Roth was not a sci-fi aficionado who adored the Herbert novel, but he saw what Villeneuve could do with it. In a wide-ranging Zoom conversation, Roth and I talked about the agony of being rewritten and his misreading of the power of Netflix when Fincher made his groundbreaking series “House of Cards.” We also discussed his joyous collaboration with another septuagenarian, Martin Scorsese, turning David Grann’s 2017 non-fiction book “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” into a $200-million western starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro....

Season 2 of “Euphoria” is at odds with itself. Few sections work together. Fewer still stand up on their own. Sam Levinson’s follow-up to his Emmy-winning HBO series can be not-so-cleanly broken down into three components: There’s the harrowing parts, which cover pretty much everything with Rue (Zendaya), from bone-chilling peril (like narrowly escaping a life in the sex trade) to soul-shattering despair (her relapse). Then there’s the soapy stuff, including Nate (Jacob Elordi) and Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) and Maddie (Alexa Demie), who are stuck in a “love” triangle, as well as Jules (Hunter Schafer) and Elliot (Dominic Fike), who are new friends holding damning secrets....

When it comes to delivering the horror-show goods, the most recent episode, “Demon of the Road,” is a case study in what “Evil” does best. The three leads head out to a long stretch of lonely highway, where several long-haul truckers have reported being followed by supernatural forces. Once on the road, Kristen, David, and Ben are quickly plunged into a mystery as chilling voices and sounds of unknown origin start coming through the radio, and David has visions of a terrifying winged creature....

Meanwhile, three films that gave greater priority to nontheatrical platforms are also doing very well. Though we have limited data, their performance on streaming charts and elsewhere suggest that “Nobody” (Universal), “Godzilla vs. Kong” (Warner Bros.), and “Cruella” (Disney) all made major hauls. That success outside theaters is every bit as relevant as the box office. “Nobody,” with a $14 million budget, grossed about $27 million in theaters. We can reasonably estimate that Universal will recoup $12 million-$14 million in film rental, and about the same for the international gross....

“It was really motion capture acting in a way, that’s how we would almost categorize it now,” Pence said. “But at the time that was still, ‘What is this really? How do we define this?’ The press says, ‘Oh, you’re the body double. You’re the body double.’ You hear that enough, and it’s easy to get in your own head about it.” The truth is that Pence wasn’t hired as a body double....

Hamada under his deal, which begins January 1, will have the goal of releasing several, low-to mid-budget films per year across theatrical and streaming. Hamada outside of his work with DC has had success shepherding the “Conjuring” and “It” franchises while at Warner Bros., and Paramount will be looking to build on its box office success seen with both “Scream” and “Smile” from this year. “With his track record for groundbreaking success, Walter is the ideal partner and visionary to build out our mainstream horror genre franchise business,” said Paramount Pictures president and CEO Brian Robbins....

“There was so much we had to leave on the cutting room floor and in our notebooks just for time. And also since the documentary aired, we’ve gotten a lot of information that we’re interested in as well that we’re interested in pursuing and reporting out further,” Day said. Stark said of the possible angles a sequel documentary could take a look at. “I think there’s way more to learn about the circumstances of the conservatorship and how the conservatorship has been running and why, the people involved in its creation and running it....