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Amazon Prime Day doesn’t start until July 11, but you can already start saving in the fashion department. Stylish deal hunters know that the e-commerce marketplace is one of the best places for discounts on designer labels and affordable clothing brands alike (in addition to everything from Apple products to beauty steals), and right now Prime members can get 40-70 percent off names like Rodarte, Oscar de la Renta, Sergio Hudson, Vince, Veronica Beard, Mara Hoffman, Levi’s and many others.
Here, we’ve rounded up the best Amazon Prime Day fashion deals on clothing, footwear, jewelry and accessories for the entire family, including luxury brands. Our list is organized by department, so you’ll find curated picks for women, men and kids, as well as our favorite women’s designer finds at the end. (Keep scrolling to the end if you don’t immediately find what you’re looking for.)
Items we’ll be adding to our cart for up to 70 percent off include wedding guest dresses by Rodarte and Self Portrait, wide-leg denim by Altuzarra and Mother, resort-ready pieces from Patbo and Ulla Johnson, red carpet-worthy heels by Giuseppe Zanotti and Stuart Weitzman, basics from Amazon Essentials and and more.
Check out our top fashion picks on sale on Amazon below, and see more of The Hollywood Reporter‘s Amazon Prime Day coverage here. We recommend bookmarking this page as we’ll be updating it regularly now and throughout the big online blowout.
The Best Amazon Prime Day Fashion Deals at a Glance
THE BEST EARLY PRIME DAY FASHION DEALS ON DESIGNER CLOTHING
Spain’s San Sebastian film festival unveiled its first group of competition titles on Friday, naming a typically eclectic mix of established arthouse favorites — Cristi Puiu, Joachim Lafosse, Robin Campillo — and rising talents, including Maria Alche, Benjamín Naishtat and American debutant, Raven Jackson, whose first feature, All Roads Taste of Salt, will be competing for San Sebastian’s Golden Shell this year.
Produced by Moonlight director Barry Jenkins, All Roads Taste of Salt is described as a lyrical exploration of the life of a Black woman in Mississippi and stars The Woman King‘s Sheila Atim.
A second American title, the comedy Ex-Husbands from director Noah Pritzker (Quitters) also made the San Sebastian cut. Rosanna Arquette, Griffin Dunne, Miles Heizer, James Norton and Eisa Davis co-star in the film’s ensemble cast in a story focused on a father (Dunne) overwhelmed by the twin crises of an impending divorce and his father’s perhaps fatal illness.
Campillo, best known for his 2017 breakout 120 BPM, will grace San Sebastian with Red Island, a coming-of-age story set in 1960-70 Madagascar, which explores the end of childhood alongside the end of a chapter in France’s colonial era. MMXX, from Romanian director Puiu (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu), in an ensemble drama focused on four people: A therapist, her brother, her husband and a police inspector, who are all obsessed with their own personal issues.
Belgium filmmaker Lafosse, whose last feature, The Restless, premiered in competition in Cannes, will screen A Silence, a family drama exploring issues of abuse, at the Spanish festival.
Other San Sebastian titles announced Friday include The Practice, the latest Argentine comedy from driector Martín Rejtman (Dos disparos, The Magic Gloves), which follows an yoga teacher who faces increasingly absurd challenges and situations; and Puan, a satirical look at Argentine society and academic life, focused on a academic rivalry in the philosophy department of the University of Buenos Aires and directed by Maria Alche and Benjamín Naishtat.
San Sebastian will announce its line-up of Spanish titles on July 17.
The 2023 San Sebastian Film Festival runs Sept. 22-30.
The Righteous Gemstones Season 3 Episode 6 release date & time has been revealed. The next episode of the series will air on MAX (previously known as HBO Max). It tells the tale of The Gemstones, a prominent televangelist family with a history of greed, vice, and charity work, done all in the name of Jesus.
In the previous episode, Judy became upset when Amber showed up. But before that, Aimee-Leigh and Eli found out that they were receiving a lot of negative feedback about the Y2K doomsday. Now, Episode 6 will continue the story from that point onwards, and here’s when it comes out.
When is The Righteous Gemstones Season 3 Episode 6 release date and time?
The Righteous Gemstone Season 3 Episode 6 release date is July 16, 2023.
The Righteous Gemstone Season 3 Episode 6 release time is:
7:00 PM PT
10:00 PM ET
3:00 AM GMT
4:00 AM CEST
Where to watch The Righteous Gemstones Season 3 Episode 6?
Viewers can watch the upcoming episode on MAX.
To subscribe to MAX, choose the plan that suits you best. You can opt for the basic plan with ads ($10 per month) or the premium plan without ads ($16 per month). Then, enjoy binge-watching The Righteous Gemstones and many other shows on the streaming platform.
Season 3 of The Righteous Gemstones follows the wealthy Gemstone siblings as they struggle to run the Church. They learn that their lavish lifestyle comes at a steep cost.
The Righteous Gemstones season 3 features John Goodman as Dr. Eli Gemstone, Danny McBride as Jesse Gemstone, Adam DeVine as Kelvin Gemstone, Edi Patterson as Judy Gemstone, Cassidy Freeman as Amber Gemstone, Jennifer Nettles as Aimee-Leigh Gemstone, and Skyler Gisondo as Gideon Gemstone.
The official synopsis of The Righteous Gemstones reads:
“From Danny McBride, this critically acclaimed comedy follows a world-famous televangelist family with a long tradition of deviance, greed, and charitable work. Left flailing in the wake of their patriarch Eli Gemstone’s (John Goodman) semi-retirement, Season 3 finds Jesse (McBride), Judy (Edi Patterson), and Kelvin (Adam Devine) in charge of the vast Gemstone empire. When their long-lost cousins come out of the woodwork, the siblings must work together if they want to keep the Gemstone legacy intact. An irreverent look at the lives of holy rollers, The Righteous Gemstones explores the salacious world of those who offer salvation… to the highest bidder.”
The San Sebastián Film Festival has revealed the Official Selection for its latest edition, which is due to unfold from September 22 — 30.
The festival, which is celebrating its 71st edition, will screen Romanian filmmaker Cristi Puiu’s latest film MMXX in competition. The festival describes the pic as a story that captures the “wanderings of a bunch of errant souls stuck at the crossroads of history.”
Belgian filmmaker Joachim Lafosse returns to San Sebastian this year with his tenth full-length film, A Silence, a drama starring Emmanuelle Devos and Daniel Auteuil. In 2015, he won the fest’s Silver Shell for Best Director for The White Knights, and two of his films have screened in the Perlak sidebar: After Love (2016) and The Restless (2021).
American filmmaker Raven Jackson will enter Competition with her debut film, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt. The festival described the pic as “a lyrical exploration of the life of a woman in Mississippi.” The film screened this year in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at Sundance.
Elsewhere, Argentinian filmmaker Martín Rejtman will enter the Official Selection for the first time with The Practice, a comedy starring actor Esteban Bigliardi as a yoga teacher in a marital crisis. Rejtman has frequently screened projects at San Seb, including Silvia Prieto (1999), which was in the Made in Spanish section, The Magic Gloves (2004) and Two Shots Fired (2014) in Horizontes Latinos, and the short film Shakti (2019). In 2020, his project Riders won the Eurimages Development Co-production Award at the Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum.
Check out the full selection below:
ALL DIRT ROADS TASTE OF SALT RAVEN JACKSON (USA) Country(ies) of production: USA Cast: Charleen McClure, Reginald Helms, Jr., Moses Ingram, Zainab Jah, Sheila Atim, Chris Chalk A lyrical, decades-spanning exploration across a woman’s life in Mississippi, the feature debut from award-winning poet, photographer and filmmaker Raven Jackson is a haunting and richly layered portrait, a beautiful ode to the generations of people and places that shape us.
EX-HUSBANDS NOAH PRITZKER (USA) Country(ies) of production: USA Cast: Griffin Dunne, James Norton, Miles Heizer, Rosanna Arquette, Eisa Davis Peter’s parents divorced after 65 years, his wife left him after 35, and his sons, Nick and Mickey, are off leading their own lives. When Peter flies to Tulum, crashing Nick’s bachelor party hosted by Mickey, he realizes he’s not the only one in crisis.
LA PRÁCTICA / THE PRACTICE MARTÍN REJTMAN (ARGENTINA) Country(ies) of production: Argentina – Chile – Portugal Cast: Esteban Bigliardi, Mirta Busnelli, Manuela Oyarzún, Camila Hirane, Gabriel Cañas Gustavo and Vanessa separate and have to revise their projects together. Both are yoga teachers. Gustavo is Argentinian, Vanessa is Chilean. The trip to India is cancelled.Vanessa takes the apartment and leaves the studio they shared, leaving Gustavo homeless. As a result of the accumulated stress, Gustavo injures his knee and replaces yoga: first with quadriceps exercises and then with the gym. But gradually he gets his life back on track and starts practising again.
L’ÎLE ROUGE / RED ISLAND ROBIN CAMPILLO (MOROCCO) Country(ies) of production: France – Belgium Cast: Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Quim Gutiérrez L’île rouge / The Red Island is set in Madagascar in the early 1970s, on one of the last air bases of the French army, where military families live the last throes of colonialism. Influenced by his reading of the intrepid comic book heroine Fantômette, ten-year-old Thomas sweeps with a curious glance what surrounds him, while the world gradually opens up to a different reality.
MMXX CRISTI PUIU (ROMANIA) Country(ies) of production: Romania Cast: Bianca Cuculici, Laurențiu Bondarenco, Otilia Panaite, Florin Țibre, Igor Babiac, Roxana Ogrendil, Adelaida Perjoiu, Dorian Boguță, Dragoș Bucur, Marin Cumatrenco Oana Pfifer, a young therapist, gradually slips into the net of the questionnaire she submits to her patient. Mihai, Oana’s brother, worrying about his birthday, is stuck in a story far bigger than what he can handle. Septimiu, Oana’s husband, concerned about his health, vaguely listens to a strange story his colleague was caught in a while ago. Narcis Patranescu, an organized crime detective, deals with an unsettling dark story while interrogating a young woman at a funeral.
PUAN MARÍA ALCHÉ (ARGENTINA), BENJAMÍN NAISHTAT (ARGENTINA) Country(ies) of production: Argentina – Italy – Germany – France -Brazil Cast: Marcelo Subiotto, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Julieta Zylberberg, Alejandra Flechner, Mara Bestelli, Andrea Frigerio Marcelo has devoted his life to teaching at the Faculty of Philosophy. When Professor Caselli, his mentor, dies unexpectedly, Marcelo expects to inherit the Department´s kingdom. However his plans turn upside down with the unexpected arrival of Rafael Sujarchuk, a charismatic and seductive colleague, whom returns from his pedestal in European universities to claim the philosophy Department for himself. Marcelo’s clumsy efforts to prove that he is the right candidate will trigger a hilarious philosophical duel, while his life -and the country- enter a spiral of chaos.
UN SILENCE / A SILENCE JOACHIM LAFOSSE (BELGIUM) Country(ies) of production: Belgium – France – Luxembourg Cast: Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Devos, Matthieu Galoux, Salomé Dewaels, Jeanne Cherhal Astrid is the wife of an acclaimed lawyer. Silenced for 25 years, her family balance suddenly collapses when her children initiate their search for justice.
You’ve dug out the trendy wardrobe, got yourself a second hand pair of Raybans dirt cheap. Wow! And you’re sporting a trendy haircut and are ready to start faking your life as an independent film auteur. So what next? Can you handle the changing media patterns?
You make a list of the top 100 film festivals and attend as many as you can. You attend screenwriting class after class so you can talk the talk story structure with just about any cult film director. Conscious of your personal brand, you drop your new media phobia and have ‘liked’ the right people on Twitter and Facebook, and decided to have a go at independent filmmaking. And probably have a go without going to film school.
Then to the astonishment of your friends and family you make the ‘announcement’ that you are ditching your day job to follow your dreams. With your last pay check in the regular world you buy a digital camera and some suitably cool clothes.
What next?
If only it were that simple. The traditions of the film industry have become challenged by the new digital and social media world. Like the music and publishing industry, film has had to adapt to the post www.youtube.com world.
It’s all changing.
There are three ways that independent filmmakers can benefit from the changing patterns in media. Understand how the paradigms of the film industry have changed:
1. Define creativity
The corporates who have (until now) dominated the film industry with audience research fuelled by survey after survey. Hollywood only pushes the ‘Movie’ button when a product is created that can tick all the right buttons. European industry filmmakers too are falling into this trap, with audience development metrics driving creativity.
Hah! Phooey on that. What social media has done is to allow filmmakers to engage directly with audiences and learn first hand what people want.
The learning here? The filmmakers of today are far better placed to known what their audience wants and who the audience is than the overfed and over researched film industry moguls. These moguls are so disconnected from their audiences by layer after layer of audience development metrics – metrics that can be read any way an executive wants to justify another multi-million spend.
Independent filmmakers are directly connected to their audiences.
2. Marketing and publicity
The film industry has relied on massive marketing and advertising budgets to get their products out into the market place. This financial hurdle has been seen as a step too far and high for independent filmmakers.
Until now, that is.
Social media of course enables filmmakers to market directly to their audience. Filmmakers are able to build up a following of their fans, of people who are interested in their work and what they have to say.
Independent filmmaker use their social media skills in two ways. Filmmakers can market their end product to end users and increasingly savvy filmmakers are using social media to crowdfund and crowd source their movies in the development stage as well.
3. Storytelling Techniques
The traditional two hour cinema movie is very nearly dead. The movies of the future will start with the purchase of an app or game allowing viewers (or gamers) to build up a series of points or vouchers which they can then choose to cash in at the cinema box office, meaning that the cinema experience will become the penultimate point in an experience that last several days or weeks. The advantages of digital technology will allow for the multi-faceted story nodes, currently employed by the gaming industry, with off line experiences as well.
Don’t let any media type tell you that this is a new way of story-telling. It isn’t. Allowing an audience different access points to a story is as old as the hills. When I was a kid in Ontario’s farmland, I played pickup ball hockey wearing a Detroit Red Wings sweater with a number 9 on the back and I believed that I was ‘Mr Hockey’ Gordie Howe. Then I went indoors and listened to the game on radio.
Social media will also enable filmmakers and storytellers to work on stories together with their audiences. You can find out more about this in the new Raindance course: Self Branding for Screenwriters and Filmmakers
Fade Out
Are you trying to break into the film industry? Where does that leave you?
There is nothing difficult about the film industry. it is however, really hard work. The first thing you need to do is to master a craft or skill. This is what you are going to be known for. Secondly, it is a film business. Study and learn how money flows. Learn how to make the changing media patterns work for you and your career.
Thirdly, astute filmmakers use social awareness to raise their personal profile and build a community of admirers (and potential clients and customers). This delicate task of building yourself up is akin to marketeers who try and build up a product, only as an individual one needs to build a personal brand.
Building a personal brand involves excellence (as above) but also involves developing a strong individual voice as well as knowing how to engage in the fine art of self-promotion.
Fourthly you need to make great movies with storylines and concepts which are bold, fresh and original – stories that no one else has thought of before, and stories and films that everyone wants.
Finally, if you want to break into the film industry and call yourself a filmmaker, you have to make films instead of talking about making films. With today’s inexpensive filmmaking gear, anyone with something to say can say it.
Trevor Harris was challenged to come up with the right adjective to describe the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ 12-11 CFL victory over the Edmonton Elks on Thursday.
Strange? Bizarre? Unusual?
Harris settled on gutsy as the Riders scored nine points in the final 66 seconds of the fourth quarter to register the victory and end a seven-game regular season home losing streak.
So how weird was the ending? The Elks entered the final three minutes with a seemingly comfortable 11-3 lead.
Harris, however, managed to lead the Riders on a successful drive. He connected with Mitchell Picton on a five-yard touchdown pass and then followed up with a successful two-point conversion to Kendall Watson to tie the game 11-11 with 1:06 remaining.
As overtime appeared imminent, the game took one final twist when on the ensuing kickoff Edmonton’s C.J. Sims decided to down the ball in the end zone rather than return it.
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That rouge, which was the fifth single of the game between the two teams, broke the deadlock and gave the Riders a 12-11 lead.
“He knows (he made a mistake),” said Elks head coach Chris Jones when asked about Sims’ mistake. “The moment was big and he’s a good little player. There will probably be more people talking about this than when he had a great game returning the other day.”
Harris, who joined the Riders in the off-season as a free agent after playing last season for the Montreal Alouettes, admitted the finish was unique to the CFL.
“It was one of those only in the CFL moments,” said Harris, who finished 19 of 29 passing for 289 yards with one touchdown and one interception. “Last year in Montreal we lost when they missed a field goal and our returner stepped on the boundary when catching the ball. We lost when they missed a field goal and this one was new to me.
“I didn’t even celebrate after the two-point conversion, I was just thinking about getting to overtime. We finally got some traction and made the plays that we needed to make. It’s a big win, 3-1 is big time for us.”
The Riders entered the contest with 13 players on their injured lists, including receivers Jake Weineke, Derel Walker, Brayden Lenius, Juwan Brescacin and Kian Schaffer-Baker. The shortage of receivers gave Picton the opportunity to move into the starting lineup for Friday’s game.
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The 28-year-old, who is in his fourth CFL season, didn’t disappoint as he caught four passes for 76 yards and one touchdown.
Harris understands Picton’s role on the team and believes in his ability to help the Riders.
“I feel like he’s a starting receiver in this league,” said Harris. “Unfortunately for him, he’s so darn good at every position that they feel he can back up everywhere. He’s become so valuable to us in that way.
“He only got one day of practice this week at that position and I didn’t get too many reps with him at training camp so the fact that he was able to do what he did, that shows what type of professional he is.”
Friday’s victory improves the Riders to 3-1 while the Elks drop to 0-5. All three of Saskatchewan’s victories came in close games and Harris is confident that the Riders are developing all the necessities required to win consistently.
“That’s the mark of teams that are connected and have good character and have good culture,” said Harris. “It’s important to find ways to win games rather than finding ways to lose games. I feel this team is always trying to find ways to win games.
“However ugly the win tonight might be, it’s two points in the win column and we’ll take it.”
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Friday’s contest closed a stretch of five games in 25 days for the Elks.
While Jones acknowledged the challenge of the early schedule, he felt the Elks still had the chance to win but mistakes in the fourth quarter opened the door for a Saskatchewan comeback.
“That’s a lot of football. We brought in 28 kids who are either first- or second-year guys and at one point it was three games in 12 days with two travels. That’s a hard road,” said Jones. “We worked extremely hard but we just didn’t execute in the fourth quarter.”
Taylor Cornelius returned as the Elks starting quarterback after Jones went with Jarret Doege in last week’s 26-7 loss to the Ottawa Redblacks.
Cornelius completed 17 of 29 passes with one interception. He also rushed 11 times for 58 yards and one touchdown.
In addition to Lauther’s single in the final minute, the Elks got three rouges from punter Jake Julien and one from kicker Dean Faithfull.
Each team had a touchdown called back in the first half.
Elks receiver Steven Dunbar scored on a 36-yard reception early in the second quarter but it was nullified by a holding penalty.
Saskatchewan’s Mario Alford returned a missed field goal 125 yards for a touchdown minutes later, but a holding penalty negated the score.
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The Elks return to action July 13 when they host the Hamilton Tiger-Cats while the Calgary Stampeders will travel to Regina on July 15 to play the Riders.
It’s also a testament to NBCU realizing and relishing the risk-taking, creative-friendly asset the company has in Langley.
There was talk following NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell’s exit over sexual harassment claims that Langley would inherit the post given her billion-dollar-grossing track record at the film studio and as a level-headed balancer of scales in negotiations. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts gave those interim duties to Comcast president Mike Cavanagh, but that wasn’t a means to sideline Langley.
While brass tacks oversee of news, sports and sundry NBCU ops are not her thing, Langley’s superpowers lie in building iconoclastic and franchise-creative content, strategizing and making it work financially. In her new role as Chairman, NBCUniversal Studio Group and Chief Content Officer, Langley will have a 30,000-foot view of content creation across the conglom as she expands her creative-team portfolio to include Universal Television, Universal Content Productions, Universal Television Alternative Studios and Universal International Studios (she already presides over the Filmed Entertainment Group which counts Universal Pictures, Focus Features and DreamWorks Animation).
Three years in, the Peacock service continues to struggle with a subscriber base of 22 million. While oversee of the streamer in its distribution and monetization falls to newly anointed NBCUniversal Media Group chairman Mark Lazarus, and original content to NBCUniversal Entertainment chairman Frances Berwick (who’ll report into Langley and Lazarus), Langley will work closely with the duo in building a strategic portfolio across theatrical, TV and streaming, which like her film slate isn’t dependent on one piece of IP.
While Langley isn’t vacating her film studio boss role with the new promotion, it’s reasonable to expect that her No. 2, Universal Pictures president Peter Cramer, a committed partner to her vision, will step into a greater leadership role in developing features.
With the departures of such brass as Shell, Jason Kilar at Warner Bros and Bob Chapek at Disney, you could say it’s been a case of “ding dong, the witch is dead” when it comes to their shared penchant for theatrical day-and-date strategies. Langley has always been a believer in the big screen — not just in being a scout and a champion for auteurs but also in the medium’s ancillary financial potency.
Nowadays, theatrical windows for Universal titles are bespoke depending on the movie, meaning an arthouse film can spend more time in theaters in order to grab the older, slower-moving moviegoers, or to mine the next Get Out. The contracts with top exhibitors like AMC and Regal were put in place as good faith to them as Universal looked to exploit the best possible financial outcome for each movie, this at a time when Peacock was being built into a movie’s financial waterfall. The decision to expire these gross-to-PVOD contracts comes as Uni has developed a greater understanding of the flexibility of PVOD and avoiding theatrical cannibalization. Interestingly enough, in the case of several Universal animated films, theatrical kept humming for months despite their simultaneous availability on PVOD.
Uni has built a solid means of capitalizing on theatrical, not only profiting off of PVOD but as the films go through a lengthy 18-month Pay One window that includes Peacock, Prime Video (for live action titles) and Netflix (for animated movies).
Despite Uni’s experiment with day-and-date theatrical on Peacock with Blumhouse titles such as Halloween Kills, Halloween Ends and the upcoming Five Nights at Freddy’s, filmmakers know that Langley is worth her word, and that her marketing and distribution corps have the acumen when it comes to turning an original movie into a theatrical event. A prime example: Sam Mendes’ World War I pic 1917, with a largely fresh-faced cast and its one-shot avant garde style, minted more than $159 million stateside and $385M worldwide before Covid shuttered theaters. Not a lot of Hollywood studios can turn what might look as counterprogramming on paper — like the femme-demo pics Girls Trip, the Mamma Mia movies and Bridesmaids– and mushroom them into blockbusters.
Such successes as well as other original titles-turned-events — i.e. Jordan Peele’s Get Out and F. Gary Gray’s Straight Outta Compton, which Langley took out of turnaround and turned into a late-summer 2015 blockbuster with $161M+ domestic and more than $201M worldwide — encouraged filmmakers like Christopher Nolan to jump studios. The Tenet filmmaker segued from his longtime Warner Bros home to Uni with his WWII-era drama Oppenheimer, which is eyeing a great box office opening of $40M-$50M U.S. in the face of Warners’ Barbie (with $80M+) during the July 21-23 frame.
Christopher Nolan discusses ‘Oppenheimer’ during Universal’s CinemaCon presentation in Aprile
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Along with Nolan, Universal is the home to such filmmakers and producers as Judd Apatow, Amy Pascal, Lord & Miller, Elizabeth Banks, Everything Everywhere All at Once Oscar winners The Daniels (who made a five-year exclusive theatrical pact with Uni), Peele, Jason Blum and Illumination titan Chris Meledandri to name a few.
Already, Uni has clocked close to $3 billion at the global box office, with Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros Movie not only giving birth to a new franchise but also securing bragging rights as the highest-grossing movie of 2023 YTD with $1.34 billion.
Other non-franchise pics looking to pop on Universal’s theatrical release calendar include the R-rated raunchy talking dog comedy Strays on August 18, Ethan Coen’s action comedy Drive-Away Dolls from Focus on September 22, a new Illumination animated pic Migration on December 22, and Blumhouse’s Bryce McGuire-directed horror movie Night Swim on January 5, 2024.
Chris Hayes opened up Thursday’s episode of MSNBC’s “All In” with a lengthy look at the floundering GOP primary campaign of former Vice President Mike Pence. But while Hayes had some very pithy things to say about Pence — “a somewhat ridiculous figure… doing a bad impersonation of a politician,” for instance — Hayes’ bigger point concerned the question of how Pence expects to win at all.
Hayes noted that Pence is very unpopular with Republican voters precisely because he refused to help Donald Trump overthrow the government in 2021. Which got him wondering if, perhaps, Pence is betting his political future on Donald Trump actually being held accountable for his crimes.
“Mike Pence is of course in a rather unique position,” Hayes said as he explained how the ex-VEEP was in Iowa on Thursday night as part of his campaign. “Not only was he number two to the twice-impeached, twice-indicted ex-President, Donald Trump. He is now running against his former boss for the Republican nomination.”
“I have to say, Mike Pence has always struck me as a somewhat ridiculous figure. He always sounds like he’s doing a bad impersonation of a politician. But his biggest obstacle in the Republican primaries? The voters do not seem to like him very much,” Hayes said.
“Despite his real advantage on name recognition, just 7% of Republican primary voters say they would vote for Pence if the primary election were held today. And this is even more damning for him: 37% have a negative opinion of the former vice president, compared to 33% of primary voters who view him positively, according to that same NBC News poll. That’s what we in the business call ‘underwater on favorability,’” Hayes continued.
Hayes noted that the reason for this is that Donald Trump remains the overwhelming front-runner, and to this day Trump blames Pence for refusing to help him conduct a coup. While reminding viewers of this, Hayes also detailed how on Jan. 6, as Trump incited the mob that attacked the Capitol, he also attacked Pence,
“Donald Trump clearly, and almost explicitly painted a target on his vice president’s back on Jan. 6,” Hayes said, noting that Pence “had every reason to know that he was in physical danger.”
This prompted Hayes to play a clip of a very disturbing interaction Pence had on Thursday in Iowa with a Republican caucus member. You can see the whole exchange in the video above, but the gist is this: The elderly woman repeated Trump’s numerous lies about how the 2020 election was stolen, and could have been legally overturned by the Vice President. And she blamed Pence for Trump not winning a second term.
Pence, meanwhile, couldn’t bring himself to acknowledge that Joe Biden won overwhelmingly in 2020 — he was speaking to a Republican crowd — but he did firmly reject the theory he had any power at all to undo the election.
Pence, notably, got some applause for this, but it was mild, something Hayes noted when the clip ended. But, he said, “after so many years following Donald Trump, it is just surprising, almost bracing, to just hear a politician attempt to persuade people with a series of sequential arguments, by drawing on facts.”
Nevertheless, Hayes argued, the crowd really didn’t respond that strongly to Pence’s defense of the U.S. constitution. “That exchange that we just saw is such a clear illustration of not only Mike Pence’s problem, but our collective political problem. I mean, here he is in a room with a selection of interested Republican caucus goers in Iowa, people who make up the base of one of the two major parties and coalitions, and he cannot get them to buy his explanation for why undoing the entire American constitutional order was not the right thing to do.”
Noting the futility of trying to convince the mainstream of the Republican party that Trump lost in 2020, Hayes said, “it really makes you wonder why Pence is even trying at all. Again, like I said, ambition makes people do crazy things. But I will also say you have to remember that Mike Pence knows the actual facts of what happened on Jan. 6 Better than almost anyone.”
And then he tied this back to the ongoing investigation into Trump’s role in Jan. 6, conducted by the same special counselor who indicted him on charges related to illegal possession of classified documents. Pence, Hayes said, “had conversations with Donald Trump [on Jan. 6] that no one else had. He has also cooperated with special counsel Jack Smith… so he probably has a good sense about where that case is going and what it may look like.”
“And maybe Mike Pence is making a bet: Electoral chances may not look very good right now, and he may not be able to go convince every last Republican, one by one, [that[ he did the right thing on January 6. But maybe, who knows, some further developments, like an actual criminal case, could change the outlook,” Hayes concluded.
The 69th Taormina Film Festival in Sicily drew starpower that included Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Mads Mikkelsen from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Amber Heard from In the Fire, Zoe Saldana and Marco Perego from The Absence of Eden, and honored guests like John Landis, Willem Dafoe and Abel Ferrara.
The fest, which needed to be rebooted, was put together two and a half months after Ester Bonafede, the superintendent of the Taormina Arte Sicilia Foundation, tapped Beatrice Venezi and Barrett Wissman as the fest’s co-artistic directors.
The co-directors and Bonafede hail from musical backgrounds — Venezi is a conductor who served that role during an opening-night performance by opera stars Placido Domingo, Vittorio Grigolo, Marcelo Alvarez, Aida Garifullina and Andrea Griminelli for the benefit event Pavarotti Forever — and while the location is picturesque and an evening premiere at the ancient Greek-built and Roman refurbished Teatro Antico amphitheater is a singular showcase, the organizers learned the limitations of a small village with narrow corridors.
While they wanted to show off stars like the legendary Ford, delivering him for a red-carpet stint was a mission impossible due to heavy crowds. There were also political hurdles to overcome, like when a local politician flexed some muscle by locking the festival headquarters in the final moments of the gathering.
At Deadline’s Taormina Studio, they discuss the challenges, and their plans to draw more starpower and better manage the logistics for the 70th Taormina Film Festival next year, when they have more than a short burst of time to put together the program.
In 1979 Peter Falk and the late great Alan Arkin made the perfect odd couple in the classic action comedy, The In-Laws. It even spawned a not-bad remake with Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks in 2003. The difference between those films, and a bit of an attempt to do something similar in the cleverly-titled The Out-Laws, which starts streaming on Netflix today, is that those movies were genuinely funny, particularly the Arkin-Falk teaming, but this one, also a kind of Meet The Parents on steroids, relies far too heavily on non-stop and incessant action scenes to carry us through its 95 minute running time.
The fault here does not lie with its cast which is pretty impressive overall. Basically this is a comedic vehicle for Adam Devine who not only stars, but also helped develop the Ben Zazove and Evan Turner script as well as producing with Happy Madison’s Adam Sandler and Allen Covert. Devine (Workaholics) is a natural at this sort of zany comedy, here playing Owen Browning, a nebbishy bank manager set to marry the love of his life, Parker (a charming Nina Dobrev), but who soon finds he may be in way over his head upon learning that Parker’s mysterious globe-trotting parents Billy (Pierce Brosnan) and Lilly (Ellen Barkin) have surprisingly decided to attend the wedding after all. This causes much consternation not just for Owen, but also his straight-laced parents Neil (Richard Kind) and Margie (the devine Julie Hagerty) who, based on what they have heard, have no love lost for their future in-laws. The initial meetings are DeNiro-Stiller light, but the presence of Brosnan, sporting a whiff of James Bond gravitas and the always welcome Barkin lift the proceedings entirely.
Things get out of hand though when a robbery by the notorious Ghost Bandits (who invade banks as if they were in Transformers) gives him pause and leads him to suspect that possibly his future in-laws are, well, out-laws too, a kind of Bonnie and Clyde for the new age. Did they pull off the heist? Or is Owen about to find himself on the other side of the law as a rival group of robbers including the over-the-top Rohan (Poorna Jagannathan) enters the picture. In no time Owen is dressed up in full Shrek ensemble (don’t ask), guns blazing, and pulling off a hold up. There might be better ways to endear yourself to your new in-laws, but not in this scenario which is full of all sorts of stunts, chases, shoot outs, and madcap shenanigans that never slow down to reveal much more than a single dimension of this group of characters struggling to resemle living breathing human beings.
Director Tyler Spindel comes from the stand up comedy world, and certainly knows how to get laughs, and stage chases, but in this case seems to have succumbed more to emphasizing the action at every turn here. His previous Netflix comedy for Happy Madision, was 2020’s knock-down hilarious The Wrong Missy starred David Spade and really hit the bullseye. I only wish he had been able to balance the action with more character development in this one which seems to be throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks. Frenetic is the word that comes to mind.
Fortunately Spindel has the likable Devine who is working overtime to deliver in the starring role, and especially Brosnan and Barkin, two old pros who manage to make their scenes work despite the script’s shortcomings. You get the feeling that Brosnan is really enjoying playing against the broad comedy the cast has to navigate.That goes for the ever-dependable Kind and Hagerty as well, plus well-placed, if brief, supporting turns from Lil Rel Howery, Blake Anderson, and Michael Rooker, the latter as the Agent who has been trying to track down Billy and Lilly for some time.
Audiences looking to settle for sheer mayhem will be engaged, but the promising premise doesn’t deliver the level of fun the audience, and this cast, truly deserves.
Cast: Adam Devine, Nina Dobrev, Michael Rooker, Pierce Brosnan, Ellen Barkin, Richard Kind, Julie Hagerty, Lil Rel Howery, Poorna Jagannathan, Blake Anderson
Khloé Kardashian may have split from her exes — but she still feels bad about everything that’s gone down with them.
During the most recent episode of The Kardashians, Khloé opened up while her sister Kim Kardashian was venting about her own ex Kanye West.
Kim admitted she was “not okay” following Kanye’s controversial anti-Semitic comments — while also feeling guilty that her statement in support of the Jewish community could affect Kanye’s life.
While Khloé acknowledged she wasn’t “on Kim’s level” and wasn’t going through the same thing, she said she completely understood her emotions.
Khloé explained that she, too, feels guilt about Lamar and Tristan — even though both men cheated on her.
“Every single day I feel bad about Lamar. Every single day. I feel bad about Tristan not being on a team right now. Lamar is forever going to be remembered for being a drug user,” Khloé said.
She continued, “These are [their things]. These are Kanye’s things, but that doesn’t mean we don’t feel bad about it.”
Khloé then continued to comfort Kim, saying that feeling bad for those that have wronged them just makes them a caring person.
“It’s okay that you’re crying, it’s okay that you have feelings. You’re such a good person, and that’s why you feel like this,” she told Kim. “Your heart is breaking for him.”
You can hear their entire conversation on The Kardashians, which is now streaming on Hulu.
Leading into the release of “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” one of the hottest topics of speculation among Taylor Swift fans and observers was whether she might change a specific line in “Better Than Revenge” that some felt had not dated well since the original recording came out in 2010. The conjecture was on point: She indeed rewrote the lyric in question for the 2023 version.
For the last 13 years, a particularly quotable diss line stood as: “She’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress.” In “Better Than Revenge (Taylor’s Version),” the line has been rewritten to: “He was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches.”
“Matches” is a less perfect rhyme than “mattress” for its matching line, “She’s an actress” (which was thought at the time to be the real-life profession of the woman Swift wrote the song about). But the substituted line is a better match for her feminist credentials as an adult, since she has often spoken in subsequent years about how women’s dating lives, including her own, should not be up for judgment.
The switch was no surprise, although Swift had not tipped anything about a change ahead of the new “Speak Now” being officially unveiled Thursday night at midnight ET. In the weeks leading up to the release, thousands of social media posts and even some long think-pieces had been devoted to whether or not she should re-write the line, which many now view as anti-feminist or “slut shaming.” While many argued that Swift at 33 should present a more progressive view of women’s sexuality than she had when she wrote the song at 19 or 20, others argued that the lyric should be preserved the way it was written.
Confirmation of the rewritten lyric was widely disseminated Thursday afternoon as a few fans received their copies of “Speak Now” early and shared screenshots of the lyric sheet. Early reaction among Swifties on social media seemed split down the middle, with some fretting that they would have to disobey orders and pull out their old Big Machine copies to enjoy the fan favorite as they remembered it.
Rolling Stone essayist Larisha Paul took that view, in part, when she wrote in May, “Changing the past now, or using it to make some grand feminist statement, would not only feel dishonest, but it would also compromise her goal of draining all of the value from her original recordings after they were tossed around and sold without her permission.” The writer advocated for keeping the song as historically conceived, as “a crucial point in Swift’s complicated journey through coming to an understanding of intersectional feminism.”
But for most Swifties, the idea that the lyrics would be updated was a fait accompli. That didn’t stop a lot of them from creating memes about how devastated they were about the change — although, to be fair, most of them seemed to be tongue-in-cheek statements about their attachment to nostalgia, not serious critiques of the switch. (Scroll down to see some of the funnier GIFs reflecting fans’ mixed feelings.)
We just have to bully her into releasing Better Than Revenge (Taylor’s Version) (Slut Shaming Version) like she did with lana and snow on the beach https://t.co/kLuBwT02ar
Swift wrote a lengthy “prologue” that is included in the packaging of “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” but it does not address “Better Than Revenge,” and the singer has not done any interviews to discuss the new release — the third in a series of six re-recordings of her Big Machine catalog.
It’s not the first time Swift revised a lyric she wrote as a teen that got called into question later, although this one was longer in coming. The original version of “Picture to Burn” on her 2006 self-titled debut album had the 16-year-old singing, “So go and tell your friends that I’m obsessive and crazy / That’s fine, I’ll tell mine you’re gay, by the way.” By the time a pop remix was sent to radio, and a deluxe version of the album replaced the original, that couplet had been changed to: “…That’s fine, you won’t mind if I say, by the way.” Avoiding the appearance of homophobia made that one much more of a no-brainer, even if, even today, some of Swift’s LGBTQ fans say they thought the original was fine.
When it comes to “Better Than Revenge,” Swift and her tourmate Hayley Williams, of Paramore, have something in common. Williams announced in 2018 that her band would stop performing its biggest hit, “Misery Business,” because of a line she also had written as a teen that had been called “misogynistic”: “Once a whore, you’re nothing more.” In 2022, though, she had a change of heart and started performing it again — although she has refrained from singing the line in question herself, even as the crowd picks it up.
There is a long history of performers changing disputed lines that are viewed as insensitive — including a recent one, when last year both Beyonce and Lizzo reissued their summer albums with a word edited out that refers to physical disabilities but is casually used as slang. Black Eyed Peas released and then recalled a song that had a different slang word for mental disabilities in the title, with the revised tune going on to become a hit. Elvis Costello announced that he would stop performing “Oliver’s Army,” a song that included a politically ironic use of the N-word, rather than continue to sing a self-censored version, but at a concert this year he introduced a fresh version that included an entirely new verse.
One thing is for sure, as Swift continues to re-record her old albums: In these “Taylor’s Versions,” the subject of being gay will first occur in her revised catalog in “1989’s” “Welcome to New York,” not “Picture to Burn.”
Here are some reactions from Swifties, as they humorously deal with the stages of grief in recognizing that a favorite former sing-along line has bitten the dust:
Me finding out that Better Than Revenge lyrics changed but then I remember there’s probably gonna be a vault track about how awful J0hn M@y3r ispic.twitter.com/lCBOWAyOLX
Me staring down the clock until exactly midnight so I can investigate the Better Than Revenge (Taylor’s Version) lyric change for myself pic.twitter.com/FfXfxGh12O
Marvel and Funko have had a successful partnership spanning multiple decades as the fan-favorite IP has continued to grow and flourish.
Making momentos for Marvel’s many movies, as well as creating comic-accurate collectibles, has been a constant demand for the toy company. As a result, the quality and value of the famous Funko Pop! has increased with each year, as fans continue clamoring for their favorite Marvel moments to be Funko-fied.
Since there are now countless Marvel Pops! to choose from, The Direct has compiled a ranked list of Funko’s greatest Marvel creations that represent the many movies, shows, and comics that fans love.
15.) Scarlet Witch (Glow)
Funko
Mimicking a familiar Doctor StrangeMCU moment, Wanda uses her newfound abilities of astral projection while studying the Darkhold in her Scarlet Witch attire.
Wanda had a short stint with the Darkhold in the MCU, but she’s also the one who supposedly destroyed it in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, so this Pop! showing the Darkhold with its final user is extra special.
14.) Captain America
Funko
Captain America finally proving that he’s worthy of lifting Thor’s hammer was one of the MCU’s biggest payoffs in Avengers: Endgame, and it was met with possibly the loudest cheer ever heard in a movie theater.
Naturally, fans were clamoring for Funko to make a figure of this immediately after the movie came out, and the toy company didn’t disappoint as it responded shortly after with a figure commemorating when Cap wielded both Mjolnir and his shattered shield.
13.) Miles Morales
Funko
No one expected 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to be the absolute masterpiece that it is, but people were still excited nonetheless because Miles Morales was finally getting his moment in movie theaters.
Miles is special because so many fans can relate to his story. He expresses himself like most people do–with the clothes that he wears.
Licensing issues prevented the Funko Miles from rocking his Air Jordan 1’s that he wore in the movie, but Miles doesn’t need branding to make him stand out. Sporting his iconic look of the Spidey suit covered by his hoodie and sneakers is a new fan-favorite, which put this Pop! in constant high demand.
12.) Colossus (Chrome)
The coolest Funko Pops! are the ones that showcase a character’s unique ability, and the toy company has a lot of fun bringing that element to life with the X-Men.
Colossus is obviously a man made of all metal, and Funko decided to show off the mutant’s special power by using a chrome finish for his skin. Now, even the three-inch figurine of Colossus looks indestructible.
Sporting his lesser-known X-Force attire, this Colossus Pop! was exclusive to Los Angeles Comic-Con in 2018 and later shared with Hot Topic stores across the US.
11.) Captain Marvel (Glow)
Funko
Captain Marvel arrived in the MCU as promptly as she did abruptly, and the same can be said for the plethora of Captain Marvel Funko figures that hit the shelves ahead of the character’s first feature film.
That doesn’t mean the Pops! Weren’t awesome, as some showcased Carol’s powers while others played around with the variations of her super suit.
For the fans that didn’t want to overload their collections with all the common Captain Marvels they could find at the convenience store, though, a special variation of Captain Marvel flying and glowing was made available only through Amazon’s bimonthly Funko subscription service, dubbed the Marvel Collector Corps box.
10.) Gambit (Blacklight)
Funko
Not every entry on this list needs an explanation—just look how cool Gambit is throwing those energized playing cards that actually glow.
The Gambit Pop! is formed with a great action pose that showcases what makes him special, and the figure was already one of Funko’s most visually stunning Marvel toys. Giving the mutant Pop! a repaint to glow under a blacklight makes the new Gambit even cooler.
9.) Captain America
Funko
No one saw it as a surprise that Sam Wilson became the new Captain America by the end of the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. What many weren’t expecting, though, was for Funko to follow the series finale by releasing three all-new Funko Pops! To celebrate the new Captain America.
Sam Wilson’s style emulated that of a guardian angel in the final episode, and this Pop! in particular showcases Sam in his new red-white-and-blue wingsuit, donning the shield as he soars through the sky in an angelic fashion.
8.) Hulk Smashing Loki
Funko
Celebrating its 10-year anniversary, Marvel Studios ignited a merch campaign in 2018 dubbed “Marvel Studios: The First Ten Years” and used the opportunity to revive and relive some of the MCU’s greatest moments.
Hulk smashing Loki is obviously one of the funniest moments in 2012’s The Avengers, so there’s no question why Marvel Studios wanted to immortalize the hilarious altercation between Hulk and the “puny god.”
7.) Black Panther (Facet)
Funko
Some things are bigger than the movies.
With a big thank-you to the late Chadwick Boseman, Black Panther has had an enormous cultural impact across the world. Because of this, Disney commissioned Funko to make a special faceted figure of the Wakandan hero to honor and celebrate the influence of the Marvel hero.
The faceted style of the Black Panther Pop! gives it a bit more shine, setting it apart from the everyday Funko figures that flood the retail shelves as this one looks more special and distinguished.
As it resembles the gem that Black Panther has been in the modern Marvel world, adding the faceted Black Panther Pop! to the collection feels like a must.
6.) Venomized Magneto
Funko
Every once in a while, a Funko Pop! surfaces that’s just too cool to ignore.
Funko has been working on its line of Venomized Marvel characters for quite some time, but none look as awesome as the Venomized Magneto that the toy company put together for New York Comic-Con in 2020.
Staying true to his iconic colors, Magneto is overtaken by the alien goo and transformed into something ever worse while still emulating his natural power and authority.
5.) Mysterio (Glow)
Funko
Despite Spider-Man: Far From Home featuring three different Spidey suits, it was actually Mysterio that got the greatest movie makeover, and Funko took notice.
His face shrouded by an ominous cloud of smoke, the Mysterio Pop! puts on just as good of a show as the real thing. Showing off his mesmerizing green magic as his cape flows in the wind behind him, the faux hero has never looked better than he does as a three-inch Funko figurine.
Several variations of the Mysterio Funko figure were made to promote the villain, but none did it better than this Walmart-exclusive Pop! that glows in the dark.
4.) Mystique
Funko
It’s not every day a fan can get two Pops! for the price of one, but there’s so much more than that that comes with a mutant like Mystique.
Mystique has been both a friend and a foe to the X-Men on the big screen. In 2000’s X-Men, she was certainly the latter when she disguised herself as Wolverine, fake claws and all. It wasn’t until Wolverine answered with real adamantium claws that Mystique was outed as an imposter, and that’s when she performed the iconic spin-kick as she morphed from the likes of Hugh Jackman to her true form as the blue, cold-blooded killer.
This is another Pop! that was exclusive to the Marvel Collector Corps box, which makes sense as this scene became a fan-favorite moment in the X-Men legacy films that has gained the hard-earned title of a non-MCU Funko favorite.
3.) Winter Soldier
Funko
Speaking of fan-favorite moments, one movie that’s packed with them is 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. From jumping from the sky without a parachute to deadly car chases in Washington, DC, the action in the first Captain America sequel was legit.
Of all those moments, though, possibly the greatest scene in the film is when the Winter Soldier tries to use Captain America’s own shield against him. This Funko Pop! perfectly resembles when Bucky picked up the star-spangled shield and stood ready to fight its wielder.
Funko used this iconic moment to launch its Year of the Shield event on Amazon in the US, and the Pop! had to be restocked several times on the site due to the high demand from fans.
2.) Thanos with Throne
Funko
Thanos with Throne is a bigger, more creative use of Funko’s iconic image, placing Thanos on a seat that takes up much more space than the average Pop!.
Fans waited a long time to see Thanos, and this Pop! was a perfect representation of that. Teased at the tail-end of 2012’s The Avengers, Thanos seated on his throne was the only image audiences had of the Mad Titan for years before he finally got up and “did it himself.”
This figure was the first Pop! made for Thanos since his appearance in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and it kicked off the Funko line of Marvel Studios’ “The First Ten Years” anniversary merchandise that ran for most of 2018.
1.) Iron Man (I Am Iron Man) (Glow)
Funko
Ready to snap with all six Infinity Stones in his secret gauntlet, this Tony Stark Funko figure commemorates when Iron Man made the ultimate sacrifice to save the universe.
When taking the Pop! out for display, the inside of the box says “I Love You 3000,” reminding fans of yet another classic Iron Man moment from the movie and the legacy he leaves behind.
Funko made multiple Endgame monuments for Iron Man before working its way up to this masterpiece, but none were nearly as awesome as this Iron Man with a glowing arc reactor and glowing Infinity Stones.
The “I Am Iron Man” exclamation from Avengers: Endgame is surely one of Tony Stark’s most memorable MCU moments, and now it’s one of Iron Man’s coolest Funko figures, too.
Rockstar Studios’ incredible Batman: Arkham series is finally coming to Nintendo Switch with the Batman: Arkham Trilogypack! The pack will include Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, and Batman: Arkham Knight, and is scheduled to release in Fall 2023.
For all the details on this awesome announcement, check out the official press release and reveal trailer below!
WARNER BROS GAMES AND DC ANNOUNCE
BATMAN ARKHAM TRILOGY FOR NINTENDO SWITCH
Compilation of Critically Acclaimed Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, and Batman: Arkham Knight Released for the First Time on Nintendo Platform, Bundled with All Previously Released DLC in One Iconic Package
Burbank, Calif. – June 21, 2023 – Warner Bros. Games and DC today announced Batman: Arkham Trilogy for Nintendo Switch, a compilation of Rocksteady Studios’ award-winning videogames that brings together the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, and Batman: Arkham Knight in one iconic package. Batman: Arkham Trilogy is scheduled to launch for Nintendo Switch this fall 2023, complete with all previously released downloadable content (DLC) from all three titles. The trilogy is being developed for Nintendo Switch by Turn Me Up Games.
Developed by Rocksteady Studios and released in 2009, Batman: Arkham Asylum is where it all started. The game set the stage for DC’s “Arkhamverse” that fans know and love today, and introduced players to a unique, dark, and atmospheric adventure that takes players to the depths of the infamous Arkham Asylum. Featuring an original story, players move in the shadows as Batman to instill fear amongst enemies and confront The Joker and Gotham City’s most notorious villains, including Harley Quinn, Bane, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, and Scarecrow, who have taken over the asylum.
Batman: Arkham Cityis Rocksteady Studios’ 2011 follow-up that builds upon theintense, atmospheric foundation of Batman: Arkham Asylum. The game sends players soaring through the expansive Arkham City– the maximum security “home” for all of Gotham City’s thugs, gangsters, and insane criminal masterminds. Featuring an incredible Rogues Gallery of Gotham City’s most dangerous criminals including Catwoman, The Joker, The Riddler, Two-Face, Harley Quinn, The Penguin, Mr. Freeze, and many others, the game allows players to experience what it feels like to be The Dark Knight and deliver justice to those confined within Arkham City.
Batman: Arkham Knight raises the stakes for The Dark Knight in Rocksteady Studios’ 2015 finale to the multi-award winning trio of Batman: Arkham games. In this epic conclusion to the Arkhamverse story arc, the fate of Gotham City hangs in the balance as Scarecrow is joined by the Arkham Knight, making his villainous debut in DC’s Batman Universe, as well as a roster of notorious DC Super-Villains including Harley Quinn, The Penguin, Two-Face, Firefly, and the Riddler. Joining The World’s Greatest Detective are his closest allies, Commissioner Gordon, Oracle, Alfred, Lucius Fox, Catwoman, Robin, and Nightwing. The gameculminates in the ultimate showdown in Gotham City and introduces players to the complete Batman experience with the Batmobile that is fully drivable throughout the open game world and capable of transformation from high-speed Pursuit Mode to military grade Battle Mode.
After months of scouring the Shire, the One Ring has been found. Yes, the extremely rare, one-of-a-kind Magic the Gathering card has been found and the bounty for it raised to TWO MILLION DOLLARS. Someone is about to be very rich. In other fantasy news, Baldur’s Gate 3 has over one hundred hours of cinematics. You’re not going to see it all in one playthrough, though, so set aside a few months of your life if you want to 100% that game. And finally, the heroic Game Boy that survived a fire in the First Gulf War will finally get to hang up its combat boots. The iconic handheld that looks like it literally withstood an explosion will be moved from its public display in New York, to its final retirement home in Nintendo of America’s headquarters in Washington. We’re off until Wednesday next week, have a happy and safe Fourth of July if you’re in the U.S.!
Continuing the recent trend of artists being assaulted by thrown objects while on stage, Drake has become the latest victim.
The Canadian singer-rapper was hit on the left wrist Wednesday night in Chicago while performing the song “So Anxious.” Drake looked at the phone on the ground, but didn’t indicate that he was injured or particularly annoyed, and carried on with the show, part of his “It’s All a Blur” tour.
He became the latest victim in a disturbing trend of fans throwing objects at the stage in an order to get a clickable video moment. Artists including Bebe Rexha, Pink, Kid Cudi, Steve Lacy Kelsea Ballerini and Ava Max have been victimized. And singer Adele recently warned from the stage that she would fight anyone who threw anything at her.
Rexha has been the most serious injury, with a thrown phone hitting her near her eye, causing her to collapse on stage. A 27-year-old man was arrested.
Ballerini stopped her show in Idaho to address her audience after an object was thrown.
“Can we just talk about what happened?” she asked. “All I care about is keeping everyone safe. If you ever don’t feel safe, please let someone around you know. If anyone’s pushing too much or you just have that gut feeling, just always flag it. … Don’t throw things, you know?”
Adele has had the strongest reaction. She told her audience this week, ““Have you noticed how people are like, forgetting show etiquette at the moment? People just throwing s— onstage, have you seen them? I f— dare you. Dare you to throw something at me and I’ll f— kill you.”
The final wishes of singing star Aretha Franklinwill be adjudicated starting next Monday in a trial that will determine which of two handwritten wills will be honored.
Millions in royalties are at stake in the legal action. Franklin was a music superstar, known for massive hits like “Respect” and “Think.” She had four sons, but never created a formal, typewritten will, despite years of health problems and an historic legacy.
Instead, she left two handwritten documents, including one found in a couch. Son Ted White II believes papers dated in 2010 should mainly control the estate, while sons Kecalf Franklin and Edward Franklin favor a 2014 document. Both were discovered in Franklin’s suburban Detroit home months after her death from pancreatic cancer in 2018 at age 76.
A niece, Sabrina Owens, agreed to be personal representative or executor.
Months after Franklin’s funeral, Owens found a handwritten will dated 2010. Another, dated 2014, was found in a notebook under cushions in Franklin’s home. Both indicate the sons would share income from music and copyrights.
The older will lists White and Owens as co-executors. It also says Kecalf and Edward Franklin “must take business classes and get a certificate or a degree” to benefit.
The 2014 version crosses out White’s name as executor and has Kecalf Franklin in his place. Kecalf Franklin and grandchildren would get his mother’s main home in Bloomfield Hills, which was valued at $1.1 million when she died, but is worth much more today.
Michigan law states that a handwritten will is valid if it’s in the deceased’s handwriting, is dated and is signed,
South Korea is known globally for its web series, movies and K-pop, with content including Squid Game and Parasite and groups like BTS and Blackpink becoming household names internationally. But there is another Korean cultural export – webtoons and their associated IP – that is starting to have an impact, not just in Korea, but around the world.
Webtoons are comics that have been designed specifically for mobile phones. Unlike Western comics and Japanese manga, they’re composed of single panels arranged vertically so that they can be easily scrolled through with one hand while you’re using the other to hang off the strap of your local commuter train.
Originating on the platforms of two Korean tech giants, Daum (which was later absorbed into Kakao) and Naver, in the early 2000s, the format is already huge across Asia and has become an invaluable source of IP for the region’s booming streaming industry.
Two Korean dramas currently ranking in Netflix’s global non-English Top 10 – Bloodhounds and See You In My 19th Life – are adaptations of webtoons from Naver’s Webtoon platform, along with Netflix shows All Of Us Are Dead, Sweet Home and Hellbound, and Disney+’s Connect, a Korean sci-fi series directed by Japan’s Takashi Miike.
Adaptations from webtoons on Kakao’s platform include Netflix’s Itaewon Class, The Uncanny Counter and Business Proposal, AppleTV+’s Dr Brain and Disney+’s upcoming adaptation of Moving, created by Kang Full, one of the format’s pioneers.
“It’s become a very interactive format because it was developed for digital natives,” says Carol Choi, Disney’s head of Original Content Strategy, APAC, when asked what differentiates webtoons from manga. “You get constant feedback and comments – like why did you kill off this character off so early? And it’s part of the creator economy so it’s easier for new talent to break in.”
Choi also explains that webtoons can be easier to adapt than traditional Japanese manga, as it’s a relatively new format that is not locked into a decades-old publishing ecosystem: “IP in the manga world can be more complex, as it has a longer history and is based on physical comic books, whereas webtoons are newer and digital, so it’s all a bit more fluid.”
Similar to manga, however, the format encompasses a huge range of genres – across action, romance, LGBT, sci-fi, superheroes and horror – and is also starting to travel beyond Asia to North America and Europe. While Japan and China account for more than half of the export market, North America is starting to clock in at 16% and Europe with 6%, according to Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA).
It’s also a younger, female-skewing format – with Naver’s Webtoon platform estimating that 75% of its readers are Gen Z and Millennials, of which around 60% are female. “Gen Z are natural born creators, who are keen to share their stories with the world, so our platform has enabled them to meet a global fanbase while being supported by different business models,” says Ken Kim, the Los Angeles-based CEO of Webtoon North America. At last count, Webtoon had 85.6 million monthly active users, of which 12.5 million are in the U.S.
Moving (Disney+)
Charlie Park, head of global business at Kakao Entertainment’s Story Division, explains why Korean webtoons are starting to travel: “Many have universal story-telling values so are not exclusively reflecting Korean culture. But what is more important are the generational aspects. Our global audience is mostly Gen Z and the stories and themes that appeal to them are often more important than specific cultural elements.”
KOCCA also estimates that the Korean webtoon market grew fourfold to $1.23BN between 2017 and 2021, monetizing through a combination of micro-payments, advertising, merchandising and licensing rights for film and TV adaptations. But the domestic market can’t keep growing for ever and both Naver and Kakao are investing heavily in international growth.
Naver’s Webtoon, which it merged with Wattpad after acquiring the Toronto-based online literature platform in 2021, now has local-language platforms in the US, Latin America, France, Germany, Thailand, Indonesia and China. It is also partners with Japan’s Softbank in a long-established Japanese platform known as Line Manga.
Kakao has built out its global presence through the acquisition of three US-based platforms – Tapas (webtoons), Radish (novels) and Wuxiaworld (fantasy fiction) – and also operates the Piccoma webtoon platform in Japan and France. It also has local-language webtoon platforms under the Kakao brand in Thailand, Taiwan and Indonesia.
As the two big players expand, they’re seeing growth in, not just readers, but also popular creators who are coming from outside South Korea. Webtoon’s English-language platform is home to the hit Lore Olympus webtoon from New Zealand’s Rachel Smythe, which is being adapted as an animated series by The Jim Henson Company and Wattpad Webtoon Studios, as well as UK writer Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper, adapted as a live-action series by Netflix and See-Saw Films.
Popular webtoons from U.S.-based creators on Kakao’s Tapas platform include The Beginning After The End, written by TurtleMe, which has been exported to six local-language platforms, including Korea, Japan and France.
Lore Olympus (Rachel Smythe, WEBTOON)
Smythe says webtoons were a mostly unknown phenomenon in New Zealand when she started work in 2017 on Lore Olympus, a modern retelling of the love lives of the Greek gods and goddesses, which as of May 2023 had 1.3 billion views and 6.3 million subscribers.
“When it first released, I think readers were just greedy for a very sincere, large-scale romance, which wasn’t an adventure story with a romantic plotline, the romance was the core thing,” she says when asked to explain the webtoon’s appeal. “It’s also very unapologetic about how cheesy it is, and I think that level of vulnerability is attractive to people.” Most of the Lore Olympus audience is in the US, but it’s been translated into several languages and Smythe says she gets “some lovely fan art” from readers in Korea.
With such huge global fanbases, licensing stories from both Korean and international creators for adaptations outside of Korea is an obvious next step for both Naver and Kakao. The rest of Asia is already tapping into webtoon IP – last year’s China box office hit Moon Man was based on Korean artist Cho Seok’s 2016 webtoon Moon You, and Thailand’s GMMTV is currently adapting Maenggi Ki’s My ID Is Gangnam Beauty, one of many webtoon adaptations across Southeast Asia.
And despite the strength of its own manga and anime industries, Japan is also delving into Korean webtoon IP – Crunchyroll is working with Naver’s Webtoon platform on animated series based on several properties, including Tower Of God, Noblesse and God Of High School.
Now North America and Europe are starting to take notice. Following the merger between Wattpad and Webtoon in 2021, Naver established Wattpad Webtoon Studios to focus on licensing and producing webtoon and webnovel content internationally. (Naver is already a producer in Korea through Studio N, which produced Sweet Home, Bloodhounds and See You In My 19th Life).
Wattpad Webtoon Studios president, Aron Levitz, says the studio currently has more than 300 projects in various states of development and production globally, some through partnerships it has forged with companies including ViacomCBS International Studios, Fremantle and Leone Film Group.
“Naver committed $100M to the studio after the amalgamation of Wattpad and Webtoon, and that was to ensure that we could develop content where we need to, or invest where we need to, in stories that we see as important, bringing them to screens faster,” Levitz says.
So far, there have been more adaptations of Wattpad webnovels than the Webtoon content, with major Wattpad-based projects including Netflix movie The Kissing Booth and Prime Video film Perfect Addiction, the latter co-produced by Wattpad Webtoon Studios with Constantin Film and JB Pictures. In the Spanish-language space, Wattpad Webtoon Studios was involved in the production of Netflix films A Traves De Mi Ventana and its sequel A Traves Del Mar, based on Wattpad novels written by Adriana Godoy.
But the studio is also starting to build out its slate of webtoon adaptations in North America. In addition to the Lore Olympus series, it’s working with Roy Lee’s Vertigo Entertainment on an adaptation of horror webtoon Gremoryland, which has around 22 million readers.
Although both webtoons and webnovels are associated with Gen Z, Levitz says the adaptations often hit a much wider demographic, in the same way that The Hunger Games franchise reached beyond the core YA audience of the source novels: “If you look at something like Perfect Addiction, that was number one on Amazon globally when it was released, as the webnovel fans got it to the top of the list, but then the mass market kind of takes over,” Levitz says.
He also cites the example of zombie outbreak series All Of Us Are Dead, based on Joo Dong-geun’s webtoon: “It was Netflix’s top non-English show globally for five weeks and the most talked about topic on Twitter when it launched in January 2022. You can’t maintain the number one spot with just one quadrant.”
Kakao Entertainment is at an earlier stage in terms of international licensing and production activity, but recently secured $920M (KRW1.2 trillion) in funding through Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Singapore’s GIC, some of which has been earmarked for international expansion of its Story, Media and Music divisions.
The Beginning After The End (TurtleMe, Tapas)
“In the Story division, we’re focused on generating greater growth across North America and Asia. In North America, we plan to accelerate growth of the three platforms (Tapas, Radish and Wuxiaworld) under our subsidiary Tapas Entertainment,” explains Park.
“A key strategy, aside from exporting high-quality Korean stories, is supporting U.S. creators to allow for the creation of content that American users will love and consume. The Beginning After The End is a great example of this, and we will invest in producing similar success cases.”
Park adds that the next step after building up the international webtoon platforms is to get involved in licensing and, in some cases, producing adaptations. Like Naver, Kakao is already a major producer in Korea where it owns several production companies, including Kross Pictures, which produced Business Proposal for Netflix. It also owns Baram Pictures (Kingdom: Ashin Of The North), Logos Film (Vincenzo) and Zip Cinema (Broker) so is also making a huge amount of film and TV content not based on webtoon IP.
Now Kakao Entertainment aims to bring some of that expertise to international markets and recently moved its U.S. headquarters from San Francisco to Los Angeles to be closer to the production community. “We seek mutual growth with the American audience by exporting, not just webtoons, but also our expertise in this field to produce engaging local content,” says Park.
As this ambitious industry expands, it’s likely to encounter headwinds, as the main players are tech companies and face the same challenges of industry-wide retrenchment and the disruptive power of A.I. as the wider tech industry.
But they come bearing the twin holy grails of cash and IP, so we can expect to hear a lot more about webtoon-based content in international markets in the future. “We have more than 900,000 creators on our platform, so that’s a lot of stories, but the strength of this format is that their success is not determined by editors or curators,” concludes Webtoon’s Ken Kim. “The final judgement comes from tens of millions of demanding readers.”
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Onestar Hayley Atwell explains Tom Cruise’s surprising approach to his intense stuntwork. The Top Gun: Maverick star first assumed the role of IMF Agent Ethan Hunt in the 1996 film remake of the 1960s television series of the same name. Renowned for performing his own high-risk stunts, each successive Mission: Impossible film has seen Cruise attempt a range of bigger and more spectacular displays of daredevilry. The franchise’s latest entry is no exception to this trend, featuring what is currently being touted as the biggest stunt in cinema history.
During a recent interview with RadioTimes.com, Atwell spoke about what it was like to work with Cruise on the latest Mission: Impossible film and provided some insight into his behind-the-scenes approach to his stuntwork. Suggesting that Cruise speaks about his intense training regimen like someone who had a “lovely day at the beach,” she revealed the action star has perfected a relaxed and fearless approach to the demands which would make most people tremble. Check out her comments below:
“The thing that surprised me more than anything else is how easy he wears it all. I remember we went over for dinner at his and he comes out and he’s like, ‘Hey, guys, how you doing?’ Sits down, we’re chatting about the film, chatting about our day, what we’ve been up to. And we were like, well you know, how was your day? And he’s like ‘yeah, it was good, it was really nice actually, I had a lovely time. I did like 29 skydives I think today.’
“And the ease with which he said that! And also I’m sat there going, you look like a man that’s had a lovely day at the beach, you are so relaxed and comfortable in your own skin. And you’ve just done that! And I think it’s because he’s so disciplined in what he knows that he has to do in order to accomplish these stunts. And [he] has also that real understanding of how to relax and be fearless in it. And that’s the thing that I find most inspiring is the lightness with which he wears this all.”
How Tom Cruise Has Become Hollywood’s Most Dedicated Action Star
For over 40 years Cruise has consistently wowed audiences and cultivated the kind of box office appeal that most actors could only dream of. Throughout his decades-long career, Cruise has lent his trademark charm and enthusiasm to nearly every role imaginable, from a well-meaning sports agent to a savvy Airforce lawyer and even an acrobatic cocktail mixologist. Yet it is his continued dedication to perfecting and delivering an array of complex stunts that really sets him apart from many of his peers.
In a world where computer-generated special effects and motion capture can turn almost anyone into a big-screen action hero, Cruise insists on defying emerging Hollywood trends by delivering practical, real-world action sequences with the kind of realism that VFX artists could never emulate. Moreover, while most other stars rely heavily on stunt doubles and stand-ins for their riskier scenes, Cruise insists on performing his own death-defying stunts with the ease and confidence of a seasoned professional.
Whether it be piloting a helicopter during a high-speed chase sequence, clinging to the side of a plane during takeoff, or riding a motorcycle off a cliff, Cruise’s reputation as a Hollywood daredevil without equal is well-earned. With early responses to his latest action-packed adventure in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Onealreadyproclaiming it as one of the best films in the Mission: Impossible franchise to date, it seems likely his adventurous nature and fearless reputation will continue to pay box office dividends for many more years to come.
We live in a society where music can be seen as a unifier. For singer-songwriter, Moorea Masa, that statement is just a portion of her ethos. The Portland-native just released her single, ‘Joyful’, which speaks to the act of pursuing joy as an act of resistance and being more authentic to oneself. In this conversation with Masa, she shares the reality of being an artist as a BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ artist while diving deep into how she maintains her mental health as an artist. We also find out what her favorite reality television show is and the answer might just surprise you! Read on to learn more about Moorea Masa.
Culturess: I wanted to start off and ask about your most recent release, joyful, which is available to stream right now. So I loved it. I loved the lyrics. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but once I heard those opening lyrics, I was like, “Oh, I’m going to love this.” It literally talks about finding joy and resistance. Can you tell me more about that songwriting process?
Moorea Masa: Okay, a little backstory. I wrote a record that I released a couple of years ago called ‘Heart in the Wild’, and it was a record for me about some really tough stuff. My relationship with my mom, she has a lot of mental health issues, and it was such an important but very hard record to write, but it was very healing. and then 2020 happened, the pandemic, everything that’s been going on, and I just was starting to write again, and I was like, I don’t have capacity for the same sort of to go into the depths of my hardship in the same way. I was really feeling like, joy and ease and pleasure are such important forms of healing as well, and valid forms of healing and aren’t any less deep than facing your darkest hardship. So I really wanted to make a record that was like, how do I focus on that? Not that I don’t want to focus on the bad stuff, but it’s like the hard stuff. But it’s like, we have so much hard stuff going on every day right now. It seems like we’re just bombarded all the time with the news, and it can feel really overwhelming.
Moorea Masa (CONT’D): So I think we are feeling used to that, comfortable with the hard stuff. So I was like, how can I lean into joy? Because really, I was really feeling that through all the Black Lives Matter movement and everything, it’s like, you know, in a way, in a huge way, I feel like our joy and our pleasure is the resistance, right? Is such a valid form of resistance. I’m mixed, and I look very light-skinned, but I am mixed, and I’ve been thinking a lot about that in my own healing journey, and what I can bring to the movement is, and I think joy in this moment feels really important play and joy. So, anyway, I wrote this record with that in mind, and I wrote a lot of songs around it, and this song was really, like, I sat down at my guitar, and I was like, “How do I write a song that is like my mission statement?” If I wanted to say all the things in this record that I’m writing about really directly in one song, how would I write it?
Moorea Masa: So this just kind of poured out of me really quickly, and it feels like a prayer. To me, it feels like a mission statement. It’s been cool making this record. That’s been kind of my guiding force in everything in the recording process and the writing process. Is it feeling easeful? Is it feeling pleasureful? Life isn’t always going to feel that way, but is there a way that I can pivot in this moment to make it? Am I doing something that’s harder than it needs to be, basically, or why am I pushing myself in this moment? If I’m at my capacity, can I give myself rest in this moment? Can I pivot towards joy in this moment and if I can, it’s just been like a really cool reframing process for me, along with response?
Culturess: You’ve been doing music for a while. I wanted to ask, when you were first putting out music, since you’re a woman of color and you’re part of the LGBTQIA+ community, did you have any expectations about where you thought you would be? I don’t want to say place necessarily, but, like, your niche in this industry, it’s so large. You can get lost easily.
Moorea Masa: Yeah, I feel like I’ve made a lot of different kinds of music. Like the project that I first started in when I was like 15, I was in this folk band duo. I’ve always listened to R&B and soul music. I grew up listening to R&B and Soul music. So I felt like I actually that felt really natural to me. I don’t know, I’ve always felt really okay with just following where my passion is and what I’m wanting to create. I think there are artists that really create stuff that’s I think my voice is me, but sometimes I’m like, okay, I want to switch it up. My last record was kind of sad. Now I’m like, “How can I bring some fun enjoy into this?”. I haven’t felt like necessarily a really strong pull towards one thing. I’ve always felt comfortable doing lots of different things.
Culturess: That’s a great answer. You are also really passionate about mental health. I know that’s so important, especially as an artist. So what do you do to take care of your mental health? And what advice can you give to other people, not even just artists, but consumers, how they can take care of their mental health?
Moorea Masa: Yeah, well, there’s so many different ways and so many different valid ways. I think on the large grand scale of things, I’m like, everybody needs therapy, like get in therapy, you know? I was working with an organization called Backline, and they’re amazing for musicians and artists, specifically musicians and people in the music industry and Black Mental Health Alliance, they work with putting because finding a therapist can be really overwhelming. And so they work with folks and they give you like, a case manager and they ask all the things that you want and are looking for, and they try to pair you with a therapist. It’s all free. It’s an incredible organization. Black Mental Health Alliance has paired with Backline, and they work with BIPOC folks to find BIPOC therapists, which I feel really passionate about because it’s very hard to find BIPOC therapists that don’t have long waiting lists, especially in these moments. That’s the one thing. Then I also think that there are so many other valid forms of self care. Like, we hear about going out in nature and meditating and exercising and all these completely valid forms.
Then I’m also, like, I really have been leaning into sometimes watching trash TV and drinking a glass of wine and eating cookies on the couch. Like, that is just as valid. The kind of more trashy forms of self care I feel can be really helpful and valid. They really do have their place. Watching Love Island I just don’t think should be looked down upon. I really feel strongly that those other forms of self care are really helpful and valid, too.
Culturess: Our readers are definitely going to love that you mentioned Love Island. I mean, come on, who doesn’t?
Moorea Masa: Literally, if you say you don’t, you’re lying. It’s good.
Culturess: Exactly. Oh, I love that. Actually, speaking of television, Central Park, Bob’s Burgers, and you’ve also were on some late night shows. I saw Conan as well. How did you feel when you got those opportunities?
Moorea Masa: I love singing on Bob’s Burgers and Central Park. It’s super duper fun. I’ve had this kind of whole career also singing backup, doing a lot of backup work for people. So when I sang on Conan and these other late night shows, [The Tonight Show with] Jimmy Fallon, I was singing backup for other artists like Alan Stone and this project, EL VY. I’ve done a lot of backup singing. I was singing with k.d. Lang for a while. Those were so much fun to do. I love supporting other artists, and I’m excited to get to do them myself one day.
Culturess: Well, that’s awesome to hear. You have some upcoming performances. I’d love to hear more about where you’re going to be performing in the next month or so.
Moorea Masa: Well, I have one show. I’m getting married at the end of this month.
Culturess: Congrats!
Moorea Masa: Thank you! We’re doing a show in Portland on the 25th at The Goodfoot. And then also this fall, I’m going to be touring with Proxima Parada, opening for them. Yeah, kind of all over the West Coast and other little places.
Culturess: We touched upon this earlier, but being someone who is an artist, who is very open about, like you said, talking about joy and joy and resistance, do you have any type of advice or experiences that you could share about being a woman in this industry and being someone and giving advice to other woman artists who are maybe scared or nervous to take that step for their career?
Moorea Masa: It’s definitely hard out there. And as an independent artist, and I really think my number one thing would be that community is everything and you can’t do it alone. And I think a lot of times it’s like we’re really told just like, you can be independent, you can learn to do everything yourself, and we just shouldn’t have to and we don’t have to, and find a community and lean on your community and take care of your community. And I think that that’s been the thing that’s helped me the most, is I know a lot of people who they try to be everything for themselves, and I get that, and I get that desire, but I think that that’s a wrong expectation that we have to be literally everything and we need help, we need support. That doesn’t have to be like a booking agent or a label, but call on your friends. Call on other artists and trade with other artists. Go and help your friend make their music video and maybe they’ll come help. I had my friends yesterday, we made a music video and two of my friends came and they helped me to do my makeup and my hair. Their next music video, their next thing, they’re going to call me and I’m going to help them and we take care of each other. I think that’s really important.
Culturess: That’s awesome. Yes. Building community, I think now, especially in the world we live in, that’s probably the most important thing to do right now.
Moorea Masa: Oh, my God. It’s vital for us as artists. It’s vital for us as humans. We need each other.
You can follow Moorea on Instagram and Twitter. Keep up to date with Culturess for more music news and coverage.
NOW IN THEATERS! I’ll be honest, but after watching the trailer for Joy Ride, I didn’t have much hope for it other than the fact that Adele Lim (Crazy Rich Asians) was the writer/director. Joy Ride is one of the best comedies to come out this year…no thanks to the trailer.
Joy Ride is about two childhood best friends: Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lolo (Sherry Cola). The two were the only Asians (Chinese specifically) in an all-white Mid-Western community. Audrey was adopted by her white parents, and Lolo’s family immigrated to the U.S. Audrey is also the more reserved of the two. At the same time, Lolo is the bulldog, willing to get into it with anyone that crosses their paths.
Now adults, Lolo is a poor artist who fancies dildos and sex toys in her art. At the same time, Audrey is a successful lawyer who needs Lolo to accompany her to China and close a deal with businessman Chao (Ronny Chieng) and act as Audrey’s translator. Every goes well, except Chao doesn’t respect Audrey because she doesn’t know her mother and gives her until the end of the week to find her biological mother to attend Chao’s business party.
As the title implies, Joy Ride becomes a road film. Joining the pair is Audrey’s cousin, Deadeye (Sabrina Wu)—a K-Pop geek, and Audrey’s college roommate (and best friend), Kat (Stephane Hsu), who is a famous actress in China. The four hops on a train to find Audrey’s mother, and their journey goes off the rails when they hook up with an American, Jess (Meredith Hagner), whom everyone but Audrey knows is a drug dealer. After a mishap with some cocaine, the four are thrown off the train in the middle of nowhere to fend for themselves.
Sabrina Wu as Deadeye, Ashley Park as Audrey, Stephanie Hsu as Kat, and Sherry Cola as Lolo in Joy Ride. Photo Credit: Ed Araquel
“…gives her until the end of the week to find her biological mother and to attend Chao’s business party.”
I’ll be honest, this film is billed as a raunchy female comedy, and to this point, I’ve never seen a good female-driven raunchy comedy. My complaint was that none of the so-called “raunchy” films ever went far enough on the “raunch” scale and played it safe. Joy Ride goes way too far and is not safe. The stereotypical “sex montage” in the middle of the film is fresh and unique and downright sexy…though without nudity, but it’s hilarious.
The source of the said “raunchiness” comes in the sex-obsessed characters of Lolo and Kat. Lolo just says whatever “filth” comes to mind, and Lolo’s perfect counter is the “virginal” Kat, who is not a virgin, is the sex-starved celebrity who is really starving for…sex. The raunchiness works because Adele Lim paces the jokes perfectly in both timing and frequency. The film is packed with jokes but never feels overwhelming. It’s also packed with jokes that work as a joke and are appropriate for the character involved in that joke.
Joy Ride can’t all be fun and games. It needs a story that has heart, which sets this film apart from the teen sex comedies of my youth. There’s real heart here. Set aside the tear-jerking story of Audrey’s biological mother. The story is essentially the career-focused Audrey putting her career and ambitions over her friends…especially Lolo. Now add the B-stories of Deadeye trying to find acceptance among her new friends and Kat trying to save her engagement with her very conservative fiance.
Joy Ride breaks through all the preconceived notions of female-led sex comedy and an all-Asian cast. Director Adele Lim has brought back for this brief moment in time the over-the-top sex comedy and delivers.
Nothing says summer like a tropical vacation! Just a few days after Michael Jordan, 60, revealed that he disapproves of the romance between his son Marcus Jordan, 32, and Larsa Pippen, 49, he was spotted enjoying some time away with his wife, Yvette Prieto, 44. During their Lipari Islands getaway on Jul. 6, MJ kept his ensemble casual with khaki shorts and a black t-shirt. The former athlete completed his attire with a white bucket hat and round sunglasses.
Michael Jordan & his wife, Yvette Prieto, in Italy on Jul. 6. (MEGA)
While spending time outdoors with her hubby, Yvette looked stunning in a white button-up linen shirt and matching white shorts. The 44-year-old rocked the top partly unbuttoned, showing off her strapless orange bikini top. The married pair of 10 years appeared to be deep in conversation while they hung out at a local restaurant. Yvette and the 60-year-old appeared to have made this a romantic trip, as they were not accompanied by any of their family members.
As previously mentioned, Michael’s trip with his spouse comes just days after he was spotted leaving Matignon in Paris amid telling a TMZ reporter that he doesn’t approve of Larsa and Marcus dating. After the reporter asked the 32-year-old’s father if he “approves” of the relationship, MJ chuckled and simply replied, “No.” Although it is unclear how serious the NBA legend was being, Larsa and Marcus have clearly not let it phase them. The pair were spotted completely loved up via Instagram Stories on Jul. 6 in celebration of her 49th birthday.
Michael Jordan & Yvette Prieto spotted in Italy together. (MEGA)
Marcus and Scottie Pippen‘s ex-wife sparked romance rumors in Sept. 2022, only to go Instagram official by Jan. 2023. Larsa was married to the 57-year-old from 1997 until they finalized their divorce in 2021. During their marriage, the former lovebirds welcomed four kids including Scottie Jr, 22, Preston, 21, Justin, 18, and Sophia Pippen, 14. As for Marcus, he has not yet been married and does not have children of his own.
Michael’s latest comments about Larsa and his son come just four months after the RHOM star appeared on The Tamron Hall Show to chat about the family’s dynamic. “I feel like, we’ve spent holidays together and it’s good. We’re in a great place,” she said during the interview. Since their romance went official, many fans online criticized them for various reasons, including the fact that MJ and Scottie have been known to be rivals over the years. More so, people have criticized Larsa and Marcus for their 17-year age gap, notably just one year more than Michael and Yvette’s age gap.
The battle between Elon Musk’s Twitter and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta over the launch of Threads — Instagram’s Twitter rival — has taken a legal turn.
On Wednesday, Meta’s Instagram debuted Threads, a text-focused social app designed to piggyback off Instagram’s infrastructure and user base. The app had more than 30 million sign-ups as of Thursday morning, according to Zuckerberg, which would represent around 1.5% of Instagram’s monthly active users.
In a July 5 cease-and-desist letter addressed to Meta CEO Zuckerberg, a lawyer representing Twitter said that Musk’s company had “serious concerns” that Meta “has engaged in systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.” The letter said that “Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information.”
“Over the past year, Meta has hired dozens of Twitter employees,” the letter says, alleging that “Meta deliberately assigned these employees to develop, in a matter of months, Meta’s copycat ‘Threads’ app with the specific intent that they use Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property in order to accelerate the development of Meta’s competing app, in violation of both state and federal laws as well as those employees’ ongoing obligations to Twitter.”
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone, asked for comment, referred to his post on Threads that said, “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing.”
Musk, in a tweet responding to news of Twitter’s legal threat to Meta, said, “Competition is fine, cheating is not.”
Twitter’s cease-and-desist letter also says that “Meta is expressly prohibited from engaging in any crawling or scraping of Twitter’s followers or follower data… Scraping any Twitter services is expressly prohibited for any reason without Twitter’s prior consent.” However, the letter does not allege that Meta engaged in such activity.
The letter from Twitter’s law firm to Meta was first reported by Semafor.
Musk acquired Twitter in a $44 billion deal in October 2022. Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, who started at the social media company last month after exiting NBCUniversal, on Thursday posted a tweet seemingly referring to Threads, in which she said in part, “We’re often imitated — but the Twitter community can never be duplicated.”
An email to Twitter’s PR account requesting info returned an autoreply with a poop emoji. Variety also reached out to Alex Spiro, a partner with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, the law firm representing Twitter (officially renamed as X Corp.) but has not received a reply.
Lewis Capaldi went for the jugular in his jabs at DJ Khaled on “Hot Ones.”
The rapper famously threw a fit barely into the Wings of Death, refusing to continue after the third hot sauce in his interview. He was allowed to stay and finish the interview without eating the flaming wings, but Capaldi shared his thoughts on what should have happened.
He called Khaled’s interview “mental” and remarked that Evans still having to finish the wings while Khaled just sat and answered his questions “pretty wild.”
“You should’ve kicked DJ Khaled the f— out of here,” he said after biting into the first and second wings. “And you should’ve said, ‘Listen, you.’”
Host Sean Evans jumped in to say “If you don’t finish your food…” with Capaldi finishing the sentence: “F— off!”
After making it through the gauntlet, minus a few tears and a lot of sweat, Capaldi turned to the cameras and give the “I’m the One” singer one last shoutout before the end of his interview.
“DJ Khaled, if you’re out there,” Capaldi began, flipping off the camera. “Eat my s—.”
Capaldi prefaced the interview saying he had probably taken his last bearable s— of the day, and he mused on whether or not Jake Gyllenhaal had also taken a dump at the “Hot Ones” headquarters.
He also mentioned Jenna Ortega twice, once when he first felt the spice on the fifth wing and later when he bit into Da Bomb sauce.
He cussed out Ed Sheeran after wing number four which he cleaned, and after Evans brought up his friendship with Niall Horan, Capaldi got out a voice recording of Evans doing the “Hot Ones” intro for him when they met at a nightclub.
The pair talked music, Scottish past times and more, but First We Feast had to correct the statement that Capaldi was the first Scottish person on “Hot Ones” later. Turns out Chef Gordon Ramsay actually holds that title.
In the diverse annals of survivalist cinema, one lesson is clear: Death is surely preferable to an eternity (or even 95 minutes) spent trapped with the inimitable duo of Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin in 1996’s “Bio-Dome.” By contrast, the dystopian-future-style living is pretty easy to take in “Biosphere,” given the more amiable company of stars Sterling K. Brown and Mark Duplass. They play besties stuck for the long haul in a self-sustaining habitat after some murky catastrophe has rendered the world outside lethal.
This first directorial feature for producer Mel Eslyn (who co-wrote with Duplass) is a somewhat uneven construct that at times threatens to exhaust its bro-comedy goodwill. But ultimately the performers are winning enough, and the ideas in the ambiguous story intriguing enough, to achieve an end result of successful middleweight charm and substance.
We never do find out the cause or nature of the environmental apocalypse that has presumably snuffed out all earthly life unequipped with a refuge like our protagonists’. But we do quickly suss their own natures, separately and as a duo: Scientist Ray (Brown), who built this experimental shelter, is the pragmatic and patient balance to antic Billy (Duplass), his BFF since childhood. Introduced during their “2001”-esque daily jog around the circular space’s perimeter, they quickly flow from discussion of Super Mario Bros. lore to towel-snapping horseplay. When Ray proclaims Billy a “giant manbaby,” Billy doesn’t object.
Though both naturally miss what was lost some years ago — including the society of women, as well as society in general — one suspects the way they’re forced to spend their days now isn’t so different from how they spent a majority of time “before” (i.e., in mutual yakking, joking, snacking, reading and playing video games). With the “view” from their man-sized terrarium permanently dark, the sky an inky black, it’s like a never-ending boys’ slumber party. They are fortunate to keep each other amused, given the severe limits of their experiential options.
But then signs of unexpected change arrive. A mysterious green light appears in the distance, possibly bringing either doom or an atmospheric restoration as it slowly approaches. The last female fish in their tank expires, suggesting an eventual end to food-source reproduction — definitely bad news. Yet one of the male survivors begins showing signs of “accelerated evolution” to compensate, its body shedding some gender characteristics and acquiring others, thus outfoxing extinction.
It’s pretty weird, however, when one of their human minders finds he’s undergoing the same process.
At first this development stirs a predictable array of “ewww” humor focused on the horror of dicklessness and the threat of sorta-gay sexuality. Fortunately, that unpromising terrain proves just a fleeting awkward phrase, as the pair evolve in psychological as well as physiological ways.
“Biosphere” is hardly the most sophisticated exploration of masculinity, homophobia and other issues that have become hot buttons in our era. Yet there is something endearing about the way it probes them by means that are pleasantly silly, without being trivializing.
Attempting to grasp Mother Nature’s apparent willingness to hazard a do-over, Ray ponders, “Do humans deserve another chance?” After all, it’s suggested, they did already pretty much wipe out every species on their own. It is a measure of this goofy tale’s stubbornly optimistic center that after a certain point we realize Ray and Billy deserve it — transitioning from buddies to couple without losing their innermost selves, they’ve somehow come to encapsulate life’s own mysterious ability to endure.
That’s a tricky path that the film occasionally stumbles on. At first we wonder if oft-histrionic Billy is going to be too much of an annoyance, and how impressively even-tempered Ray puts up with it. But Duplass’ performance gradually acquires more ballast as Brown’s becomes more playful, and their rapport has a relaxed, lived-in quality that helps us swallow the whimsical premise.
This mix of sci-fi, gender studies and dude comedics might easily have failed to gel, or come off as stagey and didactic. But Eslyn and her collaborators keep things visually fluid on production designer Megan Fenton’s soundstage set, achieving an admirable lightness of touch in complicated sequences like a montage (set to a song by Toronto retro-pop-rockers Zeus) wherein our heroes’ relationship significantly shifts of its own accord. “Biosphere” also finesses a sex scene that — summing up the film’s strengths overall — is simultaneously funny, rude, entirely inexplicit and rather sweet.
“Biosphere” opens in more than 25 U.S. theatrical markets, as well as on demand, on July 7.
Madhoo struggled with dissatisfaction while working in Hindi films, which eventually led her to quit the industry.
Actress Madhoo, known for her roles in films like Roja, Yodha and Zaalim, revealed why she quit the film industry during the peak of her career,
Actress Madhoo, known for her roles in films like Roja, Yodha, Zaalim and Yeshwant, has revealed that she made the decision to leave the film industry during the pinnacle of her career in the 90s. She spoke about her dissatisfaction with the roles she was being offered, saying that it still remains challenging for women of a certain age to clinch substantial and impactful roles even today.
During the 90s, Hindi films primarily focused on action-driven narratives and male heroes, according to Madhoo. The actress, who made her Hindi cinema debut alongside the Bollywood star with 1991 feature Phool Aur Kaante, said during a session of Prime Video’s Maitri: Female First Collective, “I have no interest in portraying the character of Ajay Devgn’s mother. And this is a probable scenario! We were both launched in the industry simultaneously and are of similar age.”
Having portrayed powerful female characters in films such as Mani Ratnam’s Roja (1992), Annayya and Yodha, the actress made a decision to shift her focus to Hindi films. “During the 90s, action films and heroes dominated the scene, and my roles mainly involved dancing, delivering a few romantic lines, and shedding tears with parents. While I enjoyed dancing, I realised that I was deeply unhappy with this shift from films like ‘Roja’. I recognised that my true passion lay in being an artist and doing meaningful work,” she said.
The actor struggled with dissatisfaction while working in Hindi films, which eventually led her to quit the industry. After about 9-10 years in the field, she decided it was time to leave. “The moment I found a reason, which was when I wanted to get married, I wrote a letter to the people in the industry, expressing my intention to leave. It was partly driven by a sense of arrogance, childhood arrogance. I recognise that now, but at that time I felt that they didn’t deserve me.”
The actor mentioned that there have been positive changes in the film industry, highlighting her contemporary Tabu as an example. “Recently, Tabu, who is also my contemporary, starred opposite Ajay Devgn in some recent films, and I am immensely grateful for the positive changes that the industry has undergone. Regardless of one’s age, size, or colour, it is now possible to tell your story and receive recognition. I commend exceptional women who produce such narratives and provide opportunities for individuals like us to make a comeback irrespective of age,” she said.
Shreyanka Mazumdar is Chief Sub Editor of the entertainment team at News18. With an unbridled passion for all things Bollywood, music and fashion, she…Read More
Ever since the death of Roberty Downey Jr.’s Iron Man at the end of Avengers: Endgame, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Dr. Strange has become something of the de-facto leader of the Avengers.
After battling the Scarlet Witch, and almost tearing apart the multiverse with Spider-Man, Strange’s importance to both the MCU that he inhibits and Marvel’s future plans has increased.
Photo: Marvel Studios
While we have not seen the sorcerer since 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it sounds like Strange will return sooner than many expected.
Cumberbatch Teases Strange’s Return
At the JW3 Speaker Series Cumberbatch teased his future plans for Strange. The actor teased, “There are some Marvel capers making in the next year”.
Photo: People
This seems to confirm that we have not seen the last of Strange. What project Cumberbatch will be involved in, however, is not clear.
While Doctor Strange 3 has yet to be confirmed by Disney or Marvel, Cumberbatch has previously stated that he would love to continue the sorcerer’s story.
“I would love to do another one. Doctor Strange is such a complex character and it feels like there is so much more to explore with him.” Cumberbatch stated, “He is such a brilliant character and I’m still having a wild time playing him.”
Other Options For Strange’s Return
Other vehicles for the next Strange appearance would be Avegners: The Kang Dynasty or perhaps The Fantastic Four.
The other option for a potential Doctor Strange appearance could be Blade. While the film has been marketed as a stand-alone movie, Strange could always appear in a post-credit scene.
No matter how Doctor Strange returns, Marvel fans will be excited to have Cumberbatch and his pompous sorcerer return.
Photo: Marvel
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Black Adam faces his greatest fears, as he traverses a living nightmare in this month’s Knight Terrors: Black Adam #1.
Adam (like the rest of DC’s heroes and villains) has been forced into an eternal slumber by a new player named Insomnia: a Gotham-based villain searching for the mythical Nightmare Stone, which was hidden by Doctor Destiny in the nightmares of an unknown hero.
The issue opens in Kahndaq, with Black Adam fighting some unnamed skeleton goons who seem to be associates of Insomnia. Things take a turn for the worse as he then falls asleep, plunging into a nightmare world where once again he has to fight off more villains. However, Black Adam’s powers seem to be on the fritz, and the Rock of Eternity’s sprouting Cthulu-looking tentacles. After his powers disappear for a moment, he meets a talking cat named Bast who convinces him to transform back into Black Adam and journey into the tower at the center of the nightmare world.
After ascending a very tall set of stairs (apparently, he’s no longer able to fly), Adam witnesses a giant Crocodile eat his long-dead family: Isis and Black Adam Jr. The monster swats Adam out of the tower, sending him flying across the nightmare city. Bast tells Adam he must continue into the next Tower, but he has questions for this bizarre kitty. However, before she can answer, Batman appears offering help.
Positives
After 12 months of Christopher Priest’s convoluted Black Adam book, it’s nice to have a story that’s a little more straightforward. The issue’s easy to follow plot-wise but also does a decent job of dishing out details that kept me interested. I’m particularly intrigued as to what Jeremy Haun has planned for the Rock of Eternity. It appears to be corrupted by Insomnia; however, this could simply be a product of Black Adam’s nightmares.
Also, I really like the throwback to 52. For those of you who may not be familiar with a 17-year-old series (dang, I’m old), during DC”s weekly series, 52, Black Adam married Isis and saved her brother, Osiris, by sharing his powers, making him Black Adam Jr. At this point, Adam had reformed, due to the moderating influence of his new family.
However, the story ended in tragedy, as Adam was betrayed by Sobek, a bioengineered talking crocodile who eats Black Adam Jr. Upon the death of Osiris, Adam goes on a murderous rampage, leading to his downfall. As far as I can gather, this is the first time that Isis and Osiris have been mentioned after the New 52 reboot of 2011. It’s a neat nod to a pivotal story in the character’s history.
Negatives
For starters, this book completely ignores the recently set status quo. At the end of the Christopher Priest series, Black Adam and Teth Adam had been split into two different beings. However, at the beginning of Knight Terrors: Black Adam #1, they are clearly the same person. My guess is that Haun wrote this well before Priest had finished his run, and DC’s editorial didn’t bother to check with Priest. This means that the book loses a couple of points for its continuity issues.
Also, I’m not overly thrilled by Haun’s art. Don’t get me wrong, it’s impressive that he’s able to both write and draw. However, the main character in his hands doesn’t look like Black Adam. His hair and face do not match previous iterations of the character. I’m not sure what Haun was going for, but his version more resembles The Rock, circa 1998, than it does any contemporary rendering of the character.
Conclusion
Knight Terrors: Black Adam #1 feels like a generic tie-in to the larger event. It’s not doing anything particularly special beyond confirming that Isis and Osiris are canonical characters post-Flashpoint and Huan script and art are both serviceable but nothing to write home about. While Batman’s appearance at the end of the issue does pique my interest, I’m guessing that this tie-in won’t matter in the larger scheme of the Knight Terrors story.
Amazon Prime subscribers who previously canceled their memberships can return for one week of Amazon Prime for just $2. Not only does that give you seven days of free Prime shipping on all eligible purchases and access to other perks like Prime Video and Prime Gaming, but the timing of this deal also means you can enjoy all the Prime Day 2023 sales as an Amazon Prime Member.
This year, Prime Day is on July 11 and 12, which would cover the final two days of your promotional week if you take advantage of the special offer today.
Normally, Amazon Prime costs $15/month, which works out to around $3.75 per week, which makes this discounted one-week promo a great deal for lapsed subscribers.
Other Amazon Prime Membership Discounts
The weeklong subscription offer for returning members isn’t the only way you can join Amazon Prime on the cheap ahead of Prime Day.
Note that if you take advantage of the weeklong subscription for returning members or the 30-day free trial for new users, your account will automatically roll over to the $15/month price after your promotional period is over unless you cancel ahead of time.
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors.
GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.
O2 Play, the distribution-sales arm of Brazil’s O2 Filmes group, co-owned by “City of God” director Fernando Meirelles, has boarded “Broken” (“Partido”), which is co-directed by Oscar-nominated “City of God” DP César Charlone.
O2 Play has acquired Brazilian and world sales rights to the doc feature. O2 Play founder Igor Kupstas will introduce “Broken” to buyers at Locarno Pro, which runs Aug.3-9.
Charlone, also “The Two Popes” DP and director of “3%,” South America’s first Netflix series, has directed alongside Sebastián Bednarik (“Maracaná,” “Sangre de Campeones”) and Joaquim Castro (“Máquina do Desejo – 60 Anos do Teatro Oficina”).
Produced by Uruguay’s Coral Cine, in co-production with Brazil’s OPY Filmes, “Broken” covers Brazil’s 2018 general election from the point of view of Fernando Haddad, currently Brazil’s minister of economy and then the candidate of Brazil’s now ruling Workers’ Party put up to face off with Jair Bolsonaro.
“Broken” will have its world premiere as the closing film at Doc Montevideo on July 28.
“When Charlone came with this story, the first I thought of was John Ford’s famous saying that cinema is a man in trouble. In the period where we follow him (2018), Haddad is a man in trouble, and that’s the film,” director-producer Bednarik, a Coral Cine co-founder, told Variety.
He added: “The question would be: Can a person do anything against a tragedy foretold (as were Brazil’s 2018 elections)? By the time the film’s finished, the question has changed from how did Bolsonaro get to power to the day-after questions of: And what now? How do we get out of this?”
Charlone took charge of directing the film’s shoot. Bednarik and Castro boarded as co-directors for the three-year editing process, with Charlone focusing on visuals, Castro on editing and Bednarik on structure and dramaturgy, Bednarik told Variety.
The presence at Locarno of Kupstas, who launched O2 Play in 2013, is not coincidental. Part of O2 Filmes, owned by Paulo Morelli, Andrea Barata Ribeiro and Meirelles, one of Brazil’s biggest and most respected of film and TV production forces, O2 Play is now an established player on Brazil’s distribution scene. It has released over 80 films in cinema theaters in Brazil, while licensing international on some titles to OTT players around the world.
Over the last decade, Kupstas has attended Berlin, SXSW, Cannes and IDFA. “For the last year or so, we became more interested in expanding, both for international sales and acquisitions,” Kupstas told Variety.
Brazil’s dramatic foreseeable rebound as Latin America’s production powerhouse – with Brazilian President’s Lula Inácio Lula da Silva’s new government looking set to plow just under $1 billion in 2023 into the country’s audiovisual sector – will do nothing to dampen O2 Play’s ambitions.
Being a girl dad has its problems, especially when your daughter thinks you’re a prick. As “I Sing Loud, You Sing Louder” begins, a teenage girl shoots a jaundiced look at her father who is driving her somewhere in the desolate West. She can’t hear him because her headphones are blaring “I’m Yer Dad,” a not even remotely subtle noise pop song by Grlwood that includes the lyric, “Feed me food while I watch sports / In my man cave made for sports / Whores in my porn, porn in my sports … ’Cause I’m your dad.”
Dad studies her without comprehension. She is his daughter, but she is an undiscovered country to him. He vacated his fatherly duties during his booze years, and now he must deal with an estranged beautiful daughter whose heart stopped beating last night during an overdose. He pulls his pickup to the side of the road so she can pee, but she bolts, sprinting into the desert before he eventually catches her. He asks here where she was going with nothing but an endless moonscape for miles. She admits she didn’t have a plan. He looks at her and calls her by a childhood nickname.
“I could never keep up with you, Turbo.”
Trying to catch up with each other is at the crux of “You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder,” a quiet film — well, after the first four minutes — starring Ewan McGregor as an alcoholic dad who lost touch with his little girl when his drinking took over. That was before he went to AA, found a new wife and had a little boy. The daughter, played by Ewan’s actual daughter Clara McGregor, is just like her dad in one respect: She is a junkie. The man who set her adrift is now charged with saving her life.
It’s instructive that Clara McGregor shares story credit on Ruby Caster’s screenplay. Both McGregors have battled addiction issues in real life. Ewan divorced his first wife (the mother of Clara and her three siblings) and married Mary Elizabeth Winstead in 2022. He now has a two-year-old son from his second marriage. Onscreen, the McGregors have a visceral connection courtesy of either fine acting or bonafide unresolved issues. Director Emma Westenberg largely stays out of the way, allowing their pain to fill the space. A joyous singalong to a Leona Lewis song that daughter and father belted out in happier times is interrupted by a call from his new wife, who he calls “darling,” and loving talks with “my wee little man” about bedtime books. These are things his first daughter never experienced, and you see the pain and resentment fill Clara McGregor’s enormous eyes.
Unfortunately, simple anger and longing is not enough to drive a 102-minute film. Westenberg is hampered by a landscape that has now become a cliché in indie film. Father and daughter travel on a two-lane Route 66-type road which is cinematically interesting but makes little logical sense because they are purportedly on a 14-hour road trip to somewhere and on a deadline. Ostensibly, the trip is from Southern California to New Mexico but it suspiciously looks like they start in New Mexico and do a series of loops through the Land of Enchantment who helped provide funding for the film.
As with any road movie, the two meet a series of oddballs in their travels that are supposed to accentuate their conflict: a loud tow-truck driver (Kim Zimmer), a clown (Jake Weary) with amorous intentions and a prostitute (Vera Bulder) with a heart of gold and glitter up her sleeve. None resonate. The middle passage heaves and wanders a bit —there are flashback scenes to long ago happy and sad episodes — and it is not quite clear what the stakes are.
After an hour, it reignites. The daughter talks with her dad’s new wife and realizes her father is taking her to rehab. She runs into the night and meets a dissolute couple with dark intentions. McGregor’s panicked search for his daughter in the desert dark conjures up George C. Scott in Paul Schrader’s ”Hardcore.” In a moment, Clare goes from the joy of getting high to putting herself in a position where surviving the night is in doubt. The moment when the dad gets the call telling him whether his daughter is dead or alive will rip the heart out of any parent with a troubled child.
By this point, Turbo realizes she can now trust her father. And that is all a child can ask from a parent.
The veteran movie executive, with deep ties to Hollywood filmmakers and a knack for shepherding blockbusters to the screen, ascended to NBCUniversal’s content throne on Thursday, one of the big winners in a sweeping reorganization made by Comcast president Mike Cavanagh, who oversees NBCUniversal.
In her new role as chief content officer, Langley won’t just be overseeing Universal’s slate of films. She will also take ownership of its TV and streaming creative strategy. It’s an elevation that many industry players saw as inevitable – after all, how much longer could the company keep the in-demand executive without expanding her portfolio?
However, that also shortchanges Langley’s talent for C-suite survival, one that’s seen her withstand mergers and sales, as well as a revolving door of leaders and associates such as Ron Meyer, Adam Fogelson and Jeff Shell, all of whom departed before they intended to leave the company. Her victory here was the result of a corporate bake-off, one that saw her elevated over several viable candidates, many of whom hailed from buzzier parts of the media business such as television and streaming. Her move up the ladder meant there wasn’t room for some of these executives. Susan Rovner, the head of content for NBCUniversal’s television and streaming arms, is notably exiting as part of the reorganization.
What Langley offered was undeniable. Over more than a decade, she has routinely pushed Universal to the top of the film studio heap, and done so without controlling intellectual property like Star Wars or the Avengers. She’s managed to deliver and develop homegrown franchises – much credit goes to Langley for returning to the park with the rebooted “Jurassic World” and for keeping Vin Diesel behind the wheel of the “Fast and Furious” series well beyond the point where most competitors would have stalled.
Plus, Langley has earned the respect of the industry for her willingness to back edgier fare and emerging talent. She threw down for Jordan Peele’s directorial debut, “Get Out,” and has made Universal the home of his follow-ups “Us” and “Nope.” Langley also made a bet that Elizabeth Banks could move beyond acting into producing and directing, giving her the “Pitch Perfect” series and the recent gonzo box office hit, “Cocaine Bear.” And, under Langley, comedy maestro Judd Apatow has become a brand onto himself, delivering arrested development comedies such as “Trainwreck” and “Knocked Up,” as well as milestone movies like “Bros.” And never forget, at the 2015 premiere of “Straight Outta Compton,” rapper Ice Cube called the executive “the sixth member of N.W.A.” Not that everything Langley did worked — the less said of “Cats,” for instance, the better.
Recently, Langley’s reputation for providing a supportive home for artists helped Universal lure Christopher Nolan away from his longtime home at Warner Bros. to make “Oppenheimer.” Studio executives don’t tend to be terribly popular among the artistic community, but Langley, whose velvet glove approach can disguise her fierce resolve, has managed to foster some of the strongest ties with filmmakers and writers in Hollywood.
“When you ask who’s doing the best job of any of the studio chiefs right now, Donna’s name continually comes up,” one former media CEO enthused before the news of her elevation even broke.
What, then, does Langley’s promotion signal about the direction that NBCUniversal plans to take as it competes more fiercely with the tech giants like Apple and Amazon shouldering into the business, as well as legacy media companies like Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery?
Perhaps tapping Langley signals that NBCUniversal wants to build an artists-first reputation, especially after years of watching competitors falter with tech and finance leadership. And that might be a smart move.
After all, Disney saw the perils of putting numbers guy Kareem Daniel above the company’s creatives (under the direction of the exiled CEO Bob Chapek). When Bob Iger came back, Daniel was shown the door. And David Zaslav is trying to right the ship at Warner Bros. Discovery with cinephiles Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy after Jason Kilar, another executive with a tech background, managed to alienate much of the creative community during his stormy tenure at WarnerMedia. So with Langley, Cavanagh gets the pedigree and institutional knowledge of a longtime company player – one who has proven time and again she can deliver repeat business from stars and filmmakers to bigger and bigger results.
In addition to “Fast” and “Jurassic,” she has shepherded critical partnerships with Illumination (“Despicable Me,” the smash hit “Super Mario Bros”) and DreamWorks Animation (“Puss in Boots”) to generate family cash cows. Universal’s Blumhouse deal has elevated the low-budget horror shop to billions in worldwide grosses. Her rolodex may as well read like the over 20 first-look and overall deals she keeps on the Universal lot: Peele, Amy Pascal, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, Dan Lin, Charlize Theron, Banks, Diesel, LeBron James, Will Packer, Apatow, and newly minted Oscar winners The Daniels.
The question, of course, is will her decades of film experience translate easily into television and other forms of media where she has not spent the bulk of her career dealing with showrunners and disruptors. Hollywood, after all, is not always kind to executives who don’t stay in their lane. She’ll have to get comfortable veering into traffic. While Peacock has shown impressive growth in its short life, it lacks the sizzle of competitors like Disney+ and Netflix. On the TV front, Variety chief TV critic Daniel D’Addario noted that “a lack of faith in the core of what NBC is and does” is palpable in its programming. When your biggest recent hit is a reboot of “Night Court,” you may be creatively adrift.
Knighted as a Dame of the British Empire in 2022, Langley is notorious for a glossy kind of diplomacy (one filmmaker said she’s so good at gracefully delivering bad news that you “hardly feel the sting”). But she’s not afraid to make moves that can ruffle feathers. In 2020, she solidified her show business legacy by striking a deal with AMC Theaters that altered the traditional theatrical window, shortening the amount of time a feature film would exclusively run in theaters before heading downstream to paid and streaming video-on-demand channels. Other studios would soon follow suit.
“She seems to have the capacity to be forward-looking and reasonable about putting the right product in the right place at the right time,” said Peter Newman, head of New York University’s MBA/MFA dual degree program. “She’s had more than a modicum of understanding of the need to be flexible.”
Langley had been in and out of discussions about assuming a larger role at NBCUniversal for years, according to numerous insiders, but languished in a holding pattern while former NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell had her engaged in the aforementioned corporate bake-off. During that period several other players, including one monolithic streamer, tried to intrigue Langley in the idea of jumping ship to run a new studio. She never budged.
At last year’s SXSW festival, Langley waxed about the essential function of her job.
“We really focus and strive to create an environment for filmmakers where they can do their best work and minimize the friction and noise, and complement their film with an excellent distribution and marketing campaign,” she said. “That’s what Hollywood is looking for.”
The Witcher is a popular fantasy show on Netflix that has enraptured the masses. In fact, it’s popular enough that the second season had over two billion watched minutes in its first week alone, and the highly anticipated season three has been split up into two halves, with the first recently premiering on June 29 and the second half set for July 27, 2023. However, for those who are just joining in, or those who haven’t read the books they are based on, the timeline might seem a little strange. This is because the directors chose to tell the story uniquely, in a way that included a lot of time jumps without any indication that the events weren’t happening at the same time.
Update July 6, 2023: This article has been updated following the premiere of The Witcher season three on Netflix.
If you’re new to The Witcher universe, or even if you’ve heard of it a little outside the show, you might not know that there are eight books in the series. Two of these books are only short stories to help build up the world of the Witchers and introduce one of the main characters, Geralt, and a lot of those short stories were what made up the stories throughout the first season. There are also several video games based on the books, including one that was announced in 2022. When you don’t know what’s going on in either, it can make watching the show a little confusing. Check the rest of this article out to help you put the timeline in a linear, chronological order; that way, you can remember everything, but you jump into the new season.
Yennefer
Netflix
Yennefer’s plot in season one is actually the oldest. Sorcerers and sorceresses use their magic to make their appearance whatever they wish, so while Yennefer may look forever young, she’s actually around 100 years old in the present timeline, and there’s much to her life we don’t see. Since everything we see is the beginning of her journey to become a sorceress, this means her story actually begins around 80 to 90 years ago. Though her story does progress in a chronological fashion, there are several time jumps that aren’t made clear.
Her first appearance in episode two, Four Marks, is the beginning of her journey, where she first finds out she has magic. This means she is still just as young as she looks. Her transformation happens at the end of episode three, and episode four is no more than a handful of years later as she grows bored with her court assignment. The first big-time jump in her story is when she first meets Geralt and Jaskier in episode five, Bottled Appetites, though it’s unclear how long.
Considering Jaskier is only in his 30s or 40s, it is much closer to the present day than the rest of her story. Another time jump happens going into episode six, Rare Species, though it’s only a matter of a few years that Geralt and Yennefer haven’t seen each other in. We can then assume some kind of jump exists going into episode seven, but seven and eight happen very close together and bring us right up to the present day and into season two.
In season two, the time jumps end, and each character’s storyline becomes more linear. Yennefer, who was missing after the battle at Sodden Hill, has lost her magic and is on the run from Nilfgaard soldiers. However, she escapes and teams with Jaskier to help free enslaved elves, only to be captured and nearly executed. During a vision, she’s told that if she captures Ciri and surrenders the princess to Cintra, she’ll get her magic back. After finding Ciri and Geralt, Yennefer delivers the princess to the demon, who then possesses Ciri. Yennefer only receives her magic after she selflessly attempts to sacrifice herself to save Ciri.
Geralt
Netflix
Sorcerers and Witchers are similar in that they all look far younger than they actually are. The only difference is, Witchers do still age. When they are young, several potions are pumped into their bloodstreams to give them the traits that separate them from normal humans. This helps them fight off monsters better than anyone. So, that being said, Geralt is around 100 in the present timeline. However, there are several things the show does with his character that don’t make sense, including telling his story out of order.
Geralt’s story actually begins in episode eight, Much More, when he has flashbacks to his childhood. This shows a very young Geralt with his mother and how she abandoned him and left him to become a Witcher, giving us the origins of his character in the last episode. However, the rest of his story is in chronological order starting in episode one, The End’s Beginning. From then on, each episode has a time jump of at least a few years until episode seven and eight, in which his story does happen back to back, with only a few weeks at most in between. Even the episodes in which Geralt sees his human friend Jaskier are not all together, as they usually just happen to meet each other on the road since both of their jobs involve traveling from place to place.
In the second season, Geralt focuses on training Ciri after being told Yennefer is dead, and while audiences learn more about his past through the new characters he encounters, there are no more leaps in time. Geralt promises Ciri he won’t let anyone harm her, and most of his time in season two involves training Ciri to be a Witcher while also protecting her from the new and unexpected monsters they encounter.
Ciri
Netflix
As the youngest, Ciri’s story is the closest to the present day. Though she has strange gifts that no one really understands and has elven blood within her veins, she is still human, so she still ages just as we would expect. This means Ciri is only a teenager in the present-day timeline, and was still a teen when her story began. Though they are still hiding a lot of facts about Ciri in the show, it’s clear she’s been through a lot in a very short amount of time.
We first meet Ciri in episode one, The End’s Beginning, during the fall of her hometown, Cintra. She leaves the castle before it can be overrun with only one message from her grandmother — that she must find Geralt of Rivia. In episode seven, Before a Fall, the fall of Cintra is revisited briefly, and we can see that Geralt was actually in the city at the time, and they just managed to miss each other. While Geralt skips over a small amount of time between that moment and the next part of his story, the majority of Ciri’s story happens within that time jump of a few weeks.
Since she was raised in the palace, she finds it difficult to get used to the wilds of the forests, but she manages to survive as she passes through different settlements in hope of finding somewhere safe, or someone who might know where Geralt is. When they finally do manage to reach one another in the end of episode eight, the final battle at Sodden that Yennefer is in is close to their location, and this moment where all three timelines join together is where The Witcher season two picks up.
As with the others, there are no more time jumps for Ciri in the second season. Ciri’s bond with Geralt solidifies as he trains her in sword fighting and defense, but her special abilities also intensify. She begins having visions, only to finally learn when Yennefer delivers her to Voleth Meir, aka the Deathless Mother, that she is incredibly powerful.
Season Three
Netflix
Since season three has recently premiered, it won’t be spoiled here. Yet it is certain to pick up after the shocking cliffhanger and reveal that the Nilgaardian ruler Emhyr is Ciri’s father, hence his reason for pursuing her. Emhyr is also The White Flame, who it has been said “will cleanse us all.” Season three will also be the first time Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri start a season together as a team, running from Yennefer’s mentor Tissaia, who believes Ciri’s powers pose a danger to them all. At least all indications are that the time jumps are now a thing of the past.
The Witcher season three has premiered to positive reviews, and with it being the final one for star Henry Cavill, it will be interesting to see how the next season adjusts to the recasting. It won’t be the time jump that confuses the audience, but it will be why Geralt looks like Liam Hemsworth instead of Henry Cavill.
If there’s one person who’s not losing sleep over what appears to be a mass exodus of diversity, equity and inclusion executives at Hollywood studios, it’s Megyn Kelly.
Following the news, as reported by The Daily Mail, that Disney has lost $900 million on a string of box office disappointments, and considering that recent weeks have seen DEI execs from Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix and the Academy be laid off or step down from their posts, Kelly concluded in Thursday’s episode of “The Megyn Kelly Show” that the Mouse House’s turn toward “wokeness” is to blame.
“Bit by bit, all these media companies and big tech companies are eliminating their heads of diversity because it’s just a wasted position where somebody just glorifies their wokeness and tries to lecture, so it’s failing,” Kelly said, in conversation with Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
The segment began with Kelly running through the Daily Mail report, published June 26, before listing the number of ways Disney has incorporated progressive representation into its animated and live action projects in recent years. Among them were creating an LGBTQ character for “Lightyear,” casting Halle Bailey as Ariel in “The Little Mermaid” remake, featuring a nonbinary character in “Elemental” and spotlighting a same-sex romance in “Strange World.”
“We could go down the list. But people are not buying this content, they don’t want this content,” Kelly said, noting particularly devastating opening weekends for “Elemental” and “Strange World.”
“I try not to make a habit, Megyn, of rejoicing in the suffering of people or companies. I have suspended that rule. I am loving this bloodbath,” Kirk said. “I love the misery, I love the suffering, because Disney used to be a wholesome, family-friendly company that made billions of dollars off of families like my own. And when I grew up, my parents trusted Disney. They violated that trust, and they deserve to suffer.”
“Yes, I’d love to see it too,” Kelly responded, later adding, “Hopefully they’ll learn their lesson.”
As TheWrap previously reported, Disney’s chief diversity officer and senior vice president Latondra Newton, a six-year veteran, became the first of the noted DEI leads to exit their posts last month. Vernā Myers at Netflix, Karen Horne at Warner Bros. Discovery and Jeanell English of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences followed suit over just a 10-day span.
TheWrap wrote at the time that it all gives the impression that the industry is placing DEI on the back-burner.
Britney SpearsPhoto: Matt Winkelmeyer (Getty Images)
Earlier today, we reported on an incident that happened last night in Las Vegas, when singer Britney Spears was reportedly struck by security staff for San Antonio Spurs player Victor Wembanyama when Spears approached the NBA star to say hello. Now, the singer has issued a statement about the incident, throwing some shade at over-zealous security personnel for their treatment of her.
Britney Spears hit in the face by NBA star’s security team
Spears released the statement on Twitter, writing that,
Traumatic experiences are not new to me and I have had my fair share of them. I was not prepared for what happened to me last night. I recognized an athlete in my hotel lobby as I was heading to dinner. I later went to a restaurant at a different hotel and saw him again. I decided to approach him and congratulate him on his success. It was really loud, so I tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. I am aware of the player statement where he mentions “I grabbed him from behind” but I simply tapped him on the shoulder. His security then back-handed me in the face without looking back, in front of a crowd. Nearly knocked me down and causing my glasses [sic] off my face.
I get swarmed by people all the time. In fact, that night, I was swarmed by a group of at least 20 fans. My security team didn’t hit any of them.
Spears went on in her statement, thanking Las Vegas police for their courtesy. (She filed a police report about the incident.) She also called on Wembanyama—who was the first overall pick at this year’s NBA draft—or his team to issue a public apology of some kind, writing that, “I have yet to get a public apology from the player, his security, or their organization. I hope they will…”
Per Variety, Wembanyama addressed the incident in an interview earlier today, saying Spears “grabbed” him and that he’d been told by security not to stop. “I just know the security pushed her away,” he said, adding that he was only told the person in question had been Spears several hours later.
As a writer/director, making your first foray into feature filmmaking can be pretty goddamned terrifying. Any mistakes made in your screenplay will only amplify and congeal as they cascade through the production workflow—your lofty ideas imperiled at every turn by financial and logistical realities, not to mention the fact that every step of the process is designed to make you feel like an amateur, imposter and idiot. It’s been said of James Cameron that the Avatar filmmaker can step onto any set in any role and immediately do the job better than whoever was previously doing. Well… trust us: this is the exception.
In fact, most first-time feature auteurs are only qualified to be on set for one reason: they’re the only person in the world who knows what their movie looks and sounds like. But whatever the case, freshmen moviemakers can generally use all the help they can get. In this month’s Fiscal Spotlight column, we’re showing off three deeply personal cinematic visions, each of which marks the full-length debuts of their writer/directors—two in development, one in the can.
As always, these films are being supported by Film Independent’s Fiscal Sponsorship program, enabling filmmakers to solicit tax-deductible donations and organizational grants in partnership with Film Independent. Here’s how:
June’s featured projects are Baby Tooth, Stranger and Outbound. Read on to learn more about each film and how you can lent their makers your support…
BABY TOOTH
Project type: Narrative Feature
Project status: Development
Writer/Director: Drew Lewis Brown
Executive Producer: Trey McIntyre
About the project: A young man returns to his rural Florida hometown to provide support for his dying grandmother and reconnect with the family he left behind. Jude, an insecure young actor, labors at an Orlando theme park and covets a big promotion. When he receives a call that his bedridden grandmother has developed a mysterious skin ulcer, he returns to his rural hometown to provide support for Grandma’s caregivers—Jude’s dismissive mother and resentful sister—before the family reaches their breaking point.
Meet the filmmakers: To learn more about Baby Tooth including how to support the project, click here. Filmmaker Drew Lewis Brown earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Digital Filmmaking from The Art Institute of Jacksonville where he later returned as an adjunct professor of writing and directing. For his thesis film, Drew was awarded a Student Academy Award from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. He has written, produced and directed a variety of films and digital content surrounding topics of gender expression, sexual identity and social issues in the American south. The Jacksonville Mayor’s Office selected Drew as a recipient of the Rising Star Award for outstanding contributions and achievements in Jacksonville’s Film and Television Industry.
STRANGER
Project type: Narrative Feature
Project status: Development
Writer/Director: Jiin F. Chang
Producer: Bright Chang
About the project: A runaway man returns to Alaska to visit his ailing mother amidst a family rift, leading to an unexpected entanglement with the homeless community and the revelation of a long-buried family secret that threatens to upend his entire life. After leaving Alaska in an effort to escape a traumatic incident involving his older brother Doug, Guy decides to come home after receiving a call from the hospital about his ill mom. Upon his return, a long-buried family tension is swept up. In a strange twist of fate, he becomes entangled with Denali, an enigmatic woman in the world of homelessness, who introduces him to an unfamiliar community that holds the secret of his own fractured family. Little does Guy know, Denali is actually Doug’s ex-lover, and she has an ulterior motive for getting close to Guy. Despite the conflict Denali causes, Guy becomes ensnared by her motives. Oblivious to the circumstances and not on good terms with his brother, Guy works towards the family secret that has long made him a stranger towards himself. As he delves deeper into his family past, he uncovers a web of secrets that cast doubt on everything he thought he knew about himself and his kin.
Meet the filmmakers: To learn more about Stranger including how to support the project, click here. Filmmaker Jiin F. Chang, born into a Taiwanese household, gained worldly experiences through his family’s moves to different countries. He pursued Fine Art programs in Taiwan and the UK, developing a strong visual sensitivity. Using painting and photography, he tells stories through images, a universal language. His graduation portfolio received eight Regional and two National Gold Medals from The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. In 2017, Jiin’s family relocated to Alaska, where he discovered his passion for filmmaking, the seventh art that allows him to express his true voice. His directorial debut, the short film Sean with a Young Smile, earned recognition from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with Best Fictional Story and Best Director at the Two Oceans Film Festival. He has since directed several award-winning short films, including In The Frontier the Flower Is Quiet (2019), J’ai Tué Vincent (2019), and Reversal (2021). Inspired by his relationship with Alaska and his quest for identity, Jiin spent the past three years developing his first feature-length screenplay.
OUTBOUND
Project type: Narrative Feature
Project status: Post Production
Writer/Director: Ziyao Liu
Producers: Laura Scarano, Sophie Changhui Shi
About the project: Attempting to fulfill the dying wish of her father, a Chinese marine biologist reunites with her mother in the U.S. and embarks on a road trip up the Pacific coast, mending their seemingly irreconcilable gap. Unable to attend her father’s funeral in China due to her pending visa status, Lei (late 20s, Chinese) reunites with her mother Pan (50s, Chinese) in the U.S. to fulfill his dying wish to see whales in person. Upon Pan’s arrival, Lei tries to convince her to fly to Seattle with a secret agenda—to attend an interview that may allow her to keep her visa. However, Pan refuses to fly, so their drive begins. On the road, past arguments and secrets surface while another secret is brewing–Lei might be pregnant. To add to the contention, Pan experiences a near-death allergy the night before the interview. Put off by Lei’s curt translations with the doctor, Pan has a dramatic outburst until she accidentally finds a pregnancy test in Lei’s pocket. Just as things couldn’t be worse, they get a flat tire. Facing the same dilemma of traveling to her father’s funeral, future vs. family, Lei needs to reconsider her priorities and what it means to be together and apart before making another decision she might regret.
Meet the filmmakers: To learn more about Outbound including how to support the project, click here. Filmmaker Ziyao Liu is a Chinese writer/director/editor based on earth. Being a transplant from the “West Virginia” of China and now living in LA, she creates compelling narratives of a personal nature that finds humor in the absurdity of existence to generate empathy for the collective human experience beyond language and cultural barriers. She is a current Directing MFA candidate at UCLA, where she was awarded the Delia Salvi Memorial Award and the Motion Picture Association of America Award. She was selected to participate in the 2023 CBS Leadership Pipeline Challenge, 2021 Armed with a Camera Fellowship x Visual Communications, 2020 Voices with Impact x Art with Impact, and 2020 CAMERAderie Initiative x Women in Media. Her work has been screened at multiple Academy-qualifying film festivals and worldwide.
Learn more about Fiscal Sponsorship, including its benefits and eligibility requirements, by visiting our website. Check out our Sponsored Projects page to see the projects are currently being supported.
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Ukraine now has more tanks available than Russia in a dramatic reversal of battlefield advantage, according to the latest data.
Kyiv have received deliveries of hundreds of heavy weapons from its western allies in recent months. Meanwhile, Moscow has seen thousands of its tanks destroyed or captured by Ukraine since Vladimir Putin launched his invasion 16 months ago.
As a result, an analysis of the latest data on losses and gains by Bloomberg suggests that Ukraine now has more tanks at its disposal than Russia does.
Citing tracking databases, the publication said that while the number of Russian tanks has dropped to around 1,400, Ukraine has seen a rise to 1,500 – tipping the scales in Kyiv’s favour when it comes to heavy armour on the battlefield.
The gap is also closing between the two armies when it comes to other hardware too, Bloomberg reports, including heavy guns and Multiple Launch Rocket Systems.
Ukraine now has more tanks available than Russia in a dramatic reversal of battlefield advantage, according to the latest data. Pictured: A Ukrainian serviceman walks next to a destroyed Russian tank in the recently retaken village of Novodarivka, July 2
The publication cited a number of different source, including the German-based Kiel Institute Ukraine Support Tracker, the military blog Oryx and the IISS, or International Institute for Strategic Studies.
According to Oryx, which only tracks losses it can confirm through visual confirmation (videos and pictures posted online), Russia has seen 2,082 of its tanks either destroyed, damaged, abandoned or captured since February 2022.
Figures at the time said Moscow started with 3,417 tanks at its disposal, suggesting it has around 1,400 tanks remaining.
Ukraine, meanwhile, began the war with 987 tanks, data shows, and has taken delivery of 471 new tanks since the start of the war – including the German Leopard 2 tanks, British Challenger 2 tanks and American M1 Abrams tanks.
A further 286 are on their way to Kyiv.
Factoring in the Russian tanks captured by Ukraine’s troops, the country is now believed to have around 1,500 tanks.
Moscow’s starting figure is according to Military Balance, an annual assessment of world arsenals published by the London-based IISS think tank.
The Oryx blog, meanwhile, goes into great detail about Russia’s losses, and uses visual confirmation when counting them on its website.
The blog lists equipment lost by Russia down to the individual model, and links each destroyed piece of hardware it lists to a picture of video confirming the loss.
This, Oryx explains, gives a minimum (or conservative) figure of Moscow’s losses.
Bloomberg says there are still uncertainties around such figures.
Both countries, particularly Ukraine, closely guard the number of true losses they have suffered, and some suspect neither side knows the true figure.
There is also no reliable data on Russian replacement tanks that Moscow has either produced or pulled out of storage to desperately reinforce its ailing armies.
With Ukraine, analysts believe the country came through the first year of the brutal conflict with around the same number of tanks as it had at the start.
While it is likely Ukraine suffered heavy losses too, it has made up for them with deliveries of new tanks and through seizures of Russian hardware.
Kyiv have recieved deliveries of hundreds of heavy weapons from its western allies since Vladimir Putin launched his invasion 16 months ago (pictured, Leopard 2 tanks arrive in Ukraine). Meanwhile, Moscow has seen thousands of its tanks destroyed or captured
An analysis of the latest data on losses and gains by Bloomberg suggests that Ukraine now has more tanks at its disposal than Russia does. Pictured: A destroyed Russian tank in Storozheve
In two other categories – heavy guns and MLRS – Russia still has the edge.
However, the gap has also closed, the data reported by Bloomberg suggests.
Russia began the war with 2,300 heavy guns, but now has 1,900. Ukraine started with 773, and now has 1,100.
A similar trend has been seen with MLRS, with Russia’s figure dropping from a pre-war stash of 1,100 to 841 today. Ukraine’s has grown from 354 to 427.
It is likely, however, that Ukraine will begin to see more losses in the coming weeks and months as it continues to press on with its counteroffensive.
Ukraine forces are currently conducting multiple operations in the south and east of the country, with the aim of pushing Russian forces back.
However, President Volodymyr Zelensky has conceded that things are moving slower than he would have liked, as Ukraine has to navigate minefields laid by Russia.
‘I wanted our counteroffensive to happen much earlier, because everyone understood that if the counteroffensive unfolds later, then a bigger part of our territory will be mined,’ Zelensky said in an appearance on CNN. ‘We give our enemy the time and possibility to place more mines and prepare their defensive lines.’
Speaking to Bloomberg, Yohann Michel – a land warfare specialist at the IISS – said that Ukraine’s tank advantage wouldn’t necessarily tip the balance.
Citing tracking databases, Bloomberg said that while the number of Russian tanks has dropped to around 1,400, Ukraine has seen a rise to 1,500 – tipping the scales in Kyiv’s favour when it comes to heavy armour on the battlefield
‘Even if the situation is more equal in numbers, that isn’t how it works,’ he told the publication. ‘The problem is that Ukraine now needs to regain territory, so it’s on the offensive against well-prepared defenses and for that you need a strong advantage.’
There are also concerns that delays to further deliveries from the West to Kyiv will result in higher losses among Ukrainian forces in the counteroffensive.
What’s more, any force on the attack is likely to see higher losses, especially against an enemy that has bedded in with trenches and minefields in the way Russia has.
‘As long as the Ukrainians don’t have a clear advantage,’ Michel tells Bloomberg, ‘the cost of trying to move forward will be very high.
Britney Spears, Victor Wembanyama.Shutterstock (2)
Britney Spears spoke out about the altercation that took place between her and NBA player Victor Wembanyama’s security team.
“Traumatic experiences are not new to me and I have had my fair share of them. I was not prepared for what happened to me last night,” Spears, 41, wrote via her Instagram Story on Thursday, July 6. “I recognized an athlete in my hotel lobby as I was heading to dinner. I later went to a restaurant at a different hotel and saw him again. I decided to approach him and congratulate him on his success.”
Spears went on to explain she “tapped” Wembanyama, 19, on the shoulder to “get his attention since the area “was really loud.”
“I am aware of the player’s statement where he mentions ‘I grabbed him from behind’ but I simply tapped him on the shoulder,” she continued. “His security then back-handed me in the face without looking back, in front of a crowd. Nearly knocking me down and causing my glasses [to fall] off my face.”
Spears explained that she gets “swarmed by people all the time,” adding that she was “swarmed by a group of at least 20 fans” that night but her security team “didn’t hit any of them.”
The pop star confessed that the incident between her and the San Antonio Spurs player was “super embarrassing to share with the world” but found it important to “set an example” and remind public figures to “treat all people with respect.”
“Physical violence is happening too much in this world. Often behind closed doors,” she said. “I stand with all the victims and my heart goes out to all of you!!! I have yet to get a public apology from the player, his security or their organization. I hope they will …”
Broadimage/Shutterstock
Spears concluded her post by thanking her fans for their support and the Las Vegas PD for their assistance. Spears’ husband, Sam Asghari, also spoke up to defend his wife amid the altercation.
“I am opposed to violence in any form, especially, without justification in the defense of yourself or someone else who is unable to defend themselves,” he penned via his Instagram Story on Thursday. “Self-defense can be unavoidable, but the defense of any woman, especially my wife, is not debatable. I consider my reaction subdued considering what occurred, and I hope the man in question learns a lesson and changes his disregard for women. Thank you for the support”
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Freeform has released the first trailer for its new adult animated comedy Praise Petey, which follows how one modern woman will manage her deceased father’s cult.
The two-minute first look at the 10-episode debut teases New Yorker and “It Girl” Petra aka “Petey” grappling with her life turning upside down when she must move from her big city life to a place called New Utopia. It’s a community her father founded, only it’s not like most. Here, everyone’s part of a cult. Even worse? They believe Petey’s their prophesized savior.
“You being here means the prophecy of the great daughter’s return is fulfilled,” John Cho’s character says in a southern twang.
“Is this town doing OK?” Petey asks, before Kiersey Clemons’s character responds, “Nah, we’re starving.”
But Petey doesn’t want to fulfill the prophecy of the daughter returned. Instead, she wants to “girlboss” her way out of this by undoing the stranglehold her father has on this small town cult’s desperate followers. As Petey works to give this community back their own agency, she’ll discover how to find her own voice along the way.
“No more human sacrifice,” a Petey dressed in a Midsommar-like flower gown tells New Utopia community members. “I have a vision for New Utopia, and it is bright!”
Created by head Saturday Night Live writer Anna Drezen, Praise Petey also counts Christine Baranski and Stephen Root among its voice cast. The series is executive produced by Bandera Entertainment’s Mike Judge, Greg Daniels and Dustin Davis, as well as ShadowMachine’s Alex Bulkley and Corey Campodonico and Monica Padrick. Praise Petey is produced by Disney Television Studios’ 20th Television Animation, with animation by ShadowMachine.
All 10 episodes of Praise Petey will premiere on July 21, 2023, at 10 p.m. ET on Hulu. The first two episodes will also air on Freeform that same day, followed by two episodes dropping weekly. All episodes will be available on Hulu the next day.
After a global search landed Kingsley Ben-Adir the part, the world now has its first look at the red-hot Secret Invasion actor’s take on Bob Marley.
The trailer for Paramount’s Bob Marley: One Love dropped this afternoon. The film is said to celebrates the life and music of the icon who inspired generations through his message of love and unity. Though numerous iterations of the reggae legend’s life has been developed, One Love marks the first time his story has been brought to the big screen. Produced in partnership with the Marley family — Ziggy Marley, Rita Marley and Cedella Marley are all producers while Orly Marley EPs — the film’s trailer is set to the strains of the Bob Marley and the Wailers’ “Jammin’,” and ends with “Exodus.”
Bob Marley died of cancer in 1981 at age 36, but in that short lifetime he changed the landscape of music, introducing generations to such songs as “Get Up, Stand Up,” “One Love,” “No Woman, No Cry,” “Could You Be Loved,” “Buffalo Soldier” and “Redemption Song.”
The film does not look to be an origin story, but rather traces the singer through the peak of his fame, the crisis that he and his family when armed men raided his Kingston, Jamaica home in 1976, and shot him in the chest and arm. Marley’s wife, Rita, was shot in the head in her car in the driveway. Both, as well as his manager Don Taylor, who was also shot, survived.
Despite the shooting, Bob Marley & The Wailers took the stage at a peace concert two days later in hopes of quelling election-related violence. While promising only one song, they played for 90 minutes with Rita singing backup and still wearing the hospital gown she had been discharged in hours earlier.
The film’s climax looks to be the One Love Concert where, after more than a year abroad, Marley returned to Jamaica during a political civil war. The concert came to its peak during the performance of “Jamming”, when Marley joined the hands of political rivals Michael Manley and Edward Seaga, an feat that many later said only Marley could have pulled off.
Lashana Lynch plays Rita Marley alongside a cast that includes James Norton, Tosin Cole, Anthony Welsh, Michael Gandolfini, Umi Myers, Nadine Marshall.
The title role was one of the more coveted parts in Hollywood during the past couple years. Sources say Paramount execs and director Reinaldo Marcus Green saw endless tests and met with dozens of actors vying for the role, but Ben-Adir ultimately won the role, as Deadline exclusively reported last February.
Ben-Adir’s star has been on the rise since his breakout role in Netflix’s The OA, but recent performances playing iconic figures have brought more acclaim. While it was brief, his portrayal as President Barack Obama on Showtime’s The Comey Rule brought instant praise, and his spot-on performance as Malcolm X in the Regina King-helmed One Night in Miami had him in the award-season conversation. He’s also featured in Warner Bros. Discovery’s upcoming Barbie.
Producers are Robert Teitel, Brad Pitt, Jeremy Kleiner, Dede Gardner, Ziggy Marley, Rita Marley, Cedella Marley.
EPs include Richard Hewitt, Orly Marley, Matt Solodky.
Director is Reinaldo Marcus Green.
Script is by Zach Baylin, Frank E. Flowers and Terence Winter.
Bob Marley: One Love is in theaters January 12, 2024.
Ziggy Marley posted the film’s poster and his own thoughts on the film last night.
Britney Spears says she was “not prepared for what happened” on Wednesday night after she approached San Antonio Spurs player Victor Wembanyama while at a restaurant.
Following reports that she was slapped by one of Wembanyama’s security team on Wednesday night after she approached the NBA player following a game, the singer posted a response to her Instagram stories, confirming the incident and detailing her experience.
“I recognized an athlete in my hotel lobby as I was heading to dinner. I later went to a restaurant at a different hotel and saw him again. I decided to approach him and congratulate him on his success,” she recalled. “It was really loud, so I tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. I’m aware of the player’s statement where he mentioned I grabbed him from behind, but I simply tapped him on the shoulder. His security then backhanded me in the face without looking back in front of a crowd.”
She added that she was “nearly knocked down” and hit so hard her glasses fell off her face.
Spears described the incident as “embarrassing” but said it was important to speak out “to urge people in the public eye to set an example and treat all people with respect. Physical violence is happening too much in this world, often behind closed doors. I stand with all victims and my heart goes out to all of you.”
In her story, Spears noted that “traumatic experiences are not new to me, and I have had my fair share of them,” but that she was “not prepared for what happened to me last night.” She also shared that she had yet to receive a public apology, but thanked the Las Vegas Police Department and their dectectives for their assistance Wednesday night.
“I get swarmed by people all the time,” she added later. “In fact, that night, I was run by a group of at least 20 fans, my security team didn’t hit any of them.”
The Las Vegas Police Department confirmed they responded regarding a battery investigation around 11 p.m. at a property in the 3700 block of Las Vegas Boulevard. No police report and no arrest or citations have been issued as of Thursday.
Speaking to a number of press members including ESPN NBA reporter Cassidy Hubbarth, Wembanyama described his experience, stating that Spears had “grabbed him from behind — not on my shoulder” and as far as he knew, security pushed the individual away. He was unclear on “how much force” was used.
He also shared he did not know it was Spears who had been reaching out to him as he “kept walking” as they were in a busy hallway and “there was a lot of people” including those who were calling him, but he had spoken with his security team about not stopping for anyone to avoid a security risk.
The numbing experience of web video surfing is recreated — intentionally, I think — in “The YouTube Effect,” a discursive documentary that assembles a fair amount of information about the impact of YouTube on society, but struggles to find something new to say with it. Directed by Alex Winter, the film charts the rise of the video sharing platform and then attempts to trace its Sasquatch-size footprint on the culture.
YouTube, the world’s second most popular site (after Google), is a stimulus machine. The film emulates this quality, finding a formal rhythm by layering a hodgepodge of YouTube clips with voice-over analysis from tech experts. It also spotlights several popular YouTube creators, including the social commentator Natalie Wynn, who is best known for her channel ContraPoints. A cogent speaker, Wynn says that she has declined offers to partner with streamers or cable because she values the “creative control” YouTube offers.
Interrupting these success stories are tangents into a number of troubling chapters in the site’s history. We hear from the video game developer Brianna Wu, a target of death threats during Gamergate, as well as Caleb Cain, who describes his tumble into a matrix of far-right videos. These events have already been heavily reported on — “Rabbit Hole,” a New York Times podcast, relays Cain’s experience — and the sections often feel like retreads.
The internet moves quickly, perhaps too quickly for an overview this unfocused. Even Winter seems overwhelmed by the task of curating this deluge of white-noise news and memes: His rundown of YouTube’s connection to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot lasts about as long as the viral video “Charlie Bit My Finger.”
The YouTube Effect Not Rated. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes. In theaters.
Keke Palmer‘s boyfriend, Darius Daulton Jackson, defended himself, then deleted his Twitter account after he came under fire for publicly shaming the “Nope” star on social media. His account had been reactivated — but set to private by Thursday afternoon.
Jackson disappeared from Twitter this week after criticizing the outfit Palmer recently wore to Usher‘s Las Vegas residency. He tweeted his disapproval in response to a viral video of Usher serenading Palmer, who sported a stylish black bodysuit underneath a sheer, patterned dress at the singer’s concert.
Suffice to say the remark — which many interpreted as a bitter attempt by Jackson to exert control over the Emmy-winning actor and mother of their newborn child — did not go over well on social media.
“men are so jealous of partners that are more successful than them + is why I always advocate to never as a woman get in a dynamic like this,” tweeted @DrIndyEinsteintweeted.
“I never see men correct other men when they’re fAtHeRs but always wanna be in women’s business,” tweeted @KOOKIIE_KRISP.
“The moment men start seeing woman as mother figures they forget that they have any duality outside of that and thing they can’t be multifaceted,” @smoldumblesbotweeted . “Keke Palmer better drop his hating ass.”
“Shaming yo own partner online because they wore an attractive outfit is high levels of insecurity,” tweeted @DanBoyWonder.
“Keke Palmer can do whatever the f— she wants and she’s doing nothing wrong,” tweeted @kevycalves. “I hope she kicks his insecure little ass out of her house.”
Jackson was quick to react to the backlash by doubling down on his unsolicited opinion of how a mother should dress. He and Palmer welcomed their first child, a son named Leodis Andrellton, in February.
“We live in a generation where a man of the family doesn’t want the wife & mother to his kids to showcase booty cheeks to please others & he gets told how much of a hater he is,” Jackson said in a follow-up tweet.
“This is my family & my representation. I have standards & morals to what I believe. I rest my case.”
After his response drew even more scrutiny, Jackson protected his Twitter account by requiring access.
Palmer has not addressed the controversy. She did, however, share several stunning photos of herself modeling her concert look on Instagram.
“You look AMAAAZING,” musician H.E.R. commented on Palmer’s Instagram post.
“Queen s—,” echoed comedian Ziwe Fumudoh.
Usher — who made a memorable cameo in 2019’s “Hustlers” starring Palmer — commented, “The Big Boss!! Thank U for coming.”
The Times has reached out to Palmer’s reps for comment. See more tweets in support of the “Alice” actor below.
Darius Daulton just tried to humiliate Keke online so he’s not a protector. She makes more than him so he’s not a provider. And he had a child out of wedlock. She’s not his wife. The audacity of trying to scold her about traditional values when he meets none of the criteria.
Ppl keep saying “feeling insecure is valid” but Keke’s employee didn’t communicate insecurity. Ppl inferred that, doing emotional labor for a man per usual.
What he DID express was feelings of entitlement, control, misogyny, & patriarchy. & those are the “feelings” to address.
Never thought I’d be telling anyone to take notes from asap rocky but it looks like keke palmers boyfriend can use a few tips on how to stfu, raise that baby and enjoy his girl
I really hate how he set Keke up. She was literally minding her business having fun at an Usher concert. Now she is the tending topic of Black Twitter and misogynistic red pill/manosphere/trad wife spaces. Ugh.
Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 may be coming to PlayStation later this year, but it will first make a huge impact at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con with a panel where its main actors will be present.
Marketing for Spider-Man 2 is starting to really ramp up as the October 20 release date gets closer. A gameplay trailer was recently revealed that displayed new elements the game will feature.
Before the first Spider-Man game came out in 2018, it also was given a heavy focus at that year’s Comic-Con, and it seems as though this year’s title will be following suit.
Spider-Man 2 Takes Over Hall H
Marvel
It was recently announced via Variety that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will be featured at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con 2023 on Thursday, July 20 from 2:30 – 3:30 pm PT in the illustrious Hall H.
Along with the announcement, it was also confirmed that multiple members of the development team and actors from the upcoming game will be in attendance.
Peter Parker actor Yuri Lowenthal will be present at the panel alongside Nadji Jeter (Miles Morales), Laura Bailey (Mary Jane Watson), and legendary actor Tony Todd, who will be playing Venom.
The developers announced included Insomniac Games‘ creative director Bryan Intihar, game director Ryan Smith, narrative director Jon Paquette, and senior art director Jacinda Chew.
Marvel Games’ VO and creative director Bill Roseman will also be a part of the presentation.
The panel’s title was revealed to be “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: Symbiotic Relationships,” teasing that fans will get an even more in-depth look at the Venom symbiote that will be a major story beat of the game.
It was also confirmed that attendees will also get to see some behind-the-scenes action regarding Venom.
The Importance of Spider-Man 2
The fact that Spider-Man 2 will be in a Hall H panel proves just how much faith Insomniac, Marvel, and PlayStation have in the upcoming game.
The first title had a huge player base in 2018, and many fans still talk about that adventure to this very day.
With this panel putting a large focus on Venom, many questions will likely be answered that fans have in regard to how the Symbiote will work when it is affecting Peter, and how the character of Venom will be handled.
After the convention is over, fan anticipation will likely be even higher for the upcoming PlayStation game.
The panel for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will take place at San Diego Comic-Con in San Diego, California on July 20, and the full game will be released exclusively on PlayStation 5 on October 20.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Blue Beetle.
Blue Beetle, an upcoming film, introduces Jamie Reyes, a young Mexican-American protagonist who stumbles upon a mysterious scarab of unknown origin. This artifact becomes fused with Jamie’s spine, granting him the ability to summon a powerful armored suit known as the Blue Beetle. However, the scarab’s influence over Jamie is far from predictable, often leading to moments where he finds himself controlled by the beetle rather than maintaining control himself. Director Angel Manuel Soto recently shared significant details about the film, shedding light on the emotional journey of the protagonist.
During an interview with MovieMaker magazine (via Reddit), Soto confirmed that Alberto, Jamie’s father, portrayed by Damián Alcázar, will meet his demise at some point in the film. Additionally, Soto shared that the film will feature a sequence where Jamie and his father are reunited in the Afterlife. This particular scene draws inspiration from Gabriel Figueroa’s classic 1960 movie Macario. Xolo Maridueña, the actor portraying Jamie, further emphasized the significance of this storyline development. He said:
“Jaime didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to his father. I want people to understand that if you have your parents, just hug them, because you never know when it’s the last time.”
Blue Beetle is an exciting addition to the ever-expanding comic book universe. Spearheaded by James Gunn and Peter Safran, this new vision for the superhero genre kicks off with the highly anticipated film, Superman: Legacy. Soto, in an interview with Total Film, emphasized that while Blue Beetle exists within James Gunn’s DCU, it is not bound by the events or associations of previous films. The movie acknowledges the presence of superheroes in its world but charts its own unique path, free from the constraints of past storylines. With the intention of creating a compelling saga, the first installment of Blue Beetle adopts a traditional three-act structure, laying the foundation for future narrative arcs.
“We are part of the universe, we are part of the world, we are part of the plans that they have been creating for the future instalments of the DCU, but we are not tied to all the films from the past. Yes, our movie lives in the world where superheroes exist. But that doesn’t mean that a certain event, or certain alliance, or certain things from the past dictate where our film is going. Our first movie, the way we wanted to do it, was always with the mentality that we wanted to do two more, at least, and taking the traditional three-act structure of a story, we wanted our first movie to practically be the first act of a saga.”
Joining Maridueña is Susan Sarandon, who embodies the movie’s antagonist, Victoria Kord. They are supported by a talented ensemble cast, including George Lopez as Uncle Rudy Reyes, Elpidia Carrillo as Rocio Reyes, Raoul Max Trujillo as Carapax the Indestructible Man, Adriana Barraza, Jorge Jimenez, Bruna Marquezine, Belissa Escobedo, and Damián Alcázar. Blue Beetle hits theaters on August 18.
During the Kombat Kast, Netherrealm Studios revealed a new trailer for Mortal Kombat 1. The trailer focuses on the Lin Keui clan and all of the ninjas that inhabit the organization. Check out the trailer below.
New Mortal Kombat 1 Trailer Brings The Smoke
The trailer showcases two new fighters to Mortal Kombat 1’s roster, Smoke and Rain. Both are playable fighters in the game, and you can see their gruesome moveset throughout the trailer.
Smoke, Sub-Zero, and Scorpion’s mission is to protect Earthrealm from the new threat it faces now that Liu Kang has reset the universe at the end of Mortal Kombat 11. Smoke is back with a new look and all-new arsenal; you’re not ready for this Smoke.
The trailer also highlights some new Kameo Fighters, the game’s assist characters that help change the dynamic of a fight and enhance your combos. You can see Sektor, Cyrax, Frost, and Scorpion all joining the battle as you beat the living hell out of your opponents.
Rain, the High Mage of Outworld, is a fan favorite, finally making his return to the Mortal Kombat series launch roster. Rain was added as DLC in Mortal Kombat 11, but is part of the main roster this time around.
The trailer shows off some story cutscenes, fatality carnage, and a ton of blood. Rain and Smoke are clearly highlighted in this trailer, but there is still so much left to see in Mortal Kombat 1.
After building monitor/recorders and creating a tool to give budget creatives access to RAW image capture, Atomos has been expanding into the NLE market by leveraging its cloud-based workflow infrastructure.
But what really sparked our interest was Atomos Edit, which is an NLE that lives entirely in the cloud. Now, the toolkit is out in Beta for creatives to finally dig into, so let’s see what the suite has to offer and if you would make the switch.
Atomos Edit
Atomos Edit is a browser-based, collaborative video editor designed to remove the limitation of hardware and distance from your editor. Imagine never having to rely on a beefy workstation to clip, edit, and turn around content for social media, documentaries, or narrative films.
With your entire NLE in the cloud, you don’t need a workstation, and you can even pass the project onto another editor without exporting XML files.
Atomos Edit TimelineCredit: Atomos
There are also other ways you can simplify your workflow. With Atomos Edit, users can seamlessly upload media directly from an Atomos device in the field, edit their content on any browser, and then choose to publish directly to social media or export to another NLE (Non-Linear Editing) software for further refinement.
Content creators no longer need a dedicated workstationCredit: Atomos
Atomos Edit also includes direct publishing functionality for platforms like YouTube and Vimeo.
With web-optimized playback, creatives teams and external clients to view images, audio, and video on any device. This makes reviewing and approving content more efficient as you can use a phone, tablet, or desktop. Additionally, activity reports provide valuable insights into who has viewed, downloaded, and commented on the content. Push notifications can also ensure that users never miss important reviews or approvals.
Key Features
Professional-Style Timeline: Atomos Edit leans on a feature-rich timeline with support for multiple audio and video tracks.
Multi-User Editing and Timeline Locking: Multiple users can work on a project simultaneously. The ability to lock the timeline also ensures clear coordination.
Collaborative Review and Approval Workflows: Comment tagging and approval workflows streamline the feedback process, making for efficient iterations to the timeline.
High-Speed Uploads of Large Video Files: An interrupt-resilient upload feature allows for quickly upload of large video files to the cloud without time-consuming delays.
Effects, Transitions, and Sequence Versioning: A range of effects and transitions allows editors to build a solid foundation for a rough cut. Additionally, sequence versioning allows creators to experiment with different edits and revert to previous versions.
Direct Import of Stock Video Content: Users can import stock video content directly, which can save time in the edit and help you focus on the creative rather than content management.
Is It Time to Switch?
On paper, Atomos Cloud Studio and Edit seem like great tools to make your editing workflow more efficient and resilient. You’ll never have to worry about losing a drive, sending footage to editors, or developing a system for client review. It’s all built into the ecosystem.
However, no plan survives contact with the enemy, and Atomos Edit is still in its infancy.
Currently, there is no replacement for a dedicated NLE and workstation suite. While Atomos Cloud Studio and Edit hope to change that, there will be growing pains, and large projects may not want to risk their content just yet.
Atomos Cloud Studio is a promising toolCredit: Atomos
If you’re a content creator with room to experiment, Atomos Edit might be an excellent solution for you and/or your team. The final product seems promising, and we’re excited to see it in action. But be cautious. Anything in Beta will be like wandering through a minefield and no one wants to see their project explode.
If you do want to try Atomos Edit, it will be available in three subscription plans for around $50 per user per month. Visit www.atomosedit.com to sign up and learn more.
But what do you think? Will you be switching to a cloud-based NLE? Let us know in the comments!
![EXCLUSIVE: Michael Jordan seen enjoying holidays in Lipari, Eolian Islands, with wife Yvette and some friends. 06 Jul 2023 Pictured: Michael Jordan, Yvette Prieto. Photo credit: MEGA TheMegaAgency.com +1 888 505 6342 (Mega Agency TagID: MEGA1004489_016.jpg) [Photo via Mega Agency]](https://hollywoodlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Michael-Jordan-Vacation-Wife-MEGA-2.jpg?w=440)
![EXCLUSIVE: Michael Jordan seen enjoying holidays in Lipari, Eolian Islands, with wife Yvette and some friends. 06 Jul 2023 Pictured: Michael Jordan, Yvette Prieto. Photo credit: MEGA TheMegaAgency.com +1 888 505 6342 (Mega Agency TagID: MEGA1004489_011.jpg) [Photo via Mega Agency]](https://hollywoodlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Michael-Jordan-Vacation-Wife-MEGA.jpg?w=440)
