Entertainment

(NOTE LANGUAGE) Nick Offerman tells ABC Audio he’s in a very “fun” place in his career. The Pam & Tommy star is not only able to work with his — and his fan-favorite Parks and Rec character Ron Swanson’s — favorite whiskey brand Lagavulin, but he’s also recently logged time on set of some huge projects.

Offerman will be seen next year in a “wonderful” supporting role as Bill in HBO’s post-apocalyptic video game adaptation The Last of Us, as well as in the next Mission: Impossible movies, opposite Tom Cruise.

“I feel like a sort of special agent,” he says of his “really fun” career direction as of late. “You know…I’m not the main requirement. They’ve got those people covered. But then they’re like, ‘Oh, we need someone who can, you know, giggle and also use a socket wrench. Oh, see if Offerman’s available.'”

When asked about what he’ll be doing in the next installments of the blockbuster spy series starring and produced by Tom Cruise, Offerman immediately deadpans, “I kill him, I kill his character.”

He adds with a laugh, “…I think the next most action thing I did [previously] was I was the bad guy in Miss Congeniality 2 many years ago, and Sandra Bullock beat the s*** out of me…”

Offerman called the process of making Mission: Impossible 7 and 8 “fascinating” and “intense,” explaining writer-director Christopher McQuarrie told him, “‘The way we make these movies is we jump out of a plane, and then we start sewing a parachute as we fall and hope that it will land on our feet.'”

He added, “…Watching them do what they do was like really like a master class…I kept saying, I feel like I’m in a class called ‘Heroic 101.'”

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) While Will Smith was promoting his new movie Emancipation, he mentioned he’d understand if some people aren’t “ready” to see him in a film yet, in the wake of his Oscar night slap of Chris Rock.

However, Guy Ritchie, who directed Smith as Genie in Disney’s live-action hit Aladdin, said he is already ready to work with him again — in “anything.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ritchie was in Saudi Arabia, where he accepted an honor at the second annual Red Sea International Film Festival, when he was asked about his former leading man.

Ritchie didn’t comment on the Oscar night incident, but offered of Will, “I’ve never met a more lovely man, and working with him was one of the most wonderful, great experiences I’ve ever had.” He added, “I never saw anything other than the consummate, generous gentleman.”

With a sequel to Aladdin in the works, the English director of Snatch and The Gentlemen was asked if he’d consider recasting the embattled actor in the key role. “I wouldn’t have any issue casting Will Smith in anything, because, as I say, he was just the f***ing perfect gentleman,” Guy replied.

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Apple TV+ has given the green light to a sophomore season of its twisty psychological drama Surface.

The series began with star and executive producer Gugu Mbatha-Raw waking up from a near-fatal accident with amnesia, only to learn the life she thought she had was anything but.

In a statement, the English actress noted, “I am thrilled to continue this journey and dive deeper into the tension and mystery of Surface with this brilliant team. I love playing Sophie and I can’t wait for fans and new audiences to join us as she enters the dangerous new world of her past in season two.”

The streaming service teases that unlike the San Franscisco-set debut season, the second frame will be shot in and around London, something the Oxford native called “incredibly meaningful.”

The series is co-produced by Reese Witherspoon‘s Hello Sunshine company and Apple TV, which teases, “While Season One answered the question of who Sophie really was, Season Two will tell us why. Sophie traveled across an ocean to escape her past, so what was she running from?”

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One of the most popular shows on TV, Yellowstone, is now part of the Monopoly franchise.

That’s right: If you ever wished you could build your empire like the Dutton clan, now you can, thanks to Hasbro’s board-game version of the neo-Western phenomenon.

Monopoly: Yellowstone‘s makers tease that players can collect properties, including some of the Paramount Network series’ most recognizable locations: Obviously, the Dutton Ranch Main House is up for grabs, as are stables, the bunkhouse, Rip & Beth’s cabin, the Paradise Valley Resort and others.

Instead of the classic game’s shoe, thimble and other player pieces, the new game offers up a branding iron, a saddle, a cowboy hat, a bull and a belt buckle. The “Chance Cards” have been re-branded as “Protect The Land” Cards, with Monopoly’s “Community Chest” cards retrofitted with Rip Dutton’s memorable line: “We Don’t Choose The Way.”

And because you can’t build an empire without legal tender, the game’s iconic colored cash gets a Yellowstone-themed face-lift, too.

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High school can be frightening enough as it is.

But, in the new Hulu teen comedy film Darby and the Dead, it all gets taken up a notch. The movie, which centers on Riele Downs’ introvert Darby and her ability to see ghosts like Auli’i Cravalho’s Capri, balances supernatural elements with classic teen movie tropes.

“We have our North Stars that we wanted to pay reverence to, like Clueless and Mean Girls and Heathers. They all had these incredible, powerful women, but we wanted a fresh take on it,” Cravalho tells ABC Audio. “So, we have incredible diversity in these women, and they’re in positions of power. And we also wanted to talk about grief and what it looks like and how it has ripple effects.”

The cast still got to have all the classic teen movie moments, such as “the makeover,” “the walk down the hall,” and the classic “tossing of the hair” over the shoulder, Cravalho says, but they also got to focus on the deeper subject matter of grief as well.

“We also get characters like James, played by Asher Angel, who’s devastated by the loss of his girlfriend. And then we get to see Derek Luke, who plays Darby’s dad – the beautiful representation of a parent who’s understanding and emotionally available to talk about these sensitive subjects,” Cravalho says.

According to Downs, this complexity was completely intentional.

“We really put a lot of attention on creating layers for them and making them all have motivations. Nothing is by accident,” Downs says. “Knowing that they’re not just a stereotype and also there’s something in it for everyone.”  

Darby and the Dead will be available to stream Friday, December 2, only on Hulu.

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Get ready to laugh because Deon Cole‘s new comedy special Charleen’s Boy is out on Netflix now. 

In his second special with the streamer, Cole shares his comical take on life and dating in today’s society. While the project brings more than a few laughs, the background is much more emotional, as the special is dedicated to and named after his late mother. 

“My mom passed about a year ago and I don’t have no brothers and sisters and nothing like that or father that [she] was like my only rock, you know, my everything. I did everything for her. When she passed away, it just left a void,” he tells ABC Audio.

Additionally, Charleen’s Boy was filmed on the anniversary of his mother’s death, though that wasn’t the plan originally. 

“I wasn’t even supposed to shoot, especially on that day,” the black-ish star says before explaining that it was the only day available. “I didn’t want to do it…but then a few days later, I just kept feeling this energy like, nah don’t mourn that day, just celebrate her that day.” 

The change of heart also prompted a change in the name of the Netflix special which he revealed was previously titled called Cole Facts. 

“I changed it to Charleen’s Boy because I felt like when people see it it’d be the name of the special, but it also be what I am and, you know, make sure her name ring forever,” Coles explains. “So it was special to shoot that day instead of mourning that day. I celebrated that.” 

Deon Cole: Charleen’s Boy is available to stream now. 

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ABC Audio has confirmed that the third season of Disney+’s Emmy-winning hit The Mandalorian will debut on the streaming service on March 1. As seen in The Book of Boba Fett, Pedro Pascal‘s Din Djarin reunites with little Grogu, who refuses Luke Skywalker’s offer to train him in the ways of the Jedi. As a teaser released two months ago showed, the unlikely “wolf-and-cub” duo will travel the stars, reuniting with old friends and frenemies, and battling new threats. Disney is the parent company of ABC News…

The NYPD identified a body found in the Bronx as actor Frank Vallelonga Jr., best known for his role in the 2018 film Green Book, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The 60-year-old actor played a relative of Viggo Mortensen‘s bouncer Frank “Tony Lip” Vallelonga. In real life he was the son of the bouncer portrayed in the film, who was also an actor best known for playing crime boss Carmine Lupertazzi in The Sopranos. Vallelonga Sr. died in 2013. The police found Vallelonga Jr. unconscious and unresponsive, but with no observable trauma, early Monday morning on the ground outside of a sheet-metal factory. He was pronounced dead at the scene…

Deadline reports The Terminal List‘s Riley Keough has been tapped to executive produce and star in Under the Bridge, the Hulu limited series based on Rebecca Godfrey’s book. Keough will play the late author Godfrey in the adaptation of the 1997 true story of 14-year-old Reena Virk, who went to join friends at a party and never returned home. Keough next will be seen playing the titular character in Prime Video’s upcoming original series Daisy Jones & The Six…

Angela Bassett will be honored with the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Montecito Award on February 9, 2023 during an in-person conversation about her career leading up to this year’s performance in Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Named after the stylish Santa Barbara area, the Montecito Award is given to a person in the entertainment industry who has made a great contribution to film. Past winners include Penélope Cruz, Amanda Seyfried, Lupita Nyong’o, Melissa McCarthy, Saoirse Ronan, Isabelle Huppert, Sylvester Stallone, Jennifer Aniston, Oprah Winfrey, Daniel Day-Lewis, Geoffrey Rush, Julianne Moore, Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts and Javier Bardem. The 38th Santa Barbara International Film Festival will take place February 8-18, 2023…

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At the comic con CCXP22 in São Paulo, Brazil, Thursday, Marvel Studios debuted the trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. 

Set to Spacehog‘s ’90s hit “In The Meantime,” the sneak peek of James Gunn‘s third and final Guardians film starts on a lighthearted note, with Chris Pratt‘s Peter Quill/Star-Lord, Dave Bautista‘s Drax, Pom Klementieff‘s Mantis, Karen Gillan‘s Nebula, and of course Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and Groot (Vin Diesel) returning to some alternate earth. 

After Drax characteristically doesn’t play nice with a little lemur-human girl, things take a turn for the ominous. “Next summer it’s time to face the music,” a title card reads. 

“We have been running our whole lives,” Quill says, apparently taking a stand.

“Pete, I’m done running,” an emotional and seemingly injured Rocket says. “We’ll all fly away together, one last time, into the forever and beautiful sky.” 

Along the way, we catch glimpses of the team — including Zoe Saldaña‘s no-longer-missing Gamora — carrying an injured Drax and Quill helping a limping Gamora. 

The trailer also shows Quill screaming in grief in an operating room, and Rocket finally embracing another of his kind — a seal that, like him, was apparently experimented upon. We also see the first glimpse of Will Poulter as the “perfect man”-turned Guardians hunter Adam Warlock smashing Nebula’s face. 

However, the Guardians aren’t going down without a fight: One image shows Star-Lord shooting back to back with Groot, who’s firing guns from multiple arms he’s sprouted out of his body. 

“We are Groot,” he says in a callback to his final words in the 2015 original. 

The Marvel Studios film hits theaters May 5, 2023. 

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

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Lucasfilm has finally revealed a title for its fifth Indiana Jones film — and the final one starring the man in the hat himself, Harrison Ford. A new teaser for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny not only shows off Ford as an octogenarian Indy — thanks to digital de-aging tech, it also reveals what adventures Indy had in between the canonical films.

The plot reportedly centers on Nazis who were recruited by both the U.S. and Russia to help them in the Space Race.

As fans had hoped, John Rhys-Davies appears again as Indy’s loyal pal Sallah. “I miss waking up every morning wondering what wonderful adventure the new day will bring to us,” he muses as men of a certain age often do.

“Those days have come and gone,” Indy replies. “Perhaps,” his old friend retorts slyly, “Perhaps not.”

Phoebe Waller-Bridge apparently plays Indy’s goddaughter, who clearly has knack for swashbuckling. We also get peeks of co-stars Boyd Holbrook, playing the heavy, and a grizzled Antonio Banderas.

As Jones adventures through the ages — the film spans from the ’40s to 1969 — he says in voiceover, “I don’t believe in magic. But a few times in my life I’ve seen things. Things I can’t explain.” At this point, he apparently reveals on screen the movie’s titular MacGuffin.

“And I’ve come to believe it’s not what you believe, but how hard you believe it,” he says.

The action-packed teaser also has a great reversal callback to an iconic scene in 1980’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. While Indy uses his famous whip to subdue a room full of baddies, they respond as he did to that Cairo swordsman: They pull their guns and blast away.

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

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Jon Favreau‘s beloved 2003 Christmas movie Elf introduced fans to Buddy, the human raised by Santa’s elves — and he introduced moviegoers to his traditional North Pole take on spaghetti.

As the character, Will Ferrell loaded a bowl of pasta with maple syrup, chocolate sauce, crumbled Pop-Tarts and just about every other sweet you can buy before digging in — and thanks to HelloFresh, you can now make it yourself.

Starting on December 5, the company will offer as one of its shippable meal kits Buddy The Elf Spaghetti, which includes a package of Colavita pasta and everything else you’ll need to recreate the “iconic” dish, “from sweet ingredients to a step-by-step recipe card!”

The kit sells for $14.99 and is limited to two packages per order while supplies last.

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