
What to Stream: 'Paddington in Peru,' Prince Royce, 'Mormon Wives' and Doom: The Dark Ages
Paddington bear going on an Indiana Jones-style adventure in 'Paddington in Peru' and Alexander Skarsgard playing a robot with free will in Apple TV+'s series 'Murderbot' are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.
Also among the streaming offerings worth your time, as selected by The Associated Press' entertainment journalists: The Dominican-American singer Prince Royce covers hit songs on 'Eterno,' the surprise Bravo hit 'Mormon Wives' returns for Season 2 and there's a new gaming chapter in the groundbreaking Doom series, Doom: The Dark Ages.
— Brady Corbet's epic 'The Brutalist' is finally making its way to Max on Friday, May 16. The three-and-a-half-hour postwar saga won Adrien Brody the best actor Oscar earlier this year for his portrayal of László Tóth, a fictional architect and Holocaust survivor who attempts to build a new life in America. It was also awarded the best score (Daniel Blumberg) and best cinematography prizes. Director of photography Lol Crawley shot in VistaVision, a 70-year-old format famously utilized in films like 'Vertigo' and 'North by Northwest.' In her review, AP's Jocelyn Noveck wrote, 'It's about the immigrant experience, and it's about what happens when the American dream beckons, then fails. It also explores a different dream: the artist's dream, and what happens when it meets opposing forces, be they geographic displacement or cold economic calculus.'
— Paddington bear and the Brown family go on an Indiana Jones-style adventure in 'Paddington in Peru,' streaming on Netflix on Thursday. This third installment in the charming series has a few changes from its predecessors — in the filmmaker (Dougal Wilson taking over for Paul King) and Mrs. Brown (Emily Mortimer subbing in for Sally Hawkins). In his review, AP Film Writer Jake Coyle wrote that Wilson 'can't quite summon the same comic spirit' as King, but added that 'bright and buoyant, will do. If some of King's Wes Anderson-inspired pop-up book designs and skill with fine character actors is missing, the bedrock earnestness and unflaggingly good manners of its ursine protagonist remain charmingly unaltered.'
— In March 1988, the students of Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. staged a historic protest over the appointment of a hearing president instead of one who was deaf. 'Deaf President Now!,' a documentary streaming on Apple TV+ on Friday, May 16, chronicles that moment and examines its broader impact, like how it helped pave the way for the Americans with Disabilities Act. The film's visuals and soundscape were also designed to bring audiences into the Deaf experience.
— AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr
— Somehow, some way it has been 25 years since Britney Spears first put on a red latex catsuit and sang 'Oops!... I Did It Again' through her singular breathy tone, the title track of her sophomore album. Across the album – which includes other hits 'Lucky' and 'Stronger' – she ushered in new millennium as a zeitgeist-shaping pop superstar. Her influence in the decades that followed is unimpeachable, and on Friday, Sony will release a 25th anniversary edition of the record, complete with bonus tracks.
— Colombian-Canadian singer-songwriter Lido Pimienta returns with an ambitious new album, 'La Belleza.' It arrives five years after her breakout 'Miss Colombia,' and features the inventive artist veering into new, classical influences while maintaining her interest in Afro-Indigenous polyrhythms; the record was co-orchestrated with skilled arranger Owen Pallett. It's a step up for an artist whose embrace of the past has always placed her squarely in the future.
— The Dominican American singer Prince Royce covers hit songs on 'Eterno' – offering Spanglish, bachata-infused reimaginations of tracks like 'Killing Me Softly' as made famous by Roberta Flack, the Beatles' 'Yesterday,' Elvis Presley's 'Can't Help Falling In Love,' The Temptations' 'My Girl' and more.
— Music Writer Maria Sherman
— With shows like 'The Kardashians,' 'Vanderpump Villa' and 'The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives," Hulu is building a roster of reality TV that's quite Bravo-esq. 'Mormon Wives' was a surprise hit when it debuted last year. It's back for a second season on Thursday. The show follows the drama among a group of Mormon women living in the Salt Lake City area who have built a following on TikTok. They call their group of friends MomTok.
— After scoring big with 'The Pitt,' Max is looking to keep the momentum going with 'Duster." Co-created by JJ Abrams, the show stars Josh Holloway of 'Lost' as a getaway driver in the '70s who gets flipped by a rookie FBI agent, played by Rachel Hilson. Holloway has described the show as a throwback to when TV was less dark and more fun. It also has a groovy soundtrack. 'Duster' premieres Thursday.
— 'The Chi,' a drama about a young Black community living in Chicago's South Side returns Friday. Critics and fans have praised its portrayal of life as a Black person growing up in a rough neighborhood faced with systematic racism, violence, incarceration, and poverty. Kyla Pratt — known for playing the daughter of Eddie Murphy's character in the 'Dr. Dolittle' films and as the voice of Penny in 'The Proud Family' — joins the cast for season seven. The Chi' streams on Paramount+ with Showtime.
— We've seen Alexander Skarsgård as a tech bro on 'Succession' and an abusive husband on 'Big Little Lies.' Next, we get to see his comedic chops as a robot who gains free will in 'Murderbot' for Apple TV+. Premiering Friday, May 16, the show is based on a book series.
— Stanley Tucci is once again roaming through Italy. The Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning actor eats and meets in National Geographic's new food-travel series 'Tucci in Italy,' which premieres Sunday, May 18 and streams on Disney+ and Hulu the next day. Each episode of the first season of 'Tucci in Italy' explores a different region in Italy — from Tuscany to Trentino-Alto Adige, Lombardy, Abruzzo and Lazio. CNN canceled his 'Searching for Italy' in 2022.
— Alicia Rancilio
— If you like your games big, noisy and unabashedly gory, id Software's groundbreaking Doom series is hard to beat. Doom: The Dark Ages, the new chapter from publisher Bethesda Softworks, takes the demon-hunting space marine — now known as the Doom Slayer — back in time, sort of. His bosses have hauled the big lug to a quasi-medieval planet that's riddled with hell portals and under siege by the most bloodthirsty monsters yet. The Slayer has his usual arsenal of spectacular weapons, including a 'saw shield' he can fling like a deadly Frisbee, and some levels let him saddle up on a cybernetic dragon. It's like a heavy metal album cover come to life, and it arrives Thursday on Xbox X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC.
— Lou Kesten
© Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Japan Today
5 hours ago
- Japan Today
Tony Awards offer many intriguing matchups in a star-studded season
Joy Woods, left, and Audra McDonald appear during a performance of the Broadway musical "Gypsy" in New York. (Julieta Cervantes via AP) By MARK KENNEDY A pair of singing androids. Two Pulitzer Prize-winning plays. A drunken Mary Todd Lincoln. A musical with a corpse as its hero. Romeo, Juliet and teddy bears with rave music. Not to mention George Clooney. Broadway has had a stuffed season with seemingly something for everyone and now it's time to recognize the best with the Tony Awards, hosted by Cynthia Erivo, set for Sunday night on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. Broadway buzz is usually reserved for musicals but this year the plays — powered by A-list talent — have driven the conversation. There's Clooney in 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal in 'Othello,' Sarah Snook in a one-woman version of 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' and her 'Succession' co-star Kieran Culkin and Bob Odenkirk in 'Glengarry Glen Ross.' (Clooney, Snook and Odenkirk are nominated for Tonys.) There were two Pulitzer winners — 2024 awardee 'English' and 'Purpose' from 2025 — but perhaps one of the season's biggest surprises was 'Oh, Mary!,' Cole Escola's irreverent, raunchy, gleefully deranged revisionist history centered on Mary Todd Lincoln. All three are nominated for best play, along with 'John Proctor is the Villain' and 'The Hills of California.' On the musical side, three options seem to be in the mix for the top prize: 'Maybe Happy Ending,' a rom-com about a pair of androids; 'Dead Outlaw,' about an alcoholic drifter whose embalmed body becomes a prized possession for half a century; and 'Death Becomes Her,' the musical satire about longtime frenemies who drink a magic potion for eternal youth and beauty. 'Maybe Happy Ending,' 'Death Becomes Her' and another musical nominee, 'Buena Vista Social Club,' lead nominations with 10 apiece. The 2024-2025 season took in $1.9 billion, making it the highest-grossing season ever and signaling that Broadway has finally emerged from the COVID-19 blues, having overtaken the previous high of $1.8 billion during the 2018-2019 season. 'We're going through this strange period, which I would think someday we can draw the line from COVID to this, as you can draw the line from the early 1980s with AIDS to the explosion of big musicals again,' says Harvey Fierstein, who will get a special Tony for lifetime achievement. Audra McDonald, the most recognized performer in the theater awards' history, could possibly extend her Tony lead. Already the record holder for most acting wins with six Tonys, McDonald could add to that thanks to her leading turn in an acclaimed revival of 'Gypsy.' She has to get past Nicole Scherzinger, who has been wowing audiences in 'Sunset Blvd.' And Kara Young — the first Black female actor to be nominated for a Tony Award in four consecutive years — could become the first Black person to win two Tonys consecutively, should she win for her role in the play 'Purpose.' Other possible back-to-back winners include director Danya Taymor, hoping to follow up her 2024 win with 'The Outsiders' with another for 'John Proctor Is the Villain,' and 'Purpose' playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, who won last year with 'Appropriate.' Other possible firsts include Daniel Dae Kim, who could become the first Asian winner in the category of best leading actor in a play for his work in a revival of 'Yellow Face.' And Marjan Neshat and her 'English' co-star Tala Ashe could become the first female actors of Iranian descent to win a Tony. Broadway this season saw a burst in alt-rock and the emergence of stories of young people for young people, including 'John Proctor is the Villain' and a 'Romeo + Juliet' pitched to Generation Z and millennials. Sunday's telecast, as usual, will have a musical number for each of the shows vying for the best new musical crown, as well as some that didn't make the cut, like 'Just in Time,' a musical about Bobby Darin, and 'Real Women Have Curves.' This year, there's also room for 'Hamilton,' celebrating its 10th year on Broadway. But the musicals 'BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical' and 'SMASH' didn't get slots. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.


The Mainichi
21 hours ago
- The Mainichi
David Attenborough's 'Ocean' is a brutal, beautiful wake-up call from the sea
NICE, France (AP) -- An ominous chain unspools through the water. Then comes chaos. A churning cloud of mud erupts as a net plows the seafloor, wrenching rays, fish and a squid from their home in a violent swirl of destruction. This is industrial bottom trawling. It's not CGI. It's real. And it's legal. "Ocean With David Attenborough" is a brutal reminder of how little we see and how much is at stake. The film is both a sweeping celebration of marine life and a stark expose of the forces pushing the ocean toward collapse. The British naturalist and broadcaster, now 99, anchors the film with a deeply personal reflection: "After living for nearly a hundred years on this planet, I now understand that the most important place on Earth is not on land, but at sea." The film traces Attenborough's lifetime -- an era of unprecedented ocean discovery -- through the lush beauty of coral reefs, kelp forests and deep-sea wanderers, captured in breathtaking, revelatory ways. But this is not the Attenborough film we grew up with. As the environment unravels, so too has the tone of his storytelling. "Ocean" is more urgent, more unflinching. Never-before-seen footage of mass coral bleaching, dwindling fish stocks and industrial-scale exploitation reveals just how vulnerable the sea has become. The film's power lies not only in what it shows, but in how rarely such destruction is witnessed. "I think we've got to the point where we've changed so much of the natural world that it's almost remiss if you don't show it," co-director Colin Butfield said. "Nobody's ever professionally filmed bottom trawling before. And yet it's happening practically everywhere." The practice is not only legal, he adds, but often subsidized. "For too long, everything in the ocean has been invisible," Butfield said. "Most people picture fishing as small boats heading out from a local harbor. They're not picturing factories at sea scraping the seabed." In one harrowing scene, mounds of unwanted catch are dumped back into the sea already dead. About 10 million tons (9 million metrics tonnes) of marine life are caught and discarded each year as bycatch. In some bottom trawl fisheries, discards make up more than half the haul. Still, "Ocean" is no eulogy. Its final act offers a stirring glimpse of what recovery can look like: kelp forests rebounding under protection, vast marine reserves teeming with life and the world's largest albatross colony thriving in Hawaii's Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. These aren't fantasies; they're evidence of what the ocean can become again, if given the chance. Timed to World Oceans Day and the U.N. Ocean Conference in Nice, the film arrives amid a growing global push to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030 -- a goal endorsed by more than 190 countries. But today, just 2.7% of the ocean is effectively protected from harmful industrial activity. The film's message is clear: The laws of today are failing the seas. So-called "protected" areas often aren't. And banning destructive practices like bottom trawling is not just feasible -- it's imperative. As always, Attenborough is a voice of moral clarity. "This could be the moment of change," he says. "Ocean" gives us the reason to believe -- and the evidence to demand -- that it must be. "Ocean" premieres Saturday on National Geographic in the U.S. and streams globally on Disney+ and Hulu beginning Sunday.


The Mainichi
a day ago
- The Mainichi
Film festival showcases what artificial intelligence can do on the big screen
NEW YORK (AP) -- Artificial intelligence 's use in movie making is exploding. And a young film festival, now in its junior year, is showcasing what this technology can do on screen today. The annual AI Film Festival organized by Runway, a company that specializes in AI-generated video, kicked off in New York Thursday night with ten short films from around the world making their debut on the big screen. "Three years ago, this was such a crazy idea," Runway CEO Cristobal Valenzuela told the crowd. "Today, millions of people are making billions of videos using tools we only dreamed of." The film festival itself has grown significantly since its 2023 debut. About 300 people submitted films when it first began, Valenzuela said, compared to about 6,000 submissions received this year. The one and half-hour lineup stretched across a range of creative styles and ambitious themes -- with Jacob Adler's " Total Pixel Space " taking home the festival's top prize. The 9-minute and 28-second film questions how many possible images -- real or not -- exist in the digital space, and uses math to calculate a colossal number. A stunning series of images, ranging from the familiar life moments to those that completely bend reality, gives viewers a glimpse of what's out there. Meanwhile, Andrew Salter's "Jailbird," which snagged second place, chronicles a chicken's journey -- from the bird's perspective -- to a human prison in the United Kingdom to take part in a joint-rehabilitation program. And "One," a futuristic story by Ricardo Villavicencio and Edward Saatchi about interplanetary travel followed in third place. The 10 films shown were finalists selected from thousands submitted to Runway's AI Film Festival this year. The shorts will also be shown at screenings held in Los Angeles and Paris next week. How AI is used and executed is a factor judges evaluate when determining festival winners. But not every film entered was made entirely using AI. While submission criteria requires each movie include the use of AI-generated video, there's no set threshold, meaning some films can take a more "mixed media" approach -- such as combining live shots of actors or real-life images and sounds with AI-generated elements. "We're trying to encourage people to explore and experiment with it," Valenzuela said in an interview prior to Thursday's screening. Creating a coherent film using generative AI is no easy feat. It can take a long list of directions and numerous, detailed prompts to get even a short scene to make sense and look consistent. Still, the scope of what this kind of technology can do has grown significantly since Runway's first AI Film Festival in 2023 -- and Valenzuela says that's reflected in today's submissions. While there are still limits, AI-generated video is becoming more and more life-like and realistic. Runway encourages the use of its own AI tools for films entered into its festival, but creators are also allowed to turn to other resources and tools as they put together the films -- and across the industry, tools that use AI to create videos spanning from text, image and/or audio prompts have rapidly improved over recent years, while becoming increasingly available. "The way (this technology) has lived within film and media culture, and pop culture, has really accelerated," said Joshua Glick, an associate professor of film and electronic arts at Bard College. He adds that Runway's film fest, which is among a handful of showcases aimed at spotlighting AI's creative capabilities, arrives as companies in this space are searching for heightened "legitimacy and recognition" for the tools they are creating -- with aims to cement partnerships in Hollywood as a result. AI's presence in Hollywood is already far-reaching, and perhaps more expansive than many moviegoers realize. Beyond "headline-grabbing" (and at times controversial) applications that big-budget films have done to "de-age" actors or create eye-catching stunts, Glick notes, this technology is often incorporated in an array of post-production editing, digital touch-ups and additional behind-the-scenes work like sorting footage. Industry executives repeatedly point to how AI can improve efficiency in the movie making process -- allowing creatives to perform a task that once took hours, for example, in a matter of minutes -- and foster further innovation. Still, AI's rapid growth and adoption has also heightened anxieties around the burgeoning technology -- notably its implications for workers. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees -- which represents behind-the-scenes entertainment workers in the U.S. and Canada -- has "long embraced new technologies that enhance storytelling," Vanessa Holtgrewe, IATSE's international vice president, said in an emailed statement. "But we've also been clear: AI must not be used to undermine workers' rights or livelihoods." IATSE and other unions have continued to meet with major studios and establish provisions in efforts to provide guardrails around the use of AI. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has also been vocal about AI protections for its members, a key sticking point in recent labor actions. For Runway's AI Film Festival, Valenzuela hopes screening films that incorporate AI-generated video can showcase what's possible -- and how he says this technology can help, not hurt, creatives in the work they do today. "It's natural to fear change ... (But) it's important to understand what you can do with it," Valenzuela said. Even filmmaking, he adds, was born "because of scientific breakthroughs that at the time were very uncomfortable for many people."