Entertainment

The Way of the Warrior Kid, a collab between Chris Pratt, director McG and the author of the book series of the same name, former Navy SEAL-turned-podcaster and motivational speaker Jocko Willink, just landed a huge deal.

According to Deadline, Skydance — the company that backs the Mission: Impossible films and produced the blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick, among others — has reportedly plunked down between $80 million and $85 million for the rights to make and distribute the project.

Like the book series, the movie, which the trade says could start shooting this summer, will follow a bullied 11-year-old kid whose former Navy SEAL uncle, Jake, takes him under his wing over summer vacation, and teaches him how to improve his body and mind to master the minefields of middle school.

Pratt, who will star as Jake and co-produce, told the trade back in April that the script is “incredible,” adding, “I have faith this film will help to shape today’s youth, putting them on the right path. Our young people need this movie.”

The actor, currently back at the top of the box office with Garfield, says the movie stresses “valuable lessons about discipline, self-reliance, strength, and compassion.” He added, “This is the kind of movie that can define a generation, like Karate Kid or Rocky.”

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Days after happily announcing he and wife Hilaria will be starring in a family reality show for TLC, some bad news for Alec Baldwin.

The star has been named in a civil lawsuit filed in the First Judicial District of New Mexico in connection to the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer on his Western film Rust.

Attorney Gloria Allred said in a statement that the suit was filed “on behalf of Halyna’s mother, Olga Solovey, her father, Anatolii Androsovych, her younger sister, Svetlana Zemko, and Mamie Mitchell, who was the film’s Script Supervisor and was standing approximately 4 feet from Mr. Baldwin in the line of fire with Halyna by her side.”

The complaint alleges battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence in the 2021 incident. Director Joel Souza was also injured when the Colt-style revolver Baldwin was aiming discharged.

The movie’s armorer Hannah Gutierrez is currently behind bars after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; live ammunition had accidentally been loaded into Baldwin’s firearm.

Baldwin was also charged with involuntary manslaughter in January 2024 and pleaded not guilty later that month.

The new civil suit says, “Defendant Baldwin intentionally, and without just cause or excuse, cocked and fired the loaded gun” even though the scene did not call for it, and “without just cause or excuse pointed and then fired the gun towards individuals including Halyna Hutchins, even though protocol was not to do so.”

The complaint later adds, “Defendant Baldwin chose to play Russian Roulette with a loaded gun without checking it or having the Armorer do so.”

Baldwin insisted to ABC News that he did not pull the trigger on the weapon. He faces trial in July after a New Mexico judge denied the actor’s bid to dismiss the indictment.

As of press time, attorneys for Baldwin have yet to respond to the suit.

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While Kenan Thompson previously commented about the Quiet on Set allegations made about his former Good Burger and All That producer Dan Schneider, apparently he had more to say.

Thompson had told the Tamron Hall Show in part, “It’s definitely tough to watch because I have fond memories of that place.”

But in a new conversation with Variety, he admitted, “I feel so guilty saying that.”

In the documentary, former stars and Schneider’s former colleagues accused him of bullying and having kid actors perform inappropriate material.

Kenan continued, “All those things started happening after our tenure, because … no one would even dare. It wasn’t that kind of environment. There was no dictatorship about it all.”

The funnyman, who previously starred in the 2004 movie adaptation of Bill Cosby‘s character Fat Albert, also said, “The separation of the artist and the man conversation didn’t come into my life at all until recently. There was no need to do that. A guy was a pig, and we knew he was a pig, but it wasn’t like the deviousness since, like, Cosby and [Harvey] Weinstein. All that s*** is just way out of bounds. If people were like that, it’s coming to the light, and that’s great.”

Kenan noted, “The trauma is real, the victims are very real. I don’t want to gloss over that. We also don’t want to just throw really solid, creative things in the trash, either.”

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Like many stars whose days on the small screen have come to an apparent end, Pat Sajak is reportedly setting his sights on community theater.

That’s at least according to Variety, which got the scoop that during Sajak’s swan song as the host of Wheel of Fortune on Friday, Hawaii’s KHON-TV will run a commercial promoting Pat’s turn next summer in the play Prescription: Murder at Honolulu’s Hawaii Theatre.

The network specificity is explained because the network’s anchorman, Joe Moore, is also an actor, who happens to be longtime friends with Sajak, and will co-star with him.

First written and performed in 1962, Prescription: Murder was adapted into the popular TV show Columbo, starring Peter Falk as the peculiar but skillful gumshoe.

The trade says Sajak will be playing the suspect, “brilliant psychiatrist Roy Flemming, who hatches a plot with a perfect alibi to murder his neurotic and possessive wife.”

Moore will play the seemingly bumbling detective “who engages the psychiatrist in a cat-and-mouse battle of wits right up to the play’s surprising climax.”

Variety says the spot will tout that the play will run from July 31 to Aug. 10, 2025.

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As part of its annual Drama Actor Emmy Roundtable, The Hollywood Reporter gathered actors Jon Hamm, Clive Owen, David Oyelowo, Matt Bomer, Callum Turner and Nicholas Galitzine to talk about their industry, their careers and some of their early challenges.

For Mad Men Emmy winner Hamm, one of those challenges apparently came in the form of a now-former network TV head. “I had a head of this television network tell my representatives, actually, that Jon Hamm will never be a television star.”

Bomer responded with, “Name names,” and Galzitine, “Spill the tea,” but Hamm didn’t budge. However, he did get the last laugh — and not only in trophy form. “He’s no longer at the head of that network,” the actor said.

He called the pushback just “one of those things” that was out of his control.

Hamm also explored how the success of Mad Men could have pigeonholed him as suave ad man Don Draper — if he let it. “Oh, every script I got was a cigarette and a hat and a cocktail or something,” he told his colleagues.

“You go, ‘OK, I get it. That’s my day job,'” Hamm said. “That’s why, for me, it was a very conscious decision to lean into the comedic stuff that I wanted to do, whether it was 30 Rock or SNL or fill in the blank, because I knew I had [the dramatic stuff] going. That train had left the station very successfully.”

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Pack your bags, because we’re heading back to Panem with a new book in the Hunger Games series.

Scholastic announced Thursday that Suzanne Collins has written a fifth Hunger Games book, titled Sunrise on the Reaping, that will be published March 18, 2025.

A synopsis of the book reads, “Sunrise on the Reaping will revisit the world of Panem twenty-four years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the Fiftieth Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell.”

Collins said her inspiration for the book came from “David Hume‘s idea of implicit submission and, in his words, ‘the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.'”

“The story also lent itself to a deeper dive into the use of propaganda and the power of those who control the narrative,” she added. “The question ‘Real or not real?’ seems more pressing to me every day.”

Fans of The Hunger Games will remember that the 50th Hunger Games aka the Second Quarter Quell was won by District 12’s victor Haymitch Abernathy. Woody Harrelson played him in the Hunger Games film series starring Jennifer Lawrence.

Sunrise on the Reaping follows in the book series that began with The Hunger Games in 2008 and continued with the sequels Catching Fire and Mockingjay, released in 2009 and 2010. A prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, was published in 2020.

Each book has also been adapted for the big screen, but there’s no word yet on film rights for Sunrise on the Reaping.

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It’s no secret that few characters in movie history are cooler than James Bond, which is probably why he tops a recent ranking of the fictional characters who provide fashion inspiration for fans.

Whether it’s Daniel Craig‘s sharp Tom Ford tuxes, or the fashionable ‘fits of previous 007s, the fictional character topped all others when clothing brand Superdry looked at just who we were looking at online.

Using data sourced from TikTok and Instagram, the company “analyzed the number of posts that 174 of the most fashionable TV or film characters have featured in regarding their wardrobe,” such as #jamesbondstyle or #carriebradshawoutfits, the latter referring to Sarah Jessica Parker‘s Sex and the City fashionista.

While Bond was the clear winner with 59,546 social media posts, Jennifer Aniston‘s Rachel Green from Friends ranked second with 25,641 posts. Some chatter dubbed Rachel the ’90s style icon. 

Rory Gilmore ranked third, with 12,189 posts celebrating the preppy look worn by Alexis Bledel in The Gilmore Girls. 

Leighton Meester‘s Gossip Girl character Blair Waldorf ranked fourth, with 11,302 dedicated to her onscreen looks, while another Gossip Girl player, Serena van der Woodsen, played by Blake Lively, rounded out the top five with 7,768 posts. 

Interestingly, for all of her designer outfits, SJP’s Carrie Bradshaw only managed 10th with 3,181 posts. 

Maybe Jimmy Choos can go out of style?

Survey questions, methodology and results have not been verified or endorsed by ABC News or The Walt Disney Company.

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Writer-director James Gunn‘s Superman, which is already in production, has added former Saturday Night Live star Beck Bennett to its large cast.

Bennett confirmed the news via an Instagram Story, thanking Gunn and adding, “It’s been so fun.” He also commented, “I love Lombard.”

In the world of DC Comics, Steve Lombard worked as a sports reporter alongside Lois Lane, Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen at the Daily Planet.

Lombard, a cocky former football player, is an “alpha male” jock stereotype, who often pulls pranks on Kent, the Man of Steel’s mild-mannered reporter alter ego, played by David Corenswet in the new film.

As reported, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Emmy winner Rachel Brosnahan is playing Lois, and Santa Clarita Diet vet Skyler Gisondo is playing eager young journalist Jimmy Olsen.

Bennett logged numerous credits on the big and small screens before and since leaving SNL after eight seasons. He can currently be seen on Netflix in Jerry Seinfeld‘s directorial debut, Unfrosted.

Gunn’s Superman also stars Nicholas Hoult, Nathan Fillion, Sara Sampaio, María Gabriela De Faría, Isabela Merced, Edi Gathegi and Anthony Carrigan.

The movie flies into theaters July 11, 2025.

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Boy Meets World star Trina McGee is opening up about her fourth pregnancy at the age of 54.

McGee, who gave birth to her three younger children in her 20s, told Good Morning America she became pregnant again in her 50s naturally.

The actress, who played Angela Moore on the popular ’90s TV sitcom, said she began trying natural remedies such as elixirs one year ago as she and her husband Marcello Thedford started trying to conceive.

The natural remedies Moore tried do not have medical data to support their use. However, it’s still possible, though rare, for some women to become pregnant in their 50s without any help.

McGee, who is due early next year, shared her pregnancy publicly on Instagram, writing in a post Tuesday, “At the tender age of 54 I have found myself pregnant. Please bless us with your prayers for a safe delivery.”

She said she hopes the news of her pregnancy in her 50s gives hope to other women.

“Honestly, I didn’t think it was such a big deal … and suddenly I realized it’s very inspiration for a lot of women who are over 40, who are looking to conceive,” McGee said. “When I was [posting], that’s what I was feeling, like there’s somebody out there that is dealing with this that might need a little help and inspiration.”

Since 2007, the birth rate has risen 19% for women in their early 40s, 11% for women in their late 30s and 2% for women in their early 30s. Birth rates for women in their 20s declined from 2015 to 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At age 54, McGee is almost two decades past the age — 35 — that doctors consider women to be of “advanced maternal age.”

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Paramount+ with Showtime has announced Love, Victor‘s James Martinez, Falling Inn Love‘s Christina Milian, The Blacklist‘s Alex Shimizu and Mike & Molly‘s Reno Wilson as the latest additions to the cast of its Dexter prequel series, Dexter: Original Sin, which tells the origin story of Michael C. Hall’s serial killer. Patrick Gibson will play Dexter Morgan, with Christian Slater and Molly Brown cast as Harry Morgan, Dexter’s adoptive father, and Debra Morgan, Dexter’s sister, respectively. The four new actors will play members of the Miami Metro Police Department. Dexter: Original Sin is the second series in the Dexter universe, following Showtime’s 2021 sequel series Dexter: New Blood, which picked up 10 years after the events of the original series finale …

Ahead of its season 2 premiere on Thursday, Paramount+ has picked up Criminal Minds: Evolution for an additional season, with production to kick off later this year. Criminal Minds: Evolution stars Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Zach Gilford and Ryan-James Hatanaka with Adam Rodriguez and Paget Brewster. Guest stars include Clark Gregg, Felicity Huffman, Liana Liberato, Paul F. Tompkins, Tuc Watkins and Brian White. The first two season 2 episodes will be available to stream at launch, with subsequent new episodes available every Thursday thereafter …

The CW’s All American: Homecoming‘s upcoming third season will officially be its last, according to Deadline. The young adult drama follows Simone, a young tennis hopeful from Beverly Hills, and an elite baseball player from Chicago — played by Geffri Maya and Peyton Alex Smith, respectively — as they navigate the high stakes of college sports, along with unsupervised early adulthood at a prestigious historically Black college. The show’s cast was pared down for budgetary reasons ahead of its second season and faced more cuts going into season 3 as the network moves to widen its appeal beyond young adults, per the outlet. All American: Homecoming returns for its final season July 8 …

Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard will make a rare series TV appearance in the upcoming season of Apple TV+’s The Morning Show, according to Variety. Cotillard, who took home Best Actress honors at the 2008 Academy Awards, will star as Celine Dumont, described as “a savvy operator from a storied European family,” per the streaming service. The Morning Show stars Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, along with Billy Crudup, Mark Duplass, Nestor Carbonell, Karen Pittman, Greta Lee, Jon Hamm and Nicole Beharie … 

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