Month: July 2022

20th Century Studios is sharing a trailer for the mystery comedy film ‘Amsterdam,’ featuring Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and John David Washington and directed by David O. Russell. The film takes place in the 1930s and ‘follows three friends (Bale, Robbie, Washington) who become swept up in a murder and a larger secret plot.‘

Also starring in the film are Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldaña, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon, Timothy Olyphant, Andrew Riseborough, Taylor Swift, Rami Malek and Robert De Niro. Amsterdam is Russell’s first since Joy, released in 2014. The director is also known for the films Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. 

Amsterdam opens in theaters Nov. 4th.  Take a look at the trailer – here.

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The family of actor James Caan announced Thursday on social media that the actor died Wednesday night. Caan was 82.

The family tweeted on Caan’s official Twitter account:  “It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Jimmy on the evening of July 6. The family appreciates the outpouring of love and heartfelt condolences and asks that you continue to respect their privacy during this difficult time.”  A cause of death was not revealed.

Caan’s rise to fame began in 1969 when he appeared in Francis Ford Coppola‘s The Rain People. The following year, he starred alongside Billy Dee Williams in the TV adaptation of Brian’s Song, which garnered him his first Emmy nomination.

Caan was perhaps best known for his portrayal of Santino “Sonny” Corleone in the 1972 classic film The Godfather, which earned him a best supporting actor nomination at the Academy Awards as well as the Golden Globes. He reprised the role in 1974’s The Godfather Part II, making a cameo at end of the film.

Caan appeared in an impressive number of films including Dick Tracy, The Yards, Misery, The Outsider and Honeymoon in Vegas.  He gained a new generation fans with his appearance in the 2003 holiday comedy Elf, in which he played the biological father of Will Ferrell‘s character, Buddy the Elf.  Also in 2003, Caan joined the TV series Las Vegas, staying for four of the show’s five seasons.

Before his passing, Caan was set to star in Megalopolis, which would have been his fifth collaboration with director Francis Ford Coppola. Filming was scheduled for Fall 2022.

Caan was married four times; and is survived by daughter Tara, 57, and sons Scott, 45, Alexander, 31, James, 26, and Jacob, 23.

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Chris Evans is set to co-star opposite Emily Blunt in Netflix’s Pain Hustlers.  According to the Hollywood Reporter, David Yates will direct the film.

Blunt will portray ‘high-school dropout Liza, who lands a job with a failing pharmaceutical start-up in a strip mall in Central Florida. Liza’s charm, guts and drive catapult the company and her into the high life, where she soon finds herself at the center of a criminal conspiracy with deadly consequences.’

Pain Hustlers is being produced by Lawrence Grey through his Grey Matter Productions banner, along with Yates and Yvonne Walcott’s Wychwood Pictures. Filming is set to start in August.

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ABC News president Kim Godwin told staff that Janai Norman will join the weekend edition of Good Morning America as its new co-anchor, working alongside anchors Whit Johnson and Eva Pilgrim. Norman succeeds Dan Harris, who left the weekend edition of GMA last summer to focus on his meditation company.

Godwin wrote in her memo:  “Janai is a versatile and talented journalist, whether she is anchoring at the desk, conducting a one-on-one interview with a newsmaker of the day or reporting in the field on breaking news. She puts her heart into her work and makes it a priority to cover the most important underreported issues of our time, including the maternal mortality crisis facing Black women and the stigma of mental health.”

Norman started at ABC News as an intern at News One in 2011, and has worked as a correspondent and anchor at ABC News. As a host and anchor, she led Pop News on the weekend, and was the overnight anchor for World News Now and America This Morning.

Janai Norman Named New Co-Anchor For ‘Good Morning America’ On Saturday And Sunday

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According to Deadline, Emma Roberts has joined the cast of Marvel’s ‘Spider-Man’ spin-off, Madame Web.  Roberts, 31, joins previously announced stars Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Celeste O’Connor, Isabela Merced and Tahar Rahim.

Madame Web serves as an origin story for the Marvel Comics character of the same name. In the comics, Madame Web is a clairvoyant whose psychic abilities prove to be greatly beneficial to Spider-Man; she is depicted as an elderly woman with myasthenia gravis, connected to a life-support system that looked like a spider web. Details about Roberts’ character are being kept under wraps.

This will be Roberts first Marvel picture; she recently wrapped production on the upcoming rom-com Maybe I Do, also starring Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon and Richard Gere.

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‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ broke records over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, earning $125.2 million domestically over the extended 4-day holiday break. Overseas, the movie earned $86 million by Sunday, bringing the film over $200 million in earnings globally.

Minions: The Rise of Gru is a sequel to 2015’s Minions and the fifth installment in the ‘Despicable Me’ franchise, the top-grossing animated series in history. The film voice cast features Steve Carell, Pierre Coffin, Alan Arkin, Michelle Yeoh, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, Taraji P. Henson, Lucy Lawless, Dolph Lundgren, RZA, Danny Trejo and Jean-Claude Van Damme. The origin story reveals how the supervillain Gru (Carell) and the Minions met when Gru was a young boy growing up in a 1970s suburb.

Rise of Gru will become only the 10th animated Hollywood film to debut to $100 million or more, a list led by Incredibles 2 ($182.7 million).

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