Entertainment

In a recent chat on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke revealed who she’d cast in an imagined reboot of the romantic 2008 vampire hit to succeed Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart.

Jacob Elordi would get the role of the sullen, sparkly vampire, she said. “I mean, he’s amazing. He probably would be Edward today.” As for playing Bella Swan, Hardwicke told host Josh Horowitz, “You just mentioned Jenna Ortega, she’s amazing.”

Another fun bit of behind-the-scenes trivia was Hardwicke recalling how she had to convince the movie’s financiers that Pattinson was attractive enough to play Edward Cullen.

Seriously.

The English actor “had black bangs for hair and was kind of out of shape because he was hanging out at the pub all the time,” the filmmaker recalls.

“They called me back and go, ‘Do you think you can make this guy look good?'” she said with a laugh.

“I said, ‘Yeah, I do. Did you see his cheekbones? We’re doing a makeover on the hair and everything and he’s going to start working out and he’s going to be gorgeous.’ But they didn’t believe it at first!”

Of course, she was right, and Pattinson became a heartthrob for an entire generation.

She also said the chemistry between Stewart and Pattinson, who were later linked romantically, was undeniable. “The sparks were flying so much,” she added of their audition. “It works not only in person, but onscreen,” Hardwicke said.

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“I didn’t kill my wife!” Harrison Ford‘s Dr. Richard Kimball says, pointing a gun at Tommy Lee Jones in the blockbuster 1993 film The Fugitive. “I don’t care,” replies Jones as U.S. marshal Sam Gerard, in the movie that netted him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

And now that unforgettable scene, and others, can be enjoyed in a whole new way, thanks to a special 30th anniversary edition of the movie, which has just been released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and digital.

In the movie, an adaptation of the 1960s TV series, Ford’s character is falsely accused of killing his wife; while on the run from Jones’ dogged tracker, he sets out to find the real killer.

“I’m very grateful that it resonates and lives on,” director Andrew Davis tells ABC Audio.

He adds of the remastering, “Now we can go in there and nuance every little detail digitally, and it’s fantastic, you know … it’s going to look better on your Blu-ray and 4K monitor than it [did] in the theater, actually. It’s got more quality.”

Davis remarks about his leading men, “I hadn’t worked with Harrison before and it was really wonderful to have him play a real person, not a superhero, you know, as he’s done in the Raiders and all these other — Star Wars and stuff like that.”

Davis adds, “And Tommy, he really brought a Texas marshal to this thing. You know, he’s in Chicago and he’s playing this Texas Ranger in a way, throughout the whole movie, you know. And I thought that was a nice contrast to the sort of rich Chicago doctor.”

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Kaley Cuoco is grateful for the little addition to her life this Thanksgiving.

The Big Bang Theory alum posted a sweet family photo on her Instagram account Friday, featuring herself, holding up her daughter Matilda while her boyfriend Tom Pelphrey, with whom she shares her baby, is standing by her side.

In the snap, the couple displayed huge grins on their faces while their adorable 7-month-old baby looked directly into the camera. The picture also shows Matilda donning a cute outfit with a picture of a pumpkin on her shirt and words written on it that read, “My First Thanksgiving.”

“Grateful is an understatement!” Cuoco, 37, wrote in the caption, adding a fall leaf emoji. “We are so thankful for our amazing, loving families and this little bundle of heaven. Tildy’s first thanksgiving was perfect!”

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Jennifer Lopez has finally announced when fans will get to hear her new album — and it turns out they’ll get to see it, too.

THIS IS ME…NOW, JLo’s first new studio album in nearly 10 years, will arrive February 16, along with a film inspired by the music. The movie, directed by Dave Meyers and written by Jennifer, her husband Ben Affleck and Matt Walton, is described as a “fantastical and highly entertaining musical and visual reimagining” of the star’s “publicly scrutinized love life.”  It’s a major production, with choreography, costumes, sets and cameos from fellow stars.

This Is Me …Now: The Film will stream on Prime Video. The first single from the album, “Can’t Get Enough,” will drop on January 10 and is now available to pre-save. You can watch a teaser for the project on Jen’s socials.

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Marty Krofft, the producer behind TV classics such as Land of the Lost, H.R. Pufnstuff and Donny and Marie, has died at 86. Krofft, who was a trailblazer in children’s television and primetime programming, died at his home in Los Angeles while surrounded by family and friends on Saturday, due to kidney failure, his rep confirmed to ABC News…

Netflix has bought The Fifth Wheel, a comedy from Kim Kardashian, former Saturday Night Live writer Paula Pell and comedian/writer Janine Brito, according to Deadline. Plot details have not been revealed, but Kardashian will reportedly play the titular character. Kardashian’s previous acting roles include FX’s new American Horror Story: Delicate and a voice acting part on two Paw Patrol films…

Production has restarted on Venom 3, Tom Hardy shared Friday on Instagram. The Spider-Man adjacent Venom movies, starring Hardy, have been a smash for Sony Pictures. The 2018 original made more than $856 million worldwide, and while its 2021 sequel made considerably less, Venom: Let There Be Carnage still earned over $506 million against a reported production budget of $110 million…

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The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes repeated at No. 1 at the domestic box office with and estimated $28.8 million from Friday through Sunday and $42 million over the five-day weekend. It’s two-week total stands at $98.3 million in North America and $200 million globally.

Napoleon, starring Joaquin Phoenix, opened in second place, grabbing an estimated $20.4 million over the three-day weekend and $32.5 million since Thursday. Worldwide, director Ridley Scott‘s 200 million war epic grossed $78.8 million.

Disney’s Wish took third place, debuting an estimated $19.5 million between Friday and Sunday and $31.7 million over the long Thanksgiving weekend. That’s far below the $35 million it was expected to earn over the three-day and $45-$50 million for the entire holiday weekend. Wish added an estimated $17.3 million at the international box office.

Fourth place went to Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls Band Together, which delivered an estimated $17.5 million for the three-day and $25.3 million since Wednesday. The third Trolls movie has grossed $64.4 million at the North American box office and $145 million after two weeks.

Rounding out the top five was Thanksgiving with an estimated $7.5 million from Friday through Sunday and $11.1 million over the five-day. The horror film has scared up $24 million at the domestic box office to date.

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We’ve got some bad news for fans wishing for a reboot of or sequel to The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Tim Burton, who wrote the story for and produced the cult classic film, dashed all hopes for more adventures with Jack Skellington, Sally and the other citizens of Halloween Town in a recent interview with Empire.

“To me the movie is very important,” Burton told the outlet. “I’ve done sequels, I’ve done other things, I’ve done reboots, I’ve done all that s***, right? I don’t want that to happen to this.”

He continued, “It’s nice that people are maybe interested [in another one], but I’m not.”

Burton also opened up about why Jack Skellington — also known as the Pumpkin King — is an important character to him, calling him “a character that’s perceived as dark, but is really light.”

“Those are the kinds of things that I love, whether it’s [Edward] Scissorhands or Batman, characters that have that,” he explained. “It represented all those feelings that I had. I was perceived as this dark character, when I didn’t feel that way. So it was a very personal character.”

The film, which starred Chris Sarandon as Jack Skellington, Catherine O’Hara as Sally and featured the music of Danny Elfman, was directed by Henry Selick, with a screenplay by Caroline Thompson. It was reissued and rereleased by Walt Disney Pictures in 2006, after originally being released under Disney’s Touchstone Pictures label in October 1993.

It wasn’t a box office hit when it released 30 years ago, but it has since become a film many fans rewatch every year.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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Tara and Sam Carpenter won’t appear in the seventh Scream movie, now that Jenna Ortega has reportedly left the project over what Variety says is a scheduling conflict.

Ortega played Tara in Scream VI, opposite Melissa Barerra‘s Sam, and the news comes a day after Barerra was reportedly fired from the film for her social media comments about the Israeli and Palestinian conflict.

However, the trade notes, Ortega’s exit was in the works for some time and is related to work she needs to start on the second season of Wednesday, and the job she needs to finish on Tim Burton‘s Beetlejuice 2.

Both projects were delayed by the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Barerra’s posts accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza, among other comments, which Scream producers Spyglass Media told the trade “flagrantly crosse[d] the line into hate speech.”

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Like many people on Thanksgiving, Taye Diggs is looking to eat well and drink plenty.

He told ABC Audio about his plans to spend the holiday with loved ones, specifically his sisters, who’ve mastered making the family’s famous punch. 

“It’s amazing,” he said of the heirloom drink. 

The special concoction was originally mixed together by his late mother, who passed it down to the girls.   

And although he’d love to know how to make the punch himself, almost every time they get together he forgets to ask what’s in it. The one ingredient Diggs can name is grape juice. 

While the punch is a drink for everyone in the family — the young and the old — Diggs said he “adds some ‘adult-ness'” to his cup.

As the oldest of five children, he takes pride in watching the younger ones carry on the tradition. 

“I have no idea what’s going to happen,” the actor said after noting both his parents have passed on. 

What Diggs does know is that wherever he ends up on Thanksgiving, “if my sisters are there, I’m going to eat” and drink well, he said.

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Eric Stonestreet plays Magnus Antas, or the Mad Santa, in Disney+’s new season of The Santa Clauses.

And while he plots to take the throne of the real Santa aka Scott Calvin aka Tim Allen, by his side is Kris Kringle, played by stand-up comedian and actor Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias. 

For both self-described Christmas fans, it was a dream gig. “Some of my favorite episodes shooting Modern Family would be the holiday episodes, because here we’d be in late August or early September and there’s Christmas trees up and Christmas lights around,” Stonestreet tells ABC Audio.

“It’s like, ‘Oh, we’re getting into the season!'” he recalls enthusing. 

For this series, “I literally went from my living room in Kansas City to the North Pole,” he continues. 

For his part, Iglesias says, “Every day on the set, it’s like it was the most Christmas I’ve ever experienced in June because that’s when we shot it. And so, of course, outside it was all toasty … And then we go inside and it’s like, ‘Brr!'”

He called the set decorations “next level, expert mode”: “It wasn’t like, you know, something you’re going to go buy at Home Depot and put on your house yourself.”

Stonestreet insists that although his character is technically the villain, he’s not too scary for kids. He expresses, “That’s a fun line to play where, you know, you’re scary and intimidating, but also somewhat approachable and lovable.” He added, “I want them to be just, like, cautiously interested in my character.” 

Disney in the parent company of ABC News.

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