Movies/TV category, Page 109
Eighty Four resident, firearms expert a part of ‘American Rust’ crew
Award-winning actors Tom Cruise and Jeff Daniels have learned a thing or two from Eighty Four resident Dale McCue. McCue is a police technical adviser for movies and television shows. He’s hired to teach actors everything from the basics of firing a gun to the importance of how to safely...
TV Talk: Is filmed-in-Western Pa. ‘American Rust’ worth watching?Video
Showtime’s Western Pennsylvania-set series “American Rust” (10 p.m. Sunday) gets off to an exceedingly slow start as it introduces its characters and their situations. In Sunday’s premiere, Del Harris (Jeff Daniels), the police chief of Buell, Fayette County, covers up a possible crime for the benefit of the woman he...
Michael Constantine of ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ dies at 94
Michael Constantine, an Emmy Award-winning character actor who reached worldwide fame playing the Windex bottle-toting father of the bride in the 2002 film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” has died. He was 94. Constantine died Aug. 31 at his home in Reading of natural causes, his family said. The news...
‘The Matrix Resurrections’ trailer drops ahead of December releaseVideo
Fans eagerly awaiting the fourth installment of the “The Matrix” franchise can finally plug into the trailer. Warner Bros. officially released the trailer for “The Matrix Resurrections” on Thursday. Keanu Reeves returns as Neo, with Carrie-Annie Moss reprising her role as Trinity. Laurence Fishburn, who played Morpheus, and Hugo Weaving,...
TV Talk: Jeff Daniels accomplishes his quest to bring filmed-in-Western Pa. ‘American Rust’ to fruitionVideo
For actor Jeff Daniels, Showtime’s filmed-in-Western-Pennsylvania “American Rust” (10 p.m. Sunday) is more than another role. It’s the fulfillment of an idea he had more than a decade ago to adapt the 2009 Philipp Meyer novel of the same name into a filmed project after Daniels’ agent (now his manager)...
Judges’ vote sends Unity’s Victory Brinker to ‘America’s Got Talent’ finalVideo
After Victory Brinker’s performance in Tuesday’s semifinal round of “America’s Got Talent,” judge Simon Cowell told the 9-year-old from Unity, “Not only are you talented, you’re fearless.” Nerves of steel served her well Wednesday, as the young opera singer found herself in the middle of the voting pack and in...
TV Talk: WPXI ends its annual holiday parade tradition
WPXI-TV announced it will no longer stage and broadcast its annual holiday parade in Downtown Pittsburgh, a 40-year tradition. A post to the WPXI Holiday Parade Facebook page says while the station was proud to broadcast the seasonal special, “At this time we cannot continue to produce and broadcast the...
TV Q&A: What’s happening to Benny on ‘Bull’?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: When is CBS’s “Bull” starting a new season? And why is Benny really leaving? — Millie via email Rob: Many returning series will start rolling...
Disney’s ‘Shang-Chi’ breaks record for Labor Day weekend
“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” the first Marvel film featuring an Asian actor as the star, dominated the weekend box office with an all-time record for a film opening over Labor Day. The Walt Disney Co. movie made an estimated $90 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters...
On TV, 9/11 was last huge story for ‘Big 3’ network anchors
NEW YORK — “Turn on your television.” Those words were repeated in millions of homes on Sept. 11, 2001. Friends and relatives took to the telephone: Something awful was happening. You have to see. Before social media and with online news in its infancy, the story of the day when...
Willard Scott, weatherman on NBC’s ‘Today’ show, dies at 87
NEW YORK — Willard Scott, the beloved weatherman who charmed viewers of NBC’s “Today” show with his self-deprecating humor and cheerful personality, has died. He was 87. His successor on the morning news show, Al Roker, announced that Scott died peacefully Saturday morning surrounded by family. An NBC Universal spokeswoman...
TV Talk: Pitt, CMU grad reboots ‘Doogie Howser, M.D.’ for Disney+Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Veteran TV writer and University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University grad Kourtney Kang knows the bad rap reboots get among critics and some viewers. She purposefully took a different, more personal approach to writing...
‘United 93’ re-release will benefit Friends of Flight 93 National Memorial
Ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, AMC Theatres and Universal Pictures will re-release “United 93,” the story of passengers who prevented a third terrorist attack and forced the hijacked plane down in a field near Shanksville. Directed by...
Things get dark for Dr. Strange in Marvel’s ‘What If…’ series
Spoilers ahead for the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe up through Episode 4 of “What If…” There’s a good reason why “The Twilight Zone” came on TV at night. First, if it aired in the morning, the vast majority of the viewing public wouldn’t be around to watch it. But, second,...
TV Talk: Martha Plimpton replaces Illeana Douglas on filming-in-Pittsburgh comedy ‘Sprung’
Only a week into filming streaming comedy “Sprung” in Pittsburgh and there’s been a change on the call sheet of the IMDb TV series: The role played in scenes shot last week by actress Illeana Douglas will be played going forward (and in re-shoots) by Emmy-winner Martha Plimpton. Recasting is...
TV Talk: Joe Manganiello visits ‘A.P. Bio;’ Billy Porter’s ‘Cinderella’ and Michael Keaton’s ‘Worth’ debutVideo
Streaming services offer a trifecta of Pittsburgh natives in new entertainment offerings this weekend. Porter in ‘Cinderella’ Does the world really need another Cinderella movie? Writer/director Kay Cannon, with an assist from Pittsburgh native Billy Porter as the Fab G, delivers a spirited, modern, musical “Cinderella” that proves it has...
West Philadelphian Jabari Banks cast as Will in a dramatic reboot of ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’
PHILADELPHIA — Now this is a story all about how one Philadelphian’s life got flipped, turned upside down and I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there, I’ll tell you how Jabari Banks became the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. During a video call on Tuesday, Philly native Will...
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ flies to 2022 due to coronavirus surge
NEW YORK — Paramount Pictures on Wednesday postponed the release of “Top Gun: Maverick,” sending another of the fall’s top movies out of 2021 due to the rise in coronavirus cases and the delta variant. Instead of opening Nov. 19, the “Top Gun” sequel, starring Tom Cruise, will instead debut...
Unity’s Victory Brinker ready for ‘America’s Got Talent’ semifinals
Time off between rounds of “America’s Got Talent” allowed Victory Brinker a week to just be a kid. Now the 9-year-old opera powerhouse from Unity is back in California, prepping for her Sept. 7 appearance in the second semifinal round. The first semifinalists performed Tuesday and the five contestants moving...
TV Q&A: What happened to Marisa Tomei’s role in ‘Sweet Girl’?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: Word is that Marisa Tomei was fired from the movie “Sweet Girl” as she was a difficult diva. Truth to that is the fact that...
Mike Richards is out as producer of ‘Jeopardy!’ and ‘Wheel’
Mike Richards is out as executive producer of “Jeopardy!”, days after he exited as the quiz show’s newly appointed host because of past misogynistic and disparaging comments. Richards is also no longer executive producer of “Wheel of Fortune,” according to a memo to staff that was confirmed by Sony Pictures...
TV Talk: Netflix’s ‘Rustin’ seeks 2,000 extras during filming in Pittsburgh
When the Netflix bio-pic “Rustin,” about the late civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, comes to film in Pittsburgh beginning Sept. 27, casting director Rose Locke has a big task on her hands: Hiring 370 extras for the film’s re-creation of Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic 1963 March on Washington, a...
‘Supernatural’ Momento Con comes to Pittsburgh on Labor Day weekend
It took almost 18 months, but the first Momento Con will finally be at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh on Labor Day weekend, Sept. 4 and 5. The pop culture event will have multiple panels, meet and greets, photo and autograph opportunities, artists, vendors and cosplay....
TV Talk: Pittsburgh’s success featured in PBS’s ‘Future of Work’Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Pittsburgh’s revitalization is featured in the first episode of the three-part PBS series “Future of Work” (10-11 p.m. Wednesday, WQED-TV), which explores changes in the workplace and its potential for long-term impact on workers, employers,...
Actor Ed Asner, TV’s blustery Lou Grant, dies at 91
LOS ANGELES — Ed Asner, the burly and prolific character actor who became a star in middle age as the gruff but lovable newsman Lou Grant, first in the hit comedy “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and later in the drama “Lou Grant,” died Sunday. He was 91. Asner’s representative...
