Artificial intelligence has progressed rapidly even since we first started covering it. But one thing we’ve found it can’t replicate is humor — at least not yet. Just take a look at that awful George Carlin story that used the comedian’s mannerisms, patterns and style to generate a “standup special.” Or the constant stream of a mock-Seinfeld episode that has been running for over two years but has yet to truly nail the show? Speaking of Jerry Seinfeld, what’s the deal with his take on AI?
As you can imagine, Jerry Seinfeld has his thoughts on just what AI has achieved and the inadvertent statement it has made on humanity as a whole — hey, it’s at least more relevant than his Pop-Tart routine. Appearing on The Tonight Show, Seinfeld said of AI, “Let’s be honest. Most of the intelligence we’ve encountered in our life: pretty artificial, right? All we had was real intelligence, beginning of mankind, right? Didn’t work.” He added, “We were dumb. Still dumb. So we kept thinking until we could create a fake version of it so dumb people would seem smart. And then we thought, ‘Well maybe that wasn’t the smart thing, ‘cause what if the fake brain gets smarter than the real brain?’ We would look even dumber!”
So where does that leave us — you know, human beings — and AI, according to Jerry Seinfeld? “If I got this right: we’re smart enough to invent AI, dumb enough to need it and so stupid we can’t figure out if we did the right thing. We don’t know!” Whether any of this is going to turn out to be the “right thing” remains to be seen but it sure has generated a lot of conversation in the entertainment industry.
As mentioned, Seinfeld has been the target of AI with the Twitch series Nothing, Forever, which has been running more or less nonstop for over two years now, although it did hit a snag and suspension after a transphobic joke hit the stream, demonstrating how unhinged AI can be without proper regulation.
Where do you see AI going in terms of comedy? Can it be used as a tool or is it not capable?
Plot: The journey of four kids who make a mysterious discovery on their seemingly safe home planet, then get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy. Finding their way home—and meeting unlikely allies and enemies—will be a greater adventure than they ever imagined.
Review: Set after the events of Return of the Jedi in the same period as The Mandalorian, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew has been promoted as a series in the tradition of Amblin projects like The Goonies, Gremlins, and Back to the Future. Aiming to recapture the childlike adventure and spirit of the 1980s films of Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante, and more, Skeleton Crew is a fantastic and unique foray into the world of Star Wars that is far different from what we have seen in the Disney-era of Lucasfilm. While we have seen Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni mine nostalgia for George Lucas‘ films and expansions featuring Ahsoka Tano as well as the one-and-done foray into The High Republic-era with The Acolyte, Skeleton Crew offers the first kid-centric Star Wars project but without being a project for children. Solid action and practical effects elevate Skeleton Crew into an exciting and refreshing addition to Star Wars that mines the franchise’s mythology without regurgitating the same formula.
As the trailers have shown, Skeleton Crew centers on a quartet of pre-teens living in an idyllic world called Ad Atta. Looking like suburbia in a galaxy far, far away, Ad Atta is run by a structured governing body led by an unseen supervisor. Everyone has a job that serves The Great Work, a project to protect peace and prosperity in the Republic. As the kids prepare to take a test to determine their future careers, they discover a spaceship buried in the woods outside their town. Among the kids are Wim (Ravi Cabot Conyers), a dreamer who wants to be a protector like the Jedi in his storybooks. Wim’s best friend Neel (Dear Santa‘s Robert Timothy Smith) is an Ortolan who is a good kid who tries not to get led astray. The two run into headstrong Fern (Firestarter‘s Ryan Kiera Armstrong), daughter of Fara (Kerry Condon), and her best friend KB (Kyriana Kratter). The four kickstart the ship and blast off on an adventure away from their home planet.
In the first three episodes of the eight-episode series, the four kids are guided to a pirate base by a droid named SM-33 (voiced by Nick Frost), where they encounter Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law). Jod Na has Force abilities, leading Wim to assume he is a Jedi, something Jod Na does not try to dissuade him from believing. Pretty quickly, Jod Na’s identity is divulged, but whether that is really who he is remains to be seen. We can tell that Jod Na has his reasons for helping the kids escape and find their way home, but how that factors into the main story is more complex than the difference between good and bad. The influences on Skeleton Crew are heavy on pirate lore, especially the classic novel Treasure Island, with references to the ideas of buried loot, swashbucklers, and thieves key to the ship’s origin the kids found in their backyard. The plot is also heavy with a mystery that I will not divulge here that connects this series to not only the main Star Wars films but to the idea of The Old Republic as well.
Some may hesitate to check out Skeleton Crew, thinking that the series is a “kid’s show.” With solid action, this series is anything but a sanitized program for younger viewers. The young actors are all solid performers who hold their own in their individual scenes and those shared with adult cast members. Jude Law is quite good in a role that is not easy to pin down in the early chapters. Law is a great actor, and his work as Captain Hook in Disney’s Peter Pan & Wendy echoes his role here. The stakes are high, and the action is on par with other Star Wars projects to date. In fact, the visual look of this series is better than we have seen on any Disney+ series so far. I have some issues with the Stagecraft technology used here, as it does not look as realistic as in prior projects. Still, the use of matte paintings, physical puppets, and make-up, overseen by Industrial Light & Magic icon Phil Tippet, gives this series the most tangible feel of a Star Wars project since the prequel films.
Created by Jon Watts and Christopher Ford, who penned six of the eight episodes alongside Myung Joh Wesner (High Potential) on the remaining two, Skeleton Crew is more reminiscent of Watts and Ford’s work on Cop Car and Spider-Man: Homecoming. The kids act like kids and talk naturally rather than spouting dialogue written by adults who have no idea how young people would speak or react. Watts directed the first and last episode of the series, with the second and third chapters directed by David Lowery. Lowery has experience with Disney, having helmed Peter Pan & Wendy, and Pete’s Dragon. His two episodes heavily use physical effects and are more Star Wars-esque than Watts’ premiere episode, which feels more like the Amblin influences the Wolfs director discussed in press for the project. The remaining episodes are directed by The Daniels (Everything Everywhere All At Once), Jake Schreier (Robot & Frank), Bryce Dallas Howard (The Mandalorian), and Lee Isaac Chung (Twisters), giving Skeleton Crew the most lauded batch of directors of any Star Wars or Disney+ series to date. The score by Mick Giacchino, son of composer Michael Giacchino, proves the young musician definitely follows in his father’s footsteps.
While I have seen less than half Skeleton Crew, I am cautiously optimistic. My prior reviews for the Star Wars series on Disney+ have started out very positive, but I was underwhelmed once the full season aired and the project failed to stick to the landing. Aside from Andor, none of the Star Wars live-action projects have been consistent for their entire season runs, but Skeleton Crew feels different. Aside from references to The Republic, The Jedi, and some X-Wings, Skeleton Crew exists within the world of Star Wars and includes many species we have seen before but forges a story that does not rely on nostalgia for existing films or characters. Jon Watts and Christopher Ford have made Skeleton Crew into a cinematic exploration of Star Wars across a series format. I look forward to seeing how this story unfolds and if it can maintain the fun we get in the first three chapters. Skeleton Crew is a return to form for Lucasfilm and the most fun I have had with Star Wars in a very long time.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew premieres with two episodes on December 2nd on Disney+.
Plot: The journey of four kids who make a mysterious discovery on their seemingly safe home planet, then get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy. Finding their way home—and meeting unlikely allies and enemies—will be a greater adventure than they ever imagined.
Review: Set after the events of Return of the Jedi in the same period as The Mandalorian, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew has been promoted as a series in the tradition of Amblin projects like The Goonies, Gremlins, and Back to the Future. Aiming to recapture the childlike adventure and spirit of the 1980s films of Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante, and more, Skeleton Crew is a fantastic and unique foray into the world of Star Wars that is far different from what we have seen in the Disney-era of Lucasfilm. While we have seen Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni mine nostalgia for George Lucas’ films and expansions featuring Ahsoka Tano as well as the one-and-done foray into The High Republic-era with The Acolyte, Skeleton Crew offers the first kid-centric Star Wars project but without being a project for children. Solid action and practical effects elevate Skeleton Crew into an exciting and refreshing addition to Star Wars that mines the franchise’s mythology without regurgitating the same formula.
As the trailers have shown, Skeleton Crew centers on a quartet of pre-teens living in an idyllic world called Ad Atta. Looking like suburbia in a galaxy far, far away, Ad Atta is run by a structured governing body led by an unseen supervisor. Everyone has a job that serves The Great Work, a project to protect peace and prosperity in the Republic. As the kids prepare to take a test to determine their future careers, they discover a spaceship buried in the woods outside their town. Among the kids are Wim (Ravi Cabot Conyers), a dreamer who wants to be a protector like the Jedi in his storybooks. Wim’s best friend Neel (Dear Santa‘s Robert Timothy Smith) is an Ortolan who is a good kid who tries not to get led astray. The two run into headstrong Fern (Firestarter‘s Ryan Kiera Armstrong), daughter of Fara (Kerry Condon), and her best friend KB (Kyriana Kratter). The four kickstart the ship and blast off on an adventure away from their home planet.
In the first three episodes of the eight-episode series, the four kids are guided to a pirate base by a droid named SM-33 (voiced by Nick Frost), where they encounter Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law). Jod Na has Force abilities, leading Wim to assume he is a Jedi, something Jod Na does not try to dissuade him from believing. Pretty quickly, Jod Na’s identity is divulged, but whether that is really who he is remains to be seen. We can tell that Jod Na has his reasons for helping the kids escape and find their way home, but how that factors into the main story is more complex than the difference between good and bad. The influences on Skeleton Crew are heavy on pirate lore, especially the classic novel Treasure Island, with references to the ideas of buried loot, swashbucklers, and thieves key to the ship’s origin the kids found in their backyard. The plot is also heavy with a mystery that I will not divulge here that connects this series to not only the main Star Wars films but to the idea of The Old Republic as well.
Some may hesitate to check out Skeleton Crew, thinking that the series is a “kid’s show.” With solid action, this series is anything but a sanitized program for younger viewers. The young actors are all solid performers who hold their own in their individual scenes and those shared with adult cast members. Jude Law is quite good in a role that is not easy to pin down in the early chapters. Law is a great actor, and his work as Captain Hook in Disney’s Peter Pan & Wendy echoes his role here. The stakes are high, and the action is on par with other Star Wars projects to date. In fact, the visual look of this series is better than we have seen on any Disney+ series so far. I have some issues with the Stagecraft technology used here, as it does not look as realistic as in prior projects. Still, the use of matte paintings, physical puppets, and make-up, overseen by Industrial Light & Magic icon Phil Tippet, gives this series the most tangible feel of a Star Wars project since the prequel films.
Created by Jon Watts and Christopher Ford, who penned six of the eight episodes alongside Myung Joh Wesner (High Potential) on the remaining two, Skeleton Crew is more reminiscent of Watts and Ford’s work on Cop Car and Spider-Man: Homecoming. The kids act like kids and talk naturally rather than spouting dialogue written by adults who have no idea how young people would speak or react. Watts directed the first and last episode of the series, with the second and third chapters directed by David Lowery. Lowery has experience with Disney, having helmed Peter Pan & Wendy, and Pete’s Dragon. His two episodes heavily use physical effects and are more Star Wars-esque than Watts’ premiere episode, which feels more like the Amblin influences the Wolfs director discussed in press for the project. The remaining episodes are directed by The Daniels (Everything, Everywhere All At Once), Jake Schreier (Robot & Frank), Bryce Dallas Howard (The Mandalorian), and Lee Isaac Chung (Twisters), giving Skeleton Crew the most lauded batch of directors of any Star Wars or Disney+ series to date. The score by Mick Giacchino, son of composer Michael Giacchino, proves the young musician definitely follows in his father’s footsteps.
While I have seen less than half Skeleton Crew, I am cautiously optimistic. My prior reviews for the Star Wars series on Disney+ have started out very positive, but I was underwhelmed once the full season aired and the project failed to stick to the landing. Aside from Andor, none of the Star Wars live-action projects have been consistent for their entire season runs, but Skeleton Crew feels different. Aside from references to The Republic, The Jedi, and some X-Wings, Skeleton Crew exists within the world of Star Wars and includes many species we have seen before but forges a story that does not rely on nostalgia for existing films or characters. Jon Watts and Christopher Ford have made Skeleton Crew into a cinematic exploration of Star Wars across a series format. I look forward to seeing how this story unfolds and if it can maintain the fun we get in the first three chapters. Skeleton Crew is a return to form for Lucasfilm and the most fun I have had with Star Wars in a very long time.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew premieres with two episodes on December 2nd on Disney+.
Margot Robbie made quite the impression with her breakout role in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, which included a full frontal nude scene. While speaking with Ben Mankiewicz on the Talking Pictures podcast, the actress revealed that this scene was actually her idea, although she wasn’t thinking about how “everyone is going to see this” at the time.
“[Scorsese] said, ‘Maybe you can be wearing a robe if you’re not comfortable.’ But that’s not what she would do in that scene,” Robbie said. “The whole point is that she’s going to come out completely naked—that’s the card she’s playing right now.“
The actress also explained how she stood out during her audition for the role — by slapping Leonardo DiCaprio. The scene which she was reading called for their characters to kiss, but Robbie had another idea. “I thought, ‘I could kiss Leonardo DiCaprio right now, and that would be awesome. I can’t wait to tell all of my friends this,’” Robbie said. “And then I thought nah. And just walloped him in the face. It was dead silent for what felt like an eternity but was probably three seconds.“
Robbie continued, “They just burst out laughing. Leo and Marty were laughing so hard. They said, ‘That was great.’ I was thinking, ‘I’m going to get arrested, I’m pretty sure that’s assault or battery. Not only will you never work again, actually you will go to jail for this, you idiot.’ And also ‘why did you have to hit him so hard? You should have done it lighter.’“
After the success of The Wolf of Wall Street, Robbie’s career exploded with roles in movies such as Suicide Squad, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and, of course, Barbie. However, not every film can be a winner, and one of Robbie’s more recent movies premiered to a very mixed reaction, which Robbie is still confused by. Damien Chazelle’s Babylon depicted the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood. “I still can’t figure out why people really hated it,” Robbie said. “I wonder if in 20 years people are going to be like, ‘Wait, Babylon didn’t do well at the time? That’s crazy.’ When you hear something like, [The]Shawshank Redemption was a failure at the time, or whatever it is, and you’re like, ‘Oh, how is that possible?’“
Celeste O’Connor, best known for her roles in Madame Web and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, has joined the cast of Scream 7. Details on who she might be playing are being kept under wraps.
The upcoming sequel will see the return of Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott. After playing the role in the first five Scream movies, she was expected to return for the sixth until the studio low-balled her. “As a woman, I have had to work extremely hard in my career to establish my value, especially when it comes to Scream,” Campbell said. “I felt the offer that was presented to me did not equate to the value I have brought to the franchise. It’s been a very difficult decision to move on.” Hopefully, they apologized with a dump truck of cash this time around. Courteney Cox is also expected to return as Gale Weathers, but she hasn’t officially signed on yet. It’s also possible that Patrick Dempsey might be returning as Mark Kincaid (now married to Sidney) from Scream 3. It was recently announced that Isabel May (Yellowstone: 1883) had joined the cast as Sidney’s teenage daughter.
The original plan for Scream 7 would have seen Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega returning as Sam and Tara Carpenter, but Spyglass Media fired Barrera after a few pro-Palestinian social media posts that they deemed anti-Semitic. The very next day, it was revealed that Ortega had exited the project as well. It was initially reported that this was due to scheduling conflicts with the second season of Wednesday, but it later emerged that she had wanted a substantial salary increase, which Spyglass refused, so she walked.
That wasn’t the end of the drama either. Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day) was set to direct the movie, but he also departed, calling it a “dream job that turned into a nightmare.” The studio then turned to Kevin Williamson, screenwriter of the original Scream movie, to direct. Upon the announcement, Neve Campbell said, “While I’ve been so incredibly lucky to make these films with both the master of horror Wes Craven and the wonderfully talented Matt and Tyler team, I’ve dreamt for many years of how amazing it would be to make one of these movies with Kevin Williamson at the helm. And now it’s happening, Kevin Williamson is going to direct Scream 7! This was his baby and it’s his brilliant mind that dreamt up this world. Kevin is not just an inspiration as an artist but has been a dear friend for many years.“
Scream 7 is slated for a February 27, 2026release.
Although The Acolyte did wrap up certain plotlines during its first season, there was enough left unexplained that its cancellation was very frustrating for fans. One of those tidbits included the reveal of Darth Plagueis, the future master of Sheev Palpatine. Had the show returned for another season (or even more), The Acolyte star Manny Jacinto teased that we definitely would have seen more of Darth Plagueis.
While speaking at a panel at FanExpo San Francisco (via Collider), Jacinto was asked about his character’s connection to Darth Plagueis.
“Oh man, that’s a tough question. They’re not [connected], they’re definitely not. Oh man, how do I answer that? What time is it? [laughs] There are definitely a lot of different theories, like who he is, because we never actually know his true identity. Is Qimir’s name actually Qimir? We definitely wanted to explore it,” Jacinto explained. “There was definitely going to be more of Plagueis in the second, or if not, the third seasons of the show, but I just can’t say, because, you know, we could come back. I don’t want to spoil anything, or give anybody any false hope, but I would just say there was a lot more to explore, for sure.“
While The Acolyte wasn’t my favourite Star Wars series, I was disappointed by its cancellation. Despite its faults, it did give fans something different and explored a brand-new era in the franchise. Lee Jung-jae, who starred as Jedi Master Sol, was also disappointed by the premature end of the series, although he remains hopeful it could return.
Darth Plagueis is known to be obsessed with achieving immortality, so you can understand why he would be interested in Osha and Mae (Amandla Stenberg) as the first step to his plans. Given what we know of the future, showrunner Leslye Headland previously explained that his presence also likely spells doom for Osha and the Stranger. “Even though [Osha and The Stranger] are standing there, sort of looking out at the sunset, ready to conquer the world, the tragedy is we know they don’t,” Headland explained. “We know there can only be two. We know Plagueis is there. We know that these two are doomed in some way. So to me it’s a bittersweet tragedy, this foreboding ending. But that’s because I know about the Sith lineage and all these other things, whereas I think a different subset of the audience can be like, ‘They’re married!’“
The Acolyte takes place 100 years before the events of The Phantom Menace and follows a Jedi Master who investigates a shocking crime spree which pits him against a dangerous warrior from his past. The series stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Jodie Turner-Smith, Dafne Keen, Rebecca Henderson, Charlie Barnett, Dean-Charles Chapman, and Carrie-Anne Moss. You can check out a review from our own Alex Maidy right here.
The box office failure of the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa would seem to prove that movie-goers aren’t particularly interested in seeing entries in the “Mad Max Saga” that don’t give Max Rockatansky himself a prominent role – but that isn’t stopping Australian filmmaker Justin Kurzel from daydreaming about making his own, potentially Max-lite contribution to the franchise. During an interview with Collider, Kurzel even said that’s considering pitching the idea to Mad Max franchise creator George Miller!
Kurzel is currently doing the press rounds for his thriller The Order, and his directing credits also include The True History of the Kelly Gang and Nitram. While speaking with Collider, he said, “I’ve always been curious about what happened before the first Mad Max – what was that world with the Nightrider, pre-Mad Max? I’ve always been very curious about that and very tempted to talk to George about the possibility of a world that is pre-Mad Max 1 and what that is. That’s been one that I’ve always been really curious about because it was such an influential film in my time. It’s an amazing franchise, but I’ve always been curious about those moments before that first one because it’s set up so richly. And it’s such a great time in Australia, too, that period.“
There could be room for some Max in such a story, and it could show more of his days as a police officer before society completely crumbled… or Kurzel could be talking about something that’s focused on the sort of road-terrorizing villains we saw in that first movie, the biker gang with members like Toecutter and Nightrider.
We’ll have to wait and see if Kurzel’s Mad Max pitch goes anywhere, if he does actually take it to Miller at all. In the meantime, we’re also waiting to see if Miller will get the chance to make the Mad Max movie he has been talking about getting around to for years, Mad Max: The Wasteland. Miller turned 79 this year, which increases the difficulty level of taking on such a project, but he handled Furiosa just fine and might still have plenty of time left to do Mad Max: The Wasteland without issue. But if making these movies becomes too much of a burden, Miller has let it be known that he has three different directors in mind that he would like to see make movies set in the wasteland he created. It’s not known if Justin Kurzel would be one of those filmmakers, but he has indicated to IGN that Guillermo del Toro is a director he would welcome into the Mad Max franchise.
What do you think of what Justin Kurzel had to say about his Mad Max prequel idea? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
PLOT: A young woman is haunted by a terrifying vampire who’s become infatuated with her and will go to any lengths to be with her.
REVIEW: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Robert Eggers is one of the most exciting directors working nowadays. Having made a huge impression with The Witch and The Lighthouse, Eggers’s The Northman was his biggest, most ambitious movie to date. It perfectly married his aesthetic to a larger canvas that delivered for a broad audience but never felt compromised. The fact that The Northmanwasn’t seen more widely on the big screen is a tragedy, but with Nosferatu, Eggers seems on the cusp of a major hit that should open him up to an even bigger audience.
One thing’s for sure – there’s not going to be anything else like it playing in theaters this holiday season. Sporting an hard-R rating, this is the scariest vampire movie in ages. So, what is the difference between Nosferatu and Dracula? For those who don’t know, Nosferatu was a silent, 1922 German expressionist horror film by F.W. Murnau which was an unofficial and unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Like Murnau’s film, Eggers (who also wrote the movie) follows the basic premise of Stoker’s Dracula, with Bill Skarsgard’s Count Orlok consumed with a blinding obsession for Lily-Rose Depp’s Ellen Hutter (a stand-in for Mina Harker). All of the familiar story beats are followed, with the basic premise being the same. However, rather than coming across as a gothic romance, this feels more like a possession film, with Lily-Rose Depp giving the performance of a lifetime as the increasingly unhinged Ellen.
In the film, Orlok and Ellen are psychically bonded, with her, at first, his willing slave, only for her to be repelled in the movie’s prologue, when she gets a real sense of his undeniable evil and depravity. One thing worth noting is that Eggers has risen to the occasion of giving us a screen vampire who doesn’t look like anything we’ve seen before. Skarsgard’s look has been kept under wraps, and it’s a striking vision, with him genuinely giving us a new vision of what it might be like to be truly undead.
Skarsgard, with his deep, dark Transylvanian accent and imposing build, makes for a terrifying Orlok. However, it can’t be denied that Depp is almost as scary, especially in sequences where she goes into a trance, with her worthy of serious awards consideration. She’s well-supported by Nicholas Hoult, who plays her husband, Thomas, who’s this story’s version of Jonathan Harker. Much has been made about how Thomas played a less active role in Nosferatu as opposed to Dracula. Still, here Thomas is more full-blooded, with his devotion to Ellen and pursuit of Orlok owing more to Stoker than Murnau.
Willem Dafoe, who’s become an Eggers regular, is superb as the Van Helsing analogue, Prof. Albin Eberhart Von Franz, who dominates the movie’s second half, playing him more unhinged than the heroic vampire hunter of old. Ralph Ineson (of The Witch) is a good foil for him, as his more science-based pupil, while Simon McBurney gives a ferocious performance as this story’s version of Renfield, Herr Knock.
One thing worth noting about Eggers’s film is how hard it hits, not only in terms of horror but also emotionally. Emma Corin is especially heartbreaking as Anna, one of Orlok’s ill-fated victims. Even Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who initially comes off as a bit of a send-up of moneyed aristocracy, shows real pathos as the movie goes on, with Eggers really giving the entire cast of characters their due.
Aesthetically, this is the most impeccable mounting of a vampire film since Coppola did Bram Stoker’s Draculathirty years ago. Using a 1:66:1 aspect ratio, Nosferatu will likely be a visual feast for those lucky enough to see it on an IMAX screen, while the sound mix and score (by Robin Carolan) are superb. Indeed, this is one of the most lovingly made horror films in some time, with Eggers likely having set out to create a definitive version of the tale. It’s long been his passion project, and you can tell. For me, this is up there with the best films of the year, and probably the only horror film I’ve seen recently that sent a true chill up my spine. Of all the films I’ve seen this year – and there have been a lot – this one seems to have the best chance of becoming a classic.
Anya Taylor-Joy is set to return to the small screen as she has been tapped to star in Lucky, an Apple TV+ limited series based on the bestselling novel by Marissa Stapley of the same name.
The series centers on “a young woman who left behind the life of crime she was raised in years ago, but must now embrace her darker, criminal side one final time in a desperate attempt to escape her past.” Jonathan Trooper created the series and will serve as co-showrunner alongside Cassie Pappas. Production is expected to kick off in spring 2025. Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine banner will produce the series. In addition to starring in Lucky, Taylor-Joy will also executive produce alongside Witherspoon and Tropper.
“Hello Sunshine continues to do a fantastic job of championing women’s voices and I’m thrilled to be joining the team alongside Jonathan, Cassie and Apple TV+ to bring Lucky to life,” said Taylor-Joy in a statement.
Witherspoon added, “Reese’s Book Club began with the goal of deepening connections – to the stories, to the storytellers, and to the community we are building. It is incredibly rewarding to be able to amplify these female-centric stories and their authors, see our community connect with them, then see them take on a whole new life on screen. We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Apple TV+ and the incomparable Anya Taylor-Joy, plus our brilliant creator Jonathan Tropper and his wonderful co-showrunner Cassie Pappas, to bring this compelling series – based on Marissa Stapley’s fantastic novel – to audiences around the world.“
Taylor-Joy’s last small screen outing was for The Queen’s Gambit, the Netflix limited series which follows Beth Harmon, a fictional American chess prodigy on her rise to the top of the chess world while struggling with drug and alcohol dependency. The actress won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Limited Series or Television Film and an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. She will next be seen starring alongside Miles Teller in The Gorge, a “high-action, genre-bending love story” directed by Scott Derrickson. The film centers on two soldiers who are tasked with guarding a seemingly never-ending gorge without knowing what actually lies beneath them. It’s slated for a 2025 release on Apple TV+.
Sony’s big Black Friday sale has rolled into its PlayStation 30th anniversary sale without missing a beat. There are lots more games that are heavily discounted on PSN right now, from blockbuster PS5 exclusives to some equally amazing but lesser-known games that might not be on your radar.
