There’s the mathematician Hari Seldon (Jared Harris), whose complex behavioral models may hold the key to understanding the future. There are the leaders on the ruling capital city-planet Trantor, governing an empire of trillions as a triad, made from the same genetic material as their single ancestor — through various incarnations they are represented as Dawn (played at different ages by Cooper Carter and Cassian Bilton), Day (Lee Pace), and Dusk (Terrence Mann)....

“Although I support all films me and my partner [Joe Carnahan] make, I’m not very pleased [with] how my performance was cut,” Grillo wrote about the final cut of “Copshop” as seen in theaters. “Without detail, I’ll say I gave a much more 3-dimensional take that was very colorful and very well planned out. Needless to say, that’s not what ended up in the film.” He continued, “As a result, I’m getting a bit beat up by critics....

That explains the inspired decision to hire “Night at the Museum” director Shawn Levy, whose stylistically anonymous films often seem like they weren’t made by anyone at all. What it doesn’t explain is why “Free Guy” goes so far out of its way to highlight its own hypocrisy that even the people who cheer for monopolistic conglomerates as if they were sports teams might feel a bit queasy during the fourth-wall-breaking third act....

“I went to audition. To me, I needed to feel like the most powerful, beautiful, and amazing woman in the world, so of course, I wanted to channel Janet Jackson,” Union said. “I [went] to Extensions Plus…the Mecca of weaves. I wanted to get the good hair, the Janet hair, from the weave emporium. I literally [found] the exact outfit from her album cover. I [drew] in the damn mole....

In a new interview with Variety, Gadot said she provided testimony during the recently wrapped investigation, though isn’t aware of if “remedial action,” as announced by WarnerMedia, was taken. Findings from the probe were not disclosed, though earlier in the summer Fisher said the filmmakers grossly abused their power. “I know that they’ve done a very thorough investigation, even just by how much time I spent with them,” Gadot said....

HBO is in early development on the first “Game of Thrones” sequel series, a show set to take place after the events of the much maligned finale and centered on Kit Harington’s Jon Snow. THR first reported the news. Franchise creator George R.R. Martin was involved in advising on the original series and wrote several teleplays, but he has publicly expressed his own frustration with how the series wrapped up....

Author George R.R. Martin said he was “out of the loop” during the final seasons of the hit HBO series with showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff. Martin previously had consulted on scripts and casting for the first four seasons of the series. “By Season 5 and 6, and certainly 7 and 8, I was pretty much out of the loop,” Martin revealed to The New York Times. When asked why, Martin added, “I don’t know — you have to ask Dan and David....

“House of the Dragon” is about the Targaryen family, war in the seven kingdoms, and the Iron Throne itself, but it is in a very real sense it’s about Alicent Hightower (played in early episodes by Emily Carey and as an adult by Olivia Cooke) and Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock; Emma D’Arcy). As children and teens the girls are bosom buddies and inseparable at court, but the trailer shows them at loggerheads once Rhaenyra contests the order of succession....

However, now writer and executive producer Sara Hess is clarifying those comments about the “reimagining” of George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood,” premiering August 21. “I’d like to clarify that we do not depict sexual violence in the show,” Hess told Vanity Fair. “We handle one instance off-screen, and instead show the aftermath and impact on the victim and the mother of the perpetrator.” Hess continued that she is most “proud” of the fact that “House of the Dragon” chooses to “focus on the violence against women that is inherent in a patriarchal system” instead of glossing over its effects and devastating legacy....

Moreh adopted a similar approach with “The Human Factor” (January 22, Sony Pictures Classics), which looks behind the scenes of three decades of the Arab-Israeli peace process via the veteran diplomat mediators and negotiators who put in obsessive hours of legwork and travel to inform and support the front-line U.S. presidents and Israeli, Palestinian, and Syrian generals, politicians, and prime ministers who take credit or blame for often disappointing results....

Sundance’s New Frontiers’ team faced a new challenge in 2021: to program a body of work that grapples with contemporary issues through emerging media. In an ongoing and uncertain COVID-19 reality, what would such mediums be able to provide that other traditional platforms couldn’t? While it may have started off as a larger question on festival trends, it turned into a plethora of experiences — some VR, some computer-generated and some mobile — to highlight our own personal reckonings within a collective moment....

NBCUniversal has the broadcast rights to the 2020 Summer Olympics in the United States, and the conglomerate is expected to broadcast the event on several channels, including NBC Sports and The Olympic Channel. The official broadcast schedule for the 2020 Summer Olympics, which was delayed until this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, has yet to be announced. Cord cutters won’t have to miss out on the action: NBCUniversal previously stated that many of the events from the 2020 Summer Olympics would be streamed on the company’s Peacock streaming service, which has a free, ad-supported subscription tier....

How can you watch the new episode of “Saturday Night Live”? “SNL” airs on Saturdays at 11:30/10:30 p.m. central time on NBC. The weekly episodes, as usual, are available to stream on Hulu the next day — typically by 12 p.m. eastern time — and will also be made available on NBCUniversal’s new streaming service, Peacock. This season, the entire cast is returning to the studio. That includes Beck Bennett, Aidy Bryant, Michael Che, Pete Davidson, Mikey Day, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Colin Jost, Kate McKinnon, Ego Ngodim (upped from featured to repertory player), Alex Moffat, Kyle Mooney, Chris Redd, Cecily Strong, Kenan Thompson, Melissa Villaseñor and Bowen Yang....

“SNL” airs on Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET/10:30 p.m. central time on NBC. The weekly episodes, as usual, are available to stream on Hulu the next day — typically by 12 p.m. eastern time — and will also be made available on NBCUniversal’s new streaming service, Peacock, on Sunday as well. If you’re on the West Coast, you can catch “Saturday Night Live” on NBC beginning at 8:30 p.m. PT....

Where did that idea come from, and how did it get here? It just seemed to show up one day, as if someone had incepted it into the deepest layer of her mind. But it’s real. It has to be. “You can’t fake a thought,” Jake once told her, and this one is exploding behind her eyes like a fireworks display that only she can see even though it tinges everything she looks at....

“Peter and I chose to helm DC Studios knowing we were coming into a fractious environment, both in the stories being told and in the audience itself and there would be an unavoidable transitional period as we moved into telling a cohesive story across film, TV, animation, and gaming,” Gunn wrote in a Twitter thread published on Thursday. “We know we are not going to make every single person happy every step of the way, but we can promise everything we do is done in the service of the STORY and in the service of the DC CHARACTERS we know you cherish and we have cherished our whole lives....

In the latest film from writer-director duo Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, which opens the 2022 SXSW Festival March 11, Curtis opted not to wear any body prosthetics to play “weird” IRS inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdra. The sci-fi action comedy stars Michelle Yeoh as the stressed-out manager of a Los Angeles laundromat who is enlisted to defeat an evil force, and complete her taxes while doing it. “Immediately after signing up, [Curtis] would text us photos of weird outfits and weird hairdos,” Scheinert told Entertainment Weekly....

Still, Wednesday’s panel at the Television Critics Association virtual Winter Press Tour offered up a good idea of what powers the still-yet-unnamed series. The show centers on Smart as Deborah Vance, a comedian whose act has been a marquee Las Vegas attraction for years. Hannah Einbinder plays a fledgling comedy writer tasked with helping Deborah’s act reach a broader audience. If “pioneering comedian with a Vegas act” conjures a specific real-life analogue, then don’t expect Smart to be playing that particular person....

The Academy Award winner stars opposite Michael Shannon in the Paramount limited series “George & Tammy” based on the tumultuous love story between music duo Wynette and George Jones. Abe Sylvia created the series. Lead star Chastain worked with vocal coach Ron Browning for months to sing like Wynette, calling a live performance in front of hundreds of extras “the scariest thing I’ve ever done.” Yet Chastain took the physical preparation to play Wynette into her own hands when tracking Wynette’s later-in-life health issues and painkiller addiction....