movies

Maya Jama On Future As ‘Love Island UK’ Host & Rumors She’s Replacing Emma Willis As ‘The Voice UK’ Season 15 Host

Published

13 minutes ago

July 26, 2026

Maya Jama is a multifaceted personality as the host of Love Island UK and is set to star in Netflix’s The Gentleman Season 2.

As Jama expands her talents into other areas, there have been rumors that she is looking to step away from the ITV2 dating series.

“I never know,” Jama told Deadline. “[The UK press] always do this. Every time I do a series — that’s happened for the last three years — they’ll say, ‘Maya is leaving.’ And I think they just throw it out there just in case. Then people grab onto it, and they’re like, ‘Oh, are you leaving?’”

She continued, “But I never decide if I’m doing the next series until the end of one. So it’s fake news that I’m leaving, but I always decide at the end of a series if I’m going to continue the next year. So we’ll find out.”

Jama clarified that when she signs on to host Love Island UK, the contract also includes hosting Love Island All Stars, which typically runs at the beginning of each other (in the winter months), but she will not know until she finishes her current duties as host of Season 13.

With Jama being so beloved by the public and reaching new audiences via Hulu, which holds the rights to Love Island UK in the U.S., the high-profile host is in demand. A new rumor that came up recently was that she would be taking over as The Voice UK host after longtime presenter Emma Willis. Willis recently was confirmed as one of the hosts of BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing and is reportedly leaving the ITV1 singing competition after Season 14 ends later this year.

“Oh yeah, so funny,” Jama said on the rumors she’s hosting The Voice UK. “The UK press… they just fling everything out there. I’m not hosting that.”

The Love Island UK Season 13 finale is set for Monday, July 27 on ITV2 in the UK, with U.S. audiences able to stream the final episode on Thursday, July 30 on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.

movies

Indie Film Box Office: ‘Hadestown The Musical’ Takes A Bow

Published

48 minutes ago

July 26, 2026

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Bleecker Street’s Hadestown: The Musical swept to the second biggest opening for a live show capture since Hamilton, pushing $9.7 million in a terrific debut on 1,949 screens. Due to “extraordinary response and demand,” the distributor said its new event cinema label Crosswalk and partner LD Entertainment are expanding the initial five-day run and continuing to add dates and showtimes.

The film is Certified Fresh with a 99% audience score. The stage production, written by Anaïs Mitchell and directed by Rachel Chavkin, won eight Tony Awards in 2019 including Best Musical, and the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.

The film version directed by Brett Sullivan was captured from the West End production and features the original principal cast.

Crosswalk previously had success with concert documentary Stray Kids: The Dominate Experience earlier this year. Its next scheduled release is George Michael: The Faith Tour later this year.

Motor City from Independent Film Company is no. 9 with a solid $1.6 million at 1,600 theaters. Potsy Ponciroli’s 1970s Detroit-set revenge drama stars Alan Ritchson.

Noting that The Invite is no. 6, Young Washington no. 8 and Obsession no. 10 – putting five indies atop the domestic box office.

Neon’s Her Private Hell by Nicolas Winding Refn opened to $530k on 675 screens.

The distributor’s Sheep In The Box by Hirokazu Koreeda’s is eyeing $33k from 3 screens.

Cyril Aris’ A Sad And Beautiful World from Watermelon Pictures debuted to $9k at the Quad in NYC with limited showings, reporting multiple sellouts.

American Pachuco: The Legend Of Luis Valdez added a dozen theaters across the Los Angeles area in week 2 while continuing its run at the Film Forum in New York. The Insignia Films release directed by David Alvarado, with booking support from mTuckman media, is estimated to gross $32.3k on 13 screens this weekend for a cume of $41.4k. Alvarado and subjects Luis Valdez and Lou Diamond Phillips appeared at select shows, all of which quickly sold out, and, additional Q&As were added to meet demand at select theaters. The winner of the Sundance Audience Award: U.S. Documentary and Festival Favorite Award, is also mounting an Awards campaign. It moves to the San Francisco Bay area next weekend.

Greenwich Entertainment’s Reading Lolita in Tehran grossed $47.5k at 13 locations in week 2 for a $73.5k cume.

movies

Universal Responds to ‘The Odyssey’ Leaks on Social Media

Published

1 hour ago

July 26, 2026

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It’s only been a little more than a week since the release of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and leaks of pirated films have already been circulating across social media.

Most recently, a lower-quality version was posted on X Sunday morning, but was pulled down roughly two hours later, only after garnering nearly 50,000 views. “This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner,” a message later read on the post.

On Saturday, a reportedly higher-quality version of the movie was also making its rounds on X, collecting millions of views and thousands of reposts before it was taken down and the account was suspended. “Someone upload ‘The Odyssey’ full movie on X. Can you believe it?” one person wrote on the social platform after resharing the pirated films.

Amid the ongoing issue, Universal Pictures wrote in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, “We became aware of the unauthorized posting of the film and immediately initiated takedown protocols. We take copyright infringement seriously and will pursue all appropriate remedies to protect our content and intellectual property rights.”

With a highly anticipated blockbuster like The Odyssey, a bootleg of the film is to be expected and something that studios often prepare for ahead of a film’s wide release.

In addition to chasing down individual links and posts, studios will also look to combat large-scale piracy happening across the broader ecosystem. As for pirated films appearing on social platforms, the time it takes for the content to be taken down varies by company, with X, owned by Elon Musk, being known to be difficult to work with on requests.

Despite the pirated films, The Odyssey is still dominating at the box office, sailing past $600 million globally in its second weekend.

The film, based on Homer’s ancient Greek poem, follows King Odysseus’ (Matt Damon) dangerous voyage back to Ithaca after the Trojan War, including battles with mythical creatures, as he attempts to reunite with his wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and son, Telemachus (Tom Holland). The film also stars Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o, John Leguizamo, Elliot Page, Mia Goth, Corey Hawkins, Jon Bernthal, Samantha Morton, Travis Scott and Benny Safdie.

movies

Universal Responds To Online Leak Of ‘The Odyssey’

Published

2 hours ago

July 26, 2026

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Christopher Nolan has taken pains to urge fans to see The Odyssey in Imax if they want the best experience. After all, his film was shot entirely in that format to optimize the moviegoing experience.

Imagine the director’s chagrin, then, when a high-quality version of the film was leaked on X this weekend, reportedly garnering millions of views.

Universal sprang into action.

“We became aware of the unauthorized posting of the film and immediately initiated takedown protocols. We take copyright infringement seriously and will pursue all appropriate remedies to protect our content and intellectual property rights,” read a statement from the studio released to Deadline.

Though it can sometimes be difficult to get leaks deleted on X, by Sunday morning it appeared that most if not all of the copies were gone.

In fact, some fans took it upon themselves to foil those wishing to watch online. They did so by Rickrolling them. Fans posted what appeared to be the film’s opening, with the Universal globe and logo followed by a two-hour supercut of Rick Astley‘s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” See below.

https://twitter.com/Antonio_aj3/status/2081296703412412805

The leak hasn’t seemed to hurt the film this weekend, as it posted posting Nolan’s best ever second frame at the domestic box office. That $87M performance was driven in large part by large formats. Imax, PLFs and 70MM drove 57% of The Odyssey‘s sophmore weekend. That’s up from 53% last weekend.