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Many actors have a sliding doors moment in their career when they pass up a choice role in a soon-to-be iconic movie. For some, it isn't a huge deal. Denzel Washington, for example, already had two Oscar nominations and one win under his belt by the time he decided he didn't want to star in David Fincher's "Se7en." Sure, he later came to regret turning away one of the defining films of the '90s, but he was already an established star and would be just fine without it. That isn't always the case when an actor hasn't quite built up the body of work to go around rejecting great parts –- just take Henry Winkler and Danny Zuko in "Grease."

Winkler was virtual unknown when he won the chance to play Fonzie on "Happy Days." Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli started out as a minor supporting character but quickly...

Jd Souther, a Songwriters Hall of Famer whose collaborations with The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor helped define the country-tinged Laurel Canyon/Southern California rock sound of the 1970s, has died. He was 78.

His reps said Souther died peacefully at his home in Sandia Park, Nm, but did not provide a cause or date of death.

Born John David Souther on November 2, 1945, in Detroit — he went by Jd, sans periods, throughout nearly all of his professional career — Souther was raised in Amarillo, Texas. He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1960s, where he soon, and fortuitously, formed a band called Longbranch Pennywhistle with musician-songwriter Glenn Frey, a fellow Detroit native. The two would continue their songwriting collaboration even after Frey went on to cofound The Eagles, one of the most successful rock bands in history.

Together, Souther and Frey would contribute some of the Eagles’ most enduring and beloved songs,...

Jd Souther, the singer and songwriter who co-wrote songs with the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt, has died. He was 78.

Souther died peacefully at his home in New Mexico, according to his rep. No cause of death was given. He was about to embark on a tour with Karla Bonoff.

Souther, a Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, was responsible for some of the Eagles’ biggest hits, including the songs “Best of My Love”, “Victim of Love”, “Heartache Tonight”, and “New Kid in Town”. “How Long.” With Ronstadt, he wrote and duetted on the classic songs “Prisoner in Disguise,” “Sometimes You Can’t Win” and “Hearts Against the Wind.” He also enjoyed a successful solo career and penned the hit songs “You’re Only Lonely” and “Her Town Too,” the latter a duet with Taylor.

Born John David Souther on Nov. 2, 1945 in Detroit, Michigan, he was raised in Amarillo, Texas. He started...

John David “J.D.” Souther, a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame known for co-penning hits with the Eagles, James Taylor, and Linda Ronstadt, has died at the age of 78.

The singer-songwriter died peacefully at home in New Mexico, according to reps at Solters PR. A cause of death was not given.

Souther was born in Detroit, Michigan, on Nov. 2, 1945, and raised in Amarillo, Texas. After moving to Los Angeles, California, in the late Sixties, he formed a longtime partnership with the Eagles’ Glenn Frey. The duo briefly formed...

Frank Griffin, who nosed out another makeup artist to work with Steve Martin on Roxanne, just one of the 20 movies they did together, has died. He was 95.

Griffin died Wednesday of cancer at his home in Studio City, his daughter Roxane Griffin, a veteran Hollywood hairstylist (Avatar, Transparent, 80 for Brady), told The Hollywood Reporter.

Frank Griffin started out in Hollywood as an actor and studio laborer before turning to makeup in the mid-1960s, and he went on to work on Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), Scarecrow (1973), Westworld (1973), Cinderella Liberty (1973), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Urban Cowboy (1980), Midnight Run (1988), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Vacation (1983), Revenge of the Nerds (1984) and Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985).

Survivors also include his sister Debra Paget, who starred in such films as Broken Arrow (1950), Love Me Tender (1956) — Elvis Presley’s first movie — and The Ten Commandments (1956).

His other two sisters were actresses as well: Lisa Gaye,...

Miranda Lambert recently went full circle with a throwback pic, as well as a current one from the megastar, and many of her fans are in awe of how much both pics look alike despite being separated by decades. So, what else are fans saying about this recent update?

Miranda Lambert Has Been At The Top Of The Charts For Decades

For many Miranda Lambert fans, it seems like just yesterday that the Texas native competed on Nashville Star. It’s almost uncanny how so many of the biggest country acts today got their start on some type of reality singing competition, and Miranda Lambert is no different.

Miranda Lambert was able to use that initial exposure as a springboard to climb all the way up into the stratosphere, and many of the people who listen to her now have followed her from the very beginning of her journey. It...

Pulp Fiction turned 30 this year and fans love the film even more when they hear the rare behind-the-scenes stories from the Quentin Tarantino classic. Well, here’s one that most fans might have missed — John Travolta was never the first choice for the role of Vincent Vega. Tarantino had another actor in mind who worked with him in his 1992 film, Reservoir Dogs.

John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson in a still from Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction | Miramax

Michael Madsen is a frequent collaborator on Tarantino films. However, when he was offered Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction, he had to turn it down due to his commitment to the 1994 Western flick Wyatt Earp. However, Madsen felt that Travolta’s addition to the film was one of the major reasons behind the success of Tarantino’s Oscar-nominated film.

Michael Madsen Shares Why His Replacement John Travolta Was Perfect For Pulp Fiction...

Oscar-nominated Debra Winger is one of the most enigmatic actresses of her generation. She burst onto the film scene in 1980 with “Urban Cowboy” and in the course of the next three years, she was nominated for four Golden Globe Awards as well as two Oscar nominations (for “Officer” and “Terms”). To many female moviegoers in particular, Winger embodied the kind of tough, self-sufficient woman that they aspired to become, yet there was always room within Winger’s characters for love with the right person.

Post-1983, Winger continued to work steadily, earning a fifth Golden Globe nod for 1993’s “A Dangerous Woman” as well as a third Oscar nomination and second BAFTA nom for 1993’s “Shadowlands.” However, after 1995’s romantic comedy “Forget Paris,” Winger virtually disappeared from high-profile films, choosing a semi-retirement with occasional film work now and then. The idea of retiring at the peak of one’s career was...

Although now he primarily stars in low-budget crime films, action thrillers, and future cult classics (such as the bizarre stalker film The Fanatic and the misguided mafia biopic Gotti), its easy to forget that John Travolta was once the most popular young romantic heartthrob of his generation. Travolta had immediately established himself as an actor of charisma, humor, and dramatic intensity with his roles in Carrie, Saturday Night Fever, and Grease, which showed that he could apply his unique personality to nearly any genre scenario. However, long before directors like John Woo and Quentin Tarantino put him back on the map, Travolta showed that he had what it took to be a leading man in James Bridges romantic drama Urban Cowboy. It wasnt just the most mature role that Travolta had ever done before, but the film proved that he was willing to question the identity he had so carefully constructed within his past roles.

"Cheers" was the third highest-rated show on television when Shelley Long opted to quit the series at the end of its fifth season and pursue movie stardom. Though the show had long since settled into its ensemble groove, the on-again/off-again Sam Malone and Diane Chambers romance was the primary generator of water-cooler chatter. Moreover, the chemistry between Long and Ted Danson was the stuff of a series showrunner's dream. Their banter was worthy of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. You don't just go out and find another Katharine Hepburn. Could "Cheers," brilliant and popular as it was, survive Long's departure, especially when fans had so much invested in Diane?

This was the conundrum faced by casting director Jeff Greenberg, who'd joined "Cheers" during Long's last season. He knew chasing the next Long was courting disaster, so he looked for an actor who could hold her own with Danson and...

Pluto TV, Paramount’s free streaming service, has revealed its April highlights. The Pluto TV April 2024 schedule celebrates the service’s 10th anniversary, highlights star-studded dramas, and marks the halfway point to Halloween with April Ghouls, where you’ll find spooky marathons across its channels.

Pluto TV is the leading free streaming television service, delivering hundreds of live, linear channels and thousands of titles on-demand to a global audience.

The Emmy Award-winning service curates a diverse lineup of channels in partnership with over 400 international media companies. It offers a wide array of genres, languages, and categories featuring movies, television series, sports, news, lifestyle, kids, and much more.

Pluto TV April 2024 Programming

10th Anniversary

Pluto TV is giving the gift of great TV and movies for its birthday.

April 1 at 8 p.m. Et on Action Drama: 10-Hour Seal Team marathon.

April 1 on Pluto TV Spotlight: 2014 Movie Marathon featuring Big Eyes, Noah,...

Beyoncé’s new album, Cowboy Carter, is out in the wild. In a press release, Beyoncé provided extensive insight into the making of the album and its variety of influences. Plus, read our review the album here.

Each Song Was Inspired by a Western Film

Notably, each song is its own version of a reimagined Western film, including Michael Matthews’ Five Fingers For Marseilles; James Bridges’ Urban Cowboy; Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight; Clint Eastwood’s Space Cowboys; Jeymes Samuel’s The Harder They Fall; and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. Often times, they films were playing on a screen during the recording process.

Additionally, some aspects of the album’s percussion were inspired by the Coen Brothers’ ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?.

Beyoncé also found inspiration in traditional country, R&b, blues, zydeco, and Black folk music, as well as from her childhood trips to the Houston Rodeo.

Beyoncé looked to fellow cultural titans to lasso inspiration for her new album “Cowboy Carter.”

The Grammy winner and “Dreamgirls” actress, who recently appeared in theaters with her “Renaissance” concert film, shared that she watched features such as Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” to craft her own “character” behind her debut country album.

“This album took over five years,” Beyoncé said in an official press release. “It’s been really great to have the time and the grace to be able to take my time with it. I was initially going to put ‘Cowboy Carter’ out first [before ‘Renaissance’], but with the pandemic, there was too much heaviness in the world. We wanted to dance. We deserved to dance. But I had to trust God’s timing.”

That timing also encompassed the release of additional features that influenced Beyoncé’s vision for the album,...

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter was created over the past five years. During that span of time, the world was upended by a global pandemic and social strife; Martin Scorsese grappled with the blood on the hands of American history with Killers of the Flower Moon; and Beyoncé brought diamonds and disco to the dance floor on Renaissance. All these vastly different occurrences are components that informed the creation, imagery, and release of Beyoncé’s first-ever country album.

“My process is that I typically have to experiment,” Beyoncé shared in a...

Amazon MGM Studios have landed rights to Benjamin Percy’s novella “American Criminal,” with Gavin O’Connor negotiating to direct.

The film, which Hidden Pictures and NeoText will produce, follows a professional thief who, after being apprehended by an FBI agent, is coaxed into infiltrating a violent Midwestern gang with the goal of dismantling them from the inside. However, what the FBI agent doesn’t know is that the thief is also orchestrating the largest – and last – heist of his life.

O’Connor has directed a number of popular and critically acclaimed works, including “Warrior” with Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy, “The Accountant” with Ben Affleck, “Miracle” with Kurt Russell, and “Tumbleweeds,” which featured an Oscar-nominated turn from Janet McTeer. He most recently retimed with Affleck on 2020’s “The Way Back,” the story of an alcoholic basketball coach.

Percy is the author of seven novels — including “The Sky Vault,” published this...

At the dawn of the 1980s, John Travolta was among the biggest film stars in the world. However, by the end of the decade, Travolta was in desperate need of a comeback.

The most logical explanation for the extended career slump that John Travolta experienced between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s is that Travolta stopped appearing in good films and, accordingly, made the public forget about the electrifying screen presence that Travolta projected in the films Blow Out, Grease, Saturday Night Fever, and Urban Cowboy.

Regardless, it stopped being cool to like Travolta. The flashpoint for Travolta’s stunning fall from grace in the 1980s was the 1985 romantic drama film Perfect, which, in addition to being a commercial and critical failure, also had the effect of turning Travolta into a proverbial joke.

After Perfect, Travolta didn’t appear in another feature film until the ill-fated 1989 comedy film The Experts,...

Billy Miller, the Daytime Emmy-winning actor from “The Young and the Restless” and “General Hospital,” died on Friday in Austin, Texas. He was 43.

Miller’s manager confirmed the news to Variety in a statement on Sunday, which would’ve marked the actor’s 44th birthday.

“The actor was struggling with manic depression when he died,” the statement read.

Miller’s mother Patricia released a statement via her son’s manager, who posted the message on X (formerly known as Twitter). She began by thanking fans and friends for the “overwhelming amount of love, prayers [and] condolences sent to me and my family” following her son’s passing.

“He fought a long hard valiant battle with bipolar depression for years,” Patricia Miller’s statement read. “He did everything he could to control the disease. He loved his family, his friends and his fans but in the end the disease won the fight and he surrendered his life.

John Travolta is an award-winning American actor, singer, producer, and dancer. He achieved international stardom following his leading role in the hit musical film Saturday Night Fever (1977), which earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. His subsequent box office successes include Grease (1978), Pulp Fiction (1994), Get Shorty (1995), Face/Off (1997), Swordfish (2001) and Be Cool (2005). His extensive film credits also include films such as Urban Cowboy (1980) and Phenomenon (1996). Other notable performances include the romantic comedy film Look Who’s Talking (1989) and its two sequels, as well as the comedic films Primary Colors (1998) and Hairspray (2007).

John Travolta. Depostiphotos

Throughout his career, Travolta has won numerous accolades including one Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for the television biopic The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016). Additionally, he was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor for Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction,...

When you say the name "John Travolta," people are going to know who you're talking about. The actor has made quite the name for himself in Hollywood. His filmography is chock full of modern classics. Everything from Brian de Palma's 1976 adaptation of Stephen King's first novel "Carrie" to more recent movies like 2007's "Hairspray" in which Travolta plays Edna Turnblad, the mother of the musical's main star, Tracy Turnblad.

Of course, when you think of Travolta, you also can't help but think of him dancing. Many of his most famous films have featured his ability to shake a leg on the dance floor. His role as bad boy Danny Zuko in "Grease" is where many of us first came to worship at the foot of Travolta's dance-infused alter, but his moves have only proliferated since then. He's mesmerized audiences with his and Uma Thurman's lackadaisical shimmy in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction,...

If movies have taught us anything it’s that childhood is a magical time where, if you’re doing it right, you befriend space aliens, rescue orcas, inherit chocolate factories or play every sport imaginable with an omni-talented Olympian dog.

Or, if you’re more of the melancholic type, at least you find a dead body in the woods. That’s the bare minimum anyone can ask for.

James Ponsoldt’s “Summering” is a direct descendant of “Stand By Me,” films about youngsters peppered with wispy nostalgia, in which the innocence of their youth is challenged by a corpse tucked away where only children are likely to find it. But whereas Rob Reiner’s classic coming-of-age film romanticized a decades-bygone era, Ponsoldt finds the same magically complicated mash-up of naiveté and depth in a contemporary setting. Childhood, he seems to argue, is always magical and horrifying in equal measure, no...

Chase Mishkin, the Broadway producer whose roster of productions scored two Tony Awards (for Dame Edna: The Royal Tour and Memphis), died July 24 at her home in Manhattan. She was 85.

Her death was made public in a New York Times obituary today. Mishkin’s daughter Julie Kahle told the newspaper that her mother had dementia and had suffered two strokes.

Mishkin began her theater producing career just shy of her 60th birthday following the death of her husband, carpet manufacturer Ralph Mishkin. Her first production was a Los Angeles staging of Trish Vradenburg’s The Apple Doesn’t Fall…, a drama about Alzheimer’s that opened on Broadway in 1996 with Leonard Nimoy directing.

Though her first production was not a commercial success, closing the day after opening, Mishkin would return to Broadway more than 30 times, taking part in productions of, among others, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, A Moon for the Misbegotten,...

Aaron Latham, a screenwriter, journalist and author whose story in Texas Monthly inspired the 1980 smash “Urban Cowboy,” died July 23 in Pennsylvania of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 78.

Latham was married to “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl. He died at Bryn Mawr Hospital in Bryn Mawr, Pa. Stahl and the couple’s daughter, Taylor Stahl Latham, a producer on the Apple TV+ drama “Servant,” were with him as he died.

“He loved being two things: He loved being a writer and he loved being a father,” Stahl told Variety, noting that he got a good start as a writer at The Washington Post and moved on from there to even bigger accomplishments.

A native of Texas, Latham was known for writing about novels set in the Old West. His magazine journalism also inspired the 1985 movie “Perfect” about the aerobics exercise craze of that moment. The film reunited Latham with...

Aaron Latham, the journalist, screenwriter and husband of CBS News veteran Lesley Stahl who penned the articles that served as the basis for the John Travolta films Urban Cowboy and Perfect, has died. He was 78.

Latham died Saturday at Bryn Mawr Hospital in Pennsylvania after a battle with Parkinson’s disease, his wife told The Hollywood Reporter. His health declined after he was diagnosed with Covid-19 in 2020, she added.

A native of Texas who wed Stahl in 1977, Latham worked for The Washington Post, Esquire, The New York Times and Rolling Stone, among other publications, during his career.

Urban Cowboy (1980) came from Latham’s Esquire piece that revolved around a romance between a mechanical-bull rider and a woman at the Houston-area nightclub Gilley’s. The real-life pair became Travolta’s Bud and Debra Winger’s Sissy in the box office hit.

Latham’s stories for Rolling Stone about young, single people...

Out of all the nominees spread across the 26 categories at the 2022 Tony Awards, a number of them stand out as particularly noteworthy. Check out the complete list of nominees here.

SEEJennifer Hudson may Egot at the Tonys: ‘Strange Loop’ producer already has an Oscar, Emmy, and 2 Grammys

1. The following productions nominated this year were originally scheduled to open in the 2019-20 Broadway season before performances shut down due to Covid-19: “American Buffalo,” “Caroline, or Change,” “Company,” “Diana,” “Flying Over Sunset,” “Hangmen,” “How I Learned to Drive,” “The Lehman Trilogy,” “The Minutes,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Plaza Suite,” “Six,” and “Take Me Out.” While “Girl From the North County” did actually open just the week before Broadway shutdown, it was too late for that show to be eligible for the 74th Tony Awards as not enough voters were even able to see it then.

2. The following shows that only received one Tony nomination are: “Diana,...

Looking back on the life of Mickey Gilley, who died May 7 in Branson, Mo., at the age of 86, one must consider the musician and the country music era that he helped to define.

The singer-pianist was a versatile stylist, an outstanding instrumentalist and one of country music’s most prolific hitmakers. He notched his first No. 1 country single, a version of George Morgan’s “Room Full of Roses,” in 1974 on Playboy Records. Another six Gilley chart-toppers followed on the label, and 10 more singles reached the pinnacle of the country chart during hia long stay at Epic Records. He placed among the top 25 country singles acts of the 1980s, according to chart authority Joel Whitburn.

But Gilley’s reach extended beyond vinyl and airwaves through his famous namesake club, Gilley’s, based in Pasadena, Texas, outside Houston. The establishment, touted as one of the world’s largest honky tonks, would introduce...

Country singer-songwriter Mickey Gilley, died in Branson, Missouri on Saturday at the age of 86, reports ‘Variety’. Mickey made a cross-over into mainstream pop culture after his club was featured as the backdrop of the 1980 John Travota-starrer ‘Urban Cowboy’. As per ‘Variety’, the news of Gilley’s death was confirmed by his management at 117 […]...

Mickey Gilley, the smooth-voiced, piano-playing country crooner who helped popularize the “Urban Cowboy” movement of the Eighties, died Saturday in Branson, Missouri. He was 86. Gilley’s publicist confirmed the singer’s death.

While Gilley had a run of success in the Seventies singing barroom-piano country ballads and rave-ups like “Room Full of Roses” and “Don’t the Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time,” it was his second act in the Eighties — tied to 1980’s box-office hit Urban Cowboy — that turned the Mississippi native into a crossover star.

Born March 9, 1936, in Natchez,...

Mickey Gilley, the country singer-songwriter who crossed over into mainstream pop culture after his club was featured as the backdrop of 1980’s “Urban Cowboy,” died in Branson, Mo. on Saturday. He was 86 years old.

News of Gilley’s death was confirmed by his management at 117 Entertainment Group. The musician had recently completed a road tour, performing in ten shows through April. “He passed peacefully with his family and close friends by his side,” according to a statement by his representation.

Credited with popularizing the Urban Cowboy movement, Gilley’s music, including hit songs like “Stand By Me,” “Room Full of Roses” and “Lonely Nights,” created a bridge from the artist’s country roots to an ascension on pop charts.

Born in Natchez, Miss. on March 9, 1936, Gilley grew up surrounded by music, learning how to play piano from his cousin, Jerry Lee Lewis. He later moved to Houston to work in...

Mickey Gilley, a country singer and actor who was featured in the 1980 John Travolta film “Urban Cowboy,” has died. He was 86.

Gilley died Saturday in Branson, Missouri, having just played 10 shows on the road throughout April. He died peacefully with his family and close friends by his side, according to his reps in a press release. No cause of death was given.

Gilley was known for songs like “Room Full of Roses” and had a string of hits throughout the 1970s, but he found a career resurgence when he covered the soul classic “Stand by Me” and had both himself and his new recording featured in “Urban Cowboy” with Travolta, Debra Winger and Johnny Lee.

Prior to his recording career taking off, in 1971 Gilley founded Gilley’s Club, a nightclub in Pasadena, Texas, then known as the “world’s biggest honky-tonk.” “Urban Cowboy” portrayed the football field-sized club and its famous mechanical bull ride,...

Mickey Gilley, who ran one of the world’s largest honky tonks in Pasadena, Texas and was credited with helping foster country music’s revival in the late ’70s as a key part of the Urban Cowboy film, has died. He was 86 and his death was announced by the Pasadena, Texas mayor, where the club was located.

Gilley died Saturday in Branson, Missouri. He had just ended a ten-show tour in April and died at home. No cause has been revealed.

Gilley’s was a football-field-sized dancehall, boasting a capacity of 6,000. It caught fire as the center of the John Travolta-Debra Winger film Urban Cowboy in 1978. It also introduced much of the world to mechanical bull riding.

Before that, Gilley was a country music singer who made his mark with “Is It Wrong for Loving You,” and had 39 Top Ten Hits on the BIllboard Country Music charts. His hits included “Stand By Me,...

Exclusive: Paramount+ revealed earlier this week that it had a series adaptation of John Travolta movie Urban Cowboy in the works. Now, the wild, true story that inspired the 1980 film is also being developed for television.

The rise and fall of country music icon Mickey Gilley’s football field-sized Texan honky tonk is being set up as a limited series with Philip Levens, creator of Syfy miniseries Ascension and Smallville writer, serving as showrunner for a series that comes from Michael Becker of Worth producer Imprint Entertainment and Joel Carpenter of Jc Productions.

The latter pair optioned Gilley’s life rights and will tell the story of what’s been described as the “the Studio54 of the West”, the center of the cowboy universe in 1978.

With a capacity of 6,000, the largest honky-tonk on the planet was frequented by an assortment of patrons that ranged from oilfield roughnecks to movie stars.

Paramount+ has been announcing a lot of new projects this week, in addition to showing off trailers for Halo and The Offer, and here are two more to add to the list: TV remakes of ‘80s classics Urban Cowboy and Flashdance. Both films have been subjected to attempts to turn them into TV shows in the past, with Urban…...

Fox is keeping Gordon Ramsay in Hell’s Kitchen, renewing the long-running culinary competition series for Seasons 21 and 22, TVLine has learned.

“Hell’s Kitchen is a flagship series for us, and has been a fan-favorite since it first premiered,” Rob Wade, President of Alternative Entertainment & Specials for Fox Entertainment, said in a statement. “In fact, it’s the show that first brought Gordon Ramsay to Fox, essentially serving as the launchpad for our long-standing relationship with him. We’d like to thank Gordon, our producing partners ITV and A. Smith & Co. and the entire crew of this seminal series. We...

Paramount+ is still on track with its reboot of classic procedural Criminal Minds.

This comes despite reports last summer, stirred by comments by series star Paget Brewster, that the project might have been dead at the streamer.

Nicole Clemens, President, Paramount+ Original Scripted Series, said, “We are still very much in development on Criminal Minds. We’ll have more to share on that soon but it is alive and well.”

Clemens, who took on her new role at the streamer last summer, in addition to running Paramount Television Studios, said that the delay of the reboot was down to the executive shuffle at the company rather than anything to do with the project itself.

Paramount+ Renews ‘Seal Team’, ‘Mayor Of Kingstown’, ‘The Game’

Last February, the streamer revealed that it was bringing back the series, which ran for 15 seasons on CBS, with the team coming back together to investigate a single case over 10 episodes.

Today, at the winter TCA event, Paramount+ revealed much about their new slate and a renewal for season two of Taylor Sheridan’s “Mayor Of Kingstown” series starring Jeremy Renner, among other updates. But that’s not all. Paramount+ Chief Nicole Clemens also shared some updates about a few projects that are in development and on the way. Perhaps the biggest of these announcements is that Justin Simien (“Dear White People”) is on board to adapt and direct Paramount Pictures’ classic contemporary take on the “Flashdance” series they are developing.

Continue reading Justin Simien To Adapt & Direct ‘Flashdance’ Series For Paramount+; James Ponsoldt To Direct ‘Urban Cowboy’ at The Playlist.

Paramount Plus revealed Tuesday it is moving forward on developing TV series remakes of classic ’80s movies “Urban Cowboy” and “Flashdance,” bringing on “Dear White People” creator Justin Simien to write and direct the latter project.

Additionally, the ViacomCBS-owned streamer said during its virtual session at the Television Critics Association press tour it has put a docu-comedy series from “Mr. Show” duo Bob Odenkirk and David Cross in the works.

The “Urban Cowboy” project comes after Paramount Television Studios first set up development on a TV series based on the film of the same name at Fox in 2015, which was later scrapped. The Paramount Plus version of the show, based on the John Travolta-Debra Winger movie, goes deeper into Bud’s journey from farm to the big city in 1980s Houston and will feature iconic music from that era. James Pondsolt is directing and co-writing with Benjamin Percy.

Meanwhile, Simien...

Bob Odenkirk and David Cross have set a new comedy with Paramount+.

The docu-style comedy series, called “Guru Nation,” will star Odenkirk and Cross as rival cult gurus that are “manipulating the minds of their deluded followers.” Odenkirk and Cross are co-creators on the project, with “Borat 2” director Jason Woliner on board to direct.

The announcement was made during the streaming service’s Television Critics Association press tour day on Tuesday.

Odenkirk, Cross and Woliner all executive produce alongside Marc Provissiero. Naomi Odenkirk and Tim Sarkes also serve as executive producers. Paramount Television Studios is the studio.

As a duo, Cross and Odenkirk are best known for their HBO sketch comedy series in mid 1990s, “Mr. Show with Bob and David,” as well as for their much more recent Netflix series “W/ Bob & David.” Odenkirk is even better known for his role as Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman on AMC...

The Flashdance series reboot has moved a step closer to the ballroom after Justin Simien boarded the Paramount+ project.

The Dear White People creator will adapt and direct the contemporary take on the classic Paramount Pictures film.

It comes after the project first emerged in development at CBS All Access in October 2020, with Tracy McMillan set to write the script and Angela Robinson on board to direct.

Simien signed an overall deal in August with Paramount Television Studios, which is behind the adaptation, moving from Lionsgate, where he produced four seasons of Dear White People, adapted from his own feature film for Netflix. The series aired its fourth and final season in September.

Paramount+ Renews ‘Seal Team’, ‘Mayor Of Kingstown’, ‘The Game’

The McMillan- and Robinson-led Flashdance reboot is set to revolve around a young Black woman with ballet dreams and a strip club reality who struggles to find her...

Paramount+ is heading to the honky tonk.

The streamer has put in development a series adaptation of teh John Travolta-Debra Winger feature film Urban Cowboy.

The project, based on the 1980 romantic Western, comes from James Ponsoldt, the writer-director behind Tom Hanks-Emma Watson film The Circle, and Benjamin Percy.

The pair are behind 2022 Sundance film Summering, the story of four friends on the verge of middle school entering that strange phase of uncertainty about the notion of getting older.

Ponsoldt will direct and co-write Urban Cowboy with Percy. Paramount Television Studios produces.

Paramount+ Renews ‘Seal Team’, ‘Mayor Of Kingstown’, ‘The Game’

The film, which was directed by James Bridges, followed the love-hate relationship between Buford Uan “Bud” Davis (Travolta) and Sissy (Winger) and is centered at Gilley’s Club, a large honky tonk in Texas.

The series will go “deeper” into Bud’s journey from farm to the big city in...

Paramount+ is doubling down on its ’80s nostalgia, announcing a new series based on the John Travolta film “Urban Cowboy” and setting a director and writer for its upcoming new take on “Flashdance.”

James Ponsoldt (“Sorry For Your Loss”) will co-write and direct the “Urban Cowboy” series based on the 1980 film starring Travolta and Debra Winger. And Justin Simien of “Dear White People” fame is on board to adapt and direct his own contemporary take on “Flashdance.” Both updates were unveiled at ViacomCBS’ Television Critics Association Winter Tour presentation Tuesday, and each series will debut for the Paramount+ streaming service.

Ponsoldt will co-write “Urban Cowboy” along with Benjamin Percy. The series will dive deeper into the story of Bud and his journey from living on a farm to the big city in 1980s Houston. The series will also feature iconic music from the era. No casting details were unveiled.

“Urban Cowboy...

Diana, The Musical begins its Act II with the shirtless, well-toned actor portraying the princess’ studly consort James Hewitt doing his best Urban Cowboy riding-the-bull impression, much to the dirty-dancing delight of the smitten royal.

Finally, you think, Diana has fully embraced itself, director Christopher Ashley has rediscovered the campy aesthetic that served him so well from Jeffrey to The Rocky Horror Show and hope may not be entirely lost. But then the pink-bedecked romance novelist Barbara Cartland (don’t ask) stops the action to announce that she just made up that steamy bit, and the ripped stable boy covers up his abs and Diana sinks back to its high-decibel mediocrity.

By now you’ve probably read, heard or seen for yourself, via Netflix, just how deliciously bad Diana is, but the truth isn’t quite so much fun. Diana, opening tonight on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre, is not a so-bad-it’s-good disaster.

Exclusive: We have learned that Bruce Willis and John Travolta are starring together again for the first time in 27 years in the Chuck Russell-directed action pic Paradise City. Production starts this Monday in Maui, Hawaii.

Willis plays renegade bounty hunter, Ryan Swan, who must carve his way through the Hawaiian crime world to wreak vengeance on the kingpin, played by Travolta, who murdered his father. I’m told the project is billed as being similar to Miami Vice but with bounty hunters instead of cops. Thai actress and model Praya Lundberg has landed the lead female role.

Though Paradise City technically reps the fourth time that Willis and Travolta are billed on a movie together, they only worked onscreen in the 1994 Oscar-winning $214M-grossing Quentin Tarantino movie Pulp Fiction respectively as boxer Butch Coolidge and mob guy Vincent Vega. Check out their scene below from that pic. Prior to that...

The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.As Debra Winger has told it, when she was fourteen and expressed interest in acting, her father had her meet George Cukor, whose alarm system he had previously installed. Unimpressed, the lauded classical Hollywood director dismissed her, saying she had “no class” and that her voice and her walk were all wrong. Much changed between then and when she broke through in Urban Cowboy (1980)—change in the industry as well as in Winger herself—but you can imagine the potential there, hard to recognize as she was never quite polished the way most actresses are, a quality that is likely what made her so beguiling in the early 1980s.The origin story of Debra Winger is that several years after that Cukor meeting she got into an accident that left her blinded for months,...

The blind auditions and the battles are a thing of the past, which means it’s now time for the knockouts on “The Voice.” In this round each coach pairs up two artists who’ll then perform their own songs on the big stage. One artist survives, the other is eliminated … unless a rival coach “steals” them for their own team. This year’s mega mentor was Usher, a former coach who prevailed in Season 6 with Josh Kaufman. Heading into the knockouts for Season 19, each coach had seven artists still on their teams:

Team Blake Shelton: Ben Allen, Ian Flanigan, Jim Ranger, Jus Jon, Worth the Wait, James Pyle (stolen) and Taryn Papa (saved).

Team John Legend: Bailey Rae, Cami Clune, Casmè, John Holiday, Tamara Jade, Lauren Frihauf (stolen) and Julia Cooper (saved).

Team Gwen Stefani: Carter Rubin, Chloé Hogan, Payge Turner, Ryan Berg, Van Andrew, Joseph Soul (stolen...

Musical tributes will be a major component of the 2020 CMA Awards on November 11th. The show’s opening number will be devoted to a multi-artist medley of songs originally recorded by Country Music Hall of Fame member Charlie Daniels, who died in July.

Artists participating in the tribute to Daniels include Brothers Osborne, Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, previously announced performer Ashley McBryde (who will have a solo performance elsewhere during the show), and Musician of the Year nominee Jenee Fleenor. In 2019, Fleenor, a fiddle player, made history as the first...

The “In Memoriam” factor will be high on next week’s CMA Awards telecast, as an all-star opening tribute to Charlie Daniels will be followed during the ABC telecast by individual performers’ salutes to the late Kenny Rogers and Joe Diffie. All three of these tributees died this year.

The homages to country music’s dearly departed were announced Thursday as part of a talent rollout for the show that also includes Justin Bieber joining Dan + Shay for the first live performance of their joint hit from earlier this year, “10,000 Hours.”

The tribute to Daniels at the top of the show will include Dierks Bentley and Brothers Osborne (pictured above), Jason Aldean, Ashley McBryde and Jenee Fleenor (already announced as the musician of the year winner) performing a medley of some of the singer-fiddler’s hits.

Little Big Town will do the musical tribute to Kenny Rogers, and Joe...

The world has just lost another legendary musician as word has come in that Country Music Hall of Fame member Charlie Daniels has passed away at the age of 83 years old. According to his publicist, Daniels died at a hospital in Hermitage, Tennessee on Monday after suffering from a hemorrhagic stroke. This follows a prior stroke Daniels had in 2010 along with a heart pacemaker implanted in 2013, but despite his health issues, the world-famous singer continued to perform. Daniels was also a cancer survivor, having beaten prostate cancer in 2001.

Charles Edward Daniels was born on Oct. 28, 1936, in Wilmington, North Carolina. Taking an early interest in music, he had learned to play the guitar, fiddle, banjo, and mandolin by the time he graduated high school in 1955, forming his own band and performing after his graduation. Working as a session musician in Nashville in the late '60s and early '70s, Daniels...

Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Charlie Daniels, who played bass and guitar on Bob Dylan’s 1969 Nashville Skyline LP and would go on to pioneer the burgeoning Southern rock movement with his namesake Charlie Daniels Band, died Monday at 83. His publicist confirmed Daniels’ death from a hemorrhagic stroke to Rolling Stone.

With his fiery fiddle at the forefront of much of his recorded output, the leader of the Charlie Daniels Band paved the way for the mainstream country-rock success of that group and others, including Alabama and Lynyrd Skynyrd, and crossed over...

Charlie Daniels, the Grammy-winning country singer and fiddler who scored crossover pop hits with “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” “Uneasy Rider” and “In America,” died today after a massive stroke. He was 83. His publicist Don Murry Grubbs confirmed the news.

Daniels had a mild stroke in 2010 and was fitted with a pacemaker in 2013. He also beat prostate cancer in 2001.

Daniels, an iconic Country Music Hall of Famer who had nine gold or platinum albums, also played on Bob Dylan’s 1969 classic Nashville Skyline, and his group the Charlie Daniels Band appeared in the 1980 movie Urban Cowboy.

Born on October 26, 1936, in Wilmington, Nc, Daniels fronted 1960s group the Jaguars before going solo in 1968 and working as a session player in Nashville. His breakthrough came in the summer of 1973 with the story song “Uneasy Rider,” about a longhair’s harrowing encounter with some Mississippi locals.

The single hit No. 9 on the...

Cinema Retro has received the following press release from Paramount Home Entertainment:

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Relive all the incredible drama, passion and music of the hugely influential hit Urban Cowboy, arriving on Blu-ray for the first time ever June 2, 2020 from Paramount Home Entertainment.

Originally released on June 6, 1980, Urban Cowboy celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Starring John Travolta and Debra Winger, the movie chronicles the rocky love story of Bud and Sissy, set against the backdrop of Houston’s famous honky-tonk bar, Gilley’s. Based on a 1979 Esquire Magazine story and brought to the big screen by writer/director James Bridges, Urban Cowboy kicked off a Western fashion and country music craze. The hit soundtrack spawned multiple Top 10 hits, including “Looking for Love” by Johnny Lee, “Stand by Me” by Mickey Gilley, and “Look What You’ve Done to Me” by Boz Skaggs, and the...