July 27, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

AppleTV+(LOS ANGELES) — Apple TV+ and Oprah Winfrey on Monday announced they’re partnering on a new series called The Oprah Conversation, which will debut on the streaming service Thursday, July 30.

According to a press release, the show will be “Filmed remotely and incorporating audience engagement,” and will see Winfrey, “lead timely and intimate discussions with today’s foremost newsmakers, thought leaders, and masters of their craft.”

The debut episode, How to Be an Antiracist, will have Oprah and bestselling author Professor Ibram X. Kendi discussing matters of race with “white readers who confront their own racist beliefs.” 

The Oprah Conversation will also feature interviews with Emmanuel Acho — athlete, commentator, activist and the creator and host of Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man.  That two-part installment streams on August 7 on Friday, August 7. 

Equal Justice Initiative founder and bestselling Just Mercy author Bryan Stevenson will be featured on another installment.

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

July 27, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Melinda Sue Gordon; ©2020 Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.(LOS ANGELES) — The anticipated Christopher Nolan thriller Tenet will come to theaters after all — just not in the U.S. in time for the summer movie season. 

Variety reports that the time-bending film — which at one point theater chains, and Warner Bros., hoped could salvage the COVID-19-devastated summer movie season — will open overseas on August 28. 

Tenet will open in 70 territories on that day in Europe, Australia, Russia, Canada, and the U.K.

The movie, which stars John David Washington and Robert Pattinson, won’t open in the States until September 3, when it will debut in select theaters. At least, that’s the plan for now.

With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging in much of the U.S., particularly in states like Arizona, California, Texas and and Florida, theater chains in the U.S. have delayed their planned re-openings, even with planned safety enhancements. 

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

July 27, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Enda Bowe/Hulu(NEW YORK) — Since the show Normal People debuted, the life of star Daisy Edgar-Jones has been, well, a bit less normal.

The Hulu series, based on the 2018 book by Sally Rooney, has cultivated a devoted fan base, inspired Internet memes and garnered awards buzz ahead of the Emmy nominations. But Edgar-Jones, who plays Marianne in the series, and her co-star Paul Mescal, who plays Connell, have experienced all of that success from the isolation of their own homes.

“It is kind of such an odd time for everyone at the minute, so at times it was quite hard to differentiate the oddness of life anyway and the oddness of my life, specifically, because of the show coming out,” Edgar-Jones tells ABC Audio. “But I think now that I’ve been able to go out a bit more, I’ve had a few more interactions with people who watched the show. And so that’s when you’re like, gosh, you know, people have actually seen it!”

As for the possibility of awards nominations for Normal People, the 22-year-old Brit says “it would mean everything” for the cast and crew who put so much love and passion into making it. But since the Emmys will likely be virtual this year, it’s got her thinking about what that would look like.

“It’s been so strange because I guess I’ve kind of recently traveled the world in this small box on my computer…,” she says. “So it would be mad to kind of go to the Emmys from my bedroom.”

“I would definitely dress up. I wonder if you do like the ball gown. What would you wear?” she laughs. “Yeah, I’d have to try and really think about that.”  

The Emmy nominations will be announced Tuesday.

By Andrea Tuccillo
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

July 27, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Jason Mendez/WireImage(LOS ANGELES) — Ryan Reynolds is doing what he can to help reunite a distraught woman with her lost teddy bear, which carries a special recording of her late mother’s voice.

Reynolds, 43, alerted fans that the priceless stuffed animal went missing and offered up a hefty award for its safe return — no questions asked.

“Vancouver: $5,000 to anyone who returns this bear to Mara.  Zero questions asked,” the Deadpool star tweeted Saturday and linked the call to action. “I think we all need this bear to come home.”

The bear in question belongs to Mara Soriano, 28, who says the bag containing her Build-a-Bear, a Nintendo Switch, important documents and an iPad was stolen in the city’s west end.

Soriano told CBC that the bear holds a very special message from her late mother, which is a recording of her saying “I love you. I’m proud of you. I’ll always be with you.”

The 28-year-old says the recording was taken just before her mother, Marilyn Soriano, was placed in hospice care.

Mara says that bear holds the last recording her mother ever made while her voice was still recognizable.

“At hospice her voice was different. Much softer. Not the mom I grew up with,” She explained. “That bear is the last memory I have of her speaking in her normal voice.”

Marilyn lost her cancer battle in June 2019.  She was 53.

“It just makes me feel devastated,” Mara told the publication, saying whoever took her bag can keep the items.  She only wants the stuffed animal back. “I’m absolutely crushed.”

Hopefully, with Ryan Reynolds’ intervention, she will be reunited with her bear — and her mother’s voice.

By Megan Stone
Copyright © 2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

July 27, 2020 • No Comments • Entertainment News

Netflix(LOS ANGELES) — Netflix has announced plans for a six-episode prequel series for its hit Henry Cavill sword-and-sorcery show The Witcher. 

Blood Origin will be set 1,200 years before the events of the current series, which is based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s books that center on supernaturally-empowered beast hunters known as Witchers. 

In a statement, The Witcher showrunner Declan de Barra said, “As a lifelong fan of fantasy, I am beyond excited to tell the story The Witcher: Blood Origin…A question has been burning in my mind ever since I first read The Witcher books — What was the Elven world really like before the cataclysmic arrival of the humans? I’ve always been fascinated by the rise and fall of civilizations, how science, discovery and culture flourish right before that fall….The Witcher: Blood Origin will tell the tale of the Elven civilization before its fall, and most importantly reveal the forgotten history of the very first Witcher.”

No word yet on when the prequel might debut or who may star.

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