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.
As soon as news broke that legendary actor and voice over artist James Earl Jones died Monday at 93, Hollywood took to social media to mourn.
Jones, who famously voiced Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise and Mufasa in the 1994 and 2019 Lion King films, died on Monday morning at his home in Dutchess County, New York, surrounded by his family, his rep confirmed to ABC News.
Here are just some of those tributes from his famous friends/fans:
His Star Wars co-star Mark Hamillposted in part “#RIP dad 💔.” In the films, Hamill played Luke Skywalker, son of Darth Vader.
Kevin Costner, who starred with Jones in Field of Dreams, took to Instagram to share, “If you’ve seen it, you know that this movie wouldn’t be the same with anyone else in his role. Only he could bring that kind of magic to a movie about baseball and a corn field in Iowa.”
“Rest in peace, friend,” Costner concluded.
Rob Minkoff: Minkoff, the director of the 1994 Lion King film, shared, “His portrayal of Mufasa was perfection. What a powerful man and actor. Gone but will never be forgotten. Rest in power.”
Octavia Spencer: The Oscar winner Instagrammed she is “incredibly saddened” by the news, adding, “Legendary doesn’t even begin to describe his iconic roles and impact on cinema forever.” She added, “His voice and talent will be remembered always. Sending love to his family, friends and countless fans in all galaxies, far, far away. 🤍🕊️”
LeVar Burton: Burton, who starred in the 1980 film, Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones with Jones, posted, “There will never be another of his particular combination of graces.”
Colman Domingo: “Rest. Thank you for everything. Everything. Everything,” the Rustin Oscar nominee wrote on Instagram. “We all looked to you. Thank you King James Earl Jones. Rest well.”
Yvette Nicole Brown: “Besides #StarWars, the first film I remember ever seeing was #Claudine,” Brown said in an Instagram post. “#JamesEarlJones is a part of my cinematic DNA. Heartbroken doesn’t begin to cover it.”
Bob Iger: The CEO of ABC News’ parent company Disney highlighted Jones’ career in a moving tribute shared on Disney’s Instagram page, saying in part, “From the gentle wisdom of Mufasa to the menacing threat of Darth Vader, James Earl Jones gave voice to some of the greatest characters in cinema history.”
L-R: Abova, Manganiello, writer Matt Owens, co-star Jeff Ward – Netflix
During Netflix’s live Geeked Week send-off event in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday night, host — and out and proud geek — Joe Manganiello announced he has stepped up his nerd cred even more.
The Magic Mike star will be joining the cast of One Piece, Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the beloved and bestselling manga, for its second season.
The actor will play the iconic villain Mr. 0; also joining the show will be Bumper in Berlin alumna Lera Abova playing Miss Sunday.
The series stars Iñaki Godoy as straw hat-wearing swashbuckler Monkey D. Luffy, who sets off with his crew —Mackenyu as Roronoa Zoro, Emily Rudd as Nami, Jacob Romero as Usopp and Taz Skylar as Sanji — to find the fabled article of treasure that shares the series’ title.
One Piece managed to avoid the pitfalls of other adaptations, like Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop, by becoming a smash out of the gate.
The live-action version of Eiichiro Oda‘s pirate saga debuted on Aug. 31, 2023, at #1 on the streaming service’s English language TV chart and the top 10 in 93 countries. In its first four days, it racked up 140.1 million hours of viewing time, right up there with the debuts of massive hits like Stranger Things season 4 and Wednesday.
The Land of Oz will have more than enough tulips to go around.
Wicked director Jon M. Chu discussed the 9 million tulips planted in making the set for the upcoming film in an interview with Fandango that was published on Wednesday.
“Nine million tulips we planted,” Chu revealed in the interview. He shared that when the studio asked if that many tulips were necessary, “Sorry we already planted them,” was the response.
Chu went into further detail on developing a real-life Emerald City for the film.
“We built the Emerald City,” the director said. “You could walk through the Emerald City, go into the bakery shop and look at what kind of sweets they had. You could go into the salon and sit in a chair.”
Chu said directing a movie with this level of set design has been a life’s dream.
“This is a spectacle on the grandest scale. I’ve dreamed about making a movie like this since seeing … behind-the-scenes pictures of Cleopatra,” said Chu.
Wicked, hitting theaters on Nov. 22, features a star-studded cast, including Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, with Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum and Peter Dinklage in supporting roles.
