ACE Eddie Awards Trade Glitz for Heart in Star-Studded Ceremony

Hollywood’s most precise craftspeople traded their usual black-tie glamour for something far more meaningful at this year’s ACE Eddie Awards. The 75th ceremony — delayed by those brutal L.A. wildfires that dominated headlines last month — transformed into an unexpectedly touching celebration of community spirit.

Who says you need designer labels to make magic? Sometimes the most memorable moments happen when the industry strips away its glossy veneer.

Take the night’s most delicious upset: Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” waltzing away with the Feature Dramatic Editing prize. The musical-crime thriller (and yes, that genre mashup is exactly as wild as it sounds) left presumed frontrunners “Conclave” and “Dune: Part Two” wondering what hit them. Editor Juliette Welfling pulled off something extraordinary — making the transition between dialogue and musical numbers feel as natural as your morning coffee. Zoe Saldaña and Karla Sofía Gascón’s electric chemistry certainly didn’t hurt.

The comedy category brought its own brand of sparkle. Jon M. Chu’s maximalist “Wicked” adaptation cast an unbreakable spell over the competition (sorry, Sean Baker’s “Anora”). Editor Myron Kerstein deserves a standing ovation for orchestrating the intricate dance between Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s powerhouse performances — no small feat when you’re dealing with gravity-defying musical numbers and enough CGI to make James Cameron blush.

Speaking of gravity-defying… “The Wild Robot” claimed animation honors, with Mary Blee’s masterful editing transforming Lupita Nyong’o’s mechanical Roz into this year’s most surprisingly human character. Sorry, “Flow” — sometimes the underdog has sharper teeth.

The evening wasn’t just about fresh faces, though. Industry titans got their due: “Wicked” director Jon M. Chu took home the ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award, while editing legends Maysie Hoy (“Nashville”) and Paul Hirsch (you know, the genius who made the Death Star go boom in “Star Wars”) received Career Achievement Awards. Because some talents, like fine wine, only get better with time.

Will Ferrell’s “Will & Harper” grabbed the Documentary Feature Eddie, adding another layer of emotional depth to an already heart-tugging evening. The film, exploring friendship and transition with writer Harper Steele, proves that sometimes the most powerful stories are the ones closest to home.

Now, for those playing the Oscar prediction game (and let’s be honest, in February 2025, who isn’t?) — the Eddie Awards have historically been decent tea leaves for Academy Awards glory. The Dramatic Feature winner has matched the Oscar 14 times since 2000… though lately, that crystal ball’s been a bit cloudy, with just one match in four years.

But perhaps that’s not the point anymore. In trading red-carpet glamour for genuine connection, this year’s ceremony reminded us what really matters: community, resilience, and the art that binds us all together. Sometimes the most meaningful victories don’t come with golden statues attached.

‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Nabs (Very) Early Season 3 Renewal at Disney+

The streamer has renewed the series, based on author Rick Riordan’s quintet of novels, for a third season. The pickup comes well ahead of season two for Percy Jackson, which Disney+ says will premiere in December — two years after the debut of its first season.

“From the moment Percy Jackson and the Olympians debuted, it was clear this series had struck a chord with fans of all ages,” Disney Branded Television president Ayo Davis said in a statement. “With season two set to premiere this December, we’re thrilled to announce that Percy’s journey will continue with a third season. Huge thanks to our incredible cast and creative team, our partners at 20th Television, and our visionary and talented producers who continue to bring Rick Riordan’s world to life with such depth and imagination.”

The early renewal will allow the show’s writers and crew to begin work on the third installment, which, in turn, could potentially cut down on the time between seasons. That’s something co-showrunner Jonathan E. Steinberg said was on his mind in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

“Part of wanting to keep the process going is trying to do whatever we can to be ready for it and to know how to have the conversations and to have a plan,” Steinberg told THR earlier this month. “… We assumed when we left Vancouver [where the series films] that we would be back at some point — soon, hopefully.”

Season three will be based on The Titan’s Curse, the third book in Riordan’s series, and introduce a fan-favorite character in Nico di Angelo, a young demigod who is new to Camp Half-Blood.

“We’re so grateful to be continuing the story of Percy Jackson on Disney+,” Riordan said in a statement. “This third season will be new territory for the screen, bringing fan favorites like the Hunters of Artemis and Nico di Angelo to life for the first time. It’s a huge sign of commitment from Disney, and speaks volumes about the enthusiasm with which the fandom has embraced the TV show. Thank you, demigods worldwide!”

The first season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians is nominated for 16 Children’s and Family Emmy Awards (which will be handed out Saturday). The series also proved popular for Disney+, recording more viewing time (as measured by Nielsen) than any other show on the streamer outside the Marvel and Star Wars franchises.

Season two will star Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries, Aryan Simhadri, Charlie Bushnell, Dior Goodjohn and Daniel Diemer. Other additions to the cast include Tamara Smart, Andra Day, Sandra Bernhard, Kristen Schaal, Margaret Cho, Rosemarie DeWitt and Aleks Paunovic, among others. Courtney B. Vance will play Zeus, taking over the role for the late Lance Reddick.

Riordan and Steinberg created the Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Steinberg and Dan Shotz are the showrunners and executive produce with Rick and Rebecca Riordan, Craig Silverstein, Bert Salke, The Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Jeremy Bell and D.J. Goldberg, James Bobin, Jim Rowe, Albert Kim, Jason Ensler and Sarah Watson.

‘The Electric State’ ending explained: What the movie is trying to convey about humanity

Warning: This article contains spoilers for “The Electric State.”

“The Electric State,” which premiered on Netflix on March 14, takes a new spin on the age-old tale of robots taking over.

This time, robots lose the war and are an oppressed class.

To understand the film, which was inspired by a 2018 graphic novel, you need to understand the world’s history. Humans invented robots and put them to work doing manual labor and service jobs. Eventually, the robots rebelled and started the Robots Rights’ Movement, led by a robot version of Mr. Peanut (voiced by Woody Harrelson). During the Clinton Administration, a deadly war broke out between the humans and the robots.

Technology mogul Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci) developed Neurocasters, a technology one puts on their head (like VR) which links the human mind to mechanized drone bodies. Neurocasters split your consciousness, a la “Severance.” One version of a human can be in a drone body working, while the other version is having fun in the human’s original body.

Once humans developed this new technology, they defeated the Robot Equality Coalition, banishing all the robots to Sentre’s Exclusion Zone (known as The EX).

Stanley Tucci explained on TODAY March 12 that Neurocasters were “originally sort of designed to sort of ease people’s pain and suffering, but it’s gotten out of hand.”

“The Electric State,” directed by the Russo brothers, takes place in the aftermath of this war in 1994, following Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) as she races across the country to find her genius brother, Christopher, whom she had previously thought died in a car crash along with their parents.

Accompanying her is a robot named Cosmo (Alan Tudyk). Although he can not fully speak, Cosmo conveys that Christopher is alive and projecting his own consciousness into Cosmo.

Eventually, she teams up with Keats (Chris Pratt) and his own robot friend Herman (Anthony Mackie). Together, the foursome journeys through The EX to find Christopher.

Along the way, they find Dr. Amherst (Ke Huy Quan) who informs them that Christopher is actually the reason that the Neurocasters exist. In fact, Christopher’s brain is such a marvel, that in his comatose state after the car accident, his brain was strong enough to power — and still powers — all of Sentre’s (Ethan Skate’s company) technology.

“There’s so many elements of animation, it’s a massive, epic scope and scale, but really rooted in humanity,” Chris Pratt said on TODAY Oct. 17. “And that relationship between these two folks is a big part of that.”

Throughout the film, Michelle befriends many more robots who are voiced by big names like Woody Harrelson, Jenny Slate, Brian Cox and Hank Azaria.

All the while she’s on the run from Col. Bradbury (Giancarlo Esposito), a leader in the uprising and now a bounty hunter catching robots (Coleman Domingo also makes a cameo here as a soldier within Bradbury’s ranks).

The sci-fi/adventure film ends similar to how the world’s history began: a huge battle between humans and robots, but this time the viewer is rooting for the robots. Read on the understand why and what happens.

During a battle in The EX, Col. Bradbury successfully kidnaps Cosmo. He gets ready to fly him back to Sentre when the drone that Ethan is Neurocasting into kills Dr. Amherst. Col. Bradbury still brings Cosmo back to Sentre, but face-to-face, he tells Ethan that he’s crossed a line by killing someone and lying to him.

Ethan doesn’t care as he has Christopher’s essence back, meaning his company won’t completely crumble and instead is back at functioning capacity.

This is when Michelle, her friends and a bunch of robots from The EX begin their attack on Sentre’s headquarters with the mission of freeing Christopher.

Amherst’s computer, which stores all his knowledge, had revealed that removing Christopher’s brain from the system would free him and cause a complete system failure for Sentre.

Keats and Herman start the first wave of the attack, launching cars into Sentre’s headquarters. Ethan deploys his entire security squad to stop their attack. Michelle, meanwhile, sneaks into Sentre through a backdoor using the code she’d secured.

The second wave of robots then attack Sentre, coming to Keats and Herman’s aid and launching a full on war against Ethan’s security forces, who are Neurocasting into drones.

Michelle reaches the room holding Christopher. She discovers that she has to put on a Neurocaster and go inside Christopher’s mind to speak to him.

While inside, Christopher confirms that if his brain is removed from the system, Sentre dies — but his physical body cannot survive without Sentre. He tells Michelle that she needs to be the one to save the world from Sentre, meaning that she must kill her own brother.

While Michelle grapples with this realization, unsure of what to do, Ethan fires up his own Neurocaster, which is connected to a giant, lethal drone. He steps into battle in the suit and immediately begins destroying the robots.

Separately on the battle field, Col. Bradbury confronts Mr. Peanut, but instead of fighting him as he had the entire film, he admits he was wrong and tells Mr. Peanut what room and floor Ethan’s real body is located on. Col. Bradbury then exits the battle.

Keats and Herman fight Ethan in his drone suit. They defeat him, but Herman dies in the process. As the real Ethan is taking his Neurocaster off, he’s confronted by Mr. Peanut inside Sentre to renegotiate the treaty.

Meanwhile, Michelle is still talking to Christopher, unwilling to let him die. Then he tells her that Sentre has put tighter controls over him this time and he doesn’t want to live like this forever. Sentre could keep him alive for 100 years. Michelle sayas she doesn’t want to lose him again.

“You can’t lose me,” Christopher tells her. “But you can lose them. You. You’re the one whose gonna change the world.”

After a final cry, hug, and exchanging of “I love you’s,” Michelle leaves, pressing three buttons that kill her younger brother. She holds Cosmo’s hand and Christopher’s chest in both her hands.

The timing is impeccable as Keats is about to be killed by a drone, but all of Sentre’s technology ceases to work before the fatal strike.

Despite Christopher dying, there’s a happiness to the battle as Herman emerges alive and well after Keats bears his soul to what he believed to be his lifeless friend.

What follows is a montage of Sentre shutting down across the world and news emerging that the company had been experimenting on a little boy to stay afloat. Ethan Skate gets arrested in the aftermath. The media montage ends with a reporter saying, “You know who I want to talk about? The girl who trucked a ton of bots to Seattle to kick Skate’s butt.”

Cut to Michelle, who films a video for the world saying that the technology Sentre made was bad for everyone, not just robots.

“I know the war happened and things fell apart and life really sucked,” she says. “And maybe for a little while the Neurocasters helped you forget that. We got so used to it that we thought that’s what real life was. But it’s not. Real life, it’s contact. It’s you and me. We’re flesh and bone, yeah, but we’re also electricity. And when we hug and laugh and hold hands and argue, my particles stay with you and yours stay with me. And maybe we stay together forever. But that can’t happen if you close yourself off.”

Michelle continues on, saying humanity needs to start over. She tells everyone that they need to stick together and help each other to make it work.

“Look around,” she says. “There’s someone near you right now. They’re real and alive. And they need you as much as you need them. And if there isn’t, if you don’t have anyone, then come find us. Because we’re starting over. We’re going to do it right this time.”

With Michelle saving the world like Christopher had instructed her to do, the movie could end — but instead it tacks on one last scene.

Cosmo, the robot Christopher had transferred some of his essence into, is dumped into what looks to be a pile of trash. Nearby, a stray dog laps water from a puddle.

The final shot shows the reflection in the water as Cosmo rises up, hinting that some of Christopher’s essence may still be alive within him.

The ‘Freaky Friday’ sequel ‘Freakier Friday’ is finally coming this summer — here’s everything we know so far

The sequel also includes new characters played by Manny Jacinto, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, and more.

Disney’s much-anticipated “Freaky Friday” sequel is finally coming to theaters this year — more than two decades after the first movie became a box-office smash, grossing $160 million against a $20 million budget.

The trailer for “Freakier Friday,” directed by Nisha Ganatra, was unveiled on — what else? — Friday.

It shows Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan reprising their roles as Tess and Anna Coleman, a mother-daughter duo who frequently butt heads. In 2003’s “Freaky Friday” (a remake of the 1976 classic), they learn to communicate when a magical body swap forces them to literally walk in each other’s shoes.

Twenty-two years later, Anna has a daughter of her own, as well as a fiancé and soon-to-be stepdaughter. According to the film’s synopsis, the two heroines are learning to “navigate the myriad challenges that come when two families merge.”

Naturally, this means another out-of-body experience — but this time, the supernatural switch also affects Anna’s children.

Here’s everything we know about “Freakier Friday,” so far.

The “Freakier Friday” trailer teases Chad Michael Murray’s return as Jake, Anna’s teenage love interest who’s now a motorcycle-riding heartthrob.

Disney has also confirmed Mark Harmon will reprise his role as Ryan, Tess’ husband and Anna’s stepfather.

Curtis joked about her onscreen marriage to the “Sexiest Man Alive” back in 2022, when she was still openly campaigning for Disney to greenlight a “Freaky Friday” sequel.

“Let me be the old grandma who switches places,” Curtis said on “The View.” “So then Lindsay gets to be the sexy grandma who is still happy with Mark Harmon in all the ways you would be happy with Mark Harmon.”

Pink Slip fans will be thrilled to know that Christina Vidal Mitchell and Haley Hudson, who played Anna’s hard-rocking bandmates Maddie and Peg, will also be back for the sequel. Lohan even confirmed their fictional band will be performing new music.

Lucille Soong, Rosalind Chao, and Stephen Tobolowsky — who played Pei-Pei, Pei-Pei’s mysterious mother, and Mr. Bates, respectively — are also listed among the returning cast members.

Anna’s daughter will be played by Julia Butters, while Sophia Hammons has been cast as Anna’s future stepdaughter.

In an interview with Girls’ Life, Hammons said it was surreal to work with Curtis and Lohan, but said they’ve “become like family, and they feel like home now.”

When asked about her character in the movie, Hammons replied, “Without giving away too much, I would say that I am much more easygoing than she is!”

The sequel will feature Anna switching bodies with her daughter while Tess finds herself in the body of her future stepgranddaughter (and vice versa). “My face looks like a Birkin bag that’s been left out in the sun to rot!” Curtis, post-body-swap, shrieks in the trailer.

The two young actors will also be joined by newcomers Manny Jacinto (“The Good Place,” “The Acolyte”) and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (“Never Have I Ever”).

“Freakier Friday” will premiere on August 8. It’s one of 12 movies on Disney’s 2025 release schedule.

‘White Lotus’ Star Jason Isaacs Slams ‘Double Standard’ for Male Frontal Nudity: ‘It’s Odd’ | Video

The actor tells CBS Mornings “nobody would dream” of asking an actress the same questions

“The White Lotus” star Jason Isaacs finds all the attention paid to his full frontal nude scene in the HBO show “odd” — especially because there seems to be a double standard at play. During an interview on “CBS Mornings” Friday, Isaacs told hosts Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil and Nate Burleson that “it’s interesting that there’s a double standard for men.”

Things started when King asked, “Was that you or was that a prosthetic? Because we were debating it.”

Isaacs appeared willing to entertain the conversation to a point. “A lot of people were debating it. It’s all over the internet,” he answered, before King pointed out, “You didn’t answer the question!”

“Well, I’ll tell you why,” Isaacs bounced back. “Because the Best Actress this year was Mikey Madison at the Oscars, and I don’t see anybody discussing her vulva, which is on [screen] all the time.”

“I think it’s interesting that there’s a double standard for men,” he continued. “Margaret Qualley as well, in ‘The Substance’ — nobody would dream of talking to her about her genitalia or her nipples or any of those things. And so it’s odd that there’s a double standard.”

It’s worth noting that both Madison and Qualley gave several interviews in which nudity and sex were a key part of the conversation. “Ani is a sex worker. Nudity is just naturally a part of that and it’s a part of her work. I always approached it as, ‘Well, this is her job.’ This is what she does. And she’s a professional. She’s good at her job, and I am, too,” Madison told TheWrap in February.

“I wanted it to be a realistic portrayal,” she also said. “I didn’t want it to be glamorized. I didn’t want it to be sensationalized or dramatized in a negative way. I wanted it to just reflect what is honest. And the honest truth of being a sex worker is that your body is your work and your skin is your costume. Ani is comfortable with that and so was I.”

In September 2024, Qualley openly discussed wearing prosthetic breasts in “The Substance.” She told the Sunday Times, “Unfortunately there is no magic boob potion, so we had to glue those on. Coralie [Fargeat] found an incredible prosthetic team to endow me with the rack of a lifetime, just not my lifetime.”

The CBS team also accused Isaacs of attempting to dodge the question, something he agreed with. “It is a dodge, because I don’t think that people really wanna know how the sausage is made,” the actor explained.

But Isaacs’ “White Lotus” co-stars Sarah Catherine Hook and Sam Nivola let the cat out of the bag: he did indeed wear a prosthetic penis.

“That wasn’t his real penis,” Nivola said, with Hook chiming in that “it was a prosthetic.”

Watch the interview with Isaacs in the video above.

Behind the scenes of The Electric State

Anthony and Joe Russo’s new sci-fi adventure film, The Electric State, is adapted from the graphic novel by Swedish artist/designer Simon Stålenhag. So naturally the directors wanted to create their own distinctive look and tone — complete with a colorful array of quirky misfit robots who team up with their human counterparts to take down an evil corporation.

(Some spoilers below but no major reveals.)

The Electric State is Stålenhag’s third book, published in 2018. Like much of work, it’s set in a dystopian, ravaged landscape: a reimagined America in an alternate 1990s where a war between robots and humans has devastated the country. Paragraphs of text, accompanied by larger artworks, tell the story of a teen girl named Michelle (Milly Bobby Brown) who must travel across the country with her robot companion, Cosmo (Alan Tudyk), to find her long-lost genius brother, Christopher (Woody Norman), while being pursued by a federal agent (Giancarlo Esposito).

Screenwriter Christopher Markus introduced the Russo brothers the book, which they felt “encapsulated the zeitgeist in terms of what’s happening in this moment between humans and our connection to technology,” Anthony Russo said. Tonally, they were inspired by 1980s Amblin Entertainment movies, albeit with a darker tinge. And film is a different medium than a book, so the brothers made several changes to the source material.

In the movie, Michelle and Cosmo reluctantly join forces with a smuggler named Keats (Chris Pratt) and his wisecracking robot sidekick, Herman (Anthony Mackie). Eventually they find themselves in the Exclusion Zone, a walled-off corner in the desert where robots now exist on their own. There they find additional allies in Dr. Amherst (Ke Huy Quan) and a colorful assortment of robots: Mr. Peanut (Woody Harrelson), Popfly (Brian Cox), Penny Pal (Jenny Slate) Perplex (Hank Azaria), Garbage Bot (Billy Gardell), and Mrs. Scissors (Susan Leslie), among others. Stanley Tucci plays chief villain Ethan Skate, the man behind Christopher’s disappearance whose plans are far more diabolical than Michelle ever imagined.

The directors adopted more of a colorful 1990s aesthetic than the haunting art that originally inspired their film. While some fans of Stålenhag’s work expressed disappointment at this artistic choice, the artist himself had nothing but praise. “When you paint or draw something, you can do anything,” Stålenhag has said. ‘There are no constraints other than the time you spend painting. To see a live action movie make something I painted and to see it so truthfully translated impressed me on all levels.”

Bringing a vision to life

The task of bringing that aesthetic to the screen fell to people like Oscar-winning production designer Dennis Gassner, whose many credits include Barton Fink, Bugsy, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Truman Show, Blade Runner 2049, Skyfall, Quantum of Solace, Spectre, Into the Woods, and Big Fish. (In fact, there’s a carousel featured in the design of the Happyland amusement park that Gassner first used in Big Fish.) He and Richard L. Johnson (Pacific Rim, The Avengers) led a team that not only designed and constructed more than 100 sets for the film, but also created a host of original robot characters to augment the ones featured in Stålenhag’s book.

On set during filming of The Electric State

Netflix

On set during filming of The Electric State Netflix

Milly Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, and Ke Huy Quan play Michelle, Keats, and Dr. Amherst, respectively.

Netflix

Milly Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, and Ke Huy Quan play Michelle, Keats, and Dr. Amherst, respectively. Netflix

Col. Marshall Bradbury (Giancarlo Esposito) has orders to track down the robot Cosmo from Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci).

Netflix

Col. Marshall Bradbury (Giancarlo Esposito) has orders to track down the robot Cosmo from Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci). Netflix

Milly Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, and Ke Huy Quan play Michelle, Keats, and Dr. Amherst, respectively. Netflix

Col. Marshall Bradbury (Giancarlo Esposito) has orders to track down the robot Cosmo from Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci). Netflix

All the robots featured in the film have their own stories, “distinct personalities and emotional arcs,” per Anthony Russo. The directors wanted the robots to “feel authentic to the alternate 1990s but still had roots in recognizable designs,” according to Joe Russo — the kinds of things one would see in vintage commercials, shopping malls, corporate branding, and so forth. “Everything is story,” Gassner told Ars. “Story is paramount. What story are you telling? Who are the characters in this story? What are their environments? How do they feel within the environments?”

Gassner’s team designed about 175 robots all told, selecting their favorites to be featured in the final film. “It’s like a great casting call,” Gassner said. “So we played a lot, there was a long time of development in the art department between myself and a vast team of artists. We worked very closely with the visual effects department, but what the characters look like are part of the art department, and our collaboration with Joe and Anthony Russo on the study of characters. That was the fun part, getting the shape right, the character right, the color right, the clothing right.”

Gassner’s personal favorites were the giant rubber ducky robots. “My wife has a lot of rubber duckies in the bath, and I was going, ‘Got to have the rubber duckies in the movie because it’ll make her laugh,’” he said.

The design of Cosmo proved to be uniquely challenging because he’s portrayed in the book as having a gigantic head — yet if one were to design an actual robot with those proportions, the robot would topple over. “That was constant, it’s always about proportion,” said Gassner. “Proportion and color and shape and little nuances as you got into the development of the characters. It’s like making anything live, it’s a constant flow of creative talent to bring them to life.”

Ultimately, the team made Cosmo’s head a little smaller and added piston armatures to the joints to support the head. Cosmo’s design also received the Stålenhag seal of approval; he declared, “the way Cosmo moves is very close to what I had in mind.”

Michelle with her robot companion Cosmo.

Netflix

Michelle with her robot companion Cosmo. Netflix

Herman (Anthony Mackie) can change sizes, an ability that comes in handy.

Netflix

Herman (Anthony Mackie) can change sizes, an ability that comes in handy. Netflix

Michelle with her robot companion Cosmo. Netflix

Herman (Anthony Mackie) can change sizes, an ability that comes in handy. Netflix

Mr. Peanut’s NUTmobile can be rented as an AirBnB.

Netflix

Mr. Peanut’s NUTmobile can be rented as an AirBnB. Netflix

Michelle and her misfit robot allies prepare to defend Happyland.

Netflix

Michelle and her misfit robot allies prepare to defend Happyland. Netflix

Mr. Peanut’s NUTmobile can be rented as an AirBnB. Netflix

Michelle and her misfit robot allies prepare to defend Happyland. Netflix

Bonus: roboticist Dennis Hong of the University of California, Los Angeles, one of the film’s science consultants, built an actual working version of Cosmo for the premiere and similar promotional events that can walk and wave its head. Once again, the concept art for Cosmo — the huge head, the huge boots — proved difficult, as did the necessity of packing the battery, computer, sensors, actuators and other components into a relatively small body. Among other innovations, Hong’s team developed a new type of actuator that functions like artificial muscles to give their robot the desired lifelike motion.

The sets also had their own distinctive aesthetics, such as the grimly sterile brutalist look of Sentre Technologies HQ, or the kitschy relics from the 1980s and 1990s that litter Keats’ base of operations in an abandoned mine. The most serendipitous find was the abandoned Blue Sky Acres Mall just outside of Atlanta, with a hub-and-spoke layout that made it ideal as a sanctuary set for the misfit robots.

“We could have never afforded to build something that massive,” said Gassner. “It was a magical place to us.” The production was able to retrofit many of the original mall storefronts and kiosks, imagining how a misfit band of robots might use the space. So a pizza oven became a metal recycling center; a noodle bar was festooned wth colorful fiber-optic cables; a sunglasses kiosk became a rewiring station, while a juice bar became a charging station. Mr. Peanut lives in the NUTmobile, a peanut-shaped van lent to the film by Planters.

“I’ve done 40 films in my day, and every film has a particular quality to it,” said Gassner. “I have one fallback position: when in doubt, make it beautiful. That always seems to work. Make them look cool, make them look interesting, make them exciting, give them character, have fun with them. What are they going to do? Make them scary, make them weird, make them all those things.”

The Electric State is now streaming on Netflix.

See Lindsay Lohan, Jamie Lee Curtis body-swap again in ‘Freakier Friday’ first look teaser

The fun-sucking wait for a first look at Freakier Friday is finally over, as Disney surprise-released (on Friday, no less!) the first teaser trailer for Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan’s return in the highly anticipated Freaky Friday sequel.

Curtis and Lohan reprise their roles in the new preview as Tess and Anna Coleman, who visit a psychic (Saturday Night Live’s Vanessa Bayer), who tells them that their “lifelines” have “intersected before” — an assessment the mother-daughter duo initially balks at.

Later, they’re seen tossing and turning at night — and, naturally, they wake up in each other’s bodies once again. Only this time, Anna’s biological daughter and stepdaughter are in on the action, too, with Tess inhabiting the body of the latter.

“My face looks like a Birkin bag that’s been left out in the sun to rot!” screams Tess, who isn’t quite Tess.

The teaser features several nostalgic nods to the 2003 flick, including Lohan and Curtis running into each other at full force to switch their bodies back. But as we learned the first time, “that doesn’t work!” Lohan can also be seen on stage jamming on her guitar alongside the first film’s in-movie band, Pink Slip, alongside other returning stars Christina Vidal and Haley Hudson.

Chad Michael Murray closes the preview by making a “sexy entrance” atop Jake’s motorcycle, recalling his character’s status as Anna’s love interest in the first film.

“I’m telling you right now, this one played a song last night at the Wiltern [theater in Los Angeles] and it is in my ear like one of those Star Trek earworms,” Curtis previously told Entertainment Weekly of Lohan’s return to music in the film. “I’m telling you, it’s going to be a monster hit. I’m not going to tell you what it’s called because we’re in the middle of making it, but there are some old favorites played in this movie.”

On the tone of the film, Lohan added that “there’s more physical comedy in this. Much more than the original,” while, at its heart, the movie has “a lot of love in it. Love and loss.”

Mark Harmon and Rosalind Chao (who can briefly be seen in the teaser) also reprise their roles for the sequel, while Manny Jacinto (as Lohan’s onscreen husband), Julia Butters, Sophia Hammons, and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan round out the cast of newcomers in the comedy from director Nisha Ganatra. Curtis and Lohan are among the producers, alongside Kristin Burr, Andrew Gunn, Nathan Kelly, and Ann Marie Sanderlin.

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“For me, it feels like no time has passed,” Curtis said of working on the sequel at D23 last summer. “We both get to play moms.”

“It doesn’t even feel like work,” Lohan added, teasing that the film is “more fun” and “more emotional.”

Jason Isaacs Shuts Down ‘White Lotus’ Penis Question and Says ‘It’s Odd There’s a Double Standard’ With Male Nude Scenes

Marc Maron Tells Bill Maher: ‘You’re a Bitch’ for Agreeing With ‘Some of the Stuff Trump Is Doing’ 21 hours ago

Jason Isaacs is sick of being asked whether or not he wore a prosthetic penis in “The White Lotus.” It’s all anyone wants to talk to the actor about following the third season’s fourth episode, where Isaac’s character, Timothy Ratliff, had his penis hanging out of his bathrobe while in front of his children. Cast members Sam Nivola and Sarah Catherine Hook confirmed to TV Insider Isaacs was wearing a prosthetic, but that didn’t stop the actor from being the topic of endless debates.

“A lot of people are debating it. It’s all over the internet,” Isaacs said on “CBS Mornings” when asked if his full frontal nude scene featured a prosthetic or not. “And it’s interesting because the best actress this year is Mikey Madison at the Oscars. And I don’t see anybody discussing her vulva, which was on [the screen] all the time.”

“I think it’s interesting that there’s a double standard for men,” he continued. “But when women are naked, Margaret Qualley as well, in ‘The Substance,’ nobody would dream of talking to her about her genitalia or her nipples or any of those things. So, its odd that there’s a double standard.”

Isaacs admitted he was also dodging the prosthetic penis question “because I don’t think that people really want to know how the sausage is made. Genuinely, I think it would be odd when there are characters — and some of the women are naked in here — it’d be odd if you were sitting here. And you would never dream of discussing their genitalia, not for a second.”

“Mike White is a brilliant writer; it’s the best series on television for a long time. And what is the obsession with penises? It’s an odd thing,” Isaacs concluded.

Nivola and Hook, who play the kids of Isaac’s character, said “it was really funny” shooting the scene in which Isaacs wears his prosthetic penis.

“He was very excited to do it,” Hook told TV Insider. “I think he took pride in the prosthetic.”

He’s like, ‘It’s my fake dick scene today!’” Nivola added.

New episodes of “The White Lotus” debut on HBO and Max at 9pm ET on Sunday nights.

Fan-Favorite Sci-Fi Director is Rebooting ‘Starship Troopers’

Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek’s network of contributors

It looks like it mary very well be time for more space, more guns, and more bug blood. No, it’s not another “Alien” movie. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Neill Blomkamp (“District 9”) has been tapped to write and direct a new version of “Starship Troopers,” last adapted in 1997 by sci-fi satirist Paul Verhoeven. Blomkamp will also produce the film alongside his wife and longtime collaborator Terri Tatchell.

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Rather than a remake of the 1997 version of “Starship Troopers,” Blomkamp intends to go for a more faithful adaptation of the 1959 novel by Robert A. Heinlein. It’s an interesting choice in today’s climate, considering the novel looked at ideas that had critics calling novelist Heinlein a fascist at the time.

In fact it was the messages of nationalism and a military directed society that Paul Verhoeven was satirizing in 1997’s “Starship Troopers.” The film is known for being woefully misunderstood upon its release, with many critics missing the satire (which was a signature piece of Verhoeven’s sci-fi work, e.g. “RoboCop” and “Total Recall”) and saw it as naked imperialistic propaganda.

Casper Van Dien played the hero Johnny Rico in the 1997 film. He’s joined by Neil Patrick Harris, Jake Busey, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer, Clancy Brown, Patrick Muldoon, and Michael Ironside. The film was a financial disappointment, earning $121 million against a production budget of $100 million. But in the years that followed it’s achieved an impressive cult status, and is practically considered mandatory viewing among science fiction fans.

Like Verhoeven, Blomkamp boasts impressive sci-fi chops like “District 9,” “Chappie,” and “Elysium.” He’s also bumped up against the “RoboCop” and “Alien” franchises only to have those projects not realized. His last film was 2023’s “Gran Turismo,” which earned $122 million against a production budget of $60 million.

The “Starship Troopers” reboot begs the question of whether or not there is a trend brewing of late twentieth century science fiction films being rebooted but not remade, with the younger directors going for the source material. Edgar Wright is working on “The Running Man” with Glen Powell starring, based on the dystopian 1982 novel written by Stephen King. The book was already adapted in 1987 with a film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, but Wright’s movie, like Blomkamp’s, hopes to stay much closer to the source material.

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‘Snow White’ Actor Reacts to ‘Controversy’ Surrounding the Live-Action Remake, Claims Disney Is ‘Afraid of the Blowback’

Martin Klebba, an actor in Disney’s live-action remake of Snow White, is sharing his thoughts on the controversy surrounding the soon-to-be-released film.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Klebba, 55 — who voices Grumpy, one of the seven dwarfs, and also serves as an advisor for the characters — reacted to the project’s premiere plans that are set to take place in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 15.

“It really isn’t going to be a red carpet,” the actor told the outlet. “It’s going to be at the El Capitan [Theatre], which is cool. But it’s basically going to be a pre-party, watch the movie, and that’s it.”

“There’s not going to be this whole hoopla of, ‘Disney’s first f—— movie they ever made.’ Because of all this controversy, they’re afraid of the blowback from different people in society,” Klebba continued.

The star also claimed that Snow White’s California premiere was changed from original plans because of “the controversy with Rachel,” referring to Rachel Zegler, who portrays the titular Snow White. THR clarified, however, that Klebba “had not been given direct information on why the event was altered.” A source with knowledge of the situation also tells PEOPLE, “Nothing was scaled back. It was always the plan to have an afternoon event for families as Disney has done in the past on other family films.”

Representatives for Klebba, Zegler and Disney did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

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Snow White, which also stars Gal Gadot as The Evil Queen, is a live-action retelling of Disney’s first-ever animated feature, 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Ahead of its release, the film — which is directed by Marc Webb, written by Erin Cressida Wilson and features original songs from composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul — has faced backlash for a few different reasons.

Following her casting announcement in 2022, Zegler, 23, dealt with racist backlash over her playing the Disney Princess while being of Latinx background. (The actress is of Colombian and Polish descent.) She then faced controversy on other occasions, including when she revealed that Snow White’s name has a different origin story in the new film and when she described the original movie as “dated” and added that Prince Charming “literally stalks” Snow White.

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There has also been rumors of a rift between Zegler and Gadot, 39. A source recently told PEOPLE the two “have a huge age gap and very different political views.” (The Israeli-born Gadot, who served in the Israel Defense Forces, has advocated for the release of Israeli hostages, while Zegler has voiced support on social media for Palestine amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza.)

Elsewhere, Snow White has been called out by Peter Dinklage, who was born with a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia. He accused Disney of “hypocrisy,” citing the fairy tale’s “backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together.” (Disney opted to use CGI to bring the characters to life.)

Speaking about the concerns with using real people to portray the seven dwarfs, Klebba told THR, “I don’t usually get into the political stuff, but I [felt], ‘Dwarfs aren’t going to go away just because you can’t imagine that they’re there.’ We’re still going to be walking around.”

“So I didn’t get the whole stuff about not doing the dwarfs. The story’s been around forever, and it’s a classic,” he continued.

Klebba did explain to the outlet, though, that he understands why CGI was ultimately used to create the characters — which also include Doc, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy and Dopey.

“If you guys go this route, it just makes sense to be able to draw them the way you want,” the actor said. “This way, they’re all the same size. And to find seven little people actors to pull it off, that’s not an easy thing either.”