Forbesjust released its annual billionaires list, and among the moguls, heirs, and assorted entrepreneurial geniuses one might expect to see on the ranking — like this year’s chart-topper, Elon Musk — is one Peter Jackson.
The New Zealand filmmaker behind the Oscar-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy ranked among the magazine’s financial heavyweights with a net worth of $1.5 billion, thanks to the sale of his visual effects house Weta Digital.
The one-time upstart he created to bring his 1996 drama Heavenly Creatures to life has since gone on to become a Hollywood heavyweight, crafting jaw-dropping special effects for not only Jackson’s own adventures into Tolkein‘s Middle-Earth, but also The Batman, The Suicide Squad, and Oscar nominated Marvel hits like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
In November of last year, Jackson sold his stake in Weta to video game developer Unity Software, in a deal estimated at $1.6 billion, landing the humble filmmaker a Smaug-worthy treasure.
As Bilbo Baggins once said, “Why shouldn’t I keep it?”
Variety reports that Sunday’s Grammy Awards telecast saw a modest 1.4% gain over last year’s ceremony, which marked a record low for the event. The 64th Annual Grammy Awards, hosted by The Daily Show‘s Trevor Noah and carried live from Las Vegas on CBS, drew 8.93 million total viewers across multiple platforms, according to time-zone adjusted fast national data from Nielsen. The network estimates that total viewership for Sunday’s show will be closer to 9.6 million total viewers when Live + Same Day data comes in Tuesday…
Jennifer Lopez‘ most recent movie Marry Me may have premiered on Peacock, but her next nuptials-related film will be debuting on Amazon Prime. The streaming service has snatched up Shotgun Wedding, a rom com that once was to star Armie Hammer and Lopez, as a couple whose family-filled destination wedding turns into a hostage situation. However, Hammer stepped away from the role last year as his sexting scandal began to crest, and Josh Duhamel stepped up to the altar…
Laurence Fishburne has been tapped to star as Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers in the upcoming FX limited series The Sterling Affairs, chronicling the downfall of Clippers owner Donald Sterling amid the team’s drive to win a championship under Rivers. Jacki Weaver has also signed on to play Sterling’s wife, Shelly. Fishburne is currently starring in a revival of David Mamet‘s American Buffalo at New York’s Circle in the Square Theatre…
The Fox dance competition series So You Think You Can Dance returns for its 17th season May 18 following the season finale of The Masked Singer, the network announced on Monday. The upcoming season will also feature a new judging panel that includes Stephen “tWitch” Boss, Emmy, Tony and Golden Globe-nominated artist Matthew Morrison and YouTube star JoJo Siwa. Cat Deeley will return as host. The latest version will feature dancers between the ages of 18 and 30, who will compete in a variety of styles, with brand-new twists and turns introduced into the competition…
Aquaman‘s Jason Momoa is set to write, executive-produce and star in the drama series Chief of War for Apple TV+, according to Variety. The streaming service has given an eight-episode order to the series, which “follows the story of the unification and colonization of Hawaii from an indigenous point of view.” Momoa currently stars in the post-apocalyptic Apple TV+ series See, which aired its second season in 2021 has been picked up for a third…
The official trailer for season two of the HBO Max thriller The Flight Attendant dropped on Monday. The new season and finds a newly sober Cassie Bowden — played by Kaley Cuoco — seeing multiple versions of herself while moonlighting as a CIA asset in her spare time, and becomes entangled in more international intrigue. Also returning for season two are Zosia Mamet, Griffin Matthews, Deniz Akdeniz and Rosie Perez, along with T.R. Knight, Yasha Jackson and Audrey Grace Marshall. The season will also introduce new series regulars Mo McRae, Callie Hernandez and JJ Soria, as well as recurring cast members Alanna Ubach, Cheryl Hines, Jessie Ennis, Mae Martin, Margaret Cho, Santiago Cabrera, Sharon Stone and Shohreh Aghdashloo. The Flight Attendant returns with two episodes April 21…
American Idol‘s season 20 Top 24 has been revealed!
But first, after an intense Hollywood week, it was time for yet another challenge that saw the remaining contestants tasked with delivering a show stopping performance for judges Katy Perry, Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie. The kicker — for the first time ever, the contestants would do this in front of a live audience.
The talented singers didn’t make it easy for the judges either. Contestants Ava Maybee and Yoli Mayor had the judges so torn that they competed in the first-ever on the spot sing-off, which saw Ava secure her spot in the Top 24. The same happened with country singers Dan Marshall and Dakota Hayden, with the judges choosing Dan, 24, over Dakota, 17, largely due to his age.
Next week, the Top 24 heads to Disney’s Aulani Resort in Hawaii, and Bebe Rexha and Jimmie Allen will also join as mentors for the two-night event.
America will take over and begin voting to determine who will be the next American Idol.
Top 24
Leah Marlene, 20
Jay, 23
Nicolina, 18
Emyrson Flora, 16
Katyrah Love, 23
Fritz Hager, 22
Jacob Moran, 28
Allegra Miles, 19
Ava Maybee, 20
Cameron Whitcomb, 18,
Sir Blayke, 28
Elli Rowe, 19
Mike Parker, 27
Tristen Gressett, 17
Christian Guardino, 21
Noah Thompson, 19
Cadence Baker, 18
Huntergirl, 23
Sage, 20
Danielle Finn, 17
Kenedi Anderson, 17
Scarlet, 18
Lady K, 25
Dan Marshall, 24
Screenwriter and producer Mindy Kalingjust dropped some tantalizing hints about a third Legally Blonde film. To Entertainment Tonight, Kaling enthused, “I love this project. I am so excited about it.”
She adds, “It is going, you know, a little more slowly than we like but [it’s] just because we really want it to be good.”
The former Office star said of Reese Witherspoon‘s film series, “I think of it like Reese’s Avengers. Elle Woods is like her Captain America, and so you don’t want to be the person that messes up that story. So for me, we are just taking our time because we want it to be really good.”
In a Zoom interview with Backstage and her Legally Blonde co-star Jennifer Coolidge last December, Witherspoon said of Legally Blonde‘s longevity, “The movie is such a feminist movie,” adding, “your life doesn’t have to be defined by your romantic relationships; it can be defined by your girlfriends, by your sense of self-worth, by your job, your education, your accomplishments.”
Mindy, meanwhile, is also active as the official brand ambassador for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network ahead of this year’s national fundraising event, PanCAN PurpleStride, on April 30.
Kaling lost her mother, Swati Roysircar, to pancreatic cancer in 2012.
“The PanCAN PurpleStride — I’m not even athletic, I’m going to be doing this PurpleStride,” she jokes. It’s this important to me, spreading awareness about testing for pancreatic cancer. Sixty communities around the country, everyone’s meeting up to walk and raise money for pancreatic cancer awareness.”
Waititi, Hemsworth on “Thor: Ragnarok”/Marvel Studios
With its writer/director Taika Waititi hinting since last year that his fourth Thor movie will be the “craziest film he had ever done” — a bold statement from the guy who won an Oscar for imagining Hitler as an imaginary friend in Jojo Rabbit — fans are rabid for a trailer.
Alas, first the Super Bowl, and then the Oscars ads passed with nary a hint about Thor: Love and Thunder.
Today, star Chris Hemsworthposted that “long-lead press” — that is, generally, magazine interviews — had begun to promote the anticipated film, and that managed to whip up fans further. “Get ready folks, this film’s gonna be wild!” the God of Thunder himself promised.
However, with no trailer in sight, some fans are getting desperate for any hints, poring over Hemsworth’s picture with Taika, and their co-star Tessa Thompson, as if it were the Zapruder film.
One fan circled the stars’ hands: Waititi has his two index fingers up; Hemsworth is throwing up the heavy metal “devil horns,” and Thompson has peace signs flying in both hands. The fingers spell out “11 4 22,” the fan guesses, predicting the trailer would drop on April 11.
Like we said, they’re desperate.
All we do know for sure is that Natalie Portman is returning to the franchise as Jane Foster, who inherits the mantle of Thor; Thompson’s Valkyrie takes up the throne of New Asgard, hinted at the end of Avengers: Endgame; and Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan, and the rest of their Guardians of the Galaxy pals also appear, as do a host of other stars.
Matt Damon, and Sam Neill also re-appear, after cameoing in Thor: Ragnarok, and Russell Crowe also will be seen.
Christian Bale reportedly plays the heavy, Gorr the Butcher, when the movie debuts July 7.
(NOTE LANGUAGE) A week after the so-called “Slap heard ’round the world,” Oscars co-host Amy Schumertells fans she’s taking a break.
To her Instagram over the weekend, Amy posted a picture of her spooning in bed with her two-year-old son Gene, with the caption, “Out of office reply for the next month. Thanks.”
Her message to her more than 11 million followers was met with immediate support, gaining more than 200,000 likes.
Some of the replies were from fellow famous moms like Ali Wentworth,who noted, “Well deserved,” and Debra Messing, who said of the sweet shot, “Nothing is better!”
Last Monday, Schumer had vented about what went down between Will Smith and Chris Rock during the Oscars telecast the night before, saying she was, “Still triggered and traumatized” by the situation.
Incidentally, Amy also addressed the slap while performing a stand-up date at The Mirage Theater in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
According to E!, she called the occurrence, “a f**king bummer,” and she expressed, “it was really just sad…It says so much about race, about toxic masculinity, it’s just, everything.”
“It was just really upsetting,” Schumer also added.
One of the biggest movie stars of all time is coming to the small screen: Harrison Ford‘s first starring TV series project will be in an Apple TV+ comedy called Shrinking.
According to the streaming service, the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movie veteran will play Phil, a “down-to earth” and “blue collar shrink” who works with show co-creator Jason Segal‘s grieving therapist.
The latter causes some waves when, in his current state, he decides to tell his patients what they really think of him.
Also starring in the series from Ted Lasso co-creator Bill Lawrence will be none other than Ted Lasso Emmy winner Brett Goldstein who, along with Segel, plays one of Phil’s therapist proteges.
For his part, Ford’s character is recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s, “which forces him out of his comfort zone as he grapples with intrusive friends, his estranged family and his legacy.”
This will be Ford’s first time on the small screen in decades. He reprised his role as the “Man in the Hat” in an episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles in 1993, and before leading man status found him in 1977’s Star Wars, he appeared in guest roles on the long-running Western series Gunsmoke, and 1970s TV shows including Ironsides and Love, American Style.
Actress Selma Blairopens up in the April/May issue of AARP The Magazine, and talks about living — and really living — with multiple sclerosis.
The former Cruel Intentions and Hellboy star first went public that she had MS in 2018, and has since become a role model for others living with the degenerative condition. Her trials and tribulations were chronicled in the documentary Introducing Selma Blair, and in her book, Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up.
Her MS not only informed the book’s content, but how it came together, Selma tells the magazine. “When I sat down to write Mean Baby after the prefrontal brain damage, it came out as if from the 8-year-old I was when I first wanted to write a book!” she laughs, calling that “beautiful.”
Selma also adds, “My mother was a harsh critic, and I always wanted her to edit my book. [When] she died of cancer…I felt such a profound sense of grief and loss. But when I started down the path of embracing life and writing about it, the documentary about me became very rooted in my mother, a love letter to her, as I try to let go.”
The magazine feature and the film spotlight Blair’s optimism, despite her illness. “I’ve always been a talker and prone to drama, so even if my voice falters or goes into a spasm, I talk through it — I’m learning not to give it a rest!” she declares.
Blair also adds, “I realized that if I’m lucky, I could reach 85, MS or not. Our abilities are always fleeting, but when they fail, it’s always treated as a tragedy. How do we enter a chaotic shift in our life without feeling it’s an end to something? We just have to adapt.”
While host Jerrod Carmichael said in his monologue that he was over talking about Will Smith‘s slap of Chris Rock at the Oscars, Saturday Night Live was all about it.
“I’m not gonna talk about it,” the stand-up first said, referring to the incident only as “it.”
Carmichael marveled that the incident had, at that point, “it” only happened six days ago, and yet it feels like we’ve all been talking about it forever.
“Like, doesn’t it feel like it happened when we were all in high school?” He added, “It feels like it happened somewhere between Jamiroquai and 9-11.”
That said, the sketch show teed off on the incident a few times, with one sketch that had Carmichael playing a seat filler eager to meet Chris Redd‘s Smith at the show, only to become less enthused as the “it” played out in real time.
Jost’s co-host Michael Che noted, “Love makes you do crazy things. You know what else makes you do crazy things? Crazy.”
As for Smith’s resigning from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences after the attack, Jost joked, “He wasn’t going to, but then Jada gave him that look.”
Che and Jost also welcomed Kenan Thompson to the Update desk, playing O.J. Simpson, who in real life had opined.
As O.J., Thompson said, “I mean, Will, I don’t want to say that you’ve got rage issues, but if the glove fits…”
The Sony Pictures vampire superhero Morbius managed to fight off a critical drubbing to earn a respectable $39.1 million opening at the domestic box office, enough for the weekend’s top spot. The movie, starring Oscar-winner Jared Leto as one of Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man baddies, debuted to $84 million worldwide: Decent, but nowhere near Spider-Man:No Way Home‘s numbers, nor even another Spidey-adjacent Sony offering, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, which opened to $90 million domestically last fall.
In the second-place slot this weekend is last week’s box office champ, the Channing Tatum/Sandra Bullock romantic romp The Lost City. The adventure film, which also stars Daniel Radcliffe, earned $14.8 million in its sophomore frame.
The Batman took in another $10.8 million domestically for third place. Starring Robert Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz, it also crossed the $700 million mark globally after five weeks with $710.5 million, and counting.
Rounding out the fourth and fifth places in theaters over the weekend, respectively, were Tom Holland‘s blockbuster video game adaptation Uncharted, which earned $3.6 million, and the anime adventure Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie, which earned a bit under $2 million.
Both films are also scoring overseas: Uncharted, from Sony Pictures, has a worldwide haul of more than $234 million, while Jujutsu‘s bottom line was also boosted from foreign theaters, pushing its worldwide take to $149.1 million over the weekend.
