‘A Knight’s Tale’ Director Reveals Axed Sequel Ideas and Says ‘Netflix Tested’ One ‘Idea Through Their Algorithms, Which Indicated It Would Not Be Successful’

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Kristen Stewart recently graced the cover of Porter magazine and called out “phony” Hollywood for how it often self-congratulates itself for doing away with the patriarchy when in reality, Hollywood has just prioritized a select group of women to operate in the studio world. While progress is being made, Stewart rang the alarm by saying changes for women in Hollywood are not as broad as Hollywood might like to make it out to be. “[There’s a] thinking that we can check these little boxes, and then do away with the patriarchy, and how we’re all made of it,” Stewart said.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Elisabeth Moss recently appeared on Kelly Ripa’s “Let’s Talk Off Camera” podcast while promoting her new FX series “The Veil” and reflected on the “intimidating” but exhilarating set of James Mangold’s 1999 drama “Girl, Interrupted.” Moss was around 15 years old when she shot the movie and starred as Polly “Torch” Clark, a burn victim who suffers from schizophrenia. The cast was headlined by Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie, the latter of whom won an Oscar for her performance. Because of the tension that exists between their two characters, Moss said the film set became naturally divided into two camps.

EXCLUSIVE: A little over a month after Season 3 of Resident Alien wrapped its run on Syfy, the future of the quirky sci-fi comedy-drama is up in the air, I hear. And there is some intrigue over where the series starring Alan Tudyk would continue should it get a fourth season.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Marvel Studios co-president Louis D’Esposito admitted to Empire magazine that “it’s been a rough time” for the Marvel Cinematic Universe following a rocky 2023 that included box office flops “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “The Marvels.” The latter title is the lowest-grossing MCU movie of all time with just $206 million worldwide. Marvel didn’t fare better on television, where series such as “Secret Invasion” were widely panned by critics. Despite these setbacks, D’Esposito is committed to seeing the glass half full.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Nikki Glaser was one of the highlights of Netflix’s Tom Brady roast, eviscerating the NFL superstar with jokes about his divorce from Gisele Bündchen and her reported new romance with Jiu-Jitsu instructor Joaquim Valente. But Glaser didn’t get to deliver every punchline she intended to during the live comedy event. During a post-roast interview on “The Howard Stern Show,” Glaser rattled off some of the Brady jokes she cut from her set.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director One of the most viral moments to emerge out of Tom Brady‘s Netflix roast was when the NFL icon got up from his seat and told off roaster Jeff Ross after the comedian made a massage joke about Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Brady was heard telling Ross: “Don’t say that shit again.” But according to Ross, Brady was not actually pissed off at him. “Come on, come on, no way, no way,” Ross said on “The Rich Eisen Show,” downplaying that Brady got angry at him for the Kraft massage joke.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Keanu Reeves is more than confident that he and Sandra Bullock could pull off a third “Speed” movie. Jan de Bont’s action thriller “Speed” became the fourth highest-grossing movie of 1994 with $350 million worldwide, largely in part to the sizzling chemistry between Reeves and Bullock. The film turned the two actors into one of the decade’s iconic screen duos, and they reunited onscreen in 2006 for the romance drama “The Lake House.” During a joint interview on the “50 MPH” podcast, Reeves had this to say about “Speed 3”: “I mean, you know — we’d freakin’ knock it out of the park.” “There’s no formula.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Chris Pine is shocked Patty Jenkins‘ “Wonder Woman” franchise is dead. The actor recently spoke to Business Insider while promoting his feature directorial debut “Poolman” and said he’s struggling to understand how Warner Bros.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Victoria Justice, best known for her starring role on Nickelodeon’s “Victorious,” recently said on SiriusXM’s “Hits 1 LA with Tony Fly and Symon” that her upcoming role in the movie “Depravity” required her to film her first sex scene. The experience was “uncomfortable” but the crew pulled it off with “taste.” “My first day on set I had my first ever sex scene. I’m like, ‘Really, guys? We’re gonna schedule this for the first day? Cool.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo were responsible for some of Marvel’s biggest box office hits, from “Captain America: Civil War” to “Avengers: Endgame,” but they don’t necessarily believe superhero fatigue is to blame for the studio’s recent struggles. Marvel had a tough 2023 with two flops: “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “The Marvels.” Speaking recently to GamesRadar+, the directors said that Marvel’s current issues boil down to the changes in how people absorb media: It’s a Hollywood-wide issue, not just a Marvel one.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director “Deadpool and Wolverine” is set to be one of the biggest films of the summer, and fan theories are already flying around the internet regarding what Marvel could have in store for what looks like a bonkers trip across a multiverse populated by characters previously owned by 20th Century Fox and now owned by Disney. Whatever goes down in the sequel, starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, prior knowledge of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will not be a mandatory requirement in order to enjoy it. That’s according to the film’s director, Shawn Levy.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Melanie Lynskey recently told People magazine that her husband and fellow actor Jason Ritter has sacrificed his own career in recent years so that hers could flourish. Lynskey has been on a roll lately with an Emmy-nominated and series regular role on Showtime’s “Yellowjackets,” plus acclaimed supporting turns in “The Last of Us,” “Candy” and more. None of this career success would be possible had Ritter not put his own acting career on pause to help raise their five-year-old daughter while Lynskey took acting gigs.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Robert Downey Jr. elated Marvel fans earlier this month when he told Esquire magazine that he would “happily” return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Tony Stark/Iron Man following his Oscar win for best supporting actor in March.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Emily Blunt is staunchly opposed to algorithms making any decisions in Hollywood. Ahead of the release of her summer tentpole “The Fall Guy,” the Oscar nominee joined co-star Ryan Gosling for a Vanity Fair Italy cover story in which she expressed frustration over algorithm-driven decision making.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Angelina Jolie‘s scrapped “Cleopatra” movie was part romance epic and part “political thriller with assassinations and sex,” according to the movie’s original screenwriter Brian Helgeland. The Oscar-winning actor was set to play the Egyptian queen in a tentpole for Sony Pictures that once courted director David Fincher to helm. It never got off the ground.

“Dune” filmmaker Denis Villeneuve has a lot of options for what he could make next, and one of them could be his long-gestating “Cleopatra” movie based on the Stacy Schiff novel “Cleopatra: A Life” for Sony Pictures (he has a couple of options, one of them being a third “Dune” movie too). Before that, however, some may remember the era when filmmaker David Fincher had a version of the movie set up at Paramount, circa 2012, that would have starred Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie  (long before the competing Gal Gadot incarnation with Patty Jenkins and Kari Skogland).

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Sylvester Stallone revealed on the TMZ special “Arnold & Sly: Rivals, Friends, Icons” (via The Daily Mail) that a near career-ending injury in the lead up to “Rocky II” threatened to end the boxing franchise before its first sequel got off the ground. Stallone was training with bodybuilder Franco Columbu about a month and a half before the “Rocky 2” shoot when he ripped his pec muscle right off the bone. “So, I go down, and it’s maybe only 200 [lbs].

For years, streaming had been a great home to canceled series, revivals, and sequels. However, an attempt to get Netflix to bite on a sequel to the late Heath Ledger’s medieval rom-com “A Knight’s Tale” was recently passed on thanks to a clinical computer assessment.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Brian Helgeland’s illustrious Hollywood career includes winning an Oscar for writing “L.A Confidential,” directing Heath Ledger’s beloved 2001 comedy “A Knight’s Tale” and scripting films such as “Man on Fire” and “Mystic River.” It also could’ve included a “Game of Thrones” spinoff series had HBO moved forward on his pitch, which was titled “Ten Thousand Ships” and centered on Queen Nymeria. “It came out great, but I think they felt the period of my show was too far removed from the pillars of the original,” Helgeland recently told Inverse about his spinoff.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jerrod Carmichael appeared on a recent episode of “The Breakfast Club” (via Rolling Stone) and said: “I deeply regret saying anything about Dave Chappelle to the press. I want to say that I’m sorry for that.” Carmichael previously gave interviews to Esquire and GQ in which he criticized Chappelle’s legacy of making jokes about transgender people. Carmichael now noted that his frustration with Chappelle had only to do with the comedian repeatedly making jokes about the same topic and not the morality of the jokes themselves.