Entertainment

Roger Corman, the director and producer nicknamed “King of the B movies” and “The Pope of Pop Culture” for releasing a string of low-budget horror, sci-fi and crime movies, most notably The Masque of the Red Death and the original 1960 version of The Little Shop of Horrors, died on Thursday, May 9. Corman passed away at home in Santa Monica, California, “surrounded by his family,” his daughters shared on Instagram. He was 98. A cause of death was not revealed. Hollywood paid tribute to Corman, including Ron Howard, to whom Coman gave his first shot as a director, who praised him as “A great movie maker and mentor.” John Carpenter called Corman “one of the most influential movie directors in my life” …

That ’90s Show Parts 2 and 3 drop June 27 and October 24, respectively, Netflix announced at the “That ’90s Show Clash of the Casts” event at Netflix Is a Joke Festival’s Outside Joke, according to Variety. The streaming service also revealed a lineup of guest stars that includes Will Forte, Seth Green, Lisa Loeb, Carmen Electra, Wayne Knight, Kevin Smith, Tommy Chong, Jason Mewes, Matt Rife and Kadeem Hardison, as well as That ’70s Show stars Laura Prepon and Don Stark. That ‘90s Show stars Kurtwood Smith, Debra Jo Rupp, Callie Haverda, Ashley Aufderheide, Mace Coronel, Maxwell Acee Donovan, Reyn Doi and Sam Morelos …

Fox has renewed The Cleaning Lady for a fourth season, Deadline reports. The series follows Élodie Yung as a Cambodian doctor who comes to the U.S. to receive medical treatment for her ailing son, but is forced into hiding when the system fails her. She becomes an on-call crime scene cleaning lady for the mob, while keeping secrets from her undocumented Filipina sister-in-law — played by Ginger Gonzaga — and dodging the FBI. The Cleaning Lady closes out its third season May 21 …

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Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes earned an estimated $56.5 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend. The fourth installment of the rebooted franchise, directed by Wes Ball and starring Kevin Durand, Owen Teague and Freya Allen, took in an estimated $72.5 million overseas, for a global haul of $129 million.

Last week’s No. 1 film, The Fall Guy, dropped to second place this time, grabbing an estimated $13.7 million in its second week of release. The film, starring Ryan Gosling, has earned $103 million globally.

Challengers, the romantic sports drama starring Zendaya, took third place, delivering an estimated $4.7 million at the North American box office in its third week of release. It’s three-week tally now stands at $38 million domestically and $68.7 million worldwide.

Fourth place went to the horror flick Tarot, collecting an estimated $3.5 million in its second week of release, bringing its North American box office total to $12 million and $20.2 million globally.

Rounding out the top five was Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which added an estimated $2.5 million at the domestic box office for a total of $191.8 million and $558.7 million worldwide.

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Netflix has rolled out the trailer to Tires, the comedy series featuring stand-up and actor Shane Gillis.

The comedian famously hosted Saturday Night Live this season after being fired from the show before he even appeared on in it in 2019 over some offensive jokes.

Here he plays Shane, the screw-up employee of his cousin Will’s failing auto repair chain. Steven Gerben plays the heir to the Valley Forge Automotive Center, who in the trailer is constantly exasperated with Shane’s antics, which include day drinking on the job, hanging up on customers, and befouling the customer restroom.

However, for all his goofing off, by the trailer’s end, Shane does his best to rescue the company — which, on-brand, includes a bikini car wash fundraiser.

Co-created by Gerben and Gillis, the show that also stars Chris O’Connor, Kilah Fox, and Stavros Halkias, premieres May 23 on Netflix.

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Gordon Ramsay and Fox are taking a Bite out of the culinary marketplace.

On Friday, May 10, the celebrity chef, and the network behind his many shows including Hell’s Kitchen and Master Chef, announced they’re jointly starting Bite, “a new multi-tiered global food brand and entertainment platform.”

Promising to dish out “fresh, fun, accessible and inventive culinary and lifestyle content, products and experiences for fans everywhere,” the brand is, “designed to live at the intersection of content and commerce,” according to the announcement.

Ramsay noted, “This new brand will cater to every flavor of food fan with an enticing array of original series, compelling food stories and endless digital content that audiences everywhere will eat up!”

He added, “Bite is an innovative fusion of my nearly 20-year collaboration with FOX, blending all the experiences, excitement, competition and personality we’ve created together under this original, singular food and lifestyle venture.”

The venture’s Bite Digital Network will be the home of projects including Ramsay’s reality competition show Idiot Sandwich and Next Level Kitchen, “a digital companion series to [Fox’s] Next Level Chef, which features the show’s three mentors Gordon Ramsay, Nyesha Arrington and Richard Blais.”

The network will also feature “a slate of next-gen culinary creators and personalities” culled from former champs and others from Ramsay’s TV projects, including Next Level Chef‘s season 3 champion Gabi Chappel.

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James Gunn is making good on his promise to interlace the projects under his umbrella as co-CEO of DC Films.

As reported, Guardians of the Galaxy franchise writer-director Gunn had cast a fellow Marvel movie veteran, Frank Grillo, for the animated project Creature Commandos, with the Avengers: Endgame star playing Rick Flagg Sr., the dad of Joel Kinnaman‘s character in the two Suicide Squad films.

On Friday, Gunn posted that Grillo will be playing his Creature Commandos character in live-action, in the second season of Gunn’s heralded The Suicide Squad spinoff, Peacemaker.

“GRILLO, PEACEMAKER, F*** YES,” Gunn posted under a photo of the pair, with the tough-guy actor pointing at the writer-director and studio head.

Grillo posted a photo of him nearly connecting on a kiss to Gunn’s cheek, enthusing, “Pinch me. So excited to be joining this mad genius @jamesgunn and [DC Films’ co-CEO Peter Safran] for season 2 of #PEACEMAKER. WHAT A GIFT INDEED !!!”

Fighter and notorious gym rat Grillo then joked of the show’s star, “@Johncena better start lifting weights. oh wait.”

Creature Commandos will beat Peacemaker‘s second season to air on Max; it’s expected to drop later in 2024.

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On Friday, May 9, Paramount+ reported the second season of the reboot of Frasier has begun filming.

Kelsey Grammer is back, of course, as Dr. Frasier Crane, and Peri Gilpin will be back as his former producer Roz Doyle as a recurring guest star.

The streamer also noted that multiple Emmy winner and TV legend James Burrows will return to direct two episodes of the new season.

The show’s cast also includes stars Jack Cutmore-Scott as Frasier’s son Freddy; Anders Keith as David, Frasier’s nephew; Nicholas Lyndhurst as Alan, Frasier’s old college buddy-turned-university professor; and Toks Olagundoye as Olivia, Alan’s colleague and head of the university’s psychology department.

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Two NCIS favorites are getting their own spinoff. Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo, who respectively played Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David on the series, took to social media to announce “Tiva,” as the fans dubbed the couple, will be back in Paramount+’s NCIS: Tony & Ziva.

“It makes it really easy because the fans will know exactly what the show is. It’s about Tony and Ziva in Europe,” de Pablo joked.

Weatherly, who bowed out of NCIS in season 13, added that the show will shoot in Europe over the summer. 

According to the streaming service, the show finds the couple raising their daughter Tali in Paris, but the NCIS veterans are forced to go on the run when Tony’s company is attacked.

“I expect intrigue, romance, a background of Europe, impossible situations that will make our life very complicated but somehow a little something about love,” said the actress. Her character left the show in season 11, and was once rumored to have been killed in a bombing — but popped back up in season 16.

In a statement from the streamer, the pair, who will executive produce the show with John McNamara said, “We’ve been talking about this story for many years, and now with John McNamara at the helm, we are ready.”

The actors promised “an action-packed roller coaster fueled by love, danger, tears and laughter,” and also thanked the fans “who supported the ‘TIVA’ movement for years.”

They added, “To this day, they say hello in grocery stores and on the street to tell us how much these characters mean to them and ask what Tony and Ziva are up to now. This is for you!”

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While rumors persisted that The Conners‘ sixth season would be its last, the Roseanne reboot will get a proper goodbye to fans with a shortened seventh season.

“You’ve been part of this family for years,” a title card reads in a video just posted by ABC, as flashbacks from the original Roseanne play, folding into clips from The Conners, which debuted in 2018 after Roseanne Barr was fired from her own self-titled reboot.

“After 6 seasons, be there to say goodbye!” the video continues, before another title card reads, “The Conners: The Farewell Season.”

The final installment will be a shortened 10-episode swan song for the sunsetting show, Deadline reports.

According to the trade, the cast shot a special segment designed as a capper for the show in case season 6’s season finale on May 22 turned out to be a series finale, but that ending will no longer air.

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While rumors persisted that The Conners‘ sixth season would be its last, the Roseanne reboot will get a proper goodbye to fans with a shortened seventh season.

“You’ve been part of this family for years,” a title card reads in a video just posted by ABC, as flashbacks from the original Roseanne play, folding into clips from The Conners, which debuted in 2018 after Roseanne Barr was fired from her own self-titled reboot.

“After 6 seasons, be there to say goodbye!” the video continues, before another title card reads, “The Conners: The Farewell Season.”

The final installment will be a shortened 10-episode swan song for the sunsetting show.

According to Deadline, the cast shot a special segment designed as a capper for the show in case season 6’s season finale on May 22 turned out to be a series finale, but that ending will no longer air.

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Ahead of NBC’s two-hour on-air celebration on Tuesday, May 14, Jimmy Fallon and the leader of his house band, The Roots‘ Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter, looked back at 10 years of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at a special celebration.

On Thursday evening, June 9, at the Roxy Cinema in New York City, Jimmy and Tariq screened a highlight reel of the forthcoming anniversary show and participated in a Q&A, with The Roots’ head emcee moderating.

One of the questions Jimmy fielded was how he sees The Tonight Show in another decade, to which he joked the host will be an AI-generated version of him.

The festivities continued at an after-party at the city’s Oyster Bar, which has incidentally hosted after-parties for Fallon’s pre-Tonight Show gig, Saturday Night Live.

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