Expresso Hollywood News Update at 7:30 pm on 14 May 2024

Let's begin with our top story: Tabu has been cast in a recurring role in the Max streaming series Dune: Prophecy, a prequel/spin-off to director Denis Villeneuve’s billion-dollar-grossing Dune film series. Tabu will play a character named Sister Francesca in the show, based on the novel Sisterhood of Dune, by Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson. The show is a prequel, set thousands of years before the events shown in Villeneuve’s films, which follow the rise of Paul Atreides from a wronged aristocrat to a vengeful messianic figure. She was last seen in the film Crew, and before that, in Khufiya. Her international projects include the Oscar-winning Life of Pi, The Namesake, and Mira Nair’s A Suitable Boy.

In music news, The Billboard charts have once again been dominated by K-Pop. As labels like Hybe, JYP, and others continue to make waves globally, it’s no surprise that their artists are climbing the ranks and dominating the music scene. Girl group ILLIT’s debut mini album “Super Real Me” has soared to a new peak at No. 2, coinciding with its physical release in the United States. Simultaneously, the album made its first appearance on the Billboard 200, marking an impressive achievement for the emerging group. Leading the charge, Seventeen’s newest release solidifies their status as global superstars, while BTS and its members’ solo projects prove that their impact extends beyond the group’s collective efforts.

Meanwhile, During the opening ceremony of Cannes Meryl Streep will be awarded an honorary Palme d’Or. But the spotlight at the start may fall on Judith Godrèche. The French director and actor earlier this year said the filmmakers Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager, allegations that rocked French cinema. Jacquot and Doillon have denied the allegations. Though much of the French film industry has previously been reluctant to embrace the #MeToo movement, Godrèche has stoked a wider response. Cannes has often come under criticism for not inviting more female filmmakers into the competition, but the festival is putting its full support behind Godrèche while girding for the possibility of more #MeToo revelations during the festival.

Low-budget cinema maestro Roger Corman, who cranked out hundreds of outrageous films over six decades and helped launch the careers of acclaimed directors Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron and Ron Howard, died on Thursday, May 9. He was 98. His wife and daughters said in a post on his Instagram: "It is with profound sadness, and boundless gratitude for his extraordinary life, that we remember our beloved husband and father, Roger Corman."

On Mother’s Day, X-Men: Apocalypse actor Olivia Munn opened up about a deeply personal story of resilience amid her battle with breast cancer. Olivia told Vogue in an interview: "I have now had an oophorectomy and hysterectomy." The surgery happened two months after she spoke about her diagnosis of luminal B breast cancer in both her breasts. Olivia Munn decided to opt for the full hysterectomy instead of continuing injections of Lupron, a medication often used in IVF and egg-freezing treatments. The side effects of the medication, such as extreme fatigue, proved to be unbearable for the actor.

Meanwhile. On Saturday, May 12, viewers witnessed the Eurovision Song Contest's final in Malmo, Sweden. This year's contest was unusually tense and anguished, with months of protests over Israel’s involvement in the competition, a contestant suspended just hours before the show began and confrontations between police and pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside the arena. Once the final commenced, the energy swiftly returned to what one would expect from this competition. Nemo, representing Switzerland, won with “The Code,” a catchy track in which the nonbinary performer rapped and sang operatically about their journey to realizing their identity. Nemo is Switzerland’s first Eurovision winner since Celine Dion in 1988, who represented the country despite being Canadian.

Here's a mini-review of The Boy and The Heron: The most autobiographical of Miyazaki’s films, The Boy and the Heron gives Mahito (Padovan) – like similar stories about grieving children – a world of vivid fantasy that merges seamlessly into his grim reality. While The Boy and the Heron got this year’s Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, it isn’t the best of Miyazaki and the story tends to plod through the last 30 minutes of its pretty long length of 120-minute plus. Indian Express Rated The Boy and The Heron 3 out of 5 stars.

Lastly: Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun's longstanding rivalry is set to be made into a docuseries. To be called Taylor Swift vs Scooter Braun: Bad Blood, the two-part documentary is part of the studio’s ‘UK’s vs’ series, which includes Johnny vs. Amber, and Kim vs. Kanye: The Divorce. The series will highlight the rift between Taylor and Scooter after the music company, Big Machine Records, purchased the rights to her first six albums in a $300 million deal in June 2019. Per a report by Variety, the episodes will deeply dive into both sides of the argument and explore the singer’s side that the sale was conducted without consulting her and that she has since been blocked from buying back her masters.

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