You should all go see ’The End of Oak Street’ this weekend. PLUS: Samara Weaving leads X-Men casting, ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ fastest to $700M, and David Zaslav puts the ‘Barbie’ sequel in jeopardy.
Calling the Chicken & Waffles flavor a ‘first-of-its kind for the cookie aisle,’ Oreo now wants America to vote on which flavor returns in 2027.
A quick review of the cereal formerly known as Apple Pie Toast Crunch.
I guess it was more important to make Jared Leto’s ‘Tron’ movie. PLUS: Warner Bros. Discovery puts itself up for sale, Netflix wins ‘Catan,’ and ‘ParaNorman’ returns in a new short.
Hey there, Popculturology readers. Welcome to this special birthday edition of Popculturology. No, it’s not the newsletter’s birthday (that’s next week) — it’s mine. I turn 40 this weekend.
If you’re wondering what to get me for this milestone occasion, this is the perfect moment to upgrade your subscription to Popculturology (or any of the other newsletters here at The Omnicosm) if you’ve been waiting to make that jump.
I really, really need to discuss the revelation that Disney rejected a pitch from Adam Driver for a Ben Solo movie, but I need to first wrap my head around the concept that Tori Amos might have invented the pumpkin spice latte ...
Here’s what I’ve been reading this week …
If I were CEO of Disney, and Adam Driver came to me with a pitch for a Ben Solo movie and already had Steven Soderbergh on board to direct and Scott Z. Burns on board to write the script, I’d green light that movie in a heartbeat.
Unfortunately, I’m not the CEO of Disney.
Driver, who played Kylo Ren/Ben Solo in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, revealed in a new interview with the Associated Press that his attempt to continue the story of that character was shot down by Disney.
“I always was interested in doing another Star Wars,” says Driver, who starred as Kylo Ren in the trilogy kicked off by The Force Awakens. “I had been talking about doing another one since 2021. [Kathleen Kennedy] had reached out. I always said: With a great director and a great story, I’d be there in a second. I loved that character and loved playing him.”
The actor did exactly as Kennedy suggested, enlisting Soderbergh and Burns, the director/writer duo behind Contagion, and getting the backing of Kennedy and Lucasfilm execs Cary Beck and Dave Filoni for what wound being “one of the coolest (expletive) scripts [Driver] had ever been a part of.”
With that kind of talent backing the movie, which Driver said was called The Hunt for Ben Solo, getting Disney to greenlight the film should’ve been easy, right?
You should all go see ’The End of Oak Street’ this weekend. PLUS: Samara Weaving leads X-Men casting, ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ fastest to $700M, and David Zaslav puts the ‘Barbie’ sequel in jeopardy.
Does the latest Spider-Man film have a shot at dethroning ‘The Force Awakens’? And will it swing to the first $1B domestic haul?
The first ‘Spider-Man’ ushered in a new era blockbusters in 2002. The franchise proved again this weekend that it still has the juice.
The latest Spider-Man film becomes only the second film with a $300M+ opening weekend. Will the actual numbers put it ahead of last ‘Avengers’ film?
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