Going on two years after the wildfires that devastated Pacific Palisades and other Los Angeles-area neighborhoods, a popular moviehouse is ready for its closeup. Paramount Pictures and real estate developer Rick Caruso said Tuesday that the Bay Theater in Palisades Village will reopen before year’s end.

The high-end five-screen venue at 1035 N. Swarthmore Ave., shuttered since the Palisades Fire in early January 2025, is being restored, and luxury cinema operator The Lot will manage it. Along with first-run movies and classics, the Bay will host special screenings and immersive theatrical experiences, said Paramount, which is taking over the theater formerly operated by Netflix and Cinepolis before that.

“Together with Caruso, we are proud to help bring the Bay back to life as a place for the Pacific Palisades community to gather around the shared experience of cinema,” said David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Skydance. “This theater has always meant more than movies alone — it’s woven into the fabric of this neighborhood, and helping restore it is a privilege. We’re inspired by the resilience of Pacific Palisades residents, and we’re honored to help support this community’s comeback.”

The surrounding Caruso-owned Palisades Village reopened during the summer, and now the Bay Theater is set open its doors by the end of 2026, though no date is set.

The original Bay Theater opened down the road on Sunset Boulevard in 1949 before closing in 1978. The venue’s current iteration debuted in 2018.

“The Bay has always been at the heart of the Palisades,” said Caruso, who was runner-up in the race for Los Angeles mayor in 2022, “and its return is one of the most meaningful signs yet that this community … is coming back stronger than ever.”

The Lot, which will oversee operations for the Bay, runs luxury dine-in theaters in La Jolla, Newport Beach and other California cities.

Bob Odenkirk is paying tribute to his late Breaking Bad co-star, RJ Mitte, who died at 34.

Odenkirk, who played Saul Goodman in the AMC series, said Mitte was a “good person who shared his personal story and his time to help out others.”

“Whenever I saw him, he was meeting the world with positivity and a strong desire to connect,” Odenkirk said in a statement to People. “This is simply, deeply sad.”

Odenkirk is the latest Breaking Bad actor to memorialize Mitte, who played Walter “Flynn” White Jr. in the series.

Bryan Cranston took to Instagram to remember his TV son, saying he was in “deep despair” over Mitte’s death.

“Born with Cerebral Palsy, he never – ever – allowed that challenge to be an excuse for anything. He met the demanding shooting schedule head on with great determination,” Cranstron wrote. “Always listening to the advice that his TV parents (Anna Gunn and myself) gave him – but being a teenager, sometimes mischievously ignoring the counsel in order to learn the hard way… He was one of the stars of a hit TV show – but still a kid.”

He continued, “All that promise and potential now is such a loss. It is especially devastating to hear that he took his own life. Why? We were texting each other just a few weeks ago – figuring out when we could meet for lunch. I don’t know if that lunch would have changed his future… But I do know that I loved him, and thoroughly enjoyed being with him throughout the years on the series, and after the spotlight on Breaking Bad dimmed… I’ll miss you, son.

Mitte’s reps confirmed the news, saying he died by suicide in Brownsville, Texas.

If you or anyone you know is having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.