Terry Gross

Hoskins, who played a human detective in a world of cartoon characters in the acclaimed movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit, died this week after contracting pneumonia. He was 71 years old.

Weiner is currently writing and shooting the show's final episodes. He tells Fresh Air, "I'm going to be leaving these characters in a place where they belong."

New Yorker writer Dexter Filkins finds an increasingly authoritarian prime minister — Nouri al-Maliki — sectarian violence, and concern for the future. Iraq holds parliamentary elections Wednesday.