“Looksmaxxing” influencer and streamer Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Peters, has been charged with one count each of rape, drugging a person for sex and providing alcohol to a minor in Massachusetts, according to new court documents obtained by The Bulwark.
The charges, filed by prosecutors in a Cape Cod courthouse on Sept. 8, are reportedly connected to an incident that happened on May 23, 2025. The 20-year-old’s arraignment is set for Oct. 14.
The Bulwark wasn’t able to access additional records on the case, but the timeline appears to match a civil lawsuit filed in April against the streamer in Florida.
CBS 4 Miami previously reported that 18-year-old Alorah Ziva, whose real name is Aleksandra Vasilevna Mendoza, accused Peters of battery, fraud and sexual misconduct, according to the complaint. She alleged the influencer injected her with Aqualyx, a fat-dissolving substance not approved by the FDA, during a livestream in 2025 without her consent.
The lawsuit also accused Peters of nonconsensual sexual encounters at his parents’ home in Cape Cod while Mendoza, who said she was a minor at the time, was intoxicated.
In July, Peters filed a motion to dismiss several counts of the civil lawsuit.
In response to The Bulwark report, Peters’ rep wrote in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, “Clavicular has not been physically served. As usual, the Bulwark is exaggerating the status of a case to boost traffic. We appreciate the Hollywood Reporter for fact checking.”
Later on Monday, Peters took to X to share a letter that he claimed Mendoza sent him after the alleged incident, appearing to thank him for “helping me as much as you have been.” The streamer also shared a video of Mendoza, where she appeared to call the Aqualyx injection “fun,” and said Peters was “super nice” and “sent me an Uber home right after.” It’s unclear when the video was filmed.
“Trying to get my attention in anyway possible, a lawsuit? Seriously… really petty of you,” Peters wrote in the X post.
He added in a separate post Monday, “Lmao was literally trying to work at Bacara as a bottle girl… how about dont finance cars you cant afford. Happens to all successful young men, people try to come for your money. Greed is evil.”
In another video that’s been reposted on X, allegedly from the 2025 livestream, Mendoza also appeared to say she was 18 years old at the time.
If convicted in the Massachusetts case, Peters faced a maximum sentence of twenty years in prison on the rape charge.
This isn’t the first time the streamer has faced criminal charges. In April, Peters was charged with unlawfully discharging a firearm after he was seen in a video shooting an alligator in the Florida Everglades.
At the time, Peters’s lawyer Jeffrey Neiman said the group was “following the instructions of a licensed airboat guide.” He added that the streamer “relied on that guidance” and that “no animals or people were harmed.”
Earlier this year, Peters was also hospitalized after appearing to overdose during a livestream in April. After being released the following day, he wrote on X, “Just got home, that was brutal. All of the substances are just a cope trying to feel neurotypical while being in public, but obviously that isn’t a real solution. The worst part of tonight was my face descending from the life support mask.”
Elliot Graham, the film editor who received an Oscar nomination for Milk and cut films including Steve Jobs, Captain Marvel and No Time to Die, has died. He was 50.
Graham died by suicide Saturday in Los Angeles, according to the County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner.
The biopic Milk (2008), directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Dustin Lance Black, starred Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. The film was nominated for eight Oscars including best picture and won for best actor and original screenplay.
On Facebook, Oscar-nominated Milk producer Dan Jinks wrote that his movie “wouldn’t have come together in the way it did without [Graham’s] amazing work.”
Graham then reunited with Van Sant on the romantic drama Restless (2011), starring Mia Wasikowska.
Graham also won a BAFTA award (shared with Tom Cross) for editing the James Bond film No Time to Die (2021), directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga in what would be the film editor’s final credit.
And he produced and served as film editor on the 2018 FX series Trust, about the 1973 kidnapping of teenager John Paul Getty III.
Born on June 8, 1976, in Claremont, California, Graham got his first credit for editing the thriller The Last Minute (2001), directed by Stephen Norrington.
Next, he handled additional editing chores on X2: X-Men United (2003), then worked again for director Bryan Singer as film editor on Superman Returns (2006).
In addition to Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs (2015), starring Michael Fassbender, and Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s Captain Marvel (2019), starring Brie Larson, Graham served as film editor on Bill Paxton’s The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005), Robert Luketic’s 21 (2008), Stephen Daldry’s Trash (2014) and Aaron Sorkin’s Molly’s Game (2017).
He also did additional editing on films including The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), I Am Michael (2015) and Beasts of No Nation (2015).
The Man Without Fear is heading into one last battle.
The forthcoming third season of Daredevil: Born Again will be its last one, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. The decision comes about two months after the Marvel Studios show’s third season wrapped filming.
The move also comes as Marvel has quietly parted ways with showrunner Dario Scardapane, whose contract was up and was not renewed. The parting of ways is eyebrow-raising as it means that Scardapane is exiting the show in the middle of post-production. It is unclear who will see the show through completion. One source said post-production is the final stages.
Marvel had no comment.
The series has focused on criminal kingpin Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) becoming mayor of New York and then targeting Daredevil and other vigilantes who are in his way. Season two, which ran in the spring, ended with Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil (Charlie Cox), being sent to prison.
Daredevil: Born Again has had a somewhat rocky run since Disney+ revived the series, which initially ran for three seasons on Netflix from 2015-18. Born Again was greenlit in July 2022 for an 18-episode season, with Matt Corman and Chris Ord as head writers.
Production stopped during the 2023 strikes, at which time Marvel decided to do a creative reset. Corman and Ord — who had aimed for a more episodic structure and less dark tone than the Netflix series had — were let go, and Scardapane, a writer and executive producer on Marvel’s Punisher series at Netflix, came aboard as showrunner. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Loki, Moon Knight) also joined the series as directors and executive producers. The initial order was also split into two seasons and ended up as 17 episodes (nine for season one and eight for season two).
Marvel Television has slowly been shaving off the amount of shows it produces for Disney+. Its latest, VisionQuest, the final installment in the WandaVision trilogy and starring Paul Bettany, is due to debut in October. The final season of Daredevil:Born Again is due to come out in 2027, and nothing is seemingly on the books after that. Disney+ also un-renewed Wonder Man after initially picking up a second season.
However, the company continually has three to five live-action shows in development, and sources say it just greenlit a spy thriller referred to as Zodiac. It is unclear to what the title refers, but the most notable Marvel comics reference is to a criminal organization headed by a villain named Scorpio that featured bad guys themed to the constellations. In the comics, it was known for going head-to-head against S.H.I.E.L.D.
In just a few short weeks, Paramount Skydance will complete its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, and in the process become the biggest TV news organization in the world. With NBC News, MS NOW and CNBC now split between multiple companies, the combined CNN and CBS News will be unrivaled in scale, certainly in the U.S, if not the entire world.
But the settlement between Paramount and the state attorneys general throws a wrinkle in that merger: An “Editorial Independence Board” that will have oversight over both news organizations.
What the Editorial Independence Board will do?
The board will create “News Editorial Principles” based on the standards & practices of the two outlets, focused on journalistic integrity, fairness, independence and accuracy.
The board will also resolve “any disputes between CBS News employees, CNN employees, and management of the Combined Entity regarding alleged violations of the News Editorial Principles, as well as “any disputes between CBS News employees, CNN employees, and management of the Combined Entity regarding alleged reporting bias or failure to meet agreed reporting fairness standards.”
The board will also monitor “adherence to ethical journalism as defined by journalism industry best practices and to editorial independence, including from the Combined Entity’s ownership and shareholders.”
Notably, the board will only be focused on news and editorial content produced with the intent to be distributed in the U.S., which would be essentially all of CBS’ work, as well as a good chunk of CNN’s work though CNN has a vast international operation as well.
The Editorial Independence Board will report to the corporate board via a chief compliance officer.
Who will be on the board, and how will they be appointed?
The Editorial Independence Board will be appointed by the board of directors for the combined company (that means, effectively, by CEO David Ellison) within 180 days of the deal closing (so, six months or so). Board members will serve for three years, and can only be removed for good cause.
There will be five members of the board, and they must have practiced journalism for at least 10 years, though they can be active journalists or retired. “No more than two (2) Editorial Independence Board Members may be affiliated with the same political party,” the agreement states, suggesting that journalists with some partisan leanings could be permitted.
No member of any government or governmental entity can be appointed to the board, and no government or governmental entity (either federal, state or local) can have approval rights over who is appointed to the board.
“No officer, director, shareholder or non-Journalist employee or contractor of the Combined Entity may be appointed to the Editorial Independence Board,” the agreement states, leaving open the possibility that a journalist working for the company could join the board.
In fact, there are a number of potential candidates already in-house. If CNN and CBS News journalists are permitted to join, it stands to reason that a high profile name or two from each outlet (say, Norah O’Donnell and Jake Tapper) could join. And RedBird Capital, which is David Ellison’s partner in the mega merger, also employees a number of high-profile former journalists on its staff, including former Fox News and CNN anchor Chris Wallace, former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, and former FT editor Matthew Garrahan.
But it will be any signs of obvious partisan appointees that is sure to attract the attention of critics and press freedom groups.
Will the board be able to do anything?
That is far less certain. News Corp., after all, ostensibly has its own board, which was created when Rupert Murdoch took over the company. With a focus on basic standards and practices, and resolving disagreements between journalists and management, it may be more bark than bite. Or there might not even be any bark at all.
Austin Abrams and Zach Cregger keep knocking them dead.
In 2023, the actor stuck with the writer-director after he lost his initial Weapons cast amid strike-related scheduling chaos. Abrams had attractive opportunities he could have pursued, but he wanted to work with the filmmaker who famously cut, out of nowhere, to Justin Long singing his way down PCH to kick off the second act of Barbarian (2022), the horror film that launched Cregger’s ascent toward becoming the top genre filmmaker working today.
That instinct to see Weapons through paid off handsomely. Abrams delivered a standout performance as an unhoused junkie thief in the critical and commercial hit that would go on to win an Oscar. Cregger then cast him as the lead of his Resident Evil reboot, which has now scored the franchise’s best reviews and highest-grossing opening weekend, taking in $60 million across its first three days.
If Cregger is the belle of the ball right now, then Abrams is the belle of the fall, with his survival thriller Whalefall — directed by Cregger collaborator and fellow genre specialist Brian Duffield — arriving Oct. 16. Between a courier caught in the middle of a zombie virus outbreak and a scuba diver swallowed whole by a sperm whale, both films put Abrams’ respective lead characters, Bryan and Jay, through uniquely harrowing one-man crucibles.
Having acted since he was 13, the 30-year-old Abrams is at a loss for words when describing what it means to lead back-to-back major studio movies. He’s equally reluctant to say which role put him through the wringer more.
“Honestly, in certain ways, they’re one and the same. Resident Evil generally had more laughs, just based on the nature of the comedy involved, so that helped lighten the load,” Abrams tells The Hollywood Reporter. “But I feel bad singling either one out as being harder to work on. They were both really challenging.”
(Spoilers ahead.) Cregger’s Resident Evil opens with Abrams’ medical courier juggling an organ delivery and a serious conversation with his girlfriend, Michelle, about her newly discovered pregnancy. He insists he’ll be home in 20 minutes so they can talk face to face, only to dodge the conversation by accepting a last-minute, faraway job that takes him to Raccoon City General Hospital.
While en route, Bryan and Michelle continue their phone call, but he doesn’t offer the most supportive response. Instead, he argues that they should preserve their current status quo. In other words, he’s afraid of the changes that come with growing up and becoming a father. Unsatisfied, Michelle tells him she’s going to stay with a friend and give him some time to reflect on the error of his ways.
Their talk is then interrupted by a bad signal and a woman in the road whom Bryan’s vehicle strikes. He helps the bloodied victim into his car, but a cop quickly pulls him over and takes responsibility for her. The officer’s SUV then flips over in front of Bryan, slowly confirming what viewers have likely already suspected about the sundress-wearing pedestrian. She is actually infected, and Bryan has become caught up in the franchise’s inciting t-virus outbreak.
After trying to offer aid to the now-deceased cop, Bryan uses the officer’s gun to shoot the rabid sundress woman and an infected guard dog at a nearby farm. He then makes his way inside the farmhouse to refuel, reload and call Michelle from the farmer’s landline now that he’s in jeopardy. When a concerned Michelle returns the call, he’s unable to answer because he just killed the infected farmer and blew the head clean off the reanimated pedestrian woman, who is widely believed to be the farmer’s wife. In a key moment, he witnesses their bodies fuse into one monstrous form that is unrelenting in its pursuit of him.
Bryan continues his journey on foot, making his way into a neighboring tunnel filled with abandoned vehicles. An RV blocks his path, so he climbs inside to make his way out through the back. There, he discovers a little girl and tries to help her, unaware that she’s already on the verge of transforming into a zombie. As her condition worsens, she turns on Bryan and sinks her teeth into his arm, forcing him to put her down. He soon crosses paths with two members of the Umbrella Corporation, who explain that a lab leak caused the outbreak. They also disclose that Bryan was tasked with delivering the “neutralizing base” to Umbrella scientists at Raccoon City General to complete an antidote.
After going through a series of even crazier near-death experiences, Bryan eventually arrives at the hospital, where he takes a moment in the parking garage to assess his rapidly spreading infection. Sensing he’s not going to make it, he tries to call Michelle once more, but is again greeted with no cell phone service. Thus, he records an audio message in which he expresses regret over his earlier response to the pregnancy news and that he’d love nothing more than to start a family together. He caps the recording in the most heart-wrenching way possible by saying, “I think you’d be an amazing mom.”
Bryan goes through even more insane scenarios before finally making it to the facility’s lab on the 28th floor. He delivers the key ingredient for the cure in the nick of time, but the bumbling Umbrella scientists fumble the ball on the one-yard line. They can’t finish the concoction before Bryan loses himself to the infection, and he ends up killing them one by one, becoming his own version of the amalgamation monster that has been stalking him since its inception at the farmhouse.
The movie closes with the realization that we’ve been watching an origin story for a Resident Evil monster, one that gamers typically mow down without a second thought to who they were before the outbreak. Thematically, Cregger reinforces the idea that change comes for us all, whether we’re ready for it or not.
“I thought it was crazy and shocking when I first read it. You follow this one guy the whole time, so hopefully you’re enjoying watching him and rooting for him,” Abrams says. “Then to have him not make it is really risky and gutsy, which is what I love about all of Zach’s work. So I was surprised by it, but I also loved that he would take that chance.”
In this age of unremitting test screenings and CinemaScore, downer endings typically score lower, so Abrams appreciates that Cregger and Sony weren’t afraid to figuratively twist the knife in the audience.
“With a lot of movies nowadays, they’re a little too afraid to do something like that — to kill off a character you really like. And if they do, the blow is softened in some way so it doesn’t hurt too much,” Abrams says. “Whereas a lot of older films don’t do that; they just rip your heart out. We’re here to feel, man. We’re here to go through something. So I’m just appreciative that Zach is willing to take a risk like that.”
If you’re like me, then you might have expected the aforementioned cushion to be a final reveal in which Michelle receives Bryan’s voice memo. Perhaps an unseen moment gave him a bar of service and a long enough opportunity to press send. That potential concluding beat would’ve offered the viewer the comfort of knowing that this now-single mother at least knows Bryan really did love her and the idea of starting a family together. Alas, Bryan not only becomes a monster, but Michelle’s last memory of him is his rather monstrous response to the prospect of having a child together.
“That’s part of the tragedy of it all. It’s so damn sad when you really think about it. She thinks he doesn’t want to have this baby, when he actually does. He realizes, ‘No, I love her. Having a kid isn’t as scary as I thought, and I want to do it with her,’” Abrams says. “So the fact that she’ll never know that is pretty damn tragic. He changed and got better, but no one will ever know about it. There’s something really beautiful and tragic about that.”
Below, during a spoiler conversation with THR, Abrams also discusses the 150-pound blood bag that nearly crushed him during his sprint through snowy Raccoon City.
***
Congrats on the fall of Austin Abrams. The season, not the collapse.
(Laughs.) Thanks, pal.
I watched your A24 Podcast episode with Skyler Gisondo, and you talked about how, growing up, he and Tye Sheridan were your boogeymen at auditions. Well, now that you have two huge studio movies coming out within a month of each other, do you feel like the new boogeyman?
I definitely don’t feel that way. As you get older, you realize that boogeymen don’t really exist in that context. Maybe I’ve got a little bit more of a shot now, but those guys are still such great actors. Have you seen Primetime yet?
Not yet, unfortunately.
See fucking Skyler in Primetime, and then tell me what you think about that.
Mythological framing aside, you’ve been working for more than half your life, and now you’re atop the call sheet. Do you consider this is a new beginning for you as a leading man?
It’s definitely different than it was before, but I don’t feel differently inside. I still feel like I’m trying to push myself and make new things. It’s not some ego trip or something like that.
I last spoke to you toward the tail end of Whalefall photography, so did you basically fly straight to Prague after that wrapped?
It was a really quick turnaround. We extended the Whalefall shoots a little bit, so the window for a break became non-existent. I got out to Prague earlier than I thought to do prep, so it was a very short window.
Austin Abrams stars as Bryan in Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil
Courtesy of Sony Pictures
Zach Cregger was very interested in the answer to this question. Between him and Brian Duffield, whose movie made you suffer the most?
(Abramslaughs and squirms in his seat.) Oh, man. Honestly, in certain ways, they’re one and the same. With Whalefall, I don’t know if you’ve ever worn a wetsuit all day long, but the incessant tightening on your skin is somewhat uncomfortable. With Resident Evil, the amount of running, mixed with the exactness needed to get the shot right, and nightshoots — makes it a hard competition. They’re both also filled with a lot of joy. Resident Evil generally had more laughs, just based on the nature of the comedy involved, so that helped lighten the load. But I feel bad singling either one out as being harder to work on. They were both really challenging.
Zach has talked about the 150-pound blood bag that nearly crushed you during the “jumper street” sequence. Were you pretty rattled at the time?
I kind of didn’t notice. It just happened, and then it was done. Personally, I wanted it to be close because that’s better for what we’re trying to make. There were a lot of other takes where it wasn’t as close, or it happened too soon and you didn’t even see it. It wasn’t until doing press that I was like, “Whoa, was it that close? I didn’t realize that.” At the time, you’re just in it. So I’m stoked that it looks close. If anything, I’m excited by it. But I didn’t really feel rattled at the time.
This is the sequence in Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil where Abrams, as Bryam, narrowly avoided a falling bloody bag on set.
Courtesy of Everett Collection
I really love your choice to give your medical courier character, Bryan, a feminine scream at times because he generally reacts the way 99 percent of us would in a zombie apocalypse. It’s such a departure from the traditional action hero, who’s expected to not only stay cool under pressure but also look cool while doing it. So was it liberating to not have to be concerned with vanity?
Definitely. I wanted to look like the antithesis of “the cool action hero” as much as I possibly could because that feels the most interesting. I haven’t seen it done as much. Shaun of the Dead lives in that realm as well. There’s a joy in being able to see this guy react naturally to all this crazy shit, and it’s just really interesting to watch. I always thought, How would this dude actually react to this? I just wanted it to feel really real-world. Whereas, if you have someone more experienced, it’s going to be a little less interesting to watch.
One of the parts I really enjoyed is earlier on with the dog. How do you even process a moment like that? What would you think that is? There was a period of time when I was like, Is this an alien?Does he think that these are aliens? That would probably confuse or frustrate audiences if my character was thinking it was aliens [because many of them already know what it is from the games]. But thinking about what it could be was a fun rabbit hole to go down while playing it.
In the ’90s, politicians began blaming video games like Mortal Kombat and Doom for real-world violence, and shooter games have remained a recurring scapegoat ever since. But I wonder if Zach is making a counterargument with this movie. Near the end, when Bryan successfully fires his last bullet, he screams, “Video games!” as a way of crediting them for his survival to that point. Do you see that moment as a suggestion that generations of people have actually learned problem-solving, survival skills and vigilance from playing these games?
Maybe, yeah. Growing up, the general vibe in the air, at least from parents, is you’re wasting your time playing video games. So to have the character triumphantly proclaim how much video games have helped him in that make-or-break moment is pretty funny. You’d have to ask Zach if he’s trying to say something deeper there, but it’s a funny little thing.
Austin Abrams as Bryan in Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil.
Dušan Martinček/Sony Pictures
Zach told me that he cut out as many jokes as possible because test audiences deemed the movie to be “too funny.” The movie is still a riot, but were you bummed to see any of those other comedic moments go?
There were a lot of [deleted] moments that cracked us up. There were also a lot of moments that we never filmed. We were like, “This is the SNL version of this movie. We can’t film that. That’s too ridiculous.” I don’t know if I can remember any of those scenarios off the top of my head, but there were moments. They weren’t jokes that I could tell you right now and you’d think they were funny. They were more situational.
The emotional message Bryan records for Michelle is your finest work in the film, and if that monologue wasn’t challenging enough, you then had to go straight into this deliberately embarrassing cry so that Cregger’s voice on the intercom could sell the situational humor. Was that dynamic shift difficult to pull off?
Not really. Zach and I both understood the needle we were trying to thread there. I also knew the edit would help with the comedic shift. When Zach goes out into the wide shot, that helps with the transition into the comedic aspect. So it didn’t feel too intimidating.
As far as Michelle goes, Zach’s wife, Sara Paxton, voiced the character, but I heard you suggested the photo of her for Bryan’s iPhone. Is it safe to ask who that is?
She’s a friend. We wanted a photo of me and her to represent Bryan and Michelle more tangibly.
The partial look at someone in a red shirt is you?
Yeah, that’s me and my friend in the original photo. But then, on the day, someone cropped the photo on the phone to be just her. So the original plan went out the window.
Austin Abrams stars as Bryan in Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil
Courtesy of Sony Pictures
I was not expecting the ending to go that way.
What were you thinking?
I figured Bryan wouldn’t make it out alive, but at the very least, I thought the lab would have some kind of cell signal booster so he could text his voice message to Michelle. If nothing else, I wanted her to know that the father of her baby was truly a good man. Anyway, what was your first reaction when you read that Bryan wouldn’t be cured and would instead become his own amalgamation of bodies?
I’ve been living with it for a while now, but I thought it was crazy and shocking when I first read it. I love that Zach takes those risks. You follow this one guy the whole time, so hopefully you’re enjoying watching him and rooting for him. Then to have him not make it is really risky and gutsy, which is what I love about all of Zach’s work. So I was surprised by it, but I also loved that he would take that chance.
With a lot of movies nowadays, they’re a little too afraid to do something like that — to kill off a character you really like. And if they do, the blow is softened in some way so it doesn’t hurt too much. Whereas a lot of older films don’t do that; they just rip your heart out. We’re here to feel, man. We’re here to go through something. So I’m just appreciative that Zach is willing to take a risk like that.
You used the phrase “soften the blow,” and that’s precisely what I was anticipating. I thought the movie would cut from Bryan’s snowball of body parts to Michelle’s phone, and she’d receive his voice message before the credits rolled. Do you remember if you expected some kind of button involving Michelle?
I don’t remember if I did, but who knows? Maybe he sent his voice memo while going up the staircase, and it’s just something we didn’t get to see.
One of my colleagues saw the ending as a kind of karmic consequence for Bryan not initially supporting his pregnant girlfriend. But along the way, he helps the sundress woman he hit with his car, rushes to aid the cop, tries to save the little girl in the RV and honors his commitment to get the package to Raccoon City General. So I see it less as Bryan deserving his fate and more as a reminder that a zombie outbreak is indiscriminate. How do you see it?
I wouldn’t say he deserved his fate, especially when you see him turn it around toward the end. That’s part of the tragedy of it all. It’s so damn sad when you really think about it. He leaves this voice note for his girlfriend, and maybe they’ll find his phone and somehow get it to her. But she thinks he doesn’t want to have this baby, when he actually does. He realizes, “No, I love her. Having a kid isn’t as scary as I thought, and I want to do it with her.” So the fact that she’ll never know that is pretty damn tragic. He changed and got better, but no one will ever know about it. There’s something really beautiful and tragic about that.
Austin Abrams, Andrea Miltnerova and Johnno Wilson in Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil
Dušan Martinček/Sony Pictures
In Weapons, Alden Ehrenreich’s character told James to get out of town, and bad things happened when he didn’t listen. In Gangster Squad, Ryan Gosling told your shoeshiner to go home, and bad things happened when he didn’t listen. In ResidentEvil, Michelle told Bryan to come home, and bad things happened when he didn’t listen. Nobody in The Line listened, and bad things happened to your fraternity pledge. Your characters need to start listening, don’t they?
(Laughs.) Yeah, you’re right. They’ve got a little bit too much lint in their ears. But if they listened, these movies would be a lot less interesting.
Touché. Just out of curiosity, have you read Zach’s script called The Flood?
No, I’m staying away from it because I want to be able to watch it without knowing anything.
From Wolfs and Weapons to Whalefall and Resident Evil, you’ve spent the last few years running for your life on screen. Looking ahead, have you asked your agent to find you something calm, soothing and relaxing?
(Laughs.) Yeah, I need a movie that’s like a lullaby — where the heart of it rocks you to sleep. Can we make a movie like that? But it all depends. A lot of it comes down to the filmmaker and what ends up coming my way. So I don’t want to talk too much about what might be next, but we’ll see.
*** Resident Evil is now playing in movie theaters nationwide.
Taylor Swift will receive the inaugural MTV VMA Artist Director Honors at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards.
CBS and MTV announced Monday that the singer-songwriter will be honored with the new award that recognizes “groundbreaking music artists whose work behind the camera has expanded the possibilities of music video and advanced the art of visual storytelling.”
Swift is recognized as the most-awarded act in VMAs history, having won four VMAs and nominated in the best director category seven times including for her videos and films “The Fate of Ophelia,” “Opalite,” “The Man,” “cardigan,” “willow,” “All Too Well: The Short Film,” “Anti-Hero,” “Bejeweled,” “Fortnight (feat. Post Malone),” “I Can See You (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault),” “Karma (feat. Ice Spice)” and “Lavender Haze.”
“Across her work, Swift has brought an increasingly expansive approach to storytelling, creating interconnected narratives, cinematic worlds and recurring details that invite audiences deeper into each project,” MTV and CBS said in their announcement of the award. “The inaugural MTV VMA Artist Director Honors recognizes that body of work, while also underscoring the growing role artists play in shaping how their music is brought to life on screen.”
Going into the ceremony Swift is the second most nominated artist with nine nominations, behind Madonna‘s 11. Swift‘s nine nominations include artist of the year and video of the year with “The Fate of Ophelia.”
Snoop Dogg is set to host the VMAs, airing live from Los Angeles on Sunday at 7:30-9:30 p.m. ET/4:30-6:30 p.m. PT, marking the first time the awards show has taken place in the city in nearly a decade.
Madonna will open the show in her first time returning to the VMAs stage in 23 years. Other performers taking the stage on Sunday include Lisa, Shaboozey, Raye, Sienna Spiro, GENER8ION, Gunna and Yung Lean.
Nirvana will receive the Video Vanguard Award though details have not yet been made available regarding who will be accepting the award on the band’s behalf.
The VMAs will air on CBS and MTV and stream on Paramount+ (Premium) in the U.S. It also will be available globally the next day on Paramount+ and MTV.
The VMAs are produced by Gunpowder & Sky. Van Toffler serves as producer. Jesse Ignjatovic of Den of Thieves, Barb Bialkowski and Bruce Gillmer serve as executive producers, alongside Barry Barclay and Floris Bauer. Melanie Block serves as co-executive producer and Gary Lanvy as co-producer. Snoop Dogg is executive producer alongside producers Sara Ramaker and Jasmin Ratansi. Jen Proctor is executive talent producer.
BACARDÍ Rum, Dunkin’, The General Insurance, Gillette Venus, Spotify, Tide evo and Under Armour are the event‘s sponsors.
The AMC A-List theater subscription program now offers something more than free popcorn and drink size upgrades: the best seats at private American Film Market screenings in November.
A partnership between AFM, AMC Theatres and the Los Angeles-based B-List Movie Club unveiled on Monday will see film fans attend private market screenings and slate presentations alongside industry buyers at the AMC Century City 15 multiplex, directly across from the AFM headquarters at the Fairmont Century Plaza.
As it expands its slate of market screenings in Century City for sales and production companies, the leading indie movie bazaar will look to AMC’s A-List subscribers and B-List Movie Club members to help film buyers gauge audience responses, whether hushed focus or laughter and cheering, ahead of possible acquisition and distribution deals.
Jackie Brenneman, president and CEO of the Independent Film & Television Alliance in a statement explained: “AMC A-List has become a powerful model for theatrical audience engagement, and our collaboration creates a unique opportunity for participating films to connect with frequent moviegoers and gain valuable audience response as they’re introduced to the global marketplace. Together with our expanded screening options, it’s another way we’re creating greater value for the companies and filmmakers who come to AFM.”
Opening up private AFM screenings to movie fans follows the indie business looking to diversify beyond traditional big-budget actioners at the multiplex. That includes high-concept genre plays like Backrooms and Obsession and concert movies that surprise by popping at the box office.
The AMC A-List program is aimed at avid moviegoers, and allows subscribing members to see Hollywood tentpoles and now upcoming movies being shopped to buyers at AFM.
“AMC A-List members are among the most passionate moviegoers in the industry, and we’re always looking for new ways to connect them with unique theatrical experiences. We’re excited to collaborate with AFM and engage communities like The B-List Movie Club to give movie fans access to special screenings, discover upcoming films, and experience content that isn’t typically available to general audiences,” Carrie Trotter, senior vp of marketing at AMC Theatres added in her own statement.
AFM will also this year expand its screening options with world and market premieres, slate showcases and other screenings with hospitality and concessions and red-carpet entrances by film talent during screenings from Nov. 10 to 13 at the AMC Century City. AFM’s 47th edition is now at 215 exhibiting companies looking to do business, including around pre-sales.
The finance, production, sales and distribution company list includes Gaumont, AGC Studios, Voltage Pictures, HanWay Films, Lionsgate, Neon and Embankment Films.
Sutton Foster charmed an appreciative audience on Saturday night at The Soraya in Northridge, California, with a nearly two-hour performance filled with show tunes and classics, backed by the Pacific Jazz Orchestra — with a surprise appearance by her romantic partner, Hugh Jackman.
Foster kicked off the show by introducing a few folks, including her music director and collaborator, Michael Rafter, who was on piano during the night, and Pacific Jazz Orchestra conductor Chris Walden. She then noted the importance and value of live shows: “We are all live humans, and this is a live orchestra, and you are a live audience. And we are so lucky that we get to gather and celebrate live music,” she said, to applause from the audience.
The Tony-winner sang several Cole Porter songs, including “I Get a Kick Out of You” and “Blow, Gabriel, Blow” from Anything Goes and “Don’t Look at Me That Way” (“It’s quickly becoming one of my favorites,” she said of the latter). She also sang Porter’s “Miss Otis Regrets,” which she noted she’d performed a dance number to when she was young. Marc Shaiman arranged the version she sang, which was based on a Bette Midler rendition, and Foster revealed that Shaiman connected her with Midler, who gave her approval to use that arrangement, much to Foster’s delight.
Foster also shared stories of her 9-year-old daughter, Emily (“She’s my favorite person that I’ve ever met”), and segued into urging the audience to live in the moment before singing “Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries.” She also shared a funny description of her dad, who loves the Weather Channel and the Atlanta Braves, apparently tracks her flights and says humorous things to her, like: “You know, you can really tell when someone else does your hair and makeup.”
While Foster’s singing chops are nearly superhuman, she did have a moment that showed her more endearingly human side just before intermission. She ended the first “act” with “Anything Goes” from Anything Goes, noting that she knew “only one way to and an act one, and it’s with this song.” However, just a few bars into the song, she noted she had “this thing in my throat” and asked Walden and the musician to pause the music.
“I could feel it coming on, you know that thing when you get like a tickle in the back of your throat,” she told the audience, noting the moment was unplanned. “It feels super daunting to sing this song anyway, but not like this. … I’ve never had to do that, but I’m really glad I stopped. This is a lesson. It is OK to stop. I’ve got young performers here [in the audience]. You know what? it’s just a show.”
During the second half of the show, Foster performed a mash-up of “If I Were a Bell” from Guys and Dolls and “Singin’ in the Rain” from the musical of the same name as well as Duke Ellington’s “I Like the Sunrise,” among others.
But it was during “A Doodlin’ Song” that Jackman came out onstage, much to the delight of the crowd. After Foster sang the lyrics, “Why don’t you join the group? It’s better than being a party-poop,” Jackman then joined in, to loud applause. The couple, who have been dating for nearly two years, engaged in some fun onstage banter: “What are you doing?” she asked him. “You said you wanted me to join the group,” he replied. “No, you’re supposed to stay backstage? … Why do you have a microphone?” she asked him. “It’s 2026; everybody has a microphone,” he quipped.
After the song was over, Foster began, “So now that you’re onstage … ” to which he joked: “Yeah, do you want five or six numbers from me?” Jackman continued: “Well, I don’t know if a lot of people know this, but we sang this, and we’re gonna sing a song that we sang together many or a couple of times.”
Indeed, Jackman did stay to perform for another song — a complete surprise to the audience as it wasn’t listed in the program — with Foster. That song, “A Million Dreams,” from Jackman’s 2017 film The Greatest Showman, was something the couple workshopped together 12 years ago. “It took eight years for The Greatest Showman to be built, and I was a part of two of the workshops,” Foster said. “It was many years ago, so this is a song that we did sing together and we would love to sing it for you tonight.”
In a sweet moment, Jackman gave Foster a kiss before departing the stage. “I don’t know how we recover from that, so we’re just gonna end the show now,” Foster quipped of Jackman’s cameo. She thanked Jackman for coming out onstage with her “and singing and for getting my daughter Taco Bell today.”
Foster then sang “Meantime” before being given a standing ovation. She indulged the crowd in one last bonus tune: “Till There Was You,” from The Music Man. That musical, of course, had a revival on Broadway that debuted in 2022 and starred Foster and Jackman. The crowd happily obliged her request to sing along.
Foster’s performance kicked off The Soraya’s 2026-27 season, which marks its 16th season overall, and the first under new executive and artistic director Chad Hilligus. See the full schedule.
The sixth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival has been postponed, the event’s Foundation has confirmed.
A note released to press on Monday explains that this year’s installment, originally set for Dec. 3-12 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has been pushed back to the fourth quarter of 2027.
It comes as the entire region deals with ongoing military tension amid the U.S.-Israeli-Iran war, with the threat of missile and drone strikes active and Saudi Arabia dealing with targeted attacks from the Iran-backed Houthis.
The decision follows “a comprehensive review of a range of considerations relating to the timing of the next edition, including the logistical requirements involved in staging an international event of this scale,” said the statement.
“It reflects the Foundation’s commitment to ensuring the Festival takes place at the right time and under the right conditions to deliver the experience for which the Red Sea International Film Festival has become known,” it continued. “As part of this continued commitment, the Foundation will introduce year-round programming at Culture Square in Historic Jeddah beginning in November 2026, establishing it as an ongoing destination for film screenings, cultural events and specialised film-industry programmes.”
Organizers have vowed that the festival will return in 2027 with a “renewed vision and a programme that continues to celebrate cinema and filmmakers from Saudi Arabia, the region and around the world.”
The Red Sea Film Festival has gone from strength to strength in recent years and funnelled much of its investment into attracting Hollywood A-listers to Jeddah, as well as its Red Sea Fund, Red Sea Labs and wider initiatives, which will continue to operate within the Foundation’s “year-round ecosystem.” Among the attendees last year were Michael Caine, Johnny Depp, Sean Baker, Juliette Binoche, Adrien Brody, Kirsten Dunst, Jessica Alba and Queen Latifah.
CNN, MS NOW and Politico are suing the Trump administration after the White House revoked their press credentials, effectively banning them from the White House complex and making it a challenge to cover the President and his staff.
“This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,” the three news outlets said in a statement early Monday morning. “Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting. Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
In fact, CNN had been slated to be the primary TV press pool Monday, a day in which President Trump is slated to fly to New York for meetings with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
In their lawsuit (led by famed First Amendment litigator Ted Boutros), the news outlets argue that Trump’s decision was in profound conflict with the law.
“This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,” the suit states. “Presidents from the earliest days of the Republic have disagreed with and complained about the tenor and content of press coverage of their administrations. But as the Supreme Court has recognized, the First Amendment, including its guarantee of a free press, reflects “a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.” The suit states quoting a passage from the landmark case, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 270 (1964).
“And the Constitution protects the liberty and property interests that news organizations and White House reporters have in their press credentials and the access those credentials afford them to cover the White House for the benefit of the public,” it continues. “No official can deprive Plaintiffs of those interests on a whim—with no notice, no process, and no warning—as the President did here.”
Trump announced his ban in a post Friday, causing some confusion in the White House as crews from the outelts remained onsite. However, on Saturday morning journalists from all three outlets trying to enter the White House complex found that their credentials had been revoked.
In an Oval Office appearance, Trump said that the decision followed cumulative coverage over the past few years, and wasn’t driven by any story in particular.
“The President repeated his straightforward rationale for targeting these three news organizations, calling it ‘wrong’ to ‘allow people to write purposely negative stories,’” the lawsuit recounts. “The President complained about coverage he considers ‘one-sided’ and ‘never good,’ and at one point even referred to his own unprecedented act as the ‘ban on the free press.’”
He also suggested that he knew his move would end up being litigated, suggesting that the outcome would depend on the judge that gets the cse.
In his first term the White House banned CNN correspondent Jim Acosta from the White House, but a judge ordered his pass returned, citing First Amendment protections. The AP had also sued after it was barred from covering certain events after its style guide declined to refer to the body of water as the Gulf of America.
