Jennifer Love Hewitt, Vivica A. Fox and more part of “It’s a Wonderful Lifetime” holiday movie slate
Chelsea Guglielmino/WireImage
It’s not even Halloween, but Lifetime is already gearing up for the holidays with the release of its 12-movie “It’s a Wonderful Lifetime” lineup.
Included are stars like Jennifer Love Hewitt, Tia Mowry, Vivica A. Fox and Teri Hatcher, all in festive films, all debuting at 8 p.m. ET throughout the weekends of November and December.
Kicking things off on Nov. 16 will be Christmas at Plumhill Manor starring Maria Menounos. On Nov. 17 Lifetime debuts Holidays in Happy Hollow.
Other offerings include We Three Kings, starring singer BeBe Winans,on Nov. 30; Vivica stars with Jackée Harry in Make or Bake Christmas on Dec. 1.
Tia Mowry stars in A Very Merry Beauty Salon on Dec. 7, and on Dec. 14 you can see Hewitt in The Holiday Junkie, which she directed, co-wrote and produced. She also wrote and performed a song for the movie.
Check out the full list here, as well as Lifetime’s tease on YouTube.
Lifetime’s website also has 100 holiday films for your streaming pleasure.
Nearly two and a half decades after the monumental film Gladiator hit theaters, acclaimed filmmaker Ridley Scott is returning the iconic Roman-era epic to the big screen with Gladiator II.
The film, starring Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen and more, is a Roman warrior story of redemption, family and nation, told on a scale big enough to match its preceding legacy.
In an interview with Good Morning America, the cast opened up about making the second installment of a classic, carrying on the Gladiator legacy and how Scott “built” Rome for the new film.
“We thought about it for 24 years — not every day, it was always there in the back of my mind,” Scott said of making the sequel. “But in that time, I did 17 other movies. Big ones. So, it really wasn’t an incredible challenge other than saying ‘It would be nice to get to it,’ And we finally got to it by sitting down at a table and saying, ‘Whatever happened to Lucius?'”
Enter: Mescal as Lucius, the son of Maximus — the main character from Gladiator, played by Russell Crowe.
Mescal undoubtedly had big boots to fill, succeeding Crowe as the leading man in the sequel. According to two-time Oscar winner Washington, who plays Macrinus in the new film, Mescal was more than able to carry the staggering legacy of Crowe’s character.
“First of all, he pulls it off,” said Washington. “I can only imagine the pressure he must have felt coming behind Russell 25 years later.”
Despite that pressure, Mescal made clear his dominant feeling was one of excitement. “Obviously there was a nervousness attached to it and concern because you care about the work that you do,” he said. “But the predominant thing was one of getting ready to go — and excited about it, to be honest.”
Scott’s Rome, which he built with production designer Arthur Max, featured more than 500 extras filling rows in a replica Colosseum that reached a third of the original structure’s actual size.
“I’d never been on sets like that,” said Washington, explaining the scope of the production. “They built Rome, basically.”
Mescal said actors on Scott’s set are immersed in the world of Gladiator — barring the cameras of course, though he was sure to note that Scott even dresses up the camera operators in costume.
“It is a total, total gift,” said Mescal of the elaborate set design. “You walk onto set, and if you can’t act in that environment, I don’t think this job is for you.”
A new trailer for the upcoming erotic thriller Babygirl, starring Nicole Kidman, has been released.
The Halina Reijn-directed film, which arrives in theaters Dec. 25, centers on the scandalous relationship between a high-flying CEO named Romy, played by Kidman, and her much younger intern, Samuel, played by Harris Dickinson, according to a brief synopsis.
After introducing Romy as a powerful executive, the trailer hints at the first signs of the pair’s flirtatious relationship in a Q&A between the two. “Your behavior is unacceptable,” says Romy before their relationship turns physical.
“If we’re going to do this, we’re gonna need to set some rules that you and I both agree on,” Samuel says, setting the framework for the relationship. “Starting with, I tell you what to do, and you do it.”
The trailer ratchets up as the pair develop an intimate relationship. “I think I have power over you, ’cause I can make one call and you lose everything,” Samuel says in a voice-over before he is seen appearing in Romy’s home with her children.
The film will also star Antonio Banderas, who plays Jacob, Romy’s husband. Sophie Wilde also stars in the project playing the role of Esme, Romy’s assistant.
Kidman touched on the major themes of the film at the Venice Film Festival in August, where she won the award for best actress for her role in the film.
“Yes, it’s about sex. It’s about desire, it’s about your inner thoughts, it’s about secrets, it’s about marriage, it’s about truth, power, consent,” said Kidman.
The Wild Robot topped the domestic box office, earning an estimated $35 million in its opening weekend. The animated adventure — with a voice cast including Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy, Kit Connor and Stephanie Hsu — added an estimated $18.1 million internationally, for a global total of $53.1 million.
After a three-week run at No. 1, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice slipped to second place, grabbing an estimated $16 million at the North American box office, bringing its four-week tally to $250 million. The film has grossed $373 million worldwide to date.
Transformers One took third place, delivering an estimated $9.3 million in its second week of release, for a total of $39.2 million. Its global tally now stands at $72 million.
Fourth place went to India’s Devara Part 1. The action drama collected an estimated $5.6 million at the North American box office and $32.9 million worldwide. Rounding out the top five was Speak No Evil with an estimated $4.3 million domestically, bringing its tally to $57.7 million worldwide.
Opening in sixth place was Francis Ford Coppola‘s much-hyped Roman epic Megalopolis. The film — starring Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf,Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Chloe Fineman and Dustin Hoffman — earned just $4 million at the domestic box office and $6.1 million worldwide against a $120 million budget in its opening weekend.
