1. Lady Gaga could be the new Best Actress Oscar frontrunner
We're far from the shallow now. Lady Gaga might just be the new frontrunner to win Best Actress at the Oscars in light of Thursday's British Academy Film Awards nominations. The British equivalent of the Oscars are a key Academy Awards precursor — last year, all the BAFTA acting winners won at the Oscars, too — so it was notable that Nicole Kidman, Kristen Stewart, Jessica Chastain, Olivia Colman, Penélope Cruz, and Jennifer Hudson were all snubbed in the lead actress category. Gaga, though, did get nominated for House of Gucci. Pundits quickly pointed out this means she's the only person in the Best Actress race to earn nods at the four key precursors. It sounds like Gaga's strange Oscar campaign, which has involved sharing increasingly bizarre anecdotes about method acting and getting chased around by flies, may just pay off. Now can we retroactively give Bradley Cooper an Oscar for A Star Is Born, too?
The Week The Hollywood Reporter
2. Dakota Johnson to join the 'Spider-Man' universe
Actually, no, that's not the truth, Spider-Man. Dakota Johnson is set to lead her own Spider-Man spinoff film, with the actress reportedly in talks to play Madame Web in a movie of the same name at Sony. For the non-Marvel fans out there, we promise we didn't make "Madame Web" up — in the comics, that's a character associated with Spider-Man who can see into the future, usually depicted as an old woman kept alive by a life support system that looks like a web. So, you know, 32-year-old Dakota Jonhson sounds perfect! Madame Web will be a part of Sony's mission to somehow make an entire film universe just out of Spider-Man characters, giving a bunch of obscure ones their own movies that don't actually have Spider-Man in them. In a sign that Sony definitely isn't just randomly throwing things at the wall to see what sticks, Deadline cryptically writes the Madame Web project "could turn into something else."
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3. A sequel to the 'Scream' sequel 'Scream' is in the works
Let's face it: these days, you gotta have a sequel! A sixth Scream film is officially in the works following the success of the recent fifth entry just called Scream. The same team will return to make it. It wasn't announced who will be back, but presumably Melissa Barrera will be the lead again, and Neve Campbell has said she's open to returning as Sidney. The film is reportedly set to begin production this summer. Now, perhaps the most important question becomes what the heck the title will be after the fifth one was given the exact same name as the first, despite being a direct sequel. Screams, perhaps? Scream Again? Scream Kills? Or maybe they'll annoy the heck out of everyone by just straight up calling it Scream for a third time. After all, it's the 2020s — titles are incidental.
The Hollywood Reporter
4. Netflix offers a very small glimpse of 'Knives Out 2'
Star Wars fans might not be getting the Rian Johnson trilogy they wanted, but a Rian Johnson trilogy is happening at Netflix thanks to the Knives Out franchise. Netflix on Thursday dropped a 3-minute video previewing all the major films it has slated for this year, which involves actual characters bizarrely addressing the camera to say things like "tonight is movie night!" It all builds to a brief tease of the highly-anticipated Knives Out sequel. A quick shot shows the cast of characters, including those played by Dave Bautista and Kathryn Hahn, boarding a boat before Daniel Craig's Detective Benoit Blanc dramatically turns to the camera. The sequel is expected to essentially be a completely new mystery that happens to feature the return of Craig's character, e.g. Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot. "Just a tiny glimpse of the next Benoit Blanc mystery," Johnson tweeted, promising there's "much MUCH much more to come." As in, more than this eight second shot? We'd certainly hope so!
The Hollywood Reporter AV Club
5. Sebastian Stan gives Jimmy Kimmel the fake testicles he wore in 'Pam & Tommy'
What do you get the man who has everything? While chatting on On Jimmy Kimmel Live! about his role in the new Hulu series Pam & Tommy, Sebastian Stan revealed he wore prop metal balls — balls of steel, if you will — in his underwear "for the duration of the shoot" to simulate the experience of being Tommy Lee. "Tommy was a big man," Stan delicately put it, adding that even though it sounds "insane," he had to do this to "feel like a man." Lily James, who stars opposite Stan as Pamela Anderson, was shocked by the revelation, as she had no idea he did this. "I'm so glad I didn't know," she said. But Stan turned this anecdote into a bit of a show-and-tell presentation, pulling the metal balls out of his pocket and dropping them on Kimmel's desk as a gift. "So just in case you need a little weight when you walk into a room," Stan said. "Wear them with pride, baby!"
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