Open Thread

Deadline reports: Netflix faces a number of courtly challenges in the next couple of months, as it prepares to debut both the fifth season of The Crown, and a documentary starring the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Season 5 of The Crown is set to launch on November 5, and already there are rumblings by commentators in the UK that …

The Hollywood Reporter reports: David Gordon Green’s Halloween Ends scared up a healthy $5.4 million in Thursday previews at the domestic box office. From Universal, Miramax and Blumhouse, Halloween Ends stars Jamie Lee Curtis in her final turn as Laurie Strode. The movie hopes to clear $50 million-plus in its domestic debut, despite also being made available simultaneously on Universal’s …

Variety reports: After years of Netflix execs spurning the idea of serving up commercials to viewers, the streaming giant is flipping the switch on its first cheaper, ad-supported plan next month. Netflix Basic With Ads will launch in the U.S. on Nov. 3 at 9 a.m. PT, priced at $6.99 per month, the company announced. The cheaper plan will be …

Deadline Hollywood reports: A promotion for House of the Dragon during last night’s New York Yankees-Cleveland Guardians playoff baseball game on TBS is continuing to draw online eyerolls the day after the stunt. Fox pioneered the notion of wedging network pom-pom moments into its fall baseball coverage. But what mostly soured a vocal assortment of viewers and media watchers was …

Variety reports: Tom Cruise will “hopefully” become “the first civilian to do a spacewalk” outside of the International Space Station when he blasts off to space to shoot a new action movie with director Doug Liman. Donna Langley, the head of Universal Pictures, teased as much during a recent BBC interview. Universal is backing the Cruise space project, which reportedly …

Ars Technica reports: It’s all hands on deck for Jean-Luc Picard and his old Enterprise crew in an extended teaser trailer for Star Trek: Picard that debuted during New York Comic Con this weekend. This time, the showrunners have pulled out all the stops in the name of fan service. In April, Paramount+ confirmed that LeVar Burton (Geordie LaForge), Michael …

The Guardian reports: Kanye West has now had both his Instagram and Twitter accounts locked after antisemitic posts over the weekend. Twitter locked his account Sunday after it removed one of West’s tweets saying he was going “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE” because it violated the service’s policies against hate speech. “The account in question has been locked due …

Deadline Hollywood reports: A New Yorker Festival panel with actor and comedian Billy Eichner and playwright and actor Harvey Fierstein, who both appear in Bros, turned into an onstage post-mortem about the gay rom-com’s disappointing opening. Fierstein, who has a cameo role in the film, criticized Universal’s “history-lesson” marketing and the studio’s decision to open it wide given that the …

Variety reports: The trailer for Universal Pictures and Nintendo’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has debuted, bringing with it a first listen of Chris Pratt’s Mario voice. The actor told Variety earlier this year that he “worked really closely with the directors” to craft the perfect Mario voice, adding, “[We tried] out a few things and landed on something that …

Variety reports: Legendary filmmaker John Waters is stepping back to the director’s chair for the first time in 18 years, for an adaptation of his 2022 novel “Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance.” Waters — a pioneering independent filmmaker who catapulted to cinema infamy with bad taste masterpieces like 1972’s “Pink Flamingos” and 1981’s “Polyester” — will write and direct the project …

Variety reports: Velma is officially a lesbian. Clips from the brand new movie “Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!,” which show the Mystery Inc. member googly-eyed and speechless when encountering costume designer Coco Diablo, have gone viral on Twitter, confirming suspicions held by the “Scooby” fan base for decades. It’s long been an open secret among fans and “Scooby-Doo” creatives that Velma …

Deadline Hollywood reports: The long-in-the-works Frasier followup is finally a reality. Paramount+ has given a series greenlight to the multi-camera comedy, executive produced by Kelsey Grammer who is reprising his signature character, psychiatrist-turned-radio host Frasier Crane. Details about the new series are also not being revealed beyond the fact that it is focused on Frasier Crane’s (Grammer) next chapter in …

Variety reports: Billy Eichner’s Universal-backed comedy “Bros” flopped at the box office during its opening weekend with a $4.8 million bow, about half of the $8 million to $10 million that the studio projected. Eichner, in a now viral tweet, claimed that straight people not showing up to an LGBTQ comedy was a driving force behind “Bros” underperformance. Eichner is …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Only Bruce Willis has the rights to Bruce Willis’s face, it transpires. It was widely reported last week that the star had sold the rights to his face to a Russian deepfake company called Deepcake – allowing the company to create a “digital twin” for the actor, who retired in March following his diagnosis of aphasia, a …

Variety reports: Andrew Dominik’s “Blonde,” starring Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe, skyrocketed to the top of Netflix’s movie chart after its first day available to stream, but the NC-17 drama is leaving many subscribers outraged. The film may have been the talk of the Venice Film Festival with its 14-minute standing ovation, but critics and viewers are calling it …

Variety reports: Trevor Noah is nearing his last laugh on “The Daily Show.” The comedian, who came out of near anonymity to take over the program from Jon Stewart in 2015, plans to exit the flagship Comedy Central series after a seven-year tenure that saw him transform it for a new generation of viewers who are more at home on …

Variety reports: The core message of the immensely popular “Barney and Friends” kids show was to spread love and kindness to one another, but the trailer for a new Peacock docuseries highlights the idea that America was not so eager to accept that message. In the trailer for the upcoming two-part docuseries “I Love You, You Hate Me,” multiple talking …

Variety reports: Hugh Jackman will be back as Wolverine in “Deadpool 3,” Ryan Reynolds announced on his social media Tuesday afternoon. “Deadpool 3” also has an official release date: Sept. 6, 2024. Shawn Levy, who made “Free Guy” and “The Adam Project” with Reynolds, is directing “Deadpool 3,” which will officially join the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Disney’s purchase of …

Yahoo News reports: Netflix has removed a tag categorizing its new series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story as LGBTQ following an online backlash. The drama series focuses on the real life case of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, portrayed by Evan Peters. Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys between the years 1978 and 1991. He was arrested in 1991 …

Variety reports: Helium-pitched vocals and kitschy lyrics made Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” a novelty hit for the ages, and the perky euro-pop anthem, which took the world by storm in 1997, is still going strong 25 years later. The candy-colored video has amassed more than 1.1 billion views on YouTube and any conversation about Greta Gerwig’s upcoming “Barbie” movie eventually leads …