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Obi-Wan Kenobi is a fan favorite of the Star Wars universe, celebrated for his wisdom and bravery. However, Ewan McGregor, who brought the Jedi master to life, delivered a line in an underappreciated George Clooney movie that might deeply unsettle the loyal Star Wars fanbase.

Ewan McGregor in a still from Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones || 20th Century Fox

In the movie titled The Men Who Stare at Goats, the actor uttered a sentence that poignantly illustrated how sometimes acting roles can clash with the cherished characters that fans love and adore.

Ewan McGregor’s Line That Will Make Star Wars Fans Question Their Jedi Faith

The Men Who Stare at Goats, released in 2009, is a satirical comedy-war movie directed under the cinematic canvas of Grant Heslov. Further, it also boasts a stellar ensemble with the likes of George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, and Kevin Spacy.

I can’t stop following Tori Sparks. With an austere glower and sometimes a winking, welcoming grin, Sparks swaggers through the corridors of the Conwell Tower venue inside Twenty Exchange, fully in command. Sparks plays a minion of the devil himself in Life and Trust, her face lighting up with wicked gleefulness as she waltzes with her Faustian prey, literally bouncing off walls while clasping her victim close. Later, in the eerie wings of a makeshift theater, she tries on a bright red dress matching her striking hair before gazing at herself in a mirror, half-coyly, shuddering as she clutches a drooping mask to her face.

I’d like to call it a can’t-miss performance. But take a left turn instead of a right, or dawdle a few extra moments to take in the vaulted ceilings, and you might miss Sparks altogether. That’s the cost of investing in...

One of the UK’s leading podcast production companies is establishing its permanent headquarters and studios in Sheffield, as part of its plans to create a world-leading podcasting hub in the North of England

It will mean some of the country’s biggest podcast shows are made and produced in Sheffield, as the city benefits from a multi-million pound revamp of its city centre and capitalises on its cultural and creative history.

Persephonica make some of the UK’s biggest podcasts, including Miss Me?, with Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver for BBC Sounds, and Political Currency, with Ed Balls and George Osborne.

It has had international success with Dua Lipa’s interview series, At Your Service, and it was the co-creator of the UK’s biggest daily podcast, The News Agents, with international media brand, Global.

Persephonica’s founders, Dino Sofos and Tom O’Hara, are from Sheffield. They established the...

(L to R) Ralph Fiennes as Cardinal Lawrence and Stanley Tucci as Cardinal Bellini in director Edward Berger’s Conclave, a Focus Features release. Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features. © 2024 All Rights Reserved.

“The throne is vacant.”

Focus Features has debuted the first trailer for the upcoming drama Conclave.

From director Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front) Conclave follows one of the world’s most secretive and ancient events – selecting a new Pope. Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with running this covert process after the unexpected death of the beloved Pope. Once the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders have gathered from around the world and are locked together in the Vatican halls, Lawrence finds himself at the center of a conspiracy and discovers a secret that could shake the very foundation of The Church. Written for the screen by Peter Straughan, Conclave is based on the 2016 book by Robert Harris.

Jacob Rees-Mogg Series Heads To Discovery+

The docu-series following controversial Conservative politician Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has previously been dubbed the “Honourable Member for the 18th century,” is landing at Discovery+. The series from At Home with the Furys producer Optomen has been widely reported on in the past couple of days. Airing on the streamer later this year, Meet the Rees-Moggs will follow the politician – who lost his seat during last week’s general election Conservative wipeout – in the run up to the poll and its aftermath. He is a controversial figure on the right of British politics who used to have a reputation for filibustering, has held several cabinet posts and was one of the most ardent supporters of Brexit within the Conservative ranks. Earlier in his career, he attracted headlines when he took his childhood nanny and a flash Mercedes with him to campaign in a traditionally working class seat in Scotland.

My Dad Wrote a Porno host Alice Levine and The News Agents producer Dino Sofos are launching a British podcast festival.

The Crossed Wires festival will take place in Sheffield from May 31 to June 2, featuring the likes of Katherine Ryan, Jon Ronson, comedian Adam Buxton and Made in Chelsea’s Jamie Laing.

It is being organized by Levine, Sofos and James O’Hara, the latter of whom co-founded the Tramlines Festival, which also takes place in Sheffield.

“Crossed Wires is set to be podcasting’s biggest party,” said the organizers. “This new festival will host the most exciting podcasting talent in Sheffield for three days, so expect to bump into the voices you always have in your headphones at one of the food pop-ups, or rub shoulders with your favourite presenters at one of the many after parties.”

In a similar vein to Tramlines, Crossed Wires said venues around the city...

Jon Ronson has forged a second series of his Things Fell Apart podcast, this time around focusing on conspiracy theories in the Covid 19 era.

The second season of the hit BBC Sounds show will launch next week, with eight stories focusing on “new battle lines in the culture wars which ignited during lockdown.”

“From covid conspiracies and Antifa hysteria, to racial and gender identity politics, free speech and protests against lockdown that spiralled out of control,” adds the logline.

Ronson said: “Recent months have shown that we’re living in post truth times where all sorts of lies are allowed to flourish for all sorts of reasons, and many people are guilty of that from across the political spectrum. What the podcast is about in the end is that we have to hold on to truth like driftwood or else we’ll drown.”

Things Fell Apart Season 1 won a Broadcasting Press Guild Award,...

BBC Sounds continues to champion the growing UK podcast sector as it joins Spotify’s Megaphone, an industry leading podcast publishing and monetisation platform.

With Megaphone’s technology, we will be able to dynamically recommend relevant content to audiences on other podcast platforms in the UK, helping listeners discover more brilliant audio they’ll love from across the BBC, wherever they listen. Thanks to this new approach, we will transform the way we highlight BBC programmes on other podcast platforms, demonstrating our commitment to the growing podcast listenership in the UK.

Podcasting icon Jon Ronson announces the return of the phenomenally popular and acclaimed BBC Radio 4 podcast Things Fell Apart for a second series in 2024, and the long awaited Chapter Four of George The Poet’s groundbreaking Peabody Award winning Have You Have You Heard George’s Podcast? launches this autumn.

Plus details of a raft of exciting new...

A new Audible Original podcast from award-winning journalist and filmmaker, Jon Ronson has been launched. The Debutante follows the story of a Tulsa debutante who, as a result of a series of unlikely and often very bad life choices she made in the ‘90s, found herself in the midst of one of the most terrible crimes ever to take place in America.

Shaun Keaveny travels the world from his sofa with Rob Delaney, Jon Ronson, Jameela Jamil and more in the new series of Your Place Or Mine. In each episode of the BBC Radio 4 podcast, a familiar face tries to convince Shaun and resident geographer, historian and comedian Iszi Lawrence that jetting off to their favourite destination is worth the hassle.

Exclusive: Carol Howe, a high-society debutante who joined the neo-Nazi movement responsible for the Oklahoma City bombings in 1995 and then became a government informant, is the subject of a new podcast from Jon Ronson.

Ronson, a journalist and filmmaker who wrote The Men Who Stare At Goats, which was turned into the George Clooney-fronted movie, has created The Debutante for Audible.

The Amazon-owned audio platform will launch the series on April 13.

It uses rare court tapes, diary entries, undercover Atf surveillance audio, and interviews, to explore the mystery of Howe, a charismatic, wealthy former debutante turned white supremacist spokeswoman turned undercover informant.

In 1995, Carol was spying on Oklahoma’s neo-Nazis for the government just when Timothy McVeigh, inspired by what happened at Waco, blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people.

Ever since then, Carol has haunted the imaginations of survivors and investigators because of a...

Grant Heslov's 2009 comedy "The Men Who Stare at Goats" is based on one of the more peculiar true stories attached to the U.S. military. Taking details from the book by Jon Ronson, "Goats" details an actual effort in the late 1970s and early 1980s to develop human mental superpowers for potential use on the battlefield. A soldier named Jim Channon suggested that such a group be named the First Earth Battalion, and the title comes from an experiment wherein a soldier is assigned to stare at a goat, reach into its mind psychically, and end its life. The real-world operation...

The post Casting Ewan McGregor Could Have Made Things Awkward For The Men Who Stare At Goats appeared first on /Film.

Russell T Davies’ Channel 4/HBO Max drama It’s a Sin scooped the coveted Best Drama and Best Writer prizes at this year’s Broadcasting Press Guild (Bpg) Awards, while the BBC/Amazon’s A Very British Scandal took home Best Drama Mini-Series and Best Actress for Claire Foy.

Red Production Company’s show about a group of friends during the Aids epidemic was nominated in six categories and won two, with Davies beating off competition from the likes of Time’s Jimmy McGovern and A Very British Scandal’s Sarah Phelps.

The latter show won Best Drama MIni-Series while The Crown star Foy was handed Best Actress, with Stephen Graham taking Best Actor for his performance in McGovern’s BBC prison drama Time.

The BBC was very much the big winner, also taking Best Documentary Series for Blair & Brown: The New Labour Revolution, although Disney+ scooped its first ever Bpg...

Channel 4’s “It’s A Sin” and the BBC’s “A Very British Scandal” have won the top honors at the annual Broadcasting Press Guild (Bpg) Awards.

“It’s a Sin” won best drama series and its creator, Russell T. Davies won best writer. “A Very British Scandal” was voted best drama mini-series and its star Claire Foy won best actress.

Stephen Graham won best actor for his performances in Channel 4’s “Help” and BBC’s “Time.” Peter Jackson’s Disney Plus series “The Beatles: Get Back” was voted best documentary mini-series. Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse won the best entertainment award for the third time with BBC’s “Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing,” while the best comedy award went to “Alma’s Not Normal” (BBC).

Jon Snow of Channel 4 News won the Harvey Lee Award for outstanding contribution to broadcasting. The Bpg breakthrough award went to the actor and writer of BBC’s “Starstruck,...

Jon Ronson and Amol Rajan are among those nominated for next month’s Broadcasting Press Guild (Bpg) Audio Awards.

The pair have picked up nods in the UK Podcast of the Year and Audio Presenter of the Year categories respectively.

Ronson, U.S. based host of The Butterfly Effect, is up against the likes of history podcast The Rest is History and Sweet Bobby, about one of the world’s most sophisticated catfisher.

The awards will take place in London on Friday March 25 at the same time as the Bpg TV and Streaming Awards, which has seen Russell T Davies AIDS drama It’s a Sin nominated six times.

Others to be nominated include historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook and music presenters Petroc Trelawney, Vick Hope and Jamz Supernova.

“Once again the jury, consisting of many of the best critics and writers in the country, were blown away with the...

As Ronson’s BBC podcast Things Fell Apart begins, the documentary-makers and old friends discuss conspiracy theories, the problem of ‘activist journalists’ and what happened to Ceaușescu’s socks

Jon Ronson and Adam Curtis became friends in the late 1990s, having bonded over their shared interests in power, society and the stories we tell about ourselves. Curtis, 66, is a Bafta-winning documentary film-maker whose credits include The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear and HyperNormalisation. His most recent six-part series, Can’t Get You Out of My Head, draws on the history of psychology and politics to show how we got to where we are today. Ronson, 54, is a US-based Welsh writer and journalist whose books include 2015’s So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, about social media brutality and the history of public shaming. In recent years, Ronson has turned to podcasting, investigating the porn industry in The Butterfly Effect...

An unfortunate incident involving a sick dog sparks a heated confrontation on a Bucharest subway, setting off an increasingly bizarre series of events when a cellphone video of the argument goes viral. Before long a well-meaning bank worker has her life turned upside-down, as the growing hostility on social media spills over into the real world – with catastrophic consequences.

Inspired by events in South Korea in 2005, “#dogpoopgirl” is the feature debut of actor-turned-director Andrei Huțuleac. A biting social satire about public morality and online outrage, the film won the top prize at the Moscow Film Festival this year, as well as a best actress award for lead Andreea Grămoșteanu. Pic is produced by Bucharest-based DaKINO Productions.

Ahead of the film’s Romanian premiere at the Transilvania Film Festival, Huțuleac spoke to Variety about public shaming in the internet era, finding the right balance between our online and offline personae, and...

Louis Theroux is to interview celebrities for his first radio and podcast series, Grounded With Louis Theroux. The BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds show also happens to be the first commission for his newly-launched production outfit Mindhouse Productions, which last week inked a first-look deal with BBC Studios.

Twenty years after his When Louis Met… series on the BBC — in which he trailed people including Simon Cowell’s former PR guru Max Clifford — Theroux is returning to the world of celebrity by interviewing the likes of Lenny Henry, Boy George and Miriam Margolyes in hour-long episodes. The series will launch on April 27 on BBC Sounds with an episode featuring documentary maker Jon Ronson.

More from DeadlineLouis Theroux's Mindhouse Productions Inks Two-Year First Look Deal With BBC StudiosBBC Defends Louis Theroux Documentary After Sex Worker Says She Was "Mistreated" During FilmingLouis Theroux Launches Mindhouse Productions, Develops BBC Shows Amid Netflix...

Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt like to make “odd things” together.

“We’ve done lots of odd things just by following various creative whims for our own amusement. [They’re] not for audiences though; just in our spare time, for fun,” Gordon-Levitt said in an interview with IndieWire.

Tatum, sitting next to him, chuckled and nodded his head.

“I have a secret over Joe that he has to forever do the dumb things that I ask him to come and do,” Tatum said.

Fans can see one of Tatum and Gordon-Levitt’s odd, creative projects right now — “Comrade Detective,” executive produced by Tatum and featuring his voice work, alongside Gordon-Levitt, hit Amazon on Friday, August 4 — but it’s certainly not dumb.

Their latest collaboration is so clever, in fact, you need to unpack its backstory to unlock all the peculiar charms.

Read More:‘Comrade Detective’ Review: Channing Tatum’s New Cop Drama...

Introduced as a film preservationist’s recent discovery and told with the utmost accuracy to its specified time period, “Comrade Detective” is, by all discernible indication, a Romanian television series from the ’80s that’s been restored and dubbed for American audiences. Executive producer Channing Tatum and host John Ronson say so in welcoming viewers to the series:

“Similar to American propaganda films like ‘Red Dawn’ and ‘Rocky IV,’ that demonized the Eastern block, ‘Comrade Detective’ was produced and funded by the Romanian government not merely to entertain, but to celebrate and promote communist ideals,” Ronson says.

“After a two-decade journey spanning four continents, hundreds of dead-end leads, and the cooperation of five international governments, we have finally tracked down and restored the international master copies — and dubbed them.”

Read More‘Wet Hot American Summer: 10 Years Later’ Review: New Netflix Season Is Better Than the Prequel

Once the footage rolls,...