April 09, 2019

Here's the Scoop...

It seems like it's harder and harder to find a good movie to watch. I know I can only watch so many superhero movie or remakes or sequels. Here's a movie that's dramatic, compelling, thrilling in its storytelling and is one of those "hidden gems" that film fans won't want to miss - it's Echoes of War DVD.

This gritty post-Civil War drama tells the story of two neighboring families who's long-standing tensions boil over when Wade, an embattled war veteran, returns home while bringing the North-South struggle home with him. Watch the Trailer Here!

If you enjoy a good western with plenty of drama, populated with interesting characters, then Echoes of War DVD is the movie for you. For less that $5 you can own this memorable motion picture starring James Badge Dale (Iron Man 3), Ethan Embry (That Thing You Do!, Vegas Vacation), William Forsythe (Raising Arizona, The Rock), and Maika Monroe (It Follows, The Guest). William Forsythe is so good!

Don't miss out on your chance to get your copy, click here to order Echoes of War DVD TODAY!

Now, let's get to the nooz!

Be Well,
Steve

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'Homecoming': Beyonce dominates in trailer for Netflix film

Beyonce dominates the stage in a trailer for the Netflix film Homecoming.

The streaming company released a preview of the new documentary Monday after teasing the project on social media.

The trailer shows Beyonce rehearsing and spending time with her children before delivering her celebrated performance at the 2018 Coachella music festival.

"An in-depth look at Beyonce's celebrated 2018 Coachella performance from creative concept to cultural movement. #beyoncehomecoming," Netflix wrote on Twitter.

Netflix had hinted at the film in a tweet Sunday. It shared the title, Homecoming, and a release date of April 17.

Beyonce became the first African-American woman to headline Coachella in April 2018. Her husband, Jay Z, sister, Solange Knowles, and former Destiny's Child group mates were among those to join her on stage.

'Killing Eve' star Fiona Shaw: Opportunities improving for women

Harry Potter alum and Killing Eve star Fiona Shaw said a media spotlight on diversity and more platforms for content are translating into better opportunities for women artists.

"It is happening. I would also say, 'Why hasn't it happened before now?' It's taken a hell of a long time," the 60-year-old Irish actress told UPI in a phone interview Thursday.

While plenty of other stories, particularly about minority women, haven't been properly told yet, there has been an increase in projects created by and starring women.

"People have discovered that you can float a season or a show or a film or a story on women characters. You do not need a superhero or an anti-hero to be the centrifugal force of a narrative," she said.

Shaw's comedy thriller, Killing Eve, which begins its second season on BBC America on Sunday, is an example of a female-led enterprise that is wildly popular with critics and viewers.

The show follows Sandra Oh as Eve, a former MI5 analyst whose boring life in London is turned upside-down when she becomes obsessed by Villanelle, the psychopathic, but adorable, globe-trotting assassin played by Jodie Comer.

Shaw portrays Eve's boss, Carolyn, a woman with her own delicious secrets.

Season 1 ended with a jaw-dropping finale even Shaw isn't sure the show can top.

She won't give away many details about the second season other than to confirm it picks up shortly after Eve and Villanelle confess their mutual affection, and Eve stabs Villanelle in the abdomen.

"More things will happen and you'll understand the people more and you'll be more deeply involved with them, we hope," Shaw teased.

The show's shifting tones and quirky characters reflect the reality that nobody is any one thing.

"That is the joy of playing it and, I hope, the joy of watching it," Shaw said. "The plot holds you, but actually the celebration of human variation is endless."

The actress wasn't acquainted with Luke Jennings' Codename Villanelle novellas -- published between 2014 and 2016 -- before she signed on to the series.

Reading the books before the cameras started rolling probably wouldn't have helped, anyway, since writer-producer Phoebe Waller-Bridge retells the stories using her uniquely authentic, hilarious and female voice.

Shaw equates Waller-Bridge's adaptation of the tales to smashing "into them like a meteorite."

"She has just added this contemporary stave of music to the whole thing -- the music of her voice and her wit and her immediacy and her glamor," Shaw said. "It's a transubstantiation into something else."

The actress enjoyed speaking Waller-Bridge's words so much on Killing Eve that she agreed to do a guest spot on her Amazon sitcom, Fleabag.

However, despite their successful working relationship, Waller-Bridge is so busy with her various endeavors Shaw hasn't gotten to know her well.

"I totally love being her friend, but she is hardly around," Shaw laughed.

Waller-Bridge can be seen starring in the stage version of Fleabag in New York. She also plays the lead in the TV version of the show.

Shaw's other credits include True Blood, Lizzie and Mrs. Wilson.

Killing Eve airs Sunday at 8 p.m. on BBC America.

LOOSE LIPS:

"One of the best things I've learned years ago is that what people think about me is none of my business. In the age of social media, whatever somebody says can be believed or not believed, and you have no control over that."
--Sanaa Lathan, on learning to feel healthy and focus on her work by ignoring online gossip, to PEOPLE

??? Guess Who ???

Which Into the Night star launched her own 'transparent' fragrance line?

'The Walking Dead': AMC shares plans for third series

AMC has ordered a third series set in The Walking Dead universe.

The Hollywood Reporter confirmed Monday The Walking Dead chief content officer Scott M. Gimple and Matt Negrete have co-created a new show in the TV franchise.

"I'm beyond excited to be a part of this new show set in The Walking Dead universe," Negrete said in a press release. "Writing and producing for the original series has been the job of a lifetime and I'm honored to be working with Scott and all the fine Dead folks at AMC in this new capacity."

AMC gave a 10-episode order to the untitled drama. Entertainment Weekly said the series will follow two young female protagonists and focus on the first generation to come-of-age in the zombie apocalypse.

Production begins in the summer in Virginia, with the new show to premiere in 2020. It is unknown if the series will feature any returning characters from The Walking Dead or the companion series Fear the Walking Dead.

"Showing audiences an unseen pocket of The Walking Dead universe steeped in a new mythology is a very cool way to celebrate a 'Decade of Dead' on TV and over 15 years of Robert Kirkman's brilliant comic," Gimple said in the press release.

The Walking Dead premiered on AMC in October 2010 and completed its ninth season in March. It was followed by the live after-show Talking Dead in 2011 and Fear the Walking Dead in 2015.

Mark Strong calls his 'Shazam!' villain 'spooky and creepy and dangerous'

Mark Strong said he signed on to star in Shazam! because he loved the idea of playing a super-powered bad guy in a comic-book movie helmed by a horror filmmaker.

"I've played a lot of villains in my time, but I thought this was a particularly good one because he gets to fly. He gets to fire electricity out of his hands," the 55-year-old British actor told UPI in a recent phone interview.

Collaborating with Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation director David F. Sandberg was a bonus.

"I knew I was in safe hands as far as how spooky and creepy and dangerous and evil Sivana would end up being," added the Kingsman, Syriana and Sherlock Holmes actor.

Set to open in theaters Friday, the PG 13-rated and critically acclaimed Shazam! depicts what happens when the titular wizard (played by Djimon Hounsou) tests the mettle of 14-year-old foster child Billy Batson (played by Asher Angel,) likes what he sees and bestows upon him extraordinary powers, including the ability to transform into a muscular adult man (played by Zachary Levi) when he shouts "Shazam!"

Years earlier, the sorcerer had also interviewed Strong's Thaddeus Sivana as a young boy (played by Ethan Pugiotto,) but dismissed him after determining he was not pure of heart.

Resentful Sivana grows up to be a physicist who devotes his intelligence -- and the resources of his wealthy, estranged family -- to studying the magical realm, ultimately returning to battle the wizard and take control of the spiritual embodiments of the seven deadly sins.

A sense of balance permeates the film, with the rivals both surviving childhood traumas.

While Billy eventually finds love with adoptive parents and siblings (played by Cooper Andrews, Marta Milans, Jack Dylan Grazer, Grace Fulton, Ian Chen, Faithe Herman and Jovan Armand) in Philadelphia, Sivana feels lonely and betrayed by his father and brother (played by John Glover and Wayne Ward.)

"There's that theme at the center of the film, which is family. Where do we belong?" Strong said.

The experiences Sivana and Billy have with those closest to them impact the choices they make and what they do with their special abilities when they acquire them.

"It's very unusual that you get the backstory of the villains. Obviously, [the two characters] being given the same choice -- whether to go to the good or the bad side -- I thought was really quite interesting," Strong said. "You need a villain, otherwise you can't have a hero."

Not satisfied with the power the sin spirits afford him, the grown-up Sivana sets out to steal Billy's capabilities, as well.

"It's never enough. He wants all of the power and more," Strong said. "In Western culture, the hero has to vanquish the villain, so the villain normally gorges himself and ends up imploding because he overdoes it."

Sivana -- who starts out as an imaginative and vulnerable child -- has several chances as an adult to grant forgiveness or mercy to others, but doesn't.

The hardness of his heart suggests how high the stakes are for Billy and the people about whom he cares.

"The more we love the hero and the more fun we have with his interactions with all the other kids and the more we laugh at that and feel comfortable with that, the more necessary it is to have a dark side that is truly terrifying. So you really do feel like the people you are falling in love with are in danger," Strong said.

The younger members of the Zero Dark Thirty and The Imitation Game actor's family are excited to see Shazam!, partly because Strong is in it and partly because the previews have been so enticing.

"I've done a lot of movies in which I have been so horrible, they can't see it," he said. "But this one they can see and I know that they are really looking forward to because they absolutely love the trailers."

Strong is scheduled to begin working this month with Colin Firth, Andrew Scott and Benedict Cumberbatch in director Sam Mendes' drama, 1917.

"I get to play a good guy in it for once," he said. "It's not based on real people, but it is based on the realities of the First World War."

??? Guess Who ???

Which Into the Night star launched her own 'transparent' fragrance line?

Hollywood actress Michelle Pfeiffer is unveiling her own fragrance line.

The 60-year-old star introduced Henry Rose, her "100 percent transparent" perfume company, in an Instagram post Monday.

"From the beginning, fragrance has been shrouded in mystery. Today, we are cracking open the last black box of transparency in personal care. I'm so pleased to introduce @henryrose, a journey I've been on for nearly a decade," Pfeiffer wrote.

"Henry Rose is the first line of genderless fine fragrances to be both EWG Verified and Cradle to Cradle Gold certified, proving you do not need to sacrifice quality for safety," she said. "I couldn't be more excited to finally share our secrets with all of you!"

Pfeiffer shared her vision in an accompanying video message.

"I wanted to develop something that I could offer the consumer that was safer than anything that was on the market, 100 percent transparent in its ingredients, but could absolutely compete with all of the other fine fragrances," she said.

Forbes said Henry Rose will be sold exclusively online and only ship to the U.S. The line consists of five fragrances, which come with a card listing its ingredients. The bottle is made of 90 percent recyclable glass and a cap made of soy. Each scent retails for $120.

Pfeiffer self-funded Henry Rose, which is a conjunction of the middle names of her son, John Henry, and daughter, Claudia Rose. She told Forbes her children also inspired her desire for safe and quality ingredients.

"The idea for Henry Rose really started when I first had children," the actress said. "I began to look for products that were not only healthier, but had the same quality that I was used to. I then fell down a rabbit hole looking at different products' ingredients and quickly realized anything with 'fragrance' was flagged as toxic."

Pfeiffer joined the board of the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit offering a tool that rates the toxicity of personal care products, in 2016. She worked with International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) to develop the first EWG verified and Cradle to Cradle certified line.

Pfeiffer is known for such films as Scarface, Dangerous Liaisons and Batman Returns. She recently played Janet van Dyne in Ant-Man and the Wasp and will reprise the character in Avengers: Endgame.