Jennifer Connelly On How ‘Dark Matter’ is a Love Story and Why Fans Still Adore ‘Labyrinth’

Park Guell is one of the most iconic locations in Barcelona, Spain and it was taken over by Louis Vuitton for the brand’s latest fashion show.

Seemingly from out of nowhere, actor turned director Gilles Lellouche throws a Molotov Flanby into the Competition with only his second feature, a terrific and unexpectedly potent piece of genre filmmaking that could, to avoid spoilers, be described as a kind of mash-up of Badlands and La Haine, as if directed by Walter Hill. Throw in a little Eurocrime, from the likes of Fernando Di Leo and late-period Jean-Pierre Melville, and you’re getting close to what Lellouche has achieved here, a romantic banlieue opera that delivers all the gritty, vicarious thrills of the now-standard post-Goodfellas gangster movie but also burrows into issues of class and gender in refreshingly unpredictable ways.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Alan Cumming isn’t much of a reality TV fan — so as host of Peacock’s “The Traitors,” he enjoys being a bit blind to the baggage that many of the contestants carry to the Scottish Highlands. “When I go to do ‘The Traitors, I have a crash course in reality TV stars, and random people,” he tells Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast. “I don’t know who many of the people are.

Emily Longeretta SPOILER ALERT: This story includes storylines from “More,” the May 22 Season 11 finale of “Chicago P.D.” Hailey Upton is no longer a Chicago resident. The Season 11 “Chicago P.D.” finale served as the final episode for Tracy Spiridakos, who joined the show midway through Season 4 and has been a series regular since Season 5. The episode was one of the most emotional of the season, with the squad searching for Voight (Jason Beghe), who was being tortured by serial killer Frank Matson (Dennis Flanagan).

Meredith Woerner Deputy Editor, Variety.com Something About Her — the West Hollywood sandwich shop started by “Vanderpump Rules” stars Ariana Madix and Katie Maloney — is officially open for business, after a long period in red-tape limbo. On Wednesday, May 22, more than 100 people lined up outside the bright awning before it had opened, waiting several hours to buy the highly anticipated sandwiches from this long-awaited restaurant. A few days after the soft opening for friends and family, it was finally time to open the doors to the public.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for Yulin Kuang‘s new novel “How to End a Love Story,” which was released April 9. Yulin Kuang was deep into her romance-novel era before she released her own first attempt at the genre, “How to End a Love Story,” last month. The debut author, who has thus far spent her career focused on TV and film writing, actually started penning her book while in the middle of adapting two rom-coms by best-selling author Emily Henry: “Beach Read” (which Kuang will also direct) and “People We Meet on Vacation.” “How to End a Love Story” follows the straight-laced, successful author Helen and charming former jock Grant, who fall in love while working together in a TV writers’ room that is adapting Helen’s YA book series.

Ireland’s screen industry is having a moment. With the Cannes Film Festival well underway, there’s a notable strong Irish presence in this year’s line-up including Element Pictures’ three entrants – Competition title Kinds of Kindness from Yorgos Lanthimos, Rungano Nyoni’s sophomore feature On Becoming A Guinea Fowl and Ariane Labed’s directorial debut September Says (both in Un Certain Regard). There’s also Competition title The Apprentice, which is co-produced with Irish outfit Tailored Films and Lorcan Finnegan’s Nicolas Cage starrer The Surfer premiering in the Midnight Screenings strand. Even Andrea Arnold’s Competition title Bird is rich with Irish talent with star Barry Keoghan and Oscar-nominated cinematographer Robbie Ryan both having worked on the film. 

Aramide Tinubu Netflix‘s acclaimed 19th century-set “Bridgerton” has returned for the first half of its third season, and it’s more lush and enticing than audiences might remember. Season 3 opens as a new crop of debutantes enter the marriage market. As the young ladies prepare to dazzle Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel), the latest Lady Whistledown (voiced by Julie Andrews) gossip pamphlet is being distributed.

Coronation Street star Andy Whyment found himself addressing concerns about his welfare despite being seen living the noughties dream on a night out with his wife. The actor spent his weekend break away from the cobbles jumping on Manchester's new Bee Network and heading into town for the night.

Peter Leven was on his mobile phone shouting and screaming instructions from his hospital bed to Jonny Hayes on the Aberdeen bench last weekend.

In this week’s episode of Bingeworthy, our TV and streaming podcast host Mike DeAngelo ventures into another universe to discuss “Dark Matter.” The Apple TV+ series is based on the Blake Crouch book of the same name and follows a college professor who is abducted into an alternate universe and has to fight his way back to his old life and real family. The show stars Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Connelly, Alice Braga, Jimmi Simpson, and more.

Netflix's smash hit Baby Reindeer has made household names of its stars including Richard Gadd, who plays Donny, and Jessica Gunning, who stars as Martha.The seven-part drama tells a fictionalised account of Richard's own years-long stalking nightmare, after he took bar work to pay the bills and kindly gave a lonely customer a cup of tea on the house. Over a terrifying three-year period, Martha sends Donny more than 41,000 emails, voicemails totalling 350 hours, dozens of social media messages, and 106 pages of letters, where she refers to him as 'baby reindeer' – hence the show's title.

“Baby Reindeer” did her first television interview to speak out against the alleged inaccuracies of the hit Netflix series. Fiona Harvey, 58, appeared on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” and broke her silence on being the supposed inspiration for the unhinged lead character (played by Jessica Gunning) in Richard Gadd’s show. Harvey told Piers Morgan that she never stalked Gadd, 34, and slammed the series — which she still hasn’t seen — for being “completely untrue.” She claimed that her first encounter with Gadd didn’t happen as it was shown between Martha and Gadd’s character, Donny, on the show.According to Harvey, Gadd did not offer her a cup of tea after she walked into the pub where he worked when they met.

Alexander Skarsgard and Harry Melling are joining forces in a forthcoming queer romance called Pillion.

Marvel Studios may be struggling a bit right now, but there’s one aspect of the studio that has never been in question– the casting. Besides obvious standouts like Robert Downey, Jr.

Aramide Tinubu The phrase “we’re our own worst enemies” takes on a literal meaning in Apple TV+‘s “Dark Matter,” based on Blake Crouch’s 2016 novel of the same name, and adapted by the author for television. A massive and intricate puzzle, the series is shocking and unsettling, but doesn’t quite satisfy in the end. “Dark Matter” opens in present-day Chicago.

Katcy Stephan Celine Song‘s “Materialists” has rounded out its cast with Zoë Winters (“Succession”), Dasha Nekrasova (“Bad Behaviour,” “Wobble Palace”), Louisa Jacobson (“The Gilded Age”) and Marin Ireland (“Eileen”). The A24 feature starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal is described as a New York-set rom-com following a high-end matchmaker who gets involved with a wealthy man.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter “Snowpiercer” Season 4, which will be the show’s last, has set its premiere date at AMC. The final season of the post-apocalyptic drama will premiere on AMC and AMC+ on July 21 at 9 p.m.

The anticipated fourth and final season of post-apocalyptic drama series Snowpiercer is set to premiere on AMC and AMC+, its new home, on Sunday, July 21 at 9 pm ET/PT, the network announced Tuesday. AMC also released a few first-look photos of Season 4. You can see above and below.

Alex Ritman Oscar nominees Kodi Smit-McPhee (“The Power of the Dog, “Maria”) and Djimon Hounsou (“Blood Diamond,” “A Quiet Place Part II”) are set to star in claustrophobic thriller “The Zealot.” The two-hander, being introduced to buyers in Cannes by WestEnd Films, comes from director Vadim Perelman (“House of Sand and Fog,” “Persian Lessons”) working from a screenplay by Bennett Fisher, and touches on themes involving privilege, paranoia, and the assumptions we make about one another. “The Zealot” follows Hassan, a Somali-American airport shuttle driver in Minneapolis, who is struggling to make ends meet. When Lloyd, a stranded twentysomething at the airport, offers to pay Hassan to take him overland to Chicago, it seems worth the risk.