Entertainment

Freddie Prinze Jr. officially joins cast of ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ follow-up

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Freddie Prinze Jr. is on board to appear in the follow-up film to the 1997 horror flick I Know What You Did Last Summer, ABC News has learned.

The She’s All That actor starred in the original film as Ray Bronson, a teen desperately trying to cover up a tragic accident he and his friends caused.

Prinze joins the cast of the new Sony Pictures film alongside Bodies Bodies Bodies actress Chase Sui Wonders, Outer Banks star Madelyn Cline, Tiny Beautiful Things alum Sarah Pidgeon, Atlanta and Tell Me Lies actor Tyriq Withers and The Little Mermaid star Jonah Hauer-King. The film will arrive in theaters July 18.

Jennifer Love Hewitt, who starred in the original I Know What You Did Last Summer as Julie James, is also in talks to return in the new film.

Thor: Love and Thunder co-writer and Someone Great director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson is slated to direct the upcoming movie. Robinson and Sam Lansky joined forces to write the follow-up movie off of Leah McKendrick‘s draft. Neal Moritz, who has produced each installment of the Fast and the Furious franchise, as well as the original I Know What You Did Last Summer and its sequel, is slated to produce.

I Know What You Did Last Summer which starred Hewitt, Prinze, Prinze’s now-wife Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe, followed a group of friends stalked by a hook-handed maniac after hoping to hide a tragic accident.

The film earned over $125 million worldwide and spawned the 1998 sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.

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Entertainment

In brief … Lin-Manuel Miranda added to Broadway’s ‘All In: Comedy About Love’ and more

Lin-Manuel Miranda has been added to the rotating cast of Broadway’s All In: Comedy About Love, according to Broadway.com. Comedian John Mulaney will lead the first round of cast members, which includes Saturday Night Live stars Fred Armisen and Chloe Fineman, Girls5Eva‘s Renée Elise Goldsberry and Richard Kind, appearing Dec. 11-Jan. 12. The play, running at Broadway’s Hudson Theatre, features “a series of vignettes about dating, heartbreak and marriage,” adapted from short stories by Simon Rich, per the outlet …

Tamara Smart, who recently starred in Netflix’s Resident Evil, has been tapped to play Thalia Grace in the Disney+ series Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Season 2 is based on The Sea of Monsters, the second installment in Rick Riordan‘s acclaimed book series. Thalia is described as “the Demigod daughter of Zeus who made her last stand to protect her friends at the edge of Camp Half-Blood,” per the streaming service. Smart joins series regulars Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries, Aryan Simhadri, Charlie Bushnell, Dior Goodjohn and Daniel Diemer. Disney is the parent company of ABC News …

The Tony Awards will return to New York’s Radio City Music Hall for the first time in two years when the 2025 ceremony takes place June 8, according to Deadline. The 78th celebration, presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, “will recognize all of the awards categories and honor the incredible artistry of the 2024-2025 season,” per CBS. The Tony Awards will air live to both coasts on CBS and stream on Paramount+ …

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Entertainment

The one where ‘Friends’ fanatics put their fandom to the test

HBO Max

The TV sitcom Friends is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and Max is marking the occasion with a four-part competition series, titled Fast Friends.

“From racing through Rachel and Monica’s apartment to darting across Joey and Chandler’s bachelor pad and grabbing a coffee at Central Perk, fans will relive their favorite moments while being put to the test with trivia, puzzles and games that will keep even the most die-hard Friends fans on their toes,” according to the streaming service. “The winning team will be crowned the ultimate Friends fans.”

The game show will be shot at The Friends Experience: The One in New York City beginning in October.

Fast Friends will stream on Max, which is also celebrating Friends‘ 30th anniversary with bonus content, a TikTok filter, in-app surprises and more.

Friends, starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and the late Matthew Perry, premiered in 1994 and ran for 10 seasons on NBC, becoming one of the network’s biggest shows.

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Entertainment

Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans make unlikely Christmas-saving duo in new ‘Red One’ trailer

Amazon MGM Studios

Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans are on a mission to save Christmas.

In Amazon MGM Studios’ new action-packed trailer for Red One, a bounty hunter, played by Chris Evans, is kidnapped and brought to the North Pole, where he is informed Santa has been abducted.

Also starring in the Jake Kasdan-directed film are J.K. Simmons as Santa and Kiernan Shipka, Bonnie Hunt and Lucy Liu, among others.

Evans and Johnson, the latter of whom plays the North Pole’s head of security, team up in the trailer for the action-comedy, which follows the duo on the search for the missing jolly man.

“Are you saying Santa Claus has been kidnapped?” asks Evans after being informed that “Red One” had been abducted.

The trailer explains Evans will be working with Johnson, whom he vocally expresses distaste for, to track down everyone’s favorite Christmas icon.

The magic of the North Pole is in full effect throughout clip as a polar bear with human qualities dominates the screen for several shots, supply closets double as portal systems and several fantasy creatures appear throughout the quest to “save Christmas.”

According to a synopsis for the film, when Santa is kidnapped, Johnson’s character “must team up with the world’s most infamous bounty hunter,” played by Evans, “in a globe-trotting, action-packed mission to save Christmas.”

Red One is set to hit theaters on Nov. 15.

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Entertainment

Margot Robbie + Jacob Elordi join director Emerald Fennell for ‘Wuthering Heights’

ABC – Elordi in ‘Saltburn’ – Amazon Content Serivices

Margot Robbie is teaming up with Jacob Elordi and director Emerald Fennell for an adaptation of Emily Brontë‘s classic Wuthering Heights, Variety is reporting. 

Robbie’s LuckyChap production company produced Fennell’s Saltburn, which starred Elordi, and Promising Young Woman, which netted the writer-director an Academy Award, as well as four other nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Carey Mulligan.

Fennell, incidentally, also appeared in Robbie’s blockbuster Barbie, which was also produced by the Australian actress’s company. 

Wuthering Heights is the classic story of class, love and revenge; Robbie will play the book’s Catherine Earnshaw and Elordi, Heathcliff.

According to the trade, Saltburn producer MRC is backing the project, which is in preproduction and will shoot in the U.K. in 2025.

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Entertainment

Keira Knightley, Hannah Waddingham, Guy Pearce to star in Netflix thriller ‘The Woman in Cabin 10’

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Ruth Ware‘s bestselling novel The Woman in Cabin 10 is being turned into a star-studded thriller for Netflix.

The streaming service has announced Keira Knightley is joining Hannah Waddingham and Guy Pearce in the project, along with The Dark Knight‘s David Ajala, The Walking Dead veteran David Morrissey, Loki‘s Gugu Mbatha-Raw and The Gentlemen series’ Kaya Scodelario, among others.

The project has Knightley playing a journalist who finds herself in the center of a whodunnit. “While on a luxury cruise for a travel assignment, a journalist witnesses a passenger tossed overboard late one night, only to be told that she must have dreamed it, as all passengers are accounted for,” Netflix teases.

“Despite not being believed by anyone onboard, she continues to look for answers, putting her own life in danger,” it concludes.

The film has no drop date yet on the streamer.

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Entertainment

New ‘Gladiator II’ trailer reveals huge link to the Oscar-winning original

Paramount Pictures

Paul MescalDenzel Washington and Pedro Pascal star in a brand-new trailer for Gladiator II that was released by Paramount Pictures on Monday, and it reveals a key link to Ridley Scott‘s original film.

“Whose head could I give you to satisfy your fury?” Washington’s character, Macrinus, a wealthy arms dealer, asks Mescal’s Lucius in the new trailer.

“The general will do,” Lucius responds, setting up the context for a duel between Lucius and Pascal’s character, Marcus Acacius, the general who demolished Lucius’ adopted homeland, leading to his enslavement.

“I will have my vengeance,” Lucius says.

Connie Nielsen, who plays Lucius’ mother, Lucilla, also appears in the trailer — and drops the bombshell that Russell Crowe‘s character from the 2000 epic was his father.

“Lucius, take your father’s strength. His name was Maximus, and I see him in you,” she says.

While Lucius appeared as a boy in the first film, and it was apparent Lucilla and Maximus had a relationship in the past, she never mentioned that Lucius was his son.

The action-packed trailer for Scott’s sequel also features charging rhinos, decadent Roman-era costumes, and a dramatic conversation between Macrinus and Lucius.

The film also stars Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Derek Jacobi, Tim McInnerny, Alexander Karim, Rory McCann and more.

Gladiator II arrives in theaters Nov. 22.

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Entertainment

“This could get messy”: Action-packed teaser to Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts*’ goes viral

Marvel Studios

On Monday, Marvel Studios dropped an action-packed teaser to its May 2025 team-up Thunderbolts*.

As reported, the movie is an unlikely collab of former Marvel Cinematic Universe bad guys: Florence Pugh‘s Yelena and her adopted dad, Alexei aka Red Guardian (David Harbour); Sebastian Stan‘s Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier; Hannah John-Kamen‘s Ava Starr/Ghost from Ant-Man and the Wasp; Olga Kurylenko‘s Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster from Black Widow; and Wyatt Russell‘s John Walker/U.S. Agent from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

The trailer begins with Yelena knocking on Alexei’s door; she says she’s been looking for purpose, and “throwing herself into work” — in her case, being a master assassin — wasn’t cutting it.

It’s a malaise apparently felt by Bucky, who seems to be working as a security minder in Washington, D.C., as well as Walker, who is shown ignoring a baby in a crib and instead reading an article about his fall from grace as the one-time replacement to Steve Rogers’ Cap.

Yelena is then seen fighting her way into a facility and finds that each of the characters were led there, as well — the gang fights each other, until a guy in a pair of medical scrubs tumbles out of a crate. With every weapon trained on him, the guy identifies himself as “Bob.” 

And then the windows of the room slam shut, and they’re trapped. 

“Someone wants us gone,” Yelena says.

Returning Marvel player Julia Louis-Dreyfus reappears as the shadowy Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who seemingly brought the “adorable” gang together. 

“We’re brought up to believe there are good guys and there are bad guys,” she says in voice-over. “But eventually you come to realize there are bad guys, and there are worse guys — and nothing else.”

Marvel Studios is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

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Entertainment

Broadway to dim its lights to honor the late James Earl Jones

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The Broadway League has announced it will dim its lights the night of Sept. 23 in honor of the late James Earl Jones

The EGOT-winning actor, who passed away at 93 years on Sept. 9, was a force on the Great White Way, in addition to his big-screen work. Now the national trade association for the Broadway industry says it will pay tribute to him on Thursday at 6:45 p.m. ET.

“James Earl Jones was a true pillar of the Broadway industry, providing unforgettable experiences to multiple generations of theatregoers — all while accumulating many well-deserved honors, awards, and achievements for his iconic performances in other entertainment fields,” said Jason Laks, interim president of The Broadway League.

“While we acknowledge and celebrate Mr. Jones’ significant legacy across multiple mediums, we are particularly proud of his legacy on Broadway, and are grateful for the many memorable performances with which he graced our stages.” 

Jones made his Broadway debut in 1957 as an understudy in The Egghead. A decade later, he won his first Tony Award for his performance in The Great White Hope.

Throughout his career, he was nominated for four Tonys and won two. In 2017 he was honored with a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement. Jones last appeared on the stage in 2016’s The Gin Game.

Additionally, on Sept. 12, 2022, New York City’s Cort Theatre was renamed the James Earl Jones Theatre in his honor.

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Entertainment

If you’re a screamer, FX’s ‘Grotesquerie’ wants to hear it

FX

Ahead of the release of its creepy new serial killer series Grotesquerie, FX is conducting a symphony — of screams — and it wants you to participate. 

The network had already popped up booths in New York, Nashville and Los Angeles, which let horror fans have their screams recorded, and now it’s opening up the creepy collection process to social media.

The network’s “call-to-scream” campaign can be found on Instagram and TikTok with #SymphonyOfScreams and #GrotesquerieFX, where you can get the chance to join in.

The harvested howls will be compiled into “a horrific work of art” composed by producer Blake Slatkin.

Starring Niecy Nash-Betts and Courtney B. Vance, Ryan Murphy‘s 10-episode Grotesquerie premieres Sept. 25 at 10 p.m. ET on FX and streams next day on Hulu.

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