HBO has greenlit The Franchise, a half-hour comedy from Sam Mendes, the Oscar-winning director of American Beauty, and Veep and Avenue 5 creator Armando Iannucci that pokes fun at superhero movies. Himesh Patel and Aya Cash star in the series about “the crew of an unloved franchise movie fighting for their place in a savage and unruly cinematic universe,” per the premium cable channel. HBO teases, “The Franchise shines a light on the secret chaos inside the world of superhero moviemaking, to ask the question — how exactly does the cinematic sausage get made? Because every f***-up has an origin story.” Incidentally, Cash recently starred as Stormfront in another superhero-skewing series, Amazon’s The Boys…

Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie has signed on as a lead producer of the Broadway-bound musical adaptation of The Outsiders, the producing team announced on Wednesday, August 9, according to Deadline. The musical, based on the 1967 coming-of-age novel by S.E. Hinton and the 1983 film adaptation by Francis Ford Coppola, had its world premiere engagement at La Jolla Playhouse earlier this year. Coppola’s 1983 film featured up-and-coming stars Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe and Emilio Estevez…

Robert Swan, the actor best known for his roles in the sports films Hoosiers, Rudy and The Babe, died Wednesday after a long battle with cancer at his home in Rolling Prairie, Indiana, his friend Betty Hoeffner tells The Hollywood Reporter. He was 78. Swan’s other film credits include Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables and Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers, as well as Who’s That Girl and Mo’ Money. He also was a voice actor in commercials and founded and performed at the Harbor County Opera in Three Oaks, Michigan…

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