After giving CinemaCon attendees a sneak peek last week, Paramount Pictures has publicly released the trailer for Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning , the eighth installment of the blockbuster spy franchise starring Tom Cruise as IMF agent Ethan Hunt, and a sequel to the events that played out in 2023's Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning .

This may, or may not, end up being Cruise's last film in the franchise; everyone's being pretty cagey about that question. But the trailer certainly gives us everything we've come to expect from the Mission: Impossible films: high stakes, global political intrigue, and of course, lots and lots of spectacular stunt work, including Cruise hanging precariously mid-air from a 1930s Boeing Stearman biplane.

(Spoilers for Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning below.)

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Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, founding members of the new wave hitmakers, pay tribute to their bandmate, who has died of cancer

Clem Burke, the drummer whose backbeats powered Blondie to huge chart success across multiple decades, has died aged 70.

He died following what his bandmates Debbie Harry and Chris Stein called “a private battle with cancer”, in a tribute posted to Instagram.

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The country’s best-known director was refused by Greece’s culture ministry when he applied to shoot scenes for sci-fi comedy Bugonia at iconic Athens site

Greece’s leading contemporary director has had a request to shoot footage for his new film at the Acropolis in Athens denied by his country’s culture ministry.

Yorgos Lanthimos had filed a request to film scenes for sci-fi comedy Bugonia at the fifth-century BC site in April. But in a statement on Thursday, the culture ministry said permission had been refused because “the proposed scenes are incompatible with the symbolism … and the values the Acropolis represents”.

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First-weekend takings of $163m in North America puts the adaptation of the wildly popular video game ahead of previous record holder The Super Mario Bros Movie

A Minecraft Movie has broken box office records to record the highest ever first weekend total for a video game adaptation.

According to the Hollywood Reporter , the film took $163m (£128m) on its first three days at the North American box office (including approximately $10m for preview screenings on Thursday), which puts it well ahead of the previous record holder The Super Mario Bros Movie, which took $146m on its opening weekend in the US and Canada in 2023.

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A pair of electrifying London shows bagged four prizes at the Olivier awards. Both were developed by Dutch company ITA, which has an eye for British talent

• Olivier awards: full list of winners
• Backstage at the Oliviers – in pictures
• Giant, Benjamin Button and Fiddler on the Roof triumph

The Royal Court and Regent’s Park Open Air theatre were among the victorious venues at Sunday’s Olivier awards, which recognise the cream of London’s Theatreland. But there was reason to celebrate in the Netherlands, too. The bold West End productions Oedipus and The Years, which picked up four awards between them, have their origins at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam (ITA) .

The theatre’s artistic director is Eline Arbo, who adapted and staged a version of Nobel prize-winner Annie Ernaux’s The Years for an all-female cast. After its success in the Netherlands, Arbo was invited to London’s Almeida theatre to direct the show with British actors. Among them was Romola Garai, who won the Olivier award for best actress in a supporting role, while Arbo was named best director. The production received rapturous reviews and has transferred to the West End where its run ( which ends on 19 April ) has been accompanied by regular reports of audiences fainting during its abortion scene.

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He made the ‘manky British’ set for Austin Powers, droppable ones for Mrs Doubtfire – and fangs for Tom Cruise. Gary Archer on crafting amazing gnashers for stars

Aimee Lou Wood has been one of the standout stars of the third series of The White Lotus, stealing almost every scene with her character’s wild one-liners and wide-eyed obsession with astrology. But the Bafta winner from Stockport has in recent weeks been getting as much attention for her teeth as for her winning turn in the hit show about a luxury resort. Vanity Fair and the New York Times have been notable fans of Wood’s natural look but there has also been a backlash, with beauty magazine Allure saying that “fawning over a rejection of perfection is misplaced”.

Gary Archer doesn’t know what the fuss is about. “They look all right to me,” he says of Wood’s teeth. He would know, because after working on 350 films and TV shows, plus 200 adverts, he is called the Godfather of FX Teeth in Hollywood and beyond. It was Archer who fashioned the unforgettable gnashers that Mike Myers sported in the Austin Powers films, a design that he feels actually led to the term “British teeth”.

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‘The demo had my singing on it. When I played it to the band, the look on their faces said, “We’re in trouble, boys”’

I was a pop producer working with the likes of Sheena Easton and Dollar. Mike Rutherford was a prog rock musician with Genesis. But the band’s publishing company thought the two of us – the yin and yang – would do well together. And they were right. We hit it off immediately.

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Guardian photographer David Levene was at the Royal Albert Hall to snap Cate Blanchett, John Lithgow, Lesley Manville, Naomi Campbell and many more

• Giant, Benjamin Button and Fiddler on the Roof triumph
• Full list of winners
• ‘To my wife for managing my vast collection of neuroses!’ – best quotes

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With its Iranian melodies, instrumentation and backing singers, Sheeran’s joyful new single is a reminder of how culture transcends borders

The Farsi word “azizam” – meaning my dear or my darling in English – may not have the same level of global resonance as habibi or ma chérie, but to us Persians it’s a daily refrain. We use it with our family, partners, friends; my cat probably thinks it’s her middle name by now. So it felt huge when Ed Sheeran announced that the lead single from his new album would be called just that: Azizam .

The track, inspired by the Iranian heritage of Stockholm-based producer Ilya Salmanzadeh, has divided critics, with a Telegraph review calling it “a slice of pure pop froth that couldn’t be any more generic and upbeat if it was written by an AI programme”. But these reproaches are missing a whole other dimension: that the song has triggered a huge emotional response from millions of Iranians around the world. “Hearing a beloved artist embrace our language with such care? We feel it. And we’re here for it,” said one popular comment on Sheeran’s Instagram.

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