“Atonement” is a movie steeped in real tragedy.
“In Baghdad, in 2003, U.S. Marine Lou D’Alessandro (Boyd Holbrook) and his unit open fire on two ostensibly hostile vehicles. Three passengers are killed before it’s revealed that those vehicles were carrying three generations of a civilian family. A decade later, following a dishonorable discharge, Lou is back in San Diego, haunted by the incident, unsupported by Veterans Affairs, and unable to continue the life he started before the war,” reads the official synopsis.
The multilayered story, based on a 2012 New Yorker article by Dexter Filkins, also follows Mariam (Hiam Abbass), the matriarch of the family that was torn apart by that shooting, as she begins a new life in California with her daughter and her young family. “She’s profiled by journalist Michael Reid (Kenneth Branagh), who was also in Baghdad when the tragedy unfolded,” the synopsis continues. “Desperate to explain his side of the story, Lou asks Michael to broker a meeting with Mariam.”
The film marks the feature debut of writer-director Reed Van Dyk, who was nominated for an Oscar in 2018 for his live-action short film “DeKalb Elementary.”
Abbass, Branagh and Holbrook joined Executive Awards Editor Steve Pond at TheWrap’s studio at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival and opened up about their approach to playing actual people as opposed to fictional characters.
“Certainly I try not to meet them because for me it’s much more interesting to bring my sensitivity as a human being to whatever I’m serving in order to make them authentic in a fictional way because we’re working with fiction and not with documentary,” said Abbass. “I have a feeling that if I meet the real people, it just gets me nervous. I have a feeling to serve really the humanity of that story and to give it a place in a fictional world.”
Holbrook took a similar approach.
“Reed and I had spoken about Lou, and you know Reed has done so much research on this film, and I had about two hours of audio interviews of Lou and Reed,” said Holbrook. “When you’re trying to put a performance together that comes into it – if maybe there’s a voice here I could use or there’s a mannerism I could use. I think if you keep distilling that down, it’s the emotional value of how I can bring this story to life, and so I thought that was far more important. And what was on the page was definitely enough to use for that.”
Branagh, on the other hand, wanted to meet the man he was playing, considering he didn’t really know all that much about how the New Yorker writer went about doing his job.
“I did want to speak to Dexter Filkins about how he got there, how he came across the story, how he pursued it, and how high on his list of interests it was,” the Oscar winner explained. “Was this a particularly mysterious one for him? It seemed a little more objective about being less directly involved, but he was surprised and I think humbled to be a conduit.
“But his finding of the story was interesting. It was haphazard. And although the circumstances are tragic, his being there was fortuitous. So I was glad to just hear. I asked him things like, ‘What kind of notebook do you use? Do you write shorthand?’ Things I really didn’t know about, and I was glad to just have a specificity to that that was useful to me.”
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As the Scream franchise continues to serve as a cultural lightning rod in the Israel-Hamas conflict, Matthew Lillard is making his voice heard.
The Scream 7 star recently admitted that he’s “embarrassed” to have reprised his role as Stu Macher in this year’s seventh installment in the slasher franchise, explaining that Melissa Barrera was “on the right side of history” when she was fired for speaking up in support of Palestinians in 2023.
“It’s just human, it’s who we are… I don’t know what else to do,” he explained in a video from a recent Q&A. “For me, I have queer kids, if I’m not standing up for queer kids or kids in the trans community, what the fuck am I doing?”
Lillard continued, “But if I’m not standing up about the silencing of Melissa Barrera—listen, I don’t think it’s easy all the time. Melissa Barrera, who’s a beautiful actor, was fired for what she said. It’s really fucking bullshit and really hard, and she’s on the right side of history.”
“And when they start coming after your job, sometimes things are worth it. But I’m just gonna say, what happened to Melissa, the whole world didn’t pipe up. She was like a year early on what the fuck’s going on, but the whole world should have piped up and said, ‘she’s right,’ and they didn’t. And that’s brutal,” he said.
In January 2025, Deadline exclusively revealed that Lillard would reprise his role in Scream 7 as killer Stu Macher, who was believed to have been killed at the end of the first movie.
“And then I went back to do Scream, and I got called out,” said Lillard. “And I was like, ‘Oh fuck, that’s brutal.’ I feel bad about that, I feel shame about that. Because in that moment, I was so excited to got back, I didn’t really think about Melissa and the journey, and I didn’t say ‘no.’ I’m embarrassed, and that’s the truth.”
As the seventh installment of the slasher franchise premiered at Paramount Studios in February, “Free Palestine” protesters lined up outside the entrance to the lot. Back when the first trailer for Scream 7 was released last October, fans quickly began slamming the movie on social media, calling for a boycott.
Spyglass fired Barrera in November 2023 over her social media posts on the Israel-Hamas conflict and the “atrocities being committed against Palestinians,” explaining the company has “zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech.”
Following her ousting, Jenna Ortega also exited the franchise, later noting that the sequel “was all kind of falling apart” without Barrera to play its new “final girl” Sam Carpenter. Director Christopher Landon dropped out of the project as well, citing “highly aggressive and really scary” death threats targeting his children.
Neve Campbell was then brought back to reprise her role as OG “final girl” Sidney Campbell for Scream 7 in March 2024, with original Scream (1996) writer Williamson on board to direct. She previously sat out Scream VI (2023) over the low pay offer.
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For the 14th year, The Hollywood Reporter was at the center of the Toronto International Film Festival, bringing together the biggest names in filmmaking for premieres, celebratory moments and exclusive gatherings. And, for those who couldn’t make it to Canada, THR brought all of the action to its readers with exclusive interviews, photography, reviews, invite-only events and live social coverage.
THR once again hosting its signature festival content studio at the 1 Hotel Toronto. Where THR’s all-star team of editors, photographers and videographers captured exclusive moments with A-list talent and creatives behind the most-buzzed-about films at the festival as they passed through the invitation-only studio, including Naomi Watts, Jon Hamm, Ayo Edebiri, Mahershala Ali, Michelle Yeoh, Gary Oldman, Indie Navarette, Helen Mirren, Javier Bardem, Chase Infiniti, Seth Rogen, Lily-Rose Depp and many more.
From left: Milo Quifes, Carlos Gonzalez, Javier Ambrossi, Penélope Cruz, Javier Calvó, Miguel Bernardeau and Guitarricadelafuente at The Hollywood Reporter Studio at TIFF 2026 – Presented by Canada Goose held at 1 Hotel Toronto on September 13, 2026 in Toronto, Canada.
Patrick Marcoux for The Hollywood Reporter
Javier Barden (center)
Penelopé Cruz
The studio was presented by Canada Goose, the (un)official jacket of film crews everywhere trusted by the industry for decades. As film crews push their craft to the edges of the world — into the places, spaces, and moments that shape stories for the big screen — the conditions they work in are as demanding as the work itself. Known for its reliability and resilience, Canada Goose has supported on- and off-screen roles in some of the planet’s most extreme locations, empowering exploration of all kinds, from set to screen.
Curry Barker and Inde Navarrette
Patrick Marcoux for The Hollywood Reporter
Ayo Edebiri
Patrick Marcoux for The Hollywood Reporter
To cap off the weekend, THR hosted a live recording of Scott Feinberg’s flagship podcast, Awards Chatter, with Spanish Oscar-winner Penélope Cruz, who premiered two films at the festival, La Bola Negra and Bunker. Hosted at Casa Madera at 1 Hotel Toronto, Cruz discussed her life, career, and her banner year with acclaimed performances in three films, the aforementioned La Bola Negra, Bunker and the Olivia Wilde-directed Sundance darling and box office smash, The Invite. Stay tuned for the full podcast recording releasing in the coming days, available on all major streaming platforms. The event marked another special iteration of the live tapings at film festival’s around the globe, including sit downs with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Sandra Hüller earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Toronto International Film Festival continues through Sept. 20. For breaking news and up-to-the-minute coverage from TIFF, stay tuned to THR’s cross-platform reporting live from the ground in Toronto.
Jon Hamm
Patrick Marcoux for The Hollywood Reporter
Lily-Rose Depp
Patrick Marcoux for The Hollywood Reporter
John Cho
Patrick Marcoux for The Hollywood Reporter
Penelopé Cruz
Patrick Marcoux for The Hollywood Reporter
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One of the biggest battles in entertainment this year has been between sports betting giants and the new prediction market juggernauts entering that space, Kalshi and Polymarket. TheGrill is thrilled to welcome the CEO and co-founder of DraftKings Jason Robins with Vice Chairman Harry Sloan to the 2026 conference, two players at the center of this pitched competition.
Robins and Sloan will discuss the rise of DraftKings from private startup in 2012 to becoming a publicly-held entertainment giant with a $12 billion market cap, and the new challenges posed by the race for dominance in the world of prediction markets and sports betting. This has swiftly become one of the most powerful forces shaping how audiences participate in live entertainment.
Robins built DraftKings through an FBI inquiry, cease-and-desist orders in more than a dozen states and a 2018 Supreme Court decision that opened American sports betting. Today the company operates a licensed sportsbook in roughly two dozen states and a federally regulated prediction markets platform in the rest, placing it squarely inside the escalating fight between state regulators and Washington D.C. over who governs the business.
As Chairman and CEO of Eagle Equity Partners LLC, Sloan has taken multiple media companies public including DraftKings, through SPAC transactions. He previously served as Chairman and CEO of MGM, leading the studio through its return to independent operation, and founded SBS Broadcasting and New World Broadcast.
Together, Sloan and Robins offer a particularly timely conversation about where prediction markets are headed and what happens when sports, technology, finance and entertainment collide.
They join a lineup of powerhouse speakers:
TheGrill will be at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles on Sept. 30. As a bonus, your ticket also gets you into AI Creator Day on Sept. 29. One ticket. Two days. Full program and seats here.
TheGrill is sponsored by Antenna, Artlist, City National Bank, Gerber Kawasaki, Lionsgate and Viva Pictures.
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