J.D. Vance's “Hillbilly Elegy,” an election-year explainer to liberal America about the white underclass that fueled Donald Trump's rise, has been reborn as blandly overbaked awards bait....

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Wilford Brimley, who worked his way up from movie stunt rider to an indelible character actor who brought gruff charm, and sometimes menace, to a range of films that included...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Almost two years since a wildfire swept through his mountain town and virtually wiped it out, Steve “Woody” Culleton got to put the final touches on his new home.

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Ron Howard knew Paradise, the northern California town devastated by the most destructive wildfire in California history.

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio (AP) — The Ron Howard-directed movie "Hillbilly Elegy" will film for a few days in the Ohio city where most of the book is set.

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Director Ron Howard is planning to make a documentary about a Northern California town's attempt to rebuild after a devastating wildfire last year

National Geographic Documentary Films announced the project Thursday which will focus on the Sierra Nevada foothills town of Paradise, California. In November of 2018, flames destroyed nearly 15,000 homes and displaced over 50,000 people. Its working title is "Rebuilding Paradise."

DUNCAN, Okla. (AP) — Oscar-winning movie director Ron Howard says he still feels connected to the Oklahoma town where he was born but never lived, after visiting the now-shuttered hospital of his birth.

Howard this week posted a photo of himself on Instagram posing outside the boarded-up building in Duncan, 75 miles (120 kilometers) southwest of Oklahoma City.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Thandie Newton jokes that there might be something off about Alden Ehrenreich — because how else could he take on the pressure-filled role of Han Solo with so much ease?

CANNES, France (AP) — The Han Solo spinoff "Solo: A Star Wars Story" touched down Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival, bringing its cast and a full-sized Chewbacca to the French Riviera extravaganza.

Director Ron Howard, wearing a hat that read "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," introduced his cast before the film's international premiere at Cannes.

NEW YORK (AP) — Ron Howard's 40-year directing career almost ended before it began. His first day directing a feature film, the high-octane road movie "Grand Theft Auto," came the day after his 23rd birthday.

"I thought I was going to be fired by lunchtime," remembers Howard. "The second day felt more comfortable. By the wrap party, it had fulfilled all my expectations for how the job would energize me and satisfy me."

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Veteran Hollywood actor Rance Howard, the father of director Ron Howard, died Saturday. He was 89.

Ron Howard announced his father's death on Twitter Saturday afternoon. He praised his father for the ability to balance ambition with great personal integrity.

"A depression-era farm boy, his passion for acting changed the course of our family history," he wrote. "We love & miss U Dad."

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Actress Bryce Dallas Howard says her enthusiasm for New Zealand hasn't dimmed since she first visited at age 5 and was so stunned by the scenery she felt like she'd arrived on another planet.

Howard this week begins a campaign to promote the South Pacific nation as a tourist destination to Americans and Canadians. Howard first visited New Zealand when her father Ron Howard was directing the 1988 movie "Willow."

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ron Howard says he hopes to honor the great work that's already been done on the Han Solo film and help to deliver on its promise.

The Oscar-winner has only been in the pilot's seat on the Star Wars spinoff film for a day but is not wasting any time making his passion for the franchise known.

NEW YORK (AP) — Ron Howard is taking command of the Han Solo "Star Wars" spinoff after the surprise departure of directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.

Lucasfilm announced their replacement director Thursday, two days after Lord and Miller left the project over creative differences. Howard gives the reeling production a veteran hand in the wake of Lord and Miller's exit in the midst of shooting.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Following his successful Beatles documentary, Ron Howard is sticking with music. The Oscar-winner is directing a documentary about Luciano Pavarotti, the Italian tenor who rose to superstar status.

Howard's Imagine Entertainment and White Horse Pictures announced the untitled project Thursday.

Pavarotti transcended opera to become a leading tenor. Howard says Pavarotti's life is full of great drama and contradictions.

Some reaction to the death of filmmaker Jonathan Demme.

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"Jonathan taught us how big a heart a person can have, and how it will guide how we live and what we do for a living. He was the grandest of men." — actor Tom Hanks in a statement.

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"Jonathan Demme was a great artist, humanitarian, activist & a warm encouraging colleague. I've known very few like him. He will be missed." — director Ron Howard via Twitter.

CORYDON, Ind. (AP) — Authorities say former "Happy Days" star Erin Moran likely died from cancer at her southern Indiana home.

A statement released Monday by the Harrison County Sheriff's Department says an autopsy revealed the 56-year-old actress had stage-four cancer, but doesn't specify what type.

NEW YORK (AP) — Erin Moran, the former child star who played Joanie Cunningham in the sitcoms "Happy Days" and "Joanie Loves Chachi," has died. She was 56.

Moran was found dead Saturday by emergency responders after a dispatcher for the Harrison County, Indiana, sheriff's department received a 911 call, the department said. The cause of death has not been determined. An autopsy is pending.

NEW YORK (AP) — Erin Moran, the former child star who played Joanie Cunningham in the sitcoms "Happy Days" and "Joanie Loves Chachi," died Saturday at age 56.

A statement from the sheriff's department in Harrison County, Indiana, said the dispatcher "received a 911 call about an unresponsive female. Upon arrival of first responders, it was determined that Erin Moran Fleischmann was deceased. An autopsy is pending."

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ron Howard is among those set to guest star in a tribute to late TV sitcom king Garry Marshall in an episode of "The Odd Couple" next week.

Marshall died in July at 81. He developed the original "Odd Couple" TV series from the 1970s and acted in the current CBS version in an April episode, playing the father of Matthew Perry's character.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Terrible reviews and a seven-year gap since the previous installment helped extinguish "Inferno," the third film in the "Da Vinci Code" franchise," at the North American box office.

NEW YORK (AP) — Tom Hanks. Tom Cruise. Ben Affleck. None of them have been a match for Tyler Perry's Madea.

In a surprise victory at the weekend box office, Perry's "Boo! A Madea Halloween" toppled another A-lister as Hanks' and Ron Howard's new Dan Brown adaption, "Inferno," went up in flames. Perry's latest movie about his tough-talking grandmother remained No. 1 for the second straight week with an estimated $16.7 million.

By a twist of fate, there are two infernos you can submerge yourself in this weekend. You can either take the Dan Brown audio tour of Florence and Dante's Divine Comedy in Ron Howard's adaptation of the author's "Inferno." Or you can tiptoe around the edges of volcanoes with Werner Herzog, contemplating their mythic power in "Into the Inferno."

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tom Hanks wants in on Channing Tatum's gender-swapped remake of his 1984 mermaid romantic comedy "Splash."

Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are developing a new take on the film with Tatum starring as a mer-man in the part originated by Daryl Hannah.

We all know how "Deepwater Horizon " ends. When the BP oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, 11 people died and millions of gallons of oil spewed into the waters and up against the Gulf shores in the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.