Welcome to Popped Bites, where we serve up the hottest movie and TV stories of the week in bite-size pieces — Hollywood hors d’oeuvres, if you will. This week we have the Golden Globes, fires in Los Angeles, PlayStation movies, and all the latest castings, still, trailers, and reveals. So without further ado, here’s what’s been popping in entertainment the week of January 4-10.
The Golden Globes Kicks Off Awards Season
It’s that time of year again – red carpets, sealed envelopes, little gold statues… awards season is upon us. The Golden Globes got the ball rolling this Sunday, hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser. On the TV side of things, Shōgun is the biggest story, taking home four major awards – Best Male Actor in a Drama Series (Hiroyuki Sanada), Best Supporting Actor (Tadanobu Asano), Best Female Actor in a Drama Series (Anna Sawai), and Best Drama Series. Jean Smart won Best Female Supporting Actor in a Musical or Comedy Series for Max Original Hacks, which also took the win for Best Musical or Comedy Series – blocking out last year’s champion, The Bear (although Jeremy Allen White still locked down Best Male Actor in a Musical or Comedy Series for the third year in a row).
As for awards for movies, there were some bigger surprises in store. Namely, Netflix Original Emilia Pérez, which won four major awards – Best Female Supporting Actor in a Film (Zoe Saldaña), Best Original Song (“El Mal”), Best International Film, and Best Musical or Comedy Film. The other impressive sweep was The Brutalist, taking Best Director (Brady Corbet), Best Actor in a Drama Film (Adrien Brody), and Best Drama Film. There are several other wins to speak of, but these are just the most notable ones. Onto the next awards show — The Critics Choice Awards… but more on that in a moment.
California Wildfires & Industry Delays
On Tuesday, several wildfires broke out in the Los Angeles area due to dry weather and high winds. The winds proved quite the deadly force, spreading fires rapidly, with LAFD unable to easily control the area. As of now the Palisades Fire has burned nearly 22,000 acres, and is only 11% contained. A short way east, the Eaton Fire has burned 14,000 acres and is only 15% contained. These massive fires along with others have killed at least ten people, and left a wake of devastating loss of housing, as over 9,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed throughout Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Altadena, and Pasadena.
The heartbreaking loss of life and livelihoods remains the focus of this catastrophe for the Popped team, as it does for many – but being an entertainment news site, it’s also our duty to report on the effects these events have had on the industry. As for the just-begun awards season, schedules are starting to shift due to the fires. Originally set to air on E! on January 12, the Critics Choice Awards have been rescheduled to January 26. The Oscars also face a delay – for nominations at least. The voting deadline has been extended by two days, with the nomination announcement now being pushed back to January 19. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, with the release of the WGA Awards nominations being postponed to January 13, the in-person presentation of the SAG Awards nominations being cancelled, and red carpet premieres being cancelled for films such as Better Man, The Last Showgirl, and Wolf Man. As for production, filming has been put on hold for several series such as Fallout, Ted, and Abbott Elementary. To stay up to date on the latest news on the industry impacts of the fires, make sure to follow Popped News on X/Twitter.
Sony Pictures To Adapt PlayStation Titles For The Big Screen
The golden age of video game adaptations is upon us, and while PlayStation has already staked their TV claim with HBO juggernaut The Last Of Us (with Season 2 rapidly approaching), they’re still hungry for more pieces of the theatrical box office pie, following the success of Uncharted and Gran Turismo. After all, The Super Mario Bros. Movie proved to be a landmark success for Nintendo, raking in $1,360,847,665 worldwide, which put it in the top 20 highest grossing films of all time. So of course Sony wants to keep chasing that high.
A handful of projects were announced on stage at CES this week by the head of PlayStation Productions, Asad Qizilbash. The first of these films will be an adaptation of hit sci-if action multiplayer game Helldivers 2, which won Best Ongoing Game at The Game Awards. The second film is a very recent development — an adaptation of Horizon: Zero Dawn. This game was previously set for a Netflix series adaptation, but it fell apart after showrunner Steve Blackman was accused of manipulative behavior. Additionally, while a Ghost of Tsushima film with director Chad Stahelski has been in the works for a few years, an anime series has now been announced, targeting a 2027 release on Crunchyroll.
Franchise, Remake, Kill: ‘Grimm,’ ‘Holes,’ & ‘The Franchise’
The vicious cycle of the Hollywood machine marches on as we begin the new year, with plenty of sequels, cancellations, reboots, remakes, and all the other “re”-words being announced. The tail end of last week brought news from Goosebumps author R.L. Stine, who revealed three new entries in Netflix’s Fear Street franchise are in the works. This week, however, started off on a more negative note, as HBO’s The Franchise was cancelled after only one season. Monday saw Will Smith teasing a project related to The Matrix, although it’s unclear if this is a new sequel (insiders suggest it’s not), an ad for the Super Bowl, or even a music release. Only time will tell! And we have some shifts to the theatrical schedule for a couple highly anticipated animated films. Shrek 5 has unfortunately seen a delay to December 23, 2026. As a result, Minions 3 has been moved up to Shrek 5’s original date of July 1, 2026.
The last couple big announcements are returns to properties that audiences are familiar with in one way or another. Peacock is developing a reboot movie of supernatural crime drama Grimm, which previously ran for six seasons on NBC. The original creative team is set to return, and while the premise has yet to be revealed, it’s said that it “introduces new mythology and characters.” And finally, Disney has greenlit a series adaptation of Holes – the book by Louis Sachar, which was previously adapted into a movie starring Shia Labeouf in 2003. Alina Mankin will write, and Liz Phang will serve as showrunner, with both on as executive producers for the Disney+ bound series.
‘Ahsoka,’ ‘Superman,’ & More – The Latest in Casting, Stills, and Trailers
January is always an odd time in entertainment. Not many new movies come out (and the ones that do aren’t always the most appealing), and series are typically on a midseason break. But that’s not stopping studios from teasing what’s in store all the way through this summer. USA Today just released a lineup of fresh new stills for some of the most anticipated upcoming releases (Seen above). They include new looks at David Corenswet in Superman, Jonathan Bailey in Jurassic World Rebirth, the live-action remake of How To Train Your Dragon, and A24’s upcoming horror movie Opus, starring Ayo Edibiri and John Malkovich.
Empire also revealed a new look at Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Seen above) in the long-awaited 28 Years Later. Alongside it comes word that Cillian Murphy, while executive producing, won’t be returning to star in the film. Producer Andrew Macdonald is “hoping there will be some Jim somewhere along the line,” meaning in Nia DaCosta’s 2026 follow-up, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, or in a Danny Boyle-directed third entry – although the latter won’t go into production until the first film is received well.
To wrap things up, a couple castings and a trailer rounded out the week. After the unfortunate passing of Ray Stevenson in 2023, it’s been unclear what would await his character Baylan Skoll in Ahsoka Season 2. The character has now reportedly been recast with Game of Thrones actor Rory McCann. Over on the movie side, Edgar Wright’s The Running Man is heating up, with Colman Domingo now set to star opposite Glen Powell. And finally, David Ayer is back with another Jason Statham thriller, A Working Man, which you can check out the trailer for below.
Thats all for this week’s Popped Bites. Make sure to come back next week to get all the latest entertainment news while it’s hot!
