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Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman have been entertaining fans for over a decade with their ongoing faux feuds.

Since the two met on set of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, they’ve grown to become close friends, giving fans countless reasons to laugh as their beef continues to escalate to date.

According to Jackman, here’s how the pair’s online flame war began.

“I met [Reynolds] back on [‘X-Men Origins] Wolverine’, and I used to ream him because I was very close friends with Scarlett [Johansson], and Scarlett had just married Ryan, so when he came on set I was like, ‘Hey, you better be on your best behaviour here, pal, because I’m watching,’ and we started ribbing each other that way,” he told Daily Beast back in 2020.

Read More: Ryan Reynolds Uses Hugh Jackman’s Face As Motivation To Learn Axe Throwing

“And then it all escalated with the ‘Deadpool’ thing and him calling me out,...

Throughout her storied career, Emma Stone has starred in a wide variety of movies, from raunchy teen comedies to Oscar-winning dramatic masterpieces. Some of Stone’s movies have been universally praised by critics, like Birdman and The Favourite, while others have been panned as one of the worst, like Marmaduke and Movie 43 – and there are plenty of middling efforts that rank somewhere in between. With challenging roles like a woman in recovery, an aspiring starlet, and a conniving courtier, Stone has earned a cabinet’s worth of awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe Award.

In 2017, Stone was included on Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Movie stars have to leave a huge impression on audiences to make this list. Stone is one of the few actors who can seamlessly transition between zany comedic roles and complex dramatic roles,...

Made-for-tv movies have developed from their Hallmark stereotype in recent years, thanks to the rise of companies such as HBO. Although these films feature lower budgets and smaller casts than larger productions, they offer directors and actors greater freedom – leading them toward more successful results.

Related: Top 10 Best TV Series of All Time, Ranked by Viewers

Despite this shift away from melodrama for sensationalism’s sake, made-for-tv movies remain a viable alternative to seeing stories on screen without spending too much cash or time in cinemas.

10 Highest-Ranked TV Movies on IMDb Duel (1971) – 7.6 You Don’t Know Jack (2010) – 7.6 Battlestar Galactica: Razor (2007) – 7.6 Conspiracy (2001) – 7.6 61* (2001) – 7.7 A Christmas Carol (1984) – 7.8 The Normal Heart (2014) – 7.9 Prayers for Bobby (2009) – 8.0 Threads (1984) – 8.0 Temple Grandin (2010) – 8.2 10 ‘Duel’ (1971)

Genre: Action, Thriller

Director: Steven Spielberg

Stars: Dennis Weaver, Jacqueline Scott, Eddie Firestone, Lou Frizzell

IMDb: 7.6/10 74K | Popularity: 1,865 | Metascore: 81 | Awards: 3 (1 Primetime Emmy Award)

“Duel,” a 1971 suspense thriller from the mind of acclaimed director Steven Spielberg, follows...

Apparently, it’s never too late to open a show on Broadway. With just 23 days left until the eligibility cutoff for the 2023 Tony Awards, “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” has just announced a Broadway transfer. The production will begin performances on April 25, with an opening night of April 27 at the James Earl Jones Theatre. The limited run will last just 80 performances, through July 2. This will officially make the play the final eligible production in the 2022-2023 Broadway season, throwing chaos into many Tony races.

The play is a political drama from the late Lorraine Hansberry which recently ended a run Off-Broadway at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (Bam). Rachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) and Oscar Isaac (“Scenes From a Marriage”) will reprise their starring roles in the Broadway mounting. This will mark Isaac’s Broadway debut, though he has numerous New York theater credits to his name,...

“If you want to make a TV drama about opium smokers, sadomasochists and imperial slavery in the 19th century, then write your own,” whines The Daily Mail‘s Peter Hitchens about Steven Knight’s new Great Expectations adaptation, presumably forgetting that in 2017, Knight did exactly that in 8-part Gothic Regency thriller Taboo.

Knight’s previous series starring Tom Hardy, bleeds into his take on Charles Dickens’ class and snobbery novel, which loses the comedy and grimes up the characters with the addition of adult content. Great Expectations returns to Knight’s constant theme of social mobility, moving away from ones roots, and the upper classes being mad, evil bastards, as explored in six series of Peaky Blinders.

Here’s the impressive cast amassed for this six-part drama.

Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham

Nobody needs an introduction to Olivia Colman, she’s been firmly in national treasure territory for years now,...

Since the invention of the moving image – an event that happened just a few decades after the death of Charles Dickens – there have been at least 18 prominent adaptations of Great Expectations. That’s Pip upon Pip, Magwitch upon Magwitch, Miss Havisham upon Miss Havisham. Everyone, from Alec Guinness and Joan Hickson to Robert de Niro and Ralph Fiennes, has been sucked into the Dickens industrial complex. And now, for no discernible reason, BBC One viewers are being treated to a new adaptation of the novel, this time scripted by Peaky Blinders supremo Steven Knight.

The show follows the adventures of Pip, a bright young orphan (“an orchid growing wild in the filth of a stable”) who is thrust into the orbit of Miss Havisham (Olivia Colman) and her ward Estella (Chloe Lea/Shalom Brune-Franklin). From there, and via an encounter with a mysterious convict, Pip will fall in love, make his fortune,...

Xavier López Rodríguez, known as “Chabelo,” died at the age of 88.

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“This is a very sad morning, Xavier Lopez Chabelo, father, brother and husband has left us suddenly due to abdominal complications,” read a message on his official Twitter feed.

López was best known for hosting the long-running children’s Sunday variety show En Familia con Chabelo. The Televisa show made its debut in 1967 and ran for 48 years, ending its run in 2015.

Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who shares a last name with the television host but has no relation, took to social media to express his condolences.

“Hugs to family and friends for the death of Xavier López “Chabelo.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe is no stranger to dark alternate futures that paint a grim picture of not only the Turtles themselves, but also the entire world in which they are forced to live. However, in only one of those potential futures, there is a bright side, as the Ninja Turtles get new Samurai looks the series should not ignore.

One of the most iconic alternate futures within Tmnt canon is obviously The Last Ronin, in which Michelangelo is the last surviving member of his family who is on a quest for vengeance against the villain who killed them. While The Last Ronin is certainly the most notable depressing Tmnt future, it isn’t necessarily the most bleak. In the ongoing Armageddon Game story arc, Donatello and Venus have had multiple experiences traveling to an alternate future through magical and otherworldly gateways, and the future they see is...

When it comes to Dickens adaptations, it helps to temper your expectations. The revered Victorian writer is perhaps the most frequently adapted novelist in history – but to what end? The results are wildly inconsistent: for every The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019) or Bleak House (2005), there are a dozen insipid Christmas Carols, or a handful of regrettable Oliver Twists. The BBC are once more throwing their (old-fashioned bowler) hat into the ring with a new six-episode screen version of Great Expectations. But how many more hats can this particular ring withstand?

Starring Dunkirk’s Fionn Whitehead as Pip, Shalom Brune-Franklin (Line of Duty) as Estella, and Oliva Colman as Miss Havisham, the new BBC series is a retelling of Dickens’s rags-to-riches bildungsroman – roughed up a bit with some distinctly modern sex and violence. Peaky Blinders scribe Steven Knight wrote the adaptation, the latest in a long line of Great Expectations adaptations for the screen.

A remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo may be on the way at Paramount Pictures, with Robert Downey Jr. at its center and Steven Knight writing its script.

Vertigo was originally produced by Paramount back in 1958, and according to Deadline, Hitchcock’s estate favored the studio for handling the new production. The original film starred James Stewart as John “Scottie” Ferguson, a former police detective who has developed a fear of heights and vertigo. After leaving the force, Ferguson is hired by an acquaintance to follow his wife and investigate her strange behavior. It was the first movie to use the dolly zoom, an effect that distorts perspective, mimicking Ferguson’s disorientation.

In the upcoming iteration, Downey will take on Stewart’s starring role, as well as produce alongside his wife, Susan Downey, and John Davis and John Fox. It’s not the only period remake Downey’s been involved...

Plot: Great Expectations is the coming-of-age story of “Pip,” an orphan who yearns for a greater lot in life, until a twist of fate and the evil machinations of the mysterious and eccentric “Miss Havisham” shows him a dark world of possibilities. Under the great expectations placed upon him, Pip will have to work out the true cost of this new world and whether it will truly make him the man he wishes to be. A damning critique of the class system, Dickens’ novel was published in 1861 after first releasing it in a series of weekly chapters beginning in December 1860.

Review: Adaptations of Charles Dickens are aplenty on the small screen and as feature films. Great Expectations has been adapted multiple times, notably in 1998 by Alfonso Cuaron and starring Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anne Bancroft, and Robert De Niro. In 2012, Harry Potter director Mike Newell took a shot at a film version starring Jeremy Irvine,...

When surveying the outstanding crop of plays this Broadway season and attempting to make early guesses as to which ones will snag Tony nominations, I can only sum it up as “absolutely insane.” Luckily, trusted Gold Derby contributor David Buchanan joins me in a new video slugfest to hash out all the possibilities.

Though he concurs that this intensely crowded field is difficult to pare down. A whopping 17 new plays and 5 revivals will compete for top honors at the 2023 Tony Awards. Watch the full video above to find out which plays David and I believe will make the cut before logging your own predictions.

David and I begin the conversation as a united front, both picking Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt” as the current frontrunner for Best Play. It’s a positively massive success with both critics and audiences and offers a hauntingly poignant look at a Jewish family as they...

The poster for Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón’s 1998 modern-day, US-set adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations is very revealing. There are no bonnets or brooches. The artwork is instead dominated by a recumbent, naked Gwyneth Paltrow – playing Estella – looking towards the camera with an enigmatic expression on her face. Beneath her, you can see the film’s Miss Havisham character, renamed here as Nora Dinsmoor and played by Anne Bancroft. She is not in a dusty wedding dress but looking very much like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, complete with cigarette holder. In the corner, there is a murky image of the convict Magwitch (Robert De Niro), scowling like a heavy from Goodfellas.

For Cuarón, Dickens’ story was at least partly about erotic obsession. Pip (Ethan Hawke), the young lad from a humble background trying to make his way in society, felt much the same way about Estella as Michael Douglas...

The poster for Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón’s 1998 modern-day, US-set adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations is very revealing. There are no bonnets or brooches. The artwork is instead dominated by a recumbent, naked Gwyneth Paltrow – playing Estella – looking towards the camera with an enigmatic expression on her face. Beneath her, you can see the film’s Miss Havisham character, renamed here as Nora Dinsmoor and played by Anne Bancroft. She is not in a dusty wedding dress but looking very much like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, complete with cigarette holder. In the corner, there is a murky image of the convict Magwitch (Robert De Niro), scowling like a heavy from Goodfellas.

For Cuarón, Dickens’ story was at least partly about erotic obsession. Pip (Ethan Hawke), the young lad from a humble background trying to make his way in society, felt much the same way about Estella as Michael Douglas...

John Jakes, the celebrated author known for his historical North and South trilogy that sold 10 million copies and became three ABC miniseries in the 1980s and ’90s, has died. He was 90.

Jakes died Saturday in Sarasota, Florida, his lawyer and literary agent Frank R. Curtis announced.

Jakes, who during his career wrote more than 80 books, which sold more than 120 million copies worldwide, earned $25 when his first short story was published by The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction when he was 18.

He spent 17 years as an advertising copywriter and creative director before he broke through at age 42 with the 1974 publication of The Bastard, the first of eight paperbacks under the umbrella known as The Kent Family Chronicles. Those books, which depicted American history through the lives of a fictional clan, were written to capitalize on the U.S. bicentennial celebrations that peaked in 1976.

In 1975, with the publication of Vols. II,...

John Jakes, the bestselling author of historical novels whose books The Bastard and North And South were adapted into highly rated TV movies and miniseries in the 1970s and ’80s, died Saturday at a hospice facility in Sarasota, Florida. He was 90.

His death was announced by his lawyer and literary agent Frank R. Curtis.

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Born on March 31, 1932, in Chicago, Jakes published his first short story at 18, earning $25, and would go on to author more than 80 books in his lifetime that sold more than 120 million copies worldwide.

His breakthrough came in 1974 with the publication of The Bastard, the first in what would become an eight-volume series known as The Kent Family Chronicles. Roughly coinciding with America’s Bicentennial,...

Exclusive: Ben Holtzman, Sammy Lopez and Fiona Howe Rudin announced today the launch of P3 Productions, describing the new venture as an artist-driven producing team dedicated to building productions from the ground level to uplift new voices and communities.

“We’re thrilled to combine our passion for the entertainment industry and drive as creative producers with the launch of P3 Productions,” said the partners in a joint statement. “Since our very first meeting, we felt the potential in our partnership to build thought-provoking stories with artists we admire and respect. From Broadway-bound musicals, reimagined classics, and theatre for young audiences, we’re excited to develop productions that invite new communities to our process and expand the power of live entertainment.”

P3 Productions’ current projects in development include Gun & Powder (World Premiere: Signature Theatre 2020), How to Dance in Ohio, Midsummer, Bradical, and two additional projects...

One of the many pleasures of 1988's "Scrooged" is how it figuratively goes off the rails by the end, all while being a pretty darn faithful modern retelling of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."

While the first two acts of the movie run through the expected beats of Dickens' tale — three ghosts haunt a miserly Yule-hating grumpus in order to teach him humility, empathy, and the spirit of giving — the third act sees TV executive Frank Cross (Bill Murray) hold his live broadcast production of "Scrooge" hostage with the help of one of his prior victims, lowly network employee Eliot Loudermilk (Bobcat Goldthwait), so...

The post Before Filming Scrooged, Bill Murray Tore the Script to Shreds appeared first on /Film.

BAFTA-winning writer and disability rights advocate Jack Thorne’s BBC drama “Best Interests” stars Michael Sheen (“Good Omens”) and Sharon Horgan (“Catastrophe”).

Sheen and Horgan play married couple Nicci and Andrew, who have two daughters, Katie played by Alison Oliver (“Conversation with Friends”) and Marnie played by Niamh Moriarty (Thorne’s play “A Christmas Carol”). Marnie has a life-threatening condition. The doctors believe it is in her best interests to be allowed to die, but her loving family disagree. And so begins a fight that will take them through every stage of a legal process, as they struggle to contemplate this huge decision.

The four-part series for BBC One is produced by Chapter One Pictures in association with Endeavor Content and directed by Michael Keillor (“Roadkill”).

Horgan said: “‘Best Interests’ broke me when I first read the script and then again after talking with Jack about it. Covid seems to...

Olivia Colman will star as Miss Havisham and Fionn Whitehead will star as Pip in a new adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic “Great Expectations” for FX and the BBC.

Colman and Whitehead will lead a cast that also includes “What We Do in the Shadows” actor Matt Berry (Mr. Pumblechuck), as well as Ashley Thomas (Jaggers), Johnny Harris (Magwitch), Shalom Brune-Franklin (Estella), Hayley Squires (Sara), Owen McDonnell (Joe) and Trystan Gravelle (Compeyson).

Steven Knight is writing the six-part limited series “Great Expectations” and will also executive produce. The limited series will also be executive produced by Tom Hardy, Ridley Scott, Dean Baker, David W. Zucker, Kate Crowe and Mona Qureshi for the BBC – the same team behind Knight’s other Dickens adaptation, “A Christmas Carol.”

“Great Expectations” will be produced by FX Productions in association with the BBC, Scott Free and Hardy Son & Baker. Lucy Forbes will serve as...

Great Expectations has cast its Miss Havisham. Oscar winner Olivia Colman will star as the wealthy, wedding dress-wearing spinster in the FX and BBC limited series adaptation of the Charles Dickens’ novel, which comes from Steven Knight.

Colman most recently starred in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter for Netflix, for which she received an Oscar nomination. Next up for the Broadchurch and The Crown stars in Emer Reynolds’ comedy Joyride, Paul King’s Wonka alongside Timothée Chalamet and Sally Hawkins, and Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light.

Fionn Whitehead, who has starred in Dunkirk and Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch will play Pip, the orphan at the center of the coming-of-age story. The cast also includes Ashley Thomas, Johnny Harris, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Hayley Squires, Owen McDonnell, Trystan Gravelle and Matt Berry.

Them star Thomas plays Pip’s guardian Jaggers, This Is England ‘86’s Harris plays escaped convict Magwitch, Roadkill’s Brune-Franklin...

FX and BBC have announced the main cast for the upcoming “Great Expectations” limited series, Variety has learned.

The six-episode version of the Charlies Dickens classic will star: Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham, Fionn Whitehead as Pip, Ashley Thomas as Jaggers, Johnny Harris as Magwitch, Shalom Brune-Franklin as Estella, Hayley Squires as Sara, Owen McDonnell as Compeyson, and Matt Berry as Mr. Pumblechuck.

Steven Knight is writing and executive producing the series. Tom Hardy, Ridley Scott, Dean Baker, David W. Zucker, Kate Crowe, and Mona Qureshi for the BBC will also executive produce. The series is produced by FX Productions in association with the BBC, Scott Free Productions, and Hardy Son & Baker. Lucy Forbes will serve as lead director.

“Great Expectations,” which tells the coming of age story of orphan boy Philip “Pip” Pirrip, was originally released in weekly chapters beginning in December 1860 before being published in its entirety as a novel.

This Snowpiercer review contains spoilers.

Snowpiercer Season 3 Episode 4

In a world where extinction is a cracked window away, it’s only natural that the survivors on Snowpiercer spend a lot of time dealing with ghosts, but rarely is that more explicit than on “Bound by One Track.” Granted, the returning Melanie Cavill (Jennifer Connelly) isn’t a literal ghost, she’s just the manifestation of the fears and pains carried around by multiple characters in the episode. She’s far from the only ghost haunting Snowpiercer and Big Alice in the wake of multiple revolutions and several terrible accidents/decisions, but she’s the most prominent ghost for both Wilford (Sean Bean) and Alex (Rowan Blanchard).

It could be worse, she could be one of the three ghosts from A Christmas Carol, or a face-hungry rottweiler like Javi (Roberto Urbina) is dealing with. I’ll take a comforting—or at...

“What would you do if you had six months left to live?” asks the doctor who diagnoses a do-nothing bureaucrat with terminal cancer in “Ikiru,” a 1952 masterpiece I suspect precious few of those who see its English-language remake, “Living,” will recall. Quite unlike anything else in Akira Kurosawa’s career, “Ikiru” ranks among the Japanese director’s best: With no samurai battles or set-pieces, the low-key contemporary melodrama raises profound questions about how we choose to spend the limited time we’re afforded, focusing on a stoic functionary about whom even the narrator apologizes, “He might as well be a corpse.”

Culturally specific as so much of “Ikiru” may be, its lessons translate quite well to midcentury British society, courtesy of Nobel-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, who did the heavy lifting of adapting it to 1953 London for director Oliver Hermanus (“Moffie”). In “Living,” the dying man is played by Bill Nighy,...

The Adapt Community Network Board of Directors announced today the 2022 honorees for the Adapt Leadership Awards, which will take place on Thursday, March 10th, 2022, at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City.

The Gala will celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the non-profit organization, formerly called United Cerebral Palsy of New York City (UCP of NYC). The awards honor the accomplishments of extraordinary individuals who have made an impact on people with disabilities and have inspired others through their professional and charitable endeavors. The gala benefits the important ongoing programs and services of Adapt Community Network.

The 2022 Adapt Leadership Awards Honorees are:

· Lachanze – Tony, SAG, and Emmy-winning actress. Star of Broadway’s Trouble in Mind, A Christmas Carol, Once on This Island, The Color Purple, and Summer: The Donna Summer Musical.

· Amy Robach – Co-Anchor of ABC News’ GMA3: What You Need to Know and 20/20. Author, New York Times bestseller, “Better:...

The former League of Gentlemen star on his love of low-budget British spinechillers, his loathing of Brexit and a slew of projects opening this winter

Mark Gatiss scans the breakfast menu at an east London restaurant with a famished eye. We’re at the hinge moment between the nightlife of an A-lister, who attended the James Bond premiere the previous evening, and the day job as an actor who, by his own account, could only land a role he had wanted all his life by writing the play himself. “It was a long evening,” he says of No Time to Die. He hadn’t had dinner and was trying to stave off the hunger pangs by sipping water, but not too much, because he couldn’t get out to the loo: “So I’m just really hungry.” He’s like a jovial Eeyore, painting himself into a lugubrious picture of the turnip fields of celebrity,...

Following his announcement about a "sabbatical," actor and father Ryan Reynolds reminisced about the pressures he has faced in his career and how they have affected his anxiety. Over the past year alone, the Deadpool actor has filmed a few star-studded movies, including Red Notice with Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot, and Spirited, a modern, musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, with Will Ferrell and Octavia Spencer. In an interview with WSJ. magazine, the actor and Aviation Gin co-owner spoke about his work ethic and how it has affected his mental health.  "I tend to bite off way more than I...

Exclusive: Joe Tippett has boarded Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, a film adaptation of the short story by Stephen King, which writer-director John Lee Hancock, a young boy living in a small town, who befriends older, reclusive billionaire, Mr. Harrigan (Sutherland). The two form a bond over books and an iPhone, but when the man passes away, the boy discovers that not everything dead is gone, and finds himself able to communicate with his...

Leslie Bricusse, Oscar- and Grammy-winning songwriter whose songs for Broadway and Hollywood include “What Kind of Fool Am I?” and “Pure Imagination,” died Tuesday in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. He was 90.

Bricusse wrote the lyrics for James Bond theme songs “Goldfinger” and “You Only Live Twice,” as well as songs for movies including “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (including “The Candy Man”), “Scrooge,” “Hook,” “Doctor Dolittle” and “Superman.”

His close friend, Dame Joan Collins, announced the death on Instagram this morning, calling him “one of the giant songwriters of our time.” Bricusse’s son Adam also announced it on Facebook; neither indicated a cause of death.

Over seven decades, the London-born writer-composer was in demand for his clever, witty and tuneful songs, sometimes in collaboration with others and sometimes serving as both lyricist and composer.

“The music illuminates the meaning of the lyric, just as the lyric can have only that melody and no other,...

Once again, the couple that trolls together, stays together. On Saturday, Oct. 16, the Deadpool star announced that he had finished shooting Spirited, Apple TV+'s musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and was taking a break from his film career. Obviously, Ryan's wife and fellow actor Blake Lively offered some humorous commentary. "That's a wrap for me on Spirited," the actor wrote on Instagram, alongside photos of himself on set with co-star Will Ferrell and other cast and crew members. "Not sure I'd have been ready to say yes to a film this challenging even three years ago. Singing, dancing and playing in the sandbox...

Ryan Reynolds took to Instagram on Saturday to announce that he’ll be taking a “little sabbatical from movie making,” after wrapping production on Apple TV+ film, Spirited.

“That’s a wrap for me on Spirited. Not sure I’d have been ready to say yes to a film this challenging even three years ago,” the actor-producer wrote. “Singing, dancing and playing in the sandbox with Will Ferrell made a whole lotta dreams come true. And this is my second film with the great @octaviaspencer…”

Reynolds added that with his latest shoot completed, it’s the “perfect time” for a break.

“I’m gonna miss every second working with this obscenely gifted group of creators and artists,” he continued. “These days, kindness matters as much as talent. I’ve been lucky to work with folks who are flush with both.”

Reynolds’ hiatus comes following the release of two 2021 action comedies:...

Ryan Reynolds has announced that he’s taking “a little sabbatical from movie making” after wrapping production on his latest project.

The actor took to Instagram on Saturday to share that he had completed work on “Spirited,” his upcoming holiday movie for Apple TV Plus. Reynolds had been working on the production since July.

“That’s a wrap for me on Spirited. Not sure I’d have been ready to say yes to a film this challenging even three years ago,” Reynolds wrote in his Instagram post. “Perfect time for a little sabbatical from movie making. I’m gonna miss every second working with this obscenely gifted group of creators and artists. These days, kindness matters as much as talent. I’ve been lucky to work with folks who are flush with both.”

Along with expressing his praise for the “Spirited” team, Reynolds also shared his excitement about working alongside...

Few brands are better suited to mine preexisting intellectual property than the Muppets. From A Christmas Carol to Treasure Island to countless parodic sketches and interludes, the synthetic ensemble has demonstrated a unique ability to smartly insert its myriad felt archetypes into almost any story.

Of course, because everybody knows the resilience of the Muppet brand, too often there’s an attempt to shoehorn the beloved characters into properties with a high concept but no actual story. That’s probably why Disney+’s new holiday special Muppets Haunted Mansion doesn’t quite feel like a cash-in violation, but definitely feels like a disappointment.

The ...

Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce are to lead the line of limited drama series A Spy Among Friends.

Spectrum Originals and BritBox UK have ordered the adaptation of Ben Macintyre’s book to series. It comes over a year after Deadline first revealed the project, which then had Dominic West poised to star alongside Lewis.

It marks Lewis’ first gig since he exited Showtime’s Billions.

The series has started production in London this week and will also shoot in Romania. It is produced by Sony Pictures Television, ITV Studios and Veritas Entertainment Group with former Homeland exec producer Alexander Cary creator and exec producer alongside Lewis, via his production company, Ginger Biscuit Entertainment, and ITV Studios’ Patrick Spence.

It will air in the U.S. via Spectrum’s On Demand platform and in the UK via streamer BritBox, a joint venture between the BBC and ITV, in the fall...

“A Christmas Carol” has won a whopping five Tony Awards. It swept the design categories for plays, winning costume, lighting, scenic and sound. It also prevailed for Best Score. This marks the first time a Christmas themed production has ever won at the Tonys. So not only is it the first Christmas-time winner, it’s the first such play to take home multiple awards!

This latest adaptation of Charles Dickens classic novel was written by Jack Thorne (“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”) and directed by Matthew Warchus. The cast featured Campbell Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge, a role that his father George C. Scott played to great acclaim in a film version. Additional cast members included Andrea Martin as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Lachanze as the Ghost of Christmas Present, and Dashiell Eaves as Bob Crachitt. The play was nominated for a total of five Tony Awards.

See 2020 Tony...

The long-delayed 74th Tony Awards was held on Sunday, September 26 in a two-part telecast staged at the Winter Garden theater. Six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald hosted a ceremony on Paramount+ that included the awarding of all but three of the Tonys. “Hamilton” star Leslie Odom, Jr. then emceed a celebration of Broadway on CBS that included the top three prizes: Best Musical, Best Play and Best Play Revival.

Nominations were announced back on October 15, 2020. Of the 18 eligible productions from the shortened 2019-2020 Broadway season, 15 reaped bids across 25 competitive categories.

The musical “Jagged Little Pill,” a stage adaptation of Alanis Morissette’s 1995 album of the same name, leads with 15 nominations including Best Musical and for six of its cast. “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” is right behind with 14 nominations. That adaptation of the 2001 Baz Luhrmann film, scored the only Musical Actor nomination of the season for Aaron Tveit. In order to win,...

Broadway has just reopened after shuttering on March 13, 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. To mark the return of the rialto, the 74th annual Tonys were handed out on Sunday, September 26 at the Winter Garden theater. This two-part ceremony, which will be hosted by six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald on Paramount+ and “Hamilton” star Leslie Odom, Jr. on CBS, comes almost one year after nominations were announced on October 15, 2020.

Two new musicals – “Jagged Little Pill” and “Moulin Rouge!” — lead the Tony Awards nominations with 15 and 14 bids respectively including Best Musical. A third tuner, “Tina – The Tina Turner Musical,” reaped a dozen bids as did the new drama “Slave Play.” While the nominees were decided by 48 theater professionals, the winners were voted on by 831 members of the Broadway community.

Below, the 2020 Tony Awards winners list in all 25 competitive categories.

See Broadway insiders dishing the 2020 Tony Awards nominations in our theater forum

Musicals...

Positive Exposure, a 501c3 charitable organization that promotes a more equitable and inclusive world through award-winning photography, films, lectures and educational programs, will present Steven Perlman, Dds, MScD, Dhl, with the Spirit of Change Award and Xian Horn with the Rising Leader Award during their virtual 2021 Change How You See Celebration on September 22nd at 7:00 Pm Et.

Highlights of the evening will also include a very special tribute by Bebe Neuwirth to the late Ann Reinking, a longtime champion of disability advocacy and Positive Exposure.

The show is directed by beloved Broadway actor and director, Nick Corley, who acted in She Loves Me, Mary Poppins, You Can’t Take it with You, A Christmas Carol and was the Associate Director on the recent revivals of Burn This and Plaza Suite. Currently he is the Associate Director of Candace Bushnell’s new show, coming to the Daryl Roth Theater this fall,...

“Charlotte” is a gentle animated biopic of the German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon, murdered at 26 in Auschwitz. The movie, directed by Eric Warin and Tahir Rana, is sweet on the surface. Who doesn’t want to celebrate an undersung artist whose magnum opus, a story told in over 700 paintings bound together in a book, was arguably the world’s first graphic novel?

However, the film itself is a regrettable one: At first, audiences may think “Charlotte” will render Salomon’s boldly expressionistic colors, shapes, and narrative flourishes in animated form. Perhaps it will be like “Loving Vincent,” but a new take on an artist who deserves more attention rather than another look at the world’s most overexposed painter.

Sadly, it is not. With only the faintest attempts at replicating Salomon’s graphic style, “Charlotte” very much shows its directors’ lack of feature animation directing experience. The animation on display is stilted and lifeless — simplistic,...

From author Benjamin Percy and artist Francesco Francavilla, the supernatural illustrated novella Wereworld is now available from NeoText, and we have an exclusive excerpt just for Daily Dead readers!

"Acclaimed author Ben Percy and superstar artist Francesco Francavilla have collaborated on Wereworld, a new illustrated novella about a year of increasing terror in a small Minnesota town. The supernatural novella will be published by digital publisher NeoText this fall.

What if The Purge were supernatural? What if, instead of one night a year, the world went wild once a month? When the moon was full? What if the contagion was spreading among the population—and no one knew who was infected—only that the violence was growing more severe and widespread? You couldn’t trust anyone—not your neighbors, your friends, or even your family.

Manitou Street—in the cozy college town of Northfield, Minnesota—has always been known for...

The Old Ways Home Media Release: "Christopher Alender's spellbinding horror hit The Old Ways, described as "the greatest exorcism movie since The Exorcist" (Film Threat), comes to Digital, DVD and Blu-ray this October!

Special features on the DVD/Blu-ray include BTS Documentary - The Old Ways: A Look Beyond (Blu-ray exclusive), Director & Writer Commentary, Storyboard Comparisons and Deleted Scenes

Cristina, a journalist of Mexican origin, travels to her ancestral home in Veracruz to investigate a story of sorcery and healing. There, she is kidnapped by a group of locals who claim she's the devil incarnated. Brigitte Kali Canales, Andrea Cortés, and Julia Vera star.

From Dark Star Pictures, The Old Ways available October 5."

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Acclaimed Author Benjamin Percy and Superstar Artist Francesco Francavilla Collaborate on the Supernatural Horror Novella Wereworld: "Acclaimed author Ben Percy and superstar artist Francesco Francavilla have collaborated on Wereworld, a new illustrated novella about a...

There's a line from Heywood Broun that I've heard adapted in various forms, but his is perhaps the earliest - "a technical objection is the first refuge of a scoundrel". That's not a quote from the film, I'm giving you that for free in the hope of enticing you to commit further. Here's another bon mot. When people ask me what the gig economy is I sometimes say, "Remember that bit in A Christmas Carol where Scrooge leans out the window and shouts some variant on, 'You boy, what day is it?' and then sends him to rouse a variety of tradespeople so he can turn up unannounced at his employee's house with a large plucked domestic task for a spouse who had doubtless made other arrangements?"

In an international film that bounces between special economic zones (various senses) like San Francisco and Lagos and Shenzen we are given an overview.

Charles Dickens is one of the most famous English writers of all time. With a career spanning over a dozen novels and several short stories, Dickens was a definitive writer of the Victorian era. The majority of his novels have been adapted for both the big and small screens, but his short stories haven't always had the same treatment.

Related: 10 Best Charles Dickens Adaptations, According to IMDb

His novella A Christmas Carol has had many adaptations, but some of his other works are barely known. Which of his short stories would make for good adaptations? To start, one has to know which have already been adapted.

Peter A. Lees, a film producer whose credits include the recent live-action versions of The Little Mermaid, Anastasia and The Mad Hatter, has died. He was 51.

His publicist Sheri Goldberg said Lees died Friday at his home in Miami Beach but did not provide a cause of death.

His credits as executive producer include Todd, Santa in Training, A New York Christmas Wedding, Cinderella: The Enchanted Beginning, Rapunzel: A Princess Frozen in Time and 2019’s A Christmas Carol.

Lees has been producing films for Conglomerate Media since 2017 and was in pre-production on several projects including Britto, a biopic of the renowned pop artist Romero Britto.

Armando Gutierrez, his producing partner, said: “Peter was a master at producing movies and loved by all those who worked with him. His work will live on forever. Anyone that worked with him would remember his trademark ‘Cheers’ when he would be on set.”

Survivors include his two sisters.

Exclusive: Sunita Mani has joined the cast of Apple Original Films’ Spirited, starring Will Ferrell, Ryan Reynolds and Octavia Spencer. Mani will play Past, known as The Ghost of Christmas Past, in the musical rendition of Charles Dickens’ classic holiday story A Christmas Carol that will feature all original music.

The pic will be directed by Sean Anders, who also serves as writer alongside writing partner John Morris. In addition to starring, Reynolds will produce through his Maximum Effort banner, as will Ferrell, who will produce through his Gloria Sanchez Productions alongside Jessica Elbaum and David Koplan. George Dewey serves as executive producer for Maximum Effort.

Best known for her role of Arthie on the Netflix series Glow as well as the hit USA series Mr. Robot, Mani recently wrapped production on the HBO limited series Scenes from a Marriage and was most recently seen in the Apple TV+ series Servant.

Amazon has set its cast for The Peripheral, its upcoming original series from Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s Kilter Films. Charlotte Riley (A Christmas Carol), JJ Feild (Lost in Space), Adelind Horan (The Deuce), T’Nia Miller (The Haunting of Bly Manor) and Alex Hernandez (Bloodshot) have been cast as leads opposite Chloë Grace Moretz and Jack Reynor in the sci-fi thriller drama, based on the bestselling novel by William Gibson.

Created by Scott B. Smith, The Peripheral is described as a dazzling, hallucinatory glimpse into the fate of mankind — and what lies beyond.

The book centers on Flynne (Moretz) and her brother Burton (Reynor). In the novel, Burton, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps’ elite Haptic Recon force, is hired for a security job which takes place in what he thinks is cyberspace. When Flynne temporarily takes his place, she witnesses something that might have been murder.

As far as reasons go for delaying a movie, the wild popularity of the lead actor isn’t a bad one to have to deal with.

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige recently gave an interview in which he opened up about Deadpool 3. Up until now, fans had a lot of questions about the project. For instance, will it be set in the MCU? Will it maintain the franchise’s R-rating? And, perhaps most importantly, when is it coming?

Well, now we know the answers. Or at least, some of them. It appears that the Merc with the Mouth is indeed making the leap to the MCU as perhaps the sole refugee from Fox’s X-Universe, with my bet being that the dimension-hopping shenanigans in Spider-Man 3 and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will open the door for him.

We also know that the film will be rated R,...

We’ll eventually see him return as Rick Grimes in those planned Walking Dead movies, but before that, here’s Andrew Lincoln in something completely different.

Later this month, drama film Penguin Bloom launches on Netflix, and this new trailer for it promises that it’ll be a heartfelt tale that may bring some awards buzz for its leading lady, Naomi Watts. The Academy Award-nominated actress stars as Sam Bloom, “a dedicated wife and mother of two whose idyllic home on the Australian shore becomes a self-made prison as she struggles to cope with paralysis in the wake of a freak accident.” Her unlikely light at the end of the tunnel comes in the form of an injured magpie that Sam’s children take in. She bonds with the bird and it helps her along the road towards her own “soulful recovery.” Lincoln plays Sam’s photographer husband, Cameron, who...

Written by T.W. Burgess | Art by Mike O’ Brien, Brian Coldrick, Brianne Neuman, David Romero

Author T.W. Burgess has a reputation for creating brilliantly scary graphic novels and I have loved his previous work. Malevolents, The Eyrie, and Hallows Fell have all been super creepy in a way no other graphic novels I have read can match up to. So I couldn’t wait to read his latest works, Early Haunts.

Early Haunts is an anthology of sorts with four ghostly tales, adapted from the original folk tales that have influenced major and well-known works, and then made into a graphic novel. It’s a fantastic idea and one I thought would have been made before but this seems to be the first of its kind that I know of.

Th first story is ‘The Greek Myth’ – The House In Athens. Which features the first-ever chained apparition and...

It’s been a rather stressful year, so it’s always nice to have an opportunity to lose yourself in good movies and television, and that’s precisely what Disney Plus has been providing so far this month. Whether you’ve been getting in the holiday spirit with Jim Carrey’s A Christmas Carol, catching up on new episodes of The Mandalorian, or digging into the impressive catalog of classic Disney titles available on the service, there’s clearly something available for everyone.

This week brings along with it a handful of new content that you’ll want to look out for, too. And most importantly, of course, the third episode of The Mandalorian‘s second season will debut. The sophomore run of this massively popular show has garnered a lot of interest with its surprising reveals so far, which could lead to some very interesting plot twists, so be...