Andy Serkis Would ‘Jump at the Chance’ to Star in New ‘Lord of the Rings’ Movies: ‘Middle-Earth Has Never Left Me’

Zack Sharf Digital News Director The search for the new Superman actor is not as far along as some social media rumors suggest. “Beyond the Trailer” host Grace Randolph recently took to Twitter to announce Gunn is “very close” to landing an actor to play the eponymous superhero in his upcoming “Superman: Legacy.” Randolph went as far as to claim the role “might even be cast” already or is in “final talks.” Not so fast. Gunn shot down the report and provided an update on his Superman casting process. “Not true,” Gunn replied. “Haven’t had a single talk with a single actor about the role. Just making private lists, prepping material for auditions.” Randolph took Gunn’s rebuttal as an opportunity to reveal her scoop that it was “Percy Jackson” and “Hunters” star Logan Lerman who is Gunny’s top choice for Superman. Gunn also shot down that claim.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jennifer Aniston has been starring in comedies for nearly 30 years, from the launch of NBC’s “Friends” in 1994 to the upcoming release of her latest Netflix movie “Murder Mystery 2,” which means she’s had a front row seat to watching comedy tastes change over three decades. Aniston recently told AFP (via Yahoo News) that “comedy has evolved” so much that it’s a bit tricky these days to be funny. “Now it’s a little tricky because you have to be very careful, which makes it really hard for comedians, because the beauty of comedy is that we make fun of ourselves, make fun of life,” Aniston said. “[In the past] you could joke about a bigot and have a laugh — that was hysterical. And it was about educating people on how ridiculous people were. And now we’re not allowed to do that.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jeremy Renner’s recovery rom his January snow plow accident appears to be progressing, as the actor is seen walking for the first time in his latest update on social media. The “Hawkeye” star posted a video to his Instagram story in which he walks with the assistance of an anti-gravity treadmill. Renner confirms in the video that he is doing all of “the walking motion” himself, with the anti-gravity treadmill taking off a percentage of his body weight as his legs slowly recover. The actor captioned the post: “Now is the time for my body to rest and recover from my will.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director The glass slippers still fit Brandy. The singer’s long-awaited return as Cinderella in a new Disney television movie has been given an official first look, courtesy of footage from the set of “Descendants: Rise of Red.” Brandy is reprising the role of Cinderella 26 years after becoming the princess opposite Whitney Houston’s Fairy Godmother in the 1997 television movie “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella.” The set footage also confirmed that “Descendants: Rise of Red” will feature the return of Paolo Montalban, who played Brandy’s Prince Charming in the 1997 movie. Charming is now king, and Cinderella is queen. Variety confirmed last November that Brandy boarded the “Descendants” movie as Cinderella. At the time, the movie musical had the working title of “The Pocketwatch.” The film centers on the relationship between Red (Kylie Cantrall), the rebellious teenage daughter of the Queen of Hearts, and Chloe (Mia Baker), the cheerful but naive daughter of Cinderella and Prince Charming. The two must travel back in time to prevent the destruction of their home, the kingdom of Auradon.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Ahead of the Broadway opening of his new “Camelot” musical adaptation, Aaron Sorkin revealed to the New York Times that he suffered a stroke last November. The medical emergency occurred two months before “Camelot” rehearsals were set to begin and resulted in his blood pressure being so high that “you’re supposed to be dead,” Sorkin said. As reported by The Times: “For about a month afterward, [Sorkin] was slurring words. He had trouble typing; he was discouraged from flying for a few weeks; and until recently, he couldn’t sign his name (he has just discovered, thanks to ‘Camelot’ autograph seekers, that that’s improving). Those issues are now behind him, and the main lingering effect is that he still can’t really taste food.”

The third film in Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy was released in 2003, and to commemorate the film’s 20th anniversary a new extended cut will be debuting in theatres.

Fathom Events and Warner Bros are teaming to re-release the extended edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, bringing the blockbuster back to theaters in commemoration of its 20th anniversary.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Oscar nominee Ciarán Hinds is well known among “Game of Thrones” fans for playing Mance Rayder, the king beyond the wall and leader of the wildlings. Hinds appeared in five episodes of the Emmy-winning HBO fantasy series across three seasons. In a recent interview with The Independent, Hinds got honest about not exactly loving all the sex in “Game of Thrones.” “I was rather put off by the amount of sexuality that was going on in it, because it was taking away from the actual political storytelling,” Hinds said. “But that’s business, I guess, from their perspective.” Hinds also spoke to The Independent about the increase of intimacy coordinators on sets in recent years. Hinds’ daughter, Aoife, is also an actor and worked closely with intimacy coordinators while starring opposite Paul Mescal in Hulu’s “Normal People.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Stranger Things” star Gaten Matarazzo told Jimmy Fallon during a recent interview on “The Tonight Show” that he’s living in “deep fear” of “Stranger Things” ending after its five-season run on Netflix. The cast will shoot the fifth and final season this year. Matarazzo and his character, Dustin, have been a “Stranger Things” lead since the pilot episode. “It’s interesting to constantly just be reminded how much people have resonated with it,” Matarazzo said. when asked about the series coming to an end. “I mean, it’s something that’s so important to all of us and has just been essential to the growth that I’ve had over all of my teenage years into my 20s. It’s the defining aspect of the past 10 years of my life, practically the past decade.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Sam Neill revealed in an interview with The Guardian that he is being treated for stage-three blood cancer. Neill, best known for playing Alan Grant in the “Jurassic Park” franchise, first “experienced swollen glands during publicity for ‘Jurassic World Dominion’ in March last year and was soon diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma,” the publication reports. “I can’t pretend that the last year hasn’t had its dark moments,” Neill said in an interview touting his upcoming memoir, in which he writes frankly about his cancer diagnosis. “But those dark moments throw the light into sharp relief, you know, and have made me grateful for every day and immensely grateful for all my friends. Just pleased to be alive.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Lucy Liu is making her comic book movie debut in “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” playing the villainous Kalypso alongside Helen Mirren and “West Side Story” breakout Rachel Zegler. The three actors play the daughters of Atlas, who come to our planet to reclaim the magic that fuels Zachary Levi’s Shazam. Liu was recently asked by The Cut about starring in a superhero movie for the first time at 54 years old. “If it had happened earlier, it would have been miraculous,” Liu said. “It would have been a different story; my career would have been easier. There would have been more opportunity.” Sizable comic book movie roles for Asian-Americans simply did not exist when Liu was coming up in the industry. She had her action breakthrough playing Alex Munday opposite Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore in 2000’s “Charlie’s Angels” and its 2003 sequel, “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.”

Late last month, news broke that Warner Bros. Pictures had a new multi-year deal in place with Embracer Group‘s Middle-Earth Enterprises for New Line Cinema to make more “The Lord Of The Rings” movies.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Michael Keaton’s Batman isn’t the only big comic book character return happening in Warner Bros.’ long-awaited “The Flash.” As the film’s official trailer confirmed last month, Michael Shannon is also coming back to the DC Universe as “Man of Steel” villain General Zod in the upcoming Ezra Miller-led comic book tentpole. Shannon admitted in a recent interview with Looper that he was quite baffled when the offer came in to reprise General Zod. “I was a little confused,” Shannon said. “I said, ‘As memory serves me, I think I died in ‘Man of Steel.’ Are they sure they got the right guy?’ But then they explained to me the whole multiverse phenomenon, which I was a little behind the times on that. I can’t say that I’m a huge consumer of this genre of films — not that I have anything against them. If I’m going to watch a movie, the odds are it’s not going to be one of those, but I sure love making them.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Marc Guggenheim has been a staple of DC Entertainment on television for over a decade as the co-creator of The CW’s Arrowverse, which launched in 2012 with “Arrow” (Guggenheim developed the series with Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg) and continued through “The Flash,” “Supergirl” and more. In a February 2023 blog post that’s now circulating online (via Entertainment Weekly), Guggenheim lamented over not being included in the new DC Universe that’s taking shape at Warner Bros. under DC Studios bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran. Guggenheim admitted in his blog post that friends had told him Hollywood would come calling after he pulled off The CW’s ambitious “Crisis On Infinite Earths” storyline. That crossover event, which aired in December 2019 and January 2020, brought together six different superhero series for a story that ran through five hours of television. It was no easy feat, and Guggenheim said he even put up thousands of dollars of his own money to pull it off.

enjoy actual exotic dancing, check out the 2015 sequel “Magic Mike XXL” starring Channing Tatum and fellow eye/guy candy Matt Bomer, Kevin Nash, Joe Manganiello and Adam Rodriguez. The movie makes its way to Netflix on March. 1.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director With the Oscars right around the corner, it’s good timing for Ruben Östlund’s satirical dark comedy “Triangle of Sadness” to make its streaming debut on Hulu. The film is up for three Academy Awards, including best picture and best director, so make sure to catch up on it before the 2023 Academy Awards air on March 12.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Evanna Lynch is the latest “Harry Potter” star to comment on the ongoing controversy regarding author and franchise creator J.K. Rowling’s gender beliefs, which have been routinely criticized for being anti-transgender. Lynch starred in the “Harry Potter” film franchise as the quirky Luna Lovegood. Back in 2020, Lynch deleted her Twitter after commenting on Rowling’s controversy. The actor said “it’s irresponsible to discuss such a delicate topic” as transgender rights on Twitter and “I wish [Rowling] wouldn’t,” but she added, “That said, as a friend and admirer of Jo I can’t forget what a generous and loving person she is.” Lynch received blowback at the time for supporting Rowling. In a new interview with The Telegraph, Lynch opened up about her relationship with the controversial author. The two first linked up long before Lynch joined the “Harry Potter” movies. The actor was 11 and living with anorexia and wrote a letter to Rowling about her struggle. The author responded and sent Lynch “incredible, wise letters” while she was in recovery.

Idris Elba is look sharp on the red carpet!

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Zachary Quinto has been cast in the lead role of the NBC drama pilot “Wolf,” Variety has learned. The project was first ordered to pilot at the broadcaster back in January. It is inspired by the books “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” and “An Anthropologist on Mars” by Oliver Sacks. Per the official logline, “Wolf” will follow “a revolutionary, larger-than-life neurologist (Quinto) and his team of interns as they explore the last great frontier, the human mind, while also grappling with their own relationships and mental health.” Quinto’s character is named Dr. Oliver Wolf. He is further described as “head of neurology at Bronx General and an obsessive genius. He’s drawn to people that society has deemed “other” and helps them find hope and purpose. He embraces differences rather than suppressing them.”

Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke feels about Warner Bros. making competing projects based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.” Salke, who has held the top content job at Amazon since 2018, walked a Monday red carpet for the premiere of Michael B. Jordan’s “Creed III” where she spoke with Variety about last week’s news that Warner Bros. had secured film rights to some of Tolkien’s books. One of Salke’s defining moves at Amazon was to secure television rights to the same literary works, which she achieved at great expense. The first season of Amazon’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” premiered in 2022 with a big global marketing push and critical acclaim — as well as a reported budget north of $450 million for the first batch of episodes. Previously, Warner Bros. pushed out two massively successful film franchises with auteur Peter Jackson beginning in 2001. Those films grossed over $5 billion at the worldwide box office and brought home a best picture Oscar for one of the entries.