Entertainment

Variety is reporting that Prime Video is developing a spin-off of its hit Reacher series. The trade speculates it will center on Frances Neagley, who is played by Maria Sten in the hit adaptation of Lee Childs‘ Jack Reacher books …

The ‘Burbs, a new TV adaptation of the 1989 movie of the same name, has been given a straight-to-series order from Peacock. Keke Palmer is set to star and executive produce, with Brian Grazer and Seth MacFarlane also on board as executive producers. The show follows a young couple who encounter new next-door neighbors with dark secrets … 

The sci-fi film The Assignment, starring Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Olsen, has been scooped up by Prime Video, Deadline is reporting. The movie centers on a resources-strapped future where the government decides who is allowed to have a baby — and the invasive, psychologically horrifying interview Olsen’s character must endure to prove she’s worthy. The film, which also stars Minnie Driver, will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival, which is just getting underway …

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In a summer of twisters, animated emotions and, of course, superheroes, the modestly budgeted film Blink Twice has performed well and gotten strong reviews.

Many have praised first-time director and writer Zoë Kravitz’s handling of the intriguing thriller about a couple of women who think they’re on a dream vacation on a billionaire’s private island, but soon find it’s too good to be true. 

Kravitz’s real-life boyfriend, Channing Tatum, plays Slater, the cad in question.

One of those praising Zoë is Adria Arjona (AH-dree-ah are-HO-nah), who tells ABC Audio, “This is a hard movie, I think, for any director to direct, let alone the first-time director.” 

She says Zoë “just was a pro at nailing the tone and finding the satire and the comedy and the darkness and the excitement and the element of fun that this island … embodies.”

Adria plays Sarah, one of the beauties on the island competing for Slater’s attention. “I mean, a woman competing with another woman — that’s, like, so gross,” Adria says.

“Like, there’s nothing uglier than a woman competing with another woman. I read it and I was like, ‘Oof.’ But again, that was the part that kind of challenged me.”

Arjona recently starred in the Netflix action-comedy Hit Man opposite Glen Powell; she’s part of the cast of the acclaimed Disney+ Star Wars series Andor; and she has four other films in the works. “It’s really exciting that I get to reach so many people, and people are excited to watch me,” she says. 

That said, she adds, “I’m having really interesting conversations with strangers. Sometimes that can get scary. I’m not gonna lie. … Yeah, it’s really exciting.” 

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Clive Owen and Melissa McCarthy will star as John Bennett and Patsy Ramsey, the parents of murdered child pageant contestant JonBenét Ramsey.

Paramount+ says the limited series tentatively titled JonBenét Ramsey will explore “the tragic unsolved murder of [the] six-year-old beauty queen,” who was killed inside her home in 1996.

“It follows the Ramsey family, before and after the tragedy as they go through the painful loss of a child while facing intense public scrutiny caused by a media frenzy that caused this case to captivate an entire nation,” the streamer continues.

“At the heart of the series, it is the story of Patsy and John Ramsey — exploring the unbreakable partnership of these two complex people — as husband and wife, as mother and father — who had committed themselves and their children to building the narrative of a perfect, privileged life only to have it destroyed one Christmas night in 1996.”

The project has been in the works for some time. Paramount Global co-CEO Chris McCarthy is confident his just-announced stars are the perfect fit.

“Melissa McCarthy and Clive Owen are an extraordinary duo to delve into this tragic story that has cast a long, haunting shadow over American culture for nearly three decades,” he said.

Jeff Grossman, executive vice president of programming at Paramount+, said of the titular victim, “The incredible talent of Melissa McCarthy, Clive Owen and the creative team led by Richard LaGravenese will illuminate her story with the acuity and nuance it deserves.”

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Universal has dropped the most detailed look yet at its star-studded movie adaptation of the smash musical Wicked.

The movie from director Jon M. Chu stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo as, respectively, Glinda and Elphaba aka the Good and Wicked witches of Oz.

The trailer shows the pair meeting and green-skinned Elphaba’s struggle to fit in — even as her “extraordinary” powers are cultivated by Michelle Yeoh‘s Madam Morrible. 

In the coming attraction, both young witches go off to see the Wizard — that is, Jeff Goldblum as the avatar behind a fearsome mechanical face — and yes, they follow the Yellow Brick Road to get there at his direction.

However, he’s scheming an opportunity in splitting the pair apart. “The best way to bring folks together is to give ’em a real good enemy,” he purrs. 

At this, Erivo is seen donning a pointy black hat and apparently breaking bad, flying through the window on a broom.

“It’s the wizard who should be afraid of me!” she later says defiantly.

And while the show’s celebrated music is heard throughout, both Erivo and Grande are heard — but not seen — at the close, blowing the doors off the climax of the production’s showstopper “Defying Gravity.”

The first part of the two-part epic opens in theaters Nov. 22; part two is slated for a Nov. 26, 2025, release.

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“I got a wild career, man,” former Entourage star Jerry Ferrara tells ABC Audio. “I’m not even saying it’s like the best career ever, but I think it’s one of the more unique ones, that’s for sure.”

Indeed, the guy who got famous playing fast-talking dealmaker Turtle in Entourage has appeared opposite Robert De Niro and Morgan Freeman in Last Vegas, was directed by Clint Eastwood in Sully and recently appeared on the smash series Power.

He now has a new project: Throwbacks, a sports, entertainment and lifestyle podcast he’s co-hosting with Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart.

Ferrara was early to the podcasting game, having started one with his wife back in 2012, but he explains the new project combines some of his great loves. “My side hustles … have always been about, ‘Hey, how can I figure out how to semi earn a living talking and doing things that I like do for fun,’ which was always like video games, golf and talking sports, right?”

He and Leinart share interests in each other’s respective careers, and with kids the same age, they’re “becoming friends in real time.”

Entourage turned 20 years old in July, and Ferrara describes how fondly he looks back at it. “It’s a lot easier to appreciate it now because when it was going on, I remember just being … always worried it was going to get taken away because it was too good to be true, you know?”

He adds, “So now knowing that, hey, look, there’s nothing that could happen. No one can take it away. … It’s nice to look back on it. I have a 16-year-old nephew who’s watching it now … and it’s so funny to see a young person nowadays watching it.”

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Netflix has dropped a teaser for the second season of its acclaimed political drama The Diplomat.

There’s no dialogue, but the snippet reveals Allison Janney, who joins the cast for the sophomore frame as Vice President Grace Penn.

As Keri Russell‘s character, U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom Kate Wyler, poses on a red carpet with her husband, fellow career diplomat Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell), Janney turns around and stares icily at Russell, setting up an obviously antagonistic relationship between the pair to come.

Also of note, fans had been speculating about whether Hal had survived a cliff-hanger explosion at the end of season 1 — and while it seems he has, the streamer hints the blowback from the incident will continue to unfold.

Its synopsis reads: “A deadly explosion in the heart of London shatters US Ambassador Kate Wyler’s world. Struggling to rebuild the lives that broke and the team that split apart, Kate’s worst fears unfold: The attack that brought her to the UK didn’t come from a rival nation, it came from inside the British government.”

The new season drops on Oct. 31.

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While Deadpool & Wolverine brought back a host of heroes and villains from Marvel movie past, one actor who didn’t get the call from Ryan Reynolds and company was Liev Schreiber. 

The former Ray Donovan star played Logan/Wolverine’s ally-turned-enemy Sabretooth in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But when Sabretooth returned in the Deadpool film, his version was played by Tyler Mane, who originally played the baddie in 2000’s X-Men. 

Still, before the film came out, fans were speculating Schreiber would turn up — and that’s enough for him, he tells Collider. 

“It’s amazing,” he said. “I can’t begin to tell you what it feels like when people are thinking about something you did and are so appreciative of it that they want you to do it again.”

Schreiber related that to when “Showtime pulled the plug on” Ray Donovan. “I was just so overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from fans who watched.”

He adds, “When you’re making a television show, or you’re making a film, I’m not in there with the audience, I don’t know that anybody sees it. Of course, if you follow that sort of thing, you can see the numbers, that millions of people have seen it, but I generally don’t follow.”

That said, Liev said with a laugh, “I was so surprised that we had that many fans, and I was so surprised that people were campaigning for me to be in the new Deadpool movie.”

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You know him as Michael Keaton, but the actor is planning to change his name in show business.

Born Michael Douglas — just like the two-time Wall Street Oscar winner — the Beetlejuice star opened up in a new interview about choosing his professional moniker when starting out in the ’70s due to the Screen Actors Guild rule that prohibits two members from having the same name.

Keaton told People he doesn’t recall if he found his chosen name in a phone book like the rumors suggest, but added, “I must’ve gone, ‘I don’t know, let me think of something here.’ And I went, ‘Oh, that sounds reasonable.'”

Despite making a name for himself — quite literally — throughout his decadeslong career, starring in movies like Birdman and even playing Batman, the actor said he’d like to go by a combination of his birth name and stage name: Michael Keaton Douglas.

In fact, Keaton said he intended to be credited with the hybrid name on Knox Goes Away, the film he directed and starred in that was released in theaters earlier this year, but simply “forgot.”

“It totally got away from me,” he said. “And I forgot to give them enough time to put it in and create that. But it will happen.”

“Michael Keaton” can next be seen on the big screen in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the long-awaited sequel coming more than 35 years after the original, out Friday.

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To a shirtless photo of his Deadpool & Wolverine body that he posted to Instagram, Hugh Jackman voiced over a lengthy thank-you to a team of people who helped get him into superhero shape.

“Yeah, I had to turn up, and yeah, I had to do those deadlifts and I had to eat those meals,” he allowed, but gave the flowers to eight people.

Those included Beth Lewis, who has been his trainer for five years, not just for the film but his performances on Broadway and for an arena tour. He called her the “quarterback for this whole thing.”

Also getting thanks were Michael Ryan, who trained with Hugh since the actor was 20. Jackman also named the people who cooked and delivered his meals, which were tailored to his excessive training, for more than a year and a half.

Also getting a shout-out was a colleague named Whitney, whose job it was to “lube” up the star and make his skin glisten on set.

Co-star and producer Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy also got praise, as did the movie’s assistant director, who made the final reveal of that body — during the movie’s climax where Wolverine’s shirt is conveniently blown off — go as smoothly as possible.

“I would not have achieved that result without them,” a “grateful” Jackman expressed about them all.

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Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga‘s new movie, Joker: Folie à Deux, earned a lot of “Applause” at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 4, but the reviews are another story.

Variety reports that after the movie’s world premiere, the audience gave director Todd Phillips‘ sequel, starring Phoenix as Arthur Fleck/Joker and Gaga as Harley Quinn, an 11-minute standing ovation. But over at RottenTomatoes.com, about half the reviews are “rotten.”

The Hollywood Reporter‘s critic David Rooney called Gaga a “compelling live-wire presence,” but complained that the overall movie is “often dour.”

He adds, “Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver in the first Joker had the sturdy bones of not one but two Martin Scorsese films, Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, on which to hang their story and set their tone,” but the sequel, “is built on more of a conceit than a solid story foundation.”

Vanity Fair‘s reviewer Richard Lawson described the movie as “startlingly dull” and “a pointless procedural that seems to disdain its audience,” while the BBC’s Nicholas Barber called it a “dreary, underwhelming, unnecessary slog,” but noted that it was a “welcome opportunity to hear Gaga belting out some of the most romantic standards in the American Songbook.”

However, The Wrap‘s William Bibbiani called it “impressively odd,” and although he dinged the film — “even the title screams ‘film student trying too hard'” — the critic hailed the performances of Phoenix and Gaga, concluding of the sequel, “It’s genuinely a little daring, genuinely a little challenging, and genuinely a little genuine.”

Empire magazine’s John Nugent called the film “a genuinely original narrative.” Deadline‘s Pete Hammond praised it as a “brilliant musical return to a world of madness,” adding, “With song, dance, comedy, darkness, animation, drama, violence and more, this is a musical — if it even is a musical — like no other.”

We’ll see which camp the audience agrees with when Joker: Folie à Deux opens in theaters on Oct. 4.

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