Franchise Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One came in at number one at the weekend box office, but the film fell short of expectations.

SATURDAY PM UPDATE: Facts are facts, and Paramount/Skydance’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One set a 5-day opening domestic record for the franchise with $80M, we hear.

Jordan Moreau Henry Czerny received a mission from filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie and chose to accept it. That mission? Return as former IMF chief Eugene Kittridge in “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” 27 years after he first appeared in the original “Mission: Impossible” in 1996. At the “Dead Reckoning” premiere in New York, Czerny said when he first got the call about returning to the “Mission: Impossible” world, he didn’t believe it. “I think it’s a joke at first because my reps called me and said they want to bring Kittridge back and I’m in the middle of doing my errands in Los Angeles and fighting traffic or shredding old tax documents,” he told Variety. “I think, ‘Okay, what’s going on really?’ They say, ‘Chris McQuarrie wants to talk to you about bringing Kittridge back,’ and I take it seriously. Two days later, I’m on a call with Chris McQuarrie.”

Can Tom Cruise save summer?

EXCLUSIVE: The latest instalment in Sinking Ship Entertainment’s Dino kids TV franchise has gone into production.

Believe it or not, it’s already been 10 years since the release of James DeMonaco’s breakout hit, “The Purge.” The micro-budget horror film would go on to earn a massive box office and devoted fanbase, spawning four sequels and multi-season TV series. And in honor of the film’s 10th Anniversary, DeMonaco joins The Playlist Podcast to talk about his 2013 hit and how a fractured country inspired him to make a film about people killing each other for sport.

Back in November, well before the world was obsessed with the upcoming “Barbie” film, it was reported that Greta Gerwig was going to ditch the world of pink plastic and make her way to the fantasy realm of “The Chronicles of Narnia.” Since then, we have just been waiting for some sort of confirmation that this was the case. Now, months later, it appears it’s true—Greta Gerwig is set to direct two new ‘Narnia’ films for Netflix.

SATURDAY AM: Refresh for chart…and more analysis Disney/Lucasfilm’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is still bound to open at the bottom of end of tracking’s projection of $60M as this morning. I saw an estimate in The Flash vicinity of $55M last night and took an Alka Seltzer out of shock. Hopefully Dial of Destiny doesn’t fall apart tonight and at least stays on course for a Mission: Impossible – Fallout type opening in the $60M range over three days. That figure might be good for exhibition and popcorn sales over the five-day holiday weekend, but it stinks for a movie that has a reported cost of $250M to near $300M before P&A.

was known for pushing boundaries and putting it all out there, but there was one line the franchise decided not to cross. On Thursday's episode of , Cynthia Nixon -- who played attorney Miranda Hobbes on and the Max spin-off,  -- shared the one sex scene from the original series that was cut. «Miranda dated a really hot detective who she was very intimidated by, he was really out of her league, so she got wildly drunk,» the 57-year-old actress recalled.

Harrison Ford is set to appear on-screen as Indiana Jones for the last time with the fifth installment of the franchise, "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny." In May, the actor broke the news to fans during a presentation at the D23 Expo in an emotional speech, saying, "This is it. I will not fall down for you again." He also thanked the fans for helping to make playing Indiana Jones so special. "Indiana Jones movies are about fantasy and mystery, but they're also about heart," he said through tears.

BreAnna Bell The “Real Housewives of New Jersey” Season 13 reunion finale ranks No. 2 among “Real Housewives” episodes on Peacock, falling behind only last month’s “Real Housewives of Atlanta” Season 15 premiere, according to NBCU. The installment, which originally aired June 13, also lands among Bravo’s top 20 most-watched original episodes on Peacock, per the streamer, which did not disclose total viewership data for the episode. In delayed, multiplatform viewing, Part 3 of the reunion scored a new record for Bravo, becoming the most-watched episode within the franchise since 2016 and the top episode in the key demo of adults 18-49 since 2020.

EXCLUSIVE: Roland Emmerich, director of Independence Day, has teamed up with folks behind the likes of World of Warcraft for a new franchise, Space Nation.

SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the series finale of The CW’s Gotham Knights.

Chris Hemsworth took over Netflix for the week of June 19 to June 25.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Chief Correspondent “The Bachelorette” launched its 20th season Monday night, marking the first season to air without franchise creator Mike Fleiss on board — except Fleiss’ name still appeared when the credits rolled. During the ending credits at the conclusion of the episode, the very last name to appear on-screen was Fleiss’ accompanied by the words “created by.” Unlike past seasons, Fleiss was not credited as an “executive producer” and his production company, Next Entertainment, was not listed. In former seasons, Fleiss’ name appeared first on the credits, instead of last.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Chief Correspondent When “The Bachelorette” returns on Monday night with its milestone 20th season, the franchise will continue to make history with leading lady Charity Lawson. Lawson is the fourth woman of color on the long-running dating series, following Rachel Lindsay (who starred in Season 13 in 2017), Tayshia Adams (Season 16, 2020) and Michelle Young (Season 18, 2021). Over the years, “The Bachelor” has faced criticism for its lack of diversity but has pledged to increase its efforts, which have been seen on-screen in recent seasons. As the star of a primetime network show whose love story will be broadcast to millions, Lawson doesn’t take her role lightly.

Michael Shannon recently reprised his role as General Zod in the new “Flash” film for DC Studios. This marks the first time the actor has had a starring role in a huge franchise film since the original time we saw Zod in 2013’s “Man of Steel.” And according to Shannon, that’s not by mistake, as the actor doesn’t really have any interest in acting in franchise films, not even a “Star Wars” feature.

cinematic universe, no character is ever gone for good!Fans of the high-octane franchise have learned that lesson time and again as our favorite heroes return — the #JusticeForHan hashtag was avenged when Sun Kang's character returned in  and our favorite villains switch sides to join the good guys. (Remember when Dwayne Johnson's Luke Hobbs was the antagonist of )Fast X, the latest installment, directed by Louis Leterrier, brought back not one, but two thrilling characters to the franchise, with Hobbs appearing in a post-credits scene — launching a Johnson-led standalone film that will fit into the timeline between and But the biggest shocker of all came in the film's final moments.

Tyler Rake is coming back!

Chris Hemsworth — who stars as Tyler in the franchise — attended the Netflix Tudum global fan event from Brazil. On stage, Hemsworth and director, Sam Hargrave, shared the news that a third film in the franchise is already in the works. Hemsworth and Hargrave kicked-off the event by taking the stage to the roars of the crowd.

Charna Flam When developing her on-screen friendship with co-star Christa Miller, “Shrinking” star Jessica Williams said she positioned it as if they were hanging out “like a ‘Real Housewife of Pasadena.’” In other words, she approached the relationship between her character, Gaby, and and Miller’s character, Liz, through the lens of her fascination with reality TV and obsession with the “Real Housewives” franchise. In this episode of Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast, Williams and Miller share how that TV friendship has developed into a real-life, off-screen one as well. In separate interviews, Williams and Miller discussed the dynamic of their characters’ evolving personalities and what they hope for the second season. Listen below!

Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s original Avengers are opening up about their future within the expansive universe.

Jessica Liese “The Walking Dead” ended last year to little fanfare, tempered as the finale was by news of at least three additional series on the horizon (in addition to the three already in existence). At first glance, it’s difficult to comprehend what additional zombie stories could possibly remain to be told. But for those who haven’t yet succumbed to zombie-apocalypse fatigue, the first of this new batch of spinoffs may suggest a spark of life remaining in the franchise. The first season of “The Walking Dead: Dead City” is a well-told, self-contained story that retains many of its predecessor’s best qualities while deepening two of its most beloved characters. The series, which premieres on AMC on June 18, is less of a spin-off of the flagship, and more of a sequel featuring only Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as they navigate new challenges several years after the events of “The Walking Dead” series’ finale.

Samuel L. Jackson has his eyes set on more Marvel.

Harrison Ford has some strong feelings about bringing his time as Indiana Jones to a close. The actor is opening up about how he feels to see the fifth film in the iconic franchise hit theaters.Ford walked the red carpet at the star-studded premiere of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Wednesday, and he spoke with ET's Cassie DiLaura about the experience.«I'm so proud,» Ford said of the film and the support it received from fans at the event.That being said, the actor admitted that his feelings were «complicated» with regards to how he felt about having played the iconic character of Indiana Jones — which he first portrayed in 1981's -- for his last time.«I'm very grateful that we get to do this and that we've rounded the corner and brought the character full circle,» Ford shared.

John Bleasdale Guest Contributor “Ozi, Voice of the Forest” premiered at the Annecy Festival on June 13, kicking off a series of films that seek to highlight dangers to the environment.  The film tells the story of a young orangutan Ozi, voiced by Amandla Stenberg (“The Hunger Games”), who becomes separated from her parents when her rain forest home is devastated by a company producing palm oil.  With the additional voice talents of Laura Dern, Djimon Hounsou and Donald Sutherland, the film also boasts a broad array of talent behind the camera including Keith Chapman, creator of “PAW Patrol” and Madrid-based Rodrigo Blaas, behind the “Sith” episode in “Star Wars Visions,” as part of the creative team. Leonardo DiCaprio and legendary producer and former studio head Mike Medavoy are credited as producers.

Samuel L. Jackson has his eyes set on more Marvel.ET's Ash Crossan spoke to Jackson at the premiere of his new Disney+ series, , where he revealed which Marvel franchise he wants to be cast in next.«I don't know, it's kind of up and down for me in an interesting sort of way,» Jackson said of his character, Nick Fury, who first came onto the scene 15 years ago in 2008's . «Because, if I had it my way, I would've been in every Marvel movie 'cause I mean he is Nick Fury, he knows everything that's going on.

EXCLUSIVE: After the Transformers was gearing down, filmmaker Steven Caple Jr. was able to put gas back into the tank of the storied Paramount Hasbro movie franchise with Rise of the Beasts this weekend which opened to $171M worldwide, stealing the crown from Sony Animation’s strong Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. On today’s episode of Crew Call, Caple Jr. tells us he’s in talks for another Transformers sequel — and much of that involves that cliffhanger scene between Anthony Ramos and Michael Kelly.

The cast of NCIS: Sydney has officially been announced!

family is reportedly approaching the end of the road — but not before a few more high-octane adventures!Following the release of the most recent installment, — which has grossed over $652 million to date worldwide — fans have plenty of questions about what's to come. Will Vin Diesel's Dom Toretto make it out of this epic saga alive? Will the crew lose even more of their own as they attempt to finish off Jason Momoa's vengeful villain? What does Dwayne Johnson's return to the franchise mean — and will he share a scene with Diesel? Plus, whatever happened to the sequel? Read on to find out everything we currently know about the future of the fam.Diesel officially announced the release date of on June 12, sharing a photo of himself with 's main antagonist, Momoa — who plays Dante Reyes, the son of the drug lord that Dom and the crew stole from and killed in «April 4th 2025… is less than 22 months away,» Diesel captioned the pic.

There’s no doubt that the success of “The Hunger Games” franchise led to the meteoric rise of Jennifer Lawrence’s career years ago. Sure, she was nominated for all sorts of awards for “Winter’s Bone,” but it wasn’t until she took on the role of Katniss in “The Hunger Games” that her career was firmly cemented in A-list territory.

EXCLUSIVE: Ramsey Naito, President, Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation, has a big remit, overseeing all of the groups’ operations from development through release. The respected veteran also has big hopes for an upcoming slate of franchise installments as well as original features. 

Does Disney want Johnny Depp back for more Pirates of the Caribbean movies — and is he the one saying NO???

Hayden Christensen and Diego Luna have never met, but as Christensen puts it, they’ve occupied the “same galaxy” for years. Christensen rocketed from teenage obscurity in Canada when George Lucas cast him as Anakin Skywalker for 2002’s “Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones” and 2005’s “Revenge of the Sith,” which chronicled the young Jedi’s transformation into the iconic villain Darth Vader. The Mexican-born Luna — who rose to prominence in Alfonso Cuarón’s 2001 coming-of-age masterpiece “Y tu mamá también” — joined “Star Wars” for 2016’s “Rogue One,” a prequel about the band of rebel spies, led by Luna’s Cassian Andor, that steal the plans for the Death Star.

As I watched the new trailer for the fourth “Expendables” film, I couldn’t help but wonder who this film is actually for? Originally, the “Expendables” franchise was this fun experiment, where some of the best action stars from the ‘80s and ‘90s came together for another adventure. Now, four films deep, it’s morphed into… a starring vehicle for 50 Cent and Megan Fox? What? READ MORE: ‘The Flash’ Review: Barry Allen Is Barely The Lead In A Hollow Movie Overfilled With Fan Service As seen in the new trailer, “Expendables 4” (I refuse to call it “Expend4bles”) follows a group of mercenaries as they combine forces for another job.

William Earl Over five low-budget box office hits and a two-season TV series, “The Purge” saga — which portrays a not-too-distant-future America where all crimes, including murder, are legal for one night a year in order to satiate a bloodthirsty public — swelled into a $450 million franchise. But the first chapter was almost never made. While the film became the defining hit of writer and director James DeMonaco’s career, he says the script was passed over “40-50 times” for being seen as “too anti-American.” “I had this little, strange, dark indictment of American gun culture,” he said. “I hate guns. To me, the scariest thing in the world would be a night where everyone was armed and it was legal to use these firearms. To me, there was nothing scarier than that notion.”