movies

Jenna Ortega on Early Acting Mistake: Not Drinking, Eating On Set

Published

38 minutes ago

August 12, 2026

Jenna Ortega is reflecting on the focus she had beginning her career as a child actor and the early mistake she made.

During a sit-down with Esquire, the Wednesday actress was asked what “rookie mistake” she made while working on her first set.

“I really had it going for me as a child ‘cause I can’t think of one mistake I made,” Ortega said. “Is that a terrible thing to say? I feel like I make mistakes now all the time, but as a child, I was so grateful and so excited to be there that my game face was on.”

She went on to recall how she was so focused that she didn’t want to inconvenience anyone by asking for even food or water.

“I wasn’t asking for one sip of water,” Ortega said. “I would go all day without eating, drinking, whatever, because I wanted so badly to not be in the way of anybody.”

“Maybe that was my mistake, was not actually looking after myself,” she then added.

Earlier in the interview, Ortega recalled deciding to be an actor professionally when she was 7 years old.

She added, “My parents laughed at me when I told them that I wanted to do it, and then that was kind of the root of everything. The motivation. And I never really stopped, because I’m very stubborn. And then I never questioned it.”

Ortega credited Dakota Fanning for being an early creative influence on her and someone who taught her “what acting was” when she was a kid.

When also asked to set the record straight on a stereotype for child actors, she quipped, “Is it wrong to say that a lot of them are true? And do with that what you will.”

In April, Ortega also reflected on almost walking away from acting. During an appearance on pal Kid Cudi’s podcast, Big Bro, the actress revealed that she was about to start high school when she felt like “it was a good run.“ However, things changed when she booked the show, You. “We had talked about it for a few months with my team, and then, I think I booked that show You, and then I went on that set, and I loved it and had the best time,” Ortega said about the Netflix series starring Penn Badgley. “I thought, ‘Yeah, there’s no way I could let this go.’”

Ortega’s early credits included CSI: NY, Know It All Nina, Richie Rich and Stuck in the Middle, as well as a film role in Iron Man 3. She later portrayed the younger version of Jane on Jane the Virgin in 2014.

The actress is next set to star in Taika Waititi’s Klara and the Sun, an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel.

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‘Scary Teacher’ Game Gets Movie Adaptation With Hollywood Studio Vet

Published

4 minutes ago

August 12, 2026

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EXCLUSIVE: Hollywood vet Joe Roth, the former Fox and Disney chairman, and his producing partner Jeff Kirschenbaum, are partnering with writers Cory Todd Hughes and Adrian Speckert to develop a feature adaptation of digital horror game Scary Teacher.

Based on the hit franchise created by Z & K Games, Scary Teacher has billions of views across various YouTube channels. Centered on the character Miss T, an intimidating teacher who terrorizes students Nick and Tani, the game “combines horror, comedy and stealth gameplay as players infiltrate Miss T’s house, avoid her traps and devise elaborate pranks while uncovering the secrets hidden inside her home”.

Hughes and Speckert will write the screenplay, which is being described to us as a “faithful and elevated horror take on the property that will retain the franchise’s signature combination of suspense, dark humor and coming-of-age emotion.”

Producers will no doubt be looking to ride the wave for viral YouTube horror content such as Backrooms.

“Everyone remembers at least one teacher who made school feel impossible,” Hughes and Speckert said in a joint statement. “High school is one of the most formative and often most intimidating periods of our lives. Scary Teacher gives us an opportunity to explore those universal anxieties through the lens of an entertaining horror film while telling a story about growing up, overcoming fear and finding the courage to stand up for yourself. We’re incredibly excited to work alongside Joe Roth and Jeff Kirschenbaum, RK Films and the creators of the franchise to bring Miss T, Nick and Tani to audiences around the world in a way that longtime fans will love while introducing entirely new audiences to this unforgettable world.”

Studio vet Roth is known for producing on tentpole franchises including Fast And The Furious and Maleficent. Roth and Kirschenbaum also produced hit rom-com Anyone But You. Meanwhile, So It Goes Entertainment is also in development on video game adaptations Chained Together with Anton and Finding Frankie with 13 Films. Hughes and Specker’s script Foster, starring James Franco and Ron Perlman, is in post.

Hughes and Speckert are represented by IAG and TFC Management.

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‘Son Of A Critch’: Trailer For Final Season Of Canadian Sitcom Lands

Published

11 minutes ago

August 12, 2026

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EXCLUSIVE: “To be or not to be an actor. That is the question,” states an overly-dramatic Mark in the first trailer for the final run of Son of a Critch.

Unfortunately, life isn’t going to make it easy, and he’s soon working as a giant hot dog mascot and, in his own words, “having a midlife crisis at 17.”

Son of a Critch comes to an end after its fifth season, as show creator Mark Critch revealed on social media earlier this year. The CBC series, which has played on The CW, follows Benjamin Evan Ainsworth (The Legend of Zelda) as a young Mark making his way through school on the Atlantic Canadian coastnin Newfoundland, Canada, in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Critch plays his own father, Mike Sr., and Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange) plays grandfather Pop. Claire Rankin (Stargate Atlantis) plays his mother Mary; Colton Gobbo (Ginny & Georgia) is older brother Mike Jr.; Mark Ezekiel Rivera is Mark’s best friend Ritche; and Sophia Powers (Murder in a Small Town) is Fox, Mark’s girlfriend.

The trailer sees Mark trying to make sense of his future, only for life to keep getting in the way. In a classroom, he muses that, “Maybe it’s not about settling for the way things are, but making your own way.” His teacher considers the sentiment for the briefest moment before snapping back, “No, it’s about jobs.”

The season will also introduce the devastating real-life cod moratorium crisis, which cost around 30,000 jobs and threw many Canadian families into poverty in 1992. As his dad and friends fear the worst, Mike turns to his supportive grandfather, who tells him, “Don’t give up on your dreams.”

In reality, Critch went on to become a successful writer, comedian and actor. He performed in comedy This Hour Has 22 Minutes before creating the semi-autobiographical Son of a Critch for CBC in 2022.

Critch co-created the show alongside co-showrunner Tim McAuliffe, with Project 10 Productions and Hawco Productions the makers in association with CBC and Lionsgate Television.

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American Film Market 2026 Debuts New AFM House To Host Innovation Hub

Published

18 minutes ago

August 12, 2026

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The American Film Market will have an expanded footprint for its upcoming edition with a new space, AFM House, dedicated to programming for its second annual Innovation Hub.

AFM House will be located at The Pavilion at Century Park, 2000 Avenue of the Stars, across from the Fairmont Century Plaza where the market will unspool Nov. 10-15. It adds 15,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space to the campus, said the event’s producer Independent Film & Television Alliance.

The Innovation Hub, launched in 2025 in collaboration with Cannes Next, the Marché du Film‘s Innovation Program, will feature AI startups, tech companies and forward-looking programming, IFTA said.

AFM House will also host the Cinemas Club, co-created by Marché du Film and Cine Group, with an exhibition and speaker series focused on the future of theatrical cinema. The Club was introduced at this year’s Marché du Film in Cannes bringing together theater owners, distributors, producers and industry experts for curated discussions on the future of exhibition, audience engagement and the evolving cinema experience.

“Filmmaking has always been rooted in collaboration and innovation, and that spirit is more important today than ever. As our business continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, The AFM House provides a place where the global entertainment community can come together to exchange ideas, forge partnerships, explore emerging business models and discover opportunities,” said IFTA’s new president and CEO Jackie Brenneman. “Our collaboration with Cannes Next and the Cinemas Club expand that vision by creating a dedicated home for innovation, technology, and the future of theatrical exhibition.”

AFM’s 2026 theme is The New Global Screen Economy.

Guillaume Esmiol, executive director of the Marché du Film called AFM House “an ambitious new platform’ and said he’s delighted to see the Cannes market’s growing portfolio of programs designed to address major shifts in the industry extend beyond the Croisette.

“Theatrical exhibition has rarely needed more of what this market stands for: a broader and more diverse slate of films reaching screens, and the same appetite for innovation in the experience we offer audiences and in the way we connect with them,” said Cine Group President Julien Marcel.