(L-R) Teyana Taylor as Perfidia and Sean Penn as Col. Steven J. Lockjaw in ‘One Battle After Another. A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. (Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures)
Sean Penn won best supporting actor at the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday night for his role as Steven J. Lockjaw in One Battle After Another.
This was Penn’s sixth Oscar nomination and his third win. He was nominated alongside Benicio Del Toro, Jacob Elordi, Delroy Lindo and Stellan Skarsgård.
Last year’s winner, Kieran Culkin, took to the stage to announce this year’s best supporting actor nominees. Culkin won the award in 2025 for his performance in A Real Pain. Penn did not attend the ceremony, so Culkin accepted the award for him.
“Sean Penn couldn’t be here, or didn’t want to, so I accept this award on his behalf,” Culkin said.
Penn was previously nominated for his roles in Dead Man Walking, Sweet and Lowdown and I Am Sam. He won his first Oscar for Mystic River in 2004, before winning again in 2009 for Milk.
If they laugh, we’ll say, we’re getting a fifth Zombies movie someday.
A fifth film in the hit Zombies franchise has been greenlit for Disney+ and Disney Channel. It will begin production in New Zealand in the spring, with its official title to be announced at a later date.
Malachi Barton and Freya Skye are set to star in this new movie after joining the franchise as characters Victor and Nova in the fourth film. Original stars Milo Manheim and Meg Donnelly will not return as Zed and Addison, although they will remain involved as executive producers.
Also returning for the fifth film is Trevor Tordjman, who will reprise his role as Bucky, Addison’s cousin and the beloved cheer captain from the original trilogy.
Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires stars Swayam Bhatia, Julian Lerner and Mekonnen Knife will also make up this new movie’s cast.
As far as plot goes, Zombies 5 will feature the introduction of mermaids into the Zombies universe.
There is peace between the Daywalkers and Vampires following the events of the fourth film. But it is “put to the test when a band of fierce mermaids arrives in Rayburn, making waves and casting a persuasive siren song to lure in new allies,” according to an official description. “Nova and Victor must unite their groups once more to discover what the mermaids are really after in order to protect the fragile harmony they worked so hard to build.”
New cast members include Diaana Babnicova as Pearl, Taylor Oliver as Fin and Olive Mortimer as Sandy, who are a trio of mysterious mermaids. Emily Costtrici also joins the cast as Izzy, a zombie who is Zed’s cousin and a new transfer student.
Paul Hoen, who has directed all of the films in the Zombies franchises, returns to helm this fifth installment.
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Several stars are confirmed to join the cast of the revival of Scrubs. Deadline reports that Neil Flynn and Christa Miller, who portrayed The Janitor and Jordan on the original show, are going to reprise their roles in this new series. Also joining as guest stars are Rachel Bilson, Andy Ridings and Lisa Gilroy …
A full-length version of the popular web series Childish Deano has been picked up by Hulu. Variety reports that eight episodes of the half-hour animated comedy, which will now be titled Deano, are on the way. It comes from creators Dean Thomas and David Ferrier, with both men writing the show and Thomas providing the voice of the lead, titular character. Bluey creator Joe Brumm will executive produce the series, which serves as his first adult animated show producing credit …
Tell Me Lies may have ended, but at least it went out on top. Deadline reports the season 3 finale of the series garnered over 3.5 million views in its first day on Disney+ and Hulu. This means it’s up almost 70% from the season 3 premiere’s same-day audience …
Mia Mckenna-Bruce attends the “The Fence” screening during the 69th BFI London Film Festival at the Vue West End on October 18, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images for BFI)
Actress Mia McKenna-Bruce is set to play Ringo Starr’s late wife Maureen Starkey in Sam Mendes’ The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event, and she certainly sounds excited by the project.
She tells Variety that her experience on the project so far has been “absolutely next level,” noting that a read through with the cast was “really emotional, because the scripts are so beautiful.”
The films star Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Ringo. McKenna-Bruce says the first time she saw them in their roles she didn’t recognize them, noting, “it was phenomenal.”
“They’ve done it beautifully in getting it bang on for the Beatles, but still holding on to the essences of the boys themselves as well. They’re all genius,” she continues. “And the boys have gone tenfold into playing these roles and know them inside out and back to front — they will question everything in the scripts to make sure it tells the right story. And Sam knows everything there is to know about the Beatles.”
As for what she’s learned about her character, McKenna-Bruce says Maureen was “loved by all the Beatles boys.”
“If she went into a room or party, she’d be the person that would go over to whoever was sat on their own — she wanted to make everyone felt included and was just a really good human,” she says. She adds that Maureen preferred to stay at home and “stayed out of the Beatlemania.”
And while McKenna-Bruce isn’t allowed to say much more about the films, due out in April 2028, she wishes she could.
“I just cannot wait for people to see this, because I really need to scream about it,” she says.
