Venom 2 opens at number one with record pandemic-era box office weekend

October 4, 2021 by WDNY Radio

When it came to the box office, Venom: Let There Be Carnage certainly lived up to its name.

Sony’s comic-book movie sequel — which was produced in association with Marvel Studios — was easily the biggest film of the weekend, debuting at number one with an impressive $90 million three-day total.

Venom 2‘s haul is the biggest theatrical opening since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020. That record previously belonged to Marvel’s Black Widow, which opened with over $80 million.

Venom 2 also bests the $80 million pre-pandemic bow posted by the first Venom movie, which introduced us to Tom Hardy‘s take on the Spider-Man universe anti-hero back in 2018. Along with Hardy, Oscar-nominee Michelle Williams reprises her role in the sequel, while Woody Harrelson and Naomie Harris lead the additions to the cast.

Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which had led the box office for four straight weeks, finally fell from the top spot to number three, adding another $6 million to its total, which now stands at over $200 million.

The animated family feature The Addams Family 2 slipped into the number-two spot with an $18 million opening. On the other side of the family-friendly spectrum, The Many Saints of Newark — a prequel to HBO’s iconic series The Sopranos, featuring the late James Gandolfini‘s son Michael as a young Tony Soprano — bowed at number four, with $5 million.

Musical Dear Evan Hanson rounds out the top five, adding $2.5 million in its second week.

‘No Time to Die’ becomes film with the widest UK release ever; is playing on the biggest screen in the world

October 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Nicola Dove – © 2020 DANJAQ, LLC AND MGM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

The latest James Bond movie, No Time to Die, is already getting critical acclaim, and now it has been revealed that Daniel Craig‘s super-spy swan song in getting the widest-ever release in the U.K.

Variety reports that the movie has opened in 772 cinemas in the U.K. — 25 more than the previous record holder, Star Wars: Episode IX — Rise of Skywalker.

The move has worked so far: The movie brought in nearly $7 million on its opening day, September 30.

What’s more, the movie is playing on the biggest screen in the world — the brand-new IMAX screen in the Traumpalast Multiplex in Leonberg, Germany.

The screen is some 70 feet tall and 125 feet wide — wider than a Boeing 737 airliner.

No Time to Die, the 25th James Bond adventure, opens in the U.S. on October 8.

Get a new look at Judge Judy’s new show

October 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Getty Images/Getty Images for Children’s Diabetes Foundation

While her iconic Judge Judy headed into the television sunset in September after 25 years on the air, don’t expect Judge Judith Shiendlin, one of the wealthiest personalities on TV, to retire.

Instead, she’s pulling back the curtain on her latest venture, IMDb TV’s Judy Justice. The streaming show kicks off November 1, and will air new episodes each weekday.

As the name suggests, the real-life judge hasn’t lost her edge in the new series, which will look different than her other syndicated smash.

On board for the new show will be some new faces: court stenographer Whitney Kumar, and Sarah Rose, a law clerk and Judge Sheindlin’s granddaughter.

Who won’t be seen, however? Judge Judy‘s bailiff of 25 years, Petri Byrd. Instead, Byrd has been succeeded for reasons unknown by another bailiff, retired Los Angeles probation officer and entrepreneur, Kevin Rasco.

‘Sam Raimi’ on why he decided to direct ‘Doctor Strange’ sequel after “awful” fan reaction to ‘Spider-Man 3’

October 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Director Sam Raimi arguably is a trailblazer of the modern superhero movie, thanks to his 2001 hit Spider-Man, and his Spider-Man 2, which is considered a rare sequel that’s superior to the original.

But the third and final Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movie was panned by fans, particularly for how it treated Venom, and for that dance sequence.

Raimi never returned to the genre — that is, until the Evil Dead series director agreed to direct Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

In an interview with Collider, Raimi explained he was nervous to come back. “I didn’t know that I could face it again because it was so awful,” he said of the audience reaction. “The internet was getting revved up and people disliked that movie, and they sure let me know about it. So, it was difficult to take back on.”

However, his curiosity got the better of him when Doctor Strange‘s director, Scott Derrickson, decided not to call the shots on the follow-up. He’s producing instead.

“I thought, ‘I wonder if I could still do it?’ Raimi said. “They’re really demanding, those types of pictures. And I felt, ‘Well, that’s reason enough.'”

Raimi said he was a fan of the first film and “always really liked the character of Doctor Strange,” who is portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch. He adds, “I didn’t think I would be doing another superhero movie. It just happened.”

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will be released on March 25, 2022 from Marvel Studios, which is owned by Disney, parent company of ABC News.

Lady Gaga wanted to make sure her performance in ‘House of Gucci’ was “authentic”

October 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Fabio Lovino © 2021 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Ahead of her next major movie role in House of Gucci this fall, Lady Gaga is opening up about getting into character as Patrizia Reggiani, the ex-wife of designer Maurizio Gucci, who hired a hitman to kill him in 1995.

The Oscar-winner tells The Wall Street Journal it was important for her to authentically play the part. She spent six months perfecting an Italian accent and then stayed in the accent for the entire shoot.

“I knew I was about to play a murderer,” she says. “I also knew how Tony [Bennett] feels about Italians being represented in film in terms of crime. I wanted to make a real person out of Patrizia, not a caricature.”

“I felt the best way to honor Maurizio and Italians was for my performance to be authentic, from the perspective of a woman,” Gaga adds. “Not an Italian-American woman, but an Italian woman.”

She says working on a film set in Italy also brought her closer to her roots. “When I went over to film this year, every day I was able to plant my feet on the ground and know that I was in a place where my family lived before coming here and working hard so I could have a better life,” Gaga says.

House of Gucci hits theaters November 24. Gaga’s new duets album with Tony Bennett, Love for Sale, is out today.

Vudu survey lists ‘A Quiet Place’ and ‘The Twilight Zone’ as favorite horror movie and TV series

October 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

‘A Quiet Place Part II’ – Paramount Pictures

With Halloween creeping up, the streaming service Vudu polled more than 2,500 fans to see what their favorite scary movies and TV shows are — and the A Quiet Place films and The Twilight Zone series topped the lists.

When it comes to movies, 1978’s Halloween took the second spot, followed by 2017’s It and 1984’s original A Nightmare on Elm Street. 1980’s Friday the 13th round out the top five.

When it comes to television shows, after the original Twilight Zone, which ran from 1959-1963, Vudu users ranked The X-Files as their second-favorite spooky series, followed by Buffy the Vampire Slayer, American Horror Story, and The Walking Dead.

Meanwhile, Fandango’s streaming service has opened up their Horror Store, offering some cheap thrills — literally. Movies like The Purge films, the Resident Evil movies and more at available a discount, and thousands of other titles are free.

Vudu Fan Picks for Top 10 Horror TV Series:

1. The Twilight Zone (1959-1963)
2. The X-Files
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
4. American Horror Story
5. The Walking Dead
6. What We Do in the Shadows
7. Hannibal
8. Penny Dreadful
9. Bates Motel
10. Lovecraft Country

Vudu Fan Picks for Top 10 Horror Movie Franchises:

1.  A Quiet Place
2.  Halloween
3.  It
4.  A Nightmare on Elm Street
5.  Friday the 13th
6.  The Conjuring
7.  Saw
8.  The Purge
9.  Child’s Play
10. Scream

Ellen Pompeo recalls ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ fight with Denzel Washington

October 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Ellen Pompeo sat down with her former Grey’s Anatomy co-star Patrick Dempsey recently and discussed, among other things, a fight she had with Denzel Washington on the set of the show.

The 51-year-old actress told Dempsey during a recent episode of her Tell Me with Ellen Pompeo podcast that she considered leaving the long-running ABC medical drama after Dempsey’s exit in 2015, but opted to stay, in part, because Washington — whose wife was a fan of the show — stepped in to direct an episode called “The Sounds of Silence” the following year.

Unfortunately, Pompeo ended up getting into a fight with the 66-year-old two-time Oscar-winner after she went off script during a particularly intense scene, which Washington didn’t like.

“He was like, ‘I’m the director. Don’t you tell [the other actor] what to do.’ And I was like, ‘Listen, mother*****, this is my show, this is my set. Who are you telling?'” Pompeo recalled. “Like, ‘You barely know where the bathroom is.'”

“I have the utmost respect for him as an actor, as a director, as everything, but like, yo, we went at it one day,” said Pompeo.

The two ultimately made up, says Pompeo, adding, “Working with Denzel was amazing. He went nuts on me,” but said she still “love[s] the guy.”

Grey’s Anatomy, which just kicked off its 18th season, airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

NeNe Leakes shares the final conversation she had with her late husband Gregg

October 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

It’s been a month since Gregg Leakes lost his battle with cancer. Ahead of the somber anniversary, NeNe Leakes opened up about what his final days were like.

Speaking with People, the Real Housewives of Atlanta alum shared the last conversation the two had before he passed away from colon cancer on September 1.

“The last five days before his passing was really beautiful,” Leakes explained. “All of his children were there. His best friends were there. Our closest friends were there. We all sat with him around the clock.”

One of the final things Gregg did, says Leakes, was make a file of all the things he handled so family would not be in the dark about paying bills or who to contact for important financial matters.

“That took a lot of strength,” NeNe said.

The 53-year-old continued, “We talked a lot, and we made peace with what was happening” before revealing that her husband’s final words weren’t a goodbye but, rather, a promise and a request.

“I’m not going to leave you. God is going to bless you,” she recalls him saying. “He said he wanted me to move on with my life.”

“I told him I wouldn’t have chosen another husband other than him. I said, ‘I married you twice, crazy man,'” said Leakes. The couple wed in 1997 and filed for divorce in 2011. Two years later, they remarried.

“He took a deep breath, and then he stopped… I thought I would be scared, but I just held him and kissed him,” Leakes described before admitting she’s still having difficulty processing that Gregg is gone.

“I keep thinking to myself he’s away on a trip and he’ll be right back,” she confessed. “I’m still waiting for him to come home.”

In theaters now: ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’

October 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

After multiple pandemic delays, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is now in theaters.

The sequel to the critically-panned but $856 million-plus-grossing 2018 movie Venom again stars Tom Hardy as journalist Eddie Brock, who shares a body with the shape-shifting, trash-talking alien symbiote, Venom.

This time around, the Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man universe spin-off sees the unlikely pair having to face off with another of their kind: Woody Harrelson‘s serial killer Cletus Kasady, who infects himself with Eddie’s blood to get his own symbiote, Carnage.

But before Eddie and Venom can fight Carnage, they need to stop fighting each other.

“In this movie, it’s like the ‘seven-year-itch’ cycle of the relationship,” director Andy Serkis says. “You’ve got two characters who are literally stuck with each other — that Odd Couple relationship was what this movie was always going to be about.”

“They have had enough of each other,” Serkis says with a smile. “Watching Tom as Venom and Eddie and was so much fun,” the Marvel movie and Lord of the Rings series veteran says.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage also stars returning player Michelle Williams, Spidey series star J.K. Simmons, and 007 movie alumna Naomi Harris.

The film’s off to a good start: it earned $11.6 million in Thursday night previews in the U.S., putting it ahead of preview numbers for F9 and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and only a few million behind Black Widow.

Jerry Seinfeld explains why he’s not interested in a ‘Seinfeld’ reunion or revival

October 1, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Jerry Seinfeld says it’s important to know when to gracefully bow out. Twenty-three years after his iconic sitcom, Seinfeld, aired its last show on May 14, 1998, Seinfeld says he’s still convinced that there’s no need for a revival.

“Has it happened, could it happen, is it happening, or is it in motion — what kind of motion? When will we see something?,” Seinfeld tells ABC Audio of the questions he’s often asked about a potential revival. “There’s absolutely nothing going on.”

Although the award-winning actor considers himself a “nostalgi[c] person” since he still visits his childhood home in Long Island and supports the New York Mets, Seinfeld believes it’s important not to live in the past.

“I believe in going forward,” he says, before sharing that even if he did do some sort of Seinfeld reboot, he’s not sure what it would be about or if it would even “be as good.”

“I think we did a good job,” he says of the original series.

In fact, Seinfeld believes a reboot could even possibly tarnish his legacy.

“I remember I was in a cab one time and the cab driver said to me, ‘Why did you stop doing that show? It was very successful,” he recalls. “And I said to him, ‘Well… we had done it for nine years and I realized I could go off the air right now. And… I could be a legend in the sitcom world, or I could risk that to make some more money.'”

He continues, “[And] I said, ‘What would you do?’ to the cab driver. He said, ‘I’d go for legend.’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s what I thought.’ So we went for a legend. That’s why we’re not coming back.”

The entire Seinfeld catalogue is now available to stream on Netflix.

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