Tag: HollywoodReporter

The 83rd Venice International Film Festival is unveiling its official lineup today.

Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera and Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, president of the Biennale di Venezia, will confirm the films running in competition and main sidebar sections.

You can follow their presentation, starting from 11 am local time at La Biennale Library of the Historical Archive in Venice, on the festival site or on its social media channels on YouTube, X, TikTok, and Facebook.

Venice, alongside Cannes, is considered the world’s most prestigious film festival and a major awards season prognosticator.

The festival has already confirmed that Danny Boyle’s Ink, a biographical drama starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy, about Rupert Murdoch and his British tabloid empire, will open this year’s event, on Sept. 2. Dio Ride, an Italian period drama from director Giovanni Veronesi starring Pierfrancesco Favino (Maria, Rush) will close the fest on Sept. 12.

Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Lost Daughter, The Bride!) will head up this year’s Venice competition jury as president, picking the winner of the Golden Lion for best film. George Clooney, a Lido regular, will receive an honorary Golden Lion lifetime achievement award.

Last year’s Biennale included several high-profile premieres, though many — Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite — were award season flops.

The only 2025 Venice title to score at the Oscars was Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, which picked up 9 Academy Award nominations, winning three, for Best Costume Design, Best Production Design and Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling. Bugonia, from Yorgos Lanthimos, another Venice world premiere, picked up three Oscar nominations but won none. Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, which won Venice’s Silver Lion last year, was nominated for Best International Feature but lost out to Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value.

Europe’s other big festivals, Cannes and Berlin, struggled this year to attract films from major studios, leading to speculation that the majors are going cold on the festival circuit. Barbera has traditionally proven adept at enticing the studios, and Netflix, to premiere their prestige titles on the Lido. This year’s lineup will see if he still has the touch.

Can you be happily married while leading a double life? Especially if that double life involves another person? One way to explore that question is to watch Kate, the protagonist of Brave New Love, the new feature film from writer-director Maria Bäck (I Remember When I Die, Psychosis in Stockholm) that will world premiere on Aug. 9 in the international competition of the 79^th edition of the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland.

But be warned: things may get awkward at times.

After all, Kate, a hypnotherapist, lives happily with her husband, Orla, and their daughter, Athena. But she also shares a secret romantic relationship with another man, Andreas. “After years of secrecy, the fragile balance of her double life begins to unravel,” reads a synopsis. “As a role model to her daughter, she struggles to navigate her existential quest – a journey filled with body fluids, intimacy, Greek mythology, laughter, madness, and clumsiness.” In the process, Kate struggles to redefine love.

Kathrine Thorborg Johansen (Post Mortem: No One Dies in Skarnes) stars as Kate, Simon Sears (Shadow and Bone) is husband Orla, and Anders Danielsen Lie (Sentimental Value, Everybody Digs Bill Evans, The Worst Person in the World) portrays Andreas. Young Noemi Carbone Mannov plays Athena, and Angeliki Papoulia (Dogtooth, The Lobster) also features in the cast.

Produced by Anna-Maria Kantarius, Brave New Love features cinematography by Maria Von Hausswolff, with editing handled by Julius Krebs Damsbo. Reinvent Yellow is in charge of International sales.

“There are so many rules and inherited expectations attached to love,” Bäck says about the film. “I wanted to explore these often absurd ideas through wit and sensuality, and create a mirror for the loneliness and power of a heart set on fire.”

THR can now exclusively premiere a clip from Brave New Love that introduces you to Kate in a scene that is likely to take your breath away – and not necessarily in the way you may expect.

You might remember that Madonna, in her 1998 hit “Frozen,” sang: “Love is a bird; she needs to fly.” Well, the scene here fits in with that line – but again, not necessarily in the way you may expect. Watch the exclusive clip from Brave New Love right here.

Travis Scott is opening up about how Christopher Nolan cast him in The Odyssey.

During a Tuesday night appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Scott recalled receiving an unexpected phone call from the Oscar-winning director, who asked if he’d be interested in acting in the Greek epic.

“My phone went off and it just said, ‘Chris.’ And I’m thinking, ‘OK, I don’t know what this is about. Maybe he wants to go to a show?’” Scott said. “So I pick up and he’s like, ‘Would you be interested in acting in a movie?’ And I’m like, ‘I mean, I guess, you know? What’s the [role]?’”

Scott recalled Nolan telling him the film would be “coming out soon” and that he wanted him to be part of it. Surprised by the ask, Scott responded: “I’m like, ‘Whoa, hold on. Wait. You know I make music?’” before Nolan gave him “his whole thesis on why.”

“I really enjoy his time. I’m really inspired by him. He’s a real mentor of mine outside of this,” Scott said of the Oppenheimer filmmaker. “So I’m like, ‘Yo, whatever you’re down with, I’m down. However it goes, I’m with it.’”

Scott played Demodocus, the bard who narrates Odysseus’ journey in the opening scene and is the first voice and face audiences see in the film.

Though he admitted, “I was actually nervous as ‘F,’” Scott said he initially assumed his scenes would be with extras.

“I didn’t know that it was going to be Anne Hathaway, Tom [Holland] and Robert Pattinson — a bunch of amazing people,” he said. “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. But they were such an amazing cast.”

Scott continued to praise Nolan and the cast for making it a comfortable experience. The pair previously collaborated on the soundtrack for Nolan’s 2020 film Tenet, which starred Pattinson.

“Chris is an amazing director,” Scott said before adding of the cast, “Everybody made me feel comfortable. I was just glad to be there and just watch him. And being in such a world of them. So I’m just glad to be here.”

Nolan recently spoke with Time magazine about why he cast Scott, saying, “I wanted to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap.”

In addition to acting, Scott also recorded the original song “When I’m Home” for The Odyssey‘s closing credits alongside James Blake, with production from the film’s composer Ludwig Göransson. Nolan is credited as a co-writer.

The Odyssey is now playing in theaters.

Los Angeles mayoral hopeful and former reality TV star Spencer Pratt released a lengthy, artificial-intelligence-assisted screed taking down the lawsuit filed by 12 state attorneys general against Paramount over its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. In a TikTok video, he shouts that Hollywood is kaput if the suit succeeds.

On July 20, a coalition of 12 states led by California filed a suit against Paramount to block its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The coalition includes New York and Colorado, among others. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order pausing the merger earlier this week.

Pratt, the former MTV star who played the villain of reality TV hit The Hills 20 years ago, began leaning into Los Angeles city politics in 2025 after his Pacific Palisades home burned in one of the fires that engulfed parts of the city. Pratt and other area property owners filed a suit against the city of Los Angeles and its Department of Water and Power, alleging the fires were DWP’s fault; he also began blaming Mayor Karen Bass, citing a slow response.

@spencerpratt

Greasy Gavin and Bonehead Bonta are the real life slick-haired archetypal douchebag villains we’ve seen in every movie. Now they’re coming to destroy the Hollywood for good, over petty politics. The Paramount sabotage is…way worse than you think.

♬ original sound – Spencer Pratt

Mad as hell about L.A. politics in the wake of the fires, he launched a campaign for mayor on the fire’s anniversary, positioning himself as a common-sense populist. In June, he came in third place behind Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman, after an initial count had put him more than eight percentage points ahead of her. He refused to accept the result and drew support from President Donald Trump (who already doomed his chances in L.A. with his vocal support) and House Speaker Mike Johnson; both claimed the race was fraudulent, once again without evidence.

Pratt had said he’d stay in L.A. to remain laser-focused on local politics. But with this new video, he’s gone national, training his screed on every state suing Paramount. Being a Californian, he naturally singles out Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta, claiming the two are destroying Hollywood as they try to “cripple two of the greatest film studios of all time over politics.”

“[Newsom and Bonta] are everything Paramount isn’t,” Pratt claims. “While Paramount and Tom Cruise have spent the last decades building up Hollywood, [these two] have been destroying it — chasing productions out of town, sending projects to Budapest, neglecting film tax credits and incentives to win back production, doing everything they can to cripple the film industry while Atlanta and Hungary steal our lunch. And now they’re suing Paramount to make sure the industry crumbles further, all because Paramount wants to invest $110 billion into Warner Bros.”

The 10-minute-plus clip splices in A.I.-generated cutaways from Pratt to clips of popular Hollywood movies. The former candidate channels Alex Jones, sitting behind a desk and yelling into the camera as he argues the state’s leaders want jobs out of California. Citing a clip from a podcast interview with Bonta, he notes that tech giants like Amazon aren’t named in the lawsuit despite making blockbusters with major theatrical releases — Pratt cites Top Gun: Maverick and dubs its star “Saint Tom Cruise.”

In the clip, Pratt also tries to shoot down Bonta’s claim that a Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger would reduce production, arguing other factors were at play.

“They claim that after Disney acquired Fox, production decreased. Notice they specifically say after they merged — they don’t say because they merged, because something else happened after that 2019 merger that may have had an impact on production,” he says. “Yeah, they merged right before COVID, but Gavin Newsom shut down the entire state and followed that with the biggest, most prolonged labor dispute in Hollywood history. Everybody’s production decreased.”

Pratt also points to what he calls political motivation behind the opposition, noting the lack of similar scrutiny over Amazon’s MGM acquisition, and that streamers like YouTube weren’t named in the suit — inconvenient, he argues, for the theory of a Paramount monopoly.

“This isn’t the ’80s, Rob. Streaming has changed everything. More and more people get their content online, which means fewer and fewer are watching traditional cable. The trend line only goes in one direction,” he says in the clip.

Pratt closes out the rant with high praise for Paramount, which he credits with saving the industry.

“There’s a ton of competition for these studios,” Pratt claims. “This whole lawsuit is a scam. He needs to quit playing petty politics and crippling Hollywood.”

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, The Hollywood Reporter may receive an affiliate commission.

From designer jewelry to under-$25 finds, the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale is home to hundreds of discounted gems. Through Sunday, Aug. 9, the retailer is offering up to 45 percent off dozens of its best-selling jewelry brands: Bony Levy, Monica Vinader, Lizzie Fortunato, Mejuri and John Hardy, to name just a handful.

To sweeten the deal, Nordstrom is running a Women’s Fine Jewelry Trunk Show alongside its annual savings event. This means that through Aug. 9, 100-plus heavily discounted designer pieces are available online only. Once Aug. 10 hits, the limited-edition assortment will not only lose its discount — it will be gone for good.

One more Anniversary Sale shopping tip ahead of our jewelry picks: For those considering signing up for Nordstrom’s credit card, now is the most strategic time to do so, because through Aug. 9, new cardmembers will receive $60 off their next purchase. See all benefits and apply for a credit card now at Nordstrom.com.

Nordstrom Anniversary Sale 2026: Shop Best Jewelry Deals

Related: The 75 Most Dazzling Jewelry Gifts From Celebrity-Owned and Hollywood-Loved Labels

Related: These Hollywood-Loved Designer Handbags Are Up to $1,500 Off at Nordstrom’s Anniversary Sale

Shop the full assortment of savings via Nordstrom’s Jewelry & Watches landing page. And for more curated picks, visit THR‘s main Anniversary Sale shopping guide.

About the Author

Erin Lassner is THR’s E-Commerce Writer. She covers shopping content across fashion, beauty and lifestyle, and has nearly ten years of experience testing and reviewing the best of skin-care, makeup, accessories and wellness.

Korean hitmaker Yeon Sang-ho’s Parasyte universe is getting an all-new host body to infect. On Thursday morning from Seoul, Netflix unveiled Parasyte: Tamiya, an upcoming Japanese season of the hit sci-fi horror series that has delighted fans with its inspired K-drama reimagining of artist Hitoshi Iwaaki’s best-selling manga.

Yeon, fresh off the release of Netflix thriller series Human Vapor and zombie blockbuster Colony, returns as the lead creative force behind the show, having developed its story and co-written all episodes with his regular collaborator Ryu Yong-jae. Netflix says the new season is already in post-production and will premiere on the service sometime in 2027.

The original Parasyte: The Grey spent four weeks on Netflix’s Global Top 10 Non-English TV list in 2024 and topped the rankings in 34 countries upon its release.

Whereas the original season’s novelty came from transplanting Iwaaki’s classic manga to a South Korean setting, the new chapter is said to burrow more deeply into the original source material. Japanese actress Shioli Kutsuna, best known to global viewers for her recurring part in the Deadpool franchise, stars as Ryoko Tamiya, a parasite who seizes the body of a high school teacher and — initially as ruthless as the rest of her kind — gradually comes to suspect that coexistence with humans, rather than predation, may offer her species its best chance of survival. The series tells that story from her side of the divide, with Kutsuna playing the character in three registers: the original human, the violent creature that takes her over and the evolving being caught between the two.

“Ryoko Tamiya is a truly captivating villain in the original manga,” Yeon says. “Her struggles over the nature of her own existence are what elevate the original Parasyte from a simple hero-based manga aimed at kids to something deeper.”

“I wanted to convey her perpetual struggle over the need for parasites to coexist with humans and the issue of their survival, and how she suffers setbacks and learns over time,” the filmmaker adds. “I think the anguish she experiences is the essence of Parasyte.”

Kutsuna, who previously worked with Netflix on the sumo drama Sanctuary and will appear in the streamer’s upcoming live-action Gundam film, calls Tamiya “the most challenging role I have ever played in my acting career.”

She adds: “During the six months I spent living as Tamiya, I experienced many emotions I had never encountered before.”

Yeon adds: “She did a wonderful job of portraying the process of a non-human creature coming to understand both humanity and its own existence.”

Yeon has become one of Netflix’s most consistent and prolific collaborators in East Asia. His projects at the streamer as a creator, director or writer include Hellbound (two seasons), sci-fi feature Jung_E, occult chiller The Bequeathed, Parasyte: The Grey, last year’s Revelations and the just-launched The Human Vapor, his big-budget Japanese series collaboration with Toho. He’s kept just as busy as a theatrical filmmaker. Colony, the Cannes Midnight-premiered zombie thriller starring Jun Ji-hyun that returned him to Train to Busan territory, has grossed $42.4 million in South Korea since late May, making it one of the year’s biggest Korean hits. He’s simultaneously been experimenting with ultra-low-budget filmmaking, having released mystery thriller The Ugly last year, and with the AI-themed thriller Paradise Lost set to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival this fall.

For Parasyte: Tamiya, Yeon reunites with Grey co-writer Ryu Yong-jae, while Japanese filmmakers Kensaku Kakimoto (Glass Heart) and Kazuhiro Nakagawa (Double, Bullet Train Explosion) direct the episodes. WOWPOINT, the production house behind The Grey, The Human Vapor and Colony, produces.

Iwaaki’s manga, published by Kodansha from 1988 to 1995, has previously spawned an anime series and a two-part Japanese film franchise directed by Godzilla Minus One‘s Takashi Yamazaki.

Says Yoshihiro Sato, manager of live-action creative at Netflix Japan: “‘What makes a human?’ ‘Can we coexist with beings that are different from us?’ — These questions posed by Parasyte more than 30 years ago feel much more pressing for our modern society that has placed non-sentient AI at all of our fingertips.”

He adds: “Our purpose in making this series was to take the universal questions posed by the original manga 30 years ago and bring them into the modern spotlight.”

For years, Lego has been one of big booths at San Diego Comic-Con, a massive footprint in the center of the San Diego Convention Center. This year, however, the company is taking its convention experience to a whole new level of brick.

Doubling down on its Lego Smart Play, which blends physical play with responsive technology, Lego is creating an interactive and immersive destination themed to two of the biggest brands in pop culture, Pokémon and Star Wars.  

The company is also showing off publicly, for the first time, its upcoming sets for Star Trek, Donkey Kong and Shrek.

The booth will welcome convention-goers with a retro-futuristic gateway before welcoming them into two fully activations.

For the Star Wars installation, Lego has created “Destination: Mos Eisley,” which will take fans to the famous Creature Cantina, recreated by oversized Lego brick environments designed for photo taking (and social media sharing). Attendees will be able to get on stage for a remix of the Cantina Song and even slide into the famous corner booth for a face-to-face encounter with Greedo. There is also a Dewback Petting Zoo for a photo op with a purring, snoozing Dewback.

The Pokémon installation, meanwhile, recreates the Pokémon Lab with scaled up Lego brings and will be populated by life-sized Lego Pokémon builds powered by Smart Play. That experience involves Poké Balls and a game of “Hide and Pikachu.”

One of the big sets being unveiled is the Lego Icons Star Trek: U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 Bridge, coinciding with the show’s 60^th anniversary. The set will available at Lego stores and LEGO.com exclusively beginning Sept. 1.

(And speaking of Lego Trek, there will be a panel on the subject, titled Star Trek: The Collector Frontier, Thursday at 11 a.m. in Room 5AB with Lego set designers Henrik Andersen and Crystal Marie Fontan. And, for good measure, Lego is also showing off a brick-built Captain’s Chair — made out of 83,568 bricks — at the neighboring Marriott Marquis.)

Lego previously produced sets replicating a Nintendo console and a Game Boy and it’s keeping the video game silo going with a Donkey Kong Arcade, which will be on display at its booth. The 1,367-piece collectible set features Donkey Kong and Lady, plus well-known sights such as the scaffold, ladder and hammer details from the original Nintendo game. And yes, you will be able to release barrels and press the button to make Jumpman leap over the barrels. That set will be available Aug. 1.

Lego is also showcasing 12 minifigures from the Shrek franchise as it gears up for new Shrek sets in 2027. The minifigures will hit shelves Sept. 1.

Travis Scott is opening up about how Christopher Nolan cast him in The Odyssey for his acting debut.

During a Tuesday night appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Scott recalled receiving an unexpected phone call from the Oscar-winning director, who asked if he’d be interested in acting in the Greek epic.

“My phone went off and it just said, ‘Chris.’ And I’m thinking, ‘OK, I don’t know what this is about. Maybe he wants to go to a show?’” Scott said. “So I pick up and he’s like, ‘Would you be interested in acting in a movie?’ And I’m like, ‘I mean, I guess, you know? What’s the [role]?’”

Scott recalled Nolan telling him the film would be “coming out soon” and that he wanted him to be part of it. Surprised by the ask, Scott responded: “I’m like, ‘Whoa, hold on. Wait. You know I make music?’” before Nolan gave him “his whole thesis on why.”

“I really enjoy his time. I’m really inspired by him. He’s a real mentor of mine outside of this,” Scott said of the Oppenheimer filmmaker. “So I’m like, ‘Yo, whatever you’re down with, I’m down. However it goes, I’m with it.’”

Scott played Demodocus, the bard who narrates Odysseus’ journey in the opening scene and is the first voice and face audiences see in the film.

Though he admitted, “I was actually nervous as ‘F,’” Scott said he initially assumed his scenes would be with extras.

“I didn’t know that it was going to be Anne Hathaway, Tom [Holland] and Robert Pattinson — a bunch of amazing people,” he said. “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. But they were such an amazing cast.”

Scott continued to praise Nolan and the cast for making his acting debut a comfortable experience. The pair previously collaborated on the soundtrack for Nolan’s 2020 film Tenet, which starred Pattinson.

“Chris is an amazing director,” Scott said before adding of the cast, “Everybody made me feel comfortable. I was just glad to be there and just watch him. And being in such a world of them. So I’m just glad to be here.”

Nolan recently spoke with Time magazine about why he cast Scott, saying, “I wanted to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap.”

In addition to his acting debut, Scott also recorded the original song “When I’m Home” for The Odyssey‘s closing credits alongside James Blake, with production from the film’s composer Ludwig Göransson. Nolan is credited as a co-writer.

The Odyssey is now playing in theaters.

YouTube ads earned Google more than $11 billion from April to June 2026 — up 13 percent from the same period last year — and that wasn’t even Alphabet‘s biggest second-quarter highlight.

Alphabet revenues in total grew 24 percent year-to-year to $120 billion. All told, Google’s advertising revenue (Google Search, YouTube, and Google Network) rose to $81.6 billion. The lion’s share of that is good, old-fashioned Google Search, which alone accounted for $63.3 billion. Another $12.9 billion from subscriptions and nearly $25 billion from the cloud helped push Alphabet’s Q2 profit beyond $112 billion, which dilutes down to $9.11 per share. That absolutely crushed Wall Street’s expectations.

Since it is 2026, Google/Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai mostly just wants to talk about Google AI.

“Our AI investments are redefining what’s possible across every part of our business. Q2 was an amazing quarter, with Alphabet revenues growing 24% year-over-year and Google Cloud revenues accelerating to 82% growth, driven by demand for AI infrastructure and AI solutions,” he said in a statement accompanying the financials. “It’s great to see wide adoption of Gemini Enterprise, with nearly 90% of the Fortune 100 using it.”

“We have exciting momentum across the board,” he continued. “Our popular AI features are driving Search query growth. Gemini models now process 22 billion API tokens per minute and the Gemini App has 950 million monthly active users. We are seeing strong demand for our security solutions, and our new Gemini 3.5 Flash Cyber delivers highly cost efficient performance at the frontier.”

Finally, Pichai touted the impact of the World Cup on YouTube views.

“And month over month, people turn to YouTube for major world events, with over 1.7 billion unique viewers watching World Cup-related videos during the FIFA World Cup 2026,” his prepared written remarks concluded. “These outstanding results show that our differentiated, full stack approach to AI is delivering real, measurable value for consumers, customers, and our partners globally.”

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, The Hollywood Reporter may receive an affiliate commission.

Jimmy Kimmel returns to host season five of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire‘s star-studded revival. With a stacked celebrity roster including Ben Affleck, Larry David, Michael Keaton, Awkwafina, Leslie Odom Jr. and Krysten Ritter, the new season of Millionaire premieres on Wednesday, July 22 at 8 p.m. PT/ET on ABC, which is available on any streaming service that carries said network, namely DirecTV (with a five-day free trial), Fubo, Sling and Hulu + Live TV. New Episodes will air weekly during the same time slot.

Weekly episodes will also be available to stream on-demand on a one-day delay (every Thursday) on Disney+/Hulu.

At a Glance: How to Watch Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Season Five

Where to Watch Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Season Five: Air Date, Time

The Kimmel-hosted competition show will be broadcast Wednesdays on ABC, at 8 p.m. PT/ET, starting with its July 22 premiere.

Where to Stream Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Season Five Online

Since Millionaire airs on ABC, it will also be available to watch live on any streaming service that carries the network, including DirecTV (with a five-day free trial), Fubo, Sling and Hulu + Live TV. Episodes will be available to stream the following day on Disney+/Hulu.

More on each live TV streaming option — and their new subscriber discounts — below.

Learn more about each plan option, including how to build your own channel lineup (starting at just $19.99 per month), at directv.com.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Season Five Contestants, Host

Jimmy Kimmel returns as host with a stacked lineup of players for the revival’s fifth season. Duos include Ben Affleck and Jeopardy! champion Jamie Ding, Larry David and Cazzie David, Jason Alexander and Wayne Knight, Tig Notaro and Pete Holmes, Brad Paisley and Clayton Kershaw, Michael Kosta and Wendi McLendon-Covey, Jesse Eisenberg and Paul Giamatti, Krysten Ritter and Sarah Shahi, Michael Keaton and Jon Lovett, Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel, Awkwafina and Paul Feig, Billy Porter and Leslie Odom Jr., Timothy Simons and Jackie Tohn, Sarah Jane Nader and Brooks Nader, Colin Jost and Michael Che, plus Taran Killam and Will Forte.