Entertainment

“The Road West Was Paved with Blood,” reads a title card in the new trailer of Yellowstone‘s prequel series 1883 — and there’s plenty of the red stuff to go around.

As previously reported, real-life husband and wife Tim McGraw and Faith Hill star in the Paramount+ series, playing James and Margaret Dutton, the patriarch and matriarch of Yellowstone‘s Dutton family. 

The series, which also stars Sam Elliot, Billy Bob Thornton and newcomer Isabel May, centers on this country’s often brutal westward expansion, following the Dutton clan “as they embark on a journey west through the Great Plains toward the last bastion of untamed America…Montana.”

“This way is a free country,” Elliot’s Civil War vet Shea Brennan tells a settler, pointing to the east.

“That way is No Man’s Land, and that’s where we’re headed,” he adds, gesturing to the then-untamed, and unclaimed, West. 

The trailer is as brutal as the journey: As one might expect of the Western genre, there’s more gunplay than you can shake a six-shooter at, from beginning to end.

1883 premieres December 19 on Paramount+.

(VIDEO CONTAINS UNCENSORED PROFANITY)

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(NOTE LANGUAGE) HBO Max has released a new trailer to its upcoming spin-off of The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker, and in it, John Cena‘s over-the-top anti-hero shows off a vulnerable side. 

Not only is Cena’s titular character apparently having second thoughts about his peace-through-violence mantra, hesitating when ordered to fire on innocent people so that he can kill a target, but he’s also having issues with his dad. 

Terminator 2 and Sons of Anarchy veteran Robert Patrick plays his father, and he’s tough to impress. When Cena’s character mentions that he survived being shot — and had a building fall on top of him, referring to the close of The Suicide Squad — Patrick’s character replies, “You let somebody shoot you?!”

Despite his reservations, however, Peacemaker isn’t afraid of the action: In one scene he’s shown boasting about a new tool he created — a hand grenade attached to an old Russian tank shell. “A grenade only kills like two people!” he says in explaining his need for the upgrade.

He also lobs the weapon while heartily declaring, “Eat peace, motherf***er!”

Peacemaker premieres on HBO Max on January 13, 2022.

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Life on the Dutton Ranch is about to get sticky.  Again.

Piper Perabo has made her official debut on the hit cable TV series Yellowstone playing animal rights activist Summer Higgins — who comes into direct conflict with Kevin Costner‘s character John Dutton’s livestock practices on the Dutton Ranch. Piper tells ABC Audio, that Summer and John do have one thing in common –a concern about conservation and the preservation of land.

“I think there are a lot of issues like that you know, that we can all see eye to eye on even if we don’t all have the same ideas on how to get there,” says Perabo. “When it comes to the big picture? We agree more than we disagree.”

Perabo adds that Summer’s hard exterior is about to be changed as the series moves ahead.

“I think his way of life, and the way of life on the ranch is not something that she’s really not been exposed to before,” Piper explains. “And though she doesn’t agree with everything about it, it changes her to know this family.”

The Dutton Ranch scenes are filmed at the real-life Chief Joseph Ranch in Darby, Montana, which, according to Piper is “almost like Disneyland, you know, like, as an adult it’s so cool to see something real!”

Speaking of movie sets, you may remember Piper dancing on the bar in the 2000 film Coyote Ugly. There’s a lot of buzz lately about a possible reboot, and Piper is on board — with some exceptions.

“I would be very nervous to get back up on that bar? It was dangerous when I was in my 20s! So it could be more dangerous now!  

Yellowstone airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Paramount Network.

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Former Parks and Recreation and current Master of None star Aziz Ansari is now engaged.

Page Six reports the actor and stand-up comedian broke the news Wednesday night, during a set at New York City’s The Comedy Cellar, and that his fiancée is Danish forensic data scientist Serena Skov Campbell.

“We all went nuts” about hearing the good news, a source who was there told the publication.

Ansari, who also revealed he’s been living in the U.K., reportedly joked that he hoped his kids would be more Indian than Dutch, according to the paper.

Ansari had mentioned Campbell on stage before. Things were apparently already serious between them back in 2019, when he revealed during a set at Radio City Music Hall that he planned to take Campbell to India to meet his grandmother.

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Former The Daily Show host Jon Stewart has joined Jennifer Aniston, Gabrielle Union, Kathryn Hahn and Allison Tolman in the cast for the Facts of Life segment of NBC’s third Live in Front of a Studio Audience special, set to air December 7.

Stewart will be playing a “surprise role” in the show, per ABC. The Facts of Life re-enactment will be paired with a staging of its parent show, Diff’rent Strokes. That episode will feature Kevin Hart, John Lithgow and Damon Wayans. The Handmaid’s Tale star Ann Dowd will appear in both episodes as Mrs. Garrett, the role played by Charlotte Rae on both shows.

For Stewart, who currently hosts and executive produces The Problem with Jon Stewart on Apple TV, it will be taking on his first on-camera acting role that’s not a version of himself since 2002’s Death to Smoochy. 

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Alec Baldwin sat down with George Stephanopoulos for the one-hour primetime special, Alec Baldwin Unscripted, on Thursday, and gave his account of the shooting accident on the set of Rust that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

“Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property,” Baldwin said. “Someone is ​responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me.”

Baldwin claimed that he and Hutchins began blocking out the scene. She was directing his every move, and “Everything [was] at her direction.”

“She’s guiding me through how she wants me to hold the gun for this angle,” he said. “I’m holding the gun where she told me to hold it, which ended up being aimed right below her armpit.”

To get the shot, Baldwin said he needed to cock the gun, but not fire it. “The trigger wasn’t pulled. I didn’t pull the trigger,” Baldwin insisted.

“So, you never pulled the trigger?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“No, no, no, no, no,” Baldwin said. “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger at them.”

During rehearsal, Baldwin said the film’s first assistant director, Dave Halls, handed him a revolver, telling him, “This is a cold gun” — industry jargon for a weapon that is either literally empty or loaded with non-firing “dummy” rounds.

Lisa Torraco, Halls’ attorney, corroborated Baldwin’s account on Thursday, saying Halls told her “from day one” that he was watching from three or four feet away and “the entire time Baldwin had his finger outside the trigger guard parallel to the barrel…that Alec did not pull that trigger.”

Torraco would not confirm if Halls was the person who handed Baldwin the gun.

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Jay-Z and Will Smith are among the producers of a new ABC news docuseries about the murder of Emmett Till.

Let the World See will tell the story of Ms. Mamie Till-Mobley‘s quest for justice after her 14-year-old son Emmett was lynched and fatally shot in Mississippi on August 28, 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman named Carolyn Bryant in her family’s grocery story.

Bryant’s husband and his half brother were acquitted of Till’s murder. The following year, they admitted in a magazine interview that they were guilty. Till’s death became a catalyst for the civil-rights movement.

Following Till-Mobley’s death in 2003, the Till family has continued her legacy, remaining active in the movement as the deaths of Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others sparked protests around the country.

Let the World See premieres Thursday, January 6, 2022, at 10:01 p.m. ET on ABC, and will air for three consecutive Thursday nights following each new episode of ABC’s upcoming limited series Women of the Movement.

In other news, Tessa Thompson appears on the December/January cover of Ebony. The 38-year-old actress stars with Ruth Negga in the Netflix film Passing as two mixed-raced Black women who can “pass” as white in 1920s Harlem.

When asked about “light-skinned privilege in Hollywood,” Thompson says, “I’ve been able to play a lot of very different characters I’m not sure women who came before me — who I stand on the shoulders of — would have been able to. I’ve had the opportunity to really understand and unpack my own measure of privilege inside of the industry, and as someone who hopes to be a changemaker, [I’ve asked myself,] How do I contend with that? What do I do?”

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Steven Spielberg, and the cast of his remake of West Side Story, including Ansel Elgort, Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez and Mike Faist, will be on hand for a special IMAX Live Fan Event on Monday, December 6.

Ten IMAX locations in the U.S. and Canada will screen the special Q&A with the filmmaker and his cast, as well as showing the film. The event starts at 7 p.m. ET.

West Side Story opens nationwide on December 10, 2021, from  20th Century Studios, which is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News. 

Here is a list of participating theaters: 

Boston
Theater: AMC Boston Common 19

Chicago
AMC Oakbrook Center 12 (Oak Brook, IL)
Century 20 Daly City and XD
Regal Irvine Spectrum 21 + IMAX & RPX

Los Angeles
AMC Century City 15 IMAX

New York
AMC Empire 25 IMAX

New Jersey
AMC Garden State 16

San Francisco
AMC Metreon 16 IMAX

Seattle
Regal Thornton Place Stadium 14 & IMAX

Toronto
Cineplex Cinemas Winston Churchill & VIP (Oakville)

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The National Board of Review, which annually acknowledges excellence in film in a variety of categories, has announced its picks for its 2021 honorees, with its top awards going to Will Smith in the Best Actor category for King Richard, Rachel Zegler as Best Actress for West Side Story, and Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Licorice Pizza named Best Film.

Anderson was also hailed as Best Director for this year. 

The honorees will be feted at the NBR Awards Gala, hosted by Willie Geist, on Tuesday, January 11, 2022.

National Board of Review President Annie Schulhof commented in a statement, “In a moment of transition and uncertainty, there is nothing like Licorice Pizza to remind us of the joy, hope, and exhilaration that great cinema can inspire.”

Other movies hailed by the organization as one of its “Top Films” of the year included Dune, The Last Duel, the Netflix environmental disaster movie Don’t Look Up with Oscar winners Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, and The Tragedy of Macbeth, which stars Oscar winners Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand.

Here is a list of the winners in the major categories: 

Best Film: Licorice Pizza 
Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
Best Actor: Will Smith, King Richard
Best Actress: Rachel Zegler, West Side Story
Best Supporting Actor: Ciarán Hinds, Belfast
Best Supporting Actress: Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard
Best Original Screenplay: Asghar Farhadi, A Hero
Best Adapted Screenplay: Joel Coen, The Tragedy of Macbeth
Breakthrough Performance: Alana Haim & Cooper Hoffman, Licorice Pizza
Best Directorial Debut: Michael Sarnoski, Pig
Best Animated Feature: Encanto
Best Foreign Language Film: A Hero
Best Documentary: Summer of Soul (Or…When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) 
Best Ensemble: The Harder They Fall 
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel, The Tragedy of Macbeth
Freedom of Expression Award: Flee

Top Films (in alphabetical order)

Belfast
Don’t Look Up
Dune
King Richard
The Last Duel
Nightmare Alley
Red Rocket
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story

Top 5 Foreign Language Films (in alphabetical order)

Benedetta
Lamb
Lingui, The Sacred Bonds
Titane
The Worst Person in the World

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While “Omicron” sounds like a name that would be at home at an expo dedicated to anime, officials in New York say the less-fun version, the COVID-19 variant of the same name, may have paid a visit to the recent AnimeNYC convention, which ran from November 19 through 21.

In a statement, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio noted that a visitor to the festival who returned home to Minnesota had tested positive for the latest variant. That person’s symptoms were mild and have since resolved, the mayor said.

The 53,000 people who attended the convention at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center — home to the annual New York Auto Show and New York Comic Con, among others — are being urged to get tested “immediately.”

“We are working closely with the State and the CDC, as well as the Javits Center’s event organizers, and our Test and Trace Corps will be contacting conference attendees,” De Blasio’s statement said.

As part of his controversial Key2NYC program, everyone attending the event — or basically any other event in the Big Apple — had to be masked and double vaccinated. 

Incidentally, Peter Tatara, the founder of AnimeNYC, recently sent an apology to guests for long lines and crowded conditions at the event. “Everything was packed much, much more,” he said. “We underestimated how many fans would come early and spend every moment of the weekend in the convention center….This was Anime NYC’s plan failing to meet our fans’ demand.”

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