Movies

Thor: Ragnarok Coming to Netflix in June 2018. "Darling, you have no idea what's possible." So said Hela (Cate Blanchett) in Marvel Studios' Thor: Ragnarok, premiering this June on Netflix. In that particular scene, Thor's long-lost sister was talking about catching Mjolnir, but out of context, her quote could also apply to the list of movies and TV shows being added to the streaming service; on Wednesday, E! News will share the full list of new and expiring titles. Released theatrically in November 2017, Thor: Ragnarok also stars Tadanobu Asano as Hogun, Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange, Idris Elba as Heimdall, Jeff Goldblum as Grandmaster, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Rachel House as Topaz, Zachary Levi as Fandral, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk, Ray Stevenson as Volstagg, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and Karl Urban as Skurge. Directed by Taika Waititi (who also portrayed Korg), the blockbuster earned $854 million worldwide. "We were breaking a lot of the rules on this movie. We were completely reimagining the Thor franchise. We were reimaging Thor. We were reimagining Hulk. We were reimagining Banner. That's scary in the Marvel Universe; the fans are very particular. It could be, 'That's not canon!'" Ruffalo told E! News last year. "We were out there on a limb a little bit, so you want to be working with people you know are going to go for it -- who have your back and who love you." (Eonline)

Charlize Theron will star as Megyn Kelly in a new movie about the women who worked at Fox News under its disgraced former chairman Roger Ailes, according to multiple reports. The presently untitled project was written by The Big Short screenwriter Charles Rudolph and is being produced by Annapurna, the same production company currently filming a Dick Cheney biopic starring Christian Bale, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Theron, 42, is reportedly set to play Kelly, 47, a former lawyer who worked at Fox News for 10 years and became a superstar at the network hosting the hit series The Kelly Files. In her memoir Settle for More, Kelly detailed the sexual harassment she said she endured while working for Ailes. Ailes was accused of similar behavior by numerous women at Fox News, which he vehemently denied until his death in May 2017. Kelly claimed in her book that after months of harassment, the media tycoon "crossed a new line" in January 2006 when he grabbed her and repeatedly tried to kiss her. Upon shoving him away, Kelly alleged that Ailes asked her the "ominous question" of "When is your contract up?" before trying to kiss her for a third time. Kelly said she never succumbed to any of his advances that she claimed stopped after six months once she reported Ailes' behavior to her supervisor. She left Fox News in 2017 and signed a deal with NBC News. Her accusation came just months after former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment suit against Ailes. He denied all accusations of harassment against Carlson as well. When Carlson's lawsuit went public, Kelly wrote that she was pressured to put out a positive statement about Ailes but refused. Greta Van Susteren defended Ailes in the wake of the lawsuit but went back on her support of Ailes after her departure from the network in September. Ailes resigned from Fox News in July 2016 and received $40 million in an exit agreement. He died just three days after his 77th birthday last year after he accidentally fell and hit his head at home. (People)

Claire Foy Says 'The Crown' Has Transformed Her: "I Don't Want to Play it Safe" | Drama Actress Roundtable. "I'm going to push myself to the absolute edge of my ability or what I think I can do," Foy told THR. "I thought I knew the actor I was," Claire Foy told The Hollywood Reporter's Drama Actress Roundtable of taking her leading role as Queen Elizabeth II in the Netflix series The Crown, a performance for which she earned the best actress Golden Globe. "I did Wolf Hall, I was really proud of it. It was sort of like, you can die happy. I've done the role I've always wanted to do, this is an absolute dream, I'm done. If I never work again or never do anything that's that standard again, I'm fine." But of course, she did work again, this time in the biggest role of her career to date. Foy could not believe the producers thought she was "that kind of actor" who would transform "beyond age and class," and credits motherhood with her ability to do so, saying because of her daughter, "I had so little attachment to who I had been, who I thought I was. It was a very odd experience where I didn't allow myself to set myself any limits or say I could or couldn't achieve anything." Foy says that playing the reigning British monarch has changed her personal character as well. "I'm going to push myself to the absolute edge of my ability, or what I think I can do, and what I think I am able to do." The first two seasons of The Crown are currently available on Netflix. The full Emmy Roundtables air every Sunday on SundanceTV beginning June 24 and on THR.com the following Monday. The full Drama Actress Roundtable starring Foy, Elisabeth Moss, Thandie Newton, Angela Bassett, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Sandra Oh airs July 15 on SundanceTV. Tune in to THR.com/roundtables for more roundtables featuring talent from the year's top shows. (Hollywood Reporter)

'Life of the Party' Star Adria Arjona on Comedy Mentor Melissa McCarthy. "Melissa's such a wonderful actress and woman, and she kind of just held my hand and took me along the ride," Arjona told THR. Life of the Party star Adria Arjona is somewhat new to the comedy world, having starred in more dramatic roles in projects such as Emerald City, True Detective and Pacific Rim: Uprising, but as she tells The Hollywood Reporter In Studio, co-star Melissa McCarthy was the ideal mentor for the actress on set. Arjona also discussed preparing for her role in Pacific Rim: Uprising, as well as starring alongside Hollywood's most handsome men in the upcoming Triple Frontier. Starring as Jules Reyes in action-packed Pacific Rim: Uprising was "nerve-wracking and exciting all at once" for the actress and required serious preparation for her role as an officer in the Pan Pacific Defense Corps. She discussed her trip to San Diego to tour the USS Midway and even had the opportunity to fly with the Blue Angels. "It was a really cool experience of exploration of a character because I actually got to feel what these pilots would eventually feel, which that kind of changed my perspective," she said. "Also, the dynamics in a military base, how that kind of works. I had no idea." Upon wrapping Pacific Rim, Arjona jumped straight to her next role that didn't involve flying through the sky with the Blue Angels starring alongside McCarthy in Life of the Party. "It was just so exciting to be in a room with Melissa McCarthy," she said. "Melissa's such a wonderful actress and woman, and she kind of just held my hand and took me along the ride. So I learned so much in Life of the Party and most of it was just me not laughing." Next, audiences will see Arjona sharing the screen with Charlie Hunnam, Ben Affleck and Garrett Hedlund in Triple Frontier. The film has undergone numerous casting changes over the past year with Channing Tatum and Tom Hardy originally signed on. "To be completely honest with you, I think everything happens for a reason, and I think the cast is stronger and better than it could have ever been," she said. "It just feels right." Life of the Party is in theaters now. (Hollywood Reporter) 'Gone Girl' Lawsuit Against Reese Witherspoon, David Fincher and Gillian Flynn Dismissed. Writer Leslie Weller claimed both the book and film infringed on her screenplay 'Out of the Blue.' The author and filmmakers behind the novel and feature film adaptation of Gone Girl are clear of claims that parts of the plot were stolen from an unproduced screenplay after an Illinois federal judge on Monday dismissed with prejudice the writer's claims. Leslie Weller in December sued Reese Witherspoon, David Fincher, author Gillian Flynn and other individuals and companies connected to the Gone Girl book and film, claiming the works ripped off her screenplay titled Out of the Blue. Weller claimed that, between the time she finalized the draft in 2008 and Flynn's book was published in 2012, Flynn accessed the work through a network of literary connections and copied parts of Weller's story. In considering multiple arguments for dismissal, U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey began with an analysis of the argument from Witherspoon, and her former producing partner Bruna Papandrea, who challenged the personal jurisdiction of Illinois federal court. Weller argued that the duo negotiated with Flynn, an Illinois resident, to option her book and produce the film. Witherspoon and Papandrea argued that they made no creative contributions to the storyline of the film, exercised no control over its production, had no role in the distribution or advertising of the film and never visited Illinois in connection with the project. "This inquiry turns on 'the defendant's contacts with the forum State itself,' not her contacts 'with persons who reside there,'" writes Blakey. "Here, Twentieth Century Fox's efforts to distribute the film in Illinois cannot be imputed to Witherspoon and Papandrea on the basis of any independent contribution they made to the film's production. ... In short, Witherspoon and Papandrea's suit-related contacts with Illinois are at best 'fortuitous' and 'attenuated,' and therefore cannot sustain this Court's exercise of personal jurisdiction." With that, the court dismissed the vicarious copyright infringement claim against Witherspoon and Papandrea and moved on to the question of access. Weller didn't allege her screenplay was sent directly to any defendant, or even a close associate of one, but instead claimed the work was passed along through a network of individuals. Blakey found her theory to be purely speculative and unable to withstand a motion to dismiss. Further, he found that even if Weller had successfully demonstrated access to her work, she failed to show the projects are substantially similar. First, Blakey disregarded any alleged similarities between the works that are "standard to any story depicting a deteriorating marriage," because they're too commonplace to be protectable under the U.S. Copyright Act. Among the protectable elements of the characters, themes and plot, the court found no ordinary observer could conclude the works are substantially similar and dismissed the claims with prejudice. (Hollywood Reporter)

Solo: A Star Wars Story: Why Phil Lord and Christopher Miller Were Really Fired. Solo: A Star Wars Story's biggest drama actually occurred offscreen. In the summer of 2017, four months into filming, Lucasfilm announced directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller had left the blockbuster over "creative differences" -- a.k.a., they were fired. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy hired Ron Howard to replace Phil and Christopher, raising the film's budget to $250 million and adding four more months to the filming schedule. In the end, Ron shot about 70 percent of Solo: A Star Wars Story, giving him the sole director credit, while Phil and Christopher were given executive producer acknowledgments. Before the movie hits theaters, the cast and crew talked to Variety about all the behind-the-scenes drama. Screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, who's shepherded the series since 1980's Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, realized early on that Phil and Christopher's vision didn't match his own. "Tone is everything to me. That's what movies are made of," he said. "But this was a very complicated situation. When you go to work in the morning on a Star Wars movie, there are thousands of people waiting for you, and you have to be very decisive and very quick about it." And with a "million" split-second decisions to make each day, "You are committing to a certain tone." Should any of the producers raise an issue, he explained, "You're going to have trouble." "No one was happy about it," Lawrence added. "It was agony." Jonathan Kasdan, Lawrence's son and co-writer, maintained that Christopher and Phil "did everything they could to make it work, as did we." Lawrence also said they were open to changing the story -- to a point. "What we were very defensive of and wanted to have succeed was this tone, because this is not like any other Star Wars movie. Its connection to Star Wars is only in its spirit. It's Han's tone. It has very little to do with A New Hope. That's a different thing we've seen play out in six or seven movies. This tone is reckless and unpredictable and feckless, as Han is. There is no Force. There's no real Empire. This is about people scrabbling along," he said, explaining that some elements are non-negotiable. "They're not trying to save the galaxy." For the cast, the shake-up at the top created quite a conundrum. "I've tried to use this as an opportunity to navigate pressure and what other people think," Alden Ehrenreich said. "That pressure is always there on every movie. This is just a very intensified version of that. For me it's about 'What do I have control over?' And it's very little." (Alden previously told Esquire he had no clue the directors would be replaced. "On a personal level, it felt emotional, for them to be going after we'd set out on that course together. Because I spent a lot of time with them, and we had a really good relationship -- they also cast me," the film's lead said. "But I think at that point, they were kind of on board with [the decision], too. Like, 'This is what's happening.' That's not what they said to me, but that was the vibe I got.") Emilia Clarke said Christopher and Phil seemed to be "figuring it out" as they went along. "We were all still very much in a collaborative place of 'Where does this want to go?' This is a movie that has an enormous amount of pressure on its shoulders, therefore everybody making it feels some of that pressure. So when Ron came on, for me it felt amazing to be able to have a second set of eyes come in at this point in making the movie. How often do you get that chance to go back and try different things?" Before Ron was hired, Emilia was nervous. "I texted Jon Kasdan about six times going, 'What? Really? You're joking. We're not that lucky, surely, to get Ron Howard to come and take the movie on,'" she said. "Any fears were wiped away pretty quickly." Donald Glover, who'd been a fan of the film series since childhood, was on board. "I wanted to play Lando. That was it," the actor explained. "Everything else was secondary in that moment." Christopher, Kathleen and Phil declined Variety's requests for an interview. Solo: A Star Wars Story is in theaters Friday. (Eonline)