Dee Freeman, the Sistas and Young and the Restless actress, has died. She was 66.
Freeman died Thursday following a battle with cancer, her family announced on Instagram.
“On behalf of her family, it is with deepest sadness that we share this update with you. Dee passed away peacefully on April 2, 2026 after a brave and fearless fight with cancer,” their statement reads. “Thank you to everyone who supported Dee during her battle. It blew her away to know how many people cared about her and were pulling for her. We know Dee is up there in heaven being the force of nature she always was. Now she’s doing it with her angel wings on. Rest in peace, Dee.”
Born in Louisiana in 1959, Freeman joined the United States Marine Corps after high school. After serving in the military, she began her career in the arts, beginning with theater and then evolving into film and television. She most recently starred in seasons nine and 10 of Tyler Perry’s Sistas, where she portrayed Valerie Barnes, the mother to KJ Smith Black’s character Andi Barnes.
Freeman lent her acting talents to three episodes of TheYoung and the Restless; a 2016 episode of Shameless; and a 2021 episode of NCIS: Los Angeles, among others. She also led the satirical comedy Pretty the Series from 2010-2015.
At the time of her death, Freeman was developing a novel adaptation of her one-woman show Poison Gun, which was inspired by the history of her family.
“Dee wasn’t just my client — she was someone I truly respected and admired,” Desirae L. Benson, Freeman’s publicist, said in a statement. “She carried herself with a level of grace, strength, and authenticity that is rare. Even in the face of stage 4 lung cancer, she showed up with courage and dignity. Dee had a quiet power that commanded respect without ever needing to demand it. Her legacy is not just in her work, but in how she made people feel — and that will stay with us forever.”
Freeman is survived by her children, Amber and Shane; her mother, brothers and sisters.
A video has surfaced of Jonathan Majors falling through a window on set of the Daily Wire and Bonfire Legend’s untitled action movie.
The video, published by Deadline, came to light after reports that crew were organizing a strike and claiming unsafe conditions. In the clip, Majors and his co-star, JC Kilcoyne, fall out of shot and out of the window, with the outlet noting that sources said Kilcoyne required stitches “all over his hands” after the fall, which was about six feet to the ground.
When asked for comment about the video of Majors and Kilcoyne allegedly falling through a window on set, Dallas Sonnier of Bonfire Legend told The Hollywood Reporter, “The actors’ fall was shorter than the failed movie careers of the now-union reps.”
Kyle Rankin serves as writer-director of the film; Ben Shapiro is producing for Daily Wire and Sonnier for Bonfire Legend. Travis Mills, Lillian Campbell and Sydney Aucreman are also producing.
THR has reached out to Daily Wire for comment, but did not hear back by the time of publication.
The film serves as one of Majors’ newest projects he’s taken on following his 2023 conviction for assault and harassment. He was dropped from a number of films after he was convicted, which stemmed from an incident involving his ex-partner Grace Jabbari. He was later sentenced to a 52-week in-person domestic violence intervention program.
Amid the controversy, the Creed III actor was most notably dropped by Disney and Marvel Studios, where he played Kang the Conqueror, who was originally slated to be the MCU’s next leading villain.
Blake Lively vowed on Friday to keep up her fight against “digital violence,” a day after a judge threw out her sexual harassment claims against co-star Justin Baldoni.
In a statement on Instagram, Lively said that the heart of her case will go to a jury next month, and that she looks forward to telling her story in court.
“The last thing I wanted in my life was a lawsuit, but I brought this case because of the pervasive RETALIATION I faced, and continue to, for privately and professionally asking for a safe working environment for myself and others,” she said. “I hope the Court’s decision shows others that, as unfathomably painful as it is, you can speak up.”
Lively has claimed that she was sexually harassed during the production, and that Baldoni and his publicists launched a digital smear campaign to ruin her reputation after she complained about it.
On Thursday, Judge Lewis Liman threw out 10 of the 13 claims in Lively’s lawsuit, including the claims of sexual harassment, defamation and conspiracy. He allowed three claims to proceed to trial: retaliation, aiding and abetting in retaliation, and breach of contract.
In her statement, Lively urged fans not to get distracted by the characterization of the suit as “celebrity drama,” saying that framing is designed “to keep you from seeing yourselves in my story.”
“The physical pain from digital violence is very real,” she wrote. “It is abuse. And it’s everywhere. Not just in the news, but in your communities and schools. If you’re looking, my claims won’t be the first or last time you’ll see examples of the extreme dangers of retaliation and digital warfare. And it often won’t be directed at celebrities or those who may able to speak up. It affects us all.”
Liman ruled that Lively could not bring a sexual harassment claim under federal law because she was an independent contractor and not an employee. And she could not allege harassment under California law because the production took place in New Jersey.
On the issue of retaliation, he found she had made out a plausible case that she had a good faith basis for her harassment complaints, meaning that a jury will decide whether she faced unlawful repercussions for raising them.
Her agency, WME, which parted ways with Baldoni over the accusations surrounding “It Ends With Us,” issued a statement of support for Lively and her remaining claims on Friday, saying “she has helped expose the devastating harm caused by covert digital takedown campaigns.”
“In an industry that too often asks women to absorb the damage and stay quiet, Blake Lively chose to stand up for herself, her castmates, and those without the ability to fight back,” WME’s statement said. “She has met this moment with courage, moral clarity, and extraordinary determination. Even as others have tried to turn this case into a spectacle, she has kept the focus where it belongs: on facts, accountability, and the right to speak up without fear of retaliation. In doing so, she has helped expose the devastating harm caused by covert digital takedown campaigns designed to intimidate, discredit, and drown out the truth. She and her family have our full support as this case moves to trial.”
A magistrate judge ordered both sides to call in on Monday to discuss their updated settlement positions. The magistrate presided over a mandatory settlement conference in February that went nowhere, but the judge’s recent ruling may have altered the playing field.
In a statement on Thursday, Lively’s attorney Sigrid McCawley hinted that Lively may have already achieved what she was aiming for.
“For Blake Lively, the greatest measure of justice is that the people and the playbook behind these coordinated digital attacks have been exposed and are already being held accountable by other women they’ve targeted,” McCawley said.
She added, however, that Lively was looking forward to testifying at the trial in May, “and continuing to shine a light on this vicious form of online retaliation so that it becomes easier to detect and fight.”
Amazon MGM Studios has set Mel Brooks‘ long-awaited “Spaceballs” sequel to debut next spring.
The sci-fi spoof movie, which marks a return to acting for star Rick Moranis, will be released on April 23, 2027, in time for the cult classic’s 40th anniversary.
Moranis will reprise his role in the goofy intergalactic adventure as Lord Dark Helmet alongside Bill Pullman as Lone Starr, Daphne Zuniga as Princess Vespa, and George Wyner as Colonel Sandurz. Brooks, 99, a winner of the coveted EGOT and hailed as one of the greatest comedic filmmakers in Hollywood history, also returns as the Yoga-esque being Yogurt.
Josh Gad headlines the new cast, which also features Keke Palmer, Anthony Carrigan and Lewis Pullman, Bill’s son. (“Every day was such a trip,” the younger Pullman told People last year. “It … felt like a bizarre simulation. I just couldn’t believe my luck.”)
“Spaceballs” cast and crew (clockwise from the top): director Josh Greenbaum, Bill Pullman, Keke Palmer, Daphne Zuniga, George Wyner, Jeb Brody (producer), Taylor Stuewe (associate producer), Austin Lee (associate producer), Benji Samit (writer), Dan Hernandez (writer), Adam Merims (line producer/EP), Anthony Carrigan, Lewis Pullman, Josh Gad and Rick Moranis.
Brook Rushton
Josh Greenbaum, who is known for “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar” and “Will & Harper,” is directing from a script by Gad, Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez. Like the 1987 Brooks-directed original, the sequel is expected to riff on popular sci-fi franchises like “Star Wars,” “Star Trek” and “Alien.”
The sequel was revealed last summer in a video shared by Brooks. “Thirty-eight years ago, there was only one ‘Star Wars’ trilogy,” the crawl reads. “But since then there have been … a prequel trilogy, a sequel trilogy, a sequel to the prequel, a prequel to the sequel, countless TV spinoffs, a movie spinoff of the TV spinoff, which is both a prequel and a sequel.”The video points out that other franchises like “Jurassic Park, “Avatar” and “Harry Potter” have also continued to expand. “But in 38 years,” it concluded, “There has only ever been one ‘Spaceballs.’ Until now…”
Plot details about the sequel, including its title, are being kept under wraps, but “the title is rumored to be the name of the movie, and plot details are being described as information about what happens in the story,” reads Amazon MGM’s tongue-in-cheek synopsis. A prior logline also teased that the movie is a “non-prequel non-reboot sequel part two but with reboot elements franchise expansion film.”
Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Jeb Brody will also produce alongside Brooks (for his Brooksfilms Limited), Gad (for Angry Child Productions), Greenbaum and Kevin Salter. Adam Merims, Samit and Hernandez will executive produce.
As Starz gets set for its first shareholder meeting as a spun off, pure-play TV production brand without its Lionsgate studio sibling, the company has disclosed its C-suite pay for top execs.
Jeffrey Hirsch, who has spent a decade at Starz and took the CEO title in 2019, saw his compensation package total $6.7 million between salary, incentives and awards, a securities filing disclosed on April 2 shows. His current contract runs through December 2028.
Alison Hoffman, who oversees content and revenue as president, received $2.7 million while CFO Scott Macdonald saw pay total $2 million in fiscal ’25.
“The media landscape is evolving rapidly, but spin-offs, consolidation, and bundling are creating opportunities for focused, profitable players like Starz,” Hirsch wrote in a letter to shareholders. “With a highly capable tech stack and a proven playbook to migrate a linear-first business into a digital-led one, we believe our business is well positioned to participate in industry M&A as a buyer of complementary assets that align with our audiences, all while maintaining disciplined leverage and generating cash.”
In its filing, Starz also noted it inked an advisory services contract with longtime Lionsgate exec Michael Burns last May that includes a monthly fee of $50,000 along with a “one-time equity grant with a value of $3,000,000 of non-qualified performance-based stock options.”
The company cut 7 percent (or less than 40 employees) of its workforce in March in a shifting of resources at the company, which now has 517 staffers across its Santa Monica, New York and Englewood, Colorado offices. Part of that restructuring includes cutting cash content spend this year, CFO MacDonald had said on an earnings call with analysts in February.
Starz, which disclosed 17.63 million U.S. subscribers as of December, is fueled by franchises like Outlander, which bowed its eighth season this year, and Power, a five-season crime drama that yielded multiple spinoffs. In addition to Lionsgate, Starz has programming output deals with Universal (until 2029) and library output deals with Disney (in 2026), Sony (until 2027) and Warner Bros. (until 2028).
The company, which is incorporated in British Columbia, is holding its shareholder meeting on May 15.
Josh Greenbaum is helming the comedy from a script by Gad, Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez. Producing the film are Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Jeb Brody for Imagine Entertainment, alongside Gad, Brooks, Greenbaum and Kevin Salter.
Plot details and the official title for the follow-up to the Star Wars-spoofing feature have not yet been shared.
A look at the Spaceballs 2 table read.
Courtesy of Amazon MGM
Originally released by MGM in 1987 — a decade after George Lucas’ sci-fi classic Star Wars debuted to become a culture-defining smash — Spaceballs starred Pullman, Moranis, Zuniga, Wyner and John Candy, as well as a voice role for Joan Rivers as a C-3P0 parody. Brooks helmed the film that earned $38.1 million at the box office before becoming a cult favorite.
During summer of 2024, Gad teased the sequel in an Instagram post. “Just handed in a film script that I think may be the funniest and best thing I’ve ever worked on and I am so freaking excited,” Gad captioned the post at the time. He added that working with Samit and Hernandez “has been heaven on Earth and many other planets as well. Love you boys!”
Gad took to Instagram on Friday to confirm the release date with the caption, “May the April 23rd, 2027 be with you!!!”
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for the season premiere of “Your Friends & Neighbors,” now streaming on Apple TV.
Just as Coop starts to glue his life back together, a new neighbor threatens to tear it back apart.
James Marsden swaggers into the Season 2 premiere of “Your Friends & Neighbors” as Owen Ashe, a cocky, charming and unfathomably rich bachelor. He swerves his blue McLaren directly into the drama of Westmont Village, throwing an ostentatious party and cozying up to the beleaguered Andrew “Coop” Cooper (Jon Hamm) and Samantha (Olivia Munn).
The premiere picks up some time after the end of Season 1, which saw Coop exonerated and reunited with his family after he was accused of murdering Sam’s husband. Sam was able to plead her case down to a few misdemeanors, but she’s still a pariah among the Westmont social circles. Hoping to get a fresh start as a realtor, she meets Ashe as the listing agent of her own home.
While Ashe is a stranger to the country club elite of this fictional New York suburb, Marsden has known his co-stars for a while. The role came to him via text messages from both Hamm and Munn.
“We grew up in Oklahoma City, and she was friends with my sister, who went to the same high school,” Marsden says of Munn. “She said, ‘We’d love to have you on Season 2. It’s a fun role. Please say yes.’”
And while Marsden and Hamm had never worked together before, they regularly face off in a fantasy football league. “I don’t think it was intentionally a Hollywood fantasy football league, but it sort of became that over time,” Marsden says. “Chris Evans asked me to join 10 or 12 years ago. It’s not very public, though. It’s like a secret league that we’re all in, but it’s pretty laid back. Not in any sort of Hollywood, entitled way. It’s just a bunch of fun guys who happen to be in Marvel movies.”
When you read the scripts for “Your Friends & Neighbors,” what were your first impressions of Owen Ashe?
It’s always easier for me to play a character the further they are from who I am. There are characteristics I share with this guy, but mostly he’s very high energy, high-net-worth, high swagger — someone who comes into town and shakes things up, disrupts everything going on in Westmont Village and catches the attention of the locals, and primarily the attention of Jon Hamm’s character. So I got excited about playing something different from what I’m used to.
I’ve met people in my life that this character reminded me of, so I tapped into that a little and drew some inspiration from those past experiences — and got to send them up in a playful way. But ultimately you just realize your duty is to service the story. He’s a nice foil to Jon Hamm’s character, and it’s fun to blur the lines of whether these two are going to end up pals or lock horns at some point in the season.
What are the subtle keys to playing a charming douchebag?
You can’t go too far into douchey territory. You’ve got to make the guy actually intelligent, actually charming. And I think unawareness is the big key — the more unaware someone is of how unsavory or self-satisfying they’re being, the funnier it is. You need to make sure it’s fun for the audience. You don’t want to put them off or make them think, I just hate this guy. They have to see his charm and have fun watching him do the dance. Unawareness is really the key thing. These people aren’t aware of how inappropriate they’re being, or how arrogant it comes off when they talk about their cars, their money, their Italian clothes. Leaning into the humor of that, playing a character that can be laughed at, is what makes it fun.
Why is he so drawn to Samantha?
He’s smart enough to recognize the, um, bullshit. (I’m looking around because my youngest son is nearby.) He’s a smart guy, and he sees right through everybody. He can see the people fawning over him because he’s wealthy, and he can pick them apart. He can see if someone is putting on a facade. So, when he sees Sam, he’s curious about why she’s been ostracized from the social cliques in Westmont Village. From the get-go, he can see she’s a straight shooter — very direct, unapologetic about her past, not trying to hide anything. She just says, “Yeah, my husband killed himself, and I was arrested.” And I think he’s fascinated by that. With Sam, he sees transparency, honesty and directness, and that’s attractive to him.
He also has this instant connection with Coop. Does Ashe know more about them and about the community he’s just joined than he’s letting on?
I don’t think he knows anything specific about Coop’s history or Olivia’s history, or any of them. He’s moved to this town to start a new life, maybe calm it down a bit with his daughter. And the biggest weapon in his arsenal is spending money and throwing big parties — that’s his way of introducing himself to the community. But he’s also probably hiding some darker details. A lot of people like to talk about themselves, but Owen is someone who likes to ask questions about other people, and maybe that’s his way of keeping the attention off of himself. What he does for a living might be legitimate, or it could be a little shady — maybe he’s got money in offshore accounts. He’s a shifty guy, so I think he’s moved to Westmont for some reason.
But I do think there’s a lot of good in him. There’s a kid in him: He’s very unfiltered and excited about what’s next. He’s enthusiastically interested in what these people’s lives are like and who they really are. He’s drawn to Coop because he’s another one who’s direct and doesn’t mince words. But Owen is good at reading people, and when he looks at Coop he sees someone who isn’t showing his hand fully — and that’s always a mark of intelligence to Owen. Like, OK, what’s this guy’s secret?
Does he see himself in Coop?
He does. He even says, “We’re two bachelors living in this town together.” He likes guys who paint outside the lines. He sees that Coop has a tendency to ride a little closer to the edge than most people do, and that’s something that resonates with him. For Owen, things have to be exciting, and if it gets dull or boring, he moves on. He sees that in Coop as well.
I imagine that party sequence was shot over several days. Is it unusual to be in that mode for so long?
It’s not as fun as it looks, I’ll say that. But it’s not a terrible time. We’re there, and it’s this beautiful estate and music is playing. You’re not drinking real champagne, and you’re in the pool for four hours, when in the show you’re in the pool for 25 seconds. That gets to be a drag. You go, This is what I do for a living. I’m in a tuxedo in this pool at 4 a.m. — because it’s a night shoot, so you’re shooting until sunrise. It’s good socially. In between takes you can hang with a bunch of people and chit chat. It does start to grind away at you as you do it for 12 hours. How many times am I going to have to dance on the dance floor? How many times am I going to have to jump into the pool with my suit on? It’s not ever as fun as it looks.
“Jury Duty” is back with “Company Retreat.” Do you have ideas for a potential third season?
There are other minds that work on that. But if it were me, I think it’d be fun to do a tech start-up. But it’s got to be a place where you can’t have your phones. Maybe a crazy Hollywood party or a weekend masquerade party where no phones are allowed.
Timothée Chalamet is set to dominate the streaming charts this April as “Marty Supreme” makes its streaming premiere on HBO Max after earning $178 million worldwide to become A24’s highest-grossing film at the box office. “Marty” also picked up nine Oscar nominations earlier this year, including best picture, director and actor for Chalamet.
Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman named “Marty Supreme” the second best movie of 2025 (behind best picture winner “One Battle After Another”), writing: “Josh Safdie, flying solo as a director, has somehow brought off a movie that’s like ‘Uncut Gems’ remade as a soulful all-American crowd-pleaser. At its center is Timothée Chalamet’s mesmerizing performance… The movie, like Marty, is rude and funny and nervy and driven, but most of all it’s an exhilarating look at what it means to make up your own fate on the spot.”
Movie fans looking to watch more Oscar nominees from home can also stream “Sirāt,” which debuts on Hulu this month. The heart-pounding thriller from Oliver Laxe was nominated for best international feature and sound. It was awarded the jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Oscar-shortlisted foreign films “No Other Choice” and “The Sound of Falling” are also making their streaming debuts in April.
Check out a full rundown below of the biggest movies new to streaming this month.
Marty Supreme (April 24 on HBO Max)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection
Timothée Chalamet’s Oscar-nominated box office hit “Marty Supreme” arrives on HBO Max this month in what is sure to be one of the biggest new streaming offerings. Chalamet plays an aspiring ping-pong superstar who upends all his personal relationships in the pursuit for greatness. The movie earned $179 million worldwide and scored nine Oscar nominations, including best picture and actor for Chalamet, who also picked up honors from the Golden Globes and the Critics’ Choice Awards for his leading turn as the eponymous Marty. The supporting cast includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’zion, Kevin O’Leary, Tyler Okonma, Abel Ferrara and Fran Drescher.
Sirāt (April 6 on Hulu)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection
Oliver Laxe’s heart-pounding thriller “Sirāt” is a must-see when it arrives on streaming this month via Hulu. Winner of the jury prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, the film stars Sergi López as a father wandering the desert with his son and linking up with a group of ravers in southern Morocco as he searches for his missing daughter. “Sirāt” picked up two Oscar nominations earlier this year: best international feature and sound.
No Other Choice (April 24 on Hulu)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection
Park Chan-wook’s dazzling comedy thriller “No Other Choice” was Korea’s official Oscar entry this year but missed out on a nomination. Lee Byung-hun stars as a laid off corporate worker who resorts to killing his competition for a new job in order to get back in the workforce and provide for his family. The movie earned acclaim out of the Venice Film Festival last year and went on to earn three Golden Globe nominations: best motion picture (comedy/musical), foreign-language film and actor for Lee.
Bart Layton’s thriller “Crime 101” with Chris Hemsworth and Halle Berry earned strong reviews this winter but couldn’t match its reported $90 million production budget at the box office, where it earned $71 million worldwide. More viewers are hopefully going to discover the crime thriller when it launches on Prime Video. Based on the 2020 novella by Don Winslow, the movie stars Hemsworth as an enigmatic thief whose last score is upended by an insurance broker past her breaking point (Berry) and a relentless detective (Mark Ruffalo) trying to prevent the thief’s multi-million dollar heist. The supporting cast includes Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Corey Hawkins, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Nick Nolte.
Christy (April 10 on HBO Max)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection
Sydney Sweeney earned some of the best reviews of her career for “Christy,” a biographical drama in which she portrays the trailblazing boxer Christy Martin. The film was mostly rejected at the box office (its $1.3 million opening ranked as one of the worst starts ever for a movie that was released in more than 2,000 North American theaters), but buzz for Sweeney’s performance could make it a streaming hit when it debuts on HBO Max this month alongside the actor’s beloved TV projects “The White Lotus” and “Euphoria.”
Charlize Theron is hoping to give Netflix a streaming blockbuster right before the summer movie season starts with her survival action movie “Apex,” co-staring Taron Edgerton. Directed by Baltasar Kormákur (“Everest”), the movie stars Theron as a grieving woman testing her limits in the Australian wilderness. Not all goes according to plan when Egerton’s ruthless serial killer enters the picture. Eric Bana also stars in the Netflix original.
Apple’s big original movie premiere of April is “Outcome,” directed by Jonah Hill and starring Keanu Reeves as a beloved Hollywood actor whose career faces possible derailment when he’s blackmailed over a video that could destroy his public image. The dilemma forces the actor to make amends with anyone he could’ve wronged during the highs and lows of his acting career. Hill also co-wrote the movie and stars as Reeves’ crisis lawyer. The supporting cast includes Cameron Diaz, Matt Bomer, Susan Lucci, Laverne Cox, David Spade, Martin Scorsese, Atsuko Okatsuka, Roy Wood, Jr., Welker White, Kaia Gerber and Ivy Wolk.
Shelby Oaks (April 17 on Hulu)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection
Director Chris Stuckmann makes his directorial debut with Neon’s horror “Shelby Oaks,” which follows the disappearance of a YouTuber and amateur ghost hunter Riley Brennan (Sarah Durn). Having started his career as a film critic and essayist on YouTube, Stuckmann makes the transition to director with a horror movie that expertly blends media and feels at times like a mockumentary ripped right from the video platform.
The fan-favorite horror movie “Good Boy” tells a haunted house ghost story through the POV of a dog. From Variety’s review: “There’s something inherently novel in experiencing a haunted-house movie through the eyes of the director’s dog, a wide-eyed retriever named Indy, who senses a malevolent force stalking his master… ‘Good Boy’ uses all kinds of clever tricks, from inventive editing to ‘The Babadook’-style gags where terrifying silhouettes move in the background.”
Netflix already found streaming success with the shark movie “Under Paris.” Can lighting strike twice? Enter “Thrash,” starring Phoebe Dynevor, Whitney Peak and Djimon Hounsou in the story of a group of coastal townspeople who must survive a hoard of hungry sharks after a Category 5 hurricane destroys their town. Tommy Wirkola writes and directs.
Noah Kahan: Out of Body (April 13 on Netflix)
Image Credit: Netflix
From Netflix: “As a career-defining chapter propels him into global stardom, musician Noah Kahan stands at a crossroads. In the wake of the breakout success of ‘Stick Season’ — an album born from the quiet of rural Vermont and embraced around the world — Noah begins work on his follow-up album while facing the mounting pressure of what comes next. Over a whirlwind year of sold-out tours and unprecedented acclaim, he returns to his Vermont roots and family. Buoyed by his uncanny wit, he searches for a sense of home and creative inspiration as he confronts the deeply personal struggles that have left him out of sync with himself.”
Adam Sandler’s daughter Sadie headlines the Netflix original comedy movie “Roommates,” which centers on the chaos that erupts after a naïve college freshman asks a popular girl to be her college roommate. “A blossoming friendship spirals into a war of passive aggression,” reads Netflix’s synopsis. The cast also includes Chloe East, Billy Bryk, Sarah Sherman, Martin Herlihy, Josh Segarra, Carol Kane, Janeane Garofalo, Aidan Langford, Bella Murphy, Jaya Harper, Storm Reid, Ivy Wolk, Bailee Madison, Natasha Lyonne and Nick Kroll.
Tom Holland’s blockbuster “Spider-Man: No Way Home” finally arrives on Disney+ this month ahead of his web-slinger return to the big screen this summer in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” in theaters July 31. “No Way Home” powered to $1.9 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing movie of 2021. Its success was fueled by the movie uniting three generations of Spider-Man actors: Holland, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.
Bryan Fuller’s directorial debut “Dust Bunny” stars Sophie Sloan as Aurora, a young girl who is menaced by the giant, magical and bloodthirsty title beast who lives under her bed. She then hires a hitman (Fuller’s “Hannibal” star Mads Mikkelsen) to take care of the problem…if only he believes her. Variety called the movie a “morbidly fantastical shoot-em-up” in its review, adding: “The strength of the performances and the filmmaker’s smart handling of ambiguity (is there or is there not an actual monster at play here?) do enough to keep one engaged.”
Primitive War (April 4 on Hulu)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection
Dinosaurs and the Vietnam War collide in the action movie “Primitive War,” a sequel for which is already on the way. Written and directed by Luke Sparke (“Occupation Rainfall,” “Bring Him to Me”), “Primitive War” is adapted from the cult novel of the same name by Ethan Pettus. The story follows Vulture Squad, a recon team sent to a remote jungle valley in 1968 to locate a missing Green Beret platoon, only to find themselves face-to-face with prehistoric predators.
Sound of Falling (April 24 on Mubi)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection
Mascha Schilinski’s “Sound of Falling” was shortlisted for the best international feature Oscar this year and won the jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival last year in a tie with “Sirat.” The movie “tracks the lives of four adolescent girls (Alma, Erika, Angelika, Lenka) across the last century — their desires and distress, their secrets and truths, their encounters with another’s gaze and defiant gaze in return. Though separated by time, far-reaching resonances emerge as echoes of experience linger.”
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (April 3 on Prime Video)
Tom Cruise’s alleged last “Mission: Impossible” movie, “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” arrives on Prime Video this month at no extra cost to subscribers after grossing $598 million at the worldwide box office last summer. The movie originally debuted on streaming via Paramount+. Starring Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg and more, “The Final Reckoning” picks up in the wake of “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning,” as Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his globetrotting team of agents continue their mission to destroy the Entity, a mysterious and all-powerful AI, before it falls into the wrong hands.
Edgar Wright and Glen Powell’s “The Running Man” remake faltered at the box office last fall with an underwhelming $69 million worldwide. After making its streaming debut on Paramount+, the high-octane action movie now becomes available on Prime Video this month at no extra cost to subscribers. Based on the 1982 novel by Stephen King (which was then turned into a 1987 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger), “The Running Man” takes place in a dystopian society where a game show pits contestants, called “runners,” against murderous killers (aka “hunters”).
The Conjuring: Last Rites (April 21 on Prime Video)
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga’s demon-hunting couple The Warrens return for their fourth “Conjuring” film, which was a box office monster last year by grossing nearly $500 million worldwide to become the franchise’s biggest installment yet. “Last Rites” was billed as the final “Conjuring” movie, but that’s highly unlikely with a box office haul that strong. The horror hit becomes available on Prime Video at no extra cost to subscribers this month after debuting on streaming via HBO Max.
The Colleen Hoover hit movie “Regretting You” arrives on Prime Video this month at no extra cost to subscribers. The movie explores the strained relationship between young mother Morgan Grant (Allison Williams) and her 16-year-old daughter Clara (Mckenna Grace), particularly in the aftermath of the tragic death of Morgan’s husband and Clara’s father, Chris (Scott Eastwood). The film also stars Dave Franco — who plays Jonah, Morgan’s love interest following the loss of her husband — as well as Mason Thames, Willa Fitzgerald and Clancy Brown.
“Naya Desir-Johnson offers a star-making performance as a precocious Black youngster determined to strike it rich in 1913 Oklahoma,” reads Variety’s positive review of the inspirational drama “Sarah’s Oil.” The movie centers on an 11-year-old girl who firmly believes there is an abundance of black gold beneath property she has been bequeathed, and it’s as “thoroughly predictable as it is irresistibly uplifting… The period detail is impressive, the storytelling is engrossing, and the overall impact is pleasantly enjoyable.”
Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie (April 20 on Paramount+)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection
As a duo, Tommy Chong and Cheech Marin have appeared in 25 movies, including their 1978 big-screen debut “Up in Smoke.” Now they return for one final adventure in “Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie.” The synopsis reads: “The movie defies documentary expectations, offering a wildly imaginative take on genre convention; a true-life tale told through a mix of animation and archival madness, all underscored by a classic cinematic road trip comedy. Tracing the enduring legacy of pioneering comics Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, the film features interviews, sketches, and never-before-seen footage spanning the duo’s five-decade career.”
“Him,” directed by Justin Tipping and produced by horror maestro Jordan Peele, follows an up-and-coming quarterback (Tyriq Withers) who studies under the questionable mentorship of his football idol (Marlon Wayans). The movie also stars Julia Fox, Tim Heidecker and more. “Him” debuted on streaming last December via Peacock but now arrives on Netflix this month.
Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney, the creative duo known as BriTANick, are keenly aware that a movie called Pizza Movie is not the most compelling title for their now well-received feature directorial debut. The former SNL writers hemmed and hawed over what to name their “stoner comedy for theater kids” starring Stranger Things’ Gaten Matarazzo, until the internal working title of Untitled Pizza Movie officially became Pizza Movie.
It’s weirdly on-brand for the Atlanta natives and NYU classmates considering they also struggled to name their sketch comedy partnership two decades ago. They settled on the fusion of Brian, Nick and the word Titanic. (If you’re a devout reader of my byline, then you might recognize Nick from one of the 21st century’s most remarkably honest images.)
The title only endeared itself to Kocher and McElhaney when they wrote a joke about it that pays off in the most unexpected way. I won’t give the game away here, but they do get into the weeds of it during the subsequent Q&A.
“We had all these polls we’d send out to our friends, and there was no unanimous title idea that everyone loved,” McElhaney tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I remember shouting, ‘We cannot call this PizzaMovie! That is the worst title in the world.’ And I still do feel that way. But then we added the joke in the movie. Now I deeply love it because it is all the setup for this punchline 83 minutes into the movie,” Kocher adds.
Pizza Movie chronicles the hallucinatory misadventures of Jack (Matarazzo), Montgomery (Sean Giambrone) and Lizzy (Lulu Wilson), as they journey to the lobby of their college dormitory in order to eat a pizza that will alleviate the effects of an experimental drug they all ingested. The film is a Hulu release, continuing the rather unfortunate trend of comedy no longer being the box office powerhouse it once was. BriTANick knew they were making a streaming release from the start, but they did broach the theatrical subject to no avail.
The collaborators then decided to poke fun at the lack of a theatrical release by taking a page out of Timothée Chalamet’s Marty Supreme playbook. Instead of the Las Vegas Sphere, they had Matarazzo and Giambrone stand atop a random picnic table to explain that their wish for a theatrical release was rejected. Kocher and McElhaney credit Hulu for having a sense of humor about it all.
“Hulu was totally down for it. They knew that we wanted it to be in theaters; we’d had the conversation before,” McElhaney explains. “Hulu has been really cool the whole time about us making fun of the things we want to make fun of and making the movie we wanted to make. So we knocked that spot out in an hour while we were in between press during South by Southwest.”
Kocher believes that one of the contributing factors to comedy’s box office decline is the fact that the genre has become so prevalent across social media. And given that the duo were at the forefront of internet comedy via their BriTANick YouTube channel and various other comedic web sites, they know they’ve contributed to the genre’s current predicament.
“We’re complaining about the thing that we began,” McElhaney says. “It’s a double-edged sword. It’s an undeniably good thing to remove a lot of the gatekeepers so it’s much easier for young people to break into the industry. But it has also created a ton of noise and distraction,” Kocher adds.
Fortunately, the duo does have a theatrical release coming out this month. They wrote Jorma Taccone’s Over Your Dead Body, starring Samara Weaving and Jason Segal. It’s a remake of Tommy Wirkola’s Norwegian dark comedy-thriller, The Trip (2021), and the experience was a dream come true for the long-time admirers of Taccone’s own sketch comedy trio, The Lonely Island. The latter group left SNL four years before BriTANick arrived.
“When we first met, [Taccone] didn’t know that we had written for SNL, and I was like, ‘We actually wrote for SNL.’ He then gave me a huge hug — the hug of war veterans who’ve been in the battles trenches together,” Kocher recalls. “So he’s been such an influence on us, and we all had an immediate shorthand. We would love to work with him for the rest of our lives.”
Below, during a conversation with THR, Kocher and McElhaney also discuss how Daniel Radcliffe wound up voicing a butterfly in Pizza Movie.
***
As someone who dealt with overzealous RAs, thank you for shining a light on their tyrannical ways.
BRIAN McELHANEY It needed to be said.
NICK KOCHER Democracy dies in darkness.
Did you guys have your own blood feud with NYU’s RAs? Is that the basis here?
KOCHER We actually had cool RAs. Some of our friends did not, but ours were great. Our freshman year RA was named Nora, and she was very cool.
McELHANEY Yeah, she was cool. We didn’t really have any crazy RA experiences. It took a minute to figure out where to set this movie, and once we set it at a college, it just became so obvious that RAs were the natural antagonists. They break up parties and tell you not to drink. So we said, “Let’s treat them as if they are the Orcs of the Lord of the Rings world or the roving Nazis of Inglourious Basterds. Let’s exacerbate them to their full antagonist extreme.” It just felt like the right choice.
KOCHER Yeah, we love scenery-chewing villains who luxuriate and enjoy being villainous. It was just such a fun vessel to include one of those [in Jack Martin’s Blake]. I love that he’s wearing a “spread love” t-shirt the whole time while he’s doing all this psychological torture on people.
Jack Martin as Blake in Pizza Movie.
Disney
Yeah, Jack Martin’s highly committed performance as Blake did remind me of Hans Landa in Inglourious, especially when he busts the kid with the pickle-jar bong at the beginning. We had a lot of Blakes at my college. My roommate once jumped out of a second-story window to avoid being written up, and the experience inspired him to install a secret kegerator in our huge entertainment center/TV cabinet.
McELHANEY Oh my god.
KOCHER When RAs busted up a party freshman year, I ran into a bedroom and hid in the closet. I was a little drunk, so I ended up passing out while waiting there. Then I woke up several hours later and came out of the closet to find the person whose room it was. I was like, “Are the RAs still here?” And she was like, “There were RAs here? What are you talking about? Who are you?” The party had long since ended. (Laughs.)
That sounds like a funny sketch. Maybe you should look into that.
Did you direct Jack to play his character as straight as possible?
McELHANEY Yeah, that was always the intention.
KOCHER That’s also why we cast him. We auditioned a ton of people for Blake, and Jack was in the first readthrough of the movie. We hadn’t seen anybody else read. One of our producers knew him and thought he might be good for this. He killed it at the table read, and then he had a great audition [afterwards]. A lot of the people who read for Blake were really big comedy actors, and while they were really funny, Jack Martin actually scared us by playing it so straight and so serious. It became so much funnier to us than someone who was just hamming it up in the part.
McELHANEY Yeah, we wanted to shoot it and have it be performed as if it was from a different film. Blake does not exist in a college comedy; he exists in a prestige film. So Jack Martin really delivered on that challenge.
Gaten Matarazzo’s Jack, Sean Giambrone’s Montgomery in Pizza Movie.
Disney
The main characters take a fictional drug without food, and that mistake puts them through a half-dozen nightmarish phases. They can curtail their bad trip if they can make it to the lobby of their dorm to pick up a pizza. Were either of you inspired by a warning label on your own medication?
KOCHER To some degree, yes, and also just drugs in general. The first time I did shrooms was on an empty stomach. It’s what you’re supposed to do because it makes it so much more intense. If you have food in your stomach, it’s a less intense shroom trip. So I’ve had some horrific trips on shrooms that definitely inspired elements of this movie.
McELHANEY We were trying to figure out what drug they should take, and we realized that we wanted to turn the drug into different genres and sketches. So the nature of this drug’s different phases — and its in-between moments of sobriety — were structural choices. We didn’t want them to be high all the time, and the actual highs are nothing you’ve ever seen before. So we realized early on that it couldn’t just be LSD or mushrooms. It had to be a fictional drug, and those side effects and phases just felt right in terms of working in these different types of genres and scenes and styles that we wanted to do.
Pizza Movie is Gaten Matarazzo’s first post-Stranger Things project. You can see the tonal swerve that likely appealed to him, but he’s again playing a character who plays fantasy board games or tabletop games. Did you ever ask him about what he was going for on the heels of Stranger Things?
McELHANEY We were just like, “Why the hell this, buddy? What are you doing, man?” So we talked a little bit about it.
KOCHER A big thing for us when we were casting the movie is that we didn’t want to make any offers. We wanted everybody to audition. We knew we were going to have to move really quickly, and we wanted to make sure [ahead of filming] that everybody was a really good fit for their part. Sometimes, you’ll cast a great actor [without auditioning them], but for whatever reason, the lines sound weird coming out of their mouth. You then need to rewrite their lines or really work with them, but we didn’t have time for that. We also wanted people who were down to buy the ticket and take the ride for this movie. We didn’t want to have to convince anyone or sell anyone to do it. So we auditioned everybody. Gaten read for both Jack and Montgomery, and he could have been cast as either, but his Jack read was so special and great. We talked with him a little bit while he was signing on because we did a huge rewrite of the movie. And he, understandably, wanted to know why. He was like, “Wait a minute, I liked the first script. What’s happening to it now?” So we went through it, one by one, and he was so smart about it. He knew the script so well. Finally, he was like, “This is going to work so much better.” His own suggestions were also great, and he was enthusiastic the whole time. I’m so glad he did this movie. As a fan of his, this is the type of thing I wanted to see him do.
McELHANEY We did ask him, “You have the keys to the kingdom from StrangerThings. Why are you doing this low-budget comedy from two unknowns?” And he was like, “Dude, I just want to do great stuff.” He really wants to do things he loves, whether it’s theater or weird indie films. The script connected to him, and I’m sure he had to take a massive pay cut to work with two wildcards in us. It was a gamble. And he was just like, “I just believed in the script, and it felt different, new and exciting for me.” To go from something so huge to something truly different that expands your repertoire, that’s the sign of a star.
[Spoiler Warning.] When you say you did a massive rewrite, how different is the destination from what it was?
KOCHER The destination was the same, but there were different emotional beats. It used to be that Montgomery [Sean Giambrone] ended up with Ashley [Peyton Elizabeth Lee], and Jack ended up with Lizzy [Lulu Wilson]. [Writer’s Note: Montgomery ends up with Lizzy in the actual film.] To do those original pairings, it took more time, and they didn’t really feel right. The character of Ashley also wasn’t a very exciting character to us, originally.
McELHANEY She was cardboard.
KOCHER She might’ve had more lines, but she was just this sweet journalism major who was the object of Montgomery’s crush. So we wanted to have more fun with this role, and then we made her fully insane.
McELHANEY We wrote this in a weird way. We had the plot idea and the mechanics of all those drug phases. Then we slipped in the characters and the emotional story underneath it, which is not how you normally write a film. So we had to figure out these character arcs through all the new drafts we would do, but the plot always stayed the same. We also tightened up the stakes of the plot. It took us a while to figure out what would happen if they didn’t eat the pizza, and some of the drug trips changed at the last minute. The head-exploding trip was discovered a week or two before we started shooting. The “Make the Baby Like It” scene was kind of discovered on the day. So we pivoted on a few things, but the main shape and structure always stayed pretty much the same.
Gaten Matarazzo’s Jack, Lulu Wilson’s Lizzy, Sean Giambrone’s Montomgery in Pizza Movie
Disney
Comedies and all its sub-genres, including the raunchy stoner comedy for “theater kids,” have really gone by the wayside theatrically. Pizza Movie also does not have a theatrical release, and you and the actors have voiced your dissatisfaction in some funny ways. Whose idea was it to turn the lack of theatrical into a marketing bit?
KOCHER Brian had the thought, and Hulu was down to make fun of themselves and us.
McELHANEY I saw the MartySupreme promo [atop the Las Vegas Sphere], and I was like, “Let’s do this with our guys.” But it took us forever to figure out what they should be standing on. Then we went to Austin [for South by Southwest], and there was this picnic table next to a park. And we were like, “This will be perfect. Let’s get a drone and our DP out there.” And Hulu was totally down for it. They knew that we wanted it to be in theaters; we’d had the conversation before. But Hulu has been really cool the whole time about us making fun of the things we want to make fun of and making the movie we wanted to make. So we knocked that spot out in an hour while we were in between press during South by Southwest.
KOCHER The movie was always going to be on streaming. We knew that going into it [despite having a theatrical conversation].
In 2019, when Booksmart and Long Shot failed to light up the box office despite great reviews, that’s when I knew the genre was in trouble theatrically. Superhero and action movies have also integrated a lot of comedy, so it seems like it’s just being packaged with other genres now. But what do you think is the root cause of the genre’s disappearance at the box office?
NICK KOCHER I don’t know the ultimate answer, but it could be because everything is a comedy now. Like you said, there’s comedy in action and superhero movies, but everything on your phone is also a comedy sketch. There are so many tweets or TikToks or Instagram posts that are genuinely very funny, and it’s all in your pocket. So that probably contributes to the barrier to entry of having to drive to a movie theater to laugh. But it’s so great to be in a communal setting with people laughing together.
McELHANEY Yeah, people have been talking about this a lot in the last ten years. In the ’90s and 2000s, there were one-to-three huge comedy films every year that everyone would see and quote. They would become part of the zeitgeist, and that doesn’t really happen really at all anymore. I don’t know if it’s something that happened that made people not want to go see comedies, or if it’s just that people got scared and stopped making them. Is it a chicken or the egg thing where both are happening? But people still show up for horror and action movies. So everyone in comedy believes that comedy absolutely has a place in the theater. They should be trying to make big bold comedies and get them out theatrically. People aren’t done seeing comedies in a group because that’s the best way to see them. But it is a head scratcher as to why they’ve fallen off.
KOCHER I think it’s ultimately what Ryan Gosling said. This is the world we’re in, and you now have to give people a reason to go see something. You have to make something so good and so undeniable that it gets people to the theaters. Everyone should do their part and support the theaters, but that’s not how we keep them alive. We keep them alive by trying to make the best, funniest movies we can.
Nick, you mentioned that comedy is always at our fingertips through social media, so that makes you guys the J. Robert Oppenheimers of this situation. You were at the forefront of internet comedy.
BriTANick (Laughs.)
KOCHER That’s true!
McELHANEY We’re complaining about the thing that we began.
KOCHER It’s a double-edged sword. It’s an undeniably good thing to remove a lot of the gatekeepers so it’s much easier for young people to break into the industry. But it has also created a ton of noise and distraction. It’s the double-edged sword of social media too. There’s good and bad with these things, and you just hope that it’s all trending towards good, ultimately.
Dan Radcliffe voices a butterfly named Lysander. Did he owe his agent a favor? Did he lose a bet?
BriTANick (Laughs.)
McELHANEY That guy’s in trouble, man. I don’t know what’s going on with him.
KOCHER We knew Dan a little bit through some mutual friends, and initially, the butterfly was not as big of a character. Then it became a bigger character with a whole monologue at the end, and we immediately thought of Dan. So we asked our mutual friends if they would ask him, and they all braced us, saying, “He’s probably going to say no to this. ” But he came back with an immediate and enthusiastic yes. We just loved working with him. He tried multiple different voices. There’s a version of Lysander that is done as a British fop. That would be fun to release on the special features one day.
McELHANEY He was so eager. That guy’s a star. He just commits no matter what the project is. Clearly. He went into a recording booth and knocked it out of the park in 30 minutes.
[Spoiler Warning.] We have to talk about the fourth-wall break where Jack Martin is transported to your writers’ room where you’re debating various choices in the movie including the title. Was Pizza Movie actually a placeholder title that stuck?
McELHANEY The title was our albatross the whole time. It took us forever.
KOCHER Well, we initially wanted to title the movie Oh God, No, Please Make It Stop.
That’s written on the whiteboard in the movie.
McELHANEY That’s right.
KOCHER We were told we can’t call it that. But some people were referring to the movie internally as Pizza Movie, and that was sticking.
McELHANEY It was called Untitled Pizza Movie on our slate, so we just removed Untitled. That’s really all we did. But people were already calling it that. We kept pitching other ideas around, and then it got so out of control. We had so many ideas, and everyone had their opinions on what the movie should be called. We had all these polls we’d send out to our friends, and no one could decide on anything. There was no unanimous title idea that everyone loved. People loved and hated each one. So we were just like, “For the next movie, we’re just going to title it, and that’s the title. No one can give their opinions.” It was so annoying.
KOCHER I remember shouting, “We cannot call this PizzaMovie! That is the worst title in the world.” And I still do feel that way. But then we added the joke in the movie where we get to say that.
McELHANEY We got to dunk on it.
KOCHER And I was like, “Now I love it.” It’s purposefully a horrifically bad title, and now I deeply love it because it is all the setup for this punchline 83 minutes into the movie.
McELHANEY Aside from Oh God, No, Please Make It Stop, which we really liked, every other title just sounded cheesy. They all sounded like a teen comedy trying to be funny. So nothing was really hitting, and PizzaMovie just seemed to work for everyone. And like Nick said, when we found this joke about it, it became the only option.
[Spoiler Warning.] Was that your actual writers’ room?
KOCHER It was the room, but it was production-designed by our production designer, Frankie Palombo. Throughout prep, Frankie came into the room and took photos of what we’d written on the dry-erase board. So all of the things on the dry erase board were actually written on the dry erase board at one point.
McELHANEY It’s a very organized version of our room. Our room is messy, and we don’t have stuff on the walls. It was white-walled like an insane asylum, but that was the room. We filmed ourselves having real arguments about real problems we had with the film. We have many, many minutes of footage of Nick and I literally arguing about all our problems with this film, and they will be in the DVD specials one day.
[Spoiler Warning.] You guys would usually perform in your sketches, so did you feel like you had to give your existing fans something with the two of you just to make it a proper BriTANick project?
KOCHER I wouldn’t say we felt obligated.
McELHANEY I wanted to appear.
KOCHER I didn’t want to unless it made sense. And when we came up with this early idea about the “true, horrible nature of reality” being that they are characters in a movie, then it was like, “Oh, this is a really fun way we can come into this story.”
McELHANEY Like Nick said, if we didn’t fit in, we wouldn’t have done it. But it did feel nice just because people know us as writers and also as performers. So for anyone who has followed us over the years, it’s nice to give them a glimpse of us. It felt like an important thing to do if we could make it work, and I’m glad we did.
Snackatron 3000 and Lulu Wilson’s Lizzy in Pizza Movie.
Disney
You somehow made me feel something for an AI robot named Snackatron 3000.
KOCHER Yes!
McELHANEY Good!
But I’m conflicted about it because we live in a time where corporate America is trying to force-feed AI down our throats.
KOCHER Look, this is a movie that is meant to challenge the audience.
McELHANEY I’m sorry about that. It’s a complex idea. I think Snackatron is the best version of AI. If AI leads to Snackatrons, I’m okay with that. But Snackatron has, low key, one of the best arcs in the film. For a D character, he’s got a beautiful little story.
When I saw that you wrote Jorma Taccone’s Over Your Dead Body, I figured you’d worked with Jorma and the rest of The Lonely Island at SNL, but they left long before you guys got there in 2016. So how did you end up on that remake?
KOCHER Well, we were actually on it before Jorma was. We were brought on by XYZ Films to write the script for the remake. And after we wrote it, they were like, “Great, Jorma is going to direct it. ” And we were like, “This is a dream come true.” The Lonely Island is one of the single biggest influences on our sketch comedy. We’re such massive fans of MacGruber and Popstar, so it was incredible to get to work with Jorma. When we first met, he didn’t know that we had written for SNL, and I was like, “We actually wrote for SNL.” He then gave me a huge hug — the hug of war veterans who’ve been in the battles trenches together. So he’s been such an influence on us, and we all had an immediate shorthand. We would love to work with him for the rest of our lives.
Did the collective name of Lonely Island inspire BriTANick?
KOCHER No, we knew that sketch groups and duos need a name, and so we came up with our name when we were 19 years old. We didn’t think about it very hard, and we didn’t realize we would be going by it for the next 20 years of our lives.
McELHANEY I thought we would be. I was like, “This is us till the end, baby.” But we did think of combining our names with the word Titanic, and we capitalized the T, the A and the N so that people might pronounce it correctly.
NICK KOCHER No one ever pronounces it correctly.
McELHANEY They’ll say, “Brittanic,” or “Brit and Nick.” They think my name is Brit.
KOCHER They think there’s a British association or a genuine Titanic association or Encyclopedia Britannica association. And there’s none of that.
McELHANEY At the time we started, we loved a group called Derrick Comedy that was huge on YouTube. It was Donald Glover’s group with Dominic Dierkes and DC Pierson. I loved that their name wasn’t a comedy-sounding name; it was just Derrick. A lot of improv and sketch groups try to be funny and call themselves The Zany Bow Ties or whatever.
KOCHER We did, for one second, consider naming ourselves something like that. Brian’s roommate at the time was like, “You can’t call yourselves BriTANick. You should call yourselves The Mustache Diaries.” So we entertained that for half an hour, and I don’t know what our careers would be like if we were The Mustache Diaries. We would’ve had to change the name at a certain point.
McELHANEY It’s now whatever you guys want it to be. We’ve given our name up.
Tommy Wirkola, who directed the Norwegian version of Over Your Dead Body, was originally going to helm the remake. Did he have another movie go at the same time? Or did he realize that it would be unwise to remake himself?
KOCHER Tommy was amazing. He was like, “I made my version of this. Do your own thing and change whatever you want.” He trusted the whole creative team. He was a big proponent of Jorma directing it. He’s also a massive MacGruber fan. And it’s incredible to hear that he loves the remake.
Besides changing the names, what was the key to adapting a Norwegian film for the States?
KOCHER We didn’t really think too much about the States, per se. There’s a lot of inside Hollywood jokes that we added.
McELHANEY I would say the lead couple’s relationship and careers are more specific to acting and filmmaking.
Jason Segal’s character directed an indie film years before languishing in commercials. The character is a soap opera director in Tommy’s The Trip.
KOCHER Yeah. We loved the structure of the original, and while we did change some stuff at the end, Jorma wanted to revert back because, “We don’t have enough money to do that.” (Laughs.) So the main things we focused on were tweaking dialogue and character arcs. We put our weird brand of humor in there and threw Jorma some alley-oops that we knew he would be able to slam dunk.
McELHANEY Changing the gender of one of the main antagonists was a pretty big move we made, and that opened up a different perspective of how we could write those characters. It gave us another relationship story to parallel [Jason Segal and Samara Weaving’s characters’] relationship story. So there were little details here and there, but like Nick said, the original is so well structured that the foundation was already laid for us. That can be the hardest part to write.
Bella Gonzales (DP), co-writers/directors Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher — and Gaten Matarazzo on the set of Pizza Movie.
Disney/Brett Roedel
What’s the plan going forward? Go through whatever door that opens? Or attempt to steer things in a particular direction?
KOCHER We’d love to continue writing and directing movies — and specifically both. There’s certain things we would love to write and hand off to different people. Then there’s other things that we want to write, direct and really make our own. We’ve got some stuff lined up that we can’t really talk about. Who knows if they ‘ll end up happening, but we’re writing scripts. We definitely don’t want to go through whatever door that opens, but we love changing things up and challenging ourselves. We’ve had a lot of good experiences writing stuff that we didn’t think we were right for. We’ve got a movie at New Line, and we’re doing a rewrite on that right now. It’s in a very, very different area than any of these current movies, and it was a fun challenge to write. So we want to keep changing it up and playing in different genres, and we’ll see what comes.
McELHANEY This month is actually a good distillation of what we like to do. We have two movies coming out. One is our film, and it’s very much our BriTANick style. The other one is something that we wrote and collaborated on with other people. It’s in a style that we had to learn a bit how to do. So we want to ping-pong between the two. Our very unique sensibility that we’ve developed over so many years is always in our back pocket. But we also want to branch out and try to do new things before coming back home to do what we do.
*** Pizza Movie is now streaming on Hulu. Over Your Dead Body opens in theaters on April 24.
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Women’s March Madness is in its final weekend as UConn, South Carolina, UCLA and Texas battle it out for spots in Sunday’s NCAA championship game. The undefeated Huskies are looking to run it back as champions for a second season in a row but not without some tough competition from 2024 national champions South Carolina.
The back-to-back Women’s Final Four games takes place on Friday, April 3: South Carolina vs. UConn at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET, and Texas vs. UCLA at 6:30 p.m. PT/9:30 p.m. ET. Since both games air on ESPN, cord-cutters can watch them live on any streaming service that carries the network, including DirecTV (with a five-day free trial), Fubo (with a five-day free trial), Sling and Hulu + Live TV.
While the easiest way to catch the Final Four (plus Sunday’s championship game) at no cost is through DirecTV’s five-day free trial, The Hollywood Reporter is further outlining each option ahead, including the best streaming deals and which channels are included in which packages.
At a Glance: How to Watch 2026 NCAA Women’s March Madness Final Four
When: Friday, April 3 (South Carolina vs. UConn at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET; Texas vs. UCLA at 6:30 p.m. PT/9:30 p.m. ET)
How to Watch NCAA Women’s Basketball Final Four 2026: March Madness Livestream Free Without Cable
The remaining 2026 Women’s March Madness games — the Final Four and National Championship — air on ESPN and ABC, respectively, which can be streamed live on any TV streaming service that carries those networks, including DirecTV (with a five-day free trial), Fubo (with a five-day free trial), Sling and Hulu + Live TV.
Learn more about each streaming option (and their free trials and new subscriber discounts) below.
DirecTV
Five-day free trial; packages from $19.99 per month
ESPN (and ABC for Sunday’s game) is included in any of DirecTV’s signature packages: Entertainment, Choice, Ultimate and Premiere. Plus, DirecTV is offering a five-day free trial for its streaming service, meaning new subscribers can catch five days of competition at no cost.
For avid sports fans, DirecTV’s MySports Genre Pack offers 20+ sports and broadcast networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews and ABC included), plus an ESPN Unlimited subscription. Regularly $64.99 per month, DirecTV’s current promotion offers the first two months of MySports for $44.99 per month, following its five-day free trial across all packages.
Learn more about each plan option, including how to build your own channel lineup (starting at just $19.99 per month), at directv.com.
Fubo
Fubo
Five-day free trial; packages from $55.99 per month ($45.99 for first month)
A subscription to Fubo, which offers a five-day free trial for new subscribers, similarly offers access to ESPN and ABC (plus ESPN2, ESPNU ESPNews, along with ESPN Unlimited), all included in the Fubo Sports + News package. After the free trial period, the Sports + News package is $45.99 for the first month and $55.99 monthly afterward. While this plan includes 29 channels, Fubo offers other packages with a larger selection (better intended for non-sports fans).
For the best of both worlds, opt for the Fubo Pro plan, which includes 200+ channels across sports, family, news and so on. Following the free trial period, the Pro package is $48.99 for the first month and $73.99 per month thereafter. Compare these packages and more at Fubo.tv.
Sling
Half off first month for select plans
For sports fans, Sling offers one of the widest variety of plan options, and to catch the Final Four on ESPN, Sling Orange plan‘s is the easiest choice.
For serious college basketball fans, the Orange + Sports Extra is a solid option as it includes ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, ABC local and more. This bundle rings up at $56.99: $45.99 for Orange, plus $11 for Sports Extra.
Also, unique to Sling is the option of a 1-Day Pass, 3-Day Pass or 7-Day pass for the Sling Orange plan, which includes ESPN and ESPN2. Compare Sling’s sports packages at Sling.com/Sports.
Hulu + Live TV
Three-day free trial; packages from $89.99 per month
Watch ESPN and ABC with a subscription to Hulu + Live TV, which comes bundled with Disney+ and ESPN+. Following the three-day trial period, plans start at $89.99 per month.
