San Diego, Jul 19 (AP/UNB) — Tom Cruise has made an unexpected flyby at San Diego Comic-Con to debut the first trailer for "Top Gun: Maverick."

The audience in the 8,000 seat room went wild for Cruise Thursday afternoon. He closed out what had been billed only as a panel for "Terminator: Dark Fate."

Cruise says all the flying in the trailer is real and that "Top Gun: Maverick" is a love letter to aviation. They worked with the Navy for the film, which is currently in production.

"Top Gun: Maverick" is expected to hit theaters next June. Val Kilmer, Jon Hamm and Miles Teller co-star.

Cruise said Comic-Con was the perfect place to premiere the trailer. He shot the original some 34 years ago in San Diego.

Dhaka, July 17 (UNB) - ZEE5, the digital entertainment destination launched by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), has recently premiered the movie --- 7.NO SHANATAN SANYAL, an intriguing murder mystery film.

Written and directed by Annapurna Basu, the film boasts a star cast which includes renowned filmmaker and actor Kaushik Ganguly in his digital debut- along with Saoli Chatterjee, Shilajit Majumdar, Saheb Bhattachayra, Debdut Ghosh, Bibhash Chakraborty, Adhikari Kaushik and Soham Mitra.

The movie is an intriguing murder mystery about a 45-year-old salesman, Shanatan Sanyal, whose lack of confidence leaves him underwhelmed and disappointed in both his personal and professional life. However, things take a bittersweet turn when Shanatan’s sales job requires him to meet his namesakes, where each meeting with another Shanatan Sanyal brings him something special to keep or worthy of throwing away.

However, things go south when, one-by-one, all his clients start disappearing. The events lead him into a twisted journey of trust, loss and revenge.

Actor Kaushik Ganguly said, “It is the power of silence that brings out the simplicities of self-negotiations inside Shanatan. Annapurna wanted his silence to speak for him and that's what my essence while playing it became. Hat’s off to ZEE5 as well.”

Director Annapurna Basu said, “Our film 7. NO SHANATAN SANYAL is sure to keep audiences engrossed scene by scene. It is crisp and fast paced. In today’s day and age where digital entertainment is evolving rapidly we are thrilled that ZEE5 is investing in good content for the platform. We are sure with the widespread reach of the platform our film will reach out to a massive audience base.”

Commenting on this new release, Archana Anand, Chief Business Officer, ZEE5 Global said, “Bringing in true depth to our content is what we have focused on for every story that premieres on our platform. 7. NO SHANATAN SANYAL adds yet another layer to our platforms content offering and is sure to thrill our audiences across the globe.”

With the success of recent originals like ‘Sharate Aaj’, ‘Kaali’ and ‘The Lovely Mrs. Mookherjee’- ZEE5 is hoping this film will bring further success in both West Bengal and Bangladesh since it has recently started its operations here. 

The platform launched across 190+ countries in October 2018 with content across 12 languages -- Hindi, English, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Gujarati & Punjabi, and now houses content across five international languages (Malay, Thai, Bahasa, German and Russian) with having contents like Originals, Movies and TV Shows, Music, Cineplays, Live TV and Health and Lifestyle content- along with ground breaking features like content download option, seamless video playback and Voice Search- all in one single destination.

Robi and Airtel subscribers can access ZEE5 in Bangladesh from five different devices at a time through 4.5G networks or through Wi-Fi, on mobile phones, tablets, laptops, desktops and smart TVs. 

Such customers can also access streaming without any ads as part of their ZEE5 subscriptions.

 The ZEE5 app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or iOS App Store. The app is also available on Samsung Smart TVs, Apple TVs, Android TVs and Amazon Fire TV. ZEE5 is also available on www.ZEE5.com.

Los Angeles, Jul 17 (AP/UNB) — Ken Ehrlich is returning as executive producer of the 62nd annual Grammy Awards for the last time, capping his 40th anniversary with what's called "music's biggest night."

The Recording Academy announced Wednesday that Ben Winston will become the executive producer for the 63rd telecast in 2021.

The academy says Ehrlich is known for his unexpected pairings of artists during the program such as Eminem and Elton John, Prince and Beyonce, and Bruce Springsteen with Joe Walsh.

The 76-year-old wished the best to his successor. Winston is a six-time Emmy Award-winner and is co-producer of "The Late Late Show with James Corden" on CBS. He was also a creator of the show's "Carpool Karaoke" segments.

The 62nd Annual Grammy Awards will take place on Jan. 26 on CBS.

Los Angeles, Jul 17 (AP/UNB) — HBO's "Game of Thrones" slashed its way to a record-setting 32 Emmy nominations Tuesday for its eighth and final season, leading HBO back to dominance over Netflix, the streaming service that bumped it last year from atop the increasingly crowded television heap.

The bloodthirsty saga's total eclipsed the all-time series record of 27 nods earned by "NYPD Blue" in 1994.

If "Game of Thrones" successfully defends it best drama series title and claims a fourth trophy, it will join the quartet of most-honored dramas that includes "Hill Street Blues," ''L.A. Law," ''The West Wing" and "Mad Men."

The Emmy voters' acclaim stands in sharp contrast to fan reaction to the show's last hurrah, which included howls of laughter for a to-go coffee cup inadvertently included in one scene and a finale that detractors called unsatisfying. But the show's ratings never faltered for the series based on George R.R. Martin's novels, setting new highs for HBO.

A wealth of recognition for the cast and guest stars , including the show's only previous winner, Peter Dinklage with three awards, helped "Game of Thrones" add to its already record haul of nominations, now at 161 total.

Series star Emilia Clarke's decision to seek a best actress nomination after a series of supporting actress bids paid off. She's competing in a category that's notable for its diversity, including past winner Viola Davis for "How to Get Away with Murder" and repeat nominee Sandra Oh for "Killing Eve," who has another chance to become the first actress of Asian descent to win the trophy. She lost last year to Claire Foy for Netflix's "The Crown."

Two actors of color, Billy Porter for "Pose" and previous winner Sterling K. Brown for "This Is Us," earned drama series nods.

The rest of the drama series field includes "Better Call Saul," ''Bodyguard," ''Killing Eve," ''Ozark," ''Pose," ''Succession" and, as the only network entry, "This is Us."  Mandy Moore, who plays the NBC drama's matriarch, earned her first best actress nod, with fellow cast member Chris Sullivan earning his first nod, for supporting actor.

Last year's best comedy series, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," led the comedy pack with 20 bids, including for its star and defending champion Rachel Brosnahan.

"I'm at the dog park this morning with my fur children and started getting a lot of texts and phone calls all at once. I'm so excited to learn that the 'Maisel' family has been invited back to the party. This category is ridiculous. I can't believe I get to be a part of anything with these amazing women," Brosnahan told The Associated Press .

She'll vie with Emmy record-holder Julia Louis-Dreyfus of "Veep," who didn't compete in last year's awards because her breast cancer treatment delayed production of the political satire. Louis-Dreyfus, who with Cloris Leachman shares the record for most Emmys won by a performer, eight, has a shot at solo glory if she wins again.

The final season of "Veep" received nine nominations, including a best supporting actress bid for Anna Chlumsky.

"I'm feeling really jazzed. It might be the coffee I just had. But this feels so much sweeter because it's the last time around for this show," she said.

There was no warm and fuzzy goodbye for "The Big Bang Theory," the long-running sitcom that failed to capture a best comedy nod or any for its actors. The show has company in other hit sitcoms of the past: Neither "Friends" nor "Frasier" were nominated for best series for their final year, both in 2004.

TV academy members' out-with-the-old approach created openings for a number of buzzy comedy newcomers and their stars and creators, including Phoebe Waller-Bridge's "Fleabag" and Natasha Lyonne's "Russian Doll." Other best comedy contenders include "Barry," which won acting trophies last year for Bill Hader and Henry Winkler, and sole network entry "The Good Place."

A surprising entry : the quirky "Schitt's Creek," which received its first best comedy series nomination for its penultimate season and bids for stars Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara.

Other top nominees include the nuclear disaster miniseries "Chernobyl" with 19 nominations and "Saturday Night Live," which drew on Robert De Niro's talents to play Robert Mueller last season, with 18. "When They See Us," the miniseries that dramatized the Central Park Five case and its aftermath, received 16 bids.

"Thank you to the real men for inviting me to tell their story," tweeted Ava DuVernay, executive producer of "When They See Us."

The leading miniseries nominee is "Fosse/Verdon," the biopic about dancer Gwen Verdon and choreographer Bob Fosse that earned 17 bids, including the first Emmy nominations for stars Michelle Williams and Sam Rockwell.

There was a significant drop in diversity among this year's group of nominees compared to 2018, when more than a third of the 101 nominees in acting categories were ethnic minorities. This year, the figure was less than a quarter, with diversity especially absent in comedy.

Just two of the 26 acting nominees were people of color — Anthony Anderson for "black-ish" and Don Cheadle for "Black Monday" — and three of the four categories had only white nominees.

Categories dominated by the overwhelmingly white "Game of Thrones" were also short on inclusion , including supporting actress in a drama — zero nominees — and supporting drama actor, with only Giancarlo Esposito of "Better Call Saul" receiving a nomination.

In the overall tally contest among outlets, HBO received a whopping 137 nominations Tuesday, riding the dragon wings of "Game of Thrones" and the big tallies for "Chernobyl" and "Barry." Netflix, which last year ended HBO's 17-year reign to win the most Emmy nominations, was bumped to second this year with 117. Amazon's Prime Video was second to Netflix among streamers with 47 nominations.

Broadcast networks, steadily eclipsed by the rise of cable and now streaming, were far behind, with NBC getting 58 nods to top CBS' 43, ABC's 26 and Fox's 18.

The 71st Emmy Awards will air Sept. 22 on Fox, with the host yet to be announced.

Beverly Hills, Jul 16 (AP/UNB) — The pressure was on for young actors Shahadi Wright Joseph and JD McCrary when they got word that they'd been cast as the voices of young Nala and young Simba in "The Lion King." Not only was it an ambitious remake of an iconic film, but it was their first major Hollywood project.

Then they found out that their characters adult voices would be done by Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and Donald Glover, and it took "just waiting to be king" to a whole new level.

But director Jon Favreau was confident that they could fill the "big shoes" of their adult voices for the film, which opens nationwide Thursday evening. Fourteen-year-old Shahadi, for one, had a pretty big advantage: At age 8, she played young Nala in the Broadway production. In fact, casting director Sarah Finn submitted only her name to be considered. Favreau was on board.

"She understood the role, she understood the music and she's got an incredibly powerful Broadway voice," Favreau said. "She's just this very unique talent."

JD, 11, was less of an obvious choice. He didn't have much of a resume in film work. Finn, who had helped find Neel Sethi for "The Jungle Book" years ago, had to cast a wide net to find her young Simba, from seasoned veterans to open call unknowns. Favreau said JD broke through as the front-runner when he saw YouTube videos of him singing.

"He definitely had the right voice and a lot of personality as well," Favreau said. "He was somebody who was really interpreting songs and putting a lot of personality into it."

Then, as the filmmakers were getting ready to make the then-8-year-old JD an offer, they learned that he'd just collaborated with Glover on the Childish Gambino song "Terrified."

"Donald definitely vouched for JD and said he was great," Favreau said. "I felt there was something pre-ordained about (it)."

JD said getting that call was, "One of the biggest moments of my life."

The two young actors had the benefit of being able to record together in the studio, which doesn't often happen for animated films. It allowed them to riff and play off of one another's personalities.

"I feel like if I didn't work with JD we wouldn't have that chemistry on the screen," Shahadi said. "It would have been mindless actors just saying the lines and not actually feeling them."

She found it particularly liberating to be able to mess up and improvise in the studio. It was a stark contrast to performing for a live audience on Broadway, where she said you "cannot make a mistake."

Favreau also made sure that the young actors had a sense of the world they were inhabiting through a Virtual Reality demo that allowed them to see Pride Rock and the rest of the settings.

"The VR was really cool," McCrary said. "It was like your first sneak peek, but you were in it, you could feel it."

It's been three years since Shahadi and JD were cast, which for kids at that age can feel like a lifetime of waiting. But they've been busy. Both worked in other films released this year. Shahadi played the daughter of Lupita Nyong'o in Jordan Peele's "Us," and JD appeared in "Little" alongside Marsai Martin.

On the day after the world premiere in Los Angeles, both were riding high from finally seeing the movie on screen with a receptive audience, many of whom could be heard crying at key parts.

"I made a lot of people cry," JD said proudly.

And then of course there is the fun of being in proximity to so many stars.

"It was awesome! So cool!" JD said, nearly jumping out of his seat with excitement. "I was backstage with Chance the Rapper, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Blue Ivy, Donald Glover, everybody!"

Shahadi said she was still recovering from meeting Beyoncé for the first time.

As for what's next, both are looking forward to more acting roles, and they even have a suggestion for the next one.

"I want to re-do 'The Wiz,'" JD said. He'd play the Scarecrow and Shahadi would be Dorothy.

"That would be dope," he said.