The Simpsons is about to lose one of its longest-running voice actors. Pamela Hayden, who voices Milhouse Van Houten, Jimbo Jones, Rod Flanders, Sarah Wiggum, Janey Powell, and more, has announced that she has retired from The Simpsons after 35 years. Everything is not coming up Milhouse.
“People come up to me and they quote Milhouse lines,” said Hayden in a video announcing her retirement. “People are always saying what a nerd he is. But one thing that I love about Milhouse is he’s always getting knocked down, but he keeps getting up. I love the little guy.” Hayden continued, “The time has come for me to hang up my microphone, but how do I say goodbye to The Simpsons?……not easily. It’s been an honor and a joy to have worked on such a funny, witty, and groundbreaking show, and to give voice to Milhouse and Jimbo Jones, Rod Flanders, Janey, Malibu Stacy, and many others.”
“Pamela’s talent and joy and love for her characters has added a magic to The Simpsons that will never be forgotten,” said The Simpsons showrunner and executive producer Matt Selman. “Everything’s coming up Pamela!” The Simpsons creator Matt Groening added, “Bart needed someone to talk to in the school cafeteria. We named him Milhouse because that was the most unfortunate name a kid could have. Pamela gave us tons of laughs with Milhouse, the hapless kid with the biggest nose in Springfield. She made Milhouse hilarious and real, and we will miss her.” We certainly will.
Her final episode will be Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes, which will air on November 24th. The series will now start casting for a replacement for Hayden’s characters. Milhouse is one of the show’s many great characters; infinitely quotable and, unfortunately, relatable. Some tough shoes to fill for whoever takes Hayden’s place.
For a show that’s currently in the midst of its 36th season, it’s somewhat remarkable that it’s made it so long with much of its core cast intact. Over the years, we have lost some big names, including Marcia Wallace (Mrs. Krabappel), Russi Taylor (Martin Prince), and Phil Hartman (Troy McClure).
PLOT: Sixteen years after the death of Maximus in the Coliseum, the now-grown Lucius (Paul Mescal), who is secretly the heir to the Roman Empire, finds himself enslaved and forced to fight in the Coliseum while Rome crumbles under the leadership of two tyrannical brothers, Emperor Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Emperor Caracalla (Fred Hechinger).
REVIEW: In my estimation, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator is one of the best historical dramas ever made. When it came out in 2000, it was immediately hailed as a classic, making star Russell Crowe a household name. In the twenty-four years since its release, it’s been often imitated but never equaled. Now, Ridley Scott is back for a lavish sequel, which is being rightly acclaimed as one of his best films in the last twenty years.
While Gladiator II isn’t the instant classic the original was, it’s nonetheless a highly entertaining, faithful sequel, jam-packed with action and spectacle. There hasn’t been a lavish, action-driven historical drama done on this scale in some time, with Scott, despite his advancing age, as energetic and kinetic a director as ever.
One thing that surprised me about Gladiator II is how directly it follows the original (as opposed to early sequel concepts – which were more out there). Given the intervening years, one might have assumed Ridley Scott would have made it more of a standalone entry, but instead, it demands that audiences be very familiar with the original. The animated opening credits portray several of the original film’s classic sequences to refresh the audience’s memory. Still, Scott and writer David Scarpa clearly expect audience members to remember the original quite well.
It would be interesting to watch them back to back, as Scott’s done his best to recapture the flavour and style of the first film. He even repurposes a few minutes of Hans Zimmer’s original score despite the composer passing on composing duties to Harry Gregson-Williams. This gives the film a nice sense of continuity, as does the fact that the movies also share the same DP, John Mathieson, while some of the original cast members, including Connie Nielsen and Derek Jacobi, are back.
One key difference between the two movies is that Gladiator II is less of a hero’s journey for Paul Mescal’s Lucius, with the film not anchored on him like the original was on Crowe. He’s more part of an ensemble here, with Lucius’s journey from family man to slave to Gladiator seeming to take place over a matter of months rather than the years Maximus toiled in the arena.
Mescal’s gotten himself into amazing shape here and really excels in the action scenes, with one hand-to-hand battle early on, which takes place in the home of a Roman senator, especially good. If anything, Gladiator II is even more action-heavy than the original, with Scott opting for wilder set pieces meant to evoke Rome’s growing depravity. Mescal fights everything from rhinos to sharks to baboons this time, although the issue with the bigger set pieces is that Lucius starts to come off as almost a superhero, as opposed to the very mortal Maximus.
Much of the film focuses on Denzel Washington’s Macrinus, a former slave who, over the course of the film, uses his wealth and power in a Machiavellian scheme to take over Rome. Washington, playing a rare villain, seems like he’s having the time of his life as the constantly scheming former slave. Yet, Washington never makes him a cartoon character, with him kind of the other side of the coin compared to Richard Harris’s Marcus Areulius in the first film, with the two sharing a vision for a new Rome, even if the latter’s is more apocalyptic.
Pedro Pascal also has a good role as the new husband of Nielsen’s Lucilla, a sympathetic Roman general who, through a twist of fate, finds himself marked for death by Lucius, with their climactic battle in the arena being an inevitability. Pascal fits nicely into the period epic milieu and could likely lead a film like this on his own, with him doing a good job depicting the character’s torn loyalties. Finally, Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger have fun as the two depraved emperors who make Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus seem reasonable by comparison.
While Gladiator II doesn’t quite gain the instant classic status it aspires to, it’s still a brilliantly made historical epic with a superb ensemble cast and some amazing action. The 150-minute running time blazes by (perhaps too quickly – I hope there’s a longer cut someday) and leaves the door open for a third film, which might do a nice job rounding out what could be a great trilogy about the fall of the Roman Empire. As it is, this is one of the most purely entertaining films of the year and a must-see for fans of the original.
Deadline reports that Emerald Fennell (Saltburn) has filled out the rest of the major roles for her upcoming adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel Wuthering Heights. Shazad Latif (Star Trek: Discovery), Hong Chau (The Whale), and Alison Oliver (Conversations with Friends) have joined the cast of Wuthering Heights.
Wuthering Heights, which was first published in 1847, deals with “Heathcliff, an orphan-turned-foster-son who falls in love with the daughter of the family who owns the estate on which he now lives, Wuthering Heights. After running away, Heathcliff rises up through the ranks of the gentry and exacts revenge on the families — the Earnshaws and the Lintons — who kept him from his true love.” Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie are set to star in the film, with Elordi playing Heathcliff and Robbie playing Catherine Earnshaw. Warner Bros. is keen to get production going early next year, but Elordi is also slated to start shooting Euphoria season 3 in January.
It’s not known exactly who Chau and Oliver will be playing in the project, but THR says Latif will be playing Edgar Linton, “a well to-do neighbour who falls in love and marries Catherine but must then contend with Heathcliff who returns to enact a revenge on the Catherine and the Earnshaws.” Not bad, Clem Fandango. Not bad at all.
Warner Bros. snapped up the Wuthering Heights adaptation during a heated bidding war despite offering considerably less than other bidders. Netflix had reportedly offered a whopping $150 million for the movie, but Fennell turned the streamer down, which left them a little shocked. The reason came down to Fennell wanting a theatrical release for the film, which Warner Bros. fully supports, promising a wide release and a full marketing campaign.
Wuthering Heights has been adapted to the screen numerous times, including in 1939 with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, 1970 with Timothy Dalton and Anna Calder-Marshall, 1992 with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, and 2011 with Kaya Scodelario and James Howson.
J.K. Rowling is the creator of the Harry Potter franchise, but in recent years, she’s gotten a lot more press for her views on transgender people. As Warner Bros. is currently developing a Harry Potter TV series, there was a question of how involved Rowling would be. Turns out, she’ll be involved quite a bit. At a recent press event, HBO chief Casey Bloy said Rowling was “very, very involved in the process selecting the writer and the director,” and her statements on transgender people “haven’t affected the casting or hiring of writers or production staff.“
In a further statement to Variety, HBO said Warner Bros. has “been working with J.K. Rowling and in the Harry Potter business for over 20 years” and “her contribution has been invaluable.” The statement continued, “We are proud to once again tell the story of Harry Potter — the heartwarming books that speak to power of friendship, resolve and acceptance. J.K. Rowling has a right to express her personal views. We will remain focused on the development of the new series, which will only benefit from her involvement.“
For those who disagree with Rowling’s views, it can be difficult to separate the franchise from its creator, and the Harry Potter fandom has certainly been split. Knowing of Rowling’s involvement in the new series may be a tough pill to swallow for some.
The casting process for the Harry Potter TV series has begun. An open call was put out for children who are residents of the U.K. and Ireland and will be between the ages of 9 and 11 in April 2025 to play Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. “We are committed to inclusive, diverse casting,” the notice reads. “For every role, please submit qualified performers, without regard to ethnicity, sex, disability, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other basis protected by law unless otherwise specifically indicated.” There have also been rumblings that Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies) is at the top of the wishlist for the role of Albus Dumbledore.
This summer, Succession‘s Francesca Gardiner was revealed to have been tapped as a writer and showrunner, while Mark Mylod signed on to executive produce and direct multiple episodes. The project was originally developed for Max but made the leap to HBO (along with a variety of other Max shows) in June.
Each season of the Harry Potter TV series is said to cover one of Rowling’s novels, for a total of seven seasons. While the movies were able to fit quite a lot in, there were plenty of moments cut from the novels that the TV series will finally be able to bring to life. Last year, the studio released a statement saying, “Each season will be authentic to the original books and bring Harry Potter and these incredible adventures to new audiences around the world, while the original, classic and beloved films will remain at the core of the franchise and available to watch globally.“
It’s trendy these days to take a character from popular children’s stories and given them a horror twist. Lately we’ve been hearing about horror movies based on the likes of Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Bambi, Pinocchio, Three Blind Mice, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears – and when one set of filmmakers decides to make a horror film featuring a beloved kids’ story character, there are sometimes multiple other sets of filmmakers working on horror films that center on the same character, as evident from the fact that there are actually several Mickey Mouse horror films making their way out into the world. Another example is Popeye. Earlier this month, it was announced that Alpeke Entertainment is working on a slasher horror comedy called Shiver Me Timbers, which puts a horror twist on Popeye the Sailor. Since then, our friends at Bloody Disgusting got their hands on a batch of images from another Popeye horror production, a movie simply called Popeye.
William Stead, who previously directed the World War II horror film Children of the Night, is at the helm of Popeye, which is described as being a “raunchy and gory slasher.” Here’s the synopsis: The legend of Popeye haunts a group of counselors as they intend to open a summer camp. There’s no word on why Popeye would be a summer camp slasher.
Rene August is producing the film, which is coming our way from ITN Studios. Although ITN is the company behind Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey and the rest of the “Poohniverse” that’s being built around those films, Bloody Disgusting was informed that this movie is not part of that cinematic universe.
Popeye himself is being played in the film by Steven Murphy. You can see a picture of him in character at the top of this article, and more images can be found at the Bloody Disgusting link.
What do you think of this trend of turning children’s story characters into horror movie villains? Are you interested in these Popeye horror movies? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
After teaming up for the biographical period drama Queer, filmmaker Luca Guadagnino (Challengers, Suspiria, Bones and All) and Daniel Craig (No Time to Die, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Logan Lucky) could pull the pin on an adaptation of Sgt. Rock for James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Studios. According to Deadline, Guadagnino would go behind enemy lines for this project before shooting his American Psycho film for Lionsgate. No deals are in place, but reports say Challengers and Queer scribe Justin Kuritzkes is in charge of the screenplay.
Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert created Sgt. Franklin John Rock, with the character debuting in DC Comics circa 1959. Bursting out of the pages of Our Army at War, Sgt. Rock is a WWII soldier who served in the infantry. The character headed to the front line in 1977 with his first solo series, which ran until 1988. At the same time, he’s not infused with Super Soldier serum, Sgt. Rock is a beast on the battlefield, able to shoot down German planes with a single submachine gun and lob grenades with deadly precision. Armed with a “Combat Antenna,” which allows him to sense incoming enemy attacks, Sgt. Rock is just as efficient with his fists as he is with a loaded weapon.
Sgt. Rock joins Gunn and Safran’s list of films planned for DC Studios. The initiative begins with the duo’s Gods and Monsters arc, which includes Superman, The Authority, The Brave and Bold, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and Swamp Thing. On the television end of the spectrum, DC plans to unleash Creature Commandos, Waller, Lanterns, Paradise Lost, and Booster Gold. The first of the bunch, Creature Commandos, starring the voices of David Harbour, Viola Davis, Anya Chalotra, Alan Tudyk, Sean Gunn, Frank Grillo, Maria Bakalova, Zoe Chao, Steve Agee, Indira Varma, Russ Bain, Benjamin Byron Davis, and more, marches onto Max on December 5, 2024.
Again, no deals are in place for Luca Guadagnino and Daniel Craig to tackle Sgt. Rock, but our fingers are officially crossed. As long as things go according to plan, this dynamic duo could find themselves in the DC Universe, which is already shaping up to be different from the DCEU. Let’s go!
The 1994 film Star Trek: Generations showed us the final moments in the life of Captain James T. Kirk, as played by William Shatner. In the 2016 film Star Trek Beyond, we learned that Kirk’s great friend Spock, as played by Leonard Nimoy, had passed away, acknowledging the fact that Nimoy himself passed away in 2014. The newly released Star Trek short film 765874 – Unification, which was created by the VFX studio OTOY, catches up with Kirk in the afterlife in the moments after his Star Trek: Generations death and takes him on a trip through space and time so he can be reunited with Spock in the last moments of his life. It’s a sweet idea, and you can check it out in the embed above.
I am a fan of the Star Trek movies, but I have barely seen any of the TV shows, so I’m not well-versed enough in this subject to dig into all of the Easter eggs packed into 765874 – Unification‘s ten minutes. For information on all of that, I turned to the folks at Inverse.
Shatner plays Kirk in this short with the help of digital trickery that places his face on the body of double Sam Witwer. As he makes his way through the afterlife, he crosses paths with an elderly Saavik (an aged-up Robin Curtis from the third and fourth Star Trek movies) and a Vulcan named Sorak (Mark Cinnery), the son of Saavik and Spock. Then he meets the alien Yor (Gordon Tarpley), a character who entered the main Star Trek timeline from the Kelvin timeline of the J.J. Abrams films and was featured on Star Trek: Discovery. Since Yor is from the Kelvin timeline, he helps Kirk pass into that timeline to meet up with Spock – since the Abrams series showed us that Spock crossed into a parallel universe (and went into the past), spending the last years of his life in a timeline inhabited by a younger version of himself (played by Zachary Quinto). There are also nods to the characters Gary Mitchell and J.M Colt.
It will be interesting to see how fans react to 765874 – Unification. Some will probably find the short to be quite heartwarming, while others will cringe at the idea – and at the sight – of visual effects versions of Kirk and Spock being brought together for an afterlife journey.
What did you think of 765874 – Unification? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
As Dean DeBlois prepares to leap from animation to live-action for another adaptation of author Cressida Cowell’s How to Train Your Dragon, a new first-look video highlights the vision, passion, and joy of returning to a familiar fantasy universe. In today’s behind-the-scenes look at Dreamworks‘ How to Train Your Dragon, DeBlois professes his love for Cowell’s exciting world and how thrilled he is to bring Hiccup and Toothless’s poignant story to the live-action silver screen.
“I decided to revisit How to Train Your Dragon because it felt like an amazing opportunity to not only direct a live-action movie but to be jumping back into a world that I frankly miss,” DeBlois says in today’s video. “I miss these characters. I miss this world, and I love movies that have a really poignant message buried deep within a moving spectacle. Adventure, wonder. That’s what this movie really packs. It’s about a regular kid who gets to bond with a powerful animal and there is something that’s universally wish fufilling about that,” DeBlois adds.
As the latest video for How to Train Your Dragon continues, we see the moment Mason Thames (The Black Phone) learns that he’s landed the role of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, a dream come true for any actor making his way up the Hollywood ladder. “Are you serious? This is the best moment of my life,” Thames says as reality dawns. DeBlois also shows us Nico Parker’s reaction to getting cast as Astrid Hofferson, a Viking warrior of Clan Hofferson of the Hooligan tribe. She and Hiccup eventually form an unbreakable bond, but not before Hiccup must convince Astrid dragons aren’t a threat to her people.
In How to Train Your Dragon, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III discovers dragons aren’t as terrifying as the stories would have him believe. Hiccup is an outsider, so people will likely brush his opinions aside. Still, when he proves to them that dragons are misunderstood and potentially friendly, he ushers in a new era where Vikings and dragons work together to build a shared society.
How to Train Your Dragon franchise director Dean DeBlois (Lio & Stitch, Micronauts) shot Dreamworks’ live-action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon from his script. Mason Thames (The Black Phone) plays Hiccup, while Gerard Butler plays the Viking leader Stoick. Julian Dennison plays Fishlegs, Gabriel Howell plays Snotlout, Harry Trevaldwyn pays Tuffnut, Bronwyn James plays Ruffnut, Nico Parker plays Astrid, Nick Frost plays Gobbler, and Ruth Codd plays Phelgma.
Dean DeBlois’ live-action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon soars into theaters on June 13, 2025.
Last month, legendary drive-in movie critic Joe Bob Briggs hosted a double feature of Friday the 13th movies on AMC, and now it has been confirmed that his next Shudder (and AMC+) special is going to air on a Friday the 13th! That is December 13th, and the special is called Joe Bob’s Christmas Carnage.
Shudder shared the following information: Snow is falling and the bodies are piling up for Joe Bob’s Christmas Carnage, when Joe Bob and Darcy host two holiday horror flicks featuring so much bloodshed that Santa will think twice before coming down this chimney. Details on the two movies that are going to be shown are likely to be kept under wraps until Joe Bob introduces them on the show.
The special will premiere live on Friday, December 13th and will then be available on demand as of December 15th. It will be available in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.
Joe Bob has a series called The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs on Shudder, and we usually see multiple specials, like Joe Bob’s Christmas Carnage, in between seasons of the show. On The Last Drive-In, the world’s foremost drive-in movie critic hosts eclectic horror movies, talking about their merits, histories and significance to genre cinema.
Earlier this year, Shudder renewed The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs for a supersized sixth season that was designed to make sure Joe Bob would be an even more consistent presence on the streaming service throughout the year. Normally, a season of The Last Drive-In would see Joe Bob hosting double features every Friday for ten weeks straight. The sixth season took a different approach, having Joe Bob host a single movie every other Friday. Following a special Roger Corman double feature on March 15th, season 6 officially got started on March 29th and it wrapped up with a six movie marathon called The Last Drive-In: Nightmareathon (with special guest Rhonda Shear of USA Up All Night!) on August 30th. Before we got to the end of season 6, it had already been announced that Shudder had renewed The Last Drive-In for season 7. It hasn’t been revealed what sort of approach is going to be taken for that season, which will premiere sometime in 2025.
The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs is produced by Matt Manjourides and Justin Martell and directed by Austin Jennings. Joe Bob is joined on every episode by Diana Prince as Darcy the Mail Girl.
Are you a fan of Joe Bob Briggs, and will you be watching Joe Bob’s Christmas Carnage? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
After being quite vocal in the real-world political sphere, Robert De Niro is taking his politics to Netflix for a political thriller limited series about the aftermath of a devastating cyberattack that kills thousands of people and threatens to push a nation already on the precipice over the edge. Today, Netflix offers a first look at Zero Day, a six-episode event co-created and executive-produced by Eric Newman (Griselda) and Noah Oppenheim (NBC News).
Zero Day “is a limited series starring Robert De Niro as respected former U.S. President George Mullen, who, as head of the Zero Day Commission, is charged with finding the perpetrators of a devastating cyber attack that has caused chaos around the country and thousands of fatalities,” reads Netflix’s official synopsis. “As disinformation runs rampant and the personal ambition of power brokers in technology, Wall Street, and government collide, Mullen’s unwavering search for the truth forces him to confront his own dark secrets while risking all he holds dear.”
Premiering on Netflix on February 20, 2025, Zero Day stars Robert De Niro alongside Angela Bassett, Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons, Joan Allen, Connie Britton, and Matthew Modine, with guest stars Bill Camp, Dan Stevens, Gaby Hoffmann, Clark Gregg, and McKinley Belcher III.
Zero Day is written and executive produced by Eric Newman and Noah Oppenheim, with Lesli Linka Glatter as executive producer and director of all six episodes. Michael S. Schmidt also serves as writer and executive producer, with Robert De Niro and Jonathan Glickman as executive producers.
In today’s first-look photos for Netflix’s Zero Day, we find Robert De Niro, Angela Bassett, Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons, and more in their respective roles, all with varying levels of severity on their faces. Cyber attacks are some of the greatest threats we face in today’s fast-paced world, with the strike in Zero Day leading to deadly consequences. Shutting down the source is imperative, but former U.S. President George Mullen’s associates must traverse a tangled web before arriving at who’s responsible. Do they have what it takes to prevent another, more server attack? We’ll find out on February 20, 2025.
