Liam Hemsworth Replacing Henry Cavill in 'The Witcher'; David S. Pumpkins Returns to 'SNL'; 'Dahmer' Stars on Show's Success; 15 Scariest Movies of All Time

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( October 31, 2022 What's news: 🎃 Happy Halloween! The CW's Stargirl will end with season 3. Twitter blames "trolling campaign" for a rise in racial slurs on the platform since Elon Musk's takeover. Hollywood stars welcomed Lula's victory in Brazil's presidential election. Black Adam retained top spot and raced past $100m at the domestic box office. James Gray has defended himself for casting non-Jewish actors in Armageddon Time. — [Abominable Abid Rahman]( David S. Pumpkins Returns to 'SNL' 🎃 ►"Ibiza!" Tom Hanks brought David S. Pumpkins back to scare — and confuse — more haunted house attendees during the latest episode of Saturday Night Live. Jack Harlow, host of Saturday's episode, joined SNL cast members Ego Nwodim and Andrew Dismukes for a trip through the Cellblock 666 attraction as part of the skit’s faux Fright Night Halloween event. [The recap.]( —"Hateful conduct has no place here." Twitter’s head of safety and integrity says the platform is facing a “trolling campaign” of racist abuse after a report found that the use of the N-word jumped on the social media site less than a day after Elon Musk’s takeover. In a thread, Twitter’s Yoel Roth explained that the platform’s policies around hateful conduct have not shifted since Musk officially took over on Friday despite reports of increasing use of slurs and targeted harassment. [The story.]( —"Not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned. Bye." Shonda Rhimes appears to be done with Twitter following Musk's takeover. The TV producer, who joined Twitter in November 2008 and has 1.9m followers, posted a message Saturday, but did not offer further clarification and remains active on other platforms, including Instagram and TikTok. [The story.]( —"Tom Brady suddenly has one less ring." John Oliver kicked off Sunday’s Last Week Tonight by noting it had been an especially busy week. The late night host's opening segment covered the robotic nature of Rishi Sunak, the U.K's third new prime minister of 2022, Musk's takeover of Twitter and Tom Brady's divorce from Gisele Bündchen. [The recap.]( —Industry eyes hybrid model. THR's [Cacklin' Caitlin Huston]( reports that Actors’ Equity is bringing back in-person auditions for theater performers. The actors’ and stage managers’ union will reopen its audition centers in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles starting Nov. 17. This is meant to encourage more producers to hold in-person calls, after some performers expressed frustration with virtual auditions due to the cost involved and the feeling that their tapes were not being watched. [The story.]( Liam Hemsworth Replacing Henry Cavill for 'The Witcher' S4 🥀 ►"I will be laying down my medallion and my swords." The Witcher is returning to Netflix for a fourth season, but with a new lead playing Geralt of Rivia. THR's street urchin [Ryan Gajewski]( reports that Henry Cavill is exiting the fantasy series after three seasons in the main role, with Liam Hemsworth set to take over as the character. The third season is expected to debut in the summer of 2023, while a four-episode prequel series, The Witcher: Blood Origin, is set to launch Dec. 25 on Netflix. [The story.]( —Another one bites the dust. The CW's DC Comics drama Stargirl will end its run with its current third season. The series starring Brec Bassinger and from creator Geoff Johns and Warner Bros. Television will wrap its run with its series finale on Dec. 7. THR's [Were-Lesley Goldberg]( writes that the news, which had been rumored for some time, comes as the broadcast network has dramatically reduced its volume of U.S. scripted originals. [The story.]( —"When I’m carrying weight, it’s alcohol. When I’m skinny, it’s pills." Matthew Perry sat down with Diane Sawyer on Friday to discuss his upcoming memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. In the 250-page book, Perry reveals just how bad his struggle with addiction was, how many times he’s had to have surgery as a result of it and how his Friends experience was shaped by it. Read on for six revelations from the interview. [The story.]( —"An opportunity to change the course of history." Leonardo DiCaprio took to social media to hail Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s victory in Brazil’s presidential election on Sunday. The Oscar winner, and committed environmentalist, was one of a number of Hollywood stars that publicly came out against Jair Bolsonaro, who pledged to continue with logging and development of the Amazon. [The story.]( 'Black Adam' Leads So-So Halloween Weekend 👻 ►No challengers. DC's Black Adam had no trouble topping the Halloween weekend box office, although the superhero pic dropped more than expected considering it had little competition. Black Adam earned an estimated $27.7m from 4,402 theaters in its second outing. That’s a drop of 59 percent, one of the bigger declines for a film starring Dwayne Johnson in a lead role (excluding the primary Fast & Furious franchise). Nonetheless, the movie raced past $100m at the domestic box office on Saturday and is projected to finish Sunday with a domestic total of $111.1m. Thanks to Johnson’s star power overseas, Black Adam declined just 45 percent at the international box office to $39m for a foreign tally of $139 million and $250m globally. THR's [Phantasma Pamela McClintock]( writes that among relatively recent Johnson movies, Jungle Cruise fell 55 percent in its second weekend domestically, although it had a far smaller opening with $35m. Hobbs and Shaw is a better comparison since it debuted at $60m and Black Adam opened to $67m. Hobbs and Shaw fell 58 percent in its second weekend. Universal’s Ticket to Paradise held well in its second weekend, dropping 39 percent to $10m from 3,692 cinemas for a 10-day domestic total of $33.7m and $119.4m globally. The Julia Roberts and George Clooney movie is a needed win for adult-skewing fare, as well as for romcoms. [The box office report.]( 'Dahmer' Stars on Show's Success 🕸️ ►"Wherever Glenda Cleveland’s soul is resting that she finally feels heard." Netflix hosted two conversations on its studio lot on Saturday for Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and The Watcher, its most recent and biggest series, both of which have come courtesy of Ryan Murphy. THR's [Killer Kirsten Chuba]( was on hand to listen to Dahmer stars Evan Peters, Niecy Nash and Richard Jenkins talk about the show's incredible success and the backlash from some of the victims' families. [The story.]( —"I didn’t know how to handle it." Maya Rudolph has revealed that she felt "embarrassed and humiliated' during her first visit to CBS’ The Late Show in 2009. In a new interview, the Loot star explained that she felt uncomfortable during the interview after host David Letterman mispronounced her name. Rudolph said that she has since gotten better at finding humor in challenging moments. [The story.]( —"I think it’s kind of fun to see flawed people on the screen." Ahead of the premiere of The White Lotus’ second season, THR's [Ghoulish Christy Piña]( spoke to the cast of the HBO anthology series. Stars Jennifer Coolidge, Theo James, Jon Gries, F. Murray Abraham and Haley Lu Richardson revealed what drew them to their characters and how they became an "extended family" on set. [The story.]( —"I reserve the right." Armageddon Time director and writer James Gray says that he doesn’t agree with critics of his decision to cast non-Jewish actors like Anthony Hopkins as Jewish characters in his semi-biographical film. In a new interview, Gray, who based the film on his personal experiences growing up as a second-generation American with Jewish immigrant parents, says calls for only casting Jewish actors can lead to stereotyping. [The story.]( —"Maybe 30 minutes into the movie, people will think ‘this is a good actor — not a puppet." Guillermo del Toro received an enthusiastic standing ovation following the screening of his upcoming stop-motion adaptation of Pinocchio on Saturday at the close of the Animation is Film Festival. Reporting from a packed Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, THR's [Screamin' Carolyn Giardina]( writes that del Toro was on hand for a conversation about the movie with Oscar-winning VFX veteran Phil Tippett. [The story.]( Critic's Picks: 15 Scariest Movies of All Time 🧟 ►What makes a movie scary? Truly terrifying films are the ones that surprise us with their originality and audacity, whether in taking us toward the unknown and the unsettling, toward something horribly new, or else by taking things so far that all we want to do is stop watching — although we can’t. Given this, THR film critic Jordan "Morbid" Mintzer ranks the most terrifying movies ever made. [The list.]( In other news... —Taylor Swift [recalls her “nightmare” Les Misérables audition]( —Luke Bryan [defends welcoming Ron DeSantis to the stage at Florida concert]( —Loretta Lynn’s [life celebrated by George Strait, Brandi Carlile, Tanya Tucker and more]( —Southern and East Africa’s [best city and wine country destinations]( What else we're reading... —Alex Heath reports that Twitter is planning to start charging $20 per month for verification [[Verge]( —Lucas Shaw and Benoit Berthelot report that Brad Pitt’s Plan B is said to be in deal talks with France’s Mediawan [[Bloomberg]( —Jessica Gelt has a piece on why Harry Styles' concerts are attracting young gender-nonconforming fans [[LAT]( —Michael Cavna on how 2022 became a huge year for horror movies [[WaPo]( —Nick Friedell's report on the Brooklyn Nets condemning Kyrie Irving's promotion of an antisemitic film [[ESPN]( Today... Today's birthdays: [Peter Jackson]( (61), Letitia Wright (29), Dermot Mulroney (59), Piper Perabo (46), Samaire Armstrong (42), Brian Hallisay (44), Rob Schneider (59), Patti Harrison (32), Kether Donohue (37), Nolan North (52), Justin Chatwin (40), Vanessa Marano (30), Danielle Rose Russell (23), Brian Doyle-Murray (77), Holly Taylor (25), Stephen Rea (76), Sydney Park (25), Eddie Kaye Thomas (42), Johnny Whitworth (47), Deidre Hall (75), Mike O'Malley (56), Ruben Fleischer (48), Willow Smith (22), Ron Rifkin (83), Sanjeev Bhaskar (59), Brian Stokes Mitchell (65), Eskil Vogt (48), Vanilla Ice (55) Shirley Baskin Familian, who co-founded Los Angeles public TV station KCET and served on its board for more than 60 years, has died. She was 101. [The obituary.]( Do you have THR's next big story? Confidentially share tips with us at [tips@thr.com](mailto:tips@thr.com?subject=). This email was sent to {EMAIL} by Penske Media Corporation. 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