The Folio · No. 33Wednesday 7 October 2026Jess Entwistle
Film
She won the Oscar for On the Waterfront in 1955 and ran from the crop duster in Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, then played Superman’s adoptive mother late in a career spanning eight decades. She died at home in Los Angeles.
Film
David Ellison’s Skydance now owns both studios after months of legal fights, making one company of Paramount, Warner Bros, HBO and Discovery. Ellison says HBO Max and Paramount+ will bundle first and merge into a single service later.
Film
Peter Bradshaw finds Guadagnino’s New York Film Festival premiere, with Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman, a campy comedy that never settles. Early reviews elsewhere have been warmer, and Garfield is already being talked about for awards.
Film
One day after the merger closed, the new studio’s first picture looks likely to be another Transformers. Michael Bay is in early talks to direct again. Shia LaBeouf is not returning.
Film
Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 fantasy has been restored with a new 3D conversion and an Atmos mix, and the team behind it walked IndieWire through what has changed. Twenty years on, it is back on the big screen.
Film
Chastain plays a faded country star pulled back to Nashville in this Netflix original. She does her own singing, which puts it alongside the Tammy Wynette and Patsy Cline turns she has circled for years.
TV
Louise Rennison’s Georgia Nicolson books are being adapted as a series, with the pilot filming this autumn after an open casting call over the summer. Netflix is now officially attached.
TV
Florence Pugh’s Steinbeck adaptation has opened strongly for a period drama, and the novel is selling again off the back of it. Proof the Netflix effect still reaches the bookshops.
TV
The Choir reunites the Gavin and Stacey writers for Apple TV, and the guest list now runs to Ted Lasso and Harry Potter names. Jones and Corden write and star.
TV
Mike Flanagan’s series take on Stephen King’s first novel lands on Prime Video this week, and Radio Times has the UK release time. Flanagan has eight episodes rather than a film’s worth of story.
TV
After years of rotating between US networks, the Emmys have a permanent home on Prime Video, streamed worldwide. Which means the red carpet moves there too.
Music
May told The Times he still loves playing but not the loss of freedom that touring costs: he has a wife, grandchildren and astrophysics he wants to get back to. Fifty years of Queen shows ends there.
Music
The first night of her Australia and New Zealand tour at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne is fun and sincere in equal measure, says the Guardian, and a reminder of what pop can do with a love song.
Music
JADE has written a track with Hans Zimmer for the new Blue Planet series, released as a surprise. She told Rolling Stone UK it is the proudest thing in her catalogue so far.
Music
Five Oscar nominations, scores for Gandhi and Groundhog Day, 18 films with Ken Loach, the BBC News themes and the music for Blue Planet. Much of what British television sounds like was his.
Music
The 2000 album gets a special vinyl pressing for this year’s National Album Day. Ask any artist, Williams said, albums still matter.
Theatre
Close takes on Herod in the West End revival, alongside Sam Ryder, Tyrone Huntley, Bob Harms and Matty J. A film star of that size in a Lloyd Webber musical at Drury Lane is a proper event.
Theatre
The Marvel star led Max Webster’s production at the Donmar Warehouse in 2023 and is now reported to be taking it to New York. Mackie began on the stage before the films.
Theatre
The first images from the Forest of Arden in Stratford-upon-Avon, with the Hamilton and Merrily We Roll Along star at the centre of it.
Theatre
The Stranger Things actor’s turn in Jonathan Larson’s musical runs on in London, and production photographs have been released with the news.
Theatre
The Lincoln Center gala celebrates Erivo with a programme of Frederick Ashton and Alexei Ratmansky works alongside new pieces. A rare evening of ballet built around a musical theatre voice.
Books
Five finalists in each of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature and young people’s literature. The winners are announced on 18 November, and the fiction list is usually where next year’s adaptations come from.
Books
A first novel for the club’s 125th pick, which tends to put a debut straight onto the bestseller lists and into producers’ hands.
Books
A quieter novel about music and middle-aged compromise from the Demon Copperhead author. The Guardian finds rich rewards in it, though the sex writing nearly tips it over.
Books
Lordi’s biography recasts Houston’s later, harder years as a triumph of self-expression rather than a decline. The most empathetic book yet on a voice Jess plays constantly.
Books
Jeffrey Archer, who died on Monday aged 86, sold hundreds of millions of thrillers and lost a political career to a perjury conviction. The Queen called him irrepressible.
