Tag: Entertainment-Variety

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for “7:00 pm,” the 13th episode of “The Pitt” Season 2, now streaming on HBO Max.

Katherine LaNasa says that her charge nurse character, Dana Evans, on “The Pitt” would never use the word “triggering,” but the Emmy winner can’t help but reach for it when trying to grapple with the end of Season 2’s 13th hour on the clock. For two episodes now, Dana has been at odds with Robby (Noah Wyle), her strongest ally in the ED and the person who typically levels her out —a service she also provides to him.

But neither is operating at their best by 7:00 p.m. on July 4th. Specifically for Dana, she’s triggered on two fronts. After her student nurse Emma (Laëtitia Hollard) was attacked by a coked-out patient, one that Dana subdued with a punch and a mysteriously handy shot of Versed, she is struggling to find any sense of calm as she bats away the PTSD of her own attack last season.

“She’s incredibly off balance,” LaNasa tells Variety. “She’s still really reeling from that punch. She didn’t take care of herself. I think it’s part of why it was really important to her that the rape victim set herself up to be able to get justice for herself, should she change her mind. Because Dana didn’t do it. Dana didn’t press charges. That’s a fine choice if you want to make that choice. But I don’t know that it’s working out well for Dana.”

Adding to her defensive behavior is Robby’s persistent inquisition about the tactics she used to handle Emma’s attacker. Every time he tries to ask about why she had a sedative in her pocket or questions what really happened, she launches into her own line of questioning about Robby’s increasingly concerning mindset around his impending motorcycle-bound sabbatical.

By the end of Episode 13, she has confronted him yet again about his inability to clearly state the true purpose of his trip and his volatile anger over the state of the ED ahead of his impending absence. She reminds him that they can survive without him until he is back, just like they did when she quit last season following her own assault.

“What if I don’t come back?” he responds in the episode’s final exchange, cutting to black on a stunned Dana’s face.

“I think that if he leaves, she’s there all alone, and Dana is a person who doesn’t face her own need for help either,” LaNasa says. “But more importantly, there is just something very organically stressed out about her with him not being OK and not making a commitment to come back. It’s that kind of unwillingness to answer me or sometimes even look at me. That would be her worst nightmare, if anything happened to him. They’ve been through this for decades together. It would be like losing a spouse in a way. So I think she’s just up to here with her inability to reach him. He’s vital to her.”

This isn’t the first shouting match they have engaged in this season, or even this episode. Their last few encounters have left Dana on the brink of tears or screaming in anger at herself in the bathroom. Robby, for his part, isn’t exactly smiling after each bout either. But this final talk of the episode is their most honest and alarming.

Before he even admits he might not come back, Dana tells Robby that he’s being overly confrontational and aggressive, and he needs to go home if that’s what he wants. Her exact words are that he needs a time-out, like she used to give her kids; he responds by telling her he doesn’t need a mother. He had one of those, he says, and she walked out on him.

In that moment, Dana learns something deeply personal about her friend and colleague that she never knew, and emphatically apologizes for stepping on an emotional landmine she didn’t know was there. Robby responds, “It doesn’t matter. Who gives a fuck?”

“I like that moment, and I try to just justify it for myself,” LaNasa says. “You could just assume that people weren’t close [with family], and if they didn’t ever open up about their parents or something, you just let it be.
I don’t have much of a relationship with one of my parents, and most people don’t really know that about me. It doesn’t really come up, so it makes sense why it hasn’t for them.”

But for Dana, her maternal instinct toward Robby comes from a genuine place of concern that her friend has decided to take his own life. “There’s a kind of panicky desperation that he triggers in her,” LaNasa says. “I think the whole thing feels terrifying, and I think it’s also happening at a time when she doesn’t feel OK. I had a therapist once that told my husband and I, ‘You both can’t have a problem at the same time. Who’s going to be the one who listens?’ At this point for Dana and Robby, nobody can listen.
Nobody’s doing OK. Nobody is the pillar.”

Even though they spend the episode oscillating between avoiding each other and going at each other, Dana never loses sight of her bedside manner. She joins Emma to continue their season-long care for the unhoused Digby (Charles Baker), whom they have bathed and now offer to give a haircut. As they gently ease him into the idea of tidying up his appearance, they talk about his family and his daughter’s wedding. Emma’s kindness toward him leaves Dana beaming, a mentor-mentee relationship that is often reserved for Robby and his residents. After worrying about her safety all day, LaNasa says it wasn’t hard to muster pride for the young woman sitting in front of her.

“It’s easy to feel,” she says.
”I also feel really proud of Laëtitia. She just graduated from Juilliard and walked onto the set. It’s incredible.”

In that scene, Dana pulls back the curtain on her own family, which she doesn’t often talk about and audiences have never seen, given the series’ four-walls, single-day framework. She mentions that she has cut her husband Benji’s hair throughout their entire marriage; she later mentions her children to Robby in their heated exchange. While the series has never drawn audiences a full family tree for Dana, LaNasa often thinks about who she is outside her pressure-cooker job. It’s second nature to her understanding of Dana, so much so that she can launch into it at a moment’s notice.

“Dana has a middle daughter that has been tricky,” she says. “That has caused her a lot of stress. You’re only doing as well as your kids. If one of your kids is doing poorly, that’s how well you’re doing. I think that she’s got a daughter that kind of keeps her a little on edge, and she’s always hoping that one’s OK. In my imagination, she is very close to her granddaughter. She has a 23-year-old granddaughter, and that’s someone that she’s looking forward to seeing on certain nights. Those are the nights that she comes over, and they have their movie and their pizza or whatever they do. They have their little rituals.”

For Dana’s husband, LaNasa doesn’t fully buy into the little insight the show’s writers have given him so far.

“I know they said that he would fly off the handle, but I would say that I generally view him as just a big, calm hunk of a man,” she says. “I think that Dana’s home is very tidy and kind of minimal, and I don’t think that she has bad taste. She just likes things calm. I think she likes her family to come over. But I think Dana is tired. Dana is really tired. I imagine, also, that she went to the family cabin out in the woods somewhere after she got punched, and she was going to take some time off. But because she wasn’t getting any help, she just really wasn’t doing well. One of her daughters was like, ‘This isn’t working for you. You need to go get some help.’ So I think she got some help. I just don’t think she got enough help.”

All of that informs the person who stands in front of Robby at the end of episode 13, pleading for him to be honest about what he really envisions for this sabbatical. LaNasa was nervous about the writers’ choice to give the sturdy duo of Robby and Dana so many hurdles this season, but she ultimately gave in to that freefall.

“Noah was really down for us to have conflict, and I said, ‘Let’s do it,’” she says. “I trust [executive producers] John Wells and R. Scott Gemmill immensely. I didn’t want it to come across that they’re nasty to each other. I want the audience to know and for the story to be that they love each other, but that they’re human and they’re struggling.”

The lifestyles of the rich and famous are so often discussed and portrayed that it feels tawdry. These stories become dull tapestries of self-absorbed people doing self-obsessed things. However, in his Apple TV dramedy, “Your Friends & Neighbors,” Jon Hamm manages to paint an intriguing picture of the ultrawealthy. The show is an in-depth, outlandish and witty depiction of some of the world’s most deplorable — and the other folks who happen to get sucked into their manic orbits. Created by Jonathan Tropper, Season 1 was a fascinating assessment of the fragility of the American dream. In Season 2, “Your Friends & Neighbors” gets more textured, showcasing a different level of affluence, the costs of lies and why wealthy white men, in particular, constantly fail upward.
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In the final episodes of “Your Friends & Neighbors” Season 1, Andrew “Coop” Cooper (Jon Hamm) is exonerated after being accused of killing a neighbor. He is also given the opportunity to return to his former employer, the prestigious hedge fund Bailey Russell. Getting cleared of a gruesome crime has boosted his social cache in his upper-class neighborhood of Westmont Village, a fictional New York suburb. But, turning down his old job as a fuck you to his former boss, Jack Bailey (Corbin Bernsen), who had so viciously ousted him in the first place, has left Coop exactly where viewers met him one year ago, financially strapped and playing pretend.
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Coop appears content to continue on with his new stream of income, partnering with Westmont house cleaner Elaina (​​Aimee Carrero) to rob his friends and neighbors of their most valuable possessions, and then pawning them on the black market. However, the arrival of a new billionaire neighbor, Owen Ashe (a perfectly cast James Marsden), quickly proves to Coop that being suspected of murder barely registers on the list of terrible things that could happen to him, especially when he’s too preoccupied providing a life he’s not certain he wants anymore.
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At first glance, Ashe appears to be a charming man-boy who throws his money around like tic tacs and acquires friends like collectibles. Yet, lurking just below the surface is something so devilishly disturbing and sinister that it unnerves even Coop. There is an sinister quality to the widowed father’s appeal wafting throughout the entire season. An absolutely sensational performance by Marsden proves that, as much as people think they know about the filthy rich, they actually don’t understand anything at all. Ashe easily reels in the Westmont residents, latching on to them so they can’t get away before his true nature emerges.
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Still, this 10-episode second season is hardly just the Coop and Ashe show. Amid an unexpected life change, Barney (Hoon Lee), Coop’s best friend and business manager, finds himself jumping over the line of morality even as his wife Grace (Eunice Bae) gets increasingly suspicious. Former NBA champion Nick Brandes (Mark Tallman) is moving on following a bad breakup with Mel (Amanda Peet), Coop’s ex-wife. Mel is adrift after getting fired from her job as a therapist and isolated from her friend group due to Coop and Sam’s (Olivia Munn) affair. She is also increasingly rageful, especially as perimenopause begins wreaking havoc on her body. Meanwhile, though Sam is a social leper in Westmont, Ashe’s interest in her may be the currency she needs to return to the in-crowd. This season also zooms in on Coop and Mel’s teenage kids, Tori (Isabel Gravitt) and Hunter (Donovan Colan), as well as Ali (Lena Hall), Coop’s sister, who is trying to find her footing without Coop looming over her.
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Season 2 fully leans into the outlandish. It has yachts, fancy cars, affairs and piles of dog shit. Yet, it is also surprisingly tender and reflective. Episode 6, “For Everything Else, There Was Bowling,” acts as an interlude in the season, reminding the audience that despite all of the privilege and chaos swirling around Coop, he’s only human and life, particularly the most devastating parts of it, touches everyone, no matter where they fall on the socioeconomic scale.
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In its second season, “Your Friends & Neighbors” ups the stakes, unveiling a world that Coop and his Westmont comrades hadn’t been privy to before. Though this season boasts several truly bonkers moments, particularly from Mel’s perspective, the series has never been more fun or shocking. It once again proves that with enough money and access, there are no rules, and the sky truly is the limit.

“Your Friends & Neighbors” Season 2 premieres April 3 on Apple TV with new episodes dropping weekly on Fridays.

Big changes are underway at Bad Robot. Details are still coming together, but sources say J.J. Abrams is beginning to downsize the production banner.

Sources were not clear on the exact number of cuts to come as a result of the downsizing, but it was characterized as being an across the board change rather than being specific to one division of the company versus another. Furthermore, Bad Robot will shutter its LA office and move operations to New York. With this smaller footprint, Abrams will continue to work with outside producers to develop feature and TV projects.

The move comes amid serious belt tightening all across Hollywood. In December 2024, Bad Robot extended its long-term deal with Warner Bros, the company’s home studio since 2006. But instead of the five-year overall deal the company inked in 2019 — estimated at nine-figures, with a structure that allowed Abrams to sign other writers to overall deals — Bad Robot signed a more modest first-look production pact that covered film and TV productions.

For nearly 30 years, Abrams and Bad Robot have been the force behind massive film and TV hits, particularly in the sci-fi genre, including “Alias,” “Lost,” “Fringe,” “Westworld,” “Super 8,” “Cloverfield,” the “Mission: Impossible” sequels and the latest “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” big-screen reboots.

Abrams founded the Santa Monica-based production company in 1999. He co-leads the banner with executive VP Bryan Burk, with Katie McGrath serving as co-CEO and overseeing culture and philanthropy.

Bad Robot most recently produced “The End of Oak Street,” a new sci-fi thriller starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor. The movie, from filmmaker David Robert Mitchell (“It Follows”), is set to debut theatrically on August 14. Then, “The Great Beyond” — Abrams’ first directorial effort since 2019’s “Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker,” starring Glen Powell, Jenna Ortega and Samuel L. Jackson — will debut in Imax theaters this November.

The company is also producing the animated feature adaptation of the Dr. Seuss classic “Oh the Places You’ll Go.” Jon M. Chu and Jill Culton are directing the movie, which features voice performances from Ariana Grande and Josh Gad; WB dated the movie for 2028. Additional titles in the works include the “Hot Wheels” movie, “Them!,” and the animated feature “Emily the Strange.” On the TV side, Bad Robot is producing a U2 biographical scripted series at Netflix and Season 2 of “Presumed Innocent” at Apple TV.

Last year, Bad Robot’s games division also inked a deal with Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) to produce and publish the studio’s upcoming project, a four-player, cooperative shooter game.

Cynthia Littleton contributed to this report.

A judge has thrown out Blake Lively‘s sexual harassment claims against Justin Baldoni, gutting her headline-grabbing lawsuit that followed the release of the domestic violence film “It Ends With Us.”

In a ruling issued Thursday, Judge Lewis Liman threw out 10 of the 13 claims in Lively’s lawsuit, including claims of harassment, defamation and conspiracy. He allowed three claims to proceed to a trial, including claims of breach of contract, retaliation and aiding and abetting in retaliation.

The two sides did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lively, the female lead, accused Baldoni, the director and co-star, of sexually harassing her on set by making unwelcome comments about her appearance and weight. She also alleged that Baldoni hired an army of publicists to retaliate against her by seeding and amplifying negative stories online.

Baldoni and his lawyers countered that Lively used exaggerated charges of misconduct to seize control of the film and then to cast Baldoni as a villain. Baldoni’s team argued that Lively’s allegations about on-set behavior amounted to nothing more than “minor grievances,” and that he had a right to defend himself from what he saw a false allegations.

“It Ends With Us” grossed $350 million worldwide, making it a remarkable hit in 2024. But the film’s release was shadowed by persistent rumors of a rift between the two leads, which has led to more than a year of messy litigation.

“It’s all a fucking disaster,” wrote Tom Rothman, film chair at Sony Pictures Entertainment, in an August 2024 email summing up the situation. “None of the who is right or wrong matters at all. The mess is the story now and will define the film. No one can watch the film in the same way. Tragic.”

A trial is due to take place in May. Baldoni and Lively attended a mediation session with a magistrate judge in February, but that did not result in a settlement.

The fight has involved several high-profile names, most notably Taylor Swift, whose lawyers have sought to keep her out of it. In a text message to Lively in the fall of 2024, Swift referred disparagingly to Baldoni, saying “I think this bitch knows something is coming because he’s gotten out his tiny violin.”

Lively also messaged Swift that Baldoni was a “clown,” and a “doofus director.”

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for “Dimension 20: On a Bus” Season 2, now streaming on Dropout.

Comedy streaming service Dropout committed to the bit hard this April Fools’ Day with the launch of a “second season” of “Dimension 20: On a Bus.”

Released in a surprise drop Wednesday, the one-episode Season 2 serves as the follow-up to a viral short video released last year alongside an episode of Dropout’s “Game Changer,” which featured a pitch for a season of “Dimension 20” with “Dragon Master” Katie Marovitch leading players (and “D&D” experts) Jasmine Bhullar (Little Army Man), Aabria Iyengar (Blue M&M), Matthew Mercer (Lint) and Brennan Lee Mulligan (Hat) as they embark on a journey on a bus going from North Hollywood to Los Angeles’ LAX airport.

Tabletop RPG newcomer Marovitch says she, “Dimension 20” creator and star Mulligan and Dropout CEO and “Game Changer” host Sam Reich did not expect the video to draw more than 6 million views. But once it did, conversations quickly began about doing a full-length episode of “On a Bus.”

“It was pretty early on we were talking about it, shortly after the original two-minute-and-30-second-long Season 1 premiered,” Marovitch told Variety. “We didn’t know it was going to be such a big thing. It’s been very exciting, seeing everyone at conventions dressed as me in my outfits. I don’t think we were anticipating that. So it sort of made sense to do another thing pretty soon after it actually premiered.”

Though not originally planned as an ongoing series, “Dimension 20: On a Bus” shot its second season in January with its original cast and their characters (with the exception of Iyengar’s original Blue M&M, “because Aabria kept eating Blue M&M,” Marovitch) resuming gameplay under Marovitch’s rules.

What began as a joke (and is now the highest-rated episode of “Dimension 20” on IMDb) remains a joke throughout most of Season 2, but Marovitch says she wanted to pay homage to the art of “D&D” while DM-ing for the group of hardcore players.

“There’s a fine line between making fun of something and then honoring it, because I actually, obviously respect [this],” Marovitch said. “They’re all incredible, and they’re so much better at this than I could ever be. So I definitely don’t want to offend anyone while I’m doing it, I just want it to be fun.”

Marovitch “cannot stress how little” she knew about “D&D” going into the original “Dimension 20: On a Bus,” but says she put a lot of effort into Season 2 plans.

“I actually did prepare a lot. I put a lot of time into thinking of the bits and like, oh, is this crossing a line? Is this going to be offensive to Brennan and the other people at the table, or is this something that’s just fun for everyone?” Marovitch said. “Also, I’m very Type A, so for me, not reading about ‘D&D’ and knowing everything about it before going in was really hard for me. But Brennan, when I talked to him beforehand, he was kind of like, the less you know about it, truthfully, is the better. Like, it’s funnier to have you going in as just an idiot. But my impulse is definitely like, oh, I should prepare in order to actually know what I’m supposed to be doing, and then sort of subvert that. But no this time, we really were like, prepare your bits. And I did prepare my bits a lot, but I really tried hard not to go further than that.”

Read more from Variety‘s interview with “Dimension 20: On a Bus” star Marovitch about Season 2 and plans for additional episodes below.

At what point in prep for “Dimension 20: On a Bus” Season 2 did you decide additional kinds of die might be helpful here? Or that you should include more than one rule in the game mechanics?

The first season, the two-minute-and-30-second-long season, I went in knowing, literally, I had no idea what I was going to say for the die system. And the six, the “perfect six,” just came to me, and then we went with that. But for this one, since it was obviously a much longer season, I thought maybe that wouldn’t be quite enough. So you will notice that there is a different system this time. It’s far more complicated. A TI-83 is involved. It might be hard for the viewers to follow it. Maybe I’m going to write something up, some sort of instruction manual, maybe my own book. I just want people to know that there’s other systems that can be used, besides the perfect six.

At the end of Season 1, had you left yourself room for where you would want go to plotwise if the story continued beyond just that bit?

Not at all. I cannot stress how little I knew going in for Season 1. Truly, I had no idea what I was going to say. The only thing that I came in with was that there was going to be a bus. And then for Season 2, obviously, I put a lot of time into the pitch, genuinely. Through talking to Brennan, he was really like, no, try not to think too much about the plot, because that actually makes it harder. If the DM knows exactly what they want to do, and then obviously you’re working with other players, it’s all dependent on what they say. So for me, Season 1, I cannot stress enough how little thought went into it. I had to rewatch the season multiple times. I was like, what did I even say? I have no idea what I did.

This was shot in January. How long did it take to film?

It was one day, and it actually started late, and some people were already on set in the morning. So it was a long day that started sort of late, and it was nice. I got to bring my baby to set and it’s fun being a new parent and trying to work in pumping and breastfeeding and all that. But it was a blast.

You use a lot of props from previous seasons of “Dimension 20” in this episode. Did Brennan give you full access to the prop room, or suggest certain pieces to use?

The team behind this was truly incredible. Obviously, I know nothing about “D&D,” but they really helped pull together all the props from various seasons that they thought could work. And it was really a collaboration for the bits, where people who knew a lot more than I did would bring something up. Like the Critical Role Vecna — which, obviously I would have no idea, I would not be able to come up with that bit, because I’ve never seen it. So that was definitely someone else coming up with that. It was really a collaboration. And definitely the best bits are from other people who are way more knowledgeable than I am.

During the episode, you disclose that you were approached by Critical Role to take over as a “replacement” for an unnamed person on that show. Are those talks still ongoing?

I like to believe they’re ongoing. And yeah, I’m kind of choosing to believe that that will happen. Whether or not that was true, remains to be seen. But for me, I’m choosing to believe that those talks are ongoing.

You also told Brennan that you were given a much larger budget than the average season of “Dimension 20” gets from Dropout. How much more would you say?

I think they said I got, like, triple the budget? And obviously, I mean, you saw it — yes, we used it. We used the money. The Cheeto budget alone, I think I had $5,000. And we did go through it all, obviously.

These new additions — the “Mr. Questions” badge, the Cheetos-filled dice tray — do you see these being incorporated into standard gameplay on Brennan’s future seasons of “Dimension 20”?

I like to believe that they will be sort of not just for “D20,” I like to believe that they’re going to be sort of just what everyone does across all of “D&D” in general. I like to believe that’s just going to be a part of gameplay from now on. And that’s sort of the reality I’m choosing to live in.

At the end of the episode, you quote one of Brennan’s iconic lengthy monologues from “Dimension 20: A Crown of Candy.” Why did you pick that particular speech for this moment in “On a Bus”?

It was so weird, because I didn’t even know that that was from that. Like, I just started sort of talking from the heart and then the people behind the scenes shot me over that thing, and I was like, oh, my God. We’re, again, me and Brennan are so in sync. We come up with the exact same monologs, word for word, like, all the time, and it’s just another example of that. So, yeah, for me, no, I’d never seen it. And no, I certainly wasn’t stealing it. It was independent, yeah, for sure.

Was this a one-time expansion of the bit or will there be more? Is there a “Dimension 20: On a Bus” Season 3 in the works?

Yeah, I plan on annoying Sam and Brennan enough where they sort of do whatever they can possibly do to shut me up. So I can promise you, we’re doing a Season 3. Although [the Dropout PR monitoring this interview] is going to say, “No, Katie has no right to promise things like that. Please don’t put that in the article. Katie has no authority.” But I’m telling you, Jenny, I promise there’s going to be a Season 3, there’s going to be Season 4, there’s going to be a Season 5.

All on a bus? Or are you thinking that “Dimension 20: On a Bus” could then be a franchise itself with further spinoffs?

I love that question. I’m seeing “Dimension 20: In an Uber.” Not to blow your mind, but I could see it in a Waymo. We’re in 2026, here. We got to start thinking big. I could definitely see it in a spaceship. You know, let’s go to space. I think there’s so much. It’s such a rich world and I’m so ready to just keep exploring. “Dimension 20: On a Bus” Season 10 might be in space, for sure, or underwater, haven’t decided.

Well, in Season 2 you already go on a plane, so it’s accelerating quickly. While shooting the episode, did you pre-plan to have each of the cast members come into the DM chair to take over at different points or did that just happen?

No, I had no idea I was gonna be doing that. I did it with Matt, just as a bit. That was my first one. And then I thought, well, hold on, this is a way for the story to actually advance much better than how I could do it, so maybe this is a good idea and I should keep doing it. I don’t think all of their turns, like the full length, obviously, didn’t make it in. But truly, the best parts of the episode are when I’m not in the driver’s seat.

Did you take what they said and learn from it and use it throughout the rest?

Yes. And actually, I think you can see on my face when I had sort of a light bulb moment every time where they said something so much smarter than anything that I could ever have come up with. And I thought, oh, yeah, we have to do that. We have to keep pursuing whatever that was. You can see, truly, whenever I’m not in the chair, I’m just like a little kid, just like giddy with excitement that someone else is saying something far smarter than what I could say.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” now playing in theaters.

Just like its predecessor, “The Super Mario Galaxy” movie is packed with characters, enemies and power-ups from the entire history of “Mario” video games — but this time there are nods to several other Nintendo titles.

The first major crossover came with the reveal that Glen Powell would be voicing “Star Fox” pilot Fox McCloud in the sequel. Fox, who’s also one of the original characters from the “Super Smash Bros.” fighting series alongside Mario, plays a surprisingly substantial role for a non-“Mario” character. He meets Mario, Luigi, Peach and Yoshi while they’re stranded in space and surrounded by tons of unfamiliar characters. He offers to fly them in his Arwing spaceship and joins the battle against Bowser and Bowser Jr. — he even gets his own backstory flashback.

In the first post-credits scene, Fox and one of the Toads fly to a deserted prison where Bowser (now in his Dry Bowser form after being burnt by lava) and Bowser Jr. sit defeated. The “Star Fox” music plays over the quick scene, and many fans are hoping this leads to a “Star Fox” movie or even a “Super Smash Bros.” crossover.

Characters from all over the Nintendo universe and beyond (like Sonic and Pac-Man) come together to battle in the “Super Smash Bros.” games, and now many characters have been introduced in the “Mario” movies. Mario, Fox, Luigi, Yoshi and Donkey Kong have been on every “Super Smash Bros.” roster, and characters like Peach, Bowser, Bowser Jr., Rosalina and Diddy Kong joined later on. There were also cameos from R.O.B., Mr. Game & Watch and Captain Olimar’s Pikmin in “Super Mario Galaxy,” totaling 13 references to “Smash Bros.” characters — plus one more in the final post-credits scene.

Peach’s royal counterpart Princess Daisy pops up in the final scene of the movie, introducing one of the “Mario” series’ most popular characters. Earlier in “Super Mario Galaxy,” Luigi referenced wanting a princess of his own after Mario and Peach grow close, and it appears he’ll get his wish if a third movie is made. Daisy is often portrayed as Luigi’s love interest, and she appears in many of the “Mario” video games and as an alternate version of Peach in “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.”

Check out all of the video game cameos from “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” below.

The BBC has admitted that it was aware of a police investigation into allegations Scott Mills engaged in sexual offenses involving a teenage boy.

One of the BBC’s top radio presenters, Mills was dismissed on Tuesday, seemingly out of the blue. It soon emerged he had been questioned by police in 2018 in relation to the allegation.

Now the BBC has said that despite being aware of the investigation, it hired him last year to takeover from Zoe Ball on its flagship program “The Breakfast Show.”

“Scott Mills had a long career across the BBC, he was hugely popular and we know the news this week has come as a shock and surprise to many,” a spokesperson for the BBC said in a statement on Wednesday. “We also recognise there’s been much speculation in the media and online since Monday. We hope people understand that there is a limit to what we can say because we have to be mindful of the rights of those involved.”

“What we can confirm is that in recent weeks, we obtained new information relating to Scott and we spoke directly with him. As a result, the BBC acted decisively in line with our culture and values and terminated his contracts on Friday 27 March.”

“The BBC has made a significant commitment to improve its culture, processes and standards. Last year, following an independent culture review, we set out the behavioural expectations for everyone who works with or for the BBC and we were clear action would be taken if these were not met. Separately, we can confirm the BBC was made aware in 2017 of the existence of an ongoing police investigation, which was subsequently closed in 2019 with no arrest or charge being made. We are doing more work to understand the detail of what was known by the BBC at this time.”

The broadcasting corporation, which celebrated its centenary in 2022, has been under increasing scrutiny after a string of its top talent has been investigated by police for sexual offenses and in some cases charged. They include top news anchor Huw Edwards, who was convicted of possessing indecent images of children, TV and radio host Russell Brand, who is set to stand trial later this year for rape and sexual assault (which he denies), TV presenter Rolf Harris, who died in 2023 after serving prison time for sexual assault, and DJ Tim Westwood, who was accused of multiple counts of sexual misconduct, which he denies.

The most infamous sexual offender at the BBC remains TV presenter and radio DJ Jimmy Savile, whose decades of prolific sexual abuse came to light only after his death in 2011.

India holds one of the world’s largest film archives. Abhishek Prasad believes it is also one of the industry’s most underexploited commercial goldmines.

The director and CTO of Prasad Corp is not the only one making that argument. The NFDC-National Film Archive of India has been digitizing titles under the government-backed National Film Heritage Mission, while Shivendra Singh Dungarpur’s Film Heritage Foundation has spearheaded landmark restorations of classics including Bimal Roy’s “Do Bigha Zamin” and Girish Kasaravalli’s “Ghatashraddha,” the latter in partnership with Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation World Cinema Project. But where those efforts have been driven primarily by cultural imperatives, Prasad sees restoration increasingly as a commercial proposition – and one with global reach.

The Chennai-based post-production house has recently completed 8K restorations of a slate of Indian classics including “3 Idiots,” “Munnabhai MBBS,” “Lage Raho Munnabhai,” “1942: A Love Story,” and “Mission Kashmir,” drawn from the catalogue of Vidhu Vinod Chopra Productions, and “Athadu” headlined by Telugu-language cinema superstar Mahesh Babu. The company has also carried out 8K restoration work on classic Hollywood titles including “My Fair Lady” and “West Side Story.”

“When we restore a film in 8K, what we are really doing is rediscovering the extraordinary detail that already exists within the original film negative,” Prasad tells Variety. “Film as a medium contains far more visual information than earlier digital formats were able to capture.”

For titles such as “3 Idiots” or “Munnabhai MBBS,” the stakes go beyond technical quality. “These are not just films – they are cultural milestones,” Prasad says. “Preserving them in 8K ensures that they remain visually relevant for decades to come, whether they are screened in theaters, streamed globally, or archived for future formats that may emerge.”

The commercial logic behind high-resolution restoration has sharpened considerably as streaming platforms have come to depend on catalogue depth. Rights holders who once treated older films as passive assets are now managing them as long-term intellectual property portfolios, with restoration serving as the mechanism to unlock that value. “A properly restored film becomes technically viable for modern distribution channels,” Prasad says. “Catalogues that might once have been dormant are now being actively monetized.”

Restoration, in Prasad’s framing, effectively resets the commercial lifecycle of a film. A title restored to 8K with immersive audio can be re-licensed to global streaming platforms, re-released theatrically for anniversaries, programmed at festivals, or introduced to markets it never reached in its original run. “Restoration becomes the bridge that connects India’s cinematic past with the global digital distribution ecosystem of today,” he says.

The technical bar for such work is considerable. Prasad describes the 8K process as involving frame-by-frame repair, careful preservation of the film’s natural grain structure – which he distinguishes from noise, calling it “an essential part of the film’s visual character” – and preparation for HDR color spaces, high-dynamic-range displays and immersive audio formats such as Dolby Atmos. On working on Hollywood classics such as “My Fair Lady” and “West Side Story,” he says, “Projects of this nature demand an exceptional level of technical precision and respect for cinematic heritage.”

The scale of what remains unrestored in India is significant. Film negatives deteriorate through humidity, chemical decay and physical damage, and without timely intervention, important works risk being lost entirely. Prasad points to the National Film Heritage Mission as a crucial public-sector effort, while arguing that private studios and rights holders must also invest. “If approached systematically, India could potentially restore thousands of films over the coming decades,” he says, “ensuring both cultural preservation and renewed commercial value.”

Prasad Corp counts itself among a small number of facilities globally capable of offering end-to-end restoration services, covering physical film repair, chemical treatment, high-resolution scanning, digital restoration, colour grading and sound remastering. The company’s longer-term ambition is for India itself to emerge as a hub within the global preservation ecosystem.

“With the scale of our film heritage and the technical expertise that has developed in the country,” Prasad says, “India has the potential to contribute meaningfully to the global ecosystem of restoring and preserving cinema for future generations.“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Oscar and Palme d’Or-winning “Anatomy of a Fall” director Justine Triet has expanded the cast for her next feature and full English-language debut.

“Fonda” was first announced prior to Berlin Film Festival with Mia Goth (“Frankenstein”), Andrew Scott (“All of Us Strangers”), Frank Dillane (“Urchin”) and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (“Candyman”) signed up to star and Allison Janney (“The West Wing,” “I Tonya”) in talks.

Now, Janney has officially joined the cast in addition to “Marty Supreme” breakout Odessa A’zion, fast-rising British star Ewan Mitchell (“House of the Dragon,” “Wuthering Heights”), three-time Emmy winner Cherry Jones (“24,” “The Handmaid’s Tale”) and established U.K. actor Benedict Wong (“Weapons,” “Doctor Strange”). Shooting is scheduled from April to June.

According to its synopsis, “Fonda” is a “psychological thriller set in a seemingly idyllic huis clos,” set to take audiences “on a vertiginous dive into the shifting limits of a sound mind, as grief and obsession take hold.”

“Fonda” reunites writer-director Triet with both her “Anatomy of a Fall” producers Marie-Ange Luciani (Les Films de Pierre) and David Thion (Les Films Pelléas), as well as sales agent MK2 Films. Delphine Tomson, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s Belgian company Les Films du Fleuve (“Rosetta”) are co-producing the film. U.K. partners House Productions (“Conclave,” “The Zone of Interest”) and BBC Film have also joined the project as co-producers.

MK2 Films (“Sentimental Value”) is handling international sales and is also financing and co-producing, alongside Studiocanal’s Anna Marsh, Francois Mergier and Assia Barge. Nathanaël Karmitz, Elisha Karmitz and Fionnuala Jamison are also credited as producers. Studiocanal will distribute “Fonda” theatrically in its own territories including France, Germany, Italy, Benelux, Poland, Australia and New Zealand. IPR.VC, with which MK2 Films has a multi-year financing deal, is also a financier. Casting for the film has been assembled by Cynthia Arra (“Anatomy of a Fall”) and Kharmel Cochrane (“Saltburn”). 

A new Dubai-based company called Storyfied Ventures dedicated to strategic partnerships between brands and entertainment content in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is being launched by producer and marketing executive Casper Shirazi. 

The startup outfit is being touted as “the region’s first strategic brand-entertainment partner built for the realities of a fast-shifting media and advertising landscape,” according to a statement.

Storyfied Ventures will operate “across film, television, documentaries, creator content, music-led entertainment, kids content, and branded storyworld extensions,” the statement said.

The company aims to “help brands turn their stories into monetisable intellectual property, with screen-IP as the anchor – then extend into consumer products, licensing, and other business lines where relevant,” it added.

Storyfied Ventures is backed by a board of directors comprising Catherine Barr, who is global head of marketing at Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and a former global expansion and brand strategy leader for HBO Max; and Los Angeles-based entertainment lawyer Joseph Lanius. Lanius will serve as Storyfied Ventures’ business affairs lead through his Convergence Media Law firm. His production credits include upcoming Mark Waters-directed “Hershey” movie.  

Shirazi’s production credits include upcoming foodie comedy “Holy Molé” toplining Tim Roth and Cristo Fernández.

“In today’s ultra-fragmented media landscape, brands need a true 360-degree relationship with audiences, and that only happens when storytelling is built as IP,” Shirazi noted in the statement.

“Short-form can drive discovery, but long-form screen content is what holds attention, deepens engagement, and creates lasting affinity. That’s the gap in the region today: there is no shortage of content, but there is a shortage of owned narrative IP that can extend brand relevance and turn audiences into advocates.”

Shirazi continued: “Our region is living through an incredibly difficult and defining period. But it is also entering a new one. Even in uncertain times, we are certain that this is the right place and the right time for Storyfied – when brand voices matter more than ever to help restore confidence, build trust, and connect more deeply with audiences. In what comes next, trust will be earned through the stories we tell. That’s why we now exist: to help define a new content economy for the region – built on brand-owned IP.”