Entertainment

Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd brought down the house at New York Comic Con on Saturday, where they reminisced about their partnership in the Back to the Future trilogy.

The pair chatted about how Fox came to replace Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly in the 1985 blockbuster — after weeks of filming with Stoltz as the lead.

“I felt that I barely made it through the [first] six weeks, and now I was gonna have to do it again?!” Lloyd recalled thinking.

Fox — who at the time was doing double-duty as the star of Family Ties — immediately made an impact, continued Lloyd. “The chemistry was there from the first scene we had…It hasn’t gone away, by the way,” he noted.

Fox said all he had to do was “react” to the “brilliant” Lloyd playing the eccentric Dr. Emmett Brown. He added, “It was a thrill. Anytime I got to work with him, I knew it was gonna be a good day.”

Fox retired from acting in 2020 because of his Parkinson’s diagnosis. He remained inspiring, even as he at times struggled with the spasms from the disease, for which he’s raised $800 million through his eponymous foundation.

Fox’s sense of humor was very much intact: At one point, a source tells ABC Audio that a tic caused Fox to drop his gum out of his mouth onto the couch. Immediately, he scooped it up and popped it back in. “You saw it here first, folks: The moment I just got COVID,” he joked.

Fox later said, “I’ve said to people [Parkinson’s] is a gift, and they say, ‘You’re nuts.’ …But it’s a gift, and I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

The pair also signed autographs for hundreds of fans, who Fox explained “gave me my whole life.”

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Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson won’t be adding president of the United States as one of his roles any time soon.

The wrestler-turned-actor has toyed for a while with the idea of running for POTUS, but during a new interview he declared that the idea is “off the table” so he can focus on being a dad.

“I love our country and everyone in it I also love being a daddy. And that the most important thing to me,” he explained during CBS Sunday Morning on October 9.

“Especially during this time, this critical time in my daughters’ lives,” continued Johnson. “Because I know what it was like to be on the road and be so busy that I was absent for a lot of years for my first daughter’s growing up, [at] this critical age at this critical time in her life. And that’s what the presidency will do.”

Johnson, 50, has three daughters: Simone Johnson, 21, with ex Dany Garcia, and Jasmine Johnson, 6, and Tiana Johnson, 4, with wife Lauren Hashian.

“Sure, CEO sounds great, but the #1 thing I want to be is daddy. That’s it,” The Black Adam star added.

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Netflix on Saturday debuted the official trailer for its upcoming Addams Family series, Wednesday, which revealed Saturday Night Live alum Fred Armisen playing the role of Uncle Fester. The dark comedy is focused on a grown-up Wednesday Addams — played by Jenna Ortega — navigating her way as a student at Nevermore Academy, and a budding psychic with strange powers, as her hometown is terrorized by a spree of monstrous killings. Luiz Guzmán and Catherine Zeta-Jones, respectively, play Wednesday’s parents Morticia and Gomez. Wednesday premieres November 23 on Netflix…

Disney+’s upcoming Goosebumps series has added Justin Long as a regular cast member, according to Variety. The 10-episode series, based on the R.L. Stine books, follows “a group of five high-schoolers who unleash supernatural forces upon their town and must all work together — thanks to and in spite of their friendships, rivalries, and pasts with each other — in order to save it, learning much about their own parents’ teenage secrets in the process.” Long will play Nathan Bratt, “the new schoolteacher who develops a terrifying connection to a decades-old supernatural murder.” Disney is the parent company of ABC News…

NBC has ordered America’s Got Talent: All-Stars, a spinoff to its long-running competition series America’s Got Talent, according to The Hollywood Reporter. AGT host Terry Crews will also serve as host of the new series, while executive producer Simon Cowell will judge along with Heidi Klum and Howie Mandel. Contestants will include “winners, finalists, fan favorites and viral sensations” from the show’s past 17 seasons. America’s Got Talent: All-Stars is set to premiere sometime in 2023…

Keanu Reeves has pulled out of Hulu’s adaptation of The Devil in the White City, according to Variety. The show, based on Erik Larson‘s book, “tells the true story of Daniel H. Burnham, a demanding but visionary architect who races to make his mark on history with the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and Dr. H. H. Holmes, America’s first modern serial killer and the man behind the notorious ‘Murder Castle’ built in the Fair’s shadow,” per the streaming service. Reeves was cast as Burnham in what would have been his first major American television role…

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It was another week at the top for Smile, which earned an estimated $17.6 million. That brings its two-week domestic total to a little over $40 million. Worldwide, the horror film has collected $49.9 million.

Lyle Lyle Crocodile opened in second place with an estimated $11.5 million. The family film, featuring Shawn Mendes as the voice of the titular CGI reptile, fell short of expectations.

Filmmaker David O. Russell‘s star-studded comedy Amsterdam had an even more disappointing opening weekend, generating an estimated $6.5 million — about eight percent of the reported $80 million it cost to make — finishing third. The film, starring Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Chris Rock, Taylor Swift, Rami Malek and Robert De Niro, had an equally dismal showing overseas, where it earned an estimated $10 million.

The Woman King grabbed fourth place, delivering an estimated $5.3 million and bringing its four-week tally to $54.1 million.

Rounding out the top five was Don’t Worry Darling, with an estimated $3.4 million haul in its third week of release. Its North American total gross now stands at $38 million.

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Saturday Night Live took aim at recent controversies involving Herschel Walker, Kanye West, and Universal’s upcoming Super Mario Bros. movie among others during this weekend’s cold open.

Bowen Yang played the host of a game show called “So You Think You Won’t Snap,” in which contestants were read real-life headlines designed to trigger their rage.

First up was Heidi Gardner as a yoga teacher who had “been sober for 15 years” — that is, until Yang showed her a video of President Joe Biden stumbling his way through a response to a question from 60 Minutes‘ Scott Pelley regarding his mental acuity. The scene then switched to Gardner chugging a huge glass of wine.

Next up was Chloe Fineman as a mom of four, who managed to stay calm after hearing that Walker, the former NFL football player and Senate hopeful, supports a total abortion ban, while allegedly paying for one and lying about it.

Yang’s follow-up that the accusation “actually led to his best fundraising day ever” also didn’t seem to shake her; and likewise, his revelation that “86% of kids today say that when they grow up, their dream job is influencer.”

However, watching a clip of the upcoming Super Mario movie featuring Pratt as the voice of Mario, was too much. “He was supposed to be Italian! That was like his whole thing!” she screamed.

Kenan Thompson‘s Dale, who was “taking advantage of Biden’s new weed policy and just had sex before coming on this show,” lost it at the very mention of Elon Musk.

Finally, a photo of West wearing a “White Lives Matter” tee shirt during his Yeezy Season 9 show at Paris Fashion Week on Monday drove SNL newcomer Devon Walker to take a hot clothes iron to his face.

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Lena Dunham’s new film, Catherine Called Birdy, is unlike anything she’s ever done, and she says that was by design.

Dunham wrote, directed and produced the coming-of-age story about a spirited 14-year-old girl growing up in the Middle Ages, and she told ABC Audio that she set clear intentions for what she wanted to accomplish through her film.

“I think it’s the first time I’ve ever thought about giving the world anything,” Dunham said. “I think previously I was always like, ‘I’m just gonna make things that speak to what I find weird and uncomfortable about life and hope somebody else relates.’ And it was one of the first times I’ve actually thought about leaving the audience with … a feeling of joy.”

Bella Ramsey stars as the titular Birdy and says she felt that same joy while playing the character.

“She’s rebelling against everything that she can because she’s so frustrated by the birdcage that she’s metaphorically been trapped in,” Ramsey said. “And she’s so much fun to play. She’s funny. She’s cheeky, which I love.”

Dunham found inspiration in “everything from Clueless to Big to A League of Their Own,” as she made the film. “I think I always loved books and movies that I felt really honored the intelligence of young people, particularly young women,” Dunham said.

Recently, though, Dunham says she realized that films aimed at teenagers “had become much more about franchises and tentpoles and, you know, magical powers.”

“I missed the kinds of movies that seemed like they were really just about young people slugging it through adolescence,” Dunham said. “And this was a story that was certainly that.”

Catherine Called Birdy is available to stream Friday on Prime Video.

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Hulu unleashes Hellraiser, the reboot of the legendary horror franchise, on Friday. Trans actress Jamie Clayton succeeds Doug Bradley as the aptly named Pinhead, the head “priest” of a group of other dimensional beings called Cenobites.

Once again, they’re brought to our dimension thanks to some teens tinkering with a mysterious puzzle box.

Clayton gives director David Bruckner credit for having someone of a different gender play the role, explaining that Bruckner wanted the movie to reflect “the world we live in.”

“So the Cenobites are all different ethnicities and genders, and the same thing with the cast,” Clayton tells ABC Audio. “So it feels really authentic. It’s not overtly saying anything. It’s just, it is what it is,” adding with a laugh, “and I was so impressed … [by] the fact that he actually did it.”

Having a trans actress take on such a pivotal role just seemed obvious, Bruckner says. “You know, Hellraiser has always been very much embraced by the queer community. And it would be, I think, an injustice to not open up the casting and hiring the crew, as well.”

What matters is that Clayton is seductive — and scary — as Pinhead always was, thanks to extensive prosthetic makeup.

He notes, “When she’d walk out on set, you could feel a hush fall over the crew … and you know you’re in the presence of royalty.” He adds, “And she can be quite intimidating to talk to … So there’s more than a few times that, you know, I found myself going, ‘Oh, excuse me, Priest … Can you just take a little step to the left?’ Like, you have to be delicate when you’re when you’re dealing with the lead Cenobite.”

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On Friday, Marvel Studios delivers Werewolf by Night on Disney+. The hour-long black-and-white film hearkens back to the classic monster movies of decades past.

Werewolf by Night stars Gael García Bernal as Jack Russell, one of a group of monster hunters who face off at a mysterious estate in hopes of being the sole survivor who gets to wield a magical MacGuffin known as the Bloodstone.

Outlander veteran Laura Donnelly plays Elsa Bloodstone, the deadly monster hunter daughter of the eccentric man who conceived the competition. “She’s been trained from a very, very young age…and it seems that she’s had a fairly traumatic time with that,” Donnelly tells ABC Audio. “She’s…turned up now after the death of her father at the Bloodstone Manor and doesn’t really know whether she still belongs in that world anymore…”

The Oscar-winning composer of movie scores including Up, The Incredibles and Doctor Strange, Michael Giacchino directs the project, which is a deep cut dating back to a 1972 Marvel comic that shares the film’s name.

Giacchino recalls surprising Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige with his dream project.

“He said, ‘Well, if you were going to direct something here, what would you want to do?’ Instantly I was like, ‘Oh, Werewolf by Night….There’s no question.’ And he looked at me like, ‘Really!?'” Giacchino says with a laugh.

He says he loves characters from horror and monster movies “because there’s at their core…they’re just so relatable. Because we all have things in our lives that…we’re trying to figure out…And…[in] monster movies, the monsters are always left on their own to do it. And I always felt so bad that no one would help them.”  

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

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Iconic Hairspray and Pink Flamingos director John Waters is making his first movie since 2004 with a big-screen adaptation of his novel Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance. Deadline reports the project, which centers on “suitcase thief, scammer and master of disguise” Marsha Sprinkle, will also be written by the 68-year-old filmmaker. Waters explains in the announcement that Liarmouth is the craziest thing he’s written in a while. “Thrilled to be back in the movie business, hopefully to spread demented joy to adventuresome moviegoers around the world,” he added …

Amazon has given the green light for a second season of the supernatural Western series Outer Range, starring Josh Brolin. The Hollywood Reporter notes that Luke Cage and Sons of Anarchy vet Charles Murray will be taking the reins as showrunner for the sophomore frame. The show, which is co-produced by Brad Pitt‘s Plan B company, has Brolin playing a rancher who finds an otherworldly void on his property. Imogen Poots, Lili Taylor and Tom Pelphrey also star in the strong-performing streaming show …

Fresh from the show’s 10 Emmy wins, HBO has released the season 2 trailer to the dark comedy The White Lotus. Newly minted Emmy winner Jennifer Coolidge and her first season co-star Jon Gries return, as the intrigue shifts to Sicily. Aubrey Plaza stars this season as a woman vacationing there with her husband and their friends. Also starring is The Sopranos vet Michael Imperioli, Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham and Haley Lu Richardson. It premieres October 30 …

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Amsterdam, the new film from director David O. Russell, follows a group of three friends who witness and are framed for the murder of a U.S. senator in the 1930s.

More than anything, however, the film’s stars — Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and John David Washington — tell ABC Audio that the movie is about friendship.

“First and foremost, we wanted to give people a damn good time and to show them the love of true friendship,” Bale says. “We wanted to create this triangle of friendship that David [O. Russell] and I said, ‘Oh my God, we wish we had that in our lives.’”

Robbie even went as far as to say that the film’s friendship triangle is what enticed her to the role.

“Throughout my life I’ve had a couple of trio friendships that have been hugely important and really shaped my life,” Robbie says. “It is the first thing that drew me to this when I started talking to David [O. Russell] about it. He said, ‘There’s these three friends, I don’t know if this resonates with you.’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know if you realize how much that could resonate with me.’”

Washington said that in researching his role, he found much more meaning than he could have ever anticipated.

“The 369th Harlem Hellfighters were a group of gentlemen that I was unaware of,” Washington says. “Learning that kind of stuff was very intriguing, informative and something I’m gonna hold on to moving forward in my life.”

Bale also found deep meaning in his character.

“He refuses to become a broken man,” Bale says. “He remains optimistic, he remains joyous, he remains fun. He’s an inspiration to David [O. Russell] and myself, and he’s someone who I want to be friends with.”

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