Well, the good news is that the past week of pop culture news didn’t include any shock celebrity deaths.
What has people talking, though, is the apparent imminent announcement of the next James Bond! During the past week, it was revealed that both Robert Pattinson and Nicholas Hoult have come into contention, auditioning for director Denis Villeneuve. The two actors are considered late stage surprises, as, in recent times, the top three frontrunners to play the iconic secret agent in the next revival for the film franchise are known (but officially unconfirmed) to be Callum Turner, Josh O’Connor and Jack Lowden.
Film
Two upcoming movies blipped on our radar this past week.
The first is for literally spiky comedy The Gallerist, from Birds of Prey filmmaker Cathy Yan. Set in the Miami art world, Natalie Portman plays Polina, a gallery owner struggling with the threat of closure. Then an obnoxious art influencer (Zach Galifianakis) accidentally impales himself on a sculpture by Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s little known artist, and Polina and her assistant Kiki (Jenna Ortega) impulsively decide to pass the death off as provocative art. The all-star cast also includes Catherine Zeta-Jones, Sterling K. Brown, Daniel Brühl and Charli XCX.
The Gallerist makes its big screen debut on 4 December.
The second standout trailer of the past week is for psychological horror film Pendulum, which has its basis in real-life events. Written and directed by Black Swan screenwriter, Mark Heyman, Pendulum sees a desperate husband (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) turn to a new-age cult to help his wife (Phoebe Dynevor) process the loss of their child. The question is whether the peculiar retreat members have found a way to bridge death, or whether they simply push people to lose their minds. Also with Jacki Weaver, Norman Reedus and Jena Malone.
Pendulum releases on 1 January 2027.
Series
Acclaimed adult animated series Blue Eye Samurai has a locked-down Season 2 release date: 19 January. Netflix made the announcement with this recap trailer.
For those who do need a reminder, Blue Eye Samurai is a historical actioner that sees mixed race Mizu (voiced by Maya Erskine) venture forth across Edo period Japan, seeking vengeance against the four white men who could be their father, and who turned them into a pariah. In Season 2 that quest leads Mizu to London, “assisted” by the treacherous Abijah Fowler (Kenneth Branagh).
Still on matters of Netflix, the streamer seems to be taking a page from IT: Welcome to Derry and creating a new series set in the Stranger Things universe. Coming in 2028 is Other Worlds: A Stranger Things Adventure, set in Marion, Nevada in 1955.
You can read more about the upcoming spin-off here, which is led by the Duffer Brothers, who created the original Stranger Things, and long-time Stranger Things writer Kate Trefry, who wrote stage play prequel The First Shadow. While nothing is confirmed, it feels safe to say that the events in Marion will ultimately connect to how Boy Scout Henry Creel was infected by the Mind Flayer in a Nevada cave.
If new seasons and spin-offs aren’t cutting it, and you’re looking for something fresh, you may want to keep an eye out for all-star Criminal, which is coming to Prime Video in January.
The crime drama is based on Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’s Eisner Award-winning comic series, with adopts an anthology approach to its gritty underworld tales. Brubaker is heavily involved in the on-screen version too, which draws on the story arcs Coward and Lawless, with the eight-episode first season releasing in two batches of four episodes.
Headlining the cast are Charlie Hunnam, Adria Arjona, Luke Evans, and Emilia Clarke, with Richard Jenkins and Kadeem Hardison also appearing. The plot? As thief Leo Patterson (Hunnam) plots to leave the life he inherited, that puts him in conflict with childhood friend Ricky Lawless (Gus Halper), whose own plans are thrown into disarray when older brother Tracy (Evans) returns from serving in Iraq.
Criminal: Coward drops on 13 January, while Lawless starts streaming in its entirety on 27 January.