In Pictures: The week in Culture

Director Sam Mendes will helm not one but FOUR Beatles biopics, each one focusing on a member of the band. They will be released in cinemas in April 2028. The cast members were announced this week and it’s looking mighty promising. Find out more about the cast and the four films here.

Better late than never. The hour hand of a chapel clock that was taken in a student prank during the 1930s has been returned to a Cambridge college in England. The perpetrators of the prank were not known until now. Only the minute hand remains elusive… Click here for the full story.

After receiving over 2,700 submissions for new takes on Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’, the Mauritshuis museum is showcasing 60 selected artworks in a 3D-printed frame replica of the original. Check out the video.

When Donald Trump isn’t displaying charts of all the new tariffs affecting trade with countries across the world – which has stunned economists and driven certain European leaders to call for a hault in investments – he actually signed an executive order that didn’t seem idiotic. Trump invited rocker and MAGA supporter Kid Rock into the Oval Office and signed an executive order that he says will help curb ticket scalping and bring “commonsense” changes to the way live events are priced. Only question: If President Zelenskyy gets trash talked about not wearing a suit when meeting Trump, how come Mr. Rock gets a pass for his star-spangled nonsense of an outfit?

Comedian Amber Ruffin, whose skit for White House reporters was cancelled for fear of upsetting Donald Trump hit back this week at the journalists who dropped her. She mocked their perceived subservience to the president. “I thought when people take away your rights, erase your history and deport your friends, you’re supposed to call it out. But I was wrong,” Ruffin said during a brief appearance on NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers. “Glad to find that out now, because if they had let me give that speech, ooh baby… I would have been so terrifically mean.”

The co-writer and producer of the hit Netflix drama ‘Adolescence’ met with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer this week to discuss how to prevent young people from being influenced by toxic online content. In full.

We lost the great Val Kilmer this week. The star of Top Gun, The Doors, Batman Forever and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang died aged 65 from pneumonia. Fellow actor and friend Josh Brolin wrote: “You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker. There’s not a lot left of those.” Preach. Read more here.

During a recent family outing to Tel Azekah in Israel, 3-year-old Ziv Nitzan strolled along a path with her family. She picked up a stone which turned out to be an ancient scarab amulet dating back 3,800 years.  Here’s the full story.

Oliver Stone, the Oscar-winning director whose sinema JFK portrayed the President John F. Kennedy’s assassination as the work of government conspiracy, called for a new congressional investigation into his killing. Stone, 78, testified at a hearing of the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets following last month’s release of thousands of pages of government documents related to the assassination.

The greatest living British artist David Hockney is about to have the largest exhibition he’s ever had at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, with nearly 400 of his works taking over the entire building in the Bois de Boulogne. So why did the Paris Metro ban his exhibition poster?

Quentin Tarantino’s Oscar-winning 2019 sinema Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood is reportedly getting a sequel directed by David Fincher (Se7en, Zodiac, The Killer). Brad Pitt is set to reprise his Oscar-winning role as stuntman Cliff Booth. It sounded like an April Fools but it wasn’t. Here’s the lowdown.

CinemaCon was in full swing this week and the cast and crew of the new Superman film were on stage and shared a new sneak peek for the upcoming sinema. Anxious? Nervous? Worried? At least there’s a very good boi helping out Supes in no small way…

We’re soon getting not one but SEVEN new Bruce Springsteen albums. Overkill or are you as hyped as we are?

Tom Cruise opened his highly anticipated CinemaCon appearance with a moving tribute to his Top Gun star Val Kilmer. “He loved movies and he gave a lot to all of us with his performances and his films,” Cruise said to a room full of movie theatre owners. “I really can’t tell you how much I admired his work, how much I thought of him as a human being, and how grateful and honored I was when he joined ‘Top Gun’ and then came back for ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’” Cruise called for a moment of silence, which stood in stark contrast to the otherwise action-packed presentation of Paramount Pictures’ upcoming movies. “Thank you, Val. I wish you well on your next journey,” he said to the silent room.

See you next week and stay tuned to Euronews Culture for all your cultural news.