Entertainment

Mattel Films, the movie wing of the iconic toy company, has high hopes for its movie slate after the runaway success of Barbie.

As reported, the company was already opening up its toy box looking for IP to turn into grist for movies, with classics like the card game Uno to more seemingly movie-ready properties like Masters of the Universe headed to the big screen. 

Before Barbie came out, Variety caught up with the person shepherding those projects, Oscar-nominated Dallas Buyers Club producer Robbie Brenner. She explained, “Everybody hopes that when you create a movie that there is going to be a franchise…”

Brenner added, “But, in this day and age, you just want to get the first one right.”

With Barbie‘s box office performance, a sequel is the biggest no-brainer since Ken. 

That said, other Mattel properties are getting ready for their close-ups. They include the J.J. Abrams-produced Hot Wheels movie, which Brenner called “grounded and gritty.” Mattel also has a Matchbox movie in play, speaking of little toy cars.

Additionally, there’s a Polly Pocket movie coming from MGM with star Lily Collins and director Lena Dunham. “It’s been an amazing collaboration,” she explains, adding it’s in the development phase.

As reported, a “surrealistic” take of the kids show Barney and Friends is also on the docket, starring Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya. 

Brenner also said Tom Hanks is attached to Major Matt Mason, based on the moon-residing astronaut toy from the ’60s; Vin Diesel will star in Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots. As for a movie based on the Magic 8-Ball most kids have had, Brenner says it will “probably be a PG-13 thriller.”

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Sylvester Stallone and Henry Winkler had a sweet reunion in Beverly Hills, California this week.

Stallone, who starred with Winkler in the 1974 film The Lords of Flatbush, shared a photo of them with comedian Jon Lovitz and Stallone’s brother Frank Stallone at lunch to film Sly’s reality show, The Family Stallone.

“Spending a great afternoon with my very, very long time friend Henry Winkler,” Stallone wrote Tuesday in the post’s caption. “Great guy, great actor, and hysterical Jon [Lovitz] and my very talented brother, the Frankster!”

Lovtiz, who revealed the group outing happened at Mulberry Street Pizza, also shared several photos from the group’s afternoon together.

Incidentally, that’s the same spot Sly told ABC Audio he “totally tricked” Al Pacino into visiting for lunch, only to be captured for the first season of his reality show. “And sure enough, the cameras come in from the curb everywhere, He goes, ‘What is this? What is — What am I being ganged up on?'” Sly recalled, laughing.

Along with Stallone and Winkler, The Lords of Flatbush also starred Perry King and the late Paul Mace. The coming-of-age film was set in 1958 and followed their characters, four Brooklyn teenagers who belonged to the titular street gang in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.

Winkler and Stallone have been friends for decades, with the former giving Sly partial credit for Winkler’s portrayal of The Fonz on Happy Days, he explained on The Rich Eisen Show podcast.

Winkler also told Eisen he sold Sly’s unknown script for Rocky to ABC, only to ask for the script and the money back when the network wanted to replace Stallone as the writer.

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A man has been sentenced to over two years in prison for his involvement in the overdose death of actor Michael K. Williams.

According to WABC, federal prosecutors said Carlos Macci, 71, is among four people who sold drugs in Brooklyn, including the drugs that claimed the life of Williams in September, 2021. 

During sentencing on Tuesday, July 25, U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams told Macci that selling fentanyl and heroin “not only cost Mr. Williams his life, but it’s costing your freedom,” partly because he continued to sell drugs after the actor’s death. 

Per WABC, court documents show that on or around September 5, 2021, Williams was sold heroin that was laced with fentanyl and a fentanyl analogue. A 39-year-old member of the crew is said to have made the hand-to-hand transaction.

While Macci was not charged directly with Williams’ death, the other three defendants have been. 

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Ryan Reynolds chose a very intimate way of celebrating his pal Sandra Bullock‘s 59th birthday, which was Wednesday, July 26.

Ryan posted to Instagram the famous scene from their 2009 romantic comedy, The Proposal, which saw their characters accidentally, and awkwardly, smacking into each other, face to face, while totally naked.

“Happy Birthday to the inimitable and stunning Sandra Bullock!” Reynolds began his caption.

“For your birthday this year, I got us both intimacy coordinators. And an HR department. And clothing?”

Incidentally, in 2021, Oscar winner Bullock was asked about the famous, cringe-inducing scene, which shows the pair squished together, each unwilling to move lest the other see anything.

She told Adam Ray on his About Last Night Podcast, “Ryan and I had flesh-colored things stuck to our privates…And Ryan’s little — not little at all, it’s just whatever’s there I didn’t see it there, I didn’t look — is protected…We collide together, and we’re on the floor…and they have to say cut…”

Bullock added, laughing, “But he’s lying on his back…And we couldn’t really move, and I hear [director] Ann Fletcher from the darkness saying, ‘Ryan: We can see your b*******”…as loud as you possibly can, and…bringing everyone’s focus to that area.”

She called Ryan, “absolutely unflappable,” adding the only reason she did the scene was because she got to “humiliate herself” with someone she trusts for laughs — not to “appear sexy.”

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Hulu has given an eight-episode series order to an unscripted show about Wayne Brady and his family. The yet-to-be-titled series will follow Brady, who is still best friends with his ex-wife and business partner, Mandie Taketa. Together, they co-parent their 20-year-old daughter, Maile Brady, a student and aspiring artist, as well as running their production company. A premiere date has not been set…

Bo Goldman, Oscar-winning screenwriter on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Melvin and Howard, died Tuesday in Helendale, California, his son-in-law, Tár director Todd Field, tells The New York Times. Goldman was 90. He also wrote The Rose, starring Bette Midler, and Scent of a Woman — the last of which starred Al Pacino in an Oscar-winning performance — and Meet Joe Black, starring Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins. Goldman also worked on scripts for Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy and Wolfgang Petersen‘s The Perfect Storm…

Tarek El Moussa and Heather Rae El Moussa’s HGTV docuseries The Flipping El Moussas has been renewed for a second season with an expanded 14-episode order. “The new season will find Tarek and Heather Rae taking risks in the Southern California housing market and adjusting to life with a newborn,” said Loren Ruch, Head of Content, HGTV, per HGTV. “They will have more to juggle than ever before, bringing their millions of loyal fans who have followed their journey from the beginning along for the ride.” Season 2 is slated to premiere in early 2024…

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Anthony Mackie plays a post-apocalyptic delivery driver — think of DoorDash, but much more dangerous — in Peacock’s series adaptation of the video game Twisted Metal, debuting Thursday, July 27.

Mackie’s character drives a beat-up 1990s sports car that is deceptively deadly — a far cry from his first set of wheels, “a 1985 Nissan Sentra,” he told ABC Audio in an interview done before the SAG-AFTRA strike started.

“It was a disaster,” he continues. “In New Orleans, we used to call them bird cars. So some mechanic would get a car from the junkyard, fix it up and sell it to you for like 600 bucks. So he sold me this Nissan Sentra. It had a back seat and a driver’s seat. No passenger seat. It had a radio, no air conditioning. And the radio I put in myself with my cousin and it was like a house radio with speakers in a trunk.”

And topping Mackie’s playlist back then? “It would be A Tribe Called Quest, Midnight Marauder. I played that until it just exploded,” he shares. “Tupac [Shakur]. And then one of the greatest CDs ever released was De La Soul, Me, Myself, and I. Those were my, like, constant rotation in my car.”

Mackie said he actually got to do some of his driving stunts, which you’ll see in an abandoned mall in episode 1.

“I got to like burn out through the mall a little bit and jump out the window and all that stuff,” he recalls. “A lot of the mall stuff actually, I got to do. So we were, I was pressing the limits, like ripping through the mall. I wanted to see. And I’m like, if I wreck, who cares? We’re in a mall that’s closed down.”

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On Wednesday, the sixth and final episode of Marvel Studios’ Secret Invasion dropped on Disney+. 

After four episodes’ worth of betrayals, the death of one fan favorite in Cobie Smulders‘ MCU veteran Maria Hill, and a shape-shifting alien conspiracy to doom humankind brought about by an extremist group of the alien Skrull race, Samuel L. Jackson‘s Nick Fury must finally face off with the group’s leader, Gravik (Barbie co-star Kingsley Ben-Adir).

While Fury gets closer to his charge — trudging on what may be a suicide mission to New Skrullos, the alien HQ the extremists built at an abandoned nuclear plant — Dermot Mulroney‘s President Ritson, still ailing from an assassination attempt, is being tricked by other imposters closest to him into starting World War III.

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

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The Back to the Future movie cast recently reunited at an event for the Broadway musical based on the iconic 1985 film.

Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson, who played Marty McFly, Emmett “Doc” Brown and Lorraine McFly in the beloved movie, respectively, attended a gala performance of Back to the Future: The Musical on July 25 at New York City’s Winter Garden Theatre.

The trio showed up in support of the Broadway musical’s cast, which includes Casey Likes and Roger Bart, who are playing Fox and Lloyd’s roles on the stage.

Also in attendance were Robert Zemeckis, who directed and co-wrote the Back to the Future film, and Bob Gale, who co-wrote the film with Zemeckis and wrote the book for the Broadway musical.

Huey Lewis of Huey Lewis and the News, whose song “The Power of Love” was the theme song for the movie, attended the event alongside Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard, who are responsible for the music and lyrics, respectively, in Back to the Future: The Musical.

“My mom was a huge fan of Michael J. Fox and always said that I reminded her of him,” Likes told Good Morning America about stepping into the Fox’s role for the stage production.

“Marty McFly is what we all wanted to be growing up — it’s what I still want to be,” Likes continued. “I’m not doing an impression, but I’m doing enough of a reminder of how special Michael is while also mixing in a little bit of myself and trying to be as cool as I possibly can.”

The musical has already been an award-winning hit on London’s West End and now heads to Broadway, officially opening August 3.

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Brittany Brower is joining Bethenny Frankel‘s rallying of reality show veterans, claiming she wasn’t paid a dime for her season 4 appearance on America’s Next Top Model.

Frankel made headlines the week of July 17 with a series of Instagram videos, saying producers are taking advantage of reality stars by not compensating them fairly despite rerunning their shows.

Brower tells the Daily Mail, “People are constantly sending me emails saying they’re watching my season. I’m like great, I’m so glad the show still has a following and it’s still making money, but I get absolutely nothing from it. It’s just such bulls***.”

She claims the contestants on her season were only given money for groceries. At the time, she considered herself fortunate that she lived at home and had parents who helped her make ends meet.

What’s more, she said when her original season was over, she had trouble converting her screen time to modeling fame. “I got some bookings, sure, but I must be honest, some things I wasn’t able to book because I was on Top Model and the designer didn’t want that kind of look.”

Brower says she was paid to return for one of the show’s All Stars sessions — $1,000 an episode.

Brower supported Frankel’s urging reality stars to band together, particularly as networks are relying on reality TV to fill gaps from the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes. “This is the perfect time to make change happen,” Brower says. “Like, ok, you want us to pick up the brunt of television right now? You want reality stars to be the TV? Well then pay for it.”

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On Wednesday, July 26, Hulu debuted the anticipated third-season trailer to Only Murders in the Building.

Picking up the pieces — and the clues — after the Broadway stage death of Paul Rudd‘s actor Ben Gelroy in season 2, Selena Gomez‘s Mabel, Steve Martin‘s Charles and Martin Short‘s Oliver must figure out whodunnit.

“Finding this killer is the only way you’ll have a show,” Mabel tells Oliver, before she’s seen pitching her building-mates about another season of their true-crime podcast. “Who are we without a homicide?” she asks.

As always, the trio needs to narrow down the suspects: Is it Meryl Streep‘s “stinkarooney” actress Loretta Durkin? Or “Maybe it was Kimber (Ashley Park), the TikTok addicted starlet?” Martin’s Charles muses. “Does she do it as part of an Internet mem?” he asks, unknowingly mispronouncing “meme.”

Joining in this season is Jesse Williams, who at dinner asks Mabel what she and her older counterparts talk about. “Murder, mostly,” she deadpans, before adding, “And how to connect to Bluetooth. We talk about that a lot.”

Real-life Broadway stars Matthew Broderick and Tina Fey are also glimpsed in the trailer for what the streamer is calling the “wildest season yet.”

The bodies hit the floor August 8.

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