Latest news with #Zois
Pink Villa
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Pink Villa
Kate Beckinsale Sues Canary Black Producers for Forcing Her Into Hazardous Stunts Despite Doctor's Orders
Kate Beckinsale has filed a high-profile lawsuit against Canary Black producer John Zois and the film's production company, Anton Entertainment Media Services, Inc., accusing them of negligence, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The action-thriller, directed by Taken's Pierre Morel, was released on October 3, 2024. However, Beckinsale's legal battle began quietly in December that year under the alias 'Jane Doe,' as reported by Puck. On May 21, 2025, the actress amended her complaint, naming the parties involved and detailing the extent of her injury and subsequent mistreatment. Beckinsale initially suffered a complex meniscus tear in her left knee in December 2022 while performing on-set stunts. Following surgery and a production delay, her doctor, Dr. Jason Snibbe, advised against running, jumping, squatting, kicking, or any suspension work. Despite these clear medical restrictions, producers allegedly compelled her to resume action-heavy filming without making any adjustments or providing pre-training. According to the complaint, Beckinsale was subjected to punishing 15-hour shooting days with inadequate medical support and late stunt briefings. Her team repeatedly raised concerns about unsafe practices, including insufficient recovery protocols and a lack of clear communication regarding stunt expectations. As reported by People, her agent, Shani Rosenzweig, emailed Zois demanding immediate change, even warning, 'If you're trying to kill a person, you're doing a great job.' Though Zois responded with acknowledgment, the dangerous conditions allegedly persisted. The complaint states that Beckinsale's condition worsened due to the disregard of safety measures, resulting in aggravated injuries that could have been avoided. Her legal team—Marty Singer and Brian Panish—argues that the actions taken by the producers prioritized profit over her well-being. So far, representatives for both Beckinsale and Zois have not commented publicly on the ongoing legal matter.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Kate Beckinsale sues 'Canary Black' producers on claims of negligence and battery, citing 'unsafe conditions' on set
Kate Beckinsale is taking legal action against the producers of her 2024 thriller Canary Black. The Serendipity star is accusing Anton Entertainment and producer John Zois of negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and battery in a May 21 amended complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. The document, which Entertainment Weekly has obtained and reviewed, claims that Beckinsale suffered a knee injury after being exposed to "dangerous and unsafe conditions" on the film's set. Puck was the first to report on the news. The complaint claims, "Ms. Beckinsale and her team repeatedly raised red flags regarding unsafe conditions on and off set to Defendants, including long, dangerous set days, often lasting fifteen hours, inadequate equipment and medical personnel to help manage the high physical workload and recover from the exertion off set, and failure to adequately inform Ms. Beckinsale of what stunts she was expected to perform until often the moment she had to perform it." Beckinsale further alleges that despite the repeated concerns, the producers "continued to recklessly and intentionally forge ahead with unsafe filming conditions, forgoing safety to maintain profit margins, and in the process, put Ms. Beckinsale in harm's way." Beckinsale first took action against the film's producers in December, initially filing as a Jane Doe but in the newly amended complaint, details her on-set injury and several communications between her team and the film's producers. The complaint claims that Beckinsale's team reached out to producers several times to express their concerns. At one point, Beckinsale's agent, Shani Rosenzweig, wrote in an email to Zois, "No one is actually taking real action to put a plan in place to fix this situation so it never happens again… [Ms. Beckinsale] keeps showing up to set for her call time and everyone around her has been made aware it's going to be a 15 hour [or more] day except for her." Rosenzweig demanded immediate action to address the unsafe conditions, asking Zois to explain his plans for course correcting and adding, "If you're trying to kill a person, you're doing a great job." Per the complaint, Zois responded, "I don't know what else to say other than you're right," and agreed to shorten Beckinsale's work days, calling the pace of production "unsustainable." But Beckinsale's attorneys claim that "set conditions continued to be dangerous," despite Zois's promise, "with production staff routinely pushing Ms. Beckinsale to shoot for fifteen hourdays, and perform dangerous action sequences, without pre-clearing or pre-training." In December 2022, Beckinsale suffered a complex meniscus tear in her left knee while filming. The injury required surgery and halted production for months. Before returning to set, Beckinsale's surgeon insisted that the actress not be asked to perform stunts involving running, jumping, harness suspension, squatting, or kicking. This request was allegedly disregarded. Beckinsale's complaint claims that she suffered further aggravation of the knee injury as her doctors orders were repeatedly ignored and she was allegedly coerced into performing "unsafe action sequences." Representatives for Zois and Anton Entertainment did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly's request for comment. The lawsuit is not the first time Beckinsale has opened up about her on set struggles. In the wake of Blake Lively filing a complaint against her It Ends With Us costar Justin Baldoni — accusing him of sexual harassment and coordinating an online smear campaign against her — Beckinsale lauded the actress for the move in a now-deleted Instagram video. "I'm grateful to Blake Lively for highlighting the fact that this is not an archaic problem that no one's facing," Beckinsale said. "This is continuing. And then when it does happen, a machine goes into place to absolutely destroy you. And I'm sure that's the case in other industries as well. And it's just got to stop."The video also saw her outline some instances of on-set abuse. Though she did not specify the projects, Beckinsale claimed that on the set of two films, she was put in a "very unsafe fight situation," and on one of them, was "gaslit and made to feel like I was the problem" after being injured. She added, "There's a certain kind of actor who gets kind of a thrill out of legally being able to harm a woman during a fight sequence." Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Inzoi's game director teases plans for ghost Zois getting shackled to the mortal realm, karma-starved and seeking redemption if they die with a bad rep
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The early access launch for fresh new Sims competitor Inzoi is just about six weeks away and information about its features—those coming in time for early access and those planned to be developed later—are arriving at a weekly pace now. Over the weekend we got yet more details about Inzoi's life sim features, this time revolving around the afterlife. In his weekly teaser for fans in Inzoi's official Discord server, game director Hyungjun "Kjun" Kim got into talking about the paranormal, specifically ghosts. He acknowledges that Inzoi is mostly focused on realism, which is obvious from its glossy, well-lit visuals but also the features it's chosen to prioritize. Kjun does want to see some fantastical elements make it into the game though. "We want to keep the playability of ghosts fairly limited so it doesn't overshadow the main gameplay, but we also want to make sure the experience is engaging enough when it does happen," Kjun told players in Discord. 'Ghost gameplay' as Kjun's currently explained it revolves around Inzoi's karma system, which we saw a little of during some Inzoi playtests with content creators last year. They showed some karma-affecting actions (like farting?) and a karma score in each Zoi's profile. Kjun says that Zois who die with enough karma points will pack up for the afterlife peacefully, but those with poor karma will remain as ghosts and will need to hang about attempting to restore their karma. Ghosts as they'll be implemented for Inzoi's early access in March will be present but you won't be able to control them. That's planned for later. "Any further development for ghosts will have to come after the release," Kjun says. "That said, our current build allows you to encounter ghosts at set times under certain conditions." As for what's planned for even further down the line, Kjun doesn't count out the possibility of other paranormal Zois. "While we're committed to refining the realistic elements of inZOI first, I'd love to explore more fantasy-driven elements in the future," he added. The majority of life sim players coming from The Sims 4 will be familiar with the popularity of "occult" sims like ghosts, vampires, werewolves, mermaids, etc. They're a whole popular gameplay category, some with their own dedicated expansions packs. As Kim says, that's not really Inzoi's aim, but it's nice to see Inzoi Studio entertaining the idea of dipping into some of those popular fantasy characters. You can keep up with everything we know about Inzoi ahead of its early access launch in March and in the meantime keep track of the other upcoming games like the Sims that we're expecting this year. Sims 4 cheats: Life hacksSims 3 cheats: Classic hacksSims 4 mods: Play your waySims 4 CC: Custom contentProject Rene: What we know
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Upcoming The Sims competitor InZOI will feature ghostly Zoi that hang around after death to fix their karma
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The game director of InZOI, the upcoming competitor to The Sims, has revealed what happens to your Zois after they die. Spoiler alert: some of them may stick around. If you're someone who likes to let your Sims live out a natural life, dying due to old age or an unfortunate accident, congratulations, you're a monster and we can't be friends. I get far too attached to my creations and turn their aging off entirely, but for those of you who prefer to let nature take its course, there is some life after death in Inzoi. As spotted by PCGamer, director Hyungjun "Kjun" Kim took to the game's Discord server to explain some of its upcoming early-access features: "We want to keep the playability of ghosts fairly limited so it doesn't overshadow the main gameplay, but we also want to make sure the experience is engaging enough when it does happen." InZOI has a karma system, and if your Zoi has enough, it'll make its way to a peaceful afterlife when it dies. If it doesn't, it'll hang around after death as a ghost that you can "encounter at set times under certain conditions." They won't be playable right now, but that is planned for later on. "Any further development for ghosts will have to come after the release," Kjun says. Although the ghosts won't be playable yet, InZOI is implementing Nvidia Ace, the company's generative AI that features text-to-speech capabilities meant to make NPCs more life-like. It calls these NPCs "Smart Zoi," and in the video shared by publisher Krafton they sort of just seem like regular NPCs that react to the world around them. I saw the tech used at an Nvidia demo last year (not for InZOI), and wasn't very impressed, but maybe it'll be implemented in a creative way for InZOI. To get a better idea of what this Sims competitor will look like, check out our InZOI preview. You should also check out other games like The Sims if you're a fan of the genre.
