There’s one character on Dutton Ranch who is simultaneously the person I trust most and the person I have the most questions about. Thankfully, we’ll get to learn more about them in Season 2 of Dutton Ranch, according to Cole Hauser. So, now that he’s confirmed that this character will be “integral” as the Yellowstone show continues, I’ve got some questions I need answered.

Now, the character I’m talking about here is Ed Harris’ Everett McKinney, the friendly veterinarian who also has quite the history with the Jackson family. He proved to be a great ally to Rip and Beth during the season. However, his past makes me wonder where exactly his allegiances lie. Thankfully, Hauser’s comments make me believe that we’ll get to explore all that as this spinoff continues.

Cole Hauser Made It Clear Ed Harris Will Play A Big Role In Season 2

This conversation about the role Harris will play in Season 2 came up as Cole Hauser and Kelly Reilly were discussing the end of Dutton Ranch’s first season and how their relationship with Annette Bening’s Beulah could change. Considering Mariano feels like the true villain of the show now, the Beth actress mentioned that there’s room for her and Rip to “collaborate” with Beulah. That led to Hauser bringing up Everett and his potential role in the story. He told TV Insider:

Well, that’s very exciting to hear, and I only got more enthused as Kelly Reilly noted that Season to is “going to feel very much more Ed’s show.” She explained that alongside her and Hauser, Harris, and Bening lead the series. Overall, these comments made it clear that both Beulah and Everett will be even bigger players in Season 2. And that is great to hear since I feel like we don’t know that much about Ed Harris’ character.

I Have Two Questions About Everett

As Season 1 of Dutton Ranch aired on the 2026 TV schedule (you can stream it with a Paramount+ subscription), we got lots of kernels about Everett. We know he’s a veteran, we know he lost a child, we know he’s loyal to both Rip and Beth and Beulah, and we know he and the Jackson matriarch have a complicated past. However, we have not dived into any of this in a super in-depth way. So, knowing that we could in Season 2, I have a few questions.

Can We Learn More About Everett’s Past With Beulah?

While Beulah and Everett’s current fling was explored in Season 1, I would love to learn more about their past. I want flashbacks to how they met, and I want more information on what brought them together and drove them a part. I feel like there’s a really rich story there that we’ve just barely scratched the surface of, and I’m desperate for more. Plus, who wouldn’t want to see Annette Bening and Ed Harris share more scenes together?

Will Ed Harris’ Character Pick Between Beulah, Rip And Beth, Or Will He Continue To Support Everyone?

One of the biggest reasons why Everett is such an interesting character is that he kind of plays both sides. While he’s very loyal to Rip and Beth, he also clearly loves Beulah. And because of that, he’s in a fascinating position.

In Season 1, he sided with Rip and Beth. However, I always felt like I was waiting for another shoe to drop, and his loyalty to them would be questioned due to his affection for the leader of the Jackson family. So, I’m curious to see if that happens in Season 2.

Or maybe Everett proves to be the person who brings the Duttons and Beulah together. That’s probably more likely. However, because this is Yellowstone, I can’t shake the idea that he could have a dark side that leads him to make a game-changing choice.

Now, hopefully, these questions will be answered when Dutton Ranch returns for Season 2. However, for now, I’m just grateful to know that Ed Harris won’t just be returning to the show; he’ll be playing an “integral” part in it.

This story contains spoilers for Episode 4 of Dutton Ranch. You can stream it now with a Paramount+ subscription.

Dutton Ranch has its fair share of brutal scenes, much like Yellowstone did. So far, the most tragic and intense one came during Episode 4 of the spinoff, when Rip had to kill his cows because they’d been infected with foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). Following that episode airing on the 2026 TV schedule and talk about how the show is made (which, yes, includes stories about snakes), a rancher opened up about how realistic this new spinoff is. They also mentioned that an element of this tragedy is “one thing the show gets right.”

When Rip discovers he has a sick cow, he’s quick to call Ed Harris's character, Everett McKinney. He’s a veterinarian, and he confirms that Rip’s herd has been infected. This leads to a really hard choice for Rip, but it was a necessary one that’s validated by the vet. According to rancher Jessie Jarvis, the relationship between Rip and Everett is very accurate to real life, as she told People:

So, overall, the relationship Rip and Beth have created with Everett is both realistic and fantastic for the story. I’m such a fan of their friendship and partnership, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it advances the plot, especially considering all their connections to the Jackson family. Meanwhile, I also love that Harris’ character serves as a good representation of how important a rancher’s relationship is with their vet.

Along with that being realistic, Jarvis also explained that the tragic decision Rip had to make about his cows is also rooted in reality. However, what’s unrealistic about this storyline is the fact that FMD was eradicated in the United States in 1929.

Well, while they get some things right, others are not as realistic. However, overall, the rancher was positive about the storyline, and specifically the role Ed Harris’ character played in it all.

This mentality was something Jarvis maintained too, as she spoke about other topics and how realistic they are, like how much Rip gets paid as a foreman (which is more than average). While there are parts of the show that are factual, it’s also fictionalized and dramatized for TV.

However, one thing that was spot on was the relationship Cole Hauser and Kelly Reilly’s characters created with the veterinarian played by Ed Harris. Now, I’ll be curious to see how that relationship develops and how realistic it stays as Dutton Ranch continues to drop new episodes every Friday.

It’s been about a year and a half since we bid farewell to Yellowstone. John Dutton’s murder was avenged with Jamie's death, and Kayce’s doing his thing over on CBS’s Marshals. As for Beth and her husband Rip, we’re about to see what hijinks they’re up to in Texas when Dutton Ranch hits the 2026 TV schedule. Reviews are in for the latest Yellowstone spinoff, so after viewing the first four episodes, do critics think this feels like a continuation of the hit Taylor Sheridan epic, or does it stand on its own?

Dutton Ranch is centered around Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) who relocate to Texas with their adopted son Carter. According to CinemaBlend’s own Riley Utley, the series perfectly blends what we loved about Yellowstone with new challenges for Beth and Rip. She says:

Nick Schager of the Daily Beast agrees Dutton Ranch is a win, following its predecessor’s formula exactly, except that it’s smart enough to side-step the “culture-war claptrap.” The critic says the result is the best and most satisfying Yellowstone entry since Yellowstone itself. He writes:

Lauren Samer of Page Six says Yellowstone fans will be happy to get more of the same with Dutton Ranch. The writing is clumsy, the plotlines are full of melodrama, but that’s probably just fine for an audience who wants to see cowboys kick ass and take names, Samer says, writing:

Ben Travers of IndieWire gives the new series a C in his Dutton Ranch review, saying that Beth and Rip still have the ferocity we loved in the original series, but Annette Bening and Ed Harris — the latest big Hollywood names to join the Yellowstone universe — may steal the show. In Travers’ words:

Ben Rosenstock of AV Club also gives Dutton Ranch a C, saying it’s the same Duttons, different ranch. Beth’s character is admittedly tempered down a bit, Rosenstock says, but nobody was really asking for more Carter. The critic concludes:

It sounds like there have been some changes made to propel Beth and Rip’s spinoff, but a lot of Dutton Ranch is very similar to Yellowstone, and that’s probably what a lot of fans are hoping for. With 14 critics weighing in so far, Rotten Tomatoes scores the spinoff sequel at 86% ahead of its premiere.

The first two episodes will be available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription at 3:01 a.m. ET Friday, May 15, while they will air back-to-back at 8 p.m. ET the same day on Paramount Network.

Glen Powell has played everything from a storm chaser to a fighter pilot to a football player to a hit man, and for his latest role in the upcoming A24 movie How to Make a Killing, it looks like he’s returning to his murderous ways. Critics saw the film ahead of its release on the 2026 movie calendar, in which Powell’s Becket Redfellow goes after the inheritance he thinks he’s owed after being disowned at birth by his disgustingly wealthy family, so what are they saying about the revenge thriller?

How to Make a Killing stars an ensemble cast, including Margaret Qualley and Jessica Henwick as Becket’s childhood friend and girlfriend, respectively, as well as those who make up the Redfellows standing in the way of his fortune: Bill Camp, Zach Woods, Topher Grace and Ed Harris, to name a few. According to Alexander Mooney of Slant, the humanity in these characters gives a grim sense of irony to Becket’s plight. The critic scores the movie 3 stars out of 4, writing:

Previously titled Huntington, Glen Powell’s dark comedy is “watchably weird,” according to Owen Gleiberman of Variety, who writes that its take on the depravity of greed keeps it afloat. The critic continues:

Jacob Oller of AV Club writes that despite the many different roles Glen Powell has played, this movie yet again shows him as smirking, quippy and strikingly put together. Add to that the script's loose grasp of the haves and have-nots and inability to find the tonal balance between outlandish and self-serious, and the critic can’t grade it higher than a C. Oller says:

Ouch! Although IndieWire’s Kate Erbland also gives it a C, saying the film lacks the fun required to pull off such a kill-the-rich dark comedy. The critic attributes this to two missteps: First, the voiceover narration makes the film exposition-heavy, depriving us of what should be the most deliciously devious scenes, and secondly, Glen Powell isn’t believable as a rage-driven bad guy, especially when the director doesn’t seem able to decide whether we should want to root for him or not. Erbland continues:

Kristy Puchko of Mashable feels Glen Powell was miscast, as he’s unable to match the humor of the ensemble around him. Also, he’s playing an underdog but has the suavity of a leading man, Puchko says, and his thinly written character comes off as “bland.” After seeing so many compelling eat-the-rich comedies in the past few years, How to Make a Killing is tame by comparison, the critic says:

This is a tough one to call, as critics are split right down the middle on Rotten Tomatoes, giving How to Make a Killing 50% on the Tomatometer. If you want to check out Glen Powell’s latest role amongst a killer supporting cast, this dark comedy revenge thriller is in theaters as of Friday, February 20.

Ron Howard’s 1995 film Apollo 13 is one of the best movies of the ‘90s, winning two Academy Awards (but not Best Picture) from nine nominations. The fact that it’s based on the real-life doomed moon mission of Jim Lovell and his crew adds to the suspense and horror, even if you already know how it ends. I decided recently to revisit the movie for the first time in decades, and I was really struck by one story in particular.

I am so captivated by the majesty of space, and with Apollo 13 being one of the best space movies ever, it was always those scenes — of Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton and Kevin Bacon’s characters crammed into a broken ship flying through the vastness — that held my attention when the movie came out. This time, though, I was blown away by Ed Harris’ Gene Kranz and the people on the ground helping to bring the astronauts home.

The Space Emergency Is Straight-Up Terrifying, But I Was More Fascinated By The Rescue Efforts This Time

It’s incredible to witness the star power that Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon and Bill Paxton bring to Apollo 13 as Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, respectively. The audience understands how much this mission means to them, because the first hour of the film shows their preparation, their excitement, their years of work all leading to this moment.

All too soon their dreams of walking on the moon are vanquished, and it’s a long shot they’ll even make it back to Earth alive. It’s no wonder this used to be my primary focus, with Tom Hanks’ ability to rip our hearts out, but now, years later, I found that during those tense scenes on the ship, I was really anticipating getting back to Houston to see how their rescue efforts were going.

I honestly think it was that 1970s technology (or lack thereof) that I found so fascinating.

My Mind Was Blown By What Mission Control Was Able To Accomplish Without Modern Technology And A.I.

Look, I’m an Xennial, so I’m fully capable of solving math problems without a calculator and doing research without the Internet. Still, now that I’ve had a smartphone and a stable Wi-Fi connection for half of my life (not to mention A.I.), I’ll admit I, like everyone else, have become pretty dependent on the convenience of modern technology.

This is why I found myself amazed at what the Mission Control workers were capable of. Lives were at stake, and these scientists were calculating degrees of re-entry by hand! With pencils! On paper! There was simply no margin for error, and I couldn’t help but think of how much easier it would be today to just punch some numbers into a machine.

Of course back in the ‘90s, which was probably the last time I watched Apollo 13, I had no idea of the technological advancements that were to come, so it makes sense that seeing the analog work didn’t affect me the way it did on this viewing. Back in 1995, the biggest technological achievement in my life was probably a search engine. And not a good one.

What Was More Fascinating Than When They Built That Filter Using Only Things That Were On The Ship?

One of the big standout moments for me was when the people on the ground had to fashion an air filter using nothing but what the astronauts had on board when carbon dioxide levels started to get dangerously high — literally figuring out how to fit a square peg in a round hole.

I’d watch an entire documentary on what I imagine was a grueling trial-and-error process of hacking an air filter using the cover of the crew’s flight plan, some plastic bags, duct tape, etc. MacGyver’s got nothing on these Mission Control heroes! That kind of effort and resourcefulness is just something you don’t see every day — especially without the help of a YouTube tutorial.

Ken Mattingly (Gary Sinise) — who was grounded shortly before the launch due to his exposure to measles — contributed to his colleagues’ rescue in similar fashion. He recreated the conditions of the Aquarius “lifeboat” back on Earth to figure out how to power up the craft without using too much power. It appeared to be a slow and frustrating process, but somehow, all involved kept their cool and pressed on until they came up with a solution.

Ed Harris’ Award Nominations Make So Much Sense

I recall Ed Harris being celebrated for his portrayal of flight director Gene Kranz, but I feel like I never fully appreciated the performance — or the character’s control over the situation — until my most recent viewing. Harris was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes, and he won in that category at the SAG Awards.

I know that the famous movie quote, “Failure is not an option,” was not actually uttered by Gene Kranz in real life, but it embodied the man and the mission all the same. What struck me most in Ed Harris’ portrayal of him was how cool he stayed under pressure.

On my worst day on a job, I have never been tasked with an unprecedented rescue of three of my co-workers, yet I’m sure I’ve gone into a full-blown panic over issues that are trivial in comparison. Not Gene Kranz, though. In fact, it wasn’t until well into the second half of the nearly 2.5-hour film that he even raised his voice, and he may have only done it once.

Instead, he listened to the experts around him, he trusted his people to do their jobs and he found solutions instead of listing the problems. He was focused on bringing his men home — not worried about lawsuits or running his every move up a corporate ladder, as I imagine would be protocol in a more modern era.

Am I more in awe of Gene Kranz or Ed Harris’ portrayal of him? Honestly, I don’t know (probably both), and I think that speaks to the quality of the film.

Apollo 13 is one of those survival movies that leave you exhausted, and I’m so glad that it lived up to my memory of how good it was. It’s also interesting to me that watching it again so many years later made me appreciate different aspects of the rescue more, while still enjoying the marvels (and horrors) of space.

Taylor Sheridan's western TV universe is as alive and thriving as ever, with at least three upcoming Yellowstone shows set to debut in the next year or so. While Luke Grimes' Y: Marshalls and its familiar faces might get the biggest live audience at CBS, I dare say fans are most excited about Rip and Beth's new spinoff, which started filming in Texas in August, with a working title of Dutton Ranch that may or may not be the real title. In any case, what IS real is how great this cast is going to be.

We previously learned that Annette Bening joined the spinoff as a formidable ranch owner, and now it's been revealed that esteemed, award-winning actor Ed Harris has joined the cast in a role that doesn't quite fit into what one might expect from the star of such projects as Westworld, Frontera, Sweetwater, Appaloosa, and more.

Ed Harris Will Play Mild-Mannered Everett McKinney

Per Deadline, Ed Harris' new spinoff character won't be a ruthless cowboy hellbent on revenge, and it doesn't sound like he'll be fighting tooth and nail to save his humble ranch. In fact, it doesn't sound at all like the kind of character that he would jump into for a Taylor Sheridan series, where violence and vengeance are loyal bedfellows.

Harris' Everett McKinney is described as being a "weathered veteran," which tracks, but also a veterinarian who possibly treats animals with more care and empathy than he allows for humans. It's also noted that Everett boasts a good sense of humor.

No complaints or anything, but it is wild to think of the hard-edged actor playing a jovial animal-lover in a Yellowstone-verse series. Or any other Taylor Sheridan show, for that matter. I'd also be shocked if Harris was portraying the same character on Landman or Tulsa King.

As such, the majority of my brain is already convinced that Mr. McKinney here has a bunch of awful skeletons in his closet that he hides behind his sense of humor and his ability to cure birds and shit. I can already see it now: Rip calls Everett over to his and Beth's new home to take a look at a sick horse, and the vet will suddenly get PTSD and start blaming Rip for purposefully hurting the animal, and then the all-out massacres start.

With a premiere date that'll likely come after the 2025 TV shedule has wrapped, Rip and Beth's Yellowstone spinoff will likely continue unveiling new cast members in the near future, so stay tuned!

Top Gun: Maverick was the sort of legacy sequel that studios dream of making. Maverick was an absolutely massive success, a bigger box office winner than even the original iconic movie. And so, despite the fact that there were decades between the two movies, it’s little surprise that Top Gun 3 is very likely to arrive a lot sooner after part two.

Top Gun 3 is already in development and while it’s far too early to have any guess what the new movie will be about or which actors from the previous films, other than Tom Cruise himself, will return, one actor is pretty sure he won’t be back. When asked by the UK’s Joe about appearing in Top Gun 3, Ed Harris simply said…

Ed Harris played Admiral Chester “Hammer” Cain in Top Gun: Maverick. He only appears in one scene early in the film, reading Cruise’s character the riot act after he takes an experimental jet up in the air without authorization. Having said that, it’s a great scene that sets the tone for the rest of the movie.

On the one hand, Ed Harris is great in Top Gun: Maverick, and one can imagine there might be some interest in bringing him back if only to try and recreate a great sequence. Having said that, since Harris isn’t particularly important to the plot of Maverick and considering that Cruise’s character seems to be heading off in a different direction following the events of the film, it’s unclear why these two would cross paths again.

Having said that. One can also guess that Paramount is going to want to do whatever is possible to recreate the success of the previous film, and part of that will likely mean bringing back as many elements from the movie that was a massive hit as possible.

And who knows, maybe Ed Harris will not only return in Top Gun 3 but will have an expanded role. Whatever the plot of Top Gun 3 ends up being, it will almost certainly need some high-ranking officers for Maverick to come into conflict with. Why bring in brand new characters and actors that we haven’t met when you can just as easily bring back characters we know?

Expectations are that most of the cast of Top Gun: Maverick will return for Top Gun 3. Jennifer Connelly has said she's spoken to director Joe Kosinski about the sequel and Miles Teller has indicated he may know something, though he's not revealing details. Top Gun 3 may come faster than Maverick, but that doesn't mean Top Gun 3 will happen soon.

But if there’s a single actor who seems the least likely to return Ed Harris is probably right that it’s him. Still, every movie would be better if Ed Harris is in it, so I’m not sure anybody would mind if they brought him back.

Some of the biggest and best actors have never won competitive acting Oscars. Some of those names might completely shock you as they have certainly put in the performances that make them worthy of winning the awards. There are a few on this list who have won honorary Oscars or won in other categories, like directing or acting, but none of these stars have been bestowed with the one they probably want the most. So here is our list of actors and actresses who have shockingly never won an Oscar for acting.

Glenn Close

At the top of the list of actors who have shockingly never won an Oscar has to be the great Glenn Close. For decades Close has been putting amazing performances on film, and yet that golden statue has eluded her. She has won multiple Tonys, Emmys, and Golden Globe awards, yet, despite an amazing eight nominations for either Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress, she's yet to win one.

Tom Cruise

There is no bigger "movie star" on the planet than Tom Cruise. While no one would realistically expect Cruise to be nominated for his action roles like in the Mission: Impossible movies (though, his stunt work in those movies should really be acknowledged), the Top Gun star has put in the work with Oscar-worthy performances in films like Rain Man, Jerry Maguire, Born on the Fourth of July, and Magnolia. He has been nominated four times, but he's yet to take home the prize.

Angela Bassett

In 1994 Angela Bassett lost out on the Best Actress Oscar for her incredible, transformative performance as Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It. Not to take anything away from the winner, Holly Hunter for The Piano, but it's frankly astonishing Bassett didn't win. Sadly, though she was honored in 2024 by the Academy, she still has yet to win a competitive Oscar.

Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp has gotten a lot of bad press in recent years and that may hurt his future chances to win an Academy Award, but frankly, it's amazing he hasn't already won multiple Oscars, and yet he's never won even one. Despite three nominations and many other amazing performances, the Pirates Of The Caribbean star is still Oscar-less.

Sigourney Weaver

It's hard to believe that Sigourney Weaver hasn't even been nominated for an Oscar since the 1980s, when she was nominated thrice. In spite of wonderful performances in huge hits like Avatar and Aliens, she's still searching for that golden statue.

Bradley Cooper

Honestly, you can almost smell the desperation on Bradley Cooper to win an Oscar and that's completely understandable. Cooper is one of the best actors of his generation and has been nominated five times in an acting category (and another seven times in other categories), but hasn't won...yet. He'll surely get one.

Annette Bening

Five nominations and no wins. That's Annette Bening's resume at the Oscars and that is shocking. For decades she's been crushing it on screen and despite those nominations, most recently in 2023 for her incredible performance in Nyad, a win has eluded her.

Jim Carrey

Jim Carrey may have burst on the scene in wild comedies like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Mask - and we can argue that amazing comedic performances don't get nearly enough love from the Academy - but his more serious roles, like in Man on the Moon and even The Truman Show are certainly worthy of Oscars. Despite multiple Golden Globe nominations and wins, the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind actor has never even been nominated for an Oscar.

Amy Adams

When Amy Adams was first nominated for an Academy Award in 2005 for her breakthrough performance in Junebug, a betting person would have bet everything that she would win an Oscar in her career. Yet here we are more than 20 years later and despite five more nominations, Adams is still Oscar-less.

Samuel L. Jackson

Samuel L. Jackson has played every kind of character and starred in every kind of movie. From mega-franchises like Star Wars and the MCU, to more indie films like Pulp Fiction and Do The Right Thing, Jackson has done it all in Hollywood, except win a competitive Oscar and he's shockingly only been nominated once. He was honored by the Academy in 2021 for his body of work.

Scarlett Johansson

In 2020 Scarlett Johansson was nominated in both the Bet Actress category for Marriage Story and Best Supporting Actress for Jojo Rabbit. She lost out in both that year and despite an incredible career, they remain her only nominations.

Laurence Fishburne

Literally, since his breakout movie role when he was only 16 in Apocalypse Now, Laurence Fishburne has been putting in award-worthy performances. One of the most astonishing facts on this list, Fishbourne has only been nominated once, for What's Love Got to Do with It in 1994. Despite roles like Furious Styles in Boyz n The Hood, Professor Phipps in Higher Learning, and countless others, he still hasn't won.

Hugh Jackman

While he's best known for his work as Wolverine these days, the multi-talented Hugh Jackman has a ton of performances that have deserved more attention from the Academy. He's won every other award on the planet, including three of the "EGOT" awards, but he's still missing the "O."

Michelle Williams

Michelle Williams has been nominated for an Academy Award five times, starting with her breakout role in 2005's Brokeback Mountain. She has yet to break through with a win though. Certainly, she will at some point, right?

Saoirse Ronan

Saoirse Ronan was just 13 years old when she landed her first Oscar nomination for her performance in Atonement. The Lady Bird star has been nominated three subsequent times but hasn't been able to nail down an award yet. A win for Ronan at some point seems inevitable, given how she crushes every role she's in.

Matt Damon

Another one of the biggest movie stars in the world who has yet to win an acting Oscar is Matt Damon. His most recent of three acting nominations was for 2015's The Martian, and while he has won an Oscar for Best Screenplay for Good Will Hunting, an acting award has eluded him.

Salma Hayek

Despite her transcending performance in Frida, the great Salma Hayek wasn't able to win an Oscar in a stacked category in 2003 (Nicole Kidman won for The Hours). Despite numerous great performances, that remains Hayak's only nomination. For shame.

Willem Dafoe

Despite being one of the most reliable actors in Hollywood for more than four decades, somehow Willem Dafoe has yet to win an Oscar. It seems like every single role he takes on is award-worthy, and yet, despite four nominations, starting with Platoon, he still has yet to take home an Academy Award.

Carey Mulligan

2009's An Education garnered Carey Mulligan her first Oscar nom, and she's since nominated another couple of times, for Promising Young Woman in 2021 and Maestro in 2024. She's run into some stiff competition, but surely at least one of those performances was Oscar-worthy.

Mark Ruffalo

Mark Ruffalo has been acting his butt off for decades. For that hard work, he's received four Best Supporting Actor nominations, and shockingly, not for his work in Dark Waters, which might be his best performance of all. It's confounding.

Michelle Pfeiffer

The great Michelle Pfeiffer landed her first Oscar nomination in 1988 for Dangerous Liaisons and picked up two more for The Fabulous Baker Boys in 1989 and Love Field in 1992. Since then? Nothing. Zip. She has not even received a nomination as one of the best actresses of her generation. That has to be remedied, as it makes no sense.

Ralph Fiennes

Between 1996 when he was nominated for The English Patient and 2025 when he was nominated for Conclave, the great Ralph Fiennes wasn't even nominated for an Oscar despite countless award-worthy performances.

Naomi Watts

With two nominations and zero wins, Naomi Watts finds herself on this list. She was first nominated in 2004 for 21 Grams and again in 2013 for The Impossible, but she hasn't lucked out with a win yet. Surely one is in her future though, she's too much of a force not to win one.

Ryan Gosling

Year after year Ryan Gosling has put up fantastic performances, so his inclusion on this list is among the most surprising. He seems like a shoo-in to have won at least one Oscar, right? In not for Barbie or Half Nelson, both of which he was nominated for, then certainly for La La Land. Alas, he's yet to take home a trophy.

Alfre Woodard

When Alfre Woodard was nominated for her first (and to-date only) Oscar nomination way back in 1983 for Cross Creek, you'd be crazy to predict she would not get another one for what is now more than 40 years. Despite amazing performances in films like 12 Years A Slave and many others, she has been shut out.

Warren Beatty

There was no bigger movie star than Warren Beatty in the late '70s and '80s and despite a slew of hits, Beatty has never won an Oscar. Beatty has been nominated four times for Best Actor, yet his only Academy Award win came for Best Director for Reds in 1982. He didn't even win for Dick Tracy! He wasn't actually nominated for that iconic role though, which is understandable.

Laura Linney

Over her long, impressive career, Laura Linney has been nominated for many awards. She's won multiple Emmys and multiple Golden Globes, but she's never taken home a golden statue from the Academy. Linney has been nominated three times, for 2000's You Can Count on Me, 2004's Kinsey, and 2007's The Savages, but lost out each time. Linney has never been in a movie that has won Best Picture, either.

Ed Harris

Ed Harris is one of the best character actors of the last 50 years and yet he's never won an Oscar. He's been nominated three times for Best Supporting Actor, for Apollo 13, The Truman Show, and The Hours, plus picking a nomination for Best Actor for Pollock, but alas, he's never won. Weirdly, he's also 0-3 on Emmy nominations too. He has picked up two Golden Globes though.

Joan Allen

Joan Allen is an actress flies a little under the radar despite putting in amazing performances in everything she is in. It might because she's been incredibly unlucky at winning awards, despite multiple Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG nominations. That luck includes her Oscar nominations, of which she has three, for Nixon, The Crucible, and The Contender, but sadly no wins.

Richard Gere

Despite being box office gold since the early 1980s, Richard Gere has shockingly never been even nominated for an Oscar. He's been in beloved movies that have stood the test of time like Pretty Woman, An Officer And A Gentleman, Primal Fear, Runaway Bride and so many more, but no nominations. Crazy.

Isabelle Huppert

It might not be a huge surprise that a French actress like Isabelle Huppert hasn't won an Oscar, as obviously the winners are almost always from English-language films. Still, Huppert is one of the most decorated actresses of all time in her native France, having been nominated 16 times (and winning twice) for the César Award (France's version of the Academy Awards). She was nominated for an Oscar in 2016 for Elle but lost to Emma Stone (for La La Land).

Paul Dano

It almost seems pre-ordained that at some point Paul Dano will win an Oscar. In performance after performance, he just crushes it. From There Will Be Blood to Love & Mercy, the list of his amazing performances just keeps growing. Like others on this list, the fact that he hasn't even been nominated for an Oscar is mindboggling.

Certain movies stick with you. There’s just something about them that lingers and never fully goes away. The Truman Show is one of those movies for me. Decades after I saw it for the first time, the performances and the larger themes still mean something to me. Everytime I rewatch it, I still connect in a visceral way, even as I change as a person and enter different stages of my life. I'm definitely not the only one who feels that way either, as many celebrities have cited it as inspiration.

Perhaps it’s because the movie has so much to offer. People often focus on the movie’s central theme of consent, and rightfully so, but it’s actually filled with iconic moments, performances and creative choices that speak to a whole lot more than just that. So, let’s celebrate why it works so well. Let’s run down the best of the best from the movie and talk about what makes those iconic parts of The Truman Show so special (at least to me).

The How’s It Going To End Button

During college, I worked at a veterinary hospital, and we were allowed to put buttons on our smocks. I had a few, but my favorite was this iconic button from The Truman Show that Lauren wears. She wants to know how The Truman Show is going to end, but deep down, all of us want to know how all of it is going to end.

Truman Talks To The Mirror

At the beginning of The Truman Show, we see our hero talking to bathroom mirror, fantasizing about an adventurous life. The implication is that we all relate to his desire to want more, but it also feels like a personal moment specifically for him. As his concept of reality shifts, however, we see him once again talk to the mirror, but now there’s some doubt as to whether the moment is for him or for us.

"Truman"

As Truman struggles to learn the truth of his existence, he attempts to flee and hits roadblock after roadblock. Finally, a cop he’s never met before tells him to turn around, but in doing so, directly addresses him as “Truman,” fully solidifying in his mind that something is wrong and he must be at the center of all of it. It’s one of the movie’s most powerful moments, and it’s also one of its simplest. 

The Posters At The Travel Agency

I suspect most people who went to see The Truman Show in 1998, knowing only it was the new Jim Carrey movie, were surprised by how little comedy the movie has to offer, but if you’re observant, it’s often quite humorous in a clever way. My favorite example is the posters at the travel agency, which feature travel friendly images like a plane being struck by lightning. It's that mix between dark and light that helps it regularly rank among the best Jim Carrey movies.

The Drowning

Nothing about Truman’s involvement in The Truman Show is OK. He’s never given a choice. It’s wrong. Period. But the single moment that makes that the most clear (other than perhaps the storm during his escape) is the “drowning” of his father. His death causes severe trauma and psychological consequences in Truman, but as an audience, we find out it’s all a ruse, meant to inflict that damage and keep him from exploring. It’s beyond heartless.

The Product Placements

Another source of levity throughout The Truman Show is the product placements. Truman is largely unaware of what’s going on (until he’s suddenly not), but you can tell how his reaction changes whenever he senses something is stiff or off with the language. It reads to him as inauthentic in the same way bad product placement in a movie reads to viewers as inauthentic. 

Fiji

To those of us in The United States, Fiji feels like a random island on the other side of the world. In Truman’s case, it also literally is, but psychologically, Fiji may as well be Cleveland, Ohio or Iceland or anything outside the bubble that’s been created for him. He hasn’t really been anywhere. He’s on Seahaven Island, and every other place in the world is Fiji. So, when Lauren’s dad says they’re moving to Fiji, it becomes a location outside Seahaven that feels real.

Truman's Frankenstein Picture

I’ve watched The Truman Show with easily ten different people in my life across various viewings, and Truman’s homemade picture of his lost love always produces an extreme reaction. Some people are creeped out. Others think it’s a beautiful tribute to the girl that got away. Either way, it shows the audience how Lauren never left his mind, and it’s an iconic moment in the movie.

The Fake Elevator

Truman Show fans will point to different moments in which Truman reached the point of no return, but for me, it’s when he walks into a different building, and discovers the back of the elevator is missing and instead goes to a backstage area. It’s clearly out of place for a building, and everyone’s reactions make it clear they’ve been caught doing something they’re not supposed to be doing. 

Marlon Delivering Christof's Lines

Early in The Truman Show, it becomes fairly obvious that Truman trusts his lifelong best friend Marlon more than anyone else, including his wife and mother. Anytime he’s in trouble, he immediately runs to talk it out with him and get his counsel. For awhile, it seems like a real friendship amidst the inauthenticity, but then the audience is suddenly given a different perspective, one where see Marlon reciting lines being read to him, and it all feels like a gross betrayal.

"I'll Cross My Fingers For You"

Many of Truman’s old pictures are suspect, especially the ones involving him vacationing as a kid in other places, but it’s his wedding photo that really becomes plot relevant. Truman discovers his wife Meryl with her fingers crossed, which he takes as a sign of her not fully committing. Later, when he tells her he’ll keep his fingers crossed, her worried look indicates she knows he’s catching on.

The Surgery

One day Truman decides to surprise Meryl at work. She’s a “nurse” and is supposedly in surgery. A clearly nervous “doctor” tries to perform an incision while Truman is watching, and it all goes hilariously wrong, complete with the patient waking up and needing to be given more “anesthetic.” It’s a hilarious reminder of how being hired as an actor to play someone with a specific job is not the same thing as knowing how to do that specific job.

The Truman Was Adopted By A Corporation Reveal

People have different ideas of personal privacy and consent; so, while I don’t know anyone that thinks what they did to Truman is acceptable, it’s a spectrum as to how offended people are when they initially find out what’s going on. That tends to change with this reveal, however, which is arguably the most shocking in the entire movie. Truman was in competition with other “unwanted pregnancies” and eventually earned the privilege of being adopted by a corporation. 

"There's The Dented Beetle"

Truman is living an authentic life. That’s the appeal of The Truman Show, and why millions of people watch it. Everyone else on Seahaven Island, however, is playing an acting role, and while some of those roles like Meryl and Marlon, involve living a long-term full life on the island and interacting with Truman, others are just there to be human beings and fill out his world. So, since they don’t have anything to actually do, they’re assigned to jobs like driving in circles and riding a bike around the block, which Truman ultimately catches on to.

Good Afternoon, Good Evening And Good Night

The most iconic piece of dialogue in The Truman Show is definitely “Good Afternoon. Good Evening. And Good Night.” The phrase is so overly pleasant that it feels hollow. It’s the type of thing someone without better things on their mind would say. It’s what someone who is deeply kind but unable to connect would go with. That’s why it strikes most viewers as inauthentic when he’s going about his daily business, but also why when he says it at the end, after all he’s been through, it hits so much differently and is the right choice to end with Truman on. 

The Light Falling From The Sky

The Truman Show is really two different movies, based on whether you’re in on what’s going on or whether you’re lost like Truman. Most people who saw the film during its initial theatrical run were spoiled on the basic premise before watching it for the first time, but nowadays, people are discovering the movie on streaming without any prior knowledge. That makes this light falling early on a big clue for both them and Truman that all is not what it seems, especially since most people don't know what to make of the intro.

The Sunken Boat

The shot of this row boat filled with water is one of the visuals that has most stuck with me about the movie. It’s almost mean-spirited. You think who would ever leave that boat there, but then, it all makes sense on subsequent viewings as you start to contextualize it as a tool for helping to continue his fear of the water and further his desire to stay on the island.

The Rain Falling Just On Truman

I’ve had a lot of conversations about this scene where rain only falls on Truman, and there are definitely a wide range of opinions on whether or not it works. It’s certainly physically possible given the environment he’s in, but it’s an open question as to whether the movie should have gone there. Some think it’s one of the most joyful and hopeful moments in the entire movie. Others see it as one of the film’s weaker. Either way, it’s iconic.

The Interview With Harry Shearer

Ed Harris’ Christof comes off as a weird guy pretty consistently throughout The Truman Show, but it’s this interview with Harry Shearer’s journalist that really hammers home his personality. He’s unbelievably arrogant and self-important, and it very quickly comes obvious he will never see any ethical issues with what he’s doing. 

Truman's Final Escape

Truman’s quest throughout The Truman Show is mostly about uncovering the fake reality he’s a part of. It’s about living his ordinary life and seeing cracks in the world he’s presented with. His final escape is that same struggle but expressed much more literally. It’s his determination against his trauma and fear of the water to physically escape, and it’s a triumphant joy to watch him keep pushing.

Truman's Reunion With His Father

This is the best example of how truly fake Truman’s entire ecosystem is. His father, who he hasn’t seen for decades, reemerges to give him a big hug and return to his life, and even though as an audience, we love Truman and he’s quite obviously feeling extreme joy, we can’t feel anything but disgusted at how much he’s being manipulated. It’s one of those rare moments where we’re rooting against a character because we have more information than he does.

The Drive With Meryl 

Meryl increasingly becomes a less sympathetic character as the movie goes on, as it becomes more obvious she's doing her job more than supporting her husband, but Truman's freakout ride with Meryl really humanizes her too. She's clearly uncomfortable the entire time, most prominently when he has her drive across the bridge. It's a reminder that even though she has more information, she still isn't in control. 

Turning The Sun On

Seahaven Island might be man made, but it still operates off mostly logical rules familiar to the outside world (and was shot in the real world). That allows viewers to find commonalities with Truman, and it helps keep him from questioning his reality. The bus driver can’t say you’re not allowed to go. He has to say the bus is broken. Well, that logic all goes out the window during the search for Truman when Christof decides to turn on the sun when it should be nighttime. It’s a desperate, jarring move that everyone on set reacts to with shock.

The Sound Frequency When He's Driving

Have you ever gotten the feeling you’re being followed? Truman is confronted with that panic early in the movie when the crew mistakenly plays the cast radio frequency into his car radio. A voice through the speaker describes everything he’s doing, down to the directions he’s taking. It’s like something out of a gangster movie with an FBI van, and helps show how much effort it takes to keep the ruse going.

"Cut Transmission"

One thing The Truman Show always does is stay on the air. There are no commercials, as the show only uses product placement, but after all the cameras lose Truman during his escape, Christof makes the bold decision to cut transmission. It produces immediate pushback from the network, but Christof argues they’re probably doing higher ratings with the graphic than they ever have. Even if that’s the case, everyone involved knows they need to start the transmission again ASAP, which they do to capture Truman’s final moments on his show.

The Set Reveal

Part way through The Truman Show’s runtime, director Peter Weir starts consistently giving us more perspectives outside just Truman’s. That allows the audience to see more of the context around the hit reality program and to get the backstory of how it came to be. As part of that, we see the intro viewers see on television, and it features a jaw-dropping shot of the giant dome set, which can apparently be seen from space. It really helps illustrate the enormity of what’s happening.

The Score

Despite winning for their score at The Golden Globes, Burkhard Dallwitz and Philip Glass didn’t get an Oscar nomination for The Truman Show. That’s too bad because I really like their work here. The score finds a good balance between a hollow, inauthentic version of the 1950s that almost seems melodramatic at times throughout the movie and a soaring, hopeful quest that feels alive and heroic. 

All The Weird Camera Shots

One of my absolutely favorite things about The Truman Show is the camera work. Cinematographer Peter Biziou received a BAFTA nomination for his work here and should have gotten a nod from the Oscars too. It’s not that every shot is the best possible shot. There are very specifically some weird and unnatural angles, but that’s kind of the point. Our perspective shifts to all kinds of weird angles that make it feel like he’s occupied in a space that’s got thousands of cameras but often times not the perfect one for what’s needed.

Lauren's Attempt To Tell Him It's All Fake

Truman is so inside his bubble, especially in his younger years, that when Lauren attempts to tell him he’s on a TV show, he has no idea what she’s talking about. He refuses to accept anything could be amiss about his reality. Even years later when he pines for her, the part he focuses on is always Fiji, it’s never the rest of her speech in which she tells him everything has been created just for him.

Truman Stops Traffic

Truman’s initial questions about the world around him largely manifest themselves in him changing his routine. He enters buildings he’s never been in before. He starts exploring, just as he wanted to when he was a kid but within Seahaven Island. The most dramatic example of that, at least before he runs from the men in the hazmat suits is when he walks out into traffic and stops it. He’s testing to see whether there are consequences to his actions and whether the world really revolves around him. There’s not, and it does. 

Marlon Looks Into The Camera

Everyone in The Truman Show is aware they’re on a television show except Truman. That means the number one rule is everyone needs to go about their lives without breaking the fourth wall. That means trying not to look at the cameras, but during the search for Truman, that rule is dramatically broken when Marlon, desperately searching for Truman, looks directly into the camera and says he’s gone. It’s a moment so out of the norm that Christof decides to cut the transmission.

"Where's The TV Guide?"

I don't really know what to make of the last moment in the movie. The transmission cuts for the final time, and the security guards ask what else is on and look for the TV Guide. In some ways, it's an extremely funny juxtaposition for Truman's final emotional escape which just came before. On the other hand, however, it's also a sad commentary on how quickly people move on and makes you wonder what the future might hold for Truman.

Whether it's doing stunts or just freak accidents, even the biggest Hollywood stars aren't immune to getting injured on set. While we mostly think of stars chilling in their posh trailers while their stunt people take the biggest risks, sometimes it's the celebrities themselves who get the worst of things. Here is our list of big stars who have been injured while filming, and what happened after. 

Daniel Craig 

You can't just pick one of the James Bond movies that Daniel Craig was injured during the filming of, because the truth is, he's been injured a lot. In No Time To Die, it was his ankle, which required surgery and he was off-set for a couple of weeks recovering. In Casino Royale, he knocked out two teeth filming a fight scene. In Quantum of Solace, he injured his shoulder, and in Spectre, it was his knee. It's easy to see why Craig has retired from the role, filming James Bond movies can be dangerous. 

Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise famously does many of his most intense and dangerous stunts himself. It's become his brand, but it doesn't mean he doesn't get hurt. In fact, while filming Mission: Impossible – Fallout, it was one of his more innocent stunts, jumping from building to building, that caused an injury when Cruise broke his leg landing the jump. Filming halted for a few months while Cruise recovered, but the footage was included in the movie. 

Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford has a long history of getting injured on movie sets. Maybe the most high-profile time was when a door fell on his leg while shooting Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He broke his leg and director JJ Abrams injured his back helping pull the door off the Han Solo actor. 

Sylvester Stallone

Sylvester Stallone is one of the premiere action stars of the last 50 years, and as such, he's been injured a few times on set doing stunts. The worst, according to Stallone, came while filming the boxing match with Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) in Rocky IV. Lundgren hit him so hard in the chest at one point that it caused his heart to swell and he ended up in intensive care for eight days. 

Isla Fisher 

One of the best scenes in Now You See Me is when Isla Fisher's character performs the underwater escape trick. It wasn't so great for the actress though, as she nearly drowned during the filming. Luckily a stuntman was there to flip the safety switch and save her. 

Leonardo DiCaprio

One of the most intense scenes in Django Unchained is Leonardo DiCaprio's speech after dinner. He bangs his hand on the table and slices his hand on a glass. DiCaprio, ever the pro, kept going without missing a beat. It's so good, director Quentin Tarantino left that take in the final cut. 

Kristin Chenoweth

TV stars aren't safe either. Kristin Chenoweth was almost killed on the set of The Good Wife when part of the lighting rig fell on her. According to the actress, she had a "skull fracture and a rib issue and a hip issue" as a result. 

Bruce Willis

Like a lot of action stars, Bruce Willis has had his fair share of injuries in stunts gone wrong. In Live Free or Die Hard, the Hollywood legend suffered a serious cut above his eye that required stitches, after Maggie Q's stunt doubled kick him with high heels on. 

Mariska Hargitay

Sometimes, the extent of the injury isn't immediately understood, as was the case with Mariska Hargitay after a fall on the set of Law & Order: SVU. Hargitay performed a stunt that required her to land on some pads, but, in her words, something went wrong. She shook off the injury at first, but a few months later, she felt a sharp stabbing pain and ended up in the hospital with a collapsed lung. She recovered after surgery, though a second surgery was needed later. 

Charlize Theron

Æon Flux is not one of Charlize Theron's best movies, and it did almost leave her paralyzed. The actor fell on her neck performing a stunt and had she not been lucky and fallen just a centimeter differently, according to her, it could have been very bad. 

Malcolm McDowell

One of the more terrifying scenes in A Clockwork Orange is when Malcolm McDowell's character is "rehabilitated" by being forced to watch violent videos while his eyes are held open. For McDowell, it was even worse, as the setup caused his corneas to be scratched and he was blinded temporarily as a result. 

Brad Pitt

In the weirdest of coincidences, there is Brad Pitt in Troy. In the film, Pitt plays the Greek hero Achilles. Achilles is famous for one thing, his armor not covering that one tendon in a person's heel... Well, it just so happens that while filming Troy, Pitt tore his Achilles Tendon. 

Uma Thurman

During the filming of the Kill Bill movies, Uma Thurman crashed a car she was driving into a palm tree in Mexico and suffered injuries to her knees and a concussion. Years later she exposed what she claimed was a cover-up by the film's producers in an Instagram post. 

Orson Welles

The great Orson Welles really gave everything he had to make Citizen Kane. That includes chipping a bone in his ankle that forced him to use a wheelchair on set for two weeks while he directed. The injury occurred when he fell down some stairs while filming, and the scene made it into the final cut. 

Linda Blair

During the iconic scene in The Exorcist when Linda Blair's character, Regan, thrashes around as the bed levitates, the scream queen injured her back due to a mechanical default. The injury caused scoliosis, which still causes her problems today, though she's found ways to make it less painful. 

Jim Caviezel

The list of injuries that Jim Caviezel suffered while filming The Passion of the Christ has become the stuff of internet legend. Some injuries are hard to verify, but others aren't, the most notable of which is that as Caviezel prepared for the Sermon on the Mount scene, he was actually struck by lightning. That's got to be some sign, right?

George Clooney

The head injuries George Clooney sustained while filming the torture scene in Syriana were so debilitating that the actor says he even contemplated suicide. Eventually, doctors were able to alleviate the headaches after surgery, but in the meantime, Clooney called it "the most unbearable pain I've ever been through."

Orlando Bloom

There were a few injuries on the set of the Lord of the Rings movies, and one notable one was Orlando Bloom. Bloom broke some ribs when he fell from a horse while filming LOTR: The Two Towers. His fellow cast members gave Bloom a little...uh... ribbing in a behind-the-scenes video as well. 

Martin Sheen

There may be no more infamous Hollywood production than Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. No one had it worse than the film's star, Martin Sheen. As told in the documentary about the filming, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, Sheen not only suffered a near-fatal heart attack during production, but he also suffered a nasty cut on his hand. In the famous opening scene, Sheen punched a mirror and sliced his hand open and it bled badly. If you've seen the movie, you know what it looked like, because Sheen continued the scene and all the blood is very real.  

Michelle Yeoh

As an actor known for doing her own stunts, it's no surprise that Michelle Yeoh has been injured a few times on set. The most notable came when Yeoh tore her ACL during the production of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She was flown from China to Baltimore where surgery was performed to fix the injury at Johns Hopkins. 

Tom Hanks

Sometimes the most innocent-sounding injuries can be the worst. Such is the case for Tom Hanks, who cut his leg filming Cast Away. While a cut doesn't seem all that serious, it caused sepsis and landed Hanks in the hospital, who almost died as a result of the blood poisoning. 

Buddy Ebsen

The Beverly Hillbillies star Buddy Ebsen could claim one of the weirder injuries on this list. Ebsen was the original actor cast to play the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz and as part of the role, he was painted silver. The aluminum powder in the paint caused a reaction that landed Ebsen in the hospital due to breathing problems and he was recast by actor Jack Haley in the role. 

Winona Ryder

Accidents happen, even on movie sets of comedies, not action movies. Such was the case for Winona Ryder while filming Mr. Deeds with Adam Sandler. While filming the scene on the bike in Central Park, Ryder took a tumble off it and broke her arm in three different places. Ouch. 

Matt LeBlanc

Injuries even happen on sitcoms. Even the biggest ones. While filming a scene for Friends, Matt LeBlanc fell into a chair and dislocated his shoulder. Production was delayed briefly, but the evidence is still on the screen, as LeBlanc was seen wearing a sling for a couple of episodes as his shoulder healed. 

Michael J. Fox

One of the scariest injuries didn't happen during a proper stunt. In Back To The Future III, Michael J. Fox almost died in the scene where his character, Marty McFly, is hanged. A mishap meant that he was actually getting choked and at first no one noticed. He passed out before he was lowered to the ground. 

Ed Harris

Ed Harris was almost killed while filming The Abyss. In one of the many underwater scenes in the movie, Harris ran out of oxygen and no one else on set realized he'd signaled that he did. He passed out from a lack of oxygen, but luckily someone finally noticed and they got him some air. 

Vincent D'Onofrio

Marine boot camp is intense, even for actors just playing Marines. Vincent D'Onofrio, who played Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket, injured his knee so badly during filming one of the training scenes that he ended up needing surgery to fix it. 

Melanie Griffith

One of the most notoriously dangerous movies ever shot is Roar by director Noel Marshall. In the 1970s, Marshall was married to Tippi Hedren, which also made him Melanie Griffith's stepfather. The movie filmed Hedren and Griffith (who was a kid at the time) living with lions. Real lions. According to legend, at least 70 people were injured by the big cats, including Griffith, who was "mauled near the eye" and needed plastic surgery to fix it. 

Jackie Chan

One actor you won't be surprised to see on this list is Jackie Chan. The martial artist and stuntman has pulled off some of the most insane stunts in film history, so it's no surprised he's been injured along the way. One notable time was while shooting Police Story. In one scene, Chan slides down a metal pole, which he did so quickly he suffered third degree burns on his hands. The shot was used in the movie. 

Al Pacino

Injuries can occur when actors don't quite make the best decisions. Take, for example the great Al Pacino. While filming a scene in Scarface, Pacino grabbed the business end of a gun that had just been fired and severely burned his hands. According to Brian De Palma, the actor was off for the next two weeks. 

Matthew Fox

Every now and then, one actor will injure another one, as is the case with Terry O'Quinn and Matthew Fox on the set of Lost. In a fight scene, O'Quinn stabbed Fox with a knife, which O'Quinn thought, incorrectly, was a prop knife, but it was very real. Thankfully, Fox was wearing a protective Kevlar vest that saved him from actually being stabbed. 

Dylan O'Brien

Dylan O'Brien was almost killed while shooting The Maze Runner: The Death Cure. While shooting a scene, the star of the movie was struck by a car. According to Vulture, O'Brien had a "concussion, facial fracture, and brain trauma among his injuries." Production on the movie was halted as he recovered, which, according to O'Brien, was one of the worst periods in his life. 

Dominic Purcell

Even without stunts and other action, injuries happen. Prison Break star Dominic Purcell broke his nose and had other facial injuries while filming for the show in Morocco. It was a freak accident as a lighting truss fell from the set and hit him. It could've been very scary, as those kinds of accidents have killed people, but luckily for Purcell, his injuries healed quickly and production on the show wasn't impacted.

Most of the time, when actors are injured on set, the injuries are minor, thankfully. Of course, that isn't always the case, and though deaths on movie sets are rare, they happen, so anytime someone is injured seriously, production is usually halted. Just looking through this list, you can see just how close some of these big names came to serious injury, and in a way, they're lucky (and we're lucky) that they are still around.   

We’ve still got a couple of months before Kristen Stewart’s new movie Love Lies Bleeding hits theaters, but the LGBTQ+ romantic thriller is already making waves. After its trailer dropped, fans expressed their excitement over seeing the Twilight star — who recently explained how the vampire series is queer-coded — in another openly gay role, and since the movie is being produced by A24, anticipation for the bodybuilder thriller is pretty high. Love Lies Bleeding premiered at Sundance Film Festival on January 20, and now we’ve got our first look at the critics’ reactions.

Let’s start with what we know about Love Lies Bleeding. In Rose Glass’ second directorial effort, Kristen Stewart stars as Lou, a gym manager who falls for Katy O’Brian’s Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder. Their love leads them into a world of crime with Lou’s father (also Lou, played by Ed Harris) and revenge. Deadline reports that the film elicited hoots, hollers and cheers from the Sundance audience, as Valerie Complex notes the electric toxicity of the leading couple. The critic writes: 

Matthew Creith of The Wrap calls Kristen Stewart a “powerhouse,” and says Katy O’Brian sinks her teeth into her meaty role. It’s clear, the critic says, that Rose Glass delights in making audiences squirm, writing: 

Owen Gleiberman of Variety says the lead actress shows vulnerability — a pivot from her typically cool façade — in a film that encapsulates the noir requirements of compulsive love and the crimes that get in the way of it. Gleiberman continues: 

Kate Erbland of IndieWire grades Love Lies Bleeding a B, saying audiences won’t be able to look away from this film — even when they want to — in Rose Glass’ ambitious project that is equally alluring and repellant. Erbland says: 

David Rooney of THR says there’s not an ounce of restraint in this film, and the way Rose Glass keeps upping the ante on just how extreme the movie can be makes it perfect for A24. This hallucinatory trip is sure to be a talker, Rooney says, writing: 

Love Lies Bleeding sounds like a violent and wholly unsettling experience, albeit with an intense relationship between Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian’s characters that’s sure to attract more than a few moviegoers. The film is set to be released on Friday, March 8, so in the meantime be sure to check out what else is coming to theaters with our 2024 movie calendar. 

Every Hollywood celebrity has their fans, but some are more passionate than others. Kristen Stewart has certainly built one of those fan bases, as the first trailer for Love Lies Bleeding is here, and fans are over the moon. It turns out that nothing gets people more excited than an openly gay Kristen Stewart covered in blood.

Kristen Stewart's new movie sounded compelling on paper, when it was placed on the 2024 movie schedule, but the first look is pretty great. The trailer for Love Lies Bleeding sets up Stewart as the estranged daughter of some sort of criminal who's wanted by the FBI, played by Ed Harris. Katy O’Brian plays the muscular woman that Stewart’s character falls for. Then the dark side of her family gets involved, leading the new couple to have to fight for their lives. Honestly, that sounds like a pretty great setup. I’m ready to see it, and so are a lot of fans.

Love Lies Bleeding looks to be as dark and brutal as that title suggests, but it has an incredible cast, and it’s from A24, which has a track record of incredible films, even when they’re not A24 horror movies. If you like movies about physically strong women kicking ass, and it seems many people do then you’re probably in good shape...

January is usually a time when studios release movies that they’re not sure what else to do with. Tentpole movies get released in the summer or the holiday season. Potential award winners come out at the end of the year. Horror films come out in the fall. Love Lies Bleeding is maybe a movie that is hard to categorize, but fans find the movies they’re looking for whenever they get released, and it looks like this movie already has big fans… 

For a long time, we wondered if Kristen Stewart would be able to shake the stigma, and the fandom, that came with the Twilight franchise. I think we can agree without question she has successfully done that. While nobody is ever going to forget her role in those films, she has chosen characters in the years since then, as well as shown incredible ability in those roles, that have built an entirely new fanbase. Stewart even nabbed an Oscar nomination. This is exactly the sort of movie people want from Kristen Stewart it seems: 

Honestly, I’ve become a pretty big Kristen Stewart fan over the last few years, and I’m right there with these people. Love Lies Bleeding looks like a great movie for her, and hopefully just a great movie in general. We’ll find out when it hits theaters next month. 

Fans of HBO’s Westworld were delivered a shock late last week, when the award-winning dystopian sci-fi drama was canceled ahead of its fifth season. Despite its twisty plots and exciting commentary on humanity vs. artificial intelligence, Westworld was apparently the victim of an aggressive cost-cutting mandate enacted by the network. The series’ big budget, combined with declining ratings over the past two seasons, proved to be its downfall, but it turns out the A+ cast members are still going to get paid.

Deadline reports that Westworld’s actors had “pay-or-play deals” for Season 5, ensuring that the cast — which includes Aaron Paul, Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, Ed Harris, James Marsden, Tessa Thompson and Jeffrey Wright — will still be paid, despite the cancellation. The site reports that contracts may have been renegotiated ahead of Season 4, and that networks making such guarantees to its actors is not unusual, particularly for ensemble casts that might be difficult to reassemble otherwise.

HBO is expected to pay out between $10 million and $15 million to the actors, which is still considerably more financially feasible than paying for another season, as THR reports that Season 4 cost “at least $160 million” to make what turned out to be its final eight episodes.

Despite ratings for Westworld dropping for 2020’s Season 3, and falling further two years later when it returned from pandemic-related delays, co-creator Jonathan Nolan said he’d always planned for a fifth and final season. It’s terribly frustrating for fans, including myself, to know there was a plan that would bring the often-confusing storylines to a conclusion, and now we will likely never get to see that play out.

Over its four seasons, the series accumulated 54 Primetime Emmy nominations, taking home nine trophies. There’s no question the HBO drama has made its mark on the TV world, with another good benchmark of that being the fact that it was brilliantly parodied in The Simpsons’ annual Halloween “Treehouse of Horror” episode this year.

As the actors will still collect a check from HBO, we can keep up with them through their other projects. Evan Rachel Wood can currently be seen with a spot-on portrayal of Madonna on The Roku Channel’s Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. And following Teddy’s surprising return to Westworld Season 4, you can take a look at any of James Marsden’s best movies and TV shows.

There may not be any more stories from the Divine on their way, but the first four seasons of Westworld are still available to stream for fans with an HBO Max subscription. You can also check out some of HBO Max’s best original series, and see what’s coming to cable and streaming for the rest of the year with our 2022 TV schedule. 

Tons of spoilers below for Westworld Season 4’s fourth installment, “Generation Loss,” so be warned if you haven’t yet watched!

Westworld seemed to clue audiences in on the importance of Episode 404 in the way it eschewed the usual cold open, so that the constant flow of details, twists and revelations wouldn’t be interrupted. And it was quite a gripping hour of television, thanks in part to a finale-worthy bevy of big reveals and twists that completely changed this show’s universe up from what we understood going into it. While I don’t think Westworld can ever quite match the pummeling shock of Season 1’s William/Man In Black timeline, I dare say “Generation Loss” comes as close as possible, with a villainous declaration that seemingly paid homage to Watchmen’s endgame shocker.

Considering everything we know now about Caleb, Maeve, and other main characters, it’s almost baffling to think that half of Season 4’s eight episodes have yet to air. Clearly, creators Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan aren’t finished putting viewers through the narrative wringer, so let’s take a closer look at the major and minor twists peppered throughout Episode 404. (While also quietly pondering the connection the episode’s number has to 404 errors that occasionally plague web browsing.)

Major Twist #1: Caleb Was Killed And Turned Into A Host 

Well, it finally happened: the twist that some Westworld fans have been guessing at and waiting for ever since Aaron Paul’s Caleb was first introduced in Season 3. Caleb is no longer a living and breathing human, and is instead one of many hosts under the ruling thumb of Charlotte Hale, though I’m not entirely certain how much of what we’ve seen from him so far this season has been part of his sentience-asserting fidelity test. The early-episode flashback (within a flashback) played viewer expectations in that respect, making it seem as if Caleb had died from a bullet wound during a mission with Maeve. 

It was indeed bullets that killed him in the end, though, with Hale’s team taking Caleb out somewhat soon after Maeve’s self-sacrifice. And yet, Hale chose to keep him around as a host, likely due to the strong impact he’d made on Dolores and Maeve, despite that making him something of an obvious threat. Such is Hale’s pride and arrogance, I guess.

•  So What Happens Next? 

Caleb obviously isn’t a mindless worker-bee drone that’ll dutifully go about his host duties without further clashing, even if Hale has the upper hand by way of controlling things. But surely Paul’s character gaining sentience similar to Dolores, Maeve and the Man in Black indicates he’ll soon bring his human and host skills together to become Hale’s nightmare. Assuming it doesn’t take him two more decades to figure out how to gain powers.

Major Twist #2: Charlotte Hale’s Fly Scheme Worked, And The Tower Is Real

With its very first sequence in Season 4, Westworld hinted at more timeline shenanigans as the Man in Black utilized a fly army to gain access to the Hoover Dam, while much of what we’ve seen after that depicted the early trial phases of Hale’s fly-weaponizing scheme. But it was confirmed in Episode 404, whose title “Generations Loss” is itself a reference to her reveal, that her plan to take over humanity via airborne parasites was a vast success. And as Caleb soon discovers, it’s been 23 years since his humanly death, and the world is now populated by millions (perhaps billions) of adults who were infected with the flies as children, an age range when such perfect symbioses are best formed. 

As it turns out, the mysterious Tower that we’ve seen and heard about is actually a massive version of the device within Delos’ labs that uses soundwaves to control those who’ve been infected, and is located just off the coast of NYC. (Which definitely ties back to Peter killing himself in front of Christina, as suicides were part of the trial-and-error testing.) Tessa Thompson was divine in laying out the hope-destroying line of “Welcome to my world,” and it looks like humanity doesn’t have a shot at rising back up.

•  So What Happens Next?

I mean, obviously humanity is going to rise back up, but it’s a matter of how. Because for all that Hale appears to be a world-conquering tyrant, viewers have only seen the Tower’s effects on display within New York City specifically. Which could mean other highly populated cities around the world aren’t yet under her grasp, and could provide assistance in taking her down. Although I don’t really get what the rest of the world would think the Tower is for. 

Major Twist #3: Aurora Perrineau’s C Is Caleb’s Daughter 

To be clear, I’m sure there are some fans who guessed this from the start, since there are only a certain number of characters/twists to populate such theorizing. But it was still a jolt to the “aha” sense when it was made clear that Aurora Perrineau’s mystery character, dubbed C, is actually Caleb’s daughter Frankie. Nobody came out and said that her letter-specific name was in reference to her dearly departed pops, but that’s gotta be the case, right?

Now that we know what this character’s motivations tie into, it’s easier to understand why she’s working with Daniel Wu’s rebel leader J. And why she doesn’t have much time for taking nonsense from anyone else. She went through a pretty traumatic experience with her mom, and we don’t even know yet what happened to them after Caleb and Maeve’s mission went so awry. Nor what Uwade’s fate was, or is.

•  So What Happens Next?

Frankie gets revenge, naturally. Of course, we don’t know exactly how it’ll happen yet, but one can only assume it will involve the mystery person that J and others were going to extract. Could that end up being Uwade?

Major Twist #4: Maeve Is The Weapon Bernard Was Talking About 

Before we had a real clue of how the timelines worked in Season 4, I can’t imagine many fans out there expected for Bernard’s big weapon in the desert to be Maeve. Now that we do know it’s her, it sorta makes all the sense in the world, since she’s one of few hosts who was able to tap into empathy and humanity, which led to her sacrificing herself in order to take the Man in Black down. (Not that the whole “saving Caleb” part of that plan worked, but she doesn’t know that yet.)

I’m still not sure how all of these geographical changes make sense, as far as this desert area goes, though I’m curious to know what park was going to be built there, and why Delos didn’t just go forward with construction despite all the explosions and whatnot. Granted, Bernard likely would have found her even if she was beneath a fake medieval castle or a fake African jungle, but it’s odd that the land was left barren. 

•  So What Happens Next?

Only Bernard knows that, but it’s easy to imagine Bernard will get Maeve back online somehow, so that she can get caught up with the past 23 years of events. But she’s almost definitely going to need some big upgrades of her own in order to take down Hale and her seemingly endless army. She could probably use some old friends by her side, too. 

Major Twist #5: Olympiad Entertainment Is (Probably) The New Delos 

This one also starts with a caveat, in that fans started theorizing about Delos connections as soon as Westworld namechecked Olympiad Entertainment as the company that Evan Rachel Wood’s Christina works for. It happens with every organization and brand name that comes up, and it’s often a safe bet to make. So it wasn’t so much shocking as highly intriguing when Episode 404 revealed that Hale was giving Caleb his fidelity test within the Olympiad building. 

To be sure, there’s always the possibility that this wasn’t quite what it seemed to be, and that the location switcheroo was just to throw audiences off. But that seems like it would create unnecessary storytelling hurdles, as it’s far easier to believe that a company responsible for crafting narrative games is actually a front for a devious corporation ruled by A.I. to control people’s minds. It’s the Delos mission statement, post-Ford. 

•  So What Happens Next?

Considering this reveal appears to fully connect Caleb to Christina’s timeline — despite the fact that the Tower isn’t visible during her scenes — we can hopefully expect to see Paul and Wood to share the screen again, as confusing as it’ll be for all involved. (Viewers included.) I’m guessing this will also lead to the reveal that Hale figured out how to digitize the fly parasites, and decided it would be easier and cheaper to bypass physical parks to make way for infections via video games.  

Minor Twist #1: Maeve Missing Caleb Is What Got Her Caught

Westworld answered one of my big questions about the Season 4 premiere with this reveal, as I did not understand Maeve outing herself with that trip down memory lane. Now we know it was her first big mental jaunt in years, and she wasn’t trying to tap into her own memories of her daughter and Hector. Instead, viewers learned that after Caleb regained consciousness from a post-wound coma, Maeve didn’t say goodbye before retreating into solitude, and that she remained out of contact as a way to keep him safe. But then she went and botched it all by missing him enough to try and hack into his limbic implant, which is what caused the power outage that drew the Man in Black to her. Maeve is a true friend, since true friends aren’t exactly perfect.

• So What Happens Next?

I doubt Maeve would need additional reasons to go ballistic on Hale & Co. upon being reawakened, but she will almost definitely take Caleb’s death (and eventual host-ing) personally. Which probably won’t be good for Hale’s face. 

Minor Twist #2: Christina And Teddy Are Totally Dating Now 

The previously confirmed-to-return Teddy appeared at the end of the premiere in “handsome stalker” mode outside of Christina’s apartment building, and Episode 4 revealed him to be her blind date. Because this is Westworld, their predestined meet-cute in the bar was sparked when he picked up her lipstick rolling across the ground, marking yet another echo of Teddy and Dolores’ origin story. Their scene ends on a cheers to Christina and her path, wherever it leads, and if all these callbacks and on-the-nose references don’t lead directly to Super Dolores, my fidelity will begin decaying.

• So What Happens Next?

Super. Dolores. Obviously! Ahead of that, though, I was already guessing Teddy 2.0 was specifically created as a means to break through the weirdness happening with Christina. And now I’m wondering if Maeve took part in that creation, or even if it’s actually Maeve’s brain pearl inside Teddy’s head.

Minor Twist #3: Maya Seemingly Remembers Being Infected By Hale’s Flies 

For all the thoughts and theories I’ve considered regarding Christina’s existence, I’ve less mental ammo when it comes to Ariana DeBose’s Maya. That confused feeling only escalated with “Generation Loss,” as Maya described her most recent nightmare, which involved a childhood picnic with her parents being disrupted by a swarm of flies that first attacked the screaming adults before descending on young Maya. If these characters’ actions are indeed happening concurrently with Host Caleb’s story, then Maya’s inherent nature could very well be tapping through the parasitic facade that Hale uses to control everyone. But there's also something to be said for the way the scene remained partially focused on the clothes-changing Christina as Maya talked, as if her roommate's dream had stoked her own memories.

• So What Happens Next?

Not a clue for Maya, really. My only hope is that Westworld doesn’t reveal her to be another Dolores clone, and that she’s an organic being inside and out. Ariana DeBose deserves the best that Westworld can give. 

I’m not sure there’s anything left to say, beyond at least a dozen or so other spirited manifestos I could easily lean into. But for now, let’s mull over Episode 404's big reveals while anticipating the second half of the season. Just gonna drop this "MORE CLEMENTINE" note in the suggestion box before I go...

Westworld airs Sunday nights on HBO at 9:00 p.m. ET, with episodes available to stream for HBO Max subscribers as soon as they air.

Major spoilers below for anyone who hasn’t yet watched Westworld Season 4’s second episode, so be warned!

After making its long-awaited return with a surprisingly straightforward premiere (at least when compared to some of its more confounding installments), HBO’s Westworld delivered more enjoyably low-impact progression with the second episode of Season 4. Which isn’t to imply the sci-fi thriller is moving slowly or has become boring, but rather to celebrate the showrunners for introducing mysteries that spark legibly formed questions instead of flat-out confusion. 

“Well Enough Alone” featured some major character/actor returns that no doubt delighted viewers, while also putting its main stars into various interesting and troublesome situations that will no doubt get increasingly more complicated as the season goes forward. So let’s take a look at the four biggest takeaways from Westworld’s latest, starting with a brand new Delos Destination! 

Westworld Introduced Its Newest Park: The Golden Age 

Westworld co-creators Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan are no doubt keen on knowing just how obsessed viewers are with the idea of new parks being introduced. As fans will remember, Season 2 brought in Shōgunworld and The Raj, while Season 3 brought audiences inside Warworld (and also hinted at a medieval, dragon-filled Game of Thrones-esque park, as well as a Jurassic Park-inspired dino area). Even though viewers still aren’t quite clear on the current state of Delos after the seven-year jump, it appears things are going quite well, given the opening of the company’s newest Destination: The Golden Age.

This newest attraction was stumbled upon by Maeve and Caleb, who were assisted just by returning actress Lili Simmons, and it’s assumed that her character Sofia is as much as host as her prior character New Clementine was. The Golden Age appears to be recreating the U.S. in the 1920s, give or take a few years, with jazzy tunes and golden light bulbs aplenty, from marquee signs to street lamps to the headlights of classic cars. Though none of the other first-time visitors were showcased, I can’t help but feel like there were some very important people on that train.

The Golden Age was partly bankrolled by the U.S. government, with the Vice President now a host puppet for Man in Black and others, and that’s presumably not the extent of such professional relationships. Perhaps most interestingly so far, the location depicted in The Golden Age is “Temperance,” which either suggests that it’ll be an alcohol-free establishment fitting for the time period, or that the town will feature a variety of speakeasies for its guests to get liquored up in. Either way, depraved sex and violence are likely the end results.

Christine’s Peter Mystery Is Somehow More Complicated Than Expected 

To be expected, Christine has something of an epiphany after watching “Peter” throw himself off a building to his death, and remembers having crafted a game story similar to his. (Not exactly the same as the presumed-dead Dolores having memory flashes from earlier loops, but not entirely dissimilar, either.) While on her way to the mental facility namechecked in Peter’s obituary, she listens back to her notes on the story, which basically matched up with the “real life” character. Since that reveal was already telegraphed, it served as window dressing for the actual twist, for lack of a better word, that came shortly after. 

When Christine arrived at the facility, she found it to not only be empty — I’m curious about that group of possible contractors and buyers in hard hats — but more or less abandoned. It’s hard to tell exactly how long the building would have been sitting empty, but all the leaves and whatnot implied many months, if not years. Coupled with the discovery of the “Peter Myers Wing” dedication plaque, the Hope center hinted at some major timeline fuckery happening.

Even if Christine was correct in guessing there were two different Peter Myers at play, it still wouldn’t explain how a fund was started there in Peter’s name after his death, unless that obit detail was falsified. But it definitely looked like the place that Peter would have spent a lot of time, given the room that Christine looked into with all those drawings of what’s assumedly the Tower that keeps getting mentioned. And it’s the same design that’s featured in the opening sequence as composer Ramin Djawadi’s credit comes up. 

Charlotte Hale Returned, And She Apparently Doesn’t Just Want To Kill All Humans 

As frightening as Ed Harris’ Man in Black is without any human morals, he’s still just a worker bee following the orders of a higher power, and Charlotte Hale made her Season 4 debut in true Westworld fashion: through a host’s remotely accessed memory bank. Maeve discovered that Charlotte spearheaded hosts replacing a U.S. senator and his wife (as portrayed by guest stars Jack Coleman and Saffron Burrows, respectively). It appears her efforts to take over the world hadn’t exactly faded away over time, which wasn’t too shocking to learn.

But Charlotte doesn’t appear to be your everyday TV big bad, and not only due to her synthetic origins. While many plot-minded villains don’t give a second thought to the body count required to reach their overall goals, Charlotte’s plan doesn’t hinge on killing all humans and populating the planet with hosts, at least not at this point in the process. As a being who doesn’t age, she naturally has more patience than those with blood flowing through their veins. One of her motivations, as discussed below, revolves around an “eye for an eye” sense of revenge, but that doesn’t seem to be her only exception. 

Charlotte made good on not killing the Senator’s wife, and it can be assumed that Anastasia was useful for the research Charlotte alluded to. It can also be assumed that Charlotte’s research-acquiring methods completely broke Anastasia’s brain. At least, that’s what I gathered from her being covered in blood and slicing up a dead horse’s stomach when Maeve and Caleb discovered her in the barn. But we won’t be finding out what happened to her, since Maeve shot her in the head during her attempt to stab Caleb. 

William Confirmed To Be Still Alive, Though Imprisoned 

One of the Season 3 finale’s post-credit scenes finally addressed one of Westworld’s biggest ongoing questions, with the Man in Black host slitting the throat of his human counterpart William. It was unclear what happened in the aftermath, since we didn’t technically see William die, and the series surprisingly didn’t keep us guessing for very long, as “Well Enough Alone” revealed Charlotte is keeping the still-living William in cryogenic stasis. And as she explained it, she’s keeping him alive so that he can be the ever-present “loser” in the hosts’ and humans’ battle for supremacy. She said it with the same disgusted tone she used in comparing Anastasia to “other livestock” earlier on.

On the one hand, I loved the scene, as it showcased how intimidating Tessa Thompson can be without ever raising her voice or appearing directly threatening. And to me at least, it also sort of extends the initial purpose of flies within Westworld to indicate a host going off the scripted path. Charlotte keeping William around just to witness humanity’s downfall is the epitome of hubris, which is a human foible that properly functioning hosts likely wouldn’t adhere to. Perhaps she should have been remembering the saying “pride goeth before the fall” instead of whatever William used to say.

On the other hand, though, I don’t wholly understand why that scene happened at this particular point in the series’ timeline, considering their conversation implied they haven’t talked much (if at all) since he was replaced in the real world all those years ago by the Man in Black. Perhaps she was just waiting until they reached a certain level of success, such as replacing the Vice President with a host. Still, since William probably didn’t know what year it was, it was odd for Charlotte to be speaking to the present while his questions were presumably still based on what was happening when his throat was slit. 

Other Delos-Approved Thoughts About "Well Enough Alone”

• Are we to assume that the Man in Black has been hunting/repurposing all the hosts in the real world who weren’t under Charlotte’s rule? Will that have anything to do with James Marsden’s Teddy showing up in the Season 4 premiere?
• So we now have to keep up with 250 different emissaries of the New World Order? 
• What’s up with all the dead birds that Christine saw? And I can’t tell if it’s a good or a bad sign that I have no firm assumptions regarding that moment’s legitimacy, as far as why she was seemingly the only person who noticed them. That’s so Westworld. 
• In a similar vein as the above point, it’s also not entirely clear if any of what Dolo…Christine witnessed inside the Hope 
• Christine only gets 4 paid days off for sick leave in a year? Can’t tell if it’s a sign of the company being shitty, or that people just don’t get sick as often in this COVID-free timeline. 
• I get that The Man in Black’s multiple holes in one were meant to impress and then disturb the Vice President, but was that entire scene just artifice? Because if his programming allows for that sort of perfection each time, what’s the point? I guess I can believe that the Man in Black is so full of himself that even the host version needs daily reminders like that. 
• “I’ve always wondered, why do they call you the secret service? Aren’t you a little…obvious?” This line made up for having to watch the Man in Black shooting and slicing Clementine in the cold open. Welcome back, Angela Sarafyan!
• I may never be comfortable by how clear and visible people are in their cars on Westworld. Do people not go get fast food while wearing their shittiest pants in this universe?
• I love how many buildings in Westworld (and similar fare) feature massive, high-ceiling rooms whose central purpose is to store something that requires 1/20th the space.

Westworld airs new episodes every Sunday night on HBO at 10:00 p.m. ET, and are also available to stream with an HBO Max subscription. While waiting for the next episode, head to our 2022 TV premiere schedule to see what other less-confusing shows will be arriving soon.

Spoilers below for the Season 4 premiere of Westworld, so be warned if you haven’t yet tapped into the madness. 

After a hiatus lasting just over two years — and I’m sure the specific number of days it was gone is itself a clue about the future — Westworld finally returned to HBO for the start of what will assuredly be an enjoyable head-scratcher of a fourth season. The highly anticipated premiere, titled “The Auguries,” picked up in the story seven years after the chaotic rebellion that capped off Season 3, and almost seemed like it was part of a normal, traditional series at times, from Evan Rachel Wood’s new and seemingly human character Christina to the all-around lack of Delos and the parks (outside of flashbacks).

Of course, co-creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy had plenty of rampant weirdness and mysteriousness and low-key hilarity on display throughout, giving audiences plenty to think about during the wait for Episode 2. So let’s take a look at the four biggest takeaways from Westworld’s Season 4 opener, followed by some more random musings. 

Evan Rachel Wood’s Christina May Be Partly Responsible For Gamers’ Suicides

While the details are a bit smudgy, Evan Rachel Wood’s non-Dolores — whom we’ll refer to as Christina for clarity and because it’s her actual name — works for some kind of a gaming company as a writer who seems to work mostly with realistic, situational experiences. Though she’d prefer to craft tales more in line with Dolores’ farmgirl origins, her boss (played by The Vampire Diaries’ vet Michael Malarkey) wants more sexed-up and violent fare. So for the most part, that side of Christina’s life felt pretty tame and non-controversial. But then there were the phone calls that Christina was getting, seemingly all from one ranting and raving dude named Peter (played by 12 Monkeys vet Aaron Stanford), who claimed that her games have ruined his and others’ lives. 

Westworld easily could have kept that loose thread dangling for another episode or two, but instead hastened things by having Peter accost Christina outside her home. This guy, with his talk of The Tower and other non-sequiturs, doesn’t know how to rationally stand still and explain himself, however, and the confusion reached the point where Peter jumped off of a building in front of Christina, questioning whether or not her game was causing it to happen. Not exactly normal shit to deal with, and the fact that Christina is seeing the Maze symbol…well it doesn’t bode normal either.

But Christina didn’t act like she had any idea what Peter was talking about, even in private moments away from her roommate. And she certainly didn’t appear to be programming any mind-controlling games when she was seen at work. So while the whole “technology dictating people’s actions” idea is obviously right in line with Westworld’s mission statement, it’s not yet clear what the hell is up with The Tower and how Christina factors into it. And let’s face it, it may never be. 

The Man In Black Is On A Mission Involving A Crapload Of Flies

By the time Westworld’s premiere ended, it was almost easy to forget that the episode started off so extremely bizarrely, with Ed Harris’ Man-Bot in Black attempting to literally buy the Hoover Dam. Understandably, no one jumped at his immediate offer, but then no one else seemed to understand just how dead-set he was on taking possession of said dam. His actions, which are presumably being guided in some way by Charlotte Hale, seem to be focused on regaining access to data that was stolen eight years prior. 

Jonathan Nolan did confirm the Man in Black’s quest ties back to something we saw in Season 2, so it can be gathered the information he’s seeking used to be housed within Delos’ property, presumably within the many mega-servers that were in the Forge. (And could technically be once more, given the seven-year time jump.) But since this is Westworld, the data probably isn’t what we’re expecting it to be, so there’s no point in speculating too hard about it at the moment.

But we might as well speculate on what the hell is up with those flies, because that was a truly horrific moment. And it wasn’t completely clear whether it was real and tangible, or just something being hallucinated by this character that Big Sky’s Arturo Del Puerto portrayed. Whatever the case may be, the flies were surely sent somehow by Man in Black or his higher-ups, and they’re somehow capable of making people bend to others’ will. To the point where someone slicing their own throat is on the list of commands. As if just the visuals of huge swaths of flies weren’t already bothersome enough.  

I Will Follow Maeve Into Any Rebellion, Caleb Not So Much

While we didn’t spend as much time with Thandiwe Newton’s Maeve as I would have liked — roughly the whole episode, give or take 30 seconds — it appears as if her narrative push early on this season will revolve around her trying to take out everyone that the Man in Black seems to be sending out to kill her. Even though I’m not entirely convinced that’s even the case, considering it was hard to gauge anyone’s full intentions from just the few memories that Maeve viewed from her attacker.

Whoever it is that’s been trying to track her down over the years, they should get ready for a mound of bodies to start piling up, both of the human and host variety, because Maeve is not one to back down when put up against a threat. And my money is on that character “winning” out in the end, even if there’s no true victory in Westworld. 

But do I feel great about Caleb jumping into the mission alongside Maeve? Not exactly. Especially after seeing how his home life is going. As mildly heartwarming as it is that he’s a doting husband and father who loves target practice, he’s apparently been overtaken by PTSD and paranoia more than ever in the last seven years. And while there’s nothing necessarily wrong with those traits in and of themselves, they almost definitely foreshadow troublesome times ahead for ol’ Caleb. Which probably means Maeve will suffer by extension, which would not be great.

More Major Characters Should Have Appeared

I can fully understand why a show with plots as dense as Westworld may need to start a new season off without all of its parts and mechanisms in motion. Especially when dealing with actors playing new roles, time jumps, and other new characters to introduce. So I don’t fault the Season 4 premiere for keeping other favorite characters at bay while setting up all the dominos yet to fall. 

However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t remark on how the episode was impacted by the lack of its ensemble sharing the screen together, at least ahead of Maeve showing up in the nick of time to save Caleb and his daughter from being capped. And considering that was a badass moment, it helps to prove my point. 

Even if we didn’t get more genuine ensemble moments, I would have also been happy to spend two or three scenes with Jeffrey Wright’s Bernard, who was last seen shaking off dust after a presumed trip to the Sublime. Why we gotta wait at least another week to find out what’s up with that? WHYYY?!? Also, let’s see some non-flashback Clementine!

Other Delos-Approved Thoughts About "The Auguries"

• Who’d have guessed that Ariana DeBose was exactly what Westworld needed? Clearly the casting director, who deserves a bunch of “Way to go!” balloons. 
• Totally understood that those were all CGI flies, but someone should have told Arturo Del Puerto to react a little bit more “freaked the fuck out”-ishly in that moment, considering how WTF things were. He was beyond startlingly calm, considering I would have shattered porcelain with my screams after seeing that horde of flies.
• I like that the fly form was incorporated into the Season 4 opening title sequence. Nothing goes together in nightmares quite like flies and skulls. 
• When Christina passed a seemingly homeless man while walking through the city, he definitely mentioned The Tower looming over everyone, which definitely wasn’t a coincidence. But was he one of the people that was “ruined” by the game like Peter?
• Christina’s boss kinda sucks, and both her conversations with him and her dinner date felt like they were themselves written by A.I., which I feel is worth noting in the folder marked “Possible Evidence For Why Season 4’s Real World Is Actually A Park.”
• How did returning star James Marsden show up right on time there in the end, and what does his character have to do with any of this? 
• Nothing has more inherent chill than Maeve meditating inside a snowy cabin as Jimi Hendrix plays. 
• “Now be a dear and close your eyes, would you?” Cold. As. Ice. 
• It’s kind of weird to watch Evan Rachel Wood as a Westworld character other than the deceased (or whatever) Dolores, even after Season 3’s body-swapping. I already know I won’t be able to break away from the feeling that there are identity-related twists to come for Christina.
• “Tabs” are the Season 4 equivalent of Season 3’s “Drip,” I’m guessing. At least as far as fad drugs go, if not for being similar in its effects and purpose of usage. 
• I don’t really understand what Maeve’s power outage was about, in that I don’t see why she was going so hard on her memories at that point in time, seven years after going on the lam. Does A.I. get the seven-year itch, as it were?
• Prediction: Frankie’s Bear Bear doll is no doubt going to get destroyed, and it will be a Top 3 tragedy for the season. 
• Do we think Maeve’s scabbard is a smelly gross mess that she doesn’t care about, since she’s not human, or do we think she cleans it when necessary? Because she most definitely did not wipe that blade off before sticking it back in there, and it was doused in blood or whatever life fluid.
• As happy as I was to see Ariana DeBose on screen, that’s how happy and surprised I was to see Good Girls vet Manny Montana popping up as Carver near the end of the episode. He brought a lot to Mayans M.C. Season 4 in recent months, so here’s hoping he gets showcased on Westworld as well.

Be sure to watch new episodes of Westworld on HBO every Sunday night at 10:00 p.m. ET, with episodes also available with HBO Max subscriptions, and then check out all of my random thoughts on a similar weekly basis. While waiting, head to our 2022 TV premiere schedule to see what other new and returning shows are on the way.

Unsurprisingly, the actor who has appeared in the most Stephen King film and television projects to date is… Stephen King. From 1982 to the present, he has appeared in 15 different live-action takes on his writings, from Creepshow, to Pet Sematary, to IT: Chapter Two. He, however, is far from the only individual who has played parts in multiple adaptations and originals spurred from his imagination – and there are some actors who have done it quite a lot.

Reviewing the casts for all of the Stephen King movies and television projects we’ve seen going back to Brian De Palma’s Carrie (and not including cameos like the author’s), we’ve cultivated this select list of actors, including Misery's Kathy Bates, who have been in more King projects than just about anybody. To kick things off, let’s start with the top dog:

Matt Frewer (The Stand, Quicksilver Highway, Bag Of Bones, Desperation, Riding The Bullet)

While he has some actors nipping at his heels, Matt Frewer currently stands as the performer with the most Stephen King titles on his filmography – and that’s because he has starred in nearly all of the adaptations made by writer/director Mick Garris. Together they’ve only made one big screen King feature, 2004’s Riding The Bullet, but Frewer has worked with Garris on the TV takes of Bag Of Bones, Desperation, The Stand, and Quicksilver Highway (Note: Frewer is only in the half of Quicksilver Highway based on Clive Barker's "The Body Politic," as opposed to the half based on King's "Chattery Teeth," but we're going to count it anyway).

Henry Thomas (Nightmares & Dreamscapes, Desperation, Gerald's Game, Doctor Sleep)

Writer/director Mike Flanagan has made two Stephen King adaptations to date, and he’s brought Henry Thomas along for the ride both times – casting him in key antagonist roles in Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep. Prior to those films, however, he played a small part in the TV movie version of Desperation, and he has a co-starring role in the Nightmares & Dreamscapes episode “The End Of The Whole Mess.”

Steven Weber (The Shining, The Outer Limits, Nightmares & Dreamscapes, Desperation)

Steven Weber’s professional relationship with the work of Stephen King began in a tricky place, as he was cast as Jack Torrance in the 1997 miniseries adaptation of The Shining – but it started a successful run for the actor. One of his only two directing credits in his career comes from when he helmed the “Revelations Of 'Becka Paulson” episode of 1997’s The Outer Limits – in which he has a key supporting part – and he plays leads in both the TV movie Desperation and the "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band" episode of Nightmares & Dreamscapes (as a bonus, he also does a spectacular job as the narrator of the IT audiobook).

Jeffrey DeMunn (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Storm Of The Century, The Mist)

Jeffrey DeMunn isn’t from Maine, as he grew up in Buffalo, New York, but it’s easy to imagine that his authentic accent is what keeps getting him roles in Stephen King movies. He’s been in all three of director Frank Darabont’s adaptations of the author's books – The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist – and he also has a supporting role in the excellent original TV miniseries Storm Of The Century, which premiered in 1999.

Cynthia Garris (Sleepwalkers, The Stand, The Shining, Riding The Bullet)

Like Matt Frewer, Cynthia Garris has also appeared in a number of Mick Garris’ Stephen King projects (she’s been married to the filmmaker since 1982), though her count is presently one behind her co-star's. She also has supporting parts in Riding The Bullet and The Stand, but she also plays the 217 Woman in the miniseries version of The Shining, and has a small part in the 1992 movie Sleepwalkers (which is based on an original King screenplay).

Eric Keenleyside (The Dead Zone, Dreamcatcher, Kingdom Hospital, 1922)

In terms of Stephen King adaptations, Eric Keenleyside is probably best known for his exceptionally ugly death in Lawrence Kasdan’s Dreamcatcher (where he dies on the toilet after pooping an alien), but he has a much more extensive history than that. He has been in three other King projects to date, as he preceded the 2004 film with a one-off performance in an episode of the 2002 Dead Zone television series, and he followed it with a part in the finale of Kingdom Hospital. More recently he played a supporting role in Zak Hilditch’s 1922.

Leon Rippy (Firestarter, Maximum Overdrive, 11.22.63, Under The Dome)

Leon Rippey’s first role in a Stephen King movie is super brief, as he plays an agent working for The Shop who gets blinded while trying to kidnap Drew Barrymore’s Charlie McGee in Mark L. Lester's Firestarter – but it proved to be the start of a cool trend. He is notably the last human character killed in King’s Maximum Overdrive, and more recently he had key supporting parts in the miniseries 11.22.63 and the television show Under The Dome.

Owen Teague (Cell, IT, IT: Chapter Two, The Stand)

There’s a debate to be had whether or not Owen Teague’s turn as Patrick Hockstetter in Andy Muschietti’s IT and IT: Chapter Two counts as one adaptation or two, but even beyond those blockbusters he has made a significant stamp in the world of Stephen King adaptations. He played private school student Jordan in Tod Williams’ Cell, and most recently portrayed Harold Lauder in the 2020 limited series version of The Stand.

Kathy Bates (Misery, Dolores Claiborne, The Stand)

Kathy Bates is the only actor to date who has won an Academy Award playing a Stephen King character (namely Annie Wilkes in Rob Reiner’s Misery), so it makes all kinds of sense that she would dip her toe back into those waters. She stars as the titular character in Taylor Hackford’s underappreciated Dolores Claiborne, and has an uncredited role as rebellious radio DJ Rae Flowers in the 1994 miniseries adaptation of The Stand.

John Cusack (Stand By Me, 1408, Cell)

John Cusack has experienced some real highs and lows in the world of Stephen King stories. Tod Williams’ Cell, in which he plays protagonist Clay Riddell, is a total mess, but he does some great work as paranormal investigator/author Mike Enslin in Mikael Håfström’s 1408, and has his extremely memorable role in one of the greatest King adaptations of all time: Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me.

William Sadler (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Mist)

William Sadler has a special place on this list, as while he currently has three Stephen King movies on his filmography, he has a brand new one on the way. Like Jeffrey DeMunn, he’s starred in all of the Frank Darabont adaptations, playing three very different parts in The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist, but coming up in 2022 he will be a part of the ensemble featured in Gary Dauberman’s upcoming Salem’s Lot movie.

Bruce Davison (Tales From The Darkside, Apt Pupil, Kingdom Hospital)

It was back in 1984 that Bruce Davison first brought to life a Stephen King character, playing the world-changing protagonist of “Word Processor Of The Gods” when the short story was adapted as an episode of Tales From The Darkside. Years later he got the part playing Brad Renfro’s father in Bryan Singer’s Apt Pupil, and in 2004 he starred as the principal villain in King’s short lived TV series Kingdom Hospital.

Thomas Jane (Dreamcatcher, The Mist, 1922)

Like John Cusack, Thomas Jane’s track record in Stephen King movies would be fantastic if it weren’t for one extremely bad entry. In Jane’s case the regrettable title is Lawrence Kasdan’s Dreamcatcher, in which he plays one of the leads, but he’s excellent in both Frank Darabont’s The Mist and Zak Hilditch’s 1922, which are two of the better 21st century King adaptations.

Samantha Mathis (Salem's Lot, Nightmares & Dreamscapes, Under The Dome)

While Samantha Mathis has appeared in three Stephen King TV projects to date, only one of them has seen her play a character that actually originated from the author’s writings. In 2004 she played female lead Susan Norton in the miniseries remake of Salem’s Lot – but Dr. Alice Calvert, her part in Season 1 of Under The Dome, and Karen Evans, her role in “The Fifth Quarter” episode of Nightmares & Dreamscapes, were invented for the respective adaptations.

Ed Harris (Creepshow, Needful Things, The Stand)

Of all the actors on this list, Ed Harris’ history goes back the longest. After all, it was back in 1982 that he had a key part in the “Father’s Day” segment of George A. Romero’s Creepshow, and that was only the fourth Stephen King project produced in Hollywood. A little over a decade later he starred as hero Sheriff Alan Pangborn in Fraser C. Heston’s Needful Things, and after that he played the uncredited role of General Starkey in the 1994’s The Stand.

Other actors with four Stephen King credits: Anthony Ulc, Peter MacNeill

Other actors with three Stephen King credits: Ari Cohen, Bill Croft, Brian Libby, Campbell Lane, Chosen Jacobs, Conor Price, David Hughes, David Morse, Deborah Allen, Eric Woolfe, Frances Sternagen, Frank C. Turner, Janet Porter, Jason Davis, Joan Gregson, Joel Freckelston, Kandyse McClure, Laura Warner, Lee J. Campbell, Leslie Carlson, Michael Daingerfield, Michael O’Neill, Miguel Ferrer, Molly Atkinson, Nicholas Hamilton, Paul Butler, Stephen Bogaert, Terence Kelly, Tom Skerritt, William B. Davis

For a journey through the long history of Stephen King adaptations, check out my Adapting Stephen King column, and to see all of the projects that are on the horizon head on over to our Upcoming Stephen King Movies and TV guide.

Major spoilers below for the Westworld Season 3 finale, so be warned!

As it goes with Westworld’s finales, the Season 3 capper wrapped up the majority of the previous episodes’ storylines while holding back on just enough to keep viewers in the dark until the next batch of narratives arrives. (HBO officially ordered Season 4, but it likely won’t bring itself online until 2022 or so.) Thankfully, enough happened to Dolores, the Man in Black, Caleb and everyone else to inspire lots of hopes and theories for the near future.

Below, I’m going to break down what happened with each of the main characters in the Westworld Season 3 finale, all while trying my damnedest not to completely disrupt the loop. Let’s start with the queen bee herself.

Dolores

Though many viewers have gone all season assuming that Evan Rachel Wood’s Dolores’ main goal was to completely eradicate humanity in order to give the Hosts a larger world to exist in, that wasn’t exactly the case. Instead, she wanted to give humans a chance to regain their free will, which she did in part by having Aaron Paul’s Caleb and Thandie Newton’s Maeve completely erase all of the data within Rehoboam.

For those wondering why Dolores picked Caleb as her Judas cow (a callback to one of Dolores’ scenes in the series premiere), it was because she’d actually crossed paths with him years earlier. Westworld dropped the reveal that the ever-mysterious Park 5 was actually used to run military training programs, which Caleb was part of. Dolores recognized Caleb’s ability to make non-monstrous decisions when he was the one soldier in his unit who spoke up against raping all the female Hosts that were “saved” in the training exercises. Yes, Dolores was one of those Hosts, and that was one of the moments of beauty that she chose to hang onto, as opposed to all the ugliness.

Unfortunately, the finale ended similar to how the penultimate episode did, with Dolores’ “dead” body. Although in this case, Dolores had all of her memory and other data stripped from her circuits, so it’s not clear what the character will be like when/if she gets rebooted by Caleb or someone else. Here’s hoping she continues seeking out the beauty in humankind, rather than honing in on the disarray.

Caleb

Rather than losing his mind over everything like a normal person might, Caleb rolled with the punches and accepted Dolores’ explanation that he was to be a savior for the human race. Weirdly enough, Caleb’s brief ascension to being The Man felt very much like an extension of Fight Club’s Project Mayhem, with the paid-for-hire henchmen calling him “sir” and setting things up without his direct knowledge.

Caleb did kill quite a few people in the Westworld finale, but he still chose to realign himself with humanity after seeing that the final Solomon A.I. strategy would result in multiple mass-casualty events, eventually leading to civilization’s collapse in just a century, give or take a few decades. He didn’t want to go that far with the revenge plot.

Still, L.A. was in full riot mode by the end (though ahead of the post-credits sequences), with Caleb and Maeve standing together and watching explosions going off in skyscrapers across the city. I know I’m not the only one who picked up even more Fight Club vibes from that ending, with The Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind” replaced by Pink Floyd’s “Brain Damage.” It’s not quite clear what Caleb’s next move(s) will be, though.

Maeve

For the first chunk of the finale, Maeve just had the objective to find Dolores in order to get the data that everyone thought was in her head. She definitely wasn’t wholly on Serac’s side in all of this, considering their motivations weren’t exactly matched all the way. But things changed as Maeve came to understand Dolores’ actions, and also discovered that the O.G. Host didn’t actually have the key coordinates to the Sublime as was expected.

Near the end, Dolores gave Maeve the final ultimatum: to pick a side between the humans and the Hosts. Serac didn’t give Maeve that chance, using his override button on her after Dolores blipped out. Only Maeve got a little more powerful in that moment, blowing past Serac’s kill-switch so that she could do some killing of her own.

In the end, she was a bit less perturbed than Caleb to watch all of the explosions happening. And once more, Maeve is heading into a between-season hiatus with the promise of the Sublime on the horizon, but feasibly no closer to her reach.

Serac

Finally a step behind everyone else in this season, Vincent Cassel’s Serac was pushed to the brink in trying to gain possession of the Sector 16 data, fully turning Maeve against him in the process. As his plan was falling apart, Westworld finally dropped the big character reveal that fans have been theorizing about all season.

Serac has been a living human, and not some kind of hybrid being. However, he was indeed a puppet of Rehoboam in another big way, in that he had (presumably for years) been guided entirely by the program’s voice. Seemingly every word he spoke was provided to him, and every move he made was dictated by his predictive A.I. That reveal made me want to immediately go back and watch all of his previous scenes to pick up on that odd reveal.

It’s not likely that Serac will have any big scenes in the future; he was shot in the midsection after Maeve usurped his control. Even if the blood loss wouldn’t be what took him out, Serac would likely be in the fast lane to insanity after having to readjust to living with his own thoughts and making his own decisions without Rehoboam’s supervision.

The Man In Black

During the main runtime of the Season 3 finale, Westworld barely brought out the Man in Black. His showdown with Bernard and Stubbs was short-lived, with him getting a shot off on Luke Hemsworth’s Stubbs, and escaping once the local authorities arrived. The still-wounded William was later seen drinking extremely expensive whiskey and seeking his finances, which had been frozen after he was declared deceased.

After the credits rolled, though, Ed Harris got more time to play. He showed up at (presumably) the main Delos office on a mission to kill off any hosts in the building, but he was intercepted by a mostly re-skinned Charlotte Hale (Chalores), who had a different plan in mind. In fact, she had an entirely different Man in Black to show off.

The human William was somewhat pleased to come face-to-face with a Host that was willing to fight back in full, having long sought such a thing from the parks. However, it was an ego blow to learn just how easy it was to replicate his own basic-ass impulses in Host form. Not that he had long to think about it, since the Man in Black 2.0 killed off his predecessor by slitting his throat. That moment not only set up the character’s presumably violet path in Season 4, but it also gave quite a bit more context to the Season 2 post-credits scene in which an A.I. William meets up with a Host Emily (as portrayed by Katja Herbers.)

Bernard

Having not been shot by the Man in Black, Jeffrey Wright’s Bernard was surprised to learn that the SFPD officers who arrived at the scene were more of Dolores’ minions. Kudos to creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy for bringing back Clifton Collins Jr. for this surprise cameo, since his character Lawrence/El Lazo hadn’t been seen since Season 2’s seven installment. He wasn’t the only surprise guest star, either.

Bernard was revealed to be the Host that actually had access to the Sublime, but before he took advantage, he was tasked with paying a visit to Arnold’s real-world wife Lauren, whose existence was finally confirmed, with Suits’ vet Gina Torres aged up through makeup. Lauren was in an assisted living home, and was clearly dealing with memory issues. Of course, she became lucid enough to have the emotional conversation about Lauren and Arnold’s dead son Charlie that Bernard needed to have in order to move forward.

Not that he did much moving when going forward. With the goal of discovering the answer to what comes after the end of the world, as a way of rebuilding the outside world, Bernard sat on the edge of a motel bed and sent his brainpower into the Valley Beyond. The very last shot of Westworld’s finale brought viewers back into that motel room, only it was obvious that a long time had passed in the interim, as Bernard’s entire body was covered in dust. (For me, it was one of the more disturbing images that Westworld has delivered yet.) That said, viewers have no clue how long he was gone, nor what he learned during his voyage.

Chalores

As many viewers suspected, the revamped clone Chalores had indeed found a way to refabricate her skin after most of it was burned away. It appeared the vengeful Host also completely reneged on all of the emotional growth that she’d gained while getting attached the Charlotte’s human family. That love’s all gone now, at least as far as she was willing to admit to Dolores.

Beyond her newfound disgust and disinterest in humans, Chalores also seemingly tapped into some of Dolores’ powers. She appearing to the latter as a hologram that no one else could see, and she was also able to directly stall Dolores’ motor functions from a distance.

However, it wasn’t until the post-credits scene that audiences got a bigger idea of what Charlotte was up to. Along with crafting another Man in Black, Chalores was revealed to be building something of a Host army, with an untold number of new Hosts being printed in that Delos facility. Something tells me she’s interested in more than just repopulating Westworld and the other parks.

Stubbs

Perhaps expectedly, Stubbs didn’t get a big resolution within the Season 3 finale. He was initially shot by the Man in Black, but survived that attack, and reappeared later in the episode inside the motel room with Bernard, laid out in a bathtub full of ice.

With some booze at his disposal, Stubbs was left in the tub during Bernard’s trip to the Valley Beyond. He asked Bernard what he saw upon first gaining access, hinting at Stubbs' own interest in making that his fate, but Bernard powered down almost immediately afterward. It’s unclear by the end whether or not Stubbs is still alive when the dusty AF Bernard returns from his trip to the A.I. afterlife.

Ash & Giggles

Though they never transcended mere side character status, Lena Waithe and Marshawn Lynch were enjoyable throughout Season 3 as Caleb’s RICO colleagues Ash and Giggles. Thankfully, they did make reappearances in the finale, though both of them should have probably just stayed home.

As Caleb was making his way to Incite during the episode’s big riot scene, Giggles showed up to run crowd control, while Ash was handling demolition. Unfortunately, Giggles was shot by one of the riot cops, and though Ash stayed behind to keep tabs on him, he didn’t appear to make it. Not long after, Ash was seen being hauled off by the cops, so her future isn’t looking too bright either. That said, Caleb could always find a way to let her loose in Season 4, if the story calls for it.

With more than enough questions to keep viewers talking, Westworld Season 3 has now run its full cycle, though it can definitely be rewatched as many times as necessary via HBO, HBO Go or HBO Now. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for any news concerning castings or plot information for Westworld Season 4.

Spoilers below for the second-to-last episode of Westworld Season 3, so be warned!

Westworld's penultimate installment, "Passed Pawn," put a lot of focus on explaining Caleb's dark and intentionally obscured backstory, while also introducing the Serac brothers' prototype for the Rehoboam system. Much head-scratching ensued, and that was before the climax seemingly wiped out both Dolores and Maeve thanks to a well-placed EMP device. (Don't worry, they're both "alive" and well in the season finale trailer.)

Even though Season 3 hasn't necessarily been as densely structured as the first two seasons, at least as far as we can tell, creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy weren't exactly forthcoming with fully explored answers across these first seven episodes. And wouldn't you know it? Rehoboam totally predicted that I would have a ton of questions and curiosities left floating around ahead of the finale, which are compiled below. Pop those Limbic tabs and let's get started.

Who Resurrected Maeve After Her Battle With Dolores?

Even though it was partially revealed in the Episode 8 trailer, audiences were already clued in on Caleb being responsible for bringing Dolores back online somehow. (And it looks complicated.) But, assuming Caleb didn't also do the same for Maeve, how is she alive again in the finale? Perhaps Serac and his team were notified whenever Solomon shut down, or even whenever Maeve herself shut down, since he obviously has some overarching control over her. Hopefully the EMP didn't permanently fry her pearl in any way.

Will The Valley Beyond Situation Ever Get Resolved?

By and large, Maeve's main goal in Season 3 has been to reunite with her loved ones, even though she is continuously at the beck and call of Serac. We know that her love Hector is now permanently out of the picture, but will the season finale at last grant Maeve the happiness that she (arguably) deserves by sending her into the Valley Beyond with her daughter? It really wouldn't seem right to keep stretching that story into the recently renewed Season 4.

Is Caleb Really Set To Lead A Revolution, Or Is Dolores Playing Him?

Caleb re-learned a lot about himself thanks to Solomon's revelations, including the fact that he was responsible for killing and apprehending untold numbers of supposed outliers, all while creating false memories around the RICO missions. Dolores already seemed to know all of this, though, implying that she'd been grooming Caleb this whole time into taking her mantle as Host-sympathetic revolutionary. But would Dolores really put all of her metaphorical eggs in Caleb's basket, considering how unstable he is?

What Is Solomon's Final Strategy?

Unsurprisingly, viewers haven't yet learned the details behind the final strategy that Solomon crafted for Jean Mi Serac before the metaphorical plug was pulled on that particular operation. The original version of the plan was outdated by this point, and involved some people who are currently in outlier limbo, but Dolores had the A.I. develop a revised version that revolved around Caleb. In fact, Solomon even tried to warn Caleb about something before the EMP was activated. So what on Earth will Caleb do that introduces even more chaos into the world?

What Happened To Chalores After Escaping The Burning Car?

One of the bigger shocks in the episode “Decoherence” came when Halores’ car was purposefully blown up, killing off Charlotte’s human husband and son in the process. When she pulled herself out of the wreckage, she looked ready to scorch the planet, which was complemented by her totally scorched skin. Early in Episode 7, Halores was curiously framed during a phone call in which she revealed she’d completely sold out on Dolores and tipped Serac off to the Musashi/Sato clone’s location in Jakarta. What exactly happened that shifted her worldview after getting out of that car, and is she healing at all?

Is The Final Dolores Pearl Clone Located In Berlin?

Earlier in Westworld Season 3, one of Serac’s underlings pointed out the locations of Dolores’ contacts, and to date, the only one that hasn’t been revealed yet is the one supposedly in Berlin. That unidentified being isn’t necessarily harboring the missing Host pearl that is still unaccounted for, but the story would probably make a lot more sense if those things are connected. But will the Berlin ally be someone that viewers know?

Is Serac Really Alive Or Just A Series Of Holograms?

Every time viewers are witnessing Vincent Cassel’s Serac on the screen, there’s a 9 in 10 chance that it’s merely a holographic projection. Very rarely has Serac been “proven” to be in the physical world, making contact with objects and other human beings. Episode 7 even introduced a new, prerecorded Serac hologram, one with a message meant for his brother Jean Mi if he was ever successfully reconditioned. Interestingly, though, Serac’s message claims that the man he was “no longer exists.” A nod hinting at a transition to an A.I. consciousness, or something else?

Who Is Serac's Other Delos Mole(s)?

While Charlotte Hale was the most prominent mole within Serac's Delos-infiltrating scheme, he alluded to having someone else working for him on the inside. This mystery associate is presumably the one who initially rescued Maeve's pearl from Cold Storage. As well, he or she is believed to be the one who returned her to the simulation world, as well as the one responsible for Host-printing Clementine, Hanaryo and the unfortunate Hector. Will it end up being Maeve's former compadre Felix, or perhaps his more surly counterpart Sylvester?

Will William Once Again Become The Man In Black?

After spending the entirety of Season 3 either hallucinating at home, hallucinating in virtual nightmare therapy, or begrudgingly palling around with Bernard and Stubbs, Ed Harris' William is in desperate need of a costume change. In getting perhaps unfairly ousted and committed by Halores, the tragedy-stricken gunslinger became the Man in White. but he's apparently now found his path and is set to be the hero in this tale by killing off every last Host that he comes across. (Assuming he's not a host himself.) That probably won't bode well for some normal humans, considering what happened with Emily in Season 2.

What Was Dolores’ Plan With The Jakarta Clone?

Before his death and beheading, the Musashi/Sato clone confirmed with his henchmen that a certain someone's location had been found and that everything was in order. He then sent another out to make a delivery, with the threatening message that he shouldn't return if the mission isn't completed. We know this clone had tied to a facility that appeared to be manufacturing the Hosts' bodily fluids, but where are all the bodies for that fluid to go into?

Why Is Arnold's Maze Showing Up In The Real World?

At least twice now in Season 3, Westworld has shown viewers wall graffiti that directly references the maze imagery that Season 2 was based on. In one instance, Halores walked past it while taking Charlotte's son home, and the other instance was in the tunnel walkway where Dolores and Caleb first meet. It also showed up in one of the trailers released ahead of the season, presumably from one of the finale's riot scenes, but what does it mean? How did Arnold's maze escape the park and crossover into everyday human life, and why?

Why Is Bernard Still So Important In All This?

Inarguably one of Westworld's most important characters, as portrayed by one of the show's most talented actors, Jeffrey Wright's Bernard has strangely been treading a ton of water in Season 3, and not in the normal "confused Bernard exists in 11 different timelines" way. Dolores implied at one point that Bernard was the only irreplaceable Host, but it's not exactly clear what that meant, and he hasn't exactly been doing anything all that noteworthy on his treks with Stubbs. That said, I'm still kind of awaiting a left-field twist that re-contextualizes the entirety of Bernard's Season 3 narrative.

Did Caleb Kill Any Other Outliers That Are Important To The Story?

Caleb learned a lot of terrible shit about himself in "Passed Pawn." Not only was he responsible for killing his brother in arms Francis, but the two of them somewhat unwittingly worked as Serac's hitmen through the RICO app, taking out potentially innocent outliers. Viewers got to see at least one part of Caleb's laundry list of successful missions, along with two failures for "Murder" and "Enhanced Interrogation." Will any of those other deadly missions come up as critical backstory for the rest of Season 3? Is it possible one or some of Caleb's mostly forgotten crimes will come back to haunt him?

Will Anyone Actually "Win" The Finale?

The Season 3 finale trailer plays up the pure madness that's on the way as city populations start rioting over the Incite info dumps that Dolores made public. It plays up the Serac vs. Caleb angle, as well as the Dolores vs. Maeve angle, while also making it seem like William might actually kill Stubbs and/or Bernard. But when all is said and done and the credits are rolling, will Westworld have an actual victor to grant a crown and scepter to? Or is Dolores' main plan just to leave the real world as bloody and destroyed as Westworld itself became over the course of Season 2?

If someone put on about 14 pots of coffee, I could keep cooking up questions that would last us until HBO aired the Westworld finale, but that might be overkill. Be sure to let us know your theories in the comments, and tune into "Crisis Theory" when it airs on HBO on Sunday, May 3, at 9:00 p.m. ET.

Spoilers below for the most recent episode of Westworld, so be warned!

Ed Harris' The Man in Black was a key element of Westworld's first two seasons, and has been at the center of several of the HBO drama's major twists and reveals. For Season 2, speculation really started heating up around the idea that the character would trade his humanity to exist as a Host at some point, and the theory was emboldened by the finale's flash-forward scene. Season 3, meanwhile, hasn't let up on keeping viewers in guessing mode.

From one scene to the next, William jumps from over-wrought monologues (Host-like) to emotional reactions (human-like) to complete confusion (both Host-like and human-like), and Episode 6's William-filled therapy session offered all three. Thankfully, Ed Harris has come forward and confirmed that viewers can get ready to soon learn answers about The Man in Black's true state. Here's how he put it to Deadline when asked if Episode 6 hinted at:

Dun dun dun! Westworld will finally deliver a full-on answer for William's identity before the final moments of Season 3 have concluded. Intriguingly enough, there are only two episodes left in this third season, so fans only need to get through another two hours or so before learning the truth. But what is that truth going to be? (Probably not that William has the last of Dolores' mystery pearls inside his head, but wouldn't that be something?)

Since Westworld isn't always a show about absolutes, with lots of room for fractional measures where plot answers are concerned, the Man in Black theory has a sub-theory about William possibly being a human-Host hybrid. The idea there is that some portion of William's brain or body has been supplemented by Delos advancements, but that he's still got enough people bits to be considered a human being. Ed Harris seemingly shot that theory down, however, saying this:

Westworld's creators and producers might be bothered by Ed Harris offering proof that the character doesn't share the makings of both a human and a Host. But considering we're still no closer to reaching an undeniable conclusion about what The Man in Black's innards are made of, I don't think Harris' frankness stunted anyone's speculation too harshly.

Episode 6 did feature a potentially huge clue about The Man in Black's inner workings, by way of his final scene. After killing his past selves within the AR therapy group, William was pulled from the virtual world by Bernard and Stubbs, who noted that it looked like he'd been left alone for a while. The basic implication would be that, on the day that Dolores released the Rehoboam data that sent the world into an uproar, the mental hospital's staff had largely vacated the building and left patients behind.

Westworld is anything but basic, though. In that respect, I'm unsure how Stubbs or Bernard would have been able to instantly recognize that William had been left alone for a while. That is, unless the duo discovered William much later than a few hours after he put on the AR goggles. What if he was trapped inside his virtual world for over a day or more? Arguments against that notion would be that William would have probably been suffering from starvation or dehydration, among other things. However, those arguments would be rendered moot if William was indeed a Host who didn't need such sustenance to survive.

Of course, Westworld purposefully keeps its timeline details opaque when it suits the story, so there's currently no way to tell just how long it took The Man in Black to once declare himself the "good guy" in his own narrative. But I'm betting the answer does indeed inform which side of the line William falls on. Let us know in the poll below what you think about William's identity.

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Westworld Season 3 airs Sunday nights on HBO at 9:00 p.m. ET, and with only two episodes left, there's only so much time to develop dozens of new overarching theories. While waiting to see the next episode, check out all the shows heading to TV this summer that probably won't have us asking these exact questions.

Major spoilers below for anyone who hasn't watched Westworld's "Decoherence."

Once again almost fully separating itself from the Alpha Dolores and Caleb storylines, Westworld pulled its focus back on Thandie Newton's Maeve, Tessa Thompson's Charlotte Hale and Ed Harris's The Man in Black (whose past selves returned). Each one of the characters went through semi-cataclysmic situations that completely altered their headspaces and put them on direct paths to the Season 3 endgame. That's assuming there aren't another three or four left turns sprinkled into the final two episodes, which there probably will be.

Below, I'm going to dig into how Maeve, Hale and William's stories changed up in "Decoherence," complete with my biggest question about each of these hard-to-predict characters' narratives. Now put on your hallucinatory sanitarium-prescribed AR goggles and follow along!

Maeve's Now On The War(world)path

Maeve kicked the episode off in a pair of familiar places, first within a quasi-memory of the Valley Beyond for a quick and threatening convo with Serac, as portrayed by Vincent Cassel. After that, Maeve woke up back inside the Warworld simulation, where she angrily created some of her own violent delights before reuniting with digital Lee Sizemore. With her pearl having been recovered by Serac's team (following her death at the hands of Dolores' yakuza leader), Maeve was sent back to Warworld for more research, as well as to reconnect with Rodrigo Santoro's Hector. And possibly others...

Maeve once again found full-fledged happiness after she reinstated Hector's self-awareness, but it was sadly short-lived. The powers that be also recovered Martin Connell's damaged Dolo-pearl, which allowed Serac to bring that pearl's version of Evan Rachel Wood's Dolores into the simulation. The point was for Maeve to utilize  subdued Dolores and devise real-world strategies to take her down, all while new host bodies were being printed for Maeve, Hector and others in the real world. However, the tables turned when Hale-ores arrived at the facility and destroyed Hector's pearl, seemingly killing him off for good. (His face couldn't have been creepier in that moment, either.)

Though she also intended to demolish Maeve's pearl, Hale-ores was attacked before she could follow through, which marks the second time a Dolores clone purposefully stopped just short of permanently taking Maeve out. Whatever the deeper motivations were, Maeve is now back in the real world with both a new body and a much deeper sense of vengeance on her mind. If Dolores wasn't worried before, it's definitely a good time to start. Though she probably knows that already.

Question: What Other Bodies Were Being Printed Besides Maeve And Hector?

Similar to the mystery of Dolores' smuggled pearls, Westworld seemed to withhold potentially important information by not identifying the other two Host bodies that were being printed along with Hector and Maeve, especially considering Serac called for all other hosts to be destroyed. Simulation Dolores also hinted at more characters returning when she brought up bringing in friends as backup. Might Armistice (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) or (Tao Okamoto) be returning to assist in Maeve's quest, or will Simon Quarterman's Lee Sizemore be returning to the real world as a non-simulated Host?

Charlotte Wants Revenge

After the events of "Decoherence," Westworld fans should probably flip from calling Tessa Thompson's cloned Host Hale-ores to calling her Scarlotte. For one, Charlotte further drifted from Dolores' original code; it was her emotional side that tipped Serac off that she was the secret Host he was seeking out. Those humanistic instincts also resulted in the shocking deaths of Charlotte's husband and son, who both died without learning the truth about anything.

Perhaps more shocking than the explosion itself, Charlotte wasn't fully killed off the way that Connells was. She burst from her burning vehicle with completely singed skin and a hyper-fierce look in her eyes. Where she might have previously been torn between her two different sides, Charlotte now appears to have all of Dolores' viciousness on tap, with everything from the character's human world going up in flames, or getting gassed in a boardroom.

From this point forward, I don't necessarily think that Charlotte will be keeping Dolores' gameplan at the forefront of her artificial mind. Having digitally smuggled as much data as possible out of Delos, Charlotte will probably now hone in on physically taking Serac out for killing Jake and Nathan.

Question: Will Charlotte Try To Stop Dolores Now?

Having continuously distanced herself from Dolores' anti-human mindset, Charlotte is once again a wildcard at this point, in that she has seemingly nothing to lose except a shot at revenge. It's assumed she's going after Serac now, but will her quest for justice stop at just his head, or will Dolores also eventually bear the brunt of Charlotte's rage?

The Man In Black Is The Good Guy Again...Maybe?

In the time that Dolores succeeded in spreading her sentience across multiple hosts, The Man in Black's sanity went in the reverse direction as he drunkenly withdrew further from reality. After being (justifiably) transported to the Inner Journeys Recovery facility, William had proven himself a hinderance in group therapy with his warped views of reality. Then, in what was either the best timing in the world, or the worst, his first round of virtual therapy began right as Dolores released Rehoboam's information to the world, making him an afterthought as chaos reigned.

William's extended jaunt through the synapses initially took him back to his youth for the first time, where viewers saw him cower upon hearing his father's angry hollers. It was later revealed that a schoolmate called William's father a drunk, and William beat the shit out of that kid. The scene implied that William's apple didn't fall far from his abusive father's tree, but because William didn't display physical injuries, and because Westworld stopped short of showing that abuse, the overall context may actually be that William's violent tendencies didn't have any direct outside influences.

Current-day William wants to leave all the bad shit he did behind and become the "good guy" again, which was an assumption he came to after his self-reflective therapy session. As led by guest star Peter Mullen as James Delos, the grouping included Ed Harris' park-dwelling Man in Black, the pre-widower William, Jimmi Simpson's young William, and the aforementioned pre-pubescent William (played by Zayd Kiszonak). Of course, in order to reach his good-guy revelation, William bloodily murdered his past selves. So we should assume he'll have Dolores in his sights after being discovered by Bernard and Stubbs, right? Is that what the hero would do?

Question: What Happened To William's Father?

Every era of The Man in Black's life that viewers have witnessed has been stricken with tragedy, usually with some form of betrayal involved. So clearly, the character's childhood needs to have at least one similar touchstone for William to have repressed. Whether or not he was abused, is it possible that William snapped and murdered his own father in a fit of rage?

Let us know in the poll below who you think will be the final victor when the finale is over. Don't forget that Westworld has just two episodes left in Season 3, and fans can find them airing on HBO on Sunday nights at 9:00 p.m. ET.

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Spoiler warning for anyone who hasn't yet watched Westworld's "The Mother of Exiles."

Across its first three episodes, Westworld introduced fans to the real world through Aaron Paul's Caleb and Evan Rachel Wood's deadly Dolores, while also keeping viewers invested with the park's situation through Jeffrey Wright's Bernard and Thandie Newton's Maeve. Not to mention the introduction of Vincent Cassel's Serac and the return of Luke Hemsworth's Stubbs (and some Game of Thrones cameos). But it took the fourth episode to finally address two key questions viewers have had ever since Season 2 ended: what happened to Ed Harris' Man in Black, and what were those host pearls that Dolores smuggled out of the park?

Thankfully, both of those questions got answered in pretty comprehensive ways in Episode 4, titled "The Mother of Exiles." Join us below in diving into both the Man in Black's current whereabouts and the identities of Dolores' Host pearls.

What Has The Man In Black Been Up To?

The last time Westworld fans laid eyes on Ed Harris' William, known to many as the Man in Black, he was in a presumably futuristic scenario in which a presumed Host version of his daughter Emily was asking about his fidelity. (Lots of presumptions to make there.) But here in the show's present-day timeline, William is definitely going through some things, and is far beyond being emotionally and/or mentally equipped to handle anything. Neither the outside world nor the inside world were very welcoming for the husband and father in his constant state of mourning.

Before Charlotte Hale arrived and caught William in the midst of his delusions with Katja Herbers' Emily, his fractured life was fully on display. He easily proved himself to be in no shape to join an emergency shareholders meeting for Delos, which was supposedly what drove Hale to visit him. However, viewers soon learned that the true purpose of her visit was not only to call him out for hallucinating Emily, but also to get him committed to a mental institution. Not only does that physically imprison the man who caused her so much pain as a Westworld Host, but it also forfeits William's shares in Delos back to the company, which factors into Dolores' business battle against Serac.

Thankfully, Evan Rachel Wood's Dolores got to appear to him in her signature blue dress one more time, as opposed to only having the Dolores-influenced Hale interacting with William. Speaking with Deadline, Wood spoke about William's psychological condition, and what she thinks the true tragedy is concerning their decades-long relationship, as it were. In her words:

In just about all the ways, William's never-ending obsession with Robert Ford's creations is what drove him off the ledge, and put him in a position where he doubted his own humanity, along with that of those around him. It's a never-ending cycle with him, which possibly makes it irrelevant whether or not he's actually a human or Host.

Who Were The Host Pearls That Dolores Smuggled Out Of Westworld?

As soon as Dolores made it clear she was vacating Westworld with a selection of different Host pearl core brain things, viewers went into hard-theorizing mode on what Hosts would be joining Dolores on her real-world quest to subdue humanity. (Teddy was a frequent guess, and one that I fully expected.)

Episode 4 even brought back Hiroyuki Sanada’s former Shogunworld Host Musashi, who was revealed to be in the real world and serving as a Yakuza boss named Sato. He got into a fight with Maeve and left her for dead as Serac’s crew closed in. It was quite meaningful that he didn’t just quickly slice through her skull and pop her pearl out, considering who Musashi really is at this point.

As it was made clear before the episode drew to its close, Dolores didn’t take pearls from a variety of different Hosts. She took Bernard’s orb, and then a selection of her own nefarious Dolores pearls! (As well as one other pearl that remains unidentified, as far as I can tell.) So Tessa Thompson's Charlotte Hale, Tommy Flanagan's Martin Connells, Musashi and Dolores herself are all rocking different pearls that feature Dolores' vengeful personality. Because when all she needs are the best soldiers, who would better serve in her army than a group of Doloreses?

There are some questions that still need to be answered when it comes to how all this plays out. Such as whether or not Charlotte Hale (a.k.a. Hale-ores) is 100% Dolores' personality without any of Hale's, even as Hale is dealing with various elements of the human character's personal life. The only way I see Martin Connells going back to his former personality is just being annoyed with Liam, which is already how Flanagan is playing it, so it's a moot point.

In her talk with Deadline, Evan Rachel Wood shared the visual clue that could have tipped viewers off about Dolores' other Hosts:

Did the big reveal "blue" your mind? Or were you more shocked to learn about the Man in Black's new existence as the Inmate in White?

Here’s hoping we learn more answers when Westworld airs Sunday nights on HBO at 8:00 p.m. ET.

Westworld is not a show that can be properly enjoyed merely as background noise while doing laundry. Its themes, plots, characters and visuals are all as layered and complex as those of any TV show in existence, and sometimes not even a fully devoted attention span can ease the confusion. The Man in Black himself, Ed Harris, admits that not even he has an iron grip on everything that's happening, though he seems to be fully comfortable knowing that he's not going to understand everything that Westworld shows him. In his words:

Ed Harris had a pretty appropriate comparison point when talking about Westworld's "blink and you'll need something explained to you" method of relaying plot information. HBO's current flagship drama, Game of Thrones, is equally capable of stumping viewers who are more accustomed to having character motivations and timeline shenanigans all explained away in straightforward manners. These kinds of shows are always better to watch with others, since everyone views and interprets media differently and can offer a variety of outlooks and insight. At least Harris has a dependable daughter to keep him in line with everything happening in the Seven Kingdoms, while things are a little murkier over on Westworld.

That said, it has at least helped Ed Harris' performance that Season 2 has turned the Man in Black from a confident and determined outlaw into a dour husk who -- SPOILER WARNING for anyone who hasn't watched the penultimate episode -- isn't even sure if he's a real human being or not. (And he probably wishes he wasn't, considering William confusedly murdered his own daughter.) And while Harris obviously knows what happens to his character in the upcoming season finale, "The Passenger," that doesn't mean he knows what it means or what's going to happen next. Or if he'll even be involved. Here's what he told Huffington Post about playing Man in Black in his current state.

The Man in Black still needs to finish his big Season 2 mission, which involves not only reaching The Forge (or Valley Beyond) to destroy the mysterious humanity-studying project he started all those years ago, but also reaching Robert Ford's metaphorical "Door." (Likely at the same location, just with different behavioral guidelines.) And to do it, he'll likely have to face down Delores, Maeve and Akecheta, among others. Just maybe don't ask Ed Harris what any of it meant, or what any of the other characters were up to.

Westworld has just one episode left to go before Season 2 is a distant memory (in this current narrative loop), so be sure to watch it on HBO on Sunday, July 1, at 9:00 p.m. ET. The wait for Season 3 will be a really long one. And to see what other new and returning shows will be around when it's gone, head to our summer premiere schedule.

Family is both who we are, and who we're going to become. Our legacies don't end with the work we've done, especially when we've given way to the generations that will succeed us. The subjects of legacy and leaving your best work behind are front and center in Kodachrome, Netflix's latest original drama film. While they do fuel the film's plot, they take a back seat to the interactions between the characters, as the cast within the film manages to lift up a plot that's slightly underbaked.

After years of estrangement, famed photographer Ben Ryder (Ed Harris) and his son Matt (Jason Sudeikis) are reunited for one last road trip. With the Kodachrome film system limited to one lab in the entire U.S., and Ben's terminal illness set to take his life in the ever-approaching future, the two adversaries set out on a trip to Kansas, with Ben's home care nurse / assistant (Elizabeth Olsen) in tow. Whether it be patching up their relationship, Ben trying to save his career, or their overall journey in general, it's clear that time is not on their side. So at the very least, they should try to be on each other's.

Kodachrome is a mixture of drama and comedy that doesn't always work. Sometimes the film plays with an angle that would have worked better in a comedy, and others it moves towards the project's more dramatic impulses. So the tone that is struck overall is a bit uneven, which leaves some threads unfulfilled and others a little enhanced. For instance, a brief detour into the lives of Ben's brother and wife, played by Bruce Greenwood and Wendy Crewson, feels more like a dramatic pit stop than a cathartic moment for Ed Harris's ailing photographer / cad. We never see those characters again, and the moments that occur between them and our functional leads don't lead to much fallout. If this were a longer movie, this may have been more of a moment; yet in a brisk sub-two-hour film, it's not much of a note.

While the story of Kodachrome may not be a home run, its cast and their performances are certainly worth raving about. Jason Sudeikis rides a natural line between smart-assed comedy and expressive drama, as a man who turned his back on normal life a long time ago, and he meshes with Ed Harris's similar nature, leading to the perfect tug of war between the two leads. For most of the film, it's Sudeikis who gets the heavy lifting, which leads to the dynamic shifts more towards Harris in the second act or so, paying off the film's redemptive journey. And in the middle of the two is Elizabeth Olsen, who does a fantastic job of playing a typical love interest that helps heal the wounds between the two, and even gets under the skin of our male protagonist.

Perhaps the ultimate testament to what Kodachrome is going for comes at the very end of the film, when the fact that it was "shot on 35mm Kodak film" is displayed on the screen. Director Mark Raso and writer Jonathan Tropper set out to make a film that commemorates memories, and the fact that tactile film helps remind us that they happened in reality, rather than a digital uncertainty. While the film doesn't delve into it too deeply, the undercurrent of "analog versus digital" does sit deeply at the root of this film. And it's that message that leads to a moment so moving in the third act, that I couldn't help but cry. It's a moment that completely symbolizes what Kodachrome is all about, as the film, and its cast, take a standard story and crafts it into something that is rather enjoyable, if not a bit underwritten.

The world of television production is having a major boom right now, the TV renaissance is showing no signs of slowing. Some of the best acting roles are now on the small screen, leading to film stars making the transition over to TV. Perhaps no show is a better example of this than HBO's Westworld, which became a hit as soon as it debuted in October of 2016. Ed Harris is one of the show's lead actors, playing the villainous Man in Black. With Season 2 just days away, Harris recently spoke to how his character would be different in the show's second season and beyond. He said,

Now this is interesting. It looks like the Man in Black will become a more important character this season, rather than being a mysterious and menacing presence in the park. Considering the nightmare that Westworld has become in the final moments of Season 1, there are a ton of possibilities for how he might change in the show's sophomore run.

Ed Harris' comments to Indie Wire show how far ahead Westworld is planning its content, as Ed Harris already knows details about what's to come in Season 3. This also has the potential to change how we see the show's second season, knowing Harris is already set to return for Season 3. Because while the park may now actually be a dangerous place for the visitors, we can presume Harris' character survives it all.

The upcoming change for the Man in Black is likely the rest of the Season 1 finale plot twist revolving around the timelines. While some fans spotted it early on, it was revealed that William (Jimmi Simpson) and the Man in Black were the same character, interacting with Dolores at different points in time. With that revelation out of the way, Ed Harris' character can finally become more human, likely resulting in a more fascinating run in Westworld's second season.

While the mystery revolving around the maze has been solved, there is still plenty of craziness happening within Westworld. Dolores and the retired hosts have ascended upon the gusest, revealing their new abilities to hurt and kill the living. The Man in Black is finally vulnerable to the robots he'd tormented for so many years, so he's going to have to think fast and act faster to survive his latest visit to the park.

Westworld will return to HBO on April 22, 2018. In the meantime, check out our midseason premiere list to plan your next binge watch. Plus our superhero premiere list and Amazon premiere list to ensure you don't miss a single episode.

If you have kept up with movies in 2017, then there's a good chance that you have already heard of Geostorm. Dean Devlin's global warming-inspired, Gerard Butler-led disaster epic has captured the imaginations of many moviegoers since the first trailer dropped -- primarily in the hope that the film could live up to the campy, fun, B-movie quality promised by the marketing material. Alas, the film has now screened for critics, and I am saddened to say that delivers all of the camp and ham that we expected it to, but considerably less of the fun.

In the near future, humanity's contributions to climate change have brought planet Earth to a tipping point. After a series of "extreme weather events" kill millions and lead to global socio-political unrest, brilliant (albeit hot-headed) astronaut Jake Lawson leads the development of Dutch Boy -- a satellite capable of controlling Earth's weather patterns. But when outside forces begin to tamper with Dutch Boy and cause unnatural disasters all over the planet, Jake's brother Max (Jim Sturgess) calls him back into action to go up to Dutch Boy in an effort to get the space station working correctly again while Max investigates the mystery on Earth's surface.

For a movie attempting to blend the disaster and political thriller genres so thoroughly, it's honestly shocking that Geostorm is as dull as it is. While the basic premise of the movie would seemingly promise non-stop action and intrigue from start to finish, it features surprisingly few "Geostorm" sequences. To fill in those gaps, Geostorm offers up a half-baked political thriller mystery that's a little too predictable and a little too static to carry the film between action set pieces. In the end, what we are left with is a movie that mostly devolves into Jim Sturgess and Gerard Butler monologuing exposition at each other on video monitors for two hours, while nameless civilian characters get frozen or burned to death.

That formulaic take on the disaster movie model shines brightest when you realize exactly how many movies Geostorm rips off in the creation of its story. It has the global warming story angle of The Day After Tomorrow, the apocalyptic scale and gung-ho machismo of Independence Day, and the (attempted) outer space tension of Gravity (in fact, there's more than one space walk scene that are DIRECT rip-offs of Gravity). Geostorm Frankensteins these ideas (and others) together in an attempt to freshen up the disaster movie genre, but the film lacks any of the urgency of the projects that it takes inspiration from, so the intended Frankenstein monster is really more of a lifeless corpse.

On that note, one of the most evident reasons for Geostorm's inability to generate tension is the fact that we seldom see any characters that we have come to know or care about in any real danger on the screen. Almost every single time Dutch Boy fires, it uses its weather-altering power to bring chaos and destruction down upon unnamed and unknown characters. The result of this creative choice is a series of natural disaster scenes that lack any real personal stakes from a character perspective, and feel decidedly gratuitous and impersonal.

That's when it becomes clear just how many characters go underused in this movie. Despite the size of its core ensemble, Geostorm only really cares about Jake and Max, and it leaves some of its most intriguing perspectives waiting on the sidelines for something interesting to do. Two of the most notable examples of this are Annabelle: Creation's Talitha Bateman (who goes criminally underutilized as Jake's daughter), and Abbie Cornish as Max's girlfriend -- a Terminator-esque secret service agent Sarah Wilson. The film keeps most of them out of harm's way for the bulk of its runtime, as it instead opts to focus on redshirts who come and go with little fanfare.

In a particular sense, you can almost see the fantastic movie that Geostorm could've become in more capable hands -- and when I say amazing, I do not necessarily mean good. Between its made-for-TV level CGI during many of the "extreme weather events," to the hammy acting, and the remarkably straight-faced take on the story, Geostorm had the potential to become one of those delightfully fun disaster movies that you throw on with some friends on a Friday night. The film does occasional hit those notes in a really fun way (seriously, there are brief flashes in which I had some fun), but there just aren't enough to keep it interesting.

If there's one bright spot amid Geostorm's ineffective action and muddled storytelling, it's the fact that none of the actors appear to be taking the film too seriously -- in a good way. Familiar faces like Gerard Butler, Andy Garcia, and Ed Harris chew the scenery in almost all of their scenes, and it's clear that the cast knows something about Geostorm that Geostorm doesn't.

Too campy to be taken seriously, but too boring to be pure fun, Geostorm embodies the worst of both, and the result is a sometimes enjoyable (but mostly bland) disaster (movie). After all of that build-up for something epic, the response to Geostorm could be summed up with little more than a simple "meh."

Spoilers for the Westworld finale can be found throughout this article. If you are avoiding spoilers, please hop out out now.

It's only been a few short days since Westworld finished out its first season run on HBO. Following stellar ratings, the show has already been renewed for Season 2, but when it comes back, there will at least be one character who will no longer appear on the HBO drama. That character is none other than Young William, played by Jimmi Simpson. In a recent interview, Simpson explained that from what he understands, his character won't be back.

If you've been following Jimmi Simpson on Twitter, he's spent that last several days saying a lot of nice things about the cast. The whole way he has been speaking has felt like a farewell of sorts to the series, and since the finale confirmed that Young William was a remnant of the past appearing in Dolores' memories of a former time, it makes a lot of sense that the character may not play a role in Season 2. However, Simpson's interview with Vanity Fair only recently confirmed that he won't be back for Season 2.

If you've been keeping tabs on Westworld, you may already know that the commentary from the actor flies in the face of what the show creators have already told us about the possibilities during Season 2 and potentially beyond. As we've seen, humans like Arnold have become androids like Bernard, and besides, the show has already shown us plenty of flashbacks or at least past events from the park. In an interview with EW, Jonathan Nolan revealed that even characters like Anthony Hopkins' Robert Ford could potentially make his way back to the HBO drama. Per Ed Harris himself, the older version of The Man in Black will definitely be returning for Season 2, so there's that to look forward to.

Westworld takes a long time to shoot and we reportedly won't even be getting new episodes until sometime late next year or even into 2018. As of now, Jimmi Simpson doesn't believe he will be a part of future episodes, but you never know when that could change in Season 3 or beyond. Half of the fun of the series is finding out what happens next, and so far the show has not disappointed. To find out what we know about Westworld Season 2, head here. In addition, you can see what else HBO has coming up with our midseason TV premiere schedule.

The Academy Awards are the pinnacle prize for professional actors. Winning the award means that you, at least in theory, gave the best performance of a given year. Great actors routinely give great performances, so it’s no surprise that many actors have been nominated several times. Probability dictates that if you continue to get nominated, eventually you’ll win. However, for some actors, the odds have been against them repeatedly.

To be in consideration for this list an actor must have received a minimum of 3 nominations in any combination of the four acting categories for which the Oscars present awards, they must have never won, and they must still have a chance of doing so. Sadly, Peter O’ Toole’s eight nominations with zero wins will never be remedied, but for these 10 there’s still a chance. So who are the poor souls in Hollywood who are still waiting to hear their names called after a dramatic envelope opening? Read on to find out!

Leonardo Dicaprio - 5 Nominations

We’ll start with the elephant in the room, and the one most likely to be removed from this list first. Leonardo DiCaprio received his first nomination for Best Supporting Actor acting opposite Johnny Depp in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape in 1994. Since then he’s been nominated for Best Actor for Blood Diamond, The Aviator and The Wolf of Wall Street. He’s been nominated once again for The Revenant this year so maybe fifth time is the charm. He certainly has the popular vote behind him, but whether that will result in a big win remains a question mark.

Amy Adams - 5 Nominations

Since 2005, Amy Adams has owned the Best Supporting Actress category. Starting with Junebug as her first nomination, she has since put on fantastic turns with roles in films such as Doubt and The Fighter - where we thought she had a great chance of winning. Most recently she was nominated for Best Actress in 2014 for American Hustle, but that didn’t wind up happening either. We feel confident this missing award will be fixed sooner rather than later.

Johnny Depp - 3 Nominations

If there was any question as to how eclectic an actor Johnny Depp is, one needs to look no further than the difference between his three nominations for Best Actor at the Academy Awards. His first nod came for his role as slurring pirate Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, but following that he was up for his role as Peter Pan author J.M Barrie, and then for his part in the musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Exactly what role Depp needs to transform into to make the Academy happy is unclear, but he hasn’t found it yet.

Ed Harris - 4 Nominations

Ed Harris probably came closest to walking away with the Oscar in his first go, specifically for his unbelievably fantastic part in Ron Howard’s great Apollo 13. Unfortunately that was not to be and now he’s sitting at zero-for-four. In the years since that initial nomination, he’s seen additional nominations for movies like Pollack, The Truman Show, and The Hours, but he walked away empty handed each time. One more nomination will put him in DiCaprio territory, and then we’ll all be asking when Ed Harris will finally get his Oscar.

Edward Norton - 3 Nominations

We need to just give Edward Norton an Oscar right now. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for 1997’s Primal Fear in his first movie role ever. He probably didn’t win it because people expected he’d be nominated again. Now, after additional nominations for American History X and Birdman he still has not won an Academy Award, however. Norton has a long career still ahead of him, likely filled with a whole lot of great movies, but he’s still overdue for winning Hollywood’s greatest honor.

Glenn Close - 6 Nominations

The word "overdue" may have been invented for Glenn Close. With six nominations, no currently living actor has more nominations without wins than she does. She began her run toward her dubious record with three consecutive nominations for Best Supporting Actress for The World According to Garp, The Big Chill and The Natural from 1983 to 1985. Best Actress Nominations for Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons and Albert Nobbs followed that. Close is still acting like it’s going out of style, so hopefully some future role will take care of this terrible oversight and she’ll finally get her Oscar.

Laura Linney - 3 Nominations

Laura Linney is such a great actress that she often seems to overshadow everything else about her films. When an actor receives a nomination for a film it’s usually one among several, but the three films that Linney received nominations for - You Can Count On Me, Kinsey, and The Savages - only received a combined total of two nominations in addition to the actress’ nods. It seems pretty clear that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences really wants to reward Linney for her great work, but just haven’t found the right title with which to do so just yet.

Michelle Pfeiffer - 3 Nominations

In the late 80’s and early 90’s, Michelle Pfeiffer was one of the shining stars in Hollywood. She received back to back nominations in 1989 and 1990 for Dangerous Liaisons and The Fabulous Baker Boys, respectively. Then she added one for Love Field in 1992. While she hasn’t received any Academy attention since then, she’s continued to put up a solid body of work. It’s only a matter of time before the organization recognizes her again.

Warren Beatty - 4 Nominations

While Warren Beatty does have a couple Oscars, winning Best Director award for Reds in 1981, and received the Irving J. Thalberg Memorial Award in 2000 - he has never won the award for acting (despite four bites at that apple). He received his first nomination in 1968 for Bonnie and Clyde and then saw additional nods for Heaven Can Wait, Reds and Bugsy. He has a movie coming out this year where he’ll play Howard Hughes and we know the Academy likes nominating for that - just ask Leonardo DiCaprio. Could 2017 be his year? We’ll have to wait and find out.

Brad Pitt - 3 Nominations

Like Warren Beatty, Brad Pitt does have an Oscar… just not for one of his performances. As a producer on 12 Years of Slave, he got a statue when the movie won Best Picture in 2014. However, as an actor, he’s gone three and out so far. His first nomination came in 1996 for his supporting role in 12 Monkeys. Since then he’s seen Best Actor nods for his performances in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Moneyball. We know we haven’t seen the last of Brad Pitt’s nominations, given that he is still very much one of the premiere stars in Hollywood - so the chance of him winning one eventually is pretty high. Until then, he’s got another shot at an Oscar this year anyway, thanks to his role as a producer on The Big Short.

Warner Bros. & DC's Suicide Squad doesn't hit theaters until August of next year, but with production ramping up, it looks like some of the last pieces are finally being put into place. With the recent-swirling rumors that the main villain in writer/director David Ayer's highly-anticipated film is going to be Antiphon, things just got a bit more interesting.

While word of Antiphon taking on the role of top antagonist is still only in the rumor stages, it is nonetheless an exciting prospect. According to Latino Review's El Mayimbe, Antiphon and his special ops team of mercenaries -- a terrorist cell called Onslaught -- are hunting superheroes and villains for their own agenda. Adding to Antiphon's intrigue is the fact that he is a burn victim, as well as an amputee who walks with a prosthetic leg. To top things off, Ed Harris, who's name was recently linked to another character in the upcoming supervillain movie, is rumored for the role of Antiphon. Now that's what I'm talking about.

Onslaught, who's said to square off against the Squad, has had many incarnations over the years, with Antiphon a member of the most recent group from Suicide Squad comics Vol. 2, #10-12. His other team members have included Digital Djinn, Hyve, Tolteca and Rustam. The super-powered team of international hired-hand terrorists operates out of the DC universe's fictional outlaw nation of Qurac, and has had run-ins with Rick Flag, as well as Amanda Waller (to be played by Viola Davis in the film) -- the latter which the team kidnapped in an elaborate revenge plot against the Suicide Squad. Further, the team succeeded in killing Suicide Squad members Havana and Modem, prior to Deadshot's notorious kill of Onslaught operative Rustam.

As you can see, if these rumors are true, fans will be in for a cinematic treat. With Onslaught appearing in more than a dozen issues, there is a wealth of material to pull from and a pool of cool assassins at director David Ayer's fingertips. The only downside I see is that Antiphon's inclusion may translate to the Jared Leto's Joker (described by David Ayer as "majestic") playing a smaller role than previously hoped. Let's pray this is not the case, as all reports thus far on Leto's embodiment have suggested we're in for something special. Most recently an anonymous source called his rendition of the classic DC villain "more cerebral and comedic than what we have seen before," stating the last thing we should be expecting is a "copycat version" of the villain from previous films.

Suicide Squad is scheduled to hit theaters Aug. 5, 2016. What do you make of this villainous rumor?

In the midst of all the villains featured in Suicide Squad is Rick Flag Jr., the team’s leader. Originally supposed to have been played by Tom Hardy, Joel Kinnaman has since taken the role as government agent put in charge of making sure these criminals don’t get out of hand during missions. However, he isn’t the only famous Flag in the DC Universe, and now it’s been suggested that there’s a role available for actor Ed Harris as Flag’s father.

A recent rumor has been circulating suggesting that Ed Harris might play Rick Flag Sr. in Suicide Squad, and while Harris told ScreenRant that he hasn’t talked with anyone yet, he did mention that his Run All Night co-star Kinnaman may have tried to recruit him for it. The veteran actor told the site,

Production on Suicide Squad is beginning next month, so unless they plan on filming Harris’ scenes near the end of principal photography, we’ll find out soon enough whether his inclusion is legitimate or not. If it does turn out to be true, then we can expect that he will not only get to spend a solid amount of on-screen time with Joel Kinnaman, but will also get to play off of Viola Davis – who has been confirmed as the titular group’s lead organizer, Amanda Waller.

Although the film is full of super villains (including Jared Leto’s new version of Joker), there hasn’t been a clear antagonist for the story identified. Obviously Amanda Waller fills that role to a degree, since she’s the one holding them captive and can blow them up in an instant, but as far as straight-up bad guys go, Flag Sr. could be an interesting choice. Having 29 years over Kinnaman, Harris is clearly old enough to play the elder Flag. Plus, if the two of them enjoyed working together on Run All Night then it’s likely he would at least consider the role if this is indeed the project that Kinnaman wants him to look at.

In the comics (before DC’s rebooted New 52 line), Flag Sr. was a World War II hero that was recruited by President Harry Truman into Task Force X, specifically to lead the civilian-unit "Suicide Squad," which dealt with masked criminals. When Flag Sr. was killed during a mission, Flag Jr. eventually replaced him. The elder character also played an important role in the animated movie Justice League: The New Frontier. Flag is one of many characters that have been rumored to appear in Suicide Squad lately, including Deathstroke, El Diablo and even Batman.

Suicide Squad will hit theaters on August 5, 2016.

It’s only been a few months since the theatrical release of Gone Girl, but as we learned yesterday, director David Fincher, writer Gillian Flynn, and star Ben Affleck are all very much itching to get back to work together. It’s been revealed that the trio are now reteaming for a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock classic Strangers on a Train, with Affleck set to play the movie’s protagonist. The big question that remains, however, is who will play opposite him as the film’s murder-trading villain.

Reported to be titled simply Strangers, sources have said that elements of the original story are set to be changed in a significant way in the new film – including the fact that the setting will be modern day and that a private plane will be taking the place of a train. That being said, the relationship between the two lead characters is still expected to be the central focus of the narrative, and to play against Ben Affleck as the hero the project will need a high-caliber talent. We still don’t know who the ultimate choice would be, but we do have a few suggestions…

Matt Damon

There used to be a time when Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were seen as an inseparable pair, both starring in movies and winning Academy Awards together. However, it’s been about 16 years since the two men had significant roles in the same movie, last seen starring together playing the angels Bartleby and Loki in Kevin Smith’s 1999 religious comedy Dogma. David Fincher’s Strangers on a Train is a perfect opportunity to end that streak. One might argue that the reunion could possibly be a bit too much of a distraction, but the project would provide the two actors with a fantastic dynamic, and give Damon a chance to go really crazy for the first time since The Talented Mr. Ripley. Affleck and Damon have proven in the past that they can be a terrific on-screen duo, and this project may be ideal to get them back together.

Rosamund Pike

As mentioned in the intro, David Fincher’s version of Strangers on a Train will make some pretty key story deviations from the original Patricia Highsmith novel and the 1951 Alfred Hitchcock adaptation, but why is the plot the only thing that has to change? What about the gender of the antagonist? If Fincher were to go this route, then a particularly easy choice may just be to once again enlist Rosamund Pike. Not only would the actress’ inclusion actually bring the entire Gone Girl main team, but Pike has certainly proven that she can sell homicidal nut as good as anyone. It’s true that making the character Bruno Antony a woman would definitely change the dynamic between her and the protagonist Guy Haines, but that may honestly be extremely refreshing considering how many times we’ve seen this narrative play out with two men.

Don Cheadle

Don Cheadle’s career isn’t quite what it was about 10 years ago when he was earning incredible critical praise for his performance in Hotel Rwanda, but starring with Ben Affleck in Strangers on a Train could both be a great opportunity and a perfect bit of casting. One needs to look no further than his performances in films like Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight and Carl Frankin’s underrated Devil in a Blue Dress to recognize the actor’s skill at playing dangerous, violent individuals, but at the same time he can lay on the charm as thick as most other leading men in Hollywood. Depending on when things get rolling on this project, Cheadle may wind up having some scheduling issues due to his commitment making his television series House of Lies, but given the opportunity he could be a terrific foil for Fincher’s new film.

Brad Pitt

It’s not exactly a secret that David Fincher and Brad Pitt work extraordinarily well together. Their feature film collaborations over the last 20 years have resulted in what can easily be considered some of their best respective work, and they will likely be included in the selection of titles that the two men for which the two men will be forever remembered. They’re so great together, in fact, that it would be a crime to never see them team up again – so why not reunite for Strangers on a Train? Pitt and Ben Affleck have never had the chance to work together before, but they could be a truly fantastic match-up, and it would be rather amazing to see them square off in the film’s big climactic moments. Also, if there’s a selection of people in the world who could potentially convince a complete stranger to kill someone for them, Brad Pitt would certainly be one of them.

Jonah Hill

There are some people out there who still have a bit of trouble taking Jonah Hill too seriously thanks to his comedy background, but let’s be real here: the guy is a damn good actor. Beyond just being incredibly funny in movies like Superbad and 21 Jump Street, the guy has put on some honestly amazing and memorable performances these past few years in movies like Moneyball and The Wolf of Wall Street - and he has the Academy Award nominations to prove it. As such, he may be an odd but perfect choice to star opposite Ben Affleck in Strangers on a Train. Because he’s so unassuming, Hill could easily lean on a creepy vibe for the role – similar to what he did in Martin Scorsese’s movie for comedic effect – and create a version of Bruno Antony that is terrifying and unique.

Ed Harris

In Strangers on a Train, the protagonist and antagonist have classically been around the same age, but if David Fincher’s version were to mess with that idea a bit, it would be fantastic to see him get someone like Ed Harris to play opposite Ben Affleck. It’s true that you would have to change the Bruno Antony character motivation a bit, as someone Harris’ age probably doesn’t have a father that they want snuffed out, but it would also enable a wholly different kind of relationship for the two leads. Because he’s a bit older and potentially less able to physically keep up with someone Affleck’s age, Harris’ version of Bruno could possibly be more of a mind-game player and manipulator, which would really suit the role just fine. Plus, Harris just showed us this past summer in Snowpiercer that he can still be extremely menacing just talking and walking around.

Neil Patrick Harris

Yes, we’re once again dipping back into the Gone Girl pool here, but can you really blame us? Neil Patrick Harris was perfect as the creepy, controlling Desi Collings in David Fincher’s last film, and if he can do that well in a supporting role we would love to see him get bumped up to being a lead. It doesn’t really take that much imagination to picture NPH charming the hell out of Ben Affleck after a random meeting, and eventually getting him to start spilling dark secrets and murderous desires. This is also a part where having an actor play against type could add an extra layer of sinister, just in that it would make the character’s surprising psychosis that much more effective. Now that How I Met Your Mother if officially over and done with, now is the time for Neil Patrick Harris to really start focusing on his film work, and Strangers on a Train could be perfect for him.

Toby Kebbell

Despite the fact that he already has a good number of blockbusters on his resume, English actor Toby Kebbell isn’t exactly a household name just yet – but it may just be a matter of time before he is. Last year he was incredibly impressive doing motion capture work as the villainous Koba opposite Andy Serkis in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and the next couple months and years will see him in massive projects like The Fantastic Four, Warcraft and the Ben-Hur remake. His star is certainly rising, and now may be the perfect time for David Fincher to swoop in an attach him to play opposite Ben Affleck in Strangers on a Train. Kebbell has the talent to both play charming and dangerous, his British accent could be used as an interesting character affectation, and even the fact that he’s a good 10 years younger than Affleck could be used to the story’s advantage.

Anthony Mackie

Anthony Mackie exists on a level of "underrated" so great that it’s inevitable he eventually gets a big starring role that blows us all away. Why can’t that role be in David Fincher’s Strangers on a Train? The guy has proven many times that he can generate tremendous chemistry with his co-stars – look no further than his work with Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker or with Chris Evans in Captain America: The Winter Soldier - and, perhaps more importantly, he has the ability to be both tremendously affable and deadly serious. It’s true that we have not yet seen him get into that psycho killer sense of mind just yet, the closest perhaps being his role in Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain, but given his talent level it’s hardly a stretch to see how he might melt into that part.

Amy Adams

Just because Rosamund Pike has the Gone Girl connection doesn’t mean that she could potentially be the only candidate to play a female version of Bruno Antony, and Amy Adams would honestly be another great choice to turn the villain into a more femme fatale type. Adams has been consistently putting out great work for years now, but one area where she has always been somewhat stuck is playing more innocent characters. With the opportunity to work with David Fincher on Strangers on a Train, she could completely change that. Imagine her taking the role one step beyond her work in American Hustle, being charming and duplicitous with an added and highly-enhanced killer instinct. It might wind up be a strange pairing with Ben Affleck, given her role as Lois Lane opposite his version of the Caped Crusader in Zack Snyder’s upcoming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but it’s also not hard to imagine them working well together in antagonistic roles.

Ed Harris has popped up in TV programs in the past, but he’s not a TV man, instead focusing on film roles in a career that has spanned nearly four decades and has nabbed him Oscar nominations four times. Yet this week he has become the latest actor to help usher in a new era of TV where TV projects are given as much notice from the a-listers as some of the best films on the market. On Monday, it was announced that the Snowpiercer actor has taken a role in HBO’s latest project, Westworld.

The HBO series is a sci-fi project and sort-of a western, based on a 1973 film written and directed by bestseller Michael Crichton. In the TV reimagining, Harris is set to play “The Man in Black,” the biggest baddie in Westworld who is described by THR as “the distillation of pure villainy into one man.” While Harris isn’t often a TV guy, the Westworld role won’t be his first on HBO. Back in 2012, the actor starred in the original TV movie Game Change at the subscription cable network, where he portrayed U.S. Senator and presidential hopeful John McCain.

Of course, Westworld is a whole different sort of project. The science fiction series is set in an amusement park featuring androids that cater to the human guests’ needs and whimsies. It seems like a Westworld adaptation has been tossed around in Hollywood for some time; back in 2007 writer Billy Ray was working on a screenplay adaptation of the project that never gained momentum. This time around, there are some huge names involved.

Anthony Hopkins will also be taking his first big TV role in Westworld, and he and Harris will be joined by a slew of prominent names and even some other actors familiar to HBO. True Blood’s Evan Rachel Wood and Boardwalk Empire’s Jeffrey Wright have signed on to the series, as have The Last Stand’s Rodrigo Santoro and Raising Hope actress Shannon Woodward, whose show was canceled this past spring. Additionally, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot and Jonathan Nolan are behind the project, as well, with the former executive producing and the latter co-writing, executive producing and directing the pilot.

With all of the high-profile talent involved, it’s no wonder that the pilot seems to be moving into production at a rapid rate. Since HBO is not constricted into network television’s timeline of pilots and premieres, we could be hearing about Westworld getting greenlighted for a series order sooner rather than later. With all of the prominent names involved, it would be a damn shame if the android and amusement park adaptation didn’t move forward to series. Either way, we’ll keep you updated.

While this morning’s partial reveal of 2014's Toronto International Film Festival screenings was noticeably missing Alejandro González Iñárritu’s highly anticipated comedy Birdman, the director’s upcoming small-screen effort One Percent is at the center of some excellent casting news. The Media Rights Capital-produced series has targeted Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank, Oscar-nominated actor Ed Harris, and Hangover star Ed Helms, and each of them are in various stages of negotiations to join what will presumably be a prestige-laden show.

Should all go according to plan, the hour-long One Percent would take place within the world of organic farming – what? – and would see Helms and Swank playing a married couple who are having problems keeping their business above water, which of course leads to personal problems. As Deadline reports, Harris would star as the family patriarch, though it doesn’t say whose father he would play.

That isn’t much to go on, and doesn’t really hint too directly at what the title means. Is this the dreaded Occupation protesters’ “one percent,” or does it refer to something involving the farming community? Maybe that’s the percentage of startup businesses that actually stay open after a certain period of time. Regardless of what this plain-sounding story ends up being, I’m willing to trust that Iñárritu and this trio of actors wouldn’t team up on a complete waste of time.

Iñárritu will indeed be directing the series from a screenplay written with Birdman collaborators Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolas Giacobone and Armando Bo. MRC is expected to shop the series around in the coming weeks, probably trying to secure a straight-to-series order rather than going the pilot route. MRC, who worked with Seth MacFarlane on Ted and A Million Ways to Die in the West, snagged a two-season order for MacFarlane’s upcoming live-action comedy for Starz, and they're also one of the companies behind Netflix’s House of Cards, which was naturally also granted an all-at-once series order.

Should One Percent go through, this would be Swank’s first TV series since starring on Beverly Hills 90210 in the late 1990s. She hasn’t been in a lot of movies lately, either, having most recently starred in Philip Noyce and HBO Films’ made-for-TV drama Mary and Martha. She’ll soon be seen in Tommy Lee Jones’ western The Homesman and in George C. Wolfe’s caregiver drama You’re Not You.

Harris, meanwhile, starred in the at-long-last recently released thriller Snowpiercer and voiced a character for the in-theaters animation Planes: Fire & Rescue. He’s got an assortment of upcoming projects, including Michael Almereyda’s modernized Shakespeare epic Cymbeline, Michael Berry’s border drama Frontera, Jaume Collet-Serra’s hitman thriller Run All Night and Pamela Romanowsky’s adaptation of Stephen Elliott’s memoir The Adderall Diaries, which is currently filming. Oddly enough, Harris has never had a leading TV role.

Helms, who for years played Dunder Mifflin’s most bluegrassy employee on The Office, last appeared in theaters nationwide in We’re the Millers, but can be found on VOD in David Wain’s clever rom-com spoof They Came Together. He’ll next be seen in Joe Carnahan’s Stretch, assuming that film ever gets released, and will be heard in the upcoming Captain Underpants animated adaptation.

When it comes to cinematic Shakespeare adaptations, it’s always nice whenever someone decides to go outside the box and avoid making the same four films we’ve seen a thousand times. Luckily, the next feature we’re looking forward to is the romance/tragedy/comedy Cymbeline, which Deadline reports has added Ed Harris to its cast, continuing one of busiest streaks in Harris’ career.

For Cymbeline, Harris will be joining Ethan Hawke, who was the first cast member added when he came aboard last week. Hawke is reteaming with writer/director Michael Almereyda (New Orleans, Mon Amour) and Keep Your Head Productions’ Anthony Katagas on the project, both of whom he previously worked with on 2000’s Hamlet adaptation. This is the first feature that Harris and Hawke have made together, however.

Harris is set to take on the title role of King Cymbeline himself, although this won’t be the strictest take on the source material. It’s described as Sons of Anarchy meets Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, though probably without appealing to the MTV generation. It’s set in modern-day America, and will follow a group of corrupt cops who take on a drug dealing biker gang. The original play involved jilted lovers, an evil queen, mistaken identities and, of course, death. Considering S.O.A. is already a loose adaptation of Hamlet, you’d think everyone involved with this project would be working harder to avoid that comparison.

If we’re talking about working hard, we’re talking Ed Harris in 2013. He starred in Michael Bay’s bodybuilding kidnapper caper Pain and Gain, Todd Robinson’s Soviet submarine thriller Phantom and Logan Miller’s Sundance western Sweet Vengeance. And that’s just what already came out. Later this year we’ll also see him in Joon-ho Bong’s post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller Snowpiercer and Arie Posin’s romantic drama The Face of Love. Next year will see him in the illegal alien drama Frontera.

If you’d prefer to get your Shakespeare on before Cymbeline comes out, it’s a good year for those, too. Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing released a couple of months ago, Carlo Carlei’s Romeo and Juliet will have a limited theater run next month, and Justin Kurzel is planning on adapting Macbeth with Natalie Portman and Michael Fassbender (not to mention Warm Bodies, which was basically Romeo and Juliet with the undead).

Filming on Cymbeline is set to begin in New York City on August 19th, with a 2014 release date planned. If you have a few hours to check out the only other major and recent adaptation of the material, check out Elija Moshinsky’s 1982 British miniseries below, which is available on YouTube for some reason.

Pain & Gain, like a film noir, begins at the end. Mark Wahlberg, who for two decades has made a career off of being muscled, dopey and likable, is doing sit-ups in the golden Miami sun, chanting to himself "I am big! I am strong!" He's circled by the Miami-Dade Police, and we cut to flashback just as Wahlberg is splayed on the roof of a cop car: a goner.

We know from the very start that Wahlberg will come to no good end in Pain & Gain, but just in case you've forgotten, the proof comes again halfway through the movie, in a single profile shot. The moment Ed Harris appears onscreen, as the private detective hired to hunt down the bodybuilders who kidnapped and tortured a Miami businessman, the audience knows that Wahlberg and his crew are irrevocably fucked. Just as the presence of Wahlberg says "lovable doofus," the presence of Harris says "ruthless competence." Bay expresses these things not through camera or script or any of his famous cinematic tricks; he says it through the language of star power, which in Pain & Gain he completely masters.

For the last decade Bay has been credited with demolishing the old star system, making a trilogy of wildly successful movies that nominally starred Shia LaBeouf, but more importantly the CGI robots and the destruction they could cause. Though he helped create a star in Will Smith in Bad Boys, and helped destroy one with Ben Affleck in Pearl Harbor, Bay has never seemed particularly invested in the star-driven model of making blockbusters-- if anything, Bay himself is the star of his movies. The Transformers films brought in the likes of John Tuturro and Frances McDormand to mug and be humiliated; Bay cared so little about the female lead of the series, Megan Fox, that he unceremoniously replaced her with a Victoria's Secret model.

But Pain & Gain, which at $25 million is unquestionably Bay's smallest movie, relies entirely on the language of star power to make itself clear. A dark, dark comedy featuring startling violence and abhorrent behavior by nearly everyone involved, Pain & Gain threads a fine needle of satire that practically no one thought Bay could accomplish. But by casting nearly everyone in roles that comment on or subvert their public personas, Bay puts the satire entirely on the surface.

Wahlberg is cast here in the only role that's ever really suited him, a buff guy with dreams a bit bigger than his intelligence will allow him to reach. The fact that his dreams involve kidnapping and torture this time sets the catalyst for the entire film, and allows for the complete shift to a dark tone-- this is what happens when Dirk Diggler is lured not by sex, but by violence, toward success. That contrast is even sharper with the character played by The Rock, a guy who is the physical manifestation of the two poles of The Rock's career. He's an ex-con who claims his God-given gift is "knocking people the fuck out" (as The Rock did in a long wrestling career, in Fast Five, The Scorpion King, etc.), but he's also a born-again Christian who tries to befriend their victim (just like you'd expect from the star of Tooth Fairy and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island).

The third schemer of the bunch is played by Anthony Mackie, not nearly as famous as Wahlberg or Johnson, but that's part of the point-- he's skinnier and dumber than the other two and furious about it, like the little kid dogging after older siblings who can't shake him. Mackie's relative lack of fame allows him to be the butt of the movie's dumbest jokes, but also the character most capable of surprise. Wahlberg and Johnson, in completely upturning their personas, will act only in ways that continue to contradict their public selves; Mackie, an up-and-comer, is the wild card.

And then there's Ed Harris, the scrawny, pale, well-dressed antithesis to the bulked-up yahoos we've been following for the entire film. Harris arrives as an authoritative, put-together presence who seems to come from an entirely different movie-- and in fact he does, drawing on our memories Apollo 13 and The Truman Show and Bay's own The Rock to instantly be the calm and competent foe who will bring these ridiculous criminals down. Unlike Wahlberg and Johnson (and to some degree Tony Shalhoub, turning douchebag after years of being likable on Monk), Harris isn't playing against type at all. As the voice of reason who arrives in the film after an hour of lunacy, Harris is practically a parody of the triumphant experts he's played for decades, and the only human onscreen you can actually root for. Bay brings in Harris not just because he can play an authority, but because his very presence means an authority who will not be beaten.

Though Bay is careful to keep all this satire from turning into outright parody, there are a few moments where he can't help himself. As the three crooks strip down to begin hacking apart some bodies they need to hide, Wahlberg is revealed to be wearing white Calvin Klein boxer briefs, the exact skimpy clothing that made him famous. Later on The Rock is told to grill a pair of hands to remove the fingerprints, and when Wahlberg returns he grimaces at the smell-- literally smelling what The Rock is cooking. These are silly in-jokes that don't do much to make these characters anything but fractured reflections of the stars' own personalities, but they're also the clearest distillation of the film's purpose. After nearly a decade of preferring digital robots over flesh and blood humans, Bay has made a movie that's not just featuring stars, it's about them. In walking the impossible tightrope of violent satire, Bay succeeds by calling up one of cinema's most powerful and least-understood languages: the relationship the audience has with the people onscreen before the film even begins.

Last year at this time, the ever-graceful Annette Bening was at the center of Oscar buzz thanks to her heartbreaking turn in the poignant dramedy The Kids Are All Right. Of course, we all know the award that night went to Natalie Portman for Black Swan, but the loss hasn't seemed to faze Bening. Since then, she has lined up a robust slate of projects, including the Kristen Wiig-fronted comedy Imogene, the in-production, romance-centered biopic Hemingway & Fuentes, and He Loves Me, directing duo Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris's long-awaited follow-up to Little Miss Sunshine. It seems Bening cannot get enough of love stories as Hollywood.com has just unveiled she's signed on to The Look of Love, where she'll star opposite Ed Harris.

The Look of Love centers on a widow named Niki, who believes she's through with love until she meets a man (Harris) who looks exactly like her late husband. We first got word of this romantic feature last year, when writer-director Arie Posin (The Chumscrubber) was prepping to pitch it at the European Film Market. However, at that time, it was Diane Keaton who was attached to star opposite Harris.

There are no details on why Keaton has walked away from the project, but I think Bening is an inspired replacement pick. Sure, she doesn't have Keaton's track record for rom-coms, but for me that's part of the appeal here. With Keaton and Harris, it was easy to picture The Look of Love; it would be enjoyable though possibly predictable. However, with Bening, an accomplished dramatic actress and winsome comedic performer, there's an element of the unexpected when it comes to how she may approach the role. Plus Bening and Harris both possess a kind of effortless sexuality that is sure to sizzle onscreen.

While there's been little mention of the film's genre thus far, it seems certain The Look of Love will be a dramedy. Not only would this be in the vein of Posin's last feature, but also reports that Robin Williams has joined the cast suggest the movie will veer into comedic territory despite its mournful setup.

The Look of Love is looking to shoot this Spring, with plans to hit theaters in 2013.

Action-movie ringmaster Michael Bay is currently in negotiations with Paramount Pictures to craft the seemingly inevitable Transformers 4, but Bay's made it plain that his top priority at present is to shoot his ripped-from-the-headlines thriller Pain and Gain. Inspired by the immoral escapades of the Sun Gym gang, the film would center on a pack of burly but dumb bodybuilders who decide to make some quick cash by robbing and kidnapping an affluent Florida businessman. After a series of roid rage-fueled beatings, the macho morons leave their victim for dead and with a taste for bloody revenge. Their comeuppance later comes at the hands of a private investigator hired to track them down.

While this plotline could easily lend itself to the gritted-teeth theatrics of No Country For Old Men, Bay plans to play up the bungling buffoons aspect of the story, making Pain and Gain a darkly comedic caper in the vein of the more spirited Coen brothers' effort, Fargo. To that end, Bay has already secured Dwayne Johnson, who—it's safe to assume—will play one of the Sun Gym gang. And now Vulture has revealed that Bay's courting Ed Harris, who co-starred in Bay's Alcatraz-set thriller The Rock, to play his gun-for-hire detective.

Personally, my interest is piqued by the criminally deranged concept, but it's Harris' involvement that has me outright intrigued. The always-solid performer has a deft ability to play both comedy and drama, and an onscreen confidence that makes him an awe-inspiring tough guy. Simply put, he's an inspired pick to ground Bay's over-the-top style with some rugged glower power. However, as negotiations between Paramount and Bay are ongoing, it's too soon to say if Harris will indeed be inked for the final cast. With Bay looking to shoot Pain and Gain this spring, though, a confirmation, one way or the other, should hit soon.

The award winning team behind HBO's fantastic political drama Recount are back with an adaptation of the best selling book "Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime" by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. Adapted for the premium cable network by Danny Strong and directed by Jay Roach, HBO's Game Change will explore the behind-the-scenes events of the intense and surprising 2008 Presidential election. You know, the one with the Hockey Mom who could see Russia from her house in Alaska.

The fact that the same creatives as Recount are also behind this special already gives me great confidence that the television film will be poignant, unrelenting and all done with comedic flair. The last part is key because you can't tell this story without capturing the absurdity of the whole enterprise and how a Governor from probably the most forgettable state in the union (sorry Alaska, I'm still bitter that you aren't part of Canada) was plucked from obscurity and put on the National stage. And this first preview captures the vast tonal range perfectly - both intense, important and yet, at times irreverent -and it's once again set to The Guess Who's "American Woman." How fitting, if not a bit cliche.

This first full trailer for the special is pretty sensational. Like I said, not a huge fan of the music, however, that's a minor point to dwell on when there is so much to love - mostly the extended looks at the uncanny performances delivered by Ed Harris and, the incredible, Julianne Moore. Harris looks spot on as John McCain and his arc will be perhaps the most fascinating, watching him change from the man we knew from his The Daily Show visits to the presidential candidate who seemingly lost a lot of his core beliefs along the way. Moore is going to win any and all acting awards. I don't even need to see anymore, the trailer is enough. She captures everything we know about Sarah Palin, her look and her speech, as well as diving deeper into the actual person behind the cameras and tailor made suits. Oh, and having Woody Harrelson in anything doesn't hurt. Take a look and mark your calendars.

Game Change airs Saturday, March 10 on HBO. It stars Julianne Moore, Ed Harris and Woody Harrelson.

Following his Oscar win for penning Gus Van Sant's poignant biopic Milk, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black decided to take to the director's chair himself to helm his next script, What's Wrong With Virginia. The drama, which co-stars Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris and Emma Roberts, was completed in 2010, and soon scored a spot at the Toronto International Film Festival. However, there it had a lackluster showing and was subsequently lost amid such high-profile productions as Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, Mark Romanek's Never Let Me Go, and John Cameron Mitchell's Rabbit Hole. From there, it faded from the spotlight and was left with no promise of theatrical release. However, THR now reports that this has all changed thanks to the Toronto-based, indie distribution company Entertainment One, who has just purchased the rights to distribute the feature throughout North America.

The melodrama, now called simply Virginia, centers on the tumultuous relationship between a mentally unstable single-mom (Connelly) and her lonely teen son (Harrison Gilbertson), who is on a desperate quest to uncover the identity of the father he's never known. Convinced his real dad is the local Sherriff (Harris), who is by all accounts and upstanding family man, the boy begins some amateur detective work that takes him into dangerous terrain as he falls for the Sherriff's lovely daughter (Roberts). Toby Jones, Carrie Preston, and Yeardley Smith co-star.

Entertainment One (also known as eOne) has announced plans to release Virginia as early as this spring. Dylan Wiley, eOne Films US vp of theatrical marketing and distribution, believes the drama will be a great fit, saying:

No specific release date has yet been announced.

It's fairly surprising that it's taken this long for a World War Z movie to get made. There are few sub-genres more popular than zombies nowadays, the Max Brooks book is a must-own for any fan of the undead and Brad Pitt and Marc Forster have been attached for years. With Paramount finding a co-financer earlier this year, however, the film was finally able to pull itself out of development hell and start production to prepare for a 2012 release date. But guess what? It's run into another big problem.

Vulture reports that both Matthew Fox and Ed Harris, who entered talks for the project a couple weeks ago, have pulled out, leaving Forster and the crew scrambling to find replacements. While the reasons behind Harris' departure is unknown, Fox was forced to pull out due to a scheduling conflict with I, Alex Cross, in which he will be playing a villain. Making the situation all the more difficult is that the movie is currently lensing in Malta, meaning that new actors have to be found quickly (the search is already on in London and Los Angeles). The story, adapted by J. Michael Straczynski, has Brooks (Pitt) as a journalist traveling around the world collecting stories of those that survived World War Z: a globe-spanning battle between humans and zombies that almost wiped out existence.

This is just a case of bad luck. It's as though some omnipotent force out there was saying, "This production doesn't have enough problems, so I'm going to make two of the most recognizable names on the cast list disappear." Still, just as long as they don't epically fuck up the Battle of Yonkers, I will continue to highly anticipate the film's release.

Part Saved, part Get Shorty, part out of control game of hot potato, the first trailer for George Ratliff’s Salvation Boulevard just dropped, and it is a frantic back-and-forth between Christians, atheists and a reformed hippy. The Christians are led by Pastor Dan Day (Pierce Brosnan), a charismatic preacher who turned his church into a thriving business. The atheists are led by Dr. Paul Blaylock, a liberal professor who openly opposes the teachings of the Church. And the lonely hippy is Carl Vanderveer (Greg Kinnear), an idiot who doubles as the perfect patsy.

The thing I love about this trailer is how quickly it establishes its characters’ personalities. Within thirty seconds, we have a very good sense of the three men at the center of the controversy and how each relates to each other. A naysayer may argue that’s easy to do with a triumvirate of such divergent personalities, but it seems clear from the limited clip that Salvation Boulevard is eager to meddle with those clichés. Take a look at the teaser below…

Distributed by IFC Films, it’s unclear how wide of a release Salvation Boulevard might get, especially considering it didn’t make too much noise at Sundance, but regardless of its ultimate theater count, the film should appear on OnDemand after its official July 15th release date. As you can see from the above clip, it also stars Marisa Tomei, who makes a habit of popping up in great indies, and Jennifer Connelly who’s made her fair share of wonderful films. Add those ladies to a byline that already includes Brosnan, Harris and Kinnear, and the cast is arguably as good as we’ll see all year.

You can head on over to Apple to see the high resolution version.

First. Never doubt HBO. It's a lesson I've learned over the years. Second. When you do doubt HBO, quickly admit you were wrong to have ever done so... therefore, my name is Jesse and I must admit, at first I very much doubted the potential of HBO's Game Change and I'm sorry.

In my defense, Jay Roach's last effort (Dinner for Schmucks) didn't exactly inspire confidence but if you get past that and a few of his other recent blemishes, you can still find a few comedic gems hidden in that filmogaphy that suggest Game Change is, in fact, in surprisingly capable hands... Roach is the man who directed one of the better recent HBO movies, Recount, which, when you look at the obvious similarities in topic, tone and talent involved my mind is quickly changing on Game Change.

Sure, we haven't actually seen any footage BUT what we have seen so far is promising... the released picture of Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin (and yeah, as you can see, she looks the part to say the least) and now our first look, courtesy of EW, at John McCain playing John McCain... oh wait, that's Ed Harris looking uncannily like the Senator turned Presidential candidate turned, well, subject of an HBO expose on the now infamous campaign that paired the doomed Republicans. Take a look at Harris and try not to hear him say the words... country first (integrity second?).

So, now that we know they look the part, I can't wait to see the first trailer for the HBO movie coming later this year. Directed by Jay Roach, Game Change stars Julianne Moore, Ed Harris and Woody Harrelson and details the events on the losing side of the historic 2008 election.

It's been seven long years since Peter Weir has had a directorial effort in theaters. A six time Academy Award nominee for great films like Witness, Dead Poets Society and The Truman Show, the man has been sorely missed, but now he's back and taking us across the span of Russia.

The Guardian has posted the first trailer for The Way Back, a film based on the novel by Slavomir Rawicz in which a group of soldiers try and make their way home after escaping from a Siberian gulag. In case you never bothered to take notice, it's not exactly an easy trip, filled with some of the harshest terrain on Earth, from frozen tundra to the Himalayan mountains. The film stars Colin Farrell, Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Saoirse Ronan and Mark Strong and is currently scheduled for a limited release in January (though it will be premiering in Los Angeles on December 29th so that it can be eligible for Oscar consideration). Check out the trailer below.

Dustin Lance Black paved a pretty golden road for himself the moment he met up with Gus Van Sant. Black's first screenplay, Milk, snagged him an Oscar, and now his directorial debut What's Wrong With Virginia comes with Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris in the lead roles and, of course, Van Sant as an executive producer. But while he kept it simple and let the performances and the story speak for itself in Milk, Black comes to Virginia armed with dozens of ideas and pastiches from other films, none of which fit comfortably into this small-town melodrama.

Like Milk, though, Virginia is propped up by a strong central performance, with Connelly doing some of her best work in years as the unstable-verging-on-totally-nuts Virginia. Living in a beach town and raising her teenage son Emmett (Harrison Gilbertson) on her own. He's strongly suspected all his life that his father is local sheriff Dick Tipton (Ed Harris), who has carried on an affair with Virginia for decades, and Emmett's hunt for answers gets more urgent when he falls for Tipton's daughter Jessie (Emma Roberts). Meanwhile Virginia continues losing it, faking a pregnancy and ignoring what appears to be lung cancer and attempting to rob the local bank-- and that's without even getting into her newfound interest in becoming a proper Mormon.

The movie is all over the place in every imaginable way, set in some modern-day American pastiche of the 50s as translated by David Lynch and Todd Haynes, vacillating wildly from camp to melodrama to harsh satire and back again, and relying on us to stay grounded in the whole thing by Gilbertson's Emmett, who seems like a nice kid and all, but sure doesn't have the strength to carry a movie on his shoulders. Both Emmett and Virginia narrate the story as flashbacks, and while Virginia's narration is far more unreliable, she's the only one you want to hear from. Wearing bleached blonde hair and a series of billowy dresses, Connelly has rarely looked more fragile or dangerous; like Virginia she's adrift in a world that doesn't quite appreciate her, and just as you root for Virginia to pull it together and leave town, you root for Connelly to track down a better movie.

With talent like Toby Jones, Carrie Preston and Amy Madigan struggling mightily to get noticed amid the din, Virginia starts to feel manic well before the ending attempts to mix violence and comedy with distasteful results. The film has enough big names attached to probably attract some buyer interest, and there are snippets of good things here-- Connelly's performance, cinematography by Eric Alan Edwards, music by Nick Urata-- that are worth championing for those so inclined. I felt mostly that it was an early draft for something that could potentially have great power with a little more focus.

More Cinema Blend coverage from the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival right here.

Are we dreaming? Is the WWE really going to be one of the busiest production companies in the coming years? The wrestling staple already has two features in the can this year alone, now to be followed up by a third, Big Red, says Variety.

Even more shocking is that they seem to have been able to swindle legit actors into carrying their films, a responsibility that until now has been dumped squarely on the shoulders of wrestlers whose only acting experience is the soap opera of the WWE. The “production company” recently hired Ed Harris, who might just be their biggest name to date, to topline Big Red, along with his wife Amy Madigan on board to support him. No word on if the real-life couple will play significant others in the film.

Big Red is a middle-school drama set in the mid-60’s which follows a teacher (Harris) whose life is changed by a fearless outcast named Stanley. The resident WWE meathead who most definitely will knock the film’s credibility down a few pegs will be Randy Orton, playing the father of the school bully who attempts to get Harris fired.

As much as it sounds like the WWE is making a valid effort to turn themselves into an honest-to-goodness production company, it’s still nearly impossible to take them seriously. The few movies they’ve shot this year sound like they could be worth a watch until you see that one of their payrolled muscle monsters has been shoehorned into a supporting role, if not a lead. I won’t count them out just yet, but after The Marine, it’s hard to expect anything better.

Does anyone have a good explanation for why Pierce Brosnan seems to be everywhere right now? It's not like the erstwhile James Bond went anywhere, exactly-- he was getting steady work showing up in random indies like The Matador and Married Life-- but ever since he warbled his way through Mamma Mia! in 2008, it seems like you can't turn a corner without running into him.

Not that it's a bad thing-- I'm growing pretty fond of the guy myself. Now there will be yet another chance to catch Brosnan in Salvation Boulevard, an indie that Variety reports will star Brosnan, Ed Harris and Jim Gaffigan. They're not saying who is playing who, but one of them will be the pastor of a mega-church, with another as a former -deadhead-turned-born-again-Christian who finds himself on the run from the devoted followers.

The director is George Ratliff, who also helped adapt the screenplay from Larry Beinhart's book.Ratliff previously directed the creepy kid movie Joshua, which I have inexplicably seen despite the fact that it stars Sam Rockwell and Vera Farmiga. Ratliff's knack for working with fascinating actors, though, seems to be continuing with this new trio.

It's been over six years since Peter Weir last released a movie, and fans of the Truman Show and Master and Commander director have probably been frustrated by the lack of detail about his next movie The Way Back. Now the silence has been broken! Quiet Earth found seven images and a synopsis for the film based on a true story about escapees from a Siberian labor camp. First the synopsis:

Sounds good, especially if they leave out all the hokey trailer talk. The movie starts Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess and Saoirse Ronan, all actors I'd watch doing pretty much anything (yes, including Sturgess). Check out a handful of the new images below and click on them for a link to Quiet Earth's full gallery. The Way Back doesn't have studio distribution yet as far as I know, but with a cast and a director like this, it probably won't be long before it's picked up. We'll let you know what happens.