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Update 1/26/22: At long last, we finally have a release date for season 4 of Succession. HBO Max announced today that the new season would premiere on March 24. They shared the news through an official teaser trailer that gave viewers a look into the Roy kids’ plan to get back at their father. You can watch the trailer below.

Original Article 10/25/22: As one major HBO property wraps up its first season, a second familial drama show is slated to return sometime in 2023. Fans will need to fill the Daemon-sized hole in their hearts with someone like Logan Roy or Tom Wambsgans, and that will have to do! HBO seems to have waited long enough for another season to keep fans on the edge of their seats, but not too long that people decide to cancel their HBO Max subscription for a few months. So that was nice of them.

The fourth season of the hit series Succession will return next year on HBO, and fans were given a first look earlier this week in a trailer that promises a “rebel alliance” brewing among the Roy family (but StarWars is a Disney property so they can’t really call it that, right?). The fourth season promises to bring all of the shenanigans and superfluous cursing back for another round. Plus: more Alexander Skarsgård!!! As per the official description:

In season four, the sale of media conglomerate Waystar Royco to tech visionary Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) moves ever closer. The prospect of this seismic sale provokes existential angst and familial division among the Roys as they anticipate what their lives will look like once the deal is complete. A power struggle ensues as the family weighs up a future where their cultural and political weight is severely curtailed.

Production for season four took place over the summer and fall throughout New York, California, and Norway. While there is no confirmed release date, it’s likely that the Roys will return in the spring of 2023, just a little over a year since season three concluded in December 2021.

HBO Max has a pretty hefty release schedule for next year ahead of its merger with Discovery+, so maybe it’s best to keep those subscriptions active after all. At least until Barry’s final season.

A star is born on The Last of Us, even though they were supposed to die.

In episode two of the hit HBO series, “Infected,” Joel, Ellie, and Tess enter a hotel that’s seen better days. There’s knee-high water in the lobby (leading to a funny joke about Ellie not being able to swim), which is bad news for our heroes but good news for the animals that have taken residence in the building. The ducks are a nice touch (it is Boston…), but the scene’s MVP — and the MVP of the series so far — is piano frog.

Say hello to TV’s best frog since the Over the Garden Wall frog.

Piano frog makes the most of his four seconds on screen. He provides an ominous soundtrack to Joel, Ellie, and Tess’ entrance to the hotel, then hops off screen, never to be seen again. It’s a scene-stealing performance that has stolen America’s heart.

The thing is, piano frog originally wasn’t supposed to survive the episode. “Piano frog wouldn’t be a thing… if piano bird did its job! I guess everything happens for a reason,” The Last of Us game and TV show creator Neil Druckmann tweeted. “(And before anyone jumps to the wrong conclusion… that’s a fake frog for the bird to eat — which it never did!!!)” Piano bird is so unprofessional, unlike piano frog.

People will die (and already have died) on The Last of Us, but as long as piano frog survives, this story will have a happy ending.

As a veteran screen actor who has worked with firearms on everything from big-budget films to indie productions, Michael Shannon was recently asked to share his insights on the fatal shooting on the set of Rust that has resulted in Alec Baldwin being charged with involuntary manslaughter for the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

While talking to The Chicago Tribune, Shannon makes it a point to say that he’s not “condemning Alec,” but he does have harsh words for the producers. (Baldwin is an executive producer on the film.)

“This is what happens when you lowball and cut corners and hire people that may not be qualified,” Shannon said. “And pay them next to nothing, and make the movie on the cheap.”

After calling out the concerning trend of safety protocols being tossed to the wayside to cut production costs, Shannon detailed what he believes caused the “cataclysmic event” on the set of Rust:

When you’re rehearsing a scene with a gun in it, and you’re on set, the gun you’re given almost always is not a gun. It’s a rubber replica. Maybe a plastic one. It is not a firearm. (Video of Baldwin rehearsing a cross-draw before filming a scene from “Rust” reveals the actor with his finger on or near the trigger of the weapon that ultimately killed Hutchins.) That’s what you have during any sort of rehearsal or walk-through, right up until you’re figuring out the shot, and what your firing line will be, all of that. You shouldn’t have the actual weapon in your hand until immediately before doing the take.

Now, sometimes that doesn’t happen. Sometimes they’ll give you the actual gun to rehearse with a little closer to filming. But there’s a procedure for that. They open the barrel. They show you there’s nothing in there. They show you the chambers, they show the assistant director, and it’s a visual confirmation. The AD’s supposed to check it, the actor checks it and the armorer has checked it. All three of those people have to see there’s nothing in there. And then they hand it to you.

With “Rust,” before that gun went into his hand, (Baldwin) should have seen with his own eyes there was nothing in it.

While continuing to point the finger at cost-cutting measures, Shannon ultimately puts the blame on the producers for hiring an inexperienced armorer.

“Being an armorer is a hard job, a demanding job, and I have nothing but respect for them,” Shannon said. “But in this instance, it was going into the ER and finding out your doctor isn’t a real doctor.”

(Via The Chicago Tribune)

Rock star marriages aren’t really known for working out all that well. Maybe the lifestyle just doesn’t mesh with the requirements of a healthy, equitable relationship. Just look at Kid Rock‘s marriage to Pamela Anderson in 2006; a little over a year later, Anderson — who was previously married to Motley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee — filed for divorce claiming irreconcilable differences.

Earlier this week, Anderson appeared on The Howard Stern Show, where she explained when she knew the marriage with Kid Rock was “a mistake.” “Did you know right away?” Stern asked, as Anderson nodded. “You did?”

“Right when I got married,” she confirmed. “It’s embarrassing; it’s a flaw. I feel like I just jump into something because Tommy and I did, because we had this incredible connection. But then you jump into something and it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s not this incredible connection, it’s just something else.’ Then I slowly try to make my way out.”

She also did some self-analysis, wondering if she got into the relationship looking to “put a family unit back together” as opposed to being truly in love and having things in common.

A tumultuous time in Anderson’s relationship was recounted in the biopic series Pam & Tommy, which the actress said she hated so much, she refused to read a letter from star Lily James, who played her in the show. Anderson is releasing her own documentary about her marriage with Tommy on Netflix. Meanwhile, Tommy Lee is on OnlyFans. Make of that what you will.

Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be responding to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by offering some proof of life. What an opening thought. Let’s back up a moment.

Zelensky recently hypothesized that Putin might be dead because he “sometimes appears against a green screen” and is reluctant to appear in public. Granted, Putin might be hiding from the world due to his overriding fear of assassination, which kind-of makes sense for someone who’s frequently accused of having his enemies poisoned. And Putin has only made more enemies by waging war on Ukraine, but he apparently decided to swallow some fears and make a public appearance.

As Reuters reveals, Putin appeared at the University of Moscow this week. He was undoubtedly locked down beyond belief for security reasons, but he apparently succeeded in proving that he’s not six feet under. As the Daily Mail notes, Putin even decided to dress up in high heels (to make himself look taller, obv, not for any other reason). Here’s a photo, courtesy of Getty. See, he’s alive!

Reuters reports that, during this appearance, Putin avoided war talk, “instead dispensing career advice to students and fielding questions on other topics.” Here’s more:

Germany’s announcement that it would send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine after weeks of pressure from its allies prompted a furious reaction from Russia’s foreign ministry and its embassy in Berlin, but the president steered clear of the issue.

Putin, a fluent German speaker who served in the former East Germany as a KGB officer, spent more than an hour responding to students’ questions on issues ranging from lost dogs to quantum technology, though the war in Ukraine also kept cropping up indirectly.

So, yes, he’s apparently alive. The Daily Beast reports that, elsewhere, Putin also met with a gas executive, Nord Stream AG Managing Director Matthias Warnig, who asked of Ukraine, “What are your goals?” Warnig also questioned whether Putin simply wanted to crush Kyiv or wanted other cities and/or all of Ukraine. And Putin replied, “It’s a state secret.” Duly noted.

(Via Daily Mail, Reuters & Daily Beast)

Three is the trickiest number Selena Gomez could have chosen. Last week, Gomez posted clips from the set of Only Murders In The Building‘s upcoming third season, featuring Meryl Streep and Paul Rudd. She has been the third wheel we didn’t know we needed to Steve Martin and Martin Short’s long-standing comedic chemistry since the Hulu series began in 2021. And then there’s the matter of her forthcoming third (depending on who you ask) album, which she recently promises is “coming.”

So when Gomez captioned an Instagram carousel “3,” it could have meant a lot of different things, especially considering the official Only Murders Instagram account commented a “3” emoji, but Selena stans have kept receipts that seemingly point toward these photos being from a May 2021 studio session.

Technically, Gomez already has three LPs to her name — Stars Dance (2013), Revival (2015) and Rare (2020), as well as three Selena Gomez & The Scene albums — but she and her fans have referred to her forthcoming album as SG3. So, take that for what you will. A new album would be her third released under Interscope Records.

Regardless of its positioning in Gomez’s discography, there are a few universally confirmed details about the album.

While promoting her November Apple TV+ My Mind & Me documentary, Gomez covered Rolling Stone and revealed she had already written 24 songs for the album to that point.

“My Mind & Me is a little sad, but it’s also a really nice way of putting a button on the documentary part of life, and then it’ll just be fun stories of me living my life and going on dates and having conversations with myself,” Gomez told the publication. “I feel like it’s going be an album that’s like, ‘Oh, she’s not in that place anymore; she’s actually just living life.’”

The following month, Gomez visited The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and said, “I’m so used to writing sad-girl songs because I’m good at that, but I’m ready to have some fun and I think people are going to like it.”

Stephen Dorff is “sh*t-talking” Marvel again. After softening his remarks about Scarlett Johansson starring in Black Widow back in 2021, Dorff has resumed slamming comic book movies while promoting his new film, Divinity, at Sundance.

“In general, I think it’s a tougher job to be an actor these days because there are less interesting filmmakers, there are less good movies,” Dorff said in a new interview. “Scripts are terrible for the most part.”

Dorff even threw some jabs at film festivals like Sundance before saying they’re the only place where you can find interesting products that aren’t from Marvel or DC Studios. Via The Daily Beast:

It’s all stupid to me. I think film festivals are, in a way, kind of silly, with the exception of, it brings filmmakers and people together and gets an audience to see your movie and you can launch it and sell it there. But in general, most of the movies are selling to streamers anyway, so it’s not really about cinema. I think Divinity should be bought by the majors, and if the majors were smart—if DC or any of these companies were doing cool things — they would look for the next Eddie Alcazar, because that’s the future. Not making Black Adam and worthless garbage over and over again [laughs].

What makes Dorff’s comments interesting is they mirror his initial remarks about Marvel and Black Widow that he later walked back after feeling embarrassed. He accused the media of taking what he said “out of context,” but here he is saying the same exact thing right down to calling comic book movies “garbage.” Which is fine. If Stephen Dorff doesn’t like superhero movies, he doesn’t like superhero movies. Just own it, my dude.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Netflix and Disney had a tough year in 2022, but cheer up, multi-multi-billion dollar companies, there’s some good news, too. Nielsen tabulated the most-streamed TV shows and movies of last year, and both charts are dominated by Netflix and Disney+.

Stranger Things finished number one among all programming with 52 billion minutes streamed in 2022, “the highest total since COVID-driven lockdowns drove audiences to watch 57.1 billion minutes of The Office in 2020,” followed by three more Netflix shows: NCIS, Cocomelon, and Ozark. The first non-Netflix title: Encanto with 27.4 billion minutes of viewing (“equivalent to being watched 269 million times”), making it the year’s most-streamed movie. Parents wish we didn’t talk about Bruno so dang much.

Here’s the top 15 for overall streaming:

1. Stranger Things (Netflix, 52.0 billion minutes)
2. NCIS (Netflix, 38.1 billion)
3. Cocomelon (Netflix, 37.8 billion)
4. Ozark (Netflix, 31.3 billion)
5. Encanto (Disney+, 27.4 billion)
6. Grey’s Anatomy (Netflix, 26.8 billion)
7. Criminal Minds (various, 24.9 billion)
8. Bluey (Disney+, 21.1 billion)
9. Gilmore Girls (Netflix, 20.8 billion)
10. Seinfeld (Netflix, 19.3 billion)
11. Supernatural (Netflix, 18.8 billion)
12. Wednesday (Netflix, 18.6 billion)
13. Heartland (Netflix, 18.0 billion)
14. Cobra Kai (Netflix, 16.7 billion)
15. The Simpsons (Disney+, 15.9 billion)

Ever wonder why The Simpsons is still on? 15.9 billion minutes is why.

The films-only list also includes Turning Red, Sing 2, Moana, and The Adam Project, a movie that we’re all still quoting to this day. You can find the full charts here.

(Via Variety)

It seems like lately, the most popular music is songs from years ago. Last year, the revival of Kate Bush’s 1985 hit “Running Up That Hill” dominated the charts because of Stranger Things; then there was also the massive takeover of Glass Animals’ 2020 song “Heat Waves” two years late due to TikTok.

Now, Lady Gaga took to social media to broadcast that her track “Bloody Mary,” from her 2011 album Born This Way, is big again. She posted a video of the song playing on the radio and wrote: “When your song from 2011 is a 2023 smash.”

Similar to Kate Bush, the resurgence of this old song is due to television. This time it’s thanks to the Addams Family-inspired show Wednesday. But of course TikTok helped as well — fans of the series made a dance trend to share online.

The people behind Wednesday were all about it, tweeting, “I see you doing my dance moves to @LadyGaga’s Bloody Mary,” the Twitter account wrote. “I understand she is followed by little monsters. I approve.” Gaga expressed enthusiasm for the dance also, replying, “Slay Wednesday!” Gaga wrote. “You’re welcome at Haus of Gaga anytime (and bring Thing with you, we love paws around here).”

95 movies have been crowned Best Picture at the Oscars, but only two sequels: The Godfather Part II and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Other sequels have been nominated, including The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Toy Story 3, and Mad Max: Fury Road (not The Dark Knight, though, sorry Steven Spielberg), but never two in one year. Until this year, when two billion-dollar grossers, Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick, are up for the biggest prize at the 95th Academy Awards.

Will they win? Vegas says it’s unlikely, with Top Gun: Maverick (+1,000) trailing Everything Everywhere All at Once and The Banshees of Inisherin, while Avatar: The Way of Water (+8,000) ranks eighth among the 10 nominees, ahead of only Elvis and Triangle of Sadness. But never count out Tom Cruise or James Cameron.

As the Hollywood Reporter points out, Top Gun or Avatar could be the populist pick:

It’s also worth noting that Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: The Way of Water, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever were all considered massive box office successes (Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery only had a limited release before heading straight to Netflix). Many pundits are expecting films that prove moviegoing can still be a financially viable industry to be at the top of the Academy’s priority list come Oscars night.

In a way, both sequels, Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water, are already winners (by not being the dreadful Jurassic World: Dominion). The 95th Academy Awards air on March 12.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)