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Summary

  • Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom could end with Black Manta accomplishing his mission to kill Aquaman’s family, but it is the least likely outcome.
  • Orm, Arthur’s half-brother, may be the major death that Black Manta is after, especially with the Black Trident tipping the scales.
  • Mera’s reduced screen time in the sequel might be due to her character being killed by Black Manta early on, jumpstarting the movie’s events.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will likely see Black Manta kill at least one major character before the new DC Universe comes along, and some have better chances than others. The first Aquaman unexpectedly earned over $1 billion at the worldwide box office. It was one of the most popular DCEU movies, which only makes it fitting for the upcoming Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom to serve as the DCEU’s last film. Jason Momoa’s Aquaman still has no future confirmed for James Gunn’s new DC Universe, so leading Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom‘s cast across the finish line might be Momoa’s last act as the King of the Seas.

After a long time with no updates, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom‘s trailer was finally released recently, showing that fans should expect an adventure between brothers Arthur Curry and Orm as Aquaman — who is now married to Mera and a father — tries to keep his family and the world safe from Black Manta. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s villain will return more powerful than ever in the sequel due to the Black Trident, which makes Black Manta claiming in the trailer that he willmurder Aquaman’s family quite the threat. With Black Manta setting his sights on Arthur’s family, here are the characters he could kill, ranked from most to least likely.

Related: Black Manta’s Black Trident In Aquaman 2 Explained

7 Aquaman

Due to it being the last DCEU movie, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom could end with Black Manta accomplishing his mission to get revenge on Aquaman for the role Arthur played in his father’s death, perhaps dying alongside Momoa’s hero to put a poetic end to the DCEU version of one of the biggest DC Comics rivalries. However, that currently stands as the least likely outcome of Black Manta’s quest to kill Arthur Curry and his family in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

The DCEU ending with Aquaman’s death would be quite a sad note for the universe, and as Aquaman 3 was teased by James Wan, the director of both Aquaman movies so far, Momoa’s character is fairly safe. Besides, based on Black Manta’s wrath in the Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom trailer, it seems like the villain will be more inclined to kill someone close to Aquaman to see him suffer and then try to kill him rather than just go for the hero. Arthur defeating Black Manta, but dealing with the loss of a loved one would then be more impactful than the hero dying.

6 Orm

Patrick Wilson as Orm with Mechanical Octopus

After being a villain in Aquaman, Patrick Wilson’s Orm will be back with a new role for the sequel. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom features an adventure between brothers Arthur and Orm, with Wilson’s character reluctantly agreeing to help his half-brother deal with the Black Trident. With Orm having a major role to play in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom‘s story, he might be the major death that Black Manta is after. While Orm is extremely well-trained to take on Black Manta, the Black Trident could tip the scales in the villain’s favor. Orm dying after finally bonding with Arthur during their adventure in the film would be tragic.

5 Atlanna

Queen Atlanna hugging baby Arthur in Aquaman

Aquaman first made it seem like Nicole Kidman’s Atlanna had been dead for years, only for it to be revealed that the character was alive, having survived the Trench and living for 20 years alone in the Hidden Sea. Atlanna then got her happy ending when Aquaman and Mera found her on their search for Atlan’s Trident, later going to Maine to be with Thomas, Aquaman’s father. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom‘s trailer showed the Curry family home engulfed in flames due to Black Manta’s actions, and that moment could include the villain killing Atlanna, with her sad past leading to an extremely emotional moment if that were to happen.

4 Thomas Curry

Temuera Morrison as Thomas Curry in The Flash

Temuera Morrison’s Thomas Curry was the one who cared for Arthur as he grew up, so Black Manta killing the character would hit especially hard for the DC hero. Besides, the whole point of the villain going after Aquaman is due to the hero having left Black Manta’s father to die, which could inspire him to kill Thomas, making him and Aquaman even. With Aquaman now a father himself, as revealed in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom‘s trailer, Thomas dying to protect his family would be a good way of putting things into perspective for Aquaman.

3 Vulko

Willem Dafoe as Vulko in 2018's Aquaman

Willem Dafoe is not in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, with the superhero movie legend’s absence being confirmed by Wan, who said that part of the reason for Dafoe not appearing in the movie “was because his schedule did not work for us.” Dafoe played Vulko, Aquaman’s trusted advisor in the first Aquaman, a role which will now be given to Kidman’s Atlanna for the sequel. While Vulko will not show up onscreen, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom could explain the character’s absence by saying that Black Manta killed him before the events of the movie or around the start of it, making the sequel’s stakes high from the get-go.

2 Mera

Amber Heard as Mera in Aquaman

Mera actress Amber Heard has a reduced role in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. While Heard claimed that was due to her public dispute with ex-husband Johnny Depp, Wan said it was because “The second movie was always going to be Arthur and Orm.” With Mera having a small role in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Black Manta threatening to go after her family, her reduced screen time might be due to the character being killed by the villain early on. Mera’s death would be a shocking way to jumpstart the movie’s events, and it would also allow DC to avoid going a darker path with Black Manta’s kill.

1 Arthur Curry Jr.

Aquaman's son and Black Manta in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

Aquaman and Mera’s son — Arthur Curry Jr. — will debut in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. That reveal has inspired fears that Black Manta will kill Aquaman’s son, a very possible scenario, as the villain did just that in the comics. Black Manta killed Aquaman’s son by suffocating him inside a sphere. The moment was one of the saddest and most shocking in Aquaman’s comic book history, and with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom‘s trailer showing that Black Manta is set on killing Aquaman’s family right when Arthur Curry Jr. debuts, the Aquababy is the most likely character for Black Manta to kill in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

Key Release Dates

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Summary Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

MrNinosan1h ago

The fans, which is not only Sony fans, have their concerns because MS is trying to change gaming for the worse.
When Xbox fans always say and think GamePass is a lucrative and profitable business they are feeding MS with exactly what they want, false trust.

GamePass ain’t profitable, which is getting more and more obvious, especially with the leaks we had last 48 hours.

Why does it matter for us fans you ask?

Well, we have seen the quality on Xbox games going from great to decent/bad. This is because developers is getting “lazy” or stressed by the board to finish their products. Therefore most games today are called “GamePass fillers”.

If/when more and more players are saying NO to paying full price for games (which we already see on Xbox), the quality of our games will disappear. We won’t get blockbusters like God of War, Last of Us, Spider-Man, Final Fantasy, Halo, Starfield, Forza etc… those games will either be gone completely or compromised to fit a lower budget.

Xbox is a small part of MS, and in the leaks we’ve also seen that MS will stop supporting the gaming side of GamePass subscribers don’t raise by alot until 2027.

How is that good for gamers?

It doesn’t take that much of a brain to see why people is interested if GamePass makes profit or not.

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MrNinosan1h agoThe fans, which is not only

While the highlights of Blackmagic Design’s unveilings at IBC 2023 might have been mostly focused on their new Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K and their surprise announcement of their Blackmagic Camera iPhone app, the company also included a couple of other notable releases.

One of these releases, which didn’t get as much fanfare, could be quite the game changer for the video broadcast side of film and video production.

Blackmagic’s new Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 is a notable upgrade of their original Micro Studio Camera 4K. This G2 promises to stay true to the camera’s “micro” offering while powering up its “cinematic” broadcast capabilities.

Let’s take a look at this new Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K G2 and explore if it might be right for you and your studio setups.


Introducing the Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K G2

Designed as an ultracompact solution for those looking to install a camera anywhere in a studio or on location, the Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 is made to be a do-everything live production camera that can broadcast quality footage in the smallest and tightest of DIY studios or out in the field when needed.

“Our customers loved the original Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K and have been asking us for an updated version. We’re excited to bring this camera back better than ever! It’s the same incredibly compact design from the original model, upgraded with new 12G-SDI and 4K HDMI connections, an amazing 4K sensor for cinematic images in live production and Blackmagic RAW recording. We think customers are going to love being able to create even more compelling content from more camera angles than ever before and in digital film quality!” — Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO.

With the G2 upgrade in particular, there’s not too much report in terms of major upgrades to its compact form factor with its built-in color corrector, program return, talkback, and tally indicators as the original Micro Studio Camera 4K was quite popular for a reason.

Instead, the biggest updates have to do with the upgraded film sensor.

A New 4K Digital Film Sensor

With a new 4K digital film sensor, the Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 will now see 13 stops of dynamic range and a dual native ISO up to 25,600 which should really unlock some new and impressive low light performance capabilities for a studio camera.

Similar to its predecessor, the Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 retains its 4K support at 3840 x 2160p60 which it can output as 10-bit 4:2:2 video and can be remotely controlled from an ATEM switcher using SDI control protocol.

The G2 can also accept native MFT lenses or can also be adapted to a wide range of other modern and vintage lenses.

On top of that, the new G2 will also add 12G-SDI for operation at up to 2160p60 and a new USB-C expansion port for recording Blackmagic RAW directly to external disks as well as network control via Ethernet adapters. All significant improvements for those looking to build out their own studios regardless of their set and crew sizes.

At its core, the new Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 is perhaps closer to a high-end studio camera than most might think with its 4K sensor and compact and rugged body design. This is quite impressive considering the G2 is set to retail at under $1,000 at launch.

With its compact size you can really put this thing anywhere

Blackmagic Design

Price and Availability

As mentioned above, Blackmagic Design’s more filmmaking-focused and mixed-use production cameras might get the majority of the fanfare here, but to see the brand doubling down on this Micro Studio Camera 4K with a G2 update should be encouraging for anyone who works in any type of broadcast production. The Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 should instantly be one of the best and most affordable studio camera options on the market.

Here are the specs and purchase options for the Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 which should be shipping here soon.

  • Active Micro Four Thirds Lens Mount
  • UHD 4K Resolutions up to 3840 x 2160p60
  • 12G-SDI Video Input/Output, HDMI Output
  • 13-Stop Dynamic Range, Compact Design
  • Camera Control via SDI, HDMI, or USB
  • Program and Talkback over SDI, Tally
  • USB-C Expansion Port, 3.5mm Audio In
  • Built-In Color Corrector
  • Canon LP-E6 Battery Slot

Blackmagic Design Micro Studio Camera 4K G2

Install a camera anywhere in your studio or on location with the ultracompact Blackmagic Design Micro Studio Camera 4K G2. This tiny UHD 4K studio camera is designed for live productions and has been updated to feature the same image sensor found in Blackmagic’s Studio Camera 4K Plus G2, which supports 3840 x 2160p60.

Jourdan Aldredge

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While the highlights of Blackmagic Design’s unveilings

Dark Winds, the crime drama starring Zahn McClarnon and Kiowa Gordon, has been renewed for a third season by AMC.

AMC announced today that they have renewed Dark Winds for a third season, just weeks after the second season of the crime drama wrapped.

Based on the Leaphorn & Chee novels by Tony Hillerman, Dark Winds takes place in the 1970s Southwest and follows two Navajo police officers, Leephorn (Zahn McClarnon) and Chee (Kiowa Gordon). The series was created by Graham Roland with John Wirth as showrunner. Roland and Wirth also serve as executive producers alongside Zahn McClarnon, Anne Hillerman, Chris Eyre, Vince Gerardis, Tina Elmo, George R.R. Martin, and Robert Redford.

“We started this journey with very high hopes for this series, given the remarkable source material and extraordinary creative team behind it, and it has delivered on every level,” said Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks. “From the beloved novels, to an incredibly collaborative producing team that includes Robert Redford, George R. R. Martin, showrunner John Wirth and star Zahn McClarnon, to the entire cast and crew, there is so much storytelling yet to come in this universe. Thanks to the fans for embracing this series and the critics for celebrating and shining a light on it.”

The second season of Dark Skies found Lt. Joe Leaphorn reuniting with Jim Chee, his former deputy turned private eye, “when their separate cases bring them together in pursuit of the same suspect. They find themselves in the high desert of Navajo Country chasing a killer who’s turned his sights on them to protect a secret that rips open old wounds and challenges Leaphorn’s moral and professional code. With the help of Sgt. Manuelito (Jessica Matten) and Valencia County Sheriff Gordo Sena, Leaphorn and Chee must thwart their would-be assassin and restore balance not only to their own lives, but to the reservation that depends on them.“

The series is filmed in and around Native American lands with the full support of the Navajo Nation, and more than 90% of the production team for the second season were Indigenous. While fans may be relieved that Dark Winds has been renewed, they do have a little bit of a wait ahead of them as the third season isn’t expected to premiere until early 2025.

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Dark Winds, the crime drama starring Zahn

Football is back and we are already two weeks into the 2023 NFL season. Week 3 starts with a Thursday Night Football matchup between the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium. 

The Giants are coming off a big 31-28 comeback against the Cardinals last Sunday. The 49ers have won 12 straight regular season games, including Sunday’s 30-23 win over their NFC West rival, the Los Angeles Rams. This is the 43rd meeting between the Giants and the 49ers. The series is tied 21-21, so one team will take the lead on Thursday. 

Giants head coach Brian Daboll isn’t ruling out that star running back Saquon Barkley actually could play Thursday night against the 49ers just days after hurting his ankle. We’ll be tuning in to Thursday Night Football to find out. Here’s everything you need to know about how to watch the Giants vs. 49ers game live at home.

When is the Giants vs. 49ers game?

Kickoff for the Thursday Night Football game between the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers is set for Thursday, September 21 at 8:15 p.m. ET (5:15 p.m. PT). 

How to Watch the Giants vs. 49ers Game Online

The Giants vs. 49ers game will be airing live on Amazon Prime Video, which is the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football this year. NFL fans can sign up for an Amazon Prime account for $15 a month or $139 a year. You can also subscribe only to Prime Video for $9 a month.

If you don’t already have an Amazon Prime membership, the most cost-effective way to watch Thursday Night Football games along with the majority of the 2023-2024 NFL season is a live TV streaming subscription to Sling TV. 

All Thursday Night Football games will be simulcast by NFL Network. Right now, there is a Sling TV deal offering 50% off your first month — bringing the Blue package with NFL Network down to just $22.50 and the comprehensive Orange + Blue package down to $30. Sling TV comes with 50 hours of free cloud-based DVR recording space, perfect for recording all the season’s top NFL matchups.

2023-2024 NFL Season Schedule

Below, view the full schedule for the 2023-2024 NFL football season with game times, television stations and streaming services. Note that some games have yet to be scheduled. 

Week 3

Thursday, September 21

  • New York Giants at San Francisco 49ers, 8:15 p.m. EDT (Prime Video)

Sunday, September 24

  • Indianapolis Colts at Baltimore Ravens, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Tennessee Titans at Cleveland Browns, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Atlanta Falcons at Detroit Lions, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • New Orleans Saints at Green Bay Packers, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Houston Texans at Jacksonville Jaguars, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Denver Broncos at Miami Dolphins, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Los Angeles Chargers at Minnesota Vikings, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • New England Patriots at New York Jets, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Buffalo Bills at Washington Commanders, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Carolina Panthers at Seattle Seahawks, 4:05 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Dallas Cowboys at Arizona Cardinals, 4:25 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Chicago Bears at Kansas City Chiefs, 4:25 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Pittsburgh Steelers at Las Vegas Raiders, 8:20 p.m. EDT (NBC)

Monday, September 25

  • Philadelphia Eagles at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 7:15 p.m. EDT (ABC, ESPN+)
  • Los Angeles Rams at Cincinnati Bengals, 8:15 p.m. EDT (ESPN)

Week 4

Thursday, September 28

  • Detroit Lions at Green Bay Packers, 8:15 p.m. EDT (Prime Video)

Sunday, October 1

  • Atlanta Falcons vs. Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium in London, England, 9:30 a.m. EDT (ESPN+)
  • Miami Dolphins at Buffalo Bills, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Minnesota Vikings at Carolina Panthers, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Denver Broncos at Chicago Bears, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Baltimore Ravens at Cleveland Browns, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Pittsburgh Steelers at Houston Texans, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Los Angeles Rams at Indianapolis Colts, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New Orleans Saints, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Washington Commanders at Philadelphia Eagles, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Cincinnati Bengals at Tennessee Titans, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Las Vegas Raiders at Los Angeles Chargers, 4:05 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • New England Patriots at Dallas Cowboys, 4:25 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Arizona Cardinals at San Francisco 49ers, 4:25 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Kansas City Chiefs at New York Jets, 8:20 p.m. EDT (NBC)

Monday, October 2

  • Seattle Seahawks at New York Giants, 8:15 p.m. EDT (ESPN)

Week 5

Thursday, October 5

  • Chicago Bears at Washington Commanders, 8:15 p.m. EDT (Prime Video)

Sunday, October 8

  • Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Buffalo Bills at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England, 9:30 a.m. EDT (ESPN+ and NFL Network)
  • Houston Texans at Atlanta Falcons, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Carolina Panthers at Detroit Lions, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Tennessee Titans at Indianapolis Colts, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • New York Giants at Miami Dolphins, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • New Orleans Saints at New England Patriots, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Cincinnati Bengals at Arizona Cardinals, 4:05 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Philadelphia Eagles at Los Angeles Rams, 4:05 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • New York Jets at Denver Broncos, 4:25 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Kansas City Chiefs at Minnesota Vikings, 4:25 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Dallas Cowboys at San Francisco 49ers, 8:20 p.m. EDT (NBC)

Monday, October 9

  • Green Bay Packers at Las Vegas Raiders, 8:15 p.m. EDT (ESPN)

Week 6

Thursday, October 12

  • Denver Broncos at Kansas City Chiefs, 8:15 p.m. EDT (Prime Video)

Sunday, October 15

  • Baltimore Ravens vs. Tennessee Titans at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England, 9:30 a.m. EDT (ESPN+ and NFL Network)
  • Washington Commanders at Atlanta Falcons, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Minnesota Vikings at Chicago Bears, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Seattle Seahawks at Cincinnati Bengals, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • San Francisco 49ers, at Cleveland Browns, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • New Orleans Saints at Houston Texans, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Indianapolis Colts at Jacksonville Jaguars, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Carolina Panthers at Miami Dolphins, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Detroit Lions at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • New England Patriots at Las Vegas Raiders, 4:05 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Arizona Cardinals at Los Angeles Rams, 4:25 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Philadelphia Eagles at New York Jets, 4:25 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • New York Giants at Buffalo Bills, 8:20 p.m. EDT (NBC)

Monday, October 16

  • Dallas Cowboys at Los Angeles Chargers, 8:15 p.m. EDT (ESPN)

Week 7

Thursday, October 19

  • Jacksonville Jaguars at New Orleans Saints, 8:15 p.m. EDT (Prime Video)

Sunday, October 22

  • Detroit Lions at Baltimore Ravens, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Las Vegas Raiders at Chicago Bears, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Cleveland Browns at Indianapolis Colts, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Washington Commanders at New York Giants, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Atlanta Falcons at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Pittsburgh Steelers at Los Angeles Rams, 4:05 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Arizona Cardinals at Seattle Seahawks, 4:05 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Green Bay Packers at Denver Broncos, 4:25 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Los Angeles Chargers at Kansas City Chiefs, 4:25 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Miami Dolphins at Philadelphia Eagles, 8:20 p.m. EDT (NBC)

Monday, October 23

  • San Francisco 49ers at Minnesota Vikings, 8:15 p.m. EDT (ESPN)

Week 8

Thursday, October 26

  • Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Buffalo Bills, 8:15 p.m. EDT (Prime Video)

Sunday, October 29

  • Houston Texans at Carolina Panthers, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Los Angeles Rams at Dallas Cowboys, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • New Orleans Saints at Indianapolis Colts, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • New England Patriots at Miami Dolphins, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • New York Jets at New York Giants, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Jacksonville Jaguars at Pittsburgh Steelers, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Atlanta Falcons at Tennessee Titans, 1 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Philadelphia Eagles at Washington Commanders, 1 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Cleveland Browns at Seattle Seahawks, 4:05 p.m. EDT (Fox)
  • Baltimore Ravens at Arizona Cardinals, 4:25 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Kansas City Chiefs at Denver Broncos, 4:25 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Cincinnati Bengals at San Francisco 49ers, 4:25 p.m. EDT (CBS)
  • Chicago Bears at Los Angeles Chargers, 8:20 p.m. EDT (NBC)

Monday, October 30

  • Las Vegas Raiders at Detroit Lions, 8:15 p.m. EDT (ESPN)

Week 9

Thursday, November 2

  • Tennessee Titans at Pittsburgh Steelers, 8:15 p.m. EDT (Prime Video)

Sunday, November 5

  • Miami Dolphins vs. Kansas City Chiefs at Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt, Germany, 9:30 a.m. EST (ESPN+ and NFL Network)
  • Minnesota Vikings at Atlanta Falcons, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Seattle Seahawks at Baltimore Ravens, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Arizona Cardinals at Cleveland Browns, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Los Angeles Rams at Green Bay Packers, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Houston Texans, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Washington Commanders at New England Patriots, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Chicago Bears at New Orleans Saints, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Indianapolis Colts at Carolina Panthers, 4:05 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • New York Giants at Las Vegas Raiders, 4:25 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles, 4:25 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Buffalo Bills at Cincinnati Bengals, 8:20 p.m. EST (NBC)

Monday, November 6

  • Los Angeles Chargers at New York Jets, 8:15 p.m. EST (ESPN)

Week 10

Thursday, November 9

  • Carolina Panthers at Chicago Bears, 8:15 p.m. EST (Prime Video)

Sunday, November 12

  • Indianapolis Colts vs. New England Patriots at Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt, Germany, 9:30 a.m. EST (ESPN+ and NFL Network)
  • Cleveland Browns at Baltimore Ravens, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Houston Texans at Cincinnati Bengals, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • San Francisco 49ers at Jacksonville Jaguars, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • New Orleans Saints at Minnesota Vikings, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Green Bay Packers at Pittsburgh Steelers, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Tennessee Titans at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Atlanta Falcons at Arizona Cardinals, 4:05 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Detroit Lions at Los Angeles Chargers, 4:05 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys, 4:25 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Washington Commanders at Seattle Seahawks, 4:25 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • New York Jets at Las Vegas Raiders, 8:20 p.m. EST (NBC)

Monday, November 13

  • Denver Broncos at Buffalo Bills, 8:15 p.m. EST (ESPN)

Week 11

Thursday, November 16

  • Cincinnati Bengals at Baltimore Ravens, 8:15 p.m. EST (Prime Video)

Sunday, November 19

  • Dallas Cowboys at Carolina Panthers, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Chicago Bears at Detroit Lions, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Los Angeles Chargers at Green Bay Packers, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Arizona Cardinals at Houston Texans, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Tennessee Titans at Jacksonville Jaguars, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Las Vegas Raiders at Miami Dolphins, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • New York Giants at Washington Commanders, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Tampa Bay Buccaneers at San Francisco 49ers, 4:05 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • New York Jets at Buffalo Bills, 4:25 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Seattle Seahawks at Los Angeles Rams, 4:25 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Minnesota Vikings at Denver Broncos, 8:20 p.m. EST (NBC)

Monday, November 20

  • Philadelphia Eagles at Kansas City Chiefs, 8:15 p.m. EST (ABC, ESPN, ESPN+)

Week 12

Thursday, November 23 (Thanksgiving)

  • Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions, 12:30 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Washington Commanders at Dallas Cowboys, 4:30 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks, 8:20 p.m. EST (NBC)

Friday, November 24

  • Miami Dolphins at New York Jets, 3:00 p.m. EST (Prime Video)

Sunday, November 26

  • New Orleans Saints at Atlanta Falcons, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Pittsburgh Steelers at Cincinnati Bengals, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Jacksonville Jaguars at Houston Texans, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Indianapolis Colts, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • New England Patriots at New York Giants, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Carolina Panthers at Tennessee Titans, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Los Angeles Rams at Arizona Cardinals, 4:05 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Cleveland Browns at Denver Broncos, 4:05 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Kansas City Chiefs at Las Vegas Raiders, 4:25 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Buffalo Bills at Philadelphia Eagles, 4:25 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Baltimore Ravens at Las Angeles Chargers, 8:20 p.m. EST (NBC)

Monday, November 27

  • Chicago Bears at Minnesota Vikings, 8:15 a.m. EST (ESPN)

Week 13

Thursday, November 30

Seattle Seahawks at Dallas Cowboys, 8:15 p.m. EST (Prime Video)

Sunday, December 3

  • Los Angeles Chargers at New England Patriots, 1 p.m. EST (CBS) 
  • Detroit Lions at New Orleans Saints, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Atlanta Falcons at New York Jets, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Arizona Cardinals at Pittsburgh Steelers, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Carolina Panthers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Indianapolis Colts at Tennessee Titans, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Miami Dolphins at Washington Commanders, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Denver Broncos at Houston Texans, 4:05 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Cleveland Browns at Los Angeles Rams, 4:25 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • San Francisco 49ers at Philadelphia Eagles, 4:25 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Kansas City Chiefs at Green Bay Packers, 8:20 p.m. EST (NBC)

Monday, December 4

  • Cincinnati Bengals at Jacksonville Jaguars, 8:15 p.m. EST (ESPN)

Week 14

Thursday, December 7

  • New England Patriots at Pittsburgh Steelers, 8:15 p.m. EST (Prime Video)

Sunday, December 10

  • Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Atlanta Falcons, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Los Angeles Rams at Baltimore Ravens, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Detroit Lions at Chicago Bears, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Indianapolis Colts at Cincinnati Bengals, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Jacksonville Jaguars at Cleveland Browns, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Carolina Panthers at New Orleans Saints, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Houston Texans at New York Jets, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Minnesota Vikings at Las Vegas Raiders, 4:05 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Seattle Seahawks at San Francisco 49ers, 4:05 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Buffalo Bills at Kansas City Chiefs, 4:25 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Denver Broncos at Los Angeles Chargers, 4:25 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys, 8:20 p.m. EST (NBC)

Monday, December 11

  • Green Bay Packers at New York Giants, 8:15 p.m. EST (ABC, ESPN, ESPN+)
  • Tennessee Titans at Miami Dolphins, 8:15 p.m. EST (ESPN)

Week 15

Thursday, December 14

  • Los Angeles Chargers at Las Vegas Raiders, 8:15 p.m. EST (Prime Video)

Sunday, December 17

  • Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Green Bay Packers, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • New York Jets at Miami Dolphins, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • New York Giants at New Orleans Saints, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Houston Texans at Tennessee Titans, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • San Francisco 49ers at Arizona Cardinals, 4:05 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Washington Commanders at Los Angeles Rams, 4:05 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Dallas Cowboys at Buffalo Bills, 4:25 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Philadelphia Eagles at Seattle Seahawks, 4:25 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Baltimore Ravens at Jacksonville Jaguars, 8:20 p.m. EST (NBC)

Monday, December 18

  • Kansas City Chiefs at New England Patriots, 8:15 p.m. EST (ESPN) 

Week 16

Thursday, December 21

  • New Orleans Saints at Los Angeles Rams, 8:15 p.m. EST (Prime Video)

Saturday, December 23

  • Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers, 4:30 p.m. EST (NBC)
  • Buffalo Bills at Los Angeles Chargers, 8 p.m. EST (Peacock)

Sunday, December 24

  • Indianapolis Colts at Atlanta Falcons, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Green Bay Packers at Carolina Panthers, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Cleveland Browns at Houston Texans, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Detroit Lions at Minnesota Vikings, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Washington Commanders at New York Jets, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Seattle Seahawks at Tennessee Titans, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Jacksonville Jaguars at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 4:05 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Arizona Cardinals at Chicago Bears, 4:25 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Dallas Cowboys at Miami Dolphins, 4:25 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • New England Patriots at Denver Broncos, 8:15 p.m. EST (NFL Network)

Monday, December 25

  • Las Vegas Raiders at Kansas City Chiefs, 1:00 p.m. EST (CBS, Nickelodeon)
  • New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles, 4:30 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Baltimore Ravens at San Francisco 49ers, 8:15 p.m. EST (ABC, ESPN+)

Week 17

Thursday, December 28

  • New York Jets at Cleveland Browns, 8:15 p.m. EST (Prime Video)

Saturday, December 30

  • Detroit Lions at Dallas Cowboys, 8:15 p.m. EST (ABC, ESPN, ESPN+)

Sunday, December 31

  • Miami Dolphins at Baltimore Ravens, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills, 1 p.m. EST(CBS)
  • Atlanta Falcons at Chicago Bears, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Tennessee Titans at Houston Texans, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Las Vegas Raiders at Indianapolis Colts, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Carolina Panthers at Jacksonville Jaguars, 1 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Los Angeles Rams at New York Giants, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Arizona Cardinals at Philadelphia Eagles, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • New Orleans Saints at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • San Francisco 49ers at Washington Commanders, 1 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Pittsburgh Steelers at Seattle Seahawks, 4:05 p.m. EST (Fox)
  • Los Angeles Chargers at Denver Broncos, 4:25 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Cincinnati Bengals at Kansas City Chiefs, 4:25 p.m. EST (CBS)
  • Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings, 8:20 p.m. EST (NBC)

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Great news! “The Saint of Second Chances” is available to watch on Netflix UK!

 

Date Added: 19th September 2023

Known expiry dates are shown above as well as on the Last Chance page.

Want to keep forever? Try looking for ‘The Saint of Second Chances’ on Amazon (paid link)

 

Description:

A baseball dynasty built on fun — and a disco disaster that nearly undid it all. Explore the comeback of a lifetime in this documentary about Mike Veeck.

 

Certificate: Suitable for ages 12 and up

Year: 2023

Duration: 1hr 34m

Audio: English – Audio Description, English [Original], European Spanish, Spanish – Audio Description, French, Italian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese – Audio Description, Brazilian Portuguese

Subtitles: Arabic, English, French, Polish, Ukrainian, Traditional Chinese

– English Audio Description

 

Cast and Crew

Director: Morgan Neville, Jeff Malmberg

 

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Nominations voting is from January 11-16, 2024, with official Oscar nominations announced January 23, 2024. Final voting is February 22-27, 2024. And finally, the 96th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 10 and air live on ABC at 8:00 p.m. ET/ 5:00 p.m. PT. We update predictions through awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2024 Oscar picks.

See our previous thoughts on what to expect at the 96th Academy Awards here.

The State of the Race

Similar to last year’s Best Actor Oscar race, the Best Supporting Actor race this year has four names that will most likely go the distance, and a final nomination slot that will be fair game for a bevy of standout performances.

Depending on who one talks to post-Barbenheimer, the Oscar will for sure go to Robert Downey Jr. being contemptible in “Oppenheimer” or Ryan Gosling being “Kenough” in “Barbie. Meanwhile, the Cannes crowd is the only public audience to have gotten a taste of Robert De Niro’s best role in years, even surpassing his Oscar-nominated work in “The Irishman,” as the sort of Don of Osage County in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Mark Ruffalo’s delightfully dastardly turn in “Poor Things,” the big winner at this year’s Venice Film Festival, rounds out the current Best Supporting Actor frontrunners, making this a good year to go bad.

But there is room for counterprogramming. The various names being projected for that fifth nomination slot are far from the antagonist of their respective films. Willem Dafoe’s character in “Poor Things” may be someone filmgoers morally object to, but his mad scientist invokes much pathos. Sterling K. Brown plays against type in TIFF People’s Choice Award winner “American Fiction,” as a surgeon going through a bit of a midlife crisis, but continues to effectively squeeze tears out of his audience in soulful moments. “The Holdovers” star Dominic Sessa is the discovery of the season, coming from one of the schools director Alexander Payne scouted to make the New England boarding school-set dramedy, and already excels at stirring emotion even at times when his kid character is at his brattiest.

These names are all on top of names like John Magaro (“Past Lives”), a breakout at Sundance, and Charles Melton (“May December”), lauded at Cannes. But the film to really keep an eye on for this particular category is Andrew Haigh’s “All of Us Strangers,” a Telluride premiere, that has become the type of film certain viewers can’t talk about without tearing up. Jamie Bell is at his best as a gruff yet understanding parent, but it’s romantic lead Paul Mescal who has the most momentum coming off of “Aftersun,” and now proving to Academy members how right they were to earmark him as a talent they will be considering often as they decide Oscar nominations.

Contenders are listed in alphabetical order, below. No actor will be deemed a frontrunner until I have seen the film.

Frontrunners:
Robert De Niro (“Killers of the Flower Moon”)
Robert Downey Jr. (“Oppenheimer”)
Ryan Gosling (“Barbie”)
Paul Mescal (“All of Us Strangers”)
Mark Ruffalo (“Poor Things”)

Contenders:
Jamie Bell (“All of Us Strangers”)
Sterling K. Brown (“American Fiction”)
Willem Dafoe (“Poor Things”)
Matt Damon (“Oppenheimer”)
Colman Domingo (“The Color Purple”)
Tom Hardy (“The Bikeriders”)
John Magaro (“Past Lives”)
Charles Melton (“May December”)
Chris Messina (“Air”)
Dominic Sessa (“The Holdovers”)

Long Shots:
Jon Bernthal (“Origin”)
Raul Castillo (“Cassandro”)
Jacob Elordi (“Priscilla”)
Jacob Elordi (“Saltburn”)
Noah Galvin (“Theater Camp”)
Richard E. Grant (“Saltburn”)
Corey Hawkins (“The Color Purple”)
Glenn Howerton (“BlackBerry”)
Rhys Ifans (“Nyad”)
Jesse Plemons (“Killers of the Flower Moon”)
Ramy Youssef (“Poor Things”)

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Nominations voting is from January 11-16, 2024,

It’s hard to gauge whether the drama currently playing out behind the scenes at the San Carlo Opera House in Naples will end as “opera seria” (serious) or an “opera buffa” (comedy).

Italy’s oldest opera house currently has two respected figures, each of whom believes he is its rightful general director after a convoluted dispute that critics say has cast the theater, and Italy, in an unflattering light.

It has all the elements of high drama — conflict, tension, perhaps even vendetta — and is playing out like a farce, or, in the words of some Italian news outlets, “un pasticcio”: a mess.

A quick plot synopsis:

Act I. In May, Italy’s government passed a law that said general directors of the country’s 13 state-run opera theaters could not serve beyond their 70th birthday. That immediately terminated the contract of Stéphane Lissner, who had turned 70 in January, midway through his term as the general director of the San Carlo.

He was the only general director immediately affected by the law, and there was open speculation in the news media that the law, which was passed as an urgent measure, had been drafted to specifically single him out.

The French-born Lissner, who ran La Scala in Milan for a decade and the Paris Opera for six years, warned the board of the theater that he would challenge his termination.

Act II. In August, the theater hired Carlo Fuortes, 64, as a replacement, not long after he resigned as the chief executive of Italy’s national broadcaster, RAI.

Fuortes is an experienced manager who was praised for turning around the Rome Opera during a stint there as general director from 2013 to 2021. Italian news outlets widely reported that the hard-right government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wanted to replace Fuortes in the broadcast position with its own nominee. It was said that the San Carlo was meant to be a consolation prize for Fuortes, who began there on Sept. 1.

Act III. On Sept. 12, a labor court reinstated Lissner, after his lawyers challenged the grounds for his dismissal. The culture ministry told the theater board to reinstate him, which it did on Monday evening, according to his lawyer. (The board declined repeated requests for comment.) Lissner is expected to return to Naples from Paris, where he has been since June, as soon as this week. But the board has also announced it would file appeal the court’s decision.

What happens in Act IV remains to be seen. A review panel within the same labor court will now examine the decision to reinstate Lissner, who is again legally the theater’s general director. His lawyer, Pietro Fioruzzi, pointed out the “irony” that his client had been reinstated by the same theater board that was appealing that decision.

“What happened is certainly not worthy of the history of Naples and the history of the San Carlo,” said Riccardo Realfonzo, an economics professor who sits on the board.

Realfonzo had contested several management decisions at the theater, including some hirings and Lissner’s remuneration, which Realfonzo said was too high. He has also refused to sign off on the theater’s last two budgets, because they were not balanced, he said.

As a representative of a regional government that funds the theater, he was concerned about the potential financial fallout in the event that the theater had to end up paying both general directors, or paying off one of them. He protested by not attending meetings.

Alberto Mattioli, an opera critic who just published a book about Italy’s opera houses and their history, said the hastily passed law that ended Lissner’s run was also in line with Italy’s hard-right nationalist government drive to “put Italians first” at the top of the country’s cultural institutions, pointing out that the people it initially affected both happened to be French.

Dominique Meyer, who runs La Scala and is also from France, would have to leave in 2025 when he turns 70. Officials at the Milan theater said legal experts were examining the new law to determine whether it would apply at La Scala, which is governed by a different statute than other opera theaters.

Mattioli said that by using the San Carlo as a pawn in political deal-making the government had diminished the standing of the theater, one of Italy’s most prestigious institutions. “Everything that’s happened confirms that Italy is a really incomprehensible country,” Mattioli said.

Fuortes has not spoken publicly about the situation and his lawyer declined to comment. His standing at the theater after Lissner’s reinstatement is unclear, but he has threatened legal repercussions if he is dismissed, according to a letter from his lawyer to the San Carlo board that was shared with The New York Times by a third party.

It could take weeks for the review panel to hear the appeal. In the meantime, the drama is certain to continue.

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It’s hard to gauge whether the drama

TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2023 REVIEW! There’s something unsettling about Hur Jin-ho’s A Normal Family. It gets under the skin like a blade and, with every scene, begins to peel. The film could be described as a commentary on class struggle, but that would put it in the flattest terms. The renowned Korean filmmaker’s latest work cuts so deeply not because it is about some extraordinary caste but because it is an unyielding portrait of ordinary people.

A Normal Family revolves around the emotionally restrained relationship between two brothers and their families—Jae-wan (Sol Kyung-gu), a successful and magnanimous surgeon, and his older wife Yeon-kyung (Kim Hee-ae), and Jae-gyu (Jang Dong-Gun), a high-powered and pragmatic lawyer, and his younger wife Ji-su (Claudia Kim). Both brothers have contrary world views, frequently engaging in high-flown discussions of right and wrong over dinners at expensive restaurants. But their conceptual moralities are suddenly thrust into reality when an unexpected revelation about their children is placed between them.

Much like a theatrical play, Hur Jin-ho uses intimate spaces to slice away the cinematic fat and get directly to the marrow of the brothers’ relationship. He portrays them and their families in precise and spotless frames, using the camera to impart the subtleties of body language and facial expression. There is a grandeur to the composition of each scene that conveys the characters as beyond the trappings of the every day, but, simultaneously, that there is a tangible normalcy to their interactions that obliterates the sense of them being anything but average.

“The brothers swivel around each other, constantly trading roles, blurring the lines of right and wrong marvelously.”

Likewise, all four lead actors are exquisitely lucid in their portrayals of specific archetypes. The respective wives, Yeon-kyung and Ji-su, strike an artful balance of embellishment, affecting every scene with understated femininity. Even more, then, are the brothers’ portrayals scintillating: Jae-wan is a wondrously charismatic man who splinters with impeccable timing, while his counterpart Jae-gyu is ominously subdued, growing ever more resolute as the screws are tightened. The brothers swivel around each other, constantly trading roles, blurring the lines of right and wrong marvelously.

However, the film’s entire narrative construction is so densely packaged and so causal in its conception that much weight is placed on the film’s resolution. Unfortunately, the delicate balance of minimization and exaggeration is fractured with a conclusion so precipitous that it impairs much of the film’s momentum up to that point. Compared with the rest of the film—which is remarkably aware—the finale of A Normal Family comes across as a blind shock twist. It is the one blemish on an otherwise remarkably nuanced script.

Still, while the film’s culmination holds A Normal Family back from outright genius, it does not undo how exceptional every other aspect of the film is. The actors are directed with an auteur’s panache, and the cinematograph is finely tuned to showcase how the littlest of foibles, once habits, can have enormously destructive effects. A Normal Family is a statement—one that will carve its place in modern Korean cinema just as surely as its conclusions penetrate so profoundly and so indelibly.

A Normal Family screened at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.

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TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2023 REVIEW! There’s

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be in Ottawa later this week in his first visit to Canada since Russia began its invasion of the eastern European country in February 2022, sources tell Global News.

Zelenskyy is making the trip following his visit to the U.S. and the United Nations General Assembly that is currently underway.

According to sources and first reported by The Canadian Press, the Ukrainian president is expected to address Parliament on Friday before travelling to Toronto, though details have not officially been made public.

On Tuesday, Zelenskyy addressed the UN General Assembly calling on countries to continue their support as Ukrainian troops continue to fend off Russia’s advances.


Click to play video: 'Putin claims West made Zelenskyy Ukrainian leader to mask ‘glorification of Nazism’'


Putin claims West made Zelenskyy Ukrainian leader to mask ‘glorification of Nazism’


Zelenskyy’s expected Canadian address won’t be his first before Parliament, having delivered one just a few weeks after the war began. However, he did so via video conference at that time.

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Several Canadian officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, have visited Ukraine since the invasion began to reiterate their support and discuss what the country needs in terms of reconstruction and other aid needed.

Canada has been a fervent supporter of Ukraine during the war, sending more than $1 billion to the country in terms of military assistance and helping those fleeing the violence by providing a temporary safe haven to Ukrainians.

More than double the amount for military assistance has been sent in the form of financial assistance. Just this weekend, Canada joined several allies to send air defence missiles, with Defence Minister Bill Blair announcing a $33-million contribution — part of the $500-million fund Trudeau announced earlier in June.

Trudeau and Zelenskyy speak often, and the two recently met in person at the NATO summit in Lithuania in July.

It was at that meeting NATO leaders said Ukraine should be able to join the military alliance at some point in the future, but did not offer Kyiv an immediate invitation or offer a timeline for the process — drawing frustration from Zelenskyy.

During his speech before the UN General Assembly, Zelenskyy told world leaders that Russia was “weaponizing” everything from food and energy to abducted children in its war with Ukraine.

Both Kyiv and its allies have said the country’s cause is a battle for the rule of international law, as well as the sovereignty of every country with a powerful and potentially expansionist neighbour. As well, in the wake of the ending of the Black Sea Grain deal, other politicians have also pointed to it as a fight for stability of global food, fuel and other supplies.

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U.S. President Joe Biden pledged support once again during his own address at the UN amid a round of applause, in which Zelenskyy was seen clapping from Ukraine’s seat at the assembly.


Click to play video: 'Russian strike kills 4 in Ukraine, including 10-year-old girl, UN security council urges withdrawal'


Russian strike kills 4 in Ukraine, including 10-year-old girl, UN security council urges withdrawal


“We must stand up to this naked aggression today and deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow,” he said.

Allied leaders also convened at a U.S. military base on Tuesday ahead of Zelenskyy’s address to discuss next steps, but one key sticking point is whether to supply Kyiv with longer-range missiles that it insists are needed to hit Russian troops and facilities at a safe distance. The U.S. has been wary of the request, worried it may allow Ukraine to strike Russian territory and provoke Moscow.

Zelenskyy also is due to speak Wednesday at a UN Security Council meeting about Ukraine. Russia is a permanent, veto-wielding member of the council, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to make remarks.

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Asked whether he would stay in the room to listen, Zelenskyy said, “I don’t know how it will be, really.”

Zelenskyy’s visit to Washington, D.C., prior to his travel to Canada, comes as the U.S. Congress is debating Biden’s request to provide at least US$21 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine aid.

An administration official told The Associated Press that Zelenskyy would meet with Biden at the White House on Thursday. It is his first visit to the country this year, after visiting last December and addressing a joint meeting of Congress. It will also be his first address to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, which took office in January this year.

U.S. politicians are divided on providing additional funding for Ukraine, with some conservative Republican lawmakers pushing for broad federal spending cuts and some specifically looking to stop money to Ukraine.

— with files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press

&copy 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be in

After 27 years of marriage, Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness simply grew apart.

“Hugh and Deb just reached a point where they were more like best friends,” an insider exclusively reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly. “There was no drama or fighting — not that anyone is aware of, anyway.”

But that’s not to say that parting ways will be simple for Jackman, 54, and Furness, 67. “Their lives were so interwoven, so it’s an extremely tricky and gut-wrenching process dividing everything up and figuring out who gets what in terms of assets and finances,” the insider explains, hinting that the plan is to split their real estate down the middle.

As far as the Wolverine star’s personal fortune — which is estimated at around $180 million — “that’s what they need to work out,” the insider continues. “The [divorce] filing will be formalized in due course, but before that happens, their aim is to come to an agreement. They’re determined to [do this] as amicably as possible.”


“They will always be bonded by their kids,” an insider tells Us of Jackman and Furness (in May 2023 at the Met Gala in NYC).
Mike Coppola/Getty Images

On September 15, Jackman and Furness shocked Hollywood when they announced their split. “We have been blessed to share almost 3 decades together as husband and wife in a wonderful, loving marriage,” they said in a joint statement to People. “Our journey now is shifting and we have decided to separate to pursue our individual growth.”

The pair began dating in 1995 after meeting on the set of the Aussie series Correlli. They wed a year later and went on to adopt their kids, Oscar, 23, and Ava, 18.

Celebrity Splits of 2023: Stars Who've Called It Quits This Year split

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While many celeb couples have gone the distance in Hollywood, other romances haven’t stood the test of time. Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott sparked an on-again, off-again relationship in 2017, welcoming two children: daughter Stormi and a son, whose name they have yet to reveal, in February 2018 and February 2022, respectively. Us Weekly broke […]

According to the insider, the decision to separate didn’t come easy. “It was made with an extremely heavy heart,” says the insider. “They will always love each other dearly and be a huge part of each other’s lives, but as they’ve said in their statement, it’s time for a new independent chapter for each of them, and they’re moving forward with total peace and mutual respect.”

As of right now, the X-Men star is still “fairly cut up and lost,” notes the insider. “Thankfully, there are some great people in his life who are rallying around and helping out.”

Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness’ Relationship Timeline: The Way They Were

Related: Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness’ Relationship Timeline

Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness were together for more than two decades before going their separate ways. Jackman and Furness started dating shortly after they met on the set of the Australian TV series Correlli in 1995. “Deb, she was a big star,” he recalled to Jess Cagle in 2017. “I get picked up [to […]

In addition to pal Ryan Reynolds — the two, who are set to star together in the upcoming Deadpool 3 movie, were seen walking together in New York City on Monday, September 18 — Jackman has also been leaning on Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban. “It’s a very difficult time for Hugh right now,” the insider says. “But he’s a resilient guy. He’ll get through this, as will Deb.”

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After 27 years of marriage, Hugh Jackman

Samsung is gearing up to launch a successor to its highly popular portable SSD, the Samsung T7 SSD, more than three years after its launch.

This device is one of the best SSDs, let alone one of the best portable SSDs, we’ve ever reviewed. However, despite several new entrants into the T7 family, including the T7 Touch and the T7 Shield, in recent years, it’s clear Samsung feels it’s time for a hardware refresh.

It’s just as well, ahead of the annual Black Friday sales in November, TechRadar Pro has spotted a number of online retailers listing a 2TB version of the Samsung T9 SSD. This hasn’t officially launched, but may well be on the way imminently.

Everything we know about the Samsung T9 SSD

Samsung has published a bare-bones list of the T9 SSD with the product number MU-PG2T0B, which retailers including PC12.fr and Grosbill Pro are using.

We also spotted a version listed with the Australian retailer Microboss, but this has been taken down at the time of writing.

We haven’t seen any technical information yet, but it does seem the SSD will be available in a 2TB size. Microboss, however, went further to say it boats read and write speeds of up to 2GB/s – making it twice as fast as its predecessor and one of the fastest portable SSDs out there if true.

The Samsung T7 SSD launched in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB models, suggesting we may see the same with the T9 at launch. Then, in the future, Samsung may expand its size to 4TB, or even beyond, as it did with the T7 Shield.

There’s also every chance it could be cheaper at launch than the T7, with PC12.fr retailing the T9 SSD for €236.52 including VAT (roughly $250) and Gosbill Pro retailing the device for just €199 (roughly $215) – though it’s unclear if this is inclusive of taxes.

The 2TB version of the T7, by contrast, was first available for $370. This was sold alongside the 1TB version at $200 and the base 500GB edition at $110.

A successor to the popular T7 would be welcome, considering this device wasn’t even fitted with Thunderbolt 3 at launch. With Thunderbolt 4 now found in some of the fastest SSDs, it’s possible Samsung may include the standard in its forthcoming T9, although at this stage it’s pure speculation.

We don’t know when Samsung will release the T9 SSD either but, if we were to hazard a guess, it’ll certainly be out in advance of Black Friday, which falls on 24 November this year.

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Samsung is gearing up to launch a

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has an exclusive first clip from All Happy Families, a dysfunctional family dramedy exec produced by Michael Shannon that is making its world premiere at the 59th Chicago Film Festival on October 12th.

Starring Josh Radnor, Becky Ann Baker, Rob Huebel, Chandra Russell and John Ashton, the film will there participate in the Comedy section, also competing for the Chicago Award, which is presented to the best feature, short or documentary project based in the Windy City or made by a Chicago filmmaker. (This one, from Chicago native Haroula Rose, happens to meet both conditions.)

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Directed by Rose from her script written with Coburn Goss, the film, which we were first to report on last fall, is a portrait of family dysfunction in which the competitive Landry brothers (Radnor, Huebel) reunite to fix up their childhood home over the course of one eventful weekend. Graham (Radnor), who currently resides in the house, wishes his life was in a far better place — especially since he’s reconnected with his college crush, Dana (Russell). Sue (Baker) is looking forward to the next chapter in her life, at least until an incident at her retirement party forces her to question everything — including marriage to the complacent Roy (Ashton). Then, when Will (Huebel), the television star, arrives, what starts out as a benign family get-together ends up spiraling out of control as some shocking news threatens to tear everything apart. The film co-stars Antoine McKay, David Pasquesi, Colleen Camp and Rodney Crowell.

RELATED: Film Festival Calendar Listings For 2023

Also an official selection at the Mill Valley Film Festival and Naples Film Festival, among others, the film is produced by Liz Cardenas, Goss, Ian Keiser and Mary Munez. Additional executive producers include Chicago Media Angels, Neon Heart Productions, Sue Berghoef, Marshall Cordell, Attic Light, Milan Chakraborty and Vance Howard.

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“I love filming in my hometown,” Rose told Deadline. “There’s so much talent here and it’s such a cinematic city. We were looking for ways to showcase that through a character piece and we’re so grateful to have such an incredible cast and crew to bring this script to life.”

Stated co-writer Goss, “As a longtime local working actor, I’m honored to have this film premiere in Chicago – and at CIFF, which has been such a creative touchstone for me throughout the years.”

“It brings me great satisfaction to help make this project come to fruition and to see film production in Chicago,” added pic’s EP Shannon. “This is a fantastic character driven story and really true to the aesthetic of this city that means so much to me.”

Rose’s first feature, the indie drama Once Upon a River, watches as a girl must embarks on an odyssey on the Stark River to find her estranged mother after her father is killed. The multi-talented creative has also helped produce such films as Fruitvale Station, Heaven Adores You, and Permanent, and composed music for numerous films and TV series. She’s currently in development on a road movie, to be produced by Bona Fide and Nancy Utley, as well as a thriller in her other homeland of Greece.

All Happy Families‘ premiere on the 12th will take place at the AMC Newcity 14 in Chicago. Check out the clip, featuring Radnor and Huebel’s brothers bickering at a bar, above.

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EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has an exclusive first clip

There is a new way for fans of Archer who have Spectrum cable but not Hulu to watch the FXX animated series’ 14th and final season. The Emmy-winning comedy has expanded the availability of its current 14th season by making episodes available post-premiere on VOD systems for the FX and FXX linear channels.

The issue arose after the new agreement between Disney and Spectrum parent Charter, which came together after 10 days of interrupted carriage, included the drop of eight Disney ad-supported cable networks, including FXX and FXM, from Spectrum platforms. As Deadline reported last week, FX brass were looking for solutions on Archer, which was seriously impacted as its final season had just premiered when the Disney networks went dark on Spectrum systems on Aug. 31.

Spectrum is the No.2 cable operator in the U.S. with 14.7 million customers, with FXX and the other discontinued networks losing close to 20% of their reach, which means that there is likely a sizable number of cable customers who lost access to Archer if they don’t subscribe to Hulu. (Archer is available next day on the streamer for new episodes, along with the current and prior seasons.)

The flagship FX network remains on Spectrum, so cable viewers will be able to watch the final episodes of Archer through that network’s VOD function. The first four episodes of season 14 are now being made available via VOD for subscribers to the linear FX and FXX channel everywhere.

FX executives likely will make a decision on the other popular FXX original series, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, which recently aired its 16th season, with the next season at least a year away. (The veteran comedy has been renewed through Season 18.)

Archer returns this Wednesday, September 20, with episode 5, “Keys Open Doors:” An unplanned vacation forces Lana to accompany Archer, Pam and Cyril on a mission that quickly goes off the rails. Will Lana blow the mission when she crosses the line? Written by Miles Woods.

The series follows Sterling Archer as he navigates the changing landscape of the spy world. This season, Archer and The Agency are finding their own way with Lana at the helm. Her goal is to make money while also making the world a better place, but she quickly finds out running a spy agency isn’t so cut and dry.

Archer features the voices of H. Jon Benjamin as “Sterling Archer;” Aisha Tyler as “Lana Kane;” Judy Greer as “Cheryl/Carol Tunt;” Chris Parnell as “Cyril Figgis;” Amber Nash as “Pam Poovey;” Adam Reed as “Ray Gillette” and Lucky Yates as “Algernop Krieger.” Season 14 also features Natalie Dew as the gang’s new super-agent, “Zara Khan.”

The animated comedy was created by Adam Reed and is executive produced by Reed, Matt Thompson, Casey Willis and co-executive produced by Mark Ganek at Floyd County Productions. The series is produced by FX Productions.

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There is a new way for fans

Ocean experts have long clashed over whether artifacts from the world’s most famous shipwreck should be retrieved for exhibits that could help people better understand the Titanic tragedy or whether they should be left untouched in the sea’s depths as a monument to the more than 1,500 people who lost their lives. James Cameron, known for his 1997 movie “Titanic,” sees himself as negotiating a middle path through this complicated and often emotional dispute.

Mr. Cameron dove 33 times to the shipwreck from 1995 through 2005, giving him a window on its condition and likely fate. His perspective is timely because the United States government recently sought to exert control over the wreck, raising questions about whether a company that has recovered more than 5,500 artifacts will be allowed to gather more.

Mr. Cameron’s views are also deeply personal. He often debated the retrievals with Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French submariner who died in June while descending to the shipwreck in the Titan submersible. Mr. Nargeolet also directed underwater research for RMS Titanic Inc., the company that holds the exclusive salvage rights to the ship and its artifacts.

Mr. Cameron recently answered questions by email from The New York Times about his recovery views, the Titanic’s future and the Titan submersible. This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Did you see signs of natural decay during your 10 years of Titanic dives?

We’ve seen significant deterioration to thin-walled structures such as the deckhouse (the uppermost deck above the boat deck) and the forward mast. It was intact (in its fallen position) in 2001 but partially collapsed in 2005. New imaging by the Magellan company in 2022 shows that it has completely collapsed and broken open.

However, we’ve not seen any significant deterioration to the vast majority of the wreck, such as the hull plates. Their steel is one and a half inches thick. I believe the plates will still be standing for another two centuries at least.

How about damage by visitors? Anything obvious?

Based on my experience maneuvering around the wreck, and landing on top of it, the submersibles do nothing of significance. Up top, a submersible weighs several tons but down there, in order to fly around, it must be neutrally buoyant, which means it touches down with only a few pounds of force.

Besides, anything humans do is trivial compared to the relentless deterioration caused by biological activity, which goes on year after year. The Titanic is being eaten by living colonies of bacteria. They love it when humans drop giant piles of steel into the deep ocean, which we do with some regularity, especially in wars. It’s a feast for them.

On the Titanic’s artifacts, you describe yourself as a centrist between preservationists such as Robert D. Ballard and salvors such as Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who died in June on the Titan submersible. How so?

On one hand, I think it’s good to recover artifacts from the debris field. When Titanic broke in two at the surface, it became like two great piñatas. Over square miles, we see plates and wine bottles, suitcases, shoes — things people carried with them, touched and wore.

That humanizes the story and reminds us that the tragedy has a human face. So many artifacts have been recovered that poignantly connect us to this history — like the bell from the crow’s nest which was rung three times by lookout Frederick Fleet when he first spotted the iceberg. Now, millions of museumgoers can see it with their own eyes. I’ve even rung it myself. And there are so many examples of Titanic’s elegance — fine china, beaded chandeliers, the cherub statue from the Grand Staircase. It’s the ongoing public interest in these things that keeps the history alive, now, 111 years after the sinking.

A gray area that leaves me torn is whether we should recover artifacts from inside the bow and stern sections. One case I find compelling is recovery of the Marconi set. This wireless system sent the SOS signal that brought the rescue ship Carpathia to Titanic’s exact coordinates, and arguably saved the lives of over 700 people.

The Titanic’s wireless set was unique, very different from others in its day. I’ve flown my tiny remotely operated vehicles inside to survey the Marconi rooms, so we know where everything is and have done computer reconstructions.

But to actually put that instrument on public display would be very moving for millions of museumgoers. If it could be recovered without any harm done to the outer appearance of the wreck, I’d be in favor, because that area of the ship is deteriorating fast and within a few years the Marconi set will be buried deep inside the ruins, unrecoverable.

So anything goes?

Where I personally draw the line is changing the look of the wreck — such as raising its iconic bow (where Jack and Rose stood in the movie) or removing the mighty anchors or taking the bronze telemotor from the bridge where Quartermaster Hitchens desperately spun the ship’s wheel trying to avoid the iceberg. All these recoveries have been discussed by somebody at some point over the last quarter century. I think we shouldn’t take anything from the bow and stern sections that would disfigure them. They should stand as monuments to the tragedy.

You knew Mr. Nargeolet quite well. Did you have any disagreements with him and his company’s approach to artifact recovery?

He was a legendary sub pilot and explorer, and we spent many exciting hours going over our Titanic videos and comparing notes. He recovered many of the artifacts, such as the crow’s nest bell, that I find so moving in the various exhibits around the world.

That said, I disagreed with him about some of his plans to recover such things as the bow anchors, though it was always a friendly discussion. I’m glad some of those plans never came to fruition.

Around 2017, you joined with Dr. Ballard and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London, in an unsuccessful attempt to buy the collection of Titanic artifacts and move them to Belfast, where the ship was built. Why? And would you try again if RMS Titanic once again declared bankruptcy?

Our concern at the time was that the collection could have been bought by a rich private collector and disappear from the public’s view. These artifacts belong to the world, as part of our shared cultural heritage — our collective history — and the artifacts help keep that history alive and the tragedy palpable. But only if they can be seen, and emotionally felt, through public access. If the collection is put at risk again, down the line, I would hope to have a voice in keeping it publicly accessible.

What do you make of the federal government’s recent effort to exert control over the Titanic?

The Titanic lies in international waters. I’m sure this tussle will go on indefinitely.

Do you think the Titan disaster will have an impact on Titanic visitors?

Do I believe it will stop people from wanting to witness Titanic in person? Absolutely not. Human curiosity is a powerful force, and the urge to go and bear witness with one’s own eyes is very strong for some people, myself included.

But citizen explorers must be more discerning about who they dive with. Is the sub fully certified by a recognized bureau? What is the safe operating record of the submersible company? These are the kinds of questions they need to ask.

Would you dive again?

I would get in a sub tomorrow — if it was certified, like Woods Hole Oceanographic’s storied Alvin sub, or the subs built by Triton submersibles. But there’s no rush to do anything. That familiar image of the bow will still be there, as it is, for another half century at least.

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Ocean experts have long clashed over whether

Finnish director Marika Harjusaari makes her feature debut with the female-centered, 19th-century-set horror “The Mire,” which follows a woman who must use her mysterious powers to save a Finnish village from a malevolent spirit. The film will be presented this week as part of a showcase of upcoming Finnish titles at the Finnish Film Affair.

Written by Ilona Ahti, the screenwriter behind Alli Haapasalo’s 2022 Sundance Audience Award winner “Girl Picture,” and produced by Mika Ritalahti (Silva Mysterium Oy), also in Park City last year with Hanna Bergholm’s Midnight selection “Hatching,” “The Mire” centers on an outcast midwife who harbors a terrible secret: She leaves unwanted newborns in a nearby swamp.

After falling in love with a young priest, she tries to leave her dark past behind. But when a strange woodland spirit arrives in the village, causing a series of unexplained disappearances, Iiris must use a powerful force in order to save the village, even as many blame her for the tragic events.

“The Mire” marks the second collaboration between Harjusaari and Ahti, who teamed up in 2019 on Ahti’s short film “Homebound.” “We were sure that we would work together again,” says Harjusaari, describing their partnership as a seamless fit. “We came up with the story [of ‘The Mire’] really quickly. Ilona and I work a lot using intuition and we sort of swore an oath that wherever the story is going to take us, we will go. And wherever the intuition will take us, we will go,” she says.

As a starting point, the duo was inspired by Finnish painter Eero Järnefelt’s 19th-century masterpiece “Under the Yoke,” a haunting painting which shows farmers in a remote region of Northern Finland using a traditional method of topsoil-burning to clear the land.

“We looked at that painting, they’re burning the brushwood to make the soil fertile for new crops,” says Harjusaari. “It tells a lot about poverty. There’s a girl there and we could see the pain in her eyes, and it immediately sparked up a conversation about pain and bottled-up emotions, and how that is very Finnish, and how we could recognize that in ourselves as well.”

A self-described horror aficionado growing up, the director says that when she and Ahti “started to think about bottled-up emotions and everything people hide within, it was very natural” to tap into the form with their upcoming film. “I’ve always been interested in going toward something that I don’t understand, toward something that I don’t know. I think things that are unknown to us are often scary, especially if you look at human behavior,” she adds.

Drawing on Finnish mythology and animistic beliefs in the 19th century, “The Mire” centers on a mysterious force known as “vitun voima,” which Harjusaari describes as “the power of womanhood,” which could be invoked as either a force for good or evil. It is when the village women use that power to ward off evil during the Easter fire that the woodland spirit arrives and their troubles begin.

“In [19th-century] society, [vitun voima] was mostly thought of as something dangerous, and it should be controlled where you used it,” Harjusaari says. “Women could use it for the common good, like protecting the herd or protecting the family.” One way a woman could accomplish this, she explains, was by exposing herself to a forest to keep the bears away. “The society — the men, mostly, the patriarchal society — thought that it’s dangerous that women have this power,” she adds. It was, however, “something that, during that time, gave women some agency.”

Taking place some 200 years ago, “The Mire” centers on themes that nevertheless feel very contemporary in a post-#MeToo world, though Harjusaari confesses: “We only realized after we wrote the idea that this has a lot to do with women’s rights today.” Though not a deliberate choice, she says it was inevitable that the current discourse — as present in Helsinki as in Hollywood — found its way into the script she’s developing with Ahti.

“It’s part of us, because we live in a contemporary world, and we use our subconscious,” she says. “We actually use dreams and meditations when we are in the writing process. Many times, we meditate, and then we have a discussion about what the meditation was like, and did that bring up something new. Or if we have a dream, we share it, and we use that as the material for our story.”

She continues: “We’re absolutely going toward the unknown and we felt that we had to be ready to face whatever may come in the writing process.”

The Finnish Film Affair takes place Sept. 20 – 22 in Helsinki, Finland.

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Finnish director Marika Harjusaari makes her feature

Review: Titans #3
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Writer: Tom Taylor
Art: Nicola Scott
Colors: Annette Kwok
Letters: Wes Abbott

Reviewed by: Matthew B. Lloyd

 

 

Summary

The Titans have descended upon the The Church of Eternity suspecting all is not what it seems.  Plus, they are still worried about Garth and his alliance with Brother Eternity.

Positives

The  art by Nicola Scott is simply stunning at times.  There are a number of thoughtfu1 and emotional beats in Titans #3 and Scott finds the sensitivity, nuance and feeling in each moment.  It communicates the depth of friendship between these characters as well as the underlying emotional content of the plot that Tom Taylor has devised.  It’s not simply about the longtime friendship the Titans share, but the concern for the environment and the convict of faith that is wrapped up in Garth’s affiliation with the Church of Eternity.

One of the best emotional beats in the issue is when the Titans try to stop Wally (The Flash) West from joining in because Raven has pinpointed his future time of death to be within the next 48 hours.  It’s a moment we all know how it will turn out, but it’s a nice moment that also leads to a fun poke at Nightwing.  It shows that these friendships are strong and complex.

Taylor layers the issue with twists and turns as the plot with the Church of Eternity develops.  Despite Garth seeming to be on the side of the Church, we do get a classic Titans vs. Church of the Blood sequence with all the Titans involved.  Also, there’s just something satisfying about an escrima stick to the forehead.  Dick kicks off the assault with a projectile shot at one of the church members in order to stop a sacrifice.  

Negatives

It’s been a couple months since Titans #2.  What began in the first two issues of this new series was interrupted by the Knight Terrors event that ran through July and August.  Despite the unwanted break, it doesn’t seem to have  hindered Titans #3.  If you didn’t know it had happened , you wouldn’t notice it, it flows smoothly from the last issue.

Verdict

Titans #3 is a strong outing with great art and intriguing story.  The character work is great by both Taylor and Scott.  The classic Church of the Blood connection brings a classic feel to the story and the there’s real nuance to Garth’s role and concerns for the environment. 

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127 Review: Titans #3[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers] Writer:

DIY repair gurus iFixit at Apple, dinging the to the right-to-repair movement. Additionally, the organization has retroactively lowered the repairability score for the iPhone 14, after originally being quite impressed by the phone’s

The iPhone 14’s score shot down from a respectable 7 out of 10 to a “do-not-recommend” 4 out of 10. In other words, iFixit says the phone’s no longer a viable option for DIYers, even with Apple selling replacement parts via the company’s This is because self-repair is more than just parts. There’s software involved and iFixit says Apple’s code purposefully limits repair options for most tasks.

The company derides Apple for creating a “labyrinthine maze of obstacles” for both consumers and third-party repair technicians. It all boils down to software that requires and checks for parts bought directly from Apple. Otherwise, you’ll lose functionality and receive endless warnings during use, as the system won’t successfully pair aftermarket parts.

The repair also must be validated by a proprietary chat system that requires personal information from the customer. Third-party technicians haven’t relished the prospect of handing out their customers’ private information just to replace a battery. Additionally, consumers and technicians alike typically rely on used or third-party parts, and Apple’s system dissuades both options in favor of purchasing pricey branded components.

A blog post on the matter by iFixit stated that it’s heard from several repair pros who have excited the business entirely rather than deal with Apple’s constant hurdles. The company also noted that community pushback began almost immediately after the iPhone 14 received its original repairability score.

iFixit still lauds Apple for making an “improvement over the status quo” by selling replacement parts, but says that the hoops a consumer or technician must jump through to replace a part makes the iPhone 14 “literally not repairable.” The site hasn’t issued a repairability score for any of the but they should start coming in the next couple of weeks.

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DIY repair gurus iFixit at Apple,

WIDOW CLICQUOT

TIFF 2023

With Director: Thomas Napper and Actress/Producer: Haley Bennett (widow Clicquot)

 

By Emmanuel Itier

In the late 18th century, in the region of Champagne in France, began the journey of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot, who transformed a failing business into the world-famous brand know as ‘Veuve Clicquot’. This is a fantastic look at a woman who was able to transform herself, her business and the whole world of Champagne. ‘Widow Clicquot’ is magically directed by the maverick Thomas Napper (‘Jawbone’) and actress Haley Bennett is full of champagne bubbles with her splendid incarnation of widow Clicquot. Not only ‘Veuve Clicquot’ is my favorite champagne, since the tender age of 16, but now I only have more respect for the lady behind the brand who sacrificed everything in order to become successful and leave behind an empire that will bring spirit to legions of champagne lovers for the next centuries. Bravo, Madame Clicquot and Bravo to Thomas and Haley.

On the eve of their Tiff premiere we caught up with Thomas Napper and Haley Bennett.

 

Q: How did this movie come about for you?

 

Haley: Well, I read the book it was inspired by, and I had a very visceral experience. I could see the film, I could smell it, I could taste. I just could envision what this film could be. Then I went after the owner of the rights for the biography of widow Clicquot, Christina Weiss Lurie. And we decided to partner together to produce this movie. We then developed the script and look at where we could film it. We knew it had to be filmed in France for sure. We knew we needed an entire French crew even so most of the actors are English. The source material was in an English, and we thought that if we were filming in English that the movie would have a biggest chance at the world market. But we stayed true to the French heritage.

 

Thomas: I know Haley for a little while and this was one of the main attractions to direct this film; the opportunity of working together. I read the script and I felt I could relate totally to the characters. I could relate to François Clicquot, about his creativity, his imagination, his vision. I liked the structure of the script mixing present and past together. Widow Clicquot is so fascinating that it was impossible not to want to jump into her world. At the beginning of the film, she is quite fragile, but widow Clicquot is going to mature into becoming an incredible woman, full of force and full of power. What an inspiring entrepreneur, survivor, and inventor she was. She was also such a smart dealmaker. She became truly an icon for the present day. The fact you’re a fan of her champagne in 2023 says it all. She supersedes her husband, and she is the one who has the taste.

 

Haley: This film shows that winemaking celebrates the creative process and creativity. It’s kind of an act of spirituality to make champagne. The journey of Clicquot freed her, empowered her and it gave her a purpose in fulfilling her. I think this is how the audience will relate to that story: we are all looking for our true purpose. Winemaking is truly an art. We spent so much time living in Chablis and it was so mesmerizing. And we filmed at “Chateau de Béru”. We were mangling with the families of the winemakers, and this was fantastic. They are so passionate. Winemaking is a metaphor for healing and how it can restore the spirit and even save from her grief widow Clicquot.

 

Q: Did you get the support of the estate of ‘Widow Clicquot’?

 

Haley: Absolutely! Clicquot gave us their blessing for the film, and they even invited me to their main location in Champagne. We consulted with them, and they showed me letters from Barbe to Louis and Francois. I was able to explore some of their caves. They offered us to shoot there but we needed to shoot in a location closer to where we were living. In any case it was magic to have a glass of Clicquot champagne in the authentic cave where this legendary champagne is made. Most people don’t know the story of this brand and I think it was important to show to the world who this woman was.

 

Q: What do you think this movie is truly about? What are the messages?

 

Thomas: For sure it’s about woman empowerment. Fundamentally it’s a story about watching a character who is portraying how amazing she was. How the survived Napoleon and how she played very strategically with all these powerful men who wanted her to fail. It’s about identity and who are we. It’s a painting rather than a documentary. It’s a very inspiring movie.

 

Haley: An important symbol about the film is that it is about a woman learning how to hold her own hand. I believe this is also a big part of my journey as a woman. Most women need the ability to trust themselves and hold their own hand. I learned to be my own mother, and to be my own partner, and to overcome challenges and difficulties despite the fear. It’s all about being your own savior and trust your own instinct. As women we have to learn how to hold ourselves up. This is what is so inspiring with the story of widow Clicquot. At the end of the movie, she stands with dignity in that court room. She turns a tragedy into a triumph. She believes in herself, and she stops looking for validation from others. I think that we truly succeed in life when we stop looking for validation from others. This is when we become truly successful.

 

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WIDOW CLICQUOT TIFF 2023 With Director: Thomas Napper

Although she’s not revealing any dates, Megan Thee Stallion is warning the Hotties that they have to “be on point” for when her new music drops. 

While speaking with ET about her new collaboration with Frito-Lay’s Flamin’ Hot — Flamin’ Hot University aka F.U., aimed to help fans “Unleash their Flamin’ Hot” with online courses and a limited-edition merch collection that funds scholarships for HBCU students — the 28-year-old rapper opened up about getting into the right mindset to release new music and preparing for her feature film debut.

“I like to surprise the Hotties, so I’m not gonna say how soon, but just be expecting it,” the GRAMMY winner says when ET’s Rachel Smith asks her when fans can expect her previously teased new music to be released. “Everybody knows spooky season is my favorite season, so just be on point.”

Megan got fans excited when she told ET at Vanity Fair‘s star-studded Oscars after-party earlier this year that she has been working on new music and they can expect “a new album” from her, following on the heels of her 2022 release, Traumazine. 

It was the rapper’s first appearance in months as she had remained out of the public eye since testifying against former friend Tory Lanez during his felony assault trial in December. After a week-long trial, the Canadian musician was convicted on three counts at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles. On Aug. 8, three years after Megan accused the Canadian of shooting her in the feet, Lanez was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In an interview with InStyle published in May, Megan shared that her fans will have to wait for new music because she was focused on “healing.”

“Fans can expect new music when I’m in a better place. Right now, I’m focused on healing,” she told the outlet. “The music and entertainment industry can be a grind, so it’s important to take time off and avoid burning out. Life is all about balance.” 

Since then, the rapper has opened up about her healing journey, taking to her Instagram page to share photos and videos of her spending time with her dogs, working out, bingeing TV shows, and finding new ways to protect her peace. It’s helped her get to a place where she’s excited to share her work with her fans.

“I feel like I’m in such a fresh space, like everything about me is new,” Megan tells ET. “My attitude, my vibe. I feel like I’m starting a new chapter in my life. I think I’ve just gone through so much and I’m at a point where I don’t care about a lot of stuff. I’m just so comfortable with myself. I’m like, ‘OK, at this point, girl, what’s the worst thing that can happen?’ I’m just into taking risks right now.”

Explaining that she’s taken all social media apps off her phone, Megan says doing so has kept her from feeling pressured by the work of other musical artists.

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for MTV

“I don’t have any inspiration from anybody out right now [because] I feel like as an artist, you see other artists doing things and it’s like, ‘Oh my god, I got to keep up,'” she adds. “I have no clue what anybody’s doing, so the music that I been making, it feels good to me.”

It was far from an easy journey for the Houston-raised GRAMMY winner. 

“I always like to think of myself as a confident person, I always [act] that I didn’t care about much, I was nonchalant, but it took me to go through things where so many people were talking about me constantly, to where I had to realize, ‘OK, maybe you’re not as nonchalant and carefree as you thought you were,'” she confesses. “So, I had to take a step back [and] reevaluate myself. I had to get in a comfortable position with myself, and now I genuinely can say that I’m in love with Megan. I’m in love with Megan Thee Stallion.” 

It’s clear that Megan is in a good place musically as well; the rapper shocked fans earlier this month when she and Cardi B came together for another eargasmic collaboration. 

Cardi dropped “Bongos” at midnight on Sept. 8, releasing the provocative single with a colorful music video directed by Tanu Muino. The stunning visual is as vibrant and mind-bending as fans have come to expect from the Bronx native, featuring dancers draped in a spectrum of colors, half-naked male models in Speedos and more. At one point, Cardi and Megan join their dancers in an elaborate dance, dressed in custom Michael Costello bodysuits.

The video backdrop is the stunning Spanish-style mansion known as the Beverly Estate, previously featured in films such as The Godfather and The Bodyguard, as well as Beyoncé’s visual album, Black Is King.

Fans have been waiting for the duo to reunite since they teased another collaboration while celebrating the year anniversary of their history-making single, “WAP.”

According to a recent interview with Hot 97, the song had been in the works for a while. “This song has been part of a plan for a minute now,” Cardi explained, mentioning that even before Megan’s verses were added to the track, she had a vision of her being on it. “It’s just one of those records where you need somebody. And even on those parts, where she’s at, I did verses to it, but then it just feels like a long ass song.”

She added: “She always sends verses and I chop it up and it just goes really well. She’s my work wife.”

In a YouTube livestream conversation between Megan and Cardi before the video’s premiere, Megan recalled, “I was so happy when I got the song because it doesn’t sound like anything that’s out right now, and I feel like it definitely challenged me to rap in a different way. ‘Cause I never rapped over a beat like this before, and I was like, ‘Oh, OK, she want me to go put my foot in this b**ch. OK, I can do that for her. She want me to work for it, OK, here we go.'”

The rapper also shared, as a “side note, outside of music,” why she was excited to work with the 30-year-old rapper again.

“For me as a person, I don’t really — this space that I’m in mentally, I’m not like fooling with too many people that don’t give me good vibes, good energy,” she confessed. “I have literally created boundaries. And Cardi is somebody that I want in my space, in my energy. … She been nothing but real to me. Like, the industry is so f**ked up, but this girl is probably the only girl who have been this consistent and this real, and this — this just great of a person to me.”

The rapper shares a similar sentiment when speaking with ET about her “work wife.” 

“I feel like we hype each other up so well, like anytime she might be feeling a way, I’m definitely her sunshine cloud,” Megan says, adding that she’s always ready to jump in for the mom of two whenever she needs her to tag in.

“She’s so sweet and she’s so kind and that’s why I really like her ’cause she’s real. You don’t really run across a lot of raw people, whatever comes to her mind first, that’s what she’s saying, that’s how she feels. So I never walk away [wondering], ‘Did she mean that?’ No, ’cause if she thought it, she said it, and she meant it. So I absolutely love that about her.”

Music isn’t the only new platform fans will get to see Megan dominate. The rapper is making her film debut in A24’s upcoming musical comedy film, Dicks: The Musical.

Directed by Borat filmmaker Larry Charles and starring and written by Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp, the film received a SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreement 36 hours before its world premiere at TIFF last week, which clears the way for Megan to gush about her upcoming project.

The film follows two fiercely competitive salesmen (Sharp and Jackson) who discover that they’re twins, after separately being raised by their mother (Megan Mullally) and gay father (Nathan Lane). The duo tries to get their parents back together.

“I love like that campy, funny, inappropriate kind of vibe,” Megan tells ET about the film, in which she stars as the twins’ ruthless boss. “Josh and Aaron — they sold it to me like, they’re such a crazy team. Being on that set, it felt like I was working with all my friends. The dancers were so good [and] the production was so nice. Everybody was too good!”

A24 confirmed that they plan on submitting the movie for Oscar consideration, which means Megan’s featured song on the film’s soundtrack — a rap and dance number featured in the film’s trailer and titled “Out-Alpha the Alpha” — could score the rapper an Oscar win. 

The rapper admits that she aspires to become an EGOT, and with the GRAMMY already taken care of, she is manifesting the O. “Megan Thee Stallion, the Oscar winner,” she gleefully proclaims.

The rapper is even more excited to share her new partnership with Frito-Lay’s Flamin’ Hot.

The GRAMMY winner has teamed up with the snack brand to introduce Flamin’ Hot University, an online university working to encourage students to embrace the spicy, rebellious spirit of the brand, and learn to “Unleash their Flamin’ Hot” lives in full flavor. F.U. offers short, snackable courses on food, fashion and lifestyle. 

Frito-Lay

Not only did the rapper give her hottie stamp of approval to an exclusive line of F.U. merchandise created by streetwear designer Melody Ehsani, but 100 percent of proceeds from the merchandise collection will go toward establishing a scholarship fund at Texas Southern University (TSU), Megan’s Houston-based HBCU alma mater. The scholarship fund will help select graduating seniors at TSU say “FU” to student loan debt and start off on the right foot. 

“Everybody knows that I love hot chips, that’s my favorite thing…,” Megan says of the Flamin’ Hot. “And everybody knows that I love education. I got my degree [and] I feel like you’re never too old to learn. I can show the girls that you can still turn up, have a good time, be a hot girl, and you can still wake up and go to class. We got to do that like, I got to endorse that message.”

She adds: “You will learn how to be a hottie, you will learn how to authentically be yourself and you will learn all the bomb Flamin’ Hot recipes that you’ll probably be making in your dorm room at 2 a.m.”

Megan earned her bachelor’s degree in health administration back in December 2021. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who spoke at the graduation ceremony for the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Texas Southern University, announced the rapper also received the 18th Congressional District Humanitarian Award. The award recognizes “outstanding public achievements by the people who live in the 18th Congressional district.”

A year before, Megan talked with ET about working on her degree in health administration. 

The rapper said her late mother, Holly Pete, who died in March 2019 after a battle with brain cancer, inspired her to finish her education. Megan’s goal is to one day open up her own assisted living facility. The “Body” rapper also has a scholarship fund program in partnership with Amazon Music. The program awards $10,000 to two women of color pursuing an associates, bachelors or post-graduate degree.

With her Flamin’ Hot partnership, Megan furthers her efforts to help people have it all when it comes to their education and living their best life.

Frito-Lay

In addition to the merch-funded TSU scholarship, Flamin’ Hot will make a separate contribution to the Pete and Thomas Foundation, the non-profit organization that Megan launched in 2022 that focuses on uplifting and assisting women, children, senior citizens and underserved communities in Houston, Texas, and across the world. The organization focuses on three core sectors — education, housing, health and wellness — and is committed to supporting mission-aligned non-profit organizations, generating awareness around key campaigns and spearheading its owned and operated activities.

Reminiscing on her college experience, Megan tells ET that she understands what it means to be “a struggling college student.”

“I know one of the main struggles that make people want to just give up and quit is being able to pay for school. That was one of my biggest things when I first got there,” she shares. “My mom told me, ‘I’m not helping you pay for this.’ My grandma was doing the best she could and I was like, ‘Dang, what am I gonna do?’ Fortunately enough for me, I became Megan Thee Stallion, so [the] first money I ever got, I spent it on college! I paid off my school.”

Saying that she “always knew” she wanted to get her degree and be a rapper, Megan says that juggling her career and her education was always Plan A. “It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, if this doesn’t work I’m gonna do that.’ It was always like, ‘No, girl, both of [these are] gonna work, so stick with it. We got something to prove.’ And we did it.”

Potential students can visit FlaminHotUniversity.com and follow Flamin’ Hot on social media to take part in F.U. courses and view exclusive content. 

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Although she's not revealing any dates, Megan Thee

Filmmaker Nia DaCosta was skeptical when it came to joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a director, and even called in her own team of “Avengers” for advice. The “Candyman” helmer revealed to Vanity Fair that, before signing on to direct “The Marvels,” she contacted fellow MCU filmmakers Chloé Zhao, James Gunn, and Taika Waititi to confirm that Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige was worth working for.

“Are they going to kill me and destroy my soul?,” DaCosta recalled asking her fellow filmmakers, all of whom, like DaCosta, joined the superhero fray after directing independent features. “Is Kevin Feige a bad man? And they were like, ‘No, he’s just a good guy who was a nerd.’”

During “The Marvels” production, DaCosta also texted “Shang-Chi” and Marvel Phase 5 lead director Destin Daniel Cretton to vent when she felt “overwhelmed” and “so stressed.” “Sometimes you’d be in a scene and you’d be like, ‘What the hell does any of this shit mean?,’” DaCosta said. “Or an actor’s looking at some crazy thing happening in space, and they’re [actually] looking at a blue X. There were obviously hard days, and days where you’re like, ‘This just isn’t working.’”

DaCosta added that, despite directing “The Marvels,” the film is still “a Kevin Feige production, it’s his movie.” She summed up, “I think you live in that reality, but I tried to go in with the knowledge that some of you is going to take a back seat. It was really great to play in this world, and to be a part of building this big world, but it made me just want to build my own world more.”

Before helming “The Marvels,” DaCosta directed a post-credits scene for the MCU television series “Ms. Marvel,” which introduced Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) to Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani). The two superheroes team up in “The Marvels.”

DaCosta recently told Total Film that while “superhero fatigue absolutely exists,” her “Marvels” takes a unique approach unlike other MCU titles to date. According to DaCosta, “The Marvels” is “really wacky and silly” and opens the door to “worlds unlike others you’ve seen in the MCU.”

“The Marvels” marks DaCosta’s third feature film after her indie debut “Little Woods” and her well-received “Candyman” remake. DaCosta is one of four credited writers on “The Marvels” screenplay, along with Megan McDonnell, Elissa Karasik, and Zeb Wells. The film opens in theaters on Fridta, November 10.

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Filmmaker Nia DaCosta was skeptical when it

Picture: Netflix

Released in December 2022, Troll has become one of Netflix’s biggest non-English movies of all time, and now we’ve learned that the teases at the end of the first film were not in vain. We’re getting a sequel to the Norweigen movie Troll on Netflix.

Directed by Roar Uthaug, the disaster fantasy movie takes pages from Norwegian folklore and explores what happens after a troll is awakened after being freed from the mountains.

Variety broke the news of the sequel order on September 19th, 2023, stating that director Uthaug would return to direct the sequel with writer Espen Aukan and producers Espen Horn and Kristian Strand Sinkerud also boarded.

Roar Uthaug Troll Director

Director Roar Uthaug will return to direct the sequel

They state that production will begin in 2024, suggesting a late 2024 or, more likely, a 2025 Netflix release date is possible at the earliest.

The movie isn’t problemed by the ongoing Hollywood strikes given it’s a local production to Norway. Motion Blur is the production company behind the movie.

Shortly after the release of Troll in December 2022, the director and producers teased to us that more could be on the cards. The producers told us they “have ambitions to make a sequel and perhaps two sequels, but it all depends on how the audience are responding to [the film].”

When pressed, they said, “This has been a great collaboration with Roar and Netflix and we’d love to do it again.”

The return of the movie should be no surprise as even at the time of publishing, it remains Netflix’s biggest non-English language movie in its history. On both the newer 91-day metric and the older 28-day metric, the movie is the most watched in terms of raw viewing hours:

  • In the first 91-days, Troll had 178.600M watch hours (that translates to 103M completed viewing equivalents)
  • In the older first 28-day metric, Troll had 155M global hours watched.


What will happen in Troll 2 on Netflix?

After an adventure across Norway, the military and the scientists finally realized that the Trolls are vulnerable to direct sunlight. After making a “troll trap,” they lure him with the skull of a troll baby into an open space. While they decide not to kill the troll with their equipment, the rising sun ends up killing him anyway.

Just before the credits, something appears to begin emerging with a roar from the rubble inside the Dovre mountain cave. Is it the slain Trolls family or something bigger? Andreas and Nora did speculate that more trolls could still be alive deep inside Norway’s mountains. Thankfully, we’re going to get to find out.

Are you looking forward to Troll 2? Let us know down below.

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Picture: Netflix Released in December 2022, Troll has

In the latest sign of a new coalition between showrunners and crew during the writers strike, a showrunner match fundraiser has blown past its initial goal of raising $500,000 for the Entertainment Community Fund in less than a week.

The so-called Showrunner Fundraising Match was launched on Sept. 11 in an effort to help support film and TV workers who are not out on strike but have been impacted by the work stoppage that is inching closer to becoming the longest strike in the Writers Guild of America’s history.

The idea stemmed from a group chat that has close to 500 showrunners on WhatsApp in which someone flagged that Joelle Garfinkel’s Green Envelope Grocery Aid was backlogged and low on funds to help industry members who were financially impacted during the labor strife. Within a day, the group that launched as a way to stay in touch during the WGA strike had raised north of $50,000. Inspired by the rapid fundraising, two veteran showrunners — who both prefer to remain anonymous in order to keep the focus on the out-of-work employees — reached out to 15 friends with the goal of collecting $10,000 from each. The plan, one of the organizers said, was to raise $200,000 and then quietly share the fundraiser with other showrunners to match the donations. Some of the initial 15 showrunners donated more than the $10,000 request.

As of Sept. 19, the effort has raised nearly $290,000 from showrunners including Eric Kripke (The Boys), Dee Harris-Lawrence (David Makes Man), Boots Riley (I’m a Virgo), Sierra Teller Ornelas (Rutherford Falls) and Abbi Jacobson (A League of Their Own) as well as from the general public after the link to the fundraiser quickly spread on social media and on various industry group chats. That’s more than the $240,000 that was raised by the small group that was gathered by the fund’s organizers. The combined tally currently sits at $555,000 and counting, with the list of donors hovering near 300.

“We’re in this time where there’s no such thing as too much help. That’s what this is aimed at. None of it can ever be enough. We’re trying to make a little bit of a difference,” one of the organizers tells THR. “The Entertainment Community Fund seemed to be the most broad-based and covers an umbrella of people who are not on strike themselves but who have been affected by the strikes.”

As of Sept. 15, the Entertainment Community Fund has distributed more than $7.1 million to more than 3,400 film and TV workers. The organization is distributing between $400,000-$700,000 per week compared with $75,000 per week in the first half of the year before the strikes began. Since May 1, when the WGA went out on strike, the ECF has raised more than $8.9 million from more than 10,500 donors including The Katie McGrath and J.J. Abrams Family Foundation, Greg Berlanti, Nancy and Steve Carrell, Vince Gilligan, Seth MacFarlane, Shonda Rhimes, Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw and Daniel Radcliffe, among others.

“The Showrunners Matching Campaign is an incredibly impactful example of how our entertainment community is committed to supporting one another,” says Joseph Benincasa, president and CEO of the Entertainment Community Fund. “We’re so grateful to these industry leaders for helping the fund be able to take care of film and television workers in need and inspiring so many others to contribute such generous donations as well.”

As for what’s next, the WGA and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are heading back to the bargaining table Wednesday and the matching fund will remain active. “None of this money can ever be enough, so I’ll be hopeful that a deal happens sooner rather than later and we can all get back to work,” the organizer said.

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In the latest sign of a new

She didn’t do one for Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) for reasons unknown, but anyway. After previously announcing the upcoming release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Swift took to Instagram on Tuesday, September 19, to drop a blue vault with seagull animations, the general aesthetic of the 1989 album cover and era. Since she’s already said that there are five “from the vault” tracks coming our way, I of course expected five jumbled-up titles, but that’s not what we got. Instead, the letters (and punctuation) are, in order-ish: T, “, S, U, !, “, L.

There are two words she could be spelling and they are LUST! and SLUT!

Frankly, I’m thrilled we could be getting a song with either title, but does this post mean she’s going to be releasing four more vaults with the other track titles? How intense is this album cycle going to be, exactly? 1989 (Taylor’s Version) drops next month, so we don’t have long to wait, but…damn!

The other possibility is that the five tracks start with T, S, L, and !, respectively, and the quotation marks are just there for funsies. I personally really hope she has a song called “Lust” or “Slut” because you know they’d go so hard.


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She didn't do one for Speak Now

Warner Music Group has appointed Bryan Castellani as its new executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective Oct. 16.

Castellani joins with more than two decades worth of experience at the Walt Disney Company, most recently as CFO for Disney Entertainment and ESPN. Castellani was also the executive VP of finance for Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution (DMED) where he led finance for the segment as well as for its platform distribution, advertising sales, and networks businesses.

“Bryan has wide-ranging experience helping one of the world’s most impactful creative enterprises build long-term value and unlock new global possibilities,” said WMG’s CEO Robert Kyncl. “A dynamic, operational CFO, he’ll be an excellent addition to our executive leadership team, as we grow the WMG of the future for the benefit of our artists, songwriters, investors, employees, and partners.”

He succeeds WMG’s long-time CFO Eric Levin, who will remain at WMG to ensure a smooth transition, before retiring in January.

Added Kyncl, “[Levin will] leave with our deepest respect for his many contributions during an extraordinary period of growth that included WMG’s global expansion, numerous major acquisitions, and a successful IPO. We wish him all the best.”

Said Castellani, “I’m delighted to be joining WMG at such an exciting and pivotal time for the company and the music industry. Music is a powerful global force, unconstrained by any specific model or format, and has significant business upside. Robert’s vision for differentiating WMG is inspiring, and I’m looking forward to working with the leadership and finance teams to take the company to the next level in a rapidly evolving landscape.”

Based in New York, Castellani will report to Kyncl.

+ Concord has announced the acquisition of the music publishing catalog of New York, Nashville, and London-based music publisher, Mojo Music & Media, including the works of REO Speedwagon, KISS, and Cheap Trick.

Mojo has built a roster that includes, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick) and Warren Cuccurullo (Missing Persons, Duran Duran), Country Music Hall of Fame members Bob Morrison (“Lookin’ For Love”), as well as Earth Wind and Fire’s Al McKay (“September,” “Best Of My Love”), producer Jacknife Lee (Taylor Swift, Snow Patrol, and Kodaline) and the estates of Johnny Burke (“Misty”), Bernie Wayne (“Blue Velvet”) and Johnny Russell (“Act Naturally”), among numerous others.

“My nearly 30-year adventure in music publishing has always been about surrounding myself with the greatest songwriters, getting them paid, keeping them inspired, and elevating the power of their songs in pop culture so they vibrate forever,” said Mark Fried, Mojo’s co-founder and CEO.

Concord was represented by Ritholz Levy Fields LLP, Adam Ritholz, Cody Brown, John Brill, Gillian Sloane, Amanda Inglesh, and Jason Barth, and by DLA Piper, Rob Sherman. Shot Tower Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Mojo. Mojo was represented by Reed Smith LLP as legal counsel.

+ Influence Media Partners (Influence Media) and Warner Chappell Music Nashville (WCM Nashville) have sparked a new partnership with DJ Jesse Frasure.

Both companies are investing in Frasure’s full publishing catalog, encompassing more than 160 songs, with chart-topping hits like “Dirt on My Boots” by Jon Pardi, “One Mississippi” by Kane Brown, and “What’s Your Country Song” by Thomas Rhett, along with future tracks written by Frasure.

Frasure is one of country music’s most prolific songwriters, having written for staples like Kacey Musgraves, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Kelsea Ballerini, and more. Along with writing for Jay-Z’s entertainment company Roc Nation, Frasure has co-written 22 No. 1 songs and produced an additional eight No. 1 songs for artists across genres including Meghan Trainor, Steve Aoki, and Miranda Lambert, among others.

The partnership was led by Frasure’s longtime collaborator Ben Vaughn, president and CEO of WCM Nashville, alongside Lylette Pizarro, founder and co-managing partner at Influence Media.

+ Granderson Des Rochers LLP (“GDR”) has added Lynn Gonzalez as a partner in the Firm’s Music Practice Group.

Gonzalez most recently served as the executive VP and head of business affairs and business development at Def Jam Recordings overseeing legal matters for a roster of A-list artists including Kanye West, Rihanna, Big Sean, and Justin Bieber. Prior to her decade-long tenure with Def Jam, Lynn served as in-house counsel to Atlantic Records and Razor & Tie Entertainment.

In joining GDR’s Music Practice, Lynn is now part of a collective of legal practitioners providing counsel on matters related to dealmaking, music publishing, production, content strategy, entrepreneurship, talent brand development, licensing, and intellectual property to recording artists, songwriters, and record labels in the music business.

“Innovation is at the heart of what we do, and Lynn brings fresh perspectives and forward-thinking strategies to our team, leveraging her major label and personal life experiences,” noted Damien Granderson, a founding partner of GDR and Chair of the Firm’s Music Practice. “Her arrival at GDR is reflective of our dedication to staying at the forefront of entertainment law and being thought leaders within the entertainment industry.”

+ FUGA, a division of Downtown Music, has hired Berlin-based Desiree Vach as its general manager of GSA (Germany, Switzerland, Austria). The company has additionally announced an in-platform integration with the marketing platform and downtown-owned company, found.ee.

Reporting directly to Liz Northeast, senior VP of EMEA, joins FUGA following a 9-year tenure as country manager of GSA for Ingrooves Music Group where she oversaw all of the distributor’s activities and partnerships in the region.

Vach is the former chair of VUT (Association of Independent Music Companies Germany), co-founder of the VUT Diversity network, which supports women and non-binary persons working in the German music industry, and an advisory board member of the Society for Music Economics and Music Culture Research in Germany.

In her new role, Vach will lead FUGA’s business development, service offering and brand presence in the region, as well as oversee the Berlin office and its team.

+ MusicBird has acquired the song catalog of Greek-Swedish songwriter and producer, Alexander “Alex P” Papaconstantinou. MusicBird has acquired Alex’s writer’s share and his share of publishing across an undisclosed collection of songs.

Adopting the producer pseudonym name Alex P in 2011, when he joined the world-renowned RedOne production and 2101 Songs writing team, Alex went on to produce and co-write several hit songs including “I Like How It Feels” and co-wrote and produced the Khaled album “C’est La Vie”.

Alex has also written and produced multiple hits for superstar names both in Latin music and global pop including Paulina Rubio (“Boys Will Be Boys”), Jennifer Lopez (“Live it Up” feat. Pitbull) and Nicki Minaj (“Whip It”) and has also written several songs for the Eurovision Song Contest including “Fuego” by Eleni Foureira.

Monday, Sept. 18

Warner Chappell Music has announced the appointment of Rachel Jacobson to the newly created role of senior vice president of creative sync. Reporting to department EVP Rich Robinson, Jacobson will oversee a new team that’s solely focused on sourcing and developing songwriters for creative opportunities in sync, according to announcement. She will be based in Los Angeles; as part of the move, the team’s Talia Rubino and Margo Dorfman will report directly to Jacobson.

Robinson said, “We’re reimagining our approach to the creative side of sync at Warner Chappell to better align with the rapidly evolving media and streaming landscape. Rachel is deeply engrained in the TV, film, and advertising worlds, with strong ties to the songwriting community, making her the ideal leader to help us recalibrate our creative offerings and double down on writer development for sync. I’m thrilled to have her join us for this new chapter.”

Most recently, Jacobson has a five-year stint as Head of Sync and Artist Relations for the Paris-based Because Music Group, with highlights including placements for a remix of Justice’s “Genesis” for a final scene in “John Wick 4”; music and choreography from Christine and the Queens’ “Tilted” in FX’s “Better Things”; Amadou & Mariam’s “Sabali” in a worldwide Coca-Cola spot; Fine Young Cannibals’ “She Drives Me Crazy” in a T-Mobile Superbowl campaign; and a rework of Justice’s “Heavy Metal” by SebastiAn for Bungie’s Marathon video game reveal. Prior to her work with Because, Jacobson was part of the creative licensing team at Songs Music Publishing and Atlantic Records.

+ Concord Music Publishing has signed rising country music artist Clayton Mullen to a worldwide publishing agreement, effective immediately. The deal includes Mullen’s full catalog and all future works.

Mullen’s debut album, “Where The Time Goes,” has amassed millions of streams since its April release earlier this year. His latest single, “Stirring Memories” (a Sept. 15 drop), was co-written by Mullen, together with Jack Hummel, Carson Wallace and Caleb Lathrop. Mullen also launched a tour last week with upcoming shows in Texas, Utah and more.

“Within minutes of meeting Clayton, I knew he was a star and that I had to work with him. He has a natural gift and the ‘it’ factor that can’t be taught,” says Courtney Allen, senior director of A&R at Concord Music Publishing in Nashville. “Clayton has a deep appreciation for the songwriting community, and he’s grown so much as both a writer and an artist in a short amount of time. I am looking forward to the town getting to know him, and become fans of Clayton, like we all are at Concord.”

+ Missing Piece Records has signed a marketing and distribution agreement with the Portland, OR-based label Fluff and Gravy Records. Fluff and Gravy have developed artists including Margo Cilker, Anna Tivel and Jeffrey Martin, as well as worked with established artists such as Richmond Fontaine, David Dondero, Freakwater, Sean Rowe, and Jim White.

“Over the last dozen years, Fluff and Gravy Records has built an enviable roster of artists, and a reputation for being a label that artists trust unreservedly,” said Missing Piece Founder/CEO Michael Krumper. “John Shepski’s [Fluff and Gravy Co-Founder/President] devotion to the musicians that he works with is combined with unerring taste for brilliant acts. I’m thrilled to partner with John to help those artists expand their reach via our marketing team and partnership with our distribution colleagues at The Orchard. With new releases by Margo Cilker, Jeffrey Martin and Anna Tivel, Fluff and Gravy Records is poised to have its most successful year ever.”

Added Shepski, “We’re excited to be partnering with Missing Piece Records for distribution and label services as we take the next step in our development. It was important for us to find a partner that was passionate, had an ‘artist-first’ philosophy, and a track record of success. Missing Piece fits that bill perfectly, and we look forward to continuing to grow together.”

+ Marc Anthony’s Magnus Talent Agency and Industria Works have announced a new partnership deal that sees Industria Works Booking and Management as a part of the Magnus Talent Agency.

The Spain-based Industria Works staff and global roster will join the market-leading Miami-based team at Magnus, expanding the company’s live music offerings and providing a strategic presence in the European market. As part of this acquisition, Industria Works Founder Tomas Cookman will continue to play a leadership role within the new partnership.

Industria Works’ current head of Spain, Agustin Lopez, will lead the Madrid-based office and overall Spain team. Industria Works Spain-based team, including Ulía Moreno, Patricia Zavala and Alicia Toboso, have also joined MTA and will continue to work out of Madrid and Barcelona.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to join forces with the Industria Works team,” said Michel Vega, CEO of Magnus. “I’ve known and admired Tomas for over twenty years and we share the same passion for excellence in talent representation. This new partnership is an important step in our international expansion and will provide a crucial local presence and expertise in the European market and beyond, all in the name of continuing to provide top of class service to the careers of iconic and soon-to-be iconic artists.”

+ HeadCount has tapped election official and voting rights advocate Lucille Wenegieme as the organization’s next executive director. Her predecessor, HeadCount founder Andy Bernstein, will step back from the day-to-day operations at the end of this year but will maintain responsibilities as a senior advisor.

Before joining HeadCount, Wenegieme, a first-generation Nigerian-American, served on the executive team at Denver’s Clerk and Recorder Office, which oversees all elections in the city. Her accomplishments include spearheading a citizen-led campaign finance system and pioneering a groundbreaking marijuana-themed get-out-the-vote initiative. Wenegieme will now lead an organization that has toured America with notable artists such as Harry Styles, Jay-Z, Billie Eilish, Dead & Company, and Dave Matthews Band, while registering more than 1.2 million voters over the last two decades.

“The world is changing and the next election won’t be decided by the traditional political apparatus,” said Wenegieme in a statement. “Millennials and Gen Z now make up nearly half of eligible voters, and we can’t be reached through traditional media buys and direct mail. We respond to authentic messages from trusted messengers, and that’s where HeadCount has always been a leader.”

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Warner Music Group has appointed Bryan Castellani

We know fall has just begun, but we’re already getting into the holiday gifting spirit thanks to all the new 2023 advent calendar drops. From the hottest makeup and skincare brands to Barbie and Hot Wheels-themed gifts for kids, there’s a perfect advent calendar out there for everyone — including the men in your life.

While advent calendars are typically thought of as children’s gifts, everyone deserves the excitement of opening up a new present each day as they count down to the holidays. Grown-up takes on the advent calendar can include everything from luxury candles to favored spirits, and we’ve taken it upon ourselves to find the best 2023 advent calendars for men.

If he’s a whisky connoisseur, indulge him with Flavair’s tasting calendar or Woodford Reserve‘s eight days of cocktail kits. For skincare savants, spoil him with The Body Shop‘s 24-piece face and body care set. And for the kid at heart, a Star Wars LEGO advent calendar is sure to put a smile on his face. 

No matter what he’s into, he’s sure to appreciate these thoughtful advent calendars. Below, shop the best men’s advent calendars for the 2023 holiday season.

Rituals 3D Advent Calendar

Rituals

Rituals 3D Advent Calendar

Not only does Rituals’ advent calendar feature exquisite 3D Christmas tree packaging, but it also comes with 24 indulgent gifts including travel-sized hair, skin and body care, candles, reed diffusers, perfume and more.

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We know fall has just begun, but

Vanna White has extended her contract on “Wheel of Fortune” by two years as the show begins its farewell season with longtime host Pat Sajak.

White has inked a contract extension that keeps her revealing letters on the durable syndicated game show through the 2025-26 TV season. Sajak announced earlier this year his plan to retire after Season 41, which began this week.

More to come

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Vanna White has extended her contract on

Here’s your first look at Beckham, Netflix’s four-part docuseries about the life and career of David Beckham from Academy Award-winning duo Fisher Stevens and John Battsek. 

The series is set to launch on October 4, and the streamer said it features a “mixture of never-before-seen personal archive footage from the last forty years, candid current-day moments, and interviews with the family, friends, and footballing figures who have been part of his journey.” 

The full series synopsis reads: David Beckham is one of the most known names on the planet, yet few people know who he really is. From his humble working-class beginnings in east London, his drive and determination to win, and the battle to find a balance between ambition, love, and family, David’s story is one of immense ups and downs. The series takes you on that rollercoaster and builds a surprising, personal, and definitive story of one of the most recognizable and scrutinized athletes of all time.

Names set to feature in the series include Victoria Beckham, Gary Neville, Eric Cantona, Sir Alex Ferguson, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, Roy Keane, Mel C (aka Sporty Spice), Diego Simeone, Carlos Queiroz, Luís Figo, Míchel Salgado, Florentino Pérez, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo Nazário and Fabio Capello, and Beckham’s parents. 

The trailer opens with footage of Beckham during his time at Manchester United, including a shot of his famous halfway goal against Wimbledon in 1996. Over the top, the voice of veteran British broadcaster Trevor McDonald can be heard saying: “Tonight we bring you the inside story of how David Beckham became a global sensation.” 

Check out the full trailer above. 

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Here’s your first look at Beckham, Netflix’s

Warner Bros. Discovery aims to make all of the sporting events it has developed over the years for cable crowds available to streamers at the same time — so long as they are willing to pay extra for the privilege.

The media giant, which enjoys lucrative rights deals with the NBA, Major League Baseball, the NHL and the NCAA “March Madness” tournament, wants to use those properties to bring eyeballs to Max, its streaming service. And so, starting Oct. 5, the company will launch a new “Bleacher Report” add-on package to Max. The offering will also include access to TNT’s popular “Inside the NBA” studio program and live international events such as “24 Hours of Le Mans.” Warner Bros. Discovery vows to stream 300 live games per year.

“We are trying to find customers everywhere we can,” says JB Perrette, CEO and president of streaming and games for Warner Bros. Discovery, in an interview — all the while working to preserve relationships with people who haven’t cut the cord, who continue to get Max as part of a subscription to linear HBO.

The new package will debut on Max Oct. 5, in time for MLB post-season and the Oct. 7 start of the National League Division Series, as well as the launch of the next NHL season. By the time the NCAA’s “March Madness” begins to bounce, however, the pay tier will kick in. After Feb. 29, access to Bleacher Report will cost $9.99 per month.

Warner is betting it can tread a tricky path to digital success. The company’s schedule of NBA games, NHL contests and MLB matchups are a critical part of the economics of its giant cable networks TNT and TBS. In 2022, those two outlets, which feature dozens of live sports broadcasts, drew $1.6 billion in advertising, according to data from Kagan, a market-research unit of S&P Global Intelligence — nearly 5% of the company’s overall revenue from that year. And yet, Warner needs to demonstrate to Wall Street that it can mine new profits from streaming; an additional tier might shine a light on those efforts.

Warner Bros. Discovery has already taken steps in this direction. It plans to launch a “CNN Max” service on the streaming hub next week. That live-streaming news product will simulcast some live hours from linear CNN — including Jake Tapper’s late-afternoon program and Wolf Blitzer’s early-evening newscast.

Such moves may be essential in an era when viewers are moving away from traditional video outlets like cable and choosing the video smorgasbords offering by streaming. But setting up programs that are cable linchpins can also anger distributors, who continue to shell out millions for linear networks. Walt Disney Co. ran up against this dynamic in recent carriage talks with Charter Communications, which accused the media giant of putting too much of the programming that was at the center of its cable networks on its streaming products as well. The companies’ new deal calls for Charter subscribers to have new access to Disney streaming outlets — and for Charter to drop a number of well-established Disney cable networks, including Freeform and Disney Junior.

But Warner executives say they aren’t starving cable to feed broadband. “We are not taking content away,” says Luis Silberwasser, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, in an interview. And the company will strive to keep things simple for viewers. There are no niche-sports offerings consigned to streaming, he says, or plans to move games from one platform to the other depending on market conditions. “We are giving consumers a very clear and transparent choice,” he says, based on how they want to watch.

The company plans to offer additional content and technology features as the offering evolves. Silberwasser expects over time to launch options such as multiple camera angles and the ability to watch a game from the beginning if the viewers has arrived to it late. He also predicts Warner may test out “alterna-casts,” or sports broadcasts tailored to specific audience niches or hosted by a different set of commentators.

By the time Bleacher Report launches, Max’s entertainment offerings will be flanked with news and sports options, a move Perrette believes will keep subscribers watching the site longer and spark a new flow of revenue. Of course, the company isn’t leaving anything to chance. As “March Madness” approaches along with the end of the free sports window, Warner Bros. Discovery will likely go into sales mode for Max. “We are going door to door,” says Perrette.

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Warner Bros. Discovery aims to make all

Sam Cleal: Hi Laurie! Now before I give you some iconic Sex Education scenes to react to, I’d love to know how you’re feeling about the series coming to an end.

Laurie Nunn: Yeah, I think I’m still processing it. I’ve been writing this show for nine years – I started working on it in 2014. So I’m just getting used to the idea of not writing these characters anymore, really. But I’m looking forward to people seeing what we’ve come up with for the final series.

SC: Did it ever occur to you to continue the series with a second generation of characters – like Skins did, for instance?

LN: I’ve always felt like I came up with these characters and I feel quite close to them, so I couldn’t really imagine rebooting it in that world. I do think it’s quite a rich universe though, and there’s potential for it to be developed in some way, but maybe not as a new generation.

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Sam Cleal: Hi

Before agreeing to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), director Nia DaCosta reached out to former Marvel directors to see if joining the MCU was all it was cracked up to be.

In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, DeCosta revealed that she asked Chloe Zhao (Eternals), James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) before accepting The Marvels directing job to get all the information she could.

The Marvels Nia DaCosta

Nia DaCosta direct ‘The Marvels’.  Photo: Entertainment Weekly

“Are they going to kill me and destroy my soul? Is Kevin Feige a bad man?” she joked. “And they were like, ‘No, he’s just a good guy who was a nerd.’”

Leaning on Destin Daniel Cretton

Even as filming on The Marvels began, DaCosta was still reaching out to her fellow Marvel directors. On tough days, DaCosta would text Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) things like “I’m overwhelmed” and “I’m so stressed.”

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Invision/AP/REX/Shutterstock (8989619ck). Director Destin Daniel Cretton.

“Sometimes you’d be in a scene and you’d be like, ‘What the hell does any of this shit mean?’ Or an actor’s looking at some crazy thing happening in space, and they’re [actually] looking at a blue X. There were obviously hard days, and days where you’re like, ‘This just isn’t working,’” she explained.

A Kevin Feige Production

The Marvels will see Carol Danvers, Kamala Khan, and Monica Rambeau form the franchise’s newest superhero team. While DaCosta, who is a self-proclaimed comic book nerd herself, was excited to tell her own story, she had to balance her storytelling instincts with the broader Marvel picture.

The Marvels

Photo: Also Entertainment Weekly

“[The Marvels] is a Kevin Feige production, it’s his movie. So I think you live in that reality, but I tried to go in with the knowledge that some of you are going to take a back seat.”

“It was really great to play in this world, and to be a part of building this big world,” she added, “but it made me just want to build my own world more.”

The Marvels Brie Larson

Photo: Entertainment Weekly

The Marvels will hit theaters on November 10.

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Review: Nightwing #106
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Writers: Tom Taylor and Michael W. Conrad
Art: Stephen Byrne and Serge Acuna
Colors: Adriano Lucas
Letters: Wes Abbott

 

Reviewed by: Matthew B. Lloyd

 

Summary

Dick Grayson’s time as “Ric” Grayson finally catches up with Nightwing when he learns the secret of Bea Bennett.  Plus, Dick and Cassandra Cain are cooking up something in the back up story.

Nightwing #106

Positives

With crossovers and events out of the way, we finally get back to what was introduced in Nightwing #99.  Nightwing had learned of The Hold, a mysterious storage center that is run by a fellow named The Quartermaster.  In Nigthwing #106 we learn that Nightwing has had previous dealings with the Quartermaster when he was going by “Ric” Grayson.  It would’ve been easy to completely forget about “Ric,” but Tom Taylor has come up with a way to connect that part of Dick’s recent past despite the current run doing everything to make the readers forget it.

Nightwing #106

The revelation about Bea is a surprise and certainly has the potential for more development.  It extends an olive branch to those fans of the “Ric”/ Bea relationship while connecting Bea to the intriguing introduction of The Hold and the Quartermaster back in Nightiwng #99.  What “Ric” stored in the hold that is missing will of course drive the storyline.  Taylor has a plot element as well as character set up for this story arc.  The opening of Nightwing #106 also incudes a nice transition back to normalcy that includes a lighter moment with both Barbara and Beast Boy from the Titans.The inclusion of Heartless integrates this arc with the larger tale that Taylor has been telling.  Will this be the resolution to Heartless saga or is Taylor going to keep Heartless around as an arch nemesis for Dick Grayson?

The backup story in this issue is a nice treat as Dick is paired with Cassandra Cain in a return to the milieu of Batgirls.  It’s a fun change of pace story that sets up a continuing plotline.  Stephanie Brown also makes an appearance.  One can only hope that we’ll get a full on Nightwing/ Batgirls team-up as this story plays out!

Nightwing #106

Negatives

Nightwing has been one of DC’s best series for the past couple years, so it’s no surprise that this issue is short on negatives.  One can hope that Bruno Redondo will get back to regular interiors soon.  His work is missed.

Verdict

Nightwing #106 is a great start to a new story arc with a balanced approach between plot and character.  This issue continues to prove why this comic continues to be one of DC’s best.  Hopefully, this will be the start of an uninterrupted run of tales.  As Dick says in this issue, “We’ve had a lot going on.  But, it’s finally time to ask…What’s in the box?”

 

 

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126 Review: Nightwing #106[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers] Writers: Tom

Microsoft was reportedly responsible for the massive leak this week which revealed a host of confidential details about its gaming business.

Documents published on a court website overnight as part of Microsoft’s legal battle with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) potentially laid bare key elements of the company’s gaming strategy for years to come, including plans for unannounced console hardware and games.

Citing a person said to be familiar with the matter, Bloomberg claims that Microsoft accidently uploaded the information to the court’s website.

Douglas Farrar, director of the FTC’s office of public affairs, also said the agency wasn’t behind the leak. “The FTC was not responsible for uploading Microsoft’s plans for its games and consoles to the court website,” he said on Tuesday.

Update

Update: The judge in the case, Jacqueline Scott Corley, has confirmed that Microsoft inadvertently provided the court with a link to the unredacted documents in question, which it then uploaded to the internet page established for the case.

The leaked documents included the following revelations: