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The Weeknd, aka Abel Tesfaye’s, upcoming film, Hurry Up Tomorrow, with Jenna Ortega, has been creating a wave of anticipation ever since the movie was announced. It promises its viewers a thrilling ride of emotions and revelations as a renowned singer crosses paths with an up-and-coming artist. The two embark on a journey of companionship and self-exploration that might just be dangerous and addictive.

However, the movie seems to follow a similar pattern to The Weeknd’s previous work, The Idol, which premiered on HBO. The show opened to a lot of expectations, but it flopped drastically. Going by the themes of The Weeknd’s offerings, it can be said that the movie is also set up for the same fate as The Idol.

Is Hurry Up Tomorrow set up for the same fate as The Idol? The Weeknd as a fictional version of himself in the upcoming film...

Just last Friday, Abel Tesfaye — aka music megastar The Weeknd — dropped Hurry Up Tomorrow, the blockbuster finale to a trilogy of albums that started with 2020's After Hours and continued in 2022 with Dawn FM. A high-concept, semi-autobiographical deconstruction of the fame monster laden with synths, hooky beats, and a brooding noirish undercurrent, Tomorrow doesn't just feel like a movie — it's about to become one. Directed by Trey Edward Shults (It Comes At Night) and starring Tesfaye, Jenna Ortega, and Barry Keoghan, the cinematic version of The Weeknd's latest — and supposedly last — album is an insomniac odyssey in which the pop icon plays a version of himself as he comes undone. Check out the provocative first trailer for Shults' psychological horror/thriller below:

Abel in the tub. Abel in the club. Abel in the arena. Abel in a big ol' house looking deeply troubled. Yeah, we're thinking Tesfaye's got a lot...

The Weeknd, real name Abel Tesfaye, plays a musician plagued by insomnia and facing an emotional breakdown in the official trailer for the suspense thriller Hurry Up Tomorrow, the first feature film from the pop star set for a May 16 theatrical release.

The teaser, which dropped on Tuesday, sees a musician character called Abel Tesfaye pulled into an odyssey with a stranger who begins to unravel the very core of his existence, according to a synopsis from the producers.

The trailer will also feed into speculation The Weeknd in real life wants to shed his pop star persona and revert to his real name. “Call me by the familiar name,” a voice is heard to say at one point in the teaser, while in the background someone yells “Abel!”

Hurry Up Tomorrow, which also stars Jenna Ortega as Anima and Barry Keoghan as Lee, is inspired by The Weeknd’s...

The Weeknd is turning the camera inward for suspense thriller “Hurry Up Tomorrow.”

The “Idol” co-creator and lead star, Aka Abel Tesfaye, is reuniting with his team from the series for the feature, which will be released alongside his upcoming album of the same name January 24. Fans will have to wait a little longer for the film, though, which will be in theaters May 16.

The elusive logline reads: “A musician (Tesfaye) plagued by insomnia gets pulled into an odyssey with a stranger who begins to unravel his existence.”

Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan co-star alongside Tesfaye, who cowrote the film with his “Idol” co-writer Reza Fahim.

Trey Edward Shults, who previously helmed 2019 drama “Waves” and 2017 horror film “It Comes at Night,” is directing. Shults also cowrote the feature.

Tesfaye told Variety that he specifically wanted Shults to put his own spin on the script.

“I gave him [the script], and said, ‘I...

Lionsgate has release the first trailer for “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” Trey Edward Shults’ upcoming feature starring The Weeknd, Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan. The film is set to release on May 16.

“Hurry Up Tomorrow” is a suspense thriller that features music from The Weeknd, whose new album of the same name releases on Jan. 24. The album is the conclusion to the musical trilogy of The Weeknd’s “After Hours” and “Dawn FM.”

Shults serves as co-writer for the script alongside The Weeknd and his producing partner Reza Fahim. The plot is based on an original idea from the musician. The Weeknd, Fahim, Kevin Turen and Harrison Kreiss serve as producers while Ortega and Shults are executive producers.

Shults’ most recent feature was the 2019 film “Waves,” a family drama starring Kelvin Harrison, Jr., Taylor Russell, Sterling K. Brown, Lucas Hedges, Alexa Demie and Renée Elise Goldsberry. He’s also directed the...

The Weeknd is officially a movie star. The first trailer for Hurry Up Tomorrow, headlined by the singer-songwriter and based on his sixth studio album of the same name, has just been released.

While his stage name is The Weeknd, for Hurry Up Tomorrow, the singer-songwriter will be using his real name, Abel Tesfaye, with the trailer revealing that he is playing a fictionalized version of himself. Per the official logline, the upcoming psychological thriller, which has horror undertones, follows "a musician plagued by insomnia is pulled into an odyssey with a stranger who begins to unravel the very core of his existence." Check out the official trailer below.

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Hurry Up Tomorrow is directed by Trey Edward Shults, who is best known for his 2017 horror...

The newest queen of horror, Jenna Ortega's next horror project just received a big update.While fans wait for Wednesday season 2, Ortega has another horror project on the horizon. From the director of Waves and It Comes at Night, Hurry Up Tomorrowstars Ortega, Barry Keoghan, and Abel Tesfaye, most commonly known as the multi-platinum artist The Weeknd. Lionsgate has released the first stills from the film directed and co-written by Trey Edward Shults, showing off the cinematic horror coming to theaters on May 16. The quasi-autobiographical story centers on "a musician plagued by insomnia [who] gets pulled into an odyssey with a stranger (Ortega) who begins to unravel the very core of his existence," according to the official synopsis.

The photos show off the unique lighting of Shults' upcoming film and were accompanied by an EW interview with the director and the muse himself, The Weeknd. However, perhaps even more interesting...

Lionsgate has unveiled the first stills from Hurry Up Tomorrow, its psychological thriller co-written, produced by and starring Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, which is slated for an exclusive theatrical release on May 16.

Tied to The Weeknd’s sixth studio album of the same name, which released January 31, Hurry Up Tomorrow marks the artist’s first leading film role. The story follows a musician plagued by insomnia who is pulled into an odyssey with a stranger who begins to unravel the very core of his existence.

Co-starring Jenna Ortega (Wednesday) and Barry Keoghan (Saltburn), the film is directed by Waves‘ Trey Edward Shults, who co-wrote the script with Tesfaye and Reza Fahim. Tesfaye and Fahim also produced the project, along with Kevin Turen and Harrison Kreiss.

A four-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, who boycotted the ceremony for a number of years, calling it “corrupt” amid the snub of his 2021 album After Hours, The...

As the Toronto International Film Festival opens, an uproar over the exit of the artistic director of The Berlinale, Berlin’s prestigious annual film festival, is laying bare the problems facing many international film festivals over finances, programming and the competing demands of government officials and artists.

On Wednesday, over 200 directors — including acclaimed filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader and Joanna Hogg — put their name to a petition asking for the reinstatement of the Berlinale’s artistic director, Carlo Chatrian, after the board that oversees the festival decided to change its leadership structure. Chatrian decided to walk away rather than take part in that transition in a diminished role.

The Berlinale leadership controversy is just part of the recent challenges during a very difficult time for film festivals. Nearly every festival, domestic and international, has struggled to pull in audiences in the wake of Covid and a shaky global economy...

There won’t be a comeback for The Idol.

HBO won’t move ahead with a second season of the drama from Euphoria creator Sam Levinson and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, who also starred. The series, starring Lily-Rose Depp as a pop star who falls under the sway of a Hollywood club owner (Tesfaye), suffered mostly negative reviews from critics, and viewership fell short of some other recent HBO shows.

“The Idol was one of HBO’s most provocative original programs, and we’re pleased by the strong audience response,” an HBO spokesperson said in a statement. “After much thought and consideration, HBO, as well as the creators and producers have decided not to move forward with a second season. We’re grateful to the creators, cast, and crew for their incredible work.”

A decision on whether to renew or cancel The Idol was in flux until recently, sources say.

The Idol is one and done at HBO.

The controversial series from Euphoria creator Sam Levinson and Abel Tesfaye, better known as The Weeknd, will not be returning for a second season.

It’s not a huge surprise given the critical and commercial reception of the show, which starred Tesfaye and Lily-Rose Depp. It also came after extensive reshoots following the departure of director Amy Seimetz, as revealed by Deadline in April 2022, and a reduced order taking its total number of episodes to five.

Some of the cast did mention the possibility of a second season during interviews, though show insiders said that creators did not come into the production process with a plan for a multi-season arc.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who played one of the managers of Depp’s pop star Jocelyn, previously said that the first season was left intentionally open-ended for the possibility of a second.

“The Idol...

Track List:

The Weeknd – A Lesser Man

Written by Abel Tesfaye, Mike Dean & Sam Levinson. Produced by The Weeknd & Mike Dean

The Weeknd – Take Me Back

Written By: Abel Tesfaye, Mike Dean & Jason “DaHeala” Quenneville. Produced by The Weeknd & Mike Dean

Moses Sumney – Get It B4

Written By: Moses Sumney, Roman GianArthur & Jarett Goodly. Produced By: Moses Sumney, Roman GianArthur & Sensei Bueno

The HBO® Original series The Idol debuts new episodes Sundays at 9:00 p.m. Et/Pt on HBO, and will be available to stream on Max.

Starring Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye and Lily-Rose Depp, the series is co-created by Sam Levinson (HBO’s “Euphoria”), Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, and Reza Fahim. It is executive produced by Levinson, Tesfaye, Fahim, Kevin Turen, Ashley Levinson, Joe Epstein, Aaron L. Gilbert for Bron, and Sara E. White, and produced in partnership with A24. For updates on the show, follow @theidol on Instagram.

The premiere of The Idol didn’t draw a huge audience for HBO Sunday — but it did fall in line with some other recent series debuts on the premium cable outlet.

The Idol, which courted controversy with provocative trailers and was met with mostly negative reviews, drew 913,000 viewers across HBO (for the premiere and three replays) and Max on Sunday — with the majority of that coming via streaming on Max. The on-air debut on HBO drew 232,000 people, a little over a quarter of the total for the night.

The 913,000 viewers is a sizable step down from the first-night numbers for the final season of Succession, which immediately preceded The Idol in HBO’s 9 p.m. Sunday spot. It’s about level with a handful of other recent HBO drama debuts, however, including Winning Time (901,000 viewers) and season one of The White Lotus (944,000). Euphoria, from The Idol co-creator Sam Levinson, opened...

Will Sam Levinson have another HBO success on his hands with The Idol?

The series premiered Sunday night to 913,000 total viewers across Max and linear HBO telecasts, according to HBO. This is a fairly promising debut for The Idol, and viewership for the premiere is likely to grow in the next week as conversation about the somewhat controversial series continues ahead of Episode 2.

HBO says that new episodes of a series tend to draw 10%-20% of their total viewership on Sunday nights, indicating that The Idol will probably average several million viewers, at least for the first episode.

That being said, the series starring Abel Tesfaye aka The Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp didn’t quite match premiere viewership for Levinson’s first HBO hit, Euphoria. That series took home 1.1 million viewers on its premiere night in 2019, with a bit of a lead-in from a Season 2 episode of Big Little Lies.

After weeks of speculation, Cannes Delegate General Thierry Frémaux confirmed Thursday morning that Sam Levinson’s Euphoria follow-up The Idol will screen out-of-Competition at the festival.

Frémaux said he expects to see lead actor and co-creator Abel Tesfaye, who performs music as The Weeknd, on the Croisette for the premiere alongside co-star Lily-Rose Depp. The Starboy singer, Frémaux said, is a regular at the festival and has often traveled incognito to screen films playing in Competition.

The Idol is coming to Cannes Film Festival.

Congrats to everyone’s involved. @theweeknd pic.twitter.com/DrqCNk9f7F

— The Idol Updates (@theidolupdates) April 13, 2023

While announcing the title, Frémaux also described the HBO project as a “movie that could become a series.” The description was a mistake due to a mix-up in the French-English translation. The Idol is indeed a TV series, per HBO’s official promo materials. Sources can’t confirm how...

Trey Shults is riding the wave of Hollywood stardom.

After the “Waves” director recently confirmed an upcoming film starring Jenna Ortega, Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan, and The Weeknd, aka Abel Tesfaye, sources told IndieWire that Shults is additionally helming a secret A24 film. Casting has not yet been announced for the still-untitled feature.

A24 recently took home nine Oscars and made history as the first studio to dominate all major categories at the Academy Awards, with Best Picture winner “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “The Whale” sweeping acting categories.

The previously announced Shults film, which he co-wrote with Tesfaye, also has tangential ties to A24. Reza Fahim, who collaborated with Tesfaye on HBO series “The Idol,” also co-wrote the new project; A24 produces “The Idol,” as well as “Euphoria,” with “The Idol” showrunner Sam Levinson.

Tesfaye will compose the score for the feature with Daniel Lopatin, or Opn, who...