McConaughey Joins Gun Debate

►"There is a difference between control and responsibility." Matthew McConaughey is weighing in at length on the debate over gun control in the wake of the elementary school mass shooting in his hometown of Uvalde, Texas. The Oscar winner argues that focusing on gun control has produced nothing more than a decades-long political stalemate and that it’s time to shift the conversation to what he calls “gun responsibility.” The story. 

—London calling. Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle are teaming up for a joint standup show in London, a gig announcement that comes just weeks after both were attacked on stage in separate incidents. The two comic legends will co-headline the show at the vast O2 Arena on Sep. 3, with promoters Live Nation billing the show as “historic.” The story. 

—5.1 billion minutes! Season four of Stranger Things had a massive premiere weekend audience on Netflix, scoring one of the biggest viewing time figures of the past two years. But it wasn’t the only big TV opening on Memorial Day weekend. Obi-Wan Kenobi, the latest Star Wars series on Disney+, more than held its own, according to Nielsen data for May 27-29. The streaming rankings. 

—🦇 BAT!!!! 🦇 FX has handed out a two-season renewal for its critically beloved comedy What We Do in the Shadows. The pickup arrives more than a month before the comedy, inspired by the feature film from Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, returns for its fourth season, takes the show through its fifth and sixth seasons. The story. 

—No messing around. Hulu has gone straight to series on an eight-episode drama based on Cheryl Strayed's bestseller, Tiny Beautiful Things with Kathryn Hahn set to star. The half-hour series, which was previously in development at HBO back in 2015, also marks a reunion for the Disney-backed streamer with Little Fires Everywhere exec producers Reese Witherspoon and Liz Tigelaar. The story. 

—Premier league casting. The fifth season of Fargo has lined up its lead actors. Ted Lasso favorite Juno Temple, Jon Hamm and Jennifer Jason Leigh will star in the FX anthology. Per usual with the show from creator Noah Hawley, details are scant at the moment but season five will be set in 2019. The story. 

The Golden Age of O.G. Film Stars

►"Why do you want to see a redux when you can see the real thing?" The recent massive success of Spider-Man: No Way Home and Top Gun: Maverick has shown Hollywood studios the huge riches to be made at the box office by going back and casting original franchise actors in an umpteenth sequel or reboots. THR's Pamela McClintock writes that the studios are listening to fandoms and realizing that, without the actors who embodied those original characters, they’re holding on to diminished properties. The story. 

—Bogey on their six. Paramount has been drawn into a potentially massive legal battle over the rights to Top Gun. According to a lawsuit filed in California federal court, the studio knew it didn’t have the rights to the sequel but forged ahead with production and distribution anyway. The complaint was filed by the heirs to Ehud Yonay, the author of the 1983 California magazine story entitled “Top Guns” that the original movie was based on. The story. 

—A billy for Tom? Top Gun: Maverick's second weekend fall of just 32 percent at the domestic box office, the lowest decline in history for a movie opening to $100 million or more, shocked Hollywood. Given the spectacular opening and strong word-of-mouth, THR's Pamela McClintock writes that the for the first time in his four-decade career, Tom Cruise has a movie that has a real shot at joining the billion-dollar club at the global box office. The analysis. 

—Well deserved. Ava DuVernay will receive this year’s Founders Award at the 2022 International Emmy Awards. The pioneering writer, director and producer, whose creative work has often mirrored her interests as a social activist, will be honored at the 50th International Emmy Awards Gala in New York on Nov. 21. The story. 

—First round. Hulu’s Dopesick and Netflix’s High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America are among the first round of winners for the 82nd annual Peabody Awards. Dopesick is a winner in the entertainment category along with FX’s Reservation Dogs. High on the Hog is a winner in the documentary category, alongside PBS’ Mr. Soul! The winners. 

Neve Campbell Exits 'Scream 6' Over Pay

►"As a woman I have had to work extremely hard in my career to establish my value." Neve Campbell says she won’t be in the new Scream sequel after she received an inadequate offer to star in the slasher franchise’s sixth installment. Campbell, one of the core cast of the 1996 original, returned for the successful fifth chapter that debuted earlier this year. The story. 

—Finally. Fox broke with tradition at May’s Upfronts by not announcing a schedule for the 2022-23 TV season. Three weeks later, the network has released both its fall schedule and premiere dates at the same time. The schedule. 

—Dreams becoming reality. Netflix has set a premiere date of Aug. 5 for The Sandman, the highly anticipated series based on the DC graphic novels by Neil Gaiman. A full trailer for the series also debuted Monday, following a teaser from September 2021 that showed how Roderick Burgess (Charles Dance) imprisoned Dream (Tom Sturridge). The trailer. 

—Batter up! Amazon has unveiled the first footage of its forthcoming reboot of the classic A League of Their Own. The eight-episode drama, from creators Abbi Jacobson and Will Graham and Sony TV, will debut its entire first season on Aug. 12. The minute-long teaser, set to Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen”, offers a glimpse at the cast, including Jacobson, Chanté Adams, D’Arcy Carden and Melanie Field. The trailer. 

—Policy change. The star attendees at the Tony Awards on June 12 will not be required to wear masks during the ceremony, but will need to be tested for COVID-19 before attending, the organizers have confirmed. While testing is an added precaution, the lack of a mask requirement is at odds with the current regulations for audience members on Broadway. The story.

TV Review: 'Ms. Marvel'

►"Another win for Marvel's hero-minting factory." THR TV critic Angie Han reviews Disney+'s Ms. Marvel. Marvel's latest superhero origin story centers on Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), a 16-year-old Pakistani American Muslim — and Captain Marvel superfan — growing up in New Jersey. The review. 

—Casting news. Coda star Emilia Jones and Scoot McNairy have nabbed lead roles in producer Sofia Coppola’s Fairyland adaptation for American Zoetrope. The film is based on Alysia Abbott’s Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father, a coming-of-age account of Abbott growing up with her single father — widowed poet and gay activist Steve Abbott — amid the AIDS epidemic in 1970s and 1980s San Francisco. The story. 

—Industry reckoning. Japanese auteur and Cannes favorite Naomi Kawase has been accused of violent behavior towards her staff and crew, including an assault that left an employee’s face swollen. THR's Gavin Blair reports that Kawase's Summer Olympics film Tokyo 2020 Side A, which recently premiered at Cannes, bombed on its opening weekend in Japan after following the revelation that the filmmaker assaulted an assistant director and an employee. The story. 

In other news...

—Netflix drops first trailer for mystery series 1899 from creators of Dark

—Boy Scouts doc trailer Leave No Trace explores alleged century-long sexual abuse cover-up

—Resident Evil: Netflix series trailer unveils more monsters

—Entertainment Tonight hosts Kevin Frazier, Nischelle Turner to emcee Daytime Emmys

—Warner Bros. Discovery launches comedic voices program

—Top Toronto Film Fest programmer Steve Gravestock steps down

—A+E Networks promotes Juliana Stock to chief marketing and brand officer

—Annapurna Interactive taps Solar Ash game director to helm internal development studio

What else we're reading...

—Martin Scorsese's beautiful tribute to the late Ray Liotta [Guardian]

—Dave Itzkoff's great profile of the MCU's newest star, Ms. Marvel's Iman Vellani [NYT]

—Adam Nayman interviews David Cronenberg on body horror and his new film Crimes of the Future [New Yorker] 

—Perri Nemiroff interviews DeWanda Wise who reveals why she had to give up a plum part in Captain Marvel [Collider]

—Josef Adalian on why the overwhelming amount of new and returning TV content this spring wasn't good for anyone [Vulture]

Today...  

...in 1985, Richard Donner's The Goonies hit the big screen. The 109-minute film, featuring a story by Steven Spielberg and exec produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, was a box office and critical hit and would go on to become an enduring family favorite. The original review. 

Today's birthdays: Tom Jones (🎂82🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 ), James Ivory (94), Emily Ratajkowski (31), Karl Urban (50), Liam Neeson (70), Marisol Padilla Sánchez (49), Michael Cera (34), Bill Hader (44), Anna Torv (43), Daniel Scheinert (35), Dave Filoni (48), Lance Reddick (59), Larisa Oleynik (41), Helen Baxendale (52), Lyndon Smith (33), William Forsythe (61), Amy Nuttall (40), Tom McCarthy (56), Adam Buxton (53), Dave Navarro (55), Ellen Wroe (34), Amrita Rao (41)