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David Steven Cohen, the Emmy-nominated writer and producer who helped turn Courage the Cowardly Dog into a beloved hit, has passed away. He was 58 years old.

Cohen's passing was announced by Cartoon Network in a post on Instagram. Including an image of Cohen, the caption noted, "The things we do for love. Thank you, David, for your work on the strangely beautiful world of Courage, lovingly adding to our childhood trauma while teaching poignant life lessons. How you've brought to life a scared but courageous little dog reminds us that we can do anything, even if we're afraid. Rest well."

View this post on InstagramA post shared by Cartoon Network (@cartoonnetworkofficial)

Cartoon Network also added a comment to the post that reads, "There's no such thing as perfect, you're beautiful as you are, Courage. With all of your imperfections, you can do anything you want to do!"

Cohen's passing...

Lynne Marie Stewart, best known for playing Miss Yvonne on Pee-wee’s Playhouse and her recurring role on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, has passed away at the age of 78. The news of her death was shared by long-term friend, Cassandra Peterson – better known as her horror hostess creation Elvira – via social media. The actress, who worked with Stewart on several Elvira projects, shared:

“My heart is breaking upon hearing the news of my dear friend Lynne Stewart’s passing. One of the kindest, sweetest, funniest women who ever lived. The iconic Miss Yvonne of Pee-wee’s Playhouse: She’ll always be “the most beautiful woman in Puppetland”.

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Born and raised in California, Stewart...

Lynne Marie Stewart, best known for her role as Miss Yvonne in Pee-wee's Playhouse and other projects featuring Paul Reubens' Pee-wee Herman, has passed away. She was 78 years old.

The news of Stewart's passing was announced by Cassandra Peterson, better known by her Elvira persona, in a post on Instagram. Peterson, who was friends with Stewart, shared an image with the caption noting, "My heart is breaking upon hearing the news of my dear friend Lynne Stewart’s passing. One of the kindest, sweetest, funniest women who ever lived. The iconic Miss Yvonne of Pee-wee’s Playhouse: She’ll always be 'the most beautiful woman in Puppetland.'”

View this post on InstagramA post shared by Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark (@therealelvira)

Stewart appeared in Peterson's 1988 film, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, and she'd later reunite with Peterson for The Elvira Show in 1993. In the image posted, Peterson and...

Lynne Marie Stewart, who was best known for her roles on Pee-wee’s Playhouse and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, died Friday. She was 78.

The news was confirmed by the actress’s manager, who tells TVLine that Stewart became ill after doctors found a tumor between her liver and gallbladder.

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“My heart is breaking upon hearing the news of my dear friend Lynne Stewart’s passing,...

Paul Reubens has gone public with his sexuality over a year and a half after he passed away. Pee-wee’s Playhouse is finally done with closets.

To anyone who had been following Reubens’ career since his hit stage show became a TV sensation in the mid-1980s, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the Pee-wee Herman Show creator’s personal life was about as non-traditional as his stage persona. In the two-part biographical docu-series Pee-wee as Himself, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival on Thursday night and will make its streaming premiere on Max sometime later in 2025, Reubens cleared the air about his private life, which had been the subject of speculation for decades, during the nearly 40 hours of interviews that he shot with director Matt Wolf before his death in 2023.

Among the many revelations from Pee-wee as Himself was Reubens’ admission that he had been living...

The documentary “Pee-wee as Himself” offers a complex view of Paul Reubens’ life through a performance-driven lens. This two-part film examines the blurred lines between Reubens’ personal identity and his iconic character, Pee-wee Herman. The narrative weaves through experiences of creativity, struggle, and public perception.

Reubens’ early life emerges as a foundation for artistic expression. Pee-wee Herman surfaces as more than a comedic character—he represents a protective mechanism against external pressures.

The character embodies a deep exploration of self-presentation, revealing the intricate ways individuals construct identity through performance. Beneath the laughter lies a profound examination of personal vulnerability and the masks people wear to navigate social landscapes.

Shadows of Innocence: The Formative Years of Paul Reubens

Paul Reubens emerged from a complex childhood landscape in Peekskill, New York. His father’s narrative wove through stories of adventure and possibility, creating an environment where imagination could flourish. The early years...

Plot: The life and career of Pee-wee Herman as told by Paul Reubens himself.

Review: Shortly before his death, Paul Reubens sat down with documentarian Matt Wolf for an exhaustive forty hours of interviews to be used for a potential documentary. Reubens, who was notoriously press-shy throughout his career, was always reluctant to talk about himself, especially in light of the various scandals that sometimes overshadowed his legacy. However, later in life, he felt the need to set the record straight, making Pee-wee as Himself a stunningly insightful view into the legacy of one of the eighties’ biggest (and most unconventional) pop culture icons.

If you weren’t alive during that decade, it’s hard to explain just how big he was. He held a unique place in the entertainment industry, as everyone loved him, with him appealing equally to adults and children thanks to his hit film, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,...

Beloved entertainer Paul Reubens passed away in 2023 at the age of 70. Now, fans will get to learn more about the Pee-wee Herman actor's private life in a posthumous documentary.

Per the New York Post, Reubens is featured as the subject of Pee-wee as Himself, an all-new documentary that had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 23. In the film, Reubens reportedly comes out as gay, marking the only time he'd ever publicly spoken about his sexuality. Reubens shared how some of Pee-wee Herman's mannerisms were even inspired by the man he was in a relationship with at the time, and he also revealed why he chose to keep his sexuality a secret for his entire career. The Mystery Men star also explained why he decided to finally open up about his secrets, including the cancer diagnosis he'd also kept private until his death.

Related Tim Burton Recalls...

In the final months before his death in July 2023, Paul Reubens got a chance to get a “message in at the last minute,” as he put it. Sitting down for over 40 hours of interviews for the HBO documentary Pee-wee as Himself, the actor, comedian, and Pee-wee Herman creator came out as gay, discussed his “devastating” scandals, and offered new insight into a life that he had always kept secret.

“I had many, many secret relationships,” Reubens says in the documentary, which premiered this week at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. “I was secretive about my sexuality even to my friends [out of] self-hatred or self-preservation,” he says at another point. “I was conflicted about sexuality. But fame was way more complicated.”

Pee-wee as Himself was first announced in 2021, with Matt Wolf directing and Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie serving as executive producers. Reubens himself consented to the project and spent “several hundred hours...

Pee-wee Herman actor Paul Reubens shared the truth about his sexuality in a posthumous documentary, Pee-wee as Himself. The feature, which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival on Thursday, January 23, dives into Reubens' life and offers insights into his career, utilizing more than 40 hours of interviews and archival footage. Reubens died in 2023 at the age of 70 after a private battle with cancer.

During his conversations with director Matt Wolf, Reubens reveals that before landing the role of Pee-wee Herman (the iconic character he created and portrayed for decades), he had a boyfriend named Guy (Guy was actually the inspiration for some of Pee-wee's behaviors). Becoming a known name, however, led Reubens to conceal his sexuality, as he "wasn't pursuing the Paul Reubens career," but the Pee-wee Herman career (via the New York Post):

"I hid behind an alter ego. I spent my entire adult life hiding I was a huge weed head,...

The push-and-pull between a documentary filmmaker and their subject is always present in the resulting work, oftentimes simmering underneath the surface but still noticeable like a quiet hum.

But with “Pee-wee as Himself,” a delightful and moving two-part documentary that premiered at Sundance before it airs on HBO later this year, that tug-of-war is placed front and center. Repeatedly, Paul Reubens, who created the Pee-wee persona and was, for a time, one of the most well-known figures in pop culture, addresses the project’s director Matt Wolf directly. Reubens pushes and prods. He openly wonders why he agreed to be interviewed for the documentary (for a reported 40 hours) and whether the film was a good idea in the first place. He even floats the idea that he should have directed the documentary himself. At one point, when Wolf asks a question, Reubens interrupts him with a joke; Wolf can hardly talk.

Paul Reubens never addressed his sexuality in any public comments throughout his career, but he comes out as gay in a posthumous documentary about his life.

The beloved actor, best known for his character Pee-wee Herman, was out of the closet before he became famous, but decided to hide his sexuality amid the success he achieved.

In the new two-part HBO documentary, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, Paul discusses his relationship with his former boyfriend Guy and how his ex inspired Pee-wee Herman.

Keep reading to find out more…

“I was out of the closet, and then I went back in the closet,” Paul said in the doc (via the New York Post). “I wasn’t pursuing the Paul Reubens career; I was pursuing the Pee-wee Herman career.”

Paul said he had “many, many secret relationships” during his career. “I hid behind an alter ego,” he said. “I...

The man staring into the camera is not Pee-wee Herman. He may look a little like him, kinda sorta sound like him, have that same sly, agent-of-chaos-reporting-for-duty-sir smirk. But he is not the man in the tight gray flannel suit, the one who went from cult-figure famous to beloved by millions. “Hi, I’m Paul Reubens, on the set of the untitled Paul Reubens documentary,” he says, speaking directly into the camera. Should you think he takes this too seriously, the character actor with the impressive IMDb page launches into...

“I was born in 1938 in a little house on the edge of the Mississippi River. My father worked on a steamboat,” Paul Reubens tells Matt Wolf, director of the new two-part HBO documentary series, Pee-wee as Himself.

He, of course, was not. Reubens was born in Peekskill, New York, in 1952. His father was … well, his father was a lot of things, including a founder of the Israeli Air Force, but he definitely didn’t work on the steamboat.

Reubens’ joke — one of the first things he says in the documentary — points to two important things that are central to Pee-wee as Himself, an entertaining, enlightening and enjoyably confounding portrait of an enjoyably confounding artist.

First, Reubens, who died in 2023, had been constructing his own identity for decades. He spent so many years making talk show appearances and personal cameos as beloved alter ego Pee-wee Herman that it became impossible...

Outside of Devo, co-founder and vocalist Mark Mothersbaugh has carved out a lucrative niche for himself by scoring films and creating music for TV shows. However, it’s his work on the theme for one of the most-aired shows of all time, MTV’s Ridiculousness, that’s been the biggest earner, bringing in about $1 million per year.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Mothersbaugh spoke about the success of the reworked version of Devo’s “Uncontrollable Urge” in comparison to his other themes and his group’s best-known song, “Whip It.”

“I’ve written so many other songs for films and television shows,” Mothersbaugh said. “I would’ve been shocked [years ago] if you told me this is the one that would become this prime source of income.”

He continued, “MTV stopped playing us but we came to the other side of the circle. It’s a nice ironic twist because...

Tim Burton celebrates 40 years of filmmaking this year, which makes it the ideal time to look back at Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, which comes from a critical period in the director's career. Across four decades, Burton has been responsible for some of the most iconic characters in cinema. From Beetlejuice to Batman to Edward Scissorhands, Burton is doubtlessly one of the most influential directors in Hollywood. The important hallmarks of Burton's movies ensure his inimitable style presents itself effectively, and despite facing continuous criticism during the 2000s, Burton's recent success with Beetlejuice 2 is a testament to his greatest strengths.

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure hit theaters in 1985, and the whimsical feature-length film marks Burton's directorial debut. On the surface, the movie set lacks Burton's signature stamp with its costume designs and production value. However, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure has a longevity that has become increasingly associated with many of Burton's classics. Paul Reubens...

Updated with details on documentaries from Elegance Bratton, Amy Berg, Jesse Moss, and Amanda McBaine, and Sally key art. Some of the biggest talents in documentary film will be unveiling new work at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, including Oscar winners Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Davis Guggenheim, and Mstyslav Chernov.

The marquee names in the nonfiction slate extend to the subjects of films – musical great Sly Stone examined in Questlove’s Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius); the late Selena Quintanilla’s story told in a film by Isabel Castro; Actress Marlee Matlin’s trailblazing career explored in Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, from director Shoshannah Stern; astronaut Sally Ride’s gravity-defying journey and personal life revealed in Sally, directed by Cristina Costantini.

No Sundance premiere documentary may attract more attention than Pee-wee as Himself, “A chronicle of the life of artist and performer Paul Reubens and his alter ego Pee-wee Herman.

New documentaries about Selena, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Jeff Buckley, and Sly Stone are among the films competing at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival next month.

Amir “Questlove” Thompson’s long-in-the-works Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) — the follow-up to the Roots drummer’s Oscar-winning directorial debut Summer of Soul — will premiere at the fest, which begins in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah on Jan. 23.

“It’s official! Sly Lives! (Aka The Burden of Black Genius) will premiere at the 2025 #Sundance Film Festival,” Questlove wrote on social media Wednesday.

Fresh from the success of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Tim Burton has played down reports he is set to work with Warner Bros again on a reboot of its 1958 classic Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman which is in development at the studio.

“I have no real projects at the moment,” the director told a conversation at the Marrakech Film Festival.

“One thing I learned very early on is that until I’m on the set doing something I don’t know if I’m doing it. I’ve had projects, I was doing a Superman once, I did another project that I worked for a year upon, and it didn’t happen. When those things happen, it’s quite traumatic, it’s quite emotional. So, I’m very protective of myself,” he said.

“In Hollywood, when you’re doing something, you may think you’re doing something, until they tell you you’re not doing something.

Brandon Espys Mr. Crocket started as a 6-minute horror short for Hulu's Bite Size Halloween collection. Two years later, Espy's feature debut is hitting as part of the streamer's 2024 "Huluween" slate. It's a malevolent take on Pee-wee's Playhouse and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood dashed with the wit of slasher icon Freddy Krueger (albeit opposite motivations). Espy's exploration of parenthood and children's television shows is packed with practical effects that would terrify youngsters expecting Saturday morning laughs, but suffers from some typical short-to-feature issues in stretching stories to the limit. Even so, Mr. Crocket makes for a wicked little Halloween steam in a punchy 90-minutes-or-less package.

Say his name three times and he'll appear ... in your living room. "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" is winding down in theaters, but you can still catch Tim Burton's apparent return to form at home beginning October 8, 2024. That's when the Michael Keaton-led sequel, with which /Film's own Jacob Hall declared that Burton "gets his mojo back," will make its way to digital platforms like Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV, where it'll be available to rent or purchase with plenty of extras.

The current pre-order price for a digital version of the movie appears to be $24.99 on both platforms mentioned above, with Amazon touting its version as the "Bonus X-Ray Edition" and specifying that it includes an Ultra HD format. Buy the movie digitally and you'll also get a bunch of goodies including a commentary from Burton, a feature on the stop-motion art of the movie, and intriguingly titled special extras like "Shrinkers,...

Late actor Paul Reubens, best known for his Pee-wee Herman character, was honored with a special screening of one of his celebrated films at his final resting place. The tribute came over a year after Reubens' death in 2023.

Per Deadline, Cinespia hosted a screening on Saturday at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery of the 1985 film Pee-wee's Big Adventure. Diane Salinger and E.G. Daily, who appeared with Reubens in the film, attended the screening in honor of their late co-star. Composer Danny Elfman and producer Richard Gilbert Abramson were also in attendance, as were celebrities Fred Armisen, Tony Hawk, and Mark Mothersbaugh.

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Reubens died in July 2023 at the age of 70. It was revealed at the time...

More than a year after Paul Reubens‘ death, thousands of the actor’s loyal fans gathered at his final resting place to celebrate his most beloved character.

Cinespia concluded its Summer 2024 season on Saturday at Hollywood Forever Cemetery with a special tribute screening of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985), featuring surprise appearances from Reubens’ co-stars Diane Salinger and E.G. Daily, as well as the movie’s composer Danny Elfman and producer Richard Gilbert Abramson (who was also Reubens’ manager).

Fred Armisen kicked off the screening by introducing Tony Hawk, who recalled his friendship with Reubens after meeting at an event about 10 years ago. “He and I kept in touch, and he was the sweetest,” recalled Hawk. “I was honored to be the recipients of one of his ‘birthday bomb texts,’ where — you might have heard about it — it’s your birthday and you get texts nonstop all day, just memes from Paul Reubens.

It was Paul Reubens’ second turn at bat.

The actor, then 35, had already rocketed to fame as Pee-wee Herman, the bicycle-obsessed man-child from 1985’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure — the feature debut from Tim Burton, who is back in cinemas this weekend with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

For his sophomore outing, 1988’s Big Top Pee-wee, Reubens relocated his alter ego from suburbia to a pastoral setting, where Pee-wee cared for talking animals while working on cutting-edge agricultural experiments like hot dog trees.

Burton did not return to direct; instead it was Randal Kleiser behind the camera, back at Paramount for the first time since directing the studio’s 1978 smash, Grease.

“I had a ball making that movie,” says Penelope Ann Miller, who played Pee-wee’s fiancé Winnie, on THR‘s It Happened in Hollywood podcast. “I loved Winnie, the prude little school teacher, who wouldn’t let him touch her and loved egg salad,...

Tim Burton was already a graduate of the Disney hard-knocks school of animation, a filmmaker with a few shorts under his belt, and the man who helped Pee-wee Herman go from underground favorite to alpha-manchild of ’80s cinema, when he begun working on his sophomore film: a 1988 horror-comedy about a Goth, some ghosts, and a particularly uncouth ghoul. Beetlejuice gave us our first introduction to the full, uncut Burton sensibility, in which the macabre and the madcap walked hand in hand while Michael Keaton ricocheted off the walls. It was spooky,...

The Most Beautiful Woman in Puppetland loved Pee-wee Herman until the end, and he kept her laughing the whole time.

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the passing of Paul Reubens, the iconic actor and comedian whose performance as the childish eccentric Pee-wee Herman on stage, in film and on television brought so much joy to generations of kids and adults — and jump-started a couple careers in entertainment in the process. Reubens’ children’s television series Pee-wee’s Playhouse, which ran from 1986 to 1990 on CBS, featured a long-time collaborator of Reubens in a role that opened numerous doors in entertainment and paved the way for future performances on other beloved shows such as It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Lynne Marie Stewart, who played Miss Yvonne in Reubens’ stage shows, in the CBS series and in the Pee-wee films, reflected on her final conversation with the star when he was...

Beetlejuice 2 took 36 years to make, featuring Michael Keaton and original cast members, with new faces joining. The film will pay homage to the original movie with a few updates for modern audiences while referencing Burton's previous works. Beetlejuice's comically large eyes in the trailer are a nod to Tim Burton's signature style of characters with hollowed eyes.

A hilarious moment in Tim Burtons Beetlejuice Beetlejuice teased in the trailers ties into an iconic character from his very first movie. The sequel to Burtons 1988 film Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice 2 took a long 36 years to make; As seen in the trailers, Michael Keaton will return to the updated Beetlejuice role, as will many other members of the original Beetlejuice cast. While Burton has long established a group of actors and themes he prefers working with, Beetlejuice 2 will see several new faces.

The film promises to remain faithful to the original,...

When remembering Paul Reubens' Pee-wee Herman, most people likely associate him with the Tim Burton classic Pee-wee's Big Adventure, a wild comedy that follows Pee-wee as he travels across America to find his beloved bicycle, stolen near the beginning of the film. The movie is decidedly Burton-esque and chaotic yet has a relatively straightforward storyline. But Reubens' Pee-wee Herman works best when he cuts loose, and only one media project truly allowed Pee-wee to run wild. A frenetic, nonsensical, and absolutely absurd Saturday morning children's series that threw everything at the wall at a fast, dizzying pace. That show is Pee-Wee's Playhouse, and how such a unique show came to be is a story unto itself.

Doctor Who season 14, episode 5 featured a meta cameo from Ncuti Gatwa's former co-star. Lindy Pepper-Bean interacts with Dr. Pee, a urine specialist played by Max Boast. Max Boast's character shares a name with Tom Baker, a pivotal figure in Doctor Who history.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Doctor Who season 14, episode 5, "Dot and Bubble."

Doctor Who season 14, episode 5 featured a brilliantly meta cameo from one of Ncuti Gatwa's former cast mates that probably went unnoticed by the vast majority of viewers. So far, Doctor Who season 14 hasn't been short on guest appearances, with famous faces such as Jinkx Monsoon, Aneurin Barnard, and Anita Dobson all popping up along the way. While the latest episode may not have been packed with A-list stars, it did feature a delightfully crafty cameo.

Entitled "Dot and Bubble", Doctor Who season 14, episode 5 took place in Finetime, a city populated by social media-obsessed young adults who...

Doctor Who's "Dot and Bubble" shocks with a dark twist on social media addiction and white supremacy themes. Lindy's betrayal of a beloved character exposes the true darkness of entitlement in Finetime's privileged residents. Reflecting Black Mirror, the episode's subversion of social media critique stuns viewers with a monstrous protagonist reveal.

The following contains spoilers for Doctor Who, Season 1, Episode 5, "Dot and Bubble," now streaming on Disney+ and BBC iPlayer.

Countless Doctor Who episodes have ended on a last-minute surprise, but none have ever been quite as shocking as the ending to "Dot and Bubble." The fifth episode of the BBC sci-fi series' new Season 1 is based on an idea writer Russell T Davies first conceived in 2010, immediately after his first era as showrunner. The episode, which has heavy notes from Charlie Brooker's dark sci-fi anthology series, Black Mirror, could only be realized now thanks to the...

The world has changed a lot in the last two decades, and the emergence of new technology is of the utmost significance. Cinematographer turned director Shady Ali’s Charging Card is a sort of dystopian satire. Most of us now pay for multiple subscription fees for different platforms, and it’s only getting worse. From food to entertainment and transport, it’s essential for us to pay a hefty amount of money to subscribe to things we didn’t need to not too long ago. In this movie, the director takes us to a futuristic Cairo, where a common man starts to lose his mind over the gazillions of apps that have become necessary for survival.

Spoilers Ahead

What happens in the movie?

Shereif is a tight-fisted middle-class man whose life starts to become difficult when he figures that he needs to pay for a subscription to catch a football match.

Exclusive: Shout! Studios has re-acquired the previously held worldwide home entertainment, broadcast and digital distribution rights for Paul Reubens’ Pee-wee’s Playhouse. In addition, the studio has newly acquired AVOD (advertising supported video on demand) rights, bringing the show to AVOD and the streaming service Shout! TV for the first time as part of the deal. Shout! TV channels include Mystery Science Theater 3000, The Carol Burnett Show, Johnny Carson TV, TokuSHOUTsu, Alf, Farscape, Non-Stop ’90s, and Wild West TV.

Under the pact, Shout! Studios now has extensive distribution rights to all 45 episodes of Pee-wee’s Playhouse as well as Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special. You can watch a promo below.

Since its initial premiere on CBS in 1986, the multiple Emmy-winning Pee-wee’s Playhouse became Saturday morning appointment viewing for kids in the ’80s and ’90s and has been a staple in the pop culture zeitgeist ever since.

Pee-wee’s Playhouse is an educational, artistic, and...

Joe Manganiello recently said that he’s always “on the lookout for a good werewolf script” because he feels he has some unfinished business from his days of playing a werewolf on HBO series True Blood – but while we wait to see if and when he’s going to end up making a werewolf movie, Deadline reports that he has signed on to star in and produce a zombie thriller called Mountain Man.

Mountain Man is based on a series of novels written by Keith C. Blackmore. There are currently three books in that series, so if the movie is well-received there is some franchise potential here.

John Lee, whose previous credits include False Positive and Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, is set to direct the film from a screenplay by Matt Deller. Mountain Man will tell the story of Gus, a lonely post-apocalyptic survivor facing isolation and the...

Robert Downey Jr. has won the Oscar for best supporting actor for his work in Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.” The night completed an awards season sweep for the star, with his victory at the Oscars joining his previous supporting actor wins at the Golden Globes, Critic’s Choice Awards, SAG Awards and BAFTA Film Awards.

“I’d like to thank my terrible childhood and the Academy — in that order,” Downey quipped at the start of his speech, before throwing in another joke. “I’d like to thank my veterinarian — I meant wife, Susan Downey over there. She found me a snarling rescue pet and you loved me back to life. That’s why I’m here.”

Downey also offered his thanks to his “Oppenheimer” collaborators, including director Nolan, producer Emma Thomas and his co-stars and fellow Oscar nominees Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt.

“Here’s my little secret. I needed...

As has become the ritual for any Paul Thomas Anderson picture, after a brief trade announcement giving very little details, set photos are now pouring in, launching a trail of breadcrumbs fit for the sleuthing likes of Doc Sportello. After revealing production would kick off in Eureka, California under the name “BC Project,” star Leonardo DiCaprio has been spotted sporting quite the look, joined by a co-star.

As one can see below, DiCaprio is filming a scene at a restaurant alongside an actress revealed to be newcomer Chase Infiniti, according to Daniel Richtman. While he can often be off the mark with his rumors, doing a bit more digging on her official site and Instagram and the resemblance certainly matches. Infiniti is a recent graduate of Columbia College Chicago Theatre’s Musical Theatre Performance Bfa program and her only other credit is a role in the forthcoming Presumed Innocent series.

Pee-wee’s Playhouse was the culmination of a character created back in the 70s by the multi-talented Paul Reubens. Reubens had joined the comedy group the Groundlings in the 70s. The Groundlings was the jumping-off point for several famous comedians and icons. This would include Phil Hartman, Lisa Kudrow, Cassandra Peterson, Craig T. Nelson, a who’s who list of SNL Alumni, Conan O’Brien, JJ Abrams, and well…just a lot of people.

A number of the troupe who were there when Reubens was a part of the Groundlings would wind up as part of not only Pee-wee’s Playhouse but also other Pee-wee projects. I mean…who can forget Cassandra Peterson, Aka Elvira, as the biker gang badass chick who wanted a go at Pee Wee first?

From his time creating the character at The Groundlings, Reubens had a go for Saturday Night Live which didn’t happen. After this, he...

Key Takeaways: Tim Burton's signature trademarks, such as weird stop-motion creatures and black & white striped outfits, should be included in Beetlejuice 2. The sequel should continue the theme of outcasts, a recurring element in Burton's films. Tim Burton's frequent collaborators, including actors like Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder, as well as composer Danny Elfman, will likely return for Beetlejuice 2.

Tim Burton is returning to direct Beetlejuice 2, and here are 10 of the director's movie trademarks that we want to see back in the long-awaited sequel. Tim Burton is one of the most well-known filmmakers of all time, with his stylistic choices and iconography being a key part of the director's recognizability. Many of Tim Burton's signature trademarks were first coined in Beetlejuice, and now that he is finally returning for a sequel, it'd be nice to see some of these staples as well. These 10 Tim Burton trademarks are absolutely iconic,...

Two days ago, Dan Marfisi, a longtime musician and songwriter in the L.A. area, received a text from a composer friend. “He wrote, ‘Did you write this song on The X-Files?’” Marfisi says. “He said, ‘You should go to Twitter and check out these threads. You’ll be a hero.’”

Marfisi had no idea what his friend was talking about, but when he went online, he learned that more than a few people have been trying to unearth information about a piece of music he co-wrote 25 years ago — and had barely thought about since.

Victor J. Kemper, the former president of the American Society of Cinematographers whose career spanned four decades and included films as diverse as Dog Day Afternoon and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, has died according to the ASC. He was 96.

Kemper made films with many of the greats of ’70s cinema, including John Cassavetes, Arthur Hiller, Michael Ritchie, Peter Yates, Sidney Lumet, George Roy Hill, Robert Wise, Carl Reiner, Richard Attenborough and Norman Jewison.

His very first film was Cassavetes’ Husbands, and it was an education in itself.

“We shot more than a million-and-a-half feet of film during 10 weeks in New York and 12 weeks in London,” Kemper recalled. “That’s the way Cassavetes worked.”

He went on to make Mikey & Nicky with the director.

Subsequent work included The Candidate, And Justice for All, Audrey Rose, Slap Shot, Oh God!, The Gambler, The Jerk, The Four Seasons, Coma, Mr. Mom, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure,...

Director Jessica Yu had a delightful experience working with the late Paul Reubens on Quiz Lady, where he made a cameo appearance. Paul Reubens brought joy to the set with his presence and everyone was excited to see Pee-wee Herman come to life. The film is bittersweet as it features Reubens' final film role, and the team considers themselves blessed to have had him bring a magical moment to the movie.

In an exclusive chat with MovieWeb, director Jessica Yu has shared her experience working with the late, great Paul Reubens, who sadly passed away in July at the age of 70. Reubens’ final film role will be in the comedy Quiz Lady from director Jessica Yu, and which stars Sandra Oh and Awkwafina as sisters who embark on a cross-country journey with the aim of using their game-show skills to help pay off their mother's gambling debts.

Mw: "Can you...

There’s a scene in the Paul Reubens-starrer Pee-wee’s Big Adventure that finds its titular character setting off on a vagabond adventure. He hops aboard a train to sit side-by-side with a grizzled, toothless man known as Hobo Jack, and they sing camp songs until Pee-Wee suddenly sours on the moment. The disgust radiates from his face and he makes a rash decision to jump off the moving train and tumble into the dirt below. The scene lasts all of 53 seconds.

“It’s such a committed, incredibly short joke that takes so much effort and I think that that has embedded somewhere deep inside me,” Greta Gerwig explained from the podium inside Tcl Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on Thursday night while introducing a screening of Tim Burton’s 1985 film as part of AFI Fest. The blockbuster Barbie director turned up as part of her guest-directing duties for the Los Angeles-based festival,...

Happy Friday the 13th!

Fans of anthology-style horror need to check out HeBGB TV (read our review), one of the most unique and fun new horror films that’s now streaming exclusively on Screambox!

The hyperactive anthology about a multidimensional cable box has drawn comparisons to “Pee Wee’s Playhouse”, “Goosebumps”, “Rick & Morty”, and “I Think You Should Leave” by way of V/H/S and The Wnuf Halloween Special.

From Scream Team Releasing, HeBGB TV has a little bit of everything.

“A multi-dimensional cable box installs itself into a neighborhood and slowly, the world.

“Two siblings discover a mysterious package on their porch and are taken on a wild channel-surfing journey through a world of television mayhem. Welcomed by their new friend, The Purple Guy, this brother and sister find themselves standing up to the box’s algorithm to protect their minds.”

DIY to its core, HeBGB TV is a spooky,...

Legendary filmmaker Tim Burton has nothing but fond memories of working on his first feature film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, along with its late star, Paul Reubens.

Sadly, Reubens, best known for his iconic Pee-wee Herman character, passed away in July at the age of 70. Burton was quick to pay tribute to the popular entertainer with an Instagram post, noting how incredibly supportive Reubens had with him on the production. While speaking with the British Film Institute in a new interview, Burton expanded upon his Pee-wee's Big Adventure experience, stressing how he never would've gotten the job if not for the faith Reubens had in him.

Related: The Best Tim Burton Movies, Ranked by Style, Aesthetic and Art

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tim Burton (@timburton)

"He had probably as equal or more say as the studio, in a way. That’s why I was always grateful,...

Beetlejuice 2 "reinvigorated" Tim Burton's love of making movies, helping him combat a feeling of sinking into his own grave. Working with familiar artists and old filmmaking techniques on Beetlejuice 2 brought back a sense of nostalgia and energy for Burton. Despite the SAG-AFTRA strike cutting their filming time short, Burton remains determined to see Beetlejuice 2 through to completion.

Tim Burton explains how Beetlejuice 2 “reinvigorated” his love of filmmaking. After the recent success of Wednesday, Burton teams up with Jenna Ortega again for a long-awaited sequel to his 1988 film Beetlejuice. In addition to Ortega, Beetlejuice 2 stars Michael Keaton, Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, and Justin Theroux.

Speaking with the British Film Institute, Burton said that the upcoming Beetlejuice 2 “reinvigorated [his] love of making movies.” The film helped motivate him as he felt like he was “sinking into [his] own grave.” In working with familiar...

After years of working in Hollywood, Taika Waititi has lived through the classic biopic scene where a protagonist wakes up and immediately questions all of their life choices.

“What the fuck am I doing? Why am I doing this? For what reason? There’s no purpose and I’m getting nothing out of this,” Waititi said in an interview with IndieWire at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. “And then we realize, ‘Oh, but the reason we do this is to help people in our community.’ To keep pulling each other up and supporting each other, that is the purpose. That’s the reason to be doing any of this.”

Though he has made headlines for being at the festival to premiere his long-awaited sports comedy “Next Goal Wins,” Waititi is also promoting the independent film “Frybread Face and Me” from writer-director Billy Luther, which he executive produced. The coming-of-age story...

The late Paul Reubens' final film role will be in the upcoming Hulu comedy Quiz Lady, where he will make a cameo appearance as himself. Reubens, known for his portrayal of Pee-wee Herman, shared the screen with lead stars Awkwafina and Sandra Oh in Quiz Lady. Quiz Lady is a hilarious and heartfelt comedy about a dysfunctional family and their quest to cover their mother's gambling debts through a gameshow champion title.

The final film role of the late, great Paul Reubens has now been revealed, with the Pee-wee Herman star set to feature in the upcoming Hulu comedy, Quiz Lady. However, while it was once thought that Reubens would be appearing as the iconic character Pee-wee Herman, he will in fact feature in a cameo as himself. Directed by Jessica Yu, written by Jen D'Angelo, and starring Sandra Oh and Awkwafina, Quiz Lady is due to land on Hulu in November.

Following his death in July, Paul Reubens' final acting role has been revealed, giving fans one last chance to see him perform posthumously.

Per the L.A. Times, it's been revealed that Paul Reubens, best known for playing his popular Pee-wee Herman character for decades, appears in the new movie Quiz Lady. Set for a wide release on Hulu on Nov. 3, the film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday. As Reubens' role wasn't previously announced, the posthumous appearance came as a pleasant surprise for the Pee-wee Herman fans in attendance.

Related: Line it is Drawn: Pee-wee Herman Comic Book Team-Ups

The report notes that Reubens plays himself in a brief scene alongside Holland Taylor (Two and a Half Men). The late actor filmed the scene last June, according to his rep. While Quiz Lady serves as Reubens' last acting role, it was also reported...

Paul Reubens’ cause of death has been revealed months following his death in July.

The late actor died from acute hypoxic respiratory failure, according to his death certificate that People obtained and his rep confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter Saturday. The condition happens when the respiratory system cannot adequately provide oxygen to the body.

Reubens, the man behind the iconic character Pee-wee Herman, died in Los Angeles at the age of 70. He had also been battling two types of cancer for several years prior to his death, his rep said.

“Last night we said farewell to Paul Reubens, an iconic American actor, comedian, writer and producer whose beloved character Pee-wee Herman delighted generations of children and adults with his positivity, whimsy and belief in the importance of kindness,” a statement read at the time of his death. “Paul bravely and privately fought cancer for years with his trademark tenacity and wit.

Paul Reubens, the actor who created and portrayed Pee-wee Herman, was battling two forms of cancer at the time of his death.

The primary type, which was listed as a sequential underlying cause, was acute myelogenous leukemia, and the actor had also been been diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer, according to his death certificate obtained by People.

Reubens’ immediate cause of death was listed as acute hypoxic respiratory failure.

The Blast first reported the news.

The comedian had privately fought cancer for six years and died on July 30 at the...

Many iconic directors had forgettable debut movies, which are often overshadowed by their later successes. First movies can be low-budget and receive negative reviews, but they still play a significant role in a director's career. Debut films like "Human Nature" and "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" are often forgotten because they are different from their directors' subsequent works.

Although the first movies of various iconic directors were big hits, there are many others whose debut projects ended up being forgettable, though not necessarily bad. Entering the film industry is not easy, especially for those looking to be filmmakers. Not only is it a highly competitive industry, but new filmmakers have to make a big first impression with their debut movies in order to earn a place in the ever-changing world of film. Many directors survived the challenge of making a critically and commercially successful first movie, but the debut films of many others ended up being forgettable,...