Lucy Lawless: Last News

Renee O'Connor, who starred as Gabrielle in the popular fantasy series Xena: Warrior Princess, has made a rare appearance on social media, 23 years after the show ended.The 52 year old actress is now working as the founder and artistic director of House of Bards Theatre Company; located in the Arts District of San Pedro, California. She surprised fans by popping up on Instagram where she interviewed fellow actress Rachel Levy about her experience in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Writing in the caption, Renee said: "Thank you, Rachel Levy, for coming to share your experience creating the role of Puck, for the House of Bards Theatre Company’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

K.J. Yossman Kaleidoscope Film Distribution has unveiled its Cannes slate, including George Michael documentary “Portrait of an Artist.” The company is also repping global sales rights for Lucy Lawless’ directorial debut “Never Look Away,” a documentary about photojournalist Margaret Moth, and “Forked,” a documentary about celebrity chef Susan Feniger. “George Michael: Portrait of an Artist” features copious archive footage as well as interviews with Michael’s close friends and colleagues including Stephen Fry and Stevie Wonder.

Joe Leydon Film Critic The thin line between cheating death and chasing it appears to have been smudged, repeatedly, by maverick video journalist Margaret Moth, the subject of first-time filmmaker Lucy Lawless’ fascinating documentary “Never Look Away.” At least, that’s the impression we’re left with at the end of this compact yet complex portrait of a singularly and aggressively unconventional war correspondent who inspired equal measures of admiration and anxiety among her friends, colleagues and lovers throughout her 20 years of assignments in the world’s trouble spots — Baghdad, Sarajevo, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Zaire, you name it, she was there — for CNN. Something of an enigma even to those closest to her — “I never fully understood what was ticking inside of her” is a comment typical of responses by interviewees questioned by an off-camera Lawless — Moth was fond of proudly proclaiming, “I live life to the fullest.” But it was a life she repeatedly risked by going places, doing things and recording wartime horrors with such little regard for her own safety that a CNN teammate warned her: “There’s only so much Russian Roulette you can play.” It was also a life that she more or less reinvented herself to portray.

The Sundance Institute has released the lineup for the 11th edition of Sundance Film Festival: London. 

EXCLUSIVE: Acorn TV, the streaming service aimed at Anglophiles, is getting a new look.

EXCLUSIVE: Sundance documentary Never Look Away, the directorial debut of actress Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess), has been sold by XYZ to Greenwich Entertainment for all rights in North America, and to Kaleidoscope for all rights in UK.

Gregg Goldstein When you’ve spent the most memorable years of your career battling gods and single-handedly defeating an army, what’s left for a warrior to do? For “Xena: Warrior Princess” star Lucy Lawless, the answer was making her directorial debut with a doc about a fellow New Zealand icon, daredevil CNN war camerawoman Margaret Moth. Her spellbinding feature, “Never Look Away,” which premieres Jan. 18 at Sundance, was selected for the fest’s World Cinema Documentary Competition.

EXCLUSIVE: Acorn TV is going Under the Vines for a third time.

Spartacus creator Steven S. DeKnight is expanding the franchise once again with a new series currently in development at Starz. DeKnight will serve as showrunner and executive producer of the as-yet-untitled project.

Lorde says she was forced to delete an Instagram post as it broke New Zealand election rules. The 25-year-old – born Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor – renowned as the country’s biggest pop singer, withdrew a message to her 9. 5 million Instagram followers, which she had used to back Labour councillor candidate Efeso Collins in the Auckland mayoral race.

Joe Dante is slamming Disney for what he sees as a case of plagiarism.

J. Kim Murphy It’s official —the Minions are back.Universal’s “Minions: The Rise of Gru” is setting off fireworks at the Fourth of July box office, projecting a $129.2 million opening over the four-day holiday weekend.

Lightyear,” a film that sometimes falls into that old Pixar trap of being too smart for its own good.The Minions, on the flip side, are not Mensa candidates. They’re stooges.The story exists, for the most part, to put them into a bunch of silly situations.Kevin and Bob go full-on “Catch Me if You Can,” dress up as pilots and fly a commercial jet to California … with plenty of turbulence.They meet Master Chow (Michelle Yeoh), a San Fran acupuncturist who moonlights as a kung fu expert and teaches them her martial art — in “Rocky” training montage style. Dumb, dumb Otto, meanwhile, takes to the open road on a motorcycle and visits the World’s Biggest Banana.He’s also a hopeless romantic, and briefly falls in love with a rock with googly eyes glued on it.“Rise of Gru” is better than the previous Gru-less flick because the Minions make the most sense when serving a lame-o villain.

Universal/Illumination’s Minions: The Rise Of Gru has been set to open the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in a world premiere on June 13. The fest is returning to a fully in-person event after last year’s hybrid edition. Annecy and the Minions franchise have a long history, going back to 2010’s Despicable Me.

The minions are back in a “Despicable Me” origin story, with a teaser for “Minions: The Rise Of Gru” just released.

Xena and Gabrielle are together again in New Zealand — albeit in a modern-day setting. Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor, who played Xena and her loyal sidekick Gabrielle in the iconic series “Xena: Warrior Princess,” have reunited for the Season 2 finale of “My Life Is Murder,” Lawless’ whimsical series on Acorn TV.It’s the first time they’ve appeared together on-camera since “Xena” ended in 2001.

Can adult fantasy animation still find its audience? The team behind “The Spine of Night” hopes the answer is a resounding yes. If anything, ‘Night’ feels most at home echoing back to the revered cult classic “Heavy Metal.” The glowing orb that gives “Heavy Metal” its gateways for anthology stories replaced this time by an all too natural element.

Can adult fantasy animation still find its audience? The team behind “The Spine of Night” hopes the answer is a resounding yes. If anything, ‘Night’ feels most at home echoing back to the revered cult classic “Heavy Metal.” The glowing orb that gives “Heavy Metal” its gateways for anthology stories replaced this time by an all too natural element.

Lucy Lawless is getting candid.

Lucy Lawless is revealing that a fan campaign to have her replace a fired cast member of “The Mandalorian” may have backfired by costing her a role in a different “Star Wars” project.

fan-driven campaign to take over fired “The Mandalorian” cast member Gina Carano’s role.Lawless, 53, believes that the campaign is actually hurting her chances of being a part of the “Star Wars” family.Carano, 39, was booted from her role of Cara Dune in the Disney+ series after two seasons after she made a series of racist and controversial tweets that led to her ousting.The “Xena: Warrior Princess” star commented on the fan-led crusade in an interview with British newspaper Metro. “Well to be honest with you, I was already in discussions about something on — it wasn’t ‘The Mandalorian’ — something Star Wars-affiliated,” Lawless said.