Entertainment

Yellowstone star and producer Kevin Costner is getting back in the saddle with another Western project, this one a feature film called Horizon, according to Deadline, which reports that Warner Bros. and New Line have possed up with him.

Costner, a veteran of the genre for decades before his current hit series, will star, produce, and direct what the trade calls a period film, set during the perilous 15 years before and after the Civil War.

Dances with Wolves Oscar winner Costner is co-writing the project with Jon Baird, with whom he wrote a 2015 bestseller called The Explorers Guild.

In a statement, WB’s chairman Toby Emmerich said of the Horizon partnership, “Kevin’s ambitious vision for this story is the perfect crystallization of his affinity for the American West and his passion to bring this turning point in its history to life with all the human drama, cultural complexity and immense scope it deserves.”

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It’s the beginning of the end for Better Call Saul. The critically acclaimed Breaking Bad prequel series debuts the first episodes of its final season tonight on AMC.

Michael Mando has played drug cartel soldier Nacho Varga since season one, and he tells ABC Audio the final season changes everything, even the show that came before it.

“I think to me, it was the most satisfying ending for every character, that I’ve seen. And you’ve got the biggest Breaking Bad Easter eggs that you can dream of are back here in this season. And you’ve got answers for Breaking Bad,” he shares. “We can’t wait to share it with the world.”

Luckily for Mando, and for fans, the wait is over, and according to Patrick Fabian, who plays lawyer Howard Hamlin in the series, Saul Goodman’s chief nemesis, the final season doesn’t waste any time getting to the action.

“They really pushed a lot of balls up to the mountaintop, and this season is all about just going dink dink dink and watching them… careen down the hill. And so the payoffs that come, you know, there’s a wonderful pacing of stuff that happens pretty fast and furiously that gets your attention,” Fabian explains.

Not only will the season grab your attention, Tony Dalton, who plays drug cartel boss Lalo Salamanca says, “All the questions that the fans have, all the doubts about what’s going to happen to all these characters is definitely, you know, it’s definitely solved.”

“Everything comes to an end in some way or another,” he adds.

In other words, the final season is epic.

“Operatic, tragic, larger than life. One hell of a rollercoaster ride, man,” Mando teases.

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Ahead of its first-season finale on April 20, Disney+ has greenlighted a second season of its animated reboot The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder.

The series stars the voices of Kyla Pratt as Penny Proud; Tommy Davidson as her dad, Oscar Proud; Paula Jai Parker as her mom, Trudy Proud, and Jo Marie Payton as Suga Mama.

Parker tells ABC Audio she’s still knocked out by the fan base for the original show, which ran from 2001 to 2005, and its newest incarnation. “I had a little seven-year-old lose it after hearing my voice…lose it crying,” she says. “It blew my mind because it’s a whole-new generation of love and they’re going to experience even more when they see what we’ve got coming,” the actress teased.

The cast also includes Cedric the Entertainer as Uncle Bobby, Karen Malina White as Dijonay Jones, and Soleil Moon Frye as Zoey Howz.

The first season’s guests also included Chance the Rapper, Gabrielle Union, Hamilton‘s Leslie Odom Jr., black-ish star Anthony Anderson, Jane Lynch, and Euphoria‘s Storm Reid.

Incidentally, the first season’s soundtrack will be released by Walt Disney Records on June 3.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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Marvel has just dropped a long-anticipated teaser for Thor: Love and Thunder.

From writer-director Taika Waititi — the guy who used Led Zeppelin‘s “The Immigrant Song” not once, but twice in Thor: Ragnarok — the new teaser for Thor: Love and Thunder is set to Guns ‘N Roses‘ classic “Sweet Child O’ Mine.”

The teaser opens with Chris Hemsworth‘s title character as a child, a teen, god-like superhero, and then the fat Thor we saw in Avengers: Endgame. However, having given up his throne to Tessa Thompson‘s Valkyrie at the end of that film, he’s finally able to “choose his own path.”

To that end, he’s shown getting back into shape, using massive chains as workout ropes and wearing a trucker cap emblazoned with his self-given nickname, “The Strongest Avenger.”

“These hands were once used for battle,” he explains, as he buries his fearsome axe Stormbreaker in the soil. “Now they’re but humble tools for peace.”

However, as battle breaks out on an alien world, he throws open his shirt to reveal his newly re-jacked chest. This makes Chris Pratt‘s Peter Quill/Star-Lord roll his eyes.

That said, Thor declares: “My super-heroing days are over.”

“Not every god has a plan,” a title card reads, hinting at Thor’s quest of discovery, with his trusty rock pal Korg by his side.

The eye-popping teaser ends with a glimpse of Natalie Portman, herself jacked and holding the god’s hammer, in her turn as Thor herself.

Thor: Love and Thunder opens July 8 from Marvel Studios, which is owned by Disney, parent company of ABC News.

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In a conversation with the Palm Beach Daily News, stand-up legend and former Tonight Show host Jay Leno sounded off on the infamous Will Smith Oscar incident.

Leno noted, “To me, the thing that’s most disturbing wasn’t the slap, because he was kind of smirking after he slapped [Chris Rock],” Leno said. “It was the yelling of the obscenities. Then you go, ‘Whoa. What’s going on here?’ This is real anger.”

Leno noted how out of character the situation seemed for Smith, who he called a “good guy.” Jay also cracked wise about the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ investigating the slap, before deciding to ban Smith for 10 years.

“What are you investigating?” Leno asked.

“It had to be the most recorded assault in history. I saw the back of his shoe, I saw Chris’ ear. There were so many cameras on this incident. What are you investigating? I know sometimes things are just what they appear to be.”

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Tom Hanks‘ throwing out the first pitch of the Cleveland Guardians’ home opener on Friday night reunited him with a former big-screen co-star. Hanks was introduced to the fans along with Wilson the volleyball, one of his only screen partners in the 2000 hit Cast Away. As reported, longtime Cleveland fan Hanks threw his pitch to Larry Doby Jr., whose father was the first Black player in the American League…

We’ve lost another Seinfeld mom. Just weeks after the passing of Estelle Harris, who played George Costanza’s mother on the ‘90s sitcom, comes news of the death of Liz Sheridan, who played Jerry Seinfeld’s mom on the show. Her manager confirmed to KABC’s George Pennacchio that she died of natural causes early Friday morning at age 93. Sheridan also had a recurring role on ALF and appeared in numerous Broadway shows. She chronicled her romance with James Dean in her 2000 book, Dizzy & Jimmy. Sheridan is survived by her daughter and son-in-law…

Saturday Night Live has announced that The Power of the Dog Oscar nominee Benedict Cumberbatch will return to Studio 8H to host on May 7, the day after Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness opens in theaters. Arcade Fire will be the musical guest, their sixth turn on the long-running sketch show…

Netflix and DreamWorks Animation have a new trailer to another entry in the Boss Baby franchise. Once again, Alec Baldwin voices the business-suited title role in the animated series Boss Baby: Back in the Crib. In this follow-up to 2021’s film The Boss Baby 2: Family Business, Baldwin’s Theodor Templeton is accused of embezzlement. The film debuts May 19…

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Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the third installment of the Fantastic Beasts franchise, opened in the number-one spot at the box office, earning an estimated $43 million over the weekend. Overseas, the fantasy film — brought to life by an ensemble cast that includes Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Ezra Miller and more, and with Mads Mikkelsen replacing Johnny Depp as the villainous Gellert Grindelwald — racked up $150 million, bringing its global total to just over $193 million.

Last week’s number-one film, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, dropped to second, earning an additional $30 million domestically during its second weekend in theaters, surpassing the $100 million mark domestically and doubling that internationally, with an estimated $231.8 million total.

Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum‘s rom-com The Lost City held on to the third spot at the box office, securing another $6.5 million in its fourth week of release, bringing its global tally to $88.2 million.

Earning an additional $6.2 million over the holiday weekend was Everything Everywhere All at Once. Its international total now sits at $18 million.

Rounding out the top five is the Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg-led Father Stu, which earned opened to $5.7 million domestically, for a grand total of $8 million since last Wednesday.

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Two years and one pandemic later, Birthday Candles, starring Debra Messing, finally makes its Broadway debut — and if it’s good old-fashioned life perspective you’re searching for, bring all the issues and some tissues, too.

Written by Noah Haidle, the production is a time-trip: Spanning 90 years in one woman’s life…and the highs and sometimes crushing lows that go along with the journey.

“It’s the most challenging thing I have ever been a part of bar-none,” the Will & Grace star tells ABC Audio. “Not ever leaving the stage, aging 90 years and having to gently transform throughout the play.”

From carefree teenager to midlife and the inevitable senior years, Messing’s character, Ernestine, marks her passage of time by celebrating a birthday every year — no matter what the circumstances are. And with every birthday come the inevitable questions.

“’Have I wasted my life?’ That is a question we ask ourselves at every stage of life,” Messing says. “That’s our greatest fear.”

Messing says the collective experience of the last few years makes the production “more relevant and more prescient” than ever. “It’s about connection,” she says. “We lost connection during the pandemic and connection is the thing that is most fragile in a family dynamic.”

Her co-star, Enrico Colantoni, echoes the sentiment. “My favorite line in the play is ‘notice what we have left.’ I don’t think that would have affected me the way it did if not for COVID,” he tells ABC Audio. “Little things are important now. Time spent with your family. I think that’s why it resonates with so many people now having gone through the two years. Everyone’s life is beautiful.”

Birthday Candles is now playing through May 29 at The American Airlines Theater.

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On Monday, former Survivor winner and two-time cancer survivor Ethan Zohn will re-run the Boston Marathon for the first time since 2015, when the Boston Bombing shattered the event.

The attack killed three and injured scores more. Zohn, who was running to celebrate a year of being in remission, says he was “about 20 minutes away from the actual finish line” when the bombs exploded.

“So it was really scary,” he said. “Like, we actually didn’t know what was going on when it actually happened because we are so far away. We heard an explosion, but everyone just kept running.”

Zohn called it, “Total chaos…Because no one knew really what happened, how many people are injured…No transportation in and out of the city. No phone service. So it was chaos.”

Afterward, however, Ethan witnessed the best of “human nature and compassion and empathy” that “[transcended] this horrible experience.”

Zohn, who advocates for cannabis use, which he says got him through chemo and helped with the psychological after-effects of battling cancer, is also running this year to advocate for AKTIV Against Cancer, which stresses physical activity for those fighting it.

“My father who died of cancer when I was 14 years old, he ran the Boston Marathon, so I’m like literally following in his footsteps,” said Zohn. “So I think this race for me…it’s my father. It’s my hometown of Boston, it’s running the race again after the bombs. It’s 10 years [in remission], it’s cannabis, AKTIV Against Cancer. So all these things coming together, I think it’s just a wonderful thing to celebrate.”

He adds, “I’m super excited, nervous and excited to be running this race.”

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Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the third in a series of Harry Potter spin-offs, managed to conjure up $6 million from Thursday night preview audiences in the U.S., according to Deadline.

The film, co-written by Potter creator JK Rowling, has already opened overseas and is nearing the hundred-million-dollar mark from foreign theaters. Stateside, it’s expecting an estimated take in the $40-$50 million range.

The movie, again starring Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne as magical animal wrangler Newt Scamander, and with Mads Mikkelsen replacing Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald, is getting a better critical reception than its predecessor, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. It also has an audience score of 83% on the ratings aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, higher even than the “Certified Fresh” original.

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