Warner Bros. Discovery is hoping to mine more box office gold from J.R.R. Tolkien‘s Middle Earth. Variety reports that during an earnings call with CEO David Zaslav on Thursday, the executive announced that subsidiary New Line Cinema will be producing multiple Lord of the Rings movies, as it did for Peter Jackson‘s Oscar-winning trilogy.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), its 2002 follow-up The Two Towers, and 2003’s The Return of the King grossed more than $3 billion worldwide, with the last film winning a record-tying 11 trophies at the 96th Annual Academy Awards.

Jackson returned to Middle Earth for a prequel trilogy based on Tolkein’s The Hobbit. While those films weren’t as critically-acclaimed as the other trilogy, 2012’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, 2013’s The Desolation of Smaug, and 2014’s The Battle of the Five Armies grossed nearly $3 billion globally.

Tolkien’s work was recently adapted into Amazon’s expensive, divisive series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

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ABC is mum on the development, but Deadline reports its hit sitcom The Goldbergs will end after the current 10th season.

The ’80s-set sitcom, which stars Wendi McLendon-Covey, Sean Giambrone, Troy Gentile and Hayley Orrantia, soldiered on after the death of the series star George Segal in 2021, and then the loss of series patriarch Jeff Garlin the following year.

Garlin parted ways with the show following accusations of bullying and other conduct on set; his character Murray was killed off offscreen between seasons 9 and 10.

After his Goldbergs exit, Garlin revealed he’d been diagnosed as bipolar. He continued to work as Jeff Green on Curb Your Enthusiasm, and was cast in the fourth and final season of Mindy Kaling‘s Neflix series Never Have I Ever.

The Goldbergs is based on the life of creator Adam F. Goldberg. According to the trade, it’s currently the longest-running live-action network comedy series currently on the air.

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Halle Bailey is reflecting on the past year and a half since filming wrapped on the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid.

In an interview with The Face, the 22-year-old actress and singer, who makes up one-half of the sister duo Chloe x Halle, and who stars as Ariel in the remake of the 1989 Disney animated film, talked about the support she’s received since taking on the movie’s lead role.

“I was crying all night for two days, just staring at them in disbelief,” she said, referring to the videos of young Black girls reacting to the first teaser trailer showing Bailey as Ariel for the first time. “It just makes me feel more grateful for where I am.”

While the responses to the trailer — which dropped in 2022 at the D23 Expo — were overwhelmingly positive, it also became the target of backlash, similar to the criticism that came in 2019, when casting for the film was first announced.

Online, the hashtag #NotMyAriel was used in both instances to respond to the news.

Bailey, who recognizes the weight behind her turn as Ariel, shared how she’s handled the negativity.

“As a Black person, you just expect it and it’s not really a shock anymore,” she said. “When [my sister and I] first signed to Parkwood [Entertainment, Beyoncé‘s record label,] she was always like, ‘I never read my comments. Don’t ever read the comments.’ Honestly, when the tease came out, I was at the D23 Expo and I was so happy. I didn’t see any of the negativity.”

“I know people are like: ‘It’s not about race.’ But now that I’m her…. People don’t understand that when you’re Black, there’s this whole other community,” Bailey added. “It’s so important for us to see ourselves.”

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Alec Baldwin has pleaded not guilty and waived his first court appearance after being charged with involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting on the set of his film Rust, court officials announced Thursday.

Baldwin and the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, were both charged last month with two counts of involuntary manslaughter over the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in October 2021.

First assistant director David Halls has already agreed to plead no contest for the charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon. The plea agreement is pending a judge’s approval, prosecutors have said.

All three were scheduled to make their first court appearances remotely on Friday, though Baldwin and Halls filed a waiver of first appearance this week and no hearing will be held for them. Both pleaded not guilty to their charges in their waivers.

District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer also issued an order setting conditions of Baldwin’s release, including that he must not possess any firearms, not consume alcohol and have no contact with any potential witnesses unless it’s related to filming the movie.

Gutierrez-Reed’s hearing is scheduled for 10:15 a.m. MST Friday.

The charges followed a lengthy investigation into the on-set shooting, which has also spawned multiple lawsuits, including from Hutchins’ family.

In the statement of probable cause, investigator Robert Shilling said that evidence showed that Baldwin had his finger inside the trigger, and that the trigger was pulled — contradicting Baldwin’s statements. 

In Gutierrez-Reed’s charging document, Shilling claimed that the armorer’s “deviation from known standards…directly caused the fatal death of Hutchins,” including not insisting Baldwin have proper firearm training, or correcting him on “dangerous” safety violations such as pointing the weapon at people and having his finger on the trigger.”

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