| | | | What's news: The Star Wars Celebration kicked off in London, with Lucasfilm dropping new trailers, details and release dates for a number of projects. Fox has canceled The Resident. Asad Ayaz has been named Disney’s first-ever chief brand officer. Universal is adapting best-selling novel Lore. — Abid Rahman |
'Star Wars' Celebration 2023 ►Star Wars heads back to the big screen! The four-day Star Wars Celebration fan gathering kicked off in London on Friday, and as expected there was a deluge of news from Lucasfilm. After several years of Star Wars focusing on TV shows, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy shook up the fandom by revealing that three new movies were in the works. James Mangold, Dave Filoni and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy will each direct a movie. Obaid-Chinoy's project will see Daisy Ridley returning to the Star Wars universe. No timeline on the releases was given. The story.
—Long time coming. Star Wars fan-favorite character Ahsoka Tano is finally getting the live-action spotlight, with the first trailer for Ahsoka debuting at Star Wars Celebration. Rosario Dawson, who plays the title character, took to the stage to help introduce the poster, the release date of August 2023 and the first footage from the Disney+ series. Co-star Mary Elizabeth Winstead also revealed her previously hush-hush role, that of revolutionary leader Hera Syndulla. The story.
—"Frozen meets Kill Bill." The first project introduced at Star Wars Celebration 2023 was the Disney+ series The Acolyte. Castmembers Amandla Stenberg, Dafne Keen, Jodie Turner-Smith, Carrie Anne Moss, Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae and Joonas Suotamo took to the stage to introduce footage and creator Leslye Headland spoke about her original pitch for the show to Lucasfilm. The story.
—Back in action. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny brought a pulpy sense of adventure to the Star Wars Celebration, where a new trailer for the upcoming film and an additional six minutes of footage were shown to a delighted London crowd. The fifth Indiana Jones film comes from James Mangold, and once again stars Harrison Ford. Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays Indy's goddaughter, and is seen in the trailer dragging the archeologist out of retirement. The trailer.
—"He inspired generations of film designers." Norman Reynolds, who won Oscars in art direction for Star Wars Episode VI: A New Hope and Raiders of the Lost Ark has died, Lucasfilm confirmed. He was 89. The U.K. native made important creative contributions to all three movies in the original Star Wars trilogy, as an art director on A New Hope and production designer on The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. The obituary. |
Renner Pondered End-of-Life Decisions After Accident ►"Don’t let me live on tubes on a machine." Jeremy Renner said he believed he was going to die and will now live with metal in his rib cage and plates in his face following his near-deadly snowplow accident. In a sit-down interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer that aired Thursday, Renner spoke in harrowing detail about the accident and his brutal recovery and revealed the frank conversations he had with his family in the immediate aftermath of the incident when it was not clear he would survive. The story.
—Cause of death revealed. Rapper Coolio died of a fentanyl overdose and also had traces of heroin and methamphetamines in his system, his manager and family spokesperson, Jarel Posey, told THR. According to Posey, the family recently got the news from the coroner and was told that Coolio’s struggles with asthma and his history as a cigarette smoker were additional factors in his death. The story.
—"I felt like a piece of meat." Emily Ratajkowski has revealed why she quit acting. In a new interview, the model, author and actress who starred in Gone Girl and Lying and Stealing star said she had become tired of making herself "digestible to powerful men in Hollywood" and then fired her manager, acting agent and commercial rep in 2020, a decision that stemmed from not being able to "trust them." The story. |
Sterling K. Brown, Dan Fogelman Reunite for Hulu Drama ►This is them. Less than a year after NBC’s This Is Us wrapped its six-season run, creator Dan Fogelman and star Sterling K. Brown are reuniting for a new show. THR's Lesley Goldberg and Lacey Rose report that Hulu has handed out a straight-to-series order for the untitled drama that will star Brown and is created by Fogelman. Sources say the series may revolve around a security guard to a former president. Fogelman quietly took his spec script to senior-level executives at 20th Television and Hulu and landed the series order. The story.
—Resident no more. Fox has canceled its medical drama The Resident after six seasons. The decision comes nearly three months after the show, produced by Disney’s 20th Television, finished its 13-episode sixth season. Speculation about The Resident's fate has swirled since the season — the shortest of the show’s six — ended. The series saw its ratings dip this season. The story.
—Climbing the ranks. Asad Ayaz has been named Disney’s first-ever chief brand officer, effective immediately. Bob Iger unveiled the appointment Thursday, with Ayaz reporting directly to the Disney CEO. THR's Pamela McClintock writes that the move is a huge promotion for Ayaz. In the newly created role, he will be responsible for the Disney brand globally across the company’s entire ecosystem and consumer experiences. He will also continue as president of marketing for Walt Disney Studios. The story.
—"Disney doesn’t have the right to get involved with politics." In a rare interview, Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter addressed the reasons behind his exit from Disney last month. The billionaire, who was fired as head of Marvel Entertainment, told the Wall Street Journal that he believes his ouster was down to "fundamental differences" over Disney's involvement in politics and its standoff with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The story. |
'Yellowjackets' Star on Coach Ben, the Feast and That Flashback ►"Ben is a unique character because he is there with them, but he’s such an outsider at this point." THR's Jackie Strause spoke to Yellowjackets star Steven Krueger, who plays the only adult in the 1996 timeline. Krueger discusses the decisions made by his character, Coach Ben, in the wilderness and the target on his back after the shocking events of the second episode of the second season. Warning: Spoilers! The interview.
—Snapped up. THR's Mia Galuppo has the scoop on Universal developing an adaption of Alexandra Bracken’s best-selling novel Lore as a feature. Former Sony chief Amy Pascal is attached to produce the project, which has Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse penning the screenplay. Lore, described as The Hunger Games meets Greek mythology, follows Lore Perseous whose family was murdered as a part of a divine hunt committed by the gods. The story.
—🎭 Another heavyweight addition 🎭 Domhnall Gleeson will join Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney in the original feature Echo Valley from Apple. The thriller centers on a woman who is reeling from a personal tragedy and spends her days training horses, until her daughter arrives late one night covered in someone else’s blood. Michael Pearce will direct Echo Valley, which counts Ridley Scott as a producer and has a screenplay from Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby. The story.
—Mightily impressive. Chris Rock’s live stand-up special on Netflix didn’t break through in the streamer’s global rankings, but it definitely caught on with U.S. viewers. In the nine days after its March 4 release, Chris Rock: Selective Outrage racked up almost 1.22b minutes of viewing, including 798m for the week of March 6-12. The 1.22b minutes equate to about 20.3m full runs of the hourlong special. The streaming rankings.
—Staying put. The Daytime Emmy Awards are going to stay on CBS. The awards show, presented by The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, has inked a new two-year deal that will see the program air live on CBS and for premium subscribers on Paramount+. The deal also includes broadcast rights to the 2024 Daytime Emmys. The story. |
TV Review: 'Tiny Beautiful Things' ►"A full-hearted tearjerker." THR's Angie Han review Hulu's Tiny Beautiful Things. Kathryn Hahn plays a struggling writer who becomes a successful advice columnist as her own life falls apart in Liz Tigelaar’s adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s collection of essays. The review.
—"The Verdict: Guilty of poor focus and inconsistent comic targets." THR's chief TV critic Dan Fienberg reviews Freevee's Jury Duty. Riding the trend of shows like The Rehearsal and Paul T. Goldman, the comedy series drops one ordinary, unsuspecting civilian at the center of a fake courtroom process peopled entirely by actors including James Marsden. The review.
—"Almost explosive." THR's Lovia Gyarkye reviews Daniel Goldhaber's How to Blow Up a Pipeline. Ariela Barer, Sasha Lane, Kristine Froseth and Lukas Gage star in this film about a group of environmentalists plotting to detonate bombs at an oil refinery. The review. In other news...
—Ezra Miller portrays a young Salvador Dalí in Dalíland trailer
—Roku orders WWE: Recruits docuseries with John Cena producing
—Law Roach on retirement, rage and why he hasn’t driven a car in nearly a decade
What else we're reading...
—This Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski expose on Clarence Thomas' sketchy links with a billionaire donor is a must-read [ProPublica]
—With all the controversy over Chris Pratt voicing Mario, Charles Bramesco asks whether big-name actors are ruining animated movies [Guardian]
—Emily Zemler has a piece on how the upcoming Owen Wilson movie Paint is making Bob Ross fans mad [LAT]
—Darryn King looks into Gen Z's mind-boggling reappraisal and love for the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie [NYT]
—Here's your Friday list: "THR critics pick the 50 best films of the 21st century (so far)" [THR]
Today...
...in 1995, Columbia launched what would become a new franchise with the release of Michael Bay's R-rated cop actioner Bad Boys starring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Francis Ford Coppola (84), Russell Crowe (59), Jackie Chan (69), Sian Clifford (41), Kevin Alejandro (47), Paul Raci (75), Anna Konkle (36), Ismael Cruz Cordova (36), Clarke Peters (71), Jason Ralph (37), Heather Burns (48), Elaine Miles (63), Sergio Peris-Mencheta (48), Nico Santos (44), Bill Bellamy (58), Matt Servitto (58), Jennifer Lynch (55), Grace Hightower (68), Eric Wareheim (47), Ted Kotcheff (92) |
| Bill Butler, the self-taught, Oscar-nominated cinematographer whose work on the landmark 1975 horror film Jaws unleashed a wave of anxiety for beachgoers that lasts to this day, has died. He would have turned 102 today. The obituary. |
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