Known best as the co-anchor of Weekend Update on “Saturday Night Live,” Colin Jost is part of the new cast of comics taking over the show.

Since Seth Meyers left in 2014, “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels promoted Jost to not only the Weekend Update chair, but also the show’s head writer.

Jost has also been thrust into Michaels' inner circle, as he’s producing Jost’s first feature-length script, “Staten Island Summer.”

The comedy, which opens in select theaters on Friday and then available on Netflix July 30 (currently available on iTunes), looks at the antics of lifeguards working at a swim club in Staten Island as they try to pull off an end of summer party. The cast includes “SNL” current and former talents Bobby Moynihan, Cecily Strong, Kate McKinnon, Fred Armisen, and Will Forte.

Though Michaels is constantly executive producing movies and TV shows, he hasn’t had a producer credit on a film since 2012’s “The Guilt Trip.” His past producing credits aren’t too shabby, including projects of such "SNL" greats as Mike Meyers (“Wayne’s World”), Chris Farely (“Tommy Boy,” “Black Sheep”) and Tina Fey (“Mean Girls”).

Jost says his film being made wouldn’t have been possible without Michaels taking interest. But the comic admits the pitch process for “Staten Island Summer” was a hectic ordeal.
 The idea behind the film came about a few years ago when a conversation between Jost and Michaels led to Jost bringing up his interest in doing a comedy around lifeguards at a swim club, which was his job during summers as a teen in Staten Island.

What Jost thought was a casual conversation suddenly become a real pitch.

“I told him that’s what I really wanted to write next,” Jost told Business Insider, “and I think when he was at Paramount next he kind of told them vaguely about the idea and they were interested.”

Jost said he had to come up with a pitch for the studio in a week.

“So what was a vague idea in my mind that I thought would be a fun topic became a tense week of coming up with the characters in the movie, the plot structure, it was a crazy scramble,” Jost said.

He locked himself in a hotel room in L.A. for the week leading up to the pitch at Paramount.

Though Jost said he’s no stranger to pitching projects to studios, this one was a little different. Before talking to the Paramount suits, he had to go through Michaels and his executives first. After honing the pitch with them, it was time to do it for real in front of Michaels and Paramount’s head of production.

“It was a very intimidating situation because it’s just the three of us in a quite private dining room,” Jost said. “You’re hearing clinking of table wear on china and then small talk and then a pause followed by, ‘Well, what’s this idea you have, Colin?’”

Jost said the pressure of doing the pitch was elevated because Lorne Michaels is sitting right there, too.

“You feel if it doesn’t work you’re also failing him,” said Jost.

Luckily for Jost, Paramount bought the idea for “Staten Island Summer” right then and there. Jost spent the rest of 2013 writing the script and director Rhys Thomas shot the film last summer in Staten Island.

Looking back on the pitch process, Jost credits the break-neck speed in which "Saturday Night Live" is done every week to pulling it off. He also believes using familiar things from his childhood helped flesh things out.

“When you’re pitching movies sometimes you know what the idea is but you fully don’t know the dimensions of it,” he said. “But this felt a little more concrete because I’d lived it.”

Check out the trailer for “Staten Island Summer” below:

SEE ALSO: Here's what it's like to watch "Saturday Night Live" in person

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Cara Delevingne is known for her modeling career as well as her silly social media antics, but is now starring in the summer movie "Paper Towns." At the premiere, Delevingne admitted that she's always wanted to be an actress. 

"Paper Towns" opens in the US on July 24th. 

Produced by Grace Raver. Video courtesy of Reuters. 

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To bring one of DC Comics’ most complex franchises “Suicide Squad” to the screen, Warner Brothers needed a director who was as intense as the diabolical characters that make up the group.

The choice was David Ayer, a writer-director known for his unsympathetic look at the harsh realities in the world like police patrolling South Central LA in “End of Watch” and a doomed World War II tank platoon in “Fury.”

Here’s how this talent went from humble beginnings to directing one of the most anticipated movies of 2016.

SEE ALSO: We just got a ton of hints about what exactly the "Suicide Squad" movie will be about

Ayer was born in Champaign, Illinois, in January 1968, but it would be his time living with his cousin as a teenager in South Central Los Angeles that would come to shape the intense material he would be known to write in Hollywood.

His first credited screenplay was 2000’s “U-571,” a war drama set inside a submarine starring Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, and Harvey Keitel. Ayer used his experience as a submariner for the Navy to bring an authentic feel to the story.

He followed that with a screenwriting credit on “The Fast and the Furious.” The film that would launch the franchise starring Vin Diesel and Paul Walker.

NOW WATCH: Here's the new 'Batman v Superman' trailer that just got a standing ovation at Comic-Con

Move aside superheroes.

"Jurassic World" has now surpassed "The Avengers" to become the third highest-grossing movie of all time.

We first saw this on The Wrap.

Since its release in June, Universal's "Jurassic World" has grossed an incredible $1.52 billion worldwide.

Over $612 million of that has been stateside.

2012's "The Avengers" grossed approximately $1,519,557,910 at theaters.

This year's sequel, "Avengers: Age of Ultron," has made $1.39 billion worldwide to date.

Here's a look at the top five highest-grossing movies of all time, according to Box Office Mojo:

Take a close look at that list and you'll see Universal is topping the list with another addition from this year — April's runaway hit "Furious 7." It actually could very well pass "Avengers" as well.

The studio recently crossed $5 billion worldwide at the box office for the year.

That's faster than any other studio has ever hit that mark. 

While "Jurassic World" sits pretty in that top 3 spot for now, we're sure the dinos won't stay at third place for long. 

Come December 18 when "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is released, we may have a new king of the box office, which could even topple director James Cameron's reign at the top.

Early estimates from Citi and Morgan Stanley are tracking the film to make around $2 billion — and we're still MONTHS away.

One lesson's clear from the performance of "Jurassic World": Audiences certainly love nostalgia when it's done right.

SEE ALSO: Here are the brands that appear the most in "Jurassic World"

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NOW WATCH: Here's the moment Harrison Ford surprised fans during the 'Star Wars' Comic-Con panel

SpringHill Entertainment, the production company owned by LeBron James and his longtime business partner Maverick Carter, has entered into a parternship with Warner Bros., the Wall Street Journal reports. 

It's an intriguing move that advances LeBron's plan to build an entertainment business. It also comes a week after "Trainwreck" — the Amy Schumer movie in which LeBron co-starred and drew positive reviews — made an impressive $30 million at the box office.

But for a lot of people born sometime between 1980 and 1990, this is a big deal for one reason: Space Jam 2.

In 2012 LeBron tweeted at a fan saying he wanted to make a sequel to the 1996 classic — which stars Michael Jordan and tells the story of a team of Warner Bros. characters who have to save themselves from enslavement by beating a team of monsters that have recently stolen the powers of NBA players.

That sounded like wishful thinking at the time, but in the years since, "Space Jam 2" has seemingly come closer and closer to reality. In 2014 Deadline reported that a LeBron-starring sequel was in the works, though LeBron denied it:

There's still an IMBD page for it though, for whatever that's worth. 

Since Warner Bros. owns "Space Jam," the SpringHill partnership has reignited the rumors. ESPN's best LeBron reporter Brian Windhorst says Hollywood execs want to do the movie:

In addition, Warner Bros. has filed for new Space Jam trademarks:

The original Space Jam made $90 million at the box office. It's still the highest grossing basketball movie ever.

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NOW WATCH: REVEALED: The science behind the super-powerful T-shirt cannon

Rapper 50 Cent — his real name is Curtis Jackson — filed for bankruptcy last week. He appeared in court on July 21st and testified that he was only pretending to be rich on social media. 

Produced by Jacqui Frank. Original reporting by Aly Weisman. 

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Poker could be about to make a comeback in the first trailer for "Mississippi Grind."

In "Mississippi Grind," a man who is down-on-his-luck financially (Ben Mendelsohn) teams up with a younger poker player (Ryan Reynolds) to learn the rules of the game. Call it a reverse "Karate Kid" situation in which it is the older guy who really needs to learn a thing or two.

"Mississippi Grind" will be out in theaters on September 25.

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"The Leftovers" was a cult favorite for HBO last year. It revolves around the aftermath of a world where 2% of the population spontaneously disappeared.

But HBO seems to be totally switching things up in season 2, as you can see inn this trailer. As Deadline reported, lots of changes are on the way for the cast and plotlines of this season, leaving fans to wonder what exactly they're going to get.

"The Leftovers" starts again this fall.

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After 13 years, "Fables", a landmark comic book series about fairy tale characters secretly living among us, has finally come to an end Wednesday. Available now, the series' graphic novel-length final issue, "Farewell", by Bill Willingham and Mark Buckingham (with contributions from a small army of some of the biggest names in comics) is a big moment for many comics fans.

"Fables" is fondly remembered, not just because it was a moving story that got adults to care about fairy tales, but because it had a reputation as a series that convinced many people to give comics a try — particularly women.

"I think the fact that we've been an entry-point to comics for so many female readers has been a particular delight for me," artist Mark Buckingham tells Business Insider. "I've had many comic book artists and comic book fans thank me at [conventions], because 'Fables' is the series that their wife or girlfriend or sister had picked up, and it's the one that really got them excited and got them reading comics — and now they are very excited about the medium as a whole and are checking out lots of other stuff, and that's a good feeling." 

Buckingham attributes this to the unique accessibility afforded them by the fact that they're using characters from folklore that everyone knows from childhood nursery rhymes and fairy tales. "Fables" is warm and familiar, but with a "twist that we then give to the material," says Buckingham, "that keeps you hooked and drags you in."

"These are characters that you fell out of touch with like beloved childhood friends," says writer Bill Willingham. "They show up one day and you're going to sit around the kitchen table and catch up on what's happened lately. The 'what's happened lately' — that's where the crux of the story is, that's the surprising thing — The 'oh the minister's daughter became a stripper, and the patriotic kid is now an underground rebel.' It's like, 'Oh I'm surprised that you changed that much. That's where the 'Fables' story is told." 

As a series published by DC's mature-readers imprint Vertigo (where it was the longest-running series), "Fables" was also frank in a manner that fairy tale characters are rarely portrayed. It was mature, but not salacious, there was violence, but it wasn't gratuitous. For much of "Fables", good taste seemed to be the rule of thumb — and this delicate balance was likely a big part of its success.

But early on, there was some indecision about just how 'adult' "Fables" would be. 

"When we talk about regrets or things that we would've done differently — without changing much of the story, I would've stuck to my guns that Vertigo should have published it as an all-ages series," says Willingham. "The reason Vertigo didn't want to do this, and I think it's a legitimate reason, was: If we had one all-ages series, those same kids will grab other Vertigo books and then be shocked and surprised by the maturity of their content."

Like Willingham asserts, this is a reasonable assumption — throughout the '90s, Vertigo established itself as a home for groundbreaking, provocative work, regularly publishing seminal series like "The Sandman" and "Y: The Last Man" — books that changed the landscape of comics with deft storytelling and layered themes but refused to shy away from frank depictions of sex and violence. 

"I thought we kept Fables mature in the sense that there were adult issues and jeopardy and considerations constantly in play, but we did not need to have so much of the naughty stuff," says Willingham. "I might have been the very first writer or writer/artist team where there was pressure to put more of the dirty stuff in, rather than 'You're going too far we need to take some of this stuff out.' Not a lot of pressure, but there were a lot of questions where it was like, 'Is there any chance they're getting naked soon?'"

When asked for comment about the early days of "Fables", the publisher offered this counterpoint:

"Vertigo is a creator-driven imprint and for the past 13 years we’ve been proud to champion Bill's distinctive vision for 'Fables'," says Shelly Bond, executive editor of Vertigo. "Vertigo titles like 'Fables' and 'The Sandman' have a long history of garnering the support of readers from all walks of life, from young adults onward."

That's not to say early "Fables" stories were hedonistic jaunts, but those early issues — where "Fables" was still trying to figure itself out — did feature more "on-camera sex and vulgarity," to use Willingham's words. But once "Fables" found its groove (and it won awards in its first year, so it found its groove pretty quickly), it soon became apparent the series was most comfortable in a less gratuitous place. 

"I always felt that 'Fables' should be a series that should reach the widest possible audience," says Mark Buckingham. "When it comes to violence and when it comes to intimacy, I always go for less is more ... you need to lead the reader to a point and let them fill in the blanks, and I think that's what we did very successfully during our run. "

With it's impressive collection of awards and accolades, and a readership that stretches far beyond those who read comics for typical superhero fare, "Fables" has had a remarkable run, one that created a whole universe full of spinoffs like "Fairest" and "Jack of Fables"  and often was the only comics project that either creator has worked on for over a decade. So what happens to "Fables" now that it's another bit of folklore, another storybook on a shelf next to the countless other stories it loved so much?

"I hope that it's got legs, in that long after Mark and I are gone from this lovely place, 'Fables' as a series still exists and is available to people," says Bill Willingham when asked about his hopes for "Fables" now that it's over. "Having such a long-running series, we've gotten to see new people as they come of age are coming to 'Fables' for the first time, all the time."

"We live off stories, as a people," adds Willingham. "Our entertainment is to have stories told to us in various media, from song to cinema. Work [needs stories] — a house doesn't get built without the story of what we want being told first. So that is the bedrock of who we are as a species, so of course they're going to be important. Being able to be a storyteller by profession is a joy, and I think, a pretty big responsibility." 

SEE ALSO: 'Fables' was a comic that showed why fairy tales matter to adults

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NOW WATCH: Pixar's next movie shows what would have happened if dinosaurs never went extinct and it looks gorgeous

A lot of people feel guilty when they spend a weekend binge-watching a favorite TV show instead of, say, reading a novel or watching TED talks.

But one of the great things about modern television is that it can be simultaneously entertaining and instructive — especially about business.

We picked out nine television series that could make you a better businessperson, whether you're interested in learning more about effective leadership, integrating your work and home lives, or managing office politics.

Best of all, you'll be so enthralled by the crime, love affairs, and fantasy warfare that you won't even realize you're getting educated.

SEE ALSO: 11 documentaries that will make you smarter about business

'House of Lies'

This Showtime series is based on a book by the same name, written by a former consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton. The show features a group of corrupt management consultants who will do seemingly anything to close a deal.

While the episodes aren't perfect reflections of reality, real-life consultants say they do highlight some important truths of modern consulting, like the relationship between the CEO and his "number-two," who's usually a smart individual the CEO doesn't really listen to. The fifth season begins in 2016.

'Game of Thrones'

Based on George R.R. Martin's book series, "A Song of Ice and Fire," this HBO fantasy television series features multiple plotlines, one of which involves a fierce battle for the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms.

Management experts say the show teaches some important lessons about leadership and power dynamics, like the idea that being different (which in the show, means being a dwarf or an illegitimate child) can make you a stronger leader. The sixth season begins in 2016.

'House of Cards'

Frank Underwood is one of the more Machiavellian characters on television today, or in this case, on Netflix. He starts out as a Democratic congressman from South Carolina and spends the series trying to weasel his way into positions of greater political power.

Underwood's dealings are instructive for any current or aspiring business leader, since they show the importance of treating your subordinates with respect (which Frank doesn't) and bouncing back from setbacks (which Frank does).

It's also a lesson in how to manipulate people and trade favors to get what you want. As writer and creator Beau Willimon told US News: "To be effective leaders, you often have to do things that are morally abhorrent to the rest of us."

The fourth season begins in 2016.

NOW WATCH: 6 words to eliminate from your vocabulary to sound smarter

Los Angeles (AFP) - Gangsta rap pioneers N.W.A. will reunite for a European tour with superstar Eminem as an honorary member, an entertainment executive said Wednesday.

The news came ahead of the release next month of "Straight Outta Compton," a biopic about the Los Angeles-area group whose angry, unapologetic songs about street life shocked parts of white America in the late 1980s.

Donna Langley, chairperson of Universal Studios, which is releasing the film, said in an interview that a reunited N.W.A. would promote the movie with a tour of unspecified European destinations.

"We don't have anything settled yet with everyone's schedules," she told The Hollywood Reporter.

"But we think it can create a lot of buzz," she was quoted as saying.

The trade publication said Eminem would perform as an "honorary member," presumably taking the spot of Eazy-E who died in 1995 from complications of AIDS.

Eminem, the best-selling rapper of all time, started his career under the wing of N.W.A. member Dr. Dre, who has gone on to become one of the music industry's most successful business moguls.

Dr. Dre's role helped bring credibility to Eminem, who is white, among African-American audiences.

N.W.A. won a wide following but enraged politicians with its defining 1988 song "Fuck tha Police" which indicted white officers over their treatment of young African-American men.

N.W.A. member Ice Cube, who went on to a successful solo career, reunited last month with former bandmates MC Ren and DJ Yella for a one-off reunion show in Los Angeles for Black Entertainment Television.

But Dr. Dre, who was busy working on Apple's launch of a new streaming service, was absent.

Dr. Dre last performed with his former band mates during the 2000 "Up in Smoke Tour" across North America, which brought together leading rappers including Eminem.

Representatives for Eminem and the surviving N.W.A. members did not immediately comment on tour plans.

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Katy Perry just jumped into the middle of a feud between Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj — but as it turns out, she's got her own shaky history with the "1989" singer.

Perry and Swift used to be close friends but have since become sworn enemies. Here's how.

The two were first photographed together at the 2008 VMAs, according to PopSugar. Then, PopSugar reports, their first Twitter interaction occurred:

They continued to exchange Twitter pleasantries and in 2010, the Mirror reports, Perry even joined Swift on stage in LA to perform Perry's hit "Hot and Cold." 

Then, in 2013, Swift directed one final tweet at Perry, according to Gawker. Perry never responded.

No one really noticed that the two had stopped publicly corresponding — but then, in September 2014, Swift opened up to Rolling Stone about a feud that had driven a wedge between them in 2013.

Swift was on a media blitz to support her then-new album, "1989." Rolling Stone's Josh Eells commented that "Bad Blood," a track from "1989," was angrier than the other songs.

Swift then divulged that "Bad Blood" is about another female artist. She didn't say who, but she did deliver some identifying details.

From Rolling Stone:

"For years, I was never sure if we were friends or not," she says. "She would come up to me at awards shows and say something and walk away, and I would think, 'Are we friends, or did she just give me the harshest insult of my life?'" Then last year, the other star crossed a line. "She did something so horrible," Swift says. "I was like, 'Oh, we're just straight-up enemies.' And it wasn't even about a guy! It had to do with business. She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour. She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me. And I'm surprisingly non-confrontational – you would not believe how much I hate conflict. So now I have to avoid her. It's awkward, and I don't like it."

RS then got Swift to admit there was a "personal element to the conflict." Swift added, "But I don't think there would be any personal problem if she weren't competitive."

Many thought the culprit in Swift's story was Miley Cyrus. But then, Gawker reports, later in the day after the RS profile was published, Katy Perry sent out a particularly ominous tweet:

As it turns out, the incident Swift spoke of was likely a tour staffing switcheroo that one of Perry's favorite dancers talked about back in 2013.

In a profile for Australia's Examiner in 2013, Lockhart Brownlie said that he and three other dancers had left Swift mid-tour to work with Perry. This was before the feud had even gone public.

Brownlie told the Examiner that he'd worked on Swift's Red tour for the first six months. Then, he and two other dancers who'd worked with Perry before heard from her. She wanted to hire them again.

"Obviously, we were with Katy for two and a half years, she's like family to us, so we were like, 'Absolutely,'" Brownlie told the Examiner. "We weren't really dancing in Taylor's tour anyway so I had got a little bored and I really wanted to do a promo tour."

At least one of the stolen dancers was still working with Perry when she performed at the Super Bowl Halftime Show — he was the much lauded "right shark," Celebuzz reports.

Then, Swift released her video for "Bad Blood."

We already knew the song was most likely about Perry. The music video alluded further to their feud. 

In it, Swift and a brown-haired sidekick (played by Selena Gomez) fight off a bunch of bad guys together. Then, after they've beaten all of the men, the brunette counterpart turns on Swift. After that, Swift rounds up a girl group consisting of her real-life besties in hopes of exacting revenge.

Here's the video:

 And here's a post from Popsugar speculating on which aspects of it are thinly veiled knocks at Perry.

So now, we have this tweet from Perry that clearly alludes to Swift's current feud with Nicki Minaj:

Clearly, Perry noticed the physical similarities between herself and the antagonist in "Bad Blood" — and the fact that Swift's character in the video has an entire posse of famous friends, just waiting to exact their revenge. 

The video clearly has a girl-against-girl plotline. But Swift accused Minaj of "pitting women against each other" during their disagreement yesterday.

That's what Perry is finding so ironic.

But in the end, Perry's the one who's laughing all the way to the bank.

She's the world's richest female celebrity, having earned $135 million over the past 12 months. Swift clocked in at $80 million. 

SEE ALSO: Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift just duked it out on Twitter over the VMAs — and now music fans are divided

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NOW WATCH: 'Paper Towns' star Cara Delevingne says her acting career isn't a fluke

Buried in Donald Trump’s financial disclosure form, released Wednesday, is a bit of a surprise: listed among the Donald’s receipts is a $110,228 Screen Actors Guild pension.

Though the amount is chump change for Trump, it’s natural to wonder how a billionaire acquired a union pension at all, and why it’s so high. Did someone make a mistake?

Probably not. Although his IMDb record discloses only a smattering of SAG work, if he was paid a sufficiently high fee for what appear to be mostly cameos, it’s quite possible that Trump achieved a pension this high, especially since the disclosure form suggests that he began drawing the pension in July 2011, several years after he turned 65, the pension plan’s normal retirement age. Delaying the receipt of a pension past that age results in a higher pension.

Indeed, Trump is probably entitled to a bump, from the AFTRA side of the house. His most visible TV work has been as host on The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice. Although contestant gigs on reality shows are non-union, the hosting slots are generally covered by AFTRA or, now, SAG-AFTRA. If his hosting duties were covered work, that would entitle him to an AFTRA pension as well, and it too is likely to be in the six figures.

Although the unions merged in 2012, the SAG and AFTRA pension/retirement plans remain separate, so even the recent years of hosting would be considered “AFTRA work” for pension purposes, despite the fact that the union is now SAG-AFTRA.

The disclosure form doesn’t indicate the applicable year, so it’s not clear when Trump received the pension or if the amount has changed over time.

The size of the pensions may surprise working actors, whose average TV and film earnings are around $52,000 (2007 figures, the latest the union will release) and who typically don’t receive such generous pensions when they retire. But stardom has its perks.

It may seem odd that a billionaire would be a pensioner, but pensions, like Social Security, are not means-tested. And pensions are payable starting at age 65 even to people who continue working. All a qualified recipient need do is fill out a form and submit it to the SAG-Producers Pension & Health Plans or the AFTRA Health & Retirement Funds.

It might also seem ironic that a Republican – and thus a presumed anti-unionist – is receiving a union pension, but it’s not actually clear whether Trump is anti-union. On the one hand, in his most recent apparent statement on the subject, a 2011 interview with Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, Trump acknowledges that he uses union labor and says that he “has a great relationship with unions.” On the other hand, he also said in the interview that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker – now also a leading Republican candidate for President – was “maybe right for his state” when he took action to weaken and defeat public sector unions.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Bookmark The Hollywood Reporter’s Labor Page for the most in-depth coverage of entertainment unions and guilds.

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Warning: spoilers ahead

“Sharknado 3: Oh Hill No!” is filled with outlandish moments and countless cameos.

But one of our favorites was the film’s opening sequence in which Mark Cuban comes out as the President of the United States.

Let’s just say Cuban as POTUS is just as intense and in charge as he is in any episode of “Shark Tank.”

In the opening of “Sharknado 3,” the franchise’s hero Fin (Ian Ziering) is at the White House to be given a medal for saving New York City from the sharknado in the last movie. Cuban, as the president, presents Fin with the award.

But it just so happens that a sharknado is forming in D.C. during the awards presentation. Before everyone knows it, sharks are raining down on the White House.

The president and Fin are taken by the secret service to a secure bunker only to find that the sharks have already taken it over. As the secret servicemen begin to get taken out by the sharks, Fin is the only one left to protect the president. But as you can imagine, Cuban as the president needs no protection.

The president leads Fin to the armory and the two load up and begin to take out every shark in sight.

The scene concludes with the two jumping out of a window of the White House before it explodes.

“I was fired up,” Cuban told Business Insider via email about being offered the role of the president. “I had seen the previous two and knew it would be a blast.”

Thunder Levin, who has written the script for all three Sharknado films, told BI he came up with the White House sequence for “Sharknado 2” but they couldn’t fit it in as Syfy wanted it to take place in New York. The idea came back around for part 3 and Levin said they wanted the sequence to be “Die Hard” meets “White House Down.” For that, they needed a tough POTUS.

“I thought Mark Cuban was inspired casting,” said Levin. “He had a blast doing it and was really committed to it. So it was great fun to watch.”

Cuban said doing all the action was a lot of fun, but what he really loved was playing a character, as he’s often asked to play himself in movies and TV shows. He admits that he wants to do more acting.

“It’s so different than business,” the owner of the Dallas Mavericks said about acting. “In business, I know what I want to do. In acting, you just have to be there and see what happens. You have to let go. Got a movie to cast, I’m your guy!”

But did playing a gun-toting president give him any aspirations of getting into politics?

“Hell no,” said Cuban. “Unless sharks in a tornado were attacking the White House. Then I would do it for America, baby!”

SEE ALSO: Mark Cuban's most powerful piece of career advice

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NOW WATCH: This is what 'Shark Tank' investor Mark Cuban looks for in the perfect pitch

Buenos Aires (AFP) - Pop star Justin Bieber got some good news on his legal woes when a court in Argentina dropped a warrant for his arrest for allegedly assaulting a photographer.

Judge Alberto Banos said the Canadian singer, 21, would still face the assault charge related to the 2013 incident in Buenos Aires, but that Bieber was not now subject to an arrest warrant.

Now Bieber is supposed to contact authorities about when he can testify in the investigation, DyN news reported.

Argentina had sought Bieber's arrest overseas with an Interpol Red Notice but no country detained him or tried to extradite him.

Bieber ignored a November court order to appear before the judge in the case, which dates back to a 2013 stop in Buenos Aires on his Believe tour.

Photographer Diego Pesoa accused Bieber of instructing a bodyguard to forcefully seize his camera and cellphone outside a nightclub in the posh Palermo neighborhood.

Interpol, the international police body, does not issue arrest warrants itself, but can send out a Red Notice informing its 190 member states that a suspect is wanted in a particular country.

Bieber once enjoyed a squeaky clean image but has more recently had frequent run-ins with the law, including one in Canada when he allegedly assaulted a limousine driver.

Last year, he pleaded guilty to lesser charges after taking part in an illegal drag race on a Miami street.

He was sentenced to two years' probation last year for throwing eggs at the home of a neighbor in California.

The 2013 tour stop, Bieber's only visit to Argentina, was peppered with scandals. 

He was thrown out of a hotel, and cut one show short after 45 minutes because of a stomach ache, angering some fans.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Bill Cosby lost his latest bid to fend off a lawsuit accusing him of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 1974, as the California Supreme Court on Wednesday denied the comedian's petition to review the case.

The accuser's attorney, Gloria Allred, said the decision cleared the way for litigation brought by Judy Huth, now in her 50s, to proceed, and that she intended to take Cosby's sworn deposition within the next 30 days.

"We are looking forward to Mr. Cosby answering questions under oath at his deposition," Allred said. "It's a very big victory."

There was no immediate response from Cosby or his lawyers, who have consistently denied allegations of sexual misconduct lodged against the 78-year-old performer.

But the legal setback for Cosby came as his defense team mounted a new public relations blitz on his behalf.

In a round of interviews with various news outlets, including ABC's "Good Morning America" and the New York Times, Cosby lawyer Monique Pressley said the media have distorted deposition testimony made public this month from a separate sexual assault lawsuit Cosby settled in 2006.

Pressley, a newly hired Cosby attorney based in Washington, said that while the deposition may have proved embarrassing to Cosby, nothing in his sworn statements marked an admission of criminal wrongdoing or of sexual encounters that were anything but consensual.

Huth is one of more than 40 women who have come forward in the past year to say that they were raped or molested by Cosby after he plied them with drugs or alcohol in incidents dating back decades.

The complaint filed by Huth against Cosby is one of at least four pending civil lawsuits stemming from such accusations, but Allred said Huth's is the only one seeking damages for the alleged sexual misconduct itself.

The others are defamation suits whose principal causes of action allege the entertainer falsely branded his accusers as liars by denying that he ever sexually assaulted them.

In addition, Los Angeles police are conducting a criminal investigation into a complaint brought against Cosby, an LAPD spokesman confirmed on Wednesday. He declined to give details.

Cosby has never been charged.

Los Angeles County prosecutors declined last year to bring a criminal case against him over Huth's allegations, saying the matter dated back too far under California's statute of limitations.

Allred said the statute is more forgiving of civil complaints of childhood sexual abuse, allowing for a claim of repressed psychological injury that is discovered by the accuser in the last three years.

Cosby's attorneys had sought dismissal of Huth's lawsuit on procedural grounds, arguing among other things that she lacked required certification from a mental health professional to support her claims. They also said in court papers that Huth sued Cosby only after she failed to extort money from him to buy her silence.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled against Cosby, and a state appeals court refused to hear the case in May. On Wednesday, the state Supreme Court did likewise, a decision that Allred said leaves Cosby no further legal recourse for blocking the lawsuit.

She said she expects to take Cosby's deposition in Massachusetts, where the performer resides.

The decision comes weeks after a federal judge in Philadelphia unsealed excerpts of a deposition Cosby gave in a separate sexual assault case he settled with a former Temple University employee, Andrea Constand, for an undisclosed sum in 2006.

The excerpts included Cosby's admission under oath that he had obtained Quaaludes, the brand name for a sedative widely used as a recreational drug in the 1970s, with the intent of giving the pills to young women in order to have sex with them.

(Editing by Eric Beech and Ken Wills)

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Amy Schumer is now a movie star thanks to her $30 million opening for Universal's Trainwreck.

But unlike many actors who line up new gigs immediately before or after an opening weekend, the busy stand-up comic and star of Inside Amy Schumer can afford to be choosy.

Still, sources say her next project likely will be an untitled comedy set up at Fox, about a mother and daughter who find themselves kidnapped while on vacation in Brazil.

Schumer, 34, and her sister, Kim Caramele, reworked an initial script by The Heat's Katie Dippold, putting the daughter character in Schumer's distinctive voice. (Dippold, who will serve as an exec producer, used her relationship with her mother as inspiration for the initial script.)

The studio and producers Paul Feig and Peter Chernin have been sizing up venerable names for the mother role (Sally Field, Meryl Streep and American Horror Story's Frances Conroy are on the wish list), but that casting hinges on first finding a director.

Insiders say the script came into the studio in mid-July and a directors shortlist quickly was drawn up, with Warm Bodies' Jonathan Levine and The Inbetweeners Movie's Ben Palmer, among those mentioned. Also in the running are Mike White (Year of the Dog), Little Miss Sunshine team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and Lucia Aniello, who directed episodes of Broad City.

Schumer (UTA, Mosaic, Schreck Rose) now finds herself with a vote in the director lottery. Although Fox would like to start shooting before the end of the year, sources say multiple factors would need to be worked out, including coordinating the scheduling with her Emmy-nominated sketch comedy series, which Comedy Central renewed for a fourth season in April.

And her newly upped fee, of course.

SEE ALSO: Amy Schumer's unique road to becoming an A-list comedy star

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The trailer for "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2" which debuted at San Diego Comic-Con is finally here!

"Part 2" is the second part of the final "Hunger Games" movie, following the release of "Part 1" in 2014. After a slow build over the course of three movies, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) will finally lead the people in an intense and violent revolution against President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and the rest of the Capitol.

"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2" will be out in theaters on November 20, 2015.

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On Tuesday, 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson,testified in a Manhattan Supreme Court that his flashy lifestyle is not all it's cracked up to be.

Jackson explained in court that while his social-media accounts may be filled with flashy photos, "I take the jewelry and the cars back to the stores."

While Forbes estimated the rapper's fortune to be about $155 million in May, Jackson's lawyer said in court Tuesday that his client's worth is $4.4 million, which presents a problem after he was recently hit with a $5 million verdict for publishing a sex tape starring rival Rick Ross' ex-girlfriend, Lastonia Leviston, without her consent.

"It’s almost laughable for Mr. Jackson to think anyone believes he’s broke and that everything is smoke and mirrors," Leviston’s attorney, Hunter Shkolnik told The Wrap Tuesday. "His business entities show otherwise."

During his testimony, the rapper also claimed he only made "10 cents a record" from his 38 million album sales, and just $100,000 for the two movies he's currently in, "Spy" and "Southpaw." For his hit Straz series "Power," on which he is also an executive producer, Jackson said he's pocketed only $150,000 from each of its first two seasons.

The rapper hasn't exactly been coy about why he declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a jury handed down a $5 million verdict against him.

"I need protection," 50 Cent explained while appearing on TBS' "Conan." "You get a bull's-eye painted on your back when you’re successful, and it’s public. You become the ideal person for lawsuits."

Despite the filing, Jackson did admit that he recently threw cash around at a Florida strip club and bought a Rolls Royce on July 4, but added "I took two others back" to buy it, according to New York Daily News.

Jackson did manage to say a minor apology to Lastonia Leviston on Tuesday in court: "I'm sorry if you feel like I hurt you."

SEE ALSO: Here's how 50 Cent spent his millions before filing for bankruptcy

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Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's (R) presidential campaign found a creative way to highlight a recent poll.

Kyle Plotkin, Jindal's communications director, sent an email to reporters on Thursday that referenced a classic line from the 1989 comedy, "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure."

"A week ago, I wrote to y’all noting that something was afoot in Iowa because of the large and enthusiastic crowd sizes greeting Governor Jindal across the state," Plotkin wrote.

He added: "Or as Ted 'Theodore' Logan put it best in the great American classic, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, 'Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.'"

Plotkin included a link to a YouTube Clip featuring actor Keanu Reeves reacting to a man from the future arriving in a phone booth in front of a Circle-K convenience show:

The Jindal team was touting a Monmouth University poll, published Monday, that showed Jindal rising into the second tier of candidates. Plotkin said a Jindal campaign poll also found the governor with 8% and "tied for FOURTH" in Iowa.

"While the image ratings of other Republican hopefuls have stagnated or retreated, Governor Jindal continues to grow his positives and Governor Jindal is 2nd place on the second choice ballot," he wrote.

SEE ALSO: Bobby Jindal just announced his presidential campaign with an unusual video

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