New this week: John Legend, 'Serpent Queen' and 'Pinocchio'
This week’s new entertainment releases include fresh music from John Legend and Kane Brown, Samantha Morton stars as the 16th-century queen Catherine de Medici in an edgy Starz series and a race between two upcoming “Pinocchio” films begins with Robert Zemeckis’ adaptation.
Zemeckis’ ‘The Witches’ heads to HBO Max for Halloween
The Robert Zemeckis adaptation of “Roald Dahl’s The Witches” has found a new home on HBO Max this month just in time for Halloween. Warner Bros. said Friday that “The Witches” will debut on the subscription streaming service, owned by parent company WarnerMedia, on Oct. 22. Dahl’s 1983 novel about an orphaned boy who discovers a coven of witches that hate children was previously adapted for the big screen in 1990 by director Nicolas Roeg. It starred Angelica Huston, Mai Zetterling and Rowan Atkinson and was a box office flop, despite its critical acclaim. This new version has actor Jahzir Bruno playing the boy who must try to stop the witches from turning the world's children into mice.
‘Forrest Gump’ author Winston Groom dead at 77
FAIRHOPE, Ala. – Winston Groom, the writer whose novel “Forrest Gump” was made into a six-Oscar winning 1994 movie that became a soaring pop cultural phenomenon, has died at age 77. “While he will be remembered for creating Forrest Gump, Winston Groom was a talented journalist & noted author of American history. “It touched a nerve,” Groom told the Tuscaloosa News in 2014. They “took some of the rough edges off,” Groom told the New York Times in 1994. Groom got $350,000 for the rights to “Forrest Gump” plus 3% of the net profit of the movie.