New this Week: ‘Cinderella,’ Imagine Dragons, Selena Gomez

This combination of photos shows promotional art for the Hulu original series "Only Murders in the Building," premiering Aug. 31, left, the Amazon original movie "Cinderella" premiering Sept. 3, center, and the Netflix film "Worth," premiering Sept. 3. (Hulu/Amazon/Netflix via AP)
This combination of photos shows promotional art for the Hulu original series "Only Murders in the Building," premiering Aug. 31, left, the Amazon original movie "Cinderella" premiering Sept. 3, center, and the Netflix film "Worth," premiering Sept. 3. (Hulu/Amazon/Netflix via AP)
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New this Week: ‘Cinderella,’ Imagine Dragons, Selena Gomez

This combination of photos shows promotional art for the Hulu original series "Only Murders in the Building," premiering Aug. 31, left, the Amazon original movie "Cinderella" premiering Sept. 3, center, and the Netflix film "Worth," premiering Sept. 3. (Hulu/Amazon/Netflix via AP)
This combination of photos shows promotional art for the Hulu original series "Only Murders in the Building," premiering Aug. 31, left, the Amazon original movie "Cinderella" premiering Sept. 3, center, and the Netflix film "Worth," premiering Sept. 3. (Hulu/Amazon/Netflix via AP)

The Associated Press’ journalists prepared a collection of entertainment arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week.

MOVIES

— Michael Keaton leads the new Netflix film “Worth,” available starting Sept. 3, about the lawyer tasked with putting a dollar value lives of those killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. Based on a true story, Keaton’s character is forced to reevaluate his priorities after meeting a widower played by Stanley Tucci. The cast also includes Amy Ryan and Tate Donovan. Also on Netflix starting Sept. 1 are “Blade Runner: The Final Cut,” “Clear and Present Danger,” “Labyrinth” and “Mars Attacks!”

— “Pose” star Billy Porter plays a non-binary Fairy Godparent named Fab G in the latest version of “Cinderella,” streaming Sept. 3 on Amazon Prime Video. Pop star Camilla Cabello stars as the glass slipper-loser and Idina Menzel plays the Stepmother. Naturally, both are providing original songs for the soundtrack. It’s a stacked cast, too, with Minnie Driver as the Queen, Pierce Brosnan as the King, and James Corden and John Mulaney as the mice/footmen. And it was written and directed by Kay Cannon, who wrote the “Pitch Perfect” movies. Also on Prime, “Apollo 13,” “Sleepless in Seattle” “The Last of the Mohicans” and “The Social Network” are available starting Sept. 1.

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— The Criterion Channel is hosting a series of quintessential New York films starting Sept. 1 from Charlie Chaplin’s “The Immigrant,” from 1917 through Noah Baumbach’s “Frances Ha,” from 2012. It is a murderer’s row of great films across the century. There are ’60s classics like “The Apartment” and “West Side Story” and ’70s greats like “Sisters” and “The Panic in Needle Park.” There are 1980s essentials like “After Hours,” “Moonstruck,” “Do the Right Thing” and “Stranger Than Paradise,” leading up to indie classics from the 1990s and beyond with “Metropolitan,” “Paris Is Burning,” “The Squid and the Whale” and “Margaret.” It might accidentally take up your whole month.

— AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr

MUSIC

— Imagine Dragons are releasing their fifth studio album on Sept. 3 called “Mercury — Act 1” with Rick Rubin producing. One song, “Wrecked,” was inspired by singer Dan Reynolds’ late sister-in-law, Alisha Durtschi Reynolds, who died following a cancer battle. Another, “Follow You,” is a love song written by Reynolds after re-marrying his wife following a separation. And there’s one of the edgiest tracks yet from the band — “Cutthroat,” an anthem about killing the critic inside of you.

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— If you’re looking for something harder, look no further than Iron Maiden, whose 17th studio album “Senjutsu” drops Sept. 3 and is their first in six years. Though just 10 tracks, each one is long — one song, “The Parchment,” clocks in at over 12 minutes — so “Senjutsu” will be a double CD, just as their last, “The Book of Souls.” This time, taking a nod to the East, the band’s mascot, Eddie, sports a samurai sword on the cover. The first single, “The Writing on the Wall,” is a metal banger with layers of guitar and wailing solos. It paints a bleak picture of life: “Now we are victorious, we’ve become our slaves/A land of hope and glory, building graveyards for the brave.”

— AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy.

TELEVISION

— Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez are the odd-triplet stars of Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” and enticement enough to check out the comedy-mystery. The premise: A trio of true-crime addicts and neighbors in a posh Manhattan apartment building team up to solve the gory death of a fellow tenant. As they document their sleuthing for a podcast, long-dormant secrets come to light and a killer gets perilously closer. The 10-episode series debuts Tuesday.

— Billie Eilish and the city of LA star in a Disney+ special described as a cinematic concert experience. Eilish will perform her new album, “Happier than Ever,” in “Happier than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles,” debuting Sept. 3. Her performance at the Hollywood Bowl is joined with animation to take viewers on a promised “dreamlike journey” thorough Eilish’s home and its landmarks. The Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Gustavo Dudamel, Brazilian guitarist Romero Lubambo and singer-songwriter Finneas, Eilish’s brother, are among those making guest appearances.

— After a pandemic-forced production break, Showtime’s “Billions” returns for the second half of season five on Sunday (9 p.m. EDT). There’s shifting alliances as the power struggle continues between hedge fund manager Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis) and his prosecutor-nemesis Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti). Among those along for the undoubtedly bumpy, five-episode ride, ahead of the announced season six: Corey Stoll as billionaire Mike Prince and Janeane Garofalo as Winslow, who owns a legit cannabis enterprise.



Pulp Is Back for ‘More,’ Their First Album in 24 Years. Even the Britpop Band Is Surprised 

Jarvis Cocker of the band Pulp performs at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on Sept. 18, 2024, (AP) 
Jarvis Cocker of the band Pulp performs at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on Sept. 18, 2024, (AP) 
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Pulp Is Back for ‘More,’ Their First Album in 24 Years. Even the Britpop Band Is Surprised 

Jarvis Cocker of the band Pulp performs at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on Sept. 18, 2024, (AP) 
Jarvis Cocker of the band Pulp performs at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on Sept. 18, 2024, (AP) 

Pulp has returned with a new album, their first in 24 years. Who could’ve predicted that?

Not even the band, it turns out. “It took us by surprise as well,” dynamic frontman Jarvis Cocker told The Associated Press. “Why not?”

If there are casual Pulp fans, they don’t make themselves known. The ambitious Britpop-and-then-some band emerged in the late-'70s in Sheffield, England, artistic outsiders with a penchant for the glam, grim, and in the case of Cocker, the gawky. Fame alluded them until the mid-'90s, and then it rushed in with the trend of Cool Britannia.

Their songs varied wildly from their contemporaries, like the recently reunited Blur and soon-to-be back together Oasis. Instead, Pulp’s David Bowie-informed synth-pop arrived with humor, ambiguity and intellect — songs about class consciousness that manage to be groovy, glib, awkward and amorous all at once.

Then, and in the decades since, Pulp has inspired devotion from loyal fans across generations. They’ve charmed those lucky enough to catch band members in their heyday before a kind of careerism led to a hiatus in 2002 — and those who saw them for the first time during reunion tours in 2011 and 2022. With all that reputation on the line, it’s reassuring that the band has decided to give its audience “More,” their first new album in over two decades.

Give them ‘More’

There were a few catalysts for “More.” The first: “We could get along with each other still,” jokes drummer Nick Banks. “It wasn’t too painful.” The second: The band worked a new song into their recent reunion show run — “The Hymn of the North,” originally written for Simon Stephens’ 2019 play “Light Falls” — and people seemed to like it.

The third and most significant: The band’s bassist and core member Steve Mackey died in 2023.

“It made me realize that you don’t have endless amounts of time,” Cocker says. “You’ve still got an opportunity to create things, if you want to. Are you going to give it a go?”

And so, they did. Cocker assured his bandmates Banks, guitarist Mark Webber and keyboardist Candida Doyle that the recording process could be done quickly — in three weeks, lightspeed for a band that has infamously agonized over its latter records, like 1998’s “This Is Hardcore.”

Webber describes a “reticence to get involved in a yearslong process” that was alleviated when they started to work on new songs which came “quite easily.” That’s at least partially due to the fact that, for the first time in the history of the band, Cocker elected to “write the words in advance. ... It’s taken me until the age of 61 to realize it: If you write the words before you go into the studio, it makes it a much more pleasant experience.”

The 11 tracks that make up “More” are a combination of new and old songs written across Pulp’s career. The late Mackey has a writing credit on both the sultry, existential “Grown Ups” originally demoed around “This Is Hardcore,” and the edgy disco “Got to Have Love,” written around “the turn of the millennium,” as Cocker explains. “I did have words, but I found myself emotionally unable to sing them.”

“Without love you’re just making a fool of yourself,” he sings in the second verse. “I got nothing else to say about it.”

It makes sense, then, that the romantic song was held until “More,” when Cocker believed them — coincidentally, after he was married in June of last year.

A pop band reflects

Maturation — the literality of growing up on “Grown Ups” — is a prevalent theme on “More,” delivered with age-appropriate insight. “I was always told at school that I had an immature attitude. I just didn’t see any point in growing up, really. It seemed like all the fun was had by people when they were younger,” said Cocker.

“But, as I said on the back of the ‘This Is Hardcore’ album, it’s OK to grow up, as long as you don’t grow old. And I still agree with that, I think. Growing old is losing interest in the world and deciding that you’re not gonna change. You’ve done your bit and that’s it. That doesn’t interest me.”

“You have to retain an interest in the world and that keeps you alive,” he adds. “So, you grow up. And hopefully you live better, and you treat other people better. But you don’t grow old.”

In addition to “More,” 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the song that defines their career, “Common People.”

“That one, we’ve never really fallen out of love with,” says Webber.

“Because of the way it affects people, really, you can’t fall out of love with it,” adds Cocker.

“More,” produced by James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Fontaines D.C.), arrives Friday. The band will immediately embark on a UK and North American tour. Then, who knows? Is this the beginning of a new, active era for the band?

“The next one is going to be called ‘Even More,’” Cocker jokes. “Nah, I don’t know. The album wasn’t conceived of as a tombstone. ... The jury is out.”

“It wouldn’t be good for it to end up feeling like you’re stuck on a treadmill,” Banks adds. “And at the moment, it’s still pretty exciting.”