Performing as part of his 30-night residency at the New York venue, Styles paused to address the crowd before the tribute. “I feel incredibly lucky to get to play these shows here in New York, and this building means a lot to me,” he said, reflecting on the people who had shaped his life. “And two years ago today, I lost one of those friends.”
“I’m sure a lot of you have been through similar things. I hope you haven’t. But really, it’s just about looking after each other,” Styles continued. “So many people who have touched my life in such special ways, I wouldn’t be here without. I’m gonna play you a song I wrote for my friend about two years ago, if that’s all right.” He then introduced the song by name — “This is ‘What Is Enough’” — and performed its live debut.
Payne, who rose to fame alongside Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik in One Direction, died in October 2024 at age 31. The group, which formed on the U.K.’s The X Factor in 2010 and went on hiatus in 2016, remains one of the best-selling boy bands of all time, with four consecutive No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200. In the two years since Payne’s death, each surviving member has returned to making music.
The tribute came amid a landmark run for Styles. His Together, Together Tour — in support of his fourth studio album, Kiss All the Time, Disco Occasionally — includes a record-breaking 30-show residency at Madison Square Garden, for which Ticketmaster reported 11.5 million people registered for presale access. A two-time Grammy winner, Styles has topped the Billboard Hot 100 with “Watermelon Sugar” and “As It Was” — the latter spending 15 weeks at No. 1 — and scored three consecutive No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 as a solo artist.
As a pioneering voice in Chicano theater, Luis Valdez played a pivotal role in bringing Mexican American stories and experiences to American stages and screens. Born in Delano, California, he grew up in a migrant farmworker family and spent much of his childhood working alongside his parents in the fields. Despite the long hours and difficult conditions, Valdez developed an early interest in theater and storytelling. He later studied English in college with ambitions of becoming a playwright.
In the mid-1960s, Valdez joined the farmworker movement in Delano and founded El Teatro Campesino, merging art with activism through short plays that brought humor, inspiration, and social commentary to striking workers. It marked the beginning of a career that would expand from theater into film, television, music, and dance.
“My works speak for themselves. They just happen to speak for an awful lot of other people,” Valdez observed. From the satire of “Los Vendidos” to the historical storytelling of “Zoot Suit” and the Hollywood success of “La Bamba,” his work has repeatedly placed Mexican American experiences at the center of the American story. Here are five of his most influential works.
1. “Los Vendidos” (1967)
One of Valdez’s defining early satires, the one-act play “Los Vendidos,” embodied the politically charged theater he was developing with El Teatro Campesino. The title roughly translates as “The Sellouts,” pointing to the play’s central concern with how Mexican Americans were stereotyped and valued according to how well they fit the expectations of American society.
The play centers on Miss Jiménez, a secretary for then-Governor Ronald Reagan, who visits Honest Sancho’s Used Mexican Lot and Mexican Curio Shop searching for a Mexican American who can appeal to the governor’s lower-income constituents. Sancho presents her with a series of exaggerated stereotypes; each treated like a product for sale. She rejects them for being too radical, criminal, or un-American before purchasing a clean-cut Mexican American model in a business suit. The joke ultimately turns on her when the models come alive and reveal themselves to be human, while Sancho is left behind and identified as the real sellout.
Valdez drew inspiration for the story from the experiences of his older brother Frank, who faced racism while living on a military base. At the same time, Frank wanted to believe in the ideals America represented and sought to assimilate into American culture. Through comedy and exaggeration, Valdez explored what Mexican Americans might be asked to sacrifice to be accepted as fully American.
2. “I Am Joaquin” (1969)
The Chicano Movement of the 1960s inspired a new generation of poets and writers to explore questions of culture, identity, and assimilation. Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales’s influential poem “I Am Joaquin” emerged from this period, and Valdez transformed it into a short film. Created as Valdez was expanding his theatrical work, the film demonstrated his growing interest in moving beyond the strike-oriented actos toward broader questions of Chicano history and identity.
Valdez brought Gonzales’s words to the screen through a combination of historical images, music, and poetry, while also serving as the film’s narrator. Moving across generations of Mexican and Mexican American history, “I Am Joaquin” examines the complicated search for identity and belonging that stood at the heart of the Chicano movement. It is now regarded as one of the earliest and most significant works of Chicano cinema.
In 2010, the Library of Congress selected “I Am Joaquin” for preservation in the National Film Registry, recognizing its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.
3. “Zoot Suit” (1979 play and 1981 film)
Danny Valdez, Luis Valdez and Edward James Olmos in Times Square (1979)
Much of Valdez’s work draws upon personal experiences and moments that shaped Mexican American history, including the 1942 Sleepy Lagoon case. More than 20 young Mexican American men were put on trial following the death of José Díaz, while a massive police sweep resulted in the arrests of hundreds of youths. Valdez drew upon these events and their aftermath to create one of his most important works, “Zoot Suit.”
The zoot suit itself became a powerful symbol in the play. Worn proudly by pachucos, its exaggerated style offered young Mexican Americans a way to assert their identity and claim their place within American culture. During the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943, however, young people were attacked and stripped of their suits. For Valdez, stripping away the clothing also represented an attempt to strip away an identity they had created for themselves.
With “Zoot Suit,” Valdez sought to reclaim a history in which these young people had often been portrayed as criminals and outsiders. Through the character of El Pachuco, an almost magical narrator, the story unfolded from a Chicano perspective. The Los Angeles production became a cultural phenomenon, with audiences lining up around the block and some arriving dressed as pachucos. “Zoot Suit” moved to Broadway in 1979, becoming the first Chicano play presented there, and Valdez brought the story to the screen in 1981. The film remained closely tied to the stage production, with Daniel Valdez and Edward James Olmos reprising their roles. Daniel Valdez and Lalo Guerrero also provided the music.
Like the Broadway production, the film received mixed reviews. Some critics questioned Valdez’s decision to blend theater and film, with certain scenes retaining the presence of a live audience while others unfolded more cinematically. Decades later, however, the film received significant recognition. In 2019, the Library of Congress selected “Zoot Suit” for preservation in the National Film Registry as a work of “cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance,” further recognizing Valdez’s efforts to bring Chicano history to audiences beyond the theater.
4. “Corridos: Tales of Passion and Revolution” (1987)
In 1982, El Teatro Campesino’s San Juan Bautista playhouse launched its Corridos workshop. Valdez built the production around the traditional Mexican corrido, a folk ballad used to tell stories of love, violence, immigration, revolution, and everyday life. Combining music with acting, dance, mime, and storytelling, he created a production that later enjoyed a successful theatrical run in San Francisco.
In 1987, Valdez brought the production to television with “Corridos: Tales of Passion and Revolution,” which aired on PBS. The adaptation allowed him to take a traditional Mexican form of storytelling and introduce its music, history, and cultural traditions to a national television audience.
Valdez served as narrator, while the cast included Linda Ronstadt, his brother Daniel Valdez, Clancy Brown, and Sal Lopez. “Corridos: Tales of Passion and Revolution” earned a prestigious Peabody Award for its creative use of television and celebration of Hispanic heritage, demonstrating Valdez’s ability to bring culturally rooted stories into the American mainstream.
5. “La Bamba” (1987)
Luis Valdez and Lou Diamond Phillips on the set of “La Bamba” (1987)
February 3, 1959 would become remembered as “the day the music died,” when musicians Buddy Holly, J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, and Ritchie Valens were killed in a plane crash in Iowa. As the decades passed, Buddy Holly achieved iconic status, while Valdez believed the story of Valens, a Mexican American from California’s San Fernando Valley who died at just 17, had not received the attention it deserved. Like Valdez, Valens had grown up working in California’s fields. Determined to bring his story to a wider audience, Valdez created “La Bamba,” named for one of Valens’s most famous songs.
The idea for the film can be traced back to the opening night of “Zoot Suit” on Broadway, when Valdez and his brother heard a mariachi band outside playing “La Bamba.” Having explored the Chicano experience of the 1940s in “Zoot Suit,” Valdez saw an opportunity to turn to the 1950s and the emergence of a young rock and roll star. With Lou Diamond Phillips in the leading role, “La Bamba” followed Valens’s rapid rise to fame while placing his family, heritage, and experiences as a Mexican American teenager at the center of the story.
“La Bamba” became a major commercial success and remains one of Valdez’s most recognizable works. The Library of Congress has described it as the first Hollywood blockbuster centered on a Hispanic family’s experience, marking an important moment for Latino representation in mainstream American film. For Valdez, however, his goal was to restore Valens to his rightful place in rock and roll history while honoring the family and community the young musician left behind.
***
Throughout his career, Luis Valdez has used his work to bring greater awareness to the racism, stereotypes, struggles, and triumphs experienced by Mexican Americans. Valdez also encountered racism throughout his career, reinforcing the importance of maintaining authority over his work. “A director has to claim his set. A director has to claim his movie,” he explained.
That determination has defined much of Valdez’s career. By claiming the right to tell these stories on his own terms, he helped open doors for generations of Chicano artists and storytellers while remaining one of the most influential voices in Chicano theater and American culture.
EDMONTON – The Edmonton Elks will host the CFL West final for the first time in more than a decade.
Cody Fajardo ran for two touchdowns and passed for two more as Edmonton rallied to a 35-27 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Friday. Edmonton has not hosted a West final or even a home playoff game at all since 2015.
“It feels great,” said Elks head coach Mark Kilam. “We had a great opportunity to be able to clinch at home in front of our fans, so I’m really proud of the guys for finding a way tonight.”
Fajardo completed 12 of 17 pass attempts for 120 yards for the Elks (13-4).
“That was sweet,” he said. “I told the guys going in that this was phase three of five and we checked that off of our list. Getting a West final in front of our fans, they were the difference tonight.
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“It was just huge three phase football tonight, I couldn’t be prouder of this team.”
The Blue Bombers (8-9) failed in their attempt to secure a playoff spot, but could still earn a post-season berth this weekend if Calgary loses to B.C. on Saturday.
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The Calgary Stampeders hit the turf for their final home game of the regular season on Saturday
“It was just not good enough,” said Winnipeg head coach Mike O’Shea. “We were on the wrong end of five or six plays. It’s like every game.
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“The winners usually make those five or six and the guys that don’t go home wishing they did.”
Winnipeg quarterback Zach Collaros completed 28 of 33 passes for 331 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions.
“You can’t make mistakes, you can’t lose the turnover battle,” he said. “You can’t throw interceptions when you’re driving to potentially take a lead in a game. Those are on me.
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“When you make mistakes that are that magnified, it’s going to hurt you.”
After missing a field goal on their first drive, the Blue Bombers put together another strong drive with five minutes left in the opening quarter and capped it off with a 13-yard touchdown pass from Collaros to Nic Demski.
The Elks responded with an 18-yard field goal from Vincent Blanchard to close out the quarter.
Collaros was picked off at the Winnipeg nine by Kenny Logan Jr., leading immediately to a pass from Fajardo to Shunderrick Powell, who fought his way into the end zone. Fajardo had gone three straight games without a TD pass.
The Bombers’ QB made up for it on the next series as he hit Ontaria Wilson deep in the end zone for a 32-yard TD strike.
Winnipeg kept it coming with a one-yard TD run by backup QB Bryce Perkins.
However, after a 65-yard kickoff return by Montrell Washington, the Elks converted a third-down gamble with two seconds remaining in the first half on a four-yard TD pass from Fajardo to Austin Mack to cut Winnipeg’s lead to 21-17 at the mid-mark.
Edmonton carried that momentum forward to start the third as Fajardo finished off a long drive with a one-yard TD plunge. They added a single on the subsequent kick.
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The Bombers pulled back within one on a 23-yard field goal by Sergio Castillo, but he would hit the uprights from 55 yards out on his next attempt.
Blanchard kicked a 52-yarder for the Elks.
Edmonton went up 35-24 with 1:39 remaining as Fajardo took another one in from two yards out.
Castillo kicked a late 53-yard field goal.
Notes
The Elks captured their third straight win over Winnipeg, having previously defeated the Bombers 23-18 and 22-18 this season. The last time Edmonton swept a three-game series against Winnipeg was in 1979 … Demski caught his 47th career TD pass, tying him for first among active players with Kenny Lawler.
Up next
Winnipeg: Travels to B.C. to face the Lions to close out regular season play next Friday.
Edmonton: Finishes the regular season in Saskatchewan against the Roughriders next Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2026.
Put your records on! Your vintage band tee just got a major upgrade with the launch of MOTHER’s Holiday 2026 collection, created in partnership with Amoeba Music.
“We wanted the collection to feel like the kind of pieces you’d find while digging through vintage bins,” Tim Kaeding, co-founder and creative director of MOTHER, said in a press release.
“There’s a kind of magic in losing hours inside a record store, stumbling across something unexpected, and making it part of your world. That feeling of discovery and slower living is at the heart of our storytelling,” Lela Becker, president and co-founder of MOTHER, added.
As for what’s in the mix? Six unisex styles designed for fashion and music lovers alike.
MOTHER x Amoeba
The Drifter Jacket features assorted punk-inspired pins, The Bee’s Knees Stud Finder Sneak rocks co-branded tags, the tees and sweatshirt put a new spin on the classic Amoeba logo, and the tote is perfect for carrying all your treasures.
The MOTHER x Amoeba capsule is available at motherdenim.com and select MOTHER retail locations, with prices ranging from $125 to $385.
Producers behind Hayakawa Chie’s Cannes competition title “Renoir” are among the speakers at a session on Asia-Europe co-production at Tokyo’s TIFFCOM market on Oct. 30, as Japanese accelerator Atmovie Global Track formalizes a partnership with Europe-based workshop Ties That Bind.
The open panel, titled “Building Creative Partnerships,” will examine how producers and directors work together to bring projects up to an international level, drawing on case studies of films made between the two regions. It will run in tandem with the Tokyo International Film Festival, and any TIFFCOM badge holder can attend.
On the panel are Mizuno-Gray Eiko, CEO of Tokyo-based Loaded Films, and French producer Christophe Bruncher of Ici et Là Productions, who both worked on “Renoir,” which competed at Cannes in 2025. Mizuno-Gray’s credits also include Hayakawa’s “Plan 75,” which received a special mention for the Caméra d’Or at Cannes in 2022 and went on to become Japan’s Oscar entry, as well as Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s “To the Ends of the Earth.” She is developing a Poland-Japan co-production from director Ishikawa Kei and a Japan-Philippines project from Hirayanagi Atsuko, and is also a support producer on the accelerator. She also sits on the Tokyo festival’s Asian Future jury this year.
Bruncher, a La Fémis graduate who speaks Mandarin, is head of studies for Ties That Bind. His recent co-productions include Muriel d’Ansembourg’s Berlinale title “Truly Naked” and Kamila Andini’s Toronto selection “Four Seasons in Java,” both of which feature at this year’s Tokyo festival.
Joining them are Oh Heejung, the Seoul- and Amsterdam-based founder of Seesaw Pictures, whose films have played Sundance, Berlin, Locarno, IDFA, Rotterdam and Busan, and Moriya Takeshi, the Atmovie CEO who founded the accelerator. Moriya’s producing credits span TV series “Midnight Diner” and Uchida Eiji’s “Midnight Swan,” which was named picture of the year at the 44th Japan Academy Film Prizes. Atmovie Global Track producer Sekiguchi Mio, whose credits include Uchida’s “Fiamma,” curated the panel.
Ahead of the public event, Oh and Bruncher will mentor a closed two-day workshop for the accelerator’s fellows on Oct. 27 and 28, built around group sessions in which participants will develop their projects and discuss career paths rather than sit through lectures.
The overall program was curated by Alessandro Gropplero, who runs the Friuli Venezia Giulia Audiovisual Fund and co-founded Ties That Bind, which the FVG fund organizes with EAVE and the Udine Far East Film Festival. The workshop brings European and Asian producers together on project development, financing, co-production opportunities and networking.
Atmovie Global Track prepares Japanese filmmakers to take original projects into the international co-production market through lectures and mentoring from Japanese and overseas industry figures. Selected fellows pitch at festivals, with milestones including the Japan Pavilion at Cannes in May 2025 and the Japan Pitch event at the Busan International Film Festival in October. The organizers said many creators struggle to build trust across cultures and to communicate outside their native language, and that the open session is meant to share lessons with the wider industry and grow the network of Japanese filmmakers pursuing international work.
Support for the program comes from the Japan Creator Support Fund, which the Japan Arts Council created using Agency for Cultural Affairs funding.
Ethan Hawke confessed to Drew Barrymore that he contemplated dating her in the ’90s, admitting he didn’t make a move as he had “wanted it to happen organically.”
The “Reality Bites” and “The Lowdown” star stopped by “The Drew Barrymore Show” on Friday, where the two ’90s icons discussed how they never got a chance to meet until now.
“I don’t think I can remember a time in my life when I was not aware of you,” Hawke said, prompting Barrymore to reveal she felt the same way.
“What I can’t believe is that we never dated, you know?” he added. As the audience erupted into laughter and applause, Barrymore chimed in with, “Where were you?! Where were you, Ethan?”
Barrymore then alluded to Hawke’s heartthrob status in the ’90s, quipping, “What me and every other girl on the planet wouldn’t have given to date you. Where the hell were you?”
Here’s where Hawke confessed that, had the two industry veterans crossed paths sooner, it could’ve happened.
“There was many a night, when I would — it must have been circa the ’90s — I’d be going to a party, and I’d think, ‘Maybe Drew will be there,’” Hawke told Barrymore, who responded by throwing herself back on her talk show’s couch.
“Where were you?” she asked again before asking more follow-up questions. “Why didn’t you call me? We still had phones back then.”
Hawke’s answer? “You know, I like to play it cool,” he explained. “I wanted it to happen organically. I thought, you know, something magical would happen.”
Barrymore then playfully reprimanded Hawke for playing it cool, countering with, “And look what happened. Nothing!”
Watch the exchange below.
Though Hawke and Barrymore never became a romantic item, the two stars had plenty of high-profile relationships throughout the ’90s and onward. Barrymore was married three times, the first time to bar owner Jeremy Thomas in 1994, the second time to comedian Tom Green in 2001 and the third time to art consultant Will Kopelman in 2012. Barrymore and Kopelman, who divorced in 2016, share daughters Olive and Frankie together.
As for Hawke, he notably married actress Uma Thurman in 1998, but the couple split in 2005 after welcoming kids Maya and Levon. He remarried in 2008, wedding former nanny Ryan Shawhughes, who he shares daughters Clementine and Indiana with.
“Records are made to be broken,” Scaramucci wrote on X. Then, he added, “But I take no pleasure in other people’s pain.”
Zacharia’s stint as press secretary came to an end on Friday, after less than a week in the job. Her departure came after her debut press briefing on Tuesday, which lasted just 14 minutes and was, in the words of Sean Hannity, “widely panned.” Zacharia also faced questions from Hannity and others over her past labeling of herself as a lawyer even though she did not pass the California bar exam.
Scaramucci added in a later post, “Dear Katie Zacharia, speaking as the world’s leading expert on short White House tenures: turn off the news and go enjoy your family. In time you’ll realize that the Universe did you a major favor.”
Dear @katiezacharia — speaking as the world’s leading expert on short White House tenures: turn off the news and go enjoy your family. In time you’ll realize that the Universe did you a major favor.
Scaramucci has joked about his own tenure, as the phrase “one Scaramucci” has come to mean a 10 day length of time. He was ousted from his role in 2017 after he was quoted in a New Yorker story criticizing other members of the administration. He has since become a prominent critic of Trump and endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race.
Hours after her departure, Zacharia was still supportive of the president.
She wrote on X on Friday evening, President Trump is a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man. I wish more Americans appreciated him. No one will ever make America great the way he has and continues to. It was an honor to work for him.”
President Trump is a kind, wonderful, gracious, thoughtful, enthusiastic, and hardworking man. I wish more Americans appreciated him. No one will ever make America great the way he has and continues to.
Newsmoviesbollywood Prahaar Box Office Day 1: Rajkummar Rao’s Film Takes A Slow Start, Earns Rs 2.35 Crore
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Prahaar Box Office Day 1: Rajkummar Rao’s courtroom drama Prahaar: The Ujjwal Nikam Story registered a modest opening at the box office.
Prahaar Box Office Day 1
Prahaar Box Office Day 1: Rajkummar Rao’s Prahaar: The Ujjwal Nikam Story arrived in cinemas on October 16, bringing the courtroom drama based on the life of the former public prosecutor to the big screen. Directed by Avinash Arun, the film features Wamiqa Gabbi, Jaideep Ahlawat, and Lalit Prabhakar, who portrays 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab. The film opened to a mixed response, and its Day 1 box office figures offer an early indication of audience interest.
Prahaar Box Office Day 1
Rajkummar Rao’s courtroom drama Prahaar: The Ujjwal Nikam Story registered a modest opening at the box office, earning ₹3.52 crore worldwide on its first day in theatres. The film collected ₹2.35 crore net in India, taking its domestic gross to ₹2.77 crore, according to Sacnilk. It earned ₹2.77 crore in India gross, while overseas collections added ₹75 lakh, taking its worldwide gross to ₹3.52 crore. It was screened across 4,133 shows in India and recorded an overall theatre occupancy of 13%. Among Hindi 2D screenings, occupancy stood at 15.35%, with night shows leading at 25.85%. Evening shows followed at 15%, while afternoon and morning shows registered 11.15% and 5.69% occupancy, respectively.
Prahaar: The Ujjwal Nikam Story traces the career of the lawyer who became a prominent figure in India’s fight to bring those accused in major terror and criminal cases to justice. The narrative draws from cases such as the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and the 26/11 attacks, offering a look at the legal challenges and high-stakes courtroom confrontations that shaped these prosecutions.
News18 Showsha gave three stars. A part of the review read, “In all honesty, Prahaar is a film that deserved to be told. It has its heart in the right place. It’s great material on paper. It wants to unsettle us. But the problem is that much of it gets lost under the weight of its own aspirations. Ultimately, it’s a film of powerful moments that never quite comes together as a compelling whole.”
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Prahaar: The Ujjwal Nikam Story earned ₹2.35 crore net in India on its first day, with a domestic gross of ₹2.77 crore and an overseas collection of ₹75 lakh, bringing its total worldwide gross to ₹3.52 crore.
The courtroom drama is directed by Avinash Arun and features Rajkummar Rao as the public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, alongside Wamiqa Gabbi, Jaideep Ahlawat, and Lalit Prabhakar, who portrays terrorist Ajmal Kasab.
The narrative of Prahaar draws inspiration from major terror and criminal cases handled by Ujjwal Nikam, specifically highlighting landmark legal battles such as the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and the 26/11 terrorist attacks.
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October 17, 2026, 11:14 IST
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Selma Blair’s team has released a lengthy statement regarding the actor’s recent arrest following an incident while aboard a flight.
“Selma Blair experienced a medical emergency on the flight,” said the statement provided to People on Friday. “There was no attempt to open the door of the aircraft. Selma did not intend to harm anyone.”
The statement is intended to “correct the record on a few points already in public circulation” regarding Blair’s alleged violent conduct aboard a Delta Airlines flight. The Times has reached out to Blair’s reps for comment.
The “Cruel Intentions” star was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport late Sunday after an alleged altercation with staff during a flight from Los Angeles. Upon landing, Blair, 54, was taken into custody, then transported to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center. In addition to her alleged actions aboard the flight, the “Legally Blonde” star has been accused of kicking a Port Authority Police Department officer as she was being transported to the hospital, as well as kicking a nurse.
“Since Sunday night, the public account of what happened to Selma aboard a flight to New York has been built almost entirely on a police statement and a decade-old headline,” Blair’s spokesperson said in the Friday statement to People.
The spokesperson called out the lack of “fair reporting” around the situation, adding that they are grateful for the “handful of journalists [who] have taken the time to report on Selma as a human being rather than a headline.”
Blair was charged with two counts of second-degree assault on Monday for her alleged actions involving the police officer and nurse. Blair pleaded not guilty to the charges. At the hearing, her attorney, Shawn Barnes, reportedly told the judge that “this was not an intentional assault” and that the actor had “missed several doses of … a powerful medication that controls severe neurological symptoms,” per the New York Post.
Blair lives with multiple sclerosis, a chronic neurological disorder and autoimmune disease, which she has been open about since 2018.
The statement also addressed Blair’s medical condition — denouncing any who suggest the actor does not have multiple sclerosis — how and why she travels with a service dog, her activism and her busy schedule as an actor and entrepreneur.
“Selma had never been arrested before Sunday night,” the statement said. “There is much more to this story than has been reported, and we ask to consider the entirety of the facts before rushing to judgment, whether in the courtroom or in the court of public opinion.”
Avengers: Doomsday merchandise is starting to stack up on shelves worldwide as the movie’s December release approaches. The titular villain, Doctor Doom, continues to get the lion’s share of attention, as Marvel Studios hopes he’s making a strong enough impression to drive sales of his gear. But the movie’s heroes are also ready for their moment in the spotlight, including Invisible Woman, played by Vanessa Kirby, whose newest Doomsday action figure finally shows her using her incredible powers.
Hasbro
As it has done many times before, Hasbro has launched a wave of tie-in toys for Marvel Studios’ next production. While most of the figures stand alone, Susan Storm has a box mate in the form of her brother, Johnny. The Human Torch is in the process of turning his flame on, while his sister is fully translucent, with the number from the Fantastic Four logo as the only distinguishable part of her costume.
Hasbro
Invisible Woman’s accessories include a pair of interchangeable hands and a force field to block incoming attacks.
Marvel Studios/Hasbro
It’s notable that this piece of Doomsday merch features Sue in her invisible form because she didn’t pull the trick out of her hat very often in her MCU debut, The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Vanessa Kirby’s character hid briefly at the United Nations to avoid a conversation. However, that moment wasn’t nearly as memorable as one that came later in the film.
Marvel Studios/Hasbro
While trying to escape Galactus and Silver Surfer, Sue went into labor, and her control over her abilities went right out the spaceship window. She phased between her regular and invisible forms until she finally gave birth to her son, Franklin Richards.
Marvel Studios
Sue didn’t go invisible during any action sequences because she wouldn’t have fooled her enemy, the Devourer of Worlds. Instead, she pushed her other abilities to their limits, helping push Galactus through a portal to the other side of the galaxy. That brave act cost her life, allowing Vanessa Kirby to deliver an emotionally charged performance, but Franklin gave her a second chance with his own gifts.
Marvel Comics/Hasbro
Of course, it’s hard to read an issue of a Fantastic Four comic without seeing Sue disappear a few times; the villains just never see it coming.
Doomsday is a different story, though, as Sue and the rest of Marvel’s First Family will face off against a foe they know well: Victor von Doom. The MCU has yet to explore how deep the bond between the Latverian monarch and the Fantastic Four is. But all signs point to backs being stabbed and gloves coming off, especially in Sue’s case, since she’ll be crossing paths with another complicated figure in Doomsday.
Invisible Woman May Need to Pull a Fast One in Avengers: Doomsday
Marvel Studios
The most Vanessa Kirby’s Invisible Woman has been featured in Doomsday‘s marketing was in the special look at the film released during D23. She narrated the start of the footage, explaining to her fellow heroes how Doctor Doom went down a dark path. They all took in her words before the teaser moved on to more pressing matters.
Marvel Studios really hasn’t spent much time explaining what Reed Richards’ better half will be doing during Doomsday. All that’s been confirmed is that she’ll travel with the Wakandans to Talokan, the formerly underwater kingdom. Namor has seemingly built a water barrier around his land, likely to improve its defenses as the multiverse collapses around it.
In one particularly interesting shot from the trailer, Sue pushed herself to create a powerful force field, much like at the end of First Steps. A fight between her group and Talokan’s force is clearly on the horizon. But the whole situation might be to Sue’s advantage, so long as Marvel Studios takes its cues from the comics.
Namor has a complicated relationship with the Fantastic Four in the source material. Sometimes he’s an ally to the team, and other times he’s focused on bringing them down. No matter which side the coin lands on, though, Sue’s always the apple of his eye.
If the MCU’s Namor, like his comic book counterpart, falls head over winged heels for Vanessa Kirby’s heroine, he might give her access that he doesn’t grant the other heroes.
Obviously, the Wakandans are after something in Talokan; otherwise, they wouldn’t travel to Namor’s turf and put themselves in danger. Sue might be the key to getting it, with her invisible form letting her slip past any guards. The problem then becomes escaping, but she has enough muscle around to back her up. The Thing, who’s also been spotted in scenes set in Talokan, wouldn’t let anything happen to a member of his family.
Pop culture has come a long way when it comes to adapting superheroes from the pages of comics to the big and small screens, but in the early 2000s, before there were ever any Marvel or DC cinematic franchises, Smallville brought a new spotlight to Superman by telling the ultimate Clark Kent origin story.
On October 16, 2001, The WB premiered the first installment of what would become a decade-long saga for the DC icon, taking viewers to the early days of Krypton’s last son, as he tries to figure out his place in the world, where he came from, while learning to master his abilities before becoming the Man of Steel. For 10 seasons, the world watched Clark take the steps he needed before suiting up as Superman, with various trials challenging and preparing him to become the world’s greatest hero.
Nearly two years after our exclusive interview with him at Comic-Con Stockholm, I reunited with Tom Welling for a special chat to celebrate Smallville’s 25th anniversary and look at the legacy the DC prequel has to this day, as he and the cast continue to celebrate the show through conventions, podcasts, and more.
Smallville’s Growing Legacy Over 25 Years
At the start of our interview, Welling discussed whether the growing popularity of Smallville since the show’s end in 2011 has hit him yet, especially with it being one of the longest-running sci-fi fantasy dramas of all time.
“It’s funny, I don’t think about it all that much, but doing these interviews and talking about this anniversary, it’s come more to the front of my mind. And the other day, I was with Michael doing something in New York, and I was like, in the middle of the interview, ‘I realized I’ve known you for 25 years!’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, I guess you’re right’ and so that was something I hadn’t really thought about before. It’s great the fact that it can still have this amount of attention 25 years later. It’s just not something you think about when you’re doing it at the beginning.”
Smallville was made during a very traditional TV era, where audience members were given 22-episode seasons, which is not as standard anymore in the current era where more properties are being tackled in the world of streaming. For the leading man himself, it has been fascinating to follow the industry’s evolution when it comes to weekly storytelling.
“Yeah, I don’t know if I would do 22 episodes of any show anymore [laughs]. I can tell you that! The industry has certainly shifted, but I think it gave the show an opportunity to really get into people’s hearts. To have 22 weeks of a year. – and a couple breaks in between [with] holidays and whatnot – people really got invested, and now we meet people who watch it with their parents and their children, and bring them to the cons for fan meets and stuff like that. It’s humbling. It’s heartwarming, and I think it’s cool.”
Experiencing Smallville Through TalkVille
Tom Welling Speaks on the TalkVille Podcast
Over the years, Welling has also taken on podcasting, as he and his Smallville co-star, Michael Rosenbaum, are hosting TalkVille Podcast, as they rewatch and relive the series together with viewers and listeners all over the world. They are currently covering season 9 of the DC TV drama, as Welling opened up about what has stood out about getting to experience the work he did over a decade ago now as a viewer himself.
“Well, especially in season 9, because season 9 is a little bit of an odd season so far. Michael’s not a big fan. I’m trying to keep my Rosenbaum ratings up, but in rewatching it, more to your question, we’re about halfway through season 9, and as I watch the show, I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s what that was about. Oh, I see now these big arcs that were happening!’ Because while we were filming, we didn’t know where it was going to go. We got our scripts week to week. We never had these big arcs that we were a part of knowing or understanding, and I think that’s the biggest thing that I get out of the podcast is like, ‘Oh, that’s what that was about, I see now!'”
When I responded that the ninth year of the show was a personal favorite of all the Smallville seasons, Welling enjoyed how Rosenbaum and I have very different viewpoints, as the final three years of The CW drama became the Metropolis era. One of the elements that drove season 9 was the progression of Clark’s relationship with Lois Lane, as they began to acknowledge the romantic sparks, while dealing with various adventures.
Whether it was running away from zombies or going after corrupted district attorneys, Lois and Clark had their hands full that season. While they are still in the first half of Smallville season 9, time will tell how the response is to the second half of the episodes, as Welling admitted that it has given him a new way to look at it.
“Well, I think you and Michael are seeing the same thing, but in a positive-negative duality in that Michael seeing it, [for him] ‘Season 9 is not Smallville anymore,’ and what you’re saying is, ‘This is not Smallville anymore. [This is the] Smallville that I’m finally getting to see that I want to see.’ I think that you guys are both on opposite sides of the coin in a great way. I’m glad you said it that way because now I’m going to see it a little differently.”
Doing Justice To Lois Lane & Clark Kent’s Epic Romance With Erica Durance
Erica Durance and Tom Welling as Lois Lane and Clark Kent in Smallville season 9Courtesy: Everett Collection
Lois and Clark – a.k.a. Clois – fans have shared year after year how much they love what Welling and Erica Durance, who joined the Smallville cast as the iconic Daily Planet reporter in season 4, did with their relationship in the later years, especially season 9. For the DC actor, as he is getting to witness that story unfold as part of co-hosting TalkVille, Welling had nothing but praise for the actress and how they together explored what is arguably not only one of the most iconic couples in comics, but in Hollywood.
“I think we did a great job in watching the show; I always had fun working with Erica. I always love seeing her. I tend to remember more of the behind-the-scenes stuff with Erica, as far as how we got to the scene and how we made the scene work, than I do what the scene was about. And I think that speaks to the chemistry that her and I had as coworkers, as teammates. We kind of had some ridiculous things to do together, and we would just be like, ‘All right, let’s go, let’s make this work,’ and I think you truly believe that those characters are made for each other. I think we accomplished that.”
Smallville seasons 8, 9, and 10 really became the era where the TV series embraced more comic book elements, after the groundwork that the first seven seasons laid out. With the current season they are covering on TalkVille, Welling elaborated on the aspect of seeing players like Michael Shanks’ Hawkman get introduced, and the evolution of Phil Morris’ Martian Manhunter. While he was still holding on to the “No Flights, No Tights” rule, Welling admitted that he definitely has a new appreciation for what the show did in those regards during a time when the Arrowverse had not been born yet, while the MCU was still in Phase 1.
“Well, there was a big transition. I remember – you brought up Michael Shanks, who I adore. The first time that he walked in as Hawkman with the actual wings in reality that he had to maneuver through set, [laughs] I was like, ‘Okay, this is different! We’re in a different world now.’ There was a little time there where they were like, ‘So what do you think about this suit?’ and I was like, ‘Nope, nope, nope, nope!’ [laughs] But I was trying to keep it Clark as long as I could, until obviously, the finale, spoiler alert, he soars, and we know he’s out there, but we can’t go with him. Let the imagination run, and that was something that I always held dear to my heart the whole time. Smallville was about Clark before he was who we all know he’s going to be.”
Does Smallville’s Animated Sequel Have A Future At DC Studios?
The Superman Suit in Smallville
Over the last few years, Welling and Rosenbaum have sparked buzz with the fandom of a potential Smallville animated sequel TV show, which would feature the original actors voicing their characters. A lot has happened since then, as Warner Bros. and Paramount are going through with the Skydance merger.
When asked if there has been any progression, or if he thinks this merger will maybe delay things further, Welling stressed that he is optimistic that it will happen. But it will all come down to them getting to use the IP.
“It was an uphill battle before the whole merger thing, and I don’t pretend to understand any of that. But I think this is a labor of love for the fans. The idea would be that it would be animated, but all the original cast members would voice their characters, and every cast member we’ve talked to has been like, ‘That would be awesome. Let’s do it.’
We have some early renderings from an artist, we have a poster for it already that, obviously, we can’t share, but the actual answer is Warner Bros. has to give us the green light. They have to let us use their IP, and that just hasn’t happened yet. But we’re still fighting. Yeah, we’re optimistic about it.”
Al Gough and Miles Millar, who created Smallville, would also come back for the revival. When Welling was asked if he could share how far they got into the story process, and if he could actually share any details, including whether or not it would undo the twist revealed in Arrowverse’s Crisis on Infinite Earths, where viewers saw that Clark no longer had his powers, while now being a father and husband.
“Al and Miles have very much said that they’d be on board. In my mind, it would pick up relatively quickly after Smallville ended, and we would do our own spin on what happens after that. That’s my idea. Whether that’s the case, I don’t know.”
As they are busy with Netflix’s Wednesday, Welling praised the two creators and would love to reunite with them in the Jenna Ortega-starring series if ever offered.
“For sure, I would always love to work with those guys. I mean, Michael’s writing scripts; he’s going to direct a movie soon, and I even say to him, ‘Hey, if you want me to be the guy in the background, I’m there for you.’ When you work with people like that who you love so much, and you’re still so close to, there’s no better gift than being able to work with people you care about who care about you.
I think that’s what it’s all about. And you start your career where that’s maybe not the case, not in a bad way, but you’re just trying to get the job. You’re trying to just be there and be the guy and as you go on, you create these friendships in the industry, and you’re like, “Why don’t I just call my friend who’s really good at this, and we do it together? What about Glenn Winter, who’s one of the best DPs you’ll ever see in the world forever. Why don’t we get him to shoot it?’ Why not look at the people you know that you care about and work with them?”
Glen Winter, who was the beloved Director of Photography on Smallville, ended up also having a lot of impact on the Arrowverse franchise, as those projects were filmed in Vancouver, Canada, which is where Welling’s series were based for a decade. For him, it has meant so much to see folks like Winter and many crew members from Smallville carry over to series like Arrow and The Flash.
“Oh yeah, for sure, and setting the tone and the style of the show whether it was Al and Miles early on, with Greg Beeman, Glen was a huge part of setting the visual tone of the show, and the lighting and the color and the camera movement were a big thing. Greg was a big fan of that as well. That was something I grew up [with] for 10 years, I grew up in film school. One of the things that we did on Smallville, I don’t know if you heard this before, in our tone meetings, before we start each episode, no one was allowed to reference any other television show.
You could only reference films, and that was to elevate what we were trying to accomplish. I think one time I brought up something from Miami Vice because I grew up watching that, and they were like, ‘Nope, nope, nope, that’s a TV show,’ and I was like, ‘I can’t even say this?’ [laughs] [They would say,] ‘Nope, we don’t want to hear it,’ in a fun way. But we were always referencing huge blockbuster films, as far as something to strive for.”
Superman’s New Era In James Gunn’s DC Universe
David Corenswet smiling and flying as Superman in James Gunn’s DC Universe
When we spoke in November 2024, it was months before James Gunn’s Superman had come out, starring David Corenswet as cinema’s newest Man of Tomorrow. While the film is not tied to the show itself, Corenswet has spoken about how he grew up with Welling as his Superman when watching Smallville as a kid. Welling has not had a chance to see the 2025 feature yet; there is a very good reason for that.
“I’m actually looking forward to it so much. It’s on my queue. I want to watch it with my two little boys when they’re ready to watch it. So technically, I haven’t seen it, but I’ve heard great things. I know people who’ve met him and say he’s great, and I’m sure he’s great in it. So I’m waiting for my boys to be ready to sit down and watch it with me.”
One of the things that Smallville did so well was legacy casting, and that has continued in other DC properties, including Gunn’s Superman, as Rosenbaum had a voice cameo in the DCU entry. If Welling is ever given the chance to join DC Studios’ ongoing franchise, he shared that he is open to it.
“Well, I’ve learned enough in this industry that you don’t do yourself any service saying no before anything. [laughs] You got to keep your mind open, so that’s how I kind of feel about it.”
Welling did acknowledge that back when he was offered Smallville, he didn’t necessarily have that mindset at first. As it took Gough and Millar several tries to get him to test for the lead role, Welling still remembers how it was the pilot script that finally convinced him.
“The thing about that story is they weren’t releasing the script for months, so nobody knew what it was, and it wasn’t until they allowed me to come in and read it after I signed an NDA, where I was very quickly on board, after that.”
Will Superman Ever Get The Spider-Verse Or No Way Home Treatment?
Superman Actors Henry Cavill, Tom Welling & Tyler Hoechlin Unite With Stunning Costumes In New DC ArtCustom image by Andy Behbakht
Welling shared on Instagram lately that he reunited with Superman & Lois’ Tyler Hoechlin, as they even got to share the screen together during Crisis on Infinite Earths in 2019. As it is always a blast for viewers of the same properties to see actors who played the same role engage in real life, the star suggested on Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum in 2021 that a film where several Superman actors come together would be a big treat.
During our interview, he was directly asked if he and other stars who have played the DC legend have ever talked about trying to approach Warner Bros. and DC about a project öike that. Even the idea of a reunion on a podcast where they get to share their experiences with one another, Welling shared the following response:
“I didn’t think about that. Well, there was a point – I think last year – [where there] was a big push on the con circuit where we were all seeing each other a lot. There was a big push for getting all the Supermen together, so we did have a bunch of conversations like, ‘Yeah, why don’t we all work together?’ But nothing formal about exactly what that would be. But we all get along so well, whether it’s Brandon [Routh,] we’re all buddies. We all share this same but different experience, and they’re great guys, they’re all good people.”
ScreenRant: I think it’s a golden idea-
Tom Welling: It’s a no-brainer? [laughs]
ScreenRant: Yeah! I don’t know if you saw those animated Spider-Man movies, but when multiple Spider-Men come together, it does well!
Tom Welling: It’s cool! You almost have to watch it twice to understand exactly what happens, in a good way. But when Tobey Maguire came back and they did Spider Man [No Way Home] a couple years ago. I was like, ‘That’s awesome. I really enjoyed watching that movie!’
While celebrating 25 years of Smallville, Welling is also excited for the world to see his next project, as he revealed a release update on the latest gig he had:
“I did a movie called Chasing Summer with Iliza Shlesinger, and I believe that’s getting close to being [released.] They won’t tell me exactly, but I think they finally figured it out, there might be a theatrical release coming up in the next few months, which I’m really happy [about] because it’s been out on the festival circuit, and it’s won a lot of awards. I’ve seen it already a couple [of] times with audiences, and I feel like every beat worked for the audience. I laughed both times I watched it. It’s such a good film, and I can’t wait for people to see it.”
Why The World Still Holds On To Smallville After 25 Years
Tom Welling as Clark Kent in Smallville
Superman has stood the test of time, and always will be, but Smallville will continue to hold a special place in the DC icon’s media legacy. Welling shared in depth why he thinks the show continues to mean as much as it does today and, ideally, in the next 25 years, too.
“Well, thank you. That’d be great. [laughs] I’ll see you in 25 more years if we’re still around! I really do believe that because of the 22 episodes, because of the 10 seasons, we had the time to explore this area of this legendary character’s life that hadn’t truly been explored before in a way that we did.
I think it came with a lot of heart, and I believe that every story you ever hear is about one thing: it’s identity. Who am I? What am I supposed to be? What do I do with these things that I can do? How do I get through adversity? How do I become who I’m meant to be? And what does that mean? I think at the end of the day, it’s heart.
I think that’s what brings people who watch it with their parents, watching it with their children. To me, I think it boils down to that one word: heart. It’s also a time capsule, because if you watch the show when you’re 10 years old, and then you watch it when you’re 25 years old, when you’re 40 years old, and you’re watching with your kids, you’re going to have a different experience because of your life experience. So I think that’s the beauty of what we created. “
Smallville is available for streaming on Hulu (via Disney+) and through home media release.
Release Date
2001 – 2011-00-00
Showrunner
Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Brian Peterson, Kelly Souders, Todd Slavkin, Darren Swimmer
Directors
Mike Rohl, Jeannot Szwarc, Glen Winter, Terrence O’Hara, Whitney Ransick, Mairzee Almas, Paul Shapiro, Rick Rosenthal, David Carson, James L. Conway, Chris Long, Michael Katleman, Morgan Beggs, Allison Mack, David Barrett, Marita Grabiak, Michael W. Watkins, Philip Sgriccia, Rick Wallace, Thomas J. Wright, Todd Slavkin, Brad Turner, Charles Beeson, Craig Zisk
Writers
Steven S. DeKnight, Holly Henderson, Don Whitehead, Caroline Dries, Mark Verheiden, Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Philip Levens, Jordan Hawley, Kenneth Biller, Michael Green, Drew Z. Greenberg, Geoff Johns, John Chisholm, Drew Landis, Julia Swift, Doris Egan, Tracy Bellomo, Garrett Lerner, Greg Walker, Russel Friend, Shintaro Shimosawa, Tim Schlattmann, todd helbing
Ben Affleck is best known for films like Good Will Hunting, Gone Girl, and Argo, as well as playing Batman.
In a recent appearance on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, Affleck discussed his favorite games, including his love for VALORANT and how competitive the game is.
Affleck called VALORANT a great game, but admitted that playing against kids has become a humbling experience. “I just get f**king rocked,” he said, explaining why the competitive shooter can be very punishing. He also described the experience as humiliating, a feeling plenty of players can probably relate to when they get outplayed in a ranked match.
However, VALORANT is far from the only game Affleck enjoys. The actor has been playing games for decades, and he has dabbled in some great OG games.
Ben Affleck Is a Die-Hard Gamer
Affleck talked a lot about the different games he has enjoyed over the years. He recalled how StarCraft became a major part of his life after he found fame. The actor said he spent three years mostly staying home and playing Blizzard’s iconic real-time strategy game.
“There was a game called StarCraft that probably took the most life out of me for a period of time,” Affleck explained. He also talked about his love for RTS and civilization-building games and felt that they have gone out of style.
Affleck also remembered playing Doom while working on Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon. He recalled taking long breaks from writing to play the classic first-person shooter, which was released in 1993. But Doom isn’t the oldest game he has played. Affleck mentioned spending hours playing retro classics like Donkey Kong, Tetris, and Ms Pac-Man.
He also still enjoys sports games, including NBA 2K and Madden, which he plays with his son. Unfortunately for Affleck, those sessions don’t always go his way either.
But the most interesting part of the interview was him recalling one of his favorite games called Myst.
“You know there is an old game called Myst; that was a fabulous game,” he added, and said he would love to see a modern take on the game.
It’s great to see such a legendary actor show his love for games. While he might be struggling against younger players in VALORANT today, his long history with games shows that gaming has been a consistent part of his life for decades.
Struggling to find LED lights that are small and lightweight enough to use in tight spaces, but still ready to pack a bright punch that can give you enough light to creatively shoot your scenes exactly as you desire?
Well, you’re in luck because, for our latest “Deals of the Week” roundup, we have three Halo bi-color LED monolights from amaran for you to check out that could be great options for those working in home studios, livestream rooms, and compact sets.
The pop star, who is going mononomously as just Miley for this era, announced this pair of Friday and Sunday shows in early September along with the news that her new album, “Bass Persuades,” would be released on September 18 via Atlantic Records. “It’s been a while,” said Cyrus of the shows at the time on Instagram. “The Hollywood Bowl is my favorite place to experience music and see my favorite artists. I’ve sat in those seats many times, but I’ve never taken the stage. LA is my heart and I’m bringing it home. See you there. ❤️ Miley.”
Indeed, it has been a while since Cyrus graced the stage as a headliner outside of festivals. The closest approximation was a performance earlier this year at the taping for the “Hannah Montana” 20th anniversary special, and before that with “Spotify’s Billions Club Live” in Paris last June for a select group of fans. The month before that, she debuted her new album “Something Beautiful” with a fan-only TikTok event at Los Angeles’ Chateau Marmont. The last time she did a full-fledged tour was for “Bangerz” in 2014.
Cyrus has been open about her decision not to tour, telling British Vogue in 2023 that after the “Bangerz” tour, she decided to take a break from it. “It’s been a minute,” she said at the time. After the last [headline arena] show I did [in 2014], I kind of looked at it as more of a question. And I can’t. Not only ‘can’t,’ because can’t is your capability, but my desire. Do I want to live my life for anyone else’s pleasure or fulfillment other than my own?”
Last month, Cyrus clarified her stance on live performances during an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, explaining that she’d be more open to doing residencies. “This is the ultimate dress rehearsal,” she said of her Bowl shows. “I’ve learned now through the queue that my calculations are correct and people will come to me. I don’t need to drive to you. Proven, that was a quick test. I win. So this is perfect because people like to see me perform and I like to sleep in my marshmallow bed so we can both be happy.”
See the entire setlist below:
Orbit Different Religion with Model/Actriz Bass Persuades + Remixx Handstand
Mike Flanagan thinks he’s cracked his much-ballyhooed TV series adaptation of Stephen King’s TheDarkTower—only, don’t get too excited about any movement on the series just yet. The director is currently making the press rounds to promote his new Carrie TV adaptation, which most recently landed him on Jenelle Riley’s TheProcessUnlocked. Speaking about the pressures of expanding King’s Carrie into eight episodes, the conversation naturally drifted toward Flanagan’s future adaptation efforts, chief among them two of his most ambitious to date: His Warhammer 40,000 series with Henry Cavill and, of course, TheDarkTower.
When asked what his most challenging adaptation has been, Flanagan took a deep sigh. “I feel like I’m climbing my adaptation Everest right now,” he said, referring to his work on Warhammer. “Dark Tower is incredibly daunting. That one I feel I’ve figured out.” The path forward to adapt King’s eight-volume epic, Flanagan reasons, is to “do the books.” “Stephen King is genius in how he structures The Dark Tower because he starts this giant worldbuilding, potentially overwhelming story with two people in a landscape without detail. It’s the simplest start. It’s one of the most perfect lines of any book: ‘The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed.’ It is two characters. There’s a clear objective. One is running away, one is pursuing, and it’s a desert. There is nothing else to look at. It’s so simple and so clean. And on top of that foundation, he adds a universe one brick at a time.” Flanagan has been attached to King’s dark fantasy series since late 2022.
For the director, The Dark Tower has proven to be an onerous series to find a home for. Despite signing an exclusive multi-year deal with Amazon MGM Studios in March, there are no plans to plant the series at Prime Video, which is currently streaming Carrie. Still, Flanagan insists the work on Dark Tower continues, telling The Playlist in October that the series is “logistically difficult to get off the ground” but that he and his team “work on it constantly, and scripts are going fantastically well.” Yet, should Flanagan scale his Warhammer mountain successfully, it could be the proving ground he needs to convince his streaming partners to invest in Dark Tower at last. After all, it’s not like Mike Flanagan is new to this King-adapting business; in fact, listening to him talk about making the Dark Tower, it seems like he has it down to a science. “King did it right. He walked you in, started with two people and nothing else, and walks you in one step at a time,” he tells Riley. “So my adaptation was that: It was just doing the books and doing them in order. And there’s little changes you make to fit the format, but my Dark Tower approach is remarkably faithful. And so 70% of my job is done for me by Steve.”
You can watch Flanagan’s Dark Tower comments in the video below, starting at the 22:03 mark.
Disney+ and Hulu made a deal with PAVE Studios, a creator-first media company, to being two Crime House original video podcasts to the streaming platforms. Clues, hosted by Kaelyn Moore, will begin streaming October 20. Mother Knows Murder, hosted by Niecy Nash and her daughter Dia Nash, will begin streaming on November 9.
“We built Crime House to be a brand that travels, with creator-led podcasts that can live anywhere audiences are watching. Bringing Clues and Mother Knows Murder to Disney+ and Hulu is proof of that model, and it’s the first of many places we expect these stories to go,” said PAVE Studios Founder and CEO Max Cutler. “As streaming platforms increasingly look to add premium content from talented creators, PAVE is well-positioned to be a content collaborator to these companies, and we are excited to be working with Disney to bring our shows to their streaming viewers.”
Clues debuts on October 20, with new episodes each week, a day before they land on other platforms. Some crimes are solved by a single clue. One overlooked fingerprint, a missing puzzle piece, or a detail hiding in plain sight. The 2026 Webby Award-winning Crime House Original hosted by Kaelyn Moore takes you deep into the world of notorious crimes and forensic breakthroughs.
“Clues was developed with a streaming audience in mind from day one. Our goal was to create a show with the production quality and storytelling that would stand naturally alongside other premium content on a streamer like Disney+ and Hulu,” said Moore.
Mother Knows Murder premieres on November 9, with new episodes weekly, a day before going to other platforms. There’s nothing quite like curling up with your mom, a snack board, and a glass of wine for a true crime case you can’t put down. Each week, Niecy and Dia Nash climb into bed, turn on the TV, and dig into a real case together.
Jacob Elordi thought he was going crazy until he saw a classic John Cassavetes film.
“I probably made three movies that I thought were pretty bad when I was young, and I had hopes and dreams of being this kind of terrific, ferocious stage actor. So I was pretty not fond of myself at that time,” explained the Australian actor during an event presented by Cartier Cinema Club at Santa Monica’s Aero Theatre on Friday. “And I watched this movie and it was one of the first times that I saw the creative process of an actor sort of fleshed out in detail. The movie made me feel a lot less insane and alone.”
It proved to be such a pivotal experience in his creative life that Elordi handpicked that film — 1977’s Opening Night starring Gena Rowlands as a renowned actress teetering on the edge of a breakdown as she inches closer towards big Broadway opening night — for Friday’s screening, which marked the first stateside Cartier Cinema Club event after the initiative’s launch last month at the Venice Film Festival. The luxury house created the initiative to honor the spirit of cinema while paying tribute to artists who make big-screen work. Cartier ambassador Elordi not only selected the film, he sat for a 30-minute discussion about it alongside Oscar-winning filmmaker Sean Baker and moderator Kim Gordon.
Like Rowlands’ character, Myrtle Gordon, Elordi thought he, too, “was having some form of mental breakdown.” But he was able to exhale once he saw how the storyline played out. Rowlands stars alongside Cassavetes, Ben Gazzara, Joan Blondell, Paul Stewart, Zohra Lampert and others.
“This movie showed me that what was actually happening was hopefully the artistic process, the process of creating to a character. You can’t just learn the lines and say the lines. It showed me all the stuff that was going on inside that I thought was sort of my body and mind breaking down [but] was actually a part of the acting process,” explained the Oscar nominated Frankenstein star.
Elordi revealed that he watched Opening Night last week in preparation for today’s event, and he had some similar thoughts to those from his first watch, notably because he’s about to start another new movie shortly that has thrown him for a loop. (Though he didn’t name the project, he’s due to start shooting Ari Aster’s Scapegoat alongside Scarlett Johansson, Jude Law, Ella Purnell and Caleb Landry Jones.)
“I’m getting ready to do a movie now and I’ve been kind of throwing myself on the floor and wondering, should I just drink a lot of vodka? Or should I smash a window? What do I need to do to get to this point?” he wondered aloud. “And me re-watching the film now after making over 10 movies or something like that, again, it invited me back into the creative process and what it means. You can be searching for a character and not know that you’re searching for it. It starts happening in your toes and your knees and your chest. And that’s why I picked this movie because it always makes me feel less crazy and more like I’m actually a part of a process of filmmaking that’s been happening for a long time.”
Gordon, a screenwriter known for work on Nightmare Alley, directed by her partner Guillermo del Toro, then asked Elordi if that’s because he’s so absorbed by Rowlands performance. He is and was. “Yeah. I mean the amount of times that I just want to throw myself on the floor and cry and scream and tell the director to go fuck themselves and just drink and drink and drink. It makes me feel a lot less alone as an actor.”
“I probably made three movies that I thought were pretty bad when I was young, and I had hopes and dreams of being this kind of terrific, ferocious stage actor. So I was pretty not fond of myself at that time,” explained Jacob Elordi during an event presented by Cartier Cinema… pic.twitter.com/eNpowE9jkU
That said, Elordi drew laughs when he said that he had no clue how Rowlands’ pulled off any of her scenes on the big screen, particularly the ones where she was really throwing herself around and acting under the influence. “I don’t know how you do that and not look like a ham because everything she does is so big and so expressive, but it’s all completely contained in truth inside her. I’ve watched that scene so many times. You can spin around in circles until you’re dizzy, you can get drunk, you can do all kinds of things, but I don’t know how she does that. I don’t know how she does anything. She’s a genius.”
Baker then weighed on on Cassavetes’ filmography and how inspired he is by the entirety of his work.
“You get asked often as an independent filmmaker, ‘What is your favorite Cassavetes?’ And it really depends on the day because, first off, they’re all masterpieces. They deal with very personal, universal issues and struggles that we all go through. So it really depends on where you are in your life,” he explained. “It’s where I am in my life and that’s how I gravitates towards a certain title. I said Husbands back in the day because I think that was my guy film. Then when I started exploring genre cinema, I was more drawn towards The Killing of a Chinese Bookie.”
Later, when he started working more with actors and honing his craft as a filmmaker, Baker then leaned more toward A Woman Under the Influence and Opening Night, he said. “I can go on forever about him. He’s basically the godfather of U.S. indie cinema and had really just in many ways I think showed us how to do it.”
Morgan closed the conversation by asking both Elordi and Baker if they take inspiration from the many risks Cassavetes took throughout his career.
“I think all artists should take risks,” said the Anora auteur in answering first. “Obviously he did throughout his entire career, which may be hurt in the moment. He was always ahead of his time, but it also proves one very important thing — that cream rises. We’re here 50 years later talking about this film and celebrating this film? That proves that taking risks, staying true to your own, not compromising, and making art that’s a little unsafe is worth it.”
Baker’s words generated an enthusiastic round of applause.
“[Cassavetes] said something like, ‘I’d love to be part of the studio system and have my rent paid and my family good, but I just can’t do it. I’d love to, but I just can’t do it.’ And that’s my favorite thing about these movies. There was no other story he could have told. It made him too ferocious and angry or upset. There was no other way that he could have made movies,” Elordi added in closing. “In movies now, we need a lot of that. Something that you can’t deny, something that you have to do, no matter if it sends you broke, hungry, tired, jobless, you’ve got to make that movie that you have to make. And that’s exactly what we do.”
Peter Rice and Ynon Kreiz met for a meal in late September, days before Kreiz surprised the industry by jumping from the CEO job at Mattel to become co-chief executive of Skydance with David Ellison.
The report of the Kreiz-Rice meeting came in the New York Post’s Page Six after Kreiz’s role at Skydance was announced. That set off speculation that he was recruiting Rice for a big role at the enlarged studio. It turns out Kreiz had been trying to persuade Rice to take a board seat at Barbie’s house.
Rice, however, was not destined to advise on matters of Uno and Matchbox cars. The former Fox Searchlight and Fox Networks Group chief — who went to Disney in 2019 as its top TV executive only to be unceremoniously axed during the Chapek regime — has vaulted back to one of the town’s most powerful posts: chief content officer of Netflix.
Media coverage of Kreiz’s courtship of Rice is one of the spurs that pushed Netflix to make the move on a hire that will have ripple effects across its expansive film and TV operations. The ouster of Bela Bajaria from the role that Rice now occupies was messy, and angered many inside and outside of Netflix.
“We don’t live in Hollywood right now. We live in Silicon Valley,” said a prominent agent, citing the general mood of the creative community. The brusque treatment of an executive of Bajaria’s stature is a sign that no one is safe from scrutiny, and no one should ever count on making a graceful exit.
“It feels like more of a tech approach than a studio approach to letting someone go. It’s shameful, it sucks and it adds to the feeling that we’re all working by Silicon Valley rules,” the agent said.
The source noted the irony of Bajaria getting the ax just two weeks after the executive that she replaced at Netflix — Cindy Holland — was also hastily ousted from her new role at Skydance. Holland’s role was sacrificed to make room for Casey Bloys, the HBO chief who is taking over all streaming now that the Warner Bros. Discovery merger is completed.
The bombshell executive upheaval at Netflix, coupled with signals that insiders are reading from the layoffs that Netflix implemented this week, has set off renewed speculation about the streaming giant getting back in the hunt for a major studio or some other significant content assets. NBCUniversal is a logical target, given that the company will be spun out from Comcast next year and thus would make for a much smaller and more manageable acquisition than the entirety of Comcast.
The switch to Rice also raises questions about whether Netflix will remain as aggressive in its local-language content strategy as it had been under Bajaria. Rice’s reference in his first memo to Netflix staffers to the need to deliver more buzzy hits for the “UCAN” market (Netflix’s wonky term for the United States and Canada) did not go unnoticed.
Bajaria, according to multiple sources, learned the harsh reality of her fate on Wednesday evening when she cornered Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos at the streamer’s offices in Hollywood, just before the screening at a private residence in L.A. for the Season 3 premiere of comedy “Nobody Wants This.” (Notably, neither Sarandos nor Bajaria are seen in any of the publicity photos that have been shared from the event.)
Bajaria asked Sarandos point-blank whether there was truth to the rumors gaining stream — and Sarandos, who it’s believed was originally going to break the news on Monday, told her at that moment.
Rumors about Bajaria’s fate have swirled in recent months. As the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger saga soldiered on, there was much speculation about HBO chief Bloys jumping ship for a big role at Netflix or to launch a well-funded prestige label for the streamer. But once Bloys was confirmed as the new top boss of streaming for Skydance, the Bajaria speculation cooled off. On Monday, Bajaria was on stage at the Mipcom content conference in Cannes, where she accepted the Vanguard Award for contributions to the global marketplace as bestowed by Variety and Mipcom.
But even as top European content industry insiders gathered to hear Bajaria speak, chatter about her future fired back up in Hollywood this week. It turned out to be a perfect storm of events, with Netflix bracing for its largest-ever layoffs and its third-quarter earnings report coming on Oct. 20. The layoffs, amounting to 6% of the company’s workforce, or about 1,000 positions, were implemented Tuesday and Wednesday. That meant Netflix staffers were already on edge when the shock of the Rice news hit just after lunchtime in L.A. on Thursday.
Meanwhile, as recently as two weeks ago Rice was telling friends that he had no interest in becoming an executive again — which is a sign that Sarandos acted fast as soon as he learned Rice was available.
Bajaria is understood to have received an outpouring of support from her wide network of contacts in the creative community, at home and abroad. Multiple sources say the executive has been telling friends outright that she is shell-shocked, in keeping with her reputation for candor. Bajaria declined to comment.
The microscope now turns to Bajaria’s two top vertical lieutenants — Dan Lin in film, and Jinny Howe in original TV series.
Lin has been a steady hand in Netflix’s film operations for two-and-a-half years, ushered in to stop the lavish spending of the streamer’s formative Scott Stuber era. Slashing budgets carries an emotional price, though, and Lin has been forced to ensure talent delivers quality product without a widely perceived blank check signed by Sarandos.
In addition to making cheaper movies, Lin also backed some high-profile acquisitions (“Emilia Pérez” and Netflix’s current best-hope Oscar contender “La Bola Negra”). Yet, numerous reports have suggested that Lin will exit the company as Rice comes into power. It couldn’t be a more sensitive time, as Netflix will launch Greta Gerwig’s anticipated “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew” with a full theatrical release in February. As Bajaria got the boot, the rumor mill instantly offered forth Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy — the ousted Warner Bros. Pictures chiefs — as potential replacements (which actually started a month ago, as Paramount and WBD finally found a path to combine).
According to insiders, with Rice likely to kick off his tenure by focusing on the film side of things, U.S. and Canada scripted head Howe appears to be safe in her role. With whispers in Hollywood that Netflix has struggled recently to produce another megahit in the vein of “Stranger Things” or “Bridgerton,” Howe, who took over in August 2025, has a hefty slate on her plate and is just starting to see some of her own development come to fruition.
That includes Meryl Streep in “The Corrections,” Adam Driver and Michael Fassbender in “Rabbit, Rabbit,” Martin Scorsese’s “The Roman” and the live-action/CGI “Scooby-Doo: Origins.”
“They want her to stay,” said one source. “If she left, that’d be a disaster for them.”
Meanwhile, given Rice’s experience, some also wondered whether Sarandos just hired someone who could ultimately be a candidate to replace him — should the stock continue to suffer and the company see a need to make more changes.
The week has indeed offered more drama than anything Netflix will put on its service this year.
(Pictured: Peter Rice, Bela Bajaria, Dan Lin and Jinny Howe)
Florida is becoming one of the bigger enigmas of the already-puzzling 2026 election season. Democrats are showing themselves to be surprisingly competitive. Democrat David Jolly is running neck-and-neck with Trump-approved Republican Byron Donalds in two of three recent polls for the governor job.
And Jacksonville legislator and DSA member Angie Nixon, having upset moderate Democrat Alex Vindman in the primary, now is at least keeping it close against Republican incumbent Ashley Moody. All of which is startling in a state that went for Donald Trump by 13 points just two years ago and hasn’t elected a Democratic governor since 1994.
Now Nixon is turning up the heat on Republican candidates.
On an upcoming episode of Crooked Media’s YouTube show Long Play, Nixon lets it fly against the Republican gubernatorial candidate. “Byron Donalds doesn’t support Black people,” she tells hosts Jennifer Palmieri and Errin Haines on camera in an early cut of the episode, which debuts Monday. Haines then follows up by asking Nixon to explain what she means when she says that Donalds is “going to bring back the worst parts of our history.” Nixon replies, “I mean, he is someone who said that Black people were better off during the Jim Crow era.”
The race has grown contentious but seems to be reaching a new level of fervor as it heads into the final two weeks.
Nixon has said at rallies that she wants to keep funding the police, referring to a common anti-DSA knock, because she wants Moody, Ron DeSantis and Trump locked up. For his part, vice president J.D. Vance said recently at a rally, addressing Nixon, “Get the hell out of here, you don’t belong in America.” (Nixon in the episode: “They don’t have anything to run on but cruelty.”)
Meanwhile, Donalds has been criticized by Jolly for not extending leniency to young people that he was shown when he was arrested on drug charges as a young man and given the opportunity of a diversion program; a hot-button new adhas a retired U.S. General calling Donalds “weak” and a “hypocrite” for it. (Palmieri and Haines discuss the ad in the new episode.)
Launched earlier this year, Long Play examines the divisions and shifting political alignments in various Southern states. After concluding its first season with trips to Georgia, Texas and other Southern states, the show kicks off its second season ahead of the midterms with a Florida episode.
Five flagship and three bonus episodes are planned, straddling both sides of the midterms and set in Texas and Georgia, where close Senate races are unfolding, among other states. The overall goal remains to recalibrate perceptions of the region as a GOP stronghold, which principals say is far too simplistic and out of date.
In Florida, Donalds has looked to court the Black vote to gain the governorship. “You’ve been faithful to that [Democratic] party, have they been faithful to you?,” he recently told an audience at HBCU Florida A&M. Donalds would be Florida’s first Black governor, though has struggled to gain support of large numbers of Black voters, even losing 17 counties in August’s primary to white opponents.
As for the Senate, flipping a Florida seat blue (the seat Nixon is seeking is currently held by Moody, who was appointed two years ago when Marco Rubio was named Secretary of State), is a nice-to-have for Florida Democrats but not seen as essential in retaking control of the Senate.
Nixon says on the show that she thinks a win for her is viable. “So, honestly, there’s a whole bunch of polls,” says Nixon, as she seeks to become both the first Black senator and first female Democratic Senator in Florida’s history. “There are some ranging from tied to seven points. Recently, one was two, I was two points down, like, yesterday. And so the only poll that matters is the Election Day poll.”
In an email, Palmieri said that “My takeaway is neither party can ever write off Florida. It’s too big, too dynamic to take for granted…any outcome is possible.” Added Haines: “The 2026 midterm cycle has been unpredictable — and Florida is arguably one of the biggest examples of that unpredictability.”
Palmieri, a former Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama comms exec who also cohosted Showtime staple The Circus, and Haines, editor-at-large for The 19th, co-host the show with contributions from former NOLA mayor Mitch Landrieu. Crooked Media fixture Jon Favreau exec produces. A companion podcast will also be released.
Turns out that it’s tough to shoot in a whale’s stomach.
“Whalefall” director Brian Duffield is gleefully outlining some of the biggest hurdles while shooting his new movie. The premise for the film, in theaters now via 20th Century Studios, is simple: A young diver named Jay (Austin Abrams) is accidentally swallowed by a whale, ends up in its stomach and must escape before his tank of oxygen runs out. It’s a lean idea, but required an innovative and energetic leader like Duffield to get the claustrophobic shots done on practical sets.
“It’s such a small space and essentially a 360-degree set,” he says. “There’s a couple portals you can kind of shove a camera through, but it’s also somewhat full of water. All the lighting of the coil is inside the set. Basically everything that you would have on a normal movie set, we’re putting inside of a very small space. It’s also on a gimbal that’s rocking and rolling. So you take your normal film set footprint and then you put it into a bag. And then you also put Austin Abrams into the bag, and then sometimes other animals. If Austin’s wrong an inch, it doesn’t really work. Everyone’s cramped in this little doorway. But he can’t hear us, because the rubber is so thick inside.”
Duffield smiles at the outrageous setup.
“I was talking to a director,” he says. “He had a question and I sent him pictures of the set. And he was just like, ‘You’ve got to be joking.’ From when the whale is chewing Austin, it’s just a bunch of big, burly men jumping on the set and crushing down on him. And he’s in there, screaming and drowning with a real oxygen tank. I’m looking at this little monitor and if he needs help, it’s going to sound the exact same. Every time you call cut, you’re just hoping that the screaming stops. We had the studio come to set and watch this thing. From the outside it just looked so silly. I remember Disney safety reps would come and just be watching it, saying, ‘I genuinely don’t know if this is safe.’ But we worked hard, really hard to make sure Austin was safe.”
Brian Duffield photographed at the PMC Studio in Los Angeles.
Dan Doperalski for Variety
Everyone made it out of the shoot unharmed, but the finished product is filled with harrowing set-pieces that are sure to push audiences to the brink. Duffield understood the vision early on, as he reached out to novelist Daniel Kraus on social media when he first heard the premise of the novel of the same name, before it was even published. He read an advance copy of the 2023 book, and was quickly swept away with the cinematic promise it held. Duffield ended up co-writing the “Whalefall” script with Kraus.
“You get the initial ‘boy inside a whale’ story, which definitely tickled all the genre parts of my brain,” Duffield says. “The idea of making a movie that had never been made before is always really appealing to me. It’s instantly clear how challenging that was, and I was really looking for a challenge. I was hungry to just keep pushing myself and the crew that I had consistently been working with. I think we just had the appetite at the time to take a big swing.”
Duffield is no stranger to ambitious projects. He began his Hollywood career as a writer with a disparate group of scripts, including a big-budget sequel (2015’s “The Divergent Series: Insurgent”), a Western (2015’s “Jane Got a Gun”), a slasher (2017’s “The Babysitter”) and a sci-fi action movie (2020’s “Underwater”). He transitioned into an idiosyncratic directing career with 2020’s “Spontaneous” (logline: a romance is shaded by the fact that people start spontaneously combusting) and 2023’s “No One Will Save You,” a nearly dialogue-free alien invasion movie.
Beyond their high concepts, Duffield’s works are marked by an emotional heft, which is no different in “Whalefall.” Jay’s diving trip is prompted by him trying to locate the body of his estranged father Mitt (Josh Brolin) after he dies by suicide. He’d never be able make amends with, or come to an understanding with his father, a theme that resonates through much of the story.
“I don’t think I was looking for a father-son story, but I think I needed a father-son story,” Duffield, a parent himself, says. “As soon as I was reading it, I couldn’t stop thinking about … not the whale, but about Jay and Mitt in that relationship. I thought, ‘That was the magic trick of the book.’ You’re forgetting about squids and acid and you’re thinking more about how these two guys are thinking they want nothing more than to spend time together, but they can’t quite express how they need to spend time in a different way.”
Brian Duffield photographed at the PMC Studio in Los Angeles in October 2026.
Dan Doperalski for Variety
While Abrams and Brolin were able to bring the emotional gravitas to flashback scenes chronicling key moments in their frayed relationship, shooting the in-whale scenes was the overarching creative challenge.
“I had plenty of directors come and visit and all of them just looked so baffled,” Duffield says. “I had general confusion about how we were doing what we were doing. The thing I’ve learned the most is the joy of making movies for me is the crew and getting to hire a lot of the same people over and over again. I think if I have any gift as a director, it’s hiring people that are extremely talented, Oscar winners and whatnot. I like spending time with them and feel comfortable asking advice. I trust them if I feel like they have a note or an idea — it’s probably good.”
It’s part of a larger ethos Duffield brings to every project.
“I want to feel the effort, and I want to feel like I’m becoming a better filmmaker because of it,” he says.
Farrelly was on hand to introduce the movie and shouted out his star, newcomer Anthony Ippolito, who has already earned praise for his portrayal of Stallone. “I could do a TED talk about Anthony Ippolito. This kid is ridiculous,” Farrelly said, adding that the 27-year-old sent in a self-tape before the film team even began what was meant to be a “worldwide search” for who would play Stallone.
“He heard about the movie, tracked down the script, shot three scenes in his grandmother’s basement on Long Island and sent it to us,” Farrelly continued. “I looked at it like, ‘That’s it.’ We never looked past him.”
“I Play Rocky” tells the true story of how Stallone, then a young small-time actor, overcame obstacles to both write and star in the 1976 classic. Alongside Ippolito, it stars AnnSophia Robb as Sasha Czack, Stallone’s wife; Matt Dillon as his father, Frank Stallone Sr.; P.J. Byrne as “Rocky” producer Irwin Winkler; Jay Duplass as director John G. Avildsen and more.
Farrelly added that he’s most proud of the fact that Stallone himself is pleased with the movie. “No matter how well the movie does, how many people like it, if Stallone said, ‘I don’t like it,’ I would be really disappointed,” he said. “And he loved it.”
The film first premiered at Toronto Film Festival last month, where it was up for the People’s Choice Award and generated positive reviews. Variety‘s chief film critic Owen Gleiberman called the film a “cleverly-crafted crowd pleaser” and praised Ippolito for getting his portrayal of Stallone “just right,” writing: “Watching and listening to Anthony Ippolito, we can believe that Sylvester Stallone is standing right in front of us, though the performance is more than just an awesome impersonation. He’s truly playing Stallone — the sweetly stubborn and dogged person he was at the time.”
“I Play Rocky” is set to hit U.S. and U.K. theaters on Nov. 6.
Marvel Television’s VisionQuestshines a spotlight on Vision, the beloved synthetic hero played by Marvel veteran Paul Bettany. The new series (streaming now on Disney+) concludes the acclaimed trilogy that began with 2021’s WandaVision and 2024’s Agatha All Along, and VisionQuest follows Vision as he grapples with his humanity — or lack thereof.
When the story begins, a rebooted Vision is attempting to keep a low profile, working at a pub in Edinburgh. As he attempts to find meaning in his jumbled memories, he consults with the nefarious Ultron (James Spader), who’s still embedded deep within his programming. Together, they attempt to unravel the mystery around Thomas Shepherd (Ruaridh Mollica), an 18-year-old boy who may or may not be Vision’s reincarnated son.
“It has been a fantastic journey, going from a voice inside Tony Stark’s suit to becoming an ingenue and omnipotent robot,” Bettany says. “WandaVision was one of the highlights of my career, and I loved doing it, so I was really pleased when VisionQuest came along. This is a new exploration of the Vision character with a totally different energy… a father-son energy. It’s a father-son story disguised as science fiction.”
VisionQuest picks up after the events of WandaVision and Agatha All Along, where Wanda and Vision’s son Billy (Joe Locke) saved the consciousness of his twin brother Tommy with some well-deployed magic. The new series introduces Mollica as the 18-year-old Tommy, who’s fresh out of the foster care system, living in London, and wrestling with flashbacks he can’t explain.
“I was very much involved in his audition,” Bettany remembers of casting Mollica. “I hate being involved in actors’ auditions. I feel like I’m on the wrong side of the table, and I feel like I’m working with the enemy. But I knew it was really important to find the right person.”
Fortunately, he found that person in Mollica. The Scottish actor is best known for appearing in Sebastian and A Thousand Blows, and when he submitted a self-tape for VisionQuest, Bettany and the team knew they had found their Thomas Shepherd.
“The truth is when Ruaridh walks into a room, the room just lights up,” Bettany says. “He’s a very winning person, and the camera loves him. I thought we would be able to make something special happen between us, and I think we did.”
DC Studios may have had a bumpy road this past year, but the newly minted Skydance subsidiary seems to be finding a clear path forward. After the disastrous release of the summer blockbuster Supergirl, which saw a short run in theaters after poor reviews and even worse box office, the studio, helmed by co-chairmen James Gunn and Peter Safran, found success with its next project. The HBO series Lanterns, starring Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre, set viewership records and also earned plenty of critical acclaim through its eight-episode run. Now, with their next film Clayface set to premiere in a week, the focus will soon shift to James Gunn’s next project, Man of Tomorrow.
James Gunn has been somewhat active on social media, particularly Threads, engaging with DCU fans and offering fascinating creative insight into projects currently in production. In a recent Threads post listing rumors about Man of Tomorrow and a supposedly “disastrous” test screening, Gunn replied, saying no one has seen the film yet… Until today. Gunn’s post said he barely managed to deliver the first “director’s cut” of Man of Tomorrow for Peter Safran to watch today, meaning the highly anticipated follow-up to 2025’s Superman has reached a huge milestone: the first viewable cut is complete. For now, however, the only person watching this version of the movie is fellow DC Studios Chairman Peter Safran.
James Gunn has become a filmmaker known for efficient production schedules and planning, often with specific shot lists and storyboards that help keep filming as smooth as possible. So, Gunn having a director’s cut of Man of Tomorrow ready to view nine months before the official theatrical release is no surprise. There has been a lot of speculation about the upcoming movie, which has slowly felt less like a Superman sequel (as Gunn stated before production began) and more like an ensemble piece meant to build out the greater DCU.
Rockstar has released the official Grand Theft Auto 6 launch trailer, confirming the game’s November 19, 2026 release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. For players tracking the final stretch before launch, that console date is the clearest practical takeaway from the new footage, as reported by Video Games Chronicle.
What the launch trailer shows
The 90-second video introduces Jason and Lucia and lays out the trouble waiting for the pair in Vice City and across Leonida. Rockstar’s description says an attempted score goes wrong, drawing them into a criminal conspiracy that stretches across the state and leaves them depending on each other to survive.
Justice, the French electronic duo, provides original music for the trailer and composed the game’s original score, Rockstar says. The studio also confirmed that the new Justice single Flower in a Hurricane, featuring Tame Impala, SZA and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, will be included on Grand Theft Auto 6: The Album. The trailer’s music adds another concrete detail for players following the game’s soundtrack and radio features.
Rockstar says the trailer was captured entirely on PlayStation 5, but has not specified whether the footage came from the standard console or a PS5 Pro. That leaves the hardware detail limited to the platform named by the studio; the trailer does not establish which PS5 model is shown.
A major Rockstar single-player milestone
Grand Theft Auto 6 will be Rockstar’s first major new single-player release since Red Dead Redemption 2, which launched on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2018. The upcoming game is scheduled for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S; Rockstar’s announcement does not give a PC release date.
Gameplay from Red Dead Redemption 2 – Image: Red Dead Redemption 2 / Steam
The confirmed date is on consoles
For now, the milestone players can plan around is November 19, 2026, on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The trailer offers a story and soundtrack preview, but the release platforms and date remain the key confirmed details for the launch.
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La discrétion de vos informations personnelles est une urgence. Nous employons un chiffrement de bout en bout et ne divulguons jamais vos données avec des tiers non autorisés. Les jeux que nous offrons sont fournis par des éditeurs certifiés, et leurs taux de redistribution sont régulièrement inspectés. En ce qui concerne les tirages au sort, le générateur qui sélectionne les gagnants est le même que celui utilisé pour les jeux de casino, offrant une distribution aléatoire et impartiale. Nous gardons un historique de chaque tirage pendant une durée minimale de six mois, ce qui permet à tout participant de requérir une vérification a posteriori. Notre politique de confidentialité complète est disponible sur le site, et nous vous incitons à la lire.
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Nous désirons que le jeu reste un amusement. C’est pourquoi nous proposons des outils de jeu responsable : limites de dépôt par jour, de la semaine ou du mois, possibilité d’auto-exclusion temporaire ou définitive, et tests d’auto-évaluation. Ces outils n’affectent pas votre participation aux tirages en cours, mais ils vous permettent à garder le contrôle. Notre équipe support est formée pour repérer les signes de jeu problématique et peut vous diriger vers des organismes spécialisés comme Joueurs Info Service. Participer à un tirage au sort ne doit jamais être une raison pour excéder votre budget. Nous indiquons clairement le coût réel de chaque ticket, qui correspond uniquement aux mises que vous auriez réalisées de toute façon.
Comment prendre part à un tirage au sort
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Lorsque votre compte crédité, l’génération de tickets se fait de manière automatique en fonction de votre activité de jeu réelle. Nous utilisons un système de niveaux : par exemple, 10 € placés sur les machines à sous peuvent offrir un ticket, contre une mise de 25 € sur la roulette en direct en génère un autre. Les mises sur les paris sportifs peuvent également être considérées lors de tirages particuliers, selon les règles de la promotion en cours. Vous n’êtes pas obligé d’activer une option ou de cliquer sur un bouton : le compteur de tickets se actualise en temps réel dans votre espace membre. Nous vous conseillons de consulter régulièrement la section « Mes tickets » pour observer votre évolution et savoir combien de participations vous avez déjà récoltées avant la date butoir du tirage.
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Chaque tirage est annoncé avec une date de début, une date de fin et une date de résultat. Nous affichons ces détails sur la page d’accueil, dans la partie promotions et par e-mail si vous avez accepté les communications marketing. Une fois le tirage effectué, les lauréats sont avertis par e-mail et une information apparaît dans leur compte. Les résultats complets sont publiés sous forme de liste anonymisée. Nous vous encourageons à vérifier attentivement votre boîte de réception et vos spams pour ne pas rater une bonne nouvelle. Si vous avez gagné un lot physique, notre équipe vous joindra pour planifier la livraison. Pour les bonus et les tours gratuits, le crédit est en règle générale instantané après l’annonce officielle.
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La sélection lui-même est exécuté de manière hasardeuse par un générateur de nombres certifié, sous la direction de notre équipe de conformité réglementaire. Nous utilisons un algorithme qui offre une distribution équitable des possibilités, sans ingérence humaine. Une fois la sélection des gagnants établie, nous entamons à une contrôle de l’éligibilité de chaque profil (identité validée, absence de triche, observation des termes). Cette procédure peut nécessiter de 24 à 48 heures. Ensuite, nous publions les résultats sur le site web et transmettons les messages. Pour les récompenses concrets, un délai supplémentaire additionnel de quelques jours est nécessaire pour préparer l’expédition. Nous vous tiendrons notifié par e-mail à chaque stade si vous êtes des heureux élus.
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“I saw her in a clip of JamónJamón,” says Ambrossi, referring to Bigas Luna’s 1992 picture, in which Cruz appeared for the first time opposite her now-husband Javier Bardem. “I was young, and I thought, ‘Who is she?!’ ”
Calvo was similarly enchanted when he saw Cruz in Pedro Almodóvar’s 1999 Oscar winner All About My Mother. “She’s got that material of the stars,” he says. “When you put a camera in front of her, she can do anything, and she doesn’t even realize what she’s doing. There’s a power, there’s a force guiding her, and that’s amazing to see first-hand.”
Los Javis wanted Cruz for a small but pivotal role in their epic tale La Bola Negra, the intertwined story of three gay men who exist in three different time periods in Spain. In 1932, Carlos (Milo Quifes) is a young man in Grenada at a time when Spain is lurching uncomfortably towards an ever-increasing spiteful intolerance of homosexuality. In 1937, against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War, Sebastián (Guitarricadelafuente) and Rafael (Miguel Bernardeau) are soldiers from opposing political divides brought closer by the conflict. And in 2017, Alberto (Carlos González) is a playwright from Madrid who engages with an eminent Federico Garcia Lorca scholar (played by another Hollywood star, Glenn Close, speaking fluent Spanish) in a storyline that links the characters in the prior timelines.
Cruz’s character, one Nené Romero, performs for the troops in a series of beautifully choreographed, risqué numbers that the boys, far from home, lap up with hunger in their eyes. Los Javis say that Nené was inspired by La Fornarina, a cupletista, a Spanish singer of cuplé songs — bawdy numbers about “sex and drugs,” as Calvo explains it — who performed in theaters in Madrid around the turn of the last century.
Their research included the study of the erotic novels penned by Spanish writer and fashion designer Álvaro Retana, who also wrote lyrics for saucy songs of the type that Cruz performs in La Bola Negra. “They would be singing all over Madrid. They were so funny, they were unleashed — and they thought they were going to be free forever,” says Calvo when we meet in a suite at the swanky Corinthia Hotel during the London Film Festival. “But these singers and their gay friends, all the people in that circle, they were all incarcerated, persecuted, killed or disappeared. They’re forgotten, kind of. So we wanted to bring them back.”
Cruz was already a fan of Los Javis having been gripped by their outrageously captivating 2023 TV drama miniseries La Mesías, a hit for Moviestar+ in Spain, which is now available via Mubi in the UK, Canada Turkey, the Netherlands, Germany and Australia, and will soon be streaming in France. “They are so talented,” I recall an ecstatic Cruz telling me at the closing-night party in Cannes. “I saw their first television show Veneno as well,” she said, “and now they’ve won the directing prize at Cannes.”
The next time they work with Cruz, says Ambrossi, they plan to create “a whole film around her,” but that will be be after what they hope will be their next feature project, a movie that they claim will be “90% in English.” That movie, whenever it’s made, will likely have a larger budget than Los Javis spent on La Bola Negra. Ambrossi says that its roughly $15 million budget was tight but it’s “big for a Spanish movie.”
The ‘La Bola Negra’ team at the Deadline Studio during the Toronto Film Festival
Deadline
With time and the right people on La Bola Negra, Ambrossi adds, “we knew we could do it big. The scope is not always about big landscapes; it’s about how you position people, so you get the sense that it’s bigger, and taking the time to find the right locations, because these are all natural locations.“ They also insisted on making time for proper rehearsals before the 12-week shoot (“Because it’s a deep story and the actors needed time”).
Calvo explains that with the purse strings being so tight they had to find “creative solutions.” They didn’t, for example, have a room in which to shoot all the soldiers having dinner. “We’re like, “OK, then we’ll compose a beautiful shot with everyone outside with tables, and we’ll just imagine they went out to have dinner there,” he explains.
They also turned to “the godfathers of cinema,” as Calvo refers to such legendary directors as Thodōros Angelopoulos (Alexander the Great) and Andrei Tarkovsky (Solaris), who, “with just with a landscape, mist and composing the humans in a proper way” were able to conjure up scenes of movie magic.
Working with the sublime cinematographer Gris Jordana — a frequent collaborator, as are the film’s editor, production designer, hair and makeup designer, costume designer, composer, and many other key creatives — Los Javis sought to bring some of that “godfathers of cinema” magic to their own film. “They’re part of our team,” Amborossi says. “We have been growing together. In every project we learn together. So that’s why the movie is so big, even if the budget is not. They put a lot of effort because it’s a collective experience. It’s like they put in their souls.”
“This is a movie about poetry,” says Calvo, “and there’s also a poetry in images. You don’t have to show everything. You can give something, and the viewer will leave it to their imagination.”
Ambrosssi jumps in. “If you don’t have the money, just don’t do it badly,” he says. “Cut it, and someone can talk about it in the next scene. Sometimes we needed a natural beauty location. For example, we didn’t have an office for the general lieutenant featured in the film, so we found an empty space with a nice view — you can see the sea — and we composed it with people and a table and a small framed picture of Franco, and that was it. And that’s not expensive.”
The main point, Calvo believes — as the likes of David Lean found while directing Lawrence of Arabia — is that it was necessary to find intimacy within such an epic story.
Los Javis were helped in that endeavor, Calvo adds, because the film is loosely based on Alberto Conejero’s one-act play La Piedra Oscura, which deals only with the relationship between Rafael and Sebastian, a play that is “so intimate and delicate” that they wanted to expand it into a triptych. ”Like, a big movie,” says Calvo, spreading his arms wide, “and an intimate movie at the same time. You have the fragility and the the war, so it’s about contrast. And it was so nice to create that, because sometimes it’s more difficult to create the relationship of Rafael and Sebastian, with all the tension, than a bombing scene.”
L-R: Sebastián (Guitarricadelafuente) and Rafael (Miguel Bernardeau) in ‘La Bola Negra’
Carla Oset/Netflix
Countless meetings with key creatives were held in pre-production to map out the movie, and the more mistakes they made the better, because it meant they’d go out and get it right during the shoot, says Ambrossi. “It’s like, work, work, work, work, make a mistake, then try again,” he says, smiling. The work, however, didn’t feel like work. ”I always go back and say, ‘Oh, wow, it was the journey of our lives,’” Calvo declares.
Ambrossi contends that the film is proudly gay, whether that puts it in a niche box or not; it’s “a gay movie” and “I love to keep it that way,” he says. “I want people to have an experience that is universal. But I don’t want them to miss that it’s gay.”
It’s certainly unusual to see a gay story against the backdrop of war. Calvo cites Tarkovsky’s classic Ivan’s Childhood, Elem Klimov’s harrowing Come and See and Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now as being amongst his favorite war movies. “So, I have those references,” he says, “but my emotion is another thing, and my sensitivity is what we’re portraying. Why shouldn’t I make a movie the same way the people that made war movies I admire made, but telling my own story and using my own feelings? For me, it was natural to just talk about myself through my references. And why can’t we have it all?”
Ambrossi laughs. “It’s great that we told everyone it is a gay film with — mostly — gay actors portraying gay characters, directed by gay people about the queer experience, and it’s hitting the No. 1 spot at the box office every single night in Spain. I like that. I think it’s cool, because it really represents two things; one, that the world is going in a direction that we are not always aware, and also that the industry has to understand that gay stories are not niche.”
La Bola Negra is a starting point for the next conversation, Ambrosssi continues, and that “once we try, once we prove them wrong, then we can have the conversation about universal stories. But we had to tell them, ‘You don’t have to change the lead and put a straight star in it to get the audience.’ They just go, “Ah, it’s a gay story.’”
Were they pressured in any way to compromise? “They don’t even try to do it with us, because we write, direct and produce. It’s our movie,” Ambrossi responds with gusto. He allows, however, that they encountered difficulties making the 2020 miniseries Veneno. “It was a show with trans actresses, and everyone was like, ‘You won’t find that many trans actresses to put in a show in Spain.’ And we were like, ‘We’ll do it.’ And we did.”
During their travels promoting the movie — at Cannes (where Los Javis shared the best director prize with Fatherland’s Pawel Pawlikowski), Telluride, Toronto (where it won the People’s Choice Award for best film), San Sebastián (where the film was honored with the festival’s Audience Award) and here in London — the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. “The feedback from non-gay people, non-LGBTQ people, is the same. This idea of wanting to be yourself, being rejected, a lot of women get that. It gets everyone. At some point, it’s about family, about motherhood, about brotherhood, about friendship. It’s a war movie. It’s about being different, but it’s about art and the power of art.”
Calvo, listening intently, jumps in, pointing out that the film is “about understanding and seeing the other as a human being. Which is, I think, important.”
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When it came to casting the male leads, they chose singer-musician Guitarricadelafuente because they were drawn to the “magnetism, the sadness” in his eyes. “He had to be the eyes of the viewer,” says Calvo, “and he has eyes that you can rely on, and he had this shyness, but also this bravery, this strength, but then this subtleness. We just knew it was for him.”
Ambrossi, meanwhile, hails Bernardeau (Elite) as being “one of the best of his generation.” “We needed his technique,” he explains, “because Guitarricadelafuente is new, so we needed the balance to play off each other.” The same goes for González. “He’s so flamboyant and fun in real life,” Ambrossi says. “Here, he’s doing a job that you cannot imagine. If you were to meet him, you would be like, ‘Are you the same person?’”
Indeed, I spoke with González at a soirée following a special screening of La Bola Negra at Tate Modern, and he was an absolute hoot. He vowed to do anything for the film “with its big black balls.” My eyes widened at that remark and our dirty laughter nearly got us turned outta the party.
As for Carlos, they were looking for Andalusian guys, and the moment they saw Quifes’ audition, they shut down the search.
The roles played by Guitarricadelafuente and Bernardeau are the heart of the film, providing its most tender, heartfelt moments. They met for the first time at rehearsals, where Guitarricadelfuente, who’d never acted before, says he felt “100 percent safe” because he was working opposite a professional actor. “It was a very special moment meeting Miguel,” he says.
Having someone like Miguel “really helped me out in this in this journey,” Guitarricadelafuente says. “There was something very special about the way that our characters grew up together, and the development of that intimacy, that way of nonverbal communication, those gestures that communicated so much. I’m grateful for the time that we spent at that room rehearsing.”
Los Javis were “democratic with us,” he notes, because “they let us express ourselves freely, and if there was maybe sometimes in the dialogue something that maybe didn’t resound that much in ourselves, they would say, ‘What would you say? What would you do?’ They let us roll on and magical things happened.”
Were they able to improvise? Bernardeau shakes his head and notes that it wasn’t so much improvisation because of how much thought went into every scene, what with how the three stories intertwine. “You need to be careful with what you change. There’s a lot of detail, so you cannot improvise. But they were very free with us in changing smaller stuff. I did feel very free to try different ways and paths into the scenes.”
The ‘La Bola Negra’ team on the red carpet in Cannes
Kate Green/Getty Images
I remember covering the film’s ecstatic 20-minute ovation at Cannes in the Grand Théâtre Lumière and watching the faces of this new generation of filmmakers and actors. Bernardeau was holding back tears. “I knew that once I start crying I would not stop,” he admits.
In front of him, he recalls, was the festival’s camera team “and Tilda Swinton clapping and looking at us.” Swinton introduced Bernardeau to her agent Christian Hodell, chief executive of Hamilton Hodell, who now represents him. Now the actor will soon be moving from Spain to live in London.
Guitarricadelafuente remembers looking up to the Lumière’s second tier to see so many young people who’d clearly connected with the film: “That made me feel as if we were at a concert.” He notes that he’s been astonished by how audiences in Spain have flocked to see the picture. Los Javis were known to young people, he says. “Like, there are people in my family that haven’t been to the cinema in 10 years. They feel like they’re missing out on something, because there’s been like a consensus between everybody to see it. It’s not a film about civil war, it’s not a film about Lorca. It’s is a film about life.”
It sure is.
Culturally, Spain’s on a roll. Singer-songwriter Rosalía took the International Artist of the Year at the Brit Awards; La Bola Negra won a major prize at Cannes; and, of course, Spain won the World Cup. Calvo beams a full-wattage smile. “We’re just getting out there.”
Netflix releases the film in theaters Friday in New York City and Los Angeles ahead of a wider release over coming weeks before debuting on streaming in the U.S. and Canada on December 2. Altitude opens the film in the UK on November 6.
DC Studios’ latest film, Clayface, is attempting to nail a few things at once: A supervillain origin story, a body-horror movie, and a crowd-pleasing October release, besides. That fusion seems like it would blend well enough on its own, but director James Watkins (Eden Lake, Speak No Evil) wasn’t taking anything for granted in the lead-up to the film’s production. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporterduring the Tuesday night red carpet premiere, Watkins says he “auditioned the hell out of” star Tom Rhys Harries before casting him as the Batman villain Matt Hagen/Clayface. “He came in, and I thought he really had something but I wanted to explore it. So we spent time exploring it.”
Watkins says that casting DC’s psychologically disintegrating mush-man was a challenge—several actors vied for the role—but when he met Harries, he felt the Welsh actor had a certain “something” to him that the director could extract for the horror film. First, he had to make sure his instincts were correct. “I don’t think I’ve ever auditioned anyone that much,” he said. “There was just a sense that Tom had something and [the audition process helped] me explore the character and understand the character.” As for Clayface himself, Harries was happy to go through the grueling audition process with Watkins, which stretched, like a certain shape-shifting Arkham inmate, over three months. I did two fairly long screen tests with James,” Harries told THR. “But I’m untested in this space, so I was glad he did it with me, really, because it meant that we’d had time to workshop the thing before he got onto set.” As to what was entailed in this audition process, like if Harries was asked to squish his face to resemble billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne or make a giant cartoon mallet of his fist, Watkins and Harries didn’t say.
Clayface is DC Studios’ first live-action film to bring audiences to its universe’s Gotham City, which co-CEO Peter Safran confirms is a “gritty, dirty” place, due somewhat in part, we have to assume, to its resident vigilante remaining in the studio’s periphery. The horror film was originally pitched by Mike Flanagan, whose work on the latest Exorcist film and his busy slate of adaptations with Amazon MGM Studios ultimately pulled him away from the project. With a script rewrite by Hossein Amini (The Two Faces Of January *insert Bat-joke here*), Watkins came on board the DC project in February 2025. “It’s a rollercoaster ride,” Watkins says of Clayface. “It’s got a lot of horror, a lot of heart, and a lot of humor. It’s a full meal.”
Facial firming creams really do work, thanks to ingredients like peptides, retinoids, and humectants. Peptides “can nudge your skin to make more collagen over time,” says Mollie Kelly Tufman, MD, founder of The Beauty Lab skin care platform. Retinoids remain the MVPs for thickening the dermis and boosting elasticity. “Also, don’t underestimate humectants such as hyaluronic acid or glycerin. They pull in water and give your skin that juicy, plumped-up look, sort of like inflating a balloon just enough to smooth out the wrinkles.”
While creams can’t reach as deep as in-office treatments like microneedling or radiofrequency, they’re still essential for keeping skin hydrated, plump, and resilient over time.
What causes sagging skin?
According to Kseniya Kobets, MD, director of cosmetic dermatology at Montefiore Einstein Advanced Care, sagging skin is due to a loss of collagen and elastin. “When underlying fat shrinks or shifts, supporting ligaments loosen, and bone changes, the skin sits over a different foundation,” she says. There are a ton of reasons why this happens—Dr. Kobets says it likely has to do with genetics, sun exposure, smoking, and hormonal or weight-loss changes.
What’s the fastest way to tighten sagging face skin?
Moisturizing gives the quickest temporary improvement when dehydration is the issue, Dr. Kobets says. “True skin tightening generally develops over weeks to months with in-office procedures,” she says. It’s important to determine what’s causing your skin sagging when determining how to address it: Dehydration, laxity, volume loss, or a combination of all might require a variety of over-the-counter and in-office solutions.
What do dermatologists recommend for sagging skin?
In addition to using a facial firming cream, Dr. Kobets says, applying sunscreen, a retinol, and vitamin C and peptides can make all the difference. “Beyond skin care, we may consider fillers and collagen-stimulating volumizers for volume loss, lasers—including resurfacing lasers—for skin quality, microneedling or radiofrequency microneedling, and ultrasound or radiofrequency tightening devices for appropriate laxity,” she says.
How we evaluated the best face firming creams
Testers applied the creams consistently—morning or night, depending on the product—for several weeks, paying attention to hydration, skin texture, firmness, and overall appearance of fine lines and sagging. The ones we tested featured ingredients like hyaluronic acid, vitamin C, niacinamide, and retinol to soften skin texture, plump, and add glow to skin. We also considered factors like absorption, layering with other skin care or makeup, and scent. The best skin-firming creams struck the balance between hydration and making our skin look bouncy and texture-free, without freezing our face.
I’ll admit that I’ve not read Whalefall, but I am excited for the book-to-screen adaptation, which is hitting the 2026 movie schedule this weekend. The top-line description of the movie is that it is about a scuba diver who is swallowed whole by a sperm whale, lives, and finds himself fighting to escape the whale’s belly. A number of reviews have called out how ridiculous the story is, which, in and of itself, is a pretty silly take for a movie, but there is actually precedent, and I’m not talking about Jonah.
Critics Are Upset That The Plot Is Unrealistic
Now that the first reviews of the movie are out, some of them are relishing the moment to point out how “preposterous” the plot is. Page Six says in its scathing review:
Turning one’s brain off to the extent that this preposterous movie — a combo of ‘The Poseidon Adventure,’ ‘The Meg’ and weirdly ‘The Lion King’ — requires is next to impossible.
Again, I haven’t seen the movie, but it’s not like I go into a movie like this expecting realism. That’s as silly as getting upset that dinosaurs exist in the Jurassic Park franchise or that King Kong is 100 times bigger than an average ape. You know, sometimes you have to suspend reality for a movie, right?
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This movie seems to be too much for some critics, like James Berardinelli, who writes on Reel View:
Sometimes a premise can be so outlandish that it provides an impediment to enjoying a movie. In such cases, it falls on the filmmakers to create sufficient immersion to achieve that ephemeral state often referred to as the ‘willing suspension of disbelief.’
Is the movie realistic? Well, no, not really.\Simon Foster at Screen Space agrees:
There is ‘suspension of disbelief’ and then there is WHALEFALL.
He then goes into a few details about how it would be impossible for a man to survive being eaten by a whale. While I’m sure his science is sound, there are always exceptions. In fact, there is an example of a man surviving.
(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)
Michael Packard Survived Being Trapped In A Whale
I’m not a doctor or a biologist, but I don’t think anyone should go out there and try to recreate Whalefall, which is obviously terrifying, but there is an example of a man getting trapped inside a whale’s mouth and surviving. His name is Michael Packard, and he’s a lobster fisherman from Cape Cod. According to CNN, Packard was also scuba diving, hunting lobsters, and:
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As he descended to the floor for another run, he was suddenly hit by what felt like a freight train. Water rushed around him and everything went dark. The shark finally got me, he thought, before realizing he couldn’t feel any sense of being bitten. Instead, he realized, he was being crushed.
Packard found himself stuck in a humpback whale’s mouth, being crushed by its powerful jaws. His life flashed before his eyes, but less than a minute later, the lobsterman found himself being spat out of the whale’s mouth at the surface. He had survived. Now, he wasn’t swallowed like the character in Whalefall (or Jonah in the bible), but he was trapped by a whale and lived.
The book and the movie are not based on Packard’s story, and obviously there is a big difference between getting swallowed and being trapped in a mouth, but there is a big difference between cloning a sheep and cloning a T-Rex, yet we all accept that could be done in the world of movies. This isn’t any different.
Austin Abrams‘ ascension to “scream king” status has resulted in an emotionally raw survival/body horror based on Daniel Kraus’ 2023 novel.
In Whalefall, written and directed by Brian Duffield, Jay (Abrams) goes diving in the Pacific Ocean to find the remains of his late father Mitt (Josh Brolin), who took his own life a year before amid a terminal illness. When Jay and a giant squid are devoured by a whale, he has an hour of oxygen left to find a way out of the sea mammal’s stomach, while unpacking his grief around his dad.
The film is steeped in beautiful coastlines and underwater shots by cinematographer Aaron Morton, all of which he filmed in California thanks to the state’s Film & Television Tax Credit Program.
Meanwhile, the natural beauty of the Golden State is offset by the graphic body horror of the whale’s innards, built on practical sets by production designer Ramsey Avery and lit by bioluminescence. It’s like watching a really gross car wash while dropping acid, which is sure to be a fun time for any gore fans, reminiscent of the alien abduction scene in Jordan Peele’s Nope (2022).
Even in the confines of an artificial stomach, with an oxygen hose shoved in his mouth, Abrams manages to exude humor through the physical comedy of being trapped in the most bizarre of situations, as well as some quippy dialogue with a jellyfish that tugs on the same heartstrings Tom Hanks did when he befriended a volleyball named Wilson.
At times, the dynamic between father and son can feel drowned in melodrama, but Abrams and Brolin are able to reel in their gutsy performances to portray a troubled relationship that’s still grounded in love.
Despite some definite womb symbolism in the unexpected fleeting comfort Jay finds in the stomach, symbolizing his emotional regression in order to process some heavy unresolved issues with his late dad, I didn’t immediately get that Jay was projecting his dead father onto the whale through his inner dialogue
While the point of their relationship appears to have been the surfer bum Mitt wanting to prepare his son for the hardships of the world through many a whale metaphor, masked in some light toxic masculinity, but no real communication about the important things weighing on Jay, Dad was somewhat conveniently prepared for the circumstances of being trapped in a whale’s stomach, which is illustrated through multiple emotional flashback scenes.
“That’s called whale fall,” said Brolin in a ridiculously on-the-nose line reading, which for many will evoke the Ladybird GIF of Beanie Feldstein declaring, “It’s the titular role!”
One whale metaphor that lands quite nicely is how the sperm whale calls out for help when in distress, which inspires a Hail Mary plan in Jay’s fight for freedom from the belly of the beast. In addition to its literal implications in his survival, it serves as a symbol of the protagonist’s inability to communicate his own grief to those who love him most.
While Duffield’s adaptation of Kraus’ Whalefall is not subtle on the metaphors and melodrama, it’s an enjoyable gross-out genre film charged with raw, relatable emotion, and featuring strong performances from Abrams and Brolin, as well as Elisabeth Shue, John Ortiz, Jane Levy and Emily Rudd.
Title: Whalefall Distributor:20th Century Studios Release date: October 16, 2026 Director: Brian Duffield Screenwriters: Brian Duffield, Daniel Kraus Cast: Austin Abrams, Josh Brolin, Elisabeth Shue, John Ortiz, Jane Levy, Emily Rudd Rating: PG-13 Running time: 1 hr 46 mins
Selma Blair has issued her first statement since the actress’ incident aboard a flight, with a spokesperson for Blair saying that, contrary to reports, “Selma did not intend to harm anyone.”
“Since Sunday night, the public account of what happened to Selma aboard a flight to New York has been built almost entirely on a police statement and a decade-old headline,” Blair’s rep said in a statement to People.
On Sunday night, Blair was detained after allegedly assaulting multiple flight attendants and additional erratic behavior exhibited on an inbound Delta Airlines flight from Los Angeles International Airport to John F. Kennedy airport.
Blair’s rep initially said the actress suffered a “medical emergency,” but the initial investigation found that the actress had an altercation with three flight attendants that resulted in their injuries.
“A handful of journalists have taken the time to report on Selma as a human being rather than a headline, and we are grateful to them,” Blair’s rep said without specification. “But fair reporting has been the exception, and in the space left by our silence, speculation has hardened into something being treated as fact. We can, however, correct the record on a few points already in public circulation.”
The rep reiterated that Blair “experienced a medical emergency on the flight,” and denied the most dangerous accusation against the actress: That Blair attempted to open the door of the plane mid-flight.
“There was no attempt to open the door of the aircraft. Selma did not intend to harm anyone,” the rep added.
The “decade-old headline” cited by Blair’s rep refers to an incident in 2016 where Blair was removed from a plane for causing a disturbance. Two years after that incident, the actress revealed she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, the authenticity of which — in the aftermath of the latest plane incident — people have questioned, according to Blair’s rep.
“The suggestion by anyone that Selma does not have multiple sclerosis is outrageous. Her diagnosis has been public since 2018,” the rep said. “What Selma has been able to do physically in the years since is nothing short of a miracle. She still has bad days, and she lives with pain daily. Selma also has pseudobulbar affect, a neurological condition secondary to her MS, which bears directly on how a medical episode presents to people who do not know her.”
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Blair pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree assault stemming from the plane incident and was released on bail; the actress is scheduled to appear at a Comic-Con in Connecticut this weekend. The FBI is investigating the plane incident.
“There is much more to this story than has been reported, and we ask to consider the entirety of the facts before rushing to judgment, whether in the courtroom or in the court of public opinion,” Blair’s rep added.
THE SEATTLE FILM FESTIVAL 2026 REVIEW! Edward Burns, king of the emotional talkie, is back with Beneath The Blue Suburban Skies. The writer-director also stars as Jim, a middle-aged husband and father whose family life is on the brink. The film opens on Jim’s wife, Tina (Jennifer Ehle), grabbing a cocktail shaker, despite how early in the day it is. Clearly, she feels as if life never gave her what she truly deserved. This is despite being in love with her military veteran husband and having two grown children, Frankie (Brian Wiles) and Debbie (Hannah Dunne). Both children live at home with their parents for one reason or another.
But therein lies the problem. See, Brian is constantly in and out of trouble, having a hard time finding his path in life. As for Debbie, she just wants to go out with her boyfriend and party. This causes Tina to feel embarrassed about her kids, which isn’t something she can help, though she doesn’t enjoy feeling that way. This is on top of financial woes piling up, putting more stress on the tenuous familial bonds.
Beneath The Blue Suburban Skies is shot in black and white. The stark imagery that the monochrome look provides gives a glimpse into how Tina sees the world. But as the story progresses, the idea that there are shades of grey creeps in, changing the four family members and their dynamics with each other. This gives the drama a compelling visual language that wraps up the viewer in the raw emotions at play.
Jim and Tina share a late-night talk in lawn chairs beside a cooler in Beneath The Blue Suburban Skies.
“…causes Tina to feel embarrassment over her kids, which isn’t something she can help, though she doesn’t enjoy feeling that way.”
While Tina wasn’t written specifically for Ehle, she fits the role like a glove. She’s loving yet stern, smart but fed up. The actor makes audiences instantly side with Tina, even if she’s being too hard on those around her or herself. Burns is walking gravitas and charm. Even when he’s a hard-ass, there’s something innately likable about the man. Here, Jim is very vulnerable yet stuck in a way of thinking that isn’t accommodating to his children’s needs or the world as it is nowadays. Burns plays that dichotomy to the hilt, creating a well-meaning man who isn’t sure of the right thing to do.
Wiles expertly creates a character who is dumb but lovable. He walks the tightrope between foolish and wayward nicely, allowing for those shades of grey mentioned earlier to come to the forefront naturally. Dunne takes what could have been an annoying layabout and makes her sweet, in her own rough way. The main four share strong chemistry across the board, creating a realistic family portrait.
Beneath The Blue Suburban Skies has one more main character in it not yet mentioned: the house in Queens where most of the action takes place. The location has a lived-in quality that reverberates with everything said and unsaid between everyone in its walls. It is instantly familiar and intimate from the first frame, inviting viewers inside to experience the highs, lows, love, and fights of the resident family. Such precise setting detail is an Edward Burns specialty, evident throughout his indie filmmaking career, but rarely is it as pronounced and nuanced as it is here.
Beneath The Blue Suburban Skies is a quiet, intimate drama with relatable characters and raw emotions. The actors wonderfully create well-rounded folks who mess up, even when trying their best. The writing is full of realistic dialogue and natural story beats; nothing is forced here, not even in the slightest. The black-and-white cinematography and setting detail invite all viewers into this space for an intimate, personal journey. This drama could very well be Edward Burns’s opus.
Beneath The Blue Suburban Skiesscreened at the 2026 Seattle Film Festival.
Several high-profile candidates are running to lead Toronto’s 23rd ward as major transit changes on the horizon for the area has made the region a competitive hotspot for the upcoming municipal elections.
The construction of a new Scarborough Line subway stop and promises of a new LRT from both mayoral frontrunners mean major projects are coming to Scarborough North and many are looking to lead the ward as infrastructure is built up.
Eight candidates are on the ballot for Scarborough North. While that includes an incumbent who held the high-profile position of TTC board chair, Jamaal Myers is facing fierce competition in his battle to retain his seat on council.
Former Liberal Party MPs Han Dong and Shaun Chen are hoping to win the council seat. Both think they have what it takes to make sure the ward’s interests are better served.
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Myers won in 2022 under unique circumstances after the incumbent councillor, Cynthia Lai, in the race died on the eve of election day.
The city never revealed how many votes Lai received, but Myers acknowledges he’s hearing from the former councillor’s supporters as he knocks on doors. One of whom was willing to give him a shot in the upcoming election, he said.
Like other suburban councillors, Myers said residents in the ward feel the city isn’t providing enough value for their tax dollars.
If re-elected, he is promising to make sure the borough gets its fair share of resources and investments from a city hall he feels is too focused on downtown issues.
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“I will be making sure that whoever is the mayor, that they are making sure that Scarborough is part of the conversation,” he said. “We’re also seeing the type of care and attention that other wards take for granted.”
But while Myers is pushing for his ward to be respected, both Chen and Dong said he was part of the problem.
During a contentious vote on whether to allow six-plexes to be built city-wide to meet the terms of federal funding agreements, Myers was the only suburban councillor to opt-into the zoning change.
When the item was debated in 2025, Myers noted that there were plenty of community consultations that took part in his ward before the item was voted on. “We did the work of answering a lot of questions, making sure there was no misinformation, having as many meetings as people wanted,” Myers said during the council meeting.
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“We eventually got people there, so maybe if they weren’t 100 per cent on board, at least they understood why we were doing this, that we need to build more affordable housing,” he said that July.
He also said during that debate that part of the reason for needing the change, was that the ward was experiencing a population decline. Gentle densification like multiplexes, he argued, could help address that issue.
However, Dong and Chen told Global News that decision was a mistake.
“We’re not a testing pit, I think that needs to be consulted neighbourhood-to-neighbourhood,” Dong said.
Despite telling Global News he doesn’t live in the ward, but plans to move there, Dong said he’s heard a lot of concerns over parking and changing the character of bungalow-heavy neighbourhoods.
Among the changes he’s pitching at the door are more regular community consultation meetings so residents feel included.
He also took aim at his former caucus mate, Chen, for failing to speak out about the six-plex changes while representing the ward federally.
“The MP for 11 years hasn’t gotten up, hasn’t spoken against, hasn’t expressed any opinion while he was in the position,” Dong said. “People are very frustrated.”
For his part, Chen, who resigned his federal post over lingering health issues from a car crash before jumping into the local race, said he shares concerns over the zoning changes.
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“That is a local council decision and particularly a decision the local councillor has a huge say on,” Chen said, suggesting it wasn’t his place as a federal representative to muscle in on the decision.
But he said the fact that Scarborough North was the only riding outside of the Old City of Toronto to opt in remains an issue in the ward.
“It means we got to do our homework and as the local councillor, I will make sure that I do my homework,” he said, vowing to speak to residents before making critical decisions that represent local concerns and character.
Sajawal Javed, Kevin Li, John-Mark Oleh, Ronald Phen and Piravena Sathiyanantham are also registered to run in Scarborough North.
The duo will headline the next installment of the HBO anthology series, which is set to begin production in 2027.
The new season hails from showrunner Issa López, who helmed the Alaska-set fourth season, “Night Country,” starring Jodie Foster and Kali Reis. Season 5 will take place in Jamaica Bay, New York.
Few character details are known, but Banderas will star as Rai García while Cage will play the role of Henry Logan.
López is the writer and director, executive producing alongside writer Daniel Zelman as well as Mari Jo Winkler, Kathleen McCaffrey, Cage, Banderas, Steve Golin, Richard Brown, Nic Pizzolatto, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey.
Created by Pizzolatto, “True Detective” has been nominated for 41 Emmys and has won six, including for actors Harrelson, McConaughey, Ali and Foster. Per HBO, Season 4 was the most-watched installment of the show to date, with 12.7 million cross-platform viewers.
Banderas is coming off of celebrated roles in the Anthony Bourdain biopic “Tony” as well as the Nicole Kidman-led “Babygirl.” He also starred in “The Mask of Zorro” and “The Legend of Zorro” and voices Puss in Boots in the Shrek franchise.
Cage is best known for “Pig,” “Dream Scenario,” “Leaving Las Vegas” and, of course, “National Treasure.” “True Detective” marks just the second lead television role in his career, following his performance in the dark superhero series “Spider-Noir.”
Banderas is represented by NuCo Media Group and Greenberg Glusker. Cage is represented by WME, Stride Management and attorney Patrick Knapp.
Oxylabs, Decodo, Webshare, ScrapingBee, and Honeygain now formally sit under one Vilnius-based umbrella called Source
Source claims AI agents drove a fourfold increase in demand for services across its organizations
The brands, previously reviewed as rivals, including three of TechRadar’s nine best-proxy picks, now officially share common oversight
Oxylabs, Decodo, Webshare, ScrapingBee, and Honeygain have formally come together under a single name, Source, and the Lithuanian group behind them says AI agents are why it needed one.
The Vilnius-based ecosystem claims demand across its companies has risen fourfold in a year as AI agents, next-generation search tools, and frontier AI products pull live data from the web.
Its systems now process 1.5 million requests per second, and that it is expanding into web search APIs built specifically for AI agents.
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One umbrella with five different, competing shopfronts?
Source presents itself as a backbone rather than a business. Its launch post says it has no customers or products of its own; instead, it handles patents, procurement, hiring, and compliance, while each brand keeps its own team, product strategy, and customer base.
The brands are split by customer type. Oxylabs serves enterprises and AI labs; Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) targets the mid-market; ScrapingBee sells developer APIs; Webshare serves professional consumers and solo builders; and Honeygain pays ordinary people for their spare bandwidth.
For anyone shopping for a proxy service, this is the most practical takeaway. Oxylabs bought Webshare in 2022 and ScrapingBee in 2025, and Honeygain became its main residential proxy sourcing partner in 2021.
Decodo’s ties were less clear-cut until now, and trade site Proxyway notes that the launch officially links Oxylabs and Decodo under one organization. Source CEO Vytautas Savickas ran Decodo until March 2026, when he moved across to lead the Oxylabs group and founder Julius Černiauskas became chairman.
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All of this points to a marriage of convenience rather than a merger by organizations that are already very closely interlinked. This is interesting because some of these brands have been sold and reviewed as alternatives to one another.
The best example of this is that three of the nine picks in TechRadar’s own best proxy sites guide now belong to Source: Decodo as best overall, Oxylabs as best for business, and Webshare as best for privacy.
For context on the overlap, our residential proxy roundup described Oxylabs as one of Decodo’s toughest competitors. Source says the companies remain fully independent in strategy, customers, and market presence, and that may well hold commercially, but common oversight is now a matter of record.
The release provided to TechRadar says Source gives the group “a unified voice in defending responsible access to public web data,” and its legal history explains the appetite.
Reddit sued Oxylabs alongside Perplexity, SerpApi and AWMProxy in October 2025, alleging they evaded its anti-scraping measures by lifting Reddit content from Google search results. Oxylabs said it was “shocked and disappointed” and would defend itself.
Source’s own essay on AI agents and the open web argues that if access is negotiated one licensing deal at a time, only the biggest companies will be able to afford it. This makes a convenient argument for a large web scraping group, but the gatekeeping fears are real.
The most concrete product promised here is AI search, and it is older than the umbrella itself: Oxylabs already offers a Web API that pairs a search endpoint with a scraping endpoint for agents, so the “dedicated AI Search APIs” promised look more like an expansion of existing work than a new product line.
For customers, the questions to watch are whether the brands keep competing on price, how clearly each one discloses their newfound relationship, and how the Reddit case plays out for Oxylabs.
For everyone else, Source is a bet that AI agents will keep needing the live web, and that the companies supplying the pipes deserve a seat at the table when the rules for that access get written, aiming to negotiate from a clustered position of strength.
The latest Romain Gavras-directed gem, which veers between broad comedy, sharp social commentary and thrilling adventure (sometimes in the same scene), stars Anya Taylor-Joy as an environmentally minded terrorist who hijacks a bunch of doofuses at a fundraiser. Among them are Chris Evans’ action star and Vincent Cassel’s Musk-like tech mogul. The film, “Sacrifice,” is currently streaming on Netflix, more than a year after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival.
And maybe it makes sense that it took “Sacrifice” so long to show up in America, considering Gavras had been carrying around the idea “for a long time.”
“I’ve had almost every time I walk into an award ceremony,” Gavras said. He clarifies that he wasn’t trying to lampoon charity events (“There’s some really good charities”) but that he does remember attending an event in London and thinking, Oh, you couldn’t put this in a movie. “The fakeness was just pure madness and pure virtue signaling,” Gavras said. “It was so extreme that if you put it in a film, nobody would buy it.”
He thought about his own childhood and his Greek father (the “Z” filmmaker Costa-Gavras) and how he wasn’t allowed to watch Disney movies. Instead, he was fed the real fairy tales — “grand stories of moms eating their kids and people getting thrown in volcanoes.” Finally, the two halves of “Sacrifice” started wiggling together.
“From that cheeky, mischievous idea of like having an armed group arriving at a vanity gala, I was thinking, Okay, what would it need in order to not make it to not make it too zeitgeisty or to in our time? What if they had a set of beliefs that is mythical and is something we haven’t seen, but it is very faith-based,” Gavras said. It became clear – he would “have this performative group meeting people that have really strong faith.” “And not to say that one is better than the other. Because when you have very strong faith, it can also lead to a type of extremism and madness,” Gavras explained.
Gavras met with Will Arbery, a playwright and writer on “Succession,” and together they wrote what would become “Sacrifice.” Gavras drew on memories of shooting a music video in a Greek marble quarry (“They excavated for the Parthenon, but this in like 1000s of years ago, but they still make toilets. It’s like Gimli in ‘Lord of the Rings’ – ‘They dug too deep’”) and imagery from classic fantasy films. He said he’d love to make a big sword-and-sandal movie one day and counts “Gladiator” as one of his favorite films.
One of the big surprises of “Sacrifice” comes in the opening credits, when you see that the luxury brand Gucci is one of the film’s co-producers. This becomes especially striking as you watch the movie, which mercilessly skewers the ultra-wealthy.
“Sacrifice,” Gavras explained, was produced independently. “It looks big but it’s a small film. You get money where you can,” Gavras said. Gucci had read – and liked – the script and offered to help cover the production costs. Gavras said he liked the “multiverse idea” where Gucci is helping out on a movie that is also poking fun at people who wear Gucci. It’s Salma Hayek, he said, who “is playing someone that’s not her at all, but is adjacent. With Chris, it’s the same. I think there’s something interesting to play on all those elements. To have Gucci as a partner, I think is interesting, and it tells that story in a meta way.”
Gavras, who also wrote and directed the genuinely incredible “The World Is Yours” (about a small-time French hood who dreams of selling ice cream novelties in Africa) and “Athena” (a muscular, politically acute action movie about a riot that breaks out in a French housing development), said he is keenly aware that “Hollywood has been interested in what it does best – dragging European directors or South American directors and making them do Marvel movies.”
He wasn’t interested in following the same path, but he knew he had a certain amount of heat coming off “Athena” that he could cash in.
“I knew I had the moment where it’s like, Okay, are you going to do a big Hollywood movie? Or are you going to try to wrangle the clout or whatever that you have at that time and make this weird–s fucking movie that you want to make?” Gavras said. He chose the latter. Or, as he said: “I had a moment where people were excited about working with me, and instead of you know shooting a superhero movie, I was like, Why not throw a superhero in a volcano?” (And, yes, he was offered a ton of big studio projects that he refused to name.)
It wasn’t money that brought the actors to “Sacrifice,” since he said that it was made for nothing and that the production was difficult, with the team “shooting in Greece in real locations like a river in Bulgaria or in a half-active volcano.” Still, everyone was game. “Sacrifice,” as he saw it, was something of an antidote to the kind of things these actors were typically doing. “I think it’s fun for actors that are used to green screens and it almost like a day job to come on an adventure with like a director that says, Let’s make something that we haven’t seen before.”
Tonally, “Sacrifice” required a fine line to walk – something that he worked on from the script stage through the edit. He found this freeing after “Athena,” which was both technically and thematically a straight line, composed of long, unbroken shots and an all-killer, no-filler approach.
“I like the idea of encapsulating in one frame, something that can be absurd, violent, funny, petty, beautiful. Maneuvering that tone where the film starts, where you think like, Oh, it’s a satire, and then you get taken on this ride where it’s rug pull after rug pull, and then you basically go into ‘Lord of the Rings,’” said Gavras. “It’s it’s the type of film where you have to see it as a roller coaster, where you go in open and go on this ride and accept the voice or not.”
Part of what grounds “Sacrifice” are the earnest performances, particularly of Evans, who plays a parallel universe version of himself – an action star so used to playing bulletproof heroes that he can’t wrangle with the tragedy in his own life. “I think he’s very sweet and I think this is why he’s brilliant. You could hate him really easily, but he brings a sweetness that I think has heart,” said Gavras. There’s a great moment towards the start of the film where Evans is on his way to this environmentally minded gala and he’s showing up in an old limo. He feels so guilty and is so worried about how that might look that he gets out and walks to the gala.
But why did it take “Sacrifice” so long to come out?
According to Gavras, it was business as usual for an independent movie.
“That’s the hard part of making independent movies is that you have those territories that are being bought and then to make a deal between the territories and between the streamer for the U.S. It’s complex and part of me is really proud to do indie movies but like part of me is like, Oh my god this is so tiring, because it’s a hard market,” Gavras said. Not that he made it easy on himself. “I think the film also sits in a weird place where it looks like a massive movie, but it’s an indie movie. I think it’s partly that.”
If Gavras had made it with a studio partner, he said, it would have been much easier “but because we pre-sold to a lot of territories, everything becomes a puzzle. That’s just the nature of the way we built the movie to make it happen.”
Netflix eventually emerged as the frontrunner for domestic distribution because of their relationship with Gavras (“Athena” is a Netflix movie and “The World Is Yours” streamed on the service for many years). “It just made sense at some point for the U.S. to go with them,” Gavras said with a shrug. He’s a little disappointed that the movie isn’t being released in theaters in America (something critic and noted Gavras-head Bilge Ebiri pointed out), especially since he said, “we shot this movie for Imax.” Not that he’s that disappointed. He notes that you can also see it in a theater in Europe or South America.
“There is something democratic for me where you enter every home, especially with a movie like this, where people are seeing like mega-stars and they’re going to think like, Oh, I’m going to watch an action movie, and then they like, What is this? I like that,” said Gavras.
As for what’s next, Gavras doesn’t know. He dreams of being sent a script by a big studio that is note perfect. But it hasn’t happened yet. It might never happen. That’s okay. He’s got sh-t to do. He’s making music with his band GENER8ION and he usually directs the music videos. (A recent project with Yung Lean was nominated for four MTV Video Music Awards and they did an incredible performance at the show.) And he’s still thinking about that sword-and-sandal movie.
“I think I’m still a little bit young and connected. Like I think in five or ten years I won’t understand the world. I will understand the world like an old man. I still have 10 years before I do a period thing. But because of my Greek heritage, I am always dreaming about sword and sandals,” said Gavras.
Hey, after throwing movie stars into a volcano, a sword-and-sandal movie should be a breeze.
Baby Do Die Do review: Huma Qureshi shines as a deaf-mute hitwoman in Nachiket Sawant’s stylish black comedy thriller, but the film falters later.
Baby Do Die Do is a fast-paced black comedy thriller led by a terrific Huma Qureshi. The film is stylish and inventive but loses its grip in the second half.
Baby Do Die DoA
3/5
3 July 2026|Hindi2 hrs 05 mins | Action, Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Baby Do Die Do Review: Fast-paced, atmospheric, cheeky and perpetually thrilling, Baby Do Die Do may, at first glance, sound like an offbeat title looking to startle curiosity. But this Nachiket Sawant directorial, which transforms Jasmeet K Reen’s story into a thrilling and entertaining watch, is sautéed with all the delectable ingredients that make a black comedy thriller not just gripping, but visually appetising too. The film, which deftly blends the eccentricities of indie filmmaking with the recognisable markers of a typical commercial movie, may perhaps seem jarring in the beginning. But the deeper you sink into its strange, neon-streaked world, the more you develop an appetite for this new breed of storytelling, where something fresh keeps surfacing beyond the usual clichés that so often inundate this genre. But is everything truly hunky-dory enough for the film to set itself apart from others? Let’s find out.
Two little twin girls wander into a partially constructed five-star hotel somewhere in Mumbai as rain lashes the city with relentless fury. One of the girls is deaf and mute, while the other narrates the story, lamenting the poverty-stricken world they come from and observing how a sprawling place like this is big enough for anyone to disappear into. As the two explore the skeletal structure of the building, they unexpectedly witness a murder.
With their gaze frozen on the grisly occurrence, the pup in one of the girls’ arms lets out a whine. The sound diverts the killer’s attention towards them. The twins run for their lives, the deaf and mute sister wearing an anklet so she does not get separated from her sibling. The sound of the anklet is her assurance that her sister is nearby.
The murderer follows them, crawling surreptitiously, his face obscured by a handkerchief, whistling ominously like a predator announcing doom through a nursery rhyme. As one of the sisters scurries into a room, the murderer follows her inside and locks the door. The scene then cuts to the dead body of one sister, while the other stands just a few feet away from her. It is then revealed that the deaf and mute sister is alive, and the one who died was the sister who could speak.
We return to the present, where a woman wielding an umbrella enters a local train. She eyes a man across the crowd who is speaking to someone on the phone. She secretly clicks his picture and forwards it to a contact saved as “Papa.” A thumbs-up emoji flashes on her screen. She walks up to the man, stands next to him, mildly presses the umbrella against him and then pulls a trigger, killing him before silently getting off at the next station.
The woman is none other than Baby Karmarkar, played by Huma Qureshi, the same deaf and mute sister who had lost her twin in that hotel years ago. She is now a hitwoman working for PM Jain, played by Chunky Panday, whom she refers to as Papa, because after her sister’s death, he took her under his wing and groomed her. Baby too took up these hit jobs so that, one day, she could come face to face with the person who killed her sister and finally avenge her.
PM Jain, aka Papa, carries out this killing business on behalf of Zafar Katekar, played by Sikandar Kher, a powerful Mumbai builder who has constructed one of the tallest towers in the city after his younger brother Lucky, played by Arun Kushwah. Zafar has a very particular way of getting things done. He either talks people into submission or removes them from the face of the earth with PM Jain’s help.
Coming back to our protagonist, Baby Karmarkar, when she is not executing people, she returns to her house, where her mother keeps venting and repeatedly tells her what a good-for-nothing woman she is, and that she should have died that night instead of her sister. The monologues of her dead sister also keep resurfacing as Baby stands on her rooftop, silently observing the world around her.
On another rooftop, she sees two lovers, and through her expressions, we glimpse her yearning to love and be loved. The voice of her dead sister exclaims how Baby, in her search for a murderer, became a murderer herself.
Just across the building lives another interesting character named Amandeep Singh Siddhu, played by Rachit Singh, a singer who arrived in Mumbai with soaring aspirations but now teaches music as a tool to reform children with criminal dispositions. He is also secretly in love with Baby. We see this through a very creative music montage of him crossing paths with her in his day-to-day life, as the two quietly acknowledge each other and he falls for her even more.
Baby too craves love and the tenderness of being loved. Her sister’s voice, floating in the background like a ghostly conscience, motivates her to drop the idea of revenge and perhaps experience love once in her life.
However, Baby’s story takes a turn when Zafar asks PM Jain to eliminate another builder named Mikky Murjhani, played by Himanshu Malik. Manu, played by Marudhar Shekhwat, who also works alongside Baby, wants to do this job himself. However, when he fumbles, Baby finishes the job, only to become increasingly dissatisfied with the kind of life she is leading.
To her surprise, Amandeep directly asks Baby’s mother for her hand, and Baby too agrees to marry him. Papa is evidently not happy with her decision, but he masks his displeasure with a smile and participates in her wedding festivities. Soon after her marriage, PM Jain, who is being blackmailed by a broker, tries to reach out to Baby so the man can be eliminated. But when he is unable to contact her, he gives the job to Manu, who shoots the wrong person inside the court premises. Coincidentally, the man he shoots is the father of Faizu, one of Amandeep’s disciples. Baby eventually kills the broker with a sniper. But as soon as he falls to the ground, she sees Amandeep with him. He had earlier told her that they needed a bigger place, and perhaps he had come to speak to the broker for that very reason. Realising the consequences of her work and how it can place her husband in harm’s way, she tells Papa that she will no longer be his hitwoman. PM Jain, though unhappy, respects her decision. But from that point onwards, things begin to crumble around Baby as her secret life slowly comes into the fore. What she does next is what the film explores.
Good things first, Baby Do Die Do is a creative film and does not shy away from employing unique aspects of editing and cinematography to tell its story. Whether it is the intertitle montage used to depict Amandeep’s crush on Baby, straight out of the silent film era, or other interesting visual and editing flourishes, this Nachiket Samant directorial genuinely has some smart storytelling moments that keep the viewer engaged.
On top of that, the pulpy, neon-esque portrayal of Mumbai, while not entirely unprecedented, fits neatly into the mould of the screenplay and feels rather apt. The dark humour, which mostly hits more than it misses, will draw chuckles out of you. Some characters, such as Baby’s mother or Lucky, Zafar’s dwarf but equally egotistical brother, bring a certain kind of understated comic relief to this fast-paced thriller. They contrast nicely with more grounded characters like the lovesick Amandeep or the incompetent Manu, played by Marudhar Shekhwat, making for a versatile bunch.
The film also excels in a few plot twists that throw your predictions off the charts, along with the musical score by Arjun Iyer and Lijo George, which accentuates what is happening on screen. There is also a double entendre song, “Alpha Q”, featuring a very queer item number with Saqib Saleem at the helm, something we do not often get to see in the otherwise heteronormative landscape of Indian cinema. The song is not only interesting but has also been choreographed quite tastefully, coalescing well with the movie’s plot.
But that is the extent of Baby Do Die Do’s exuberance.
The film, which feels smart and intelligent in the first half, nosedives tragically in the second half. Not even the technical embellishments or strong acting can save a story that collapses under the weight of its own cleverness. While the first half establishes the premise exceptionally well, the second half falls prey to the usual clichés, where some plot twists do not come as a surprise because you had predicted them long ago. Some promising characters, like Anjum Khan, played by Seema Pahwa, are reduced to the periphery. The climax feels too rushed, ordinary and tame, and even the big reveal that arrives soon afterwards is not something that would make you leap out of your seat in surprise.
On the acting front, Huma Qureshi as Baby Karmarkar hits it out of the park with her portrayal of an intense deaf and mute hitwoman. Rachit Singh as Siddhu exudes the Golden Retriever energy of a lovesick man and embodies his character’s innocence authentically. Chunky Panday as PM Jain, mentor to Huma Qureshi’s Baby, also plays his character well, portraying a man who is a father figure but is also bound to the business of killing people. Sikandar Kher as Zafar, an emotionally volatile builder, brings a sinister energy to his portrayal, while Arun Kushwah’s Lucky is at his comic best, as always. Meanwhile, Seema Pahwa, Vidya Malavade, Himanshu Malik, Rupesh Bane, Marudhar Shekhwat, Mangal Kenkare, who plays Baby’s mother, Kailash Waghmare, Samaira Vijay, Shanaya Vijay and others are incredible in their roles.
Having said that, Baby Do Die Do could have been a lot more than what it eventually turns out to be. While it is not the smartest thriller out there, it is certainly different and has an unfamiliar edge that makes it partly entertaining and partly sloppy. The film does have its redeeming moments and will come across as entertaining, but in the larger scheme of things, it barely scratches the surface. With a sharper second half and a more rewarding climax, it could have hit the jackpot.
Yatamanyu Narain is a Sub-Editor at News18.com with a passion for all things entertainment. Whether he’s breaking the latest Bollywood news or chatting with rising stars in the OTT world, he’s always …Read More
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Rock band Pavlov’s Dog is mourning the loss of singer-songwriter and lead vocalist David Surkamp, who died Monday at age 74.
Violinist and Pavlov’s Dog member Abbie Steiling announced Surkamp’s death Wednesday on Facebook. Additional information about Surkamp’s passing, including a cause of death, was not revealed.
“David leaves behind a legacy of endless creativity, unmistakable artistry, and a body of music that has touched lives across generations and around the world,” Steiling said on the band’s behalf.
Pavlov’s Dog also remembered its vocalist for his “profoundly poetic spirit and a romantic heart that found its way into every note, every lyric and every performance.”
Surkamp was born May 23, 1952, and led Pavlov’s Dog, known for songs “Julia” and “Late November,” since its founding in 1973 in St. Louis. He founded the band alongside bassist Rick Stockton, violinist Siegfried Carver and drummer Mike Safron, according to the band’s website. The group, which first signed to ABC Records under a six-figure deal, released its debut album “Pampered Menial” in 1975. The release featured the band’s most popular songs and showcased Surkamp’s high-pitched and trembling, yet powerful, vocals.
Pavlov’s Dog’s second release “At the Sound of the Bell” followed in 1976 and its third, “Lost in America,” came more than a decade later in 1990. Surkamp departed Pavlov’s Dog while recording its junior album and traveled to Seattle to further develop his musical talents. This led to a collaboration with British musician Iain Matthews and their power pop duo Hi-Fi.
Surkamp and his Pavlov’s Dog collaborators reunited in the early 2000s and Surkamp’s wife, Sara, joined as a vocalist and guitarist. The group went on to tour Europe, including playing the Netherlands’ Arrow Rock Festival in 2006. Over the years, Pavlov’s Dog saw members come and go: Some musicians departed the group because of conflicting commitments and others — including founding members Carver and Rayburn — died in the late aughts and early 2010s.
The group, with Surkamp still at the helm, later released albums “Echo & Boo” in 2011, “Wonderlust” in 2025 alongside some live albums, remasters and unreleased demos.
“He always allowed the musicians around him to shine in their strengths, generous with the spotlight and appreciative of what each brought to the music,” Steiling continued in the band’s Facebook post. “No matter what life held for him, he came alive onstage. Even on his hardest days, when the lights came up and the count-off began, he was a consummate performer. If he was playing music, it was a great day.”
Surkamp was preceded in death by his wife Sara, who died in 2025 at age 72. He is survived by children Saylor and Evan.
“I don’t know what to say,” Winderbaum began. “It’s complicated. Sometimes you feel like you’re invincible and you can make whatever you want. Sometimes you don’t have leverage, and it’s subject to market forces that I barely understand.”
“I Fought For the Show”
While Winderbaum never pinpointed exactly what led to Wonder Man‘s cancellation, he seemed to indicate that Disney ultimately made the decision.
Image: Disney
“I fought for the show. We all did. Everyone at Marvel wanted to see it happen,” he continued. “Maybe I’m an idiot, but I still have hope that, by some miracle, there is a way to do something down the road.”
As we have seen time and time again, Marvel is willing to revisit characters and stories when audiences demand it.
Image: Disney
Perhaps the outcry over Wonder Man‘s cancellation will eventually lead to another chapter for the series.
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Clayface‘s U.S. R-rating has been clear for some time, but it’s its U.K. age rating that is a game-changer for the blue comic book brand. While Marvel Studios took over 15 years before expanding the MCU into the adult R-rated realm, DC Studios has taken that leap from day one with the DCU. That happened on the TV front already with Creature Commandos and Peacemaker, but will finally expand onto the big screen with Clayface on Friday, October 23, following the PG-13 ventures of Superman and Supergirl. The Batman villain spin-off will be DC’s first body-horror movie and will be R-rated in the U.S.
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) officially announced an adults-only 18 age rating for Clayface in the U.K. The DCU flick makes history as the first main continuity live-action DC movie to be rated 18+ for “strong bloody violence [and] injury detail.” Typically, an 18 rating in the U.K. corresponds to the upper end of the U.S. R rating, which makes sense for a body-horror blockbuster.
Looking back at previous R-rated DC movies, like Constantine, V for Vendetta, Joker, The Suicide Squad, Birds of Prey, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and Joker: Folie à Deux, they have all received a 15 rating in the U.K.
The only DC movie to earn an adults-only rating across the pond before now was Zack Snyder’s Watchmen for its strong violence, language, and sexual activity, although that is an Elseworlds story outwith the blue brand’s main continuity.
On the Marvel front, the Deadpool trilogy all landed with a 15 rating, as did Logan, but some older movies have been dubbed 18+ by the BBFC, such as Blade, Punisher: War Zone, and 2004’s The Punisher.
That said, DC Studios has already delivered two projects that received an 18 rating from the BBFC: Creature Commandos and Peacemaker Season 2. In the case of Peacemaker, that rating was exclusively due to the season premiere, seemingly due to the drug-fueled, nudity-filled orgy scene that kicked off Episode 1:
Creature Commandos – 18 (TV-MA)
Superman – 12 (PG-13)
Peacemaker Season 2 – 18 (TV-MA)
Supergirl – 12 (PG-13)
Lanterns – 15 (TV-MA)
Clayface – 18 (R)
Here’s Why Clayface Is the DCU’s Most Adult Movie Ever
DC Studios
Clayface isn’t just a DC movie that happens to contain some gruesome moments; it is a full-on body-horror movie from Mike Flanagan and James Watkins, two filmmakers renowned for the nightmare-inducing genre. The 18 age rating is the most convincing sign yet that DC Studios is truly embracing the horror of it all.
The studio has already revealed horrifying looks at Clayface’s transformation, but that won’t be fully unveiled until the movie arrives in a matter of days. Thus far, DC Studios has only shared a few minutes of Clayface‘s 1 hour, 48 minutes runtime, so there’s no doubt that the biggest horrors are still to come.
The movie is clearly leaning heavily into the gore of Matt Hagen’s tragedy, with plenty of blood and gruesome moments that will make moviegoers wince. That news may help Clayface appeal to horror-heads who usually wouldn’t turn up for a comic book movie, but may turn off some of the DCU’s usual audience.
If Clayface proves successful for DC Studios, it wouldn’t be surprising if more villains eventually got the Matt Hagen treatment, leaning into the brutality and adult nature of their stories. However, if Clayface flops, even with its low $40 million budget, DC Studios is bound to prioritize PG-13 projects for the big screen, keeping more adult stories for streaming under the TV-MA rating.
‘Father of PlayStation’ Ken Kutaragi says he understands the frustration from some players over Sony’s decision to end physical disc production, and suggested game companies need to change sentiment around digital ownership.
Kutaragi, who oversaw the creation of the first three PlayStation consoles before his departure in 2007, has long predicted the transition away from physical media. As far back as 2006, he stated that he believed digital distribution would eventually remove the need for discs, or even hard drives via online streaming.
Asked this week for his views on Sony’s decision, the 76-year-old acknowledged that Sony’s handling has “caused some friction with game enthusiasts”, even if he believes it isn’t “economically reasonable” for PlayStation to continue dedicating resources to discs.
“Although we had network capability back in the PS2 and PS3 days, it was not that common [as it is today]. Now, many, many people are connected,” Kutaragi told VGC.
“I understand that physical discs have become a metaphor for ‘owning’ games. I really understand that mentality… But nobody thinks [physical media] is necessary for a networked device like a smartphone, for example, because people feel that they will keep their content. So it’s a mentality.
“I really understand [why some people are upset], but I don’t think it’s economically reasonable. Maybe it’s a mentality issue.”
Kutaragi said that PlayStation’s current leadership may be shifting away from the traditional idea of a game console towards a network-connected platform for delivering all kinds of content, and that this conflicts with what many dedicated gaming fans want.
“I’m not the CEO at PlayStation anymore, but we still have some common [viewpoints]. Right now, Sony Interactive Entertainment has many people who have come from outside, like from Gaikai or streaming companies.
“So it’s understandable that by utilizing network connectivity [they may see] PlayStation as not just a game console, but also a content terminal. Maybe that’s how those people are thinking. But this has caused some friction with game enthusiasts.”
PlayStation co-creator predicts consoles could end
Ken Kutaragi is best known as the architect of the original PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3. Since leaving Sony in 2007, he served as an outside director for several companies, including Rakuten, Kadokawa, SmartNews, and GA Technologies. He is currently the CEO of Ascent Robotics and Cyber AI Entertainment.
At Game Horizons, the former PlayStation chairman held a keynote talk hosted by The Game Business in which he shared his views on the current state of console gaming and what could come next.
“When we released PlayStation 2, people would ask me, ‘what’s next?’ And I would say, ‘merging with the network’. [I expected] everything would merge with the network and that’s what’s happening right now,” he said, adding that he was concerned about the growing price of consumer hardware, caused by the global components shortage.
“Currently, machines are super expensive and that’s not a healthy situation… [even though] architecture has changed direction from console-based to PC-based, with the intention of making the platform easier to create, but right now PCs are so expensive. It’s the price of a car! It’s not healthy,” he said.
Hardware manufacturers need to “find elegant solutions”, Kutaragi said, and if gaming firms are able to utilise AI and cloud computing to their full potential, “we won’t need any console”. He added, “this isn’t an official comment from Sony Computer Entertainment!”
Anyone who waited by the stage door at London’s Trafalgar Theatre last year may well have unwittingly been offered a major clue about a development within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In a move unlikely to have been approved by Kevin Feige, Scottish actor Ruaridh Mollica, making his West End debut in “Clarkston,” appeared at the door one evening wearing a “VisionQuest” hat. Smiling next to him: his stage co-star Joe Locke sporting an “Agatha All Along” cap.
Locke by then had already been seen in “WandaVision” spin-off “Agatha All Along” as Billy Kaplan, the reincarnation of Billy Maximoff (one of the sons of Wanda Maximoff and Vision). But it would still be several weeks before news leaked that Mollica, a Sundance breakout the previous year for his lead performance in “Sebastian,” would be joining the MCU as his older twin brother, Tommy Shepherd/Tommy Maximoff (also known as the superhero Speed) in the next series.
“It had been a little secret that we had to keep together on stage… so this was just some clues and hints!” Mollica tells Variety with an excited smile from the plush downstairs Drawing Room of London’s Raffles Hotel. We’re speaking the morning before the U.K. premiere of “VisionQuest” (now out on Disney+) and the fast-rising actor is a lively and enthusiastic ball of energy (a gruelling schedule of junket interviews is still ahead of him).
The youthful-looking 26-year-old had turned a good few heads in the indie world thanks to Mikka Mäkelä’s tender 2024 drama “Sebastian,” in which he played an aspiring writer in London who moonlights by night as a male escort. But by the time of the British Independent Film Awards towards the end of the year, where he was nominated for breakout performance, he already had “VisionQuest” in his sights, giving him one of the swiftest leaps from arthouse films to the superhero world to date.
Amusingly, just before sending his first “VisionQuest” self-tape (for a show he knew almost nothing about, not even the title), Mollica had appeared in “The Franchise,” HBO’s satirical send-up of the superhero franchise industry, playing a frazzled PA on the set of a deeply troubled spandex-heavy movie.
“So when I saw the Marvel logo I thought, oh, well, I’m never going to get that … because I’ve just taken the piss out of them!” he says with a laugh. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to matter, and within a few months he was invited to New York to screen test alongside “Vision” himself, Paul Bettany, and “VisionQuest” creator and showrunner Terry Matalas.
Mollica’s Tommy is introduced in “VisionQuest” midway through the first episode as a teenage hustler, pickpocket and conman on the streets of London. “He’s a grifter,” he says, adding that many of the references he used were from Matt Damon’s performance in “Good Will Hunting.”
“He’s an orphan. He not got anyone. He’s had to build who he is by himself, and there’s a loneliness to that, and a yearning for family,” he says. “And Matt Damon portrayed that character so unbelievably well that I feel like it is the archetype of a lot of male characters.”
But, being the second spin-off from a show in the fourth phase in Marvel’s increasingly complex universe of characters (many of whom were vanquished at the end of phase three), there’s a hefty backstory to contend with. In somewhat abridged form, at the end of “Agatha All Along,” Shepherd — having drowned — has the consciousness of Tommy Maximoff put in his body by Locke’s Billy.
“And suddenly, my character has visions of a family, but it’s a father who’s a robot and a mother who’s a witch… and they’re the Avengers… and there’s fucking lasers and guns and explosions!”
MCU siblings Joe Locke and Ruaridh Mollica with their dad Paul Bettany at the ‘VisionQuest’ UK premiere.
Getty Images for BFI
While Maximoff’s unorthodox heritage was something that Mollica had to try to get his head around, there was another element to the character much closer to home: his bisexuality.
“I feel like Marvel did a great job by casting a bisexual actor for this and it’s such an honor to be portraying that in the MCU,” he says. “I feel so seen.”
With Locke now as his superhero sibling, Mollica rejoices in the fact that there are “these queer twin brothers in the MCU together … it’s so cool.”
Mollica says there was some discussion around the fact that Tommy isn’t shown being attracted to other men in the show.
“He’s flirting with Lisa Molinari, but I think that’s makes me feel more seen as bisexual,” he says. “Because that’s the whole point. It’s not necessarily about who you’re dating, it’s about who you are inside, and who you want to flirt with. So I hope that me being bisexual and playing this part is good for people to feel seen and represented.”
As he grew into the role, Mollica says he simply ended up being himself. But there was another personal factor helping out here, one — unlike Tommy’s sexuality — that wasn’t in the comic books.
By the time of his test screening, it was undecided whether Mollica — born in Italy but raised in Edinburgh — would have to use an American or English accent. “And when we were doing it, Paul was just like ‘Terry, what do we think about his own accent?’” Mollica’s response: “Really? A Marvel superhero can be Scottish?”
Mollica sadly can’t claim to be the first Scottish superhero on screen (he looked it up — Richard Madden earned that crown as Ikaris in “Eternals”), but it’s still something he’s exceptionally proud of, not to mention one less thing to worry about.
“It’s always such a treat to champion Scotland,” he says, adding he’s “been so jealous” of Ewan McGregor who’s managed to “be Scottish, even in his American roles.”
And yet, while Mollica isn’t quite McGregor just yet, his Scottishness is something he’s been able to keep going across multiple upcoming projects.
Earlier this year, he shot the London-set indie feature “Bare,” based on Lorna Tucker’s memoir and being led by “Bridgerton” breakout Florence Hunt. Mollica says Tucker cast him — and the entire ensemble of actors — ”because of our own personalities.” He was, effectively, playing himself, “which was more scary and so much more vulnerable, because you’re not hiding behind a character.” The experience was, he says, the first job where he “realized I was an artist — because it was the first time you weren’t meant to act.”
Following “Bare,” Mollica jumped straight on a motorcycle alongside Channing Tatum for the Brad Pitt-produced film “Isle of Man,” about the famed race, playing a (Scottish) rider. It was role his agent effectively bullied into happening, with the actor — entirely coincidentally — having passed his motorbike test in January. “He messaged me to ask, ‘Can you send me as many pictures and videos you have of you on your motorbike,’ — he just kept sending them to casting and I kept taking them until they were like, ‘Fine, you can have a meeting!’”
And just this week it was announced that Mollica was joining the cast of “Laird,” the very Scottish Paramount+ saga about family feuds and shady billionaires causing mayhem in the Highlands being led by Kenneth Branagh. Mollica — currently sporting a crop of dyed ginger hair for the role (the series is now in production) — plays the son of Branagh’s Scottish landowner.
It’s been a wild couple of years for Mollica, underscored by the show that’s just landed on screens and the one he’s about to shoot.
“I went Paul Bettany being my dad to Ken Branagh being my dad,” he says. “How is that possible?”
Of course, should this sharp trajectory continue, Mollica will, at some point, have to put on an American accent.
“I can’t do one!” he whispers as we say our goodbyes. “No, hang on… for any casting director out there… I can do one!”
Some stars refuse to leave the building, even after the curtain falls. The ghost of Marilyn Monroe is said to linger near a Hollywood hotel mirror. The spirit of Elvis may still be shaking things up at Graceland, and somewhere between old movie studios, famous mansions, hotel rooms, crime scenes, and concert halls, a few other celebrated guests may be staying behind to star in their very own real-life ghost story.
Whether it be late, great Hollywood icons, rock legends who met a tragic end, presidents who never left the White House, or legendary outlaws with unfinished business, our world is full of bone-chilling tales of dead famous folk floating amongst their living fans. But what keeps these spooky tales alive? Are people witnessing the real restless spirits of the stars of the past? Or is this all just wishful thinking? Either way, if you’re afraid of ghosts, especially famous ones, then stay away from Hollywood, or Vegas, or Disneyland—or, you know what, pretty much any place where a famous person lived, ate, partied, or died.
Would you act out a real-life jump scare if a long-dead Hollywood icon suddenly appeared before your eyes? Would you investigate? Would you run away? Would you call the Ghostbusters? Or would you simply just curl up under your blanket like Haley Joel Osment and whisper, “I see dead celebrities”?
Are these celebrity ghost stories true, or are these just Hollywood fantasies of fans desperate for a final performance? Some are intriguing. A handful are hard to deny. Many are hard to trace. Some kind of seem like ghoulish tourist traps, and a few seem to have been created on the internet. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t truth behind them.
Let’s take a tour of some famous places where some famous people supposedly stayed behind.
Hollywood’s Most Famous Celebrity Ghosts
The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel may be the biggest celebrity ghost hangout in town. Marilyn Monroe is said to appear in a full-length mirror that once stood in her cabana suite. Montgomery Clift, who stayed at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel while filming From Here to Eternity, is said to haunt Room 928. In that room, you can hear him practicing his bugle or pacing around as he rehearses his lines.
But this hotel is not the only place where you can find Marilyn Monroe. Her ghost appears in many places, actually: at the home where she used to live, near her grave at Westwood Memorial Park, and at places all around Hollywood. The more beloved the star, the more places that seem to claim a piece of her.
James Dean’s ghost is another one that’s been spotted around. Some local stories say that Dean or his Porsche have been seen near the highway where he died. And there are some other tragic stories out there that lead people to believe that his Porsche was cursed, as it went on to kill again.
John Wayne is said to haunt several places, always dressed up as a cowboy, of course. You can see his ghost at the Alamo, where he reportedly talks to fallen soldiers. And when he’s not at the Alamo, John Wayne’s ghost seems to be haunting his old yacht, the Wild Goose, again dressed as a cowboy. Some have seen him at the historic El Rancho Hotel along Route 66, where classic Westerns were filmed. Guests and staff at El Rancho have reportedly seen full-bodied apparitions of John Wayne dressed as a cowboy. Of course, they’ve felt cold spots, and the sound of a horse can be heard when there was, like, no horse anywhere to be found. And John Wayne would ride horses.
Walt Disney and the Ghosts Haunting Disneyland
Walt Disney is said to ride a ghost train around Disneyland. In fact, Walt has been seen throughout Disneyland, walking around the park. There have been some reports of Walt-shaped shadow figures that leave behind a tobacco smell because he liked tobacco. His ghost is said to have whispered, “I’m still here,” letting everyone know that even death is not going to stop the boss from keeping an eye on his creation.
Walt Disney is also said to be haunting his former apartment above the Main Street fire station, and the lamp in the apartment window apparently turns on by itself. So, the Disney staff has just left it on as a tribute to Walt Disney.
Haunted Hollywood Studios and the Spirits of Classic Movie Stars
The celebrity ghost stories continue at the studios. Lon Chaney, the silent film star remembered as the original Phantom of the Opera, was said to appear on Universal’s Stage 28, which is where the 1925 film was shot. Rudolph Valentino, the silent-era Latin lover, is linked to his former home, Falcon’s Lair, and to Paramount’s lot. Other legends place Judy Garland at Broadway’s Palace Theatre, where she is said to be heard humming some lovely tunes.
The spirit of Orson Welles can be encountered at a Los Angeles bakery. Some accounts add the scent of Welles’ favorite brandy and cigars popping up every now and then out of nowhere. Lucille Ball is said to linger at her former Beverly Hills home, where later owners reportedly heard voices and found objects moved around. Joan Crawford’s old home has its own stories of disturbances and exorcisms, too. And George Reeves, the actor who played Superman on television, is said to appear in his old home wearing the costume that made him famous.
Charlie Chaplin is said to return to Musso & Frank’s, where he supposedly favored a particular booth. Clark Gable and Carole Lombard are linked to the Oatman Hotel in Arizona, where the two famous star-crossed lovers reportedly spent their wedding night. Carole Lombard is also said to haunt her former home, and there’s been talk of her spirit at her plane crash site.
Silent film producer Thomas Ince, actress Thelma Todd, actor Clifton Webb, and comedian Redd Foxx have all been associated with hauntings. And even the ghost of Anna Nicole Smith is said to haunt the lobby of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida, where she died.
John Belushi seems to still be partying at the Chateau Marmont. One account says a young child staying in his bungalow pointed to John Belushi’s photograph and called him the funny man—you know, the one he’d been seeing running through the hallways. The spirit of John Belushi seems to enjoy entertaining those with eyes innocent enough to see him. John Belushi’s ghost is still out there running through the hallways, which is even more bizarre when you think about how Belushi inspired Slimer in Ghostbusters.
Rock Stars Who Allegedly Haunt the Living
It seems like almost every dead rock star has a ghost story. Just assume that all of them do, but here are some worth mentioning. Amy Winehouse and all of the other members of the 27 Club seem to have returned to visit the living. Janis Joplin reportedly haunts the hotel room where she died. Staff and guests of the hotel have described closet doors opening and closing and lights flickering when her name is mentioned. The room has also become a shrine, with fans leaving artwork, notes, and bottles of Southern Comfort.
Courtney Love said she saw the ghost of Kurt Cobain shortly after she and their daughter moved into a Los Angeles home. Kurt appeared and said hi, then vanished. There are many reports of Jimi Hendrix’s ghost hanging out at Electric Lady Studios in New York City and at his former flat in London. Jim Morrison is said to linger at Sunset Sound Studios in Hollywood, where the Doors recorded many of their albums, and his surviving bandmates have described vivid dreams in which he appears.
Dan Aykroyd said that Mama Cass Elliot’s former home was haunted by her “lovely spirit,” describing jewelry being moved around, exercise machines turning on in the middle of the night, and the feeling that someone or something had climbed into bed with him on more than one occasion. Again, just like Ghostbusters.
Sid Vicious is said to linger at the crime scene where Nancy was killed. Allegedly, some say Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, or Ritchie Valens—or all three—haunt the site of their plane crash, where people have reported phantom lights and mysterious music. And on February 3rd, the anniversary of the tragic plane crash, locals claim they can hear a small phantom plane flying around. As you might know, this was known as the day the music died.
Elvis Presley, John Lennon, and Michael Jackson: Ghosts of Music Legends
Of course, Elvis Presley is said to haunt Graceland, Las Vegas, and Nashville. Many staff members report lights flashing and, you know, Elvis-shaped shadows. There are rumors that some people hear a phantom piano playing. Even Mr. Wayne Newton has witnessed the ghost of Elvis. He saw him sitting there on a balcony during one of his performances. And many sightings seem to occur backstage at the Las Vegas Hilton.
The ghost of John Lennon is said to haunt the Dakota, where he was murdered. There are rumors that Yoko Ono reported seeing him in their living room, sitting at his white Imagine piano. Of course, another John Lennon ghost story comes from Paul McCartney. While the surviving Beatles were recording “Free as a Bird,” Paul recalled strange things happening and the group feeling John Lennon’s presence.
Liberace is said to haunt the Las Vegas restaurant he once owned, with reports of electrical glitches and objects moving. The ghost of Frank Sinatra is said to make appearances around his old stomping grounds. The same goes for the ghost of Hank Williams.
Then there’s Michael Jackson at Neverland, which we actually have footage of. In 2009, after Michael Jackson’s death, viewers thought they saw a figure cross a hallway during a CNN tour of the ranch. And that figure was kind of shaped like a Michael Jackson shadow, maybe. Is Michael Jackson’s spirit moonwalking through the halls of Neverland? You be the judge. And look at this amazing footage.
When Living Celebrities Encounter the Ghosts of Dead Stars
Some celebrity ghost stories aren’t tied to a single place. They follow a person into a dream or a film set or just a private encounter. What happens when dead celebrities start visiting living celebrities?
Kendrick Lamar has described dreaming that the spirit of Tupac appeared to him with a message to keep going and keep the music alive. La Kint has made a much more unusual claim that Tupac “took over her body.” Helena Bonham Carter said a psychic told her that Princess Margaret approved of her playing her in The Crown. Catherine LaNasa said that the ghost of her former husband, Dennis Hopper, visited her after his death, then returned in a dream to tell her he was no longer in pain.
While living on the former property of O.J.’s wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, Megan Mullally and her husband, Nick Offerman, described hearing strange sounds in the house and feeling the spirit of Nicole. Ana de Armas said that the spirit of Marilyn Monroe would visit the set of Blonde and would somehow connect with the cast. And Loni Anderson recalled feeling Jayne Mansfield’s presence while portraying her in a television movie.
All these accounts tell us about the people who report them just as much as they tell us about the famous dead. These ghostly encounters seem to come across more as affection for the dead celebrity or unfinished grief. They’re just sharing some, you know, afterlife admiration, some artistic respect. But whatever this is, these living celebrities think they have a strong connection to dead people who had the same occupation as them. And, yeah, some may be joking, and some may just be dreams or memories or imagination that take on a supernatural shape, but, like I said, there’s always some truth behind it.
Presidential Ghosts: Abraham Lincoln and the Haunted White House
Historical figures count as celebrities, right? Celebrity ghosts aren’t just limited to movie stars and musicians. Anywhere you go in Washington, D.C., or Savannah, Georgia, everyone’s like, “George Washington’s ghost is in there,” or “Abraham Lincoln’s ghost is seen over there.”
Abraham Lincoln is one of the most famous celebrity ghost legends. There are stories of him all over the place, but the best ones are of him in the White House, where there are many reports of Abraham Lincoln looking out windows or appearing to visitors. There are actually a lot of dead presidents in the White House who do not want to leave. Andrew Jackson is said to stomp around and swear. You’re not allowed to swear in the White House. There are other collections of ghost stories that feature the spirits of John Adams, Harry Truman, and Thomas Jefferson. The details vary, but the stories have all been repeated for generations.
I like these presidential ghost stories. They show that a historic figure can become part of a building’s identity, and these presidential ghost stories usually make White House tours a little more fun.
Betsy Ross is said to linger in her Philadelphia home. Benjamin Franklin has been linked to the library of the American Philosophical Society. And there are figures from British history popping up all over British places, such as Henry VIII, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Prince Edward V. In fact, I’m actually sure that every country in the world probably has a celebrity historical figure ghost story.
Infamous Ghosts: Bonnie and Clyde, Al Capone, and Other Outlaws
The world is big. There are a lot of ghosts out there, and a lot of them are famous, and a lot of them are infamous, like the outlaws and notorious figures who have their own haunted addresses. The bloody ghosts of Bonnie and Clyde are linked to the Louisiana site where they were killed. And Al Capone, he apparently is haunting Alcatraz. People claim to hear banjo music near his cell. Jesse James is said to haunt his family farm. Bugsy Siegel’s ghost is still doing gangster business at the Flamingo in Vegas and a Beverly Hills mansion. Aaron Burr haunts a New York restaurant in a building that was once his carriage house.
There are just so many out there. People have seen dead poet Dylan Thomas, magician and escape artist Harry Houdini, and writer and humorist Mark Twain, who also have their fair share of famous ghost stories throughout the years.
Why Celebrity Ghost Stories Continue to Fascinate Us
These celebrity ghost stories kind of give us a way to talk about death in a more, you know, comfortable, fun way. You’ve got Monroe in a mirror, Lennon at the studio, or Lincoln at the White House. These stories turn the afterlife into an image that we can picture and a place that we can visit.
When adding a leading man or a doomed starlet to your ghost story, people seem to listen up a little bit more. They want to believe a little bit more. And for some people, it’s kind of nice to have a celebrity accompanying the question, “What happens after we die?” Turning the biggest mystery ever into a spooky motion picture for our imaginations, featuring our favorite movie stars, with music by our favorite rock stars, written by our favorite dead poets.
Being a part of such a ghost story makes the witness feel as if they’re co-stars with a famed performer, like death is not going to stop them from sharing a scene. Maybe they keep coming back because we aren’t finished remembering them. We preserve their voices in recordings, their faces in photographs, and their performances in theaters and on streaming, and their names are forever echoed in the places where their stories are being told.
A celebrity ghost story is not exactly proof of an afterlife, but a celebrity ghost story is an example of the mark a person can leave on a culture, a building, or just someone who admired their work. The person may be gone, but the story stays. And sometimes that story becomes a ghost story. The energy lingers, and the legend lives on.
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Social media has moved past the follower count, but influencer marketing has not. With her new venture, Cami Tellez is trying to change that.
Tellez, the 29-year-old marketing guru who in 2019 cofounded the Gen Z underwear brand Parade, launched Devotion earlier this year with the aim of building a creator marketing platform for the post-follower era. Her cofounder and CEO, Jon Kroopf, joined the firm following stints at TikTok and CreatorIQ.
On Friday, following a year of rapid growth, the company brought Ed Victori aboard as its first chief operating officer to accelerate those efforts, Tellez told ADWEEK.
Victori joins the startup from United Talent Agency, which he joined through its acquisition of JUV Consulting, where he was COO and helped lead the sale.
Home » Jeremy Renner Sums up Tesla’s Flying Car Reveal in 1 Word
Hawkeye star Jeremy Renner recently shared his reaction to Tesla’s reveal of a new flying car. The new flying supercar, called the Roadster, can reportedly reach about 60 mph in under a second. Tesla posted a video of the car flying on the social media platform X. Notably, both companies are owned by Elon Musk.
Jeremy Renner reacts to Elon Musk and Tesla’s flying car
Jeremy Renner recently shared his seemingly stunned reaction to the new flying car Tesla unveiled at an event held at a SpaceX test facility in Texas.
In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Renner reshared the video of the flying car Tesla posted and simply wrote, “Wow.” In the video, the car is seen climbing a speed ramp using suction underneath, then flipping off it before hovering in the air using air jets and landing softly.
Musk was present for the demonstration at the test facility in Texas, where he told the crowd that there was no driver in the car to make sure they “don’t kill anyone.”
According to The Guardian, Musk further said about the car, “Flying cars are real. It’s got altitude controls, thrusters, and main thrusters in the rear. So it can basically fly like a rocket; it can do rolls, crazy gymnastics.” The Tesla CEO added that the car is reportedly not legal under any jurisdiction and is “not necessarily a safety-optimized car.”
American reality TV personality Spencer Pratt also shared his reaction to the car on X and wrote in a post, “Dude. Elon Musk is on another planet.”
Musk also lauded his two companies, stating, “You’re going to see what happens when you have a collaboration with the world’s best car company and the world’s best rocket company. This is the culmination of incredible work by Tesla and SpaceX engineers.”
“I was crying in rehearsals today,” Stiles told me Thursday at the InStyle Imagemaker Awards in Los Angeles. “It’s so crazy.”
It was revealed earlier this week that Stiles and her professional partner Ezra Sosa will perform to Frankie Valli’s 1967 song “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” during “DWTS” Dedication Night. In “10 Things I Hate About You,” Ledger’s character serenades Stiles with the song.
“I know that Dedication Night is emotional, but I thought I was distanced from it enough. Like, oh, it was so many years ago,” Stiles said. “Something about seeing clips from that movie and images and hearing my voice and hearing his voice is bringing back so many memories. It’s a lot.”
Dedication Night airs on ABC on Oct. 20.
“One of the things that I’m taking away from this dedication is one of the things that we really hope to do as performers is to make people feel something and have people care about the work that you do, and his memory lives on because it was such an incredible performance,” Stiles said.
Stiles also said that “DWTS” producers had asked her to compete on the show for the past couple of years before she finally agreed to do it.
“I think it was turning 45,” she explained. “I was like, ‘I’m halfway to 90! Why not? It’s now or never.’ I knew that there were going to be emotional hurdles that I’m going to have to get over on this show, like getting over my own nerves, finding my love of performing again, being able to dance in front of an audience, all these things.”
And then Stiles deadpanned, “I was like, ‘Yeah, maybe I should tackle that in front of millions and millions of people.’”
