Following the Primetime Emmy Awards last Sunday, it was another relatively quiet week for pop culture news. That is, if you ignore the drama around Jimmy Kimmel’s abrupt suspension from his late night ABC talk show after he made comments about right wing figures capitalising on the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The scrambling to placate the Trump administration, which is threatening inquiries and various punishments for ABC owners, the Walt Disney Company, via its Federal legislative watchdog, suggests a worrying future for media freedom in the US, as all critical voices are bullied into silence.
Amidst the heated debate, the news was kind of lost that Hollywood legend Robert Redford had died aged 89 on 16 September.
Famous as a dashing leading man in the 1960s through 80s, appearing in the likes of Barefoot in the Park (1967), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Sting (1973), The Way We Were (1973), The Great Gatsby (1974), and All the President’s Men (1976), Redford continued to act well into the 2010s. Some of his later standout performances include Alexander Pierce in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), and the lead role in 2018’s The Old Man & the Gun.
Redford also made the shift into directing, starting with Oscar-winning drama Ordinary People (1980), and following that up with notable efforts like A River Runs Through It (1992), Quiz Show (1994) and The Horse Whisperer (1998). Though a private figure, Redford was known as a passionate environmentalist and advocate for independent cinema, going on to found the game-changing Sundance Film Festival. Redford died in his sleep.
Film
Moving on to movie news now, chances are the new Anaconda isn’t at all what people expected. Putting a meta spin on the cultishly popular 1990s creature feature, this action horror comedy follows childhood best friends Doug (Jack Black) and Griff (Paul Rudd) as they attempt to remake their favourite film: Anaconda. That dream takes them to the Amazon, where they find themselves hunted by an actual giant anaconda. Also starring are Steve Zahn and Thandiwe Newton.
Anaconda releases on Christmas Day.
If you like twisty thrillers that get into your head, look out for The Housemaid, based on Freida McFadden’s hit novel. Sydney Sweeney plays Millie, a young woman trying to escape her past. She finds refuge as a live-in housemaid for the wealthy Nina (Amanda Seyfried) and Andrew Winchester (Brandon Sklenar), but her position exposes her to dangerous secrets and power plays taking place behind the Winchester’s picture-perfect facade.
The Housemaid comes to cinemas on 19 December.
While we’re still talking Sydney Sweeney, have you seen the trailer for Christy, a real-life sports drama, where Sweeney has completely transformed herself to play pioneering woman boxer Christy Martin? Christy releases on 7 November, likely in a bid to earn some award season clout.
Series
Need some intense espionage action in your life? How do you feel if it’s animated?
Because coming to Netflix on 14 October is Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, which revives Ubisoft’s action-adventure stealth franchise with a considerably amount of star clout. John Wick and Nobody creator Derek Kolstad pens the series, while Liev Schreiber voices aging agent Sam Fisher, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste is new Splinter Cell agent Zinnia McKenna, who hauls Fisher into a deadly conspiracy that has ties to his actions years previously. European animation studios Sun Creature Studio and Fost are responsible for the visuals.
Gaming
Finally, there’s no release date for it, but we’re guessing some of our readers will be excited by the prospect of Junji Ito Maniac: An Infinite Gaol. From Softstar Entertainment, this first-person survival horror game (currently coming to PC only) is inspired by the work of iconic manga creator Junji Ito. The project actually goes a little further than being simply “based” on Ito’s work. The man is personally supervising the first-ever standalone video game based on his creations.
Combining exploration, stealth, puzzles and a trap-setting mechanic, the game kicks off when an amnesiac college student wakes in a mysterious mansion filled with uncanny statues, trap doors, and spooky mechanisms. Soon he and his assembled allies are facing what you’d expect of a Junji Ito tale, like human-head balloons and sentient headless mannequins, as they struggle to find an escape route.
