‘Master Gardener’: Joel Edgerton On Working With Paul Schrader, Returning To ‘Star Wars’ & More [The Discourse Podcast]

Star Wars: Jedi Survivor has been confirmed to be in the year 9 BBY. That so happened to be the same year that the recent Obi-Wan Kenobi show is set in. 10 years after the events of Revenge Of The Sith and 9 before A New Hope this is pretty uncharted territory for Star Wars canon.

This story about “Obi-Wan Kenobi” first appeared in the Limited Series/Movies issue of TheWrap’s Emmy magazine.“Obi-Wan Kenobi” seems like the kind of no-brainer, easy layup, slam dunk that is conceived quickly and executed even more quickly. We’re talking a limited series from Disney+ and Lucasfilm that followed the titular Jedi (played, once again, by Ewan McGregor) in the lonesome time between the prequels and 1977’s “Star Wars: A New Hope.” But it was not so fast and easy. In fact, for years, McGregor had no idea if he’d ever play the wise mentor again.

Rob Savage isn’t a household name in horror, yet, but if you look at his most recent work, this is a guy who seems like he is destined for great things in genre filmmaking. And in this episode of The Playlist Podcast, I got the chance to talk to Savage and discuss his newest film, “The Boogeyman,” which is based on a short story by Stephen King.

EXCLUSIVE: We hear that the George Clooney directed MGM title, The Boys in the Boat, is set to hit theaters on Monday, Dec. 25, as a wide release.

EXCLUSIVE: Actor Jimmi Simpson has taken on new representation, signing with Brian DePersia’s Cognition for management.

Back in early April, during the fan-focused Star Wars Celebration, many folks were expecting clarity regarding the future of the “Star Wars” franchise on the big screen. For years prior, there were reports of films that were in development, but then we’d get other news about drama behind the scenes, directors coming and going, and general disarray at Lucasfilm.

EXCLUSIVE: Mandy Moore (Dr. Death) and Kumail Nanjiani (Welcome to Chippendales) have closed deals to star in Thread: An Insidious Tale, a new film in the Insidious universe from Screen Gems, Blumhouse and James Wan’s Atomic Monster.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of the few Star Wars Disney+ series which pays direct homage to the original George Lucas film canon, versus series such as The Mandalorian which heavily incorporate the animated lore created by Dave Filoni.

William Earl Variety’s Actors on Actors series returns featuring the biggest stars in this year’s TV Emmys race for Season 18. The four episodes will debut on PBS SoCal on Thursday January 15th starting at 8:00 pm, followed by encores on KCET and public television stations across the country and the WORLD Channel (check local listings). All episodes will stream on pbssocal.org and the free PBS App following their premieres. Variety’s Actors on Actors issue will hit newsstands on June 7th and the conversations will start airing on Tuesday, June 6th on Variety.com and its social media channels. This year’s “Actors on Actors” lineup includes:

facing pushback from viewers on social media as well as the Directors Guild of America and Writers Guild of America. “We agree that the talent behind the content on Max deserve their work to be properly recognized,” a Warner Bros.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Warner Bros. Discovery’s newly launched Max lumped film directors and writers under a single “creators” heading — a change that prompted a backlash from filmmakers and Hollywood’s directors and writers guilds. Now the company is changing the listings back, blaming the issue on a technical “oversight.” “We agree that the talent behind the content on Max deserve their work to be properly recognized,” a Max spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. “We will correct the credits, which were altered due to an oversight in the technical transition from HBO Max to Max and we apologize for this mistake.” The move drew ire amid the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, in which the union is seeking to reach a new contract with major studios.

Naman Ramachandran “Game of Thrones” actor Indira Varma is joining the new series of “Doctor Who.” She will be seen as the Duchess, described by the BBC as a “mysterious new role.” Varma was previously part of the “Doctor Who” universe as Suzie Costello in Russell T Davies’ spin-off series “Torchwood.” Varma’s recent roles include Netflix show “Obsession” and Disney+’s Star Wars franchise series “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” She won an Olivier for her role in “Present Laughter.” “Doctor Who” began in 1963 and follows the adventures of a Time Lord known as The Doctor, an extraterrestrial being with a human appearance. The Doctor travels the universe in a time-travelling spaceship called the Tardis.

Game of Thrones star Indira Varma is the latest big name to join the regenerated Doctor Who.

Naman Ramachandran Universal’s “Fast X” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £5.8 million ($7.3 million), according to numbers released by Comscore. In second place, Disney’s “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3” continued its strong run in the territory, adding £2.8 million in its third weekend for a total of £28.9 million. In its seventh weekend, Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” earned £544,283 in third position for a total of £51.8 million. Lionsgate’s “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” debuted in fourth place with £327,197. Rounding off the top five was another debut, Sony’s “Beau Is Afraid,” with £231,370. The other debut in the top 10 was Trafalgar Releasing’s “Don Giovanni – Met Opera 2023,” which bowed in ninth position with £99,842.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic In “Black Flies,” a movie that keeps working to get high on its own intensity, Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan play paramedics who spend their nights driving through hell (I mean, Brooklyn). There are countless shots of the two in their EMS van, riding along under the tracks of an overhead subway train — the exact kind of grungy Brooklyn boulevard that Popeye Doyle went smashing through in the famous “French Connection” car/subway chase. As Rut (Penn) and Cross (Sheridan) patrol the borough neighborhood of Brownsville, one of the poorest and most crime-ridden sections of New York City, those overheard tracks become part of the film’s meticulously oppressive visual design. The two have so little breathing room they can barely see the sky. After a while, though, you start to think: Don’t these guys everdrive down a side street? Like everything else in “Black Flies,” those subway tracks are stylish signifiers of doom that are a little too in-your-face.

“Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I told You” (Crown), Williams, 70, reveals this and plenty of other secrets. A singer and songwriter with deep Southern roots — born in the Louisiana city of Lake Charles — her songs tell tales of love, lust and loss, God and the devil. The most jarring stories in the book are about Williams’ mother, Lucille, who suffered from mental illness.She writes of a time when she was 3 and her mother locked her in a closet, because, her father told her, ‘You were being a typical 3-year-old and crying and she couldn’t handle it.’ “When I think about it now, it sounds so horrible.

Gregg Goldstein When you think of Rupert Friend, chances are you remember his five seasons as CIA operative Peter Quinn on “Homeland” or his turn as the Grand Inquisitor on “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” But recently he’s become the latest member of Wes Anderson’s acting troupe, following up his role in 2021’s “The French Dispatch” with the Cannes Palme d’Or contender “Asteroid City” and the Roald Dahl anthology “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” now in post-production at Netflix. Variety spoke with the U.K.-born actor about his eclectic career, his upcoming feature writing/directing debut and why he had a “revelation” that he should be the next James Bond. What’s your role in “Asteroid City,” and what can we expect from the film?

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from “It Chooses,” Episode 8 of “Yellowjackets” Season 2, now streaming on Showtime. In the last moments of the Season 1 finale of “Yellowjackets,” viewers were tipped to the fact that Lottie was alive and well, and out there somewhere in the world. In the show’s second season, the adult version of Lottie, played by Simone Kessell, is revealed to be running a wellness center in Upstate New York — and there’s been an air of doubt around her. Can she be trusted or not? As it turns out, not. Lottie’s sessions with her therapist have been purely a figment of her imagination, and she’s still haunted by the Antler Queen, as well as her past in the wilderness.

As Sanctuary, Zachary Wigon’s twisted tale of a dominatrix and her wealthy client, opens in NY and LA, David Lancaster of producer Rumble Films recalls a speedy 18-day shoot on a custom-made set in Brownsville, Brooklyn in late summer of 2021. It was Covid, so not the easiest time for indie financing.

Jon Burlingame Some of today’s most talked-about film and TV composers walked off with Composers Choice Awards at Tuesday night’s annual Screen Music Awards of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in West Hollywood. Michael Abels won Film Score of the Year for Jordan Peele’s sci-fi horror movie “Nope.” Cristobal Tapia de Veer and Kim Neundorf won Television Score of the Year for HBO’s black comedy “The White Lotus” And Bear McCreary won Video Game Score of the Year for Sony Interactive’s acclaimed “God of War: Ragnarok.” In a tie, Documentary Score of the Year went to both Amanda Jones for the National Geographic nature series “Super/Natural” and Jeff Cardoni for HBO Max’s skateboarding doc “Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off.” Cristobal Tapia de Veer also won a second award for Television Theme of the Year for “The White Lotus.”