Entertainment

The new Joan Rivers series starring Kathryn Hahn is no longer happening at Showtime.

Variety initially reported last month that the WandaVision star was set to play the late comedienne in The Comeback Girl, but now the outlet reports that the producers did not secure the rights to move forward with the project.

Rivers’ life rights are currently held by her daughter, Melissa Rivers. Variety reports that the series could have proceeded as an “unauthorized” project but they wouldn’t have been able to use any of Rivers’ jokes or catchphrases. Proceeding in that way also likely would have drawn ire from Rivers’ estate.

Melissa Rivers’ spokesperson tells Variety that there are currently no plans for any biographical projects on her mother. Joan Rivers died in 2014 at age 81.

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September 8 marked the 55th anniversary of the debut of a little TV show called Star Trek, which against all odds became one of the biggest cultural phenomenons — and multi-billion-dollar entertainment franchises — of our time.  Now, the show and its legacy is being celebrated in a ten-part docuseries, which will premiere November 5 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on The History Channel.

The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek is narrated and executive-produced by Gates McFadden, who played Dr. Beverly Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Each episode will focus on a different chapter in the history of the Star Trek franchise, from the origins of the original series to recent film and TV adaptations.

In addition to hours of show footage, the docuseries features interviews with writers, directors, producers, showrunners and Star Trek actors past and present, including Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig from the original series, Denise Crosby, Wil Wheaton, John De Lancie and Brent Spiner from The Next Generation, Kate Mulgew, Roxann Dawson, Tim Russ and Robert Beltran from Star Trek: Voyager, Nana Visitor from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and more.

If that’s still not enough Star Trek for you, six additional episodes will be available on History Vault, the network’s subscription video service.

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Dune: Part Two is a go.

Legendary Entertainment confirmed the news in a tweet Tuesday, writing, “This is only the beginning…Thank you to those who have experience @dunemovie so far, and those who are going in the days and weeks ahead. We’re excited to continue the journey!”

They included an image that said “Dune Part Two.”

Part one of the sci-fi epic topped the box office this past weekend, grabbing an estimated $41 million. The film — starring Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Zendaya, Jason Momoa and Javier Bardem — is also available to stream on HBO Max.

This is only the beginning…

Thank you to those who have experienced @dunemovie so far, and those who are going in the days and weeks ahead. We’re excited to continue the journey! pic.twitter.com/mZj68Hnm0A

— Legendary (@Legendary) October 26, 2021

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Greg Heffley’s story continues in Big Shot, the newly released 16th Diary of a Wimpy Kid book. Author Jeff Kinney chatted about his new book with ABC Audio and teased the “misadventures” he has in store for the young protagonist.

In Big Shot, Greg’s mom persuades him to sign up for basketball, but as Kinney warns, “He’s not a very sporty kid.” The middle schooler does make a team, but it’s the “worst” one, so his chances of winning a single game are very slim.

The best-selling author said the message he wants children to take away from Big Shot is that not everyone is destined to become a professional athlete — and that’s okay. “Youth sports really is full of these funny degradations that we don’t really talk about,” he explained. “We’re always trying to build our kids’ self-esteem up and we don’t want them to feel like they failed.”

“I want to really hit that head on and give kids who aren’t star athletes a language to express themselves and… describe what they’re going through,” Kinney said of his book.

Now that Greg has starred in 16 books, it does beg to question how much he has changed since the world was first introduced to the 11-year-old in 2007.

“In some ways, he hasn’t really changed,” Kinney remarked.  “I think we really rely on our cartoon characters to stay the same.”

He said an example is Donald Duck, who’ll never outgrow his temper that makes him “fly off the handle” because the audience likes that about him.

Because of that, Kinney explained, “Sometimes Greg learns a lesson, but it’s usually subverted.”

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More family dysfunction ahead: Succession is getting a season four.

The Emmy-winning HBO hit drama series received the pickup just a couple of weeks after season three debuted.

The season-three premiere drew over 1.4 million viewers across all platforms, according to the network, marking the best premiere-night performance of any HBO original series since the streaming service’s launch in May 2020. It also marked the biggest digital premiere for an HBO series since Big Little Lies‘ second season in 2019.

Succession follows the Roy family and their fight for control over their patriarch’s media empire. It stars Brian Cox, Alan Ruck, Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin, Hiam Abbass, Nicholas Braun, Matthew Macfadyen and Justine Lupe.

Succession airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO.

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Netflix has released the trailer for the new Sandra Bullock film, The Unforgivable.

Bullock plays a woman recently released from prison after serving 20 years for murder. In the trailer, we see her on a mission to reconnect with her younger sister but the actions of her past continue to follow her.

The film also stars Viola Davis, Jon Bernthal, Vincent D’Onofrio, Rob Morgan and Richard Thomas. It debuts in select theaters November 24 and will be available on Netflix December 10.

Bullock’s previous movie with Netflix, 2018’s Bird Box, was a massive hit for the streaming service.

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The 2016 film Captain America: Civil War featured many Avengers, including Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, and, of course, Chris Evans‘ Captain America.

Conspicuously missing, however, was Chris Hemsworth‘s Thor, and, according to Buzzfeed, he reveals the awkward way he found out the god of thunder didn’t make the cut, as detailed in the new book The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“I remember being on the Age of Ultron press tour, and everyone was talking about Civil War. I was like, ‘What’s Civil War?’ I asked, ‘Are you doing a side project or something?’” he recalled.

“They’re like, ‘Oh no, Captain America, y’know? The next one is Civil War.’ I’m like, ‘Wait … Iron Man’s in that?’”

“And it’s like, ‘Yeah, but there’s not just Iron Man. There’s Vision [and] Spider-Man” — played respectively by Paul Bettany and Tom Holland — he continues. “[Marvel] said, ‘You’re doing your own thing’…I thought, ‘This is it. I’m being written out.’”

Of course, that wasn’t the case. Hemsworth’s appeared in his fair share of MCU films since that moment of panic, most notably in 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, as well as Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame in 2018 and 2019, and in the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, set to open July 8, 2022.

Marvel is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

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In a candid new interview, Amanda Seyfried revealed the “trauma” she suffered as a result of her second pregnancy.  

Speaking with People, the Mank actress opened up about the difficult birth of her son, whom she welcomed last year.

“I had something that went wrong with my second birth. The baby was okay but it was tricky and it was painful and it didn’t have to happen, and it did so it added an extra level of trauma,” said Seyfried, 35, who also shares a four-year-old daughter with husband Thomas Sadoski.

Seyfried assured, “I’m okay. It was a very physical thing and it was a spinal thing, but I’m okay.”  She declined to share more about her condition. But, because of the grueling recovery process on top of raising two children at once, the actress said she had to take extra precautions to ensure her mental health didn’t suffer during the delicate time.

“I was terrified of suffering from postpartum depression,” the Oscar nominee admitted. “I ended up doing a lot of CBT therapy before I had my first kid and then I was really lucky, I didn’t suffer from any depression and I felt like I had won in some way.”

“It was hard, and it was so hard, the struggle, but it wasn’t anything I didn’t think I could handle. And with my second kid, that’s partly because I was on my medication and I never got off of it,” she continued.

Seyfried also explained that dealing with hospital bills further complicated things, adding, “I went to the doctor every week at the end of my pregnancy and all of sudden it’s like, ‘Bye, here’s some hospital bills!’ I mean, I kept receiving them and I’m still healing from something.”

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Director and screenwriter Jeymes Samuel says he couldn’t have picked two more perfect actors to portray real-life cowboy and Old West hero Nat Love for his 2013 short film They Die by Dawn and his 2021 directorial feature debut, The Harder They Fall.

In They Die by Dawn, Samuel tapped the late Michael K. Williams for the role of Love, which the director reveals was his first encounter with the talented Wire actor.

“When I used to watch him act, he would embody heartbreak in such a poetic way,” Samuel tells ABC Audio. “He’d embody heartbreak and vulnerability with such strength. And that was Nat Love for me…I couldn’t see anyone else playing him — just the way that he portrays heartbreak and the beauty of everything he’s gone through…and…gives you hope on camera and off.”

Samuels says it was those important characteristics that made Williams the “quintessential Nat Love” for his film. Not surprisingly, when it came time to make The Harder They Fall, Samuel says he looked for similar qualities.

“I came across Jonathan Majors and he had the same thing,” Samuel says of Majors’ “much younger” portrayal of Love. “The way he finds strength through vulnerability is so beautiful.”

Although Samuel says the two projects are very “different,” the director notes that he felt a significant connection to both Williams and Majors.

“[Majors] sent me a poem of the mental workings of Nat Love [and] I knew it was him,” Samuel says of how Majors landed the role. “And then [Majors and Williams] did Lovecraft  [Country] together, unbeknownst to me. And then they forged a beautiful friendship with themselves. So it’s almost like Nat Love bonded all of us in real life.

The Harder They Fall is now in select theaters and debuts on Netflix on November 3.

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As the investigation continues into the accidental shooting on the set of the Alec Baldwin film Rust, new details have emerged about the assistant director who handed Baldwin the prop gun that ended up killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.

A producer on the movie Freedom’s Path confirms to ABC News that assistant director Dave Halls was fired from that film in 2019 after a gun mishap on set.

“First of all, our condolences go out to everyone affected by the recent tragic event in New Mexico,” the unnamed producer says in a statement. 

“I can confirm that Dave Halls was fired from the set of ‘Freedom’s Path’ in 2019 after a crew member incurred a minor and temporary injury when a gun was unexpectedly discharged,” the producer continues. “Halls was removed from set immediately after the prop gun discharged. Production did not resume filming until Dave was off-site. An incident report was taken and filed at that time.”

According to a search warrant affidavit from the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office regarding the Rust incident, Halls yelled “Cold gun!” before handing the prop weapon to Baldwin — a phrase that indicates the gun is not loaded. Halls reportedly told police he didn’t know the pistol was loaded.

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