Entertainment

The first online trailer for filmmaker Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer dropped Sunday. Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy plays the title role of scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the laboratory that developed the first atomic bombs for the Manhattan Project in the 1940s. Emily Blunt stars as Oppenheimer’s wife, while Matt Damon plays Gen. Leslie Groves, Jr., director of the Manhattan Project. Robert Downey, Jr., Florence Pugh, Rami Malek and Kenneth Branagh also star. Oppenheimer opens July 21 of next year…

Sam Mendes‘ new HBO comedy pilot The Franchise has nailed down its main cast, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The pilot is set against the backdrop of the production of a superhero movie and stars Game Night and Made for Love‘s Billy Magnussen, Spaced‘s Jessica Hynes, Ozark‘s Darren Goldstein, Shrill‘s Lolly Adefope and American Horror Story‘s Isaac Powell star, along with Inglourious Basterds‘ Daniel Brühl and Can You Ever Forgive Me?‘s Richard E. Grant in recurring roles. The project marks Mendes’ first time directing for U.S. TV…

Netflix has pulled the plug on Blockbuster after just one season, according to Deadline. The workplace comedy, starring WandaVision‘s Randall Park as “an analog dreamer living in a 5G world,” who, along with his co-worker and longtime crush, played by Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s Melissa Fumero, fights to stay relevant,” failed to catch fire with viewers, never cracking Netflix’s top 10…

Joseph Mawle, best known for his role as Benjen Stark in the HBO series Game of Thrones, has been added to the cast of Paramount+’s Yellowstone prequel 1923, according to Variety. Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford star in the new original drama series that premiered over the weekend and which introduces “a new generation of Duttons led by patriarch Jacob and matriarch Cara” — played respectively by Ford and Mirren, per the streamer, and “explores the early twentieth century when pandemics, historic drought, the end of Prohibition and the Great Depression all plague the mountain west, and the Duttons who call it home”…

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Avatar: The Way of Water made a splash in theaters this weekend, opening with an estimated $134 million domestically — impressive, but below the predicted $150 million-dollar debut. Still, it tied The Batman for the fifth-largest domestic opening this year. Add to that overseas revenues and Avatar: The Way of Water earned $442 million globally in just one weekend.

Violent Night held on to second place this weekend, earning an estimated $5.6 million. The action comedy has earned $35 million over three weeks and $55 million worldwide.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which held the top spot for the past five weeks, fell to third place with an estimated $5.4 million weekend. That brings its North American tally to $419 million and $786 million globally.

Strange World landed in fourth place with an estimated $2.2 million, bringing its four-week total to $33.8 million and $57 million worldwide.

Rounding out the top five was The Menu with an estimated $1.7 million, raising its totals to $32.1 million domestically and $61.3 million worldwide.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Saturday Night Live cast member Cecily Strong said goodbye to the show after 11 seasons in a Weekend Update appearance where she reprised her popular character Cathy Anne one last time.

“I’m a little emo tonight, because I’m here to say goodbye,” she said, explaining that she was going to prison.

“After seven years, you had enough of me,” she joked, adding that prison would give her “some much needed stability” and she already had “friends on the inside” who “seemed to be doing okay.” A graphic behind her showed fellow former SNL stars Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant, who left the show after last season.

“Everybody has to go to jail at some point, right? It’s my time now,” she added. Breaking character slightly she noted, “I had a lot of fun here. And I feel really lucky that I have had so many of the best moments of my life in this place, and with these people that I love so much.”

The show’s final sketch featured longtime cast member Kenan Thompson honoring her for “eight incredible years working at Radio Shack”

“Well, I’ve been here 11,” she said.

“I know, and eight of them were incredible,” he replied.

Afterwards, Saturday night’s guest host Austin Butler, who stars in the movie Elvis, serenaded her with a rendition of Elvis Presley‘s “Blue Christmas,” joined by the entire cast.

SNL also announced Strong’s departure on its Instagram, sharing, “Tonight we send off one of the best to ever do it. We’ll miss you, Cecily!”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Despite having been the Man of Steel, Henry Cavill is also a massive geek, evidenced by videos of him painting miniatures from the tabletop game Warhammer 40,000.

And while he won’t be playing Superman any longer, he’ll get to make a “lifelong dream” come true.

Games Workshop, the fiercely protective owner of the intellectual property, will be teaming up with the LEGO movies‘ producer Vertigo Entertainment, Amazon, and Cavill as executive producer to finally bring the beloved franchise to both the big and small screens.

For the uninitiated, Warhammer 40K is set in the far future, and has the sweeping arc of The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, intermingled with elements of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, with brutal battles spanning from the stars to the bloody trenches of 1,000 alien worlds.

The far-future sci-fi game has spawned a library’s worth of books, video games, tabletop miniatures and animated films.

“I have loved Warhammer since I was a boy, making this moment truly special for me,” Cavill said in the announcement. “The opportunity to shepherd this cinematic universe from its inception is quite the honour and the responsibility. I couldn’t be more grateful for all the hard work put in by Vertigo, Amazon and Games Workshop to make this happen. One step closer to making a nigh-on lifelong dream come true.”

Andy Smillie, creative director of Games Workshop, enthused, “Henry’s well-known love of Warhammer 40,000 — and his passion as a world-builder and storyteller — will serve us all well in the coming years. Finally, Warhammer will make it to the screen as the fans have hoped, and as they deserve. Exciting times!”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Between 2009’s Avatar and its new sequel, The Way of Water, Zoe Saldaña became a mom — and not coincidentally, so did her Navi character Neytiri.

The Marvel movie veteran, now a mother of three, explains that brought a whole new meaning to the character for her, as now Neytiri and her husband, Sully, played by Sam Worthington, are fighting to keep their family alive amid a new threat to their planet, Pandora.

“In my personal life, when I became a parent, fear entered my realm,” Zoe said at a recent press event. “The fear of losing something that you love so much … and you just spend a great deal of your time creating these hypothetical scenarios that are just unimaginable.”

She adds, “When I read … the second script, that was her, that was Neytiri. I didn’t see it then. I see it now because my job wasn’t to see it. My job was to be it.”

Writer-director James Cameron, a father of four himself, agreed. “I hadn’t really thought of it in those terms, but that’s it. Exactly.”

Cameron expressed, “You may be fearless when you don’t have kids. You learn fear when you have kids, when you have something greater than yourself that you could lose. And that’s what both of your characters are dealing with.”

He continues, “You know, Sam plays a character that would go flying through the air with no parachute to land on the biggest, meanest predator on the planet to solve his problem; would he do that as a father of four?”

Cameron added with a laugh, “I’m thinking probably not.”

Avatar: The Way of Water is now in theaters, after an impressive $17 million sneak peek performance Thursday. It currently has a 94% Audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Audiences who raced to see Avatar: The Way of Water in theaters got the first real peek of another anticipated film, Christopher Nolan‘s star-studded Oppenheimer.

As reported, frequent Nolan player Cillian Murphy plays J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, in the drama based on the Pulitzer-winning 2005 book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

The trailer shows Matt Damon as Leslie Richard Groves Jr., a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who directed the Manhattan Project, which gave birth to The Bomb. “You’re a dilettante, a womanizer, unstable, theatrical, neurotic,” he tells Oppenheimer.

“Brilliance makes up for a lot,” the scientist quips back.

The trailer shows the bomb’s construction, which is cited as the “one hope” to stop World War II. It also delves into the danger of theoretical physics becoming real: Some of the scientists thought testing the bomb would incinerate the Earth’s atmosphere.

“Are we saying there’s a chance when we push that button, we destroy the world?” Damon’s character asks, incredulous.

Oppenheimer answers flatly, “Chances are near zero.”

As military men and scientists brace for the test, the tension amps up, until detonation.

“Well, we all know what happened later,” Robert Downey Jr. understates as eventual U.S. Atomic Energy Commission head Lewis Strauss in a Capitol Hill meeting.

“What happened later” was two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, one on Hiroshima and another on Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands of people and leading to Japan’s surrender.

Oppenheimer also stars Oscar winner Gary Oldman as President Harry Truman and Emily Blunt, playing Oppenheimer’s botanist wife, Kitty, as well as Oscar winner Rami Malek, Jack Quaid, Florence Pugh, Matthew Modine, Kenneth Branagh and James Remar, among others.

The trailer has yet to be posted online.

Oppenheimer debuts in theaters July 21, 2023.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The song goes “The Times They Are A-Changing” — and you could say that theme looms large in the next chapter of the Dutton family saga, which started with Paramount’s monster-hit Yellowstone and continued with 1883 on Paramount+.

Now, the needle moves to 1923, set against the backdrop of one of the most volatile times in American history: drought, pandemics, the end of Prohibition and the Great Depression looming.

“People were of huge courage and fortitude and had the ability to survive,” says Helen Mirren, who plays family matriarch Cara Dutton, an Irish immigrant dedicated to protecting her land and family at all costs.

At her side is Jacob Dutton, head of the Yellowstone Ranch, played by Harrison Ford.

Mirren tells ABC Audio shooting Taylor Sheridan’s ambitious series had its challenges, but working with Ford put things at ease: “It was a bit like he was a member of family. Not so much my husband. I’ve got one of those! But like a brother … someone that I felt I utterly trusted.”

It’s the first time they’ve been paired onscreen since 1986’s The Mosquito Coast, and Mirren says 36 years later, all is well between the two. “I can’t believe that Harrison has had the life and the experience on the level that he had and stayed the really warm, kind, generous human being that he is,” she says.

As for what viewers can expect from 1923, Ford says simply trust in Sheridan: “I always am ambitious for pretty much the same thing, and that is an emotional storytelling connection. Taylor’s writing is so tight and so well developed that it’s a great pleasure to just be part of the project.”

The first episode of 1923 arrives on Paramount+ Sunday, December 18.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

The teaser trailer for the highly anticipated Barbie movie is here.

The first look, which debuted Friday on YouTube, features Margot Robbie as the titular Barbie in a hilarious spoof of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

“Since the beginning of time, since the first little girl ever existed, there have been … dolls. But the dolls were always and forever baby dolls until …” a voiceover says.

At this point, the camera slowly reveals Robbie in a retro black-and-white swimsuit: the first Barbie doll’s iconic look. As Strauss‘ “Also sprach Zarathustra” plays, as it did in 2001, Robbie lowers her glasses and winks for the camera as the little girls then throw and smash their baby dolls.

The teaser trailer also reveals first glimpses of Ryan Gosling as Ken, as well as other cast members, including Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu and Insecure star Issa Rae.

In April, Warner Bros. shared a first look of the live-action movie, which showed Robbie dressed as the iconic doll, sitting in the driver’s seat of a pink convertible. In June, the studio released an image of a tanned Gosling in an all-denim look as Ken.

The film is directed by Greta Gerwig and is slated to hit theaters on July 21, 2023.

Gerwig is wrote the screenplay alongside fellow filmmaker and partner Noah Baumbach. Plot details have been kept under wraps.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

In a post on her official website, Oscar winner Jane Fonda revealed her cancer is in remission. The star, who turns 85 on December 21, titled the entry “BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER!!”.

She explained, “Last week I was told by my oncologist that my cancer is in remission and I can discontinue chemo. I am feeling so blessed, so fortunate. I thank all of you who prayed and sent good thoughts my way. I am confident that it played a role in the good news.”

The Grace and Frankie star said, “I’m especially happy because while my first 4 chemo treatments were rather easy for me, only a few days of being tired, the last chemo session was rough and lasted 2 weeks making it hard to accomplish much of anything.”

The actress and activist went on to say that the effects “effects wore off” just in time for her to attend a political rally, meet with lawmakers, and speak at climate change events.

As reported back in September, Fonda revealed she had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and told fans she had begun undergoing chemotherapy treatments. “This is a very treatable cancer. 80% of people survive, so I feel very lucky,” she expressed at the time.

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma begins in the cells of the lymph system, which is part of the immune system and helps the body fight infection and disease, according to the National Cancer Institute. It can occur almost anywhere, as lymph tissue is found throughout the body.

Fonda previously underwent a lumpectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010. In 2018, she revealed she had a cancerous growth removed from her lip.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher will play best friends who swap lives in the rom-com Your Place or Mine, coming to Netflix February 10. Per the streamer, Witherspoon — who co-produced the feature with Jason Bateman — plays Debbie, who “runs on routine as an LA mom,” while Peter — portrayed by Kutcher — “thrives on excitement in NYC.” Everything changes though when they swap homes and lives for a week. The star-studded cast also includes Jesse Williams, Zoë Chao, Wesley Kimmel, Griffin Matthews, Rachel Bloom, Shiri Appleby, Vella Lovell, Tig Notaro and Steve Zahn…

Fresh off his performance as Emmett Till in the movie Till, Jalyn Hall is set to play the young Martin Luther King Jr. in Genius: MLK/X, the upcoming fourth installment in the Disney+/National Geographic anthology series, according to Deadline. The Trial of the Chicago 7‘s Kelvin Harrison Jr. will play the adult Martin Luther King Jr. in the film that focus on the relationship between Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X, played by Aaron Pierre. Weruche Opia, Jayme Lawson and Ron Cephas Jones also star in the anthology, the first installment to stream as a Disney+ original…

Hulu has picked up Standing By from executive producer Dan Levy; the Schitt’s Creek Emmy winner will also star in the series. The show is described as “a satirical look into the lives of a group of eternally bound, disgruntled guardian angels and the lessons they’ll eventually learn from not only the dysfunctional humans they’re in charge of protecting, but also each other…

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.