'The Last of Us' set to film in Vancouver, B.C.

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says he would be excited to see a "blown up," post-apocalyptic version of city hall after announcing that the hit HBO TV series "The Last of Us" will film Season 2 in "Hollywood North," moving from Alberta.

The filming will provide Vancouver with more "swagger," said Sim, adding the series has been one of the most popular and critically acclaimed shows this year.

It will also provide hundreds of jobs, career opportunities and significant contributions to the city's economy, he told a news conference on Friday.

Sim said he and Vancouver film commissioner Geoff Teoli were in Los Angeles early in March to meet with senior film and television executives and share the message that Vancouver is "open for business," while asking what steps they could take to make it easier for productions to film in the city.

New this week: Brooke Shields, ‘Grease’ prequel and NF album

Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music and video game platforms this week.

MOVIES

— “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields,” a two-part documentary debuting Monday on Hulu, reconsiders how Shields was sexualized throughout pop culture as a child model and as the 12-year-old star of Louis Malle’s controversial 1978 film “Pretty Baby.” Shields, now 57, intimately discusses how the early labeling of her a sex symbol affected her personally and shaped her career. Director Lana Wilson's film, which debuted in January at the Sundance Film Festival, revisits plenty of infamous episodes from Shields' life — her friendship with Michael Jackson, her relationship with Andre Agassi, her odd run-in with Tom Cruise — as well as new revelations, including that she was sexually assaulted by someone she knew professionally.

— A new series on the Criterion Channel revisits sex and film from a much different perspective. Beginning in April, the streaming service has gathered together some of the defining erotic thrillers of the ‘80s and ’90s, including Brian De Palma's “Dressed to Kill” (1980), with Angie Dickinson and Michael Caine; Lawrence Kasdan's “Body Heat" (1981), with William Hurt and Kathleen Turner; and the Wachowskis' “Bound” (1996), with Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon. ("Basic Instinct" arrives in June.) The absence of carnality in today's more sexless cinema world has been a subject of ongoing debate. But if you want to step back into a steamier time, the Criterion Channel has you (but not its stars) covered.

Florida teen debuts trans visibility film as bans spread

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A Florida teenager has documented how it feels to be young and transgender for a film set to debut at a festival as transgender people around the world celebrate visibility and lawmakers across the country look to restrict their rights and care.

Carys Mullins, 19, who is gender non-conforming and uses she and they pronouns, said their experience inspired conversations with community members for a documentary, “You’re Loved.” The film directed and produced by Mullins is set to premiere Friday at the Tampa Bay Transgender Film Festival on International Transgender Day of Visibility.

“That’s a big part of what the festival is,” Mullins said. “A big part of the Tampa Bay Transgender Film Festival is: Look at us.”

“You’re Loved” debuts at a time where access to gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary young people is under assault across the United States. Florida, Missouri and Texas have regulations banning puberty-blocking hormones and gender-affirming surgeries for minors. At least 11 other states ban gender-affirming care for minors by law: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota and West Virginia.

Shamier Anderson savors career rise, role in new ‘John Wick’

New York (AP) — Shamier Anderson is well aware that his Hollywood profile is rising, and he isn’t taking the moment for granted.

“I’ve been on the grind for a very long time, and I’m still grinding. And it’s not lost on me that I’m pretty ubiquitous in the marketplace right now. However, my work ethic hasn’t changed,” says the 31-year-old Canadian actor. “I’m lucky, and that’s something that’s not lost on me … I also recognize that this moment will pass, right? And that’s something that humbles me.”

Most wouldn’t blame Anderson for indulging in the moment, as his latest film, the Keanu Reeves-led “John Wick: Chapter 4,” debuted last week at No. 1 with a franchise-best $73.5 million domestically at the box office. Anderson plays the Tracker, a bounty hunter, who’s stalked Wick around the world in hopes of collecting a huge payday.

“I get to share the screen with people that I used to look up to, that I still look up to, a la Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen, Laurence Fishburne,” said the Wing Chun kung fu student. “Those are the moments that make me go, ‘Wow, things are changing.’”

Massoud carves out own path with 'Evolving Vegan'

TORONTO - Leading up to the opening of Disney's live-action "Aladdin" remake in 2019, Mena Massoud was at a pivotal moment in his career he felt would catapult him forward — he was the lead in the much-anticipated reboot alongside Will Smith and Naomi Scott.

Disney magic wouldn’t help Massoud in the long run however. Despite the film going on to gross over $1 billion worldwide, he would later publicly express his struggle with landing auditions.

More than three years later, the now 31-year-old Egyptian-Canadian actor said he's come to grips with the situation post-"Aladdin" and the difficult realities of Hollywood.

He's starting to carve out his own space and work on passion projects including his new gig as host and executive producer of CTV’s vegan travelogue show, “Evolving Vegan," based on his 2020 book of the same name.

'Scott Pilgrim' returning as Netflix anime

Toronto's favourite problematic dork will live to fight another seven evil exes.

Netflix is bringing Scott Pilgrim back to life, this time as an anime, with characters voiced by the same cast as the 2010 movie.

The film "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World," which became a cult hit, was based on the series of graphic novels by Canadian writer-illustrator Bryan Lee O'Malley.

It follows Scott, a hapless Toronto musician, as he tries to win the love of an Amazon courier by battling her seven former partners.

Study: Biggest Hollywood films still go mostly to white men

NEW YORK (AP) — As Hollywood emerged from the pandemic, its biggest film productions dipped in diversity after years of incremental progress, according to a new study by UCLA researchers. Opportunities were notably greater for women and people of color on streaming platforms than in theatrically released films.

The annual UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report, published Thursday, presented one of the most detailed looks yet at how the film industry was shaped and, in many ways, set back during the pandemic. In analyzing 2022 movie releases, academics found that ethnic and gender inclusivity in theatrical films reverted back to 2019 or 2018 levels in many metrics, turning charts downward that had been slowly trending toward greater equity on screen and behind the camera.

As the film industry sought to claw back moviegoers in 2022, it did so by leaning more on films starring and directed by white men, despite considerable evidence that more diverse films attract larger audiences. Black, Latino and Asian American moviegoers make up nearly half of all frequent moviegoers, and for the biggest hits, often account for the majority of ticket buyers.

The film industry was still recovering in 2022, releasing fewer wide releases and seeing the box office return to about 67% of pre-pandemic levels. Though the 2022 movie year ended in triumph for Asian American representation at the Academy Awards with the best picture-winning “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” researchers see a potential turning point where opportunity for women and people of color is usually reserved for lower-budgeted streaming movies.

April streaming picks: 'Dead Ringers,' 'Beef'

TORONTO - Here's a roundup of standout TV series and films debuting on subscription streaming platforms in April:

"Dead Ringers"

Rachel Weisz acts double duty as identical twins Elliot and Beverly Mantle, both successful New York gynecologists who share numerous similarities but many stark differences in how they approach their jobs. Together, the pair embark on an ambitious project to improve women's health care and reduce miscarriages, but their innovations come with a clear breach of medical ethics. That doesn't concern one wealthy woman whose ties to the opioid crisis have made her much richer and willing to pursue an agenda that could alter pregnancies for the elite. Based on David Cronenberg's 1988 horror film of the same name, the six-episode limited series changes the gender of the lead characters, which sends the storyline on a different trajectory and gives Weisz a pair of twisted and darkly funny characters to dissect. (Prime Video, April 21)

"Beef"

Until Branches Bend: Slow, pungent drama unfolds during peach harvest

This indie Canadian film, which screened at last year’s TIFF, opens with a long sequence that follows peaches from an Okanagan orchard through an assembly line in a corporate food plant to the packages that will make it to our supermarkets.

What’s up

Reuben and the Dark brings that Folk Fest feeling to the Park Theatre

Special prosecutors appointed in Baldwin set shooting case

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Santa Fe's district attorney has appointed two veteran New Mexico lawyers to serve as the new special prosecutors in the manslaughter case against Alec Baldwin and a weapons supervisor in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer during a 2021 movie rehearsal.

The appointment of Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis to the positions will allow District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies to focus on New Mexico's “broader public safety needs,” her spokesperson Heather Brewer said in a statement Wednesday.

The original special prosecutor, Andrea Reeb, resigned earlier in the wake of missteps in the filing of initial charges against Baldwin and objections that Reeb’s role as a state legislator created conflicting responsibilities.

Carmack-Altwies subsequently had been preparing to appoint a new special prosecutor and also guide the complex case as co-counsel.

Review: Charming ‘Rye Lane’ is a rom-com to celebrate

Yas and Dom meet-cute in the best possible way in the new rom-com “Rye Lane.”

They're paired up at a karaoke bar by chance and simply slay, leaving the crowd demanding more and chanting their names. The new couple recognize "an immediate, deep animal attraction.”

No, not really.

That's just the made-up story Yas tells Dom's cheating ex-girlfriend to make her jealous and signal he's moved on. It works: Even the ex's new lover calls it “hands-down the greatest hook-up story of all time.”

Review: A vibrant portrait of NYC, family in Sundance winner

There is a dread that hovers over “ A Thousand and One,” writer-director A.V. Rockwell’s remarkably vivid and tender debut feature about a mother and son in New York in the 1990s.

The film does not play out like a mystery or a thriller — it’s about the mundanities and trials of life with a kid in a city that has always been the most hostile to its most loyal. But it does begin with a crime and from that point on, you’re on edge waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“A Thousand and One” drops you into New York in 1994 as a young 20-something Inez (the positively electric Teyana Taylor ) returns to Harlem after 18 months behind bars in Rikers. From the first low angle shot of her walking through the neighborhood, in a striking red crop top tank, hair parted slickly to the side to Gary Gunn's catchy and defiantly anti-sentimental score, you have an acute sense of this character (and possibly the director, too). This is not a timid wallflower. She is confident, determined and not to be trifled with.

Though we’ve just met this woman, it does not then come as a total surprise when she decides several scenes later to take her 6-year-old son, Terry, away from foster care without permission. This is, she knows, kidnapping, but in her mind it’s the only way to get him back in her care. He’s recently been hospitalized after trying to jump out a window to escape and his situation seems dire enough for immediate intervention.

Hot Docs to spotlight Lac Mégantic, Inuit rights

TORONTO - This year’s Hot Docs festival will open with an intimate look at Inukactivist and lawyer Aaju Peter and her work to defend the human rights of Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic.

The Denmark-Canada-Greenland co-production “Twice Colonized” is helmed by Danish director Lin Alluna and produced by Iqaluit filmmaker Alethea Arnaquq-Baril and Denmark's Emile Hertling Péronard.

Arnaquq-Baril said she's known Peter since she was a little girl, noting Peter was born in Greenland and moved to Canada as a young adult.

“In Canada, we’ve been having the beginnings of a reckoning with the colonization of Indigenous Peoples. I just found it really interesting that a young Danish woman wanted to confront her own country with the questions that we’re talking about here," said Arnaquq-Baril, who has been making documentaries for about 20 years.

Gwyneth Paltrow accuser calls Utah ski crash ‘serious smack’

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — The man suing Gwyneth Paltrow over a 2016 skiing collision at an upscale Utah resort told a jury Monday that the actor-turned-lifestyle influencer crashed into him from behind and sent him “absolutely flying.”

“All I saw was a whole lot of snow. And I didn’t see the sky, but I was flying,” said Terry Sanderson, a 76-year-old retired optometrist, calling the impact “a serious smack.”

That’s the opposite of what Paltrow testified, and the jury has heard dueling narratives as the trial enters its second week. Paltrow said Sanderson was uphill and hit her from behind. He's suing her for more than $300,000, claiming she skied recklessly and that he has permanent brain damage from the crash that altered his personality.

On the stand Friday, Paltrow said Sanderson knocked into her gently from behind but that the collision escalated as the two skidded down the beginner slope. She said his skis veered between her legs, causing her to briefly panic as she heard a man groaning behind her. Paltrow was present in court Monday.

Brilliant ballet of bullets, nunchuks, car chases and beyond

As John Wick: Chapter 4 hits screens this weekend, the latest instalment in this super-popular action franchise faces massive fan expectations.

Q&A: Chuck D talks rap’s rise through ‘Fight the Power’ doc

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hip-hop became a cultural phenomenon against the backdrop of American history, and now Public Enemy’s Chuck D has committed himself to explore the artform's origins.

Chuck D rounded up several rap greats — including Ice-T, Run DMC and MC Lyte — who offered their firsthand accounts ahead of this year's 50th anniversary of hip-hop. Their reflections are explored in the four-part docuseries “Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World,” that aired on PBS and is available to stream on its platforms and YouTube with a premium subscription.

The series delves into the history of hip-hop including the genre’s radical rise from the New York City streets, creating a platform for political expression and being a leading voice for social justice

“Fight the Power” touches on how the hip-hop has played an impactful role in speaking up against injustice in the aftermath of America’s racial and political reckoning in 2020 after George Floyd's killing by Minneapolis police. The series, executive produced by Chuck D, features archival footage and insightful interviews from of rap’s most integral figures including Fat Joe, Lupe Fiasco, Grandmaster Caz, B-Real of Cypress Hill, Melle Mel, will.i.am, John Forte, Roxanne Shanté and Abiodun Oyewole of The Last Poets.

Director remakes video chain in 'I Like Movies'

TORONTO - Some part of filmmaker Chandler Levack is still wandering the aisles of her local Blockbuster Video.

More than a decade has passed since the company shut down in Canada, but the “I Like Movies” director vividly remembers working as a teenage clerk at the rental chain as if it was yesterday.

Whether it was talking to customers about movies or pushing the cart of DVD returns on the carpeted floor – those specific details rush back as she reflects on her debut feature, a coming-of-age comedy set inside the world of a video store in the early 2000s.

“I wanted to have all that again,” the 36-year-old from Burlington, Ont., confessed in an interview.

Workplace-safety sanction finalized in Alec Baldwin shooting

No one is objecting to a settlement agreement to resolve allegations of workplace safety violations in the 2021 shooting death of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of a Western movie.

After a 20-day vetting period with no objections, the agreement between New Mexico workplace safety regulators and Rust Movie Productions has been finalized along with a $100,000 fine against the company that originally bankrolled the movie “Rust."

Matthew Maez, a spokesman for the state Environment Department and its workplace safety bureau, confirmed Tuesday the conclusion of the workplace safety probe of Rust Movie Productions under a final order. The $100,000 payment is due by April 15, he said.

Separately, Baldwin and weapons supervisor Hannah Gutierrez-Reed are confronting felony involuntary manslaughter charges in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who died shortly after being wounded during rehearsals at a ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe in October 2021.

Review: Despair in Jersey in Zach Braff’s ‘A Good Person’

All filmmakers should be so lucky to have Florence Pugh in their movies. She so consistently delivers the best version of whatever she’s handed — whether good, mediocre or downright preposterous — that you may even start to wonder if the quality of the film around her really matters in the end. It does, of course, but her performances make whatever she’s in difficult to dismiss wholly.

In Zach Braff’s “ A Good Person,” Pugh is a New Jersey 20-something named Allison whose life is upended in a flash. On her way to try on wedding dresses in the city, she's involved in an accident that leaves her future sister- and brother-in-law dead and her addicted to opioid painkillers.

Braff wrote the part specifically for her. The two dated for three years, a relationship that was scrutinized by many onlookers for their 21-year age difference, which she often defended. Last year, they quietly broke up.

In the past several years, Braff has suffered significant losses — his sister, his father, one of his best friends. He is an actor and filmmaker who has directed only four features, including his debut “Garden State,” which — however it may have aged 19 years later — was promising and captured a moment for a specific white hipster set.

Review: John Wick gets even more stylish in fourth episode

A trip to Paris should be on everyone’s bucket list, even John Wick. The Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre — what better way to refresh your soul, even as you kick everyone else’s bucket?

The un-retired assassin does indeed dive into the City of Lights in the inventive and thrilling “John Wick: Chapter 4” a sequel which elevates and expands the franchise. The fourth installment is more stylish, more elegant and more bonkers — kind of like Paris itself.

When we last saw Wick, he was half dead in the gutter after being shot and tumbling several stories off the Hotel Continental in New York. He was on the blacklist with a $14 million price on his head. (Inflation has even hit this franchise: The bounty swells to $40 million by the end of part four.)

Wick, as always played with monosyllabic and brooding intensity by Keanu Reeves, leaves his customary trail of death, but there’s a shift here. So often the prey in the previous movies, Wick is on the offense in the fourth, taking his demands directly to The High Table, the group of shadowy crime lords that keep order.

Tom Hanks named Harvard’s 2023 commencement speaker

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Two-time Academy Award winning actor Tom Hanks was named the principal speaker at Harvard's commencement on May 25, the Ivy League university announced Tuesday.

Hanks, 66, has appeared in almost 100 films. Nominated for an Oscar six times, he won best actor for “Philadelphia” in 1993 and “Forrest Gump” the following year.

Harvard President Lawrence Bacow called Hanks “a true master of his craft.”

“In addition to his brilliance as an actor, Tom has demonstrated both an innate empathy and a deep understanding of the human condition,” Bacow said in a statement. “He has contributed to our national culture and expanded our ability to appreciate stories and histories that have been previously unexamined.”