Entertainment 7 November 2026

Robert Pattinson has screen-tested for James Bond (and Nicholas Hoult is in the mix too)

The 40-year-old tested for Denis Villeneuve's 007 for Amazon over the weekend of 24 October in London, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Callum Turner, Jack Lowden and Josh O'Connor are also in the running, and Amazon is not commenting.

The hunt for the next James Bond has a name few saw coming. Robert Pattinson has screen-tested for 007, multiple sources told The Hollywood Reporter, putting him in the race alongside Callum Turner, Jack Lowden and Josh O’Connor.

The tests reportedly took place over the weekend of 24 October in London, where Pattinson is shooting The Batman Part II. Deadline then added one more name: Nicholas Hoult, who once finished runner-up to Pattinson for Batman. Amazon, which owns the film, had no comment.

Why is Robert Pattinson a surprise pick for Bond?

Because the received wisdom was that the next Bond would be someone the role turns into a star. Pattinson, 40, already is one. He is DC’s Batman, he is in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, and he is having the biggest year of his career, with A24’s The Drama and Primetime on top.

He also has an ally inside the production. He worked with Denis Villeneuve, the director of the new Bond, on Dune: Part Three, out on 18 December, and that collaboration is said to have gone well.

Who is making the next James Bond film?

It is the first 007 film made under Amazon, which bought creative control from the Broccoli family in February 2025. Villeneuve directs, and the producers are Amy Pascal, of the Spider-Man films, and David Heyman, who produced Harry Potter.

That last name comes with a neat twist. Pattinson’s breakout was a Harry Potter film, Goblet of Fire, in 2005, as the doomed Cedric Diggory.

How long since the last new James Bond?

Daniel Craig was unveiled in October 2005, 21 years ago, and bowed out in 2021 with No Time to Die after five films. His run included Skyfall (2012), still the only Bond to top a billion dollars at the box office.

There is no date yet for a decision or for filming. In the meantime Pattinson has another honour coming: he will receive the 40th American Cinematheque Award, taking the slot that had been lined up for Ryan Gosling.

By Lucy Bennett

Image: Harald Krichel / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Entertainment 6 November 2026

Sebastián Lelio, the Chilean director behind A Fantastic Woman, has died aged 52

The filmmaker died at home on Friday 6 November. His family, in a statement shared by his partner Amalia Kassai, said he died of health causes and asked for privacy. He was in the middle of shooting Poeta Chileno, an adaptation of Alejandro Zambra's novel.

Chilean director Sebastián Lelio died on Friday 6 November, aged 52. As Chile's BioBioChile radio reported, his family confirmed the death in a statement shared by his partner, Amalia Kassai, which gave health reasons as the cause and asked for privacy. Several Chilean outlets say he died at home. No further details have been released.

Entertainment 6 November 2026

Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie make it seven with Dogfight, a London revenge thriller for Netflix

Ritchie writes and directs, Statham stars, and shooting starts in the UK in early 2027. Netflix has not revealed the plot or a release date. It is the pair's seventh film together since Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels in 1998.

Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie are back together, and this time Netflix is paying. The film is called Dogfight, and the streamer bills it as a revenge thriller set in London's criminal underworld, packed with "colourful criminals" and action. In other words, the pair are going home. According to Netflix's announcement on Tudum, Ritchie writes and directs, Statham leads, and both produce alongside Ivan Atkinson and John Friedberg. Black Bear, Toff Guy Films…

Entertainment 5 November 2026

What do you bring a pope? Bob Dylan brought his memoir and left with a rosary

Pope Leo XIV received Bob Dylan at the Apostolic Palace on Wednesday afternoon for a short audience. The 85-year-old is in Rome on tour and plays the Palazzo dello Sport on Thursday. In July the Pope had quoted one of his songs against the bomb.

Bob Dylan went to the Vatican on Wednesday afternoon and came away with a rosary from Pope Leo XIV. In return he left a copy of "Chronicles: Volume One", the memoir he published in 2004. Vatican News confirmed the meeting and called it brief, with greetings and a few light-hearted exchanges. Dylan turned up at the Apostolic Palace looking the way he looks almost everywhere: in black, with the hood of his sweatshirt pulled up. He was accompanied by the…

Photo of Natalee Holloway, a young woman with long blonde hair, smiling against a tree, used by Netflix to promote the series

Entertainment 4 November 2026

Netflix's Taken: Natalee Holloway is out today, with 2010 FBI footage never shown before

The three-part docuseries premiered on 4 November, directed by Dani Sloane and Matthew Galkin for Story Syndicate. Natalee's mother, Beth Holloway, is at its centre, and Aruba's former deputy police chief talks about the case for the first time in nearly twenty years.

Netflix released "Taken: Natalee Holloway" on Wednesday, a three-part docuseries about the American student who vanished in Aruba in 2005. It was one of the most-followed cases on US television for the next two decades, and the series has pushed it back up the search charts on both sides of the Atlantic. It is directed by Dani Sloane and Matthew Galkin for Story Syndicate, the production company run by Liz Garbus and Dan Cogan, both of whom are executive…

Entertainment 3 November 2026

Philippe Jaenada wins the Goncourt (with a 1949 Paris murder nobody ever solved)

The French author took the 2026 Prix Goncourt for L'Inconnue du quai de Javel, a 528-page inquiry into the death of a Montparnasse model. He won six votes to three, and the Renaudot went to François-Henri Désérable.

Philippe Jaenada has won the 2026 Prix Goncourt, France's best-known literary award. The Académie Goncourt named him on Tuesday, 3 November, at the Drouant restaurant in Paris, where the prize has been announced for over a century. The winning book is L'Inconnue du quai de Javel, published by Flammarion in August.

Entertainment 3 November 2026

GTA VI unlocks on 19 November (and the boxed copy has no disc inside)

Grand Theft Auto VI reaches PS5 and Xbox Series X|S in 16 days, on 19 November. In Portugal the Standard Edition is €79.99 and the Ultimate €99.99. Physical copies contain only a download code, and pre-loading opens on 12 November.

If you pre-ordered GTA VI in a shop and you're expecting to collect a box with a disc in it, worth knowing now: there isn't one. The physical edition of the decade's most anticipated game contains only a download code. In practice you're buying it digitally, with a case for the shelf. It's 16 days away. Grand Theft Auto VI lands on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on 19 November, and Rockstar has already confirmed that pre-loading starts on 12 November,…

Entertainment 2 November 2026

Ocarina of Time is back on Thursday, and you can finally play it in Portuguese

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time lands on 5 November, rebuilt from scratch for Nintendo Switch 2, at €59.99 on the Portuguese eShop. It adds voiced dialogue, free running and jumping, and a clock that keeps ticking. Portuguese appears on the language list for the first time.

Some people will tell you it is the best video game ever made. Plenty of others have never touched it. From Thursday, 5 November, both get the same way in: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time returns, rebuilt from the ground up and exclusive to Nintendo Switch 2. On the Portuguese eShop it costs €59.99, with release set for 5 November. In the US, the digital edition is $59.99.

Illustration of a giant severed hand with red nails and gold rings under a spotlight on a dark stage, with pumpkins and bats

Entertainment 1 November 2026

Heidi Klum turned up to her 25th Halloween party as her own severed hand

At the New York party she has hosted for a quarter of a century, the model appeared as a giant replica of her left hand, with long red nails, a thumb ring, her engagement ring and her wedding band. Only her eyes and mouth showed. Getting into it took five to six hours.

For weeks Heidi Klum had been dropping hints: a costume that was "very, very bloody" and would go "very well with red wine". On Saturday night, at the 25th edition of the Halloween party she has thrown for a quarter of a century, it made sense. She came as a hand. Her own left hand, blown up to giant size and freshly severed. The detail was obsessive. Long red nails, a ring on the thumb, her engagement ring and her wedding band. Only her eyes and mouth…

Official It: Welcome to Derry key art, with half of Pennywise's painted face on the left and the show title in white lettering on a red background

Entertainment 31 October 2026

HBO Max dropped a surprise It: Welcome to Derry episode for Halloween, set centuries before Pennywise

"A Story of Derry" landed on HBO Max at midnight on 31 October with no warning. Directed by Tazbah Chavez, the half-hour special follows three young people into the Western Wood. Zahn McClarnon plays the warrior who forges the dagger It fears. Season 2 is set in 1935.

HBO Max quietly released a new episode of It: Welcome to Derry overnight, just in time for Halloween. It is called "A Story of Derry", it runs about 30 minutes, and it leaves the 1960s of the first season far behind. This one is set hundreds of years before Pennywise. The setup is simple. Three young people walk into the Western Wood, the forest around what will one day be Derry, and run into an ancient, terrifying spirit. A title card at the start frames…

Patrick Stewart, smiling, in a black leather jacket and burgundy top on a panel at San Diego Comic-Con in 2013

Entertainment 30 October 2026

Patrick Stewart, Captain Picard and Professor X, has died at 86

The British actor died on Wednesday 28 October at his home in Los Angeles, his family said in a statement on his official X account. He had Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia. A Royal Shakespeare Company veteran, he played Jean-Luc Picard for nearly four decades.

Sir Patrick Stewart died on Wednesday 28 October at his home in Los Angeles. He was 86. His family announced the death in a statement posted to the actor's official X account, saying he died in the care of his wife, Sunny, after a brief struggle with Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia. To a lot of people he was simply the captain. Jean-Luc Picard ran the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation from 1987 to 1994, then across four films and,…

Entertainment 29 October 2026

FromSoftware pushes The Duskbloods back to 2027

Hidetaka Miyazaki's Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive will no longer launch in 2026. FromSoftware says the game is at the final adjustment stage and needs more time for rules and balancing. No month or date has been given.

The Duskbloods is no longer a 2026 game. FromSoftware said on Thursday, on the game's official X account, that it has moved the launch window to 2027 because development "is at the final adjustment stage". That is the whole schedule for now. A year, with no month attached. The extra time is going on game rules and balancing, according to the statement, which also thanks players for how they responded to the combat and strategic depth in August's network…

Jack Lowden as Mr Darcy and Emma Corrin as Elizabeth Bennet face to face in a candlelit ballroom

Entertainment 29 October 2026

Olivia Colman yells “Mr Bennet!” in the first trailer for Netflix’s Pride and Prejudice

Dolly Alderton’s six-part adaptation, directed by Euros Lyn, stars Emma Corrin as Lizzie and Jack Lowden as Darcy. It lands on Netflix on 3 December.

Netflix has put out the first proper trailer for its new Pride and Prejudice, and with it a date: all six episodes arrive on 3 December. Emma Corrin, the young Diana in The Crown, plays Lizzie. Jack Lowden, River Cartwright in Slow Horses, takes on Darcy. Corrin is also an executive producer here, a first for them. The supporting cast is stacked. Olivia Colman is Mrs Bennet and Rufus Sewell is Mr Bennet, the father who tunes out the moment his five…

Cover of Judi Dench's memoir, Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?, with a portrait of the white-haired actor, set on a blurred background

Entertainment 28 October 2026

Is it too late to make a run for it? Judi Dench answers in 368 pages

Judi Dench's memoir came out on 22 October in the UK (Michael Joseph, £25) and reaches the US on 3 November. It was written in conversation with actor and director Brendan O'Hea, her partner on the 2023 Shakespeare book.

Judi Dench is 91, has been working for seven decades, and has now put the whole of it in one book. "Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?" came out on 22 October from Michael Joseph, a Penguin imprint: 368 pages, £25 in hardback, with an ebook and an audiobook alongside. The American edition, from St. Martin's Press, follows on 3 November. She wrote it the way she wrote her last one, in conversation with her friend Brendan O'Hea, the actor and director who…

Entertainment 27 October 2026

Jay-Z's company has shaped the Super Bowl halftime show since 2019. Now he's the headliner

The NFL, Apple Music and Roc Nation named Jay-Z as headliner of Super Bowl LXI on 14 February 2027 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. His own company, Roc Nation, executive produces the show.

Jay-Z will headline the Super Bowl LXI halftime show. The NFL, Apple Music and Roc Nation made it official on Monday night, ending months of rumours. The game is on Sunday 14 February 2027 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The joint announcement confirms that Roc Nation, Jay-Z's own company, is executive producer of the broadcast, with Hamish Hamilton directing.