'Dune' Met With 8-Minute Standing Ovation at World Premiere  

►"Fantastic!" Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao summed up the general impression of Denis Villeneuve’s wildly anticipated sci-fi epic Dune at its world premiere Friday night at the Venice Film Festival. 

As a cascade of bravos rained down on Venice’s Sala Grande cinema, Zhao, who is a member of the festival’s competition jury this year, rushed through the aisles to greet the Dune director with a big hug shouting, “fantastic!” The crowd’s standing ovation, meanwhile, roared on for a continuous eight minutes. The story.

—"Narrative quicksand." Despite the Dune-mania in Venice, THR's chief film critic David Rooney, in his review of the movie, was not entirely convinced. "Villeneuve’s attempt to tame the notoriously difficult novel about an interstellar empire at war over control of a precious natural resource has no lack of cinematic spectacle," Rooney writes, adding, "But it doesn’t quash the frequent claim that the book is unfilmable." The review. 

—Sure-thing for below-the-line recognition. THR's awards analyst Scott Feinberg writes that Dune, an "visual and aural feast," will "undoubtedly receive numerous nominations in craft and technical categories" but whether the complex narrative "could prevent it from garnering Oscar recognition beyond below-the-line categories." The analysis.  

Film review: Will Smith in 'King Richard'

►"Not quite a grand slam, but a winning family drama." THR critic Stephen Farber reviews Reinaldo Marcus Green's King Richard, in which Will Smith plays Richard Williams the determined father of Venus and Serena Williams in this complicated look at the early life of the two tennis superstars. The review.

—"A highly accomplished debut." Maggie Gyllenhaal makes her directorial debut with The Lost Daughter starring Olivia Colman. The Oscar winner plays a divorced academic whose Greek island encounter with a vacationing family brings acute memories of her own parenting choices in Gyllenhaal’s adaptation of the Elena Ferrante novel. The review. 

—"A cracked portrait of hard-won liberation." Kristen Stewart plays Princess Diana in the biopic Spencer, director Pablo Larraín and screenwriter Steven Knight’s audaciously original film about a three-day Christmas weekend at Sandringham in the early ‘90s, when the sham of Diana’s marriage to Prince Charles had become unendurable. The review. 

Nicole Scherzinger Sued Over Pussycat Dolls Reunion

►Not great for morale. Nicole Scherzinger agreed to a reunion of The Pussycat Dolls. Then, COVID-19 hit. Now, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court,  she’s threatening to walk away from the big tour unless she’s given a majority share and complete creative control in relaunching the group. The story. 

—College football scores. Fox got strong ratings from its kickoff to the college football season Thursday, leading primetime in both total viewers and adults 18-49. CBS’ Big Brother fared the best among the other networks, gathering 4.1 million viewers and a 0.92 in the 18-49 demographic. The ratings.

—Community. Brian Davids speaks to Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton about making his first blockbuster and all the support he got from Marvel's stable of filmmakers including Chloé Zhao, Ryan Coogler and Taika Waititi. Cretton also dives into that bus sequence and the post-credit cameo from a familiar face. Warning spoilers. The interview.

—What to make of that after-credits scene. Graeme McMillan considers the final moments of Shang-Chi that seems to promise a return but not the titular hero's. Warning spoilers. The story.

Richard E. Grant Posts Touching Tribute Following Death of Wife Joan Washington

►"To be truly known and seen by you, is your immeasurable gift." Richard E. Grant shared the news that Joan Washington, his wife of more than three decades, passed away Wednesday night. The actor paid a touching tribute to Washington, a voice and dialect coach for numerous TV and film projects, on Twitter. The story. 

—Infamous skit. The son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry did not see the humor when William Shatner told Trekkies to “get a life” while hosting Saturday Night Live in December 1986. “I never really appreciated that skit because I think it was demeaning to the fans,” Rod Roddenberry told THR. The story.  

In other news...

—Telluride film review: Peter Middleton and James Spinney's The Real Charlie Chaplin. 

—Telluride film review: Jenny Slate in Marcel the Shell With Shoes On.

—Telluride film review: Robert Greene’s Procession.

—Venice film review: Bianca Stigter's Three Minutes — A Lengthening. 

—Camila Cabello, Billy Porter and Idina Menzel bring Cinderella to “Crosswalk the Musical.”

—Belfast trailer: Jamie Dornan, Judi Dench travel back to 1969 in Kenneth Branagh film.

—The Exorcist maze a possessed gem as Halloween horror nights returns to Universal Studios.

—Oscar De La Hoya hospitalized with COVID-19, cancels comeback fight.

What else we're reading...

—"For the Sopranos Prequel, It’s All in the Family" [Wall Street Journal]

—"The Lasting Impact of Siskel and Ebert" [The Ringer]

—"Cinderella: A Fairy Tale That Hollywood Didn’t Need to Modernize" [The Atlantic]

—"Nick Mohammed on Watching Ted Lasso’s Nate “Break Down in Real Time”' [Vulture]

—"Showtime's Bitchin' Dives Into the Many Lives of Young Rick James" [Esquire]

Today...  

Today's birthdays: Beyoncé (40), Mark Ronson (46), Wes Bentley (43), Damon Wayans (61), Max Greenfield (42), Ione Skye (51), Whitney Cummings (39), Noah Taylor (52), Nona Gaye (47), Charlotte Le Bon (35), Françoise Yip (49), Khandi Alexander (64)