John Swinney calls for industrial action in schools to be called off

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Jake Johnson describes his new film “Self Reliance,” which he wrote and directed, as “‘Jacob’s Ladder’ with some laughs.” The film is a comedy with real stakes: Johnson stars as a man who winds up in a game where he’s trying to win a million dollars while hunters try to kill him. The twist is he discovers that the hunters can only attack him when he’s alone. But when none of his friends or family believe the game is real, Johnson’s character must figure out how to survive on his own. There are scary moments, but more often it’s also really funny. And the audience screening it on Saturday night at the South by Southwest festival in Austin rocked the Paramount Theatre with big laughs throughout the film’s tight 85 minutes.

On the latest “SNL,” the “Weekend Update” segment ended on a goofier and funnier than usual note when Colin Jost said they had run out of material but still had a couple of minutes left to fill. Instead of Jost and his co-host Michael Che coming up jokes to fill the void, they brought out the show’s resident impressions master James Austin Johnson to fill that time with a series of random impressions. And, they were pretty funny.First, Johnson did an impression of Adam Driver as Kylo Ren from “Star Wars” on the show “Girls”“Anna, do you know how difficult it is to be on the dark side of the force.

John Swinney has backed Humza Yousaf to replace Nicola Sturgeon as Scotland's next first minister.

Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez headed straight to their fans at the 2023 SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas.

SXSW 2023 kicks off in Austin today with the world premiere of “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.” But now Lionsgate looks to steal the thunder from Paramount‘s fantasy-action film. Deadline reports that Lionsgate brings “John Wick: Chapter 4” to SXSW early next week for a special secret screening of the actioner.

The region’s Men’s Sheds are to benefit from a funding reprieve after the Scottish Government announced it would restore previously pulled support for this year.

Jenna Ortega may be ready to reunite with Tim Burton on his next project as sources confirm to Deadline that Ortega is in early talks to reunite with the Wednesday creator on Beetlejuice 2 at Warner Bros. Insiders add that Michael Keaton and Wyonna Ryder are expected to reprise their roles with Burton directing.

We are mere days away from the release of Chad Stahelski’s latest action epic, “John Wick: Chapter 4.” Once again, Keanu Reeves dons the suit and grabs whatever weapons are available to murder the hell out of bad guys. Given where this series has headed, it’s pretty crazy to think this all started because of the death of a dog.

Aaron Carter’s death as his mother called for a homicide investigation to be opened.The singer was found dead in his bathtub in November 2022 at the age of 34. His cause of death has not yet been determined as the LA County Coroner’s Office awaits results from a toxicology report.Carter’s mother, Jane Schneck, posted on Facebook on March 1, saying she was “still trying to get a real investigation for the death of my son”. In the post, she shared “death scene photos” of the star’s bathroom “because the coroner wrote it off as an accidental drug overdose”.“They never investigated it as a possible crime scene because of his addiction past,” Schneck wrote.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Idris Elba ignited a firestorm on social media in February after he told Esquire UK that he stopped calling himself a “Black actor” because it created limitations for his career. The “Luther” actor was immediately accused of renouncing his Blackness, although actors such as John Boyega came to his defense and argued that critics weren’t paying attention to his message about damning Hollywood stereotyping. “I feel as I get older – I’m 50 now – we all have fears of saying too much, oversharing and whatno,” Elba now told The Guardian in a new interview. “And in this day and age, it’s really difficult to have an opinion if you’re in the public eye because it gets overly scrutinized, taken out of context, thrown into some sort of bullshit, zeitgeisty social media argument.”

John Swinney has said he will leave the Scottish Government and return to being a bank bench MSP when a successor for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is appointed.

John Wick: Chapter 4 changed after he called out its script for feeding into Asian stereotypes.Speaking to GQ in a recent interview, Yen shared that despite being a big name with a wide acting range, his roles in Hollywood have been limited to the occasional action spot and that he has been typecast much like other Asian actors.Speaking on his most recent incident with typecasting, Yen revealed that he had his role in John Wick: Chapter 4 altered after he noticed several Asian stereotypes attached to his character. In the upcoming film, Yen plays an assassin named Caine who was reportedly first named “Shang or Chang”.Yen would go on to say: “Why does he always have to be called Shang or Chang? Why can’t he have a normal name? Why do you have to be so generic? Then the wardrobe again – oh, mandarin collars.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Donnie Yen is making his “John Wick” debut in the upcoming fourth installment as Caine, a blind assassin caught between his ties to the villainous High Table and his friendship with Keanu Reeves’ eponymous killer. It turns out Yen’s character was not originally named Caine. The actor told GQ magazine that he called out the “John Wick: Chapter 4” script for including Asian stereotypes, leading to changes regarding his character’s name and appearance in the film. “The name was Shang or Chang,” Yen said of his “John Wick” character. “Why does he always have to be called Shang or Chang? Why can’t he have a normal name? Why do you have to be so generic? Then the wardrobe again — oh, mandarin collars. Why is everything so generic? This is a ‘John Wick’ movie. Everybody’s supposed to be cool and fashionable. Why can’t he look cool and fashionable?”

Starting off the Sunday night 'mean' streak, after one of her more "flat" performances, Maya Weiss (who Kyle gave his 'Touchdown' to just last week) received some constructive feedback from Harry and Amy regarding song choice and arrangement.

died in August having battled breast cancer since 1992. She was 73.READ MORE: Olivia Newton-John – 1948-2022: girl-next-door who lived her best life to the endDuring the state memorial ceremony, Sir Elton John said her “bravery and optimism” would stay with him forever (via the Guardian).Appearing via a video link, John added: “She was such a wonderful force of nature, she was funny, kind, warm and talented and every time we got together we laughed and laughed and laughed.

Charna Flam John Leguizamo will receive the Miami Film Festival‘s Impact Award on March 11. Leguizamo’s new MSNBC series, “Leguizamo Does America,” will screen ahead of the award presentation.

80 for Brady,” Wallace brought up her decades of political activism and arguably the most controversial moment of Fonda’s public life – that infamous photo that resulted in the lasting nickname Hanoi Jane and the de facto blacklisting in Hollywood until she made her comeback with “Fun With Dick and Jane” five years later.When asked by Wallace how she feels about that photo in retrospect, Fonda called it a “terrible mistake.”“I never wanted to go to any military installations. It was the last day of my two-week time there.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Quick, what do the following movies have in common? The cheesy middle-aged rom-com “Ticket to Paradise,” the curmudgeon-finds-his-heart-of-gold drama “A Man Called Otto,” and “80 for Brady,” a road comedy about four octogenarians girl-tripping their way to the 2017 Super Bowl. All three are built around those once larger-than-life entities known as movie stars (Julia Roberts and George Clooney in “Paradise”; Tom Hanks in “Otto”; Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Lily Tomlin and Rita Moreno in “Brady”). All three are solid mid-level hits at the domestic box office (“Ticket to Paradise” made $68 million, “A Man Called Otto” has grossed $60 million and “80 for Brady” is chugging its way to the $50 million yard line). That’s a fact that many have taken note of at a time when the most savory offerings of the awards season (“Tár,” “The Fablemans,” “The Banshees of Inisherin”) starkly underperformed at the box office.

EXCLUSIVE: Price Productions has wrapped production on Mad Props, a new feature documentary featuring iconic actors Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Lance Henriksen (Aliens), Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) and more.

EXCLUSIVE: The cast of thriller Rich Flu has been set with Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Star Wars: Ahsoka), Rafe Spall (The Big Short), Lorraine Bracco (The Sopranos), Dixie Egerickx (The Secret Garden), Timothy Spall (Mr. Turner), Jonah Hauer-King (The Little Mermaid), Cesar Domboy (Outlander), Dayana Esebe (LA Star), and Richard Sammel (3 Days To Kill).