Latest News by Industry
Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music and video game platforms this week.
NEW MOVIES TO STREAM
— Three decades after Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson mixed it up on the black top, a new “White Men Can’t Jump” has next. A remake of that 1992 film teams Sinqua Walls and rapper Jack Harlow as a pair of basketball players who hustle hoops for money and compete in a lucrative three-on-three tournament. The film, which debuts Friday, May 19, on Hulu, is directed by Calmatic and co-written by Kenya Barris (“black-ish”). In it, Harlow makes his acting debut.
— Anna Nicole Smith gets the Netflix documentary treatment in “Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me.” The film, debuting Tuesday, chronicles Smith’s life as a model, Playboy playmate and reality star. Smith died in 2007 at the age of 39 from an accidental overdose. “You Don’t Know Me” includes home video of Smith, whose birth name was Vickie Lynn Hogan.
— Cristian Mungiu’s “R.M.N.” is one of the cinematic highlights of the first half of 2023. The latest from the acclaimed Romanian filmmaker (“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”) is a powerful microcosm of a migrant drama that has played out all around the world. A mountainous Transylvania village is increasingly torn apart by violent nationalist impulses that course through the town’s civic life in response to a handful of foreign workers. Mungiu, the pioneering filmmaker of the Romanian New Wave, crafts an unflinching societal portrait both gripping and grim. Currently playing in theaters, “R.M.N.” is available on-demand beginning Friday, May 16.
NEW MUSIC TO STREAM
— Check out Kesha’s new album for what “post-pop” sounds like. That’s what the ever-changing pop star is calling her Rick Rubin-produced record “Gag Order.” Single “Fine Line” is an introspective, beatless ballad with the lyric “Am I bigger than Jesus/Or better off dead?/There’s a fine line between genius and crazy.” There’s also “Eat the Acid,” an experimental, mournful number. Her team says the album excavates “the deepest recesses of her soul to date.”
— Def Leppard are following in the footsteps of Metallica, the Scorpions and Bring Me the Horizon with an orchestral reworking of their catalogue. “Drastic Symphonies,” features their greatest tracks reimagined by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Fifteen of the hard rockers’ hits like “Animal,” “Love Bites,” “Hysteria” and “Pour Some Sugar on Me” have a new sound. Some songs — “Rock of Ages,” “Photograph” and “Let’s Get Rocked” — didn’t work and were left off.
— May turns out to be a great month for 11-time Grammy-nominated singer- songwriter Brandy Clark. Her Broadway musical “Shucked” was nominated for best original score and she’s got a new self-titled album out Friday, May 19. Produced by Brandi Carlile, the album showcases Clark’s tenderness, with the 11 songs including the heartbreaking “Buried,” a celebration of her home in “Northwest” and a loving tribute to her grandma with “She Smoked in the House.”
— Ahead of their first post-pandemic album, Dave Matthews Band has released two strong singles, including the nostalgia-drenched “Monsters,” with the lyrics “Chutes and ladders/Pick up sticks/Counting cards and counting bricks/Driving past that old five and dime/Can’t get nothing for a nickel since a long long time.” The first single, “Madman’s Eyes,” leans into Middle Eastern rhythms for a darker song about the madness of violence. Both songs will be on the album “Walk Around the Moon,” out Friday, May 19, and the band says it “is as much a reflection on the current times as it is an urge to find common ground.”
NEW SERIES TO STREAM
— Stock up on tissues because home renovation twins Drew and Jonathan Scott’s series “Celebrity IOU” is back with new episodes on HGTV. Each episode features a Hollywood star who dreams up a home renovation project for someone they want to give back to. Enter the Scott brothers who use their knowledge of construction to make it happen. The episodes follow each project from start to finish with a heart-warming, emotional presentation at the end. This batch of eight episodes features Heidi Klum, Kristin Chenoweth, Glenn Close, Taraji P. Henson, Emma Roberts, Jay Leno, Derek Hough, Kristin Davis and Emma Roberts. “Celebrity IOU” returns Monday.
— If you watched the “To All the Boys” movies, you probably remember scene-stealer Anna Cathcart as the confident, chatty kid sister, Kitty, to Lana Condor’s Lara Jean. Cathcart has landed her own spinoff series called “XO, Kitty.” Created by “To All the Boys” author Jenny Han, Kitty travels to Korea to attend an elite boarding school that her long-distance boyfriend is a student at. It’s also the same school where her late mother went as a teen. Kitty imagines a seamless transition to a new school in a new country and a romantic reunion with her boyfriend but quickly realizes life doesn’t always go as planned. All 10 episodes drop Thursday on Netflix.
— Wilderness expert and adventure-seeker Bear Grylls has never encountered a mountain he won’t climb or a random creature he won’t eat for fuel. We’ve seen him on TV venture into the great outdoors with celebrities but now he’s taking everyday people out of their comfort zone in a new show, “I Survived Bear Grylls.” With the help of comedian co-host Jordan Conley, Grylls uses simulated challenges to test contestants on their survival skills, physicality, and gross-out tolerance. Get ready for the hardest, the dirtiest, the most disgusting day of your life,” Grylls says in the trailer. “I Survived Bear Grylls” debuts Thursday on TBS.
— Alicia Rancilio
NEW VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY
— The Lego brand encompasses all sorts of pop culture icons, from “Star Wars” to “Seinfeld.” But sometimes you just want to build a Lego car and take it for a spin. In 2K Games’ Lego 2K Drive, you can assemble a high-speed racer brick-by-brick, then compete against your friends to find out who’s got the zippiest monster on the track. If you want to go off-road, you can turn your car into an all-terrain vehicle, a boat or even an aircraft. Visual Concepts, the studio behind the NBA 2K franchise, is promising a huge open world in which you can you take your driver from rookie to world champion — or just tool around smashing into things. Your Lego garage opens for business Friday, May 19, on PlayStation 5/4, Xbox X/S/One, Nintendo Switch and PC.
— “I awoke one morning to find I was a dog” is a heck of a way to open a video game. Humanity gets weirder from there. The dog is a glowing Shiba Inu, and his mission is to guide the human masses toward salvation at the end of the world. Sounds heavy, but the result is the sort of hypnotic puzzle game you’d expect from Enhance, the developers responsible for Tetris Effect and Rez Infinite. It’s reminiscent of the 1990s classic Lemmings in that you’re trying to steer crowds of mindless creatures away from a gruesome demise, but once the hordes start fighting each other, this pup’s got a whole new set of problems. With 90-plus levels and the tools for users to build their own, Humanity could last for an eternity. The herding begins Tuesday on PlayStation 5/4 and PC.
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Catch up on AP’s entertainment coverage here: https://apnews.com/apf-entertainment.