Since Kevin Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct in 2017, he’s been largely absent from the world of Hollywood beyond a handful of independent movies, but some believe that it’s time to welcome him back, including Liam Neeson and Sharon Stone.
The two-part documentary Spacey Unmasked aired earlier this month and featured unheard testimonies from men about their experiences with the actor. In a statement to The Telegraph (via Variety), Liam Neeson said that while he was “deeply saddened to learn of these accusations” against Kevin Spacey, he believes he should be allowed to return. “Kevin is a good man and a man of character,” Neeson said. “He’s sensitive, articulate and non-judgmental, with a terrific sense of humor. He is also one of our finest artists in the theatre and on camera. Personally speaking, our industry needs him and misses him greatly.“
Stone added, “I can’t wait to see Kevin back at work. He is a genius. He is so elegant and fun, generous to a fault and knows more about our craft than most of us ever will… It’s terrible that they are blaming him for not being able to come to terms with themselves for using him and negotiating with themselves because they didn’t get their secret agendas.“
Other actors who came to Spacey’s defence include F. Murray Abraham, who was fired from Mythic Quest following his own sexual misconduct accusations. Murray said: “I vouch for him unequivocally. Who are these vultures who attack a man who has publicly accepted his responsibility for certain behavior, unlike so many others?…He is a fine man, I stand with him, and let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
Stephen Fry also chimed in, expressing his distaste for the Spacey Unmasked documentary. “[To] bracket [Spacey] with the likes of Harvey Weinstein,” he said, “To continue to harass and hound him, to devote a whole documentary to accusations that simply do not add up to crimes… how can that be considered proportionate and justified?“
Fry added, “Surely it is wrong to continue to batter a reputation on the strength of assertion and rhetoric rather than evidence and proof. Unless I’m missing something, I think he has paid the price.“
As for Spacey, he’s already come out against the documentary. In an interview with Dan Wootton, the actor said, “I take full responsibility for my past behavior and my actions, but I cannot and will not take responsibility or apologize to anyone who’s made up stuff about me or exaggerated stories about me.” In a statement, Spacey added, “I have consistently denied — and now successfully defended — numerous allegations made both in the U.S. and the U.K., both criminal and civil, and each time have been able to source evidence undermining the allegations and have been believed by a jury of my peers.“
What are your thoughts? Should Kevin Spacey be able to work in Hollywood again?
Sony Pictures announced today that the next sequel in the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise is set for a theatrical release on July 18, 2025.
Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge) has been tapped to direct the sequel from a screenplay she co-wrote with Sam Lansky following the initial script by Leah McKendrick. It’s been said that original cast members Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. have been in talks to reprise their roles, but nothing has been officially confirmed yet. Hewitt said earlier this year that she’d be down to return for the sequel but hasn’t seen a script yet.
Loosely based on the 1973 novel by Lois Duncan, the first I Know What You Did Last Summer movie was scripted by Scream writer Kevin Williamson and directed by Jim Gillespie. It revolved around four young friends (Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Ryan Phillippe) who are stalked by a hook-wielding killer one year after they supposedly killed a man in a car accident and covered it up. The film was a big success at the box office, spawning a theatrical sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and a direct-to-video follow-up, I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer. There was also a short-lived which streamed on Prime Video in 2021 before it was cancelled.
Leah McKendrick, who penned the initial script, previously said that the sequel deals with “beautiful people behaving badly,” just like the original movie. “It really reckons with some big ideas about hero and villain, right and wrong, how your skeletons come back to haunt you,” she said. “And in the age of the internet and the age where fame is such a revered concept, the creation of TikTok and social media, who is Julie James in a world where there are no secrets anymore?“
As fellow ’90s slasher franchise Scream was able to orchestrate a successful modern relaunch, Sony Pictures obviously hopes they can do the same with this I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel. Are you down?
Love it or hate it, it’s hard to deny that Grand Theft Auto VI has been one of the most anticipated video games of the last decade. The first trailer for the long-awaited sequel finally dropped last December, and Take-Two Interactive, the company that owns Rockstar Games, has now set a Fall 2025 release for Grand Theft Auto VI.
“Our outlook reflects a narrowing of Rockstar Games’ previously established window of Calendar 2025 to Fall of Calendar 2025 for Grand Theft Auto VI,” Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said. “We are highly confident that Rockstar Games will deliver an unparalleled entertainment experience, and our expectations for the commercial impact of the title continue to increase.” Zelnick wouldn’t specify a more exact release date for Grand Theft Auto VI, telling Variety, “That [announcement] will come from Rockstar and be consistent with the way they are marketing the title.“
That still leaves well over a year before players will finally get to immerse themselves in the latest GTA game, but it’s nice to have a timeframe in place. We still don’t officially know all that much about Grand Theft Auto VI, but the trailer did that it will take place in Vice City and revolve around two protagonists, Lucia and Jason, who seem to be involved in some Bonnie and Clyde-type story.
Grand Theft Auto V was released in 2013 and became the fastest-selling entertainment product in history, earning $1 billion in three days. The game revolves around three protagonists—retired bank robber Michael De Santa, street gangster Franklin Clinton, and drug dealer and gunrunner Trevor Philips. The game was first released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 but would receive re-releases on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in 2014 and on Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 in 2022. Grand Theft Auto Online has also kept the franchise going for the decade between installments, with frequent updates keeping fans active and the money rolling in.
It’s wild that Grand Theft Auto VI has been in development so long that it has skipped an entire console generation. By the time it’s released in 2025, it will be halfway through the life of the current console generation.
Hi, my name is – or rather *was* – Slim Shady. Eminem has killed off his Slim Shady persona, penning an obituary that mourns the loss of his tortured alter ego.
In an obituary published in the Detroit Free Press, Eminem wrote of the late Slim Shady, “A product of Detroit who began his career there as a rogue splinter in the flourishing underground rap scene of the mid to late 1990s, Shady first became a household name in 1999 with the debut of his playfully deranged single ‘My Name Is,’ which — along with its uniquely eye catching video — exposed the young artist and his lyrics to a wider audience. That audience was soon exposed to the extreme darkness of the muse/rapper as he led millions of music fans down a road that glorified a demonstrably nihilistic worldview.” It’s worth noting that this is part of the promotional strategy for his upcoming album, the aptly titled The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce).
Through Slim Shady, Eminem (real name Marshall Mathers, for those keeping tabs of personas) was able to act out on any fantasy he wished, most notoriously as it relates to his ex-wife Kim, with escalating acts that drew media attention and leant to the rapper and sometime actor’s legacy as one of the most daring, non-PC artists to step into the game.
The obituary for Slim Shady continued by saying it was his lifestyle and deep issues that lead to his fall. “Ultimately, the very things that seemed to be the tools he used became calling cards that defined an existence that could only come to a sudden and horrific end. His complex and tortured existence has come to a close and the legacy he leaves behind is no closer to resolution than the manner in which this character departed the world. May he truly find the peace in an afterlife that he could not find on Earth.”
Eminem’s Slim Shady alter ego was a groundbreaker not just in music but pop culture as a whole. But killing him off might be just what 51-year-old Eminem needs as far as a career shift goes. Certainly his sobriety – which he celebrated 16 years of last month – played a role in his metaphorical burying of the character who brought him so much trouble. The Death of Slim Shady is slated for a summer release.
How do you feel about Slim Shady being killed off? Will you be checking out Eminem’s upcoming album?
The John Wick franchise producers at Thunder Road Pictures are partnering with longtime Screen Gems executive Scott Strauss to launch an independent genre label called Badlands, Deadline reports, and the first project to come our way from Badlands is the spider thriller Arachnid, which has Don’t Listen and El hombre del saco director Ángel Gómez Hernández attached to direct from a screenplay by Jayson Rothwell, whose previous credits include Silent Night (2012) and Polar. The film is set to star Matilda Lutz of the awesome 2017 revenge thriller Revenge and the upcoming Red Sonja reboot.
Badlands is backed by Andrew Schwartzberg and Jon Shiffman’s company Renegade Capital. According to Deadline, the label will “feature development and co-fi funds and plans to make two to three films per year.” Filming on Arachnid is set to begin in Madrid, Spain this July. Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee of Thunder Road are producing the film with Strauss, Schwartzberg, Shiffman, and Rothwell, as well as Peter Welter, Alexandra Milchan, and Josh Weinstock.
Details on the plot of Arachnid have not been revealed, but it will be bringing us more spider thrills close on the heels of the recently released films Sting and Infested, both of which I enjoyed. So I’m looking forward to seeing how this one will turn out… and I’m hoping to see that new Red Sonja movie sometime before Arachnid makes its way out into the world. What’s the hold up?
Strauss provided the following statement: “I am lucky to be in business with Thunder Road and Renegade. Badlands will be an extension of both companies’ entrepreneurial spirit and is moving quickly to acquire and produce a fresh slate of horror IP.“
Lee added, “Thunder Road has been looking to expand into the horror space and we are thrilled to partner with someone as smart, creative, and hardworking as Scott. His experience and track record speak for themselves and our team is dedicated to making Badlands a success.“
Are you looking forward to seeing Matilda Lutz deal with rampaging spiders in Arachnid? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is still seven months away, as the third live-action movie starring the blue blur and his angsty rival Shadow will premiere on December 20. And fans are eagerly anticipating the first trailer for the upcoming movie. Though some lucky ones were able to get a first look at a private event in April,…
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is still seven months away, as the third live-action movie starring the blue blur and his angsty rival Shadow will premiere on December 20. And fans are eagerly anticipating the first trailer for the upcoming movie. Though some lucky ones were able to get a first look at a private event in April,…
New reporting claims that Microsoft’s CEO is pushing all of its divisions to make more money and has put pressure on Xbox to publish even more of its games from some of its biggest franchises on PlayStation and Switch, leading to internal debates and “unease.”
New reporting claims that Microsoft’s CEO is pushing all of its divisions to make more money and has put pressure on Xbox to publish even more of its games from some of its biggest franchises on PlayStation and Switch, leading to internal debates and “unease.”
Francis Ford Coppola has spent decades bringing Megalopolis to life. The director began crafting the project back in the ’80s but recognized that it would require a huge budget to match its massive scope, so it spent decades on the shelf. Now, after spending upwards of $120 million of his own money, Coppola has brought Megalopolis to the Cannes Film Festival, and the reviews have begun to pour in.
THR‘s David Rooney said, “It’s windy and overstuffed, frequently baffling and way too talky, quoting Hamlet and The Tempest, Marcus Aurelius and Petrarch, ruminating on time, consciousness and power to a degree that becomes ponderous. But it’s also often amusing, playful, visually dazzling and illuminated by a touching hope for humanity. I can’t say I was always engaged over its two hours-plus run time, but I was always curious about where it was going next. Is it a good movie? Not by a long stretch. But it’s not one that can be easily dismissed, either… But if this ends up being the distinguished 85-year-old director’s swan song, at least he’s capping his career with a risk-taking flourish.“
Deadline‘s Damon Wise said, “True to the advance gossip, Megalopolis is something of a mess; unruly, exaggerated and drawn to pretension like a moth to a flame. It is also, however, a pretty stunning achievement, the work of a master artist who has taken to Imax like Caravaggio to canvas. It is a true modern masterwork of the kind that outrages with its sheer audacity. In the early 20th century, the French shook their umbrellas at this kind of thing, and it will not get a soft landing in 2024, since it commands you to bend to its vision… Megalopolis represents a rare kind of event movie that reinvents the possibilities of cinema to the extent that, halfway through, there’s a very audacious gimmick that tears down the fourth wall in ways younger filmmakers can only dream of. Coppola breaks many of the cardinal rules of filmmaking in the film’s 138 minutes but it upholds the most important one: it is never, ever boring, and it will inspire just as many artists as the audiences it will alienate.“
The AV Club‘s Jason Gorber said, “Megalopolis doesn’t exhibit that common curse of thinking it’s smarter than it is, but I’m also not sure that it’ll live up to even the most cursory of deeper examinations. There are audiences that will be giddy for its insanity, others angered by a seeming waste of pure directorial talent. But for the vast majority of the cinematic hoi polloi, there will be that most cursed of reactions: indifference. Megalopolis is not a film to be seen while doom-scrolling. A great deal of its joy will be to see it in a room, as I did, with the energy of an audience growing increasingly perturbed by what they were witnessing. And yet, the audience was engaged, perhaps a bit shocked, and maybe even aroused, exhibiting the same primal drive that makes some people gawk at car accidents on the side of the road. To say whether I “liked” Megalopolis does its endeavors injustice, but to ignore the fact that it seems deeply nonsensical and in desperate need of some outside perspective to reshape it in slightly more agreeable ways would be unfair.“
IndieWire‘s David Ehrlich said, “While it might be tempting to see this kooky, nepotistically cloistered, and unconscionably expensive magnum opus as the self-involved work of a fading artist who’s lost whatever was left of his ability to tell good ideas from bad, “Megalopolis” does everything in its power to remind the audience that we share in the outcome of its demented fever dream. Which isn’t to say that we’re obligated to make this particular movie a success, only that we’d do well to examine the source of whatever hostility it might reflexively produce within us. Why does change scare us so much that we’d sooner forfeit our freedom to imagine a better world than reckon with the possibilities such freedom allows? Quoth Marcus Aurelius again: “The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make of it.“
The Guardian‘s Peter Bradshaw said, “Everyone who loves cinema owes Francis Ford Coppola a very great deal … including honesty. His ambitious and earnestly intended new film, resoundingly dedicated to his late wife Eleanor, has some flashes of humour and verve. Jon Voight’s scene with his bow-and-arrow shoots a witty dart. The film’s heavily furnished art deco theatricality sometimes creates an interestingly self-aware spectacle, like an old-fashioned modern dress production of Shakespeare. And certainly a Coppola failure is a whole lot more interesting than the functional successes of lesser directors – the middleweights who aim low and just about hit the target’s bottom rim. But for me this is a passion project without passion: a bloated, boring and bafflingly shallow film, full of high-school-valedictorian verities about humanity’s future. It’s simultaneously hyperactive and lifeless, lumbered with some terrible acting and uninteresting, inexpensive-looking VFX work which achieves neither the texture of analogue reality nor a fully radical, digital reinvention of existence.“
It doesn’t sound as though Megalopolis is destined to be a crowd-pleaser, but the reviews do tease a film that needs to be experienced. At the very least, it certainly sounds different. The boasts a star-studded ensemble cast that includes Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Chloe Fineman, Kathryn Hunter, Dustin Hoffman, DB Sweeney, Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Bailey Ives, Grace Vanderwaal, and James Remar.
“An accident causes the destruction of a New York City-like metropolis that is decaying anyway, bringing clashing visions of the future,” reads the description. “On one side is an ambitious architectural idealist Caesar (Adam Driver). On the other is his sworn enemy, city Mayor Frank Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito). The debate becomes whether to embrace the future and build a utopia with renewable materials, or take a business-as-usual rebuild strategy, replete with concrete, corruption and power brokering at the expense of a restless underclass. In between their struggle is the mayor’s socialite daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), a restless young woman who grew up around power and tires of being a tabloid fixture looking for meaning in her life.“
