Before he was crowned the savior of Hollywood for refusing to give in and insisting that Top Gun: Maverick be released in theaters, Tom Cruise was trying his best to score a franchise that he could count on. He had the Mission: Impossible movies, of course. But there was clearly intent to secure a back-up plan in case things went south. Cruise was weighing the possibility of doing another Top Gun film, but Maverick wouldn’t be put together until a few years later. Together with his former producing partner Paula Wagner, Cruise decided to finally fast-track a property whose rights they had purchased in 2005. This was around the same time as Mission: Impossible III‘s tumultuous production.
The movie in question was released in 2012 to relatively positive reviews, but its greatest contribution was heralding director Christopher McQuarrie‘s return. McQuarrie had worked as a writer on numerous projects with Cruise, but it was only after proving his chops with the 2012 film that he was hired to essentially spearhead the next era of Mission: Impossible movies. He ended up directing four in a row — Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, Mission: Impossible — Fallout, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning, and Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. The movie in question has left a rather uneven legacy, with the author of the novel series it was based on retroactively voicing his dissatisfaction with it.
Can you answer these movie questions, wherein each correct response begins with a successive letter of the word “Collider”?
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Here’s the Tom Cruise Thriller That Caused an Uproar
We’re talking, of course, about Jack Reacher. Author Lee Child initially supported Cruise’s casting, even though the character is famously supposed to be a towering, tree-trunk-sized man. But he later admitted that Cruise simply didn’t fit the bill. Reacher is now played, much to the fans’ appreciation, by Alan Ritchson in Prime Video’s hit series Reacher. The show has aired three seasons so far, and is scheduled to return for a fourth. Cruise’s movie was quite successful; it grossed nearly $220 million worldwide against a reported budget of $60 million. It holds a 64% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, and was followed by a sequel titled Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. The second film wasn’t as successful, both critically and commercially. Cruise effectively abandoned the property, which was rebooted in 2022 with Ritchson’s show.
You can watch Jack Reacher for free this month on Pluto TV, and see for yourself what all the fuss was about. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
A man in Los Angeles died Friday night after cutting off his own genitalia … TMZ has confirmed.
The Los Angeles Police Department received a call about a man harming himself in Downtown Los Angeles around 3:40 AM.
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After arriving on the scene, they set up a white tent to keep onlookers from seeing the man’s body … though a videographer at the scene captured pools of blood staining the sidewalk.
Law enforcement sources tell TMZ … the man cut off his penis, sliced his throat and stabbed himself with a sharp instrument. We’re told he also tried to cut off his arm.
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It’s unclear at this time what he used to harm himself. Officers also do not know the man’s motivation … or if he was on drugs at the time.
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If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.
A correctional officer working in the wing where Jeffrey Epstein was incarcerated the night he died searched his case on the internet less than an hour before his death … this according to Department of Justice records.
Tova Noel — a former guard at Metropolitan Correctional Center(MCC) in Lower Manhattan, New York City — did a couple Google searches about Epstein’s case on August 10, 2019 around 5:43 AM. The convicted pedophile was found dead around 6:30 AM.
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Noel searched “latest on Epstein in jail” and clicked on an article about documents related to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, her newly released search history reveals.
Worth noting … Epstein wasn’t the only inmate who drew Noel’s interest — after looking up Epstein, she searched for the latest info on Omar Amanat.
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Amanat was convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy in 2017 … and he was locked up alongside Epstein at the time of his death.
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Noel also googled a variety of other subjects that morning … including discounts through Verizon for law enforcement.
Remember … Noel and another guard on duty — correctional officer Michael Thomas — were fired after Epstein’s body was found. Prosecutors accused them of not completing their 30-minute rounds as mandated. Criminal charges against the pair were filed and later dropped.
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Noel has denied having anything to do with Epstein’s death. When asked about googling him by the DOJ, she told the department she didn’t recall doing so.
So poor was Ella McCay‘s initial U.S. run that it reportedly was pulled from the French theatrical lineup ahead of its scheduled January 7 release. This is all despite having an eye-catching central cast, with the likes of Academy Award winner Jamie Lee Curtis, Woody Harrelson, Spike Fearn, Jack Lowden, Kumail Nanjiani, Ayo Edebiri, and more, supporting star Emma Mackey of Sex Education fame. Alas, the movie bombed, earning just $4.5 million worldwide against a reported $35 million budget and becoming one of Disney’s most disappointing commercial efforts of the year.
Since its release on streaming,Ella McCay has found redemption and been a mainstay in the charts. Having made its debut on February 5, the film rose up the ranks and managed to fight off popular rivals in a way its theatrical run never could. However, all good things come to an end, and Ella McCay has found itself clinging to the bottom place on the Hulu charts in the U.S., at the time of writing. A synopsis for the movie reads:
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“Ella McCay follows an idealistic young woman juggling her less-than-perfect family with her passion for her work. From writer-director James L. Brooks, this fresh and heartwarming comedy is about the people you love and how to survive them.”
On this date in 1975, the first-ever People’s Choice Awards ceremony was held. Here are some notable PCA television winners from the last 51 years.
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Critics Were Not Fond of ‘Ella McCay’
Emma Mackey as Ella McCay in Ella McCayImage via 20th Century Studios
Part of Ella McCay‘s box office misfortune was certainly the initial critical response, with the film earning just 24% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Jeff Ewing of Collider awarded the movie just 3/10 in his review, saying, “It’s actually a little difficult to say if there’s a better version of Ella McCay buried somewhere inside this movie, given that it’s hard to pin down what the intended target of this movie is at the end of the day.”
Ella McCay is streaming on Hulu. Make sure to stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
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Release Date
December 11, 2025
Runtime
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115 minutes
Director
James L. Brooks
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Writers
James L. Brooks
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Producers
Julie Ansell, Richard Sakai, James L. Brooks, Jennifer Brooks, Francine Maisler
Sometimes, an actor’s career just falters. Whether it’s because of a scandal, a series of box office bombs, or simply poor choices of roles, these actors start to slip into oblivion. There are many ways to make a big comeback, however, and perhaps the most effective (certainly the flashiest) is to act their way to an Oscar nomination, pretty much the highest honor that a thespian of the cinema can aspire to.
It could be Matthew McConaughey putting the cherry on top of the McConaissance with his Oscar win for Dallas Buyers Club. Or it could be Katharine Hepburn slapping the critics who had labeled her “box office poison” with the Oscar nod she got for The Philadelphia Story. No matter the case, an Oscar nomination is certainly guaranteed to help the recipient make a big splash in an industry that was starting to forget them.
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Matthew McConaughey — ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ (2013)
Dallas Buyers Club Matthew McConaugheyImage via Focus Features
At some point around the early 2010s, Matthew McConaughey decided that he no longer wanted to just be known as the rom-com heartthrob that his name had come to be associated with. In 2011, The Lincoln Lawyer launched the start of the McConaissance, a period during which the actor starred in far more serious, dramatic, and prestigious roles than anyone could have predicted during the 2000s.
There’s no question about when the McConaissance reached its pinnacle: It was surely whenMcConaugheybeat Leonardo Di Caprio‘s tour-de-force performance in The Wolf of Wall Street for the 2014 Best Actor Oscar, thanks to his powerhouse turn in Dallas Buyers Club. It’s one of the most essential movies of 2013, and that’s in no small part thanks to how complex and physically transformational its lead actor’s performance is.
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John Travolta — ‘Pulp Fiction’ (1994)
Image via Miramax Films
Throughout the late ’70s and early ’80s, John Travolta was the man. Thanks to projects like Saturday Night Fever and Grease, the actor was on fire. His career started careening off a cliff during the mid-’80s, however, and by the time the ’90s rolled in, Travolta had been mostly written off by Hollywood. The helicopter meant to take him back out of that cliff? Quentin Tarantino‘s Palme d’Or-winning sophomore feature, the legendaryPulp Fiction.
It’s nothing short of one of the best movies of the last 100 years, an undeniable masterpiece that led Travolta to his second Oscar nomination (which he lost to Forrest Gump‘s Tom Hanks). From there, the actor went on a streak of notable box office hits and cult classics like Face/Off—a streak that, of course, would infamously end in 2000 due to the disastrous Battlefield Earth. But despite that tragic ending, Pulp Fiction was undeniably a comeback for Travolta, allowing him to show off his range with that delightful Tarantino dialogue that just rolls of the tongue.
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Jackie Earle Haley — ‘Little Children’ (2006)
Image via New Line Cinema
Todd Field‘s criminally underappreciated dark melodrama Little Children is a multi-story film, following the tales of a tumultuous affair between two lovers married to other people, a disgraced ex-police officer, and a registered sex offender. The incredibly tricky and daunting role of the sex offender was taken on by Jackie Earle Haley, who had quit acting all the way back in 1992.
Taking such an immensely complicated part for his comeback role was definitely a choice, but it was ultimately one that paid off with Haley’s first Oscar nomination, where he lost against Little Miss Sunshine‘s Alan Arkin. The result is one of the best actor comeback movies ever, where Haley shows off incredible emotional depth and range. Projects like Watchmen, Shutter Island, and 2010’s A Nightmare on Elm Street followed, and the rest is history.
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Demi Moore — ‘The Substance’ (2024)
Demi Moore as Elizabeth Sparkle staring intently at a television screen in The Substance.Image via Mubi
Coralie Fargeat‘s The Substancetook the world by storm. Campy body horror projects aren’t typically the type that people immediately associate with the word “prestige,” but Fargeat’s sophomore feature was such a knockout that it made its way to great renown during the 2024-25 awards race, including five Oscar nominations. One of those was for Demi Moore‘s stunning leading turn.
For a long time, Moore seemed like the frontrunner in the Best Actress race, before she lost to Anora‘s Mikey Madison. Even still, this was a tremendously hard-hitting comeback for Moore, who was once one of the biggest Hollywood stars of the ’80s and ’90s. One of the best psycho-biddy movies ever made, The Substance allows its lead to go big and explosive, but also to display several bits of quiet subtlety that work wonderfully. The movie’s metatextual analysis of the entertainment industry’s tendency to discard female stars as they age only adds further richness to Moore’s timeless performance.
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Ke Huy Quan — ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ (2022)
Ke Huy Quan in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’Image via A24
Ke Huy Quan was once of the biggest and most beloved child actors of his generation, elevating movies like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies with his mere presence. As he grew older, however, that hyper-successful career as a child actor didn’t transform into an equally prolific adult career. Finally, after the 2002 Hong Kong film Second Time Around, Quan stepped behind the camera as a stunt choreographer and assistant director.
It took the actor 19 years to step in front of the camera again, for the 2021 Netflix family film Finding ‘Ohana. It wasn’t until 2022, though, that Quan truly burst into the mainstream again. Everything Everywhere All At Oncetook full advantage of Quan’s stunt work and martial arts experience, but also gave him enough chances to show off his acting range for him to win the 2023 Best Supporting Actor Oscar. His acceptance speech arguably remains the best of the 21st century.
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Michael Keaton — ‘Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)’ (2014)
Image via Searchlight Pictures
The protagonist of Alejandro G. Iñárritu‘s Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), the movie that made the Mexican auteur a three-time Academy Award laureate, is Riggan Thomson. He’s a formerly popular actor who used to play a superhero, but whose career hasn’t been nearly as big since. The fact that said character is played by former Batman star Michael Keaton, who hadn’t had any noteworthy roles in years, is probably no coincidence.
Keaton ended up losing against The Theory of Everything‘s Eddie Redmaynein a remarkably close race.
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Those meta layers are among the many reasons why this is one of the best comedies to ever win Best Picture. Keaton ended up losing against The Theory of Everything‘s Eddie Redmayne in a remarkably close race, but his performance remains one of the best Oscar-nominated performances of the 2010s nonetheless. His performance brings a raw vulnerability to the character of Riggan, but also a dark sense of humor that the film simply wouldn’t work without.
Joan Crawford — ‘Mildred Pierce’ (1945)
Joan Crawford as Mildred Pierce crying while standing on the street in Mildred Pierce.Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
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Of course, nowadays, all cinephiles fondly remember Joan Crawford as one of the greatest stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Throughout the ’20s and ’30s, she built up one of the most glamorous star personas in Hollywood, having once said “if you want to see the girl next door, go next door.” But during the late ’30s and early ’40s, her career started declining. She was starting to age, which only contributed to MGM handing her increasingly weak material, eventually leading critics to call her box office poison.
That all changed in 1945, once Crawford had already moved to Warner Bros. Not only did Mildred Pierce, one of the year’s biggest classics, prove that Crawford still had the sauce: It won her an Oscar and breathed new life into her career, proving to youth-obsessed Hollywood that older actresses were not to be underestimated. It’s one of the most memorable performances of the ’40s, and certainly deserving of its Academy Award.
Katharine Hepburn — ‘The Philadelphia Story’ (1940)
Dexter, Tracy, and Mike talking in The Philadelphia Story.Image via Loew’s, Inc.
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Katharine Hepburn was another actress who had been labeled box office poison by the late ’30s. She was starring in rather unpopular films, she was notoriously difficult with the press, and she had a demeanor and sense of style that the public deemed “too boyish.” Hepburn wasn’t the kind to wait around for opportunities to fall down from the sky, however. She manufactured her own comeback by starring in the stage play The Philadelphia Story in 1939, and its film adaptation one year later.
Everything went according to Hepburn’s plans. The movie, a massive success, was her ticket back to the Hollywood stardom she had once enjoyed. Funny, vulnerable, and imposing, it’s perhaps the best performance of Hepburn’s career. Though she lost the Oscar to Kitty Foyle‘s Ginger Rogers, the notoriety of the movie and her work in it nevertheless ensured that she’d never fall back into the pit she had managed to fall back on. Today, she remains the thespian with the most Oscar wins ever, the only one to ever earn four.
Brendan Fraser — ‘The Whale’ (2022)
Brendan Fraser in The WhaleImage via A24
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During the ’90s and early 2000s, Brendan Fraser was one of the biggest movie stars on the planet, starring in cult classics like Encino Man and huge blockbusters like the Mummy franchise. Due to a tragic range of issues in his personal life, however, Fraser both distanced himself from and was blacklisted by Hollywood. He didn’t stop acting, but he took a significant step back from the spotlight.
That was until the 2022-23 awards race, when Fraser’s knockout performance in Darren Aronofsky‘s The Whalemade him a clear frontrunner for the Best Actor Academy Award, which he did end up taking home. Since then, Fraser has kept acting in popular projects both big and small, and the fans who have been loyal supporters of his movies for years couldn’t be happier.
Marlon Brando — ‘The Godfather’ (1972)
THE GODFATHER, Marlon Brando, 1972Image via Paramount
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Saying that Francis Ford Coppola‘s The Godfatheris one of the greatest must-watch crime movie masterpieces of all time would be an understatement. Many would consider it the single greatest film ever made, with one of the most impressive ensemble casts of any movie of the ’70s. This cast includes a man who, though definitely controversial, could very well be considered the best and most important actor in the history of Hollywood, Marlon Brando.
However, it’s easy to forget that by the time the early ’70s rolled in, Brando was considered a has-been. Paramount executives were very much against the decision to cast him as Vito Corleone, despite him being screenwriter (and author of the book the film is based on) Mario Puzo‘s preferred choice for the role. Of course, Brando did end up being cast as Vito, and the rest is history. The performance, easily the most iconic of his career, very deservedly ended up winning him his second and last Oscar victory. It was a turning point for his career, and it allowed him to keep getting big roles throughout the rest of his career, even if his problematic behavior never went away.
As Paramount enters a new era under new management, it’s worth remembering what many regard as the studio’s heyday in the 1970s.Paramount was at the forefront of the New Hollywood movement, spearheaded by a group of trailblazing filmmakers who changed the face of studio films. They were supported by executives such as the flamboyant Robert Evans, under whose leadership Paramount released some of the best, most daring films ever made. The industry has changed drastically since then; Paramount’s latest release is Scream 7, and it was recently announced that the studio is working on a G.I. Joe reboot. During Evans’ tenure, the studio released a string of hits, including the horror film Rosemary’s Baby, Francis Ford Coppola‘s The Godfather, the romance classic Love Story, and a noir masterpiece that ranks among the most influential movies ever made. The movie is now available to a new generation of audiences on streaming.
The film was directed by Roman Polanski, who also made Rosemary’s Baby for the studio. Polanski is, of course, a fugitive who has spent the last several decades living in Europe. The movie featured Jack Nicholsonas an investigator who uncovers monumental corruption in California; he was joined in the cast by Faye Dunaway andJohn Huston. It remains a landmark of the film noir genre and the last Hollywood movie made by Polanski before he fled to Europe after being indicted for statutory rape. The movie earned 11 Oscar nominations, winning in the Best Original Screenplay category for Robert Towne.
Something bold, something new, something animated, something for you? A quiz about two films hitting theaters tomorrow: The Bride! and Hoppers.
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Here’s Where You Can Watch the Noir Classic
We’re talking, of course, about Chinatown. The film was released in 1974 to critical and commercial success. It grossed around $30 million worldwide against a reported budget of a little over $5 million. Chinatown is now regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made and remembered for its gut-punch of a climactic twist; it holds a near-perfect 98% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The website’s consensus reads, “As bruised and cynical as the decade that produced it, this noir classic benefits from Robert Towne’s brilliant screenplay, director Roman Polanski’s steady hand, and wonderful performances from Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway.”
The movie is now available to stream in the United States on the Paramount+ platform. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
The Bling Ring — consisting of Rachel Lee, Nick Prugo, Alexis Neiers, Courtney Ames and Diana Tamayo — became infamous for stealing roughly $3 million in cash and belongings from Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Orlando Bloom, Audrina Patridge and many more from 2008 to 2009. The teens and 20-somethings became household names themselves following their […]
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‘The Bling Ring’ Is Based on a Crazy True Story
The Bling Ring follows a group of privileged, fame-obsessed LA teens, including Marc (Israel Broussard), Rebecca (Katie Chang), Nicki (Emma Watson) and Sam (Taissa Farmiga), who begin burglarizing the homes of celebrities together, stealing their jewelry, clothes, cash and other valuables. Using the internet, the group is able to track celebrities’ whereabouts and approximate when they won’t be home, allowing them to slip in and out with arms full of stolen possessions, which they then frequently resell.
The film is inspired by the real-life Bling Ring as chronicled in a 2010 Vanity Fair article titled “The Suspects Wore Louboutins” by Nancy Jo Sales. Each character is based on a real person: Nick Prugo, Rachel Lee, Tess Taylor,Alexis Neiers and others. The real Bling Ring robbed the homes of several celebrities over the span of one year, between 2008 and 2009, and their victims included Paris Hilton, Audrina Patridge, Orlando Bloom, Megan Fox and Lindsay Lohan. In the end, the thieves had made away with assets totaling roughly $3 million, though they were ultimately caught and all received various sentences.
It’s a Prescient Satire of Internet Celebrity Culture
At the time, critics felt that Sofia Coppola took too morally ambiguous a route in her depiction of the Bling Ring, not doing enough to outwardly condemn the actions of the characters in her film. Years later, however, more astute and media-literate viewers keenly understand the sharp satire of the movie. It even ends on a note that couldn’t be more of a condemnation if it tried: on a talk show, 30 days after her release from jail, Nicki recounts being in the same correctional facility that housed Lohan at the same time, then faces the camera and cheerily promotes her own website.
But even before this moment, the movie does an excellent job at depicting the increasingly flimsy barrier between fans and celebrities during a time when social media was still in its infancy. The mythos of celebrity has now been destroyed by apps like TikTok, X (formerly known as Twitter) and Instagram, with fans having an unprecedented level of access to the inner lives of famous people. Thus, Coppola does something subversive in her film — she sympathizes with the perpetrators of the crimes depicted and places subtle blame on the encroaching systems in place, which foster a perceived right to cross boundaries.
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Emma Watson Gives the Best Performance of Her Career
Emma Watson has had some difficulty trying to establish a confident acting career separate from her childhood fame in the Harry Potter franchise, and has seen mixed results in movies like Little Women, Beauty and theBeast and Noah. However, she delivers the clear high-point of her filmography as Nicki Moore (AKA Neiers) in The Bling Ring, and critics were right to single her out as the best performance in the movie.
Is it March already? Yes, it is, and Netflix is celebrating as if it were Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, all rolled into one month. How else can you explain the packed slate the world’s most popular streamer has set for its millions of subscribers? On the TV side, the hit series Virgin River returns for […]
Watson’s performance transcends any perceptions at the time that hers was only stunt casting, playing against the goody-two-shoes type she had cultivated for years playing Hermione Granger. Indeed, Watson goes from brainy to brainless in embodying Nicki, but she thoroughly proves her range playing the party girl and celebrity wannabe, evoking dead-eyed, LA-girl narcissism as if she were born into it. Watson turns lines like “Your butt looks awesome” and “I wanna rob” into comedic, meme-worthy gold, delivering them with a canny earnestness that is both cringey and delightful.
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