Entertainment

A close-knit Irish community is torn apart by a lie in the new psychological drama film God’s Creatures. Emily Watson stars as Aileen O’Hara, a mother who protects her son from sexual assault accusations by lying on his behalf.

“He’s charged with sexual assault, and she gives him an alibi,” Watson tells ABC Audio. “And that then spirals out of control, in terms of destroying not just their lives and the victim, but the community around them starts to fracture.”

Normal People breakout Paul Mescal plays Aileen’s son Brian, acting in a role outside of his comfort zone. That, he says, is one of the reasons he joined the project.

“It’s the first time I’ve had to put something into practice in terms of my idea of what acting is,” Mescal says. “It’s not about being politically or morally aligned with everybody that you play.”

Aisling Franciosi  plays Sarah, the young woman Brian assaults. She says she felt “really passionate” about not only her role, but the cruel truth of the film.

“Something that feels comfortable and familiar and the status quo – it’s uncomfortable to change that,” Franciosi says. “So, we’re just so much more likely to shut out whoever is making us look at that and just leave them to deal with the repercussions of it all.”

Mescal agrees, noting the film dares people to assess their own lives.

It is “actually interrogating, and holding a mirror up, and being like, ‘This is your community. This is the behavior that your community is exhibiting,’” Mescal says. “And, ultimately, we’re doing a disservice to young women, but we’re also doing a disservice to young men, because we’re not cultivating an environment where change is possible.”  

God’s Creatures premieres in theaters Friday.

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It is as the prophecy predicted: After six seasons, there will be a Community movie.

As Peacock teases, “from the TV series that predicted its own movie, comes the least predictable movie of a TV series that referenced a lot of movies and TV.”

Show creator Dan Harmon, who went on to co-create Rick and Morty, will write the movie for the streaming service, and star Joel McHale will take on an executive producer role.

“‘Six seasons and a movie’ started out as a cheeky line from Community’s early seasons and quickly ignited a passionate fan movement for this iconic, hilarious and cool (cool, cool) NBC comedy,” said NBCUniversal Television and Streaming chairman Susan Rovner in the announcement.

She added, “We’re incredibly grateful that 15 years later, we are able to deliver fans this promised movie and can’t wait to get to work with Dan Harmon, [executive producer] Andrew Guest, Joel McHale, Sony and our partners at UTV to continue this epic comedy for Peacock audiences.”

Original stars McHale, Danny Pudi, Ken Jeong, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash and Alison Brie will return for the film version.

Additionally, Peacock has snagged non-exclusive rights to air Community‘s library of episodes.

Incidentally, ABC Audio recently asked Brie if the “movie” prophecy would come true, and she replied with her poker face firmly intact. “I’m hoping it’s around the bend,” she commented.

“I don’t have any new news, but I’m crossing my fingers…That’s all I got for today,” Brie demurred.

Community debuted in 2009 on NBC and ran for 110 episodes. While never a ratings blockbuster, the Emmy-winning show developed a loyal fan base, which even spawned an unofficial fan-led convention called CommuniCon.

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In what someday may be seen as significant as Al Jolson becoming the first actor to speak on film back in 1927’s The Jazz Singer, Bruce Willis has become the first star to sign his likeness over to a deepfake company. 

The actor, who retired while revealing an aphasia diagnosis earlier this year, could soon be back on the big screen thanks to the tech from Deepcake, which uses machine learning to create realistic digital doppelgängers of famous faces. 

The technology in the hands of other companies has been used to digitally de-age actors for movies and TV, shedding nearly four decades from Mark Hamill‘s face for Luke Skywalker’s recent appearance in The Book of Boba Fett. 

However, this is the first time a famous actor has inked a deal with a company to give it permission to use his likeness in future projects.

Willis first worked with the U.S.-based company for a mobile phone commercial that ran overseas: His likeness was seamlessly transplanted onto a Russian actor, and Willis was apparently so impressed, he signed over his likeness.

“I liked the precision with which my character turned out,” Willis said of the advertisement. “It’s a mini-movie in my usual action-comedy genre. For me, it is a great opportunity to go back in time.”

He added, “With the advent of modern technology, even when I was on another continent, I was able to communicate, work and participate in the filming…”

For Willis, whose degenerative condition has effectively ended his career, the tech could keep him beating up bad guys for decades to come — all while looking like he did in his prime.

Don’t be surprised if other celebs make similar deals in an industry where age isn’t just a number.

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Marvel’s Armor Wars, originally planned as a Disney+ TV series, is being redeveloped as a feature film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The project stars Don Cheadle, reprising his MCU role of James “Rhodey” Rhodes, a.k.a. War Machine. Armor Wars is based on Marvel Comics’ seven-issue Iron Man story arc that follows Rhodes dealing with the consequences Tony Stark’s tech falling into the wrong hands.

Production on the film is set to start in 2023.

Cheadle has played the character since 2010’s Iron Man 2, replacing Terrence Howard in the role. His next Marvel appearance will be in the MCU series Secret Invasion, also starring Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn.

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

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“Power has a price,” reads a graphic at the end of Yellowstone‘s official season five trailer, released on Thursday, signaling the tough job Montana’s newly appointed governor John Dutton — played by Kevin Costner — has ahead of him. Yellowstone follows the Dutton family, led by patriarch John, who “control the largest contiguous ranch in the U.S. and must contend with constant attacks by land developers, clashes with an Indian reservation and conflict with America’s first national park,” according to the show’s official logline. Season five premieres November 13… (Trailer contains uncensored profanity.)

Lovecraft Country alum Jonathan Majors is in early talks to play basketball star Dennis Rodman in the upcoming Lionsgate movie 48 Hours in Vegas, according to Variety. The film is inspired by the Chicago Bulls’ star player and his infamous trip to Sin City in the middle of the the team’s 1998 NBA Finals series with the Utah Jazz. Majors will next be seen the trailblazing Navy pilot Jesse Brown in the Korean War-set drama Devotion, coming out in November…

Deadline reports Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Jesse Plemons and Margaret Qualley are set to star in And, the next movie from Yorgos Lanthimos, the filmmaker behind dark comedies like The Favourite and The Lobster. In addition to directing, Lanthimos is writing the screenplay with his The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer collaborator, Efthimis Filippou. Plot details are being kept under wraps. The film will also reunite Lanthimos with Stone, who earned an Oscar nod for her role in The Favourite…

Insecure actor Sujata Day is developing what is being described a fresh take on the popular American Pie franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The original 1999 film grossed more than $235 million worldwide and spawned three sequels with the core cast — Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Alyson Hannigan, Natasha Lyonne, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tara Reid, Mena Suvari, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Seann William Scott, Eugene Levy, Shannon Elizabeth and Jennifer Coolidge, as well as spinoff franchise American Pie Presents…

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Trevor Noah announced to his audience on Thursday that after seven years as host, he will soon be leaving Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.

“It has been seven years since we started The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. This week is our anniversary, “ Noah told the audience. “And one of the overriding feelings I found myself experiencing…is a feeling of gratitude…There’s so many people who make this thing come together. I want to say thank you for an amazing seven years. It’s been truly wild.”

“It’s been absolutely amazing. It’s something I’ve never expected,” he continued. “Everything we’ve gone through — the [Donald] Trump presidency, the pandemic. I realized after seven years that my time is up, but in the most beautiful way. I’ve loved hosting this show. It’s been one of my greatest challenges. It’s been one of my greatest joys. I’ve loved trying to figure out how to make people laugh when the stories are particularly s***** even on the worst days…But after seven years, I feel like it’s time.”

Noah concluded by promising he wasn’t “disappearing,” explaining he misses “learning other languages” and “going to other countries and putting on shows.”

The 38-year-old South African comedian joined The Daily Show as an on-air correspondent in 2014, before being named as Jon Stewart‘s successor a year later.

Noah didn’t offer a timetable for his departure, but Comedy Central, in a statement obtained by Variety, noted they were “working together on next steps.”

“As we look ahead, we’re excited for the next chapter in the 25+ year history of The Daily Show as it continues to redefine culture through sharp and hilarious social commentary, helping audiences make sense of the world around them,” the statement concluded.

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There’s a new generation of wannabe witches in Hocus Pocus 2, out today on Disney+.

Whitney Peak, Belissa Escobedo and Lilia Buckingham join Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy in the scary-funny new sequel. Buckingham tells ABC Audio the 90s original was a staple in her house growing up.

“I watched it for the first time, I think, probably when I was about seven. It was one of the things that made me love Halloween in the first place,” she shares. “I think it’s just so comforting knowing that you have a movie that you can go back to, that you can kind of escape into, and it’ll always make you feel a certain way.”

That wasn’t the case for Peak, though, who admits she had “never seen the movie” before getting an audition, but decided to after hearing “it was this huge thing and everybody grew up watching it.”

“Then I watched the movie, completely understood, the energy was just so magnetic and it’s just a fun movie, and I can’t believe I didn’t watch it when I was younger,” Peak says. 

It’s been almost 30 years since the first Hocus Pocus was released, and director Anne Fletcher says that taking on a cult classic was “terrifying.” Ultimately, though, she hopes fans of the original are pleased.

“The whole movie is an homage to the first one, because you can’t ignore the first one. It’s there for the taking,” she says. “And so all we’re doing is continuing the story of our Sanderson sisters with new cast members and having fun and winking at the audience of like, we’re here with you, like, let’s have fun.”

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For John Stamos, losing friend Bob Saget last January was “heartbreaking” for more than the obvious reason.

“It was so heartbreaking to see [that] he didn’t know how loved he was,” Stamos says.

“I guarantee it. And to, to think that he didn’t feel that. It really hurts me.”

The actor tells ABC Audio that he was “grateful” he got to channel his grief into the upcoming season of the Disney+ show Big Shot, debuting October 12. He helped craft a storyline in which his coach character, Marvin, loses a “close friend and mentor.”

Stamos says, “He sees this outpouring of love for his friend, and he goes, ‘Where’s my legacy? What am I leaving behind?'”

He continues, “Because people go, and then they never, they don’t get to hear how much everybody loved them.”

Marvin’s players, and his daughter, get to tell him precisely that, he explains.

“That’s a lesson, too, from Bob,” the actor expresses.

“Like, he left nothing on the table. You just go tell people that … when you get a chance, that you love them, that you care about them, that you’re proud of them, whatever it may be, because tomorrow’s never promised.”

Stamos explains Saget always sent sincere texts to those he loved, sometimes for no reason at all.

“Long texts,” he recalls. “And there were a lot of dirty words mixed into the love and kindness.”

Stamos joked, “If we’re real quiet right now, we can hear him complaining in heaven that I’m not talking about him enough today,” before adding wistfully, “I miss him, you know. I miss him.”

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The next movie in the Planet of the Apes franchise now has a name. 20th Century Studios has dropped a first look at the forthcoming film, as well its title: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

The image released by the studio, which, like ABC News, is owned by Disney, shows Owen Teague‘s ape Cornelius on a horse, with his arm out to receive a perching eagle. Ahead of him is a waterfall and a moss-covered, abandoned cityscape.

The movie will also star The Witcher‘s Freya Allan and The Orville‘s Peter Macon.

According to the studio, the 2024 movie is set “many years” after the conclusion of 2017’s hit War for the Planet of the Apes, which was the final installment in a successful trilogy directed by The Batman‘s Matt Reeves.

Wes Ball, who helmed the Maze Runner trilogy, is taking over behind the camera for a film written by War of the World‘s Josh Friedman, Rise of the Planet of the Apes‘ Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, and Prey scribe Patrick Aison.

In the announcement, 20thCentury Studios President Steve Asbell says, “Planet of the Apes is one of the most iconic and storied science fiction franchises in film history,” calling the movies “an indelible part” of the legacy.

“With Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, we are privileged to continue the series’ tradition of imaginative, thought-provoking cinema,” he continued.

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HBO’s Emmy-nominated Real Time with Bill Maher is known for its news-making segments on the serious headlines of the day, but Maher finally gets to let his hair down with his new podcast, Club Random.

There, he sits down with an individual celebrity guest, and a drink — and/or a joint or two — and just talks.

Guests have included Woody Harrelson, Quentin Tarantino and William Shatner, and the candid conversations are anything but the usual.

“Most of the people who have been here in this seat … leave saying, ‘I’ve never had an interview like that.’ And I always tell them, ‘Because it wasn’t an interview,'” Maher tells ABC Audio.

“In an interview … a person has an agenda and questions, and they know where it’s going and has done some work,” Maher says. “This is something completely different. And that’s why it felt different.”

Maher insists that while he works hard on Real Time, Club Random is “very much” a chance for him to unwind.

He says unlike episodes of Club Random, Real Time viewers “have never caught me in 20 years saying the words, ‘Wait, what were we just talking about?’ You can find it on almost every episode of Club Random …”

“Because that is one of the properties of marijuana,” he says with a laugh. “That’s what I really love about this experience, is because it’s very similar to what I do just in my normal life.”

He clarifies, “I couldn’t party like this every night. But when I do want to kind of just let it rip, it’s so much fun just to be in that moment where you kind of don’t know what is going to come up.”

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