John Leguizamo Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Zack Sharf Digital News Director John Leguizamo is doubling down on criticizing Universal and Illumination’s animated film “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which casts Chris Pratt and Charlie Day in the leading voice roles of Mario and Luigi. Leguizamo brought Luigi to life in a live-action format opposite Bob Hoskins’ Mario in 1993’s “Super Mario Bros.” The actor told TMZ on the day “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” opened in theaters that he won’t be watching it due to the casting. “No I will not [be watching]. They could’ve included a Latin character,” Leguizamo said. “Like I was groundbreaking and then they stopped the groundbreaking. They messed up the inclusion. They dis-included. Just cast some Latin folk! We’re 20% of the population. The largest people of color group and we are underrepresented.”

Illumination/Nintendo/Universal’s Super Mario Bros Movie doesn’t need a mushroom to get bigger, it just organically is. Out of the gate today Wednesday, sans any Tuesday previews, the feature take of the classic game is looking at $26M, for what’s translating into a $86.2M 3-day, $127.5M Wednesday through Sunday haul. Interesting, even though its opening day was a Friday, Paramount/Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2 had a $26.3M first day a year ago (that included Thursday previews). That film currently holds the 3-day record for a videogame feature adaptation with $72.1M, a benchmark which Super Mario Bros looks to squash.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie boasts an impressive voice cast of Hollywood actors.Directed by Aaron Horvarth and Michael Jelenic, the animated film is a collaboration between Nintendo, Universal Pictures and Illumination (Despicable Me, The Secret Life Of Pets).It’s the second adaptation of the Mushroom Kingdom on the big screen, following the 1993 live-action interpretation starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo.Chris Pratt voices Mario, who is originally voiced by Charles Martinet in the games.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Seth Rogen hopes Hollywood will redeem itself with Universal Pictures’ new animated “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” Rogen, who voices Donkey Kong in the adaptation of the popular video game series, tells Variety at the film’s premiere, “When I was 11, I saw the original ‘Mario Bros.’ movie and I was so excited. But it’s one of the worst films ever made. I was so disappointed. I think it made me realize that movies, like, could be bad. That never occurred to me until that moment. “It really bummed me out,” he continues. “It’s nice to vindicate that moment. It’s nice to know that 11-year-olds out there that they won’t be disappointed in the same way that I was.”

The Daily Show used to have a white host?

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach are poised to clobber the box office competition as “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” readies to power past the $100 million mark in its opening weekend. Universal and Illumination’s big screen adaptation of the popular video game, which opens in 4,000 North American theaters on Wednesday, looks to collect a towering $125 million or more in its first five days of release. It’ll be the second 2023 release, following Disney’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” ($106 million) to open above $100 million. “Mario” will easily lead domestic box office charts over last weekend’s champ, “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” as well as fellow newcomer “Air,” a sports drama directed by Ben Affleck.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Amazon is developing a series version of the Philip K. Dick novel “Clans of the Alphane Moon,” Variety has learned exclusively. The project is being developed under Electric Shepherd Productions and Patrick Moran’s first look deals with Amazon Studios. Moran, via Patrick Moran Productions, is executive producing the project along with John Leguizamo, as well as as Isa Dick Hakcett, the CEO of Electric Shepherd. Bradley Kaplan will also executive produce. “Clans of the Alphane Moon” is described as a “a subversive, genre-bending, sci-fi comedy about desperately trying to escape, and ultimately having to embrace our flaws, told through the prism of a Latinx family en route to a new, faraway moon.”

Widely considered to be one of the greatest videogame franchises ever, Super Mario Bros. is an iconic, generation-spanning success that has taken on many iterations to always keep up with the times. One area in which it failed miserably was the 1993 live-action film version that starred Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as Mario and Luigi, Brooklyn-based plumbers who go on a fantastical adventure. It was a critical and commercial flop, though it managed to find some bit of a cult following in the ensuing decades.

It’s a-him! Chris Pratt hasn’t shied away from discussing doubts about his casting as the titular character in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Al Franken spent nine years as a U.S. Senator from Minnesota, and it all finally paid off in recent weeks when he logged a stint as a guest host on “The Daily Show.” Franken turned in some robust impressions of Charles Schumer, Mitch McConnell and Susan Collins during one sketch on the Comedy Central program that suggested he was taking some pretty interesting notes when he served in that chamber. “I didn’t give them a heads up,” Franken says in a recent interview, after his run. “I served wth those people. Some I could do. I’m not one othose impressionists who can do everyone. I do who I can do.” While Franken is one of a number of noted hosts who have helped the show keep spinning after the depature last year of Trevor Noah, you might say he has been training for such an appearance for much of his professional life. Franken made some famous appearances on the long-running “Weekend Update” segment of “Saturday Night Live,” and, after a few stints on the show as a writer and performer, tried his hand at other exploits. He led comedic coverage of the the run-up to the 1992 presidential election for Comedy Central, presaging efforts to do so by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. He later became a progressive radio host for Air America. In recent months, he has been doing a comedy tour around the nation.

Prime Video’s new series “The Power” posits a world in which young women around the globe, in an inexplicable twist of nature, suddenly develop the ability to electrocute people at will — flipping society, and the patriarchy, on its head (“A world built for us, where we’re not afraid” says a protagonist). The eight-part series, cloaked in sci-fi, takes a while to charge into high gear, but once it gets going is rife with social commentary that resonates in today’s culture.“The Power” is based on Naomi Alderman’s eponymous 2016 novel and features an ensemble cast of younger, nuanced actors working alongside A-listers Toni Collette, John Leguizamo and Josh Charles.

Chris Pratt has responded to criticism over his lead role in the upcoming The Super Mario Bros. Movie, telling people to “watch the movie, then we can talk”.When the first trailer was revealed last year, fans quickly took to social media to criticise Pratt’s voice work as the titular plumber.His casting was also questioned by celebrated voice actor Tara Strong who believed Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario in a variety of games for the past 20 years, should have been offered the role. Former Luigi actor John Leguizamo also said the casting for The Super Mario Bros.

Today’s indictment of Donald Trump quickly became tonight’s punchline for TV’s late-night hosts.

Gwyneth Paltrow is at the center of a lawsuit that has many captivated, and closing arguments are today. It all goes back to February 26, 2016, on the bunny slope at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, where a man named Terry Sanders claimed the Shallow Hal star slammed into him, leaving him face down in the snow unconscious.

reported on Wednesday that a federal judge has ordered Pence to testify specifically in regards to the twice-impeached former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, in which he lost to Joe Biden. During Wednesday night’s episode of “The Daily Show,” guest host John Leguizamo pulled up a clip from CNN’s reporting, in which it was noted that Pence will likely need to answer questions about private conversations he had with Trump leading up to January 6, including ones where Trump berated him.“Oh come on man, don’t make Pence say all the names that Trump called him,” Leguizamo said.

John Leguizamo has plans for his future roles in Hollywood. In an appearance on The Daily Show, Leguizamo talked about representation and Latino actors, and how it’s still common for white actors to still take Latino parts.

Trevor Noah’s exit in December, including Lewis Black, Roy Wood Jr. and Desi Lydic.Wood will kick things off, hosting during the week of April 3. After Wood, the following will serve as guest-hosts: Black and Ronny Chieng are also slated to guest host, thought their dates are yet to be announced.The news comes as John Leguizamo is set to wrap up the first round of celebrity guest hosts next week.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The correspondents who help keep Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” running will each get their own moment in the spotlight. The late-night program, which has relied on celebrity guest such as Leslie Jones and Sarah Silverman in the wake of the departure of Trevor Noah last year, will now give its correspondents a crack at leading the program over the next few weeks. Ronny Chieng, Michael Kosta, Desi Lydic, Dulcé Sloan, Roy Wood Jr., Lewis Black and Jordan Klepper will all get a chance to host the program between the week of April 3 and the week of May 8, Comedy Central announced Friday. Roy Wood Jr. will start the rotation during the week of April 3, followed by Jordan Klepper the week of April 17. Desi Lydic will host the program the week of April 24 ,and Dulce Sloan will anchor the series the week of May 1. Michael Kosta will lead during the week of May 8. Ronny Chieng and Lewis Black have not been assigned weeks as of yet.

EXCLUSIVE: The Daily Show has been ticking along nicely with its phalanx of guest hosts including Chelsea Handler, Leslie Jones and Kal Penn.

Auli’i Cravalho got everyone’s attention at the premiere of The Power in New York City on Thursday night (March 23).

The Power, the new Prime Video sci-fi drama based on Naomi Alderman's best-selling novel, follows a group of teenage girls from all across the globe who suddenly develop the power to electrocute people at will. As they navigate their new reality, the teens begin to embrace their newfound powers to shift the power balance of the world.ET exclusively debuts the electric opening scene from the nine-episode first season, which drops March 31, setting the table for what's to come.«We never dared to imagine it,» Toni Collette's Mayor Margot Cleary-Lopez narrates.

EXCLUSIVE: The Power, Prime Video’s global thriller drama based on Naomi Alderman’s feminist sci-fi book, continues to undergo personnel changes. Emmy-winning The Handmaid’s Tale director Reed Morano, who had been with the project since its early stages, has exited as both a director and an executive producer.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Chris Pratt’s voice role as Mario in “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has been a point of debate ever since he was cast. Pratt is not Italian, after all, and many fans were left baffled when the movie’s first trailer dropped last October and revealed Pratt’s Brooklyn-heavy Mario voice. It’s not a concern for the film’s directors, Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath. The filmmakers told Total Film magazine that casting Pratt made sense given the Mario at the center of their story. “It’s a bit of an origin tale. It’s the story of Mario becoming Super Mario,” Horvath said about the film, adding that finding the perfect Mario voice meant finding an actor who could believably portray a plumber from Brooklyn who is “a blue-collar guy from a family of Italian immigrants.”

The highly anticipated Illumination Entertainment/Universal movie The Super Mario Bros. Movie will be opening on Wednesday, April 5 around the world before Easter weekend instead of Good Friday, April 7.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter The “Waco: The Aftermath” series at Showtime has added 10 new cast members, Variety has learned. The new cast members for the followup to Paramount Networks’ “Waco” include: Shea Whigham, who will reprise the role of Mitch Decker, the FBI agent who managed the situation leading up the siege; Annika Marks, who will reprise the role of Kathy Schroeder, one of the surviving Branch Davidians who was also called upon to testify; Alex Breaux, who will play Timothy McVeigh; Michael Cassidy, who will play Bill Johnston, the lead prosecutor in the trial of the Branch Davidians; Gary Cole, who will play Gordon Novel, described as an “intense private investigator;” Nicholas Kolev, who will play Paul Fatta, another one of the Davidians on trial after the Waco siege; Michael Luwoye, who will play Livingstone Fagan, described as “an extremely bright biblical scholar and one of the surviving Branch Davidians on trial;” Kali Rocha, who will play Ruth Riddle, one of the Branch Davidian survivors facing trial and the possibility of life in jail; Michael Vincent Barry, who will play George Roden, one of the early leaders of the Davidian sect; and Sasheer Zamata, who will play Angie Graham, described as “a smart, experienced ATF agent.”

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.

The Power.” The first three episodes will premiere March 31, with the remaining six episodes available each Friday until the finale on May 12. Based on Naomi Alderman’s novel of the same name, the new sci-fi series follows as a group of teenage girls who have developed the power to electrocute people — and learn to monitor this newfound gift. Toni Collette and John Leguizamo star in the series, along with Auli’i Cravalho, Toheeb Jimoh, Josh Charles, Eddie Marsan, Ria Zmitrowicz, Zrinka Cvitešić and Halle Bush. “The Power” is produced by Amazon Studios and Sister, with Raelle Tucker serving as showrunner,

Teenage girls are awakening their power in Prime Video’s new series.

Charna Flam Showtime’s upcoming series, “Waco: The Aftermath,” will debut on the streaming service and on-demand April 14, followed by its linear premiere on April 16 at 10 p.m. A first-look image has been released in addition to the premiere date (see above). “Waco: The Aftermath” follows the 2018 limited series “Waco,” which retold the true story of the 51-day standoff between a small religious community and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). “The Aftermath” stars Michael Shannon, who reprises his role as Gary Noesner, a FBI hostage negotiator suffering from PTSD after the failed negotiations in Waco. Shannon is rejoined by John Leguizamo as Jacob Vasquez, an undercover ATF agent. The upcoming five-episode series will document the fallout of the disaster, including the trials of the surviving Branch Davidian members and the rise of homegrown terrorist Timothy McVeigh.

Comedy Central has set dates for the next five guest hosts who will fill in at the desk of The Daily Show.