Two Disney tentpoles, “Mufasa: The Lion King” and “Moana 2,” are crossing major box office milestones.

“Mufasa” has surpassed $500 million globally after four weeks of release, while “Moana 2” is poised to swim past the $1 billion mark with ticket sales currently at $989.9 million.

“The Lion King” prequel led the pack again at the global box office over the weekend with $41 million, including $27.9 million from 52 international markets. After a rough start around Christmas, the photorealistic musical adventure about the future leader of Pride Lands has rebounded, with revenues at $540 million to date. Outside of the United States and Canada, where “Mufasa” has generated $189 million, the top-earning territories are France ($33.7 million), the United Kingdom ($29.9 million), Mexico ($24.6 million) and Germany ($24 million). The film cost above $200 million to produce, though, so Disney needs “Mufasa” to continue stampeding through theaters to justify its mega price tag.

“Moana 2,” which opened ahead of Thanksgiving, brought in...

Lionsgate’s heist thriller “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” stole the box office crown, debuting at No. 1 with $15.5 million from 3,008 North American theaters.

The sequel to 2018’s “Den of Thieves” opened on the higher end of expectations and landed about even with its predecessor’s $15.2 million launch. The first film also opened in January and powered to $80 million globally by the end of its theatrical run. The second installment needs an even better display of staying power because it carries a $40 million production budget. Moviegoers liked the film more than critics; “Den of Thieves 2” earned a “B+” grade on CinemaScore and a 58% average on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. Gerard Butler stars as Big Nick, a gritty Los Angeles police officer on the hunt in Europe to track down ex-marine-turned-robber Donnie (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) who is plotting a massive diamond heist.

“These movies are made for audiences, not critics,...

Shrek and the Minions will both be on the big screen in 2026.

Universal Pictures announced Friday that the highly-anticipated animated movies are swapping their theatrical release dates, with DreamWorks Animation’s “Shrek 5” pushing back from July 1, 2026 to Wednesday, Dec. 23, while Illumination’s “Minions 3” moves into that summer 2026 window from its planned June 30, 2027 date.

Universal has also shifted the release of an untitled Illumination event film from March 19, 2027 to the June date.

While December 2026 might seem far, far away, “Shrek 5” arrives in time for the franchise’s 25th anniversary and marks the grand return of original “Shrek” stars Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz to voice Shrek, Donkey and Fiona.

Beginning with 2001’s “Shrek” (which won the first Oscar for best animated feature), the four “Shrek” films have earned more than $2.9 billion worldwide, spawning a global live-touring show and an award-winning Broadway musical that earned eight Tony nominations and 12 Drama Desk nominations,...

Bong Joon Ho‘s hotly anticipated sci-fi film “Mickey 17,” starring Robert Pattinson, will have its international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, Variety has learned.

The $118 million movie marks Bong’s first directorial effort since “Parasite,” which won Cannes’ Palme d’Or and made Oscar history, becoming the first foreign-language film to win the Academy Award for best picture.

“Mickey 17” will debut in South Korean theaters on Feb. 28, and will be globally released a week later by Warner Bros. There could also be a premiere of the movie in South Korea slated for before the Berlinale unspooling.

Securing the movie’s international premiere is a major coup for the Berlinale’s new artistic director Tricia Tuttle — a progressive American film journalist and curator — who will celebrate her first edition at the festival this year, succeeding Carlo Chatrian. Tuttle previously led the BFI London Film Festival during a fast-growing five-year chapter.

In the 50-year history of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, only 41 people have ever been invited by Lorne Michaels to serve as both host and musical guest on the same night, including icons like Paul Simon, Ray Charles, Elton John, Britney Spears and Taylor Swift. Of them, only four have been non-professional singers or musicians, the most recent example coming some 30 years ago: Lily Tomlin, on Nov. 22, 1975 and Jan. 22, 1983; Desi Arnaz, on Feb. 21, 1976; Gary Busey, on March 10, 1979; and Deion Sanders, on Feb. 18, 1995.

On Jan. 25, you will be able to add Timothée Chalamet to that list. The star of the hit new Bob Dylan drama A Complete Unknown, in which he impressively sings dozens of Dylan’s songs himself, has been invited to Studio 8H at 30 Rock to serve in that dual role. Chalamet is known to be a huge fan of rap music, but presumably he’ll limit his musical...

Phyllis Dalton, the revered British costume designer who created Peter O’Toole‘s iconic white desert robe for David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia and won Oscars 24 years apart for her work on Lean’s Doctor Zhivago and Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V, has died. She was 99.

Dalton died Thursday, The Telegraph reported. No other details were immediately available.

During her storied 50-year-plus career, Dalton also received an Oscar and BAFTA nomination for Carol Reed’s Victorian-era best picture winner Oliver! (1968); won a BAFTA for The Hireling (1973), set in post-World War 1; and landed an Emmy for Clive Donner’s 1982 telefilm The Scarlet Pimpernel, which takes place amid the French Revolution.

She started out as a wardrobe assistant on Laurence Olivier’s Henry V (1944) and got her first costume designer credit dressing Richard Todd and Glynis Johns on Rob Roy: The Highland Rogue (1953). She even aided the legendary Edith Head on Alfred Hitchcock...

When “Today” starts up Monday morning, NBC executives and producers hope that it will look like any other broadcast of the long-running A.M. show.

Of course, it won’t. Yes, Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin will greet viewers, no doubt, with the top news of the day. Yet while Melvin has been a regular presence on the program, Monday marks his first appearance in the co-anchor role previously held by Hoda Kotb. The expectation is that viewers won’t blink much of an eye.

“People kind of know and expect what we give them every day,” says Melvin, during an interview last week.

Spoiler Alert: This post contains spoilers from “The Crumbs of Hope,” the Season 1 finale of “Landman,” now streaming on Paramount+

If the beginning and end of Season 1 of Paramount+’s “Landman” is any indication, co-creator and writer Taylor Sheridan may have it out for star Billy Bob Thornton.

“I think Taylor is trying to kill me,” Thornton tells Variety. “He had me beat up at the beginning and beat up at the end. At least he let me throw a few punches myself there in the middle.”

He’s joking, of course. There is no “Landman” without Tommy Norris, Thornton...

The 36th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival has revealed this year’s juried award winners. Psiff took place from Jan. 2-13, 2025, and screened 165 films from over 71 countries, including 68 premieres. The line-up includes 35 of the International Feature Film Oscar Submissions along with Talking Pictures, New Voices New Visions, Modern Masters, Queer Cinema, True Stories, World Cinema Now and more.

Previously announced winners include the Desert Views Award, Young Cineastes Award and Bridging the Borders Award. The Audience Awards for Best Narrative Feature and Best Documentary Feature will be announced on the evening of Sunday, Jan. 12.

The Fipresci jury members were Canadian film critic Brian D. Johnson, Brazilian film critic Marcelo Janot and Italian film critic and Paola Caseslla. This special jury reviewed 35 of the official submissions for the Academy Awards International Feature Film category that were selected to screen at this year’s festival.

See the full winners list below.

Note: The following story contains spoilers from “Landman” Episode 10.

In its first season, Taylor Sheridan’s “Landman” struck oil.

The show debuted to 14.6 million viewers across Paramount+ and Paramount Network, where it also aired. It was the biggest domestic premiere ever for Paramount+ when you factor in the first three days of viewing and the biggest premiere on the streaming platform in two years. The show just wrapped up its first season with a deluxe 80-minute finale that sees many of its plotlines coalesce and crescendo. We don’t have numbers yet, but it’s safe to say that it’s going to be big. Like geyser-of-black-tar-gushing-out-of-a-Texas-well big.

Even “Landman” star Billy Bob Thornton was surprised by the response to the show. “I’ve got to tell you, I’ve never seen a reaction like this. I was in some iconic movies over the years, and you get that from...

The Palm Springs International Film Festival on Sunday revealed its 2025 juried award winners, which includes Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here, Zoe Saldaña and the documentary No Other Land.

The juried categories include the Fipresci Prize for films in the international feature film Oscar submissions program, the best documentary award and the New Voices New Visions Award, among others.

The festival took place between Jan. 2 and Jan. 13 and screened 165 films from over 71 countries.

See below for a full list of juried winners.

Fipresci Prize for Best International Feature Film

I’m Still Here (Brazil), Director Walter Salles

Jury Statement: “To I’m Still Here, for conveying the horror of encroaching dictatorship from the intimate perspective of a mother defending not just her family of five, but her dignity. Evoking the severity of the violence without resorting to melodrama, director Walter Salles captures a critical moment of history in scrupulous and compelling detail.

At least 16 people have died as Los Angeles is being ravaged by multiple fires that are scorching vast swaths of the city. Firefighters are gaining some ground but struggling as they battle against high winds to contain the massive Palisades and Easton fires, leaving Angelenos on edge as Santa Ana winds are expected to intensify overnight.

Of the 16 people who have died as a result of the fires over the past five days, five were attributed to the Palisades Fire, which began on Tuesday and over a matter of hours was sending residents fleeing, and 11 resulted from the Eaton Fire, the coroner’s office said in a statement Saturday evening. Meanwhile, reports of missing people are rising across the city, “hour by hour,” according to the county sheriff.

Firefighting crews had contained 11 percent of the Palisades fire and 27 percent of the Eaton fire as of Sunday morning. The Kenneth Fire,...

The Producers Guild has postponed (once again) announcing its 2025 PGA Awards nominees in movie and TV categories as wildfires continue to burn in Los Angeles.

After initially delaying its nominations announcement until Sunday, the PGA will now announce its nominees sometime next week, with the group saying the delay was being made “out of care and concern for those being affected by the fires.”

Earlier, the PGA extended its voting window for film and TV nominees until Saturday.

The Producers Guild has already announced nominations in its documentary, sports, children’s and short-form content categories.

This past Thursday, the American Society of Cinematographers moved its awards nomination announcement, originally set for Thursday, to Monday, Jan. 13.

It was also announced Thursday that the LGBTQ entertainment critics’ Dorian film awards voting window for nominations has been extended to Monday, Jan. 13 with nominations set to be announced on Friday, Jan. 17.

Friday, the Make-Up...

Amazon Prime Video is dropping new flicks on its platform this January, and we’re here to list the best of bunch.

It’s a new year, which means Prime Video has a fresh slate of films for folks to enjoy. From real-life, biographical tales to animated family goodies every generation can enjoy, Prime Video’s got a variety to explore. Plus, one of the streamer’s originals lands this month following its theatrical run, ready to give viewers fright-filled watch.

Check out our picks for the best new movies on Prime Video in January below.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” 20th Century Studios “Bohemian Rhapsody”

Rami Malek brought the iconic life story of Queen frontman, Freddie Mercury, to life in 2018 in Bryan Singer and Dexter Fletcher’s biographical film “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The movie covers Queen’s early beginnings and rise to fame, Mercury’s departure from the group and their reunion at...

When Sebastian Stan greets you, there’s an earnest warmth in his voice that makes you forget, even for a moment, the intensity of the roles he’s embodied this past year. The 41-year-old actor is riding high on a wave of critical acclaim for his two vastly different but equally daring performances in “The Apprentice” and “A Different Man,” which earned him double Golden Globe nominations — a feat last achieved by Ryan Gosling in 2016.

This past year, Stan has proven, yet again, why he’s one of the most transformative actors working today. From donning prosthetics and exploring themes of self-acceptance in “A Different Man” to stepping into the psyche of one of the most polarizing figures in modern history for “The Apprentice,” Stan’s ability to disappear into a role is matched only by his determination to tell complicated stories, no matter the fallout.

If “A Different Man” was a personal exploration,...

“The Flash” director Andy Muschietti has his own thoughts as to why the $200 million tentpole was a box office dud.

Released in 2023, “The Flash” grossed $271 million by the end of its run. It is not a small figure by any means, but considering the budget size and projected marketing costs, the DC blockbuster needed to double that figure to get out of the red. Muschietti said the reason “The Flash” couldn’t recoup cost was because it “failed” to hit “all four quadrants” of moviegoer demographics,, despite Warner Bros.’s best efforts.

“‘The Flash’ failed, among all the other reasons, because it wasn’t a movie that appealed to all four quadrants. It failed at that,” Muschietti said on Radio Tu’s “La Baulera del Coso” show. “When you spend $200 million making a movie, [Warner Bros.] wants to bring even your grandmother to the theaters.”

Muschietti went on to say that behind closed doors,...

Update 11:45 a.m.:

At least 16 people were reported missing from the Palisades and Eaton fires, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said at a Sunday press conference. Luna said that dozens more reports of missing have surely come in overnight, and that the number of officially missing would surely rise. That count did not include the 16 reported deaths, and there were no children among the reported missing so far.

“I expect or anticipate that the number of missing persons will absolutely go up,” Luna said. “Hour by the hour, the numbers increase.”

Pasadena, California – Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna speaks during an Eaton Fire press conference at Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, Calif. (Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images)

Update 11 a.m.:

Quite literally at the 11th hour, the Producers Guild of America has decided to delay its nominations until next week. PGA nominees were expected at 11 a.

Djimon Hounsou said in a recent interview with CNN that he continues to struggle as a working actor in Hollywood despite several roles in studio blockbusters under his belt and two Oscar nominations to his name. The actor noted that his continued struggles in Hollywood points to the “systemic racism” that prevails in the film industry.

“I am still struggling trying to make a living,” Hounsou said. “After 30 years…maybe the first 10 years was trying to acclimate myself to the industry, to establish myself. But I’ve been in this business making films now for over two decades and with two Oscar nominations and been in many blockbuster films, and yet, I’m still struggling financially to make a living. I’m definitely underpaid.”

“That’s a sign for you that systemic racism is not something you can deal with lightly,” he added. “It’s so deeply inserted in so...

Since the Palisades and Eaton wildfires erupted on Jan. 7 — two of the biggest and most destructive in California’s history — the deployment of private firefighters has again become a politicized talking point. Such concierge-style protection first gained public notice after the Woolsey blaze in 2018, when TMZ reported that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West had hired a private team to help save their Hidden Hills compound.

This time, discourse flames were renewed by a wealthy Palisades resident’s online post inquiring about such services: “Does anyone have access to private firefighters?” he wrote. “Will pay any amount.” (He received so much blowback that he deactivated account.) Meanwhile, the billionaire real estate developer and former L.A. mayoral candidate Rick Caruso’s successfully utilized a private team to protect his Palisades Village shopping complex even as the immediate neighborhood around it was reduced to rubble.

But the reality of private firefighting is...

In a win for Gerard Butler and Lionsgate, the heist pic Den of Thieves 2: Pantera topped the domestic box office with a better-than-expected $15.5 million opening over the second full weekend of 2025.

The male-fueled film, produced by Tucker Tooley, marks the first time in months that a Lionsgate title has come in No. 1. In further good news, the sequel performed on par with the first Den of Thieves, released by STX in 2018.

So far, moviegoing doesn’t appear to be dramatically impacted in the greater Los Angeles area despite the historic fires raging across the region (L.A. is the top market in the country), according to studio distribution sources monitoring the situation. They say they’ll have a more complete picture later on Sunday or Monday morning. And while there was a slowdown in some spots — including at AMC Universal Citywalk and AMC Americana Glendale — L.A. cinemas continued...

The Indian box office grossed $1.37 billion in 2024, marking a 3% decline from the record-breaking $1.41 billion achieved in 2023, per numbers from Ormax Media.

Despite the dip, 2024 still stands as the second-highest-grossing year in the history of Indian cinema. Leading the year’s collections were the Telugu-language blockbusters “Pushpa 2: The Rule” and “Kalki 2898 Ad,” cementing the dominance of South Indian films on the national stage.

Sukumar’s “Pushpa 2: The Rule” emerged as the highest-grossing film of the year, raking in $162.9 million across all language versions, with its Hindi-dubbed release alone contributing $103.2 million. Nag Ashwin’s “Kalki 2898 Ad,” a sci-fi epic, followed with $90 million. The numbers reflect the films’ 2024 India grosses only and not worldwide collections.

Hindi-language cinema faced a challenging year, contributing just 40% of the total box office at $543 million), down from a 44% share in 2023. Notably, 31% of Hindi’s revenue came from dubbed versions of South Indian films. Revenues...

Netflix India’s latest series “Black Warrant” delves into the complex world of Delhi’s notorious Tihar Prison through the eyes of an idealistic jailer who confronts corruption, violence and moral ambiguity within the system.

Based on the bestselling book “Black Warrant: Confessions of a Tihar Jailer” by jailer Sunil Kumar Gupta and journalist Sunetra Choudhury, the series chronicles the true story of a prison officer’s 35-year journey through one of India’s most infamous correctional facilities.

A black warrant is a jailer’s authorization to carry out the execution of a convicted criminal. The series benefits from Gupta...

Jamie Chung and Bryan Greenberg said they lost what “was supposed to be our forever home” in the Los Angeles wildfires.

The couple took to Instagram on Friday to share a video of the devastation left behind after flames tore through their neighborhood. In the footage, their home could be seen brought down to ash and rubble.

“Was supposed to be our forever home, but nothing lasts forever,” they wrote in the joint post’s cation. “Thankfully our family is safe, however other LA fire victims aren’t as fortunate. Please donate to them if you can.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bryan Greenberg (@bryangreenberg)

Greenberg, who is best known for his roles in How to Make It in America, Emperor of Ocean Park and Bride Wars, previously shared his appreciation on his Instagram Story Wednesday for his friends and loved ones checking in on his family.

Dennis Quaid shared that he has “so many friends” who have lost their homes in the wildfires continuing to plow through Los Angeles neighborhoods.

The Substance actor was stopped by NBC4 Los Angeles on Friday as he was evacuating his Brentwood home, and opened up about the impact of the devastation on those close to him.

Quaid first recalled waking up to a “plume of smoke” on Tuesday, adding that the blaze “came within 150 yards of the house and these guys with their planes came down and put that retardant down there. And those helicopter pilots, they’re incredible, what they do. And I can’t say enough about the firefighters and the first responders in this town. We got some good ones, good people here.”

He added that he, his wife, Laura Savoie, and children have “had it lucky” over the past few days.

“I’ve have so many...

Rory Sykes, who appeared on television shows as a child and later became a motivational speaker on living with disabilities, has died in the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, according to his mother, Shelley Sykes. He was 32.

Shelley shared on X (formerly Twitter) that Rory, who was born blind and living with cerebral palsy, died at his family home in Malibu on Wednesday.

“It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of my beautiful son @Rorysykes to the Malibu fires yesterday. I’m totally heartbroken,” Shelley wrote on Thursday. “He overcame so much with surgeries & therapies to regain his sight & to be able to learn to walk. Despite the pain, he still enthused about traveling the world with me from Africa to Antarctica. … He will be incredibly missed.”

Born on July 29, 1992, in the U.K., Rory moved to Australia as a child, where he attended school. He...

DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter, Fifth Season head Graham Taylor and producer Brad Fuller were among the many industry leaders who lost their homes in the catastrophic Los Angeles wildfires this past week.

They join a growing list of celebrities and Hollywood heavyweights who are picking up the pieces after the fires devastated swaths of the city — Billy Crystal, Anthony Hopkins and Miles Teller among them.

Below is a list of prominent producers, writers, music insiders and others who confirmed to TheWrap that they, too, experienced a total loss in the unfolding disaster:

Graham Taylor, co-President of Fifth Season, and British film producer Lynette Howell Taylor: Taylor and co-ceo Chris Rice helped lead the rebrand of Endeavor Content into Fifth Season in 2023 following its acquisition by South Korea’s Cj Enm. Lynette Howell Taylor was co-nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for producing 2018’s “A Star Is Born,...

With music’s biggest night just weeks away, the question on many minds is whether the 67th Annual Grammy Awards will be delayed due to the devastating wildfires ravaging Los Angeles.

The Grammys are currently scheduled to take place on Sunday, Feb. 2, at Crypto.com Arena in downtown L.A. And while it’s typically a glamorous event to celebrate the past year’s biggest artists and top hits, the city has bigger priorities at the moment.

Multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that discussions are underway to either postpone the CBS show (and all its ancillary events) or pivot the broadcast to a fundraiser. One senior television executive says it’s highly likely the Grammys will postpone, namely because the fire, sparked by a wind event earlier in the week — and the overall disaster status of the city — is still active.

Another music industry source says what transpires in...

As the economic toll of the wildfires ripping through Los Angeles County continues to rise, performers’ union SAG-AFTRA has pledged $1 million to help union members impacted by the disaster.

The union is donating the funds to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, a nonprofit that offers emergency financial aid and education services to union members. Said union president Fran Drescher in a statement, “The destruction caused by these blazes, the loss of life and homes, has been gut-wrenching to experience, and of course our hearts go out to all affected. But we knew we could do more; we hope this pledge helps relieve suffering and assists those impacted in putting their lives back together after this calamity.”

Since Tuesday, a series of wildfires spurred on by ferocious winds in the L.A. area have burned through tens of thousands of acres and severely damaged the Pacific Palisades neighborhood and the unincorporated area of Altadena.

Smoldering beachfront homes. Charred vehicles. A Starbucks patio destroyed. A child’s playhouse in a burn-scarred backyard. A firefighter at work.

These are among the searing images captured on Jan. 10 in areas of Malibu and Pacific Palisades devasted by the wildfire storm that ignited on Jan. 7. The inferno has been fueled by Santa Ana winds of unprecedented strength. The pictures that follow underscore the enormity of the loss and the long road ahead to recovery.

Photographs by Variety contributor Michael Buckner. Reporting by Gene Maddaus, Variety‘s senior media writer.

More from VarietyHow Climate Change Has Fueled L.A.'s...

Smoldering beachfront homes. Charred vehicles. A Starbucks patio destroyed. A child’s playhouse in a burn-scarred backyard. A firefighter at work.

These are among the searing images captured on Jan. 10 in areas of Malibu and Pacific Palisades devasted by the wildfire storm that ignited on Jan. 7. The inferno has been fueled by Santa Ana winds of unprecedented strength. The pictures that follow underscore the enormity of the loss and the long road ahead to recovery.

Photographs by Variety contributor Michael Buckner. Reporting by Gene Maddaus, Variety‘s senior media writer.

More from VarietyHow Climate Change Has Fueled L.A.'s Devastating Wildfires: 'We Have Unleashed Forces Beyond Our Control'...

Chateau Marmont and Sunset Tower — known to play host to star-studded dinners and awards show parties — are joining relief efforts to support firefighters and displaced Angelenos amid the Los Angeles wildfires.

In an Instagram post on Saturday afternoon, Chateau Marmont announced that it would open its private cottages — which start at $1,165 per night and surround a lush landscaped courtyard adjacent to the hotel’s pool — for the next week to “firefighters and members of the unions representing our city’s creative industries.” (The hotel in 2022 ratified a landmark union contract that included a 25 percent wage increase for returning non-tipped workers, free family health insurance for those who work at least 60 hours per month and free legal services for immigration, consumer and tenant issues, to name a few.)

“To the heros [sic] and victims in the Hollywood community who’ve lost their homes… We’d like to invite you to our safe haven.

Ariana Grande’s career is one of transformation. She’s mastered reinvention from her Nickelodeon beginnings to her chart-topping pop career. Now, in her most ambitious turn yet, she’s poised to dazzle the Oscars as Glinda, the Good Witch, in Universal Pictures’ blockbuster smash “Wicked.” But Grande’s venture into the emerald world of Oz is more than just a role — it’s a manifestation of her lifelong dream, one she’s earned through hard work, dedication, and, as she puts it, “a lot of love.”

In a conversation during the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast, Grande opened up about the deeply personal journey of becoming Glinda, the emotional toll of “Wicked,” her plans for a deluxe version of her album, and her thoughts on what the future of movie musicals should look like. Listen below.

Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, director Jon M. Chu, “Wicked” (Giles Keyte / Universal Pictures / Courtesy...

Rory Sykes, who made several media appearances and motivational speeches as a boy challenged by blindness and cerebral palsy, died from carbon monoxide inhalation as his mother tried to save him from his Malibu cottage that was caught up in the early devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires, Shelley Sykes wrote on X. He was 32.

“It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of my beautiful son @Rorysykes to the Malibu fires yesterday,” she wrote, adding that he was born in Great Britain and had been living in Australia, but only recently relocated to the U.S. She said Sykes had his own cottage on the family’s 17-acre Mount Malibu estate, which burnt down on Jan. 8.

“I couldn’t put out the cinders on his roof with a hose because the water was switched off by Las Virgenes Municipal Water,” she wrote. “Even the 50 brave...

Lesli Linka Glatter, the top TV director-producer and president of the Directors Guild of America, has revealed she lost her Pacific Palisades home in this week’s wildfires that have been burning across Los Angeles.

“Sadly my house is gone, as is so much of the Palisades … this is heartbreaking for many,” Glatter wrote on Instagram. “My heart goes out to all those who have lost so much and to those in danger.”

She added that she was safe at her “son’s house in the valley” and thanked those who reached out to her amid the disaster.

She also shared a letter to DGA members on Friday in which she further reflected on the tragedy: “I have been so fortunate to call Pacific Palisades home. It is where I raised my son and have been living for over 20 years. Tuesday night, I lost my home along with hundreds of others in the Palisades,...

“A Simple Favor 2” is moving full-speed ahead toward its release this year, despite a viral post on X that claimed the sequel had been “shelved indefinitely” due to star Blake Lively’s “refusal to promote.” The rumor was debunked not just by Amazon MGM, who told TheWrap there was no truth to it, but also the film’s director Paul Feig who shot it down directly on X.

“This is total Bs. Sorry. The movie is finished and coming out soon. Don’t believe anything you read on social media these days,” Feig said while quote-tweeting the initial rumor from a verified X user.

The original post spread broadly online Friday, speaking to the new way news cycles on social media: many are now getting their news directly from social media accounts and posts, regardless of the veracity of the source or, in some cases, complete lack of one.

The...

Fernanda Torres, the daughter of legendary Brazilian actress Fernanda Montenegro, is dispelling the stigma around nepo babies following her Golden Globe win.

While speaking with IndieWire after her Globe-winning turn in “I’m Still Here,” Torres bashed the negative stigma around nepo babies as an “ancient” idea, and deemed herself as the “nepo baby person that proved that a nepo baby is worth living.”

“You don’t have to kill a nepo baby as soon as he is born,” Torres said. “I really hate this idea because this is ancient, that people learn in their environment. The dining table of my house was the place where my parents were rehearsing. It doesn’t mean when you are a nepo baby that your life is solved. On the contrary, you have to invent yourself. You have other issues.”

The nepo baby label, which refers to actors or artists with rich or celebrity...

Climate change didn’t start the wildfires that are ravaging Los Angeles County this week. But the big swings in weather patterns that have accelerated over the past two decades serve as rocket fuel that intensifies the flames and spreads the devastation.

Environmental experts and scientists warn that Southern Californians will have to come to grips with hard truths in the wake of the horrific firestorms in Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Altadena. The scope of the damage will have an impact on every industry that operates in the region – and no amount of velvet ropes, basement bunkers or private firefighting brigades will spare Hollywood.

Climate change didn’t start the wildfires that are ravaging Los Angeles County this week. But the big swings in weather patterns that have accelerated over the past two decades serve as rocket fuel that intensifies the flames and spreads the devastation.

Environmental experts and scientists warn that Southern Californians will have to come to grips with hard truths in the wake of the horrific firestorms in Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Altadena. The scope of the damage will have an impact on every industry that operates in the region – and no amount of velvet ropes, basement bunkers or private firefighting brigades will spare Hollywood.

“This is not going to go away tomorrow,” says Debbie Levin, who has served as the CEO of the Environmental Media Association for 25 years. “We’re still going to have climate change. We’ve had an industrial world since the early 1900s, so this has been...

A massive Pacific Palisades mansion, that was reportedly featured in Succession, has been destroyed by the fires raging through Los Angeles.

The house, reportedly owned by tech executive Austin Russell, appears to be the same palatial estate shown in the fourth season premiere of the hit HBO drama, where the Roy siblings were holed up as they strategized over their next move to take on their father.

The Daily Mail has published photos showing the house reduced to rubble and charred beams.

The Mail adds that nothing remains of the once elaborate interior, highlighted in this video tour, as the four-story property has collapsed in on itself, with even the home’s panic rooms and retinal scanner outside of the master bedroom damaged by the fire. Outside, while the house’s fire pit remains intact, it is now black with soot and the outdoor pool contains murky black water.

The six-bedroom,...

The title of Mike Leigh’s latest movie, “Hard Truths,” suggests a remarkable, career-spanning consistency, tracing back to the stage and screen director’s 1971 big-screen debut, “Bleak Moments.”

For more than half a century, Leigh has been bringing audiences into the lives and homes of British citizens of various backgrounds and classes, developing original projects through a unique workshopping process whereby the actors have a hand in creating the characters they play.

“Hard Truths” builds upon the humanistic director’s signature method, reuniting him with Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin. The pair first played sisters in Leigh’s 1993 play “It’s a Great Big Shame” and close friends in his Palme d’Or-winning feature “Secrets & Lies” (1996). Their work on this film has been earning them acting kudos far and wide, with Jean-Baptiste scoring top honors from the New York, Los Angeles and Chicago critics groups.

As Leigh told Variety...

Roger Pratt, the cinematographer behind “The Fisher King,” “Brazil” and Tim Burton’s “Batman,” has died. He was 77.

The news was posted via the British Society of Cinematographers: “It is with deepest sadness that we learn of the passing of Roger Pratt Bsc (1947-2024).” The news did not state when he died, nor did it share the cause of death.

Pratt was nominated for an Academy Award in 1999 for his work on “The End of the Affair.” He was also a frequent collaborator of Terry Gilliam. Pratt and Gilliam worked on “Brazil,” “The Fisher King” and “12 Monkeys.”

Richard Attenborough was another collaborator. Pratt worked on “Shadowlands” which won the BAFTA for Best British Film.

He also worked on the “Harry Potter” films, including “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” and “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.”

Pratt was born in 1947 in the British county of Leicester. In the 1960s,...

Long before Jesse Eisenberg and Sebastian Stan both earned 2025 Golden Globe Awards nominations, the pair appeared together in an indie coming-of-age drama that marked the directorial debut of rocker Fred Durst.

The Education of Charlie Banks hit theaters in 2009 starring Eisenberg as Charlie, an Ivy League freshman who is troubled when high school bully Mick (Jason Ritter) mysteriously resurfaces and inserts himself into Charlie’s life in upstate New York.

Filmmaker Peter Care (The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys) was initially attached to direct Peter Elkoff’s script, which was based on the writer’s autobiographical experiences. Ultimately landing in the director’s chair was Durst, who had become an MTV fixture in the late 1990s as the frontman for rap-metal band Limp Bizkit. Durst has cited Matt Dillon’s role in the 1980 feature My Bodyguard as an inspiration for The Education of Charlie Banks, which co-stars Stan as Charlie’s charming college buddy Leo,...

The ongoing Los Angeles wildfires have prompted the Mammoth Film Festival to postpone its 2025 event originally scheduled for Feb. 20 to 24 in Mammoth Lakes, California.

“The devastating and unforeseen wildfire tragedies in the state have not only affected the region’s environment and infrastructure but have also impacted travel and attendance capabilities for potential festivalgoers,” the festival, which launched in 2018, said in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.

The Mammoth fest in California’s Sierra Madre Mountains is used to dealing with snowstorms and high winds, but the historic destruction caused by wildfires in Los Angeles County has only added to the logistical challenges facing the event.

The fires raging across Southern California have left at least 11 people people dead, with more than 12,000 structures burned since the blazes began on Tuesday. The flames have consumed around 56 square miles.

The concerns of fest organizers to secure indie filmmakers, actors, directors, writers...

After a collaboration on the modern-day tennis romance “Challengers,” director Luca Guadagnino turned again to Jonathan Anderson for the costume design of his next film, “Queer,” starring Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey.

“Queer” is an adaptation of William S. Burrough’s auto-fiction about alter ego Lee (Craig), a middle-aged drug addict wandering through Mexico City in the late 1940s. For Anderson, the famed creative director of Loewe and Jw Anderson, this period-specific assignment expanded his imagination about what could be achieved within the guardrails of mid-century wardrobe.

The clothes worn by Lee and Allerton (Starkey), a figure of Lee’s obsession in the story, were designed to evoke the essence of the characters. Lee’s white suit, for example, turns browner as the plot proceeds – and Anderson even had an idea, though unrealized, to stain the fabric with actual heroin. With Allerton, his translucent short-sleeved shirts foreshadow a drug-fantasia sequence late in the film,...

Director Paul Feig is dispelling rumors that “A Simple Favor 2” has been indefinitely delayed by Amazon due to drama surrounding star Blake Lively.

Early Friday morning, an internet investigator, known as “Eric B” on X, posted a thread outlining how Amazon shelved the sequel to the 2018 crime thriller amid Lively’s legal fallout with Justin Baldoni and a reported feud with co-star Anna Kendrick.

“Breaking: Amazon shelves ‘A Simple Favor 2’ indefinitely,” read the first post of the thread. “Despite glowing test screenings, Blake Lively’s refusal to promote—amid her messy legal battle with Justin Baldoni—and growing tensions with Anna Kendrick have derailed the sequel. Anna is furious. Paul Feig is disappointed. Hollywood is in shock. This isn’t just a movie—it’s an implosion.”

Feig responded to the post that evening, adamantly denying there was any trouble with the film’s release.

“This is total Bs. Sorry,...

Meghan Markle’s new series “With Love, Meghan” hits Netflix this month marking a return to television for the former “Suits” star. But, the lifestyle series has the hosts of “The View” a bit split.

In Saturday’s inaugural episode of “The Weekend View,” the women were divided almost down the middle as they discussed Markle getting trolled online for the series. For host Sunny Hostin, the hate that Markle is facing stems simply from people wanting to hate on her specifically.

“When Martha Stewart first started doing this, no one was saying all these things,” Hostin argued. “This has more to do with the fact that people want to hate on Meghan Markle than, I think, you know, this topic.”

But for host Alyssa Farah Griffin, the criticisms were more warranted, even if she is a fan of Markle herself.

“Respectfully — and I love Meghan Markle — but my favorite...

James Woods has revealed that his house is “still standing,” after indicating earlier this week that he’d lost his home in the fires raging across Los Angeles, in what he calls “a miracle.”

“A miracle has happened. We managed to get to our property and our home, that we were told is gone forever, is still standing,” Woods wrote on X Friday, sharing a video from his deck. “In this hellish landscape ‘standing’ is relative, but smoke and other damage is not like the utter destruction around us.”

A miracle has happened. We managed to get to our property and our home, that we were told is gone forever, is still standing. In this hellish landscape “standing” is relative, but smoke and other damage is not like the utter destruction around us. The view from our deck area: pic.twitter.com/JZU2kTJC52

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 10, 2025

Woods shared...

Big Nick and his boys have heisted a No. 1 opening. Lionsgate’s crime sequel “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” debuted on top of domestic charts after cashing $5.8 million on opening day from 3,008 theaters.

That’s pacing a touch ahead of the first “Den of Thieves,” which STX opened in January 2018 to a $5.6 million opening day and $15.2 million three-day total. It’s also going to be Lionsgate’s first opening on top of the box office since “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” bowed in November 2023.

While “Pantera” isn’t showing a significant uptick from its predecessor, Lionsgate is banking on the film being a steady draw through the typically lackadaisical moviegoing month of January. The sequel carries a modest $40 million production budget and the studio typically mitigates financial burdens by selling foreign rights to titles ahead of release. Reviews are just so-so (though more positive than the...

Karla Sofía Gascón reads the hate. All of it. Alongside the flood of praise for her lead performance in the late-breaking Oscar favorite Emilia Pérez, a steady trickle of vitriol has flowed in the gutters of social media. When we meet in her native Madrid, Gascón takes out her phone to show me messages she has screenshotted and marked up. “I hope you die before you make another movie,” spewed one X user. After beloved Spanish actress Marisa Paredes passed away a few days before our interview, another anonymous online wit mused, “I wish you could have died instead of her.” She’s also received death threats in Mexico, where Emilia Pérez is set and where she has spent much of her professional life: “I was told I would be found dismembered in a bag.”

Should she be nominated for an Oscar, which most pundits expect, Gascón is poised to...

Lionsgate is hoping to put a poor 2024 box office behind them starting with the release of “Den of Thieves: Pantera,” which is opening to a solid $15 million from 3,008 locations and the studio’s first No. 1 since “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” in November 2023.

That matches the unadjusted $15.2 million of the first “Den of Thieves” released back in 2018. The sequel, which stars Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson Jr., has received somewhat positive reception with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 60% critics and 80% audience and a B+ on CinemaScore. The film carries a $40 million budget, though Lionsgate’s strategy of recouping some or all of the investment on their films through foreign presales should lower the break-even point.

Holiday holdovers fill up the rest of the top 5, starting with Disney’s “Mufasa,” which will cross $500 million worldwide with an estimated $12 million fourth weekend, bringing its domestic total to $187 million.

Paramount...