ivan Reitman, writers and co-stars Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd, and Bill Murray “were all welcoming and inclusive.”

He noted, however, “The studio wasn’t, and the studio continued not to be. So it made it very, very difficult because I was a part of it, but then I very selectively was pushed aside.”

Hudson continued, “…I went to the 30th-anniversary release of the movie and all the posters are [just] three guys. Now I know the fans see it differently, and I’m so thankful for the fans because the fans basically identified with Winston, especially young, I don’t want to say minority kids, but a lot of kids.”

In the past, Hudson has mentioned that the Winston character was initially scripted to be in the film from the beginning, but the final film has the character hired mid-way through.

He explained that despite Ghostbusters‘ success, it took him more than two years to book another movie.

“It wasn’t an easy road,” he said. “Ghostbusters, I would say, it was probably the most difficult movie I ever did just from the psychological perspective. All those things…It definitely felt deliberate. And I’m still not trying to take it personally.”

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When the makers of Game of Thrones accidentally forgot to strike somebody’s Starbucks cup from a table in Westeros, it became a viral sensation; same when The Mandalorian gang didn’t spot an errant crew member in a shot in the middle of a gunfight. Now, it appears The Last of Us has suffered a similar flub.

One eagle-eyed Twitter user managed to spot some crew members in the hit show’s most recent episode.

In a shot from the sixth episode that takes place in the series post-apocalyptic United States, Pedro Pascal‘s Joel and Bella Ramsey‘s Ellie trudge across a snowy bridge. But at the 15:18 mark, Scott T. Jones noticed they weren’t alone.

No, it wasn’t clickers, but a group of film workers hauling gear. “Brilliant episode,” Jones commented. “Something you might want to fix and reupload though. You can see the film crew in this shot,” he tweeted the show’s executive producer Neil Druckmann.

He also tweeted another version of the same shot, but with handy markers in case one has trouble spotting the problem. Referencing Game of Thrones‘ flub, he used Starbucks cups to mark the crew members’ position, and some of their gear.

Nowadays, such boo-boos can be deleted digitally, and the episode re-uploaded to a streaming service — which is what the makers of The Mandalorian did, but not before “Jeans Guy” got a nickname and fan-made action figures to memorialize his moment.

As of Wednesday, however, the Last of Us flub is still there.

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Kelsey Grammer recently teased some “OG” cast members popping up in the upcoming Paramount+ revival of his 1990s sitcom Frasier, but he’s disappointed that his former Cheers co-star, Kirstie Alley, who died in December from stage 4 colon cancer, won’t be one of them.

Alley never appeared in Frasier‘s original run, but played Rebecca in Cheers, the series in which he was first introduced as Frasier Crane.

The 67-year-old actor tells Entertainment Tonight that he “would’ve loved” for Alley’s Rebecca character appear in the new Frasier.

“I was talking with the writers at one point and we’re casting one of the characters who could arguably be similar to Rebecca, and I said, ‘Boy, we need to find a girl much like Kirstie, who had a gift like Kirstie,” Grammer recalls. “She was so funny and so wonderful on Cheers. Really great gal.”

The Frasier reboot, which began filming in Los Angeles earlier this month “follows Frasier Crane…in the next chapter of his life as he returns to Boston, Mass., with new challenges to face, new relationships to forge and an old dream or two to finally fulfill,” per Paramount+.

While Grammer is currently the only returning original cast member, he assures ET that “the OGs are going to be present” at some point.

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Court is back in session. Just days after Warner Bros. announced the cancellation of Judge Mathis after 24 seasons, Variety reports Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group has tapped Judge Greg Mathis to host a new first-run one-hour show for fall 2023. Mathis Court with Judge Mathis has been given a “firm go” by Allen Media Group, which is now pitching the show for broadcast, cable and distribution platforms…

HBO Max has axed South Side after three seasons, according to Deadline. The comedy, from Bashir Salahuddin, Diallo Riddle and Sultan Salahuddin debuted on Comedy Central before moving to the streamer for season 2 in November 2021. It follows two friends who just graduated from community college and are ready to take over the world, but until they do, they’re stuck working at Rent-T-Own. Season 3 debuted on the streamer in December…

CBS announced on Tuesday that it has renewed nine additional series — including NCIS, NCIS: Hawai’i, CSI: Vegas, 60 Minutes, 48 Hours, Survivor, The Amazing Race, Tough as Nails and Lingo — for new seasons. They join other recently announced renewals, including Fire Country, Ghosts, The Neighborhood, Bob Hearts Abishola and So Help Me Todd. The Equalizer, FBI, FBI: International and FBI: Most Wanted will also return as the last part of a two-season renewal given to each in 2022, along with Young Sheldon as the last part of a three-season renewal given in 2021…

The Golden Globes on Tuesday announced January 7, 2024 as the date for their 81st annual awards ceremony, which officially kicks off the entertainment industry’s awards season. Variety is also reporting that, in addition to returning to its traditional Sunday slot, the show — which aired on Tuesday this year — is “entertaining multiple offers from both TV networks and streamers,” including NBC, where the show has aired since 1996. This year’s Globes, hosted by Jerrod Carmichael, reached 6.3 million viewers…

The SAG Awards on Tuesday announced the second round of presenters for the 29th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. They include The Banshees of Inisherin‘s Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson; Everything Everywhere All at Once‘s Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan and Michelle Yeoh; The Fabelmans‘ Paul Dano, Gabriel LaBelle and Michelle Williams; Women Talking‘s Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy and Rooney Mara; and Babylon‘s Jovan Adepo, Diego Calva and Li Jun Li. The SAG Awards will be broadcast live on Netflix’s YouTube channel Sunday, February 26 at 8 p.m. ET from the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles…

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In just a few days, one of the most hyped and anticipated movies of the year, for some, hits theaters – Cocaine Bear!

The film was something star O’Shea Jackson Jr. was excited about — in fact he tells ABC Audio it was his fervor after seeing a tweet about the movie that got him the job.

“It said Elizabeth Banks gets the rights to Cocaine Bear. And I clicked it and I read it and I retweeted something like, you know, take my money or just praising up how crazy that movie sounded,” he recalls. “She got wind of it and made the call. And then they asked me if I wanted to be in it. And I said, ‘Absolutely.'”

“I [had] always been taught to never do a movie you wouldn’t go see. And I was going to go see this movie whether I was in it or not,” Jackson Jr. adds. 

For Alden Ehrenreich, who co-stars in the dark action comedy, it only took reading the script for him to join the project.

“I thought it was so fun and so bizarre,” he shares. “And it’s so great for like a studio movie that’s this big to be an original idea and so kind of unique and out there.”

Being enthusiastic about the project is only half the battle though. Even though Jackson Jr. actively campaigned to be in Cocaine Bear, he admits it wasn’t an easy shoot.

“I don’t really like the woods…I’m a gamer. I’m a city guy. I don’t like fake blood, and wasps and bees love fake blood. So it was a lot of avoiding them,” he explains. “Any type of wind that would blow, now you got leaves in your stubs and, like, it’s just not a good time.” 

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) In a new Rolling Stone interview, Liam Neeson spilled some tea about his career, and about one near miss in the form of a certain secret agent with a license to kill.

Neeson explains that while he wasn’t expressly “offered” the role by the James Bond-producing Broccoli family back in the day, he might have been had his deceased wife, Natasha Richardson, not forbade it.

“I know the Broccolis. They looked at a bunch of actors. Schindler’s List had come out and Barbara [Broccoli] had called me a couple of times to ask if I was interested,” Neeson explained.

“I said, ‘Yes, I would be interested.’ And then my lovely wife, God rest her soul, said to me…’…If you play James Bond, we’re not getting married.'”

He explained, “So I would tease her by going behind her back, making my fingers as though I’m holding a gun,” Neeson said, humming the Bond theme. “I loved doing that s***!” he added with a laugh.

The Taken franchise star commented, “She gave me a James Bond ultimatum. And she meant it! Come on, there’s all those gorgeous girls in various countries getting into bed and getting out of bed. I’m sure a lot of her decision-making was based on that!” he laughed.

Neeson also admitted he’s “not a fan” of superhero movies, though he “admires” the technology that brings them to the big screen. “They all seem to me to be just the same story,” the actor said.

That said, he did appear in Christopher Nolan‘s Dark Knight trilogy. Of that, he said they were the exception. “They had a noir feel to them. And Chris Bale and Gary Oldman? Come on! What a cast. And Michael [Caine] and Morgan [Freeman]? My God!”

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While critics were lukewarm at Marvel Studios’ 31st film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, most agreed that a highlight was Jonathan Majors‘ performance as Kang the Conqueror.

At a recent press event, Majors explained how he prepared to play the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s latest antagonist — which he first did as a variant of his Ant-Man character, this one known as He Who Remains, in Loki.

“You can’t antagonize somebody if you don’t know who they are,” the acclaimed actor explained. “If you don’t know, what’s the opposite of them, if you don’t know what their hopes and dreams are. My objective is to do that, antagonize in order to get what I need to fulfill my life, my dream. And so in Loki, I’m dealing with Tom. This opportunity came to me in lockdown. And so I studied Tom Hiddleston for hours a day, you know? And then when that was done, I went, ‘Okay, Paul Rudd, you’re up!’ You know?”

He continues, “You really have to be very clear about what it is you’re doing, who your character is, the spine of the character, what he’s about…what they’re going after. So you build that. And the rest of it, you just play hard…And if they…turn left, you turn it left, you know…and you’re in.”

He adds with a laugh, “You know, Kang gotta Kang.”

After-credit scenes proved we haven’t seen the last of Kang the Conqueror, who will be a part of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, which is slated for a May 2, 2025, release.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania had a $225 million global debut over the weekend.

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

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) Succession Emmy winner Brian Cox certainly thinks Jeremy Strong, one of the scheming siblings on the HBO show, is “gifted” but says how he gets there is “f***ing annoying.”

In a feature in Town & Country, Cox was asked about comments he made last year to the New Yorker, in which he and other Succession co-stars called out Strong’s “intense” Method-like acting. Cox said at the time it’s a “particularly American disease, I think, this inability to separate yourself off while you’re doing the job.”

In the new interview, the Scottish actor was asked again about Strong’s process. “Oh, it’s f***ing annoying,” he said. “Don’t get me going on it.”

Cox continues, “He’s a very good actor. And the rest of the ensemble is all okay with this. But knowing a character and what the character does is only part of the skill set.”

The actor, who plays CEO Logan Roy, cites an example of Strong not letting his character go after a particularly intense scene. “He’s f***ing gifted. When you’ve got the gift, celebrate the gift. Go back to your trailer and have a hit of marijuana, you know?”

For the record, Strong, who plays Logan’s son Kendall Roy, is aware he ruffles feathers. He offered GQ of the Emmy-winning drama, “It is like a family in the sense that…you don’t always like the people that you love. I do always respect them.”

He added, “Everyone’s entitled to have their feelings. I also think Brian Cox, for example, he’s earned the right to say whatever the f*** he wants.”

Succession returns for season 4 Sunday, March 26, at 9 p.m. on HBO.

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