Josh Brolin Said He Turned Down ‘Sicario’ At First & Roger Deakins Convinced Him To “Stop Being An Asshole”

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The curtains have closed on the Oscars, and as we peer over the horizon following a six-month Hollywood hiatus due to the union strikes, the initial trepidation over a sparse cinematic future will be sure to dissipate once you look at the road ahead. Contrary to fears, the film landscape appears not just replenished but vibrant, with several compelling titles that are already making waves. An annual tradition at Variety is to take a look ahead at what contenders could be brewing for next year’s Oscar season.

Alex Edelman’s upcoming comedy special, “Alex Edelman: Just for Us.” The special, which was recorded live at the Hudson Theatre in New York, will debut on HBO and be available to stream on Max April 6 at 10 p.m. ET/ PT. “Just for Us,” chronicles Edelman’s life as a Jewish man living on the east coast and revolves around how he once attended a meeting of White Nationalists after receiving antisemitic threats online.

Amazon Prime Video‘s acclaimed sci-fi Western series “Outer Range” is finally making its return. Today, the streaming service announced the series will debut on May 16 and shared some new first-look images from the show.

Having grossed nearly $375 million at the worldwide box office ($362 million so far), Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” appears to be a big success, even though it apparently needs to hit the $500 million mark to break even. Ah, movie math.

Josh Brolin and Ariana Grande put on quite the Saturday Night Live show!

In Vienna in 1893, a nobleman named Kinskey threw a glorious ball looking to impress a beautiful Archduchess who could potentially be his bride, all of which took place in a Bridgerton-inspired Saturday Night Live sketch this evening. Josh Brolin served as this evening’s host and portrayed Kinskey, while Sarah Sherman brought to life his would-be bride.

Josh Brolin returned to host Saturday Night Live and stripped off his clothes to take a cold plunge during his monologue.

Josh Brolin opened the March 9 episode of Saturday Night Live by heating things up and cooling himself down.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” notably features the acting return of Christoper Walken, who hasn’t been seen on the big screen in four years. The Oscar winner had a trio of films released in 2020 (“The War with Grandpa,” “Percy” and “Wild Mountain Thyme”) and then went on a hiatus from moviemaking (he did show up in the 2022 television series “Severance.”) Now, he joins “Dune: Part Two” as Shaddam IV, aka the Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe. Why did Walken decide to make “Dune: Part Two” his comeback? It’s a question Vanity Fair asked the Oscar winner in a new interview, to which Walken responded: “I had, of course, seen the first ‘Dune’ a number of times.

Josh Brolin is back on the big screen in “Dune: Part Two,” his latest movie role since first playing Gurney Halleck for Denis Villeneuve in the 2021 film. And to commemorate his return, the actor sat down with Yahoo to talk about the highs and lows of his film career, including what’s arguably its nadir: the disastrous 2010 superhero flick “Jonah Hex.” Reviled by critics upon release, the film made back only $11 million of its $47 million budget at the box office, with Brolin and castmate Megan Fox receiving Razzie nods for their performances.

Josh Brolin seems to be taking his third Saturday Night Live hosting gig very seriously indeed, judging by the energy he’s bringing to the show’s latest promo.

Josh Brolin is explaining his fascination with poetry.

Hans Zimmer continued to write more music for the sci-fi epic. He was told to stop, but Zimmer insisted he would carry on, so much so that director Denis Villeneuve would joke that the composer was locked in the studio. Except it wasn’t completely a joke.

Josh Brolin looked back on some of his movies in a recent interview, and he didn’t hesitate to trash one of them.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Josh Brolin told GQ magazine in a new interview that “I won’t ever stop shitting on ‘Jonah Hex‘ because it was a shitty fucking movie!” The 2010 comic book film, starring Brolin as the eponymous bounty hunter, is one of the genre’s most infamous flops, earning universal pans from critics and only grossing $11 million at the worldwide box office. According to GQ, Brolin and his “Jonah Hex” director Jimmy Hayward “recently reconnected” and the filmmaker even “apologized for his part in the mess.” Brolin told Variety last year that part of the failure of “Jonah Hex” is that he rushed to hire a director and Hayward was just too inexperienced to execute Brolin’s vision for the comic book movie.

Michaela Zee When “Dune: Part Two” star Stellan Skarsgård saw Austin Butler as the cruel and sadistic Feyd-Rautha for the first time, he laughed. “I laughed so much because it was so obvious that he really enjoyed being evil,” Skarsgård told Variety at the “Dune: Part Two” premiere Sunday night in New York City. Butler’s Feyd-Rautha is the younger nephew and heir of Skarsgård’s Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who originally appeared in Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 sci-fi epic “Dune.” Butler studied Skarsgård’s voice performance in the first chapter to bring his version of Feyd-Rautha to life.

“Dune: Part Two” is almost in theaters, reviews have been ecstatic, and hype for the Denis Villeneuve film seems to be off the charts; it’s expected to be the first major blockbuster theatrical release of the year when it opens this weekend, March 1 (read our review here). We spoke to Rebecca Ferguson about her role as Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica in the movie, and while we’ll roll out that full interview ASAP, we did it briefly; at the end of our interview, I asked about her role in “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning.” READ MORE: Christopher McQuarrie Explains The “Tough Decision” Of Killing A Key Character in ‘Dead Reckoning’ Spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen the film, but it’s almost eight months old at this point; Ferguson’s character, Ilsa Faust, a disavowed MI6 agent, is killed at the hands of the powerful terrorist Gabriel (Esai Morales) in a knife fight.

As Timothée Chalamet’s “Wonka” has quietly crossed the $600 million mark worldwide—a remarkable figure given the film wasn’t a box office smash but clearly had great sustained longevity theatrically—the actor is starring down his next lead role in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” (read our review) It’s a film whose hype is so large at the moment it suggests it could best that “Wonka” record, but we’ll see if it has the same kind of four-quadrant appeal.

With Pedro Pascal now shooting “Fantastic Four” this summer, Zach Cregger needs a new leading man for the follow-up to his 2022 horror hit “Barbarian.” Well, Cregger may have found him. THR reports that John Brolin is in final talks to star in “Weapons,” one of the buzziest genre films in Hollywood right now.

In perhaps one of the best feel-good stories in Hollywood this year, a coalition of 35 filmmakers have invested in a coalition to save Los Angeles’ fabled Westwood Village Theater. Organized by Jason Reitman, the group will book first-run features and repertory programming from the theater’s directors/caretakers.