Four awesome stars

If you watch more dark genre productions than anything else, then surely one of the characters will be less familiar to you than the other three. Fortunately, she does an excellent job, and as she’s the proverbial “straight man” in the comedy elements, it works perfectly fine if you have no prior knowledge of her work.

Her name is Lola Tung, and most will probably recognize her as the star from The Summer I Turned Pretty. However, it’s worth noting that she has another genre movie coming out in 2026. The next Osgood Perkins (Keeper) movie, The Young People, is expected to have a release date later in 2026.

So, while Lola Tung is moving into these genre productions, we have three other stars already doing well within our dark corner of entertainment.

One of them is a personal favorite of mine: Victoria Pedretti. From The Haunting of Hill House to The Haunting of Bly Manor (where she was the star), on to YOU and, most recently, Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, Victoria Pedretti just always makes everything better!

Rounding out the coven is the leader, played by Lili Reinhart, who was brilliant in American Sweatshop, and the fourth member, played by Alexandra Shipp, who played a title character in Tragedy Girls.

Also in the cast is Gabrielle Union (Breaking In), but you need to stay for the end-credit scene to actually see her. Before this, you only hear her voice.

Nearly five years on from its premiere, every morsel of information about Mike White’s addictive HBO series is still met with feverish excitement. And its upcoming fourth season is no exception: After previous visits to Hawaii, Italy and Thailand, the Emmy-winning series is checking into digs on the French Riviera, with its backdrop none other than the Cannes Film Festival.

Just as closely watched has been the string of starry casting announcements — and one very high-profile departure, Helena Bonham Carter, who departed the show shortly after production began. According to an HBO spokesperson, “With filming just underway on Season 4 of ‘The White Lotus,’ it had become apparent that the character which Mike White created for Helena Bonham Carter did not align once on set. The role has subsequently been rethought, is being rewritten and will be recast in the coming weeks. HBO, the producers and Mike White are saddened that they won’t get to work with her, but remain ardent fans and very much hope to work with the legendary actress on another project soon.”

The road to a new “White Lotus” season is always a twisty one, as executive producer David Bernad recently told The Envelope. He also shared details on the season’s themes, other key cast members and how the production plans to maneuver around tourists. Here‘s what we gleaned from our chat.

A bad French hotel restaurant experience changed everything: Bernad and White spent a week scouting in France but weren’t sold until one fateful night. “Mike and I went to meet a friend for dinner at a hotel in the South, which will remain nameless. The maître d’ was so rude and they called security on us,” says Bernad. However, once inside, the staffer continued to be dismissive of them and the show. “The whole season crystallized in that moment, and as we were leaving, Mike’s like, ‘I know exactly what we’re going to do and we’re doing it in the South of France.’ It was the most productive dinner I’ve had,” he says.

Other countries were in contention: Choosing each season’s swanky location is always a “conundrum,” says Bernad, who shared that he and White initially planned a multicountry European tour. “We were starting in France, then we were going to Spain, then Ireland. But once we had that moment in the South of France at that restaurant, Mike said, ‘I don’t want to see anymore.’ So the rest of the trip was canceled,” says Bernad.

Cannes and its history form the season’s backdrop: One of the show’s familiar sights during the first three seasons has been swelling waves dramatically crashing against rocks, but you’ll see something different in Season 4. “A lot of those shots will be replaced by Cannes, the city itself and the glamour of the festival,” says Bernad. Also, the focus won’t be confined to the present but also pay tribute to the past. “It’s also the storied history and glamour of the festival, and we’re going to be tipping our hat to French cinema throughout,” he adds.

Cast member Vincent Cassel at Cannes with “The Shrouds” in 2024.

(JB Lacroix / FilmMagic)

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The season’s theme is “really intentional”: Bernad says he’s known the Season 4 theme since they realized the hit show would be ongoing. “We’ve always had an idea that this season would explore the arts and fame, celebrity and the spiritual journey of being an artist, so we focused on countries that had a long relationship with the arts,” he says. Fashion’s influence is also key as “Dior permeates through the entire season,” he says, adding that French designers and artists are doing pieces for the show that lean into “the painful, existential journey of what it means to be an artist.”

No Hollywood star cameos: With Cannes as the backdrop, you might think A-listers like George Clooney or Anne Hathaway will be wandering through a “White Lotus” scene. Nope. “The show lives in the universe of ‘White Lotus’ so we’re not doing cameos, we’re not doing celebrity,” says Bernad. “In that universe, there are references to real people, but everything is its own world.”

Kumail Nanjiani is among the Americans in the international cast.

(Michael Buckner / Variety via Getty Images)

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The Season 4 cast is eclectic… and still evolving: Ironically, the exiting Bonham Carter was the first person cast for Year 4. “Mike always had her in mind as we started this process, and we built the cast around her,” says Bernad. While we wait for her revised character to be recast, an array of international artists are set to appear, including Brits (Steve Coogan and Dylan Ennis), Americans (Sandra Bernhard, Chris Messina, Kumail Nanjiani, Chloe Bennet, Ari Graynor, Heather Graham and Rosie Perez), French (Vincent Cassel, Corentin Fila, Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Laura Smet), Canadians (Alexander Ludwig), Norwegians (Tobias Santelmann), Swedes (Frida Gustavsson) and Australians (Caleb Jonte Edwards). It’s no surprise that multiple language interpreters will be on set, says Bernad.

One White Lotus hotel isn’t enough: “What’s cool and unique this season is there’s going to be two hotels so not everyone is staying at the same hotel,” says Bernad. In fact, while the White Lotus Cannes is a beautiful property — the Hotel Martinez in Cannes will be used for filming — the more coveted place to stay is the White Lotus du Cap, filmed at the Airelles Chateau de la Messardière in Saint-Tropez. “That starts to play into the theme and story about ego and narcissism and how we view ourselves as it relates to how the world views us,” explains Bernad, adding filming at Paris’ Mandarin Oriental Lutetia will also double for some of the Cannes action.

The Airelles Chateau de la Messardière in Saint-Tropez will stand in for the “White Lotus du Cap.”

(Jarry/Tripelon / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Filming in a high tourist area is a “Jenga tower”: Previous seasons were shot in more remote, secluded locations, but that’s not the case for the fourth season. “We’re shooting in the South of France during a very peak tourist time, and it has been the most challenging season so far,” says Bernad. “It’s like making a Jenga tower work with all the crazy dates in the South of France and things that are booked out.”

Production is the longest ever: Shooting at multiple hotels isn’t new for the show, but in previous seasons, “we would stay in a hotel and we would shoot it out and then we’d move on to the next hotel,” explains Bernad. This time, it’s more of a puzzle that will make Season 4 the longest production schedule ever for the show. “We’re going to be shooting, leaving and then returning [to properties]. We’ll shoot in the spring, and then we’re going to come back in the fall when high season’s over,” he says.

Besides a great hotel, another major factor exists in securing a location: Besides finding the perfect property that will look great on camera and lining up a variety of schedules, a “White Lotus” location “has to be a place we want to live for a year,” says Bernad. “Because it is a year and it is relentless work … I think Tanya [Jennifer Coolidge] says at one point, ‘At this age, you just want to feel comfortable,’ and that’s us.”

It’s been nearly 30 years since the untimely passing of singer songwriter Jeff Buckley. An artist who is lauded as being one of the most talented of his time and also continues to be a poster child for the “what if” possibility of a musical legacy that never was.

Director Amy Berg (Janis Little Girl Blue, Deliver Us From Evil) has crafted a documentary that is both a love letter to Jeff Buckley’s short life, but also gives fascinating insight into the man from the women who loved him the most and his closest friends and former bandmates. Berg uses a heady mixture of archival footage, interviews, cassette recordings of voicemails, vox pops and animations to weave the narrative of Buckley’s life.

His mother, Mary Guibert (also executive producer) talks about how from birth, Jeff was gifted with an angelic voice, an immediate musical talent and a sensitive disposition. His father, singer songwriter Tim Buckley, left before he was born and was barely in his life. Jeff had resented the fact that he was repeatedly compared to his father. Tim died in 1975 at the age of 28, something that almost haunted Jeff through his life. And sadly the fact that Jeff passed so young at age 30 didn’t help those comparisons after his death.

Berg’s film though prefers to not linger on the sadness and brings us back to the love, adoration and admiration that those closest to him had. Two of Jeff Buckley’s key muses in his life were Rebecca Moore and Joan Wasser who both share some details of their relationships with Buckley; and with so many women involved in this project it definitely gives the film a female gaze and warmth. Often complimenting his sensitivity and desire to advocate for the women in his life and their influence on his music.

When he was first signed to Columbia, Buckley set himself a challenge of writing 100 songs in 5 weeks; that’s 20 songs a week. He was fixated on being seen as a proper songwriter with his own catalogue of songs and like many artists was his own worst critic. He was praised by musical peers like Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, Thom Yorke of Radiohead and he was fortunate enough to perform for and with his idols like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Robert Plant. David Bowie is even quoted as saying ‘Grace’ is the best album ever made.

The paradox of his music was his raw feral rock energy influenced by Led Zeppelin as well as his ethereal angelic vocals inspired by Nina Simone or Edith Piaf. Songs like “Grace” or “Eternal Life” were full of raw anger whilst his cover of the Leonard Cohen song “Hallelujah” is revered as surpassing the original. A mix of a rock ‘n’ roller and a hipster chanteuse, he didn’t align with any of the current mainstream genres. Buckley was plagued with the dichotomy of wanting to be creative and put his feelings and emotions to music, but never wanted the trappings of fame or success that came with it.

Buckley’s career may have been short but it was wildly varied, performing in the tiny coffee house Sin-e in the East Village of New York where he was discovered by music executives through to stadiums and festivals in Europe. Initially when his first (and only) studio album ‘Grace’ was released, it was huge internationally but underperformed in the US charts. His record label insisted on him touring for nearly 3 years straight and then were demanding a follow up record to recoup.

As the pressure mounted, Buckley started falling deeper into a depressive state, worried that he could not live up to that first record. He retreated to a shack in Memphis to focus on writing his second record, tentatively titled ‘My Sweetheart The Drunk’. Those closest to Buckley recount him calling each of them to say how much he loved them and was sorry for any misgivings of the past. As the film nears its end it alludes to how Buckley may have even had bipolar or manic depression. His death, an accidental drowning in the Wolf River Harbour in Memphis Tennessee happened at 30 years of age. And whilst incorrectly mislabelled as a drug overdose by some media outlets or even a suicide, all those closest to him believe that was not the case and it was merely an accident.

For those not familiar with Jeff Buckley or his work, this is a comprehensive summation of Buckley’s all too short life and why he was considered such a luminary despite only ever releasing one official studio album. For those who loved him most, the grief and sadness Berg depicts is palpable. They lost a son, a lover, a friend, a bandmate. For fans of Buckley it reminds us of a talent that we were robbed of too soon. For all of us, his legacy is never over as new generations get an opportunity to discover his work, his talent lives on.

“It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley” is releasing through Piece of Magic Entertainment and screening in select Australian cinemas from 30 April 2026.