Category: Entertainment News

The MonsterVerse returns for its fifth installment with the new trailer of “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.”

The film comes after Legendary Pictures’ 2021 feature “Godzilla vs. Kong” helmed by Adam Wingard, who returns to direct this upcoming monster movie. Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry and Kaylee Hottle reprise their 2021 roles as Dr. Illene Andrews, Bernie Hayes and Jia, respectively. The film also stars franchise newcomers Dan Stevens and Fala Chen.

Per the “The New Empire’s” official synopsis: “This latest entry follows up the explosive showdown of Godzilla vs. Kong with an all-new cinematic adventure, pitting the almighty Kong and the fearsome Godzilla against a colossal undiscovered threat hidden within our world, challenging their very existence – and our own. The epic new film will delve further into the histories of these Titans, their origins and the mysteries of Skull Island and beyond, while uncovering the mythic battle that helped forge these extraordinary beings and tied them to humankind forever.”

Descending from a long lineage of films, “The New Empire” marks the 38th film in the Godzilla franchise, which began in Japan back in 1954 with Ishirō Honda’s “Godzilla.” This also marks the 13th film in the King Kong franchise, which began in the U.S. with the RKO Picture’s 1933 original.

“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” is written by Terry Rossio, Jeremy Slater and Simon Barrett, with Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Eric McLeod, Brian Rogers, Thomas Tull and John Jashni serving as producers. The creature feature is set to hit theaters on April 12, 2024.

— Variety

“Halo” Season 2 has sets its premiere date at Paramount+.

The second season of the series based on the popular video game franchise will premiere on Feb. 8, 2024, in all countries where Paramount+ is available.

The first two episodes of the season will drop on that date with new episodes dropping weekly thereafter. The announcement was made at CCXP in São Paolo, Brazil, with cast members Pablo Schreiber and Joseph Morgan in attendance along with new showrunner David Wiener and executive producer Kiki Wolfkill.

The official description for Season 2 states, “Master Chief John-117 (Schreiber) leads his team of elite Spartans against the alien threat known as the Covenant. In the wake of a shocking event on a desolate planet, John cannot shake the feeling that his war is about to change and risks everything to prove what no one else will believe – that the Covenant are preparing to attack humanity’s greatest stronghold. With the galaxy on the brink, John embarks on a journey to find the key to humankind’s salvation, or its extinction — the Halo.”

Morgan joins the cast as James Ackerson, described as “a formidable intelligence operative who has spent his career climbing the ranks of the UNSC’s secretive Office of Naval Intelligence.” Cristina Rodlo is also joining the show in the role of Talia Perez, “a corporal specializing in linguistics for a UNSC Marine Corps communications unit and a relatively new recruit who has yet to see any real combat.”

Returning cast members include Natascha McElhone, Jen Taylor, Bokeem Woodbine, Shabana Azmi, Natasha Culzac, Olive Gray, Yerin Ha, Bentley Kalu, Kate Kennedy, Charlie Murphy, Danny Sapani, Fiona O’Shaughnessy, and Tylan Bailey.

HALO is produced by Showtime in association with 343 Industries and Amblin Television. The second season is executive produced by Wiener alongside Steven Spielberg, Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey for Amblin Television. Wolfkill serves as executive producer for Xbox/343 Industries, with Otto Bathurst and Toby Leslie for One Big Picture and Gian Paolo Varani. Both Schreiber and McElhone serve as producers this season. The series is distributed internationally by Paramount Global Content Distribution.

Paramount+ also released the first teaser trailer for the new season:

— Variety

“The Thundermans Return,” the Nickelodeon film continuation of the popular TV series, has dropped its first teaser trailer on Saturday.

“The Thundermans Return” premieres on Paramount+ and all Nickelodeon channels in March 2024. “A super new movie brings the return of one super superhero family,” the narrator says.

“The Thundermans” aired on Nickelodeon from 2013 to 2018. The series followed superhero twins Phoebe Thunderman (Kira Kosarin) and Max Thunderman (Jack Griffo) in their daily school lives as they kept their superhero identities a secret, all the while wrestling with their different personalities. Created and executive produced by Jed Spingarn, “The Thundermans” ranked as the top series across all TV in the Kids 2-11 and Kids 6-11 categories.

In “The Thundermans Return,” Kosarin and Griffo reprise their roles as Phoebe and Max, respectively. The official description states audiences will get to see “the return of show favorites, new villains and familiar locations.”

The film description continues: “After three years of fighting crime in their new city of Metroburg, The Thundermans are suddenly stripped of their assignment and sent back to Hiddenville. While Hank and Barb look forward to their return ‘home’, Chloe develops new friend groups, Billy and Nora enjoy a normal school life, and Max and Phoebe are determined to regain their superhero status.”

Along with Kosarin, Griffo, Dan Cross and David Hoge as executive producers, Spingarn serves as writer and executive producer. Trevor Kirschner directs.

— Variety

Will Smith has shared new details about “I Am Legend 2,” which he stars in and produces alongside Michael B. Jordan.

The upcoming sequel is based on the alternate ending used in the 2007 post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie’s DVD release, rather than its theatrical version, in which his character dies, Smith said Saturday night during a public interview in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Smith, who is one of a number of Hollywood A-list star guests at the third edition of the Red Sea Film Festival, also discussed “Bad Boys 4,” where he and co-star Martin Lawrence will reprise their roles in the earlier sequels of the original 1995 hit detective movie.

“I am having a call tomorrow with Michael B. Jordan about [‘I Am Legend 2’],” Smith told a small audience at one of the festival’s In Conversation events.

“You have to be a real ‘I Am Legend’ buff to know this, but in the first, theatrical version, my character dies, but on the DVD there was an alternate version of the ending where my character lived. We are going with the mythology of the DVD version. I can’t tell you anything more, but Michael B. Jordan is in.”

Smith got in an early self-deprecating reference to the 2022 Oscar’s ceremony scandal where he slapped on-stage presenter Chris Rock after the comedian and actor made a poorly-judged quip about Smith wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head (the result of a hair-loss condition she was suffering) — saying since his childhood he had “always been good at math and science… and I loved problems and puzzles, so I started making my own problems,” before moving onto an entertaining analysis of his career.

His first love was rap, he told an audience dominated by long-time fans. Later, he realized the power of acting to understand, shape and influence the human condition.

“Movies are about people trying to figure out how to be here without being miserable – how to be okay with life, how to not just survive but how to thrive into this potential existential tragedy that we have all been dropped into,” he said, adding: “How do we find love and joy in all that.”

Asked to name his key mentors, he said that a pivotal moment was working with Tommy Lee Jones and Gene Hackman.

“That was the first realization that I could use everything I need around a single project. Those two actors made me realize that I was totally outmatched, and they inspired me to elevate my craft as an actor,” Smith said.

An actor with a prodigious record of hits, he said that he did not care whether he appeared in a blockbuster or a more modest project — as long as it was good and he learned from it: “The thing for me is that I have wanted to make good movies that were blockbuster, or blockbusters that were good. To me, the concept of a blockbuster is your heart — the block that gets busted is your heart, where your heart opens to the experience of the movie. That is what I have always concentrated on; even with something like ‘I Am Legend’ – you can give a real performance at the center of a special effects movie.”

Looking ahead, Smith said he wanted to become a mentor to a new generation of filmmakers and teach his craft.

“The thing I am really excited about now is the transfer of knowledge. I really want to teach filmmaking.

“What is exciting about Saudi Arabia is that it is a brand-new film community. There is a style of global storytelling that has travelled the world. I understand about taking local stories and making them global. I have a deep faith in the power of sharing our stories together to help heal wounds. The next stage of my life will be about working in global collaboration about sharing our stories in a way that creates bridges. I don’t feel that politics will create the necessary change.”

Concluding the hour-long conversation — during which he treated the audience to impersonations of Muhammad Ali, Richard Williams (the father of tennis players Serena and Venus Williams, whom he portrayed in the 2021 film “King Richard)” — Smith added his “adversities of the last couple of years” had honed his view on what he wants to do in the next phase of his life: “I have to be clear about who I am and what I am attempting to do in the world, I cannot depend on others applauding me for me to stay focused on my mission.”

— Variety

‘Rock and a Hard Place’ set records for the newcomer on the country airplay chart and soared into the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 as well. It’s on Variety’s Hitmakers list of the top 25 songs of 2023

Country music hasn’t had a huge presence in the mainstream top 10 since Florida Georgia Line provided a couple of big crossover blips in 2014 and 2017 with “Cruise” and “Meant to Be.”

But that changed in triplicate in 2023 with three Nashville exports— the well-established Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs, plus a blazing-hot newcomer,  Zimmerman. His first three singles all hit No. 1 on country airplay charts, but it was “Rock and a Hard Place” that landed the 23-year-old Illinois native in the upper ranks of the Billboard Hot 100… and, now, on Variety‘s Hitmakers list of the top 25 songs of the year.

Zimmerman’s secret sauce? He’s between rock and a country place — which is to say that he grew up as a rocker, and his gravelly tone reflects the rock power ballads of his youth. Producer Austin Shawn notes, “He’s from Southern Illinois, and what they listen to over there is Eddie Vedder, AC/DC and Lynyrd Skynyrd and Southern rock.” When they’re trying out different vocal approaches, “I’ll be like, ‘Sing it like Scott Stapp from Creed,’ and he can do that.”

Even though he brings the party in concert, his singles have tended toward the broken-hearted and balladic. Signed to both Warner Nashville and Elektra, he became an overnight country star with the tearjerker “Fall in Love,” and they stayed in that mode with “Rock and a Hard Place” — his second single — instead of pivoting to an up-tempo, which might have been more the conventional wisdom. Says WMG Nashville marketing chief Jamie Younger, “He had this vision for a trilogy for the first three songs.” The singer’s entire debut album reflects on a bad breakup, and so “Hard Place,” she says, was “just the continuation of a narrative that he had started with ‘Fall in Love’; you wanted to just keep that story going.” (“Religiously,” the title track of his debut album, was third up and completed the trilogy of airplay No. 1s two months ago.)

His climb into the top 10 of the Hot 100 with “Rock and a Hard Place” set a record for the longest ascent into those select ranks for a solo artist in that chart’s history: 41 weeks. Yet on the country airplay chart, he set a shortest record, for the least time elapsed between a freshman artist’s first two No. 1 singles. “Rock and a Hard Place” really didn’t want to vacate the top spot, either. With this track, Zimmerman also became the first male artist in country radio history to have one of his first two singles spend six weeks at No. 1. (Among all artists, only Carrie Underwood’s debut single, “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” had ever accomplished that previously.)

But its airplay monstrosity followed its streaming monstrosity. A huge part of that was the song, of course, but an equally substantial part was the personality that drew in legions of new fans by the day, who didn’t struggle with too much difficulty in reconciling the heartbroken guy they heard in the songs — which all reflect an IRL bad breakup of his — with the vivacious guy on social media.

And he’s one of a breed of young artists who also use their socials to sort of research their own songs, Says Younger, “He’s responsible for picking out where we start with TikTok teasers and things of that nature. He really knows his audience well and he is super in tune with following what they react to, and he started talking about (‘Rock and a Hard Place’) and as soon as he did, fans really clung to it. Bailey always says that he wants to have songs that tell a story and that connect with people. Obviously he always wants hits, but like more than hits, he wants a connection. So when he started seeing fans really connecting with the song, that’s when we all knew that that was the next one that we needed to run towards.”

The first time Zimmerman visited Shawn’s home studio, where they record everything from demos to final mixes, “he pulled into the driveway in this big, black lifted truck, and I was like, ‘What the hell is this, man?’” What it was: a head start on building the singer’s massive social following. Zimmerman already had a huge TikTok following in the lifted-truck community, so when it suddenly turned out he could sing, too, he brought years of prior experience in making fans feel like they’re getting a one-to-one connection online. “With his engagement on social media with lifted trucks,” says Younger, “he had this innate understanding of what you need to do to grow an audience; it just hadn’t involved music up to a certain point.” For Zimmerman, social media will always be an easy place.

— Variety