Star Wars Is in a Slump. Is ‘Andor' Its Only Hope?
Tony Gilroy is a jedi of screenwriting. He was a longtime Hollywood script fixer, wrote most of the Jason Bourne movies and was Oscar-nominated for 'Michael Clayton,' a George Clooney legal thriller that film buffs and fellow writers speak of in reverential tones.
If only Gilroy, 68, could sell everyone on the show he spent the last six years crafting.

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Dakota Johnson and Celine Song on love, dating and ‘Materialists'
Before Celine Song was an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, she was a playwright in New York who needed day jobs to pay rent. That's how she found herself as a professional matchmaker. What may have begun as a purely transactional gig, a way for her to keep making her art in an expensive city, taught her more about people's wants and needs and the true contents of their hearts than she could have ever imagined. 'I always wanted to write something about it because there seemed to be a story in it that is massive and very epic in proportion,' Song said. 'It affects every human being on Earth." And while waiting for her breakout film 'Past Lives' to debut, she did. That film is 'Materialists,' a modern-day New York love story starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans that's heading to theaters this weekend. Johnson is the matchmaker presented with two different types of men for herself — one a poor struggling actor and ex-boyfriend, the other a wealthy 'unicorn' — and the internet has already been drawing battle lines. But, like 'Past Lives' wasn't really about a love triangle, 'Materialists' is about something more than the question of which guy is the 'correct' choice. Song and Johnson spoke with The Associated Press about the film, falling in love and the modern marketplace of dating. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity. SONG: We met up thinking that we were just going to get to know each other and be friends and I walked away from that conversation — this is just from my perspective — but I think I was still sitting there when I texted my producers and the studio being like, 'I think I've found my Lucy.' That's how casting works for me, it's always about falling in love. It's very connected to what we talk about in the film. Like, there's no mathematical anything. It just the feeling that you get talking to someone and you're like, oh I just know. JOHNSON: I knew you had this movie that you were about to start making. I was basically told it was too late. I was like, but I really want to meet her because she's so smart, and I've seen interviews and obviously had seen 'Past Lives.' I just wanted talk and get to know her as an artist and a person and so I went into this being like there's no chance that I'll be in this movie, but maybe she'll make another one. We just had such a good time talking, I didn't even know that I was someone she was thinking about. A few weeks later we spoke. It was very romantic. JOHNSON: She's sort of at the top of her game in her work and is very disconnected from her heart and focused on being a perfectionist and getting people to get married. On the surface, you see her as a very transactional person and not really invested in people's souls, but she actually is and really does want the best for them. She's also on her own journey of trying to figure out what it is she wants for herself in this life, and, essentially, do you fight for the thing that you think you want, or do you fight for that thing that you know you need? Is that right, Celine? SONG: That's so good. SONG: It was never going to be a conversation about which flavor of a person. It's actually so much more about this marketplace of dating that all of us live in if you're single, and also the marketplace that Dakota's character is navigating. She knows the math better than anyone else in the film. She's an excellent matchmaker. Pedro plays somebody who is probably, in straight dating, someone of the highest possible value. Chris' character, in the spectrum in the marketplace of values of dating, is someone who is of the lowest value possible. I find them to be such adorable characters, very worthy of an adoration. Lucy knows exactly where they fall in the in the stock market of men. It's actually about the way that the math around that is going to blow up. JOHNSON: Celine speaks so eloquently about the marketplace of dating and I glitch at those words because I'm like, you can't explain love that way. But that's actually how people are. Marriage used to be a business deal. It was like, my father wants your cows and my mother needs your wheat and whatever. It was a trade-off. But now there's all these books about how we expect our partner to fulfill every single aspect of our needs. And the world being dominated by social media, people don't meet in real life anymore. They don't behave normally in public. People are in a very strange place in evolution, and I think the difference between these two characters and these two men, sure they are different ends of the spectrum in terms of like technical value, materialistic value. But also each of them have the opposite in terms of psycho-spiritual value and emotional value and what they can offer the other person in terms of soul evolution and growth. Perhaps because she works in this world of trying to understand people and what they want, she's forced to go more inward and really interrogate herself and say, what do I really want and what is actually important in this life? Is it how much money I have or is it how truly loved I am? SONG: To me, it's about this contradiction, right? It's this thing of how we talk about what we want in our partner, when we're asked to use language to describe it, and how we literally, spiritually fall in love. The gap between those two things is terrifyingly big. To me, that's where the mystery of the film is. This story first ran May 1, 2025, as part of AP's summer movie preview package. It has been updated ahead of the film's release in theaters.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Sydney Sweeney Details 'Crazy' 30-Pound Transformation To Play Christy Martin In Biopic: 'My Body Was Completely Different'
Sydney Sweeney is sharing the 'crazy' transformation and preparation that went into portraying pioneering female boxer Christy Martin in a new biopic set for release later this year. Speaking to W Magazine for the actress' new cover story, the film's director David Michôd said the Emmy-nominated Euphoria star gained more than 30 pounds to play the athlete, who put female boxing on the map in the '90s, covered Sports Illustrated and fought on Mike Tyson's undercard. More from Deadline Sydney Sweeney Teases 'Euphoria' Season 3: "Cassie Is Crazy" 'Echo Valley' Review: Julianne Moore And Sydney Sweeney Are Dynamite In Nail-Biting, Riveting Thriller Mikey Madison In Talks To Step In For Sydney Sweeney On A24's 'Masque Of The Red Death' 'I loved it,' the Anyone but You star said of the behind-the-scenes training. 'I came onboard to play Christy, and I had about three and a half months of training. I started eating. I weight-trained in the morning for an hour, kickboxed midday for about two hours and then weight-trained again at night for an hour.' Sweeney, who also donned brown contact lenses and a brunette wig fashioned into a mullet-like hairstyle for the role, added, 'My body was completely different. I didn't fit in any of my clothes. I'm usually a size 23 in jeans, and I was wearing a size 27. My boobs got bigger. And my butt got huge. It was crazy! I was like, 'Oh my god.' But it was amazing: I was so strong, like crazy strong.' Amid production for the film last year, which has since wrapped, Sweeney shared the first photos of herself as Martin, writing at the time on social media, 'Over the past few months, i've been immersed in training to bring to life the story of an incredible woman—a true champion who fought battles both inside and outside the ring. Her journey is a testament to resilience, strength, and hope, and I'm honored to step into her shoes to share her powerful story with you all. more to come soon.' The as-yet untitled biopic, which hails from a script co-written by Michôd and Mirrah Foulkes, follows Martin's story as the first breakout in U.S. female boxing. The biopic will trace her rise to fame and the abuse she faced at the hands of her then-husband, who attempted to murder her. 'Our film is a wild mix of inspiring underdog sports-world story and personal saga. Sydney trained her butt off to play the part. The beauty of Sydney is that she turned up to work every day with her tail wagging, ready to go. No matter how tough it was, she was like a ray of sunshine,' Michôd told W Magazine of the project. Just this weekend, Sweeney and Martin were seen during the International Boxing Hall of Fame's annual Parade of Champions held in Canastota, NY, where the actress was the grand marshal of the event. Outside of the biopic, Sweeney just wrapped production on The Housemaid, a Paul Feig-helmed adaptation which she co-produced. She is currently filming for Euphoria Season 3, as well as producing and starring in Scandalous! — directed by Colman Domingo, about the relationship between Sammy Davis Jr. and Kim Novak. Her previously announced Barbarella remake is also in process. Beyond that, she will be seen in Americana, releasing Aug. 22, 2025. Best of Deadline Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds A Full Timeline Of Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni's 'It Ends With Us' Feud In Court, Online & In The Media Where To Watch All The 'John Wick' Movies: Streamers That Have All Four Films
Yahoo
2 hours ago
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Pink's Daughter Willow Deserves a Tony Award for This Performance
Originally appeared on E! Online Pink is raising her glass to one special performance. From the comfort of her living room, the 'So What' singer watched the 2025 Tony Awards with her 14-year-old daughter Willow Sage and, in addition to seeing stars like Darren Criss and Cole Escola take home trophies, she was treated to her own at-home concert. In a video shared to Pink's Instagram Story June 8, Willow stood on her own version of the Radio City Music Hall stage (a coffee table in the living room) and belted the song 'Where I Wanna Be' from the Tony-nominated musical Boop! Atop the clip, the 'Raise Your Glass' singer wrote, 'I like when she sings at me.' Pink—who also shares son Jameson Moon, 8, with husband Carey Hart—also commemorated theater's biggest night with a carousel of pics showing Willow enraptured by the award show and wearing a self-made ensemble. 'This girl is where she wants to be,' the 45-year-old wrote in the June 8 Instagram post, 'dressed up in her Great Gatsby the Musical costume (which she designed herself) watching the Tony's!' More from E! Online Justin Bieber Slams "Transactional Relationships' After Hailey Bieber Split Rumors Julie Chrisley Debuts New Blonde Hair After Prison Release Glen Powell's Ex Gigi Paris Breaks Silence on Sydney Sweeney Romance Rumors While it's clear that Pink is a fan of celebrating her daughter's passion for theater, the Grammy winner considers herself the benefactor of Willow's love for the stage. 'I am happy as long as my kids are being their authentic selves, and they're not a--holes,' Pink wrote in an October Instagram post of her and her daughter's trip to see The Great Gatsby on Broadway. 'But having a theater kid? Ultimate dream slash best case scenario.' 'I am under no illusion that any of this is easy,' she continued. 'Parenting, being a kid, being on this earth, any of it. As long as we are doing 'almost our best', and allowing others to be their true selves- then I think we're nailing it.' Meanwhile, ahead of Willow leaving her mom's Summer Carnival tour last June to participate in a home production of Bye Bye Birdie, Pink emphasized her excitement for her daughter's passion. 'I want her to go do the damn thing," the 'What About Us' singer said in a May interview with People. 'She's got a voice, man. She's a little bird.' Read on for more of Pink's touching moments with her family. For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App