Men's Journal's Blog, page 154

Leonardo DiCaprio Teases 'Incredibly Epic' New Movie at CinemaCon

Leonardo DiCaprio praised his upcoming film One Battle After Another and its director, Paul Thomas Anderson, at CinemaCon 2025 on Tuesday (via Variety).

DiCaprio stars in Anderson’s incredibly secretive film alongside Teyana Taylor, Regina Hall, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, and Alana Haim. While the plot is still under wraps, reports indicate the film may be a loose adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland. Anderson, the acclaimed filmmaker behind Boogie Nights (1997), There Will Be Blood (2007), The Master (2012), and Licorice Pizza (2021), previously adapted Pynchon’s novel Inherent Vice into a 2015 film of the same name starring Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, and del Toro.

Speaking at the Las Vegas event on Tuesday, DiCaprio called One Battle After Another "an incredibly epic movie [that] has such scope and scale." He also called Anderson a “master” director and praised the filmmaker’s confidence in his cast, allowing them to improvise in character. "A lot of writer-directors are incredibly rigid, but his ability to work with actors is so unique," DiCaprio noted, adding that working with Anderson was an “honor.”

Related: 'Heat' Director Michael Mann Honors Late Star Val Kilmer

“I’ve been wanting to work with Paul for, gosh, 20 years now,” DiCaprio continued. “With this film, he’s tapped into something politically and culturally that’s burning beneath our psyche.”

Variety described footage of the film shared at CinemaCon as “off-beat [and] often hilarious,” citing one particularly outrageous scene in which DiCaprio’s substance-abusing revolutionary struggles to recall information pivotal to his mission. “I fried my brain,” DiCaprio’s character tells another. “I have abused drugs and alcohol for the past 30 years. I am a drug and alcohol lover…This is not the way revolutionaries do s--t.”

DiCaprio’s union with Anderson is a long time coming. The director cast DiCaprio’s father, well-known Los Angeles personality George DiCaprio, in his previous film Licorice Pizza as the owner of a waterbed store. One Battle After Another, which Anderson shot in VistaVision for IMAX screens, is due in cinemas on Sept. 26, 2025. You can check out the trailer below.

Val Kilmer Opened Up About Throat Cancer Battle Before Dying

Actor Val Kilmer spoke candidly about his years-long battle with throat cancer.

Kilmer, 65, died of pneumonia on April 1 in Los Angeles, his daughter told The New York Times.

Cancer was taking a "toll" on Kilmer as far back as 2017, according to an interview The Hollywood Reporter did with Kilmer and his kids. He told the publication that the cancer diagnosis, which came in 2014, changed him.

Actor Val Kilmer visits the United Nations headquarters in New York City, New York to promote the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) initiative, July 20, 2019.

EuropaNewswire/Gado/Getty Images

"I was too serious. I'd get upset when things like Oscars and recognition failed to come my way," he told THR.

Kilmer also opened up on Reddit in a question-and-answer with fans.

“I did have a healing of cancer, but my tongue is still swollen altho (sic) healing all the time,” he wrote, according to People. “Because I don’t sound my normal self yet people think I may still be under the weather."

Kilmer told THR that his Christian Scientist faith helped him face cancer.

Kilmer also shared his cancer story in an Amazon documentary. He shared the documentary's trailer on his X page.

"Now that it's more difficult to speak, I want to tell my story more than ever," he said in it, according to People.

"I obviously am sounding much worse than I feel," Kilmer said in the movie, Val.

"I can't speak without plugging this hole [in his throat]. You have to make the choice to breathe or to eat," he said, according to People, which revealed he had a feeding tube. "It's an obstacle that is very present with whoever sees me."

Details Surface of How Painfully Close a ‘Spider-Man’ Fan-Favorite Crossover Was

Following Marvel’s announcement of the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day, there’s no shortage of excitement building around the film, which will land in theaters on July 31, 2026. While speculation about the movie swirls, one thing we do know is that there was almost another major extension of the Spider-Man series.

According to actor Tom Hardy, who played Eddie Brock, aka Venom, a crossover film was extremely close to happening.

Hardy revealed on The Discourse Podcast from Playlist that a Spider-Man and Venom movie was as close as he could "possibly imagine" short of actually filming it, as Newsweek detailed.

Tom Hardy attends the UK Premiere of "Venom: The Last Dance" at the BFI IMAX Waterloo.

Neil Mockford/FilmMagic

"We got close. We got as close as I could possibly imagine getting, apart from doing a film together, which I would have loved to have done because that just means so much fun," Hardy said.

"... Fundamentally, for me, it would be for the kids. Because, you know, as much as adults love superhero films, as you can tell by the box office when they're successful, I think I'm constantly reminded by children how important these characters are. And they don't know why their favorite characters aren't in films together."

A potential Hardy and Tom Holland crossover to intertwine the two worlds would have been fun, but it's unknown what caused talks to fall apart short of the finish line.

Hardy first played the role of Venom in 2018, along with two other movies, Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) and Venom: The Last Dance in 2024.

Related: 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' Unveils New-Look Logo, Sparking an Immediate Debate

Man Charged After Cops Find $1 Million of Cocaine in Shocking Location

A man has been charged after authorities found nearly $1 million worth of cocaine stashed inside his electric wheelchair, the BBC reported.

Following an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA), Casimiro De Lemos Francisco, 56, has been charged with drug trafficking stemming from a March 31 incident at Manchester Airport in the U.K. Border patrol officers detected a mysterious presence in Francisco’s electric wheelchair after scanning it upon his entry from Bridgetown, Barbados. After conducting a search, authorities found 11 packages which allegedly contained cocaine. The cache reportedly weighed a combined 12 kilograms (26 pounds).

Related: 'Heat' Director Michael Mann Honors Late Star Val Kilmer

Unbelievable photos captured by the NCA show the wheelchair which allegedly belonged to Francisco packed to the rafters with brown packages. One X-ray image shows a base of packages hidden within the seat of the chair, with more packages hidden in the back of the chair and stacked up to the headrest.

“The NCA works with partners at home and abroad to combat the threat of Class A drugs and protect the UK public,” the agency said in a statement announcing the arrest. “The concealment shows the ingenuity crime groups employ to smuggle cocaine,” it added.

Related: NBA Fan Suffers Gruesome Injury During Mid-Game Competition

Francisco was charged following an arraignment on April 1. He is currently being held in custody at Manchester and Salford’s Magistrates’ Court. He is next scheduled to appear before a judge on May 6. A request to the NCA for more information was not immediately returned.

Val Kilmer Was Close to His 2 Kids, Mercedes & Jack

Val Kilmer leaves behind two kids, Mercedes and Jack. They are his children with his only wife, actress Joanne Whalley, whom he divorced in 1996.

Mercedes Kilmer announced her father's death. Kilmer died at age 65 on April 1 of pneumonia, she told The New York Times.

Kilmer remained close with his kids over the years.

"I am just madly, wildly entertained by them," Kilmer told People in 2020. "My only gripe is that I never see them enough, so I never get enough of the wild entertainment that everyone else gets, but they're really, really, entertaining."

In 2012, Kilmer told Vanity Fair that he "did not just turn down 5 really great directors but 10 really great directors just because I was trying to be responsible to my family or my marriage. I just didn’t pay attention to business. I can’t be a responsible parent and only be there three or four months a year."

Kilmer posed with his kids in 2017 in an article for The Hollywood Reporter.

Mercedes Kilmer and Jack Kilmer attend the Premiere of Amazon Studios' "VAL" at DGA Theater Complex on August 03, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

According to THR, both kids were interested in different aspects of show business.

"Jack is an actor who has appeared in The Stanford Prison Experiment and The Nice Guys; Mercedes travels in New York avant-garde theater circles," THR reported.

THR described Kilmer's son Jack as having "inherited his dad’s harlequin pout" and Mercedes as saying that she “can’t remember not being aware” that her parents are famous. 

“It was about navigating how other people perceived us rather than any kind of reckoning," she told THR.

Mercedes Kilmer told People that good things had come out of her dad's battle with throat cancer.

"We all spend so much time together. Even just getting to meet all my dad's friends from before I was born — there are so many beautiful things that happen when you need help from people," she told People.

Val Kilmer Tragic Marriage to Wife Joanne Whalley

Val Kilmer shared an eight-year and ultimately tragic marriage to his only wife, Joanne Whalley.

According to BBC, Kilmer met Whalley on the set of the movie Willow and married her in 1988. They had two kids named Jack and Mercedes and divorced in 1996, BBC reported.

Kilmer, 65, died on April 1 of pneumonia after a throat cancer battle for years, his daughter told The New York Times.

Kilmer "learned he was getting a divorce while watching CNN in a hotel room," The Tampa Bay Times reported, quoting him as saying, "It was no fun."

He told the newspaper that the divorce was "the second most expensive in New Mexico" and came "only two months after the birth of their second child."

According to The Times, the marriage struggled due to "constant rumors about his on-set romances" and sex symbol status.

Actor Val Kilmer and actress Joanna Whalley attend the Liberty Hill Foundation's Eighth Annual Upton Sinclair Awards on May 2, 1990 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

Ron Galella/Getty Images

"I miss my children every single way that's possible, and ways I didn't know were possible," Kilmer said, according to The Times, but he was soon linked to model Cindy Crawford.

In his memoir, Kilmer wrote that he stopped dating, according to a 2020 People article.

“I haven’t had a girlfriend in 20 years. The truth is I am lonely part of every day,” Kilmer wrote.

Kilmer remained close to his kids with Whalley, People reported.

"My dad's able to very artfully circumvent the limitations of his speech, so I learned so much watching him, how he communicated physically. It taught me so much about acting that expanded what I thought acting was, which was central to speech." Mercedes Kilmer told People of her dad's speech issues, which derived from his throat cancer.

NBA Fan Suffers Gruesome Injury During Mid-Game Competition

An Atlanta Hawks fan suffered a gruesome injury on the court during a mid-game contest on Tuesday night, footage shared on social media shows.

The unidentified man was taking part in a tic-tac-toe-themed basketball competition when he suddenly slipped whilst making a shot, tearing his ACL. After the aborted shot, the fan took a few steps back before collapsing into a pile on the ground.

Related: Berkleigh Wright Shows Off Skimpy Bikini in Sultry Photos

While some initially thought the incident may have been staged for an April Fool’s Day prank, spectators ultimately realized the severity of the episode when medical staff and a stretcher were brought onto the court to aid the injured party. A second video shows the injured fan being tended to by staff as Hawks players work to distract the other spectators.

Undeterred by the dramatic scene unfolding at his feet, the man whom the injured fan was competing against kept playing the game. Eventually, State Farm Arena host Shamea Morton was able to pause the event. “Can you just wait? Can you just be kind and come over here with me and check on James,” Morton told the man. “We know you won, but okay.”

Related: Hunter McGrady Shares Steamy ‘SI Swim’ Behind-the-Scenes Footage

After medical staff rushed onto the court, Morton continued commentating but seemed largely unaware of how to proceed. Eventually, the feed cut out and returned about a minute later after the court had been cleared.

A request to the Hawks for an update on the fan’s condition was not immediately returned. You can check out the harrowing footage below.

Val Kilmer Loved 1 Celebrity Girlfriend the Most

Actor Val Kilmer dated many top actresses over the years, including Cher and Angelina Jolie, but his split with one top actress caused him the most pain.

According to People, in his memoir, Kilmer revealed that he was heartbroken when he and actress Daryl Hannah broke up, writing, “Lord knows I’ve suffered heartache. But Daryl was by far the most painful of all."

“I knew I would love her with my whole heart forever and that love has lost none of its strength. I am still in love with Daryl," he also wrote, according to The Sun. “When we broke up, I cried every single day for half a year."

Daryl Hannah & Val Kilmer during "Wonderland" Premiere hosted by DETAILS + GUESS? - Arrivals at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California, United States.

Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images

Kilmer, 65, died on April 1 in California of pneumonia after struggling with throat cancer for years, his daughter Mercedes Kilmer told The New York Times. She is the daughter of Kilmer and his only wife, actress Joanne Whalley.

“I’ve always found women infinitely more interesting than men,” Kilmer wrote in his 2020 memoir, I’m Your Huckleberry. according to US Weekly. “Perhaps that’s why we’ve always gotten along. We are big oafy elephants … and they are butterflies.”

According to US Weekly, Kilmer was married to Whalley from 1988 through 1996, and they welcomed son Jack as well as Mercedes. He never married again.

Val KIlmer & Cher at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles on April 11, 1983 (Photo by Barry King/WireImage)

Barry King/Getty Images

Kilmer dated model Cindy Crawford after breaking up with Whalley, US Weekly reported.

Kilmer dated Cher in the 1980s, and they stayed friends, People reported.

“Once Cher works her way inside your head and heart, she never leaves. For her true friends, her steadfast love and loyalty never die,” he wrote, according to People. The Sun reported that he also dated Carly Simon, but he stopped dating after Hannah.

Of Angelina Jolie, he wrote, according to People, that she was "perhaps the most soulful and serious of them all. When people ask what she’s like, I say she’s like other women and other superstars, just MORE."

Val Kilmer Wrote Moving Last Instagram Post Before Death

Actor Val Kilmer wrote a final Instagram post before he died.

On March 22, 2025, Kilmer posted a picture of a painting on his Instagram page. He died on April 1 of pneumonia after battling throat cancer for years, his daughter Mercedes Kilmer told The New York Times.

The Instagram post shows a surreal painting of what is supposed to be a campfire.

"It’s got that late-night glow. Cool tones with a low burn, like when the camp fire cools down but you’re still wide awake.12” x 20” plexi-glazed, signed, and ready to hang. ValKilmer.com," the post reads.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Val Kilmer (@valkilmerofficial)

Fans filled the comment thread under the painting with tributes to Kilmer after his death. "Rest in Peace, you amazing artist and human! 💔🌸," wrote one person.

"You were an amazing actor with roles that will live on forever. Rest in Peace 🙏🏼," another fan wrote. "Rest in Peace, Val. Thank you for your art, your heart, your spirit, your boldness, your depth, your humanity," wrote another person.

On March 16, KIlmer shared another painting, writing, "Some art hums like a power chord—loud, untamed, and unforgettable. If this one strikes the right note for you, grab one of the 10 available. Link in bio!"

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Val Kilmer (@valkilmerofficial)

In February, he donned a Batman mask and joked around, showing off another painting in a video.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Choe Show (@choe_show)

Kilmer died in Los Angeles, California, his daughter told The Times.

Kilmer sold a variety of artwork pieces on his website.

The actor was known for many iconic movie roles, most notably his portrayal of Iceman in the Top Gun franchise.

Jack Black Is ‘Having Lots of Nightmares’ Ahead of ‘Snl’ Return

Jack Black admitted in an interview with Variety that he’s “having lots of nightmares” about his April 5th gig on Saturday Night Live, his first time hosting the show in nearly 20 years. Black, 55, last hosted SNL on December 17, 2005, while promoting Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong. He also hosted twice more, in 2002 and 2003.

Related: Legendary Comedian Arrested for Narcotics Possession

Calling his return to Studio 8H “cray cray,” Black admitted he was having some self-doubts about hosting. “​​Just so you know, having lots of nightmares, and night terrors, and also fond memories flooding back. It’s crazy, very exciting,” he said.

“You know what they’re thinking about right now? They are just all in a dead coma from last night’s show,” Black continued of the SNL cast and crew. “Maybe some of them are thinking of some ideas, but I’m really thinking it’s one of those shows they put together in one week, that’s part of the excitement.”

Related: Rosie O'Donnell Shares Rare Family Photo After Move to Ireland

Still, Black said he was excited to collaborate with “all those kids” at SNL. “I call them kids because I was on that show before some of them were born — except for Kenan [Thompson], we’re around the same age. That’s about it,” the actor joked of 22-season veteran Thompson, 46.

Though it’s been almost 20 years since Black took to the SNL stage as host, he did appear as a musical guest in 2006 with Kyle Gass as part of Tenacious D. Elton John and Brandi Carlisle will serve as musical guests for Black’s episode this weekend.