‘The Last Of Us’ season two auditions reportedly put on hold due to writers strike

Critics have been heaping praise on “Biosphere”, a new science-fiction feature from director Mel Eslyn.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Gordon Ramsay’s team has been inundated with emails from C-suite execs at food businesses across the U.S. over the past week, following the premiere of his latest Fox competition series, “Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars.” With the unscripted series having already shot its first season in its entirety, these people are already itching to get on a potential second season of “Food Stars,” which, in a twist for Ramsay isn’t a show about how well you cook, plate or serve — it’s ultimately about how you play the business game. And the winner gets $250,000 investment from the celebrity chef himself. “As you know, 68% percent of businesses fail in the first 18 months. And so I have to judge this on the business acumen, but more importantly, the decisions and the quickness of how decisive they need to be in the cutthroat business world,” Ramsay told Variety ahead of Episode 2 of “Food Stars” airing Wednesday at 9 p.m. on Fox “So I need to get behind the character to understand the business. And then as always, stress test those businesses and look for weaknesses. I’ve made mistakes in business, but I’ve never made that same mistake twice. Everything I’ve learned and the restaurants I’ve opened, and the huge success and the issues I’ve had to deal with, across the whole sector, has gone into this shows. It’s been fascinating, because the feedback has been extraordinary. Just on LinkedIn alone, the amount of CMOs and CEOs and COOs in the first 24 hours that my team was inundated with, thousands of requests. It’s been pretty incredible.”

If you’re going to spend the apocalypse with someone, you might as well do it with your BFF, right? Though that could potentially get really weird. That’s the premise of “Biosphere,” a new IFC Films movie that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year and stars Sterling K.

Directed by Alex Holmes, “The Last Rider” offers offers an intimate look at the inspiring true story of Greg LeMond, the cyclist who is the first and to-date only American to win the Tour de France. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions, “The Last Rider” chronicles the career of the three-time Tour victor, and two-time Road World Race Championship winner.

Sia is opening up about being diagnosed with autism, two years after the controversy over the depiction of the neurological disorder in her 2021 film Music.

Disney isn’t the only studio remaking its animated hits as live-action films, with Dreamworks getting in on the action with its upcoming live-action remake of “How to Train Your Dragon”.

Despite being on the losing side, Alan Pardew is often the first person who springs to mind when remembering the 2016 FA Cup final.

Tina Turner died this past Wednesday, shocking the world. The singer and actress was a cultural icon, someone who achieved global acclaim by making music that mattered and shed a light on her personal struggles. Turner spent her last decades of life in Switzerland, acquiring a citizenship and often speaking about the perks of her new life.

Another brand-defining, Best Drama Emmy-winning HBO series is coming to an end this Sunday when Succession airs its finale. Just like when each of its esteemed predecessors, The Sopranos and Game Of Thrones, ended, there is the inevitable succession question about what comes next.

Tina Turner by sharing the last words the pop icon said to her.Turner died yesterday at the age of 83 following a long illness, her spokesperson said.“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Tina Turner. With her music and her boundless passion for life, she enchanted millions of fans around the world and inspired the stars of tomorrow,” a statement on her social media pages read.“Today we say goodbye to a dear friend who leaves us all her greatest work: her music.

Still breaking boundaries at the age of 74, French filmmaker Catherine Breillat returns to the Cannes competition with a film that squarely confronts the one taboo that is still ring-fenced from liberal tolerance: sex between adults and children. In the past, she has worked with porn stars, was one of the first to show an erection in an arthouse film and earned herself the moniker “porno auteuriste.” 

Amon Warmann Guest Contributor Fantasy show composers Gustavo Santaolalla (“The Last of Us”), Bear McCreary (“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”) and Ramin Djawadi (“House of the Dragon”) knew going in that their respective projects had built-in audiences — and that those fandoms should be kept in mind while creating their scores.  “The Last of Us” showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin told Santaolalla that music needed to be “another character” for the HBO series adapted from the video game he previously scored. Rather than create new themes, Santaolalla organically transitioned the music to TV. The South American instrument called “the ronroco,” which he used to write “The Last of Us” theme, was integral in keeping that connectivity for fans who had experienced Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie’s (Bella Ramsay) journey before. 

Selome Hailu With “The Last Thing He Told Me,” Apple TV+ has achieved its most watched limited series ever since the streamer’s launch in 2019. According to Nielsen data obtained by Variety, the series reached 4.5 million unique viewers in its first 31 days of streaming, beating out previous Apple limited series as well as several titles on the overall drama slate, such as “Black Bird” (2.6 million viewers) “Slow Horses” (1.9 million), “Echo” (1.4 million) and “Shining Girls” (1.3 million). The series premiere of “The Last Thing He Told Me” reached 3.4 million viewers, becoming Apple’s most watched drama episode of the year so far.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor In the new Apple TV+ comedy noir series “High Desert,” Patricia Arquette and Matt Dillon play an off-and-on again couple so naturally that it seems like they must have starred together in some iconic 1990s indie movie. Surprisingly, they haven’t, but the off-kilter, sun-baked menace of films like Arquette starrers “True Romance” and “Lost Highway” permeates the new series, which is peopled with what Arquette calls “wild and weird creatures” in an environment that alternates between arid beauty and strip mall desolation. In “High Desert,” Arquette’s methadone-dependent, perennial wild child Peggy Newman could not be more different than her buttoned-up “Severance” character Harmony Cobel, whether she’s piloting a dune buggy around the desert, swinging from a chandelier in a Pioneertown Old West show or getting mixed up with another half-baked scam. Peggy, who recently lost her mother, needs to raise money to stay in their house. She hatches a plan to become a private investigator, getting mixed up in cases involving art forgeries and a missing guru’s wife and more. “High Desert” premiered on May 17, with new episodes rolling out weekly.

Pat Saperstein Deputy Editor Since the writers strike started on May 2, celebrities have turned out to support WGA members picketing for a better guild contract. Actors like Fred Armisen are also writers who are members of the WGA, while some SAG-AFTRA members are walking the line to support their colleagues. Since most TV shows and movies have suspended production until the strike is resolved, stars, writers and filmmakers like Christopher Nolan are taking to the streets to show their support for members of the Writers Guild of America.

The writers strike may bring about a disturbance in the force. The current work stoppage already has disrupted the production of several TV series; Lucasfilm’s The Mandalorian may join the last.

Kiefer Sutherland is ready to go on down the Rabbit Hole again but is not sure where Paramount+ stands on picking up the series for a second season.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter “The Last of Us” Season 2 is feeling the effects of the writers’ strike. Casting for the second season of the smash hit HBO series had been underway until earlier this week when it was put on hold, according to an individual with knowledge of the production. Prior to that, however, multiple sources say that the casting team was asking actors to read sides taken directly from “The Last of Us Part II,” the video game on which the second season will be based, due to the fact that there are no scripts for Season 2 at this time. The hope is for the season to begin shooting in early 2024 in Vancouver.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Roz is back! Marsha Warfield, who played the caustic bailiff on “Night Court” for six seasons, made a surprise appearance on Tuesday night’s episode of the series’ 2023 revival. Warfield’s appearance came on Tuesday during part 2 of the episode “The Honorable Dan Fielding.” In the episode, Dan Fielding (as reprised for the revival by Emmy winner John Larroquette) has taken a job as a judge and is reading what’s next on his docket: “Another fight at a bachelorette party in the French Quarter. OK bailiff, bring in this bride to be!” Turns out it’s Roz, wearing a “bachelorette” banner. “Fielding? They made you a judge?” she stares at disbelief, and then storms out of the courtroom. (Scroll down to watch.)

The CW has canceled Walker prequel Walker Independence after one season.