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Warner Bros. has weighed in on the mounting controversy surrounding “Joker,” an R-rated comic book adaptation that is being criticized for offering an in-depth portrait of a mass killer. In a statement on Tuesday, the studio hit back at suggestions that it is glamorizing a mass murderer.

“Make no mistake: neither the fictional character Joker, nor the film, is an endorsement of real-world violence of any kind,” the statement reads. “It is not the intention of the film, the filmmakers or the studio to hold this character up as a hero.”

Warner Bros. broke its silence after family members and friends of the victims of a 2012 mass shooting at a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, Colo., wrote a letter to the studio expressing concerns about the film’s upcoming release. The letter supported the studio’s right to make the film and endorsed freedom of speech and artistic expression.

Will Smith will take on the role of New York City crime boss Nicky Barnes in his next Netflix film, The Council. The project will re-team Smith with Concussion helmer Peter Landesman, who wrote the screenplay and will direct The Council. Smith and partner James Lassiter are producing the pic for Westbrook Inc.’s Overbrook Entertainment along with Jackson Pictures’ Matt Jackson and Jason Essex for Anonymous Nobodies.

Landesman’s script tells the never-before-told story of a crime syndicate consisting of seven African-American men who ruled Harlem in the 1970s and early 80s. No ordinary crime syndicate – the men dreamed of a self-sufficient and self-policing African American city-state, funded by revolutionizing the drug game. The movie centers on the Shakespearean court intrigue between The Council’s king, Nicky Barnes, dubbed “Mr. Untouchable” by the New York Times, and all the different members as one unlikely rising protégé emerges.

Barnes, born Leroy Nicholas Barnes,

Phoebe Waller-Bridge has signed an overall deal with Amazon, the studio announced Tuesday.

Under the pact, Waller-Bridge will create and produce new television content for Amazon Studios that will stream exclusively on Amazon’s Prime Video. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The second season of PWB’s comedy “Fleabag,” which streams on Prime Video, picked up six Emmys at the 71st annual award show this year, including Outstanding Comedy Series, as well as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series awards for Waller-Bridge herself.

Apart from “Fleabag,” which debuted as Waller-Bridge’s one-woman show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2013, Waller-Bridge is best known for creating BBC America’s “Killing Eve,” starring Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh, and serving as writer and showrunner on the drama’s first season. She is currently co-writing

Jonah Hill is in negotiations to play the Riddler in Matt Reeves’ “The Batman,” an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

Robert Pattinson is set to star as the Dark Knight. Reeves took over the directing gig after Ben Affleck stepped away from the role. Affleck was also expected to play Batman again but then said he would be hanging up the cape for good. Reeves has since described the film as a “defining” and “very personal” story about the Dark Knight, rather than an origin story in the vein of Frank Miller’s beloved “Year One” series.

For months now, reports have said Hill was the frontrunner to play the antagonist the Penguin. The character first made his appearance in “Detective Comics #58” in December 1941 — he is one of Batman’s biggest enemies, a Gotham City mobster and crime boss. The Riddler first appeared in “Decective Comics #140” in

Spooky season is upon us, and Hulu is getting into the spirit with a number of horror or Halloween-themed offerings on its October line-up.

Along with Hulu originals like the horror anthology “Into the Dark” and the second season of Stephen King’s “Castle Rock,” the streamer is also offering films from the “Saw,” “Blade” and “Hellraiser” franchises beginning next month. For the more faint of heart, Hulu is also offering three seasons of Food Network’s “Halloween Wars” and the surely adorable “Kids Halloween Baking Championship.”

Not specifically Halloween-themed, but potentially haunting: All six seasons of the original run of “The Hills” will be available to stream on Oct. 1 for those looking to revisit the halcyon days of reality television and questionable late-aughts fashion.

Also Read: Lizzy Caplan's Annie Wilkes Arrives, Causes Mayhem in Hulu's 'Castle Rock' Season 2 Teaser (Video)

Hulu is also debuting all seven

Showtime has acquired the rights to the weekly “Vice” docuseries and ordered a new 13-episode season, the network announced Tuesday. It will premiere in the spring of 2020.

“As so much of television news has moved in a direction of partisan coverage and talking heads, the team behind Vice continues to delve deep into the global issues, conflicts and newsmakers affecting our everyday lives,” said Vinnie Malhotra, Executive Vice President of Showtime’s nonfiction programming. “They also do it with an incredibly diverse cadre of journalists – both in front of and behind the camera. Their dogged pursuit of award-winning journalism, is matched by stellar filmmaking and craft in this weekly documentary series. We’re honored and excited to partner with them moving forward.”

Also Read: 'Vice News Tonight' Finds a New Home at Viceland

HBO did not renew the weekly “Vice” after its sixth season in 2018, then cancelled the daily “Vice News Tonight” earlier this year.

The CW has enlisted a number of actors from past DC franchises to reprise their roles on the network’s big “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover this fall, but at least one “Smallville” star says he won’t be returning.

Michael Rosenbaum, who played bald supervillain Lex Luthor for seven seasons on the WB series, wrote in a tweet on Tuesday that he was offered the chance to make a cameo on the “Arrowverse” crossover but declined.

“I’ll just be straight up about this,” the actor wrote, addressing fans of the show. “WB called my agents Friday afternoon when I was in Florida visiting my grandfather in a nursing home. Their offer: No script. No idea what I’m doing. No idea when I’m shooting. Basically no money.”

“And the real kick in the ass,” he continued “‘We have to know now.’ My simple answer was ‘Pass.’ I think you can understand why.

Shonda Rhimes set another series at Netflix on Tuesday — her ninth since signing a mega-deal with the streaming service in 2017 — and for this one, she’s teaming up with fellow Hollywood legends including Norman Lear and Steve Martin.

The new show, called “Notes on Love,” is described as “an episodic anthology series that ranges across genres and explores the unexpected, life-changing, euphoric, hilarious, surreal, and all-consuming places where love intersects with our lives.”

According to Netflix, “each installment comes straight from the unique lens of a prolific creative.” That lineup currently includes episodes from Martin; Lear and his writing partner Aaron Shure; Diane Warren; Jenny Han; real-life married couple Lindy West and Ahamefule J. Oluo; and Rhimes. The creative teams behind other Season 1 episodes will be announced at a later date.

“The first season will

IFC Films has acquired U.S. rights to “The Painted Bird,” the critically acclaimed and controversial adaptation of the Jerzy Kosinski novel. The film will be the Czech Republic’s Oscar entry for the foreign language category at the upcoming Academy Awards.

Directed, written and produced by Václav Marhoul (“Smart Philip”), the film is an unsparing look at the horrors of the Holocaust. Its violence reportedly prompted audience walkouts at the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival, but also drew rave reviews for its uncompromising depiction of evil.

In a five star review, the Guardian’s Xan Brooks acknowledged the movie was a tough sit, but added, “I can state without hesitation that this is a monumental piece of work and one I’m deeply glad to have seen. I can also say that I hope to never cross its path again.”

Variety‘s Guy Lodge also praised the film,

Jan Merlin, who played villains in dozens of films and TV shows and good guys on Tom Corbett, Space Cadet and The Rough Riders, died Friday in Los Angeles, his family announced. He was 94.

In a painful year in England and Ireland in which he served as a "movable prop" and received no screen credit, Merlin donned masks and heavy makeup to portray several characters and substitute for Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Frank Sinatra and others in John Huston's The List of Adrian Messenger (1963). He then wrote a 2001 novel, Shooting Montezuma, based on that experience.

He ...

An adorable yeti will help close out a surprisingly promising September at the domestic box office.

Universal’s animated adventure “Abominable” is expected to debut in first place and should collect $17 million to $20 million from 4,200 North American theaters this weekend. If estimates hold, those ticket sales would rank as the biggest opening weekend this year for an original animated film. (That benchmark belongs to Paramount’s “Wonder Park” with $15.8 million.)

The film should benefit from being one of the few offerings catering to families. Currently, movie theater marquees are stacked with adult-skewing titles like Focus Features’ “Downton Abbey,” Disney-Fox’s “Ad Astra” and Stx’s “Hustlers.” September isn’t a traditionally busy month at the box office, but “Downton Abbey,” “Hustlers” and “It: Chapter Two” have all been embraced by audiences. That’s welcome news, considering the year-to-date box office is down over 5%. Fall offerings like “Joker” and “Frozen 2” should

Like “Stairway to Heaven” itself, the copyright lawsuit against the iconic Led Zeppelin song is winding, dramatic and complex. While the first case seemingly wrapped in 2016, with a judge ruling in favor of Led Zeppelin, earlier this year a three-judge panel invalidated the ruling due to process errors and poor jury instructions. That ruling set up a hearing Monday in San Francisco, where an 11-judge panel for U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard arguments from both sides of Michael Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin, upon which it will eventually make its ruling.

George Lucas has let his displeasure with the “Star Wars” films since he sold that and Lucasfilm to Disney. Now, Bob Iger has revealed more details about how the filmmaker felt “betrayed” by Lucasfilm’s creative decisions.

In his new memoir, “The Ride of a Lifetime,” Iger talks about a very tense meeting held between him, Lucas, and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” screenwriters J.J. Abrams and Michael Arndt not long after the “Star Wars” creator sold his company to Disney for $4 billion. Lucas had prepared story treatments for the trilogy that, as he explained on James Cameron’s “Story of Science Fiction,” would have seen a grizzled Luke Skywalker train a Jedi Padawan named Kira and delved deeper into the infamous Midichlorians introduced in ‘The Phantom Menace.’

“There’s a whole aspect to that movie that is about symbiotic relationships. To make you look and see that we aren’t the boss.

It’s finally happening: House Democrats are opening a full-blown impeachment investigation into President Trump.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the news Tuesday afternoon following a busy day of speculation. “The President must be held accountable,” she said during a brief statement in front of a wall of American flags. “No one is above the law.”

Breaking News: Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces that the House of Representatives will move forward with an "official impeachment inquiry." pic.twitter.com/PE3h3lgfEH

— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) September 24, 2019

The launch of a formal

AT&T is not looking to sell DirecTV, John Stankey said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

“DirecTV is an important part of what we’re going to be doing going forward,” the WarnerMedia CEO said. Stankey’s comments to the WSJ come a week after the paper reported that AT&T was considering parting ways with DirecTV, either spinning the company off or selling it outright.

Stankey, who recently added the title of AT&T COO, in addition to his WarnerMedia duties, said that AT&T is simply looking at all of its options as part of a portfolio-wide review. “We’re constantly looking at the portfolio,” he said. “That’s the normal course of business and it’s not unique to DirecTV.” He argued that DirecTV will have an important role to play in HBO Max, the company’s upcoming streaming service launching next year, as well

The floodgates are open. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced “an official impeachment inquiry,” including an investigation of demands President Trump reportedly made of Ukraine to hamper a 2020 political rival — Joe Biden — while simultaneously holding up hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to the Eastern European nation. “The president must be held accountable,” Pelosi told the nation in a televised address on Tuesday. “No one is above the law”

The sudden push toward removing Trump from office comes exactly two months after Robert Mueller testified to Congress on the Trump/Russia affair.

On Tuesday morning, the Safdie Brothers, A24, and Adam Sandler dropped the long-awaited trailer for their upcoming film, Uncut Gems. It’s entirely soundtracked by an ominous version of Travis Scott and The Weeknd’s 2015 song, “Pray For Love.” Kevin Garnett plays Kevin Garnett. Lakeith Stanfield marvels at an iced-out Furby chain. To call the whole enterprise anything less than a vision seems like a slap in the face.

103 seconds into the trailer, Sandler’s Howard Ratner shoves Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, who’s sporting a distinctly House of Balloons-era

With its new season, “Robot Chicken” will be hitting two very special milestones — a 10th season and a 200th episode — but the team behind the Adult Swim show are not focused on such industry markers.

“Whenever I see the anniversary episode of a sitcom or anything, the time they take to celebrate the anniversary is not as funny or entertaining as if they just made an episode. So I saw it more of a burden, in a way: How do we make this as entertaining as it should be?” co-head writer and executive producer Doug Goldstein tells Variety.

The answer

There are fewer “Lost”-alikes nowadays than there used to be: Given how frequently hour-long puzzle-box shows seeking to draft off of the ABC smash’s success were met with utter indifference, the networks, give or take an occasional attempt like NBC’s “Manifest” moved on to attempting to copy the “This Is Us” formula. So it’s actually a bit charming to see “Emergence,” a new network show that puts forward a big supernatural-adjacent mystery expanding outward into potential conspiracy or mysticism. It’s the sort of show that they don’t much make anymore.

Here, Allison Tolman plays

In the mid-Eighties, Ricky Skaggs married his brand of bluegrass — a modernized version that included drums, piano, and electric guitar — to the burgeoning music video medium. The result was one of country music’s all-time great videos, an irreverent clip that shined a light not only on Skaggs’ vibrant new style of country-bluegrass but also on a pillar of the bluegrass genre, Bill Monroe.

The song and video was “Country Boy,” the title track of Skaggs’ 1984 album. Shot in New York City in early 1985, the clip casts Skaggs as a