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Category: Entertainment

  • Simon Wiesenthal Center CEO Calls Out Mark Ruffalo’s Paramount Remarks: “Obsession and Demonization”

    Simon Wiesenthal Center CEO Calls Out Mark Ruffalo’s Paramount Remarks: “Obsession and Demonization”

    Jim Berk, CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, is defending Paramount after the studio called Mark Ruffalo’s anti-merger comments “antisemitic.”

    “Words matter, and so does the willingness to draw a line when legitimate debate gives way to antisemitic tropes,” Berk wrote. “We commend Paramount for speaking clearly and refusing to allow prejudice to masquerade as political or corporate criticism. At a time when antisemitism is too often minimized, rationalized or repackaged in more socially acceptable language, this kind of moral clarity matters.”

    “Invoking Israel in an issue where it is completely irrelevant is a textbook case of obsession and demonization. Paramount was right to call it out. More leaders and institutions should have the courage to call antisemitism what it is, regardless of who is spreading it,” his statement concluded.

    Earlier this week, the Oscar-nominated actor, who has been an outspoken opponent of Paramount’s $111 billion deal for Warner Bros., highlighted Larry Ellison’s (Paramount CEO David Ellison’s father) Oracle’s ties to the Israeli military amid the Israel-Gaza war. Ruffalo resurfaced a clip from 2024 of former Oracle chief Safra Catz talking about “profoundly scary technologies” the tech company had built in relation to Israel’s war effort in Gaza. The actor also described the war as a “genocide” that “was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.”

    In response, Paramount clapped back, calling the Marvel star’s remarks “antisemitic.” The studio’s spokesperson’s statement read in part, “We are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute. Words like ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid,’ applied to a corporate transaction, aren’t just wrong — they’re a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe. This doesn’t deserve a response in kind — and to be clear, we don’t tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone.”

    Creative Community for Peace, a Hollywood-based pro-Israel advocacy organization, has also called for Hollywood to boycott Ruffalo until the actor “retract[s] these remarks and apologize[s],” the group’s executive director, Ari Ingel, wrote in a statement.

    “Mark Ruffalo’s rhetoric has increasingly crossed the line from criticism of Israel into extremist and antisemitic messaging,” Ingel also wrote, adding, “Point blank, he has been warned before about the consequences of this rhetoric, yet continues contributing to the toxic antisemitic atmosphere we are witnessing today. That makes him culpable. His argument increasingly fuses hostility toward Israel and Zionism with Jewish-associated wealth, media ownership, oligarchic power and ominous warnings about concentrated control into a single narrative. Those echoes are impossible to ignore.”

    On Saturday, Ruffalo took to X to dismiss Paramount’s claims that his comments were “antisemitic” as well as offer a distinction between his criticism of the Israeli military and his views about Jewish people. He wrote in part, “The accusation that I am antisemitic is appalling and fundamentally dishonest. Criticizing the actions of the Israeli prime minister, a military technology contract or the executives who supply it is not the same as criticizing Jewish people. This critical and necessary dialogue is then dishonestly framed as being anti-Israel.”

  • Dr. Dre Says the Only People Who See AI as a Threat Are Those ‘Who Have Trouble Creating’

    Dr. Dre Says the Only People Who See AI as a Threat Are Those ‘Who Have Trouble Creating’

    Dr. Dre, the legendary hip-hop producer and performer, sees AI as another tool in the music-tech toolbox akin to synthesizers — and asserted that only people “who have trouble creating” are afraid of AI.

    Dre, founder of the Aftermath record label and co-founder and CEO of Apple’s Beats, said that he doesn’t see AI “as a threat,” in an interview alongside his longtime business partner Jimmy Iovine, which was published Sunday by the New York Times. “I think the only people that see it as a threat are the people who have trouble creating.”

    “I had a discussion with a few people a few days ago,” Dre said. “They were against AI and I’m like, ‘OK, you sound like the person that would have been against the drum machine when it came out.’ Or synthesizers, right? It’s a new tool for creativity. Some people are afraid of learning new things.”

    Dre said he’s using AI tech in music “as a tool to see what it would do with what I just did.” Iovine added, “So is Timbaland — another brilliant producer. By the way, there’s a lot of closet AI producers out there.”

    Asked what he most recently asked an AI chatbot, Dre said his query was, “How do you put on muscle and lose fat at the same time? That’s it.”

    Dre, 61, was named to Forbes’ 2026 Billionaires list, joining the publication’s rankings for the first time, with an estimated net worth of $1 billion. In 2014, he and Iovine sold Beats by Dre to Apple in a deal worth more than $3 billion. Dre in 2023 sold a collection of music income streams and other assets to Shamrock Holdings and Universal Music Group for more than $200 million.

    In the music industry, AI remains controversial and the subject of ongoing legal disputes. For example, last week indie music publisher Round Hill Music sued Suno and Anthropic, accusing the two AI companies of copyright infringement by illegally scraping hundreds of its songs to train their models without permission. Suno has been sued by all three of the major labels — Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony Music — though it settled with WMG last year. In addition, Suno recently struck a licensing agreement with BMG (which sued Anthropic this year for allegedly using its recordings to train AI models in what it called a scheme of “widespread and systematic infringement”).

    Meanwhile, Apple Music said it will begin labeling songs derived from AI platforms later this year, following Spotify’s decision to label the profiles of artists that appear to be AI-generated as “AI Personas.” Last month, a coalition including the RIAA, IFPI, the Grammys and SAG-AFTRA united to advocate for a new industry labeling program for AI-produced songs similar to labels flagging explicit content.

    Corbin Bolies contributed to this article.

  • ‘Seduction,’ Helmed by Zelito Viana and Marcos Palmeira, to Premiere at the Inffinito Fest in Miami (EXCLUSIVE)

    ‘Seduction,’ Helmed by Zelito Viana and Marcos Palmeira, to Premiere at the Inffinito Fest in Miami (EXCLUSIVE)

    GRAMADO, Brazil — “Seduction” (“Sedução”), a feature set in the Amazon Rainforest region and helmed by Zelito Viana and Marcos Palmeira, will have its world premiere on Sept. 11 at the 30th edition of the Inffinito Brazilian Film Festival in Miami.

    H2O is also releasing in local theaters Miguel Faria Jr.’s doc, “Tom Jobim – Esse Seu Olhar,” in the week of Jan. 25, which marks the celebration of the 100th birthday of the legendary composer of “The Girl From Ipanema,” who died in 1994, said Jorge Peregrino, member of the board of H2O Films, the distributor of both films.

    Tom Jobim

    Courtesy of Ana Jobim

    H2O hosted a panel during the Gramado Film Market at the 2026 edition of the Gramado Film Festival, in Southern Brazil.

    “Seduction” marks the debut as a helmer of Marcos Palmeira, a major actor who starred in dozens of telenovelas, series and films in Brazil over the past 50 years. He toplines and co-directs the pic along with his father Zelito Viana, a vet producer of Cinema Novo classic films and director of several features, such as “Villa-Lobos: A Life of Passion.”

    In the plot, Paulo (Palmeira), a renowned actor, when he learns of his father’s death in the Amazon Rainforest, embarks on a journey to settle his father’s unfinished affairs, faces the rough reality of the region and undergoing a radical transformation.

    “In my opinion it is the best film of Zelito Viana, even better than ‘Villa-Lobos: A Life of Passion,’” Peregrino told Variety. “And it is fair to say, and I believe Zelito will agree with me, that Marcos’ direction work brought a freshness to the film.”

    Peregrino stressed the high production value of the pic, lensed in Alter do Chão, in the Amazon region, along the Tapajós River. The pics deals with local issues, such as illegal land grabbing.

    “Seduction” also features two Brazilian film and television stars: Camila Morgado plays Sara Teixeira and Dira Paes portrays Maria Rita Martins in the film.

    The Inffinito Brazilian Film Festival is the largest Brazilian film fest held abroad and a pioneer in the promotion and dissemination of local pics in the international market. It takes place in several cities, such as Miami, NYC, London, Vancouver, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Buenos Aires and Shanghai.

    “Tom Jobim – Esse Seu Olhar” marks the new documentary by Faria Jr, recognized as a top Brazilian director of feature-length docs about music composers. He has helmed the critically acclaimed “Vinicius” (2005), about Vinicius de Moraes, which had a strong box office performance, and “Chico: Artista Brasileiro” (2015), about Chico Buarque, another legend of Brazilian music.

    “Tom Jobim – Esse Seu Olhar” is an Arpoador Audiovisual and Urca Filmes production which is co-produced by Globo Filmes. Peregrino and Leonardo Edde are producing. Diana Vasconcellos co-wrote the doc’s screenplay along with Miguel Faria Jr. and also serves as the film’s editor.

    “Miguel Faria Jr. conducted extensive archival research. He gathered interviews with Tom Jobim from television and other media and edited them in such a way that 70% to 80% of the documentary is narrated by Tom himself,” Peregrino said.

  • Venice-Bound ‘Meteorite,’ Debut Feature From Colombia’s Sebastián Múnera, Acquired by MoreThan Films (EXCLUSIVE)

    Venice-Bound ‘Meteorite,’ Debut Feature From Colombia’s Sebastián Múnera, Acquired by MoreThan Films (EXCLUSIVE)

    MoreThan Films has acquired Colombian filmmaker Sebastián Múnera‘s film “Meteorite,” which will have its world premiere in Venice Critics’ Week (Sept. 2-12).

    The film follows Tefa and Nia, who live in a small town near the Magdalena River, where they raise Nia’s young nephew. Nia persuades Tefa to join her in smuggling cellphones into the regional prison. Their journey leads them through an extravagant amusement park built on the grounds of a drug lord’s former estate.

    “As they wander among water slides, verdant paths, and concrete dinosaurs, disquieting memories whisper in the summer heat. In a landscape where violence lingers beneath every surface, Tefa is drawn toward an inevitable encounter,” according to the synopsis.

    Queralt Pons Serra, managing partner at MoreThan Films, said, “What excited us about ‘Meteorite’ from the beginning was the strength and singularity of Sebastián’s gaze. You can really feel his artistic background in the way he approaches images, spaces and textures, creating a world that is incredibly cinematic, beautiful and also deeply emotional. There is something very immersive and atmospheric about the film that stayed with us long after watching it.”

    Múnera is a Colombian visual artist and filmmaker. He was a resident at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, invited by the Centre Georges Pompidou. His films have been selected at festivals such as IFFR Rotterdam, DOK Leipzig and FICCI Cartagena. He has received distinctions including the Humberto Solás Cine en Construcción Award and the International Symposium on Auteur Cinema Altiplano Incuba Award.

    “Meteorite,” his first fiction feature, was awarded at work-in-progress programs in Málaga and Cartagena.

    The producers are Sebastian Martinez, Mauricio S. Burckhardt (Haus Kino), Valeria Mejia, Sebastián Múnera (Entre Acto), Abel Villa Romero, Deimer Quintero Vertel (Archipiélago Sonoro) and Rodrigo Ramos (Pos[T] La Casa).

  • ‘One Piece’ Season 3 Casts Its Koza, Toto, Pell and Chaka

    ‘One Piece’ Season 3 Casts Its Koza, Toto, Pell and Chaka

    Netflix has added four to the cast of “One Piece” Season 3, casting the roles of Koza, Toto, Pell and Chaka. 

    Emilio Sakraya (“Rheingold”) will play Koza, Omid Abtahi (The Mandalorian”) will play Toto, Jamie Ward (“The Gentlemen”) will play Pell and Nabeel Khan (“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”) plays Chaka. 

    Returning for the third season, which is officially titled “One Piece: The Battle of Alabasta,” are Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy, Mackenyu as Zoro, Emily Rudd as Nami, Jacob Romero as Usopp, Taz Skylar as Sanji, Charithra Chandran as Miss Wednesday, Mikaela Hoover as Chopper, Joe Manganiello as Mr. 0, Lera Abova as Miss All Sunday and Sendhil Ramamurthy as Nefartari Cobra. 

    Season 3 newcomers include Cole Escola as Bon Clay, Xolo Maridueña as Portgas D. Ace, Daisy Head as Miss Doublefinger and Awdo Awdo as Mr. 1. 

    Following the events of the show’s sophomore season, war is brewing for Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat gang in Alabasta, Princess Vivi’s homeland. Per the series logline, “a rebellion threatens to tear the nation apart, fueled in secret by one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the ruthless Sir Crocodile, and his underground syndicate Baroque Works, who seek to conquer Alabasta for themselves. In a season defined by unbreakable bonds and impossible choices, the Straw Hats must face a brewing civil war and a powerful warlord to save Vivi’s kingdom before it crumbles into the sand.”

    Joe Tracz and Ian Stokes serve as co-showrunners, writers and executive producers. “One Piece” was created in partnership with Shueisha and produced by Tomorrow Studios and Netflix. 

    Executive producing are Eiichiro Oda, Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements through Tomorrow Studios, Tetsu Fujimura, Chris Symes, Christoph Schrewe and Steven Maeda. Production for Season 3 of the pirate adventure has wrapped in Cape Town, South Africa

  • ‘Skintown’ Review: A Breezy, Loved-Up, Drugged-Up Guide to Getting Into Trouble in The Troubles

    ‘Skintown’ Review: A Breezy, Loved-Up, Drugged-Up Guide to Getting Into Trouble in The Troubles

    Nostalgia, like ecstasy, is a hell of a drug and Kieron J. Walsh’s warm-hearted, hot-headed “Skintown” is buzzing on both. A more polite brother to the “Kneecap” boys and a more cautious cousin to those “Derry Girls” still, the Fermanagh-set friendship comedy sends fizzy, sweetly chemical energy coursing through a rave-romanticizing riff on the coming-of-age formula. The story may not be exactly new, but its bittersweet life lessons are delivered with such retroactive affection and such eagerness by the appealing cast, that if you’re of a mind to complain, well, in the parlance of the movie, would you ever give over, catch yourself on and wise up. 

    It is 1994, in Enniskillen, unflatteringly dubbed “Skintown” by its denizens and famous for “a lake, an old castle and an IRA bomb that killed 11 civilians in 1987.” Vinny (Jack Rowan) wants nothing more than to get the hell out. Partly, that’s due to the omnipresent dangers of an intractable conflict that has been ongoing since before he was born. (Vinny is 23, though his characterization here skews younger.) But really his disillusion with Skintown is an independence struggle of a more personal kind — one recognisable to anybody who remembers their jaundiced familiarity with their childhood hometown starting to curdle into contempt as adulthood beckoned. When Vinny strikes up an unlikely friendship with Wilson (Hope Ipoku Jr.) a Black squaddie from Manchester who’s been deployed to serve in the universally despised British military patrols, they bond when he realises that for Wilson, joining the army was his escape from the place he grew up in.

    Still, as soon as Vinny gets the money together, he’s resolved to leave, although there are things he’ll miss: his supportive, hardworking paramedic mum (Roisin Gallagher); his peppy unrequited crush Eileen (Jamie Lee O’Donnell); and most of all, his best mate Jonty (Chris Walley), a shell-suited, high-spirited raver just out to have a good time. Vinny and Jonty are as thick as the thieves they eventually, inadvertently become when they’re pressganged into a caper involving a load of ecstasy stolen from the UVF (a loyalist paramilitary group).

    On the bright side, though — and DP Ruairi O’Brien’s pleasant images make most everything bright even when, among sparse crowds and street scenes that feel rigidly dressed to the camera, the limits of the budget show — if they manage to sell the drugs and survive, they stand to make quite a bit of cash. More, anyway, than they could hope to score from their part-time jobs at the neighborhood pizzeria, whose oleaginous owner, splendidly named Tony Pepperoni (Michael Smiley), insists on serving his pizzas with a side of Peking ribs because, he contends, “the Irish aren’t ready for pizza on its own. They need a wee side of ribs to wean them off the Chinese.”

    That kind of authentically eccentric observation feels lifted directly from experience, and the pacy screenplay, adapted by Enniskillen native Ciarán McMenamin from his 2018 novel, abounds in such flourishes. As a ritual, the whole pub greets the TV newsreader (modelled on BBC institution Moira Stuart) like an old friend every time she begins her report with “Good evening.” “Body of Christ,” blasphemes Jonty benignly, handing out pills at a rave like they’re communion wafers. And, it being marching season, everyone is used to maneuvering around the Orangemen who take to parading down the main street at the drop of a bowler hat. “They’d want to get a move on if they’re planning on stopping outside every Catholic pub,” sighs barmaid Chalky (Tara Lynn O’Neill) resignedly.

    Ah yes, the Catholics. The Protestants. The Republicans. The Unionists. The IRA, the UVF, the UDA, the INLA, the RUC, the Brits and the Battle of the Boyne — Vinny’s rather unnecessary voiceover namechecks them all, with more or less equal disparagement. While he and his mates are from a Catholic/Republican background, “Skintown” is careful not to overtly assign blame to one side and virtue to the other. Instead, most of its rancor is directed without sectarian bias, at the politician class. The brief, incredulous euphoria that follows the fateful announcement of an IRA ceasefire, is immediately dampened by one barfly (Belfast-born icon Lalor Roddy) observing drily, “If there’s any conceivable way to fuck this up, those politicians will find it.”

    This careful avoidance of any alienating perspective, and its streak of sentimentality make “Skintown” a more timid proposition than, say, “Kneecap,” even as it ramps up to an inevitable tragedy to undercut the bursts of MDMA-infused idealism elsewhere. But it also serves up a gently pointed reminder that for all the region was internationally synonymous with terrorism, reprisal and violent death, most of its inhabitants were ordinary people just going about the humdrum business of everyday life. And being Northern Irish, they did it with an indomitable sense of humor. So don’t come to “Skintown” for trenchant political commentary; come for the slangy jokes, the ’90s kitsch and the precise evocation of the love/hate relationship so many of us Irish have with the place that, however begrudgingly, we call home.

  • ‘Spa Weekend’ Review: Leslie Mann and Isla Fisher Go Underserved in a Lukewarm Bath of a Comedy

    ‘Spa Weekend’ Review: Leslie Mann and Isla Fisher Go Underserved in a Lukewarm Bath of a Comedy

    Have you ever had the experience of booking a trip that promised to be a blissful getaway, only to find once there that you’re having…not the worst time, but definitely a disappointing one? That the food that looked so pretty online tastes bland in person, that the overstuffed pillows give you neck pains, that — come to think of it — there’s not really that much to do at this resort beyond linger beside a lukewarm pool?

    If so, the aura of letdown surrounding Spa Weekend, the latest outing from writer-directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, ought to feel familiar. On paper, it’s a variation on the “R-rated hijinks plus heartfelt emotion plus beloved cast” equation that’s worked so well for Bridesmaids and Girls Trip and Lucas and Moore’s own commercially successful though creatively uninspired Bad Moms. In execution, the hijinks feel awfully tame, the emotion shallow, the stars underserved.

    Spa Weekend

    The Bottom Line

    A likable cast let down by uninteresting hijinks.

    Release date: Friday, Aug. 21
    Cast: Leslie Mann, Isla Fisher, Michelle Buteau, Anna Faris, Adam Demos, Dominic Ona-Ariki, Erika Heynatz
    Director-screenwriters: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore

    Rated R,
    1 hour 37 minutes

    The premise is the title, not much more and not much less. On the occasion of her she’s-not-saying-which birthday, overworked Los Angeles lawyer Jane (Leslie Mann) books a two-night stay at a wellness retreat seemingly around Malibu, though the Australia-shot production avoids getting too geographically specific. (Wherever it is, the sunsets are very pretty.)

    Along with her for the ride are her two childhood besties — sweet-natured Sophie (Anna Faris), who’s withering under a boss so spoiled he can’t even buy his own Skittles, and hot-tempered Coco (Michelle Buteau), who’s working through a painful divorce while stubbornly not working through the anger management issues that led to it.

    The trip promises to be precisely the break all three of them desperately need but cannot ever seem to take, because as working moms pulled every which way by ailing parents, needy kids and demanding jobs, these women cannot imagine planning so much as a date night less than three months in advance. They could certainly never do something so self-indulgent as book a whole trip on a whim — except that that’s exactly what we’ve just seen them do, within five minutes of Coco floating the idea over brunch.

    I presume the whiplash-inducing speed with which the trio go from “Oh, I couldn’t possibly” to “We’ve booked the room” is meant to be aspirational: Here are women finally saying “screw it” to a society that demands they put everyone else first, and taking care of themselves for once! But it has the condescending effect of suggesting that their struggles were never real to begin with. The only thing ever actually holding them back, apparently, was their own lack of willpower.

    Well, that and, in some roundabout way, their lack of appreciation for the unwanted fourth member of their circle. Mel (Isla Fisher), who’s only scored a last-minute pity invite thanks to Sophie’s guilty conscience, is “the one woman all the others secretly cannot stand” — you know, that thing Spa Weekend assures us every female friend group always has. If you can’t identify who that might be in your own girl gang, maybe that’s because it’s you. Or maybe it’s because Spa Weekend has a habit of treating all its characters’ problems as universal and therefore inherently relatable and interesting. You can practically hear the “Am I right, ladies?” after every such observation.

    In fairness to Jane, Coco and Sophie, their distaste initially proves warranted. From the moment Mel bursts onto the property — boobs spilling out of her pushup bra, dildos spilling out of her suitcase, inappropriate language spilling out of her mouth — she brings nothing but chaos. When she’s around, a guided meditation session devolves into a shouting match, a chill evening into a cocaine-fueled rager, a short walk between spa treatments into, somehow, a wild golf cart chase. None of it is anything you haven’t seen before, and in Lucas and Scott’s ineffectual hands, none of it gets as nasty or raunchy or destructive as those descriptions suggest.

    What’s more, Mel can’t seem to stop meddling in her friends’ live. She swipes Sophie’s phone to scream at her shitty boss. She tricks Coco’s ex (Dominic Ora-Ariki’s Roger) into rushing to her side. She baldly propositions Adam Demos’ hot yoga instructor on Jane’s behalf (“Obviously she’s on the older side, but she’s got a porno body!”). Her behavior is upsetting and mortifying and potentially life-destroying to all her friends until it’s not, as Spa Weekend slowly but predictably gets around to the argument that the world needs Mels — the hot messes who force everyone else out of their miserable but societally approved ruts.

    It would be a very nice message, if not for the fact that the script undercuts it by keeping all its characters too vague and one-dimensional to care much about in any direction; I couldn’t even tell you what Coco does for a living or why Jane’s raising her kids alone. To the extent that there are any genuine chuckles or warm fuzzies to be found in Spa Weekend, it’s thanks to skills this talented core cast have deployed more effectively elsewhere.

    A pretty funny scene in which Jane tries very hard to pretend she’s not extremely turned on by Demos’ Kai giving her a hand massage called to my mind the even funnier ones of Mann smiling through her tears in Blockers. Coco’s smooth, sexy chemistry with Roger made me want to revisit Buteau’s winsome turn as a heartbroken stylist in Netflix’s Survival of the Thickest. Fisher earns most of the film’s few real laughs by channeling the upbeat yet unhinged energy that’s served her so well since her breakout in Wedding Crashers. Even Faris’ miscast turn as awkward, mousy Sophie served to remind me how much more delightful she is when she gets to go weird and messy, as in The House Bunny or Smiley Face.

    But the ability to occasionally evoke other, better projects does not a good film make. Spa Weekend has nothing fresh or insightful or even all that amusing to add to the familiar formula it’s borrowing — and for all its apparent good intentions, nothing much more meaningful to offer the overworked, overstressed moms of the world than the suggestion that maybe they could, like, try taking a vacation sometime. If this is what a big relaxing escape looks like, you’re better off saving the money and chilling at home.

  • ‘National Treasure 3’ Is “Finally Real” and “We Have a Script,” Director Says

    ‘National Treasure 3’ Is “Finally Real” and “We Have a Script,” Director Says

    Get ready for another treasure hunt: A third National Treasure movie is happening, according to director Jon Turteltaub.

    Speaking at a live taping of the National Treasure Hunt podcast Friday night in Philadelphia, Turteltaub said, “It’s happening. You’re the first people I’ve said this out loud to. I have not said anything before this, but you deserve to have the scoop. It’s finally real. Now, it’s ‘Hollywood real,’ meaning things could happen. Nic [Cage] gets hit by a bus, there’s no National Treasure 3. If I get hit by a bus, there’s probably a National Treasure 3. Welcome to Hollywood.”

    “We finally have a script that I like,” he said before adding before revealing that Disney said, “OK, this sounds like a movie we can make.”

    The Hollywood Reporter reached out to Disney for comment and they declined.

    The first National Treasure film was released in 2004 and followed Cage as historian Ben Gates, who steals the Declaration of Independence to find a map to an ancient, rumored treasure before anyone else can get to it. Harvey Keitel, Jon Voight, Diane Kruger, Sean Bean, Justin Bartha and Christopher Plummer also starred in the film, which grossed $347 million at the global box office.

    The 2007 follow-up, National Treasure: The Book of Secrets, earned $459 million worldwide and added Helen Mirren, Ed Harris, Bruce Greenwood and Ty Burrell to the cast.

    The franchise later expanded to television with National Treasure: Edge of History, which premiered on Disney+ in 2022 but was canceled after one season. Catherine Zeta-Jones joined the cast, while Bartha and Keitel reprised their roles.

    As for the third feature, no casting has been announced. THR reached out to Cage’s representative for comment.

  • Taylor Sheridan Accused of Stealing ‘Yellowstone’ Idea From TV Writer’s Pitch

    Taylor Sheridan Accused of Stealing ‘Yellowstone’ Idea From TV Writer’s Pitch

    Taylor Sheridan, Paramount and NBC Universal are all being sued by a writer who says Sheridan stole her idea for a TV show and used it to create Yellowstone.

    In the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Friday, TV writer and entertainment journalist Lauren J. Salkin claims she submitted a pilot script, show bible and pitch deck for a show called Sovereign Nation to Sheridan’s reps at his management company, Elevate Entertainment, which is also named as a defendant in the suit, in late 2016 and early 2017.

    Sovereign Nation, which Salkin spent more than 10 years developing, is described in the complaint, which was viewed by The Hollywood Reporter, as a “dramatic television series centered on tribal governance, casino-driven economic power and a modern war over land and development.”

    Salkin alleges that she received a response from Elevate on Feb. 1, 2017 saying that Sheridan was “unavailable for TV projects.”

    “Within months, Paramount greenlit Sheridan’s Yellowstone,” the complaint states.

    The show premiered on the Paramount Network on June 20, 2018 and later began streaming on Peacock.

    The suit says Yellowstone featured “specific expressive choices already embodied in Salkin’s materials” including “a tribal casino functioning as the institutional center of political and development power; a signature confrontation staged in the tribal chairman’s casino office over expansion beyond reservation boundaries; the use of trust land, the absence of zoning restrictions and a 99-year lease structure as the concrete mechanism for that expansion; and recurring master-plan imagery deployed to dramatize the struggle for territorial control.” Salkin also argues that Yellowstone followed several of her proposed casting recommendations for key roles in Sovereign Nation.

    “Copyright law does not protect the abstract idea of a Western, a land dispute, an Indian casino or a powerful family — and that is not Plaintiff’s claim,” the complaint states. “The infringement alleged here lies in the copying of Salkin’s particular expressive choices and their coordinated selection and arrangement.”

    The suit also notes that a senior HBO scripted TV executive who had reviewed materials for Sovereign Nation later told her he recognized similarities in Yellowstone.

    Salkin argues that the hit Kevin Costner-led series, which has spawned numerous spinoffs, “has generated billions of dollars” for the defendants, of which she “has received nothing.”

    Salkin is seeking damages and profits tied to alleged copyright infringement and injunctive relief preventing future infringement.

    “This is a classic David-versus-Goliath situation,” Salkin’s attorney Paul B. Lackey told THR. “She spent years putting together the specific and multi-layered framework for a story that has become the biggest streaming success of all time. She has watched the vast commercial success of this story that was stolen from her and decided that enough was enough.  We will do everything in our power to get her justice.”

    Reps for Sheridan, Paramount, Elevate and NBCUniversal have not yet responded to THR‘s request for comment.

  • HBO Max Is Free Right Now For 7 Days With This Prime Video Promo

    HBO Max Is Free Right Now For 7 Days With This Prime Video Promo

    If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission.

    Despite HBO Max hiking prices again last fall, the streamer is hoping to win over some new customers, with a 7-day free trial through Prime Video, just in time for the buzzy premiere of “Lanterns” and awards season pushes for critically-acclaimed shows like “Hacks” and “The Pitt.”

    While Amazon usually saves its streaming deals for Prime Day, this HBO Max offer is live on the site now and open to all Prime members with no promo code or contract required. In order to access the free trial, you’ll have to sign up for an Amazon Prime account (which also offers a 30-day free trial) and navigate to the Prime Channels hub. From there, find the HBO Max landing page and select the free trial offer.

    If you already have a Prime account, you can just sign in and add an HBO Max account free of charge. Once the week-long trial ends, the ad-supported HBO Max subscription will resume at its regular price of $10.99/month.

    There’s never been a better time to add an HBO Max subscription (formerly “Max”) to your Prime Video streaming arsenal. HBO Max has had an exciting lineup of can’t-miss new releases for 2026, including “DTF St. Louis,” the return of Lisa Kudrow’s “The Comeback” and the “Big Bang Theory” spin-off, “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe.”

    Returning favorites this year also included the third season of “The White Lotus” and the final season of “Euphoria.”

    HBO Max also has hundreds of new films on its roster, including “Marty Supreme,” “The Drama,” “Wuthering Heights,” “We Live in Time,” “Dune: Part Two” and “Joker Folie à Deux,” in addition to beloved shows such as “The Sopranos,” “The Wire” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

    HBO Max doesn’t offer a free trial on its own site, so the Prime Video deal is one of the only ways to get the streaming service for free. Worth noting: Amazon has removed this offer from its Prime streaming hub in the past without warning, so we recommend taking advantage of the free trial while it’s still live.

    You can also get HBO Max for free through DirecTV, which offers a free subscription when you sign-up for the streamer’s MyEntertainment Genre Pack. Plans start at $42.99/month and get you 60+ live TV channels plus HBO Max, Disney+ and Hulu for free. See the DirecTV deal here.