Steve Pond's Blog, page 35

Warwick Davis to Reprise Role as Professor Flitwick in HBO ‘Harry Potter’ Series

Warwick Davis is returning to Hogwarts.

The actor, who originated the role of Professor Filius Flitwick in the original films, will reprise the role in HBO’s new “Harry Potter” series, the streamer announced Monday.

Davis will be joined by new cast members Elijah Oshin as Dean Thomas, Finn Stephens as Vincent Crabbe, and William Nash as Gregory Goyle; Sirine Saba as Professor Pomona Sprout, Richard Durden as Professor Cuthbert Binns, and Bríd Brennan as Madam Poppy Pomfrey; and Leigh Gill as Griphook.

The group joins the previously announced cast that includes Katherine Parkinson has been cast as Molly Weasley, Lox Pratt as Draco Malfoy, Johnny Flynn as Lucius Malfoy, Leo Earley as Seamus Finnigan, Alessia Leoni as Parvati Patil, Sienna Moosah as Lavender Brown, Bel Powley as Petunia Dursley, Daniel Rigby as Vernon Dursley and Bertie Carvel as Cornelius Fudge.

HBO previously announced Dominic McLaughlin will play Harry Potter, Alastair Stout will play Ron Weasley and Arabella Stanton will play Hermione Granger. Other members of the cast include John Lithgow, Janet McTeer, Paapa Essiedu, Nick Frost, Luke Thallon and Paul Whitehouse. 

The new series will debut in 2027 and is written and executive produced by Francesca Gardiner.

The post Warwick Davis to Reprise Role as Professor Flitwick in HBO ‘Harry Potter’ Series appeared first on TheWrap.

‘The Chosen Adventures’ Animated Series From Ryan Swanson Lands at Prime Video

Prime Video has ordered animated series “The Chosen Adventures” to series.

The faith-based show, which hails from writer, EP and showrunner Ryan Swanson, follows nine-year-old Abby and her best friend Joshua as they navigate life in the ancient city of Capernaum.

“When the children encounter a wise craftsman and teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, he helps them change the way they see the world, and they help spread his influence far and wide,” the official logline reads. “And did we mention that she has a talking sheep?”

Prime Video will debut all 14 11-minute episodes of “The Chosen Adventures” on Oct. 17 in the U.S. and internationally in the U.K., Latin America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and Sub-Saharan Africa. 

“The Chosen Adventures” features a voice cast that includes Paul Walter Hauser as Sheep, Yvonne Orji as Pigeon, Romy Fay as Abby, Jude Zarzaur as Joshua, Danny Nucci as Abba and Zehra Fazal as Eema. Additional voice cast members include Jonathan Roumie, Jordin Sparks, Paras Patel, Elizabeth Tabish, Noah James, Joey Vahedi, George H. Xanthis, Yasmine Al-Bustami, Brandon Potter, Banks Pierce and Julian Grant.

Swanson executive produces alongside Dallas Jenkins, who executive produces under his 5&2 Studios banner, as well as Chris Juen, Chad Gundersen, Keith Alcorn, Kellen Erskine and Derral Eves. Erin Elizabeth Gardner produces and Myesha Gosselin serves as a co-producer. The show hails from Amazon MGM Studios and 5&2 Studios.

The news comes months after Amazon MGM Studios inked a first-look deal with 5&2 Studios in February, which gave Prime Video the streaming rights to the first five seasons of “The Chosen” as well as upcoming drama series “Joseph of Egypt” and the unscripted series “The Chosen in the Wild with Bear Grylls.” The deal will also grant Prime Video the streaming rights to the upcoming final two seasons of “The Chosen.”

The post ‘The Chosen Adventures’ Animated Series From Ryan Swanson Lands at Prime Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Jim Jarmusch ‘Disappointed’ by ‘Father Mother Sister Brother’ Co-Producer Mubi’s Ties to Israeli Defense Investor Sequoia

Jim Jarmusch said he was “disappointed and disconcerted” to learn that Mubi, the arthouse distributor and streamer that co-produced “Father Mother Sister Brother,” had accepted $100 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, the Silicon Valley venture firm with a stake in an Israeli defense-tech startup.

“My relationship with Mubi started much before that, and they were fantastic to work with on the film,” Jarmusch told reporters at the Venice Film Festival, where the film premiered Sunday. “Yes, I was concerned. I was disappointed and disconcerted by this relationship. If you want to discuss it, you have to address Mubi. I’m not the spokesman.”

The association has drawn protests from artists who accuse Sequoia of “genocide profiteering” in Gaza. Dozens of filmmakers with ties to Mubi have signed an open letter urging the company to reconsider its partnership with Sequoia and publicly condemn its investment in a defense-tech startup founded by Israeli intelligence units after the terror attacks of Oct. 7.

Mubi’s founder has pushed back, saying that “any suggestion that our work is connected to funding the war is simply untrue.”

Jarmusch said his priority remains making films, even if the financing can be morally complicated.

“I’m an independent filmmaker and I’ve taken money from various sources to fund my films,” he said. “All corporate money is dirty. If you start analyzing each of these film companies and their financing structures, you’re going to find a lot of dirt. You can avoid it and not make films at all. But films are how I carry what I like to say.”

He added, “One thing I don’t like is putting the onus of the explanation on us, the artists. It’s not us.”

Cast member Indya Moore also addressed the controversy, saying there is “an incredible amount of creative warfare and resource warfare behind the scenes” of Hollywood.

“People are trying to find out how to work in a capacity that’s ethical and not enabling. I think the kinds of due diligence that people are trying to do is a developing process,” Moore said.

“Father Mother Sister Brother” brings Jarmusch to Venice for the first time since “Coffee & Cigarettes” in 2003. The triptych explores relationships between adult children and their parents across three stories set in New Jersey, Dublin and Paris. The ensemble cast includes Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, Vicky Krieps, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Moore and Luka Sabbat.

The post Jim Jarmusch ‘Disappointed’ by ‘Father Mother Sister Brother’ Co-Producer Mubi’s Ties to Israeli Defense Investor Sequoia appeared first on TheWrap.

Venice and Telluride So Far: Awards Season Arrives With Monsters and Ghosts as ‘Frankenstein,’ ‘Hamnet’ Make Waves

Five days into the fall film festivals, we’ve got ourselves a real awards season. Maybe even a monster awards season.

And for that, we might have to thank a couple of iconoclastic international filmmakers and a pair of British works of literature written in 1600 and 1818, or thereabouts.

That’s the conclusion after the first five days of the Venice Film Festival and the first three (out of only four) of the Telluride Film Festival, where Guillermo del Toro’s epic adaptation of “Frankenstein” and Chloé Zhao’s emotionally devastating Shakespeare riff “Hamnet” debuted and cemented themselves as formidable contenders.

Some of the high-profile films that have premiered so far still have some work to do before they can be considered top awards players, but others came out of the gate with a bang, and plenty may be on the fence as Best Picture hopefuls but are definitely in the mix for other categories.

Venice, for example, kicked off with Paolo Sorrentino’s “La Grazia,” a drama about a conflicted politician that seems to have become the favorite to be Italy’s submission in the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film race, the third time one of Sorrentino’s films will have been chosen. (It doesn’t hurt that he’s the only director in the last 26 years to win an Oscar for Italy, something he did in 2013 with “The Great Beauty.”)

In the higher-profile English-language titles, meanwhile, Venice has unveiled Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia,” a wacky sci-fi concoction that might win over bold voters and might be too weird for mainstreamers, although Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons will undoubtedly get lots of attention for the things they do for Yorgos; “Jay Kelly,” a Noah Baumbach blend of comedy and drama that has a showbiz setting (appealing to voters), an utterly charming lead performance by George Clooney (ditto) and a cast with an amazing array of names (SAG Ensemble or the new Oscar for casting, anyone?); “After the Hunt,” Luca Guadagnino’s tale of trouble in academia, which has proved to be predictably divisive (who knew that some people would take offense at a movie about how easily people take offense at everything?) but also has the most substantial Julia Roberts performance in years.

The robust selection of documentaries shown so far in Venice includes strong work from past winner Laura Poitras (“Cover-Up,” with Mark Obenhaus) and past nominees Gianfranco Rosi (“Below the Clouds”) and Tamara Kotevska (“The Tale of Silyan”).

Guillermo del Toro and Oscar Isaac on the set of “Frankenstein” (Netflix)

And then there’s Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel and a monumental work even if some critics have thought two-and-a-half hours is too long. Given the film’s all-but-locked nominations in many below-the-line categories, and given his history with the Academy – six nominations and three wins for “Pan’s Labyrinth,” plus Best Picture noms for three of his last four movies, including a win for “The Shape of Water” – this one emerged from its Saturday Venice premiere as a likely Best Picture nominee in my book. (And by the way, everybody loves Guillermo. Everybody.)

Venice still has a week to go, and that week will include potential contenders like Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite,” Benny Sadfie’s “The Smashing Machine,” “The Brutalist” co-writer Mona Fastvold’s “The Testament of Ann Lee” and Julian Schnabel’s “In the Hand of Dante.”

In the meantime, Telluride wraps up with a day of screenings on Sunday and then some repeat showings on Monday, but it has already given us a de facto Best Picture frontrunner in Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet,” by all reports a wildly emotional adaptation of the bestselling Maggie O’Farrell novel about William Shakespeare and his wife in the wake of the death of their young son in the late 16th century, just before he wrote “Hamlet.”

You can expect more measured reactions to come when the film screens more at sea level, but it’s likely to get another rapturous reaction at the fan-heavy Toronto Film Festival next weekend, and to come out of the first batch of fall festivals as the presumptive leader. That’s a very difficult position to maintain for the six-and-a-half months between now and the Oscars, but two movies have done it in recent years: “Oppenheimer” in 2023 and “Nomadland” (by, um, Chloé Zhao) in 2020.

Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley in “Hamnet” (Focus Features)

Telluride also premiered “The Ballad of a Small Player” by prolific “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Conclave” director Edward Berger and “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” by Scott Cooper, both of which may have Best Picture chances and will definitely be in the acting conversation with Colin Farrell for the former movie and Jeremy Allen White and Jeremy Strong for the latter.

Granted, film-festival buzz should always be taken with more than a modicum of suspicion: What’s brilliant to viewers on the shores of the Adriatic or in the mountains of Colorado does not always maintain that appeal in more mundane surroundings. But at the moment, it appears that the 2025-2026 awards season is off to a formidable start.

The post Venice and Telluride So Far: Awards Season Arrives With Monsters and Ghosts as ‘Frankenstein,’ ‘Hamnet’ Make Waves appeared first on TheWrap.

7 Cozy Mystery Movies Like ‘Thursday Murder Club’

Cozy mystery murder movies are all the rage right now, especially with the popularity surrounding Netflix’s “Thursday Murder Club.” Happily, the genre is one that has existed for decades and there are plenty of options out there for the amateur sleuths among us.

Here are 7 movies like “Thursday Murder Club” to satiate the “whodunnit” instinct.

Knives Out

Knives Out and its sequel have been credited with reintroducing the murder mystery genre to new audiences, and for good reason. Daniel Craig stars alongside Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis and Ana de Armas as a detective set on cracking a murder case.

Clue

Perhaps one of the best known comedy/mystery films about solving a murder mystery is Clue, which was inspired by the beloved board game and stars Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn and Christopher Lloyd. The movie wasn’t an immediate success, but has since gained cult classic status among fans.

Gosford Park

Gosford Park has one of the best ensemble casts assembled maybe ever. Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, Charles Dance, Kelly Macdonald, Clive Owen and Helen Mirren all star in this 2001 offering that inspired “Downton Abbey.”

See How They Run

See How They Run premired in 2022 and stars Kieran Hodgson and Pearl Chanda. The movie is set in London’s West End in the 1950s and centers around plans for a film adaptation of a popular stage production — that is, until a member of the crew is found dead.

Towards Zero

This French offering stars Francois Morel, Danielle Darrieux, Melvil Poupaud and more and is set in the home of a wealthy woman who invites her friends and family to a party — but ends up murdered.

Murder Mystery

Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston star in this 2019 comedy/mystery about a married couple who find themselves accidentally embroiled in a murder case onboard a millionaire’s yacht.

7 Women and a Murder

This Netflix film stars Diana Del Bufalo as Susanna, who has recently traveled home for the holidays — and is hiding a secret. The family’s patriarch is found dead in his bed, which sets off a series of accusations and hijinks as the rest of the household tries to figure out who killed him.

The post 7 Cozy Mystery Movies Like ‘Thursday Murder Club’ appeared first on TheWrap.

‘Let the Devil In’ Episode Release Schedule

The documentary series “Let the Devil In” debuted on MGM+ Sunday. The four-part series tells the story of Thomas Sullivan, who stabbed his mother Betty Ann to death before turning his own Boy Scouts knife on himself.

The series also explores Sullivan’s interest in the occult and the aftermath of the tragedy.

When does “Let the Devil In” come out?

The first episode of the documentary series was released Sunday, August 31.

How can I watch “Let the Devil In”?

New episodes will be released on MGM+ each week on Sunday at 9 p.m. ET. The final episode will be released on September 20.

Are episodes released weekly or all at once?

Episodes are released weekly through September 20.

What is “Let the Devil In” about?

The four-episode documentary covers “a decades-old tragedy that destroyed one family and ignited the darkest fears of a small New Jersey town.”

The docuseries focuses on the murder-suicide of 14-year-old Thomas Sullivan and his mother Betty Ann in 1988. According to director Eli Roth, Thomas was researching Satanism one month before committing the act, and “cut himself ear to ear” with a pocketknife.

The Los Angeles Times reported at the time that Thomas stabbed his mother to death with his Boy Scouts knife before setting the couch on fire before he died by suicide with the same knife. His father and 10-year-old brother were asleep upstairs during the attack and survived.

Investigators later found “several books on the occult and Satan worship” in the home, The New York Times also reported.

The post ‘Let the Devil In’ Episode Release Schedule appeared first on TheWrap.

Rudy Giuliani Injured in Late-Night Car Wreck After Stopping to Help Domestic-Violence Victim

Rudy Giuliani was injured in a late-Saturday car crash near Manchester, New Hampshire, suffering a fractured vertebrae and lacerations after stopping on the highway to assist a domestic-violence victim, a spokesman said on social media Sunday.

@RudyGiuliani was in a car accident in NH on Aug 30 after assisting a domestic violence victim. He sustained injuries but is in good spirits and recovering tremendously. Thank you for the prayers & support. official statement below. pic.twitter.com/ohYJCcXpjR

— Michael Ragusa (@themikeragu) August 31, 2025

The Former New York City mayor’s rental car was hit from behind at high speed, Ragusa said. He was hospitalized but “in great spirits,” the spokesman said, and was expected to be released in a few days.

Ragusa said Giuliani was flagged down on the highway by a woman who had just experienced a domestic incident. Giuliana called 911 and stayed with her until authorities arrived, and was hit after leaving the scene.

Giuliani worked as an attorney for President Donald Trump in his effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The post Rudy Giuliani Injured in Late-Night Car Wreck After Stopping to Help Domestic-Violence Victim appeared first on TheWrap.

Nirvana Fans Revolt After Seattle Museum Announces Closure of Iconic Exhibit: ‘Profound Lapse of Judgment’

Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP, former the Experience Music Project) will close their iconic Nirvana exhibit after a 14-year run on September 7 — and fans and city residents are not happy about it.

“Come as you are—and come soon! MOPOP’s landmark Nirvana exhibition closes September 7th after 14 amazing years at MOPOP,” the museum announced on Instagram.

MoPOP will host an all-day “farewell celebration” on September 6. Attendees can participate in a zine workshop, get a t-shirt printed, and enjoy guided tours and performances, as well as a panel discussion.

But if the event organizers thought that would satiate the public, they were wrong.

“What a profound lapse of judgment among whoever made the decision to close this exhibit,” wrote one person. “Imagine if the National Archives in Washington, DC, decided to put the Declaration of Independence in storage, not because they needed to, but to make room for some new exhibit. See how ridiculous that sounds?”

“Somet things are so important to our collective story that they should *never* be removed from public display,” they continued. “People from around the world travel to Seattle for the *sole purpose* of seeing the Nirvana exhibit — it should be truly permanent.”

Several others shared they have trips planned for later in September and this year just to see the exhibit in person.

“Poor choice and it shows based on the comments,” a second person wrote. “I visit this every time in Seattle. You should make it permanent.”

The museum’s website notes the exhibit will be closed to “make way for a future exhibition exploring the myriad music scenes and musicians of the Pacific Northwest across decades and genres.”

Nirvana was formed by Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987. (Drummer Dave Grohl joined the band in 1990.)

The band is synonymous with Seattle’s grunge scene, and credited with transforming the face of alternative music in the early 1990s. Nirvana signed with DGC Records in 1990 and found unexpected and near-instantaneous success with their single “Smells Like Teen Spirit” from their 1991 release “Nevermind.”

The post Nirvana Fans Revolt After Seattle Museum Announces Closure of Iconic Exhibit: ‘Profound Lapse of Judgment’ appeared first on TheWrap.

Documentary on ‘Democracy Now’s’ Amy Goodman Shines a Light on Lonely Craft of Independent Journalism

The craft of boots-on-the-ground journalism – going to where a story is happening, talking to people despite the physical and emotional risk and reporting the facts – is in decline, a victim of podcasting, opinionating, shrinking news budgets and intimidation by a certain orange-skinned president. 

Telling the truth was always hard, but it’s harder than ever today. 

Which is why the new documentary about progressive journalist Amy Goodman, “Steal This Story, Please!,” is a window into old school, shoe leather (she probably doesn’t wear leather) journalism that has led her deep into building a left-wing audience that no doubt makes MAGA insane. 

Documentarians and longtime partners Carl Deal and Tia Lessin (“Citizen Koch,” “Fahrenheit 9/11”) confessed that they made the film about Goodman, a friend and colleague, in part to cope with their concern about the decline of press freedom in general and independent journalism in particular. 

“We were looking for ways to deal with the insanity in the world,” said Deal from Telluride, where he and Lessin are showing the film. “We were drawn to Amy’s story. The way she’s been working over the last three decades is validated in the way that the media is capitulating to power.”

Said Lessin: “This gave us a purpose in these dark, dark times, to talk about it and make it make sense about what’s happening with Trump.”

Lessin, Deal and Goodman are fellow travelers in the rough and tumble world of independent journalism and documentaries. Deal and Lessin worked closely with firebrand Michael Moore on “Bowling for Columbine” and “Fahrenheit 11/9,” films that stand the test of time in highlighting critical social issues, from gun control to climate change.  

Tia Lessin and Carl Deal attend the “Fahrenheit 11/9” New York premiere (Photo by Jim Spellman/Getty Images)

Goodman’s broadcast “Democracy Now” has been on the air for 29 years, but she has been a fierce advocate for the poor, the powerless, the marginalized, the forgotten people in distant war zones for even longer.

Starting from her early aspiration to be the new Phil Donahue, Goodman experienced a life-altering trauma when she went to East Timor in the 1970s and was present for a massacre of civilian East Timorese by Indonesian government soldiers. 

She emerged with a fierce determination to expose inequities where she saw them and to be independent in her journalism, to steer clear of the sought-after star turns on “60 Minutes” or broadcast network news and instead hew her own, nearly one-woman path through the dangerous jungle of news. Goodman takes no sponsorship money and has no deals with what she calls “corporate media;” instead she is fully supported by individual subscribers. 

In her years wielding a microphone, she’s covered the White House, multiple wars, the Standing Rock protests against an oil pipeline, street protests and police raids. She goes fearlessly into the field when it’s never been more dangerous for journalists to do exactly that. And while many would call her an advocate for the left, Lessin and Deal argue that if Goodman is an advocate, she is an advocate for her values, and the truth.  

“The word advocacy has been used to dismiss independent journalists like Amy Goodman,” said Lessin. “How about the advocacy commercial networks showed during invasion of Iraq? The guests on the shows were generals, advocating for the war. They didn’t have equal time for peace activists.”

Said Deal: “Advocacy is a tricky word, because there’s some motivation behind what you’re advocating for, or who you’re advocating for, or why you’re advocating for anything. What distinguishes what Amy and ‘Democracy Now’ do is they’re not serving power. They are listening to people. 

“When you make a documentary, hopefully you’re learning something. You don’t go in there with a preconceived idea. And it may seem really simple, but for me, it was really profound seeing Amy time and time again, especially in these last 12 months on the ground at protests, talking to people,” Deal continued. “She’s not there participating in the protest, but she’s putting a microphone in front of people and asking them the really simple but obvious question that other people don’t: why are you here?”

Nowadays there are lots of “independent” journalists, individuals who have left or been exited from legacy media and can be found on Substack, YouTube and TikTok. Certainly Goodman was a trailblazer in that regard. 

But the more significant distinction, it seems to me, is her willingness to always go out and expose the facts, convenient or otherwise. 

“Steal This Story, Please!” is playing at Telluride and is seeking distribution. 

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Jude Law Didn’t Fear Repercussions After Putin Role: ‘Weren’t Looking for Controversy’ | Video

Jude Law isn’t worried about potential repercussions after playing Vladimir Putin in “The Wizard of the Kremlin,” he said at the film’s press conference ahead of its premiere at the Venice Film Festival Sunday. As the actor put it, “We weren’t looking for controversy for controversy’s sake.”

“I hope not naively, but I didn’t fear repercussions. I felt confident, in the hands of Olivier [Assayas] and the script, that this story was going to be told intelligently and with nuance and consideration,” Law explained in full. “We weren’t looking for controversy for controversy’s sake. It’s a character in a broader story. We weren’t trying to define anything about anyone.”

Jude Law on whether he feared the repercussions of playing Vladimir Putin in Olivier Assayas’ #WizardOfTheKremlin pic.twitter.com/xMUjyYegO1

— Deadline (@DEADLINE) August 31, 2025

The film is based on the 2022 book by the same name from author Giuliano da Empoli and offers a fictional retelling of Putin’s rise to power in post-Soviet Russia.

Law also said he chose to use his real voice instead of parroting a Russian accent.

“Olivier and I discussed this wasn’t to be an interpretation of Putin, and he didn’t want me to hide behind a mask of prosthetics. We worked with an amazing makeup and hair team and had reference of that period in Putin’s life. We tried to find a familiarity on me,” he explained. “It’s amazing what a great wig can do.”

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