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“Hocus Pocus” was not a hit when it was released 30 years ago. It was reviewed negatively and didn’t do well at the box office.
But nature does abhor a vacuum, and content is needed for all these streaming services. So there wil be a sequel finally after three decades to the cult hit. Disney Plus will be the venue.
Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy will reprise their roles. Anne Fletcher will direct. Someone– get Diane Warren, please — will write a song for Bette Midler to play over the credits for an Oscar nomination.
By now you know HBO’s “Mare of Easttown” is a runaway hit.
Last Sunday’s 5th episode had a shocking ending that no one saw coming, with Evan Peters exiting the limited run series in a violent way. It was quite a cliffhanger.
The 6th and penultimate episode plays this Sunday. Don’t ask me what happens because I haven’t watched the press preview yet. I’m too nervous.
Now comes news that the final episode, number 7, will be 66 minutes long when it airs a week from Sunday. There are a lot of loose ends for Kate Winslet’s Mare to wrap up. My theory– I have no knowledge of the plot– is that by then Guy Pearce will be going crazy.
I’m also guessing this isn’t the last we’ll see of these people. “Mare of Easttown” can easily keep rolling along into a murder mystery once this saga is over. I’m sure HBO wants a season 2 and even 3. Winslet is on her way to the Emmy Awards along with the whole show in a category– limited series– overflowing with nominees including HBO’s “The Undoing.” (Yes, that was only this year.)
So hold on for the ending of this season. Those 6 extra minutes are going to be good!
Steven Soderbergh is back on HBO Max after his wonderful film there last year, “Let Them All Talk.”
“No Sudden Move” is a heist flick with Don Cheadle, Jon Hamm, Kieran Culkin, Benicio del Toro and Brendan Fraser. It’s not going into theaters but will hit HBO Max on July 1st. The film will play the Tribeca Film Festival once, on June 18th, and is already sold out.
Soderbergh just rocks on, making terrific films, and so many that he can have his own film festival now!
Journalist Martin Bashir made his name on two big celebrity interviews. One was for the BBC with Princess Diana. The other was with ABC concerning Michael Jackson.
Now Bashir has been ousted from the BBC. An investigation published just now has found Bashir “deceived” Princess Diana by showing her brother phony documents to get the 1995 interview. The interview was an international sensation that basically exposed her marriage as a fraud and ended it.
Diana would die two years later in an infamous, suspicious car wreck in Paris.
In 2003, Bashir interviewed Michael Jackson at his Neverland Ranch when the Arvizo family was visiting. The ABC special made Jackson seem like a pedophile. It prompted a new investigation from then Santa Barbara District Attorney Tom Sneddon, who was looking for a reason to arrest the singer.
What followed was an avalanche of bad publicity, Sneddon contacting the Arvizos to create a case that didn’t exist, an arrest, humiliation for the singer, and a 2005 trial in which Jackson was acquitted.
Jackson, humiliated, left town and died four years later after a series of moves, trips, and poor choices led to a Dr. Conrad Murray killing him during a neglectful treatment.
The whole time Bashir filmed Jackson, Jackson’s videographer was documenting the episode. In court, we were able to see that “outtake” film as part of Jackson’s defense. The results were shocking, and certainly affected the jury’s decision to acquit Jackson. Bashir clearly used Jackson, and led him to say certain things and appear as Bashir wanted him to, in order to create false impressions.
Maybe now that the BBC has re-evaluated Bashir’s manipulations in the Princess Diana case, ABC will turn its attention to the Michael Jackson story.
“Cruella” premiered last night in Hollywood starring Emma Stone as a hip, modern day Cruella deVil. On social media the movie got raves, at the premiere every one loved it. No one would have predicted Craig Gillespie, whose “Lars and the Real Girl” was such a nice film, would emerge as a new Tim Burton!
No one should be happier about “Cruella”‘s reception than one Glenn Close. She’s a surprise Executive Producer on the film. Glenn was not an EP on either of her “101 Dalmatian” movies in which she created the original live action version of the famed animated character.
But one thing no one can deny: this movie is the origin story chapter of what Glenn invented back in 1996. The look, the attitude, all of it reaches back to her original creation.
Is that how she got an EP credit? Executive producer credits are given to people who either kick in money as investors or have a financial interest in a film. Glenn could have one or both. Or is she planning to appear in one of the obvious sequels? That would make sense. And she did say recently to Variety that she has an idea for a new installment of the saga.
An Emma Stone-Glenn Close “Cruella” feature? Dalmatians will barking up a storm!
As Olivia Benson, actress Mariska Hargitay has been beaten up, held hostage, threatened with rape, and fought her way out of many battles.
But yesterday she took a picture outside New York’s famed Hospital for Special Surgery and declared and MRI had shown a broken knee, a hairline ankle fracture and a torn ligament.
And she reassures us, this did not happen at work!
Nevertheless, Mariska looks pretty great in her photo. But ouch! Accidents begin at home!
Cher and Cher alike. There can never be too much Cher.
The great singer, actress, activist and saver of elephants is getting a biopic of her own at Universal Pictures.
She announced it on Twitter with a little fanfare, building up the anticipation of a big announcement.
The Oscar winner says the pic will be produced by Gary Goetzman and Judy Craymer, who produced “Mamma Mia,” and written by Eric Roth. Roth wrote Cher’s movie, “Suspect,” plus more sizzlingly “Forrest Gump,” “A Star is Born,” and so on.
Who will direct? Who will actually play Cher, a force of nature? And Sonny? We’ll see.
Of course, Cher has just had a Broadway musical about her on the boards, for which Stephanie J. Block won a Tony Award playing the famed singer of “Believe,” “Gypsies Tramps and Thieves,” and “I Got You Babe.”
So in a way Cher has a Tony Award by association. She also a Grammy and an Emmy Award of her own to go with her Oscar for “Moonstruck.”
Even with “Forrest Gump” life I don’t know how Eric Roth will pick and choose events for this movie. He’ll have to cover a lot of ground. Really, Cher should have a mini series!
Ok Universal is Doing Biopic With My Friends JUDY CRAYMER,GARY GOETZMAN PRODUCING. THEYY PRODUCED BOTH MAMMA MIA’S,& MY DEAR DEAR Friend 4 YRS, & OSCAR WINNER..ERIC ROTH IS GOING 2 WRITE IT👻🎂‼️ FORREST GUMP A STAR IS BORN SUSPECT TO NAME A FEW OF IS FILMS
Were Ross and Rachel on a break? Matt LeBlanc, who played Joey, says “Bull shit.”
Now we see the trailer for the “Friends” reunion. It looks like fun. Coming soon on HBO Max. But no Paul Rudd, or Marlo Thomas. Maybe they were busy.
Picture this:
The year is 2002, it’s Thursday night, and you rush home to catch the latest episode of Friends. Now get ready for it to happen all over again. Friends: The Reunion is streaming May 27 on HBO Max. #FriendsReunionpic.twitter.com/1ZrHq4HxSM
I can’t think of anything like this in TV history.
Dick Wolf, as I told you last week, has two full nights in a row on NBC with his “Law & Order” and “Chicago” shows.
Now he also has a third full night on CBS with his “FBI” shows.
Wolf commands all of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday basically, from 8 to 11pm on America’s top form of communication.
Tuesdays bring “FBI,” “FBI Most Wanted,” and “FBI International” on CBS.
Wednesday is the “Chicago Med,” “Fire,” and “PD, on NBC.
Thursday is “Law & Order” “For the Defense,” “SVU,” and “Organized Crime.”
That’s NINE hours of prime time. And who knows what’s next? The whole thing has become a lesson in branding, that’s for sure.
CBS is so conscious of Wolf’s supremacy that they’re moving old war horse “NCIS” to Mondays and following it up with a new “NCIS,” set in Hawaii. Or Hawai’i, as it’s being called. (I don’t know what its pronouns are. Lai or laid?)
Well kudos to Mr. Wolf. I said this last week and I’ll say it again. If he has 9 successful hours of prime time TV, the Emmy Awards cannot ignore him. At least celebrate him in some way. There’s obviously an audience for him.
Paul Mooney has died. The 79 year old comedy legend was known for acting and writing. He was celebrated for writing a lot of Richard Pryor’s material, and for playing Sam Cooke in “The Buddy Holly Story.” He was outspoken, brilliant, and influential.
Mooney was also the head writer on “The Richard Pryor Show” and wrote a few episodes of “Pryor’s Place.” His other notable writing credits include “Sanford and Son,” “In Living Color” and “Chappelle’s Show.”
As an actor, Paul’s best known for playing Sam Cooke in the 1978 film, “The Buddy Holly Story,” and for his role as Junebug in Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled” … along with regular appearances on “Chappelle’s Show.”
