Entertainment

20th Century Studios on Wednesday released a new trailer for Oscar-winner James Cameron‘s Avatar: The Way of Water. 

The new peek showcases the movie franchise’s bleeding-edge visual effects to depict the planet Pandora’s previously unseen underwater worlds, which also become a new field of battle between the planet’s native Na’vi people and humankind.

Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldaña and Stephen Lang return for the sequel. Joining them are Cameron’s Titanic star Kate Winslet, big-screen legend Michelle Yeoh and Emmy-winner Edie Falco, among others.

The studio has teased of the plot: “Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, Avatar: The Way of Water begins to tell the story of the Sully family [Worthington’s Jake, Saldaña’s Neytiri, and their kids], the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.”

In keeping with the aquatic theme, and in celebration of the trailer and the movie’s new poster, Niagara Falls will become a giant movie screen Wednesday night, where highlights from the movie will be projected. 

Avatar: The Way of Water hits theaters December 16.

The as-yet untitled third Avatar installment, which was shot concurrently with Way of Water, wrapped late in 2020 and is set for a December 2024 debut in theaters. The fourth and fifth are respectively scheduled for 2026 and 2028.

The original Avatar still sits at the top of the all-time box office chart, having made more than $2.9 billion in theaters worldwide to date.

20th Century Studios is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

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Eagle-eyed Dancing with the Stars viewers have noticed The Bachelorette season 19 star Gabby Windey, who accepted Erich Schwer‘s marriage proposal during the reality dating show’s season finale, wasn’t wearing her engagement ring on the past couple of DWTS episodes, leading to speculation all may not be well between the two.

Additionally, Schwer, who was often spotted supporting Windey from DWTS‘ live studio audience, wasn’t present for last Monday’s show.

While not in the audience for Monday’s show, Schwer did take to his Instagram Stories to encourage his followers to vote for Gabby, according to Page Six.

“She keeps on crushin it,” he captioned the screenshot of him texting “Gabby” the maximum ten times to the “DWTS” voting number.

On Monday’s episode, Gabby and dance partner Alan Bersten — who was a last minute replacement for her usual partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, who tested positive for COVID-19 — scored a 38 out of a possible 40 with their Argentine Tango, and added a 33 out of 40 for their group dance, placing them in sixth place on the leaderboard with a total of 71.

Dancing with the Stars airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on Disney+.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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Heartstopper‘s Joe Locke has been tapped for a role in Disney+’s WandaVision spinoff Agatha: Coven of Chaos, according to Variety. Locke joins Kathryn Hahn in the Marvel Studios series, in which Hahn will reprise her WandaVision role of Agatha Harkness. Locke’s role, as well as exact plot details, are being kept under wraps. Emma Caulfield Ford is also set to reprise her role of Dottie from WandaVision in the new series, which is set to debut in 2023. Marvel is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News…

Deadline reports 12 Years a Slave and Black Panther actress Lupita Nyong’o is in final talks to star in the next installment of the Quiet Place franchise, A Quiet Place: Day One. The film, to be helmed by Pig director Michael Sarnoski, and based on an idea from John Krasinski, who directed and starred in the first two films, is said to be a spinoff, rather than a sequel, aimed at setting up a potential Quiet Place universe. Specific details of the film, set to open March 8, 2024, have yet to be revealed. Nyong’o will next be seen in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, hitting theaters November 11…

Julie Powell, the noted food writer whose popular blog the Julie/Julia Project inspired writer/director Nora Ephron’s final feature film, Julie & Julia, died of cardiac arrest on October 26 in her home in Olivebridge, N.Y., her husband Eric confirmed to The New York Times. Powell was 49. Powell’s blog, in which she set out to cook every recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and write about it, served as the narrative for Julie & Julia, which starred Meryl Streep as Child and Amy Adams as Powell. Streep’s performance earned her a best actress nod at the 82nd Academy Awards…

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Out now in select theaters and across the country on Friday, the new film Armageddon Time is the deeply personal story of writer/director James Gray growing up in a Jewish household in the 80s, and how we sometimes regret the choices we make when we’re younger.

Anne Hathaway plays Esther, the mom of the family, and although she’s not Jewish she tells ABC Audio the role was “something I took very seriously.”

“I’m just aware that these sorts of roles don’t come along very often. And I wanted to be worthy of being asked to play it,” the actress explains. 

To prepare, Hathaway says she “wound up doing a lot of research into Jewish women’s history to understand who her heroes would have been, who’s somebody she would have heard about growing up.” 

Hathaway describes her character as “an idealist…who’s really, really stressed out by her economic circumstances” and expressed that exploring the character’s “contradiction of love and violence” was a dichotomy she found interesting to explore.     

Likewise, Jeremy Strong was drawn to the duality of his character, Irving, the father of the household, a man with a loving side and also a nasty temper, though he admits “it was a great challenge to try and bring that out in all of its complexity and sort of dimensionality.”

Growing up with a Jewish father and grandfather allowed Strong to have some understanding of his character “at a certain level,” however, he still did a lot of research to prepare.

“You’re trying to locate the essence of a person, not a Jewish person, necessarily, that you’re trying to find the part of people that is universal,” he shares. “And you can find that within yourself, I think, whoever you are trying to embody.” 

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Just as TV personality and host Van Lathan and producer Mona Scott-Young were scheduled to chat with ABC Audio about their new WE TV show, Hip Hop Homicides, the music world was coming to terms with another murder, that of Takeoff from Migos.

Takeoff, born Kirshnik Khari Ball, was shot and killed in Houston early Tuesday morning.

The show, which debuts Thursday, investigates what’s become a string of murders in the hip-hop community, from Pop Smoke to XXXTentacion — and now 28-year-old Takeoff.

“We don’t know what’s going on, but there’s nothing that’s going to come out that’s going to make it make sense,” Lathan says. “I can tell you one thing: whatever was the reason behind this, it wasn’t worth it.”

While the rap community previously lost Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls to crime, Lathan says the show taught him something new is going on. “Everything is changed … when you start to dissect it, you start to kind of get the feeling that nothing is the way it used to be, and that’s being reflected in the callous way a lot of these murders are happening. The brazen way.”

He adds, “When you have the clout, which is poison … The clout plus social media, plus some of the aspects of the music, is just this cauldron of dysfunction.”

Scott-Young comments, “The amplification, the ability to see the gruesome details play out right in front of you. It’s an assault on our sensibilities, as, you know, human beings, you know, coexisting on a planet together … we are so desensitized. It’s all part of a larger affliction that we really have to get to the core of, or we’re just going to become more and more diseased in the way that we’ve come to accept these horrible, horrible occurrences.”

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The official trailer for Disenchanted is here!

The long-awaited Enchanted sequel, premiering this month exclusively on Disney+, reunites Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, Idina Menzel and James Marsden and picks up more than 10 years after Adams’ Giselle and Dempsey’s Robert wed.

The new trailer shows the couple transitioning from city life to the suburbs, which Giselle struggles with, leading her to look to “the magic of Andalasia for help.”

In the process, she accidentally ends up “transforming the entire town into a real-life fairy tale and placing her family’s future happiness in jeopardy,” according to the film’s synopsis.

“Now, Giselle is in a race against time to reverse the spell and determine what happily ever after truly means to her and her family.”

The trailer also gives a sneak peek at some of the film’s new characters, played by a star-studded list of actors, including Maya Rudolph, Gabriella Baldacchino, Yvette Nicole Brown and Jayma Mays.

The live-action musical comedy premieres November 18 on Disney+.

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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“No legend became an icon taking the easy road,” reads a title card in the new trailer to the upcoming biopic Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend. The Purge franchise and Marvel movie veteran Frank Grillo plays the automotive genius Ferruccio Lamborghini, whose road to creating the supercar that bears his name was anything but easy.

The Italian who built tractors had bigger dreams, first approaching Gabriel Byrne‘s Enzo Ferrari with an idea of partnering to improve his famous cars — only to be rebuffed. “Go back to your farm,” he sniffs.

Instead, Lamborghini decides to create “the best car” ever, setting him on a collision course with Ferrari. “You buy a Ferrari when you want to be someone,” the automaker says. “You buy a Lamborghini when you are someone!”

Last year, Grillo talked to ABC Audio about making the project and enthused about his co-stars. “[F]irst of all, I am…all over Italy…playing Ferruccio Lamborghini, with Gabriel Byrne and Mira Sorvino. [Director] Bobby Moresco wrote the script. He won the Oscar for Crash and Million Dollar Baby. I was surrounded by Oscars, and then there was me,” he said with a laugh.

Grillo continued, “And, you know, look, to go and do a biopic and play this person and have his family around, it was, it was spectacular. Really reinvigorated my appreciation for acting.” (AUDIO IS ABC 1-ON-1)

Lamborghini races into select theaters and onto streaming November 18.

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Dwyane Wade made sure wife Gabrielle Union‘s 50th birthday on Saturday was very special by throwing a surprise birthday party for her in Africa.

The couple partied in the East African country of Tanzania and posted highlights of their celebration on Instagram.

“I’m still processing the level of effort and planning that went into pulling off such an unbelievable 50th birthday party in Zanzibar Tanzania and keep the details a surprise from my nosy self,” the Think Like A Man star commented. “I’m beyond grateful for all of my loved ones who flew around the world to celebrate with me.”

Gabrielle was delighted to have a special musical performance by Lisa Lisa of Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam.

“Thank you Lisa for being so amazing to my Mom & reminding me that your childhood heroes can turn out to be as lovely as you imagined them,” she shared. “I’m just floating on gratitude and to know this is just our 1st stop on the #WadeWorldTour2022 edition, I’m the happiest seasoned gal around.”

Dwyane posted several throwback photos and videos of Gabrielle and commented, “Happy birthday to my dream girl! We’re in Africa celebrating you as I type this. I’m forever grateful and in debt to the universe for choosing me to be your husband. Let’s keep making this love thing, do what we want it to do!”

In August, the couple celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary while on the Mediterranean island of Menorca for their annual Wade World Tour.

The NAACP Image Award-winning actress and the former NBA star were married in 2014 at the Chateau Artisan Castle in Miami. They are parents to a 3-year-old daughter, Kaavia, as well as Wade’s 20-year-old son, Zaire; 15-year-old daughter, Zaya; and 8-year-old son, Xavier.

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Heartstopper star Kit Connor came out as bisexual on Monday night, saying he felt he was forced to address his sexuality.

The actor, who portrays bisexual character Nick Nelson on the popular Netflix show, made a rare tweet in which he addressed the topic. He was previously on a hiatus from Twitter, but returned to make the announcement.

“Back for a minute. I’m bi. Congrats for forcing an 18 year old to out himself. I think some of you missed the point of the show. Bye,” Connor wrote.

Heartstopper creator and showrunner Alice Oseman sent support Connor’s way.

“I truly don’t understand how people can watch Heartstopper and then gleefully spend their time speculating about sexualities and judging based on stereotypes,” Oseman wrote on Twitter. “I hope all those people are embarrassed as F***. Kit you are amazing.”

Joe Locke, who portrays Connor’s boyfriend Charlie Spring on the series, also threw his support behind his costar.

“You owe nothing to anyone. I’m so proud of you my friend,” Locke tweeted.

Heartstopper has been renewed for seasons 2 and 3 on Netflix; season 2 is currently in production.

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Cleanliness may be close to godliness, but for Great British Bake-Off vet Lottie Bedlow, it doesn’t make your cookies any better. “Anyone who bakes and has a clean kitchen at the end of it, in my opinion, you don’t wanna trust these bakers,” she jokes to ABC Audio. “You want people who are throwing stuff around. You want the chaos, you want the drama. Those are the bakers are going to turn out really, really good cakes and cookies.”

That philosophy is also baked into Bedlow’s new book, Baking Imperfect: Crush, Whip and Spread It Like Nobody’s Watching, in which the self-described “trial and error” baker seeks to bring the fun back into the kitchen. “I want to make sure that people feel supported if they feel…maybe not as confident about because of all of these kinds of perfect things they see on Instagram,” Lottie expresses. “This book is…just about making sure that you feel supported and that you remember to laugh at yourself along the way.”

Lottie learned that lesson as a contestant on the hit reality program. “I think the show above all else taught me how to fail and laugh at myself when things go wrong, which they inevitably did,” she says.

Bedlow also shared tips for getting rid of that leftover trick-or-treat booty, noting, “The easiest, easiest thing to do…would be fudge. So you take your condensed milk and your semi-sweet chocolate, melt it together in the microwave, and then you throw in anything else that you have lying around. So that can be Skittles, it could be Oreos, it could be M&Ms. Whatever you want, you throw it all in…a lined tin…and in 3 hours…you’ve got perfect fudge with your favorite candy inside.”

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