by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
You can support Leroy via Paypal or on Patreon:
Amazon wants me to inform/remind you that any affiliate links found on this page are PAID ADS, but I technically only get paid (eventually) if you click on affiliate links like this, MOVIES PAGE, and BUY something(s).
ENTERTAINMENT AND CULTURE NEWS:
DISNEY - From Deadline: ESPN has greelit a "30 for 30" documentary about the late ESPN anchor, Stuart Scott (1965-2015). According to "Deadline," Scott "shattered preconceived notions of how on-air figures were expected to look, talk, act, and think–and in the process, helped bring hip-hop and Black culture into the sports media mainstream." Currently in production, the film is being directed by Andre Gaines.
CINEMACON - From THR: Paramount revealed footage from "Gladiator 2," the sequel to the 2000 "Best Picture" Oscar winner, "Gladiator," at CinemaCon 2024. Reports suggest that the footage from the film, which is directed by Ridley Scott, director of the first film, left the audience very entertained.
From Deadline: Oscar-winning director Damien Chazelle will set his next film inside a prison, according to unconfirmed reports. The film will be part of his overall deal with Paramount.
TELEVISION - From Deadline: Remember when CBS' "S.W.A.T." was cancelled and its sixth season was to be its last before it got a reprieve for a seventh season. Well, CBS has renewed it for an eighth season.
NETFLIX - From Deadline: Prince Harry and Megan, the Duchess of Sussex are launching two non-fiction series at Netflix. This is part of the overall deal they signed with the streamer via their Archewell Productions in 2020.
CELEBRITY - From Variety: The Cinema for Gaza auction has received several new celebrity donations from the entertainment world, with its fundraising efforts now surpassing $200,000. Among the new lots are a “Joker” poster signed by Joaquin Phoenix. He also donated a poster for “You Were Never Really Here” that he signed alongside director Lynne Ramsay.
TELEVISION - From Deadline: Actor Malcolm Jamal Warner will guest-star on four upcoming episodes of ABC's "9-1-1." Warner, who is best known for his role on NBC's former sitcom, "The Cosby Show," was a series regular on Fox's drama, "The Resident."
MOVIES - From Deadline: Danny Boyle is set to direct the first film in the new "28 Years Later," the follow-up to his film, 28 Days Later, and its sequel, 28 Weeks Later, perhaps, later this year. Sony Pictures is already lining up a director for the second film and is talks with The Marvels and Candyman (2021) director, Nia DaCosta, to direct it.
TELEVISION - From Deadline: CBS has renewed "NCIS" and "The Neighborhood" for the 2024-25 broadcast season. For "NCIS," that will be its 22nd season. For the sitcom, "The Neighborhood," that will be it seventh season.
From Deadline: CBS has renewed its "FBI" franchise trio for the 2024-25 broadcast television season. "FBI: Most Wanted" will get a sixth season, and "FBI: International," will get a fourth. The flagship, "FBI," gets three-season renewal which will over Seasons 7 through 9.
TELEVISION - From Variety: Actor Kit Harrington, who played "Jon Snow" in HBO's "Game of Thrones," says that the Jon Snow spinoff series is no longer in development. Harrington says the team of showrunners/writers that he brought onto the project couldn't find the right story to tell.
MOVIES - From Variety: John Waters is trying to get financing for his first film in 20 years, "Liarmouth." Meanwhile, "Fruitcake," a sequel to "Hairspray" (1998), might happen.
BOX OFFICE - From Variety: A list the 30 highest-grossing films of all time. "Avatar" (2009) is #1 and "Skyfall" is #30.
MOVIES - From THR: The big Hollywood studios are apparently wary of Francis Ford Coppola's self-financed epic film, "Megalopolis." The word is that the film is too experimental and "not good," which makes the studios wary of spending 40 million prints and advertising and all marketing for domestic distribution and another 80 to 100 million for an international release.
CANNES - From Deadline: Francis Ford Coppola's "Megalopolis" will premiere in competition at Cannes 2024 on May 17th.
ANIMATION - From IndieWire: David Lynch says that Netflix has passed on financing his proposed animated feature film, "Snootworld." Although Lynch will not commit to directing the film, which he co-wrote with The Nightmare Before Christmas scribe, Caroline Thompson, he would produce the film. He is currently looking for new financiers.
MOVIES - From THR: The recent success of the hit film, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, practically ensures that Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros' "MonsterVerse" has a bright future.
CANNES - From Variety: The first installment of Kevin Costner's Western epic, "Horizon, an American Saga," will makes its premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. It will be shown out of competition May 19th. The film will be released in two installments, with the first debuting June 28th and the second arriving August 16th.
DISNEY - From Deadline: 20th Century Studios has closed a deal to finance and release "Deliver Me from Nowhere." This will be a narrative film written and directed by Scott Cooper and starring Emmy-winner, Jeremy Allen White ("The Bear"), as Bruce Springsteen in a pivotal moment in his life.
SCANDAL - From Deadline: Former Marvel Studios star, Jonathan Majors, has avoided jail time. Over three months after being convicted of "reckless assault and harassment," Jonathan Majors was sentenced by Judge Michael Gaffey in an NYC courtroom to participate a domestic violence treatment program. The one-year “in person batterers” intervention program will be in Los Angeles, where Majors is based.
BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficePro: The winner of the 4/5 to 4/7/2024 weekend box office is Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment's "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" with an estimated take of 31.7 million dollars.
From Here: Leroy Douresseaux reviews "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire."
MOVIES - From Deadline: 58 years after making his debut feature ("What's Up, Tiger Lily"), Woody Allen is sitting “on the fence” about whether his latest movie, "Coup de Chance," his 50th feature, will be his last cinematic outing. "The romance of filmmaking is gone," Allen says.
STAGE - From Deadline: The Jamie Lloyd Company has announced that its upcoming West End production of Romeo & Juliet, headlined by Sony/Marvel "Spider-Man" star, Tom Holland, will head to Broadway after its 12-week London run. Juliet will be played by Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, who is making her West End debut.
MOVIES - From Deadline: In a deal worth $500,000 against $1.5 million, Legendary Entertainment has optioned Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen‘s nonfiction book, "Nuclear War: A Scenario." Legendary plans to use the film adaptation potential reteam with director Denis Villeneuve, who has directed the "Dune" films for Legendary and Warner Bros. The expectation is that Villeneuve would work on this film after he finishes his third "Dune" film, "Dune: Messiah," which would be the final part of the "Dune" trilogy.
OBITS:
From Deadline: American screenwriter and director and documentary filmmaker, Eleanor Coppola, has died at the age of 87, Friday, April 12, 2024. Coppola is best known for her 1991 documentary film, "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse," for which she won two Emmy Awards. Eleanor was married to legendary film director Francis Ford Coppola from 1963 to her passing. They had three children: the late Gian-Carlo Coppola (1963-86), and filmmakers Sofia Coppola and Roman Coppola.
From ESPN: Former NFL player, actor, and broadcaster, O.J. Simpson, has died at the age of 76, Wednesday, April 10, 2024. Simpson was the 1968 Heisman Trophy winner at USC, and he was a member of the 1967 USC "National Championship" team that finished No. 1 in the AP and Coaches Polls. He was the No. 1 pick in the 1969 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills. When he retired in 1969, he was 2nd on the NFL's all-time rushing list. After football, Simpson had an active two-and-a-half decade acting career, appearing in such films as "The Towering Inferno" (1974), "Capricorn One" (1978), and the "Naked Gun" film trilogy. His television appearances included the ABC miniseries, "Roots" (1977), "Goldie and the Boxer" (1979), and "In the Heat of the Night" (1979). After his playing career, Simpson was a "color commentator," including on ABC 's "NFL Monday Night Football" (1983-85). However, Simpson will best be remembered for being arrested, charged, and later acquitted for the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her... friend, Ron Goldman, on June 12, 1994.
