The streaming debut of “Project Hail Mary” and Myles Smith’s debut album are among the new tv, movies, music and video games headed to a tool close to you.

Also among the many streaming choices value your time this week, as chosen by The Associated Press’ leisure journalists: Colin Farrell performs an alien on Earth in “Sugar,” a Square Enix recreation that evokes “Chrono Trigger” and “Released At Last,” a collaboration between Big Freedia and the late artist Sophie.

— “Project Hail Mary,” one of many largest hits of the primary half of the film 12 months, begins streaming Thursday, June 18, on MGM+. Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s sci-fi journey stars Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace, a science trainer who wakes up on a ship despatched into house on a mission to avoid wasting dying stars. Sandra Hüller co-stars, as does an alien named Rocky performed by puppeteer James Ortiz. In her assessment, AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr referred to as it “a clever, sincere, most-ages crowd-pleaser that’s full of life, energy and a love of science.”

— In “How to Make a Killing” (June 19, HBO Max), Glen Powell stars as a working-class man who units out to murderously reclaim his inheritance. The movie, written and directed by John Patton Ford (“Emily the Criminal”), is impressed by the good Alec Guinness Ealing comedy “Kind Heart and Coronets.” But such tonal deftness is missing, I wrote in my assessment, in “a disappointingly flat almost-remake that has neither the biting farce nor the chilling darkness to match its black-comedy ambitions.”

— “Voicemails for Isabelle” hopes to separate from the pack of an extended line of Netflix rom-coms. In writer-director Leah McKendrick’s movie, Zoey Deutch stars a girl grieving her sister’s demise who, to manage, leaves voicemails on her cellphone. When that quantity is reassigned to Austin actual property agent (Nick Robinson), the 2 are drawn collectively. It debuts Friday, June 19.

— AP Film Writer Jake Coyle

— On Friday, Myles Smith will launch his debut album, “My Mess, My Heart, My Life.” It is a bit laborious to imagine, as a result of the English singer-songwriter already has a three-times platinum single underneath his belt. His 2024 tune “Stargazing” was a folk-pop megahit from a once-unknown performer. And on his first full-length album, he goals to maintain up the momentum.

— The music world misplaced a nascent pop hero in 2021, when Sophie, the Grammy-nominated Scottish disc jockey, producer and recording artist who had labored with the likes of Madonna and Charli XCX, died following an accident within the Greek capital of Athens. She was 34. Her music continues to resonate, and her affect continues to be heard throughout the underground and mainstream alike. On Friday, the New Orleans icon and Queen of Bounce music Big Freedia will drop “Released At Last,” a three-song EP she recorded with the late Sophie again in 2016. It serves as a reminder: The membership is open.

— AP Music Writer Maria Sherman

— You might name it “The Baby-Sitters Club” for ballers. In the brand new docuseries “Million Dollar Nannies,” cameras observe a boutique company in Ibiza that provides babysitting for the kids of rich dad and mom. These shoppers are VIPs who’ve massive expectations to match their massive existence. There are NDA’s, personal planes and youngsters who eat caviar. All episodes drop Thursday, June 18 on Hulu.

— Colin Farrell returns as an alien disguised as a human in Season 2 of “Sugar” for Apple TV. Premiering Friday, June 19, Farrell’s character goes by the alias John Sugar, a personal investigator in Los Angeles. The collection is a noir-style detective drama with a central thriller that lasts all season. Sugar has two jobs. One is to resolve his case du jour and the opposite is to secretly monitor individuals right here on Earth.

— AP Writer Alicia Rancilio

— Square Enix’s “The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales” takes place in a land referred to as Philabieldia, “a beautiful but savage land” that sounds similar to our personal Pennsylvania metropolis, solely with out cheesesteaks. After some mysterious ruins are found, the gutsy Elliot and his fairy sidekick, Faie, are despatched on a journey that goes forwards and backwards in time throughout 1,000 years. The pixelated artwork will look acquainted to followers of developer Clay Tech Works’ role-playing fantasy “Octopath Traveler,” however the motion is extra arcade-like. And the time-jumping story is paying homage to Square’s 1995 basic “Chrono Trigger.” Start making historical past Thursday, June 18, on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S, Switch 2 and PC.

— Lou Kesten

© Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.

The U.S. Justice Department on Friday cleared Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, handing a serious win to a media empire financed by one in every of President Donald Trump’s closest billionaire allies.

The Antitrust Division accredited the blockbuster deal with out demanding a single change, capping an eight-month evaluation and clearing the way in which for one of many largest media mergers in years.

It stated the tie-up was “not likely to result in harm to competition or American consumers” — and will even improve competitors.

The approval is a coup for Paramount chief government David Ellison, whose father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, largely financed the takeover.

The elder Ellison, one of many world’s richest males, is a detailed ally of Trump.

A gaggle of Democratic senators led by Elizabeth Warren had warned {that a} Warner Bros. deal risked being “tainted by political favoritism and corruption,” urging the Justice Department to evaluation it on the legislation and info.

Larry Ellison’s monetary assure was what lastly gained over the Warner Bros. board, sealing Paramount’s victory in a bruising bidding conflict with Netflix.

The mixed firm will management a sprawling roster of belongings, together with CNN, Warner Bros. Pictures and the HBO Max streaming service.

But the federal sign-off doesn’t finish the deal’s authorized peril.

A coalition of about 10 states led by California is making ready an antitrust lawsuit that would land this month, Bloomberg has reported.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s workplace stated this week the acquisition “remains an active investigation.” The European Commission is reviewing the merger as nicely.

Hollywood is uneasy concerning the deal.

Hundreds of actors and administrators have signed a letter opposing the merger, warning it should choke manufacturing in an business already battered by years of consolidation and cost-cutting.

The Justice Department pushed again on these fears immediately, arguing the proof didn’t present the merger would shrink output.

The saga started final 12 months, when streaming large Netflix and Paramount went to conflict over Warner Bros. and its prized again catalog.

A cautious Tinseltown reluctantly lined up behind Netflix because the lesser of two evils, solely to look at Paramount maintain elevating its bid till the streamer walked away.

© 2026 AFP

Gene Shalit, a film critic and humanities reporter for the “Today” present over 4 a long time who was recognized for his puffy hair, outsized handlebar mustache and affection for groan-inducing puns, has died. He was 100.

Shalit’s household introduced the loss of life Friday to NBC News, saying in a press release that he “passed away peacefully today after 100 years of an amazing life.”

Shalit joined “Today” as a contributor in 1970 and have become arts editor in 1973, later settling in for his section, “Critic’s Corner.” When he left the present in 2010, he was one of many final high-profile movie critics on a significant community.

“What resonated above his unusual appearance was his incredible wit, his remarkable intelligence. But he didn’t pound you over the head with it. He amused you. He enlightened and amused whatever subject he was on,” Guy Ludwig, Shalit’s producer for greater than 20 years, wrote in an essay of his time.

It was no coincidence that Chicago critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel’s native “thumbs-up, thumbs-down” movie-review program, “Sneak Previews,” went nationwide on PBS within the late Nineteen Seventies and that “Today” present’s ABC rival, “Good Morning America,” employed Joel Siegel to be its film critic in 1981.

“Shalit was instrumental in changing the balance of critical power in America. When he began his ‘Today’ tenure, newspapers and magazines were the primary sources for movie reviews. That’s where cinematic opinion was sparked and shaped,” The Plain Dealer wrote in 2010, calling Shalit “Daniel Boone in a bow tie and Groucho glasses.”

Shalit began as an leisure columnist for McCall’s journal, finally turning into senior movie critic for Look journal in 1968 and writing for Ladies’ Home Journal. His recognition in magazines led to a proposal from NBC.

“No one at NBC had seen him. They’d only read his stuff. So he walked into this executive’s office and the executive took one look at him and said, ‘Mr. Shalit, have you ever thought of radio?’” wrote Ludwig. “They didn’t know how the public would react to someone who looked so different from people who were typically on TV in 1967.”

On the air, Shalit was a middle-of-the-road critic. Of 1986’s basic “Stand By Me,” he stated it was totally different from different motion pictures about youth “because of instead of grossing you out, ‘Stand by You’ is engrossing.”

“Many critics will give so much of the plot of a movie away that they destroy the movie for the viewer… I just don’t give away the story,” he instructed The Associated Press in 1993.

He preferred “Defiance” starring Daniel Craig and Jude Law, calling it “a vivid dramatization of one of history’s titanic turning points.” But he referred to as “Brokeback Mountain “wildly overpraised, but not by me” and drew condemnation from GLAAD for calling Jake Gyllenhaal’s character, Jack, a “sexual predator.” Shalit apologized.

He referred to as “Frozen” “very cool.” He stated the oddball title of “The Men Who Stare at Goats” was “heard to bleat,” and his overview of “The Lovely Bones” learn partly: “There’s no bones about it.”

He started reviewing on the air the 12 months of “Patton” and “Love Story” and ended his run with a critique of “Shrek Forever After,” of which he famous that the “bellow fellow is now a mellow fellow.” One spotlight of this tenure was his descent right into a match of giggles whereas interviewing Carol Channing.

He referred to as a remake of “King Kong” so “gargantuan that I must create new words to describe it: fabularious … a brilliantological humongousness of marvelosity.” His tackle Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple”: “It should be against the law not to see it.”

In a 1981 interview with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, Belushi stated Shalit’s hair appeared like “an ant farm on fire.” Nevertheless, he peppered his visitor with so many questions on their every day life that it felt like remedy. He requested each comedians what their final meals could be. “What do you want to be doing 10 years from now, John Belushi?” Shalit requested. “‘Fiddler on the Roof’” Belushi replied.

During his tenure, he traded quips with anchors starting from Edwin Newman, Barbara Walters and Jane Pauley to Tom Brokaw, Bryant Gumbel, Katie Couric, Jane Pauley, Al Roker and Meredith Vieira.

Gumbel was not at all times a fan, as soon as saying Shalit’s critiques “are often late and his interviews aren’t very good.” The critique got here in what was purported to be a confidential memo to Marty Ryan, the present’s govt producer on the time.

In 1994, whereas in St. Pete Beach, Florida, to cowl Major League Baseball spring coaching, a automobile hit Shalit as he was crossing a road and broke his leg. After that, “Today” started recording his film critiques in his residence studio.

He was born in New York and grew up in Morristown, New Jersey, beginning his grammar college’s first newspaper earlier than writing a humor column for the newspaper whereas a scholar at Morristown High School. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1949.

Shalit performed the bassoon, however he stated he began out on the clarinet.

“I didn’t practice for a few weeks and the teacher got furious,” he recalled in 1988, earlier than taking part in bassoon in a New York City fundraiser. “He took away my clarinet and as punishment he said, ‘From now on, you’re gonna play THIS.’”

In 1987, he edited a ebook referred to as “Laughing Matters: A Celebration of American Humor,” saying he wished to introduce and reintroduce such outdated and new masters of American humor as Mark Twain, James Thurber and Russell Baker.

Shalit was commonly mocked on “Saturday Night Live” by forged member Horatio Sanz, who would seem on the Weekend Update desk dressed as Shalit and go on an prolonged, barely coherent rants that punned the title of each film he reviewed. Shalit additionally made cameos on “Sesame Street,” “Family Guy” and “Spongebob Squarepants.”

He is survived by a daughter, Willa Shalit.

© Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This materials will not be printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.