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Prime Video’s breakout reality hoax sitcom, “Jury Duty,” is back with an even more hilarious concept and a thoroughly endearing straight man. Created by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, “Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat” follows a fictional family-owned hot sauce brand (“Rockin’ Grandma’s”) and its temporary assistant, Anthony Norman, who is brought in to help with the annual company retreat.

Here’s where things get spicy: Anthony has agreed to be a part of a documentary about Rockin’ Grandma’s — but he has no idea that everything about his experience is staged. Hilarious, preposterous and absolutely joyous, “Company Retreat” takes the “Jury Duty” concept (which focused on a mark unknowingly cast among comedians posing as jurors inside a fake courtroom in Season 1) to the next level.
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“Company Retreat” opens in Los Angeles, where 25-year-old Anthony, a transplant from Nashville, introduces himself to the documentary crew. He thinks he’s been hired by Rockin Grandma’s Head of HR, Kevin (Ryan Perez), to assist at the upcoming retreat. Kevin explains that this year’s retreat is extra-special because the founder/CEO, Doug (Jerry Hauck), is retiring, and his son Dougie (Alex Bonifer) will be taking over the role. When Anthony is introduced to the young successor, it’s immediately clear that Dougie doesn’t have the chops to lead himself, let alone a business. Still, wanting to be a team player, Anthony is warm, friendly, and offers an encouraging word to the future CEO — despite Dougie’s obvious nerves and his random outbursts in Jamaican Patois. (As part of the made-up character’s made-up backstory, Dougie lived on the island for several years and was in the rock band called “The JA Prophets.”)
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In addition to Dougie, Rockin’ Grandma’s employees all have their eccentricities. Amy (Emily Pendergast) is a customer relations specialist and die-hard Swiftie who is celebrating her 40th birthday on Anthony’s first day. Receptionist PJ (Marc-Sully Saint-Fleur) has dreams of becoming a snack influencer. Kate (Erica Hernandez), the type-A sales and marketing rep, wears a posture-monitoring device that zaps her with an electric shock if she slouches. Warehouse manager Jimmy (Jim Woods) is basically Creed from “The Office” after addiction recovery. Jackie (LaNisa Frederick), who works in distribution and logistics, is just happy to be away from her kids. Accountant Helen (Stephanie Hodge) is known to say exactly what’s on her mind while slipping a shot or two into her Stanley Cup. Other Anthony (Rob Lathan) is the sourcing manager who’s sleeping on Helen’s love seat because his condo is covered in mold. Finally, there is salesman Steve (Warren Burke), who’s the most even-keeled of the bunch.
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The opening episode, “Onboarding,” hits the ground running with the first day of the retreat. Enthusiastic and boasting a can-do attitude, Anthony is happy to assist Kevin, who has labeled himself “Captain Fun.” Viewers are also introduced to Marjorie (Blair Beeken), the activities lead at Oak Canyon Ranch, as well as Rockin’ Grandma’s sole remote worker, web designer Claire (Rachel Kaly), who appears to be terrified by the sun and wholly unnerved by other human beings.

Though the first day at Oak Canyon starts off promisingly, it ends with a bit of a curffluffle. After a cringeworthy but amusing incident forces Kevin to return home, Anthony is left in charge of the retreat’s logistics and must take on the role (and hat) of “Captain Fun.”
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“Company Retreat’s” ultra-talented cast, along with writer Anthony King and director Jake Szymanski provide the structure, hijinks and fun of the show. However, as the one person on set who truly has no idea that this is completely a lark, Anthony is truly the heart of the season. A hard-working young father, he is optimistic and warm, allowing all his new co-workers to be themselves.

Over the course of the eight-episode season, Anthony is seen offering tidbits of advice to Dougie and Claire, doing TikTok snack videos with PJ, and as a genuine, amazing team player and friend. Though he’s only contracted to be at Rockin’ Grandma’s for a week, Anthony quickly endears himself to his newfound colleagues and the audience. This is heightened after he learns that Doug is considering selling the business to the high-powered, quarter-zip-wearing private equity investors Triukas and its sinister director Elizabeth (Wendy Braun).
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From the case of the stolen Doritos to the revelation of a secret romantic relationship, as well as countless nonsensical seminars, the “Dougathalon,” and some chaotic dinner theater, “Company Retreat” is absolutely hysterical. Though Anthony is completely oblivious about this being a farce, he’s never the butt of the joke. Instead, he goes out of his way to ensure that each person he encounters (except Elizabeth) feels welcome and seen. His intelligence, care and curiosity are something rarely seen on unscripted television, and it’s the reason why this truly distinct franchise continues to flourish even in Season 2.
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Like its predecessor, 2023’s “Jury Duty” (which originally streamed on the now-defunct Amazon Freevee), “Company Retreat” soars because of its wholesome depiction of humanity. Despite his co-workers’ quirks, Anthony is kind and accepting, even when he has to chuckle about the insanity around him. Despite any of the hijinks of the retreat, it’s clear that he and everyone around him are having a fantastic time. Like Season 1’s Ronald Gladden, Anthony Norman proves there really are a few lovely gems still sprinkled among our ever-eroding society.

The first three episodes of “Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat” debut March 20 on Prime Video, with the remaining episodes airing weekly on Fridays.

“Grey’s Anatomy” creator Shonda Rhimes is not angry over the exclusion of Eric Dane from the Oscars’ televised In Memoriam section. Dane, who died in February at 53 years old after a battle with ALS, was one of several prominent actors who were not included in the In Memoriam segment. James Van Der Beek, Brigitte Bardot, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Robert Carradine, and “Harold and Maude” star Bud Cort were also excluded.

“Well, he’s not a movie star,” Rhimes told Entertainment Tonight after the Oscars amid instant backlash over Dane and other actors’ omissions. “I feel like when the Emmys come around, he will be immortalized the way he should be. I don’t think… we can’t fault the Oscars for the fact they’re looking at movies, and there were so many people who were lost… Eric was unique to television.”

The Oscars’ In Memoriam section was expanded this year during the live ceremony to include larger tributes to Robert Redford, Diane Keaton and Rob Reiner. Barbra Streisand sang parts of “The Way We Were” to honor co-star Redford, while Keaton’s “The Family Stone” co-star Rachel McAdams gave a heartfelt speech honoring the “Annie Hall” Oscar winner. Reiner’s tribute was one of the emotional highs of the Oscars, Billy Crystal paying tribute to his dear friend and then being joined on stage by dozens of actors from Reiner’s movies, from Kathy Bates to Meg Ryan, Jerry O’Connell, Annette Bening and more.

“Eric is—was an incredible human being,” Rhimes told ET. “And I still say ‘is’ because it’s very hard for me to believe he’s gone. He was a huge loss for us. He was a huge loss for the Shondaland family, for the ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ family, and honestly the people that he knew. He was just a wonderful, wonderful giving guy. And I don’t think everybody understands how amazing he was.”

Dane appeared as Dr. Mark Sloan, memorabaly dubbed McSteamy, for 145 episodes of the ABC medical drama. On behalf of her company, Shondaland, Rhimes wrote in the hours after Dane’s death that he “was a beloved member of the Shondaland and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ families. He was truly a gifted actor whose portrayal of Dr. Mark Sloan left an indelible mark on the series and on audiences around the world.”

“We are grateful for the artistry, spirit, friendship and humanity he shared with us for so many years. Our hearts are with his family, loved ones, and all who were touched by his work,” Rhimes concluded at the time.

The last time Drew Goddard adapted one of Andy Weir’s books, it earned him an Oscar nomination. Plus, “The Martian,” the film that Goddard wrote, was a blockbuster hit. But when he got the call to handle screenplay duties on “Project Hail Mary,” Weir’s bestselling story of a science teacher on a mission to save humanity with the help of a crab-like alien, he hesitated.

“‘The Martian’ was such a magical experience, but there’s something about going back to the well,” Goddard said. “You worry you’re just trying to do an imitation of a previous movie. But then I read the book and loved it. It was much more challenging to adapt, because the scope was much bigger. And it’s got this deep, emotional story about a human and an alien that I couldn’t resist.”

Goddard is in a Manhattan hotel room, three days removed from the world premiere of “Project Hail Mary.” The $200 million science-fiction epic stars Ryan Gosling and was directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the team behind “21 Jump Street” and the “Spider-Verse” animated franchise. Critics have widely embraced the space epic, praising its humor and heart, and the film is expected to dominate the box office this weekend. But Goddard, one of Hollywood’s most in-demand filmmakers and writers, won’t be checking the grosses.

“I’ve been working on this film for six years — we had COVID and the strikes — so it took a really long time,” Goddard says. “It’s enjoyable to have people finally discovering it, but looking at the box office results is like checking out your old graduation photos. It seems so long ago. I’m just grateful that we got to make it.”

Goddard has plenty of other things keeping him busy. “High Potential,” a crime series he created for ABC, recently got picked up for a third season, and he’s executive producing Netflix’s “Pagans,” a supernatural drama from “Say Nothing” creator Joshua Zetumer. Then he’s entering “The Matrix” and taking over writing and directing duties from the Wachowskis on a reboot of the iconic sci-fi series.

Why were you drawn to “Project Hail Mary”?

Andy really wanted to do something different with this alien. He doesn’t speak our language. He doesn’t even have a face. He doesn’t have expressive features. He can’t exist in the same atmosphere. That sounds good when you read it, but then you go, how are we going to dramatize this? It scared me to death, and that’s where I like to live.

Beyond creating a believable alien character, what other challenges did you face in adapting “Project Hail Mary”?

So much of the story takes place from the protagonist’s point of view and Ryan’s character doesn’t know what’s happening initially. He’s trying to figure out why he’s in space. And for half of the movie, he doesn’t have anyone to talk to. So how do you make that work for a movie? Let’s be honest, most scenes in movies are people talking. Ryan really wanted to be true to what the character was going through. In early drafts, I used some of my old crutches from “The Martian,” where Matt Damon is talking to camera, because scientists document their work. But Ryan rightfully pointed out that his character is a high school teacher who finds himself in space. He’s not going to take the time to document everything. He’s just trying to survive. As soon as he said it, I knew he was right.

This is based on a preexisting text, but were there movies you looked to for inspiration?

It was all rooted in Andy. When I look back, however, I see James Cameron’s influence on structure. He from my point of view, for big event movies, there’s nobody better at structure. If you look at something like “Titanic,” we meet two kids, they fall in love, we root for them, the ship hits the iceberg, right? If you look at “The Abyss,” there’s a couple trying to put their marriage back together when the encounter this fantastic thing. Both these movies are about two individuals dealing with these big emotional things in the middle of wildly complicated situations.

That’s interesting because I feel like James Cameron’s writing gets knocked a lot.

It does, but unfairly. If you look at “The Terminator,” it’s a profoundly emotional film. It’s not just about a robot who shows up to kill people. It’s about this woman and how she deals with this chaos.

How did Christopher Miller and Phil Lord’s approach differ from “The Martian” director Ridley Scott’s?

They couldn’t be more different. Ridley is very formal in his approach. He storyboards himself, so he knows every shot of the movie six weeks out. Phil and Chris come from animation, which is more of an iterative process where they’re constantly trying and trying things. Neither approach is wrong. You just have to do what’s right for the movie. In “Project Hail Mary” the main character is a fish out of water. You need it to feel rough around the edges, even a little sloppy. We don’t want to feel like he’s a perfect astronaut. And then there’s the character of Rocky. I don’t know anyone else who could have realized the logistics of making that rock crab come to life. In their animation, Phil and Chris thrive in finding the humanity inside of these crazy characters. That’s what this film required.

Do Phil and Chris encourage a lot of improvisation?

Oh yeah. They are improvisation masters, and I’ve never seen anyone better at it than Ryan.

This project was greenlit before MGM was sold to Amazon. Were you worried that it might not survive the merger?

Absolutely. The sad truth is that over the course of my career, I’ve had projects at studios that have been bought by other studios so many times. Often they don’t get made. But Amazon loved what we were doing.

What are some of the films that got scrapped that you’ve worked on?

I had a big Spider-Man movie about the Sinister Six go down because of the Sony hack. My office was right on the lot, and I saw the FBI swarm in and the helicopters fly over the studio. I was sad about it, but there was literally nothing I could do to change the course of events. I suppose it was better than if they hadn’t liked the script.

You’ve been tapped to write and direct “The Matrix 5.” What’s your take on it?

I can’t say too much, because we’re still in the stage of writing it. I need to give myself space to find the best story. I think the approach will be the way I approach anything, which is, do I love it? And I love what Lana and Lilly Wachowski did with those movies. They mean so much to me and I feel like they’ve had a profound impact on my creative voice. I take this responsibility very seriously. I feel the weight of wanting to do right by the fans, wanting to do right by the creators and wanting to do right for myself as a fan.

Will Keanu Reeves and the original cast return?

I can’t speak to that.

Why do you think the fourth “Matrix” didn’t resonate as strongly at the box office?

I don’t know. It certainly resonated with me. When I watched the movie, I was deeply moved. It may be the most emotional of the of the four. I know it got caught up in the COVID times and it was when Warner Bros. was putting everything on streaming.

What’s your writing process?

I’ve sort of honed a very chaotic process, which came from my TV training, because we would have to generate 60 pages in eight days over and over. The way you would do it is you focus really intently on the story. I’m not a person that wants to do 18 drafts to find the story. I’ll do 50 drafts of outlines, then when it’s time to write, I put all that away and handwrite every script. That goes back to college where a writing teacher said, “If you work on your computer, try handwriting, because unleashing your creativity is about tricking your brain to think you’re not working.” I took that to heart. I sit outside when I write. I try to make it feel playful.

What’s a movie that you’ve seen recently and really admired for its writing?

There’s so many, but I’d have to say “Weapons.” Zach Cregger’s script is extraordinary. There was a point in “Weapons,” like an hour in, where I realized I couldn’t even blink because I was afraid to look away from the screen. I didn’t know what was about to happen. It was thrilling. And I felt the same way about “Sinners” and “Sentimental Value.”

When Obama recently said there were aliens, did you think what great marketing for “Project Hail Mary”?

I probably should have, but I didn’t. I grew up in New Mexico, so I’m well versed in alien lore. Mostly, I was excited about him mentioning it because I thought it might mean we’re gonna get new information. Andy Weir takes this seriously. He comes from a reality-based approach to science fiction. He’s thinking, if a first contact situation were to happen, what would it look like? This is his answer.

Leyla Bouzid’s “In a Whisper” and Cédric Klapisch’s “Colors of Time” were the top winners at the 31st edition of Unifrance and Film at Lincoln Center’s Rendez-Vous With French Cinema.

“In a Whisper,” which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, took the Best Emerging Filmmaker Award at the New York showcase. Bouzid’s third film, following “A Tale of Love and Desire” and “As I Open My Eyes,” “In a Whisper” stars Eya Bouteraa (“Red Path”) as Lilia, a woman who returns to Tunisia for her uncle’s funeral and uncovers revelations about his life that echo secrets within her own family. Bouteraa stars opposite Hiam Abbass in the drama. Strand Releasing acquired it for U.S. distribution in Berlin.

The award was decided by a six-member student jury composed of New York City college students selected by partner universities. The jury praised the film’s cinematography, “noting how it elevates every aspect of the work and contributes to a seamless blend of emotion, storytelling and visual artistry.”

Cédric Klapisch’s “Colors of Time,” meanwhile, won the Audience Award. The Studiocanal movie, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, unfolds between Normandy and Paris and follows four distant cousins who reunite at a family home and retrace the journey of a 19th-century ancestor. The ensemble-driven narrative explores themes of family legacy and generational ties with a cast led by Suzanne Lindon, Abraham Wapler, Vincent Macaigne and Julia Piaton.

This year’s edition saw an uptick in participation as ticket sales climbed 23% compared with 2025, with 10,500 tickets issued across the event. Featuring 10 films directed by women and seven helmed by first- or second-time filmmakers, the event also welcomed 897 students to free screenings and hosted talks attended by more than 50 participants.

The Rendez-Vous kicked off on March 5 with the New York premiere of François Ozon’s adaptation of Albert Camus’ novel “The Stranger” and wrapped with Julia Ducournau’s “Alpha.”

Other films that premiered at the showcase include Pauline Loquès’ “Nino;” Olivier Assayas’s Venice-premiering political drama “The Wizard of the Kremlin,” starring Jude Law as a fictionalized Vladimir Putin opposite Paul Dano; Dominik Moll’s procedural “Case 137,” set during the Yellow Vests protests and starring Léa Drucker; Valérie Donzelli’s “At Work”; Arnaud Desplechin’s melodrama “Two Pianos”; Stéphane Demoustier’s historical epic “The Great Arch,” Hafsia Herzi’s coming-of-age drama “The Little Sister;” and Jean-Paul Salomé’s “L’Affaire Bojarski,” among others.

Some of the highlights included a masterclass hosted by Assayas discussing “The Wizard of the Kremlin” at Columbia University; as well as a Q&A with Assayas after a screening of his 2002 film “Demonlover.” Industry events also included a panel that brought together producers Julie Billy (‘The Little Sister’), Leah Chen Baker (‘The President’s Cake’) and Stephanie Roush (‘Union County’).