Pattinson's Hansen trailer lands; Emmys heat up
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- A24 dropped the first full trailer for 'Primetime,' with Robert Pattinson playing Chris Hansen in Lance Oppenheim's Sept. 25 dark comedy about To Catch a Predator's leap to primetime.link ›
- Phoebe Bridgers makes her first big-screen appearance in 'Primetime' as a Perverted Justice sting operative, alongside Merritt Wever, Anna Faris, and Skyler Gisondo as a teenage decoy.link ›
- Betty Gilpin earned her fourth Emmy nomination for Apple TV+'s 'Widow's Bay' — a horror-comedy that racked up 19 total nominations after she filmed just seven days on set.link ›
- Ti West initially told Gilpin to dial back her 'farcical, swing-for-the-fences' first takes, then used every one in the final cut — a small victory for over-actors.link ›
- Cillian Murphy's 'The Shards,' his Disney+ adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's metafictional novel, is being framed as his comeback after last year's zero-star legal drama 'All's Fair' drew a surprise Season 2 renewal.link ›
- Patina Miller buried her real brother the day before filming the Marvin grave scene in Starz's 'Raising Kanan' finale, where her Queenpin character Raq is killed by Jukebox.link ›
- Stanley Tucci is filming his next 'Tucci in Italy' season in the UK — where he's lived for nearly 15 years — after earning his second Emmy nomination for the Nat Geo show.link ›
- Circus Zambia and Wake the Beast opened 'Afronauts' at Edinburgh's Underbelly through Aug. 31, reviving Edward Mukuka Nkoloso's 1964 space-training program that had Afronauts rolling in oil drums for freefall drills.link ›
A24 just dropped the first full trailer for 'Primetime,' casting Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen in Lance Oppenheim's dark comedy about To Catch a Predator's leap to primetime. The Sept. 25 release — with Phoebe Bridgers making her film debut alongside Merritt Wever, Anna Faris, and Skyler Gisondo as a teenage decoy — is the studio's clearest signal yet that prestige true-crime nostalgia plus a Twilight alum can sell tickets outside the art-house. Betty Gilpin landed her fourth Emmy nomination for Apple TV+'s 'Widow's Bay,' a horror-comedy that earned 19 total nods after she filmed just seven days — Ti West told her to dial back her first takes, then used every one. And Cillian Murphy's 'The Shards' is being read as his comeback after last year's zero-star 'All's Fair.'
The stories behind this week
‘It’s a Pan-African story’: the artists telling the amazing true tale of Zambia’s mission to reach spaceWhat Western media called 'a bunch of crackpots' in 1965 is now a global Afrofuturist touchstone: Zambia installed its first ground-receiving station in 2024 and joined the newly formed African Space Agency, giving the country's art-driven revival of Nkoloso's vision a concrete policy backbone rather than pure nostalgia.
Schoenbrun Rates 'Camp Miasma' Blood on Monster ScaleSchoenbrun's deliberate manipulation of gore artifice—ranging from slick contemporary CGI to schlocky pink yogurt-tier fake blood—turns practical effects from mere spectacle into an emotional instrument, giving trans horror audiences calibrated permission to engage with the film's actual themes of embodiment and dysphoria.
Stanley Tucci Moves 'Tucci in Italy' to the UKTucci is one of the most visible food-documentary hosts in the U.S., and his move to the U.K. gives British farms, fisheries, and small producers top-tier exposure on a Nat Geo platform — a built-in promotional lift for producers who otherwise lack mainstream travel-show reach. His age-66 work-life comments also frame a real second-order question: he is openly scaling back while still anchoring two major franchises.
Gervais' Netflix 'Alley Cats' Is Surprisingly BittersweetGervais's animated effort positions Netflix as hosting a distinctly more melancholy, British take on the adult streaming cat cartoon, differentiating it from louder American counterparts like Amazon's 'Kevin' by leaning into resignation and tenderness rather than joke density.
Primetime Trailer: Robert Pattinson as Chris HansenA24 is betting prestige-era fascination with mid-2000s true-crime culture can sell a darkly comedic film about a morally dubious show. Casting Pattinson — an A-lister — alongside Bridgers' film debut signals commercial reach beyond the art-house base, with the Sept. 25 theatrical release timed for awards-season visibility.
The Shards Review: Murphy's Comeback on Disney+Murphy's commercial and critical standing is materially at stake: All's Fair drew zero-star notices yet was renewed, so a widely praised Ellis adaptation on Disney+ would vindicate his pivot back to prestige-leaning material after a string of uneven projects. The Shards also marks one of the higher-profile screen adaptations of Ellis's autobiographical work, which the reviewer had previously avoided because "an enfant terrible's reminiscences are too often simply terrible."
Gilpin Lands 4th Emmy Nod for Apple TV's 'Widow's Bay'Gilpin's 'anti-algorithm' framing positions 'Widow's Bay' as a deliberate counter to safe, formulaic streaming — and the Television Academy's response (19 nominations, six acting nods) suggests the gamble on tonal braid over clean genre paid off. A show built on the meeting point of comedy and horror, with Gilpin appearing for only seven filming days, outperformed her three prior 'GLOW' nominations in fan recognition — evidence the source offers that 'what people actually want' runs against algorithmic safe zones.
Patina Miller's Brother Died During Raising Kanan Finale ShootMiller's revelation reframes the finale's most emotionally charged scenes — the Marvin grave visit and the mother-son street confrontation — as performances literally lived through grief, giving audiences a rare window into how personal loss can fuel an actor's final work on a long-running series.
Why it matters: By casting Pattinson as Chris Hansen and timing the Sept. 25 release for awards season, A24 is openly testing whether prestige-leaning star power plus mid-2000s true-crime nostalgia can move the studio beyond art-house audiences.
