Tag: HollywoodReporter

Hyun Bin and Jung Woo-sung’s hit cat-and-mouse thriller series is entering its endgame. Made in Korea, Disney+’s prestige period crime drama, will return Sept. 9 for a second and final season, with the streamer dropping a teaser trailer for the six-episode conclusion on Tuesday.

Season two picks up nine years after the first season’s events. Baek Kitae (Hyun Bin), having framed the one prosecutor he couldn’t buy, has risen to deputy director of the KCIA, growing his fortune and expanding his drug operations across the region. But as political turmoil spreads, his old nemesis Jang Geonyoung (Jung Woo-sung) steps out of the shadows to enact a carefully plotted revenge — with both men, as Disney puts it, prepared to “break every rule and cross every line to eliminate the other once and for all.”

The first season, which premiered in December 2025, introduced Kitae as an ambitious KCIA agent living a double life: government operative by day, smuggler by night, using his illicit empire to consolidate power, protect his brother and enrich the agency — until he collides with a prosecutor who couldn’t be bought or bribed. Disney renewed the show for a second season before the first had even aired, and the series eventually ranked as the most-viewed Korean original premiere of 2025 on Disney+ across Asia-Pacific.

The new season reunites the same core creative team. Park Eun-kyo, co-writer of Bong Joon Ho’s Mother, again scripted every episode, with filmmaker Woo Min-ho, known for his political thrillers The Man Standing Next and Inside Men, returing to direct. Park is also in business with Disney as the writer of The Koreans, Hulu and Disney+’s high-profile forthcoming local reimagining of FX’s The Americans. Woo Dohwan (Bloodhounds) returns to the series as Kitae’s brother, Baek Kihyun. The series is again produced by local powerhouse Hive Media Corp. 

The final season opens with two episodes on Sept. 9, followed by two new episodes each Wednesday through the Sept. 23 finale, streaming on Disney+ and Hulu. 

If you’re looking up the credits for Ice Cream Man on IMDB, you might as well skip past director/co-screenwriter Eli Roth and the extensive cast list. Because the real stars of this ultra-gonzo horror film are the folks in the makeup department, especially prosthetics designers Steve Newburn and Adrien Morot (the latter an Oscar winner for his work on The Whale). Sure, Roth came up with the story and co-wrote the screenplay. But his efforts would have been for naught if you didn’t fully believe the sights of young children dismembering their parents’ bodies or playing games of tetherball and tag with human heads. Not to mention the tug of war using human intestines.

If all of that sounds like a euphoric cinematic experience, then this the film for you. It’s certainly the film for its auteur, who conceived the idea more than two decades ago and has been trying to make it ever since. Since the major studios passed on his idea about a townful of kids turned into crazed, murderous zombies, Roth formed his own company, The Horror Section, to distribute his labor of love. Not surprisingly, the film is being released unrated.

The film doesn’t feature a particularly complicated scenario. The strange-looking driver of a weirdly decorated ice cream truck driving through the sort of idyllic American small town painted by Norman Rockwell distributes his frozen wares to the local children, and they promptly turn into homicidal little creatures staring blankly into space and sporting severely discolored lips. They go after their adult prey with such demonic enthusiasm it makes you wonder why George Romero never thought of the idea, a sort of “Bugsy Malone of the Living Dead.”

One hopes Roth has gotten his worst instincts out with this effort, which, considering that it comes from the maker of such films as Cabin Fever, Hostel and Thanksgiving, is saying something.

The silent, perpetually smiling ice cream truck vendor, played chillingly by Canadian actor Ari Millen (Orphan Black), is certainly a creepy figure who could give Art the Clown in the Terrifier movies a run for his money. Except that the Ice Cream Man is less a psycho killer than an evil enabler, one whose frozen treats turn otherwise normal children into pint-sized killing machines displaying remarkable ingenuity in their methods of slaughter. The Ice Cream Man does pitch in at times, including serving a teacher’s scooped-out brains to him in a cone.

The little darlings, who include a girl who walks around the neighborhood holding her mother’s severed head like a trophy, display the usual playfulness of summer campers. They also seek to swell their ranks by force-feeding the ice cream to any fellow children who haven’t yet been infected. Their carnage — exemplified in a lengthy, virtuosic sequence in which they attack the adult teachers and employees at their grade school with frenzied abandon — includes the sort of gruesome playground activities involving severed body parts that makes one hope the child actors had recourse to on-set psychiatric counseling.

There’s a backstory of sorts, told by a local priest (Benjamin Byron Davis) and involving a travesty of justice followed by revenge facilitated by a necromancer. But it almost seems unnecessary, since the film’s true raison d’etre is demonstrating the amazing talents of its prosthetics designers, who have created such a relentless series of horrific bodily images that it’s easy to imagine blood-crazed audiences applauding them like musical numbers. The reliance on practical effects rather than the CGI employed by so many current horror films at least proves refreshing.

The visuals are also packed with throwaway jokes, including one drive-by decapitation that should be accompanied by a rim shot, and deadpan visual flourishes like a crow pecking out the eyes of a corpse in the foreground of a shot.

There have been plenty of horror movies involving murderous children over the years, such as Village of the Damned and its sequel and, of course, Children of the Corn. But Roth doesn’t hide his desire to outdo them all with this effort that can only be described as sick and twisted. And I’m sure he’ll take that as a compliment.    

Ariana Grande is offering some clarifications for her fans after it was revealed on Sunday that she will be “taking a step back from visibility” after her Eternal Sunshine Tour wraps.

The singer-actress took a moment during her concert on Monday night at the United Center in Chicago to “clear the air about a few things.”

“Sometimes when a story comes out that’s not directly from me, things can get a little blown out of proportion, so I just wanted to speak to my fans directly tonight because I love you so much,” Grande began, via videos shared on social media. “The announcement that was made yesterday was not a reactive or impulsive thing. It was something that I have decided. A plan that I had quietly made a long time ago. It was a decision that was made from a thoughtful and empowered place. And I want you to know that many things can be true at the same time.”

“I heard that my fans were worried that negativity was ruining things for me, but I just have to say that could not be more the far opposite. This is not what that is. And I just want to be very, very clear, multiple things can be true at the same time: boundaries need to be set, human beings can need a break sometimes and also, this can be and will continue to be the greatest experience of my professional and creative life,” she continued, drawing loud cheers from the audience. “No matter what noises exist out there, nothing will ever be able to distort my reality or be real to me or louder to me than this love that we share, or even how it feels to make art with the people that I love and respect.”

“This is what I will always take with me and carry with me, because the rest of that shit is not mine to carry so I don’t carry it. And I wanted you to hear that from me. I needed to get out here and differentiate that from my truth for all of you because I love you and this tour has been the most healing, beautiful, corrective, magnificent, special experience of my life,” Grande concluded.

The Wicked star’s new comments came a day after her rep told The Hollywood Reporter that she will be stepping back from the public eye after her tour concludes on Sept. 1, following her 10-show residency in London.

“She looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily, and then taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny,” the rep added. “This tour has been a beautiful experience for her. She loves her fans and has loved every minute of this tour so much.”

THR also learned that Grande dropped out of the West End revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park With George, which is set to open next summer.

The “petal” singer has had a busy few years, between starring in Wicked: For Good and Wicked, the latter of which earned her an Oscar nomination for her role as Glinda. She’s also released two albums over the last two years, including 2024’s Eternal Sunshine and Petal, which dropped last month. Grande next stars in Focker-in-Law, hitting theaters on Nov. 25.

St. Vincent wrapped up her critically lauded orchestral tour run in her “adopted hometown” of Los Angeles at the Hollywood Bowl Sunday night, enlisting the venue’s famed orchestra to help turn her discography into a full-on theatrical experience.

The concert marked the culmination of a concept years in the making, starting with when the singer-songwriter — real name Anne Clark — was first invited last year for BBC Proms, where she collaborated with conductor Jules Buckley for a concert at Royal Albert Hall. That resulted in St. Vincent’s latest album, Live in London!, which dropped in March, and a now-completed two-month trek that had her and Buckley playing with local symphony orchestras all over the country from Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston, New York and Detroit, among many more.

Still, the Hollywood Bowl is the only locale appropriate to wrap up something as cinematic as this, and Clark delivered, bringing an hour-and-a-half set that flew by as she added yet another layer to her already genre-bending mix of art-rock and pop.

The orchestral accompaniment lends itself well to St. Vincent’s music, adding a certain dramatic flair to an already very visual discography. The strings help bring out the Bond Theme quality of “Violent Times.” “Smoking Section” gets a bit more grandiose and takes on an almost Spaghetti Western vibe, while “Los Ageless” gets scaled back, going much more intimate from its hardened industrial rock, with swelling strings and piano emphasizing the longing in the song’s chorus: “how could anybody have you and lose you and not lose their minds, too?”

And while an orchestra of dozens of players can make it harder for any one instrument to stand out, it only further emphasized Clark’s inventive guitar work, adding a Zeppelin-esque light and shade quality where her heavily distorted six-string could suddenly cut through the daintier score, only to disappear again as she went back to a verse.

She emphasized the drama with her own physical performance too. During show opener “We Put a Pearl in the Ground,” she held her arm out, fingers crossed for much of the track. On “Marrow,” she hits the body of her guitar like she’s thumping her chest as she spells “H-E-L-P.” And during “The Bed,” she kept her fingers on the vein on her left arm by the pit of her elbow, as if to check her pulse.

For an Orchestra-backed show, Clark was never above getting loose. Toward the end of the set during “New York,” Clark had taken to the edge of the stage, walking just above the concert-goers in the pool circle section, grabbing someone’s popcorn and pouring it all over herself. She reached for another before pulling back. “The popcorn bit only works once,” she said, soon after grabbing someone’s glass of wine and splashing that all over her chest and waist as well.

As she’s done throughout much of the tour, she wrapped up her set with the fitting, string-laden Masseduction standout “Slow Disco.”

Setlist:
“We Put a Pearl in the Ground”
“Hell Is Near”
“Reckless”
“Violent Times”
“Black Rainbow”
“Marrow”
“The Bed”
“Smoking Section”
“Now, Now”
“Live in the Dream”
“The Nowhere Inn”
“Digital Witness”
“Los Ageless”
“New York”
“Paris Is Burning”

Encore:
“Slow Disco”

It appears the New Girl cast and creator aren’t exactly on the same page about the rumored reunion.

After Max Greenfield, who played Schmidt on the hit sitcom, fueled speculation that the gang might be getting back together, creator Liz Meriwether playfully took to Instagram to offer her thoughts on the matter.

“As far as I know, it’s happening,” Greenfield recently said on Today with Jenna & Sheinelle about a potential New Girl reunion. He added that he’s “seen scripts” Meriwether’s written and that they’re “amazing.”

However, according to Meriwether, Greenfield actually wasn’t a big fan of her alleged scripts. “Max told everybody that there’s amazing scripts of a New Girl reunion that I’ve written. Um — and just an update on that — the scripts were pretty good until everybody just started giving me notes on every little thing,” she joked.

The creator then went on to list all of the script changes that she claimed each actor requested. “Jake wants Nick to be, like, really thin — and wants to kind of be naked a lot, showing off his body,” Meriwether quipped of Jake Johnson, who played Nick on the show. “He asked to have a dance number with him, fully nude, dancing to ‘Levitating,’ by Dua Lipa.”

Meriwether said that “it didn’t really make any sense in the story,” so she had to figure out a way to shut down Johnson’s idea. She joked that he got “really upset” in response.

As for Lamorne Morris, who played Winston Bishop, the creator quipped, “Lamorne keeps asking for more and more jewelry. For his character, he wants a very long chain, like a chain all the way down to his knees.”

Lastly, she said Greenfield “has been very adamantly asking to be the new girl. Like, he wants the title to be, ‘Max Greenfield is the New Girl.’”

“Again, I thought that would throw audiences and, you know, nobody really wanted that,” Meriwether jokingly added. “I wasn’t going to say any of this publicly, but then Max decided to make it all public, so again, I have to comment.”

While there’s been no official confirmation of a New Girl reunion, aside from Greenfield trolling fans, it’s safe to say no one will be returning to apartment 4D until they all get on the same page about these rumored scripts that everyone keeps talking about.

Johnson also joked on his Instagram Story Monday that he thinks Greenfield was confused when he called the reunion scripts amazing. “I think I figured out what happened with this Max Greenfield and the script thing for New Girl. I just saw Liz Meriwether’s new show, Furious. I think Max read those scripts,” he said. “I totally get it. It happened to me too many times. I love you, Max, but that’s a different show, my brother.”

New Girl, which also starred Zooey Deschanel, Hannah Simone and Damon Wayans Jr., ran for seven seasons from 2011 to 2018.

Shares of Snap were up 12 percent after hours Monday as the social media platform beat second-quarter revenue expectations. 

Revenue increased 19 percent year-over-year to $1.60 billion, as monthly active users grew to 971 million, up from 956 million in the prior quarter, and daily active users reached 493 million, up from 483 million in the prior quarter. The company reported a net loss of $164 million, after a net loss of $263 million in the prior year, as part of its renewed focus to reach profitability. 

But beyond the current revenue growth that’s being seen around the app, and the company’s new “more focused, AI-enabled operating model.” CEO Evan Spiegel outlined that he sees the company’s future in its newest version of wearable technology. 

“Our largest long-term opportunity is SPECS, a new kind of computer built into see-through glasses. SPECS are designed for a future in which AI does more work on our behalf and people spend less time operating screens. I believe we can pursue that future from a much stronger position by continuing to improve our core business and remaining disciplined about how we invest,” Spiegel said in the press release. 

Snap announced the new wearable glasses in June, setting up pre-orders of the $2,195 glasses with expected shipment this fall in the United States, United Kingdom, and France. The glasses were described as a mix of other AI glasses and VR headsets, offering tech such as directions, AI assistance, the ability to stream content and overlay interactive lessons onto surfaces. The glasses don’t officially launch until Sept. 16. 

Still, Snap has attempted glasses in the past and has not seen big returns. The company launched Spectacles, camera-equipped sunglasses that recorded short videos, in 2016. These were not big sellers and caused the company, in 2017, to report losses due to excess orders. The company later released updated versions of the glasses and then new AR glasses in 2021. 

The company said the investment in SPECS is included in its full-year adjusted operating expense outlook, which remains $2.75 billion. Snap’s guidance range for Q3 revenue is $1.70 billion to $1.74 billion, and the company also expect infrastructure costs to grow modestly with full-year costs of $1.65 billion to $1.70 billion due to continued investments in the company’s AI-enabled operating model.

All of this comes after the company laid off 1,000 employees, including 16 percent of full time employees, were laid off at the company in April. The company said the layoffs would reduce the company’s annualized cost base by more than $500 million by the second half of 2026, which would help the company get closer to profitability.

“Last fall, I described Snap as facing a crucible moment, requiring a new way of working that is faster and more efficient, while pivoting towards profitable growth. Over the past several months, we have carefully reviewed the work required to best serve our community and partners and made tough choices to prioritize the investments we believe are most likely to create long-term value,” Spiegel said at the time. 

One possible obstacle for the business moving forward, as the company noted, is a number of trials as well as “regulatory scrutiny” related to the use of the app by younger generations.

“We continue to monitor the evolving legal and regulatory landscape in the United States and internationally that could materially impact our business and financial results, including increased regulatory scrutiny on youth-related issues and several trials scheduled in the United States later this year. While outcomes remain uncertain, they may result in significant changes to our products and business practices, increased compliance requirements and legal costs, increased payments for legal judgments and settlements, and negative impacts to user growth and engagement,” CFO Doug Hott said.

Phil Collins has revealed that he nearly died from alcohol abuse a little over two years ago.

The singer-drummer told the U.K.’s Sunday Times magazine that in April 2024, he was in the hospital, after years of alcohol abuse, unconscious, when his manager summoned his five children to his bedside as it seemed he was on the verge of dying.

“Because there were some decisions to be made about ‘Do we keep Phil on life support?’ kind of thing,” he recalled. “My kidneys were packing up, my organs were just seizing up. People were coming to say goodbye. But I don’t remember them coming, I didn’t have no idea this was going on. They were all worried that they wouldn’t see me again. It could all have gone so terribly wrong.”

Collins added that since he was discharged from the hospital, after having spent seven months there, he hasn’t had a drink.

Still, the U.K. Times reports, his pancreas is scarred and kidneys are barely functioning after years of alcoholism, which he wrote about in his 2016 autobiography.

Collins is also dealing with type 2 diabetes, nerve damage that has left him unable to hold drumsticks and and has to use crutches after back and knee surgeries. And he has a 24/7 live-in nurse.

But he’s grateful he made it through his time in the hospital, calling himself “very lucky” and spent four memorable days with his family at the end of last year.

He recalls a moment with his daughter, Emily in Paris star Lily Collins, in which she “was sitting beside me in tears, saying, ‘I never thought I’d get these moments.’ We had an incredible time. I can’t overemphasize how fantastic it was.”

Prime Video‘s God of War series may be on the way to finding a new lead actor to replace the injured Ryan Hurst.

Dave Bautista is in talks to take on the role of Kratos in the series, which is based on the long-running video game franchise. Hurst (The Odyssey, Sons of Anarchy) was originally cast in the role but had to step aside after tearing a bicep while performing a stunt on set.

Prime Video declined comment.

Bautista would be a known quantity to both viewers — via Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy films, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and Dune Part Two, plus his time as a WWE star — and Amazon MGM Studios, which is producing God of War with Sony Pictures Television. Bautista has appeared in Amazon MGM’s two My Spy movies and The Wrecking Crew and has roles in the studio’s forthcoming features Highlander and Road House 2.

Should Bautista’s deal go through, the goal is to get God of War back into production in Vancouver in the fall. The show’s cast also includes Callum Vinson, Mandy Patinkin, Ed Skrein, Max Parker, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Teresa Palmer, Alastair Duncan, Jeff Gulka and Danny Woodburn.

The series will follow Kratos and his son, Atreus, as they “embark on a journey to spread the ashes of their wife and mother, Faye,” per the show’s logline. “Through their adventures, Kratos tries to teach his son to be a better god, while Atreus tries to teach his father how to be a better human.” The series will be based primarily on the two most recent installments of the game franchise, which introduced Atreus.

Ronald D. Moore (For All Mankind, Outlander), who has an overall deal at Sony, is the showrunner and executive produces with Maril Davis, Cory Barlog, Naren Shankar, Matthew Graham, Asad Qizilbash, Jeff Ketcham, Hermen Hulst, Roy Lee, and Brad Van Arragon. Joe Menosky, Marc Bernardin, Tania Lotia, and Ben McGinnis are co-EPs. Frederick E.O. Toye is set to direct the first two episodes. Sony and Amazon MGM are producing God of War with PlayStation Productions and Moore’s Tall Ship Productions.