Once in a while, magic happens and a star is born. That's the case with Netflix's newest hit series, "Stranger Things."

The first season of the series, set in the 1980s, from brothers Matt and Ross Duffer ("Wayward Pines"), follows the disappearance of a young boy, Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), and the monstrous chain of events it launches in the small town.

Viewers weren't just enraptured in the series' references to some of the most memorable movies in cinema, but also they fell in love with the show's cast, especially its young stars.

“All the kids are getting tons of praise for feeling 'real,'" Carmen Cuba, the casting director on "Stranger Things," told the Los Angeles Times of the young actors' newfound fame.

Who are these kids and what's next for the talented bunch?

Here's a quick look at the young breakout stars of "Stranger Things":

SEE ALSO: The actress who plays Barb on 'Stranger Things' says she didn't think anyone would care about her

DON'T MISS: Everything you need to know about 'Stranger Things' — the Netflix show people are obsessed with

Noah Schnapp ...

... as Will Byers

Noah Schnapp plays Will Byers, whose disappearance becomes the obsession of his family and friends and leads to a monstrous chain of events.

Fun facts: Born in Scarsdale, New York, 11-year-old Schnapp started his acting career in school and community plays. When he was eight years old, his acting teacher recognized his talent and suggested he go professional.

Biggest credits so far: Schnapp voiced the lead character, Charlie Brown, in 2015's "The Peanuts Movie." That same year, he appeared in Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks' "Bridge of Spies."

What's next: The second season of "Stranger Things."

Finn Wolfhard ...

"Shark Tank," the show that took venture capital pitches mainstream, returns Friday for its eighth season.

Over the past seven years, the series has not only picked up Emmys for being an entertaining reality show, but has created ubiquitous brands like Scrub Daddy cleaning supplies and Bantam Bagels, which recently made it into Starbucks nationwide.

The show is an entertainment product and a launchpad for hundreds of American startups, requiring a careful combination of high-level production and management.

Through several interviews with the Sharks, we've learned some interesting behind-the-scenes details hidden from viewers. We've collected them below.

SEE ALSO: 'Shark Tank' investor Robert Herjavec reveals how deals are affected by what happens behind the scenes

A typical pitch lasts about an hour.

A televised segment lasts about 10 minutes, but it uses footage from a pitch that, on average, lasts an hour. In Season 4, Plate Topper founder Michael Tseng was in the Tank for 2 1/2 hours, the longest of any entrepreneur.

Unlike a typical pitch, the investors know nothing about the entrepreneurs or their products before they enter the room. It's a technique that allows viewers to learn about the people and their companies along with the Sharks.

The footage editors take out contains the "unsexy" material, where the Sharks and entrepreneurs get into financial minutiae that the typical viewer would either not understand or care much about.

An entire season is shot in 17 days, split across two marathon sessions.

The production process is efficient and demanding.

The past few seasons have had 29 episodes each, and shooting was split over a week and a half in early summer and another stretch in early fall in a Los Angeles studio. The investors see six to eight pitches per day, and days can last up to 12 hours.

Robert Herjavec said that when he and the Sharks are in their chairs, "We're cold, we're hungry, we're miserable." It's why, he explained, it's necessary that entrepreneurs grab their attention and excite them as quickly as possible.

Shooting is done in three-day spurts, and each day results in different deals.

The marathon shooting sessions work in three-day splits with an off day in between. Each day has a distinct feel for the investors, Herjavec explains in his book "You Don't Have to be a Shark."

On Day 1, the Sharks feel refreshed, and also make a point of playing up their television personas, which can result in an exaggerated positive or negative response to a pitch.

Day 2 is easily the best, Herjavec writes. Everyone has fully committed to the show and is looking to make a great deal that will make them money.

A scene where the investors are fighting with each other? It probably happened on Day 3, when the Sharks are most tired, thinking about getting back to their companies, and are often a bit sick of being on set with each other.

It's a staple at his rallies.

"How many people have heard 'The Snake?'" Donald Trump regularly asks his large crowds.

"Do you want to hear 'The Snake?' Do you want to hear it?"

The crowd roars with thundering applause.

"I mean, people love it and I love it because it says what's going to happen to us if we're not careful," Trump says.

The song, a 1968 soul hit, tells the story of a woman who takes in a snake and nurses it back to health, only to be bitten by the snake once it's recovered. Trump thinks it's the perfect metaphor for why the US shouldn't accept Syrian refugees and needs to get "tough" along the US-Mexico border.

But the family of the man who performed "The Snake," Al Wilson, said the singer most likely wouldn't have seen eye-to-eye with Trump on his interpretation of the song.

Before speaking with Business Insider late last week, Alene Wilson-Harris, a daughter of Wilson, who died in 2008, said she conferred with her father's brother and his best friend to help best come to a conclusion on how her father would've felt about Trump reading the song at his rallies.

"While I think that he would've had, at least some sort of appreciation for the fact that his music is appreciated by Trump to the affect that he would utilize the song, there are some things in my father's life that may have been an interesting perspective for him to have to grapple with in light of how [the song] was used," she said. "And, some of the things that are the platform of Trump."

Born in 1939, Wilson, a black American, grew up in segregated Mississippi. His family would later move to California with the hope of finding better living conditions.

"My father, well, he grew up in a very volatile time for a young black man," she said. "And, he was, unfortunately, in a position to have to know what it was to actually leave a place because there were life-threatening circumstances and hardships and all of those type of things in order to try and make a life for yourself somewhere else where those factors didn't exist."

The perspective he had after living through that, she said, would put him on the opposite side of the refugee issue as Trump, who has peddled the song as the perfect refugee metaphor.

"I think that there would be some perspective issues and compassion that he would have in regard to anyone in that position," she said. "And my father also has multiple conversations with people, including my father's best friend and my father's brother, just regarding different hardships he had seen around the world in traveling."

"He was a very outward and loving people person," she continued. "He was an embracing type of person to fans and friends and things like that."

She told the story of a trip Wilson took to Curacao, the Caribbean Island, where native peoples of the island approached him as he was staying at a resort area and pleaded with him to come and see their living conditions.

After visiting with them in their homes, Wilson-Harris said he was later brought to tears by the "extremes" they were exposed to while recounting the story to his brother.

"And so things like that, are things that not everyone necessarily knows about my dad, but there's a depth of perspective there when it comes to certain issues that are really hot points right now," she said.

"And so, again, while my father was very embracing of all his fans, and very appreciative of all of his admirers of his gifts and talents and music, I'm not sure exactly how he would have responded to that," she continued. "But I can only give perspective to kind of give a little insight to his position in life. And what his heart might have said."

But, she added, some members of her family are "at least at this point ... possible Trump supporters."

Wilson-Harris also said her father was a regular call-in on Rush Limbaugh's radio show, which she only recently found out while talking to other member's of her family about Trump's use of "The Snake."

Watch Wilson perform "The Snake" below:

In using the song, which Trump has at many of his rallies, he sometimes credits it to Al Green, another famous soul singer of the same era. He's also said the song, which he calls a poem, was written in the 1990s.

"So this is called the snake and this has to do with people coming into our country, and I'll think you'll enjoy it," he said before reading the song's lyrics at a Florida rally last week. "Let's see. And more important than enjoy, I think it'll make a point."

During his rendition, the Republican nominee takes a couple of liberties with the lyrics, such as adding in a "like we're doing," after reading the line, "Oh well, she cried, I'll take you in." He also added "vicious" in front of "snake" during one of the songs final verses, seemingly to make an added point.

"It's amazing, going to happen unless we get very very smart," he said at one campaign stop, after finishing his reading of the lyrics.

"Oh, don't worry about it — we're going to build the wall," Trump then reassured the crowd. "Don't worry about it, we're building the wall. Don't worry about it. We're going to build the wall and Mexico is going to pay for the wall and we're going to make great trade deals and lots of great things are going to happen, don't worry about it."

Taking a more poignant stance against Trump's use of the song was the family of Oscar Brown Jr., the man who wrote the song in the early 1960's. He died in 2005.

"We don't want him using these lyrics," Brown's daughter, Maggie Brown, told The Chicago Tribune in March. "If Dad were alive, he would've ripped (Trump) with a great poem in rebuttal. Not only a poem and a song, but an essay and everything else."

Watch Trump read "The Snake" at a rally from last week below:

SEE ALSO: What you need to know about the controversies surrounding the Trump and Clinton foundations

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: There's something confusing in the fine print of Donald Trump's new $10 million TV ad

John Oliver and his team reviewed the major scandals circling this year's presidential candidates and found that Donald Trump's were far more troublesome than Hillary Clinton's.

For the Democratic candidate, Oliver zeroed in on Clinton's use of a private server while she was Secretary of State and the potential conflict of interest involving her charitable foundation.

In the case of the private server, Oliver summed up the FBI's findings.

"While the FBI found Clinton and her staff 'extremely careless,'" the host said, "they said they couldn't 'find a case that would support bringing criminal charges. So it's not good, but it's not as bad as it looks."

In the case of Clinton's foundation allegedly accepting donations that represented a conflict, Oliver detailed there were a few fishy donations that suggest Clinton could've voted for the purchase of Uranium that would've benefit ted donors to her foundation. But Clinton wasn't involved in the deal and it had to be signed off by nine other government agencies.

"Basically, it's complicated," Oliver said. "And like the movie, 'It's Complicated,' it probably would've been best for everyone if it had never happened, but no one broke the law."

In the case of Trump, Oliver's team looked into his refusal to release his tax records and his alleged use of his charitable foundation's money for personal use.

In the case of the tax records, Trump has claimed that he's in the middle of an audit and therefore not allowed to release his records. He has stuck to that story even when the IRS said there's no ban on him releasing the forms while in an audit. 

"You're just saying two unrelated things," Oliver said of Trump's claim that he can't release his tax docs.

In the end, Oliver said that he and his team have only scratched the surface of Trump's scandals. 

"The point is, this campaign has been dominated by scandals, but it is dangerous to think there's an equal number on both sides," Oliver said. "And you can be irritated by some of Hillary's. That is understandable. But you should then be f---ing outraged by  Trump's."

Watch Oliver break down the presidential scandals below:

SEE ALSO: Stephen Colbert slams Donald Trump's proposed solution to black-on-black violence

DON'T MISS: Seth Meyers takes a closer look at Donald Trump's allegedly shady use of charity funds

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: CRUZ CAVES: Endorses Trump for president despite a long list of personal attacks

He may be a 54-year-old father of one, but don't think for a second that Alton Brown, celebrity chef and host of Food Network's "Cutthroat Kitchen," is out of touch.

Take his newest cookbook (his eighth), which is an homage to simpler cooking. It's called "EveryDayCook."

Each recipe in "EveryDayCook" accompanies a glossy photo taken on an iPhone 6s Plus. It calls to mind the Instagram-era we live in, highlighting the fact that everyday tools can create beautiful art. (Brown also says in the book it was a way to have complete control over the shots.)

Business Insider recently spoke with Brown about the new book and how food television has become much edgier since the days of "Good Eats" — Brown's nerdy, gonzo-style foray into the TV industry that first aired 17 years ago.

Unlike his earlier books, Brown says "EveryDayCook" is less of an instruction manual and more of a catalog of good-neighbor recipes. Many of them are straightforward, but with a twist. For instance, there's nothing special about the nitrous pancakes aside from the fact you'll need a nitrous oxide foamer to achieve the proper fluffiness. Other recipes are tamer, like his take on Brussels sprouts — or as he calls them, "Pygmy cabbages."

"To me, cooking every day keeps me very grounded," he tells Business Insider. "I believe in cooking every day, and the recipes in this book are everyday dishes."

In many ways, "EveryDayCook" also reflects how savvy Brown expects his reader to be. It assumes that even if people no idea what amaranth is or how to use an immersion blender, they're willing to find out if the basic recipe isn't too complex.

"When 'Good Eats' started, I was constantly reminded to keep things simple. Keep it so that somebody's who never cooked before could jump in at any point and do this," Brown says. "We no longer need shows that say 'This is an onion.' We all know it's a frickin' onion."

While shows a decade ago focused mostly on basic, at-home instruction — the kind of format Julia Child helped create — today's food media landscape stretches across TV, the Internet, and social media. Chefs compete on primetime for big cash prizes, vie for their own TV shows, and smoke weed while they wax poetic about Australian fine dining.

Brown chalks the shift up to three factors: the changing ways media gets consumed, the rise of food culture, and millennials' preference for bolder, edgier programs.

Millennials are the largest generation in the US, so it may have been inevitable that whatever they happened to latch on to would become the prevailing tone of the industry. As Joe Pinsker noted in the Atlantic last year, their penchant for new experiences and responsibly-sourced food means many would fall into the category of "foodie." 

Brown would like to take some credit for that.

"I'd like to think that the draw 'Good Eats' had was that it funny and visually edgy," Brown says, emphasizing that the show never tried to be edgy from an attitude standpoint because he always wanted it to be kid-friendly.

Fast-forward 15 years and those kids are now adults in their 20s and 30s — the very people who are Instagramming their duck confit and tuning in to watch Viceland. "I'd like to think that I cultivated, safely and healthfully, a long-term audience," he says.

Brown hasn't exactly been watching from the sidelines over the last decade. He served as expert commentator for "Iron Chef America," hosts the culinary game show "Cutthroat Kitchen," headlined the stage show "The Edible Inevitable Tour" for the last two years, and plans to follow up with a similar show, "Eat Your Science," on Broadway this November.

And now 11 years since "Good Eats" went off the air, Brown says he's ready to embrace the new frontier of food media with a show tentatively called "Alton 2.0." It'll live entirely on his website, Altonbrown.com, and he won't divulge its premise just yet. He's planning a larger announcement as 2017 draws closer.

The food-loving masses will just have to wait for their guru to step back into the spotlight.

SEE ALSO: Anthony Bourdain discusses the new season of 'Parts Unknown,' his favorite restaurants, and how he went from outsider chef to the top of the food world

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 5 'healthy' fast food meals that are worse for you than pizza

"Friends" star Matt LeBlanc is returning to host BBC's "Top Gear."

The actor signed a deal to continue with the auto show for two more seasons, reported The Hollywood Reporter.

"Matt was hugely popular with 'Top Gear' viewers last series with his humor, warmth, and obvious passion for cars and for the show, so I couldn’t be more delighted that he’s agreed to come back and do more for us." said Mark Linsey, the director of BBC Studios.

Chris Harris and Rory Reid will also continue on with the show. Eddie Jordan, Sabine Schmitz and The Stig will make regular appearances.

LeBlanc joined the show last year to cohost with Chris Evans. But Evans resigned in July, amid sliding ratings.

SEE ALSO: Why Amazon is 'absolutely fine' about Jeremy Clarkson's Fox-backed Drive Tribe

DON'T MISS: The 20 best new TV shows this fall you need to watch

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Jeff Bezos’ space company is about to blow the top off of its rocket on purpose — here’s why

We are now officially in the fall, so that means time to curl up under the covers and watch some movies and TV from your favorite streaming service.

New titles coming your way in October from iTunes, Amazon, Hulu and others include movies like “Bad Moms” and “Star Trek Beyond,” to shows like the new season of “The Mindy Project” on Hulu and the series premiere of “Westworld" on HBO.

Here’s everything coming in October, and we also highlighted some titles you shouldn’t miss.

SEE ALSO: Here's everything coming to Netflix in October that you need to watch

iTunes

Available on October 4

“Star Trek Beyond”

Available on October 11

“Nerve”
“The Infiltrator”
“Lights Out”
“Captain Fantastic”

Available on October 18

“Bad Moms”
“Sausage Party”
“Alice Through the Looking Glass”
“Cafe Society”

Amazon Prime

Available October 1

“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2”
“Pride and Prejudice” (20015)
“Happy Gilmore”
“Secretary”
“The Witches”
“Training Day”
“Quigley Down Under”
“The Pink Panther” (1963)
“Revenge of The Pink Panther”
“Curse of The Pink Panther”
“Son of The Pink Panther”
“Trail of The Pink Panther”
“The Pink Panther Strikes Again”
“Before Sunrise”
“Chinatown”
“Bachelorette”
“Deep Impact”
“Bowling for Columbine”
“Before Sunset”
“Slap Shot”
“Final Destination”
“Lethal Weapon”
“Lethal Weapon 2”
“Lethal Weapon 3”
“Lethal Weapon 4”
“The Last Waltz”
“The Gift”
“Tucker & Dale vs Evil”
“The Warriors”
“A Shot in the Dark”
“Dreamcatcher”
“The Devil’s Advocate”
“Mutant Chronicles”
“Congo”
“Stigmata”
“Troll 2”
“Splinter”
“Love and Death”
“I Saw the Devil”
“Lost and Delirious”
“Bananas”
“Monsters”
“Stage Beauty”
“Stuart Saves His Family”
“Peter and the Wolf”
“Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers”
“V/H/S”
“Trollhunter”
“North Dallas Forty”
“The Dog of War”
“Timecrimes”
“Married to the Mob”
“True Colors”
“Alice”
“Class”
“Troll”
“Island in the Sky”
“Nick of Time”
“The Host”
“The Stone Age”
“Cool It”
“Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland”
“Roger Dodger”
“The Falcon and the Snowman”
“Let the Right One In”
“Misery”
“Throw Mamma from the Train”
“Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex”
“A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy”
“Redacted”
“The Patriot”

Available October 3

“Madam Secretary” (Season 3)
“Elementary” (Season 5)
“Stonewall”

Available October 4

“American Horror Story” (Season 5)
“The Last King”
“Sharknado The 4th Awakens”

Available October 5

“The Flash” (Season 3)

Available October 6

“Arrow” (Season 5)

Available October 10

“The Dark Horse”
“First Degree”

Available October 11

“Supergirl” (Season 2)

Available October 12

“The Real O’Neals” (Season 2)

Available October 14

“Goliath” (AMAZON ORIGINAL)

Available October 17

“Louder Than Bombs”
“Power” (Season 3)

Available October 18

“Alice Through the Looking Glass”

Available October 21

“Spectre”

Available October 27

“Complete Unknown” (AMAZON ORIGINAL)

HBO Go/Now

Available October 1

“28 Days Later”
“An American Haunting” (Extended Cut)
“Balls of Fury”
“Bride Wars”
“Cast Away”
“Cop Car”
“Cocktail”
“The Cowboy Way”
“Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles”
“Deadpool”
“Demolition Man”
“Drumline”
“Eastern Promises”
“I Am Legend” (Extended Cut)
“Jeepers Creepers”
“The Jewel of the Nile”
“John Carpenter’s Ghost of Mars”
“A Kid in King Arthur’s Court”
“The Kingdom”
“The Place Beyond the Pines”
“Poltergeist”
“Repo Man”
“Romancing the Stone”
“Spider-Man”
“Spider-Man 2”
“We Were Soldiers”
“The Wedding Singer”

Available October 2

“Westworld”

Available October 8

“Ride Along 2”

Available October 9

“Divorce”

Available October 10

“VICE News Tonight”

Available October 13

“By the Sea”

Available October 15

“Joy”

Available October 18

“Mr. Right”

Available October 22

“Gods of Egypt”

Available October 29

“Poltergeist” (Extended Edition)

Ellen DeGeneres is a pro at giving seriously good life advice, according to Skinnygirl founder, author, and entrepreneur Bethenny Frankel.

"Ellen DeGeneres said to me, 'You will keep repeating the same mistakes until you actually learn the lesson,' which I think is true," Frankel recently told Business Insider.

DeGeneres also advised her to avoid stressing over what fans and haters think or say.

"Don't get caught up in how much people love you and also don't get sucked down by how much people hate you," Frankel says.

She also shared the worst piece of career advice she ever received — and the important lesson she learned from it.

Frankel says early on, when she first told "a man who was very successful in the liquor business" about the Skinnygirl brand, he essentially told her to give up.

"He said, 'Cut your losses, it's so hard to do well in the liquor business, and there's no such thing.' He told me that it wasn't going to be a success."

Frankel said this taught her to never assume anyone is smarter than you.

"It doesn't mean to rise up and act like you are smarter than them; it just means to do your homework and be able to trust your gut and believe in your passion," she says.

SEE ALSO: Ellen DeGeneres rips apart Mississippi anti-LGBT law: 'This is not politics, this is human rights'

Join the conversation about this story »

Netflix just released a new trailer for "Marvel's Luke Cage," its upcoming third show in the "Defenders" series. The entire first season will drop Friday on the streaming site.

The trailer shows Luke Cage, played by Mike Colter, express over and over again that he doesn't want to be involved in the city's crime-fighting scene. There seems to be a few people who call him out, though.

After all, if you're indestructible, what's there to be afraid of?

Alfre Woodard, Theo Rossi,  and Rosario Dawson also star on the Marvel show.

Watch the new "Luke Cage" trailer below:

SEE ALSO: Marvel TV boss: I 'don't understand' why 'Agent Carter' was canceled

DON'T MISS: Here's what the young breakout stars of Netflix's 'Stranger Things' look like in real life

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Netflix just dropped a new 'Luke Cage' trailer and it looks incredible

Netflix is still the gold standard in streaming video, but its rivals are catching up to it in an important area: how happy customers are with the service.

In a note sent on Monday, analysts at UBS said that based on their survey work, Amazon and Hulu are closing the gap with Netflix in overall consumer satisfaction in the US. Hulu still lags a bit, but is close to Netflix at 53% of people "very satisfied." Amazon and Netflix are in a dead heat at 58% and 59% respectively.

Here is a chart that shows that shows the "very satisfied" results for the three companies:

Competition in Europe is heating up as well, with UBS noting that pay TV operators in the US and Europe “have made significant strides in making content available for streaming and improving their user interfaces.”

Netflix customers are loyal. In research published this April, analysts from Parks Associates found that Netflix subscribers were much less likely to cancel than those of Hulu or Amazon Prime Video. Only 9% of its subscriber base had canceled in the last year, Parks Associates found, compared to Hulu, which saw a full half of its current subscriber base cancel in the last year.

But Netflix saw an unexpected uptick in cancellations last quarter. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings blamed the increase on the way the conversation around Netflix’s price hike played out in the media. But perhaps another reason is that streaming competitors are stepping up how much value they are bringing to the table.

“We believe demand for consumer media time, attention and wallet is intensifying and investors should continue to monitor competitive threats closely,” the UBS analysts wrote.

Original future

One bright spot of Netflix’s future UBS pointed to was the success of its original content, which Netflix has said in the future will make up roughly 50% of the service.

“We also found viewers of Netflix’s original series are growing, with roughly 40% of U.S. subs watching most or all episodes, up from ~31% a year ago,” the analysts wrote.

But there are negatives as well. The second season of "Marco Polo" saw less search interest than its first, and "The Get Down" saw relatively low interest, especially given it cost a reported $120 million.

“It is also unclear that originals aimed at demographics where Netflix is underpenetrated, such as older consumers and those living in Middle America, are making headway driving adoption,” the analysts wrote. “For example 'The Ranch' did poorly among our survey respondents living in the Mid-West.”

Here is a chart of the performance of "The Ranch":

Netflix will also face competition from Amazon and Hulu on the originals front. In late July, Amazon’s CFO said Amazon would double its investment in videos and triple the amount of original content over the rest of 2016.

SEE ALSO: Why new media companies like Vice and Ozy are jumping into traditional TV

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Don't be afraid to cancel cable — here's how to watch all of your favorite shows for less than $42 a month

It turns out John Carpenter wasn't a big fan of the "Halloween" remake Rob Zombie did, either. 

The 2007 remake only took in $80 million worldwide at the box office (strangely, he was able to do a sequel in 2009, and that only made $39.4 million worldwide). And now a video of Carpenter — the legendary director of the original "Halloween" as well as "Escape from New York" and "They Live" — bashing Zombie has surfaced.

"He lied about me,” the 68-year-old told a group of students at the New York Film Academy when asked what he thought of Zombie's film. “[Zombie] said [in an interview] I was very cold to him when he told me he was going to make it. Nothing could be further from the truth. I said, ‘Make it your own movie, man. This is yours now. Don’t worry about me.’ I was incredibly supportive. Why that piece of s--t lied, I don’t know.”

But Carpenter admits, even putting his thoughts about Zombie aside, he still didn't like the movie.

“I thought he took away the mystique of the story by explaining too much about [Michael Myers],” said Carpenter. “I don’t care about that. He’s supposed to be a force of nature, he’s supposed to be almost supernatural, and he was too big, it wasn’t normal.”  

Carpenter is looking to bring Myers and the "Halloween" franchise back to prominence as he's executive producer on a new sequel that's being produced by Blumhouse Productions, which is responsible for the "Paranormal Activity" and "Insidious" franchises.

Here's video of Carpenter's remarks about Zombie (they start around the 17 minute mark):

SEE ALSO: The best movies and TV shows coming to Amazon, iTunes, Hulu, and more in October

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Everyone brace yourselves — a Martin Scorsese movie will be released this year.

Paramount announced Monday that it will release the Oscar-winning director's passion project "Silence" on December 23.

The story — which the auteur of such classics as "Goodfellas" and "Taxi Driver" has been trying to get off the ground for two decades — follows Jesuit priests in 17th-century Japan as they face violence and persecution.

It stars Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield, and Adam Driver.

Paramount will first release the movie in limited release on December 23 to qualify it for the Academy Awards, then open it in wide release sometime in January 2017.

"Silence" is based on the 1966 Shûsaku Endô novel, and adapted for the screen by Scorsese's longtime collaborator Jay Cocks ("Gangs of New York").

After 12 Oscar nominations, Scorsese finally won the best director award for 2006's "The Departed."

SEE ALSO: Matt LaBlanc will be back as the host of "Top Gear."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The directors of 'Catfish' and 'Nerve' reveal how to make it in Hollywood without going to film school

Disney is weighing a bid on Twitter, according to a new report from Bloomberg's Alex Sherman and Sarah Frier.

Twitter's stock rebounded on the news after being down nearly 4% during early trading. Disney's stock is down 1.6%.

Twitter has been the subject of acquisition rumors, with Google and Salesforce as two other potential suitors, according to reports last week from CNBC.

The struggling social networking company has begun a process to evaluate a potential sale following inbound interest from some of the companies, according to Bloomberg.

Disney is apparently working with an unspecified financial adviser to evaluate a potential bid for Twitter, though it does not appear from the report that the two companies have had any discussions yet.

Disney's interest in Twitter shouldn't come as a complete surprise. In an interview with Business Insider on Friday, Spark Capital partner Nabeel Hyatt said Disney would be a better fit for Twitter than some of the other potential bidders that have expressed interest.

For Twitter, there's an obvious connection: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is on the board of Disney, so there's a friendly relationship.

But the bigger picture is that Twitter is building a media company, not just another social network, and especially not a sales tool, Hyatt argues. Spark Capital was an early investor in the company, but Hyatt has no inside information on the company.

This fall, Twitter began its push in earnest by live-streaming NFL Thursday night football and releasing a TV app so people can follow along if they have an Apple TV or Xbox. It will also live-stream the presidential debate on Monday.

"Twitter is and has always been a media company, and everyone who thought of them as a messenger company got it wrong," Hyatt told Business Insider. "And if anyone thinks they're a sales tool and should therefore meld in perfectly to Salesforce I don't think has spent that much time with the core teams of either of those two companies."

Disney isn't just a film or theme park business, but a conglomerate of media entities including ABC and ESPN. If Twitter starts to challenge both those properties earnestly, Disney could potentially scoop it up to help them become interconnected rather than competitors.

"If they're not going to be an independent company, then you have to look at large media companies that are good stewards," Hyatt said. "And I think Disney is the perfect place."

SEE ALSO: Here's one overlooked reason it makes total sense for Salesforce to buy Twitter

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"Top Gear" isn't just the biggest car show in the world — it's the biggest show, period. 

So fans were understandably concerned last year when former host Jeremy Clarkson punched a producer, leading to always controversial Clarkson's resignation.

Co-hosts James May and Richard Hammond followed him — straight into the arms of Amazon, which is paying the trio handsomely to create a new show that will debut later this year.

The BBC, which owns "Top Gear," scrambled to pull a new cast together for the next season, singing up British radio celeb Chris Evans and American actor Matt LeBlanc, well know for his portrayal of dimwit latter-day Casanova Joey Tribbiani in the 1990s and early 2000s prime-time ensemble comedy "Friends," in addition to a passel of other journalist, broadcasters, and people who actually know how to drive hot cars.

But it all went horribly wrong, with the unpopular Evans leaving the new "Top Gear" after one season.

This means Joey from "Friends" is now running the show. And the BBC just announced that he'll be at the wheel for another year.

There was unsubstantiated chatter before Evans stepped down that LeBlanc and his co-host weren't having a lot of  "Hey ... How ya doin?" moments.

This ensures that a weird new world of "Top Gear" will go on — with an American in charge of a show renowned for its charming and at times offensive Britishness, while the Brits responsible for the successful BBC series are now, effectively, coming to America. Or at taking advantage of the very deep pockets of an American company.

"Top Gear," it's now safe to say, is officially in crisis. Fans have responded well to LeBlanc, and everybody seems to like Chris Harris, a YouTube star who has always seemed like he should get a shot at the big time.

But although Joey from "Friends" is charming, he's hardly some funny looking lanky buffoon, nor is he a fusty long-haired professorial type, and he certainly isn't a peppy little guy who become sullen when he wrecks a fabulous car on a racetrack.

And Harris is enthusiastic and British, but he's just so darn competent. It's had to see why anyone would want to make him look foolish.

What we have, then, is the prospect of a much more responsible, Americanized "Top Gear."

And Matt LeBlanc, it seems, will control its destiny. For a while.

SEE ALSO: Chris Evans has quit 'Top Gear'

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NOW WATCH: Forget Jeremy Clarkson — 'Top Gear' has replaced the notorious host with Joey from 'Friends'

Hollywood is predictably sexist, according to a new analysis of stars through history.

Clemson economists Robert Fleck and Andrew Hanssen analyzed gender and age for Hollywood roles going back to 1920 using IMDB data. Their forthcoming study showed that women get more parts before the age of 30 but less overall when compared to men.

There appears to be some progress over time — the median age of women on-screen has climbed from 27 to 32 — but it’s slow.

"In the past, everyone expected that scientists and police officers would all be male — and now we're accustomed to regularly engaging with female officers and scientists,” Fleck told the Washington Post. “And as time goes on, more of those supporting roles and characters should be played by women. And this may be happening — but the data don’t show much of a difference.”

Here’s a look at lead roles by age, where women dominate early but lose overall:

Here’s the gender mix of lead roles over time — steadily dominated by men since the end of the Silent Era:

Here’s female lead ages over time. The median (in red) is creeping higher. Perhaps more impressive is how the 95th percentile (green) has jumped from 40 to 60:

Male leads are slightly older these days:

Meanwhile, the top ten grossing actors list has long been dominated by men since the Silent Era, perhaps now more than ever.

SEE ALSO: Here's proof that most action movies are sexist

DON'T MISS: 3 fascinating differences between male and female investors

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Netflix is continuing to put the pedal to the metal on original TV shows and movies, and the company recently shared its plan to have 50% of its library be originals within the next few year.

That plan centers around quantity, but also around variety.

Netflix's goal is to release some piece of original content that will appeal to each subscriber, every month, according to comments by Netflix CFO David Wells, recorded by Variety.

Netflix needs to get people of all ages and locations excited about originals, which means a diverse catalog. This is especially true in the US, where some are already whispering about market saturation.

In a note on Monday, analysts at UBS highlighted that Netflix, in the US, is underpenetrated among older consumers and those living in Middle America, according to Netflix management.

"These consumers represent an opportunity for subscriber growth if Netflix can convince them to sign up and stay with the service," the analysts wrote.

One big area that could help Netflix snag them is original content. "Netflix offers original series that appeals to Baby Boomers such as 'Grace & Frankie' (starring actors popular among that generation including Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda) and 'Longmire' (which was cancelled after 3 seasons on cable network A&E because its audience was deemed too old for advertisers, Netflix then continued the series as an original), and also 'The Ranch,' a comedy starring Ashton Kutcher set on a ranch in Colorado."

Research by UBS suggest that, at least on the age front, there is a difference between subscribers who watch different originals. Here is what UBS's survey data said about the ages of people who watched nine popular Netflix originals:

So if Netflix is looking to appeal to older viewers, "Longmire," which had an average age of 37, seems to be working.

But UBS didn't see the same efficacy in "The Ranch's" location targeting. Here's how people in different areas of the US rated it:

People in the Midwest actually under-indexed on the show.

SEE ALSO: Netflix's competitors are quickly closing the gap in a crucial area

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Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was just named the highest-paid actor in the world. According to Forbes, the former WWE star makes $64.5 million per year, beating out the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Brad Pitt.

One of the hardest working people in show business, Johnson stars in movies and TV shows, runs his own production company, and gets a few extra bucks from endorsements. Yet, the actor also knows how to enjoy himself and spend his hard-earned cash.

Here's how The Rock spends his millions.

Forbes named Johnson the world's highest-paid actor for 2016 with a whopping $64.5 million a year. The former wrestler works hard for his millions.

Source: Forbes

Johnson is a box-office juggernaut. Past successes have led to him commanding bigger pay days for upcoming films.

A few recent hits include:

"Furious 7" (2015):$1.5 billion
"San Andreas" (2015):$474 million
"Fast & Furious 6" (2013): $788.7 million

Source: Forbes

His most recent film, "Central Intelligence," grossed $210.3 million worldwide.

Source: Box Office Mojo

"Forza Horizon 3" is loud, stupid, and beautiful.

It's that guy named Brock you met on vacation, who refers to everyone as "brah." He's so fun to party with! Everyone loves Brock. He just wants everyone to be happy. 

"Forza Horizon 3" is all about making you, the player, happy all the time. It gives you a huge world to explore — a massive section of Australia — and hundreds of cars. 

SEE ALSO: This is the most beautiful game on Xbox One by a mile

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You wanna drive an automatic Tesla Model S through the rainforest? Please, go right ahead! And might we suggest you race this train?

Due to the location down undah, there's a huge selection of terrain types to race through: a sprawling desert filled with dunes, muddy rallycross tracks, coastal highways, and much more.

You can visit anywhere on the (huge) map right from the start, but you only unlock new race types that pertain to those regions as you progress through the game. The good news is that it's a joy to progress through the game, opening up new "festival locations" (races in a particular region) and discovering entirely new race types along the way. 

There's a simple structure to "Forza Horizon 3." You start the game with one of several cars, and you prove your worth in races to earn money, fans, and experience. As those things accumulate, you unlock more stuff: new areas, new cars to buy, new races to race, etc. 

Thankfully, all of that quickly melts into the background as one of the game's hundreds of cars goes flying over a sand dune at 150 miles-per-hour.

Regardless of the structure of the event, the goal of "Forza Horizon 3" is always to get you into a car, driving fast.

There's a whole "story" conceit in "Forza Horizon 3." You're the boss of the "Horizon Festival" and blah blah blah. It's really just there to provide a structure. 

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was just named the highest-paid actor in the world. According to Forbes, the former WWE star makes $64.5 million per year, beating out the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Brad Pitt.

One of the hardest working people in show business, Johnson stars in movies and TV shows, runs his own production company, and gets a few extra bucks from endorsements. Yet, the actor also knows how to enjoy himself and spend his hard-earned cash.

Here's how The Rock spends his millions.

Forbes named Johnson the world's highest-paid actor for 2016 with a whopping $64.5 million a year. The former wrestler works hard for his millions.

Source: Forbes

Johnson is a box-office juggernaut. Past successes have led to him commanding bigger pay days for upcoming films.

A few recent hits include:

"Furious 7" (2015):$1.5 billion
"San Andreas" (2015):$474 million
"Fast & Furious 6" (2013): $788.7 million

Source: Forbes

His most recent film, "Central Intelligence," grossed $210.3 million worldwide.

Source: Box Office Mojo

The most critically acclaimed TV shows in history have earned their praise by repeatedly producing innovative and memorable seasons.

Shows like "The Wire," "Breaking Bad," and "The Larry Sanders Show" consistently won over critics, and their best seasons have set a standard for what great television should look like.

To find out which series have been the most influential, we turned to the review aggregator Metacritic for its list of the all-time best TV seasons, which ranks shows by their composite critical reception.

Check out the 50 best TV-show seasons of all time, according to critics:

SEE ALSO: The 20 most-watched TV episodes ever, ranked

50. "The Larry Sanders Show" (Season 1)

Metacritic score: 91/100

User score: 6.7/10

Notable episodes: "The Garden Weasel," "Party," "The Hey Now Episode" 

49. "Sherlock" (Season 2)

Metacritic score: 91/100

User score: 9.1/10

Notable episodes: "A Scandal in Belgravia," "The Hounds of Baskerville," "The Reichenbach Fall"

48. "Frozen Planet" (Season 1)

Metacritic score: 91/100

User score: 8.8/10

Notable episodes: "To the Ends of the Earth," "Spring," "Summer"