Benjamin Lee

Brooklyn, New York

East Coast Arts Editor, Guardian US at The Guardian

Articles

Will Ferrell to bring Eurovision musical to Broadway

2 days ago | theguardian.com | Benjamin Lee

Will Ferrell is set to turn his 2020 comedy Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga into a Broadway musical. The actor starred in and co-wrote the Netflix film with Harper Steele and the pair will develop the show with Anthony King, whose Broadway credits include Beetlejuice and Gutenberg! The Musical!. There is no timeline yet to the production. “We are more than excited to bring Eurovision to Broadway,” Ferrell said in a statement.
Adolescence becomes Netflix’s second biggest English-language TV series

3 days ago | theguardian.com | Benjamin Lee

Adolescence has become Netflix’s second biggest ever English language TV series. The critically acclaimed UK drama series knocked off Stranger Things after it reached a total of 141.2m views since its launch in March. The fourth season of the sci-fi drama had totalled 140.7m. The No 1 slot is still taken by the first season of Wednesday, which has 2521.m views in its first 91 days. The second season is scheduled to premiere in August.
Luca Guadagnino set to direct fact-based drama about OpenAI

3 days ago | theguardian.com | Benjamin Lee

Luca Guadagnino is in talks to direct a new comedic drama about behind-the-scenes drama at OpenAI. The director of Call Me by Your Name and Challengers is set to take on Artificial, a film telling the story of the period in 2023 when OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was fired and then rehired within days. The script comes from Simon Rich, the novelist and screenwriter whose previous credits include work on Saturday Night Live and Seth Rogen-led comedy An American Pickle.
Clint Eastwood calls viral interview a fabrication: ‘Completely phony’

4 days ago | theguardian.com | Benjamin Lee

Clint Eastwood has released a statement to claim a recent interview with him is a fabrication. Quotes from an alleged interview with the Oscar-winning actor and director had gone viral over the weekend and were picked up by a number of sites. Yet Eastwood has now said that he never spoke to anyone from German-language Austrian newspaper Kurier. “A couple of items about me have recently shown up in the news,” Eastwood said in a statement released to Deadline.
King of the Hill actor Jonathan Joss killed in shooting aged 59

4 days ago | theguardian.com | Benjamin Lee

Actor Jonathan Joss, best known for voicing John Redcorn in King of the Hill, has died in a shooting. San Antonio police confirmed to Variety that the 59-year-old died on Saturday after an incident. Officers were reportedly dispatched while the shooting was in process and found him near the road. After an attempt to revive him, he was pronounced dead on the scene. The shooter has been detained and TMZ is reporting that it was the result of “a heated argument” with a neighbour.
‘We will not stay silent’: Ariana Grande and Pedro Pascal among supporters of LGBTQ+ suicide lifeline

4 days ago | theguardian.com | Benjamin Lee

Pedro Pascal, Ariana Grande and Jamie Lee Curtis are among the names included on an open letter aimed at protecting federal funds for LGBTQ+ suicide prevention. In collaboration with nonprofit organisation The Trevor Project, the letter has been released during Pride month and also features names such as Dua Lipa, Daniel Radcliffe, Troye Sivan, Sabrina Carpenter and Nathan Lane. “As artists, creators, and public figures, our platforms come with responsibility,” the letter reads.
Ariana Grande to join original cast in Meet the Parents sequel

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Benjamin Lee

Ariana Grande is set to join the original cast of Meet the Parents in an upcoming sequel. The singer and actor, who scored an Oscar nomination this year for Wicked, will join Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller in the as-yet-untitled fourth film in the successful comedy franchise. Details are being kept under wraps, but according to the Hollywood Reporter, Grande will play a “ball-busting woman” who is engaged to the son of Stiller’s character.
Fear Street: Prom Queen review - disappointing Netflix teen slasher

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Benjamin Lee

The Fear Street trilogy was one of the many casualties of the cinema-shuttering Covid pandemic, originally scheduled for an ambitious one-film-a-month summer release by Fox before being offloaded to Netflix. But while it was a little disappointing to see horror films made with such unusual cinematic flair released straight-to-smartphone, it was also a wise business decision, the unorthodox original strategy unlikely to have paid off.
‘Breath-stoppingly tense’: which Mission: Impossible film is the greatest?

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Radheyan Simonpillai |Joel Snape |Stuart Heritage |Benjamin Lee |Jesse Hassenger |Pamela Hutchinson | +1 more

Mission: ImpossibleMission: Impossible’s slick and sensuous surface bears no trace of the drama behind the scenes making it. During production, the screenwriters of Jurassic Park (David Koepp) and Chinatown (Robert Towne) sent in duelling script pages for director Brian De Palma and producer Tom Cruise to wrestle over.
Tom Hanks to co-write and star in off-Broadway play

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Benjamin Lee

Tom Hanks is set to co-write and appear in an off-Broadway play. The Oscar winner will bring The World of Tomorrow to the Shed’s Griffin Theatre in New York in October through December. Based on his short stories, Hanks will play a scientist from the future in search of true love who keeps returning to the same day in 1939 at the World’s Fair in Queens.