Latest Movie News From Moviefone |
- The 'Veep' Showrunner Just Quit: Here's Why and Who's Replacing Him
- Watch 'The Walking Dead' Cast Speculate About 'Chaos' of Season 6
- 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' TV Special Is Coming to Fox... Maybe
- Will Bran Stark Rule Westeros When 'Game of Thrones' Ends? This Co-Star Thinks So
- Who Said It: Spider-Man or Deadpool?
- Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower' Film Franchise, TV Series in Works
- Fans Launch Petition to Disney: Don't 'Whitewash' Live-Action 'Mulan'
- 'Game of Thrones' Is the Most Pirated TV Show on Earth
- Alicia Vikander Facts: 9 Things You (Probably) Don't Know About the 'Ex Machina' Star
- Watch 'Key & Peele's' Gut-Busting 'Game of Thrones' Recap
- The 15 Greatest Live-Action Superheroes in TV History
- Watch Emily Blunt & Anne Hathaway's Full, Jaw-Dropping Lip Sync Battle
- Watch the First Promo for Bruce Jenner's '20/20' Interview With Diane Sawyer
- How to Turn Your Life Story Into a TV Sitcom
- How Well Do You Really Know Marvel Comics?
- Streaming Now: 'Marvel's Daredevil,' 'Louie,' and More
- Best of Late Night TV: Madonna Performs 'Holiday' With The Roots, Taraji P. Henson Serves Ad Libs (VIDEO)
| The 'Veep' Showrunner Just Quit: Here's Why and Who's Replacing Him Posted:  With President Selina Meyer running the country, you'd think everyone would run for the hills. Still, it's a sad surprise to hear that Armando Iannucci is leaving "Veep" -- Julia Louis-Dreyfus' phenomenal HBO comedy -- after Season 4, which starts this Sunday, April 12.A rep from the cable network gave a statement to The Hollywood Reporter on Armando's departure, also naming who will take his place: "Curb" has about the right tone for "Veep," so this could be a mostly painless transition. Armando's road to "Veep" started with "The Thick Of It," a British TV satire he created to mock the workings of the U.K. government. That led to the hilarious must-watch movie "In the Loop," which Armando directed and features several members of the current "Veep" cast, including Anna Chlumsky. Armando has written and directed several episodes of "Veep" and he has "story by" credits for almost every episode, so it's going to be tough to replace his voice. Season 5 hasn't even been announced yet, but it sounds like HBO has plans to move forward and we just hope the hand-off is more seamless than Selina taking on her new role as POTUS. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Watch 'The Walking Dead' Cast Speculate About 'Chaos' of Season 6 Posted:
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' TV Special Is Coming to Fox... Maybe Posted:  Are you ready to do the time warp again? Fox is reviving "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" in what's being called a "two-hour event" TV special in honor of the cult classic's 40th anniversary. But can anything ever be more "special" than the 1975 film?Kenny Ortega, who is probably best known for the "High School Musical" movies, will direct and choreograph the remake. Variety said the special is in the early stages of development and is cast-contingent. They'll never find anyone who can really fill the shoes of Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Barry Bostwick, but people are always doing their own versions of "Rocky Horror" -- from "Glee" to local productions everywhere -- so we can just consider this another one. Do you have casting suggestions for Brad, Janet, Dr. Frank-N-Furter and company or do you hope they never find the right actors because they should leave this classic alone? This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Will Bran Stark Rule Westeros When 'Game of Thrones' Ends? This Co-Star Thinks So Posted:
Bran (who won't even be in the upcoming Season 5) has a right to hold a grudge against Jaime, but what do you think about the idea of Bran on the throne? We can definitely see the magically empowered Stark young'un having a major part in the end game, and maybe in helping Jon connect with his past, but sitting on the Iron Throne? Hmm... This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Who Said It: Spider-Man or Deadpool? Posted:  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower' Film Franchise, TV Series in Works Posted:  Every so often, "The Dark Tower" series rises as a potential TV or movie project, then falls again. But this time it might actually work. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony and MRC are teaming up to produce and co-finance an adaptation of Stephen King's epic series in what's hoped to be a franchise that combines both a movie series and a complementary TV series. Boom!Akiva Goldsman, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, and Erica Huggins are producing, and a new script, written by Goldsman and Jeff Pinkler, adapts the first book, "The Gunslinger." There are eight novels in "The Dark Tower" series, which follows the story of Roland Deschain, "Mid-World's last gunslinger, who is traveling southeast across Mid-World's post-apocalyptic landscape, searching for the powerful but elusive magical edifice known as The Dark Tower." As King's own site describes it, "Inspired in equal parts by Robert Browning's poem, 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,' J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and Sergio Leone's spaghetti Western classics, The Dark Tower series is an epic of Arthurian proportions. It is Stephen King's magnum opus, and is the center of his amazing creative universe." Sony Chairman Tom Rothman said he's a giant fan of King's series, noting that Sony and King love the direction the new script has taken. He added, "This is a great opportunity for a director to put his or her stamp on a cool global franchise." So at this point, they need a director to kick things off. Any suggestions? This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Fans Launch Petition to Disney: Don't 'Whitewash' Live-Action 'Mulan' Posted:  Disney seems to be giving everything it can find the live-action treatment these days, and even though "Mulan" was just announced as the latest reboot last week, fans are already petitioning Disney when it comes to casting.A Care2 petition was recently launched asking Disney not to "whitewash" its live-action adaptation of "Mulan" by casting white actors to play key roles. So far, the petition has more than 24,000 signatures. Here's a portion of the petition, launched by Michigan children's librarian Natalie Molnar: Disney just announced it will develop a live-action Mulan film. Take a stand against whitewashing in our media. Sign this petition to tell Disney that we demand to see them cast an Asian Mulan!In related news, more than 81,000 people signed a separate Care2 petition blasting Warner Bros. for casting Rooney Mara as Tiger Lilly, a Native American character, in "Pan." Another Care2 petition chided director Ridley Scott for not casting Egyptian actors in its Biblical film "Exodus: Gods and Kings." Molnar, who launched the "Mulan" petition, said in a media release that she is a Disney fan and noted there have been "important strides" in recent years in movies like "Big Hero 6," "Book of Life," and the upcoming "Moana." However, she added, "By adapting [Mulan's] story into live-action format, the studio has an incredible opportunity to not only revitalize her story, but also to offer major roles to a group too often shunted into supporting or antagonist roles. Taking away Mulan's potentially breakout roles from Asian-American actors and actresses in favor of casting Caucasians would be nothing short of racist. Mulan's a girl worth fighting for - and we need to make sure Disney knows it." If you're interested, you can sign the petition here, then wait and see what Disney decides to do when they eventually get to casting. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 'Game of Thrones' Is the Most Pirated TV Show on Earth Posted:  As the "Game of Thrones" Season 5 premiere approaches, piracy of the show has hit new heights, with more than seven million people illegally downloading it to catch up on the HBO hit's ins and outs. And deaths. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Alicia Vikander Facts: 9 Things You (Probably) Don't Know About the 'Ex Machina' Star Posted: 2015 is Alicia Vikander's year. The Swedish-born actress is relatively unknown at the moment, but, by the end of the year, she'll be one of the hottest stars in the world. After years studying ballet, Vikander transitioned to acting -- breaking out in Scandinavia in 2009's "Pure." Now, newly arrived in Hollywood, the young actress is landing role after role and is set to star in six of the hottest films of the year. This week, she ramps it up in the critically-acclaimed sci-fi movie "Ex Machina," opposite Oscar Isaac. From her start in Sweden to her A-list actor boyfriend, here are 9 things you probably don't know about Alicia Vikander.  [Sources: Wikipedia, IMDb] This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Watch 'Key & Peele's' Gut-Busting 'Game of Thrones' Recap Posted: Before you watch the premiere of "Game of Thrones" Season 5, let the valets of "Key & Peele" (Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele) take you on a death-filled trip down memory lane. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The 15 Greatest Live-Action Superheroes in TV History Posted: When the new "Daredevil" series debuts on Netflix on April 10, blind hero Matt Murdock will be enterting relatively uncharted territory. After all, at the multiplex, you can't hurl a hunk of Kryptonite without hitting a superhero movie, but on TV, live-action comic book heroes have been scarce. Maybe that's because the small screen does what few supervillains can do: make superheroes look... well, small. In the Saturday morning cartoons, at least, superheroes always look pretty much like they do in the comic books. But the live-action version is often just a guy or gal in tights, suspended on wires. For most of its history, TV had neither the money, nor the effects prowess, nor the prestige to cast top-notch thespians as superheroes, much less to make them look convincingly like people with superpowers having earth-shaking adventures. As a result, most live-action TV superheroes, even the ones you loved as a kid, look more than a little campy now. But all that has changed in recent years. Both Marvel and DC have taken their TV superhero franchises very seriously, with each creating a coherent universe full of big-budget, skillfully-acted primetime TV dramas that appeal to comic-book geeks and casual fans alike. It helps that Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." and "Agent Carter" tie into the enormously popular Marvel Cinematic Universe (the series of inter-related theatrical movies dominated by the "Avengers" characters), but DC's shows ("Arrow," "The Flash," "Gotham") may be just as good, if not better. "Daredevil," starring Charlie Cox ("Boardwalk Empire") as the Marvel hero with four heightened senses, takes the Marvel-DC rivalry to the next level. Not only must the show succeed among Netflix binge-viewers, but it also must introduce a new set of interlocking Marvel series that will debut over the next several months on the streaming platform. Not only that, but Cox must also banish the specter of Ben Affleck's big-screen "Daredevil" flop from a decade ago. Can Cox's Daredevil take his place among the small, elite group of favorite live-action TV superheroes? Read the following ranked list, and see where you think "Daredevil" belongs.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Watch Emily Blunt & Anne Hathaway's Full, Jaw-Dropping Lip Sync Battle Posted: Anne Hathaway kicks things off with "Love" by Mary J. Blige. Emily Blunt hits back by getting down to "No Diggity" by Blackstreet. Emily Blunt channels Janis Joplin (eerie, isn't it?) as she takes on "Piece of My Heart" in the final round against Anne Hathaway and her spectacular interpretation of "Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Watch the First Promo for Bruce Jenner's '20/20' Interview With Diane Sawyer Posted:  On April 24, Bruce Jenner is sitting down with Diane Sawyer for the two-hour interview America has been waiting for, and ABC has just released a promo. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| How to Turn Your Life Story Into a TV Sitcom Posted:  Should we feel bad for Eddie Huang? The restaurateur whose memoir about his childhood inspired the current ABC sitcom "Fresh Off the Boat" went on a multi-post Twitter rant after this week's episode, complaining that, since the pilot, the show has drifted far from the reality of his own experience, to the point where "it got so far from the truth that I don't recognize my own life." That's certainly unfortunate, even for a guy who received a tidy sum for the TV rights to his autobiography. No one wants to see his or her experience distorted and broadcast to millions. Then again, what did he expect? It's a network sitcom. It's generally going to avoid any bleak reality that can't be resolved in 22 minutes. This sort of biographical distortion has been an issue for sitcoms since the dawn of television, since the format simply doesn't lend itself easily to the complexities and messy structure of an individual's real life. That hasn't stopped TV auteurs through the ages from trying to base sitcoms on their own lives or the biographies of others. The solution has usually been to create a highly fictionalized version of the person who inspired the show, with just enough real-life biographical details so that viewers recognize the character's source. For instance, on "I Love Lucy," Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz played characters who loosely resembled themselves, the Cuban bandleader and the ambitious redhead. Sure, Lucy RIcardo wasn't actually in showbiz like Lucille Ball (though she desperately wanted to be), but in her endless scheming, you can see the drive and persistence of the real Ball (who owned her show and was a pioneering TV producer), trying to make it in a sexist world that tended to belittle her efforts. In another classic sitcom, "The Dick Van Dyke Show," Carl Reiner dramatized his life as a TV comedy writer and young suburban husband by creating the character of Rob Petrie and giving the role to Van Dyke. In other words, Reiner's approach was to play up all the funny parts of his life (and give them to a gifted comic performer) while leaving out the grimmer parts completely. On "The Cosby Show," Cliff Huxtable was an obstetrician, not a comedian, but the family it portrayed (with four daughters and one son) was clearly based on Bill Cosby's own. Much of the dialogue was taken directly from Cosby's own autobiographical stand-up routines. But he was less interested in accurately depicting his own life than in offering universal situations everyone could appreciate. The success of "Cosby" made possible "Roseanne," which was also based on its star's own autobiographical stand-up comedy routines. And those two shows, in turn , led to a slew of comedians getting deals to create shows out of their own stand-up material. (Many failed, with the noteworthy exception of "Seinfeld.") But of course, no matter how accurate these series were in conveying the lives of their stars back when they were still struggling, the shows ceased to be true-to-life the minute the stars became rich and famous. Today, IFC's "Maron" seems to be entirely about comedy podcaster Marc Maron's ambivalence about his own sudden mid-life success. But back in the 1990s, "Roseanne" was unique in trying to address this problem. In the final season, Roseanne Barr's character suddenly went from blue-collar striver to pampered diva... and everyone hated it. One approach to the autobiographical sitcom was to go the opposite direction, away from verisimilitude and toward absurdity and surrealism. On "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Larry David is playing a version of himself, but one whose obnoxious behavior gets him into outlandish situations. On "30 Rock," Liz Lemon was clearly modeled on Tina Fey herself (the head writer at a sketch comedy show based at NBC's Rockefeller Center headquarters), but those basic biographical details were just a framework for relentless barrages of jokes and for flights of fancy that pushed past the boundaries of plausibility into cartoonish parody. "Bored to Death," which ran three seasons on HBO, was about a Brooklyn writer named Jonathan Ames (played by Jason Schwartzman), just like the show's creator, but the real Ames does not moonlight as a private eye. And current ABC hit "The Goldbergs" -- ostensibly drawn from the home movies of series creator Adam Goldberg's childhood -- is set in a fantasy version of the 1980s in which all the decade's pop cultural landmarks (from "Ghostbusters" to New Kids on the Block) seem to have occurred simultaneously. There has been an explosion in recent years in autobiographical and biographical sitcoms; indeed, the TV graveyard is littered with such series, many of which lasted less than a season ("Partners," "Ben and Kate," "How to Live With Your Parents for the Rest of Your Life," "Growing Up Fisher.") Currently on the chopping block is "The McCarthys," which creator Brian Gallivan based on his own family. It's a good illustration of how hard it is to make a sitcom that's true to one's own life. Before the show even debuted, Gallivan told reporters that the sitcom required him to add character flaws to his relatives for dramatic purposes, that the show didn't work without a laugh track, and ""that sitcoms also require heartwarming moments so I had to add those." As far as Gallivan's experiences as a gay man in an often hostile environment, he said, "I know there are dark sides of that, but I feel there are dramas, and other shows, that can handle that better than we can." At least there are other gay characters in sitcom-land. Much has been written, however, about how "Fresh Off the Boat" is only the second sitcom -- and the first in more than two decades, since Margaret Cho's semi-autobiographical "All American Girl" -- to address the Asian-American experience. (As if there's only one such experience.) So the show has an especially large burden to bear; it has to represent not just Huang's experience but that of all Asian-American families. Cho has written and spoken extensively about how her show failed in part because ABC made her rely on tired stereotypes. Two decades later, "Fresh" makes a point of subverting those stereotypes. Still, as Huang tweeted, "I'm happy people of color are able to see a reflection of themselves through #FreshOffTheBoat on @ABCNetwork but I don't recognize it." It must be tough to be the only sitcom out there representing the experiences of a particular group of viewers, without any others to share the burden. Right now, also on ABC, "Cristela" is a modest new hit, based on the life of its star, comic Cristela Alonzo. Unlike Huang, Alonzo has said she insisted on -- and got -- complete creative carte blanche from ABC to make the show as true to her family's lives, and to the lives of Hispanic Americans, as she wished Then again, the striving, struggling Cristela on the series isn't in showbiz; she's in her sixth year of law school. Still, even if "Cristela" isn't drawing the kind of complaints from its creator or its viewers that "Fresh" is, it's still trying to do a lot more than a network sitcom should be expected to do. Thursday night, two season premieres on FX offered yet another approach. First up was the series debut of "The Comedians," with Billy Crystal and Josh Gad playing themselves -- two comic actors putting together a comedy series for FX. Of course, we've learned over the years, on series from "The Larry Sanders Show" to "Entourage" to "Episodes," that the stars who appear on sitcoms as themselves are usually playing the least flattering version of themselves, for comic purposes. So "The Comedians" may have only a glancing connection to Crystal and Gad's real lives. And then there was the Season 5 premiere of "Louie," maybe the only half-hour comedy that has figured out how to portray its source's life, warts and all, and come off as both entertaining and true to life. Louis C.K.'s show is autobiographical when it wants to be and clearly fanciful at other times. It also doesn't always feel the obligation to be funny, but rather to mine bleak events for drama as well. And the stories are as long or short as they need to be, whether it's 12 minutes or six episodes. In other words, to reflect his own life, C.K. has had to push the boundaries of what a sitcom can do -- to the point where it's barely recognizable as a sitcom any more. It's doubtful that a network would embrace a show like "Louie" that's so mercurial in form and tone, but if the next Eddie Huang wants a series that's true to his own life and still occasionally funny, maybe a "Louis"-type show, a sitcom-plus, is the way to go. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| How Well Do You Really Know Marvel Comics? Posted: This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Streaming Now: 'Marvel's Daredevil,' 'Louie,' and More Posted:  It's an exciting week in the streaming word, folks. That's right -- "Marvel's Daredevil" is finally available for your binge-watching pleasure on Netflix and it's one of our picks in this edition of Stream On. But what else can you watch? Well, "Louie" Season 4 is available just in time for the show's Season 5 premiere this week. Plus, catch up on "Halt and Catch Fire" Season 1 before it returns to AMC on May 31. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted:  If you're like us and value your sleep, you probably nodded off into your Ambien dreamland before the party started on post-prime time TV. Don't worry; we've got you covered. Here's the best of what happened last night on late night.Everything that happened last night on "The Tonight Show" was completely amazing, but let's start things off with Madonna, who sat down with The Roots and Jimmy Fallon to sing "Holiday" with classroom instruments. Biggest takeaway: The Queen of Pop definitely needs to spend more time hitting a cowbell. Even more amazingly, Madonna made her stand up debut on "The Tonight Show," and to be honest she was pretty funny. Madge basically mused on dating younger guys -- specifically how she accidentally asked her son, Rocco, if she could scope out his friends. That's not awkward or anything. Season 5 of "Game of Thrones" premieres this weekend (YESSSSSSS), and "The Tonight Show" edited footage to the theme of "I'm So Excited" by The Pointer Sisters. No other explanation necessary. Over on "Late Night," Taraji P. Henson chatted about improvising her lines on "Empire." Everyone knows Cookie's insults are beyond amazing, but the best zinger Taraji did off-the-cuff was definitely "shut up, Dora!" Iconic. Finally, Amy Schumer visited "Conan" and announced that 2015 is "The Year of the Ass." Her musings can only be described as hilarious -- much like everything she says. Amy Schumer for president, to be honest! This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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