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Lin-Manuel Miranda’s next musical is an album – not a stage production – based on one of his favorite movies.

Warriors, which he made with playwright Eisa Davis, is a concept album based on the 1979 cult classic film The Warriors. The album was released on Oct. 18, with a launch party at Brooklyn’s Time Out Market the night before. There, Miranda told ABC Audio how much the project means to him.

“This has been our whole heart for three years. I’m really proud of it. I’m really proud of these ladies who play the Warriors. I’m thrilled,” Miranda said.

For their version of the story, Miranda and Davis updated the material by gender-swapping all the members of the Warriors gang from men to women. They looked to previous collaborators and friends when casting the album.

“These amazing women playing our Warriors are really all our friends,” Miranda said. “We called them to do our demos. And at some point there was such an amazing chemistry happening that Eisa turned to me and was like, ‘What pop singer are we going to get that is better than what’s happening right now?’ And so, they kind of fell into the recipe as we were making it.”

Miranda also expressed gratitude to Nas for his work on the concept album.

“I have to shout out Nas, who’s a producer on the album, who is a superfan of this movie,” Miranda said. “And as soon as he heard I was doing this jumped in with both feet, opened doors to a lot of the artists who are on the album for us, because he’s so respected in the hip-hop community. And so, it’s been a joy.”

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Quincy Jones, a longtime music industry powerhouse and hitmaking producer of multi-platinum albums, including Michael Jackson‘s Thriller, the best-selling album of all time, died on Sunday. He was 91.

His death was announced by his publicist, Arnold Robinson, who said Jones died at his home in Bel Air, California. Jones was surrounded by his family, including his children and siblings, at the time of his death, the announcement said.

“And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him,” the family said in a statement.

During his decades-long career, Jones was nominated for 80 Grammy Awards, of which he won 28. He was the all-time most-nominated composer and producer, his publicist said on Monday.

His was a career punctuated often by chart-topping hits, many of which were also critical successes. He produced albums for Michael Jackson, including Off the Wall, Bad and Thriller, which ranks as the best-selling album of all time.

Quincy was a seasoned producer by the time Thriller came out in 1982. He had won his first Grammy in 1963 for an arrangement of “I Can’t Stop Loving You” by Count Basie.

He then partnered with Frank Sinatra for Sinatra at the Sands, an album that included “Fly Me to the Moon.” Jones’ publicist noted on Monday that that version of the song was the “the first recording played by astronaut Buzz Aldrin when he landed upon the moon’s surface in 1969.”

He also produced and conducted “We Are the World,” which brought together pop luminaries of all ages and became the best-selling single of all time.

Jones was often referred to as entertainment royalty — and it would be difficult to overstate the breadth of his career or the depth of his influence on popular culture. He had begun his career as a composer and become a music producer. And he would eventually also make his mark on Hollywood.

He was a co-producer with Steven Spielberg on The Color Purple, a 1985 film staring Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover and Whoopi Goldberg. That film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including two nominations for Jones’ original song and score.

He also served as executive producer on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, the TV series staring Will Smith that premiered in 1990. Jones also founded VIBE Magazine in 1991.

Jones’ family said on Monday that Jones was “truly one of a kind,” adding that “we take comfort and immense pride in knowing that the love and joy, that were the essence of his being, was shared with the world through all that he created.”

They added, “Through his music and his boundless love, Quincy Jones’ heart will beat for eternity.”

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A very large dude will star in a movie about very small cars. 

Deadline says John Cena has been cast in Matchbox, an action film based on the popular miniature toy brand. 

Back in May 2024, ABC Audio confirmed that the toy company and Barbie producer was revving up the project, with Extraction franchise director Sam Hargrave behind the camera. 

Bestselling author and The Adam Project screenwriter Jonathan Tropper and co-writer David Coggeshall were tasked with turning in a script that turned the beloved toy line created in 1953 into a movie for Skydance, which backs the Mission: Impossible films.

Cena can currently be seen in Jackpot!, a Prime Video action comedy alongside his fellow Ken Simu Liu and Awkwafina.

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