Category: 5. Entertainment

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University presents Homage: Queer lineages on video, an exhibition of eight time-based works by contemporary artists who use single- and multi-channel video installations to pay tribute to formative figures and overlooked histories. Curated by Rattanamol Singh Johal, the exhibition upends conventional modes of commemorative image making, such as portraiture, documentary, and monuments, by foregrounding performative interventions, selective appropriation, and imaginative staging.

In their video works, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Tony Cokes, Carolyn Lazard, Kang Seung Lee, P. Staff, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul preference desiring, melancholic and reflexive forms of relationality across generations through works that posit queer forms of kinship. In a challenge to the preoccupation with visibility and publicness across the politics of identity and representation, these works demonstrate the potential of anachronistic gestures, formal affinities, and archival adjacencies in reframing relationships between artists and their chosen ancestors. The resulting constellation reveals modes of memorialization–of paying homage–that disturb canonicity and heroization through constant creative reinterpretation. 

Some of the artists engage with formal structures and characteristics of experimental film and early video. Disparate legacies of these avant-garde forms of the 1960s and 1970s are made manifest in their contemporary works, which surface issues of landscape and ecology (Weerasethakul), disability and perception (Lazard), and representation and narcissism (Bopape). Deploying sound, slowness, flash, and flicker, these artists attempt a queer reorientation of spectatorial sensibilities, directing them towards questions of place, identity, and access while retaining visual tropes of experimental moving-image practices.

Queer subjects and their ongoing investments in nurturing resistance, artistic expression, and joy are mobilized in installations by Lee, Cokes, Staff, and Tiravanija. As diverse artists across generations address the ongoing impact of HIV/AIDS on culture and lived experience, significant actors and histories from different contexts are brought into affective dialogue. The body is addressed and implicated across all these works, which consider the legacies and lived experiences of illness that have catalyzed communities of care and networks of solidarity among the living and the long departed.

The exhibition is accompanied by a 68-page publication with contributions by Rattanamol Singh Johal, Binghao Wong, Piper Marshall, Gaëtan Thomas, and Lynton Talbot. 

Jamea Richmond-Edwards: Another World and Yet the Same
September 13, 2025–June 14, 2026
Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College

The Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College presents Jamea Richmond-Edwards: Another World and Yet the Same, a large-scale survey of work by Detroit-based artist Jamea Richmond-Edwards. Highlighting her interdisciplinary practice, this exhibition features a selection of mixed-media paintings from the past seven years alongside a body of newly created work debuting at the Wellin. For over a decade, Richmond-Edwards has drawn inspiration from the communities and cultural signifiers of her hometown of Detroit, using her art to reflect on personal experiences and broader social and environmental themes. In this exhibition, the artist weaves an epic narrative following a caravan of family and friends on a fictional journey to Antarctica to build a new egalitarian society. This fantastical expedition explores the challenges of creating a utopia on a rapidly shrinking continent and examines the complexities of self-determination.

Richmond-Edwards draws inspiration from diverse sources, including the biblical stories of Exodus, the science fiction mythology of jazz musician Sun Ra, and the exploration of both real and imagined continents. Her work reflects a deep engagement with themes of migration, resilience, and the quest for a more equitable world. The exhibition’s title, borrowed from the seventeenth-century dystopian literary work about a voyage to the oceans south of Africa entitled Mundus alter et idem by Joseph Hall, underscores the artist’s exploration of the potential for societal transformation.

Jamea Richmond-Edwards: Another World and Yet the Same is curated by Alexander Jarman, Assistant Curator of Exhibitions and Academic Outreach, Ruth and Elmer Wellin  of Art at Hamilton College. A fully illustrated exhibition catalogue will be published in 2026, edited by Tracy L. Adler, Johnson-Pote Director of the Wellin Museum of Art, with contributions by Alexander Jarman; Melanee C. Harvey, Associate Professor and Coordinator of Art History at Howard University; and Juana Williams, independent art curator and writer based in Detroit. 

Alongside the solo exhibition, the Wellin Museum presents EXODUS, a group exhibition curated by Richmond-Edwards to honor the mentors and peers who have profoundly shaped her artistic journey. Featuring artists Akili Ron Anderson, Wesley Clark, Larry W. Cook, Shaunté Gates, Hubert Massey, Stan Squirewell, and Felandus Thames, EXODUS highlights the vital role of artistic kinship and collaboration in navigating both personal and structural challenges within the creative field.

Public programs
Friday, September 12 at 1pm (Facebook Live): Virtual artist & curator preview
Saturday, September 13: In-person panel discussion (2:30pm) followed by opening reception (4–6pm)
Monday, October 6 at 4:30pm: Hybrid “artists in conversation” lecture featuring Jamea Richmond-Edwards

About the Wellin Museum of Art
A teaching museum located on the campus of Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, the Wellin Museum invites visitors to discover the arts and form unexpected connections through groundbreaking exhibitions, a globally representative collection, and innovative programming for the campus community and beyond. Artists whose work has been featured in solo exhibitions organized by the Wellin include Jeffrey Gibson, Yun-Fei Ji, Yashua Klos, Sarah Oppenheimer, Michael Rakowitz, Elias Sime, and Renée Stout, among many others. Through its exhibitions, public programs, publications, and educational outreach, the Wellin Museum sparks dialogues across disciplines, inspires experimentation, and fosters creative inquiry. Opened in 2012 under the leadership of Tracy L. Adler, the innovative facility was designed by Machado Silvetti Associates and features a 27-foot-high visible archive, a large exhibition gallery, and other amenities that foster common exchange and learning.

For more information, visit here, subscribe to the museum’s newsletter, and join the conversation on social media.

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This article is the latest part of the FT’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign

Martin Lewis has called for Big Tech companies to be threatened with fines worth “tens of billions of pounds” to end the menace of AI-generated deepfake adverts on social media platforms, stressing the damage to British victims’ mental health as well as their finances.

Speaking at the FT Weekend Festival on Saturday, the consumer champion said it was not unusual for “300 to 400” scams a day featuring his image to appear across different social media platforms, including deepfake videos in which the Money Saving Expert founder appeared to be promoting fraudulent investment schemes.

“There are scam ads of me in computer games that children play, they’re all over the place,” he said. “I have people on my team who can spend half their week dealing with scam ads with me in [and getting them taken down].” He questioned why he had to fund this, and not the online tech groups.

Lewis said he had attended meetings with Big Tech companies who had told him they were investing in better software to spot and remove scam ads, but were resistant to his calls to employ more people to do so.

“Does Big Tech want scams on their platforms? No. I don’t believe they do. But this is a financial decision, not a technological decision,” he said to a round of applause from the audience in the FT Money tent at Kenwood House in north London.

“The reason they don’t crack down on scams is because it would slow down the advertising process and decrease their revenue. When we do put regulations in place . . . we need to be fining them tens of billions of pounds for bastardising our economy and hurting vulnerable people when they allow [scam ads], so much so that it is worthwhile financially for them to change their advertising practices to avoid the fines.”

Lewis waged a successful campaign to have scam ads included in the scope of the UK’s online safety bill in 2023, but a consultation on tackling scam ads will not take place until next year, leading him to fear consumers will not be protected by any additional legislation “until 2027” at the earliest, assuming UK regulators are “brave enough to enforce it”.

He expressed his deep frustration that for now, consumers remain unprotected. “When you’re scammed, especially for older people; you’re in retirement and your money’s gone . . . you hate yourself forever that you fell for it.”

Six years ago, Lewis personally sued Facebook for defamation over the issue of scam adverts fraudulently featuring his image, donating his £3mn out-of-court settlement to Citizens Advice to help victims of fraud. 

Meta, the owner of Facebook, was approached for comment.

Nearly 80 per cent of scams originate online, according to research by banking trade body UK Finance, with social media platforms accounting for around three-quarters of this total.

Advances in generative AI technology have led to a surge of investment scams with deepfake videos featuring the images of celebrities ranging from Elon Musk, Lewis, stars of the British TV series Dragons’ Den and the FT’s senior economics commentator Martin Wolf.

Last week, on ITV’s This Morning programme, Lewis was visibly upset when he met Gill Casey, the widow of 85-year-old Tim Casey who lost £120,000 to a deepfake scam that used his image to promote a fraudulent crypto investment scheme.

On another occasion, he said he had been approached by a member of the public who had fallen victim to a similar deepfake investment scam featuring Lewis’s image, but who refused to believe it was not real. “It took me over 20 minutes to persuade him it was a scam,” he said. “It’s funny, and it’s tragic, and it’s happening everywhere.

“I almost think the word ‘scam’ inures us to it . . . this is sophisticated organised crime. [Big Tech] needs to deny these criminals the oxygen of publicity.”

Bagpuss, the saggy old cloth cat who starred in one of Britain’s best-loved children’s TV shows, is set to appear in a new film that will see him awaken in the present day.

In the 13 original episodes, broadcast in 1974, the pink-and-white toy cat came to life when he woke up in a shop window.

Bagpuss gained more young fans with frequent repeats, and it was voted the nation’s favourite children’s show of all time in a BBC poll in 1999. Nine years later, he topped a poll to find the nation’s favourite children’s TV animal.

The planned film sequel, which is currently in development, will be the first new Bagpuss production since the original series and will feature a mixture of live action and animation, producers said.

Bagpuss and his companions, including a woodpecker called Professor Yaffle and Madeleine the rag doll, will “stir from their slumber to find themselves in contemporary Britain”, the announcement said.

They will embark on a “modern-day quest” with a story and animation techniques that will stay true to the spirit of the classic series, producers promised.

The film is being developed with the estates of Bagpuss’s original creators, Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin.

Firmin’s daughter Emily, who was the girl in the original series, said: “Bagpuss was an integral part of my childhood. To me he wasn’t just a character on the screen, he was a friend who taught me about kindness, care, and imagination.

“To see our most magical cat return now is incredibly moving and I’m thrilled that new fans will have the chance to discover him, and that his magic will live on and be shared with the next generation.”

In the original series, Emily brought lost and discarded property for Bagpuss to identify.

He was described at the beginning of each episode as “the most important, the most beautiful, the most magical saggy old cloth cat in the whole wide world”.

The film will be made by Birmingham-based Threewise Entertainment, co-creators of Nickelodeon’s Rock Island Mysteries, who are aiming for a release date in 2027.

Merlynn Tong’s new play, Congratulations, Get Rich!, bursts onto stage with all the colour and flair you’d expect from a work set in a struggling Singaporean-style karaoke bar.

Currently playing at Brisbane’s La Boite Theatre, the play opens with Mandy (Tong) and her doting boyfriend Xavier (Zac Boulton) caught in a literal and metaphorical storm on the 7th night of Chinese New Year, as the couple fight to save their failing business, Money Money Karaoke.

As tension mounts, two women from Mandy’s past materialise – her long-dead mother (Seong Hui Xuan) and her equally deceased grandmother (Kimie Tsukakoshi). Both women, returned as “hungry” ghosts, clamour for power and attention (and bok choy), as they air their unresolved grievances and reclaim what they have lost.

Unapologetically hectic and at times hilarious, the work is an ambitious blend of spectacle and soul-searching. A collaboration with Sydney Theatre Company and Singapore Repertory Theatre, it is also La Boite’s first international co-production in its 100-year history.

However, buried under sequins and showy songs, this generational ghost story ultimately privileges theatrics over tension and fails to forge an emotional connection.

Glitter, grief and intergenerational trauma

As a supernatural drama, the play grapples with big questions. What do we inherit from our ancestors? Can we escape the grip of the past? Are our lives determined by fate, or the choices we make?

At its heart, this is a story about cultural obligation and family dysfunction. In particular, it explores the inheritance of shame, silence and unresolved grief between mothers and daughters.

But the play feels like it’s trying to say too much, too quickly – as though it’s not sure if it’s a meditation on loss, or a musical comedy about self-reinvention.

The songs that punctuate the action are satirical, in a somewhat forced counterpoint to the dark circumstances of the drama.

The character of Xavier, Mandy’s white husband, provides some sharp commentary on “white saviour” tropes, but ultimately functions more as a dramatic device than a person. His underdevelopment makes it difficult to care about the couple’s relationship or future.

When the emotional climax of the play arrives – “I will make my own tradition” – it feels too neat, too expected.

The lighting is magical. And the movement work is delightfully choreographed, especially in its campy, supernatural moments.

Yet the story itself feels out of reach, as though trapped inside all that theatre.

Suicide and stigma

Cultural myths about trauma and grief can be powerful, but they can also misinform.

In 2020, Everymind, in partnership with the Australian Writers’ Guild and SANE Australia, published evidence-based guidelines for theatre makers whose work includes representations of mental ill-health and suicide.

The guidelines warn that dramatised portrayals of suicide can perpetuate stigma, and discourage individuals from seeking help if the suicide act is romanticised or sensationalised.

Stage productions should avoid glamorising suicide through music, lighting or setting. They should frame suicide as a tragedy, not a solution. And they should show suicide as the result of multiple complex and interacting factors, rather than a single cause.

In Get Rich!, the consecutive suicides of Mandy’s mother and grandmother arguably normalise suicidal ideation as an acceptable, and inevitable, course of action.

The family insists they carry “the suicide gene”. While this is deeply evocative and dramatically inviting, it serves to reinforce a deterministic view of mental health in which families are “doomed” by their biology, leaving little room for agency, hope and the possibility of recovery.

We learn Mandy’s mother takes her life because she struggles to cope with the collapse of her marriage and her resulting financial hardship. Mandy’s grandmother, a member of a gang known as the Red Butterflies, jumps off a bridge to evade police arrest.

The fact that suicide is used not once, but twice, with little exploration of the underlying causes and warning signs, diminishes the profound complexity of familial transmission of suicidal behaviour, and ultimately desensitises the audience to its real-world consequences.

Importantly, the Everymind guidelines also recommend contact details for support services are provided at the end of a piece, or as part of the drama.

At the play’s conclusion, once the hungry ghosts are exorcised, Mandy rapidly releases herself from her cultural baggage and internalised trauma when she realises, in a moment of epiphany, she can forge a new way forward.

Technically slick but emotionally elusive

Tong’s decision to both personalise and fictionalise the trauma sets up an uneasy reception.

She describes the work as a fantastic autobiography in which she “allowed [her] imagination to run wild”.

Tong herself grew up in a karaoke bar. At the age of 14, she lost her mother to suicide after her father passed away from cancer and her mother struggled to keep the family business afloat. In a recent interview, Tong explained that growing up, she “heard rumours that [her] grandmother may have passed the same way”.

However, much of the play’s emotional weight is conveyed through flashbacks, acted out by the performers behind a TV screen at the karaoke bar. While these retrospective moments are theatrically striking, the screen creates another layer of distance between the audience and characters.

We don’t hear Mandy – or Merlynn – give voice to the unspeakable pain of losing two generations of women to suicide.

If the point is that trauma is unspeakable, then the theatrical choices make sense. But the heart of the play remains largely in shadow – its emotional core obscured by glitter and gloss.

Congratulations, Get Rich! is playing at La Boite until September 20, at Singapore Repertory Theatre from October 29, and at Sydney Theatre Company from November 21.

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If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available. In Australia, you can contact Lifeline at 13 11 14 for confidential support.

Sphere Entertainment spent an estimated $2.3B on a huge, state-of-the-art venue in Las Vegas, 366 feet tall and 516 feet wide, and launched it in 2023 with a U2 performance.

(more…)

Billy Porter is “recovering from a serious case of sepsis”, forcing the early closure of Broadway’s revival of Cabaret in which he played a leading role.

The show’s producers announced on Sunday that Porter “is recovering from a serious case of sepsis” that will prevent him from returning to the stage.

“His doctors are confident that he will make a full recovery,” they added, “but have advised him to maintain a restful schedule these next couple of weeks”.

Porter has yet to issue a statement on his health.

The 55-year-old actor had been playing the role of Emcee since July, when he and Marisha Wallace took over from Orville Peck and Eva Noblezada as Emcee and Sally Bowles respectively. The same production of Cabaret is still being staged in London, where it swept the 2022 Olivier awards with Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley in the leading roles. Porter and Wallace also appeared in the West End production.

Despite acclaim, ticket sales for the Broadway production have declined recently, with the New York Times reporting that the show’s weekly grosses peaked at $2m in May 2024, but dropped to $505,142 by the end of August 2025. The show will now close at a loss on 21 September, rather than 19 October.

Producer Adam Speers said it was a “painful decision” to end the show’s Broadway run.

“Billy was an extraordinary Emcee, bringing his signature passion and remarkable talent. We wish Billy a speedy recovery and I look forward to working with him again in the very near future,” he said.

The Broadway production’s two alternates for Emcee, Marty Lauter and David Merino, will share the role for the final performances.

WWE has managed to do a great job of masking the absence of Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes as it tours through the Midwest after Clash in Paris. Monday’s latest “Raw” in Milwaukee continued to progress towards a stacked inaugural Wrestlepalooza event that has a lot to like on it, including the in-ring return of an underrated all-time great.

“Hello, my name is AJ Lee”

OK. So AJ Lee’s first promo back in a WWE ring after a decade was all one needed to see to know why she was the fan-favorite she was. This woman is magnetic, she is a natural, and man, does she have “it.”

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Lee spoke directly to us who missed her career, introducing herself. Admittedly, her promo work may have felt extra authentic and special because that’s exactly what it was. This was April Mendez speaking from the heart, sharing her experiences and why she retired 10 years ago. She even managed to do the unfathomable and elicited a “therapy” chant after mentioning her mental health battles. It was a tremendous return to form, and I’m so curious to see how her first match goes.

Speaking of which, it wasn’t long until her enemies Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins arrived to try and reclaim Lynch’s stolen Intercontinental crown.

Lynch emerged first, wearing the most ridiculous sunglasses of all time to hide the black eye Lee gave her on “SmackDown.” She played the hypocrite role perfectly, claiming CM Punk was hiding behind his wife, as Punk said Rollins was in their previous interactions. Lynch, like Lee, said she’ll need therapy after the segment, garnering more chants. We all love some good therapy time.

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“It works, I swear. It’s wonderful. I have some names I can give you,” Lee responded.

This whole thing culminated with Lee’s ultimatum, telling Lynch to come fight her for the belt or accept her challenge to a mixed tag team match at Wrestlepalooza. Rollins wound up agreeing to the latter for the couple after Punk snuck up on them for a near-GTS.

There we go, folks. The Lee comeback tour officially carries on, and this feels like one of the freshest returns WWE has arguably ever had.

❤️‍🩹 Reunion of the Night

The Usos are officially back together and set to take on The Vision at Wrestlepalooza. The twins kicked off “Raw” with the usual show opener promo, but thankfully, it didn’t run overly long, as they were quickly interrupted by their rivals. The segment dissolved into a brawl when LA Knight attacked Bron Breakker from behind, but that was far from the highlight.

It’s wild how much Jimmy Uso outshone his brother Jey on the mic tonight. He already demonstrated his excellence in that build to Jey’s WrestleMania match against Gunther. The dude’s delivery was just so much cleaner and natural-sounding. It probably helps that he wasn’t winded once he entered the ring, but ultimately, it makes you wonder how he performed in his world title run in an alternate universe.

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I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say I wish that had happened instead of Jey overall, but if I had to choose between the two, I might say so.

Overall, it’s great to see The Usos back together, as they are needed in the “Raw” tag team division. However, this might not be a permanent reunion, considering they made their entrance with every bit of Jey’s theme.

Before the night ended, we even saw some friction between the brothers, as Jey (seemingly) left the arena early, asking Jimmy why he’d stick around to help Knight in his match against Bronson Reed. Jimmy even said his brother is starting to sound like Roman Reigns. If these two end up rematching, that would be a brutally misguided route to take.

😴 Goodknight

As mentioned, the opening segment set up the main event, as is the standard formula in WWE. The stunning stretch of no DQ finishes continued, but at the expense of Knight, who lost “cleanly” again. I’m unsure what WWE is doing with the “Megastar,” as his character development is moving in the right direction, but he’s now taking pins left and right — this time after being distracted by Breakker.

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The match was fine, but all of The Vision stuff, particularly with the “Brons” is feeling so uninspired. It doesn’t help that they’re now separated from Rollins with Paul Heyman kayfabe injured.

The bigger picture angle revolved around The Usos, as they saved Knight from the expected post-match beatdown. The Vision maintained their control, beating everyone down until Knight grabbed a chair and took a spear from Jey. It very much felt like a heel turn that Jimmy wasn’t happy about, almost like WWE is trying to replicate a bit of the dynamic Adam Copeland (Edge) and Christian Cage have over in AEW. That very clear heel-face tag team who have such a deep connection that they get along and love each other regardless. That’s another interesting possible route to go down, but Knight, like Penta, needs some sort of serious change, and he deserves one more than anyone right now.

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👍 MONDAY NIGHT MONEY 👍

1. Breakker has slowly started to morph more into a loose cannon Steiner rather than the brainless henchman he was at the start of The Vision’s angle, and it’s quite entertaining.

2. Asuka beat Nikki Bella clean with the Asuka Lock. This was a better match and performance for Bella than in her title shot against Lynch, so good on her. Asuka, however, was the real star, as she’s just so, so good as this overprotective heel. At one point, she even used Kairi Sane as a shield on the outside of the ring, which was more clever than it was a heel tactic, but it’s all good fun.

🤷 IT HAPPENED 🤷

1. AJ Styles defeated El Grande “Amerikaiser” with the Styles Clash after shenanigan interferences from Dragon Lee and another masked dude. The match was fine for what it was, but what is happening here? Who is this for at this point? That also might have been the first singles loss for the Americano character since it started with Chad Gable.

More interestingly, Styles cut a very, very interesting promo during the Netflix commercial. The timing of this feels intentional, considering all the Styles free agency reports afloat.

2. Penta needs help. After the former AEW Tag Team champion hilariously questioned Adam Pearce’s love (literally), he landed a match against Rusev and lost. Losing to Rusev is nothing to be ashamed of, and Rusev should keep winning. But Penta desperately needs some wins, and he looked like a bozo out there getting distracted by The New Day, who came out for no other reason than to try and mask a burial in the making.

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The Penta-New Day “feud” is boring and should not continue — unless, like The Usos, The Lucha Bros reunite. We haven’t seen Rey Fenix on “SmackDown” lately, after all.

👎 RAW DEAL 👎

1. Joe Tessitore replaced Michael Cole on this “Raw,” and he seriously has to tone it down, man. I appreciate enthusiasm, but the number of times he loses his mind to oversell a move or sequence is insane. See the Styles match finish, for example.

2. To cap off the Asuka-Bella saga on this show, Rhea Ripley came to Bella’s aid backstage when tensions thickened. From that awesome, building duo of Ripley and Iyo Sky to Ripley and Bella, huh? Talk about one hell of a downgrade, as Ripley wanders aimlessly through the division after her world title matches. Naomi’s pregnancy butchered several immediate directions for some of these wrestlers. Stephanie Vaquer has yet to be seen since her Sky title match was made official.

👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑

Lyra Valkyria and Raquel Rodriguez had something to prove tonight. It’s not that I had low expectations; I simply didn’t think much of this match’s announcement. It had also been a while since we’d seen a Valkyria match, so shame on me.

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These two are great against anyone. Put them together, and they deliver an absolute must-see banger. Rodriguez scored a big, surprising, much-needed win with a counter Tejana Bomb off the top rope. (Clean!) Roxanne Perez made a brief (typical) interference attempt, but it wasn’t a part of the finish.

This is another reminder that Rodriguez needs to go back on a singles run and get some proper respect. She’s excellent, and this makes me hope for another pairing with Valkyria at some point. In the meantime, it appears Valkyria isn’t done with Bayley, as her old frenemy delivered another great psycho vignette. Before that, Valkyria will have to face Rodriguez’s other Judgment Day half, Perez, next week.

👑 I give this show a Crown score of: 7.5/10. 👑

Prolific horror author Stephen King has unveiled his top 10 favorite movies of all time — and, naturally, he’s excluding his own adaptations from the list.

The multi-hyphenate, whose novels The Long Walk, The Running Man and It are all receiving forthcoming Hollywood projects, tweeted his list earlier today, “in no particular order.”

Unsurprisingly, his chosen projects include seminal directors — William Friedkin, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Billy Wilder and Steven Spielberg (the latter, twice) — and two entries each featuring legendary performers Humphrey Bogart, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert De Niro. The list is also largely dominated by ’70s classics (unsurprising, given King was coming of age at this time in his 20s).

King begins with Sorcerer, which was critically panned and a box office disaster — perhaps due to Star Wars becoming a runaway success just a month earlier in 1977. Since then, it has received a critical reappraisal, and been cited by some as an underrated masterpiece — including by Friedkin (The Exorcist) himself, who said it was his most personal and difficult project.

He also lists the six-time Academy Award winning The Godfather Part II and 1972’s The Getaway, which stars Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw in a Bonnie & Clyde-esque caper. Perhaps a surprising entry for a writer known for his hair-raising works is the Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell time-loop rom-com Groundhog Day, a universally beloved staple in the genre that has inspired a wide range of subsequent repeating-day movies from Palm Springs (2020) to Happy Death Day (2017).

As any respectable cinephile, King also includes Casablanca on his list, the ever-quotable and devastatingly moving Bogart and Ingrid Bergman romantic drama set against the backdrop of World War II.

Additionally on the list are John Huston’s neo-Western The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and Billy Wilder’s classic film noir Double Indemnity (1944). Also listed are the first-ever summer blockbuster Jaws, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary and will soon feature in an Academy Museum exhibition, and sci-fi UFO drama Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Scorsese’s Mean Streets, his first of several collaborations with De Niro, also makes the cut.

Interestingly, more than half the list features pics that have been adapted from novels (Sorcerer, Godfather, The Getaway, Sierra Madre, Jaws and Double Indemnity), with Close Encounters receiving a novelization released in conjunction with the film’s debut.

Noted in his list is the exclusion of his own top four adaptations: Misery and Stand By Me (both directed by Rob Reiner), as well as The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption (both helmed by Frank Darabont, who also adapted The Mist). (You’ll notice the widely lauded The Shining does not make the cut, as King infamously despised Stanley Kubrick’s take on his source material. Also, potentially surprising is Carrie‘s omission, a horror juggernaut I’d argue should be included.)

“The Conjuring: Last Rites” busted past all expectations in its debut weekend to make it lucky No. 7 of a streak of successful openings at the box office for distributor Warner Bros. Pictures.

On today’s episode of “Daily Variety” podcast, Rebecca Rubin, Variety’s box office chief, breaks down the strong showing for film No. 9 in the “Conjuring” horror franchises. With a total haul of more than $83 million, the film delivered about $20 million more at the domestic box office than was forecast. It also performed surprisingly well for a horror title on Imax screens.

“This is the seventh consecutive movie for Warner Bros. to open above $40 million,” Rubin says. “They are the first studio in history to ever achieve that consistent streak. And it’s also notable because they had a pretty rocky start to the year as well as end to 2024.” After misses with “Mickey 17” and “Alto Knights,” the studio has rebounded with “A Minecraft Movie,” “Sinners,” “Final Destination Bloodlines,” “Superman” and “Weapons.”

Warner Bros. Pictures chiefs Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca deserve credit for putting “an emphasis on filmmaker driven, original fare — what’s been considered the riskiest kind of movie to put out,” Rubin says. “And with a movie like ‘Sinners’ or ‘Weapons,’ those were both original horror films that turned into huge sleeper hits. What they’ve done successfully is lean into directors who have really strong visions, and hoping that that’s going to be the driving factor in the marketing and getting people to come to see these movies.”

Also in the episode, Variety‘s Michael Schneider and Jazz Tangcay weigh in from backstage at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. The two discuss the trends and read the tea leaves from the early wave of winners leading in to the Sept. 14 main event, which airs this year on CBS. Schneider, who is television editor, noted that the first wave of winners indicates a narrowing race among “Severance” and “The Pitt” on the drama side and “Hacks” and “The Studio.”

“This year, it really is all about ‘The Studio’ versus ‘Hacks.’ And then, of course, ‘Severance’ versus ‘The Pitt.’ And in the guest actor categories in both drama and comedy, it was split 50-50. ‘Severance’ one one. Then ‘The Pitt’ won one. ‘Studio’ won one. And then ‘Hacks won one. So going into the big ceremony next week, it is a race between those shows,” he said.

Tangcay, who is senior artisans editor, pointed to a poignant moment when Jessica Lee Gagné became the first woman to win an Emmy for cinematography in a one-hour program, for her work on “Severance.” Gagné also directed

“It’s crazy to think that no woman has ever won in that category until last night,” Tangcay says. “That was a beautiful moment. We spoke with her backstage and she was like, ‘This was a dream that I’ve wanted for a long time.’ “

Backstage at the Creative Arts, Shawn Hatosy, who won guest actor in a drama series for “The Pitt,” and presenter Giancarlo Esposito both spoke from the heart when asked about issues that the industry faces, from the loss of production in Los Angeles to the decline in moviegoing since the pandemic.

“I know what a set feels like in Los Angeles. I know what experienced crews, how they work, how they operate, and in many cases, the people that I’m meeting, the carpenters, I’m meeting the transportation captains, I’m meeting the makeup people, the hair people, everything,” Hatosy said. “So even more so this recognition and the fact that this show, is not a very expensive show. It it shoots right here in Los Angeles. And so I think that there’s a chance that maybe some other people that make these decisions will, see the success and find a model like it so that we can employ a lot of people in Los Angeles.”

Esposito suggested that exhibitors and studios join forces to take radical steps to reinvigorate the public’s passion for going to the multiplexes.

“Part of the solution is to look at the model in a new way, is to look at how we make film and what we charge for ticket prices in the movie theaters in a new way. We are crying about how streaming has sucked away people going to films and having a social experience together, but we’re not doing anything about it,” Esposito said. “I love that we could stream and sit home and do that. I’m taking nothing away from that. But what about offering just offering a weekend in a movie theater for the big companies who have more than one for free? Or one weekend, all movies are free to reignite people’s passion for film. Get them in the theater. Charge for the popcorn, charge for the soda. But the ticket price is free.”

(Pictured: “Severance” cinematography winner Jessica Lee Gagné at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards)

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