Matthew Monagle

Today the world of comedy lost one of its brightest stars. Jerry Lewis was no stranger to controversy during his decades-long career, but his impact on both Hollywood and comedy in general cannot be denied. From his early days as Dean Martin’s partner-in-crime to his career-capping turn in Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy  —  and countless box office success in the interim  —  Lewis’s impact on Hollywood will be a source of much discussion for years to come.

Hold onto your (well-toned) butts, ladies and gentlemen, because Zac Efron’s career is about to kick into high gear. After a few years spent as a teenage heartthrob  —  and a few more years spent revamping his image in movies like Neighbors and Baywatch as everyone’s favorite ‘sex idiot’  —  it looks like Efron is gearing up to pivot yet-again into the dramatic stage of his career. What type of dramatic turn, you ask? A troubled artist? A struggling musician? You’re close! How about infamous serial killer Ted Bundy?

So this probably isn’t the way IFC Films wanted this conversation to go. Earlier this week, the studio released the above first trailer for Band Aid, a new comedy starring Adam Pally, Zoe Lister-Jones, and Fred Armisen about a struggling couple who start a band to work through some of their anger at each other. It’s a perfectly fine trailer; Pally and Lister-Jones seem to have a lot of chemistry, Armisen is sufficiently wacky, and the whole thing suggest a light indie for those tired of superheroes come June.

Alright, so maybe Power Rangers wasn’t the beginning of a new superhero franchise its studio was hoping for, but at least some good will come out of the film. Ludi Lin, the Chinese-Canadian actor who played the Black Ranger in Lionsgate’s film, has officially been put on the fast track to Hollywood action stardom with a supporting role in Aquaman, DC’s upcoming film about the Machiavellian goings-on in the underwater kingdom of Atlantis. Ya he’s in luck there/down in the muck there/under the sea.

In the wake of this past weekend’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword failure, I’ve had a few conversations about Charlie Hunnam and the generic actors Hollywood keeps trying to turn into a thing. These conversations inevitably cycle through a few of the usual suspects (Jai Courtney, Sam Worthington, etc.) before someone throws out Armie Hammer, and that’s when I find myself forced to shut. it. down. Blame Hammer’s agent if you want for his mediocre track record, but when it comes to talent  —  physicality, humor, and depth of acting ability  —  Hammer is absolutely the real deal.

Fans of Hugh Jackman’s final Wolverine movie are about to have a pretty big month: not only does Logan return to theaters in a special black-and-white format on Tuesday, May 16, but the movie will be available on VOD that same date and on Blu-ray/DVD on May 23. A home video release, of course, means deleted scenes, and deleted scenes often have a habit of showing up online in the few weeks before the physical copy is released. And gosh, wouldn’t you know? A doozy of a deleted scene is now available for your viewing pleasure.

Now that’s how you celebrate Mother’s Day. Earlier today, filmmaker Darren Aronofsky shared the first poster for mother!, his new horror/thriller featuring Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem. With an angelic expression on Lawerence’s face in the above excerpt, you might be forgiven for thinking that this poster is a kind and gentle teaser for a movie that is more creepy than graphic. Well, by all means, don’t let me stop you from scrolling down to reveal the full horrifying artwork on the mother! poster below.

On Thursday evening, plenty of executives went to bed with dreams of big opening weekend numbers in their head. Could the movie about a magical king unseat the movie about a talking tree? Or would a mother-daughter comedy with just the right release date unseat a pair of battling sisters? Now that we’ve reached the end of the holiday weekend, we finally have the numbers, and it turns out the answer was no and no, respectively. Here’s this past weekend’s grosses as of Sunday afternoon:

Dwayne Johnson is the gift that keeps on giving. Not only does the actor continue to produce some of the best action movies around, but he also keeps fans entertained between releases by sharing incredible behind-the-scenes footage and images from his movies. This was the case with The Fate of the Furious and the upcoming Jumanji sequel, and now Johnson is at it again with Rampage, his 2018 movie based on the popular video game franchise of the same name.

Last week, Josh Gad briefly set the internet on fire by posting, without comment, a photo of Batman nemesis The Penguin. As we noted at the time, this also came on the heels of several DC Films executives following the actor on Twitter. That’s a not-inconsequential amount of smoke for any casting rumor, which led plenty of people (ourselves included) to wonder aloud if Gad would have a role in Ben Affleck and Matt Reeves’ upcoming The Batman movie.

It would seem that there are two stages every iconic musician must got through in the twilight of their career: induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and a guest spot in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Such was the case with Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, who  —  in a nod to Johnny Depp’s appropriation of elements of his persona  — appeared in two films as the father of Jack Sparrow. And now the franchise has pulled in another iconic musician, with Beatles legend Paul McCartney sharing his slightly foppish character.

Despite a reputation that suggests he’d rather walk through glass than slog through another Hollywood junket, Harrison Ford has been surprisingly game when it comes to reprising iconic characters. Not only has Ford starred as Indiana Jones in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, he’s also set to return as Rick Deckard in this falls’s Blade Runner 2049. And in each case, it would seem that Ford’s curiosity got the better of him, inspiring him to revisit some of his dynamic action heroes in the twilight of his career.