Movies

[This story contains spoilers from the first season of Prime Video’s Cruel Intentions.]

After long anticipation, I finally caught Gladiator II in theatres last week, and let me tell you, it was an absolute blast! However, there’s one significant issue I felt compelled to address:

Lance Reddick’s passing was truly heartbreaking. Although he may not have been a household name, his unique appearance and voice made him highly sought-after by fans and producers alike across both film and television. Regrettably, one of these projects – a highly acclaimed series on Disney+, Percy Jackson and the Olympians – suffered a significant loss as Reddick was set to play Zeus, a role he would have embodied brilliantly, given that the show had only just begun. As a result, his departure necessitated recasting for the role of the king of the gods.

Since his breakout role in the 2020 adaptation of Sally Rooney’s series “Normal People,” Paul Mescal has captivated hearts globally. His stardom and enduring appeal are further demonstrated by his upcoming roles in the cinematic equivalents of “Barbenheimer” (or “Wickediator”) in 2024. He even expresses enthusiasm about both projects! While it’s uncertain what lies ahead for Mescal, one thing is certain – whispers of him joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe are unfounded. The actor has expressed a preference for joining the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” over any superhero universe, and I wholeheartedly agree with him.

It turns out that the writers’ demands during the strike didn’t bring about the results everyone had anticipated. Alex Reisner, a screenwriter and programmer, came across an interesting discovery while scrutinizing a large dataset used to train AI for various language models. In a piece he wrote for The Atlantic, Reisner revealed that this dataset was trained on over 53,000 movie scripts and 85,000 TV episode scripts, including works from iconic shows like The Godfather, The Simpsons, Twin Peaks, The Sopranos, and Breaking Bad.