Pacific Scott

Make some room for Scott Eastwood, John Boyega.

The powers that be have their eyes peeled on the Longest Ride stud for a part in Pacific Rim 2, which has been scheduled to come out in February 2018.

Boyega will be playing the son of Idris Elba’s character from the Guillermo del Toro 2013 original. No word yet on the nature of Eastwood’s role.

Photo: InStyle.com.

Sins of the Daughter

Well look at that: There Ewan McGregor goes.

The actor’s take on Philip Roth’s America Pastoral – which he headlines under his own direction (the project marks his debut as a feature-film helmer – is almost ready to be seen, since we have a trailer now.

Currently in theaters with Our Kind of Traitor, McGregor stars as Seymour Levov, a former high school star-athlete-cum-successful Jewish American businessman whose picture perfect upper middle class life shatters after his rebel-hearted daughter (Dakota Fanning) commits a deadly act of political terrorism. Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly and Emmy winner Uzo Aduba  (Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black) co-star (the former as McGregor’s wife).

American Pastoral is due out, in limited release, on Oct. 21.

Photo: Lionsgate Films.

Still the Queens of Nashville

They’re on!

Emmy nominees Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere are sticking with their beloved TV show, Nashville, when it moves from ABC to CMT to air a fifth season some time soon.

Also expected back as regulars? Charles Esten, Jonathan Jackson, Clare Bowen, Sam Palladio, Lennon and Maisy Stella, and Chris Carmack.

Aubrey Peeples and Will Chase will be leaving Nashville, but I expect them to guest on the early new eps, to wrap up their storylines proper.

A premiere date is still TBA.

Photo: Hallels.com.

007 and Jinx Reuniting (Sorta)

Remember when James Bond met one of his most memorable (female) matches in Halle Berry’s Jinx, in 2002’s Die Another Day?

Ooh, and how ’bout when Daniel Craig took over as 007 from Pierce Brosnan four years later, with Casino Royale, and kind of saluted Berry’s big splashy entrance, which was itself a nod to Ursula Andress’ in 1962’s Dr. No, the very first James Bond movie?

Good times, no?

Jinx made such an impression that for years speculation that Berry would be getting a spin-off ran rampant. The idea never went anywhere, but now...now we’re getting the next best thing: A new film starring Craig and the Oscar winner – one that has nothing to do with the Bond franchise.

Craig and Berry are fixin’ to co-star opposite each other in Kings, the English-language debut of Deniz Gamze Ergüven, the Turkish-French director of the 2016 Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar-nominated French film Mustang.

A love story and a tale of survival, the action of Kings will be set against the rising tension that engulfed L.A. in 1992 during the Rodney King trial. Craig will play a loner who lives in South Central (not to many people looking like him living there...), who has fallen for Berry’s character, a tough mother who looks after a group of kids. As the six-day riots begin (you know the ones), the two must track down the kids in order to keep them safe from the riots.

Sounds totally not stressful at all.

Photo: CBC.ca.

Guerrilla Pinto

Lucky lass.

Knight of Cups’ Freida Pinto is off to play with Idris Elba on John Ridley’s forthcoming limited series for Showtime, Guerrilla. The actress will play the leading lady on the project.

Together with the yet-to-be-cast Marcus, Pinto’s Jas will form a radical underground cell whose target is the Black Power Desk, the real-life counter-intelligence unit of the Special Branch dedicated to crushing black activism in 1970s Britain.

Their goal? To liberate a charismatic convict (Elba, I presume) from prison so he can lead the fight against social injustice at the street level in 1971 London.

Photo: rediff.com.

Goode Red

Matthew Goode’s quiet, discreet takeover of American television keeps on keepin’ on.

The actor – last seen on the History Channel’s remake of Roots and TV’s The Good Wife – has been tapped to headline Roadside Picnic, the adaptation of the novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky that’s set up at WGN America.

Goode will play Red, an enigmatic, blue-collar contradiction who is as intelligent as he is ruthless.

The action of Roadside Picnic will unfold in a near future in which aliens have come and gone, leaving mankind to make sense of the wonders and dangers they’ve left behind. A family man first and foremost, Goode’s Red frequently makes illegal trips to the “Zone,” a.k.a. the area where the visitors temporarily settled and the place where his young daughter was born. 

Photo: AskMen.com.

Dungeons and Dragons and Ansel Elgort?

Looks like that much-anticipated Dungeons and Dragons adaptation is finally cooking with oil.

See, Divergent Series star Ansel Elgort is said to be top o’ the list for this one, a hot-commodity project written by the screenwriter of The Conjuring 2.

Let the bitchin’ about the actor’s potential involvement commence...now.

Photo: BlackFilm.com.

Believe His Hype

Taylor Swift may have moved away from him and on with Tom Hiddleston rather, ahem, swiftly – but Calvin Harris is wasting zero seconds not putting himself out there.

Well, kinda.

The comely Scottish DJ is working, having another musical moment with Rihanna, as well as a new joint ready to hit the digital realm and dem radio airwaves titled “Hype” that he worked on with a Dizzee Rascal.

Plus, one of his buds posted the pic at right on Instagram, one could presume sorta to let it be known that Calvin Harris is back on the market, and packing a wallop (even in the daddiest of blue Speedos).

Get it, girls!

Photo: UsMagazine.com.

Haunted Music

Really? This is the best the powers that be could muster for the revamp of the iconic theme from Ghostbusters? A hodgepodge of Fall Out Boy and Missy Elliott?

Have a listen:



I had great hopes for the upcoming all-female Ghostbusters. They are rapidly dwindling.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still payin’ some money to catch this one at the movie theater. I’m just not loving what I am seeing or hearing so far.

So I look forward to being pleasantly surprised, I guess.

Screaming In, Too

Talk about a detour.

Taylor Lautner, he of on-the-brink-ness because of The Twilight Saga, is joining the Scream Queens of TV when they come back for seconds this fall.

Lautner will play a young doctor suffering from a strange medical condition at the hospital where the action will be set – a doctor who becomes a suspect when a bunch o’ bitches start dying in spectacular fashion.

The actor joins a cast led by Jamie Lee Curtis that also recently recruited John Stamos.

Photo: ABCNews.Go.com.

Cat 5 Kwanten

There he is!

Ryan Kwanten (Rio, Eu Te Amo, HBO’s True Blood) has been tapped for a major role in next year’s Category 5, a sure-to-hit blockbuster to be helmed by Rob Cohen, the director of The Fast and the Furious. The project will center on a team of hackers who set out to pull off a $600 million robbery from a coastal U.S. Mint facility during a disastrous Cat 5 storm.

Not terribly convenient much?

Maggie Grace (the Taken franchise) and Toby Kebbell (the upcoming Ben-Hur) are also on board, and, together with Kwanten, they will attempt to stop dem thieves.

Photo: DigitalSpy.com.

Baby Boy

Little-seen-these-days Seann William Scott. Remember him?

Good. Dude’s mounting a (connected) comeback.

Smile now.

Indeed, the erstwhile Stifler from American Pie is going to star on Baby, a new pilot produced by Amy Poehler centering on the youngest male member of an all-female organized-crime family.

This would mark SWS’s first foray into television. He most recently was seen in 2014’s Just Before I Go, Courteney Cox’s feature-film directorial debut.

Photo: GettyImages.de.

Workin’ It Out

Thank you, Sarah Jessica Parker – thank you for sharing this first look at your new HBO show, Divorce (which was created, btw, by Sharon Horgan, one of the geniuses behind Amazon’s Catastrophe).

As you probably know, SJP is returning to the tube (to premium cable, anyway) as Frances, one half of a couple that, fingers crossed, will be going through a very, very long divorce.

Thomas Haden Church co-stars as her husband, Robert.

An exact premiere date for Divorce – also featuring Molly Shannon and Talia Balsam – hasn’t been reveled yet, but the show is expected this fall, so keep your eye out for that, OKRRR.

In the meantime, here’s the preview:

Perhaps, She Has Answers

Landing a steady post-TV’s The Good Wife has been, you could say, a bit of a struggle for Emmy winner Archie Panjabi.

The actress tried her hand at a little comedy and she came thisclose to headlining a new show set in the realm of the judicial system.

But, in the end, nada.

Now, gf is going for a sure thing.

Panjabi is set to recur on Season 2 of TV’s Blindspot, as the head of a secret division of the NSA that has been keeping an eye on Jaimie Alexander’s Jane Doe and her shenanigans from a distance.

Sounds like a real bitchin’ role.

Photo: RedbookMag.com.

Euphorica

Charlotte Rampling has survived the comments she made about #OscarsSoWhite earlier this year.

Phew.

The 45 Years Academy Award nominee has landed a role opposite Oscar winner Alicia Vikander and Eva Green (Showtime’s Penny Dreadful) in Euphoria, a new drama about two at-odds sisters traveling through Europe, destination unknown, that Vikander is producing through Vicarious Productions, her recently launched shingle.

Swedish filmmaker Lisa Langseth (Hotell, Pure – both Vikander vehicles) is set to helm, in her English-language directorial debut.

Photo: NYMag.com.

Entering the Blockbuster Nation

And there you were, thinking that Independent Spirit Award winner Abraham Attah would be like, a cinematic one-hit wonder....

You must not have seen Netflix’s Beasts of No Nation.

A2 is making the transition from little indie to massive tentpole now that he’s been cast in Spider-Man: Homecoming opposite Tom Holland. He joins a robust cast that also already includes Zendaya, Robert Downey Jr., Marisa Tomei, Michael Keaton, and Logan Marshall-Green.

No word on the nature of Attah’s role as of yet.

Photo: BlackCelebKids.com.

Wonderful President

Supergirl sure is gonna have a certain new look when it airs on The CW next season.

Not only is Tyler Hoechlin joining the show as Superman, the OG of lady-superhero OG, Wonder Woman emerita Lynda Carter, is all set to appear on the scene as the president of the United States.

Hashtag boss.

Think we’ll get a wink, wink moment of any sort?

Photo: People.com.

American Crime Lifer

Regina King is loving her life of televised American Crime.

The Emmy winner – gf struck gold last year, for her turn on the anthology series’ freshman offering – has said yes to starring on the show’s upcoming third installment, a story that will be set in North Carolina.

Felicity Huffman and Timothy Hutton, two of the franchise’s founding company members, are in negotiations to join in on the fun, too.

Btw, series creator John Ridley has revealed that the drama of it all will revolve around labor issues, economic divides, and individual rights.

Photo: Zimbio.com.

Serving Treatment

Get it, girl.

Samira Wiley (Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black) has landed a major recurring role on the third season of FXX’s You’re the Worst – a critically acclaimed hit show I’ve heard plenty about that I still need to check out.

The actress will play the therapist that star Aya Cash’s Gretchen will start seeing.

Do not tell me what this means for Wiley’s character on Orange Is the New Black. I will shiv you.

Photo: DigitalSpy.com.

...for Closure

Talk about going big before going home.

HBO’s two-season gem, Looking, will sing its swan song next month with a sure-to-leave-us-wanting-more finale movie starring Jonathan Groff, Frankie J. Alvarez, Murray Bartlett & Co. 

The special presentation premiering on July 23 will see Groff’s Patrick return to San Francisco for a wedding and to see his old pals, Agustín and Dom (Alvarez and Barlett) and Doris (Lauren Weedman), as well as confront the romantic ghosts of his past (hello, Russell Tovey and Raúl Castillo!).

Check out the trailer for Looking: The Movie now:

Back on Board

She’s doing it!

Noomi Rapace will appear in Alien: Covenant, the upcoming sequel to Prometheus. The actress will be reprising her role as Elizabeth Shaw, natch.

Rapace joins a cast that also includes fellow returnee Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs’ Katherine Waterston, Demián Bichir, Selma’s Carmen Ejogo, Jussie Smollett (TV’s Empire), Danny McBride.

Waterston, though, is the one who will be taking center stage in the follow-up, as Daniels, the alpha on board a new ship, the aptly named Covenant, which will encounter David (the Fass) on a remote planet that looks all idyllic and s--- but is actually full of darkness and danger.

Fun!

Alien: Covenant is set for an Aug. 4, 2017, release.

Photo: ComingSoon.net.

R.I.P. Anton Yelchin

What terrible news.

Anton Yelchin is dead. The Green Room actor, whose Star Trek Beyond is opening next month, was in a freak car accident at his home in Studio City, Calif., some time last night slash early this morning.

From what I’ve read, the star parked his Jeep up his sloping driveway, and, for whatever reason, he got out of the car to approach the gate, leaving the Jeep in neutral. The car rolled backward, reportedly pinning him against the gate and killing him.

The Like Crazy – Like Crazy! On Demand! Now! – was 27, which means that he has now joined that club. Unfortch.

Photo: CraveOnline.com.

When Tiësto Met John Legend

Wanna know what happens when superstar Dutch DJ Tiësto works with John Legend, of all people, on a new original song?

You get a beyond-breezy ditty called “Summer Nights.” Have a listen!

Summer-y fun, alright.

Photo: YouTube.com.

Abs for Days

They are really relying on at least six good reasons to sell us The Legend of Tarzan, huh.

I mean, sure, there are far worse things around which to build a marketing campaign for a major summer tentpole. And Alexander Skarsgård’s six-pack eight-pack wasn’t just the obvious way to go. It was the only way to go.

The Skars-bod, when combined with that Skars-gaze, well...it could heal the world.

Guess we’ll find out whether it does on July 1.

Photo: Warner Bros.

Meet Angelababy

Now that the movie money to be made in China is a serious priority, you will do well to familiarize yourself with the faces that make up the industry over there.

A little. Just a little.

And little by little.

This is Angelababy.

A TV and film (Independence Day: Resurgence, Hitman: Agent 47) actress, charity ambassador, lifestyle brand in the making, and of the biggest Chinese entertainers with a massive social-media following, Angelababy recently got herself a team of American representation. So get used to seeing this pretty face, folks.

Angelababy could be this year’s Ruby Rose, yo.

Photo: theAUreview.com.

Long Live the Prince

I should catch up on E!’s The Royals.

Spoiler Alert! Prince Robert is alive.

But we sorta knew he would be at the end of the first season, right?

Anyway, here he comes, and he’s gonna be played by Max Brown from The CW’s Beauty and the Beast, who is joining the royal action as a full-fledged regular.

I bet he’s all set to make Elizabeth Hurley’s Queen Helena go “FML” all over the palace, too.

Photo: Deadline.com.