December 4, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Courtesy of Paramount Pictures(LOS ANGELES) — With The Godfather Part III marking its 30^th anniversary, The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola and Paramount Pictures revisited the saga’s last chapter with a new edit of the film. Now titled The Godfather Coda: The Death Of Michael Corleone – it includes a re-worked ending and beginning, along with re-edits and restoration that the director hopes will put things in a different perspective.

Talia Shire, who plays Connie Corleone in the films (and is Coppola’s sister,) explains why it was important for her brother to complete the project. 

“I think he felt extremely rushed with the editing of the third piece,” she tells ABC Audio. “I used to tell [my children] if you look at the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the fingers between God and man, have a space. I think Francis went back to look for that space. That’s the artfulness that is Francis. He wanted that aesthetic.”

Looking back, the film’s original release wasn’t exactly a critical hit and much of criticism panned Coppola’s real-life daughter Sophia’s performance in the movie. However, Shire says it was Sophia’s presence that tied things together on an already difficult shoot. 

“I mean she was a kid and very pure and as we see now, as a mature wonderful artist, always with her own aesthetic, I think she focused Francis. And we moved forward,” she explains. “But yeah there was a lot of unkindness… It was a kind of cruelty.”

Nonetheless, The Godfather films still resonate today, which Shire attributes to Coppola’s “epic storytelling” and author Mario Puzo’s “terrific” writing.

“I think you can go back a million times and it’s strangely alive, just like a great painting,” she says. 

The Godfather Coda: The Death Of Michael Corleone debuts in select theaters Friday and arrives on Blu-Ray & Digital Tuesday, December 8. 

December 3, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Kyle Dubiel/NBC(NEW YORK) — John Mulaney will not soon forget a February stint hosting Saturday Night Live.  That’s because unlike the other times he’s hosted, this one landed him in hot water with the United States Secret Service. 

On Jimmy Kimmel Live! Wednesday night, Mulaney explained that he was interviewed by the agency after making an “elliptical” joke about assassinating President Trump.

“I did a joke that was not about Donald Trump,” Mulaney recalled. “The joke was about how it was a leap year, and leap year had been started by Julius Caesar to correct the calendar, and another thing that happened with Caesar was that he was stabbed to death by a bunch of senators because he went crazy. And I said I think that’s an interesting thing that could happen.”

It wasn’t a joke for the agency, which as policy investigates all potential threats against the president — even ones made by comedians like Mulaney, and like Kathy Griffin, who infamously posed for pictures with a bloody decapitated effigy of the president.

Still, Mulaney insists, “The [agent] vetting me was very understanding that the joke had nothing to do with Donald Trump because it was an elliptical reference to him,” Mulaney told Kimmel. “I didn’t say anything about him. In terms of risk assessment, no one who’s ever looked at me thought I registered above a one.”

The former SNL writer insisted of the interviewer, “I said I have been making jokes about him since 2007, so I have been making fun of him for 13 years. They said if it’s a joke, then I am cleared by the Secret Service.”

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

December 3, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

“Wonder Woman 1984” – © 2020 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.(LOS ANGELES) — While Warner Bros. wasn’t the first studio to move its formerly theater-bound movies to a streaming service, it is the first to announce its entire 2021 slate will be headed to streaming in the U.S. on the same day they’re set to debut in theaters. 

That’s right: 17 movies, including James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, The Matrix 4, the reboot of Dune, Godzilla vs. Kong and Space Jam: A New Legacy will all hit HBO Max on the same day as their big-screen bows, and remain there for a month after each movie’s release date.

The announcement follows the news that the studio will launch Wonder Woman 1984 in theaters and on HBO Max on December 25.

The latest Conjuring film, the Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark, and the musical adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights will also be simultaneously streaming and playing at a theater near you — if they’re open by then, that is.  

“The hybrid model was created as a strategic response to the impact of the ongoing global pandemic, particularly in the U.S.,” noted Ann Sarnoff, chair and CEO, WarnerMedia Studios and Networks Group. “We’re living in unprecedented times which call for creative solutions, including this new initiative.”

She added, “No one wants films back on the big screen more than we do…but we have to balance this with the reality that most theaters in the U.S. will likely operate at reduced capacity throughout 2021.”

Sarnoff explained, “With this unique one-year plan, we can support our [theater partners] with a steady pipeline of world-class films, while also giving moviegoers who may not have access to theaters or aren’t quite ready to go back to the movies the chance to see our amazing 2021 films.”

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

December 3, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Prop Store(LONDON) — Hundreds of pieces of Hollywood memorabilia were up for grabs in London earlier this week, and some fetched a fortune.

As part of Prop Store’s Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction, one of Ewan McGregor’s lightsabers from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith commanded just over $201,000, as did a remote controllable droid seen in Solo: A Star Wars Story. 

Other items that fetched a pretty penny included a Keanu Reeves Neo costume from The Matrix Reloaded, which sold for more than $83,000, and a Japanese-style sword wielded by the late Sean Connery in Highlander, which fetched $67,000. 

More than 900 pieces hit the block over more than 20 hours of bidding, including props from Top Gun, Alien, Tim Burton’s Batman, Fight Club, and Saving Private Ryan, as well as scripts, photos, and other treasures.

Here are some of the notable sales and what they went for, including auction fees:

Obi-Wan Kenobi’s (Ewan McGregor) Hero Lightsaber — Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith – $201,000

Light-Up Remote-control R2-S8 Droid — Solo: A Star Wars Story – $201,000

Hero Dagger of Megiddo — The Omen – $92,125

H.R. Giger-designed Special Effects Mechanical Alien Head — Alien – $83,750

Neo (Keanu Reeves) costume — The Matrix Reloaded – $83,750

Pete “Maverick” Mitchell’s (Tom Cruise) Bomber Jacket — Top Gun – $67,000

Ramirez’s (Sean Connery) Katana — Highlander – $67,000

Tyler Durden’s (Brad Pitt) Photo-Matched Red Leather Jacket — Fight Club – $54,437

Joker’s (Jack Nicholson) Fedora — Batman – $50,250

Marty McFly’s (Michael J. Fox) 2015 Jacket — Back to the Future Part II – $31,825

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

December 3, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Netflix(TAMPA) — A staff member at Tiger King star Carole Baskin’s Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Florida has been bitten by one of her captive tigers. 

The injury was not “severe enough [to] cause death,” according to the report from Tampa ABC News affiliate WFTS, which noted emergency medical personnel rushed to the scene.

Incidentally, Baskin, who recently appeared as a competitor on Dancing with the Stars, also controls the Oklahoma animal sanctuary that once belonged to her nemesis, Joseph Maldonado-Passage — best known by his stage name Joe Exotic. He’s currently serving 22 years in prison for allegedly killing five tigers and plotting to have Baskin murdered.

In June, U.S. District Judge Scott Palk declared Baskin the owner of the Oklahoma zoo following a civil suit Baskin filed against Maldonado-Passage.

By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.