The Wild Robot looks like it’s going to open north of $30 million, while Transformers One has lost a huge chunk of its audience.

In a surprising twist of fate at the often fickle box office, the exceedingly well-reviewed The Wild Robot is opening way ahead of expectations. Deadline has the film now opening at about $35 million, which is about $10 million more than even the most optimistic industry estimates and $20 million or so ahead of my own predictions. Good for Dreamworks, as this really is one of the best movies they’ve ever made (check out Steve Seigh’s rave review right here). In the meantime, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is moving down to second place, with $15.5 million, which will easily put it past the $250 million domestic mark.

Sadly, Transformers One, despite excellent word-of-mouth, is crashing and burning at the box office, posting a huge 59% decline in week two for a $10 million weekend. With a $39 million domestic total, this one will be lucky to cross the $55 million mark by the end of its run, which is disastrous for the franchise. That’s too bad, as it’s actually a good movie! It seems this is one franchise that has maybe run its course, even if Paramount is still planning that crossover movie with G.I Joe. 

Meanwhile, Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis is already being dubbed Megaflopulous online after being beaten Friday night by the Indian Telugu-language flick, Devara Part 1 (which stars RRR’s N.T. Rama Rao Jr.), with Deadline having a hard time pegging the final number. They say it may total anywhere between $3.2-5 million, but either way, that’s a disastrous start for Coppola’s passion project. Truth be told, while I didn’t like the movie (at all – and you can see from my review) it makes me sad that the movie is collapsing so completely at the box office, as even if I didn’t like it – I still kinda think people should see it.

Here at JoBlo – we love Jean-Claude Van Damme. Here are five movies of his that we consider to be essential!

Jean-Claude Van Damme. The Muscles from Brussels. If you grew up in the early nineties, this handsome Belgian was everywhere. With his unique accent, good looks, and a butt he was all but too happy to show off at least once a film, he was the rare action star that was just as popular with the ladies as the dudes. Changing tastes in the mid-nineties meant that his career as a viable lead in theatrical films started to dry up, which wasn’t helped by some off-screen issues he had with drugs (a Hollywood tale as old as time). But, while his contemporary, Steven Seagal, became something of a parody of himself, JCVD got clean and doubled down on his craft, emerging as a surprisingly potent actor in some DTV movies that are way better than anyone gives them credit for. 

While his days as an A-list lead might be behind him, JCVD remains a guy you can’t help but love, and his legacy has been assured by the fact that he never stopped delivering decent movies (even if the budgets are lower) and has a good sense of humour about himself. And, oh yeah, he’s known to be a pretty nice guy to boot (and is the subject of one of our biggest What Happened to this Celebrity episodes of all time). But what are the best JCVD movies? Here are five (in chronological order).

Bloodsport (1988):

The fact is, you can’t do a Jean-Claude Van Damme best movies list without Bloodsport at the top of said list. The ironic thing is that Cannon Pictures, the film’s distributor, thought it was a disaster and it spent months on the shelf, with it coming very close to going straight to video. What saved the movie was the fact that the company badly overextended itself with a few big-budget duds in 1987, so in 1988, they needed product they could push. Bloodsport is probably the most profitable movie they ever made. Its theatrical gross was modest, but on home video, this cult movie became a monster, and it was an important stepping stone for Van Damme, who plays a real-life (and very controversial) martial artist named Frank Dux, who fights in the deadly underground Kumite. Everything about this movie is iconic at this point, from the power ballad-heavy soundtrack to Bolo Yeung as the villain and the many, many hard-as-nails fight sequences.

Kickboxer (1989):

While I don’t think Kickboxer is quite as slick or as well made as Bloodsport, it’s just as iconic in its way. In this one, JCVD avenges the maiming of his brother at the hands (and feet) of a brutal (and iconic) Muay Thai master, Tong Po. Van Damme has a great fight in this one at the end with Tong Po, where the fighters have to dip their hands in oil and broken glass to make the hand-to-hand fight all the more brutal (I loved in Hot Shots: Part Deux where they made fun of this by having the fighters dip their hands in hot fudge and candy). Plus, this is the one where Van Damme dances. 

Double Impact (1991):

Double the Van Dammage! That was the tagline my friends and I used to scream at each other at recess around when this movie was coming out. The fact that JCVD was playing twins in this one was a BIG deal at the time. My gym teacher was so enamoured with Van Damme that the door to his office prominently displayed this movie’s poster for most of the first half of the nineties. It’s an extremely rewatchable action movie, with Van Damme playing the wimpy ladies man, Chad, and the tough-as-nails anti-hero, Alex. Of course, in the end, Chad, who starts off as a wimp, becomes a total badass, while the hard Alex learns to embrace his softer side. They both learn something! The line readings in this one crack me up, such as the way JCVD says, “Hong Kong? Uncle Frankie – we have a business to run!” or, “I’d never wear silk underwear!” I also love that the producers were so desperate to squeeze a sex scene into this movie that they did it as a fantasy sequence. Then again, Jean Claude and his co-star Alonna Shaw looked good, so why not?

Universal Soldier (1992):

This one is slightly controversial. I considered putting Peter Hyams’s Timecop on the list, but our Director of Operations here at JoBlo, John Fallon, is a JCVD superfan and convinced me that Timecop nowhere near as good as Universal Soldier. Given his bonafides (check out his pic with JCVD at the bottom of the article), I defer to his wisdom. Universal Soldier is pretty iconic, with JCVD and Dolph Lundgren playing reanimated Vietnam War veterans on a rampage. Lundgren steals this one with his necklace of ears and his whole “the war is out there, man” grocery store monologue. That said, JCVD would have his revenge years later when they both appeared in Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning, which might be the greatest DTV B-action movie ever. Van Damme KILLS in that one.

Hard Target (1993):

For me, Jean-Claude Van Damme’s best all-around movie is still Hard Target (in fact, it ended up on our 25 best action movies of all time list). John Woo is probably the greatest action movie director of all time, and it figures that he would deliver JCVD’s most impeccably assembled flick, with him playing a Cajun sailor named Chance Boudreau sporting one of the most glorious mullets since Patrick Swayze cleaned up the Double Deuce in Road House. However, it can’t be denied that the movie gets stolen by the amazing supporting cast, in particular Lance Henriksen, but also Arnold Vosloo, Yancy Butler, and Wilford Brimley, who, just like Christopher Lloyd many years later in Nobody, proves he was born to do action even if no one gave him the chance before he hit senior citizen status. 

What do you think are the five most essential Van Damme movies? Which ones should we add when we make this one into a top 10? Let us know in the comments!

The first trailer for Don’t Move, a thriller produced by Sam Raimi for Netflix, has received its first trailer.

Netflix is continuing their love of all things dark by releasing the thriller Don’t Move next month. It has been over a year since we got our first look at the movie, so finally getting the trailer is definitely a treat. 

Here is the official plot for Don’t Move, which comes to Netflix on October 25th: “A grieving woman hoping to find solace deep in an isolated forest encounters a stranger who injects her with a paralytic agent. As the agent gradually takes over her body, she must run, hide, and fight for her life before her entire nervous system shuts down.” That’s a pretty terrifying plot right there, especially if you are someone who has a genuine fear of paralysis or even suffers through it.

Don’t Move stars Kelsey Asbille, who has a very minor history with the genre (albeit of a different variety), having appeared in MTV’s Teen Wolf, but you might be more familiar with her from her role as Monica in Yellowstone and criminal Swanee Capps in season four of Fargo. It also stars Finn Wittrock, who has been on the scene through movies, TV and the stage for the better part of the past 20 years. Rounding out the core cast are Daniel Francis and Moray Treadwell. Don’t Move is directed by Adam Schindler and Brian Netto, who had a hand in urban legend-exploring series 50 Stages of Fright. It is written by T.J. Cimfel and David White, the team behind V/H/S Viral and Intruders.

But maybe the biggest draw for fans of the genre is that the movie is produced by Sam Raimi. Raimi has been an active champion for his team on Don’t Move, saying of Schindler and Netto, “I am delighted to collaborate again with our co-directors Adam and Brian on this incredibly frightening and tense story full of so many twists and turns – it will deliver a fantastic horror punch to the audience!” That’s awesome for the directors considering Raimi isn’t only their producer but one of the defining figures of the genre’s modern history.

What do you think of the trailer for Don’t Move? Will you be catching it on Netflix next month?

Video gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse at Wednesday season 2; Tim Burton is directing half of the eight episodes

Season 2 of the hit Netflix Addams Family series Wednesday has been filming in Ireland since May, and Netflix has just unveiled a video that gives a glimpse behind the scenes. In the process, they have also confirmed that the new batch of episodes will premiere sometime in 2025. Among the cast and crew members seen in the video are, of course, star Jenna Ortega, as well as director Tim Burton – and during a chat with Collider, Al Gough (who created this series with Miles Millar) revealed that Burton is directing half of season 2, which is the same thing he did for the first season. That means Burton is at the helm of four of the season’s eight episodes.

Wednesday comes to us from Millar Gough Ink, Tim Burton Productions, Toluca Pictures, and MGM Television, and is described as a comedic, supernaturally-infused coming-of-age series that follows the teenage girl’s years as a student at Nevermore Academy, where she attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the town, and solve a mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago — all while navigating her new relationships at Nevermore. Snap snap.

Jenna Ortega plays the title character and beyond Wednesday, other members of the Addams Family include Isaac Ordonez as Pugsley, Luis Guzmán and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Gomez and Morticia, and Fred Armisen as Uncle Fester. Uncle Fester has only appeared on one episode of Wednesday so far, but we recently heard that the character might be getting his own spin-off series. New additions to the cast for season 2 include Steve Buscemi (The Big Lebowski), Billie Piper (I Hate Suzie), Evie Templeton (Lord of Misrule), Owen Painter (Tiny Beautiful Things), Noah Taylor (Law & Order: Organized Crime), Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future), Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous), Thandiwe Newton (Westworld), Frances O’Connor (The Missing), Haley Joel Osment (Tusk), Heather Matarazzo (Scream), and Joonas Suotamo (The Acolyte).

The cast of season 1 also included Christina Ricci as botanical sciences teacher Marilyn Thornhill; Riki Lindhome as Wednesday’s therapist Dr. Valerine Kinbot; Joy Sunday as Siren Nevermore student Bianca Barclay; Emma Myers as Wednesday’s sunny roommate Enid Sinclair; Hunter Doohan as townie Tyler Galpin; Moosa Mostafa as quirky Nevermore student Eugene Otinger; Georgie Farmer as awkward and shy Nevermore student Ajax Petropolus; Naomi J. Ogawa as vampire Nevermore student Yoko Tanaka; Percy Hynes White as supernaturally artistic Nevermore student Xavier Thorpe; Jamie McShane as Sheriff Donovan Galpin, Tyler’s father, who has a vendetta against Gomez; Gwendoline Christie as Larissa Weems, “the principal of Nevermore Academy who still has an axe to grind with her former classmate Morticia Addams”; Victor Dorobantu as Thing, the non-verbal disembodied hand; George Burcea as Lurch; Tommie Earl Jenkins as Mayor Walker; Iman Marson as Lucas Walker; William Houston as Joseph Crackstone; Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo as Deputy Santiago; Oliver Watson as Kent; Calum Ross as Rowan; and Johnna Dias Watson as Divina. Some of them are returning for Wednesday season 2, some are not.

Are you looking forward to Wednesday season 2, and are you glad to hear that Tim Burton is directing half of the season? Take a look at the behind the scenes video, then let us know by leaving a comment below.

Christian Tafdrup, director of the original Speak No Evil, was not impressed by the changes made for the Blumhouse remake

Alex Proyas, director of the 1994 version of The Crow, made it very clear that he wasn’t happy about the existence of this year’s The Crow reboot – and now Christian Tafdrup, director of the 2022 Danish film Gæsterne, a.k.a. Speak No Evil (read our review HERE) has followed in Proyas’s footsteps, revealing that he was not impressed by the recently released American remake of his film (you can read our 8/10 review of the remake HERE), even though he received an executive producer credit on the film.

James Watkins, whose previous credits include Eden Lake and The Woman in Black, wrote and directed the remake, which centers on a family who takes a dream holiday to an idyllic country house, only to have the vacation turn into a psychological nightmare. Tafdrup’s version of the story, which he wrote with his brother Mads Tafdrup, had the following synopsis: A Danish family visits a Dutch family they met on a holiday. What was supposed to be an idyllic weekend slowly starts unraveling as the Danes try to stay polite in the face of unpleasantness.

Speaking on the Danish radio show Kulturen, Christian Tafdrup said (with thanks to World of Reel for the translated transcription), “I don’t know what it is about Americans, but they are brought up for a heroic tale, where the good must win over the bad, and this version of the film cultivates that. … When I saw the film, I could see that they would never succeed with a film where the characters are stoned to death, as they do in our film. These people [in the U.S. version] must fight for their family and defeat the bad guys […] It is a kind of happy ending, and it is so deep in their culture that America must be able to handle it all.” He added that the changes Watkins made to the story and characters made the remake seem less dangerous than the original, more sanitized. Audience members seeing the remake “were completely over-enthusiastic and clapped, laughed and whooped. It was like being at a rock concert,” a very different experience from watching the original. He said, “People left my film traumatized.“

The remake was made on a budget of $15 million and, after one week in release, has earned over $24 million at the global box office, so it seems the changes that were made are paying off to some degree.

Blumhouse founder Jason Blum produced the Speak No Evil remake. Christian Tafdrup was credited as executive producer alongside Paul Ritchie, Jacob Jarek, and Bea Sequeira. The cast includes James McAvoy (Split), Mackenzie Davis (Terminator: Dark Fate), Scoot McNairy (Monsters), Aisling Franciosi (Stopmotion), and Alix West Lefler (The Good Nurse).

Have you seen either version of Speak No Evil? What did you think of them? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Revisited takes a look at the 1994 science fiction tokusatsu film Guyver 2: Dark Hero, directed by Steve Wang and starring David Hayter

A new episode of the Revisited video series has just been released, and since we covered the 1991 science fiction tokusatsu film The Guyver a couple of months ago, with this episode we’ve decided to circle back and take a look at the sequel to The Guyver, the 1994 release Guyver: Dark Hero (watch it HERE) – also known as Guyver 2: Dark Hero, or, if you saw it in the Philippines, Predator 3. You can hear all about it in the video embedded above.

Directed by Steve Wang from a screenplay by Nathan Long that was based on both a story crafted by Wang and the Japanese manga series Bio Booster Armor Guyver by Yoshiki Takaya, Guyver 2: Dark Hero has the following synopsis: A year has passed since he defeated the Cronos Corporation, but Sean Barker continues to struggle with his ability to call upon the powers of the Guyver, a suit of armor developed by aliens, when he must face evil. Hoping to find answers as to why he has received this ability, Barker arrives at an archeological site in Utah, where scientists have uncovered an old alien spacecraft that might solve the mystery. However, the Cronos Corporation is still after him.

The film stars David Hayter, Kathy Christopherson, Bruno Patrick, Christopher Michael, Stuart Weiss, Billie Lee, Alisa Merline, Kristen Calkins, Jim O’Donoghoe, J. D. Smith, Wes Deitrick, Stephen Oprychal, Koichi Sakamoto, Butch Portillo, Christopher J. Bradshaw, Vern Roguen, Russ Kingston, Nathan Long, Lisa Hannan, and Shaun T. Benjamin, with suit performances by Anthony Houk, Brian Simpson, Tatsuro Koike, Koichi Sakamoto, Akihiro Yuji Noguchi, Ted Smith, David McDonald, Scott Putman, C. D. Post, and Kristen Calkins.

The Guyver 2: Dark Hero episode of Revisited was Written, Narrated, and Edited by Tyler Nichols, Produced by Tyler Nichols and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

Are you a fan of Guyver 2: Dark Hero? Let us know by leaving a comment below. Both of these movies are ones I need to “revisit,” as I’m not sure I’ve ever seen either of them in their entirety. I just remember catching glimpses of them on cable back in the day.

Two previous episodes of Revisited can be seen below. To see more of our shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals channel – and subscribe while you’re at it!

A clip from the upcoming Netflix anime film The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep features Geralt, voiced by Doug Cockle

Netflix was building up their series The Witcher, which is inspired by a series of novels by Andrzej Sapkowski, to be a major franchise. In addition to the flagship show, they made the anime film The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf and a prequel mini-series called The Witcher: Blood Origin, with another anime movie called The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep and a couple other spin-offs in the works… but now it looks like it’s all winding down. As The Witcher season 4 makes its way through production with Liam Hemsworth taking over the role of Geralt of Rivia from former star Henry Cavill, Netflix announced that season 5 will be the end of the show. And while The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep is set to be released on February 11th, it’s rumored that it might be the last of the spin-offs, with two others, one called The Rats and another a show that would have been aimed at younger viewers, having apparently been scrapped. We’ll have to wait and see if Sirens of the Deep does indeed end up being the last Witcher spin-off, but in the meantime, a clip from the anime has dropped online and can be seen in the embed above.

The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep is an adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s short story A Little Sacrifice. The movie follows Geralt as he’s hired to investigate a series of attacks in a seaside village, where he finds himself drawn into a centuries-old conflict between humans and merpeople that threatens to erupt into all-out war. The voice of Geralt of Rivia is provided by Doug Cockle, who voiced the character in the Witcher video games. Also in the voice cast are Anya Chalotra as Yennefer, Joey Batey as Jaskier, and Christina Wren as Essi Daven. The film was directed by Kang Hei Chul and written by Mike Ostrowski and Rae Benjamin.

When the project was first announced, Cockle provided the following statement: “I am super excited to announce my return to the world of the Witcher voicing Geralt of Rivia once again, but this time in the upcoming animated feature The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep. It’s been an honor to work with Studio Mir and Netflix on this new animated film, and I’m thrilled to be able to share this next chapter of the White Wolf’s journey with fans of the Witcher universe. Mire taedh aen stráede!” Cockle also does an on screen introduction for the clip Netflix shared.

Are you looking forward to The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep? Take a look at the clip and let us know – and also let us know what you think of the possibility that this could be the last Witcher spin-off on Netflix.

About the Author

Cody is a news editor and film critic, focused on the horror arm of JoBlo.com, and writes scripts for videos that are released through the JoBlo Originals and JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channels. In his spare time, he’s a globe-trotting digital nomad, runs a personal blog called Life Between Frames, and writes novels and screenplays.

Her boyfriend has just cheated on her, leaving her wronged and distraught. Now on her own for the first time in who-knows-how-long, the girl will commit every act of rebellion she can think of: tattoos, belly button piercings… But being the victim to nearly every man she has encountered is too much, and she soon takes to the edge of an overpass, ready to end it all. Then, as the asshole ex approaches, she jumps… only to reveal it as a prank on the man who jilted her. And this was how Alicia Silverstone was discovered: dangling from a bungee cord and flipping off the viewer. Let’s find out: What Happened to… Alicia Silverstone?

But to truly understand what happened to Alicia Silverstone, we go back to the beginning. And the beginning began when she was born on October 4th, 1976, in San Francisco, CA. Alicia Silverstone fell in love with the stage at an early age, even turning to modeling as a youth despite feeling she looked like a duck. She, too, was a self-proclaimed “tomboy,” later calling her constant Clueless costume changes “hell.” Even still, she was determined, taking acting classes in 8th grade and landing a Domino’s commercial in 1991. The following year, she got her first screen role as one of Kevin’s crushes on The Wonder Years. It was a one-off, but enough to make a mark.

The Crush & Aerosmith

In 1993, Alicia Silverstone was cast as a modern Lolita in The Crush. It was a forceful performance where she acted circles around Cary Elwes. Right then and there, she was a star, winning both Best Villain and Best Breakthrough Performance at the MTV Movie Awards. She, too, earned a nod for Most Desirable Female, something she found icky since she was being deemed a sex symbol at just 16 years old.

Enter Aerosmith – who cast her in three consecutive music videos (although many think the videos came before The Crush), most notably “Cryin’” and “Crazy,” both of which were smash MTV favorites – after members saw The Crush. Really, it’s no surprise they were drawn to Silverstone, considering Steven Tyler once held guardianship over a 16-year-old lover… Despite her persona, Silverstone knew how to take control early on, emancipating herself at just 15 before filming on The Crush began so she could dedicate more hours to acting. She would quit high school her sophomore year and later launch a production company called First Kiss Productions, which highlights the sort of innocence that grounded her and made her an object of desire.

Following The Crush, Silverstone played Raquel Welch’s daughter in Torch Song before turning up in the “Cool and Crazy” episode of the experimental Showtime series Rebel Highway (1994). The following year brought Le Nouveau Monde (as another symbol of affection), low-level horror Hideaway, and a version of The Crush (yes, she played another seductive underage girl) called The Babysitter.

Clueless and stardom

After Amy Heckerling saw Silverstone in Aerosmith’s “Cryin’” video, she had to cast her as Cher Horowitz in Clueless (1995). Giving a pitch-perfect turn as the voice and fashion icon of a new generation, Alicia Silverstone had hit it with the widespread audience that had eluded her. With it came award recognition from everybody from the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards to the National Board of Review. Silverstone says she never wanted fame. But that’s what she got – and with that also came a $10 million contract with Columbia-TriStar.

Passing through True Crime (1996) as an aspiring cop, Silverstone was given her first big-budget movie: Batman & Robin(1997). This was just the sort of blockbuster she was being positioned for. She, too, was now an adult, although this brought her a new set of issues: namely, the industry felt comfortable body-shaming her, with some outlets saying she was too fat for her outfit. Only decades later would a “Justice for Batgirl” campaign launch online. As she put it, “They would make fun of my body when I was younger… I knew that it was not right to make fun of someone’s body shape, that doesn’t seem like the right thing to be doing to a human.” Not even remotely worse but still damaging, she won the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress. Through her new deal – and First Kiss Productions – Silverstone co-led Excess Baggage, a light movie that could further show off her comedic chops, another Razzie nod be damned.

Batman & Robin and career slump

Around this time, Alicia Silverstone became an activist for animal rights, turning to veganism and visiting everywhere from Africa to Peru to help elephants and the rainforest. She would even publish a vegan cookbook a decade later. Such activists can often be abrasive… or weird. Silverstone took her animal love too far in 2012 when she filmed herself chewing food to spit in her baby son’s mouth like a bird. To be sure, Silverstone has come to a different kind of notoriety for her online behavior and parenting “tips.” In 2022, she announced she still sleeps with her 11-year-old son, saying that’s how animals do it in nature. She, too, suggested that eating anything other than what’s in her diet would bypass the need for any kind of medicine. Of course, a strictly vegan diet isn’t the worst thing Alicia Silverstone has put in her mouth, as in August 2024, she recorded a video of herself eating a mysterious berry… which many have pinpointed as the toxic Jerusalem berry…

But while we wait to find out if Alicia Silverstone poisoned herself for TikTok clout, let’s jump back to the past once more. 1999 brought the fun, innocent fantasy romance Blast from the Past, marking what would end up being one of her last trademark roles. 2000 saw her playing against type – and not that well – in Branagh’s adaptation of Love’s Labour’s Lost. This ties into her actual time on stage, first explored as a star in 2002 playing Elaine (against Jason Biggs) in The Graduate, although she tried it out in 1993. She later did a pair of Mamet plays in 2006 (Boston Marriage) and 2007 (Speed-the-Plow), part of a surprising string of stage work seen as recently as 2015. These allowed Silverstone to show she was still worth watching. Her movies? Not as much…

In 2001, Silverstone began lending her voice to things like Mickey’s Magical Christmas, later doing 2014’s Space Dogs: Adventures to the Moon, 2014’s Jungle Shuffle, 2015’s The Nutcracker Sweet, 2017’s Jeff & Some Aliens, and 2021’s Masters of the Universe: Revelation. Her biggest success on this front was as the lead character for the first two seasons of Brace Face, earning a Daytime Emmy nod. She would later earn another for The Baby-Sitters Club (2020–2021), playing an adult in a show that otherwise would have fit in well with the earlier TV series in the ‘90s.

Comeback roles

TV would have seemed to suit Silverstone quite well, landing Miss Match in 2003, playing a matchmaker on the one-season series. Even still, she earned a Golden Globe nod for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy. But if you thought that was short-lived, consider her failed pilots for Queen B (2005), Pink Collar (2006), The Singles Table (2007), and The Bad Mother’s Handbook (2008). There was also the Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie Candles on Bay Street (2006) and, later, a four-episode arc on season one of Suburgatory (2012), a one-season starring role on American Woman (2018), and a random appearance on American Horror Stories (2022). But none of these were memorable – either short-lived or virtually non-existent – just frequent blips in her career.

And her movie work was paling, too: Global Heresy (2002); crime comedy Scorched (2003); Scooby-Doo 2 (2005); Beauty Shop (2005); Silence Becomes You (2006); spy movie Stormbreaker (2006); The Art of Getting By (2011); Butter(2011); Ass Backwards (2013); Greek fantasy Gods Behaving Badly (2013); dramedy Angels in Stardust (2014); porn biopic King Cobra (2016); the Hallmark-level Who Gets the Dog? (2016); a Diary of a Wimpy Kid sequel (2016), replacing Rachael Harris; coming-of-age The Tribes of Palos Verde (2017); 2018’s Book Club (the movie your mother-in-law saw with all her gal pals); horror flicks The Lodge (2019) and Perpetrator (2023); the overall decent comedy Bad Therapy (2020); a fun but hapless role in Sisters of the Groom (2020); thriller Last Survivors (2022), the middle-ager-offering-wisdom-staged Senior Year (2022); Mustache (2023); and Benicio del Toro reunion Reptile (2023) (which is an underrated gem). 

And while we flew through those titles like a carousel in the attic, there’s a reason for that: face it, you’ve never heard of most of these. That’s not to say Silverstone didn’t give valiant goes in movies like Catfight (2016) – a progressive role that saw her part of a lesbian couple – or Vamps (2012) – reuniting with Heckerling – or The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) – as the mother of Barry Keoghan (no easy task) – but long gone was the popularity of Alicia Silverstone. It was all now like seeing Cher Horowitz in the self-checkout lane. 

And, really – despite the captive grip she had on audiences with her Aerosmith videos and The Crush – it all comes back to Clueless. Even today, Alicia Silverstone continues to pay tribute to the movie through Super Bowl commercials and TikTok recreations. And it’s what we love her for, although who could be against seeing her reprise her “Crazy” character? As she put it, “It never gets old, so that’s the good news. People always say, ‘Oh you must be so sick of it.’ But what’s there to be sick of? People liking the movie you’re in? It truly doesn’t get better.” 

Alicia Silverstone is far past the point of meeting her dreams by working with Bertolucci and Scorsese and Pacino like she always wanted, but could we ever forget her and her role in ‘90s cinema? As if! 

Casting, directors, plot, and all of the other details of the new Game of Thrones series based on The Tales of Dunk and Egg.

What Do We Know About the upcoming series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms? More than you may think. The Game of Thrones prequel series is the second new project set in George R.R. Martin’s fantasy realm of Westeros and the first to exist as a limited series. With multiple Game of Thrones projects in development based on existing source material, we have some solid details about this show. So, let’s dive in and take a look at what we know about A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

The series will be based on multiple stories and novellas.

Set between House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is based on the novellas collectively known as The Tales of Dunk and Egg. Focused on a smaller scale narrative compared to the epic series that came before it, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has been described by producer Ryan Condal as the story of small folk who suffer at the hands of the game of thrones as it’s played by the nobles.

The first season is six episodes.

The series’ first season is an adaptation of the novella The Hedge Knight, which, according to HBO, is set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne. The memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory; great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends.

What is it about?

Set ninety years before Game of Thrones, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms follows Dunk, a squire who takes on the mantle of Ser Duncan the Tall when he takes the armor of a dead knight. Dunk is followed by Egg, a young boy who serves as his squire and accompanies him on his misadventures involving a love interest named Tanselle and the Targaryen clan chasing them. The Dunk and Egg tales have a considerably lighter tone while still keeping the same style as the Game of Thrones series.

George R.R. Martin is credited as the creator.

While others have gotten the created credit on House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones, author George R.R. Martin is listed as the sole creator of this series. The novella that the series is based on is less than 200 pages long, so Martin and his writing team likely have cooked up new elements to strengthen this and potential subsequent seasons. House of the Dragon writer Ira Parker reportedly wrote a pilot episode, but accurate credits are still forthcoming.

Who is starring in it?

Peter Claffey leads the series as Ser Duncan the Tall, with Dexter Sol Ansell as Egg. Finn Bennett plays Prince Aerion “Brightflame” Targaryen alongside Bertie Carvel as Prince Baelor “Breakspear” Targaryen. Tanzyn Crawford plays Dornish puppeteer Tanselle, and Daniel Ings portrays Ser Lyonel Baratheon. Sam Spruell plays Prince Maekar Targaryen, Egg’s father. That’s right, Egg the Squire is actually a Targaryen prince named Aegon. Yes, that name should ring a bell. Other actors in the cast include Edward Ashley, Henry Ashton, Youssef Kerkour, Daniel Monks, Shaun Thomas, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, and Danny Webb.

Two directors split duties on the first season.

The six-episode first season will boast two directors, each of whom helmed three episodes. Mrs. Davis and Black Mirror director Owen Davis directed the first three episodes, with Sarah Adina Smith, director of Legion, Hanna, and Lessons in Chemistry, on the other three.

When will we see it?

Production began in Northern Ireland in June 2024, and in August, a brief announcement trailer showed the first footage from the HBO series. The series is slated to debut in 2025, but exact premiere dates are currently unknown.

Stay tuned to JoBlo.com as we learn more about A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and all of your other favorite shows. What do you expect to see in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms? Let us know in the comments, click like, and subscribe to follow all of our latest original videos.

The Prime Video series adaptation of Criminal, the Eisner Award-winning graphic novel series written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Sean Phillips, has been steadily building up its cast in recent months, and Deadline has revealed that eight more actors have been added to the line-up! The new cast additions are Garrett Hedlund (Tulsa King), Chris Diamantopoulos (The Boys in the Boat), Lawrence Kao (Walker: Independence), Kyle Bradley Davis (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Aina Brei’yon (Dark Matter), Robert Lee Hart (Chicago PD), Katie Stevens (The Bold Type), and John Pyper-Ferguson (Suits).

Criminal tells “the interweaving saga of several generations of families tied together by the crimes and murders of the past.” The official logline for the series says it will show viewers an interlocking universe of crime stories.

The previously announced cast members are Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy), Adria Arjona (Hit Man), Richard Jenkins (The Shape of Water), Kadeem Hardison (A Different World), Pat Healy (Better Call Saul), Taylor Selé (BMF), Logan Browning (Dear White People), Gus Halper (Rustin), Aliyah Camacho (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), Michael Mando (Better Call Saul), Marvin Jones III (Halo), Michael Xavier (Wild Cards), Dominic Burgess (Palm Royale), John Hawkes (True Detective), Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), and Luke Evans (Fast & Furious 6).

Hunnam will be playing the lead character, “Leo, a brilliant master thief who sees all the angles, and specializes in plans with no guns and no violence. Like a chess player, Leo thinks three moves ahead. Other crooks think he’s a coward, especially compared to his father Tommy, who went to jail for murdering the most feared man in the city, Teeg Lawless.” Arjona is taking on the role of Greta, “a sharp-tongued top-level car thief and driver and the widowed mother of Angie. Ever since her husband died in a bank job gone bad, Greta has been battling with herself about how to escape the only life she’s ever known – and the only place she’s ever thrived. The problem is, she’s good at this. She’s looking for a big score, a lump of money she can use like a gun to shoot her and Angie out of this life and into another one.” Jenkins’ character is Ivan, “Leo’s dad’s best friend, and has always been an uncle figure to him. He used to be a robber and criminal, but is now currently suffering from dementia. Leo is trying to care for him but realizes he’s more work than he can handle.” Hardison is playing Gnarly, “an old friend of Leo and Ivan. Gnarly was his nickname as a boxer back in the 1970s and it’s all anyone calls him. He walks with a limp, an old one. Gnarly’s a local legend, and he can go from warm to fierce in a heartbeat. He commands respect, partly because he can inflict massive physical damage, even at his advanced age — and partly because he has the authority and gravitas to stop other men in their tracks.”

Clarke’s character is Mallory, “a slick and daring armed robber, as quick with a gun as she is with her wits. Part of a heist crew with Ricky Lawless, who she’s in a passionate Bonnie-and-Clyde-like affair with. Mallory is a woman on the edge, living on the wrong side of the law and hiding secrets that will bring her and her entire crew into the danger zone.“ Halper will portray Ricky Lawless, “an unstable guy who likes booze, coke, and speed (and not within moderation), Ricky has known Leo since they were teenagers. Like Leo, he’s the son of a criminal — only his dad was the most-feared man in the city, Teeg Lawless.” Camacho will play Angie, “Greta’s daughter. Angie is sharp, alert and maybe a little too adult for her age. Having lost her father at a young age, it is only she and her mom making their way through life. She has an idea of the kind of business her mom is in, no matter how much Greta tries to shield her.” Mando’s character is Jeff, “a plainclothes Vice detective who pretty much hates all of humanity, and he’s looking to make a score screwing over anyone and everyone that is in his way. The kind of bad cop who uses his badge to shove others around and get them to do his bidding.” Jones III is Chester, “crime boss Sebastian Hyde’s fearsome chief enforcer. Much like a seven-foot-tall man becoming a basketball player whether he likes it or not, Chester was drafted into the criminal life for his size and fearsomeness. He’s no sadist, relying on his reputation and intelligence to get his way. He speaks softly most of the time, but the threat of sudden and deadly violence is always there.” Xavier is playing Terry, “another criminal, a good friend of Leo, a tough armed robber with a big heart, stepdad to Angie and the love of Greta’s life.” And Burgess is Delron, “a large man with a large appetite and large emotions. Delron is facing a trial in the next few days, and he’s at the mercy of a few powers that be in the criminal organization he works for. “

Hawkes is set to play Sebastian Hyde, “a hard man who is six months out from a stroke, and now walks with a cane. Once the biggest shark in the shark tank, Hyde is now showing his humanity a bit — maybe a bit too much. The owner of a gambling club, the kind of man whose name is accompanied by fear, Hyde can be both amused by someone one minute, and a ruthless enforcer the next.” Healy’s character is Seymour, “a veteran thief and one-time part of Leo’s dad’s crew. Seymour does what he has to stay alive and get rich while trying to survive in the criminal world.” Selé has been cast as Royal, “the manager of Sebastian Hyde’s gambling club, and he is sharp-dressed and menacing. Royal is ruthless and will do whatever he needs to protect himself and move forward in the underworld.” Browning is playing Jenny, “an Internal Affairs detective with a dry sense of humor and an absurdly calm demeanor. She presents as an even-tempered woman who appears to be without a care in the world. Jenny is very smart; her father was a criminal and she loves her job — which gives her the right to question, harass, terrify and imprison cops all day long. Jenny was raised with Leo as her playmate/buddy/blood brother for life.” And Evans is playing Tracy Lawless, “who was pushed out of the outlaw life of his family (his father is the legendary Teeg Lawless and Ricky is his little brother) at the age of 18 when a judge gave him a choice of prison or the military. In the Army, Tracy thrived, his wild outlaw instincts getting funneled into the strict discipline of the military. He was placed into the Special Forces and trained to be an expert in covert operations and guerilla warfare. But underneath it all, the Lawless blood still pumps in his heart.“

Shockingly, Deadline was not able to dig up information on the characters Hedlund, Diamantopoulos, and the other new additions will be playing. All they were able to find out is that these actors will be playing recurring roles.

Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, the filmmaking duo behind Half Nelson, Sugar, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Mississippi Grind, Captain Marvel, and Freaky Tales, will be directing the first four episodes of Criminal. Brubaker has written the script for the pilot and will serve as showrunner of the series alongside Jordan Harper (Hightown). Brubaker and Harper are also executive producing with Sean Phillips, Sarah Carbiener, Phillip Barnett, and Legendary Television.

Are you looking forward to Criminal? What do you think of Garrett Hedlund, Chris Diamantopoulos, Lawrence Kao, Kyle Bradley Davis, Aina Brei’yon, Robert Lee Hart, Katie Stevens, and John Pyper-Ferguson joining the cast? Let us know by leaving a comment below.