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Scott Pelley, Sharyn Alfonsi Join Columbia as Journalists-in-Residence

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Scott Pelley and Sharyn Alfonsi have landed their first major public roles since leaving “60 Minutes,” with Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism naming the veteran journalists its journalists-in-residence for the 2026-27 academic year.

The appointments, announced Monday, come months after both correspondents exited the CBS News newsmagazine amid a sweeping overhaul under editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and executive producer Nick Bilton.

As journalists-in-residence, Pelley and Alfonsi will work closely with students through lectures, workshops and special events focused on reporting, investigative journalism and sourcing. They will also each contribute an article to the “Columbia Journalism Review.”

“We’re both excited and honored to welcome two journalists of this caliber to our Journalist in Residence Program,” Columbia Journalism School Dean Jelani Cobb said in a Monday statement. “Their distinguished track records in investigative reporting highlight the amazing opportunity our students will have to learn from them.”

The appointments are part of Columbia Journalism School’s CJS2030: Democracy Initiative, which aims to strengthen accountability reporting and investigative journalism.

Pelley and Alfonsi are among several recent high-profile departures from “60 Minutes” following a dramatic leadership transition at CBS News. EP Nick Bilton replaced longtime executive producer Tanya Simon earlier this year, while Weiss has reshaped the flagship series’ editorial leadership and correspondent roster.

Alfonsi, who joined “60 Minutes” in 2015 after reporting for CBS News and ABC News, built a reputation for investigative reporting on immigration, public health, politics and criminal justice. During her tenure, she earned multiple Emmy Awards and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award.

“Joining Columbia University as a Journalist in Residence is an extraordinary privilege, especially at a time when deep, rigorous and fearless reporting has never been more vital,” Alfonsi said in a statement. “I’m excited to work with the next generation of journalists who are eager to ask the tough questions that hold power accountable.”

Pelley arrives at Columbia after a 37-year career at CBS News, including 27 years as a “60 Minutes” correspondent and a stint as anchor and managing editor of “CBS Evening News.” Over his career, he reported from conflict zones around the world, interviewed multiple U.S. presidents and earned dozens of journalism honors, including 51 Emmy Awards, three Peabody Awards and four Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards.

“This is a critical time for a free press,” Pelley added. “Columbia is leading the way in training the next generation of great journalists and I am honored to join Sharyn in that vital cause.”

The appointments mark the latest chapter for two of television journalism’s most recognizable reporters as they transition from one of the industry’s most influential news programs to mentoring the next generation of journalists.

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Spider-Man: Brand New Day to Kick The Odyssey Out of Imax

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Fresh off a monumental box office weekend, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” will be hitting Imax theaters in just a few days — and booting Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” out of some of those theaters in the process.

Starting Aug. 7, you can see “Brand New Day” in Imax theaters. Tickets for Imax showings will go on sale on Tuesday.

While this means that “The Odyssey” will be leaving some Imax theaters this weekend, it will continue its run in 70mm Imax through September — tickets for those showings have already been sold.

As the first and only movie shot entirely with Imax film cameras, “The Odyssey” is a spectacle best enjoyed in the Imax format, so make your move while you can. Although we suspect it might be back in Imax theaters sometime early next year to coincide with Oscar season.

As for “Brand New Day,” the Sony/Marvel movie officially broke the record held by “Avengers: Endgame” for the biggest domestic opening weekend of all time with $360 million. And that’s without Imax theaters.

The fourth Tom Holland Spider-Man movie opened to over $930 million worldwide and will cross $1 billion in a matter of days. It’s a spectacular run for the “No Way Home” sequel, which finds Holland’s Peter Parker juggling a darker and deeper story.

Critics and audiences responded enthusiastically to the new film, which was directed by “Shang Chi: The Legend of the Ten Rings” filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton after Jon Watts directed the previous three “Spider-Man” movies.

The next Imax release on deck is Warner Bros.’ dinosaur movie “The End of Oak Street,” which hits theaters on Aug. 14.

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‘Ice Cream Man’ Review: Kids Slay the Darndest Things

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No one can say horror filmmaker Eli Roth doesn’t have a sense of humor. The only question is whether or not he’s funny. “Ice Cream Man” is his latest sick joke, a gory “Children of the Corn” riff about a supernatural Pied Piper distributing frozen desserts that turn small children into homicidal maniacs. The first time you see a little kid chopping their parents to bits with a demented grin on their face it’s shocking. The second time it’s merely gross. After the hundredth time, it’s obvious that “Ice Cream Man” has only one gag. By the millionth, it’s just boring.

“Ice Cream Man” stars Charlie Zeltzer as Jared, a kid with more bullies than permanent teeth. It’s one of the last days of school, and all the kids in town just gorged themselves on ice cream from a mysterious new vendor, played by Ari Millen (“Orphan Black”). Jared is lactose intolerant, which isn’t a superpower — unless painful bloating was reclassified as a superpower and nobody told me — but it does mean he never eats the ice cream, so he’s one of the few kids who doesn’t fall under the Ice Cream Man’s spell.

The Ice Cream Man drives through town in the middle of the night, blaring an annoying jingle, which makes all the children get up, select a deadly instrument and murder their parents. Some kids are straightforward about it and rake a hacksaw across their mother’s neck. Others decide to get creative and trick their father into putting his hand down a garbage disposal before walking across the room and turning it on (you know how those garbage disposal switches are always across the room, right?). Then they set him on fire, because hey, you only get to kill your father once; I suppose you may as well make a night of it.

Yes, apparently killing the adults in town isn’t enough. The Ice Cream Man wants these children to use their imaginations. So we watch kids scraping their principal’s brains out with an ice cream scoop and feeding it back to him. Some of the kids use a lower intestine as a jump rope, a gag I think we all saw coming. The movie goes on like this. And on. And on. Everyone likes a good gross-out horror comedy, and even the bad ones can be fun, but the repetitive ones are another story. Or in the case of “Ice Cream Man,” they barely have a story at all.

“Ice Cream Man” is the latest in a long line of killer children movies. To date, I’m not convinced any filmmaker has ever beaten Narciso Ibáñez Serrador’s “Who Can Kill a Child?” for its sheer audacity and horror. Fritz Kiersch’s adaptation of Stephen King’s short story “Children of the Corn” is more famous, but it leaves the scariest parts to the audience’s imagination, which makes it look like the film has no imagination of its own. Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion’s “Cooties” wasn’t afraid to go full “Dead Alive” in its climax — something, weirdly, Eli Roth refuses to do, despite going out of his way to foreshadow the lawnmower — and yet even that movie still made little impression.

All those other movies were about something, if only superficially. This made them feel like real movies. “Ice Cream Man” plays like a laundry list of “killer kids” gags, with the story, characters and even the explicitly stated message coming across like afterthoughts. There’s a reason why the Ice Cream Man makes all the children kill their parents, their teachers and every other adult in town. It’s a supernatural tale of revenge, distractingly derivative of “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” except Freddy Krueger’s motivation made diabolical sense. Without going into too much detail, the Ice Cream Man’s motivation is to punish adults, because adults are bad. But he’s punishing the adults for what they did as children, in the aftermath of their own victimization, so the whole concept falls apart.

You could argue the Ice Cream Man is a hypocrite, but Roth’s film never explores that possibility. It’s too shallow for a clever idea to swim in. The backstory for “Ice Cream Man” merely frames the ultraviolence as a dark catharsis, and that’s not convincing. Roth never stops winking long enough to get us invested, in anything. Even as a gag movie, a simplistic excuse for gruesome gore, it falls flat because you can’t sustain shock value when we don’t care who’s getting disemboweled. After a while, you’re just watching a make-up effects team show off.

And that’s the rub: It would be more exciting to watch a documentary about the professionals, weirdos and professional weirdos making the fake guts and disembodied limbs than to watch the film they were actually working on. “Ice Cream Man” is a hot fudge sundae without any ice cream, or any hot fudge. It’s just sprinkles and nuts. Nuts to that.

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‘Warhammer 40,000’ Animated Series Set At Amazon; Henry Cavill To EP

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Amazon MGM Studios is developing a Warhammer 40,000 animated event series alongside the upcoming live-action version, sources close to the project confirmed to Deadline. Additionally, Henry Cavill, who is set to star and EP the live-action series, is on board to executive produce. Amazon declined comment,.

The animated series, from Amazon MGM Studios, Blur Studios and Games Workshop, will be a spinoff of Secret Level, Prime Video’s adult animated anthology series, we’ve learned. The first season featured a “Warhammer 40,000” episode when it aired in late 2024.

The series is co-created and directed by Dave Wilson, who directed Secret Level’s Warhammer 40,000 episode. John Orloff (Masters of the Air) serves as co-creator alongside Wilson.

Few details are known about the storyline, but we hear it will revolve around The Deathwatch, an elite group of Space Marines that specialize in hunting down alien threats.

Warhammer 40,000 is set in the far future, where humanity stands at the edge of what might be its brightest future, or its darkest age. The threats to humankind’s empire are many: traitors driven by the fires of ambition, alien empires sworn to reclaim the stars and the corruption of reality by malevolent gods.

Secret Level creator Tim Miller will executive produce for Blur Studios alongside Cavill and Natalie Viscuso. Vertigo Entertainment’s Roy Lee executive produces with Andy Smillie from Games Workshop. The series is being developed in partnership with Amazon MGM Studios and Games Workshop.

Amazon Studios secured global rights to the Warhammer 40,000 game from Games Workshop in 2022, which includes film, television and associated merchandising rights.

Deadline’s sister site Variety was first to report the news.

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