J.J. Hollywood

By Tony Rizzo

HOLLYWOOD -- There could have been a season 13 and 14 of “The Big Bang Theory,” but CBS overplayed its hand. At the beginning of season 11, CBS announced there would be only two more seasons of the hit show. Apparently, star Jim Parsons took them at their word.

He returned to Broadway in “The Boys in the Band,” and played Larry Simpson to Zac Efron’s Ted Bundy in “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile” for Netflix. By the time CBS decided to go for seasons 13 and 14, Parsons had moved on to other projects. Even though he still narrates “Young Sheldon,” which is a big hit, he must have some major plans, because even the alleged $50 million he would have earned for two more seasons couldn’t change his mind. His estimated net worth is $100 million ... Bazinga!

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Mel Gibson is back in a big way. He’s completed directing the sci-fi thriller “Boss Level,” with Frank Grillo and Naomi Watts, and began filming “The Passion of the Christ: Resurrection,” the sequel to “The Passion of the Christ” (the 2004 film that grossed $612 million). Jim Caviezel returns in the title role for an Easter 2020 release. lease. But even more ambitious is Mel’s plan to remake Sam Peckinpah’s pah’s all-star 1969 classic “The Wild Bunch.” So far he’s roped d in Michael Fassbender, Jamie mie Foxx and Peter Dinklage, late e of “Game of Thrones.” *** Not long ago we told you that hat “Twilight” star Robert Pattinson on needed a hit movie to make ke a comeback from a string of less than successful films. He e may have found that vehicle e in the dark black and white fantasy horror film “The Lighthouse,” with Willem Dafoe, which was wellreceived at the Cannes Film Festival.

If that doesn’t do the trick, he’s also completed “The King,” with Timothee Chalamet and Joel Edgerton, for Netflix; “Waiting for the Barbarians,” with Johnny Depp and Mark Ma Rylance; and “The Devil All the Tim Time,” with Riley Keough, Tom Holland and Sebastian Stan, also for Netflix. Now Pattinson’s just signed to star with Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh and Aaron Taylor-Johnson for director C Christopher Nolan in “Tenet,” an a action epic revolving around the world o of espionage. Nolan also wrote the sc screenplay. It’s his first film since his epic Os Oscar nominee “Dunkirk.”

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N Not to be outdone, Chris Hemsworth -ridin riding the crest of “Avengers: Endgame,” “Me “Men in Black: International” (due June 14) and “Dhaka” for Netflix (which he also co-p co-produced) -- is wrestling with Tiffany Hadd Haddish in the mismatched buddy/cop come comedy “Down Under Cover,” that gets them hilariously into all kinds of trouble. If Hemsworth Hem thinks he was upstaged in “Endga “Endgame” ... just wait!