Ryan Gosling Is Ken; Emma Thompson’s Trunchbull Terrifies; Blonde Teaser

The first-look photo of Ryan Gosling as Ken in the new Barbie movie will knock your socks off; Emma Thompson makes a terrifying Trunchbull in the upcoming Matilda the Musical; the teaser for Blonde, Netflix’s NC-17 Marilyn Monroe movie starring Ana de Armas, is here. All in today’s Movie News Rundown.

But First: Check out our list of 20 Great Film Festivals for First-Time Moviemakers, presented by Film Freeway. If you’re new to the film world or are just making your first movie, these are festivals worth submitting to — and ones that give you a higher chance of getting some attention for your film.

Ben Stiller on Severance: If you’re a fan of Apple TV+’s Severance, you’ll be interested to know that in the latest MovieMaker podcast, we asked creator Dan Erickson and executive producer Ben Stiller if it matters what the mysterious Lumen does. We also asked if they even know what Lumen does. Listen to the podcast on Apple, on Spotify, or right here:

Is There Nothing This Man Can’t Do?: The first photo of Ryan Gosling as Ken in the new Barbie movie opposite Margot Robbie is here, and all I have to say is: This man doesn’t have to be so perfect, but he does it anyway. He does it for us. Just look at him:

Emma Thompson Is The Trunchbull: One of my favorite ever childhood movies is the 1996 Matildastarring Mara Wilson, and Pam Ferris was an absolutely iconic Trunchbull. She was so good, in fact, that I still have nightmares about The Chokey. Just kidding. But seriously, Netflix’s new Matilda the Musical looks really cute, and judging by the newly-released trailer, Emma Thompson looks like her Trunchbull might be equally terrifying. We’ll have to wait until the Holidays to find out.

Thanks, SmartLess: Bradley Cooper paid a visit to the SmartLess podcast for its 100th episode, and on it, he revealed many an interesting tidbit about his life — but one I find most entertaining is the fact that he had to test out his air guitar skills on The Tonight Show before he could decide whether he would be a believable Jackson Maine in A Star Is Born. Get the full story here.

Millie and Halsey: For a long time, people have been saying that Millie Bobby Brown and Halsey look alike, so much so that they could be long-lost siblings. But now Jimmy Fallon is upping the ante. During an appearance on The Tonight Show earlier this week, Fallon suggested that Brown should play Halsey in a movie about the singer’s life. For her part, Brown wrote on her Instagram story that she’s “soooo down.” And although Halsey is only 27 and perhaps a tad young for a biopic, the Stranger Things star is only 18, so she has some time to wait it out.

Blonde Teaser: Ana de Armas makes a very convincing Marilyn Monroe in the first teaser for Blonde, the highly-anticipated and much-gossipped-about Netflix movie directed by Andrew Dominik and based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates. The film was rated NC-17 by the MPA — and that was confirmed in Netflix’s teaser today. With a more-adult rating than R, this is the first Netflix movie to be given an 18+ classification.

Main Image: Ryan Gosling as Ken in the new Barbie movie, courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment