Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney(TORONTO) — New Zealand-born director Taika Waititi will be honored with the inaugural Ebert Director Award at this year’s inaugural Toronto Film Festival, named after late, legendary movie critic Roger Ebert. Organizers of the event, which runs from September 5 to September 15, have previously honored filmmakers — including …
For ‘Hobbs & Shaw’ star Vanessa Kirby, working with Helen Mirren was a big draw
Photo Credit: Daniel Smith/Universal Pictures(NEW YORK) — While Fast and the Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw is built around the two titular tough guys — played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham — there’s a pair of very strong women at its core: Helen Mirren and Vanessa Kirby. Oscar-winner Mirren plays tough-as-nails matriarch …
Tyrese Gibson shades The Rock’s ‘Fast & Furious’ spinoff box office numbers
ABC/Paula Lobo(LOS ANGELES) — Tyrese Gibson has a clear message for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Fast & Furious spinoff Hobbs & Shaw: Your film’s “NOT a win.” In a now-deleted Instagram post captured by The Shade Room, Gibson shared a screenshot of a headline that read, “Hobbs and Shaw Has Lowest Fast & Furious Box Office Opening Since Tokyo …
ABC TV head teases female-led Marvel series
Marvel Studios(LOS ANGELES) — Prior to this year’s big-screen blockbuster Captain Marvel, female superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe had been relegated to supporting roles, but ABC Entertainment president Karey Burke told Deadline on Monday that the network and the studio are in “active talks” to develop a female-led series to fill the void left …
Toni Morrison, Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize-winning author of ‘Beloved’, dead at 88
Photo: © Michael Lionstar(NEW YORK) — Toni Morrison, the famed author whose book Beloved won her the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, died on Monday night at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. She was 88. In a statement, her family said, “It is with profound sadness we share that, following a short illness, our adored …
‘The Rookie’ star Afton Williamson identifies people she claims sexually assaulted, bullied her
ABC/Ed Herrera(LOS ANGELES) — The Rookie‘s Afton Williamson, who announced on Sunday that she was leaving the show after she was allegedly subjected to sexual harassment and racial discrimination, has revealed the names of the alleged perpetrators. “This season on The Rookie, I was sexually harassed by fellow actor Demetrius Grosse. I was Racially Bullied …
Former ‘Simpsons’ scorer sues for alleged age discrimination
THE SIMPSONS ™ and © 2017 TCFFC ALL RIGHTS RESERVE(LOS ANGELES) — Alf Clausen, who wrote and conducted music for The Simpsons for 27 years, is suing Disney, 20th Century Fox Television and James L. Brooks’ Gracie Films, the animated sitcom’s production company, for alleged age discrimination, according to Deadline. Clausen, 78, was given his …
“I see dead people”: ‘The Sixth Sense’ turns 20
Hollywood Pictures(NEW YORK) — On this day in 1999, The Sixth Sense, a small film from a then-unknown 29-year-old writer-director named M. Night Shyamalan, first hit theaters. Made for $40 million, the film went on to earn $672 million worldwide, becoming the second-highest-grossing movie of the year in the U.S., after Star Wars: Episode I — …
Mariah Carey creates theme song for ABC’s new ‘black-ish’ spinoff ‘mixed-ish’
ABC(LOS ANGELES) — Mariah Carey has spoken about how growing up biracial had a huge impact on her — so it’s fitting that she’s been tapped to create the theme song for ABC’s new black-ish spinoff comedy, mixed-ish. Mariah will write, produce and record the theme song, called “In the Mix,” for the new series, …
Daveed Diggs to play Frederick Douglass in Showtime’s ‘The Good Lord Bird’ with Ethan Hawke
ABC/Kelsey McNeal(LOS ANGELES) — Daveed Diggs has been tapped to star along Ethan Hawke in the Showtime limited series, The Good Lord Bird. According to Deadline, black-ish co-star and Broadway veteran Diggs will play Fredrick Douglass in the pre-Civil War drama, based on James McBride’s award-winning novel of the same name. He joins Hawke, who …