In his new role, Oshinsky will oversee the development of ESPN’s multiplatform storytelling efforts across “30 for 30,” ESPN Films, ESPN Originals, podcasts and scripted projects. He will head the sports network’s creative strategy, talent partnerships and the creation of its global master content slate.

“I’m thrilled to join an iconic brand like ESPN at such a pivotal moment for the industry,” Oshinsky said in a statement Monday. “I look forward to shaping the next chapter of ESPN’s original storytelling, marrying ambitious creative vision with formats and partnerships that meet audiences where they are.”

Oshinsky comes to ESPN having mostly recently served for six months as the Vice President of Creative Strategy at Business Insider. Prior to that, he worked as the Vice President of Global Content & Digital at PepsiCo, a position he held for three years after having previously served as an executive producer at the company and Senior Director of Global Communications.

Oshinsky’s other experience includes working as a director and executive producer at Time Studios, a two-year stint as Vice President of Sports Illustrated from 2017 through 2019 and a supervising producer at Time Inc. He returns to ESPN after having worked as an editor at the company for several months in 2005. He got his start in the sports entertainment world working as a producer for Major League Baseball.

Over the course of his 20+ year career, Oshinsky has received 14 Emmy Awards as well as multiple Webby, Telly and Anthem Awards. He previously produced and edited the 2010 ESPN “30 for 30” documentary “Four Days in October,” which charts the four games in the 2004 American League Championship Series when the Boston Red Sox became the first MLB team in history to win a best-of-seven playoff series after falling behind 0-3 to the New York Yankees.

Oshinsky’s appointment comes just a few months after ESPN officially closed its deal to acquire the NFL Network. Last week, ESPN also confirmed that longtime NBA and college football announcer Mark Jones was set to leave the network after 36 years. His last game as an ESPN play-by-play announcer came this past Sunday when the Orlando Magic traveled to Boston to take on the Boston Celtics. Jones’ departure was reportedly his decision.

The post ESPN Sets Josh Oshinsky as Senior Director of Original Content Development appeared first on TheWrap.

On Monday, the regulator launched an “invitation to comment,” allowing interested parties to submit “any initial views on the impact that the transaction could have on competition in the UK.”

The deadline for comments will be April 27. The CMA is asking that responses be sent to paramount.warnerbrosdiscovery@cma.gov.uk.

The invitation to comment comes after Paramount CEO David Ellison previously met with U.K. Secretary of Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy to discuss issues in the film and TV industry and his bid for Warner Bros. Discovery in January.

In its notice, the CMA said that it has “received the necessary information from the parties to commence pre-notification,” but has not yet launched a formal investigation into the transaction.

“Effective competition helps ensure UK customers can enjoy quality content at a competitive price. The film and TV industries contribute billions to our economy, so it’s important we assess whether deals between studios may harm competition,” a CMA spokesperson told TheWrap. “Today’s invitation to comment is an initial step as we review Paramount’s purchase of Warner Bros Discovery. We expect to launch our Phase 1 investigation in the coming weeks.”

Under a Phase 1 review, the CMA would have 40 working days to decide whether the merger needs a more in-depth review. If it finds concerns with the merger, it will give the merging businesses five days to propose remedies to address its concerns.

The CMA would then have up to 5 more working days to consider the remedies. If none are offered or it does not accept them, the merger would be referred to a Phase 2 review. If if decides to accept remedies provisionally, it would publicly consult on them and consider any responses, with a deadline of 50 working days to make a decision.

If the review moves to Phase 2, an independent “inquiry group,” which consists of 3 to 5 people with a range of business, finance, economic and legal experience, would lead the investigation and makes the final decision within 24 weeks. In special circumstances, a Phase 2 investigation can be extended by up to eight additional weeks.

The inquiry group would then either clear the merger, consider remedies such as asset divestitures or a legal commitment from the merging businesses to behave in a certain way, or block the merger.

The CMA’s move comes after the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period in the U.S. Department of Justice’s review expired on Feb. 19. Despite the expiration, the DOJ can still investigate or challenge a Paramount-WBD deal.

Some U.S. lawmakers have also demanded that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to conduct a review of the deal, though Paramount has said that the Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds who have contributed equity financing do not meet the threshold that would trigger a mandatory review.

Paramount and Warner Bros. expect the merger to close by the third quarter, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. A shareholder vote is slated for April 23.

In the event the transaction does not close by Sept. 30, WBD shareholders will receive a 25 cent per share “ticking fee” for each quarter until closing. In the event that the deal does not close at all due to regulatory matters, Paramount will pay WBD a $7 billion termination fee.

The post UK Regulators Ready Investigation of Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger appeared first on TheWrap.

Judy Greer spent her career waiting for a role like Quinn in “The Last Thing He Told Me.”

The longtime character actress told TheWrap that playing the calculating businesswoman and heir to a mafia empire in the Apple TV series was one of her proudest roles yet, culminating in a pivotal confession scene in the Season 2 finale.

The high-stakes crime drama takes its characters to Paris in the final arc, as Bailey (Angourie Rice) continues to question her fractured memories. That search for truth leads her to confront Quinn (Greer) about what really happened to her mother.

In a dramatic confession, Quinn admits she ordered a hit meant to intimidate Bailey’s mother into silence over her father’s mob dealings but insists she never intended for her to be killed.

For Greer, the emotionally charged scene opposite “13 Going on 30” co-star Jennifer Garner and Rice was a rare and deeply rewarding experience.

“It was a day I was scared and excited for because I wanted so much for that scene,” she told TheWrap. “Everything that I wanted, I got. And to get to do a scene like that with those two actresses — that’s so rare.”

Known for playing more anxious or comedic supporting roles, Greer said stepping into Quinn’s authority was a welcome shift.

“I tend to play people who are more anxious or neurotic, or sad, or crying a lot,” she said. “So building this character, someone who is strong, secure, independent and smart, was really exciting.”

Despite Quinn’s admission, she tells Bailey she doesn’t expect forgiveness. In a surprising turn, Bailey offers it anyway, explaining she has found a second mother in Hannah Hall (Garner). Quinn ultimately lets both women walk away.

With her father dead and her brother having fumbled the family business, Quinn is left to pick up the pieces and potentially take control. Greer even joked about the character’s evolution, saying she wished Taylor Swift had released her “Life of a Showgirl” album during filming so Quinn could claim “Father Figure” as her anthem.

The actress also credited Garner, a longtime friend and collaborator, with helping her land the role.

“Jen was really instrumental in telling the producers and showrunners, ‘She can do this,’” she shared. “Thank God for friends and people who love us and believe in us. So to get the offer was hugely flattering because of that, but also because I know they’re not going to give me the role if they don’t believe I can do it, regardless of what my friends say.”

The Season 2 finale left the door open for a larger arc for Quinn as she steps into her father’s shoes as the new leader of her family’s mafia business. After letting Hannah and Bailey off the hook, she calls the mole in the U.S. Marshal’s office to let her know the hunt for Owen is not over yet. Greer was just as shocked as she hopes audiences were. 

“I read the script, and I was like, ‘You shut up right now,’” she said. “Can you imagine getting to be a crime boss? Come on! I’m dead, deceased. It would be the most fun I could ever imagine.”

While “The Last Thing He Told Me” has not yet been renewed for a third season at Apple, the finale set the stage for Quinn to step fully into her father’s role, suggesting the Favreau family will not give up their legacy so easily. 

All eight episodes of “The Last Thing He Told Me” Season 2 are available to stream on Apple TV now.

The post Judy Greer Unpacks ‘The Last Thing He Told Me’ Season 2 Finale: ‘Can You Imagine?’ appeared first on TheWrap.

“We are deeply concerned by indications of support for this merger that prioritize the interests of a small group of powerful stakeholders over the broader public good,” the letter reads. “The integrity, independence, and diversity of our industry would be grievously compromised. Competition is essential for a healthy economy and a healthy democracy. So is thoughtful regulation and enforcement.”

The letter continues: “This transaction would further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape, reducing competition at a moment when our industries—and the audiences we serve—can least afford it. The result will be fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs, and less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world.”

The letter also declares support for action by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, fellow state attorneys general, and others to investigate and block the transaction.

Signees include major figures in both the Paramount and Warner Bros. spheres — Abrams, of course, made many films for Paramount including the “Star Trek” movies and his Bad Robot has a deal set up at Warner Bros., which is releasing his next movie.

“The Pitt” — and thus Warner Bros. — darling Noah Wyle, too, is a signee as is “Dune” filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, whose last three movies have been produced by Warner Bros.

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison is barreling ahead with his company’s $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which he has said could close as early as this summer if it makes it through regulatory hurdles. While he has promised continued investment in Warner Bros. and an output of 30 films per year in theaters from WB, many remain wary that any kind of consolidation would negatively impact an already struggling film and TV business, and there is the looming specter of job losses as a result of the merger.

In a statement, Paramount said it hears and understands the the concerns raised by the creative community and “respect the commitment to protecting and expanding creativity.”

“Importantly, as creators we know firsthand that this is also a moment when the industry has been facing significant disruption—and the need for strong, creative-first and well-capitalized companies that can continue to invest in storytelling has never been greater,” the company said. “This transaction uniquely brings together complementary strengths to create a company that can greenlight more projects, back bold ideas, support talent across multiple stages of their careers, and bring stories to audiences at a truly global scale—while strengthening competition by ensuring multiple scaled players are investing in creative talent.”

“We have been clear in our commitments to do just that: increasing output to a minimum of 30 high-quality feature films annually with full theatrical releases, continuing to license content, and preserving iconic brands with independent creative leadership —ensuring creators have more avenues for their work, not fewer,” the letter continues. “We understand the concerns raised as a result of the disruptions caused to our industry by COVID, entry of big-tech, and changes in consumer behavior, but we promise this: Paramount remains deeply committed to talent, and this merger strengthens both consumer choice and competition, creating greater opportunities for creators,  audiences and the communities they live and work in.”

Read the full open letter below, which remains open to additional signees:

As filmmakers, documentarians, writers, and professionals across the movie and television industry, we write to express our unequivocal opposition to the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger.

This transaction would further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape, reducing competition at a moment when our industries—and the audiences we serve—can least afford it. The result will be fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs, and less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world. 

Our industry is already under severe strain, in large part due to prior waves of consolidation. We have witnessed a steep decline in the number of films produced and released, alongside a narrowing of the kinds of stories that are financed and distributed. Increasingly, a small number of powerful entities determine what gets made—and on what terms—leaving creators and independent businesses with fewer viable paths to sustain their work.

Media consolidation has accelerated the disappearance of the mid-budget film, the erosion of independent distribution, the collapse of the international sales market, the elimination of meaningful profit participation, and the weakening of screen credit integrity. 

Together, these factors threaten the sustainability of the entire creative community. That includes endangering the professional lives of the tens of thousands of workers who help make up that community in predominantly small businesses and independent companies embedded in local economies and communities nationwide.

We are deeply concerned by indications of support for this merger that prioritize the interests of a small group of powerful stakeholders over the broader public good. The integrity, independence, and diversity of our industry would be grievously compromised.
Competition is essential for a healthy economy and a healthy democracy. So is thoughtful regulation and enforcement. Media consolidation has already weakened one of America’s most vital global industries—one that has long shaped culture and connected people around the world. 

Fortunately, someone is doing something about all this. California Attorney General Rob Bonta and his colleagues in other states are reportedly scrutinizing the merger and considering legal action to block it. We are grateful for their leadership, and stand ready to support all efforts to preserve competition, protect jobs, and ensure a vibrant future for our industry, for American culture, and for our single most significant cultural export.

The post J.J. Abrams, David Fincher, Denis Villeneuve and Over 1,000 More Sign Open Letter Against Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger appeared first on TheWrap.

Just like that, “DTF St. Louis” is over. The mystery has been solved, and the solution is more tragic than anyone — including Detective Homer (Richard Jenkins) and Special Crimes Officer Jodie Plumb (Joy Sunday) — could have seen coming. It is revealed in the HBO dramedy’s seventh and final episode that it was, indeed, Clark Forrest (Jason Bateman) who met up with his best friend Floyd Smernitch (David Harbour) at the Kevin Kline Community Pools in the early hours of the same day that the latter was eventually found dead.

The two men danced in their underwear together and Clark tried, desperately, to give Floyd the arousal, the validation, that he had been searching for. It all ends messily, though, with Clark collapsing to the floor and realizing that he’s just a middle-aged, lonely guy who does not and never has known what he is doing. Floyd comforts him and stays behind only to see his stepson Richard (Arlan Ruf) watching him through one of the building’s windows. Richard, it turns out, signed onto Floyd’s computer earlier that night to check off his daily goals and saw his stepfather’s DTF St. Louis account still open.

He saw Floyd’s profile. He saw the set meeting time at the Kevin Kline pools, and he went there to tell Floyd that he was disgusting and did not deserve to be married to his mom, Carol Love-Smernitch (Linda Cardellini). Heartbroken and shattered, Floyd signed to a confused Richard that he loved him before knowingly chugging the entire, fatal dose of Amphezyne that he’d poured into his can of alcohol. Floyd took his own life. His suicide means that Carol will not get the life insurance policy that Clark had set up for him, and when Clark returns home at last from prison, he finds that his wife and daughters are gone.

“DTF St. Louis” ends on this tragic note, and it is one that series creator Steven Conrad hopes will resonate with viewers.

“Seven hours is a lot of somebody’s time, and you just hope that it that feels like it left you with something,” the writer and director told TheWrap. “The challenge of the entire thing is to go, ‘Okay, this has to end in a way where Homer did his job, Jodie did her job, but the audience also feels like this wasn’t just a crime being solved. That there was some other transmission, you know, in the midst of all of it.”

The finale does not offer much hope for its survivors’ futures moving forward. 

Regarding Carol’s life after “DTF St. Louis” Episode 7, Conrad said, “She’s not going to get an insurance settlement. They don’t pay those out for suicides. But her impulse to let Richard know that Floyd wanted to give this message of love to him overwhelmed that consequence. So she’s just gonna keep scrapping. She’ll come to terms with the fact that what Floyd needed was some tenderness, and Clark could give it to him. Carol could not anymore. She’d really tried and it was gone. It was just gone.”

“She’ll have to make peace with the idea that she no longer had a way to save Floyd, and she’ll struggle to make sense of that. But she does have that fighter’s instinct,” Conrad added. “Floyd never knows that he’s in a fight, that being alive as an adult means being in a fight for your life. She knows it. She’ll keep fighting.”

As for Clark?

“He’s gonna have to grow up,” the “DTF” creator acknowledged. “One of the cool things about the show is that he comes across initially as kind of a serial philanderer. But then we reveal in Episode 6 that he’d never had an affair before. Carol was the first time he ever strayed, and I think it makes more sense that he’s terrible at it. [Laughs] I don’t think he’s gonna do it again if he gets another chance.”

Below, Conrad dives further into the tragedy at the heart of “DTF St. Louis,” his partnership with HBO, how the series explores the crushing reality of financial insecurity and the “responsibility” that made it impossible for Harbour’s Floyd to ultimately make it out of the series alive.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

TheWrap: What did you have first: The clues or solution to Floyd’s death?

Steven Conrad: I knew conditionally what the consequence was going to be. The tagline for the app is, ‘All the Excitement. None of the Consequences.’ That’s the gamble that these guys make. Obviously there’s no such thing as no consequences, and I recognized in Floyd… he just felt like a stepfather to me. Some guys are, you know? And there can be good ones and there can be indifferent ones. The struggle for a good stepdad is it’s a rock up the hill. It’s a tough job. There’s no benefit to the doubt.

So I knew that was going to be what he was carrying around, and I knew that someone as sweet as him could find a way to get there. To get the rock up the hill. And then I knew Floyd was going to drop it and break it. I also knew that there wasn’t a version where the child was capable of doing anything that could amount to someone’s death. It had to be emotional and unfixable, and then fixable by another terrible decision that isn’t going to fix anything, either.

The show is so tonally distinct. It is not afraid to be absurd at times and also deeply tragic at others. What was your partnership like with HBO? What kind of notes did they have?

Conrad: I have to say, and this is a compliment to the partnership, that they’re an engaged group of filmmaking partners. By engagement, I don’t even just mean that they are checking in. They’re engaged in the sense that they’re in it before you make it — expecting it to look and feel and weigh and be measured in a specific way. It needs to be sound, right? No extra parts. Let’s just make sure that the components of this are all very, very good. They are in it like that.

When you’re trying to find your bandwidth of tone, you can break a spell very easily by just not being able to read where the audience is in each moment. At the same time, if you don’t continue to try to delight, then you’re going to lose them another way. It’s the difference between them shaking their head if you swing and miss and them leaning back and looking at their phones. So HBO and I tried to identify together, “Where are we? Are we trying too hard? Is this not going to feel organic?” People who have done it less than them will say, “I just don’t believe this,” but HBO is smart enough to know that characterization doesn’t have anything to do with making a show. It’s not supposed to be believed. It’s supposed to be experienced. So they think of it in terms of the experience. “Can we make the experience of this tighter?”

Take something as simple as the detectives going to arrest Clark in the pilot. The sheriffs, they’re all running up the stairs and they’re chanting, “Here we go. Here we go. Here we go.” That makes no sense! [Laughs] Except that now there’s a charge to the scene, a pre-charge to the arrest that I wanted the audience to feel. When I wrote it and shot it, though, it began with them all congregated at the bottom of the stairs practicing the chant and some guys just weren’t getting it. Homer had to help out and then they finally did it and I filmed them doing it up three flights of stairs. I showed that to HBO and they said, “One set of stairs.” Who’s to say which one is better? But they never told me to take it out, and that is one of the wildest things anybody dreamt up for “DTF.” It was always about measuring what we were going to ask the audience sit in in every moment.

It is very rare to see characters in a show or movie who are financially struggling the way Carol and Floyd are. Their heads and mouths are basically just floating right at the water line the whole show. Why was it important for you to explore that kind of crushing financial situation in “DTF”?

Conrad: That’s a great description of it, because they’re very near suffocating. If that water line goes up another inch, there’s going to be real consequences. The way Carol explains it is that Richard’s life is vulnerable. They have a home, and someone could take their home. You’ve got to start chipping away at this debt, because it’s going the other direction every year. There are penalties, consequences to Floyd’s spirit, his really naive and very beautiful spirit… You know, people can be lighter when someone in their life is doing the heavy lifting. I saw a documentary once about Ennio Morricone, and he was being interviewed with his partner on a couch, and she described herself as the “protector of his talent.” I thought, “God, that’d be a nice thing to have.”

But imagine if you were an artist and someone was right next to you thinking, “He’s not paying the household bills. He’s not going shopping or putting gas in the car.” Floyd is one of those spirits that, because of his gifts, he’s been allowed to float around a little bit. Until now. Until this summer. This summer, the rent’s come due, and they can’t pay it. So Clark is a kind of impulsive salve to Carol. Like she knew, instinctively, that they could give each other something they both needed. I don’t think in reflection it was as transactional as we make it seem while plotting out the whodunnit. In my estimation, people are drawn to each other because that other person has something that we need. It could be that they’re just very funny. It could be that they’re very honest, and you need that gift in that specific period of your life.

Floyd and Carol weren’t going to make it through the year no matter what happened to him. At one point, Floyd mentions that Carol’s first husband was a “bad guy,” and I sort of left it to the audience to fill in the blanks. But that’s Richard’s father, and you can imagine very easily Carol having to contend during those years with someone who was cruel. And then here comes Floyd 10 years ago and he’s giant and he’s kind and he’s the antidote. He makes her feel safe and she is, therefore, attracted to him. 10 years later, he doesn’t make her feel safe anymore. He makes her feel vulnerable, and there goes the intimacy. Clark comes around and Clark makes her feel safe. So the clearest way for me to explore this trade, this trade of what someone might be able to give somebody else when they really need it, was when I could say that it’s money. Money is the quiet plight of so many people’s lives that robs their sleep, because you can’t find a way out.

Obviously, the show also has middle age on its mind and middle age is a terrifying time because you have to confront the idea that you’re not going to get the promotion. The invention you’ve been working on is still in the garage. It’s still years and years away. The solution has eluded you and now you’re facing more years of the same, and the same isn’t the same anymore because suddenly the same is a sinking hole. So money, it just felt like an identifiable pressure and something that could ultimately be tied to sexuality. The show obviously has sex on the mind and those two things — money and sex — are two things that come swimming around in middle age, for sure.

DTF, the app, lurks around in the background for much of the show, and then the finale reveals it to be this emotional grenade, basically. Why did a hookup app feel like the right thing to push everything over the edge in this story?

Conrad: That’s a great pickup. There’s a moment that doesn’t really make any sense in the show, but it happened so I could put a point on all of it. It’s when the detectives are finally studying the last set of security footage, noticing there’s two bikes, and then Homer has the deduction that Richard was riding the other. He says, “It’s the boy,” and then the last thing he says, for no reason, is “DTF St. Louis.” But it’s to make a point about this recklessness. Clark and Forrest were playing. They were being reckless, and they’re parents. This broke everything, and it’s not even like somebody met someone on DTF who destroyed their lives. It was just the flirting with this little fire.

When we started talking about the show and about Jason and David’s performances, we talked about two kids in a fort playing with matches. It’s fun for a minute, but something terrible could happen. DTF St. Louis is this book of matches, and the something terrible happening is allowing this recklessness into your life. It’s taking your eyes off your home for a minute, not realizing that there’s a monster in there now and something that could hurt your kid because you looked away. It’s there. It’s in your house, and the sum of that, the responsibility for that mistake, that recklessness, is what puts Floyd past being able to survive another minute.

All episodes of “DTF St. Louis” are streaming now on HBO Max.

The post ‘DTF St. Louis’ Creator Unpacks Finale Twists, Floyd’s Fate: ‘No Such Thing as No Consequences’ appeared first on TheWrap.

HBO’s “Euphoria” returned for Season 3 with a bang, dropping viewers into a new California-centric reality for its main cast, all of whom have had some big changes since we last saw them in East Highland in Season 2.

The Season 3 premiere wastes no time in addressing the time jump, with Zendaya’s first line as Rue saying, “A lot of people ask what I’ve been up to since high school, and honestly nothing good.”

Check out the biggest updates for Rue, Sydney Sweeney’s Cassie, Jacob Elordi’s Nate, Alexa Demie’s Maddy, Maude Apatow’s Lexi and Hunter Schafer’s Jules from the “Euphoria” Season 3 finale below.

Rue

The Season 3 premiere opens with Rue “somewhere in Mexico” getting some help for her car to start before heading to the border, where she faces some more car trouble as she literally gets stuck on the border into the Texas. She eventually ditches her car and heads out on foot into Agua Dulce, where she stays with a religious family under the guise of being a student journalist named Ruby, hoping to “expose the pure evil that’s pouring across our border.”

One of the family’s many daughters later drops Rue off at the bus station, bringing her to California, where she greets Laurie (Martha Kelly) who asks for her car and says she’ll “add it to [her] tab.”

Flashing back to a few years after high school, Rue explains that Laurie and her henchmen found her while working at a smoke shop and told her that, with interest, she owes her over $43 million, but she’ll settle for $100K. “And that is how I became a drug mule,” Rue explained, before seeing her learn to swallow sealed bags of fentanyl in Mexico and driving across the border, eventually taking Faye (Chloe Cherry) with her. Once back, the duo would excrete the drugs. 

Rue explains that after Fezco’s house got raided, Laurie left East Highland and went into business with her cousin and nephew, which seem to serve as surrogate family for Rue, who’s become their No. 1 mule. In the off time, Rue drives Ubers over Los Angeles, where she reunites with Lexi.

She also keeps seeing her sponsor Ali (Colman Domingo), with whom she confides about her new spiritual journey.

Lexi

When Rue greets Lexi at her LA apartment, Lexi is as put together as always, and, of course, out of the loop about Rue’s real work. Rue also tells Lexi she should call Fez (Angus), who is in prison for 30 years after the raid, explaining his absence from Season 3 after his untimely death.

Rue explains that Lexi has been working in Hollywood on a nighttime soap for industry legend Patty Lance (Sharon Stone). While she’s been relegated to assistant tasks, her suggestions are taken seriously by her boss

Cassie and Nate

Since high school, Cassie has moved to, as Rue puts it, a “right-wing suburban bubble” we can only guess is the equivalent of Orange County. Cassie is producing racy content for TikTok that Nate, who has since taken over his dad’s construction business, has an issue with. 

Cassie’s motive to make money immediately becomes clear: she’s not getting everything she wants for the house and their upcoming wedding as Nate builds in Southern California. His big project is a retirement community by the ocean.

After looking enviously at Maddy’s Instagram, Cassie gives Nate an ultimatum over a candle-lit dinner: he condones her OnlyFans account so she can pay for the florals of her dreams, or they postpone the wedding. He agrees, but makes her promise she won’t show her face and her bust at the same time.

Maddy

Lexi and Maddy cross paths frequently in Hollywood, with Maddy working in management, representing influencers and a few actors, including Dylan Reed, who stars on the soap that Lexi works on. At this point, she’s only an assistant, though, meaning her wage is much smaller than the 10% made by her boss.

Jules

While we don’t see Jules in the Season 3 premiere, Lexi tells Rue that Maddy told her Jules has been working as a sugar baby.

Rue’s adventure

Things shift for Rue when she goes to deliver drugs to Alamo (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), and stumbles into a house party she can’t resist but joining. She quickly connects with Alamo and even asks for a job at his strip club. Everything is going swimmingly until a girl overdoses on the drugs brought by Rue, but Rue promises she didn’t have anything to do with it.

Alamo tests Rue’s luck by shooting an apple on top of her head, though, luckily, he shoots accurately, giving Rue the laugh of her life.

“Euphoria” Season 3 premieres Sundays on HBO.

The post ‘Euphoria’ Season 3 Premiere Recap: What Has the Cast Been Up to Since High School? appeared first on TheWrap.

The Season 3 premiere kicks off with Christopher Cross’ “Ride Like the Wind” as Zendaya’s Rue drives “somewhere in Mexico” heading to the border, before shifting to some California-centric tracks like Waylon Jennings’ “Sunset and Vine” to reflect the season’s new West Coast setting. And it goes beyond Rue, as the premiere catches up with other beloved characters from the HBO drama series — now in their twenties and managing the challenges that come with young adulthood.

Check out all the songs in “Euphoria” Season 3 below. This story will be updated as new episodes debut weekly on Sundays.

Episode 1:

• “Ride Like the Wind” by Christopher Cross
• “Love Is Like Oxygen” by Sweet
• “Sunset and Vine” by Waylon Jennings
• “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window” but Patti Page
• “Teufel” by Schwarzer Engel
• “Reckless” by Lil Blood
• “Trouble Man” by Marvin Gaye
• “Little Green Apples” by the Temptations

“Euphoria” Season 3 premieres Sundays on HBO.

The post All the Songs in ‘Euphoria’ Season 3 appeared first on TheWrap.

HBO’s “Euphoria” went through several tragedies in between its second and third seasons, one of which was the untimely death of series star Angus Cloud in July 2023.

Cloud, who died of an accidental overdose, did not film any of “Euphoria” Season 3 prior to his passing, with the show facing delays following the conclusion of its second installment in February 2022. His absence from the show, however, is addressed in the “Euphoria” Season 3 premiere, which dropped Sunday on HBO.

Rather than making Cloud’s character, Fezco, also deceased in the show, the Season 3 premiere reveals that he is serving a 30-year prison sentence after his house was raided in the Season 2 finale.

“I tried really hard to keep him clean while he was here — I loved him very much, and … losing [him] was really hard,” creator Sam Levinson told TheWrap. “I just thought … if I couldn’t keep him alive in real life, then maybe I could at least keep them alive in ‘Euphoria.’ I wanted to honor him this season … he’s a big part of the thread of this season and … I hope he’d be proud.”

Fezco, is brought up in a conversation between Zendaya’s Rue and Maude Apatow’s Lexi in the Season 3 premiere, when Rue, out of the blue, encourages Lexi to call Fez.

“Yeah, I know. I feel guilty, but I just I haven’t had any time. I’ve been really busy,” Lexi responds, to which Rue pushes back by saying “Well, you’re free today.”

“He misses you,” Rue responds. When Lexi asks if Fez said that to her, Rue responds, “multiple times.”

“I don’t know. My hours and his hours don’t really line up, so its hard,” Lexi says. “Just like pick up the phone and call him, its not like he’s going anywhere — he’s in prison for 30 years,” Rue says.

Their conversation also addresses the sparks between Fez and Lexi that kicked off last season, and were notably interrupted when Fez couldn’t make it to Lexi’s play due to the drug raid.

Fezco and the drug raid is also mentioned earlier in the episode as the reason that Martha Kelly’s Laurie left East Highland and headed to California to team up on a drug business with her family.

Sadly, Cloud isn’t the only “Euphoria” team member to pass in between seasons, with both producer Kevin Turen and star Eric Dane also passing.

“Euphoria” Season 3 premieres Sundays on HBO.

The post How ‘Euphoria’ Season 3 Addresses Angus Cloud’s Death appeared first on TheWrap.

The streaming service has also expanded its film library this month with a collection of classic and contemporary movies, including an influential 1980s noir thriller directed by crime-movie maestro Michael Mann and an endearing early ’90s coming-of-age comedy. Prime Video’s April arrivals additionally include a quotable, culinary-themed social thriller that was released just a few years ago and an acclaimed dramedy that rightly earned a lot of awards attention in 2024.

Here are the seven best movies new to Prime Video you can stream in April.

“Thief” (1981)

In Michael Mann‘s “Thief,” a low-level safecracker (James Caan) falls in love with a diner waitress (Tuesday Weld), dreams about raising a family with her and tries to escape his life of crime by getting out from under the thumb of a narcissistic Chicago mafia boss (Robert Prosky). The film’s story is, in other words, a very familiar one to fans of the noir and crime genres. But there is so much more to “Thief” than just its story — the visual beauty in every frame, the hypnotic power of its Tangerine Dream score, the blue-collar frustration simmering throughout it and, perhaps most powerfully of all, the middle-aged desperation and exhaustion driving its protagonist.

It may not be as well-known or widely beloved as other Mann films — namely, “Heat” and “Collateral” — but it holds many of the same qualities that make those movies great. Caan’s lead performance is seismic, and the film itself is as complete an achievement of artistic vision and control as anything else Mann has ever made.

“The Aviator” (2004)

2004’s “The Aviator,” director Martin Scorsese’s second collaboration with longtime creative partner and leading man Leonardo DiCaprio, is one of the more under-appreciated entries in Scorsese’s filmography. An ambitious, visually inventive dramatization of the life of aviation pioneer and filmmaker Howard Hughes (DiCaprio), “The Aviator” works simultaneously as a complex portrait of obsessive-compulsive disorder and a glamorous exploration of the undaunted, reckless levels of ambition that helped build both Hollywood and modern America from the 1920s through the 1940s.

Cate Blanchett won her first Academy Award for her performance in the film as Katharine Hepburn, one of the great loves of Hughes’ life, and rightly so. Her chameleon-like performance is emblematic of “The Aviator” itself, a film overflowing with technical artistry that yet never loses its grasp of the moving, sometimes ugly humanity at the center of it.

“The Sandlot” (1993)

A love letter to both childhood and baseball, 1993’s “The Sandlot” is a coming-of-age comedy that will live on for-ev-er. Directed and co-written by David Mickey Evans, the film follows a diverse group of young kids who play recreational baseball together as they grow closer and experience different adventures over the course of a single summer in the early 1960s. Full of quotable lines and memorable, enduring cinematic moments, “The Sandlot” works whether you are 12 or 34.

Nostalgic and yet clear-eyed, it is a film that understands the ways both good and bad that childhood is so different from adulthood, and it captures that separation, as well as the fleeting beauty of youth and hard-earned camaraderie, with equal parts humor and heart. It is not just a classic, but the rare kind of film that feels like it has existed forever, despite only being 33 years old.

“The Terminator” (1984)

It is a testament to the artistry of “The Terminator” that, despite being ripped off and imitated countless times over the past 40 years, the film still stands on its own. Directed and co-written by “Avatar” and “Titanic” filmmaker James Cameron, the film’s story of a cyberkinetic assassin sent back in time to kill the mother (Linda Hamilton) of mankind’s future savior gives it the chance to work alternately across its 107 minutes as a thrilling chase movie, inventive retro-future drama and chilling, unrelenting slice of sci-fi horror.

Co-writers Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd bely the complexity of the film’s time travel story with a simple, elegant narrative structure defined by periodic confrontations, chases and escapes, and the result is a high-concept thriller that effortlessly holds your attention and, in typical Cameron fashion, delivers some of the most indelible images in cinema history along the way.

“Spy Game” (2001)

2001’s “Spy Game” is one of the most underrated films that “Top Gun” director Tony Scott has ever made. Set during the last days of the Cold War, the film follows a veteran CIA operative (Robert Redford) who sets out to save his former protege (Brad Pitt) from execution in a Chinese prison and, in doing so, begin to unravel the betrayals that created the high-stakes situation in the first place.

Twisty and propulsive, “Spy Game” is slighter than its star power and Cold War premise would suggest, but not as superficial as its minuscule reputation would have you believe. It is an entertaining and stylish spy thriller made by one of cinema’s most boundary-pushing mainstream stylists, and it is well-deserving of two hours of your time.

“The Menu” (2022)

An acid-tongued, blackly comic thriller, “The Menu” is a contemporary spin on a typical haves-vs-haves-not horror film set in the world of high-end culinary dining. Ralph Fiennes leads and supercharges the film with his performance as the maniacal chef of a famous, ultra-exclusive restaurant who decides to surprise his latest guests with a menu full of increasingly savage and distressing turns.

Anya Taylor-Joy co-stars in the film as the female date of a restaurant-obsessed foodie (Nicholas Hoult) who finds herself fighting for her life, and “The Menu” steadily and expertly ratchets up the tension over the course of its 107 minutes. The result is an immensely entertaining thriller — one that lingers in your mind afterward less because of its surprising social and cultural observations and more because of the gusto with which it and its performers lean all the way into its absurd, heightened horror reality.

“American Fiction” (2023)

Speaking of biting comedies with an edge, 2023’s “American Fiction” marked the feature directorial debut of writer-director Cord Jefferson. Based on a 2001 novel by Percival Everett, the film follows a frustrated Black novelist and professor (Jeffrey Wright) who, in a moment of frustration and grief, writes a satirical takedown of stereotypical “Black” stories only for the book to be taken seriously and lead to immense financial and personal success.

Both a scathing social satire and a surprisingly moving exploration of having to grow up and become responsible for more than just yourself, “American Fiction” scored five Oscar nominations in 2024. Jefferson took home the Best Adapted Screenplay award that year, while Wright and co-star Sterling K. Brown both earned nominations for their performances in the film. Its success was deserved, to say the least, and if you missed it in theaters, now is as good a time as any to stream it on Prime Video.

The post The 7 Best New Movies on Prime Video in April appeared first on TheWrap.

“It was, obviously, incredibly difficult losing Angus,” Levinson told TheWrap. “He’s someone that I love very deeply, and put a lot of my heart and soul into trying to get him healthy, and keep him healthy, and so when he passed away … it raised a lot of questions, just about fentanyl, about how fentanyl is coming into this country.”

While the issue of fentanyl — which Levinson noted led to the death of 73,000 people in the U.S. the year that Cloud passed while only 153 people total died in Europe — was something he aimed to tackle in the background, Cloud’s passing also prompted Levinson to question what he wanted to say about being a young adult in this world as he took the main cast from high school into adulthood. Ultimately, he landed on telling a story about “faith and belief in something greater than oneself,” drawing from the third step of AA as Zendaya’s Rue takes the next step in her addiction recovery.

“I thought it was an important and kind of hopeful through-line that can counterbalance, I think, some of the darkness that we often deal with in this show,” Levinson said. “And most importantly, I just wanted to honor Angus. I’m really proud of how it all turned out … I think we did right by him.”

With Season 3 embracing a several-year time jump from where we last saw Zendaya’s Rue, Hunter Schafer’s Jules, Alexa Demie’s Maddy, Sydney Sweeney’s Cassie, Jacob Elordi’s Nate and Maude Apatow’s Lexi at East Highland High, Levinson aimed to find what was authentic to the characters fans have come to know and love since the show’s 2019 debut.

“I sat down, and I just started to imagine what this world would look like, and what some of the new characters would look like,” Levinson said. “I remember I had a conversation very early on with Sydney, and she was great. She just said, ‘Look, I don’t care what happens, just make sure she’s crazy.’ I said, ‘Fantastic. Make sure Cassie is crazy.'”

Levinson certainly delivered on that front, bringing an engaged Cassie and Nate to a Republican enclave as Cassie tests her luck as an influencer with a curiosity for OnlyFans. Maddy and Lexi have been working their way up the Hollywood ladder, while Jules has delved into the world of escorting and, as for Rue, she’s still tied up in the drug world.

All of the crew navigates adulthood through the lens of Southern California, with Maddy and Lexi in Los Angeles proper, while Nate and Cassie appear to have settled in the Orange County area, a departure from the small town depicted in the first two installments. “I don’t want to be in the same town, I don’t want to be in the same high school,” Levinson said. “I’ve always felt that this show had a bigger scope than that. I was finally free to write as big as I had always kind of imagined it to be.”

For Levinson, setting Season 3 in California plays on the dream of what could be for the main cast, with Levinson noting “I always think of it from a bit of an outsider perspective, because I didn’t really grow up here, and but watching old movies, you go like, ‘Oh, that’s what California looks like’ … I wanted it to be real, but also part of our collective memory of it.” It also gave Levinson a chance to spotlight the diversity within California’s landscapes and communities, from Long Beach to downtown L.A. “It just started creating this tapestry that I thought was exciting and felt fresh to me,” he said.

Alongside the California landscape, Levinson took inspiration from Westerns, which he puts simply: “It’s the wild west of being an adult.”

“I go back to Howard Hawks, Don Siegel, Anthony Mann, [Sam] Peckinpah and [Sergio] Leone — these are movies that just that are larger than life and and transport us to another world,” he said. “It just felt like the the right atmosphere for this.”

Similarly, Levinson aimed to keep evolving the visual imagery of the series, but didn’t want to repeat the maturation from Season 1 to Season 2, which saw the series move from digital to film and switch up the color palette to become a bit darker and murkier.

“With this season, we wanted to open up the aspect ratio — we wanted to tell the story, but in a less subjective way. We didn’t want to be inside of the characters as much. We wanted to see them existing in in the world and in life,” Levinson said. “I wanted it to be a sunny season — I wanted to have sunshine. I wanted to find the shadows within it, as opposed to all the night stuff that we had done.”

Levinson finds his own sunshine in Season 3 by keeping Fezco, the beloved character played by Cloud, alive despite not appearing or filming any of the season.

“I tried really hard to keep him clean while he was here. I loved him very much,” Levinson said. “I just kind of thought, ‘Well, if I couldn’t keep them alive in real life, then maybe I could at least keep them alive in ‘Euphoria’ … I wanted to honor him this season … he’s a big part of the thread of this season, and I hope he’d be proud.”

It’s the hope that light in the darkness that Levinson hopes strikes his audiences, saying he hopes the season “inspires people to look outside of themselves a little bit more and to look at how beautiful the world is, and, and every little deed and every little kind of interaction we have with one another.” “I think it’s a celebration of life in many ways,” he said.

Anticipation for the season has brewed speculation that it could be the final chapter, with much of the main cast booked in major movie franchises and Zendaya recently revealing the installment brings closure to Rue’s story. For Levinson, however, his approach to the new installment was no different than others: “I’ve always written every season like it’s the last season … Season 1 she does the drugs. We go to this musical number. I’m happy … and if this is it, this is it.”

“I really try to maintain that kind of mentality when working where I don’t get ahead of myself — I don’t look too much in the future,” Levinson said. “I don’t go, ‘Well, what if this happens and that happens?’ I keep the blinders on, keep my head down, and I just want to deliver the best season possible for audiences.”

“Euphoria” Season 3 premieres Sundays on HBO.

The post ‘Euphoria’ Creator Sam Levinson Says He Channeled His Grief Into a Story of Faith for Season 3 appeared first on TheWrap.