REGINA KING TALKS THE WATCHMEN: Regina King is opening up about the future of the Watchmen. King tells The Hollywood Reporter: “I can see myself being involved in a season two if it was really smart. I would need to know the beginning and the endgame, unlike how this season was. I did not know what the endgame was. I just totally trust creator Damon Lindelof. There's a part of me that feels like … it's just really hard to think we could top season one, you know?” She also spilled on recent projects that have caught her attention: “Parasite was a really great film. I wasn't familiar with any of those actors, and they're all great. The actors who were in the play Slave Play were quite amazing. One of the actors, Joaquina Kalukango, I cast in One Night in Miami.”
JOHNNY DEPP TALKS MINIMATA: Johnny Depp appeared at a Berlin Film Festival Special Gala Screening Friday and discussed Andrew Levitas‘ Minimata, in which he stars. The film follows the story of photographer W Eugene Smith as he documents the corporation responsible for poisoning people in Minimata, Japan in 1971. Depp says “it was almost impossible to believe” what had happened in Minamata, “not only in such a horrific way, but it spared no one and there was absolutely nothing that they could do about it.” Learning the history “was shocking… As someone who was interested, I believed it was a story that needed to be told. And anytime that you can harness the power of media or cinema or whatever art, I think anytime you can harness that power and use it to open people’s eyes to something that did happen and does continue… If you can take an idea, bring it to a page, somebody decides they are interested in putting the thing together, somebody chucks money in because they care… Films like this don’t get made every day. We are very lucky to have the honor to bring this to people and maybe spark some degree of interest or care.” He added, “Not one person on the film had anything other than intense dedication and felt the responsibility of having to tell Aileen and Gene’s story.”
THE WITCHER SEASON 2 PRODUCTION ADDS 7: Netflix has started production on fantasy epic The Witcher‘s Season 2, and several have joined the cast. Newbies include Game of Thrones alum Kristofer Hivju as Nivellen, Yasen Atour as Coen, Agnes Bjorn as Vereena, Paul Bullion as Lambert, Thue Ersted as Eskel, Aisha Fabienne Ross as Lydia, and newcomer Mecia Simson as Francesca. “The reaction to season one of The Witcher set a high bar for adding new talent for the second season,” showrunner and executive producer Lauren Schmidt Hissrich said in a statement. “Casting director Sophie Holland and her casting team have once again found the very best people to embody these characters, and in the hands of these accomplished directors, we’re excited to see these new stories come to life.” Season 2 will drop in 2021.
JOAQUIN PHOENIX SAVES BABY CALF: Shortly after winning an Oscar for his role in Joker, Joaquin Phoenix helped save a newborn calf and its mother from a slaughterhouse, according to People.