Warner Bros. has announced that the film — which opened in some U.S. theaters but not in major markets like New York, California, and New Jersey thanks to COVID-19 theater closings — will arrive on 4K, Blu-ray, DVD and digital on December 15.
The time-bending thriller, starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Kenneth Branagh and Elizabeth Debicki, performed well overseas, where more theaters were opened; to date, the film has earned nearly $350 million worldwide.
Tenet was initially slated to arrive in theaters on July 17 but was later postponed until July 31, then August 12, and finally to an overseas bow on August 28.
William Gray/SHOWTIME(NEW YORK) — Orlando Jones says he was given the rare opportunity to cultivate his character of The Rail Man in the Ethan Hawke-led Showtime series The Good Lord Bird.
“Ethan was like, ‘Listen, anything you want to take from the book to curve into the show, just let me know,'” Jones tells ABC Audio. “So they were open about how I was going to render the character. And suddenly I was on set one day and here we were doing it.”
Based on James McBride’s novel of the same, the series follows Hawke as abolitionist and radical John Brown and centers on his various encounters with other historical figures. Jones, whose character is a literal conductor of the underground railroad, says he enjoyed playing The Rail Man because he didn’t conform to the stereotypical characters of that period.
“[He was] a fun character to do… because you don’t think of Black men as running the most sophisticated technology in the world during that period of time,” he says. “You don’t think of them as fathers that are free, that have relationships with the mayor… You [don’t] think of our contribution.”
“Those are the things that often get overlooked,” he continues. “Or rather, we are purely seen during this period of time, [for] our only contribution to human history — in the form of indentured servitude.”
Jones says it was for those exact reasons why he was “excited” about his role where he didn’t have to play a “victimized” figure in history.
“And you can tell they’re based on some real figures, but just to see our history in that particular way where we’re not purely victims… is always exciting to me,” he adds.
The Good Lord Bird airs Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on Showtime.
BBR Music GroupWith the release of Billy Ray Cyrus’ genre-bending new EP, The Singin’ Hills Sessions — Mojave, the singer delivers his banjo-driven take on a hip-hop classic.
That track is a country version of “Mama Said Knock You Out,” rapper LL Cool J’s Grammy-winning release from 1990. Billy says that reinterpreting the beloved classic was particularly satisfying in the wake of his success with Lil Nas X, remixing the latter artist’s 2019 global megahit, “Old Town Road.”
“I’ve always loved that song [‘Mama Said Knock You Out’] — as well as fellow Kentucky native, Muhammed Ali — and just the concept of persistence and believing in yourself,” notes Billy. “Countrifying it was a joy and I feel like this song is the next segment of my circle following ‘Old Town Road.’”
The Singin’ Hills Sessions — Mojave takes its title from the Mojave Desert, where the five-song project was primarily recorded. It’s the second volume of Billy’s Singin’ Hills material, following the project’s first installment, which came out in January.
(NEW YORK) — Illinois reported a record number of new coronavirus cases on Thursday, with 9,935 new infections in a single day, according to state officials.
Key metrics, including rising cases, hospitalizations and deaths in Illinois, indicate that the state’s outbreak is worsening, according to an ABC News analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project.
In total, 447,491 people in the state have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and 10,030 people in Illinois have died of the virus, according to the state health department.
In addition to rising cases, hospitalizations and deaths, an average of 19.9% of tests returned positive every day in the past week in Illinois as of Thursday, according to an ABC News analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project, a rate that’s nearly four times higher than health experts recommend.
A high positivity rate can be a sign that a state is only testing its sickest patients and failing to cast a net wide enough to accurately capture community transmission, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The World Health Organization recommends that governments get their positivity testing threshold below 5%.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker painted a sobering picture of of the situation in Chicago, Illinois’ largest city, during a Thursday news conference.
Over the past 30 days, hospital admissions have doubled or tripled in every region of the city, according to the governor.
“If the current trajectory continues, if our hospitals continue to fill up, if more and more people continue to lose their lives to this disease, we’re going to implement further statewide mitigations,” Pritzker said.
Given the worsening outbreak, Pritzker said he’s likely to impose stricter COVID-19 measures, but is not currently considering a full stay-at-home order.
What’s more, on the same day, the 1998 animated original is being released for the first time for download on 4K Ultra HD. The films will also be available in a two-movie collection that will include the Blu-ray DVD and digital of both films.
The recent live-action film, starring Liu Yifei as the titular heroine, saw its release date moved repeatedly throughout the summer, as the COVID-19 pandemic kept theaters shuttered. Initially supposed to hit theaters in March of 2020, the movie was released in some overseas markets over the summer, and came to Disney+ for a premium price on September 4.
Mulan is based on a 2,000-year-old Chinese legend of a woman who disguises herself as a man to fight for her land and her family’s honor. The animated original featured the voices of Ming-Na Wen as Hua Mulan, and Eddie Murphy as the wise-cracking dragon, Mushu, the latter of whom’s absent from the live-action remake. Wen, recently seen in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Mandalorian, makes a cameo in the live-action version.
Melinda Sue Gordon; ©2020 Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.(LOS ANGELES) — If you didn’t get a chance to see Christopher Nolan’s Tenet when it opened in limited release over Labor Day weekend, you’re in luck. 
