Categories
Widget Image
Trending
Recent Posts
Tech
Video
Monday, Oct 19th, 2026
Widget Image
logo
mobile-logo
HomeStandard Blog Whole Post (Page 300)
MCU

Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s official poster stood out because of a major detail that set it apart from other MCU promotional materials. Marketing for Brand New Day ramped up following the release of its first official trailer, showcasing the first look at the next chapter of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker. Despite the heartbreaking reset at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, where Doctor Strange’s spell erased all memory of Peter Parker from the world, both Jacob Batalon’s Ned Leeds and Zendaya’s MJ were still slated to return in Brand New Day, setting the stage for an emotional reunion between them and Peter. 

Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s theatrical teaser poster featured a close-up of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man mask, with Zendaya’s MJ clearly reflected in the glossy lens of his eye. This effectively made the MCU poster an intimate portrait of Peter’s lingering heartbreak from “losing” MJ after the reset he suffered at the end of No Way Home.

Sony Pictures

Brand New Day‘s teaser poster made MCU history as the first teaser poster for a Marvel Studios movie to feature a romantic interest who isn’t a titular character. As the ex-girlfriend Peter can’t quite move on from, the poster puts MJ front and center, indicating that she plays a prominent role in the upcoming Sony Pictures film. 

By reflecting MJ in Spider-Man’s eye, this also serves as a deliberate callback to the classic Spider-Man 2 poster that placed Doctor Octopus in the lenses. 

Other teaser posters of the MCU’s Spider-Man movies only featured Tom Holland’s Peter Parker at the forefront, making this Brand New Day one feel special, and what sets it apart is the emotional intimacy between MJ and Peter. 

Spider-Man posters.
Sony Pictures

It’s worth noting that some other teaser posters for MCU projects also featured characters who are love interests, but what makes them different is that they are titular characters, unlike MJ, who is not included in Brand New Day‘s title. 

Gamora prominently appeared on all three Guardians of the Galaxy movie posters, as she is one of the titular Guardians. 

Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy.
Marvel Studios

The Guardians of the Galaxy movie posters featured Gamora and highlighted the core group of heroes. This distinction makes the intimate focus on MJ in Brand New Day‘s poster feel especially fresh for a Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures marketing campaign. 

Guardians of the Galaxy posters.
Marvel Studios

This mirrors the situation with Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff on the Avengers: Age of Ultron teaser posters. As a core member of the titular Avengers team, Black Widow was featured as one of the central heroes, not simply as a romantic interest. 

Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff.
Marvel Studios

Another similar situation is with the Eternals teaser poster, which prominently featured Gemma Chan’s Sersi as one of the core titular Eternals. Like Gamora and Natasha Romanoff, Sersi wasn’t positioned as a peripheral romantic interest, as she was an essential member of the ensemble the film was named after.

Gemma Chan as Sersi in Eternals.
Marvel Studios

MJ’s big role in Spider-Man: Brand New Day isn’t surprising, considering the teaser trailer already hinted at it, such as possibly revealing Peter Parker’s secret identity as the titular web-slinger. 

Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrives in theaters on July 31.

Why MJ’s Inclusion In Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s Poster Has a Deeper Meaning 

MJ’s inclusion in Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s teaser poster didn’t just make MCU history; it also sent a bold signal that the film will deliver a profound emotional reset for Peter and MJ’s relationship, not just for Peter’s life as a whole. 

Brand New Day is expected to explore how Peter is starting over with the one person who once knew him best. The deeper meaning behind MJ’s inclusion is that she exists within his perspective (or the back of his mind), even though she’s no longer “supposed” to know him. 

The poster also quietly teased Brand New Day‘s central tension, mainly revolving around how MJ and Ned’s relationship with Peter has fundamentally changed. 

By doing this, Marvel gave a preview that Brand New Day won’t just be about bigger action and figuring out Sadie Sink’s mystery MCU character. Instead, a big chunk of the movie is about whether Peter can truly have a fresh start when the person who mattered the most (MJ) appeared to have already moved on.

Source link

0 Comments

DCU

I was a little disappointed when I heard that The Night Agent is set to end after four seasons. That’ll be only 40 episodes in total. What happened to action thrillers that’d had more than 20 episodes a season and lasted five or six seasons? I enjoyed the soon-to-end Netflix series because it reminded me of 24. When I was younger, I came to blows with a friend for breaking my DVD copy of the FOX hit. It’s not my proudest moment, but I’m sure Jack Bauer would approve.

24 was golden, addressing the ills of terrorism at the most appropriate time, just after America had suffered one of the worst attacks. Premiering in 2001, the show lasted nine seasons (including a short revival). Even though the threat of geopolitical-linked terrorism no longer feels as major as it did in the 2000s, the action thriller series still holds up. Here’s how.

’24’s Format Remains Unique

Kiefer Sutherland in 24. Daniel Smith / © Fox / Courtesy: Everett Collection

A TV series can only be deemed a masterpiece if no other project manages to replicate its format, tone, and thrills. The FOX easily ticks these boxes. Many real-time shows have been made over the years, but there still hasn’t been something quite like 24. The hour-by-hour storytelling is a major reason why the action thriller endures. Events strictly cover 24 hours of a day, with ticking clocks and occasional split screens creating added anxiety and euphoria. That sense of urgency cannot be matched, even among the most bingeable shows.

The characters, led by Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer, are another reason why the show holds up. Current TV action heroes like Jack Reacher and The Night Agent’s Peter Sutherland are often painted as morally upright dudes. They are too perfect. Bauer, on the other hand, makes you want to reprimand him almost every single time. When he yells, “Damnit, Chloe!” you wonder whether he should be shouting at his best friend like that. And when he tortures lawbreakers, a human rights bulb flickers in your head. But he isn’t the only one who deserves to be summoned to the principal’s office. In his world, even Presidents and government agents make questionable choices.

Above all, nothing beats 24’s action. Nothing beats the Day 8 scene where Bauer kills multiple Russian conspirators linked to the death of his lover, Renee Walker. Or when he attacks Charles Logan’s presidential motorcade. The fear in Logan’s eyes reminds you why you love television. More impressive is that there is always a cause-and-effect formula to the action. Jack’s attack on Russian diplomats ends up being his downfall. Other forms of violence also result in the deaths of innocent people. This truly is a show worth watching and rewatching in 2026.

A ’24’ Revival Might Happen

Jack looking at Chloe in 24. Fox

By earning 76 Emmy nominations, 24 broke new ground in its genres. The Television Academy tends to favor shows with a “drama” tone, so this was truly something special. Understandably, there has been a strong desire to have the show back. A spin-off titled 24: Legacy was released in 2017, but without Sutherland in the picture, ratings weren’t so good. A series revival was thus discussed. However, there appears to have been a pivot towards a feature film.

On Feb. 26, 2026, a 24 feature film was listed by Imagine Entertainment as one of the movies in active development. Plot details are under wraps, but you can bet on an “escape or rescue” arc that resolves the 24: Live Another Day cliffhanger that left Bauer in Russian captivity. In case you are wondering how the real-time ticking clock will fit into a cinematic format, the franchise did it before with 24: Redemption, a movie set between Day 6 and Day 7. In it, Bauer protects children from a militia group while working as a missionary in the fictional African nation of Sangala.

In late 2025, Kiefer Sutherland had expressed optimism in the project, stating:

“Well, I would love it. I love playing that character, and it would be nice to figure out a way to tell a story that has an end. There’s a lot of moving parts. Howard Gordon has written something that I thought was really interesting and exciting. It would be something that I’m certainly open to doing. I’ve certainly said that before. The people who are responsible for paying for it, they have to make their decisions based on other criteria, and so we’ll see what happens. If it happens, I’d be thrilled to do it, and if it doesn’t, we’ll find other stuff.”

At 59, the actor is a lot older than he was when he stopped playing Jack Bauer, but if anyone can be trusted to jump around without needing pain meds, it’s him. If Tom Cruise can do it, so can he.

“Previously on 24!” Here’s to hoping we hear those magical worlds soon.

Source link

0 Comments

I was a little disappointed when I

Comics

Season 3 of Battlefield 6 and Redsec arrives on May 12, and Battlefield Studios has released the patch notes ahead of the big update. In addition to the new content, this season’s update includes a variety of improvements to the game’s netcode, vehicles, gadgets, gameplay, and more.

Content-wise, players can expect a brand-new battle pass, three new guns, and a reimagining of Battlefield 4’s popular Golmud Railway map, which will serve as the Battlefield 6’s largest map to date. Redsec also receives a competitive Ranked mode for battle royale, allowing players to compete for rank, leaderboard status, and unique cosmetic rewards.

The Season 3 patch notes reveal several improvements designed to give Battlefield 6 a more polished feel. One notable change is a broad balance and handling pass for all vehicles. This includes better tracked-vehicle mobility, improved repair behavior, and updated damage and regeneration system for tanks. It also corrects an issue where a rider would previously be kicked off the dirt bike when doing a flip, so players can now go back to doing tricks mid-battle.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Source link

0 Comments

Season 3 of Battlefield 6 and Redsec

Festivals

When it comes to the horror genre, color palettes tend to be quite limited. Murky black shadows that hide untold terrors. Bright white flashlights that cut through the gloom, but only offer a limited perspective that prevents either characters or audiences from seeing too much. Sometimes, when a movie like Longlegs wants to get spicy, it’ll throw some muted browns in there, too.

This ultimately makes sense because horror movies derive most of their tension from the unseen. Audiences are kept on the edge of their seats, afraid of what that shape looming in the dark might be, or worrying about what frightening sights could emerge from a seemingly empty frame.

However, even though they are less common in the horror genre, bold and bright colors can be just as scary as pure darkness when they are wielded properly.

Red Can Turbo-Charge Scary Moments

One of the most common bright colors that appears in horror movies is red. There are a number of reasons for this. The first is obvious: blood is red. When a character is being harmed, a nicely placed splash of blood against, say, a white wall, will stand out visually. By making the result of violence stand out visually, a movie can also emphasize the impact of the violent act.

However, many filmmakers make the choice to entirely flood the screen with cherry-red light for key scenes. While part of the motivation for doing this is that it does bring blood to mind (and the potential for it to be spilled), there is another reason why so many movies use red practical lighting to illuminate scenes (most commonly, this light comes from emergency beacons, but it can also come from other sources, like the red flares used in the spelunking horror movie The Descent).

‘The Descent’ (2005)Credit: Pathé Distribution

So, why all the red? As anyone with a driver’s license knows, red is a warning color. This isn’t an accident. There is a psychological reason why stoplights and stop signs are red in the first place. The color draws the eye, alerting drivers to potential hazards that a less striking color like grey or brown might not have.

Bold colors like this are also warning signs in the natural world (think the red hourglass on a black widow or the bright colors of poison dart frogs), so red has long been associated with danger. Therefore, splashing a whole bunch of it on-screen is a quick and dirty way to amp the audience up.

Green Can Help Horror Get Under Your Skin

Green is another color that has proven to be very useful in horror movies. While a bright green hue is often used to evoke plants, ecology, and other wholesome ideas, there is a darker side to the color. Green is also the color of mold, after all, and a more mottled shade can make the entire frame look rotten and decayed.

Gross green hues are often used to this end in the Saw franchise, which primarily takes place in a hyperbolically squalid urban environment. This exaggeration is emphasized by green color grading that makes audiences just as desperate to escape the environment on-screen as the characters stuck in Jigsaw’s violent traps.

A woman strapped to a ceiling with a green light glowing behind her in Saw III ‘Saw III’ (2006)Credit: Lionsgate Films

A popular way to fill the screen with green is to use night vision cameras, which render the people and objects in frame in a variety of unnatural green hues. This trick is most commonly used in found footage movies like Paranormal Activity, Cloverfield, [REC], and its remake, Quarantine, but it has also been used to great effect in traditionally shot movies such as 28 Weeks Later, The Silence of the Lambs, and The Descent.

Manuela Velasco as Angela Vidal looking scared in night vision in REC ‘[REC]’ (2007)Credit: Filmax

Blue Can Amplify Darkness

Bright blue color grading is also handy in horror. The genre tends to take place at night, when it is much more difficult to see what’s hiding in the corner of the room. While night is most often brought to the screen with a dark color palette of blacks and charcoal greys, blue color grading can add a new dimension to those scenes.

Blue is a cool color that is often associated with loneliness, so a nice blue tone onscreen can make the darkness of night feel even colder and more isolating. This trick was used quite often in the 2000s to intensify the darkness of the horror movies. Although it was perhaps most notably utilized in the horror-adjacent romance Twilight, it can also be found in Daybreakers, Dead Silence, Underworld, 30 Days of Night, and many more.

The color blue can also mimic the bloodless skin of a corpse, making movies feel clammy and unsettling. This can be seen in Gore Verbinski’s J-horror remake The Ring, which is one of the progenitors of the 2000s “blue horror” trend. The movie uses blue hues to visually evoke the sheer cold, wet deadness of the ghostly villain, Samara (Daveigh Chase), who has been rotting at the bottom of a well for years.

Samara emerging from the well in The Ring ‘The Ring’ (2002)Credit: DreamWorks Pictures

Color Can Entirely Drive A Horror Movie’s Atmosphere

The above colors are some of the most useful for the horror genre, but every color of the rainbow can come in handy in one way or another. While a well-placed hue tends to work better than one that is thrown into a frame randomly, horror movie colors don’t necessarily have to operate within the framework of color psychology in order to be effective.

This is perhaps best evoked in Dario Argento’s 1977 masterpiece Suspiria. The movie follows young American Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper) arriving at a German ballet school with sinister secrets. She eventually discovers that the school is run by witches serving the Mother of Sighs, Helena Markos, and the coven has been killing off students and staff by various magical means.

Argento frequently floods the frame with unnatural, bold hues to highlight the feeling of being plunged into a surreal, supernatural world that operates in ways that can’t quite be understood by the mortal mind. Reds, purples, blues, greens, and yellows abound throughout the film, all adding up to an overwhelming feeling of pure, surreal horror.

Take a look at how Argento and cinematographer Luciano Tovoli light the following frames, all of which come from just the first two scenes of Suspiria:

Color in ‘Suspiria’

Credit: Produzioni Atlas Consorziate

Suspiria swings rapidly between different colors, unsettling the audience through the sheer boldness of its aesthetic. There is no clear in-universe rhyme or reason for why the lighting looks this way. No green night vision or red flares or anything of the kind. Just pure, unholy weirdness from top to bottom.

However, Suspiria and the other titles in this article are just a handful of examples of horror movies that wield color well. What are some of the most memorable uses of bold colors in horror movies that you’ve seen?

Source link

0 Comments

When it comes to the horror genre,

TV

Dua Lipa has filed a $15 million lawsuit against Samsung, accusing the electronics company of using her likeness to sell TVs without her permission or compensating her.

In a complaint filed on Friday in the Central District of California, the multi-Grammy winner is accusing the electronics company of “copyright infringement, trademark infringement and violation of her right of publicity in order to obtain redress for the massive, continuing, unauthorized commercial exploitation of her valuable image and likeness.”

Lipa alleges that Samsung used a photo, which she owns the copyright to, that was taken backstage at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2024 and displayed it on the packaging for various Samsung TVs since 2025.

“Recognizing Ms. Lipa’s notoriety and goodwill, Samsung used a copyrighted image of Ms. Lipa without authority or license and prominently featured it on the front of cardboard boxes containing Samsung manufactured televisions for retail sale,” the suit states.

The “Levitating” singer claims that Samsung has continued to profit off her likeness and refused to comply with her demands to stop using the image, calling the company’s response “dismissive and callous.”

The complaint alleges that the electronics manufacturer has falsely conveyed to consumers that Lipa endorsed the product, even though she has not. As an example, the suit quotes comments posted on X and Instagram that suggest some customers were persuaded to buy the TVs because of the “Don’t Start Now” singer’s photo.

“I wasn’t even planning on buying a tv but I saw the box so I decided to get it,” one comment read, while the complaint states that another fan posted that they would “get that tv just because Dua is on it.”

“Ms. Lipa’s face was prominently used for a mass marketing campaign for a consumer product without her knowledge, without consideration, and as to which she had no say, control, or input whatsoever. Ms. Lipa did not allow and would not have allowed this use,” the suit states.

The Hollywood Reporter reached out to Samsung for comment, but did not hear back at the time of publication.

Source link

0 Comments

Dua Lipa has filed a $15 million

What to Watch

You are listening to the Daily Roundup here as part of the Reality. Steve Podcast, I’m your host reality. Steve, thank you all for tuning in on this Wednesday. A good show for you today. Yes. We are going to talk a little bit about Nick Al’s podcast yesterday discussing the Taylor Frankie Paul situation.

Pretty much what you would expect from a guy like that, a fraud and a phony like that. We’re also gonna talk a little bit more about Taylor, Frankie Paul. A couple things that maybe I haven’t mentioned just yet, but then we are gonna move on, at least for today. We are gonna talk about a couple other things, one in Bachelor Nation and that is Bachelor Manchin Takeover.

The episode that aired on Monday, we’ll discuss that and it’s been a couple weeks, but if I’m gonna break out of my Bachelor Nation topics. What’s one topic if it’s on the entertainment sites that I will break from Bachelor Nation to talk about? You got it, Bonnie Blue. Let’s get started. So Nick and Natalie did their podcast yesterday talking about the Taylor Frankie Paul situation.

If you haven’t seen the clip going around back in September after. Taylor, Frankie Paul was named a Bachelorette on September 10th. Nick Vaal basically took full credit for it, said it was a genius idea. He basically told producers this is what to do, and he actually said on a podcast, you’re welcome, bachelor Nation.

Do you think he ever brought that up in yesterday’s podcast? The answer would be no. Now, I did not listen to the podcast. You know, my. Deals with Nick. I just, I can’t, I can’t bring myself to listen to a full podcast that he does, but I am getting this information from people who did listen to it, and I asked three different people did he ever bring up how in favor he was.

And it was his idea for Taylor, Frankie Paul to be the Bachelorette. And all of them said, no, he did. The other thing that I noticed in the clip that he posted was he had on a lawyer and he spent an awful lot of time talking about why and how this video got out. Again, when it comes to this situation, and let’s remember Taylor, Frankie Paul took to social media a couple days ago and called Nick Vial.

Her hype man, Nick Vial, also hosted. The season three reunion show of Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Nick Vial is not liked by Whitney Levitt, so just keep these in mind. And it was clear by putting that out as one of his clips on his Instagram page yesterday that they wanted to spend a good amount of time talking about how did this video get released.

Look, we all have that question. And the lawyer that they had on basically broke it down and said only three possible people had access to release this, the courts, the lawyers, or Dakota himself. And they basically eliminated the courts and the lawyers. So it is an accusation, but it’s not an accusation that most people who are Taylor, Frankie Paul fans have not said since the day this video came out.

Taylor or Dakota totally released this to ruin her Premier. Once again, when it comes to this situation, two things can be true. I don’t know if Dakota released this video. I have no idea, but if he did, my response to that would be, and two things can be true. Dakota released the video, which I don’t know if he did or not, but it can be true that he did.

And he gave it to TMZ. The other thing that can be true in that situation is on that video, Taylor, Frankie Paul, committed criminal acts. She chucked a bar stool three times at her baby daddy, and one time it deflected off him and hit her baby in the head, which according to the police report, gave her daughter a goose egg on her head.

So why people can’t seem to think that two things can be true at the same time when it comes to the situation is not being objective. And you can tell who is a Taylor Frankie Paul fan, because I can repeat this till I’m blue in the face. This is a situation where I’m not Team Dakota, I’m not Team Taylor.

I’ve told you how disgusting this video was, how disgusting it is for everybody involved. How disgusting it is that children are involved in this. There’s so much wrong with everything going on in this, but as a content creator who covers this show, clearly I’m going to talk about it. I just have having a hard time understanding.

Like I said, when the video came out, it was, yeah, but what led up to it? Okay. I just have a little something for the people. The what led up to it, people. Let’s just say the video was flipped around, and let’s just say that everything that Taylor did in that video to Dakota, let’s just say it was flipped around in that video.

There’s video out there. Let’s say there was a video that got released last Thursday of Dakota doing everything in that video that Taylor did to him, of him doing to her screaming at her, calling her names, chucking a Boris stool at her three times where it deflects off her. And hits her child. If that were the video that were released, and I’m just speaking to the people that are what, what about what happened before that?

Just speaking to those people, if that was the video that got released, would your response be, yeah, but what did Taylor do to lead him to that point? I think we know the answer, which is you wouldn’t ask that. Okay. So. Is it fair to be able to ask that the other way around when this is the case when we already know they have a volatile relationship and it’s the reason I played the clip the other day of Taylor on the podcasts when she was pregnant with Everett, talking about that night and saying, look, I’m not saying other times in their relationship, he didn’t instigator her, and I’m sure he did.

But that particular night, she’s had numerous chances to tell people what happened that night and everything that she has said, I tend to believe her.

She’s had every opportunity to throw him under the bus on that particular evening, and she never. She said I was out drinking with the girls. He came and picked me up. I was depressed. I was sad about everything going on in my life. I turned that sadness into anger. I was the aggressor. I threw chairs at him and you want me to focus on something that wasn’t on the video?

It’s really weird. I don’t really understand it, but it’s no surprise to me that one Nick didn’t take any accountability. For basically bragging in September. It was his idea to cast Taylor, Frankie Paul, and number two, that he spent a lot of time going after Dakota on that podcast. He didn’t excuse Taylor’s behavior, but you can tell the way he was talking about it.

It was more about what about Dakota In this relationship, look, we concede it’s a terrible, toxic relationship. They’ve both screwed with each other. They’ve both done bad things to each other. She’s accusing him of emotional and physical abuse. As far as I know, she doesn’t. She hasn’t up, up to this point presented any evidence of physical abuse.

The only physical abuse that we have seen at all in the three years, these two have been dating each other, was that video that got released last Thursday. Maybe she’s got some and it’s gonna come to the forefront, and at that point we will absolutely crucify Dakota. I can’t crucify the video that came out last Thursday and jump all over Dakota for that video if he released it.

What does it matter? What does it matter who releases it? Shouldn’t what matter is the content of the video. This podcast is brought to you by Ollie. 91% of dog parents say their pup is an important member of the family, and 40% would even save their dog over a human stranger. Safe to say, people are obsessed with their dog.

I am. My dog runs this household. I just do what she does. She has to watch the TV shows that I do, but she loves them. I think and anyone who gets being dog obsessed, it is Ollie. They are relentless about delivering the best food and experience for you and your dog, and they give you a way to check in on their health.

Ollie’s fresh recipes are developed by real chefs and backed by vet nutritionists. They’re obsessed with making the best meals with the highest. Quality ingredients. My dog absolutely loves all these meals. Luca loves the treats. She loves the frozen meals that get thawed out in the refrigerator. I put it in her bowl and I swear her energy picks up after she has this because she’s been dri eating dry food for so many years.

Get ready for both you and your pup to be obsessed. Head to ollie.com/reality. Steve, tell them all about your dog. Use the promo code reality Steve to get 60% off your welcome kit when you subscribe today. Plus they offer an obsession guarantee. If you’re not completely obsessed, you’ll get your money back.

That’s ollie.com, OLLI e.com/reality, Steve, and enter promo code reality. Steve, to get 60% off your first box, Ollie feed the obsession.





Source link

0 Comments

Share Tweet Share Share Email You are listening to the Daily Roundup

Awards

Don Lemon announced Sunday that his independent media company Lemon Media Network (LMN) is expanding its newsroom and operations teams. According to a release from LMN, the network has amassed more than 10 million subscribers across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Substack, Facebook, Twitch, Threads and Bluesky, with half of the growth occurring in the last year.

“Two years ago people told me independent media was a step down. Ten million followers later, I think we’ve answered that,” Lemon said in a statement. “While legacy media chases false equivalence, outrage and endless food fights, audiences are moving toward voices that feel authentic, direct and trustworthy.”

He continued, “There’s a real freedom in what we’re doing here. No corporate boss, no fear of losing the job for telling the truth. We answer to the audience, not the elite, the oligarchs or the Oval Office. That’s what freedom of the press is supposed to mean. The networks have the resources. We have the relevance. They should be asking themselves why. And starting today, I’ve got a daily newsletter for our subscribers on Substack, The Lemon Lucky 7. Seven stories, every morning, from me.”

Douglas Robins will join as director of operations, and previously served as a policy advisor for Louisiana Governor’s office.

The news comes months after Lemon was arrested on federal civil rights charges after covering a protest in St. Paul. The charges included conspiracy to deprive rights and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which prevents one from interfering with someone’s First Amendment right of religious freedom.

“Thank you, thank you. I wanted to say this isn’t just about me, this is about all journalists, especially here in the United States,” he told reporters at the time. “For more than 30 years I’ve been a journalist and the power and protection of the First Amendment has been the underpinning of my work for the First Amendment, the freedom of the press, the bedrock of our democracy.”

Lemon added, “The process is the punishment with them. I will not be intimidated, I will not back down. I will fight these baseless charges, and I will not be silenced.”


JD Vance and Don Lemon

Source link

0 Comments

Don Lemon announced Sunday that his independent

Music

Ballet flats are the quintessential spring shoe. In fact, those who can’t—or simply don’t want to—wear sandals continue to wear them throughout the entire summer season. When you think about it, it’s not surprising; few flat shoes are as versatile as ballet flats. So much so that we’ve even seen some of the most stylish guests wearing them with midi and maxi dresses during event season.

Their styling guide is clear: they go with everything, from slip skirts and mini dresses to trousers in all their variations. But what about colors? In the past, we would have told you to stick to neutral tones like camel, black, or cream—the chromatic holy grail for the most classic—but in the era of maximalist aesthetics, the tables have turned, and trends invite us to play with other shades. Some of them quite unexpected. From cobalt blue to brown, and even red ballet flats: these are the must-have colors of the season.

Cobalt blue ballet flats

In Berlin.

Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images

As Vogue predicted earlier this year, cobalt blue is shaping up to be the color of 2026. Cobalt (also known as Yves Klein blue , an intense shade developed by the French artist in the 1950s) is a color that, after being relatively uncommon in recent years, has become a major trend on the runways in the last two seasons. In terms of accessories, we first saw it in handbags, and now it’s coming for footwear. Specifically, ballet flats, which are available in suede, mesh, and even trendy jelly styles.

Source link

0 Comments

Ballet flats are the quintessential spring shoe.

Docs

Michael Pennington, a celebrated Shakespearean actor who also appeared in “Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi,” has died, according to The Telegraph. He was 82.

In “Return of the Jedi,” Pennington appeared as Moff Tiaan Jerjerrod, an Empire admiral responsible for overseeing the construction of the second Death Star. Pennington also appeared in Tony Richardson’s 1969 “Hamlet” and 2011’s “The Iron Lady.”

Outside of those major works, most of his on-screen acting happened on television. His most recent TV credits include “Raised By Wolves,” “Footprints,” “Endeavour,” “Father Brown,” “The Escape Artist,” “Silent Witness” and “Into the Storm.” He also starred in the 1987 TV movie “The Return of Sherlock Holmes” as the titular detective, as well as 1989’s “The Wars of the Roses,” which was a televised series of Shakespeare’s history plays performed by the English Shakespeare Company.

Pennington was best known for his work on the stage as an accomplished Shakespearean actor. According to The Telegraph, in 1980, he turned down the starring role opposite Meryl Streep in Karel Reisz’s 1981 drama “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” so he could star as Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Pennington reportedly said at the time, “I realised I couldn’t let Hamlet go. It is one of the prizes.” Jeremy Irons stepped into his part, and the film went on to be nominated for five Academy Awards.

Born in 1943 in Cambridge, Pennington attended Trinity College, but it was as a child studying at Marlborough that he decided he wanted to be an actor after seeing TV and stage actor Paul Rogers play Hamlet.

Source link

0 Comments

Michael Pennington, a celebrated Shakespearean actor who

Global

On a day moms are feted with brunch and flowers for Mother’s Day, a different kind of observance has taken shape in Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg.

The non-profit Parentless Club has turned what can be a challenging day for those who’ve lost their moms, into what they call The Pity Party You’ll Actually Want to Go To.

Events include crafts, food, drinks and most of all, support from others who understand loss and the complicated relationship with Mother’s Day.

“I still wanted to continue to commemorate my mom and even celebrate my mom on Mother’s Day but I didn’t have a space to do it,” says Parentless Club co-founder Amanda Katz. “So rather than sitting around and wait(ing) for something to happen, I created this event.”


The inaugural Motherless Day event was held in Winnipeg May 10. It was born in Toronto in 2024 and has taken root in Vancouver too for those honoring and celebrating their late mothers.

Melissa Ridgen

Motherless Day began in Toronto three years ago. Katrina Zborowsky, who lost her mom in a cycling accident in 2020, dreaded the day and happened to be in Toronto for a bachelorette party when she heard about the event.


Story continues below advertisement

“Friends convinced me to go and pretty much walked me to the venue and said “If it’s not your space, we’ll come pick you up don’t worry,’” Zborowsky says.

Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won't miss a trending story.

Get breaking National news

Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.

But it was her space. She attended the following year too and this year, brought the event in Winnipeg.

“Its a place to mingle and have laughter and levity on a day that can kind of be tough for us,” she says.

The hope is to see the idea continue to grow to support those who mark the day differently than those who can still celebrate the day with their mothers.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Source link

0 Comments

Descrease article font size Increase article font size On

Trending

Image Credit: WireImage

Martin Short and his family are continuing to mourn the loss of his eldest daughter, Katherine Short, who died in February 2026 at age 42. In the months since her death, the beloved comedian has spoken publicly for the first time about the tragedy, describing it as “a nightmare for the family” during a recent interview tied to his upcoming Netflix documentary Marty, Life Is Short.

“It is with profound grief that we confirm the passing of Katherine Hartley Short,” a representative for Martin previously told USA Today. “The Short family is devastated by this loss and asks for privacy at this time. Katherine was beloved by all and will be remembered for the light and joy she brought into the world.”

Learn what we know about Katherine’s heartbreaking death below.

How Many Kids Does Martin Short Have?

Martin is a dad of three. He adopted all three of his children, Katherine, Oliver and Henry, and shared them with his late wife, Nancy Dolman, who died in 2010 following a battle with ovarian cancer.

What Happened to Katherine Short? Her Cause of Death

While the Short family initially did not publicly disclose how Katherine died, multiple outlets later reported that her death was ruled a suicide. TMZ reported that Katherine died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, citing her Los Angeles County Department of Public Health death certificate.

According to the outlet, Katherine was found dead at her Hollywood Hills, California, home on February 23, 2026. Law enforcement and emergency responders reportedly arrived at the residence shortly after 6:40 p.m. local time.

In May 2026, Martin spoke publicly about his daughter’s death for the first time, revealing that Katherine had struggled with severe mental health challenges, including borderline personality disorder, for years before her death.

What Did Katherine Short Do for a Living?

Unlike her father, Katherine was a Los Angeles-based licensed clinical social worker. She graduated from New York University in 2006, and he accompanied Martin to various red carpet events and other public outings throughout his career.

If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or considering suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Source link

0 Comments

Image Credit: WireImage Martin Short and his family

Tech

  • Skymizer claims giant AI models no longer need hyperscale GPU infrastructure
  • Old 28nm chips suddenly power massive language models at surprisingly low wattage
  • The HTX301 squeezes 384 GB of memory into a single PCIe accelerator card

A Taiwanese company called Skymizer has unveiled a PCIe AI accelerator that challenges both AMD and Nvidia using surprisingly old technology.

The HTX301 card can run language models with up to 700 billion parameters on a single device while consuming only 240 watts of power.

Source link

0 Comments

Skymizer claims giant AI models no longer

Video

“Saturday Night Live” cast member Jeremy Culhane took another spin around the block as conservative commentator Tucker Carlson this weekend on “Weekend Update,” tackling his grievances with the Met Gala (The Rock in a skirt) and problems with “Michael” (the movie’s ending means its titular character “doesn’t get to live a beautiful white life anymore.”)

“Come on, everybody. Let’s all prance around in our $100,000 clown outfits and watch the American Empire crumble,” Carlson began as he spoke about the Met Gala. “What are we doing? What’s going on?”

After being asked by Colin Jost if he enjoyed the night, Carlson explained, “I loved it because when I go to a museum, I don’t want to talk about history. No. I want to look at The Rock in a skirt. Do you smell what The Rock is cooking? Because I do, it’s gender confusion. That’s the goal. That’s the goal now.”

Culhane’s Carlson also decried Madonna’s outfit of choice (“The big pirate ship on her head. And I have to be attracted to this?”) and took a swipe at Heidi Klum.

“Oh yeah, the left has finally gotten what they’ve wanted. They put the Statue of Liberty in a burqa,” he said. “What’s next? Is the Chrysler Building going to become the antichrist-ler Building? What are we doing? Is this the New York we want to live in, Colin?”

Jost replied that Carlson lives in Maine, which set off another tangent that involved an ad for “round bananas.”

The appearance of Met Gala attendee Jafar Jackson, who plays his uncle in “Michael,” also prompted a response from Culhane’s Carlson. “Oh, yes, right. Some people were upset about the movie,” Jost said.

“And they should be. The movie ends in 1988, so obviously they avoided something serious that needs to be acknowledged,” Culhane’s Carlson replied. “The part of Michael Jackson’s life no one wants to talk about anymore. The part when he was a white man. Sorry, kids, Michael Jackson doesn’t get to live a beautiful white life anymore. Who does that remind me of? Oh, that’s right, all of us. ‘Shamona,’ yeah. More like ‘shame on ya.’”

Culhane-as-Carlson and host Colin Jost had time for one more attendee: rapper A$AP Rocky. “Now let’s talk about A$AP Rocky’s outfit. He was on the red carpet — wearing my least favorite color, African American,” the actor deadpanned.

Watch the clip from “Saturday Night Live” in the video above.


Left: Aimee Lou Wood for "SNL U.K." (Sky One/YouTube), Right: Sarah Sherman on "Saturday Night Live" (NBC/YouTube)

Source link

0 Comments

“Saturday Night Live” cast member Jeremy Culhane

Entertaintment

Martin Short opened up about his daughter’s death by suicide earlier this year for the first time in a new interview.

Speaking to CBS Sunday Morning ahead of the release of the Netflix documentary Marty: Life Is Short, the comedian-actor talked about how tragedy marred his childhood, as he lost an older brother and both his parents before he turned 20.

“What it developed in me was this muscle of survival and handling grief and a perspective on it,” Short said.

That tragedy continued into adulthood, as his wife Nancy Dolman died of cancer in 2010, his longtime friend and collaborator Catherine O’Hara died in January, followed weeks later by his daughter Katherine, who died by suicide in February. 

Speaking about his daughter’s death for the first time, Short said, “You know, it’s been a nightmare for the family, but the understanding that mental health and cancer — like my wife — are both diseases, and sometimes with diseases, they are terminal.”

Trending Stories

He continued, “My daughter fought for a long time with extreme mental health — borderline personality disorder, other things — and did the best she could until she couldn’t. So [Nancy’s] last words to me were ‘Martin, let me go,’ and what [Katherine] was just saying, ‘Dad, let me go.’”

Short continues to remain resilient in the face of the tragedies, with another season of Only Murders in the Building about to film and plans to return to Broadway with co-star and now-girlfriend Meryl Streep. “We are trying to figure out something, we’re just not sure if the box office is gonna be there,” Short joked to CBS Sunday Morning. “It’s a gamble, you never know how Meryl is going to do at the box office, but let’s hope.”

Source link

0 Comments

Martin Short opened up about his daughter’s

Movies

Last Updated:

The Taj Story stars Paresh Rawal as Vishnudas, a Taj Mahal guide who questions its origins in court, blending drama and controversy but struggles with uneven storytelling.

font

The Taj Story released in theatres October 31, 2025. (Photo Credit: Instagram)

The Taj Story released in theatres October 31, 2025.
(Photo Credit: Instagram)

The Taj StoryU/A

2/5

31 October 2025|Hindi14 hrs 45 mins | Drama

Starring: Paresh Rawal, Zakir Hussain, Amruta Khanvilkar, Namit Das, Akhilendra Mishra, Bijendra Kala, Shishir Sharma, Anil GeorgeDirector: Tushar Amrish Goyal

Watch Trailer

Plot: The Taj Story follows Vishnudas (Paresh Rawal), an everyday tour guide whose life revolves around the stories he shares about the Taj Mahal. But when he begins to question the version of history he’s been repeating for years, what starts as simple curiosity soon turns into a personal mission. Vishnudas takes his doubts to court, asking whether the Taj is truly the symbol of love built by Shah Jahan for Mumtaz, or if there’s a forgotten past buried beneath its marble — one tied to the belief that the monument once stood as a Hindu temple called “Tejo Mahalaya.”

Review: Tushar Amrish Goyal’s The Taj Story sets out to challenge one of India’s most enduring historical narratives — the origins of the Taj Mahal. The film’s courtroom drama attempts to blend investigative curiosity with nationalistic pride, as Paresh Rawal’s character, Taj Mahal guide Vishnu Das, pushes for answers surrounding whether the iconic monument stands on temple grounds. It’s a premise that is inherently provocative and guaranteed to trigger conversations — both inside theatres and across social media.

Director Tushar Amrish Goel chooses a risky subject and while the film is framed as an exploration of unanswered questions, the storytelling at times feels a bit overstated, as though the narrative is working too hard to underline its central argument. Instead of letting the facts and drama evolve naturally, several scenes appear designed to create a heightened sense of importance, resulting in moments that feel slightly forced. This affects the screenplay, which should ideally carry the controlled intensity of a courtroom investigation but occasionally slips into dramatisation that doesn’t fully serve the story. There’s a noticeable struggle to strike the right balance between cinematic flair and factual grounding, which leaves the narrative feeling uneven at key points.

Paresh Rawal, however, remains the film’s strongest asset. He is a fine actor who brings honesty and emotional depth to every character he plays, and here too, he gives the role far more weight than the writing offers. His conviction holds the audience’s attention even when the script falters. Zakir Hussain, Amruta Khanvilkar and Namit Das provide sincere support, though their characters are not given enough layers to leave a significant impact. Veteran actors like Akhilendra Mishra and Shishir Sharma help elevate the courtroom sequences with their presence, even in limited screen time.

Technically, the film is impressive. Satyajit Hazarnis’s cinematography beautifully frames the Taj Mahal — majestic and mysterious. Himanshu M. Tiwari’s sharp editing keeps the legal back-and-forth alive, preventing the film from slowing down. The music, with soulful contributions from Kailash Kher and Javed Ali, adds emotional weight in an otherwise rigid narrative space. The sound design and production value further ensure that the film looks and feels polished despite its screenplay limitations.

In the end, The Taj Story is certainly designed to spark curiosity — and perhaps even challenge long-held beliefs. But the line between raising questions and pushing an agenda becomes blurry. The film might appeal strongly to audiences already aligned with its perspective, but others may find the storytelling a touch overbearing and the central conflict lacking historical grounding. Still, as cinema, it succeeds in starting a conversation — even if not everyone agrees with the one it’s trying to have.

About the Author

Shreyanka Mazumdar

Shreyanka Mazumdar

Shreyanka Mazumdar is Chief Sub Editor of the entertainment team at News18. With an unbridled passion for all things Bollywood, she loves deep-diving into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment wo…Read More

First Published:

October 31, 2025, 14:40 IST

News movies bollywood The Taj Story Review: Paresh Rawal’s Courtroom Drama Raises Big Questions But Struggles With Its Case
Disclaimer: Comments reflect users’ views, not News18’s. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Source link

0 Comments

Last Updated:October 31, 2025, 14:40 ISTThe Taj

Latest News

When political commentator Ana Navarro recently arrived at Mercado Little Spain, the José Andrés-owned food hall downstairs from CNN’s New York studios, a seat was ready for her constant companion, a rust-colored miniature poodle named ChaCha.

“I am her service human because I’m servicing her all day,” Navarro said of the well-behaved pooch who has been by her side since the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown.

As Navarro and a reporter order tapas dishes for the next two hours, patrons at nearby tables raise their cellphone cameras. Andrés’ daughter Carlota stops by and gives an update on her father, a Navarro pal. Later, a Spanish-speaking young woman comes over and thanks Navarro, a political exile from Nicaragua, for defending immigrants amid the aggressive deportation efforts of the Trump administration.

In a fragmented media world where critical mass is becoming harder to attain, Navarro has become one of media’s most recognizable political talking heads thanks to her two high-profile TV roles.

She is a co-host of ABC’s “The View,” the No. 1-rated daytime talk show that has become a target in Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr’s efforts to discipline President Trump’s broadcast media critics. She is also a regular panelist on CNN’s roundtable program “NewsNight with Abby Phillip,” which extends its reach far beyond its modest ratings through frequent viral clips on social media.

In February, Navarro, 54, joined the growing list of media personalities who have launched a digital platform to reach consumers no longer watching traditional TV with a weekly podcast for iHeart called “Bleep! With Ana Navarro.”

Navarro is her uncut self on “Bleep!” She interviews guests but can also go into a 30-plus minute monologue without a script when she records at iHeart’s midtown Manhattan studios, where ChaCha looks on from a cushy pillow.

Navarro delivers her arguments against the Trump administration as if she’s schmoozing with friends across a kitchen table. She always appears calm but as the podcast title suggests, she serves up a few four-letter words she doesn’t use on TV.

“Bleep!” gives Navarro her own platform at a time when the legacy media networks she works at are under pressure. Upheaval is expected at CNN if parent company Warner Bros. Discovery becomes a part of Paramount and its Trump-friendly owners David and Larry Ellison.

Carr recently called for an early review of ABC’s TV station licenses. He said its related to an investigation into parent company Disney’s diversity practices but it comes amid the administration’s criticism of the network’s Trump coverage, which has included “The View.”

Ana Navarro on the set of ABC’s “The View.”

(Lou Rocco (ABC))

Navarro was pulled into the fray last year when she was seen with Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger at ABC’s upfront advertiser presentation in New York. The huddle led to reports that they discussed the anti-Trump commentary on “The View.”

“We had an honest conversation but I’m not going to tell you what it was,” she said. “Nobody is muscling us. All I’ve got to do is show up and do the same thing that I’ve always done, which is be as truthful, and authentic and informed.”

(On Friday, ABC filed a petition with the FCC over the agency’s recent scrutiny of “The View,” and whether the program qualifies for an exemption from seldom enforced equal time rules for political candidates. The network accused the FCC of actions violating its 1st Amendment right to free speech.)

Navarro has been pounding at Trump for so long, it’s hard to remember that her rise as a TV pundit began 14 years ago when she was a loyal conservative Republican. Jeff Zucker, who ran CNN from 2012 to 2022, said her personal evolution sets her apart from other pundits.

“She’s funny, insightful, knows how to turn a phrase and she’s gone on a political journey,” Zucker said in a recent interview. “So she understands the entire political spectrum as well as anyone.”

Navarro was eight years old in 1980 when her family fled Nicaragua and sought political asylum in the U.S. after the socialist Sandinista National Liberation Front took power. Her father stayed behind to fight with the anti-communist rebel Contras in the country’s civil war.

“Reagan was taking on the Sandinistas when Bernie Sanders wasn’t,” she said.

She was granted amnesty and became a U.S. citizen under the immigration reform bill signed by President Reagan in 1986.

Growing up in Miami, Navarro was part of the enclave of Latinos whose political perspectives were shaped by having fled Fidel’s Castro’s Cuba and other communist regimes in Latin America. She became a political operative in Republican politics, starting in local Miami races and eventually served as national Hispanic chair for 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain. Her Cuban-born husband, Al Cardenas, was on Reagan’s transition team and once led the Republican Party in Florida.

Navarro watched in dismay in 2015 when Trump came down the escalator of the midtown Manhattan skyscraper that bears his name to announce he was seeking the Republican presidential nomination. “Calling Mexicans rapists and criminals — that just hurt my heart,” she said.

When Trump mocked a disabled journalist during a campaign rally, Navarro was reminded of family struggles with one of her older brothers, who has non-verbal autism and is self-injurious. “That brought back so much outrage and anger,” she said. “For me that was a line I could never forgive.”

But being an anti-Trump Republican has become a lonelier job in recent years as the party establishment’s support solidified behind Trump during the historically successful campaign in 2024 that returned him to the White House. For Navarro, it has meant the end of many long-standing relationships.

“I’ve lost some very close friends over Donald Trump,” she said. “And I’ve had to make peace with that. They feel that I’ve betrayed the Republican Party. Some of them think I’m an opportunist, doing this for today.”

One of those friends is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who she’s known her entire adult life. Navarro still has his cell number in her contacts, but it’s been awhile since she’s called. She still respects Rubio‘s credentials in foreign policy but doesn’t see herself ever supporting him if he runs for president.

“Unless he was running against Satan incarnate, no, I would not go over to him,” she said.

Navarro keeps her cool on “NewsNight,” which occasionally erupts into bedlam when guests clash with Scott Jennings, the show’s resident MAGA Republican. But she misses the days of sparring with Democratic operative Donna Brazile when they were on opposing sides on CNN’s Washington set, and then went out for oysters and wine at Old Ebbitt Grill afterward.

“It’s a completely different world than it was,” Navarro said.

The highly self-confident Navarro has always spoken her mind, encouraged by her father and the Sacred Heart nuns who operated her private school in Miami where she still resides. “Those nuns could run Fortune 500 companies,” she said.

She is not afraid to draw on her own painful, personal experiences to deliver a point. Another older brother died of a heart attack at age 38. Her cousin’s son was a fatality at the 2016 Pulse night club shooting in Orlando, Fla.

“I refuse to live in hopelessness and trauma,” she said. “The things I’ve gone through have shaped me into who I am and made me resilient and empathetic. One of the reasons I abhor Donald Trump is because he completely lacks empathy.”

Where Navarro often separates herself from most Democrats is foreign policy. When Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro was ousted and arrested by U.S. forces, Navarro, on holiday in Madrid, joined exiles from the country as they celebrated in Puerta del Sol.

Navarro expects to have the same reaction if Trump makes good on his threats to end Cuba’s communist regime.

“I will go out there with my metal pan and my metal spoon and I will bang the drums in joy,” she said.

Source link

0 Comments

When political commentator Ana Navarro recently

MCU

Marvel Studios’ biggest film to date arrives on December 18, with Avengers: Doomsday promising to bring together a cast unlike anything the franchise has assembled before. Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, the film reunites Earth’s Mightiest Heroes alongside the Fantastic Four, the original X-Men, the Wakandans, and a new generation of Avengers who will face a threat even more formidable than Thanos.

That threat is Doctor Doom, played by Robert Downey Jr., a big change from his decade-long run as Tony Stark. As exciting as Doomsday‘s villain is, and of course, we all want to see how RDJ approaches the role, there’s an even more intriguing aspect of the film: the multiverse being torn apart at the seams. Incursions have been confirmed as a major part of the Avengers crossover, which carries severe implications. For those not too familiar with multiversal shenanigans, incursions are basically collisions between parallel universes in the Marvel Multiverse. These turn of events will, as expected, alter the lives of many beloved heroes, some more than others. By the time the film’s events unfold, the Marvel timeline as we know it will be completely different.

Avengers: Doomsday Characters Whose Lives Will Be Altered 

Steve Rogers

Marvel Studios

Steve Rogers spent decades as a man out of time. He lost his era fighting in World War II, spent 66 years frozen in the ice, and dedicated his reawakened life to protecting a world he barely recognized. At the end of Avengers: Endgame, he finally got to stop. He returned to the past, married Peggy Carter, and grew old in the quiet life the MCU had always denied him. That was supposed to be the end, but unfortunately for poor Steve, there’s bigger drama coming his way.

The first teaser for Avengers: Doomsday revealed that Chris Evans returns as Steve Rogers, now a father and cradling a newborn child in a farmhouse, his Captain America suit tucked away in a box. The Russo Brothers confirmed on Instagram that they could not imagine telling this story without him, describing Steve as “the character that changed our lives” and saying “it was always going to come back to this.” 

According to rumors, Steve’s presence in his chosen timeline, Earth-828, causes an incursion. Because he was never meant to be there, his staying in the past reportedly triggered a fracture in the Sacred Timeline, one that Doctor Doom, who has studied multiversal incursions more deeply than any other character in the film, has traced back to Steve’s doorstep.  

It’s also rumoured that the Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom will locate Steve, probably because of the part he played in the incursion. Steve would then agree to return to Earth-616 to help gain the trust of the other heroes. But unlike the beautiful goodbye he had in Endgame, this version of Steve Rogers is leaving behind a child and a wife, which is a big change for him. There’s a chance that he and the Fantastic Four initially work with Doom and are ultimately betrayed.

The Fantastic Four

Reed Richards, The Thing, Sue Storm and Johnny Storm.
Marvel Studios

The Fantastic Four arrived in The Fantastic Four: First Steps as the first family of a different Earth entirely. Their universe, Earth-828, is an alternate 1960s-era world where science advanced faster; they’re the universe’s primary heroes, and Reed Richards was already the most brilliant mind alive. That film ended with the team surviving Galactus’s attack, and all was well until its mid-credits scene dropped its heaviest reveal. The scene shows a cloaked figure bending over infant Franklin Richards, removing his mask just as the baby reached up to touch his face. A figure who happened to be Doctor Doom, and he has a keen interest in Franklin.

By the end of Thunderbolts, the Fantastic Four’s ship was shown entering Earth-616’s atmosphere, a tease of a full crossing into the main MCU, and Doomsday will show what comes next. Franklin Richards is a big part of the conflict because he was born with reality-warping abilities so powerful that Galactus originally came to Earth-828 specifically because of Franklin’s cosmic energy signature. He is the most dangerous infant in the multiverse, and Doom wants his hands on that sweet power. 

This doesn’t come as much of a surprise, given Doom’s history in Marvel Comics. In the Secret Wars storyline, for example, he used a reality-warping conduit called the Molecule Man to seize power from the Beyonders and reshape what remained of the multiverse into his own personal domain, Battleworld, naming himself God Emperor. Franklin Richards’s powers map almost perfectly onto that role, making him the MCU’s most likely candidate to serve as Doom’s conduit if the villain’s ambitions follow a similar arc.

The fourth Doomsday teaser confirmed the Fantastic Four’s presence on Earth-616, showing Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Ben Grimm meeting Winston Duke’s M’Baku and the Wakandans. The Fantastic Four have already arrived in 616 and are already making allies. They’re in a universe completely different from theirs, preparing to fight their worst enemy, who is targeting their child. It’s hard to think of a life-altering change bigger than this.

Professor X and Magneto

Patrick Stewart as Professor X in Avengers: Doomsday.
Marvel Studios

Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen first shared the screen as Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr in 2000’s X-Men, and their dynamic defined the franchise for more than a decade. The third Doomsday teaser confirmed their return, and the drama is immense. The footage opened on a ravaged Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, the mansion’s courtyard in ruins, before cutting to Xavier and Magneto sitting together, reaching out to hold each other’s hands as Magneto delivers a monologue about death in the background. 

Ian McKellen as Magneto in Avengers: Doomsday.
Marvel Studios

His words hit even harder when that scene follows with James Marsden’s Cyclops, face caked in mud and blood, tearing off his visor and unleashing a full-force optic blast while a Sentinel behind him. It’s safe to assume that Doctor Doom is likely behind the destruction and intends to use Sentinels as a secret weapon against the X-Men in Doomsday.  

For the first time in cinema history, the X-Men will share the screen with the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. However, from the looks of the teaser, this unprecedented team-up won’t be for the fun of it and will put the X-Men, especially, to the test. Doctor Doom’s reach has already extended to their reality, and they’re going to need all the help they can get if mutant-kind is to survive. 

Source link

0 Comments

DCU

Do you love Pokémon? Do you hate Pokémon? Well, as it so happens, there’s a product out right now that’s perfect for you if you answered “yes” in either capacity. In South Korea, the tissue brand Renova has launched a Pokémon toilet paper collaboration featuring 79 distinct characters. This launched via a Korean crowdfunding site. Aside from toilet paper rolls, other Renova Pokémon products include pocket tissues, tissue boxes, and napkins. So if you love yourself some Pikachu or Charmander, or whoever, you have some new, unique merch to collect. And if you’re sick of the darn things, you can now sully them on a daily basis. You can check out images of the Korean Pokémon toilet paper below:

Click To View Gallery

The Pokémon Company/Renova

Right now, this Renovo Pokémon toilet paper is only available in South Korea. Although, they might extend this product to European markets as well. We imagine some superfan in the U.S. or Canada will find a way to get some on eBay, probably for a ridiculous price. We’ve already found one on sale for a $100 starting price. Is this the strangest Pokémon tie-in merchandise ever released? Honestly, we’re really not sure. There have been some wild ones in the past, like Pokémon wedding rings and mineral waters. But we think that wiping one’s behind with images of Chikorita, Sandshrew, Mew, or Rayquaza probably takes the cake. No pun intended.

Korean Pokemon toiler paper from Renova.
Renova/The Pokémon Company

It’s not surprising that merchandising has come to this point for the Pokémon brand. And that’s because Pokémon is literally the highest-grossing media IP in the world, raking in over $15 billion in sales in 30 years. Yes, that’s more than Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Disney Princesses, Harry Potter, and over $60 billion more than Star Wars. Maybe if Lucasfilm released some official Star Wars-themed toilet paper, they could catch up to Pikachu and friends. The ball is in your court, Disney Consumer Products. You know what the people want.

Source link

0 Comments

Do you love Pokémon? Do you hate

Comics

It’s been roughly 24 hours since the Control Group Warbond dropped in Helldivers 2. As always, the players were aware of everything in this Warbond well ahead of time. However, as you know, every Warbond seems good in theory, but some turned out to be, well, lacking in practice. Also, the devs take every opportunity to sneak in a surprise. So, what’s the verdict?

Control Group Could Use Some Work…

Arrowhead devs are kind of known for accidentally introducing game-breaking bugs while fixing known problems. It’s a small team, and mistakes happen. They try their best to fix the new bugs as fast as possible. Additionally, some of the content they add might feel unfinished occasionally. Still, they do an amazing job and deserve all the praise.

As for the new Warbond, some players had quite a few remarks. The biggest problem with this Warbond seems to be the Epoch. Some players called it “the Quasar but with ammo”. This is one of those phenomenal in theory weapons, but in reality, it’s bugged. The spread is broken, so good luck! Obviously, the devs are aware of this, and they’re probably working on a fix.

Some players didn’t love that the Variable was light pen. Many noted that it would be top tier if it were medium pen. However, the consensus is that it is quite viable on all three fronts, despite only being light pen.

As for the rest of the content, sure, some items are strange and slightly broken (looking at you, Adreno-defibrillator armor passive!), but they didn’t get much hate. Probably the worst thing anyone said about this Warbond is that it felt “mid” when the trailer promised pure chaos.

Image via Arrowhead

… but, Some Helldivers 2 Players Claim It’s the Best Warbond So Far

We’ve seen many reviews of the Control Group Warbond, and we can safely say that the Helldivers 2 community loves it, despite some flaws. Naturally, the players explained what was so cool about this Warbond and praised the devs.

One player, pohwelly, noted: “10/10 Best Warbond to date.  I wanna give AH a pat on the head and a gold star. This warbond was like everything I needed for my builds. Epoch is perfect, Variable is perfect. Armor is sick as hell. Don’t even need to see the rest”.

Alternative-Cut-7409 added: “This Warbond absolutely rocks! Thanks AH! I understand a fair chunk of the criticisms and agree with a decent amount of them… but I absolutely LOVE this warbond. Everything in it fills out missing parts of some of my kits, and most importantly, my favorite ones”.

We’d have to agree, this Warbond has a little something to elevate every build. So, dear Helldiver, it’s time to test it out! Meet us on Gaellivare for the Major Order, we’ll gladly lend you some of our equipment. For Liberty and Super Earth.

The post The Jury Is in! Helldivers 2 Players Deliver a Verdict on the Control Group Warbond appeared first on N4G.

Source link

0 Comments

It’s been roughly 24 hours since the

Festivals

Less than three months after his daughter’s death by suicide, Martin Short is opening up about the toll on his family and the importance of mental health.

On Sunday, the 2x Emmy-winning comedian explained that his late daughter Katherine Hartley Short “did the best she could until she couldn’t,” noting that mental illness is just as much a disease as cancer.

“It’s been a nightmare for the family,” he said on CBS Sunday Morning. “But the understanding [is] that mental health and cancer, like my wife’s, are both diseases, and sometimes with diseases they are terminal. And my daughter fought for a long time with extreme mental health, borderline personality disorder, other things, and did the best she could until she couldn’t.”

Short continued, “So, Nan’s last words to me were, ‘Martin, let me go.’ And what [Katherine] was just saying [was], ‘Dad, let me go.’”

After Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a call in February in a Hollywood Hills Home, which LAPD confirmed was about a possible suicide, Katherine’s family announced her death.

“It is with profound grief that we confirm the passing of Katherine Hartley Short,” Katherine’s family previously shared in a statement to People. “The Short family is devastated by this loss and asks for privacy at this time. Katherine was beloved by all and will be remembered for the light and joy she brought into the world.”

Short and late wife Nancy Dolman, who died in 2010 after suffering from ovarian cancer, adopted three children, Katherine, Oliver and Henry.

If you or someone you know is struggling with difficult life circumstances or uncomfortable thoughts and emotions call or text 988 to reach the national Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

Source link

0 Comments

Less than three months after his daughter’s

Film

Over the years, there have been a number of copyright infringement lawsuits against the “Avatar” franchise that have all gone filmmaker James Cameron‘s way, but the latest isn’t a gripe over copyright, but over someone’s face, particularly their chin.

On May 5, actress Q’orianka Kilcher sued Cameron, The Walt Disney Company, Twentieth Century Fox, and Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment complaining that Cameron used Kilcher’s facial features as inspiration to create the main character Neytiri in “Avatar.” A pair of lawyers IndieWire spoke to called the lawsuit “frivolous” and with some “very serious weaknesses.” But it caught the eye of the media because it involved a recognizable Native American actress — one who literally played Pocahontas in “The New World” and has since appeared on “Yellowstone” — calling out the biggest franchise in the world based on a flashpoint that has dominated Hollywood in the age of AI: who has the right to my digital likeness?

Kilcher’s lawyers in a 99-page filing said that Cameron modeled the look of Neytiri off Kilcher’s own facial features based on her appearance in “The New World” when she was just 14. They didn’t just do initial sketches based on Kilcher, but went a step further and composed digital renderings that were based on one image from “The New World.”

“What Cameron did was not inspiration, it was extraction,” said Arnold P. Peter of Peter Law Group, lead counsel for Kilcher. “He took the unique biometric facial features of a 14-year-old Indigenous girl, ran them through an industrial production process, and generated billions of dollars in profit without ever once asking her permission. That is not filmmaking. That is theft.”

Kilcher’s suit is based on Cameron meeting Kilcher before the release of “Avatar” in 2009, at which point he gave Kilcher a sketch of Neytiri. When Cameron talked about it publicly in 2024, her tone changed.

“When I received Cameron’s sketch, I believed it was a personal gesture, at most a loose inspiration tied to casting and my activism,” Kilcher said in a statement. “Millions of people opened their hearts to ‘Avatar’ because they believed in its message and I was one of them. I never imagined that someone I trusted would systematically use my face as part of an elaborate design process and integrate it into a production pipeline without my knowledge or consent. That crosses a major line. This act is deeply wrong.”

The video in question isn’t a great look; it’s something that Cameron’s and Disney’s lawyers were “probably not the happiest about” when he said it, according to attorney Ray Seilie with Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir. But a jury likely wouldn’t look at it as enough evidence that she’s entitled to potentially billions of dollars of the movies’ profits in damages. (Disney had no comment on the lawsuit when reached by IndieWire, and a lawyer for Cameron did not return a request for comment.)

“There’s a statute of limitations problem. ‘Avatar’ came out in 2009, and one of the specifics in her case is that her jaw is, supposedly, very easily noticeable,” Seilie said. “So why did it take until James Cameron said it out loud for her to realize it was her jaw? Jurors are going to be thinking about that.”

“I don’t think that anybody involved in this, any member of the public, would have taken look at this character materially and have made the connection that it was this actress, including, by the way, it seems, the actress herself,” added attorney Simon Pulman with Pryor Cashman.

Kilcher can’t sue for copyright because it’s her own face, so instead they’re suing based on Right of Publicity, where typically a person’s name or likeness is being used to sell a product in a commercial without their knowledge, and that depends on the person being very recognizable. Aside from the fact that she’s blue, seven foot tall, and is also played by Zoe Saldana, even the side by side isn’t 100 percent obvious to the naked eye. The lawsuit also includes a lot of lengthy rationales that this is cultural appropriation of an Indigenous person that has nothing to do with the legality of Right of Publicity. And it even makes the assertion that Cameron violated a deepfake revenge porn law because Neytiri has a love scene in “Avatar”; Seilie said that issue is just a “non-starter” almost certainly to be tossed.

But this remains an interesting conversation piece worthy of the attention of actors because AI now makes it possible to take the features of multiple people’s likenesses, without any other creative filter, and turn them into something new. Take Tilly Norwood or other “synthetic” actors. AI models have to be trained on something, and while Tilly might not look like anyone in particular, she’s likely trained on a number of images of women and could share features with someone in particular.

“What if you could somehow prove and reverse-engineer the creation process and figure out that, yes, in fact, Tilly Norwood uses the chin of a particular famous actor,” Seilie said. “That’s a question that hasn’t really been answered yet. Obviously, there’s a sliding scale here. If you’re lifting a likeness from one actress, it’s easier to say that that’s a violation of the right of publicity. But what if you’re combining two actresses? What if you take one actress’s body and one actresses head?”

Pulman notes there are recent examples in which a court has subpoenaed the prompts a person used in creating an AI-generated image. So in the future, there could very easily be claims that if an artist was found to have directly prompted a model to generate an image using a specific actor’s body part, that could be enough for a jury to deem it a violation. Right now though, Pulman says it would have to be a “very clear smoking gun,” like prompting the generation of Angelina Jolie “but we’ll make her blonde.”

Should the Kilcher/”Avatar” case make it to trial, which would be unlikely, Seilie says it would inevitably be one that would set precedent and be cited moving forward in determining what constitutes likeness.

“Does likeness mean the full body and face, or does the word likeness, can that be applied to parts?,” Seilie said. “I don’t think that’s been fully fleshed out, because until recently, we don’t really have technology that could hone in on individual parts of a likeness as opposed to the whole thing. That’s an area where technology raises new questions for existing doctrines of law, and it’ll be interesting to see how that’s approached.”

Seilie and Pulman say, that when it comes to complaints like this, it’s likely that actors will soon get more bargaining power with the studios and others to negotiate the value of their likenesses. It will include negotiating over specific features of a person, and studios or commercial agencies will negotiate individually with each performer to figure out just how much is permissible to be used, whether they’re allowed to use it in perpetuity, or in what specific ways. So while this case may not set precedent today, they’re questions all actors should be prepared for.

“We live in a world where actors are routinely scanned in high resolution for various purposes. They’re scanned for motion pictures, visual effects, and for video games. Even some of the agencies have unilaterally gone ahead and scanned their clients with the notion that then their clients can control their digital replicas,” Pulman said. “If I were an actor, I thought this for some time, you want to make sure your reps are very, very clearly from a contractual perspective setting forth how your digital replica can be used, how it will be stored, whether it will be destroyed after use, etc.”

Source link

0 Comments

Over the years, there have been a

TV

Stars of the new Harry Potter series were out in force at the BAFTA TV Awards, with the red carpet producing an encounter that will please fans of J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world.

In the build-up to the ceremony in London, Jason Isaacs, who played Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies, embraced Lox Pratt, who plays Draco Malfoy in HBO‘s upcoming series, replacing Tom Felton.

Isaacs’ character will be depicted by Johnny Flynn in the HBO show. In a post on X/Twitter last year, the actor praised his successor.

“A fantastic actor, a lovely man and, irritatingly, a rather brilliant musician too. Couldn’t have handed the snake-topped baton on to anyone better,” Isaacs said.

Later in the evening, Paapa Essiedu, who is playing Severus Snape in the Potter series, and Nick Frost, who is Rubeus Hagrid, presented the award for Supporting Actress to Adolescence star Christine Tremarco. They couldn’t resist a bit of fun as they introduced the nominees.

Essiedu decided that he would continue throughout the introduction to refer to Frost as “Hagrid” rather than by his real name.

“Some truly exceptional performances, let’s take a look at the nominees Hagrid,” he said as he turned to his co-star. “My name is Nick,” the Hot Fuzz comic actor replied, “I sat next to you at the friggin’ readthrough.”

Source link

0 Comments

Stars of the new Harry Potter series

What to Watch







 CBS

Jim Parsons really wanted to play Sheldon Cooper on “The Big Bang Theory,” but his enthusiasm for the role wasn’t enough to make co-creator Chuck Lorre say “Bazinga!” right away. Speaking to the “At Home with the Creative Coalition” podcast, series co-creator Bill Prady revealed that Parsons’ initial audition was so mind-blowing that Lorre feared the actor had peaked too early.

“[Parsons] created that character at that audition,” Prady said. “And he left the room and I turned and I went, ‘That’s the guy! That’s the guy! That’s the guy!’ And Chuck turned and he said, ‘Nah, he’s gonna break your heart. He’ll never give you that performance again.'”

According to Prady, Parsons instantly stood out from other actors who read to play the nerdy theoretical physicist who knocks on doors three times. Lorre’s prediction about Parsons letting him down was wrong, but Prady noted that his colleague is right most of the time. “This may be the only example of where I actually was right,” he said. “Jim Parsons came back in the next day and gave us that exact same performance again. It was like, ‘This is Sheldon.'”

Chuck Lorre recalls Jim Parsons’ Big Bang Theory audition


Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) touching his apartment door on
CBS

Bill Prady’s comments about Chuck Lorre suggest that his colleague wasn’t super sold on Jim Parsons playing Sheldon Cooper early on. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Like Prady, Lorre was blown away by the actor’s performance, but he needed to be sure before he gave him two thumbs up.

“[Jim’s audition] was shocking. It was like, ‘Oh my god,'” Lorre told the Television Academy Foundation (via YouTube). “… I said, ‘Can he come back in and do it again?’ Because I thought maybe it was a fluke of some kind. But it wasn’t — he’s a genius. He’s a comic genius.”

In the end, Parsons got the gig and played Sheldon Cooper until “The Big Bang Theory” ended with Season 12. The character also proved to be so popular that he was given his own spin-off, “Young Sheldon,” which chronicles his childhood growing up in Texas. Parsons narrates the series, and he has an on-screen cameo in the final episode.



Source link

0 Comments

Awards

Oscar season may be over, but London is in awards mode again on Sunday thanks to the BAFTA TV Awards.

The 2026 BAFTA TV honors are being handed out at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in the British capital. Netflix drama Adolescence, produced by Warp Films, led the nominations with 11, followed by Disney+’s A Thousand Blows with seven, and emerged as Sunday’s big winner. Comedian and Taskmaster host Greg Davies is hosting the awards ceremony. 

Adolescence and The Celebrity Traitors were the biggest winners of the recent BAFTA Television Craft Awards, with each show receiving two prizes. Other honors went to Slow Horses, Andor, Amadeus, Reunion, Trespasses, The Celebrity Traitors, The Last Musician of Auschwitz and Mussolini: Son of the Century.

Adolescence began Sunday night with best supporting actress and actor wins for Christine Tremarco and Owen Cooper before receiving the best limited series honor about an hour later. Cooper’s latest trophy adds to his wins at the Primetime Emmy Awards, the Golden Globes and the Actor Awards.

Meanwhile, The Celebrity Traitors walked away with the BAFTA for best reality series.

One award on Sunday was presented by two big British stars of the upcoming HBO Harry Potter series, namely Paapa Essiedu, who is portraying Severus Snape, and Nick Frost, who plays Hagrid. No, they didn’t spill any beans on the series, but they had a bit of a laugh. Essiedu kept referring to Frost as Hagrid, to which his co-star responded: “My name is Nick! I sat next to you at the frigging readthrough.”

Among other key moments from the ceremony, Adam Scott handed the honor for best actor in a comedy to Steve Coogan for How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge).

Cat Burns entertained the BAFTA crowd with a live performance of “How to Be Human” about halfway through the show.

Sunday’s ceremony comes a month after BAFTA apologized “unreservedly” for the controversy surrounding John Davidson’s Tourette’s Syndrome outbursts at this year’s BAFTA Film Awards ceremony, following an independent review that found “a number of structural weaknesses in BAFTA’s planning, escalation procedures and crisis coordination arrangements.” In particular, the review highlighted that BAFTA “did not fully appreciate the nature of the risk associated with a live broadcast appearance, early warning signs were not escalated, and the absence of a clear operational command structure limited BAFTA’s ability to respond effectively once the incident occurred.”

Outgoing BAFTA chair Sara Putt, in her opening remarks, wished a happy 100th birthday to David Attenborough, which he celebrated on Friday, and said that “TV isn’t going anywhere” but will endure despite disruption and challenges.

Davies quipped in the opening monologue that “a quick AI search” showed him that TV started when Attenborough “first hugged a monkey.” He also welcomed such nominees as Colin Firth, mentioning how attractive his aunt finds him, Ashley Walters and Stephen Graham and the whole team behind Adolescence.

With the TV craft honors complete, the stage is set for the remaining TV awards to celebrate the best of British TV. Who will win in London? Find out here.

THR will update the list of Sunday’s 2026 BAFTA TV Awards below throughout the ceremony, with winners highlighted in bold.

Factual Entertainment

The Assembly
Go Back to Where You Came From
Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars
Race Across the World

News Coverage

BBC Newsnight: Grooming Survivors Speak, BBC Newsnight / BBC Two
Channel 4 News: Israel-Iran: The Twelve Day War, Channel 4 News / Channel 4
Sky News: Gaza: Fight for Survival, Sky News / Sky News

Current Affairs

Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War (Exposure)
The Covid Contracts: Follow the Money
Gaza: Doctors Under Attack
Undercover in the Police

Daytime

The Chase
Lorraine
Richard Osman’s House of Games
Scam Interceptors

Sports Coverage

The 2025 Ryder Cup, Sky Sports
The FA Cup Final, BBC Sport
UEFA Women’s Euro 2025, BBC One
Wimbledon, BBC Sport

Soap

Casualty
Coronation Street
Eastenders

Actress in a Comedy

Diane Morgan, Mandy
Jennifer Saunders, Amandaland
Katherine Parkinson, Here We Go
Lucy Punch, Amandaland
Philippa Dunne, Amandaland
Rosie Jones, Pushers

Actor in a Comedy

Jim Howick, Here We Go
Jon Pointing, Big Boys
Lenny Rush, Am I Being Unreasonable?
Mawaan Rizwan, Juice
Oliver Savell, Changing Ends
Steve Coogan, How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge)

Live Event Coverage

Holocaust Memorial Day 2025, BBC Studios / BBC One
Last Night of the Proms: Finale, Livewire Pictures / BBC One
VE Day 80: A Celebration to Remember, BBC Studios / BBC One

Short Form

Donkey
Hustle and Run
Rocket Fuel
Zoners

Single Documentary

Grenfell: Uncovered
Louis Theroux: The Settlers
One Day in Southport
Unforgotten: The Bradford City Fire

Limited Drama

Adolescence
I Fought the Law
Trespasses
What It Feels Like for a Girl

Entertainment

The Graham Norton Show
Last One Laughing
Michael McIntyre’s Big Show
Would I Lie To You?

Children’s: Scripted

Crongton
Horrible Science
Shaun the Sheep
The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball

Children’s: Non-Scripted

A Real Bug’s Life
Boosnoo!
Deadly 60 Saving Sharks
Word.War.Me (Sky Kids Investigates)

Factual Series

Bibaa & Nicole: Murder in the Park
Educating Yorkshire
See No Evil
The Undercover Police Scandal: Love and Lies Exposed

Specialist Factual

Belsen: What They Found
Simon Schama: The Road to Auschwitz
Surviving Black Hawk Down
Vietnam: The War That Changed America

Scripted Comedy

Amandaland
Big Boys
How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge)
Things You Should Have Done

Reality

The Celebrity Traitors
The Jury: Murder Trial
Squid Game: The Challenge
Virgin Island

Supporting Actress

Aimee Lou Wood, The White Lotus
Christine Tremarco, Adolescence
Chyna McQueen, Get Millie Black
Emilia Jones, Task
Erin Doherty, Adolescence
Rose Ayling-Ellis, Reunion

Supporting Actor

Ashley Walters, Adolescence
Fehinti Balogun, Down Cemetery Road
Joshua McGuire, The Gold
Owen Cooper, Adolescence
Paddy Considine, MobLand
Rafael Mathe, The Death of Bunny Munro

Drama Series

Blue Lights
A Thousand Blows
Code of Silence
This City Is Ours

Entertainment Performance

Amanda Holden, Alan Carr, Amanda & Alan’s Spanish Job
Bob Mortimer, Last One Laughing
Claudia Winkleman, The Celebrity Traitors
Lee Mack, The 1% Club
Rob Beckett, Romesh Ranganathan, Rob & Romesh Vs…
Romesh Ranganathan, Romesh: Can’t Knock the Hustle

International

The Bear
The Diplomat
Pluribus
Severance
The Studio
The White Lotus

Leading Actor

Colin Firth, Lockerbie: A Search for Truth
Ellis Howard, What it Feels Like for a Girl
James Nelson-Joyce, This City is Ours
Matt Smith, The Death of Bunny Munro
Stephen Graham, Adolescence
Taron Egerton, Smoke

Leading Actress

Aimee Lou Wood, Film Club
Erin Doherty, A Thousand Blows
Jodie Whittaker, Toxic Town
Narges Rashidi, Prisoner 951
Sheridan Smith, I Fought The Law
Sian Brooke, Blue Lights

P&O Cruises Memorable Moment Award (voted for by the public)

Adolescence, Jamie Snaps at the Psychologist
BIG BOYS, “I didn’t make it, did I?”
Blue Lights, The police are warned of an ambush to plot to silence a key witness
The Celebrity Traitors, Alan Carr wins
Last One Laughing, Bob Mortimer and Richard Ayoade’s speed date
What It Feels Like For a Girl, Byron leaves for Brighton to start Uni, where she introduces herself as Paris

Source link

0 Comments

Oscar season may be over, but London

Music

Those gags and whizbangs included sampled horn stabs and gunshots, arpeggios that sounded like haywire computers, angelic harp runs, and synthetic choirs chanting from the bottom of a digital abyss. Horn was one of the first musicians to buy a Fairlight CMI, the world’s first digital sampler. He immediately saw that its real potential lay not in faithfully emulating acoustic instruments, the way its manufacturers thought it might be used, but in the service of willful, glorious fakery: sounds whose envelopes of attack and release were more extreme than anything found in nature, with not enough echo or way too much of it; sounds like little cartoons of spring-loaded boxing gloves, punching their way to the front of the mix.

Maybe it was the mutual trust that Horn had with Yes as a onetime member of the band; or a sense that their music—with its own outlandish sonics, jarring interruptions, intricate riffs played once and tossed away—had more in common with his channel-surfing vision of pop than the average listener might have realized. Maybe he was so driven for a hit that he’d try anything. Whatever the case, this collaboration with a band past its sell-by date is his single most audacious production, marking the moment he went from being a promising producer to an era-defining one.

It’s also one of the craziest-sounding records ever made, period. Forty years on from its release, it still startles, coming off more like the Bomb Squad’s overstuffed productions for Public Enemy from a few years later, or Girl Talk’s candy-colored agglomerations of pop detritus from a couple of decades after that, than anything ever released under the banner of prog. Even the real instruments—the bricklike main riff, the spacious palm-muted lines, the toxic-sludge guitar solo—have been made to sound like samples in Horn’s collage: compressed, EQed, gated, and snapped to the grid, either digitally or through the metronomic precision of the players themselves.

Horn’s contributions to “Owner of a Lonely Heart” have earned Yes an unlikely place in the pantheon of hip-hop and electronic music history. No less an authority than Questlove has written that it contains the first-ever example of a drum beat sampled from another record, an innovation prefiguring everything from boom-bap to drum’n’bass. In its opening seconds, and again in the instrumental break, there are a few Fairlight-warped fragments of the drums from Funk, Inc.’s “Kool Is Back.” Through his work with McLaren, Horn had spent time around New York hip-hop DJs, who were already doing their own live and analog form of sampling by beat-juggling across two turntables; that he got to it first on record probably has as much to do with the Fairlight’s $25,000 price tag as anything else. Still, “Owner of a Lonely Heart”’s influence on sample-based music is deep. Art of Noise, one of the most important electronic music groups of the ’80s, arose directly out of the recording sessions, when Horn and a group of engineers and arrangers on his team realized that the production territory they were staking out could be the basis of a whole new project.

Source link

0 Comments

Those gags and whizbangs included sampled horn

Docs

Josef Gatti has a handful of shorts and television shows to his name. His feature-length debut is a documentary titled Phenomena. He also produced, co-wrote, co-edited, and served as the director of photography on the project. What made Gatti pour himself into every fiber of the movie? Is the end result worth all of his blood, sweat, and tears?

The plot is remarkably simple: Gatti, his physics-teacher father, and his friend Joe (a musician) conduct experiments. Said experiments use water, bubbles, salt, and the like to highlight motion, energy, and the way those two things intertwine everything around everyone at all times. Gatti films the experiments in close-up so audience members can observe the reactions. And that is it.

It would be futile to describe the experiments in detail, as Phenomena, co-written by Joseph Nizeti, needs to be experienced, not merely watched. Find a theater playing it, or rent one out, and let the massive images of swirling colors, bouncing water droplets, crystallizing salt, and jumping sound waves wash over all who are watching. The immersiveness is still present on a laptop screen, which is a huge credit to the direction and editing. But to get lost in the imagery with Rival Consoles and Nils Frahm’s epic music playing in surround sound is a cinematic treat not to be missed.

“…experiments use water, bubbles, salt, and the like to highlight motion, energy, and the way those two things intertwine everything around everyone at all times.”

Back to the cinematography, though. Gatti shoots the experiments as they are being conducted, so there is no question of fakery of any kind, CGI or otherwise. This gives each frame a tactile quality that is hard to describe, but will make total sense after watching the motion picture. But rest assured, it is all gorgeous, mesmerizing, and hypnotic. This is the best-looking documentary since the Qatsi trilogy.

But why is Gatti and his family and friends conducting such experiments? Well, the idea is to observe and understand natural phenomena and thus, understand the universe as a whole. Gatt’s narration ensures that how each experiment relates to that driving idea is perfectly clear at the outset or while observing the reaction.

Phenomena is beyond a mere documentary. It is more than just a film. It is an expansive, gorgeous creed on matter, energy, life, and the universe. Audience members need to see it on the biggest screen possible with the clearest sound possible to fully appreciate everything Gatti has accomplished.

Source link

0 Comments

Josef Gatti has a handful of shorts

Global

The snow is finally gone and the people of Saskatoon are enjoying the spring weather. To help kick off the season, the city is hosting its annual BYXE Week.

“BYXE Week is a city-wide cycling celebration sponsored by the City of Saskatoon and Saskatoon Cycles where we just encourage people to get out and enjoy Saskatoon by bike,” says Danae Balogun the city’s active transportation program manager.

This year’s events for BYXE Week (pronounced “bikes week”) include a Saskatoon bike passport adventure, bike tune-up tents and Bike to Work Day on Thursday, May 14.

To help cyclists get around the city this spring, Saskatoon Cycles’ communication manager Jason Hanson, shared his best-biking tips with Global News.

Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won't miss a trending story.

Get breaking National news

Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.

“If you are in traffic, there’s a key approach that we like to tell people which is see, be seen and be predictable.” Hason says. “If you go through them step by step, it’s trying to be alert and anticipating problems that you might run into and be proactive instead of reacting at the last second.”

Story continues below advertisement

It’s important for drivers and cyclists to remember how to interact on the road. Anyone riding a bike must follow the rules of the road, whilst anyone walking with a bike must be yielded to like a pedestrian. And just like cars, cycles also have to signal before making any turns.

If you’ve never tried cycling, Hanson says it is never to late to learn. “You’re never too old to learn how to ride a bike. We have actually had, in the last couple of years, a number of adult riders that have come to us and said, ‘we’ve never ridden a bike before, we really want to. Can you show us how?’ And we will make it happen.”


But no matter where you go, it is important to always wear your helmet.

Watch the video above to see Saskatoon cyclists in action. 


Click to play video: 'City council discusses ammonia levels and extending bike lanes on Victoria Ave.'


City council discusses ammonia levels and extending bike lanes on Victoria Ave.


&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Source link

0 Comments

Descrease article font size Increase article font size The

Trending

While accepting an honorary doctorate from Hillsdale College on behalf of herself and her late husband, Charlie Kirk, Erika Kirk described the first day of her honeymoon with the Turning Point USA cofounder.

“To all of you here — parents, class of 2026, faculty and staff — it’s an honor to be here. It’s an honor to accept the degrees that I will be receiving later on behalf of myself and Charlie,” Erika, 37, said while addressing the 2026 graduating class of Hillsdale College, a Christian liberal arts college located in southern Michigan.

“On a lighter note, yesterday was my wedding anniversary and I couldn’t help but think of a funny story to share with you through obviously a lot of pain,” she continued. “When we got married and we went to our honeymoon the next day, we decided for our honeymoon it would be a disconnected honeymoon — meaning no computers, no cell phones, just being able to pour into each other, plan out what our family life would look like, what type of parents we want to be, what type of spouse we want to be, so really just put into each other.”

She added, “So again, no phones, but at the time Charlie’s assistant gave Charlie a bat phone for emergencies, so there were only emergency phone numbers on this phone — nothing else. So when we arrive we go straight to the gym, because that’s what we did, and I’m on one side of the gym, Charlie’s on the other, and all of a sudden he pulled out the bat phone.”

After assuming her late husband — who died in September 2025 after he was shot while speaking at Utah Valley University — was using the phone to listen to music while he worked out, she realized he was actually listening to lectures from the Hillsdale College president, Dr. Larry Arnn.


Erika Kirk, Turning Point CEO receives an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Public Service for herself and her late husband Charlie Kirk Getty Images

“So, I walk over to him and I was like, ‘Baby, what are you listening to?’ He’s like, ‘I know, I’m almost done. I just have to finish just a few more lectures from Dr. Arnn, I have a few more certificates I have to get from my online courses at Hillsdale — we’re almost there, I can’t skip.’”

She added, “I enjoyed it because I was learning about Churchill, too — when he was working out I was working out, it was a great little bonding moment. But every time Charlie finished a Hillsdale program online, he would screenshot the certificate of completion and he would send them to me every time, and he would send them to the team as well.”

Elsewhere in her commencement address, Erika called on men to serve as providers while women serve as nurturers.

“To the men, you are called to provide, you are called to lead, to anchor your families in strength and consistency,” she said. “To the women, you are called to nurture, to build, to shape lives with wisdom and endurance.”

Erika — who took over as Turning Point CEO following her husband’s untimely death — has been criticized for her numerous public appearances in the wake of Charlie’s assassination.

Charlie Kirk s Wife Erika Frantzve Shares Statement After His Death 004


Related: Charlie Kirk’s Wife Erika Kirk Breaks Silence After His Death

Charlie Kirk’s wife, Erika Kirk (née Frantzve), broke her silence following the death of her husband at age 31. “Charlie loved life. He loved his life, he loved America, he loved nature which always helped him closer to God,” Erika, 36, said in a live stream via Charlie’s X on Friday, September 12. “He loved […]

“Erika Kirk leaving the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in tears [saying], ‘I just wanna go home,’” Selling Sunset star Christine Quinn wrote over footage of Kirk leaving the April 25 event after a gunman allegedly stormed a security checkpoint with what authorities say was the goal of assassinating President Donald Trump and other key members of his cabinet.

“Girl… you literally never been home,” Quinn added.

After breaking her silence after the shooting, Erika claimed she attended the dinner because she wanted to look certain reporters in the face.

Source link

0 Comments

While accepting an honorary doctorate from Hillsdale

Tech

Mother’s Day is upon us once more, what do you have planned? Flowers? Breakfast in bed, maybe brunch? Why not add a movie date onto that list?

Because really, there are some truly excellent films to watch on this particular holiday. The bond between a mother and her kid(s) is unique and powerful, and has been brought to life in countless beautiful ways over the years. That said, some movies are definitely better than others. So allow us to offer some recommendations.

You’ll find the 11 best movies to watch for Mother’s Day below.

Mother’s Day

Let’s just get the obvious out of the way, because any Mother’s Day movie list that doesn’t include a film literally called “Mother’s Day” isn’t doing its job.

This movie was widely panned upon its release, which is especially a bummer considering it was the last film of director Garry Marshall’s career. Admittedly, it’s not exactly cinema, or even quite close to it. It’s one of those movies that crammed a bunch of actors you know, and your mom probably knows (though you may have to help out every now and again) and makes a bunch of seemingly unconnected storylines connect.

It’s mostly just … fine, and on brand for the holiday.

You can stream “Mother’s Day” right now on Netflix, Paramount+, YouTube and Tubi.


garry marshall

Freaky Friday 2
(Disney)

Freaky Friday

If you don’t get chills when Jamie Lee Curtis plays a guitar solo to help bail out her character who is actually in Lindsay Lohan’s body at that point, I’m not sure you can be trusted.

“Freaky Friday” is all about a mother and daughter learning to see through the other’s eyes by literally switching lives and bodies for a day. Not only is the story heartfelt, but it’s also perfectly cast. Curtis is clearly having the time of her life pretending to be a teenager, and actually-teenaged-Lohan keeps right up with her pretending to be an adult.

It’s silly, it’s sweet, it’s perhaps the perfect Mother’s Day movie, whether you’re best friends with your mom or maybe need a little of her perspective.

You can stream “Freaky Friday” now on Disney+.

The Family Stone

So, this one comes with a few caveats, chief among them being that you have to be willing to watch a Christmas movie outside of Christmastime. You also have to be fully aware of how sad this movie ends up being, specifically because of the mother. But!

If you can push all that aside, “The Family Stone” could be a great Mother’s Day watch. As is, it’s the perfect reminder of how important a good matriarch is to a family, and of course that matriarch is played by the brilliant, forever-missed Diane Keaton. Throughout the film she is fierce, protective, funny — all the things she’s great at.

“The Family Stone” is all about how the Stone family comes together for Christmas, only to learn that Sybil (Keaton) has cancer. Unfortunately, it’s advanced, and it becomes clear that this will be her last Christmas. One of the best scenes in the film comes when the family is gifted a photo of their mother pregnant with Amy (Rachel McAdams), and fully come to terms with the reality of it all.

Admittedly, this would be a brave choice of film for Mother’s Day, but it could work. You can stream “The Family Stone” now on Prime Video.


diane-keaton

Universal Pictures

Because I Said So

Now, if you want Diane Keaton as an on-screen mom who doesn’t die, “Because I Said So” might be the better move. Here, she’s more of an overbearing mom character, to the point that it does get frustrating at times, but the movie is still legitimately sweet.

The story centers mostly on Milly Wilder (Mandy Moore), the last single woman in her immediate family. Her mother Daphne (Keaton) puts out a personal ad trying to find a husband for her daughter, but doesn’t actually tell her about it, and instead lets her think that she met the man organically. Keaton is excellent as always, even if her character is … not so excellent.

This movie is maybe not ideal if you have this kind of mother, but if you unknowingly are this kind of mother, it could be an eye-opening experience. Either way, you’ll have fun.

You can stream “Because I Said So” on Prime Video.

"Bad Moms" (Photo credit: STX Entertainment)
“Bad Moms” (Photo credit: STX Entertainment)

Bad Moms

Being a mom is hard. Plain and simple, it’s just hard. But that’s okay, and “Bad Moms” wants you to know that.

Starring Kathryn Hahn, Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell — and the chemistry between this trio is electric — it tells the story of three moms who become unlikely friends when Kunis’ character decides to just stop trying to do it all. She resigns herself to being a “bad mom,” which in actuality, is just a mom who doesn’t handle every little thing for her kids.

Instead, she chooses to cultivate her friendships, take time off work, and do more for herself. It’s what all moms deserve, and there are some truly excellent laughs along the way.

“Bad Moms” is currently streaming on Hulu.

Paramount

Instant Family

Not all moms become moms by giving birth, and they deserve just as much recognition. Without many of the foster moms of the world, children would be undoubtedly worse off.

“Instant Family” tells the story of Pete and Ellie, who are determined to become parents. They decide to foster, taking in a teenage girl and her two younger siblings. Naturally, chaos ensues, and the couple wonders if they can even do it. Things get extra tricky when the kids’ birth mom comes back into the picture. But, they persevere

In the end though, things turn out as they should, and the movie employs a near-perfect use of “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.” Rose Byrne is firing on all cylinders in this, and it’s not hard to imagine her later becoming an Oscar nominee. It’s worth watching this Mother’s Day.

You can stream “Instant Family” now on Paramount+.


Rose Byrne and Kristen Wiig at The Paley Museum on March 26, 2024 in New York City (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

Ke Huy Quan and Michelle Yeoh in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ (A24)

Everything Everywhere All At Once

This one is inarguably the most complicated movie on the list, so if your mom is the type to ask a million questions before waiting for something to actually play out onscreen, maybe don’t make “Everything Everywhere All at Once” your first choice.

On the other hand, if your mom loves truly great cinema, multiversal stories and just a bit of silliness, absolutely watch this one this weekend. Because really, it all boils down to the bond of a mother and daughter, complicated though it may be. There’s a reason Michelle Yeoh won an Oscar for this film and Stephanie Hsu was nominated. It’s really, really good.

Unfortunately, it’s bit hard to explain, but the simplest version is that it’s about a woman who discovers while being audited by the IRS that she has to connect with parallel universe versions of herself to stop a mysterious, powerful being from destroying the multiverse. Funnily enough, Jamie Lee Curtis is in this recommendation too, but in a very different role.

You can stream it now on HBO Max.

mamma-mia
“Mamma Mia!” (Universal Pictures)

Mamma Mia!

For the sake of not recommending two movies for Mother’s Day where the mother actually dies, we’re going to stick strictly to the first “Mamma Mia!” here. Unless your mom isn’t a fan of musicals, in which case, pick literally any other movie on this list.

But assuming she does like breaking into song, it’s got to be “Mamma Mia!” While the actors who made this movie cringe a little every time they see clips of this film, they also talk regularly about how fun it was to make, and you can see that proven onscreen.

The mother/daughter dynamic between Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried is top tier, and who wouldn’t want to be stuck in a paternity quadrangle with Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård?

You can stream “Mamma Mia!” now on Prime Video.

Walt Disney Studios/ Pixar

Brave

In so many Disney and Pixar films, the parents are the first characters to go. But don’t worry, both mom and dad are alive and well in “Brave.” Well, maybe not “well,” considering mom briefly turns into a bear, but it’s fine.

Like “Freak Friday,” this movie is about a mother and a daughter who struggle to see eye to eye. Merida has no interest in getting married for the sake of her kingdom. Instead, she wants to just run things herself, like the strong, independent warrior she is. To avoid being forced by her mother to marry, she accidentally turns the woman into a bear, with the help of a witch’s spell.

To change her back, Merida and her mother must mend the rift between them (both literally and figuratively, but that’s a slight spoiler, sorry). As an added bonus, it takes place in the Scottish Highlands, which might inspire a family trip.

You can stream “Brave” now on. Disney+


Pixar Lightyear Incredibles Finding Dory

princess diaries
“Princess Diaries” (Disney)

The Princess Diaries

Just as important as the moms of the world are the grandmas of the world, and “The Princess Diaries” has great examples of both (even if the grandmother gets more screentime in this case).

One of the movies that put Anne Hathaway on Hollywood’s map, “The Princess Diaries” adapts Meg Cabot’s book of the same name, and tells the story of Mia Thermopolis (Hathaway), who discovers that she’s actually a princess — one who’s next in line for the throne, in fact. Reasonably, she freaks out at this.

Her mother, though admittedly at fault for never telling Mia that her father was a prince, immediately supports her, making it clear that she doesn’t have to become a princess if she doesn’t want to. So, to decide, Mia takes princess lessons from her Queen Grandmother, Julie Andrews (an impressive get, considering she was semi-retired from acting at the time). The irony is, Andrews became a real-life Dame just a year earlier.

“The Princess Diaries” is a multigenerational story. Don’t skip it this mother’s day.

You can stream “The Princess Diaries” now on Disney+.

Corrina Corrina
Corrina Corrina (Getty Images)

Corrina, Corrina

The “found family” trope is one of my favorites, so yes, I’m going to suggest “Corrina, Corrina” too. Families come together in all kinds of ways.

In this case, it happens when Corrina (Whoopi Goldberg) takes a job nannying a little girl who’s effectively gone mute since her mother died. Her father, played by Ray Liotta, is a jingle writer, and needs to get back to work to continue supporting his family. Slowly but surely, Corrina pulls the little girl out of her shell, developing an adorable friendship with her.

Yes, you can see the romance storyline coming from a mile away, and looking at this objectively, “Corrina, Corrina” doesn’t handle the interracial relationship aspect of the film as well and as deeply as it could (it’s important to note the story takes place in the 1950s, where this element absolutely matters).

But all in all, it’s a sweet little film. “Corrina, Corrina” is now streaming on Tubi.


Whoopi Goldberg attends the "Billy Joel: And So It Goes" opening night premiere in New York City. (Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)

Source link

0 Comments

Mother’s Day is upon us once more,

Video

Disney/20th Century’s “The Devil Wears Prada 2” is pulling away from Warner Bros./New Line’s “Mortal Kombat II” and is now set to stay No. 1 at the box office for a second weekend.

Buoyed by strong word-of-mouth among women, the legacyquel starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway added $43 million domestically to drop just 44% from its opening weekend. Strong holds in the U.K., Italy, Brazil and Mexico among other overseas markets have also added $75.8 million this weekend internationally, bringing the film’s total to $144.8 million domestic and $433.2 million overseas.

“Mortal Kombat II” isn’t getting as strong day-to-day holds as “Prada 2” but is still off to a good start with a $40 million domestic/$63 million global opening. It’s the best opening for Warner since “Wuthering Heights” back in February and is a rebound for the studio after films like “The Bride!” and “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy” faltered in recent months.

The question now is whether moviegoers beyond hardcore “Kombat” fans will show up, as the film opens with a B on CinemaScore and Rotten Tomatoes scores of 65% critics and 90% audience.

Close behind “MK II” is Lionsgate/Universal’s “Michael,” which remains on pace to pass “Oppenheimer” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” for the all-time biopic record with a $36.5 million third weekend, bringing its total to $240 million domestic and $577 million worldwide. Domestically, the film has already passed “Bohemian Rhapsody” to become the highest domestic grossing music biopic ever.

The music biopic should pass $650 million by next weekend to become the second-highest grossing film of the year behind “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” which is reaching the end of its box office run and is trying to inch its way to the $1 billion mark with a $6.6 million sixth weekend and a $941 million global total.

More to come…

Source link

0 Comments

Disney/20th Century’s “The Devil Wears Prada 2”

Entertaintment

Apparently the gruff fighter Johnny Cage wasn’t much of a match for the all-powerful Miranda Priestly.

Disney’s “The Devil Wears Prada 2” retained the No. 1 spot on domestic box office charts despite three major new releases, including the video game adaptation “Mortal Kombat II.” The “Devil Wears Prada” sequel added $43 million from 4,200 North American theaters, declining just 44% from its debut while boosting its North American tally to $144.8 million. Meanwhile, the star-studded comedy has collected $288.4 million internationally for a strong global total of $433 million after just two weekends of release. Those ticket sales are above the entire lifetime haul of 2006’s “The Devil Wears Prada,” which generated $326 million, not adjusted for inflation.

Second place went to the Warner Bros. martial-arts inspired sequel “Mortal Kombat II,” which launched to $40 million from 3,503 venues. The film powered to $63 million globally, including a softer-than-expected $23 million overseas. Critics and audiences seemed mixed on the R-rated movie, which has a 65% Rotten Tomatoes average and “B” grade on CinemaScore exit polls.

“Mortal Kombat II” was produced for $80 million, above the prior installment’s $55 million price tag. The first “Mortal Kombat” opened to $23 million, though that figure comes with a major caveat. It landed simultaneously on HBO Max during the studio’s disastrous year-long experiment known as Project Popcorn. Considering the reality that people were largely steering clear of cinemas at the time, the video game adaptation became a modest success with $42 million in North America and $84 million worldwide. Those aren’t the kind of returns that would typically justify a sequel or launch a franchise, but HBO had reported that “Mortal Kombat” was among the streamer’s most-watched movies at the time. Warner Bros. clearly has high hopes for a theatrical series because a third film is already in development.

Two newcomers, Amazon MGM’s charming whodunit “Sheep Detectives” and Paramount’s concert film “Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D),” landed in fourth and fifth place, respectively. Those movies opened behind Lionsgate’s “Michael,” which took the No. 3 slot with a remarkable $36.5 million from 3,550 theaters in its third outing, a scant 33% decline from last weekend. So far, the biopic about Michael Jackson has generated $240.4 million in North America and a massive $577 million globally. This weekend, “Michael” has outpaced the domestic gross of 2018’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” ($216 million) to become the highest-grossing musical biopic of all time in North America. The Queen biopic remains far bigger at the worldwide box office with $911 million, though, at this rate, “Michael” could soon approach the global heights of Freddie Mercury.

“Sheep Detective” trotted to a better-than-expected $15.9 million from 3,574 locations, a decent start for an original family film. It cost a hefty $75 million to produce. However, critics and moviegoers loved the live-action/ CGI hybrid (“Sheep Detective” earned a 93% Rotten Tomatoes average and solid “A-” grade on CinemaScore), which bodes well for box office longevity. Hugh Jackman stars in the PG-rated comedy, which follows a shepherd who goes missing, leaving his sheep to follow the clues, investigate human suspects, and crack the case. Based on the children’s book “Three Bags Full,” “Sheep Detective” was directed by Kyle Balda (“Despicable Me”) and written by Craig Mazin (“The Last of Us”).

“The start is just shy of average for the genre, but most hybrids are based on high-profile IP like ‘Minecraft,’ ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ and ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks,’” notes David A. Gross, who publishes the box office newsletter FranchiseRe. “With no big family entertainment on the calendar until ‘Toy Story 5’ on June 19, the film has room to run. And word-of-mouth should help.”

“Billie Eilish” opened to $7.5 million from 2,613 venues, slightly below expectations. It was bigger-than-projected at the international box office with $12.6 million for a global start of $20 million. The film, co-directed by James Cameron and Eilish, was another crowd-pleaser, securing a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and “A” on CinemaScore. As the unwieldy title suggests, “Hit Me Hard and Soft” follows the 24-year-old Grammy and Oscar-winning artist on her area tour of the same name. It was produced for $20 million through a partnership with Paramount and Interscope Records.

“The Billie Eilish/James Cameron concert collab shows the importance of great sound systems and visually impactful 3D in movie theaters,” says analyst Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore’s head of marketplace trends.

Early May is the box office’s unofficial kickoff to summer. This weekend is impressively up 88% from the same period in 2025, when Marvel’s “Thunderbolts,” Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” and “A Minecraft Movie” were leading the charts. This Mother’s Day frame was bolstered by Universal’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” which earned $6.6 million in its sixth weekend of release, as well as Amazon MGM’s Project Hail Mary,” which brought in $6 million in its eighth weekend of release. Right now, the overall box office is trending 16% ahead of last year, according to Comscore.

“‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ and ‘Michael’ continue their impressive trajectories, but the long-term playability awards must go to “Mario’ and “Project Hail Mary,’ which demonstrate the vital importance of holdover strength,” Dergarabedian adds. “As the old saying goes, a rising tide raises all ships — and this has been the secret sauce for the year thus far.”

More to come…

Source link

0 Comments

Apparently the gruff fighter Johnny Cage wasn’t

Movies

Last Updated:

Jana Nayagan producer attended Vijay’s oath ceremony and shared that the film will release after receiving CBFC clearance.

font

Jana Nayagan is Thalapathy Vijay's last movie.

Jana Nayagan is Thalapathy Vijay’s last movie.

Vijay is riding high on his political achievement. The Tamil superstar has now become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and took the oath at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium on Sunday (May 10). While his political career is already at its peak, his last film, Jana Nayagan, still awaits CBFC clarification to see the light of the day.

Jana Nayagan’s producers were present at the oath ceremony, where they spoke about the fate of the film. Speaking to reporters, K. Venkat Narayana said, “We are waiting for the CBFC certificate. As soon as we get the certificate, we will release it. We are very happy. Congratulations to Vijay sir for becoming the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. A new chapter begins. Sir, I am sure, will fulfill all the promises. Jana Nayagan will release as soon as we get the certificate.”

Following the result declaration, KVN Productions, the banner which helmed Jana Nayagan, had congratulated the actor. The statement read, “Heartiest congratulations to our ‘Jana Nayagan’, Thalapathy Vijay sir, on scripting history today against all odds. It is indeed a revolution and one that will echo for generations to come.”

More about Jana Nayagan

The film features a strong ensemble cast alongside Vijay, including Pooja Hegde, Bobby Deol, Mamitha Baiju, Prakash Raj, Narain, and Priyamani, with music composed by Anirudh Ravichander. Backed by KVN Productions, the project combines a large-scale cinematic setup with a narrative that leans heavily into political drama, making it both a commercial entertainer and a thematic extension of Vijay’s evolving public image.

Originally planned for a Pongal 2026 release, Thalapathy Vijay’s Jana Nayagan has faced multiple delays due to a combination of censor concerns and its overlap with the Tamil Nadu Assembly election timeline. Reports have suggested revised release windows, including May 2026, but the final release date is yet to be officially confirmed. The timing of the film has become a talking point in itself, as its subject and messaging align with Vijay’s real-life political debut through his party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam.

News movies tamil-cinema Jana Nayagan Producer Attends Vijay’s Oath Ceremony As CM, Talks About Film’s Release
Disclaimer: Comments reflect users’ views, not News18’s. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Source link

0 Comments

Last Updated:May 10, 2026, 20:15 ISTJana Nayagan

Latest News

Sola Media has boarded as the sales agent for animated feature “Felix the Brave,” and will be unveiling an exclusive teaser at the Cannes Film Market.

The film, which follows the adventures of a flea, is produced by Little Dream Entertainment and Amour Fou together with animation studio Red Parrot Studios. It is directed by Ali Samadi Ahadi, known for his animated adventure “Moonbound.”

Delivery of the film is scheduled for the third quarter of 2027, followed by the theatrical release in Germany by Little Dream Pictures.

The film tells the story of Felix, a flea raised by a family of rhinoceros beetles who believes he is one of them. When a feared stag beetle army threatens his village, Felix embarks on a dangerous journey to find the mythical Beetle Queen, who is said to bring peace.

Alongside Missy, a sharp-tongued dung beetle, and Toni, a quirky bombardier beetle veteran, Felix faces challenges that force him to question his identity, loyalty and courage. As the trio quarrels, bonds and ventures through the wild unknown, Felix discovers that true bravery may change not only his own destiny, but also the future of his home.

The production brings together an experienced creative team, led by animation director Timo Berg, whose credits include “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” “Despicable Me 3,” “The Grinch,” “Sing” and “Pets,” and character designer Peter Oedekoven, known for his work on “Stitch Head,” “Chickenhare and the Secret of the Groundhog,” “Grand Prix of Europe” and “The Amazing Maurice.”

“The film invites children and families into a richly imagined miniature world of beetles, fleas and wild forest creatures – in the tradition of the beloved animated classic ‘A Bug’s Life,’” said Solveig Langeland, managing director of Sola.

“For us, ‘Felix the Brave’ is a real passion project. While making it, our team was falling in love with each of our adorable characters, giving us great hope that our valued audiences, children and their families all around the world will feel the same,” said Samadi Ahadi and Frank Geiger from Little Dream Entertainment.

Source link

0 Comments

Sola Media has boarded as the sales

MCU

Marvel Studios launched its Disney+ era in 2021 with a playbook focused on debuting new shows built around fresh or underused MCU characters, planting story seeds, and using each series to expand the broader MCU. Over the following four years, it produced more than a dozen limited series. Most were one-and-done with very few earning a second season, and new originals kept rotating in to replace them. 

With Wonder Man on the service, this trend has taken a very different turn compared to previous years. Every confirmed upcoming Marvel Studios Disney+ series is either a new season or a direct continuation of a show that already exists. There are zero announced brand-new original Marvel Studios Disney+ series for 2027 and beyond, which is historic.

This isn’t the biggest surprise since Marvel Studios’ Head of Streaming, Brad Winderbaum, confirmed the studio moved away from rotating one-season limited series toward multi-season shows built to run long-term. 

Kevin Feige’s attention is currently fixed on making Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars great and bringing back confidence in the Marvel brand. The Disney+ slate is being arranged around this goal, and this has essentially given fans a lineup of great shows that earned their next chapters the old-fashioned way.

The 8 Upcoming Marvel Studios Disney+ Series Set For 2027 & Beyond

X-Men ’97 Season 2

Marvel Animation

Season 2 of X-Men ’97 arrives on Disney+ in Summer 2026, and based on what Marvel showed at New York Comic-Con 2025, it’s a major escalation from Season 1. The story picks up from the catastrophic Season 1 finale, in which Asteroid M’s destruction scattered the team across time. 

Cyclops and Jean Grey are stranded in the year 3960 AD alongside a teenage Nathan Summers. On the other hand, Rogue, Beast, Nightcrawler, Professor X, and Magneto are displaced to 3000 BC Egypt, and Forge and Bishop hold the present down alone. Apocalypse, one of Marvel’s oldest and most dangerous antagonists, is the central villain of the season. 

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Season 2 

Peter Parker shooting webs in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
Marvel Animation

Season 2 of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is locked in for Fall 2026. Showrunner Jeff Trammell confirmed that scripts for Season 2 were fully written and animatics were halfway complete as of early 2025, which is a very clean production timeline. 

The animated series, which premiered in January 2025 to critical acclaim and earned a Children’s and Family Emmy Award, follows an alternate-timeline version of Peter Parker mentored by Norman Osborn instead of Tony Stark. Season 2 is expected to make this dynamic even more complex, with the symbiote coming into play. Richard Parker was also revealed in the Season 1 finale to be imprisoned, and this season is likely to touch further on that storyline.

VisionQuest 

Paul Bettany as White Vision in WandaVision.
Marvel Television

Late 2026 brings the conclusion of a trilogy that began with WandaVision and continued with Agatha All Along.VisionQuest focuses on Paul Bettany’s White Vision as he works to recover the memories he inherited at the end of WandaVision. James Spader returns as Ultron, a reunion that’s been one of the most anticipated reveals in recent Marvel TV memory. The series will also feature AI characters FRIDAY and EDITH, tying the show to Stark Industries technology and, by extension, Peter Parker’s history with Tony Stark.

Daredevil: Born Again Season 3

Charlie Cox portrays Daredevil in the MCU.
Marvel Television

Season 3 of Daredevil: Born Again was confirmed in 2025, and filming began this March. Season 2 premiered on March 24, and based on the release pattern of both seasons so far, March 2027 is the working expectation for Season 3’s arrival on Disney+. The second season brought back Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, alongside Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock, in a story that sees Wilson Fisk governing New York under martial law.

Season 3 will reportedly see the return of the Hand. The organization is already confirmed for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, so the fallout from that film will likely impact Born Again Season 3. 

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Season 3 

Spider-Man from Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Season 1.
Marvel Animation

A third season of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was officially announced in 2025 by Brad Winderbaum, who confirmed at the time that showrunner Jeff Trammell had already begun pitching ideas for it. Based on Winderbaum’s comments about aiming for annual releases, the show lining up Season 2 in Fall 2026 could place Season 3 in Fall or late 2027. Details for Season 3 are currently under wraps, as Marvel hasn’t revealed story specifics ahead of Season 2. 

Marvel Zombies Season 2

Zombified Captain America in Marvel Zombies.
Marvel Television

Marvel Zombies Season 2 is officially in production. Brad Winderbaum confirmed on The Escape Pod podcast that he had already seen the first animatic for the opening episode, describing it as delivering on both the zombie horror premise and “an MCU thing that has never really happened before.” Season 1 premiered September 24, 2025, on Disney+ as the studio’s first-ever TV-MA animated series, ending on a cliffhanger in which a zombified Wanda Maximoff, now crowned the Queen of the Dead, tricks Kamala Khan into surrendering by trapping her in an illusory reality.

Given that early animation is only now being produced, a 2027 premiere seems optimistic. It’ll be no surprise to see Marvel Studios aim for a release around the Halloween season, given the show’s premise, which would place it two years after Season 1.

X-Men ’97 Season 3

Cyclops alongside Beast and several X-Men characters.
Marvel Animation

Season 3 of X-Men ’97 was announced in 2025 at the New York City Comic Con. Writer Matthew Chauncey, who replaced Beau DeMayo as head writer, will oversee Season 3. Voice recording for the new season reportedly began in March, which suggests the production pipeline is moving quickly. If Marvel holds to the annual release model they’ve discussed for the series, Summer 2027 is the natural target window. No plot details are confirmed yet, as Marvel would naturally want to keep that under wraps until Season 2 has run its course. 

Wonder Man Season 2

Yahya Abdul-Mateen as Wonder Man in the MCU.
Marvel Television

Wonder Man became only the third live-action Marvel Disney+ series to earn a second season, following Loki and Daredevil: Born Again. The renewal was confirmed in March, roughly two months after all eight episodes of Season 1 dropped at once on January 27. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Sir Ben Kingsley are both confirmed to return, as are co-creators Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest. 

Season 2 is likely to pick up after Simon Williams broke Trevor Slattery out of prison and the two went on the run from the Department of Damage Control. No release date is set. When it arrives depends on when production starts and whether Marvel wants to position it before or after Avengers: Secret Wars. Either way, the renewal places it in the 2027 or 2028 conversation.

Source link

0 Comments

DCU

Superhero movies dominate modern Hollywood, but even the biggest franchises have made baffling creative choices that left fans scratching their heads. For every inspired Marvel Cinematic Universe casting decision or perfectly adapted DC storyline, there’s another moment where studios completely misunderstood the characters audiences loved in the first place.

Sometimes the problem comes from trying too hard to reinvent iconic comic book figures. Other times, it’s the result of rushing massive storylines before they’ve been properly earned. Either way, these decisions can derail entire franchises, waste beloved villains, and permanently damage fan excitement.

What makes these mistakes especially frustrating is that many of the movies involved actually had enormous potential. Great actors, strong source material, and huge budgets should have been enough to guarantee success. Instead, some superhero films ended up remembered more for their strange creative choices than their strengths.

Whether it was fundamentally misunderstanding a classic villain, forcing too many plots into one film, or stripping comic book antagonists of what made them compelling, these decisions became cautionary tales for the genre. And years later, many are still debating how these movies could have turned out differently if studios had simply trusted the comics more.

Sony’s Spider-Man Universe Undermining Its Villains

Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Kraven the Hunter runs as he's shot at
Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Kraven the Hunter runs as he’s shot at

One of the strangest decisions in modern superhero cinema was Sony turning nearly every Spider-Man villain into a misunderstood antihero instead of embracing what made them iconic antagonists. Characters like Morbius, Kraven the Hunter, and even Venom were reworked into tragic protagonists audiences were supposed to root for.


Hulk reflected in Wolverine's claws in Hulk Vs (2010)


8 Best Marvel Movies That Everyone Forgets About

From forgotten animated gems to obscure live-action debuts, these Marvel movies prove the studio’s history is far richer than the MCU alone.

While Venom at least had some comic-book precedent as an antihero, the wider universe quickly became repetitive because every character followed the exact same formula. Instead of dangerous villains with distinct motivations, they all became reluctant heroes fighting slightly worse versions of themselves.

The bigger issue was that Sony created an entire Spider-Man universe without properly using Spider-Man himself. Villains work best when contrasted against a hero, and removing that dynamic stripped these characters of much of their identity.

Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor In Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice

Lex Luthor grinning and gesturing with his hands in Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice
Lex Luthor grinning and gesturing with his hands in Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice

Casting Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice could have worked in theory. A younger, tech-billionaire version of Superman’s greatest enemy had potential, especially during an era dominated by eccentric real-world CEOs. Unfortunately, the movie leaned so heavily into awkward mannerisms and frantic behavior that the character barely resembled Lex Luthor at all.

Instead of the calm, calculating mastermind fans expected, Eisenberg’s version felt scattered, childish, and bizarrely hyperactive. Classic Lex Luthor is terrifying because he’s composed. He’s usually portrayed as someone who can intellectually dominate a room and manipulate events with chilling precision.

This version constantly rambled, tossed candy into people’s mouths, and behaved more like an unstable internet troll than a criminal genius. It created a massive tonal disconnect, especially when paired against Henry Cavill’s serious Superman and Ben Affleck’s grim Batman.

Burying The Phoenix Saga In X-Men: The Last Stand

Famke Janssen suited up as Jean Grey and Phoenix in X-Men The Last Stand
Famke Janssen suited up as Jean Grey and Phoenix in X-Men The Last Stand

The “Dark Phoenix Saga” is widely considered one of the greatest X-Men stories ever written, which made its treatment in X-Men: The Last Stand especially disappointing. Rather than giving Jean Grey’s transformation the focus and emotional depth it deserved, the movie buried the storyline underneath the mutant cure plot.

As a result, one of Marvel’s most powerful and tragic comic arcs felt rushed and underdeveloped. The Last Stand constantly split attention between political debates about the cure, Magneto’s war against humanity, Wolverine’s personal struggles, and Jean becoming the Phoenix.

There simply wasn’t enough time to properly explore Jean’s descent or the terrifying scale of the Phoenix Force. Major character deaths and emotional moments came so quickly that they barely had time to resonate. The storyline needed room to breathe, but instead it became overcrowded by competing narratives.

Jared Leto’s Joker In Suicide Squad

Jared Leto as the Joker in Suicide Squad 2016 looking offscreen
Jared Leto as the Joker in Suicide Squad 2016 looking offscreen

Jared Leto’s Joker in Suicide Squad quickly became one of the most infamous superhero movie performances ever, and not just because of the final product onscreen. The character was originally supposed to be a relatively minor part of the movie, but the enormous attention surrounding Leto’s method acting reportedly ended up overshadowing the actual story and characters the film was supposed to focus on.

Instead of audiences talking about Deadshot, Harley Quinn, or Task Force X, much of the conversation revolved around bizarre behind-the-scenes stories and anticipation for this heavily marketed Joker reinvention. The bigger problem was that the performance itself felt wildly out of place.

Leto’s Joker is more like an exaggerated gangster parody covered in distracting tattoos and cringe-inducing dialogue. Frustratingly, all the attention and resources dedicated to the character ultimately produced very little payoff, leaving the film feeling creatively unbalanced.

Emo Peter Parker In Spider-Man 3

Peter Parker dancing outside in Spider-Man 3
Peter Parker dancing outside in Spider-Man 3

Few superhero movie moments have become as endlessly mocked as Emo Peter Parker in Spider-Man 3. After Peter bonds with the symbiote, the film attempts to show his darker personality emerging, but the execution is so bizarre that it completely undermines the intended drama.

Instead of becoming intimidating or genuinely corrupted, Peter suddenly starts dancing through the streets, pointing finger guns at strangers, and awkwardly flipping his hair over one eye like he wandered out of a mid-2000s music video.

Tobey Maguire commits fully to the material, but the exaggerated swagger and painfully awkward behavior make Peter seem ridiculous rather than threatening. Comic book symbiote stories are usually unsettling because they reveal a hero’s darker impulses. Here, Peter’s “evil” phase mostly just became one giant meme that overshadowed the rest of the movie.

The Lacklustre MODOK In Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania

MODOK Smiles while dying in Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania
MODOK Smiles while dying in Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania

MODOK is one of Marvel’s weirdest and most terrifying villains, but that’s exactly why audiences were excited to see him finally appear in live-action. Unfortunately, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania wasted the character almost immediately by turning him into an awkward joke with little real menace or emotional impact.


The Avengers in The Avengers (2012)


The MCU’s Best Villain Debuted 15 Years Ago

The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most captivating villain made their entrance 15 years ago, setting the stage for a legacy that continues to evolve.

Quantumania reduced MODOK to a punchline that barely contributed to the story. Reveal MODOK as Darren Cross could have worked if the movie leaned into the tragedy or body horror of his transformation. Instead, the film constantly undercut the character with cheap jokes about his oversized face and appearance.

Even his eventual redemption felt rushed and strangely unserious. MODOK is visually bizarre by design, but great comic book movies know how to balance strange concepts with genuine stakes. Here, Marvel introduced one of its most visually unique villains only to treat him like disposable comic relief.

Galactus As A Cloud In Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer

Galactus in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer moving through space
Galactus in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer moving through space

Turning Galactus into a giant space cloud in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer remains one of the most disappointing comic book movie decisions ever. To be fair, there was understandable concern at the time about whether a comic-accurate Galactus would look too silly in live-action. A massive purple-armored cosmic entity might have seemed difficult to take seriously during the mid-2000s.

However, replacing one of Marvel’s greatest villains with an ambiguous cloud stripped away everything interesting about the character. Galactus works because he’s imposing, intelligent, and godlike. He’s not just a natural disaster floating through space.

Rise of the Silver Surfer reduces him to little more than a giant weather effect looming in the background. It robbed audiences of the visual spectacle they were waiting for after all the buildup surrounding the Silver Surfer.

Catwoman Is Not Selina Kyle

Halle Berry in a Cat Mask in Catwoman 2004
Halle Berry in a Cat Mask in Catwoman 2004

Catwoman made the baffling decision to create an almost entirely original character instead of properly adapting Selina Kyle, and the result barely resembled Catwoman at all. Halle Berry plays Patience Phillips rather than Bruce Wayne’s iconic thief and antihero, immediately distancing the movie from decades of beloved comic lore.

While comic book adaptations do sometimes reinvent characters successfully, this version changed so much that audiences were left wondering why the movie was even called Catwoman in the first place. Selina Kyle’s appeal comes from her complicated morality, her relationship with Batman, and her life as Gotham’s most skilled cat burglar.

Almost all of that was stripped away here in favor of mystical cat powers and a bizarre supernatural origin story. By divorcing the character so heavily from the comics, Catwoman lost the core identity that made the character so compelling.

The CGI Green Lantern Costume

Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan in Green Lantern
Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan in Green Lantern

The decision to give Ryan Reynolds a fully CGI costume in Green Lantern instantly became one of the movie’s biggest distractions. At a time when superhero costumes were becoming more practical and believable, Green Lantern went in the exact opposite direction by covering its lead actor in glowing digital effects that rarely looked convincing.

Instead of enhancing Hal Jordan’s powers, the suit often made scenes feel artificial and unfinished. The strangest part is that the costume design itself was not terrible conceptually. A comic-accurate Green Lantern outfit absolutely could have worked with a mixture of practical materials and visual effects.

However, making nearly the entire suit CGI created an uncanny look that constantly pulled viewers out of the movie. Superhero costumes should help audiences believe in the world. Here, the digital suit mostly reminded viewers they were watching actors standing in front of green screens.

Muting Deadpool In X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Deadpool with no mouth from X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Deadpool with no mouth from X-Men Origins: Wolverine. 

Perhaps no superhero movie decision angered comic fans more than muting Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Deadpool is famously known as the “Merc with a Mouth,” a character defined by nonstop talking, fourth-wall-breaking humor, and chaotic personality. So naturally, the movie decided to sew his mouth shut.

It remains one of the clearest examples of a studio fundamentally misunderstanding the character they were adapting. What makes the decision even stranger is that Ryan Reynolds was actually perfectly cast as Wade Wilson. Early scenes showed flashes of the fast-talking, sarcastic energy people wanted, only for the movie to completely abandon that version in the final act.

The transformation stripped away everything unique and entertaining about the character. Ironically, the backlash became so intense that it eventually helped inspire the far more comic-accurate Deadpool years later.

Source link

0 Comments

Superhero movies dominate modern Hollywood, but even

Comics

Daybreak and Cold Iron Studios have announced a sequel to the co-op survival shooter, Aliens: Fireteam Elite.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 will release this summer for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Epic Games Store, and Steam, according to an announcement.

The sequel expands from three to four-player co-op and adds new customization options, allowing players to mix and match weapons, abilities, and classes, developers say.

“With Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2, we’re doubling down on the action and the terror, delivering an experience worthy of the Alien franchise,” said Chris Cross, game director on Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2.

“We are all massive fans of the franchise, and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to craft a sequel to Aliens: Fireteam Elite, a game that successfully brought to life the fantasy of colonial marines facing off against the iconic and terrifying xenomorphs.

“This sequel expands the action to four players, introduces new character classes including a fully customizable Specialist, and takes the fight to immersive new environments across the Aliens universe.”

John Drake, GM of 20th Century Games, added: “We’re celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Aliens in 2026, and Fireteam Elite 2 honors that world.

“With the help of Daybreak Game Company and Cold Iron Studios, we’re delivering the chaos of a Colonial Marine bug hunt with the terror and challenge of overcoming an overwhelming enemy. We can’t wait for squads to get their hands on this world later this summer.”