Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee among the latest National Medal of Arts recipients

The third film in the growing Terrifier slasher series is now in theaters.

The franchise that centers on masked killer Art the Clown had humble beginnings: its 2018 original was made for $34,000, but went on to earn 10 times that. 

Director Damien Leone tells ABC Audio he hoped to raise $50,000 for a sequel, and fans on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo ponied up a quarter of a million dollars instead. The 2022 film was a smash, making nearly $16 million. 

“Every time I make something new with this character, the fan base grows just a little more,” Leone tells ABC Audio. “And we were always surprised with just how much it has grown.”

“This time,” Leone adds with a laugh, “Art the Clown ruins Christmas.” 

The lifelong horror fan explains he has always loved the “Christmas-horror subgenre,” adding, “To me, there’s nothing creepier and cozier than a maniac dressed as Santa Claus trying to break into your house on Christmas and chop you up with an ax.”

Admitting the evil Santa Claus “trope has been done a million times,” the filmmaker adds, “now that I could put Art the Clown in a maniac Santa Claus getup, it makes the ‘maniac Santa Claus’ fresh, and it makes Art the Clown fresh.”

Leone notes, “I always say, as extreme as these movies are and as violent as they are, we always remind the audience, especially with this character, that this should be a fun experience. … It’s a fun roller-coaster ride that you shouldn’t take too seriously.”

Again starring David Howard Thornton as Art, Terrifier 3 also stars Lauren LaVera, Chris Jericho and The Lost Boys vet Jason Patric.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

In her new movie Maria, Angelina Jolie plays the titular role of iconic opera singer Maria Callas, for whom singing meant so much.

For Jolie, who sat down to discuss her new work with Good Morning America co-anchor Michael Strahan, motherhood is the main focus in her life, in the way singing was for Callas.

“It’s my happiness,” Jolie shared. “You can take everything else away from me. Nothing else matters.”

Jolie is mom to six kids: sons Maddox, Pax and Knox, and daughters Zahara, Shiloh and Vivienne.

And despite her life in the spotlight, Jolie said her children don’t have the desire to follow her footsteps into acting.

“None of my children want to be in front of the camera at this time,” Jolie said. “They’re quite private. Shiloh’s extremely private. They weren’t born with privacy, right? So I hope they can have that as they grow.”

For her starring role in Maria, Jolie learned how to sing opera in order to embody the tragic prima donna and her final days living in Paris while struggling to make a career comeback.

“All of my children suffered through my early opera singing in the house before I got kinda good, which was a nightmare,” Jolie recalled.

Jolie said she and Callas may have even been friends, had their paths ever crossed in real life. Callas died on Sept. 16, 1977, following a heart attack.

“There’s obvious things that people would tie our lives and see we have in common. But I think it’s more … how hard she is in herself with her work, sometimes seen as strong, but actually very vulnerable and human. I certainly am,” Jolie said.

“I think we would have been friends,” she added. “She might have hated me at first. Think it would have grown on her.”

Maria debuts in select theaters on Nov. 27 and will be available to stream on Netflix starting on Dec. 11.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Sesame Street is searching for a new home.

The long-running children’s TV show is now on the market after Warner Bros. Discovery decided not to renew its Sesame Street deal with HBO and Max. Original episodes of the program will now need a new home.

Max will be working with the show’s producer, Sesame Workshop, to license episodes from its library through 2027. It is not yet clear if the library deal would prohibit potential new partners from also acquiring the old episodes of the program.

The streamer’s decision to not continue the deal comes from a strategy change to focus on more adult and family programming, with less of an emphasis on children’s programming.

“It has been a wonderful, creative experience working with everyone at Sesame Street on the iconic children’s series and we are thrilled to be able to keep some of the library series on Max in the U.S.,” a Max spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter, which broke the story. “We will continue to invest in our best-in-class programming and look forward to announcing our new distribution plans in the coming months, ensuring that Sesame Street reaches as many children as possible for generations to come.”

Sesame Street first aired in 1969, with episodes running on PBS since 1970. The show moved to HBO in 2016, with episodes airing on PBS months after they drop on HBO to ensure maximum reach and accessibility. A deal was struck in 2019 that moved Sesame Street to HBO Max, which was then renamed to Max. 

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.