‘Game of Thrones’ Actor Texted Kit Harington to Bring Davos Back for the Jon Snow Spinoff, but ‘I Haven’t Heard Anything Back’

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jamie Dornan said on a recent episode of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that he was fully aware film critics would ridicule the “Fifty Shades of Grey” movies before he accepted the role of the BDSM-loving businessman Christian Grey. Dornan starred opposite Dakota Johnson in the film trilogy, which grossed $1.3 billion worldwide but averaged a paltry 15% Rotten Tomatoes score. “It wasn’t an instant yes by any means,” Dornan said about accepting the role.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director In a Vulture oral history on the end of The CW’s “Riverdale,” cast member Lili Reinhart admitted that it’s been difficult to be the butt of so many jokes as the series has often been ridiculed on social media over the years. Reinhart starred as Betty Cooper on all seven seasons of the show, which comes to an end on Aug. 23 after 135 episodes.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Greta Gerwig revealed in an interview with Hollywood First Look during her “Barbie” press tour that Timothée Chalamet visited the film’s set in London and lamented over not being able to star in the film. Gerwig directed Chalamet in both “Lady Bird” and “Little Women.” The filmmaker previously told CinemaBlend that Chalamet and her muse Saoirse Ronan were courted for cameo appearances in “Barbie” but scheduling conflicts got in the way. “I tried to get them both in it.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Barbie” co-casting directors Allison Jones and Lucy Bevan revealed to the MPA’s “The Credits” series that several wannabe Ken actors took off their shirts during the audition process thinking showing off their bodies was a total Ken move. Any actor auditioning for the role of Ken’s arch-rival Ken (a role that ultimately went to Simu Liu) auditioned with the now-beloved “beach off” fight scene. “Those scenes were fun to audition,” Bevan said.

Actor Tommy Jessop has appeared in Line Of Duty, in a feature-length film opposite Nicholas Hoult, onstage as the title character in Hamlet and in various documentaries. Yet for an actor with Down syndrome the opportunities still seem few and far between. Which is why, with Will, his filmmaker brother, Tommy has decided to make his own movie – and is taking viewers along for the ride in this new documentary Tommy Jessop Goes To Hollywood .

Zack Sharf Digital News Director With the long “Elvis” awards season behind him, Austin Butler is gearing up for two major upcoming releases: Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part 2” and the Apple TV+ miniseries “Masters of the Air.” The latter comes from executive producers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks and serves as the third installment in their long-running World War II saga that also includes the acclaimed “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific.” In a recent interview with The Times of London, Butler revealed that he nabbed a starring role in “Masters of the Air” after Hanks grew concerned about his mental health on “Elvis.” According to Butler, Hanks told him: “You have immersed yourself so deeply in ‘Elvis’ that, for your mental health, it would be wise to go straight into something else. If you just jump off the train, you might have emotional whiplash… and, you know, I’ve got this thing I’m producing.'” Butler said “Elvis” forced him “to go to the very edge of what is possible, and not every experience will be like that.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Aaron Taylor-Johnson revealed to Esquire magazine that he turned down “big, huge franchises” after he started making a name for himself in Hollywood with roles in blockbusters such as “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “Godzilla.” Those back-to-back releases made Taylor-Johnson one of the hottest young actors in Hollywood, but he actively rejected more franchises to spend time with his family. “There was ‘Kick-Ass’ and then there was ‘Godzilla’ and ‘Avengers,’ and all those things lined up for me,” Taylor-Johnson said. “But I didn’t really care for them…[I was up for movies] that nobody knows about—big, huge franchises that were in play.

The Game of Thrones story is continuing with the forthcoming spin-off based around Jon Snow, and at least one star wants in on the action.

Naman Ramachandran Irish actor Liam Cunningham’s eclectic career includes playing fan favorite Davos Seaworth in HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and starring roles in Ken Loach’s Palme D’Or-winning “The Wind that Shakes the Barley” and Steve McQueen’s BAFTA-winning “Hunger.” Cunningham has won acting prizes at the Irish Film and Television Awards three times. Next up for him is the Amblin and Universal film “The Last Voyage of the Demeter,” by “The Autopsy of Jane Doe” filmmaker André Øvredal. The supernatural thriller, adapted from a chapter of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel “Dracula” called “The Captain’s Log,” is set aboard the schooner Demeter, which was chartered to carry 50 unmarked wooden crates from Transylvania to London.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director David Harbour is back in theaters this month opposite Orlando Bloom in Sony’s “Gran Turismo,” but he’s well aware the public will continue to recognize him for his role as Hopper on Netflix’s blockbuster series “Stranger Things.” With the fifth and final season of the show still left to film once the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are resolved, Harbour told Insider that he’s fully planning on acting in films exclusively once “Stranger Things” wrapped. Harbour had a strong run as a character actor in films such as “Brokeback Mountain” and “Revolutionary Road” before his star profile exploded with the success of “Stranger Things.” His first attempt to parlay the success of “Stranger Things” into a movie career failed thanks to the box office bomb that was “Hellboy,” but he got things back on track with Marvel’s “Black Widow” and Universal’s “Violent Night,” a modestly-budgeted original action comedy that turned a profit.

Game Of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham revealed that he reached out to his co-star Kit Harington about the possibility of bringing back his character Ser Davos Seaworth in the Jon Snow spin-off.Last year, an unnamed spin-off series was announced by HBO, with Thrones star Emilia Clarke then seemingly confirming that Harington will reprise his role as Jon Snow for the sequel.However, back in May a HBO executive shared doubts over whether the show – provisionally named Snow – could “go all the way” to air.But Cunningham has still expressed his enthusiasm at the possibility of the new show, revealing in an interview with Den Of Geekthat he hinted at a return for his own character.“I did send [Kit] a text saying, ‘Better Call Davos,’” Cunningham said, referencing the hit Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul.“I haven’t heard anything back. You probably know more than I do.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Steven Soderbergh recently spoke to Rolling Stone while promoting his new series “Command Z” about the origins of his friendship with fellow filmmaker Christopher Nolan. According to the “Traffic” and “Ocean’s Eleven” director, a Warner Bros. executive refused to meet with Nolan about a potential directing gig for the studio’s thriller “Insomnia.” The exec allegedly disliked Nolan’s “Memento,” which counted Soderbergh as one of its biggest fans.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Billy Porter revealed in a recent interview with Evening Standard that he has to sell his house amid the ongoing strikes in Hollywood in order to save money. Porter, an Emmy winner for his work on FX’s “Pose,” was speaking to the outlet to promote his music career and stayed clear of discussing any of his film and television work. When the topic of the strikes was brought up, Porter said he’s having to take cost-saving measures in his real life as various projects he was set to work on in September have been tabled.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Now that “Barbie” has officially crossed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office, speculation about a potential sequel has intensified tenfold. Greta Gerwig, who directed “Barbie” in addition to co-writing its script with Noah Baumbach, told The New York Times she has no ideas yet for a “Barbie 2.” However, she also told People magazine before the film joined the $1 billion club that she hoped her movie “is the launch of a world and a bunch of different Barbie movies.” “There’s a tone and a humor and a joy, and obviously the world is so beautiful,” Gerwig told the publication. “I want to go back to Barbie Land.” Margot Robbie was less assertive when asked about a “Barbie” sequel in pre-release interviews.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Adam Devine appeared on Theo Von’s “This Past Weekend” podcast during his press tour for Netflix’s “The Out-Laws” and shared his theory that Marvel movies and other superhero films killed the traditional Hollywood comedy. The “Workaholics” and “Pitch Perfect” alum noted that because Marvel movies rely so much on humor (see the “Ant-Man” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchises, for instance), they ended up becoming Hollywood’s new de facto comedy films. “You watch comedies nowadays and you’re like, this is not a fucking comedy,” Devine said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Will Smith told Kevin Hart on a new episode of Peacock’s “Hart to Heart” talk show that he “went too far” as an actor while portraying a slave in the Apple drama “Emancipation.” The film, Smith’s first release after the notorious Oscars slap, centered on the true story of a runaway slave named Peter, a photograph of whom became a rallying call for the abolition of slavery as it depicted his mutilated back scars from several whippings. “I went too far in ‘Emancipation,’” Smith said. “Just bringing it up, I start to get teary.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director When Will Smith was ready to turn down the role of Agent J in 1997’s “Men in Black,” executive producer Steven Spielberg decided to take matters into his own hands. During a recent appearance on Kevin Hart’s “Hart to Heart” talk show (via Insider), Smith told the story of Spielberg sending a helicopter to bring him in for a meeting in which Spielberg questioned Smith’s apprehension over “Men in Black.” It all started with Smith not wanting to make another alien-centric movie after 1996’s “Independence Day,” his first bonafide blockbuster. James Lassiter, Smith’s former manager, urged Smith to take the role of Agent J.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Leslie David Baker, who starred as Stanley Hudson on all nine seasons of NBC’s popular sitcom “The Office,” announced on social media that he is returning all of the donations fans sent it via Kickstarter for his proposed Stanley spinoff. The exact donation total being returned is $110,629.81, Baker said. Back in 2020, Baker went viral for launching a Kickstarter campaign in an effort to create a spinoff of “The Office” centered around Stanley Hudson.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Conleth Hill told the The Times UK in a recent interview that he was “inconsolable” when he found out his character, Varys, was being killed off “Game of Thrones.” Hill was a regular face on the HBO fantasy series since its first season until Varys was burned to death by a dragon in the final season’s penultimate episode. By that point, Hill admitted, he had grown “frustrated” with the series for not staying true to his character’s all-knowing ways. “I thought I’d done something wrong,” Hill said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Are Christopher Nolan movies too loud? It’s a question that’s asked every time the director releases a movie, and “Oppenheimer” is no exception. Nolan’s sound mix is once again a point of contention among viewers, with some complaining that it’s hard to understand the dialogue against Ludwig Göransson’s booming score and other sound design choices. In a recent interview with Insider, Nolan explained that one reason it may be hard to hear the dialogue in “Oppenheimer” is because he refuses to re-record his actors in post-production.