Taron Egerton on Joaquin Phoenix’s ‘She Rides Shotgun’ Prep, ‘Carry-On 2’ Doubts and “Strange” Wolverine Talk

by admin | Jul 31, 2025 | Articles, Hollywood Reporter Articles

Right before he reteamed with Dennis Lehane for the miniseries Smoke, Taron Egerton produced an independent passion project known as She Rides Shotgun. 

Adapted from Jordan Harper’s book of the same name, Egerton also stars in the Nick Rowland-directed crime drama as an ex-con named Nate McClusky. Fresh out of prison, Nate — who’s been absent for the majority of his 10-year-old daughter Polly’s life — catches her off guard when he arrives at her school to pick her up in place of her mom. In a revelatory performance by Ana Sophia Heger, Polly quickly deduces that something has gone terribly wrong, forcing the estranged father and daughter to hit the road and fend off danger at every turn.

To prepare for the modern-day tale — albeit one with shades of Westerns and thrillers from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s — Egerton opened up his Rolodex and asked a few decorated actors for film recommendations that might aid or inspire his character work in She Rides Shotgun. Gary Oldman suggested he watch Dustin Hoffman’s Straight Time (1978) and Gene Hackman in The Conversation (1974), while Adolescence star Stephen Graham urged him to check out Oldman’s turn in State of Grace (1990). Joaquin Phoenix then sent the Welsh actor a list of 20 titles that fit the bill. 

“[She Rides Shotgun] is a very old-school movie. I wanted to imbibe the brilliance of some actors that are older than I am. So I picked those guys because they’re actors who I really admire, and they’re actors who I’ve met and have some contact with,” Egerton tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of She Rides Shotgun’s Aug. 1 theatrical release.

When the trailer for the Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski-written film premiered, a glimpse of Egerton’s muscular physique reignited the yearslong fancasting campaign for him to take over the role of Wolverine from his Eddie the Eagle co-star Hugh Jackman, in the event that Jackman does not want to play the role till he’s 90. However, Egerton continues to throw cold water on such a notion.

“The Wolverine thing is almost like a joke at this point. Every time I have a project come out, there’s a moment where people talk about it, and I’m the one person who is not qualified to talk about it,” Egerton says. “It’s quite strange, but it’s flattering. It’s always lovely to think that anybody would want you to play a beloved role, but I also think no one is ever going to accept anyone in that role other than Hugh Jackman. He’s completely synonymous with it.”

Last year, Egerton played heroic TSA agent Ethan Kopek in Jaume Collet-Serra’s Carry-On, which is now Netflix’s second-most popular film of all time. Naturally, there’s been questions about whether a sequel is in order, and while he’d love to reteam with Collet-Serra again, Egerton has doubts about the believability of a second chapter.

“Carry-On 2 is really hard. It’s a celebration of Christmas and a celebration of people who work at Christmas. It then needs to have this huge plot that needs to be foiled and maybe the earwig component,” Egerton shares. “All of that is quite hard to achieve in a sequel without it feeling contrived and to the point of defying credulity. So I have not heard anything, but who knows, stranger things have happened.”

Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Egerton also discusses the decision to root She Rides Shotgun in the perspective of Heger’s 10-year-old character, before addressing the manner in which TSA agents now receive him at airports.

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When I was watching Smoke a few months ago, I wondered if Dave Gudsen was a response to all the twisted “fun” that Paul Walter Hauser got to have opposite you on Black Bird. And I heard you say that it was in fact a factor in your decision-making. Thus, when you committed to She Rides Shotgun, was that a response to anything you’d recently done at the time? 

Not really. I’m just out here trying to make things that mean something to me, and I’m not really trying to second-guess the perception of them too much. It’s funny, when you have these brief interludes where you speak with [reporters], you have to confront a perception of you. And it’s a weird thing because you don’t really think in those terms. You just follow the thing that you’re inclined towards creatively. So I try as far as possible to separate myself from the perception of why I’m doing what I’m doing and just do what I’m doing. 

You asked Gary Oldman, Stephen Graham and Joaquin Phoenix for movie recommendations that had a similar spirit to She Rides Shotgun, and out of all three, I never would’ve guessed that Joaquin would offer a list of 20-some-odd films. Did you expect him to be that much of a cinephile? I’m not sure I did.

Yeah, absolutely. He’s such a master of his craft. He’s clearly somebody who has such honed instincts, and he’s worked with so many incredible filmmakers. I am more surprised that you think he wouldn’t be such a cinephile. 

I suppose I’m basing it on one of his contemporaries, Christian Bale. He’s not a cinephile whatsoever, and while it’s easy to assume he would be, you just never really know.

I didn’t know that about [Bale]. But there was something about the timelessness of [She Rides Shotgun] and the fact that, in some respects, it felt like a story from 30, 40, 50 years ago. It’s a very old-school movie. It’s got a strong Western leaning to it, and I wanted to imbibe the brilliance of some actors that are older than I am. So I picked those guys because they’re actors who I really admire, and they’re actors who I’ve met and have some contact with.

Like the book, She Rides Shotgun begins with Polly (Ana Sophia Heger) being picked up at school, and she and the audience have to catch up to speed as the movie goes along. Was there ever a discussion about showing the violent domino effect that set this story in motion?

Yes, it was in a previous iteration of the script, but the more we went along in the process, the more it became apparent that our resources were limited. So we had to make decisions, and Nick [Rowland] was very committed to the idea that we’d be inside the perspective of Polly until her and Nate part ways [for a period of time]. That decision freed us the most, and it meant that we were able to reconfigure the storytelling in ways that were both more focused and economical. 

If Nate hadn’t put a target on his and Polly’s backs, do you think he still would’ve put the same effort toward being her dad upon his release from prison? 

He probably would have never reappeared otherwise, not because he’s not interested in his daughter, but because he thinks, “Why would I impose myself on her? I’m not worthy of being her father.” That is the thought that plagues him. But he doesn’t have time to really revel in that thought because if he doesn’t act [under the movie’s actual circumstances], she’s going to die. So he’d be there if he knew she was in jeopardy, but if he had no reason to believe that, I don’t think he would’ve shown up.

Taron, I hate to say it, but you made a huge mistake in this film. You got in such good shape that the Wolverine talk has started up again. Has this renewed clamor reached your doorstep yet? 

No, but I feel like it happens every time I take my shirt off in a film. The truth of the matter is I don’t look like that when I take my shirt off, unless it’s in a film where the part needs me to look that way. (Laughs.) The Wolverine thing is almost like a joke at this point. Every time I have a project come out, there’s a moment where people talk about it, and I’m the one person who is not qualified to talk about it. It’s quite strange, but it’s flattering. It’s always lovely to think that anybody would want you to play a beloved role, but I also think no one is ever going to accept anyone in that role other than Hugh Jackman. He’s completely synonymous with it. 

I had such a great experience watching Carry-On last year. When you make your way through airports now, do TSA agents salute you and give you the royal treatment? 

(Laughs.) Not really. I took a photo with a TSA agent at the Dallas airport a couple days ago when I was traveling here to New York, and that was a really nice bit of symmetry. But it’s not like it’s made travel impossible or anything. Generally, I get by pretty unnoticed. So I certainly don’t feel that, but I also try not to think about it. If someone comes up and asks for a photo, that’s a nice thing, and if I’m able to, I’ll do it. But I am so proud of that movie, and I’m really glad you liked it. It’s a nice way to celebrate an otherwise slightly thankless role.

Yeah, they’re not used to seeing themselves as heroes on screen; they’re usually a source of aggravation for main characters. 

Yeah, exactly. That’s what made the movie cool in many respects, and it was a fun thing to be a part of. 

Jaume Collet-Serra just signed a new deal with Netflix. Is there a reality where you’d consider Carry-On 2?

Jaume and I definitely want to do more together. I love Jaume. It’s so about the journey as well as the movies you make, and I really like being with Jaume. I saw him last week in L.A., and we had a nice dinner together. Carry-On 2 is really hard. It’s a celebration of Christmas and a celebration of people who work at Christmas. It then needs to have this huge plot that needs to be foiled and maybe the earwig component. All of that is quite hard to achieve in a sequel without it feeling contrived and to the point of defying credulity. So I have not heard anything, but who knows, stranger things have happened. 

As I referenced earlier, I devoured all ten episodes of Smoke a few months ago, and I especially love the title. You initially think it’s just some generic reference to fire, but it really stands for smoke and mirrors, doesn’t it?

Yeah, like most things with [creator] Dennis [Lehane], he’s thinking on a number of different levels. He’s such an incredible person to work with in terms of his ingenuity and his imagination and the things he’s trying to say and the uncomfortable space he occupies. His stuff is dark. It’s challenging, it’s uncomfortable and I love that stuff. But I just hope he keeps my number in his phonebook and we keep at it, because the roles of Dave Gudsen in Smoke and Jimmy Keene in Black Bird are two of the best roles I’ve played.

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She Rides Shotgun opens in movie theaters on August 1.

The Warrens Face Their First Demon and Annabelle Doll Returns in ‘Conjuring: Last Rites’ Final Trailer

by admin | Jul 31, 2025 | Articles, Hollywood Reporter Articles

The final trailer has dropped for the last Conjuring film, and it sees the Warrens face a familiar demon.

Following the first trailer, which was released in May, Warner Bros. released the new and final trailer for The Conjuring: Last Rites on Thursday. The fourth Conjuring film follows Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) as they take on the Smurl case, which involved a family that was tormented by a demon for more than a decade, inspired by a true story.

But in this trailer, we find out that the demon was one the Warrens previously encountered. “There’s something in the attic. Ed, there’s an evil here. Something I’ve felt before,” Lorraine says.

“This thing in your house is a demon. It’s the first one that we’ve ever encountered,” Lorraine says to the family before later saying to Ed, “We were young. We were scared. We ran away. And after all these years, it wasn’t done with our family.”

Blink and you miss it, but the Annabelle doll also appears in the trailer and toward the end, Lorraine is chased by what appears to be a possessed man with Ed trying to rescue her.

Annabelle was introduced in the Conjuring universe in the first film of the same name, which was directed by James Wan and released in 2013. The haunted doll appeared in more of the franchise’s films, including the spinoffs Annabelle (2014), Annabelle: Creation (2017) and Annabelle Comes Home (2019).

Mia Tomlinson plays Judy Warren, Ed and Lorraine Warren’s daughter and Ben Hardy, who plays her boyfriend (now husband), Tony Spera. Steve Coulter, Elliot Cowan, Rebecca Calder, Kíla Lord Cassidy, Beau Gadsdon, Shannon Kook, John Brotherton add to the cast.

Michael Chaves returns to direct the film. Wan and Peter Safran also return as producers. Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick wrote the script.

The Conjuring: Last Rites releases in theaters on Sept. 5.

What’s Being Lost in the Documentary Space As Congress Defunds Public Media

by admin | Jul 31, 2025 | Articles, Hollywood Reporter Articles

I’m Not Your Negro, The Invisible War, Minding the Gap, The Mole Agent, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail: These are just a sampling of the iconic films that ITVS has co-produced with independent filmmakers for decades, more than 900 films over the last 35 years.

But the future of our public-private partnership is at risk with the short-sighted and destructive July 18 vote to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) by Congress. ITVS, which is funded by CPB, will continue to receive federal funding until Sept. 30, 2025 and then nearly $9 million annually will no longer go to independent documentary filmmakers.

It’s perhaps ironic that ITVS was founded in 1989 through a visionary and bipartisan act of Congress that instructed CPB to fund an independent television service that would serve the American public with innovative and diverse content made by independent producers. Since then, ITVS’ mission — done in partnership with PBS, series like American Masters and POV, and the National Multicultural Alliance — has held firm to help ensure that every American’s story, particularly those that are underrepresented, is seen through public media. And today, PBS is the foremost distributor of independent documentary, featuring stories and storytellers that don’t meet the interests or priorities of commercial media like the big studios and streamers.

Over the last five years, ITVS has directly invested $44 million of CPB funds in documentaries. In the same period, ITVS brought 126 films to public media viewers for free, or close to free, at a taxpayer cost of about five cents per American. What does that five cents buy?

Consider the more than 70 films with a disability angle that ITVS has co-produced in its lifetime and the hundreds of in-person community events it supports each year. Or, the more than 60 people on average that Oscar-nominated doc producer Beth Levison hired on the eight ITVS/public media films that she’s produced. Or, the Matter of Mind trilogy that conveys the day-to-day realities of families impacted by ALS, Parkinson’s Disease, and Alzheimer’s Disease. Or, the filmmakers like Loira Poitras, Roger Ross Williams, Dawn Porter, and Nanfu Wang whose early films were co-produced by ITVS before they moved on to prolific commercial careers.

One of the reasons that I chose to lead ITVS is because I know firsthand what makes it a cornerstone of the documentary ecosystem: I got my start in documentary in the early aughts when ITVS funded the Academy Award-nominated The Weather Underground, which I produced and broadcast on the second season of Independent Lens.

While ITVS can and will continue to shepherd through more than 40 feature films that are currently in production and present an incredible slate of documentaries on Independent Lens next season, our open calls and development funds that infuse production money into the field have been put on hold. If we can’t replace lost funds, the number of trusted original American independent films will diminish from the domestic and international stage, from film festivals to awards shows.

At the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, six ITVS films premiered in the line-up. In the last five years alone, ITVS supported 50 Academy-qualifying films. One can guess that the number of Academy-qualifying films will go down, and film festival curation may become increasingly commercial. In all likelihood, urgent, groundbreaking, artful, and impactful documentaries might not be made at all, let alone distributed to all Americans. In this new reality, the notion of independence itself hangs in the balance.

When it comes to documentaries, commercial producers have already contracted. A24 is the most recent entertainment company to stop producing documentaries, while Participant Media permanently shut its doors despite huge successes like Citizenfour and An Inconvenient Truth.

Congress’ vote will not only exacerbate the growing hardships in the industry, it will also endanger the cornerstone of storytelling that exists for the public good. ITVS films are where viewers in underserved parts of the country see themselves represented (If Dreams Were Lightning) and where creating common ground and deepening viewers’ understanding of a complex and varied nation are the ultimate goals. They elevate pressing issues by showing how they impact everyday people (Matter of Mind: My Alzheimer’s). And they educate and inspire, giving Americans everywhere access to stories in all 50 states to learn about literature (Alice Walker: Beauty and Truth), to travel to remote reservations in Wyoming  (Folk Frontera), and to experience culture, beauty, and joy through documentary.

The rescission of CPB funds will hit producers outside of major cities the hardest, where funding opportunities are far more limited. This impact will be felt well beyond public media, touching every aspect of the documentary industry. Americans will have less access to compelling, rigorous content produced for the public good as filmmakers will change careers, investors will divest, and fewer films will be produced.

The stories ITVS produces, those rooted in social justice, lived experience, and structural inequality, are being sidelined at larger media companies. And what’s at stake isn’t just coverage, but care; the kind of long-form, ethically grounded storytelling that invites the public not only to watch, but also to understand the world around them.

We need more than breaking news today; we need stories that stick.

In the current media landscape, these federal funds are not easily replaced, and a profitable distribution model for public service films has yet to emerge in the nearly six decades PBS has been around. But the need to tell America’s stories has never been greater.

Long-form, big-budget films are not viable for every storyteller, and audiences must be met where they are. ITVS bridges those gaps, whether they are financial or programming. At ITVS, we recognize that, with Congress’s decision to defund public media, a lot will and must change, and we intend to be part of that evolution.

We may have lost our funding, but unlike Congress, we have not lost our way.

Carrie Lozano is the President & CEO of ITVS, the publicly funded documentary company behind hundreds of titles from Oscar nominees to festival favorites.

Update July 31, 1pm A previous version of this story mentioned CNN eliminated its documentary unit. In 2022, CNN revived its arm that produces documentaries.

‘M3GAN’ Star Violet McGraw Unveils Horror Short ‘The Littles’

by admin | Jul 31, 2025 | Articles, Hollywood Reporter Articles