It didn’t take a magic mushroom for Barbie to hop over The Super Mario Bros. Movie for the title of the biggest movie in North America in 2023.
It took money.
Lots of money.
Greta Gerwig‘s smash hit for Warner Bros. Pictures has made $575.4 million in U.S. theaters, besting the $575 million made by Universal’s Mario domestically — in just a little over five weeks in theaters.
Not only that, but Barbie is poised to beat Mario worldwide: While Chris Pratt‘s animated Super Mario Bros. Movie generated $1.35 billion globally, Barbie worldwide has made $1.3 billion to date — and it keeps making money.
In short, Barbie, like her namesake doll, has legs.
The two-time Emmy-winning animated series Rick and Morty is returning to Adult Swim for its seventh season on Sunday, October 15, at 11 p.m.
However, while the show’s coming back, the show’s co-creator and voice behind the titular characters, Justin Roiland, won’t be.
As reported last year, Roiland was charged with one felony count of domestic battery with corporal injury and one felony count of false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud and/or deceit in an incident with a woman he was with back in January 2020.
In February 2023, the charges were dropped for lack of evidence. But by then, three production companies had already severed ties with him: Adult Swim, which airs Rick and Morty; Hulu, which runs his show Solar Opposites; and 20th Animation, which produces his series Koala Man.
His roles of sociopathic genius Rick Sanchez and his nervous grandson Morty Smith are being recast with soundalikes.
In fact, the logline for the season seems to be a nod to the drama: “Rick and Morty are back and sounding more like themselves than ever!” it begins.
Incidentally, it wouldn’t be the first time replacing Roiland was referenced: The season 4 trailer to Solar Opposites explained away Roiland’s former character, Korvo, now sounding like Legion‘s Dan Stevens due to a “voice-fixing ray.” Sean Giambrone‘s Yumulack comments, “Nobody’s gonna notice.”
Having become a global phenomenon after its launch in 2013, Rick and Morty‘s seventh season will roll out in more than 134 countries in 38 languages, Adult Swim says.
“It’s season seven, and the possibilities are endless,” the tease continues in part. “What’s up with Jerry? EVIL Summer?! And will they ever go back to the high school?! Maybe not! But let’s find out!”
Deadline is reporting Jamie Foxx will be playing none other than God himself in the upcoming spoof Not Another Church Movie.
The film, which reportedly wrapped production before the SAG-AFTRA strike, also stars Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke as the Devil.
Joining Foxx when the movie hits theaters later in the year will be Kevin Daniels, Vivica A. Fox, Tisha Campbell, Jasmine Guy, Kyla Pratt and Lamorne Morris. Not Another Church Movie wasdirected and co-written by Real Husbands of Hollywood veteran Johnny Mack.
According to the trade, Daniels plays Taylor Pharry, “an ambitious young man given a holy mission from God,” only to find out that “the Devil has plans of his own.”
Executive producer Valerie McCaffrey tells Deadline, “The name talent that has come together for this … comedy is unprecedented. You see all the actors having fun, especially Foxx playing God.”
Sex and the City fans were treated to Kim Cattrall‘s long-awaited cameo in the And Just Like That… season 2 finale.
The episode, which dropped August 24 on Max, starts off with Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) preparing for a goodbye dinner for her legendary Upper East Side apartment — hilariously dubbed “The Last Supper” — when she receives a call from Cattrall’s Samantha.
Samantha is calling to tell Carrie that her flight from London to New York City has been delayed, meaning she won’t be able to make it in time for the party — a surprise to Carrie, who didn’t know her old friend was planning to come at all.
Turns out Cynthia Nixon‘s Miranda and Kristin Davis‘ Charlotte had told her about it.
“I was gonna surprise you,” Samantha says, to which Carrie says she is “very surprised.”
The reason for the flight’s delay? “The fog finally lifted, but the crew? Maxed out,” a “f****** furious” Samantha explains.
When Carrie suggests the two could just hang out the next day, Samantha informs her she was only flying in for the party and was headed out first thing the next morning.
“Wait a minute, you were flying all the way to New York for an overnight?” Carrie asks.
“Well, it is your apartment, and I have to pay my respects,” Samantha retorts, asking Carrie to put her on speaker so she can address the fabled digs directly. “Thank you for everything, you f****** fabulous, fabulous flat.”
Carrie then pokes fun at Samantha for having a British accent, to which Samantha says “ta and cheerio, and have a great night.”
“People thought I was a little crazy two years ago,” Brian Volk-Weiss tells ABC Audio about his “surreal” journey from TV producer and toy collector to successful toy company CEO.
The Nacelle Company had been seen in the credits to streaming hits like The Movies That Made Us and The Toys that Made Us, among many others. “You know … if people knew who we were at all, we were famous for two things: stand-up comedy specials and documentaries about pop culture,” he continues.
However, Nacelle has expanded from a media company — with clients including Netflix, Hulu and Discovery — to cornering a particular part of pop culture: acquiring the IPs from beloved shows and toy lines familiar to Gen Xers, and creating toys and new shows from them.
“People at first were like, ‘What do you mean you bought a copyright?'” Volk-Weiss says with a laugh.
His expanding, and soon to be interlacing, “Nacelleverse” now includes Robo Force, Sectaurs and Wild West Cowboys of Moo Mesa, among others.
The company recently made headlines because one of those properties — an animated ’90s show called Biker Mice from Mars — caught the attention of Ryan Reynolds.
Volk-Weiss says Reynolds “loved” the cartoon. “He grew up on it, like many of us did.”
The producer explains another fan was a colleague who happened to become the head of television at the Deadpool star’s company, Maximum Effort.
“So he asked Ryan, like, ‘Hey, like, did you watch this?’ Ryan was like, ‘F*** yeah! Oh my God, this is great,” Brian said, before noting, “Something like that. I was not on the call.”
Whatever Reynolds did say, however, led to him and Volk-Weiss collaborating on a new Biker Mice animated series for Fubo.
On Thursday, August 24, Apple TV+ dropped the full season 3 trailer to its drama The Morning Show, and it’s intense.
The coming attraction begins with Jennifer Aniston‘s anchor Alex telling Billy Crudup‘s cocky producer Cory, “I’m all over this network. I need to have a say in the future of this place.”
“What you are asking is unprecedented,” Corky insists. “I am unprecedented,” Alex shoots back.
Cory replies, “…it’s not your turn, Alex.”
The trailer also shows their network UBA going dark after being hit by a “nuclear” cyberattack that not only boots them off the air and traps staffers in their building, but airs their dirty laundry for the world to see.
Alex tells Reese Witherspoon‘s Bradley, “Honestly, let all the secrets come out! They didn’t protect me!”
Bradley replies, “They didn’t protect you. I did.”
Meanwhile, Mad Men Emmy winner Jon Hamm is “making moves” as a billionaire offering the network a lifeline — and Alex that power she believes she’s owed. “This is a chance to build something better, but you have to really, really want it,” he tempts.
According to Apple TV+, “In season 3…the future of the network is thrown into question and loyalties are pushed to the brink when a tech titan takes an interest in UBA.”
The streaming service continues, “Unexpected alliances form, private truths are weaponized, and everyone is forced to confront their core values both in and out of the newsroom.”
The 10-episode third season of The Morning Show will premiere with two episodes on Wednesday, September 13. New episodes will subsequently drop every Wednesday through November 8.
Barbie is already the highest-grossing release of the year at the domestic box office, and it’s about to get even bigger — literally — thanks to a limited one-week engagement on the large screen format IMAX, along with exclusive new post-credit footage selected by director Greta Gerwig.
“The worldwide enthusiasm for Barbie has been overwhelming, humbling, and deeply moving. So many Barbie fans went on this journey with us, and we can’t thank them enough for supporting the film and sharing their Barbie experience in theaters, across social media, and out in the world,” Gerwig said in a statement obtained by ABC Audio.
She continued, “We made Barbie for the big screen, so it’s an even bigger thrill to be able to bring it to IMAX, the biggest screen of all. And as a special thanks to Barbie fans, we’re excited to share a little bit more of our cast and crew’s incredible work by adding special new footage we hope audiences will enjoy.”
After just over a month in theaters, Barbie — starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken — has emerged as the summer’s biggest hit, grossing $572 million in North America and $1.3 billion worldwide.
For their part, Warner Bros. Pictures’ heads of distribution Jeff Goldstein and Andrew Cripps, added in the announcement, “Greta, Margot, Ryan and everyone involved in Barbie have not just captured, but held the attention of moviegoers everywhere, and we are so pleased to give them a chance to see Barbie, whether for the first or fifth time, in such an experiential format as IMAX.”
Incidentally, the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon’s other half, Christopher Nolan‘s blockbuster Oppenheimer, has been doing record business on IMAX screens worldwide since it debuted in theaters with Barbie on July 21.
Comedian Kevin Hart has apparently found himself temporarily confined to a wheelchair after a friendly foot race went awry.
In a humorous Instagram video on August 23, Hart recalled the comical cause of his latest injury — a 40-yard dash against 34-year-old former NFL running back Stevan Ridley. The consequence? A torn lower abdomen and tears to his hip abductors.
With his signature wit, Hart started, “Yep … well. You know any time somebody starts by saying, ‘well’ — it’s bad.”
Playfully acknowledging the realities of turning 40, the Jumanji actor recounted the ill-fated race that led to his wheelchair-bound state.
“I tried to go out there and do some young stuff,” he confessed, before conceding that it might be time to embrace a slower pace. “It’s not a game, respect that age or that age will make you respect it. I was just forced to respect it.”
Hart added that he’ll likely be in the wheelchair for a few weeks, “You know I’m out, I got about six to eight.”
With a dose of self-deprecating humor, he captioned the post, “44 and sitting my a** down!!!!! I got to be the dumbest man alive!!!!! What the f*** am I doing???? I blew my s***….I’m done. FML.”
After its second season scored six Emmy nominations, HBO’s already Emmy-winning Max docuseries 100 Foot Wave has been renewed for a third. Directed and executive produced by award-winning filmmaker Chris Smith and Fleabag‘s Emmy, Golden Globe, and Tony winner Joe Lewis, the series “chronicles the adventures of big wave surfing legend Garrett McNamara, his wife, Nicole, and their nucleus of friends and fellow surfers in Nazaré, Portugal as they push the boundaries of their sport and the limits of their minds and bodies”…
Rita Wilson on Wednesday, August 23 shared a lyric video for “OLI MAZI (We Are All Together),” her new single, from the upcoming movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3. The song was co-written with Grammy-winning songwriter Diane Warren and featuring guest vocalist Christos Mastoras. “Greek people are known for their love of family. OLI MAZI means ‘all together.’ The song is about bringing people together whether it’s your birth family or chosen family, being there for each other and celebrating that love and connection,” the Greek Wedding franchise actress and producer wife of Tom Hanks said in a statement. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 opens in theaters on September 8…
A League of Their Own co-creator Will Graham urged fans to hold out hope for a return of the since-canceled Amazon series. “We are still fighting for League,” Graham, who changed their pronouns after working on the series, shared in a lengthy post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “If we have an avenue to do it well, we will continue the show.” The streamer on August 18 reversed is decision to bring the comedy-drama, co-created and starring Abbi Jacobson, back for an abbreviated four-episode season. The company blamed “the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strikes, which have delayed TV production, creating large gaps between seasons and making shows miss their target release dates”…
Congratulations are in order for Only Murders in the Building which scored 11 Emmy nominations and John Hoffman, the showrunner, tells ABC Audio he couldn’t be more excited.
“We were on almost a full year before the nominations came out for season 2, so I was very hopeful and, you know, big relief when it happened,” he shares. “So I feel ridiculously honored and thrilled and relieved.”
Even though the series received 17 nominations and three wins in 2022, Hoffman says he had no expectations this year “because this is really, like it’s an insane time in television. And there have been such incredible leaps and wonderful work out there.”
So out of the 11, which one is Hoffman the most pumped about? The one for their director of photography, Chris Teague, “who had missed out on a nomination for season 1.”
“I happen to feel like we have, I think, one of the more beautiful 30-minute half hours comedies on TV. So that one particularly, I was so happy to see him get recognized after missing the first season,” he adds.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Hoffman admits he was a bit bummed that unlike last year when leads Steve Martin and Martin Short were both nominated, this year only Short got the nod for Outstanding Actor in Comedy Series.
“That was a moment that could have led to some awkwardness, but Steve and Marty are old friends and Steve was gracious when they talked on nominations morning,” Hoffman recalls. “These are well-tuned actors who have been in this business a long time … I mean, these men are doing some of the finest work of their lives at this point in their careers. And I just love watching them and being around them.”
