Karwai Tang/WireImage(LOS ANGELES) — A representative for Mel Gibson confirms to ABC Audio that the Oscar winner spent a week in the hospital battling COVID-19.
The actor and Hacksaw Ridge director was diagnosed with the disease in April, and was subsequently treated successfully in a U.S. hospital with the drug Remdesivir.
Gibson’s spokesperson says he’s now negative for the coronavirus, and like those who have recovered from the respiratory virus, has COVID-19 antibodies.
George Pimentel/WireImage(LOS ANGELES) — Dave Franco’s directorial debut The Rental is available on demand this weekend, and at drive-in movie theaters. The thriller is about a group of friends who rent a house for a weekend when things go terribly wrong, which was actually inspired by Franco’s own paranoia about the concept of home sharing.
“You know, thinking about how the country is as divided as it’s ever been and no one trusts each other yet. We trust staying in the home of a stranger simply because of a few, you know, five star reviews online,” he tells ABC audio, adding that lots of articles about homeowners with hidden cameras in their place came out during filming.
Since working on The Rental, Franco admits his paranoia has only gotten more extreme. However, it hasn’t stopped him from renting.
“I stayed in an Air BnB while filming this movie. But since filming… my levels of paranoia have definitely reached their peak,” he confesses. “Now when I stay in a rental home, I’m not thinking I wonder if there are cameras here. I’m more thinking I know there are cameras here. And it’s just about whether or not I find them.”
He adds, “I have not found one yet but you will find me standing on chairs and shining my cell phone flashlight around in the nooks and crannies.”
As for how Franco would prefer moviegoers to watch The Rental? However they want.
“There’s charms in watching it at home and kind of feeling that creepiness within your own home. And then there’s the obvious charms of just going to a drive in. And just like… experiencing something with a group of other people, which is not something that we get to do a lot these days,” he explains.
The live-action version of its classic film had been delayed four times because of the COVID-19 crisis. This latest move isn’t exactly a surprise considering a spike of COVID-19 cases in states including Florida, Texas, and Arizona.
Movie theaters across the country have yet to open for normal operations.
Furthermore, Disney has decided to delay the releases of its next films in the Star Wars and Avatar series.
The three Star Wars films — of which nothing solid is known — will be bumped by a year: they will now be released December 22, 2023, December 19, 2025, and December 17, 2027.
James Cameron’s four Avatar follow-ups will also be bumped. They will now hit theaters on December 16, 2022; December 20, 2024; December 18, 2026; and Avatar 5 is set for a December 22, 2028 release.
ABC/Lou Rocco(LOS ANGELES) — Via a virtual ceremony to stream live at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 28, Saturday Night Live veteran Leslie Jones will host the nominations for the 72nd Emmy Awards.
The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences also announced that Frozen‘s Josh Gad, Orange Is the New Black‘s Laverne Cox, and Orphan Black and Perry Mason star Tatiana Maslany will act as presenters during the event, which will stream at Emmys.com.
The 72nd Emmy Awards will will be broadcast Sunday, Sept. 20 starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time on ABC. Jimmy Kimmel is slated to host the event.
2018 – Paramount Pictures(LOS ANGELES) — A most appropriate studio, Universal, has reportedly taken an interest in the planned first movie ever to be shot in space.
Varietynotes that the secret project, which will star Tom Cruise and be directed by his Edge of Tomorrow director, Doug Liman, will also reportedly involve NASA, and SpaceX genius Elon Musk.
The latter is only logical, since Musk’s company recently became the first commercial entity to successfully launch astronauts to the International Space Station.
Cruise, meanwhile, is working on the seventh and eighth Mission: Impossible films, production of which will get back underway in September in the U.K., following delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Karwai Tang/WireImage(LOS ANGELES) — A representative for Mel Gibson confirms to ABC Audio that the Oscar winner spent a week in the hospital battling COVID-19. 
