‘Wonka’ Director Wrote Hugh Grant a Letter Saying ‘You’re Good at Playing Washed-Up Old Hams,’ Perfect for an Oompa Loompa: He’s a ‘Sarcastic S—‘

Zack Sharf Digital News Director With Mattel Films off to the races thanks to the blockbuster success of “Barbie,” the studio is moving full steam ahead on its upcoming Barney movie produced by Daniel Kaluuya. The project became a subject of fascination for cinephiles after Mattel Films executive Kevin McKeon told The New Yorker in July that the script was similar to an A24 movie and the “surrealistic” films from Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Kerry Washington explains in her new memoir, “Thicker Than Water,” that she actively rejected playing the “white girl’s best friend” after starring in “Against the Ropes,” the 2004 boxing drama headlined by Meg Ryan and Omar Epps. The film starred Ryan as Jackie Kallen, the first woman to achieve success as a boxing manager.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director When Jimmy Fallon returns to the air in Oct. following the end of the WGA strike, it will continue his 14th year as the host of an NBC late night talk show. The “Saturday Night Live” alum got his late night start by taking over for Conan O’Brien as the host of “Late Night,” which Fallon led from March 2, 2009 to Feb.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director David Letterman relives his horrible “Airplane!” audition in the new oral history book, “Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True History of Airplane!,” an excerpt from which was published on Entertainment Weekly. Letterman was brought in to screen test for the lead role of Ted Striker, ultimately played by Robert Hays. “He wasn’t an actor, but he was funny.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Howard Stern is “woke” and proud. The radio host confronted his critics this week on his SiriusXM radio show (via Mediaite) when he caught wind of claims that he’s “not good anymore” because he’s “woke.” “By the way, I kind of take that as a compliment, that I’m woke,” Stern fired back. “I’ll tell you how I feel about it.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director In a new interview with Vanity Fair, “The Marvels” director Nia DaCosta revealed she was in frequent contact with previous Marvel directors before and during the making of her MCU tentpole. She asked Chloé Zhao (“Eternals”), James Gunn (“Guardians of the Galaxy”) and Taika Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarok”) before accepting “The Marvels” directing gig if entering the Marvel world was a good idea. “Are they going to kill me and destroy my soul? Is Kevin Feige a bad man?” she joked.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “John Wick” producer Basil Iwanyk told Collider that Keanu Reeves begged the team behind the long-running action franchise to kill him off at the end of “John Wick: Chapter 4.” It was par for the course for Reeves, who is so physically drained after filming each “John Wick” installment that he rarely is motivated to return for more. In this case, the producers once again did not entirely listen to their star. “After the second, third, and fourth movie, making these films is so exhausting and it destroys Keanu, physically and emotionally,” Iwanyk said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Whoopi Goldberg is defending Hasan Minhaj, who has ignited a fierce debate after admitting to embellishing stories in his stand-up routines over the years. “That’s what we do,” Goldberg said on “The View” about the role of the comedian (via Entertainment Weekly). “That’s what we do, we tell stories and we embellish them.” “If you’re gonna hold a comic to the point where you’re gonna check up on stories, you have to understand, a lot of it is not the exact thing that happened because why would we tell exactly what happened? It ain’t that interesting,” she also said, adding later, “There’s information that we will give you as comics that will have grains of truth, but don’t take it to the bank.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Percy Jackson” author Rick Riordan explained to Entertainment Weekly that making his franchise more diverse by casting Leah Jeffries as Annabeth Chase in the upcoming Disney+ series was always staying true to the reason he wrote the “Percy Jackson” books in the first place. Jeffries’ casting last year generated backlash from racist fans upset that a Black actor was playing a character that Riordan described in his book as a blonde white girl. Riordan immediately shut down toxic fans, and now he has told EW that Jeffries’ casting is true to the spirit of his franchise, as the only reason he wrote “Percy Jackson” was because his child was having difficulty in school.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Casino Royale” director Martin Campbell recently told Express UK that he was concerned Daniel Craig wasn’t sexy enough to be James Bond when his name was thrown into the ring to replace Pierce Brosnan as 007. The filmmaker had previously directed Brosnan in the beloved 1995 Bond tentpole “GoldenEye” and was returning to the franchise at the time to launch a new 007 following Brosnan’s exit after 2002’s “Die Another Day.” “My only reticence with Daniel…he was really a superb actor, there’s no doubt about that,” Campbell said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Conan O’Brien appeared Kara Swisher’s New York Magazine podcast (via Insider) and criticized Donald Trump for hurting comedy. The former late night host joked, “I’m really going on a limb here saying: That’s his greatest crime, that I think he’s hurt political comedy by being so outlandish himself. I think the January 6 thing is a blip compared to how much he’s hurt comedy.” Jokes aside, O’Brien noted that “when Trump came along, what a lot of people have to revert to is: ‘Doesn’t he suck? I hate that guy.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director In a new profile on Paul Dano published by The Guardian, his “The Batman” director Matt Reeves confirms they filmed “70 or 80 takes” of the Riddler and Batman’s final confrontation in the 2022 DC comic book tentpole. Dano starred as the film’s villain opposite Robert Pattinson. The film earned rave reviews (it was named the third best film of 2022 by Variety) and was a box office hit with $771 million worldwide.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Ashton Kutcher has resigned from Thorn, the anti-child sex abuse organization that he co-founded in 2009 with then-wife Demi Moore. Kutcher served as Thorn’s chairman of the board, while his current wife, Mila Kunis, was an observer on the organization’s board. She is stepping down as well, Time reports.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “The Sopranos” star Drea de Matteo announced in late August that she was launching an OnlyFans account that followers could subscribe to for $15 a month. Now in an interview with Fox News Digital, the actor explained that pivoting to OnlyFans came as a result of losing acting work over the last couple of years due to her stance against COVID vaccine mandates. “I know some people have said some nasty things about me having joined OnlyFans,” de Matteo said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jessica Chastain earned stellar reviews out of the Venice and Toronto film festivals for her performance in Michel Franco’s “Memory,” but the role might have never materialized for the actor had Franco listened to some wrongful advice. Speaking to IndieWire, Chastain and Franco revealed that he was warned she’d be “a nightmare and a diva” to work with after winning the Oscar for best actress. Chastain went to film “Memory” shortly after winning the Academy Award for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.” “Because I have been doing bigger things sometimes and have gotten a lot of attention as of late, [there’s been the idea] that I would not be interested in being on a set without a trailer,” Chastain said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director As fate would have it, the decades-old “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” cast email chain was randomly revived by Michael Cera just before Netflix ordered its new “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off” anime series featuring the original film cast in voice roles. Franchise creator Bryan Lee O’Malley revealed the coincidence in a chat with Entertainment Weekly, noting that the long-dormant email chain’s revival was so random that cast member Chris Evans hilariously called out Cera.

Naman Ramachandran Jessica Chastain will receive the Zurich Film Festival’s Golden Icon Award. Chastain will present her latest film “Memory” at the festival alongside director Michel Franco and co-star Peter Sarsgaard on Oct. 1.

Wonka director Paul King has praised Timothée Chalamet’s “beautiful” singing voice, saying the actor’s vocal work while filming the prequel fiml reminded him of 1930s icon Bing Crosby.King spoke of Chalamet’s performance as the titular chocolatier in a recent interview with Total Film. The director, who previously helmed both instalments of the Paddington film franchise, said Chalamet showcased “quite a range” while singing multiple music numbers throughout Wonka.“[Chalamet]’s got a beautiful singing voice,” King said.

Paul King, director of Wonka, is teasing the film and Timothée Chalamet’s singing voice. The filmmaker compared Chalamet to Bing Crosby.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Batgirl” directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah told Insider while promoting their new Syrian war drama “Rebel” that watching Warner Bros.’ most recent DC tentpole, “The Flash,” was a sad experience for them. They claim they were told by studio executives that “Batgirl” would release after “The Flash,” thus continuing Michael Keaton’s revived run as Batman/Bruce Wayne. But that never panned out after Warner Bros.