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Last week, we were introduced to the world of Mexican football club Necaxa, thanks to the Eva Longoria-starrer (and produced) FX sports drama series, Necaxa. Longoria is an investor at the club, and her goal is pulling off exactly what Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds have pulled off at Wrexham AFC. Sadly, neither the football club nor the series seems to be doing quite well. The first two episodes didn’t give us much, except giving us the origin story and a few inspiring moments. In comparison, this week’s episodes have turned out to be much more focused. While the football club’s suffering continued on the field, it did make up for a compelling narrative. One thing you need to remember here is that whatever you’ve seen has already happened, and all you need to do is go to Google to check how Club Necaxa is doing currently.

The Hollywood glow is gone. In its place is the harsh reality of football, where a losing streak can crush a team’s spirit. For Eva Longoria’s Club Necaxa, the dream is fraying fast. And just when it seems things can’t get worse, a single, brutal tackle changes everything, sidelining star player Alexis Peña and sending […]

Necaxa: The Fighter...

Yes, John Hoffman, co-creator of Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, is in on the joke: “How many times does someone have to die in that building before people just move out?” But as the show gears up for its fifth season, audiences by now know that there’s so much more to the show than just solving a murder in the building. The multigenerational connection among an unlikely trio, played by Selena Gomez (Mabel), Steve Martin (Charles) and Martin Short (Oliver), provides ample comedic and affecting fodder, as its seven nominations this year would attest. There’s a collision of “new world and old world at the same time that’s very specific to New York and our building,” Hoffman tells THR. The showrunner describes what it was like bringing his guest stars on board and more.

When you originally started with the concept of the show, how...

Christmas Karma, a new Bollywood-inspired musical take on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, has set its official UK release date for 14 November 2025. It is currently unclear when the film will hit US theaters. The movie is led by The Big Bang Theory star Kunal Nayyar as Sood, a reimagined version of Scrooge. The cast also includes Tony Award winner Billy Porter as The Ghost of Christmas Present, Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey) as the Ghost of Jacob Marley, Eva Longoria as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Boy George as The Ghost of Christmas Future, and Danny Dyer as a London Cabbie. Take a look at the newly released character posters below. From British director Gurinder Chadha, Christmas Karma sees A Christmas...

A new Christmas classic is on the way. Gurinder Chadha, the acclaimed, visionary director of Bend It Like Beckham and Blinded By The Light is back with Christmas Karma, a festive, fresh and feel-good musical adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol.

We have your first look posters and can now reveal the release date — Christmas Karma will land in cinemas 14th November across the UK & Ireland.

The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar leads the star-studded cast as Mr. Sood, our modern-day Scrooge, who we follow on an unforgettable and magical journey with the three Ghosts of Christmas, who help him to confront his demons and discover that kindness is the real meaning of Christmas. The film also stars Leo Suter, Pixie Lott, Charithra Chandran, Danny Dyer and Hugh Bonneville.

With an eclectic soundtrack influenced by gospel, bhangra, Christmas carols, rap and classic pop, the film features...

True Brit Entertainment has revealed the first look posters for ‘Christmas Karma,’ Gurinder Chadha’s vibrant and heartwarming new festive musical, set to bring a fresh twist to Charles Dickens’ timeless ‘A Christmas Carol.’ The film will light up cinemas across the UK & Ireland from 14th November 2025.

Chadha — the acclaimed, visionary filmmaker behind ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ and ‘Blinded By The Light’ — transforms the classic tale into a joyous, multicultural celebration of the holiday season. The first look poster bursts with colour and festive spirit, teasing the film’s magical mix of music, comedy and heartfelt emotion.

Leading the all-star cast is ‘The Big Bang Theory’s’ Kunal Nayyar as Mr. Sood, a modern-day Scrooge whose life takes a magical turn when three Ghosts of Christmas — played by Eva Longoria, Billy Porter and Boy George — appear to guide him towards kindness, compassion and the true meaning of Christmas.

Also in...

Eva Longoria is headed to Mallorca for her next film, and she’ll be joined by newcomer Fernando Lindez in The Last Sunrise, Amazon MGM’s adaptation of Anna Todd’s bestselling romance novel. This marks Fernando’s English-language film debut, and judging by his striking looks and chiseled six-pack abs, we have a feeling he’s about to become everyone’s new crush.

Eva will play Isolde, the protective mother of Maia Reficco’s character, Oriah “Ry” Pera, a 22-year-old whose life has been shaped by chronic illness and an overbearing but loving mom. When Ry spends the summer abroad, she gets a taste of freedom and meets Julián, played by Fernando, a bold, witty and strikingly handsome local from Mallorca. With good looks and a strong sense of identity, Julián commands attention wherever he goes. He is confident, emotionally complex and unapologetically himself, sweeping Ry into the kind...

Spoilers follow.

Not since the days of "The Room" and "Birdemic" has a crappy movie captured the mainstream consciousness like Rich Lee's "War of the Worlds." A laughably bad film that seemingly came out of nowhere, this new take on H. G. Wells' sci-fi classic is a "screenlife" movie, which means it takes place entirely on computer and phone screens. To be fair, the screenlife format isn't inherently bad. The first "Unfriended" and the thriller "Searching" both find genuinely exciting ways to exploit this scenario. And, at least in theory, an alien invasion flick set entirely on screens isn't such a terrible idea. Lord knows that if aliens really did invade, we'd all be posting our way through it.

But this new "War of the Worlds" is extremely lousy. Cheap-looking, loaded with bad acting, and full of dialogue that's bound to inspire unintentional laughs, it's a special kind of...

“Only Murders in the Building” is back with Season 5, debuting Sept. 9, and Hulu has released a trailer showcasing the comedy’s new mystery — and its stacked cast.

The half-hour series stars Martin Short, Steve Martin and Selena Gomez who team up as amateur investigators and true crime podcasters after a string of suspicious murders occur in their New York apartment complex.

In Season 5, the trio’s doorman Lester (Teddy Coluca) dies under mysterious circumstances, and Charles (Martin), Oliver (Short), and Mabel (Gomez) refuse to accept the results of the police report. “A guy fills a fountain with blood in the most murderous building in New York. They say it’s accidental?” Charles asks his crime-solving compatriots in the trailer.

Once again, they work together to uncover the true story of Lester’s death, plunging into the darkest corners of New York and beyond to reveal “a dangerous web of secrets connecting powerful billionaires,...

New York City might be one of the safest places in the world, but living in luxury apartment complex The Arconia continues to be one of the most dangerous lifestyle choices you can make. The crime-solving trio of Steve Martin’s Charles, Martin Short’s Oliver, and Selena Gomez’s Mabel have built full-time careers out of solving all the killings that go down in their place of residence, and they’re gearing up to solve another one in the upcoming Season 5 of “Only Murders in the Building.”

Following a Season 4 that saw the show explore Hollywood — due to a meta twist in which Eugene Levy, Zach Galifianakis, and Eva Longoria were cast as the three main characters in a fictional movie — Season 5 will once again be a very New York affair.

An official synopsis of Season 5 reads: “After their beloved doorman, Lester, dies under suspicious circumstances, Charles, Oliver, and...

Since the 1897 publication of H.G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds, the story and its subsequent adaptations has served as the quintessential allegory for the power struggles that shape our world — and a time capsule of the media that informs us about them. There was the Orson Welles-directed radio broadcast that actually convinced listeners that aliens were attacking Earth; the 1953 technicolor version starring Gene Barry that evoked the newscaster era of WWII; and Steven Spielberg’s 2005 take starring Tom Cruise, which narrowed in on 24-hour news and...

Okay, streaming fans—strap in! Idris Elba’s wild ride atop Prime Video’s charts just hit a sci-fi-sized speedbump. After dominating with his explosive action flick, Elba has been dethroned by a movie no one saw coming: a sci-fi thriller with a jaw-droppingly bad 0% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Here’s the deliciously weird story behind this streaming shake-up…and some answers to the burning questions you didn’t know you had.

Idris Elba’s Prime Video Smash: What Was “Heads of State” All About?

Elba and John Cena brought maximum chaos to Prime Video this summer with Heads of State. Idris plays the UK Prime Minister, Cena the US President—two rivals forced to save the world (and each other) when a global conspiracy explodes under their noses. Add Priyanka Chopra Jonas as an MI6 super-spy, and you get the streaming version of a popcorn blockbuster—equal parts...

For many fans and detractors of revered comedian and actor Eddie Murphy, Norbit remains the nadir of a decorated career nearly 20 years after its premiere. However, Murphy is defiant about his panned comedy, insisting he has "love" for the outlandish comedy despite widespread backlash.

Speaking with Complex, Murphy defended Norbit against constant critical shaming over the years, stating he's still fond of the movie amid its negative reception. According to the award-winning actor, Norbit's humor ensures it stands the test of time. “I like Norbit to this day,” Murphy said. “There’s stuff in Norbit that makes me laugh.” He added that he and his late brother, Charlie Murphy, who wrote the screenplay alongside him, "think Norbit is funny."

Despite Norbit being the second-worst-rated movie of Murphy's career (9% on Rotten Tomatoes), earning three Golden Raspberry Awards along the way, Murphy believes that most of the negative feedback was simply critics "hating" on him.

The original "Magnum, P.I.," created by Donald P. Bellisario and Glen A. Larson, was a gangbusters hit that ran 162 episodes over its eight seasons from 1980 to 1988. The series starred Tom Selleck as the titular Thomas Magnum, a private investigator who, thanks to a special arrangement, lived at a palatial mansion in Hawai'i. Magnum also tooled around town in a very conspicuous Ferrari and was irresistible to women. He wasn't so much a TV character as a universal male fantasy personified. Beyond that, Magnum often butted heads with the estate's caretaker, an ex-military guy named Higgins (John Hillerman), but his life was pretty easy otherwise, and Higgins eventually became a friend. Both Selleck and Hillerman won an Emmy apiece for their work on the show.

The series was everywhere. "Magnum, P.I." even had a crossover episode with "Simon & Simon" in 1982, as well as one with "Murder, She Wrote" in 1986. Fun...

The 2025 version of War of the Worlds was supposed to be a fresh and exciting take on the classic alien invasion story. Instead, it has landed in a place no filmmaker wants to be: Rotten Tomatoes’ list of the 100 worst movies of all time. The site currently ranks it at number 88, and the reviews suggest it’s not climbing out of that spot any time soon.

Directed by Rich Lee, with a screenplay from Kenneth A. Golde and Marc Hyman, the movie is based on H.G. Wells’s famous 1898 novel. It stars Ice Cube, Eva Longoria, Clark Gregg, Andrea Savage, and others. Universal Pictures released it straight to Amazon Prime Video on July 30, 2025.

The movie tries a “screenlife” style, meaning the entire story is told through computer screens, phone screens, and other digital devices. It’s the same storytelling method used in films like Searching or Unfriended, but here it...

A new take on H.G. Wells’s famous alien invasion story, War of the Worlds, hit Amazon Prime Video on July 30, 2025. Directed by Rich Lee and written by Kenneth A. Golde and Marc Hyman, the movie stars Ice Cube, Eva Longoria, Clark Gregg, Andrea Savage, and more.

Universal Pictures was behind the release, and the idea was to bring a fresh twist to the 1898 novel by telling the whole story through computer screens, phone screens, and digital devices.

The main character, Will Radford, works for the Department of Homeland Security, using a powerful surveillance program that can watch anyone in the world. When he teams up with FBI agents to catch a hacker known as “Disruptor,” meteors suddenly crash down all over Earth. From those crash sites, massive machines rise up and begin attacking people. Radford and a NASA friend discover this is actually the start of a full alien invasion.

I’m going to say this right off the bat—Necaxa, Fxx’s latest football docuseries, is nowhere near the already iconic Welcome to Wrexham. The reason I’m bringing up Wrexham here is because the show, and its executive producer and star, Eva Longoria, try their best to piggyback on the success of Wrexham. Longoria even brings Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, chairmen of Wrexham, into the fold, as they happily invest in Necaxa. And the Wrexham men try their best—they even come up with a skit where Rob Mac is learning the Spanish language and pretty much nailing it, while Reynolds is unable to catch up with his buddy. Sadly, none of it actually works here. This is still Longoria’s show; she is the star of it and also ‘the boss’ of Necaxa—that’s what the players and staff call her, affectionately. But the problem...

War of the Worlds was declared rotten upon its premiere on Prime Video on July 30, 2025. For a film based on H. G. Wells’ sci-fi novel, it received surprisingly bad reviews from critics and the audience. To be fair, it is a modern reimagining of Wells’ novel, but with Ice Cube and Eva Longoria in the lead roles, audiences clearly expected far better.

Almost two weeks later, War of the Worlds has finally managed to crawl out of the trenches and now has a 4% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It was not spared on IMDb either, as it has scored 2.7 out of 10, based on 16,000 reviews. Given the overwhelmingly negative consensus, its chances of winning over a broader audience remain slim.

Rich Lee has directed War of the Worlds, which stars Ice Cube as Will Radford, a top cyber-security analyst for Homeland Security. Will’s job is to identify potential threats to national...

South Africa has always had a soft spot for the oddball hits everyone else loves to hate. Leon Schuster’s slapstick comedies are box office gold in South Africa. Anaconda reruns on eTV’s Friday night slot? Practically a tradition. Now, South Africans have added a new guilty pleasure to the list: Ice Cube’s alien-invasion thriller War of the Worlds. Yes, the one critics had buried six feet deep with a 0% Rotten Tomatoes score. Released on Prime Video on July 30, Rich Lee’s War of the Worlds stars Ice Cube as Homeland Security cyber-security analyst Will Radford, teaming up with NASA scientist Dr. Sandra Salas (Eva Longoria) to lead survivors through an alien apocalypse. Clark Gregg from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Andrea Savage from I’m Sorry, and young talents like Henry Hunter Hall and Iman Benson fill out the cast. On paper, it sounds promising. In reality, well… Barbara Friedman,...

A viral Prime Video sci-fi movie has escaped its 0% Rotten Tomatoes fate after receiving a positive critical review. From the critically acclaimed Interstellarto the more recent Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the streaming platform is home to a variety of science fiction movies.

With new titles regularly added to the platforms, some of the latest in-theater movies being added include 28 Years Later, Jurassic World Rebirth, The Occupant, and Dangerous Animals. Several new straight-to-streaming movies from the studio behind Ben Affleck's The Accountant 2 and Jason Statham's Beekeeper have also arrived on the platform recently, with some ending up on the streamer's Top 10 chart.

Eddie Murphy's action comedy The Pickup, arrived on August 6, is currently the No.1 most popular movie on Prime Video, and it's followed by another new addition.

Ice Cube's War Of The Worlds Is No Longer A 0% Rt Movie

Currently the No.

Prime Video's new War of the Worldsadaptation recently invaded the streaming charts, but it certainly didn't come in peace, as it immediately came under attack from critics. So much so that the tech-driven remake, starring Ice Cube and Eva Longoria, ended up scoring 0% on Rotten Tomatoes and cemented its status as one of the worst movies of the decade. However, Amazon's modern take on one of the most influential sci-fi stories of all time has finally found redemption, with a single positive review pushing its score up to 4%.

While many felt that War of the Worlds deserved its abysmal Rotten Tomatoes score — as shown by the reviews, which have cited numerous issues with the film, including an uninspired narrative, poor visual effects, and excessive product placement — it is not all doom and gloom. One positive review has pulled the 2025 adaptation of H.G. Wells' classic novel out of the 0% Club...

Ronn Moss, aka Ridge Forrester, Was Betrayed By Show Creator(Photo Credit –Instagram)

Ronn Moss, aka Ridge Forrester, was part of viewers’ lives for over 25 years after joining Daytime Soap Opera on The Bold and the Beautiful in 1987. His departure from the show in 2012 shocked audiences, who were bereft that the face of the longest-running soap opera would never walk the streets of Beverly Hills again.

From Soap Star to Chart-Topper: Why Ronn Moss Never Returned to The Bold & The Beautiful

While fans still held hope Moss might return to The Bold & The Beautiful, in 2014, the star revealed he felt betrayed by the show creator and vowed never to return to the soap that launched his career.

The actor, who began his career as a singer with the group Player, has kept busy since departing The Bold & The Beautiful in 2012. Moss appeared on the digital soap “The Bay...

Only Murders in the Building went into production during lockdown in 2020 with a premise that might easily have served a single episode — three strangers come together to solve a murder in their apartment block. Five years on, the Hulu show is a fixture among Emmy voters, who regularly shortlist it for Outstanding Comedy and, likewise, show their affection for Martin Short by nominating him annually for Best Actor in a Comedy Series.

The reasons for the show’s appeal are manifold, starting with the odd-trio chemistry of the three leads. But there’s also a rich seam of irony being mined; in the first season, the proliferation of true-crime podcasts was satirized, which led to a studio deal being drawn up that saw the three sleuths meeting their Hollywood doppelgangers.

Before I speak to Short, producer and head writer John Hoffmann — seemingly just mooching around at Short’s smart, mid-century modern home — pops up to discuss the director for Season 5.

“It’s been a very tricky balance to draw,” he says. “The ‘meta’ nature of it — the reflection back — seems to be one constant theme for the show, which I wasn’t expecting from the beginning until we started to really get deeper and deeper into the kinds of progression that naturally would happen, I think, in this situation. So the part of it that really surprises me is that it’s able to hold so much, this show. I still can’t believe it. I can’t believe the way in which these three can find their ways comedically and dramatically but also holding all of that meta ‘wink-wink’ every now and then. That’s really the key.”

The last season teased a mafia connection for the future, bringing in the wife of New York’s dry-cleaning king, whose husband has gone missing. So what can we expect from the next 10 episodes? “What I think we’re doing in Season 5 is very different,” says Hoffmann. “We’re going straight into a New York story that’s happening very much currently. It’s also happening across the country, obviously, but also in the city itself. We’re pulling from the headlines to ask very specific questions about the balance of power in New York and who has that power. That’s what we’re really looking at — the shifting power dynamics of the country. And what’s really fun about it, the comedic side of it, is that the history of power in New York is pretty colorful, with the old mob and the new mob mixing in. What do those two look like, and how do they sit on either side, with our trio in the center of it?”

“Boy, I’m glad you’re answering this,” says Short. Now 75, the actor isn’t big on explanation, modestly giving the credit for his Only Murders character, eternal showman Oliver Putnam, to the show’s writers. However much that may be true, there can’t be many other actors that could play such a lovable loser with so much braggadocio and pathos. Here, with Hoffmann out of the way, Short reflects on the show that started small but dreamed so much bigger…

Deadline: Did you expect Only Murders to have such longevity?

Martin Short: I think, certainly, a fifth season in streaming is very unusual these days, but I don’t think any of us thought that way. Steve and I are from the movies also, so we were thinking, “Oh, maybe it’s just going to be one great season.” We were just hoping that it would be interesting. So you go from episode to episode, then suddenly there are 10 episodes, and you have a season. Then you’re renewed, so you do it again. Obviously, you don’t want a show to go up and down, but you’re so invested in where you are right now, it’s hard to get a perspective on it. But certainly, objectively, I can look at it and say, “This is our fifth season — that’s amazing.” And not expected.

Deadline: When did you realize it was working?

Short: I think after looking at a few episodes. I’m an executive producer, so I’m seeing rough cuts and giving notes, but I’m also getting a sense of, “Boy, actually, this is fun. I like these characters, and I like their interaction.” And then we’ve had brilliant guest stars, of course.

Deadline: At first, it wasn’t obvious how you’d sustain it.

Short: It’s very weave-y writing, it’s like, “Who? What? When?” But it all makes sense at the end, which is amazing.

Deadline: And very unusual for a streaming series.

Short: Yes, I know.

Deadline: So you’re being celebrated once again for Oliver Putnam. Where did that character come from?

Short: It’s like any character development. It starts, obviously, in the description and what the character’s saying, but then determining his clothing. In the first scene, he’s walking across the street, someone honks at him, and he screams, “Did you not see this coat?” So what kind of coat is that? And is that how he dresses? And how does he dress? You just start building it that way. It comes from the words.

Deadline: How would you describe him as a personality?

Short: I’ve always been drawn toward any character that has a bravado that’s clearly masking insecurity. I remember as a kid, I loved Don Knotts on The Andy Griffith Show. And he had a swagger, but you knew great insecurity. He had a squad car with a radio, and the aerial went all the way up and looped to the back — except he didn’t actually have a radio! And so those kinds of characters, to me, are just hilarious. With Oliver, when he tells those stories about all these celebrities he knows, are they really true?

Deadline: How much say do you have in those moments? There are scenes when he’s telling stories, these rich showbiz anecdotes. Do they let you riff on those?

Short: It’ll be discussed, but it really is quite the written show that I’ve performed. I weasel in freedom takes sometimes. And sometimes they use some of that, and sometimes they don’t.

Deadline What’s a freedom take?

Short: Oh, a freedom take is when you’ve done a few takes with all the words written as they were written, and then you improvise and try something different. Just to say you did everything you could do.

From left: Selena Gomez, Martin Short and Steve Martin in Season 5 of ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Patrick Harbron/Disney

Deadline: At the start of every season, do you go through what shape it’s going to take? You obviously keep saying that it’s a very scripted show, but do you have any sort of say in the shape of the show, not just Oliver, but in terms of how it’s going?

Short: No. Well, I don’t think it’s so much “I have no say” as much as…

Deadline: You don’t want it?

Short: Yeah, I don’t want it. Because I know that’s covered. That’s why actors sometimes go to dailies during the making of a movie. It’s because they’re not going to be in the edit room when the decisions are being made. They’re going to see if the director is any good. They want to know that when he said, “Moving on,” did he really have it, or should he have done more takes? And once you start to feel, “No, we’re in safe hands,” you let that go. It’s more time to learn lines.

Related: Renée Zellweger Joins Fifth Season Of ‘Only Murders In The Building’

Deadline: Talking about the guest stars, how are the guest stars decided upon? What kind of meetings do you have about that?

Short: Oh, that is definitely run past Steven, Selena and myself. If they suggested someone that I either personally hated or professionally hated, that vote would go a long way. It wouldn’t work.

Deadline: What’s different about Oliver this time round?

Short: I don’t know. I don’t analyze myself that way. I don’t sit back and say, “You know what I’ve done with Oliver this season…?” I look at the script and I think, “How do I make this real and funny?” That’s what I think. And know that I’m in such good hands. That’s the other huge liberating thing about doing a show like this. Especially into a Season 5, you feel like you’re in such safe hands that no one’s going to make you look like an idiot. No one’s going to make the wrong choice. And so, it loosens you up. It makes you feel very free. But I don’t really go in with endlessly preconceived notions of what might come across. I certainly prepare thoughts, but you want to be open to the moment and what the other actor is giving you, and maybe that’s going to change your mind.

Deadline: Do you have a favorite scene or a favorite line that Oliver has come up with?

Short: No, I don’t. I let people tell me what their favorite line is too. It would be, to me, a little bit creepy if I said, “Yes, I have five of them. My fifth favorite thing is…”

Deadline: You’ve talked a lot in your past about comedy, having fashions and phases, and Only Murders seems to withstand that.

Short: Yeah, but with Selena and her generation represented, it’s a much more nuanced situation. Anything that is different and original is fascinating.

Deadline: Have you discovered a whole new fan base as a result of that?

Short: Well, I’ve done so many different kinds of things. When people come up to me, I can almost tell as they’re approaching me what they’re going to want to talk about. If it’s a 45-year-old guy, it’s ¡Three Amigos! If it’s a 40-year-old woman, it’s Father of the Bride. If it’s a 28-year-old who looks like he’s on meth, it’s Clifford.

Deadline: That didn’t get very good reviews, did it?

Short: No, it didn’t.

Deadline: Do bad reviews dishearten you at all?

Short: Well, no one likes a bad review, but in the case of Clifford … that was made in 1994 and sometimes, like a lovely wine, a film needs to age a little bit. [Laughs] It has a very passionate fan base now.

Deadline: I very much enjoyed your guest stint on Jimmy Kimmel’s show last year.

Short: Oh, thank you.

Deadline: Jiminy Glick seemed just as relevant as ever.

Short: I think it’s like why certain traditions in show business last. Like SNL or Second City in Chicago and Toronto. Glick is just someone who … there’s always going to be someone like him who’s doing that job. I call them “morons with power.”

Deadline: Can you name any examples?

Short: You can just look at a newspaper.

Deadline: He’s still pretty anarchic compared to what passes for comedy nowadays.

Short: Well, it’s always been a weird character for me because I don’t plan anything, I just improvise it. And then we edit it to make everyone look better. To me, it’s a combination of stupidity and arrogance, and by combining those two together, you have a new character.

Deadline: Do you enjoy the comedy of embarrassment? Do you enjoy it when people are uncomfortable? Not unpleasantly uncomfortable, but just enough that they don’t know what to make of you when you’re in character…

Short: Well, I think they know that there’s no real negative intentions, that it’s all just silly. Jiminy Glick would ask a guest, “Do urinal dividers take the fun out of urinals.” Now, there’s nothing critical to the person being asked the question, it’s just a moronic question.

Deadline: Looking ahead, do you have anything lined up? Or are you completely focused on the next season of Only Murders?

Short: Well, Steve and I have many live concerts for the next few months.

Deadline: Do you still get the same buzz from performing live as you used to?

Short: Oh, it’s fun. I’m Canadian. In the ’70s, there was no star system, so you just did the three mediums [TV, film, stand-up] always at once. And that, to me, kept it all interesting. And so that’s what I’ve always done. So I love the idea of doing one thing and then you’re doing another. It’s like, “Oh, now you’re doing live shows,” and “Oh, now you’re back to filming again.” The much bigger concern is, how do you, after many, many years, still feel motivated and intrigued and — “Ooh, it’s a new mountain!” — invigorated by it? You’ve reached a point where you’re not worried about the rent anymore.

Exclusive: Linden Entertainment has signed bestselling author and screenwriter May Cobb for management.

Known for works of suspense, Cobb most famously wrote the novel The Hunting Wives, which Netflix recently launched as a series exec produced by Cobb, after picking up exclusive U.S. rights during the Starz-Lionsgate separation agreement.

Published by Penguin Random House in 2021, the book is a psychological thriller centered on Sophie O’Neill, a former journalist who moves back to her wealthy Texas hometown with her family after a series of personal setbacks, becoming captivated by a group of women known for their upscale lifestyle, social gatherings, and their obsession with hunting.

Since premiering on July 21, The Hunting Wives has remained a Top Ten Television Show for Netflix and racked up billions of minutes viewed, per Luminate data, doing particularly impressive numbers for a show that’s only streaming domestically.

Cobb’s next novel, All the Little Houses,...

There’s been much talk lately of the decline of the movie comedy. But action-comedies, the movie comedy’s punchier, shootier, more explodey cousin, are all the rage — at least for streaming services looking for undemanding, easy-to-watch, pop-it-on-in-the-background fare. In the last year alone, we’ve had Deep Cover, Heads Of State, Love Hurts, Novocaine, Back In Action, Guns Up — and now The Pickup, starring Eddie Murphy.

Murphy would seem like canny casting: he is largely responsible for the popularity of action-comedies in their modern form, having starred in some of the greatest incarnations of the subgenre in the 1980s, from 48 Hrs. to Beverly Hills Cop. But in The Pickup, he is unwisely and disappointingly placed in the role of the straight man, his natural comedic gifts largely muzzled, while fellow former SNL cast-member Pete Davidson takes the role of his comedic foil. They play mismatched security guards thrown together for a job,...

After several weeks of relative inactivity, during which Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal's The Accountant 2 had become a fixture at the number one spot, the Prime Video viewership charts have taken a dynamic turn in recent weeks. First, the action-comedy Heads of State claimed the top spot for itself, only to be replaced by the rather unlikely War of the Worlds reimagining a couple of weeks later. What made the development so surprising was that War of the Worlds was one of the most widely panned films in recent memory; it continues to hold a rare 0% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. But only a week after its release, the "screenlife" thriller has been unseated from the number one spot by Eddie Murphy's new film, The Pickup.

Also starring Pete Davidson and Keke Palmer, the heist movie opened to mixed reviews. It holds a 33% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes,...

Amazon Prime Video’s War of the Worlds is trending online, with critics (and the internet alike) mostly rebuking the film.

The 2025 adaptation of H. G. Wells’ 1898 novel of the same name stars Ice Cube as Will Radford, a Department of Homeland Security officer, who is tasked with keeping Earth safe from an infamous hacker when an alien invasion simultaneously occurs.

This isn’t the first time Wells’ story has been refurbished. Orson Welles’ was the first to adapt War of the Worlds with his infamous 1938 radio broadcast. Additional reiterations include Steven Spielberg’s 2005 film of the same name, and several other movies and TV shows.

The official logline for the film reads, “A gargantuan invasion is coming with this fresh take on the legendary novel of the same name. Renowned actress Eva Longoria is joined by iconic rapper and actor Ice Cube, along with Michael O’Neill and Iman Benson,...

Warning: contains spoilers for Prime Video’s 2025 adaptation of War of the Worlds.

Last week, Prime Video dropped its new straight-to-streaming take on War of the Worlds. H.G. Wells’ original novel was published in 1898, which means it’s in the public domain, and contemporary artists can do whatever they want with the source material. Apparently, that includes turning it into dogshit.

If you’ve somehow missed the novel and its many adaptations — including a recent series that ran for three seasons and starred Gabriel Byrne, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Elizabeth McGovern, but which hid from us all on the usually forgotten premium movie network Epix — War of the Worlds is about a terrestrial invasion by aliens from Mars, who feed on human blood. The novel is a first-person narrative, and thus lent itself to Orson Welles’ interpretation. In his 1938 radio play, a broadcaster reports on the invasion beat by beat,...

After foiling an elaborate heist in Amazon MGM‘s The Pickup, Eddie Murphy is ready to square off against the undead for the upcoming action comedy Playas Ball. The beloved entertainer will partner with Imagine Entertainment for his latest project, with Happy Gilmore 2 helmer Kyle Newacheck directing. Details about Playas Ball are scarce, but Deadline says it’s an action comedy about the undead.

Newacheck directs Playas Ball from a script by Myles Murphy, with Brian Grazer and Jeb Brody producing via Imagine Entertainment, with Eddie Murphy Productions’ Eddie Murphy and Christian Hewitt-Webster. Murphy is a frequent partner at Imagine Entertainment, after working on films like The Nutty Professor franchise, Bowfinger, Life, Boomerang, Candy Cane Lane, and Tower Heist. How the group plans to approach an action comedy about the undead remains to be seen, but it should be interesting.

Eddie Murphy’s latest film is The Pickup, which stars Murphy,...

Exclusive: In the first of three roundtables featuring this year’s Emmy nominees for Outstanding Casting, Deadline gathered Jeanie Bacharach (The Bear), Linda Lowy (Hacks), Destiny Lilly (Only Murders in the Building), Brett Benner (Shrinking) and Melissa Kostenbauder (The Studio) to talk about self tapes, landing the joke, and the challenges that come with preparing the next generation of casting directors.

The nominees, who each had to submit a 30-minute composition reel from the season to showcase their work, also explained how they judge their peers and what they were most proud of accomplishing on their respective shows.

Deadline: This casting category encompasses the best comedies on television right now. How do you decide which show is more awards worthy than the other?

Destiny Lilly: Fun fact: we actually can’t vote for ourselves. We are not allowed to vote in the category we’re nominated in. People just...

Exclusive: Golden Globe nominee Eva Longoria has signed on to star opposite Maia Reficco in The Last Sunrise, Amazon MGM’s adaptation of the bestselling romance novel by After series author Anna Todd, on which we were first to report.

Longoria will play Isolde, the protective mother of Reficco’s character, Ry. The project puts Longoria back in business with Amazon MGM Studios on the heels of The Pickup, an action comedy where she stars opposite Eddie Murphy that just debuted on Prime Video. She’s also set to appear in the studio’s holiday flick Oh. What. Fun. from Michael Showalter, which is out on Prime Video on December 3rd.

Set in Majorca, The Last Sunrise follows 22-year-old Oriah “Ry” Pera (Reficco), whose life has been shaped by chronic illness and a well-meaning but overbearing mom. When a summer relocation gives her a taste of freedom, she meets Julián,...

Exclusive: Eddie Murphy will continue his long collaborative relationship with Imagine Entertainment. He’s set to star in Playas Ball, a comedy that will be directed by Kyle Newacheck, who just helmed the Netflix hit Happy Gilmore 2. They’re keeping the logline under wraps, but it’s described to me as an action comedy about the undead.

Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer and Jeb Brody will produce with Eddie Murphy Productions’ Eddie Murphy and Charisse Hewitt-Webster. Myles Murphy is scripting.

Eddie Murphy has just opened in The Pickup, the Amazon MGM comedy he stars in with Pete Davidson, Keke Palmer and Eva Longoria. The film just dropped on Amazon Prime.

It has been 40 years since Grazer and director Ron Howard formed Imagine after teaming on the hit Splash. Murphy has been a regular contributor to the company’s ascension, headlining films that include The Nutty Professor franchise, Bowfinger, Life,...

Being number one is not necessarily a good thing, and the latest reimagination of War of the Worlds is a good example. Widely panned by critics and viewers alike, the movie currently stands at 0% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Despite the universal dislike of it, that hasn't stopped viewers from checking out what the fuss is about. As a result, War of the Worlds is the top movie on Prime Video, a week after it was released. The Ice Cube-starring sci-fi movie's description reads:

Will Radford is a top cyber-security analyst for Homeland Security who tracks potential threats to national security through a mass surveillance program, until one day an attack by an unknown entity leads him to question whether the government is hiding something from him... and from the rest of the world.

Adapted from H.G. Wells' book of the same name, War of the Worlds...

" I'm always thrilled about it and I’m always trying to do the best work," two-time Emmy-winning production designer Patrick Howe says about scoring his third consecutive nomination for Only Murders in the Building. Howe explains in Gold Derby's Meet the Experts: TV Production Designers panel that the challenge "on an ongoing series, with new material, is trying to keep things fresh and have it feel like the first time for audience; that they can see new content and look at characters in a new way and always approaching it like it's like it's a first season." (Watch our full interview above.)

See Selena Gomez, Martin Short, and Steve Martin in first look at Season 5 of ‘Only Murders in the Building’

Hulu’s hit comedy-mystery Only Murders in the Building follows three true-crime enthusiasts; Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin), Oliver Putnam (Martin Short), and Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez), who turn their...

At the peak of the trend a few years ago, every celebrity seemed to have their own brand of tequila. Today, there’s a new investment craze: a soccer club and a complementary TV series.

Eva Longoria has both. “Necaxa,” which debuts Thursday on FX, follows the namesake Mexican club, in which Longoria has a stake, as it strives to inch up Mexico’s top league and make the coveted playoffs.

It charts Longoria’s post-investment role as she becomes “La Patrona” (The Boss), as the players on the team call her. Yet soccer is a notoriously hard business, and one now saturated with celebrities who are using their investment to spawn accompanying entertainment. But Longoria said “Necaxa” (pronounced “Necaha”) has a standout story, and a potentially large audience in the U.S. Latino market.

Thanks to the success of “Welcome to Wrexham,” the TV series as an ancillary product...

While Ice Cube’s War of the Worlds is #1 on Prime Video, the film has done terribly among audiences and critics. Currently standing at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, one week after its release on July 30, 2025, the remake is one of Cube’s worst-rated films to date. What’s worse is that Seth Rogen’s Platonic Season 2 has gained a 100% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes in just one day since its premiere.

The juxtaposition hits even harder after 50 Cent’s playful Instagram (via @50cent/Instagram) roast of the film and Cube for the zero rating, further fueling social media chatter. Cube’s cosmic backfire, contrasted with Rogen’s triumph on TV, could definitely raise some eyebrows and side eyes.

Why War of the Worlds (2005) Fared Better Than Ice Cube’s 2025 Remake

Ice Cube’s reboot of the classic War of the Worlds 1898 novel by H. G. Wells was released on July...

Prime Video’s The Pickup (2025), directed by Tim Story, puts a fresh spin on the buddy heist comedy formula with a vibrant ensemble and no shortage of surprises. The film centers on two armored truck drivers whose delivery spirals into chaos after a daring ambush by a crew of ruthless—and unexpectedly familiar—criminals. Here’s an in-depth look at the cast and the roles they bring to life.

‘The Pickup’: Complete Cast & Characters Guide 1. Eddie Murphy as Russell Pierce

Russell is a veteran armored truck driver who’s spent decades playing it safe for his wife, Natalie. All he wants is to complete his last shift and celebrate their 25th anniversary, but he’s drawn back into action when his route turns dangerous. Murphy’s signature blend of curmudgeonly humor and world-weary wisdom keeps the team grounded amid escalating tensions. Fans know Murphy from classics like Beverly Hills Cop,...

​​A wheel almost literally comes off the armored truck where much of the action and most of the comedy takes place in Tim Story’s action-comedy “The Pickup” (a rather confusing name considering that’s another type of truck altogether). It’s early enough in the proceedings, so a quick repair makes the van roadworthy again. But sadly, no such fix exists for this ungainly star vehicle’s metaphorical wheels which, as the plot squeals around yet another credulity-defying twist, are soon flying off in all directions leaving the movie careening wildly across the freeway, gears grinding, axles sparking, while a checked-out Eddie Murphy and an overcompensatingly antic Pete Davidson strap in, grimly trying to gin up some buddy chemistry.

Murphy and Davidson play armored truck guards — veteran Russell and rookie Travis, respectively — thrown together on this particular day by circumstance and their mean-mannered boss Clark (Andrew Dice Clay). Clark...

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The Pickup is a heist action comedy film directed by Tim Story from a screenplay co-written by Matt Mider and Kevin Burrows. The 2025 film follows two armored truck drivers with totally different personalities who get ambushed by ruthless criminals and forced to rob a casino. The Pickup stars Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson, Keke Palmer, Eva Longoria, Andrew Dice Clay, and Marshawn Lynch. So, if you loved the wild comedy, thrilling heist, and entertaining characters in The Pickup, here are some similar movies you should check out next.

‎30 Minutes or Less (Xumo Play & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Columbia Pictures

‎30 Minutes or Less is an action comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer from a screenplay by Michael Diliberti. The 2011 film follows Nick Davis, a hapless pizza boy who is strapped with a bomb and told to rob a bank by two idiotic ne’er-do-wells.

Warning: contains spoilers for The Pickup.

The Prime Video original movie The Pickup isn’t awful. As straight-to-streaming titles go, I actually found it more watchable than last month’s much more high-profile Happy Gilmore 2. But while its genre is officially action comedy, hard laughs were, for me, hard to come by.

If you’re not familiar — and you probably aren’t, since Prime Video is terrible at marketing its own titles; let me probably be the first to tell you that it dropped today — The Pickup is about a heist. Eddie Murphy plays Russell, a veteran armored-car driver in New Jersey. We’re meeting him on his 25th wedding anniversary. He and his wife Natalie (Eva Longoria) have been diligently saving so that he can ditch the job that requires him to get up at 4 a.m., and move on to their next phase of life running a bed and breakfast.

A cursed Covid-made version of the Hg Wells classic, starring Ice Cube, has emerged after five-year delay – perhaps it should have stayed buried

Just over 20 years ago, Steven Spielberg released War of the Worlds, a remake of the Hg Wells classic updated for then modern day, capturing an era of post-9/11 anxiety filtered through the prism of late-90s disaster movies. That movie’s reputation has only grown over the years – it’s basically the thinking and anxious person’s Independence Day – but the Wells text has been revisited repeatedly since its publication at the tail end of the 19th century. 2025 seems as good a time as any for another update. And if ever any viewers yearned to see a new War of the Worlds beset with the constant pinging of a Microsoft Teams chat, Prime Video has a real treat in store.

Yes, hovering towards the top of Prime...

Prime Video's War of the Worlds is baffling viewers on social media, and some are calling it one of the worst movies of all time. Directed by Rich Lee, the sci-fi film is based on H.G. Wells' 1898 novel The War of the Worlds, which was previously adapted by Steven Spielberg in 2005, with Tom Cruise in the starring role.

This new take on the classic source material stars Ice Cube as protagonist William Radford, with supporting cast members including Eva Longoria, Clark Gregg, and Andrea Savage, among others. Prime Video's War of the Worlds takes a new approach to the story, with the action happening exclusively on screens over video conferencing software.

After its release on Prime Video on July 30, many subscribers have now gotten a chance to watch the new War of the Worlds, and some are taking to X, formerly Twitter, to share their feelings on the movie.

Spoiler Alert !!!This article contains major spoilers for 'The Pickup'.

The Pickup on Prime Video is officially here! The heist comedy starring Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson, Eva Longoria, and Keke Palmer is a wild ride full of twists and turns (literally). The film features Russell (Murphy) and Travis (Davidson), an unlikely armored truck guard/driver duo, who set out on a long shift.

Not too long into their journey, they get hijacked by Zoe, a robber who’s on a mission to rob $60 million from an Atlantic City casino called The Sorrento. The two guards are coerced into the heist by Zoe when she loses her original partners. What follows is a delightful blend of a masterful revenge plan/heist with ample comedic chops in tow.

FandomWire’s The Pickup review positions the film as a “clever and funny heist comedy”. Let’s get into all the dirty details of the heist,...

Heads Of State Looses No1 Prime Video’s Spot ( Photo Credit – Prime Video )

John Cena charged onto Prime Video’s global charts with Heads of State, and for nearly a month, nothing came close. The wrestler-turned-actor, alongside Idris Elba and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, kept the action-comedy glued to the top spot, while drawing millions into its fast-paced political misadventure. However, that hold did not last forever because over the weekend, the unexpected happened. A screenlife version of War of the Worlds pushed Cena and company off the throne, per Flixpatrol.

Ice Cube’s War Of The Worlds Overtakes The Charts

The new take on the classic story stars Ice Cube as a Homeland Security surveillance pro, operating entirely through screens and devices. While audiences tuned in, critics did not hold back. The film has hit rock bottom on Rotten Tomatoes, sitting at zero percent, a rare spot few ever reach.

Nowadays, streaming has carved its own market and doesn’t exactly need to compete with theatrical releases to get the attention of the people. That said, back in the day, when it was still building its foundation by bringing in A-listers, their products used to have a certain level of quality that’d make audiences sit up and pay attention. I’m talking about movies like Okja, The Vast of Night, and Greyhound. However, some time during the pandemic, the attitude shifted towards using the popularity of the star cast to draw in people and then feed them slop in the name of “cinema,” thereby giving birth to terms like “slopbuster” or “mockbuster.” In my opinion, stuff like The Gray Man, The Tomorrow War, and Ghosted are the worst offenders. Now, having watched The Pickup, I think we are entering a new era of direct-to-streaming releases that aren’t even trying.

Move over, Steven Spielberg. There’s a new “War of the Worlds” in town.

Actually, you’re probably fine.

A new adaptation of H. G. Wells’ seminal sci-fi classic “The War of the Worlds” released on Amazon Prime in late July, making waves on social media for all the wrong reasons.

The movie takes place entirely on various screens, following Ice Cube’s Will Radford (a surveillance expert for the Department of Homeland Security) as he witnesses the alien invasion from his computer. It currently sits at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes with 14 reviews. The audience score, with more than a thousand reviews, is a mere 14%.

Many have latched onto a text card in the film’s trailer that reads, “It’S Worse Than You Think” as a sign of the movie’s quality (or lack thereof). The trailer itself, which released in mid-July, became a mini online phenomenon for its bizarre tease of the screenlife adaptation.

On the latest episode of the “Daily Variety” podcast, Eva Longoria joins co-editor Cynthia Littleton to talk about her new soccer docuseries, “Necaxa,” premiering on FX on Aug. 7.

Before her involvement in the project — which follows Longoria as she tries to revive Club Necaxa, a football team in Aguascalientes, Mexico — Longoria became connected to the sport after initially investing in the Los Angeles Angel City Fc women’s pro soccer team, which is majority owned by Disney CEO Bob Iger and Willow Bay.

“Angel City for Los Angeles was a very specific project led by Natalie Portman and Julie Uhrman, who wanted to prove that female owners could run a female team in female sports,” Longoria says on the podcast. “It was a good pilot program.”

Real estate investor Al Tylis and Sam Porter, an executive at Club Necaxa, approached Longoria about her interest in investing in the team. “They...

The celebrity-owned sports team docuseries has become a genre unto itself, a reliable formula for underdog stories. The latest entry, Necaxa, follows actress and producer Eva Longoria’s investment in a historic Mexican soccer club from Aguascalientes.

The stated mission is a noble one: to awaken a sleeping giant, reconnect a team with its city, and restore Club Necaxa to its former glory. Longoria serves as the narrative guide, her personal story of reconnecting with her Mexican heritage woven into the team’s fate.

The series is executive produced by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, whose presence signals a clear lineage to a successful predecessor. Much of the story unfolds in Spanish, a choice that grounds the series in its setting and reflects Longoria’s own linguistic path. The pieces are all there for a familiar and satisfying sports narrative.

The Specter of Ownership

A central question hangs over Necaxa: what,...

“It’s worse than you think.” That’s the actual tagline featured in the trailer for War of the Worlds, a new adaptation of the H.G. Wells sci-fi classic that seemingly came out of nowhere last week. The trailer was released online just a few days before the movie was released exclusively on Prime Video, leaving many to wonder where the hell this thing even came from.

Now that many people have taken the time to actually watch the movie, well, War of the Worlds (2025) has gone viral on social media for one particularly noteworthy reason: with 13 reviews currently submitted at this time, the movie has a 0% Rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes.

From director Rich Lee and producers Patrick Aiello and Timur Bekmambetov, War of the Worlds premiered on Prime Video on July 30, and the new twist on the classic tale presents the alien invasion through the lens of the “screenlife” subgenre,...

Prime Video’s 2025 screen life take on War of the Worlds was supposed to bring H.G. Wells into the digital era, but instead it crashed spectacularly. It launched to a rare 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics called its all-monitor setup dull and said the heavy Amazon product placement undermined any suspense.

Even a brief stint at No. 1 in Prime Video’s Top Ten couldn’t stop audiences from tuning out. But despite the movie crashing and burning, the cast didn’t walk away empty‑handed. Ice Cube and his co‑stars still pocketed hefty checks. Here’s how each actor fits into the fiasco, the career moments that got them here, and what they earned from one of Hollywood’s biggest streaming flops.

Ice Cube Ice Cube in a still from War of the Worlds | Credits: Prime Video

Ice Cube starred as Will Radford, a Dhs surveillance officer who starts the...