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‘Behemoth!’ Wouldn’t Have Been Made Without ‘Andor,’ Says Tony Gilroy

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Tony Gilroy and Pedro Pascal have hit the BFI London Film Festival, and the director believes he wouldn’t be here without the success of Andor.

Gilroy, of the Bourne franchise and Rogue One fame, was the creator, showrunner and executive producer on the Star Wars prequel’s spinoff series from 2022 to 2025 at Disney+.

His latest feature film — the American’s first in eight years — stars Pascal as Alex Serian, a gifted cellist who returns to Los Angeles after 20 years away to care for his ill mother. He soon finds himself investigating the aftermath of his relationship with a violinist, played by Eva Victor, who he dated 16 years prior. Olivia Wilde, Will Arnett, Hank Azaria and Alexa Swinton all co-star.

“Look, I want to gamble,” Gilroy said to The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet outside London’s Royal Festival Hall Tuesday night. “I want to keep pushing. I never want to do the same old thing. And we certainly didn’t do the same old thing with Andor. And I was like, when you’re winning, you press your bets. And so I want to do something out there. And I had this, and I knew it might work. I’m going to keep gambling as long as they let me play. I’m going to gamble.”

The success of the Emmy-winning Andor, widely considered the most creatively substantive of the recent projects churned out by LucasFilm, actually helped Gilroy make Behemoth! He said an adult drama that might have otherwise been a hard sell. “I’ve been at Disney now for 10 years on three very eccentric projects, and we’ve been gambling together. It’s kind of odd. It’s not the common perception, and your mileage may vary, but for me, they stretched a little bit to make this movie,” he added about the Searchlight feature. “It’s a little bit of a stretch that they made to make this, and I’m sure it has a lot to do with Andor.”

Superstar Pascal did minimal press on Tuesday’s carpet but was caught spotting a “Protect the Dolls” t-shirt, telling the wearer: “Protect the dolls, always and forever.” He was supported by his sister Lux, who made a surprise appearance for photos with Pascal.

Ahead of the screening, he revealed the extensive prep that went into becoming a virtuoso cellist, which included learning how to play the cello. “I would take it everywhere with me, on Tony’s recommendation,” said Pascal. “Every errand, to the gym, it just sort of lived with me. It was like putting myself into a relationship, and there was something kind of comforting about that.”

That method was the entryway into “all of the difficulty of technically learning how to play the cello convincingly,” explained the actor. “Because I knew that for Tony’s movie to work, that needed to be achieved. A full stop, you know? And to go into that question mark was terrifying, but it was also incredibly, incredibly thrilling.”

Another Star Wars alum, Oscar Isaac, was set to take on the lead role of Gilroy’s film, but he had to pull out. The filmmaker explained to THR that he went into the meeting with Pascal “with the full intention of blowing up the movie.” But 10 minutes in, after Pascal went to the bathroom, Gilroy knew right away. “It wasn’t really a meeting. It was kind of like a prenup. We just agreed all the things that we would have to do to make it work because he would have to pick up a cello the next day,” he said. “It wasn’t a long-term affair. It was a Hinge date.”

After a good few weeks on the festival circuit — Behemoth! premiered at the New York Film Festival just earlier this month — Gilroy is pleased to be in and amongst the pack. “The movies this year are fantastic. […] I remember when we started, one of the other filmmakers said to me, ‘We’re really lucky. This is really good. You want to be in a good year.’ It seems like it’s competitive or whatever, [it] doesn’t really matter,” Gilroy said. “You want to be in it. This is a very interesting year for movies.” He spotlighted Nathan Fielder’s Elizabeth Holmes doc You Can See Everything as a particular favorite.

The 70th BFI London Film Festival runs Oct. 7-18, and opened with the European premiere of Andrew Scott’s tearjerker Elsinore. Some of the glitziest galas so far include Ink, Wild Horse Nine, Artificial, Paper Tiger, Possible Love, Bunker and La Bola Negra. Check out THR‘s Screen Talks coverage from this year’s London Film Festival and chats with Andrew Scott, John Malkovich, Javier Bardem, Naomi Ackie, Ava DuVernay, Cynthia Erivo, Sofia Coppola and Danny Boyle.

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‘Narcs’ Movie Cast Adds Callan Farris, Lexi Minetree & Josh Macqueen

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EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures has rounded out the cast for its coming-of-age comedy Narcs, with three additions: Callan Farris (Grimcutty), Lexi Minetree (Elle), and Josh Macqueen (upcoming Thunder Road).

Character details are being kept under wraps; the film’s plot also remains a mystery. Mason Thames and Ella Bright lead the cast, as we first reported.

Slated for release in theaters on August 20, 2027, Narcs marks the directorial debut of John Phillips, whose writing credits include the R-rated comedies No Hard Feelings, Good Boys and Dirty Grandpa. Phillips is working from a script by Jordan & Justin Shipley, creators of the TBS comedy Wrecked, with a rewrite by Phillips & frequent collaborator Gene Stupnitsky, who’s producing through his Big Name Entertainment banner. Robert Lamonaca is exec producing via Big Name, alongside Phillips and Joseph Micucci.

Farris comes to Narcs with credits including the films Kings and Grimcutty, as well as Disney Channel’s Gabby Duran & The Unsittables and Disney Jr.’s cartoon The Rocketeer. He is repped by Coast to Coast Talent Group, Protégé Entertainment, and Myman Greenspan Fox.

Best known for playing the title role in Prime Video’s Legally Blonde prequel series Elle, Minetree will next be seen in Neon’s horror film The Young People from Longlegs’ Osgood Perkins. She is repped by CAA, Framework Entertainment, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.

An Australian actor with credits like Motorheads and Black Snow, Macqueen’s next to be seen in The Sticks, a hockey drama series from Netflix and 21 Laps, and the AMC NASCAR drama Thunder Road. He is repped by Innovative Artists, Anonymous Content, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.

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‘A Few Good Men’ Broadway Revival Sells Out First Week

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A Few Good Men and Other Desert Cities, starry new revivals on the Broadway stage, sold out their performances last week, with the latter production (starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed Harris, Allison Janney, Joe Keery and Lily Rabe) hitting the upper reaches of the box office chart with a gross in excess of $2 million.

As impressive as that number is, it still falls well short of the week’s top earner: The ever-popular Hamilton, newly recharged with the return of original cast member Christopher Jackson to the cast, grossed an amazing $3,090,634.

All three shows, along with Billy Crystal’s new 860, Oh, Mary! (now starring Bowen Yang) and Chicago (with Reece Weaver), helped push the total receipts for the 29 Broadway productions for the week ending October 11 to $35,292,434, a whopping increase of 27% over the previous week.

Total attendance for the week was 248,496, about 10% more than the previous week.

A new infusion of star power contributed to the strong figures. A Few Good Men, the non-prof Lincoln Center Theater revival of Aaron Sorkin’s classic military courtroom drama, stars Sorkin’s old West Wing buddy Bradley Whitford (along with Tom Blyth and Krysta Rodriguez) and sold out its first three previews for a gross of $555,367. Official opening night is set for Thursday, October 29.

Other Desert Cities, the Jon Robin Baitz play directed by John Benjamin Hickey, grossed $2,157,355, selling out eight previews at the Hudson. Opening night is October 18.

Crystal’s solo show 860 – the title refers to the address of the comedian’s longtime home that burned down in the Pacific Palisades fires – filled 92% of its seats at the Imperial, a noticeable improvement over the previous week’s 83%. The gross for the seven previews was $1,173,760. Opening night is October 21.

Another recent arrival doing well is non-prof Roundabout’s The Imaginary Invalid starring Bill Irwin, filling 90% of seats at the Haimes and grossing $429,863. Opening night is October 22.

Some other notable numbers:

  • Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! broke yet another house record at the Lyceum, with Bowen Yang in the title role drawing big crowds. For the week ending October 11, the comedy grossed $1,592,306, a record both for the Lyceum and for the production. (Oh, Mary! opened on July 11, 2024, and became the first show in Lyceum history to gross more than $1 million in a single week; the comedy has broken its own record 15 times);
  • Chicago, with former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader Weaver as Roxie, was a sell-out, grossing $1,163,661; Weaver has extended her run in the show through Sunday, November 15;
  • Both Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and The Lion King topped the $2 million mark ($2,223,679 for the former, $2,217,835 for the latter). Those numbers put the two shows into this week’s Top Earners list: Hamilton, Harry Potter, Lion King and Other Desert Cities, in that order;
  • Sell-outs for the week were A Few Good Men, Chicago, Hadestown, Hamilton, Just in Time, MJ, Oh, Mary! and Other Desert Cities;
  • Top average ticket prices went to Hamilton ($287.50), Other Desert Cities ($276.87) and Oh, Mary! ($222.73). The overall average for the 29 shows was $142.02.

In the 20th week of the 2026-27 season, Broadway has grossed $628,508,592 season-to-date, down about 8% from last year at this time, with total attendance of 5,155,377 down 3% year-to-year.

All figures courtesy of The Broadway League. For more box office information visit the League’s website.

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Narnia Fans React to Greta Gerwig’s ‘Magicians Nephew’ Trailer

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Adapting C.S. Lewis’ beloved children’s book series The Chronicles of Narnia is no easy task, and certainly one that’s primed for some online controversy.

So it’s probably no surprise that the trailer (below) for Netflix‘s adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew — chronologically the first novel in Lewis’ seven-book series — is getting some strong reactions on social media.

The adaptation was already receiving some early pushback among conservative media figures before the trailer dropped given that the Christian allegory is being adapted by Barbie writer-director Greta Gerwig, who also made the sacrilegious-to-some decision to cast Meryl Streep as the voice of the franchise’s Jesus-figure, Aslan.

Now the Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew trailer has dropped in all its glittery glam rock glory, set to the tune of Led Zeppelin’s famously difficult-to-license “Stairway to Heaven,” and reactions are all over the place.

The most common pushback concerns the trailer’s psychedelic space-rock visuals, with many comparing the project to a Marvel movie. Some quips from the official YouTube video and across Reddit and X: “Narnia: Rangarok,” “They managed to Thor: Love & Thunder Narnia,” “Guardians of Narnia’s Galaxy,” “Aslan the Lion will return in Avengers: Doomsday.”

Many said they loved the trailer and that it surpassed their expectations.

“The trailer for The Magician’s Nephew is, hands down, the best trailer I’ve seen in years. They’re definitely leaning into the pagan side of Narnia.” Another: “Man people were preemptively fuming over this one but I recognize just about every scene and every line [from the book]. Looks to be a very faithful adaptation with a sort of rock opera twist.” And: “Greta Gerwig going full ‘Jim Henson’s Dark Crystal/Labyrinth + Chris Columbus’ Harry Potter + Led Zeppelin + blockbuster budget’ was not on my bingo card, but it looks fantastic.”

Some agreed that they liked the trailer — just not as a Narnia adaptation.

“Visually stunning trailer but nothing really jumped out to me indicating that this is a Narnia movie,” wrote one. And: “This might be the most conflicted I’ve ever felt about a trailer. It looks dope af and honestly like it’s going to have this ethereal awestruck quality to it. I just wish it wasn’t Narnia she was doing this with.”

Others just wholesale bagged on the trailer.

“Who’d have ever guessed that giving a legendary, beloved book series like The Chronicles of Narnia to modern Hollywood would result in a bizarre, disastrous fever dream interpretation with some of the worst looking CGI backgrounds ever put on film?” And: “This is a prime example of how something can lose its soul to CGI overuse …The visuals of Netflix’s butchering of Narnia literally looks like it was made with AI.” And: “I am extremely unimpressed. This is not Narnia. This is Thor: Love and Thunder and Barbie had a baby. They make the boy a coward, they make the girl the adventurer, and Aslan is supposed to be the pinnacle of masculinity.”

The cast includes David McKenna, Beatrice Campbell, Emma Mackey, Carey Mulligan, Ciarán Hinds, with Daniel Craig and Meryl Streep, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Denise Gough and Susan Wokoma. Netflix will release Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew in theaters and Imax on Feb. 12, 2027.

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