‘Moana’ star says people should stop making fun of Ariana Grande & Cynthia Erivo’s teary ‘Wicked’ press tour
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The Wicked promotional run has become the press tour that has spawned a thousand memes, as stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo were seen constantly tearing up, full-out crying and being dramatic while talking about the film. But the star of another musical film — albeit an animated one — says people just don’t understand what it’s like to be, as she puts it, “a theater kid.”
Auli’i Cravalho, who provides the voice of the main character in Disney’s Moana and Moana 2, tells Vanity Fair, “I need people to understand what it’s like to be a theater kid. Being a theater kid is emotional. Get off my girls Ariana and Cynthia’s backs. Do you understand me?”
She continues, “You don’t know what it’s like to be working on a film for this long. The film is two hours and 40 minutes long. If you’re not crying after working with someone for that long, and you’re both theater kids and you’re singing live … I am very passionate about this.”
Auli’i says she plans to see Wicked as soon as she can.
Chris Hemsworth, star of Marvel’s Thor and Avengers films, is in talks to play the titular character in Disney’s upcoming Prince Charming movie, according to Variety. Plot details have yet to be revealed, including whether the film will be live or animated. Wonka filmmaker Paul King is set to direct. Disney is the parent company of ABC News …
Netflix has given Virgin River an early season 7 renewal ahead of its season 6 premiere on Dec. 19, the streaming service has announced. Season 6 will follow Mel and Jack, played respectively by Alexandra Breckenridge and Martin Henderson, as they take the next steps leading up to their wedding. Showrunner Patrick Sean Smith tells Netflix’s Tudum, “I think we’ve only just begun to see Mel and Jack function as a married couple, which is exciting. … Season 7 will explore the honeymoon phase for them as they’re building their lives on the farm, which can come with its own obstacles.” …
Youn Yuh-jung, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film Minari, has joined the season 2 cast of the Netflix anthology series Beef, opposite Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny, the streamer has announced. Season 2, per Netflix, will center on a young couple that “witnesses an alarming fight between their boss and his wife, triggering chess moves of favors and coercion in the elitist world of a country club and its Korean billionaire owner.” The first season of Beef, starring Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, took home eight Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series …
Laurie Metcalf and Eric McCormack will guest star in season 2 of CBS’ Elsbeth, according to Variety. Metcalf will appear in the series’ eighth episode as Regina Coburn, “the star of a police procedural who yearns for artistic fulfillment after playing a no-nonsense, hardened detective for two decades,” per CBS. The following episode with feature McCormack as Tom Murphy, “the charismatic and charming founder of Heiwa Zen Center, an upscale holistic wellness retreat that caters to the one-percent.” Elsbeth follows Carrie Preston‘s titular character, Elsbeth Tascioni, a role she previously played on The Good Wife and The Good Fight, as she leaves Chicago and heads to New York for a new investigative role …
A gender-swapped reimagining of the beloved Louis Sachar book Holes is headed to Disney+, according to Variety.
The streamer has ordered a Holes TV series to pilot, over 20 years after it was adapted to a film. Shia LaBeouf starred in the 2003 Holes movie as Stanley Yelnats, the unlucky boy who is sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention camp, for a crime he didn’t commit.
The official logline for the new TV show reads, “In this reimagining of the beloved 1998 book from Louis Sachar, a teenage girl is sent to a detention camp where the ruthless Warden forces the campers to dig holes for a mysterious purpose.”
Alina Mankin will write and executive produce the show, while Liz Phang will be its showrunner and also executive produce. DrewGoddard will also executive produce through Goddard Textiles along with Sarah Esberg.
“My mom’s been a schoolteacher for her whole life and, as such, she’s served as a de facto book scout for Goddard Textiles,” Goddard told Variety, who broke the story. “She always knows what ‘the kids’ are into long before everyone else does. ‘Holes’ was the first book she suggested to me – this was back in the late ‘90s – and she was positive it was going to be a phenomenon. It feels good to bring it full circle for Mrs. Goddard and her sixth grade class.”
In the new trailer for Netflix’s A Man on the Inside, we meet Ted Danson‘s Charles, a retired widower who finds an interesting way to “keep busy” in his golden years: He becomes a gumshoe.
Based on a true story that inspired the Oscar-nominated documentary The Mole Agent, Charles answers an ad for an “investigative assistant” and goes undercover at a retirement community to get to the bottom of the heist of a pricey necklace.
However, once he gets the hang of spycraft — that is, video glasses, secret recording devices and the like — it appears he’s having too much fun. “This place is crazy!” he enthuses, as one resident tells him that for some residents, happy hour also gets the equivalent of an early bird special.
Along the way, he develops friendships with the people who he was supposed to be investigating and gets closer to his daughter, who has been concerned with how lonely Charles has been since his wife passed on.
Executive producer Michael Schur reunites with his Good Place star Danson for the eight-episode series, which also stars Sally Struthers, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Stephen McKinleyHenderson from Fences, Loki alum Eugene Cordero and another Schur veteran, Stephanie Beatriz from Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
