Entertainment

20th Century Studios has announced that a ninth film in the Alien franchise will get underway in Budapest on March 9.

The latest entry will be directed and co-written by Don’t Breathe‘s Fede Alvarez. It will be produced by Ridley Scott, who directed 1979’s original Alien, and produced and directed the series’ most recent entries, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.

The new movie stars Mare of Easttown‘s Cailee Spaeny, who will be joined by David Jonsson from HBO’s Industry and Archie Renaux from Netflix’s Shadow and Bone.

According to the studio, the new film will center on “a group of young people on a distant world [who] find themselves in a confrontation with the most terrifying life form in the universe.”

The film took the place of District 9 director Neill Blomkamp‘s once-greenlit project that could have reunited Alien‘s original action hero Sigourney Weaver with Michael Biehn, her co-star in James Cameron‘s acclaimed 1986 sequel Aliens. That project fizzled, in part, when 20th Century Fox was acquired by ABC News’ parent company Disney and later rebranded 20th Century Studios.

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In what could be seen as a tone-deaf, considering the state of the country right now and high crime rates in various cites, costumers aping Scream‘s Ghostface killer have been popping up around the country, in what Variety reports is an attempt to promote the franchise’s sixth installment.

And as the trade reports, the sightings are causing not a few calls to 911.

Sonoma, California, New Orleans, and St. Louis, Missouri, are among the “killer’s” haunting grounds, according to the trade.

While Paramount Pictures is mum, the “real” Ghostface’s official Twitter account took note. It retweeted some of the appearances, saying “I’m watching you,” adding a hashtag for the film.

Viral marketing can be used to great effect for lower budget productions: As reported, during MLB Playoff and World Series games, actors were placed in prime positions to be caught on camera showing off creepy frozen smiles and shirts reading “Smile” — all part of a successful campaign to promote the hit horror movie of the same name.

That said, nobody had heard of Smile at the time, so it didn’t cause any panic. By contrast, most people know the Munch-like mask of Ghostface, so this guerrilla marketing might be seen as … overkill.

Scream VI, which stars Jenna Ortega, Hayden Panettiere, Melissa Barerra and Courteney Cox, opens in theaters March 10.

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) Chris Rock takes the stage Saturday night in Netflix’s first live special, but before Selective Outrage drops, the celebrated comedian appears to have been workshopping some material about Will Smith.

Rock hasn’t said much about being the target of Smith’s infamous Oscar-night slap, but if several reports are accurate, he’s coming loaded for bear when he grabs the mic on March 4.

The Baltimore Sun says Rock reportedly told a packed Hippodrome Theatre of Smith’s latest film, “The other day, I watched Emancipation just so I could watch him getting whipped.”

Indeed, the title of the Netflix special seems to be part of his Smith material. “Will Smith practices selective outrage,” Rock reportedly said, noting frequent jokes at Will’s expense regarding Jada Pinkett Smith‘s reported “entanglement” with singer August Alsina were the real cause. And Rock insists he supported Smith throughout that media circus.

The comedian also mentions how before the infamous Oscars incident, “I rooted for Will Smith my whole life.”

Rock reportedly said of the marital headlines, “I felt so bad for Will, I tried to call and give him my condolences,” Rock reportedly said.

“Everybody was calling him a b**** except me. But who does he hit? Me.”

Rock also reportedly said of the slap, “People who are in the know, know that s*** had nothing to do with me.”

“We have all been cheated on,” Rock reportedly said, adding of Jada, “She hurt him way more than he ever hurt me.”

Also of note, Rock did keep Smith’s “wife’s name” out of his mouth, as Will admonished him to do during the Oscars outburst: The paper mentions Rock never referred to Jada by her name.

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A new docuseries coming to Fox Nation will explore Jussie Smollett‘s alleged hate crime hoax, Deadline reports. Jussie Smollett: Anatomy of a Hoax “will chronicle the behind the scenes maneuvering and drama that turned the star into a pariah and sent shockwaves through Chicago and beyond, leaving a trail of damaged careers and reputations. The Osundairo brothers will unravel the details from the planning of the fake crime, its execution and all that ensued in the aftermath.”

The five-part series will be the first time brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo speak to the media about their role in the incident. It’s set to air March 13.

“Anatomy of a Hoax takes a deep dive into a scam that reverberated through the worlds of entertainment, pop culture and politics,” said John Finley, Fox Nation’s executive vice president. “We’re excited for viewers to hear the real stories behind this scandal from the Osundairo brothers for the very first time.”

For the uninitiated, Jussie claimed in January 2019 that he was attacked by two men who beat him, put a noose around his neck and shouted, “This is MAGA country.” Chicago police later concluded it was a staged attack, for which he hired the Osundairo brothers.

Jussie was convicted of five felony counts last March, and sentenced to 150 days in jail and 30 months of probation. He was ordered to pay $120,106 in restitution to Chicago, as well as a $25,000 fine. He spent six days behind bars before he was released pending appeal.

Jussie’s lawyer filed a 102-page document with the Illinois Appellate Court for a new trial, as he claims there was  “prosecutorial misconduct” in this case.

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Universal’s hit killer doll movie M3GAN is a hit on streaming, too.

The thriller starring Allison Williams, Amie Donald, Jenna Davis and Violet McGraw debuted February 24 on Peacock and was the most-streamed movie in the States last week, according to data published by The Wrap.

The movie, which is available in both theatrical and unrated versions, knocked Netflix’s Your Place or Mine from the #1 slot.

Made for just $12 million, M3GAN scared up nearly $173 million worldwide. A sequel, M3GAN 2.0, has been slated for a January 17, 2025, release.

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Jenny Slate has been voicing the 1-inch-tall sentient shell Marcel for over a decade. Her journey with the character, which started as a bit during a stand-up comedy routine and evolved into a popular short film series on YouTube, now finds her as the lead of an Oscar-nominated feature.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is up for Best Animated Feature at this year’s Academy Awards, and Slate opened up to ABC Audio about the biggest obstacle she had to overcome to be able to get to this moment.

“The really incorrect assumption that I would have to be only positive all the time or totally perfect or 100 percent confident in order to be able to do my creative work,” Slate says. “In fact, it’s the variations in my emotions and the way that I can kind of all try to hold them at once that has led me to today.”

Slate explains that getting over the notion of perfection was hard, but ultimately the most rewarding thing for her creativity.

“I think in our culture, we certainly have tended to hold up people who just seem like they’re totally confident, they’re totally blessed, and all they had to do was kind of arrive and then persevere and feel good about themselves,” Slate says. “But, especially artists, a lot of our work comes from perceiving ourselves as fragile, or, you know, people of many dimensions. You just can’t be one thing.”

The 95th annual Academy Awards ceremony airs Sunday, March 12, only on ABC.

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No, Kourtney Kardashian is not pregnant.

Kourtney, 43, posted a snap of herself from a photoshoot for her Lemme gummy line Thursday on Instagram in which she wore yellow spandex pants, a cropped yellow sweater and matching neon heels.

When a user wrote, “Is she pregnant,” the Poosh founder answered back with the explanation that her current physical appearance was a result of going through the process of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

“I only acknowledge this comment because I do think it’s important to know how IVF affects women’s bodies and it’s not spoken about much,” she continued, before asking sarcastically, “Also are we still asking women if they’re pregnant?”

“Guys I didn’t mean to offend anyone,” the user replied. “I would love it if Kourtney Kardashian were pregnant everybody is beautiful! Love you, Kourtney.”

Kourtney revealed back in September 2022 that she and her husband, 47-year-old Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, had stopped IVF treatments to focus on their wedding four months earlier.

The couple already shares five children between them. Kourtney shares sons Mason, 13, and Reign, 8, and daughter Penelope, 10, with ex-boyfriend Scott Disick.

As for Barker, he shares son Landon, 19, and daughter Alabama, 17, with ex-wife Shanna Moakler.

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Star Trek: Discovery will end with the upcoming fifth season, set to debut in early 2024, Paramount+ announced Thursday. The streamer will also honor the show, which premiered in 2017, with events planned in certain key markets throughout the year leading up to the final season’s release. Further details will be released at a later date. Season 5, per the show’s logline, will find Sonequa Martin-Green‘s Captain Burnham and the U.S.S. Discovery crew “uncovering a mystery that will send them on an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries. But there are others on the hunt as well…dangerous foes who are desperate to claim the prize for themselves and will stop at nothing to get it”…

John Cena, Awkwafina and Simu Liu will lead the cast of Paul Fieig‘s new action-comedy Grand Death Lotto, coming to Amazon Prime Video. The film, per the streamer, is set “in the very near future,” in which “the Grand Lottery has been established in economically challenged California. The only catch? Kill the winner before sundown and you can legally claim their prize.” Awkwafina plays new LA transplant Katie, who “accidentally finds herself with the winning ticket and must join forces with amateur jackpot protector Noel — portrayed by Cena — to make it to sundown in order to claim her multi-billion-dollar prize, all while dealing with Noel’s protection rival Louis Lewis — played by Liu — who also wants to get her to sundown in order to claim his rich protection commission”…

“Thank you and goodnight.” So ends the teaser trailer for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘s upcoming fifth and final season, debuting April 14 on Amazon Prime Video. Three episodes will release at launch, with the remaining seven episodes releasing weekly on Fridays. Season 5 will find Midge, again played by Rachel Brosnahan, “closer than ever to the success she’s dreamed of, only to discover that closer than ever is still so far away,” per Amazon. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel also stars stars four-time Emmy winner Tony Shalhoub and three-time Emmy winner Alex Borstein, along with Marin Hinkle, Michael Zegen, Kevin Pollak, Caroline Aaron and Reid Scott…

The Broadway revival of Funny Girl, starring Lea Michele, has extended its Broadway run but will deliver its final performance Sunday, September 3, 2023 — almost exactly a year after the Glee alum joined the cast — the show announced on Thursday. The revival first opened in April 2022 with Beanie Feldstein as Fanny Brice. Both she and Jane Lynch — who was replaced by Tovah Feldshuh as Fanny’s mother — left the show in August, amid poor reviews and lackluster turnout. The production will embark on tour in September, starting Providence, R.I., before continuing to more than 30 North American cities…

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Jerry Bruckheimer is on the Road to the Oscars.

The producer of Top Gun: Maverick and dozens of other films scored his first Oscar nomination with Maverick’s Best Picture nod. So how does it feel? He tells ABC Audio it feels great.

“You know, when you work, I’ve made over 50 movies. I’ve been doing this for over 50 years, my first nomination. So it’s really a thrill,” he shares. “And there’s so many people you want to work with who you haven’t had a chance to do it yet.”

As Bruckhemier mentions, he’s been in the field for decades, which means he’s come face-to-face with plenty of obstacles. To get to this moment, though, he says the biggest obstacle he overcame in his life was “just coming from Detroit.”

“You know, being from an immigrant family, both my parents came over from Germany, and I’m a first generation American, and my dad never made a lot of money,” he explains. “We’re just middle lower middle class. And the fact that I made it here, it’s a thrill.”

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There are directors who don’t read reviews, there are directors who lie and say they don’t read reviews, and then there’s James Cameron.

The Oscar-winning perfectionist director of the blockbuster Avatar franchise would have every reason to roll on into the planned third, fourth, and fifth films without looking back, seeing as The Way of Water just passed his Titanic as the third highest-grossing movie of all time.

However, The Hollywood Reporter notes Cameron and his producing partner Jon Landau recently sat down at Disney’s screening room in Burbank with fans who have specifically seen the movie already — one reportedly saw the more than 3 hour and 15-minute sequel eight times.

Afterward, the pair asked for feedback on the Oscar nominated movie, to “improve” the upcoming installments.

And while they’re all fans, Cameron says he wasn’t looking for fanboying and fangirling: “You guys can be totally honest with us, this is not just about telling us stuff we want to hear. It’s about telling us the stuff we … need to work on more,” the trade quoted him as saying.

Those in attendance quizzed the pair on plot points, and expressed what they thought of the film’s cutting edge computer graphics. They also gave their contact info so they could repeat the event after Avatar 3 opens December 20, 2024.

The Avatar movies were produced by 20th Century Studios, which like ABC News, is a subsidiary of Disney.

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