Rhimes cheered on Van Dusen’s vision of a new slant on the period romance. “From the beginning, she gave me the creative room and freedom to make the period show I’ve always wanted to see,” said Van Dusen on the phone. “I never wanted it to feel like a typical period piece. It was inspired by eight delicious romance novels.” Van Dusen not only saw a commercial series in Julia Quinn’s “Bridgerton” books — which each focus on a different Bridgerton offspring, starting with eldest sister Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) — but the opportunity to disrupt the hidebound conventions of the Regency Romance popularized by such writers as literary influencer Jane Austen (“Emma”) and 20th-century bestsellers Georgette Heyer (“Regency Buck”) and Barbara Cartland (“The Wicked Marquis”)....

Yet the Oscar winner revealed that the announcement of Christopher Nolan’s serious take on Batman for “Batman Begins” was met with skepticism back in 2005. “I would [tell people] we’re going to sort of do Batman, but take him seriously,” Bale told The Washington Post. “I had tons of people laugh at me and just say, ‘Well, that’s just not going to work at all.’” “Batman Begins” was the first installment in the DC franchise since Joel Schumacher’s “Batman & Robin” in 1997, which quickly was deemed campy for its Bat nipple suit and over-the-top acting....

The writing is sharp, with its meta pokes at Hollywood — thanks to Jennifer Tilly’s hilarious dual performance as Tiffany Valentine and Jennifer Tilly — as well as organized religion and the horror landscape in general. And the puppetry effects leave the audience believing they’re seeing a sentient Charles Lee Ray himself, as opposed to some object being yanked and manipulated by three people. But Dourif is the one who dominates the second season....

“Citizen Kane” is being restored by the Criterion Collection in honor of the film’s 80th anniversary. Regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time, “Citizen Kane” follows the story of a reporter tasked with decoding the meaning of “Rosebud” — the final word uttered by Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) on his death bed. Kane, a fictitious newspaper mogul, was inspired by real-life tycoons William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pulitzer, Samuel Insull, and Harold McCormick....

Brody was a hippie millionaire devoted to saving the world, but he was also a mentally ill drug addict with a Messiah complex. That conflict remains a messy tangle of questions 50 years later, but director Keith Maitland’s enlightening documentary “Dear Mr. Brody” works through the paradox, suggesting that the tragedy of Brody’s fate is matched by the window into the American dream catalyzed by his offer. Brody’s story has many layers, and Maitland sometimes struggles to unite the disparate pieces....

“I don’t like post-credits scenes,” Villeneuve told NME in an interview. “There is a very specific final emotion that I was looking for with the final frame [of ‘Dune’] and I don’t want to mess with that. So no, I don’t use post-credits scenes. I’ve never done that and I would never.” Villeneuve also stressed that the theatrical cut of “Dune” that’s being released worldwide is the only cut of the movie....

The deal, which was announced Monday and first reported by Bloomberg on Sunday, would make the combined (and still unnamed) company one of the largest media entities in the entertainment and journalism industries. WarnerMedia’s assets include TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, the Warner Bros. film and TV studios, the HBO Max streaming service, and the aforementioned HBO and CNN. Discovery owns several of the top primetime cable networks, including HGTV, TLC, the Discovery Channel, and Food Network, and launched its Discovery+ streaming service in the United States earlier in the year....