Month: July 2020

Bill & Ted Face the Music was originally scheduled to hit theaters on August 21, 2020 (there’s a 69 joke built into that date), but it’s since been pushed back.

Not by much, though, and while Orion is still releasing the third Bill and Ted into the few theaters that will be open, it’s also coming out the same day on VOD. As noted by the Hollywood Reporter, Face the Music will “debut simultaneously on premium VOD and in any cinemas willing to play the threequel on September 2,” meaning you’ll be able to get your “party on” from your home. Excellent. You can watch the new trailer above.

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

The stakes are higher than ever for the time-traveling exploits of William “Bill” S. Preston Esq. and Theodore “Ted” Logan. Yet to fulfill their rock and roll destiny, the now middle aged best friends set out on a new adventure when a visitor from the future warns them that only their song can save life as we know it. Along the way, they will be helped by their daughters, a new batch of historical figures, and a few music legends – to seek the song that will set their world right and bring harmony in the universe.

Bill & Ted Face the Music also stars Samara Weaving, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Jillian Bell, Jayma Mays, Erinn Hayes, Beck Bennett, Kristen Schaal, and William Sadler.

There’s not an “entanglement” joke Will Smith hasn’t seen.

It’s been nearly two weeks since Will and Jada Pinkett Smith sat down at the Red Table to discuss her relationship with August Alsina. “We decided that we were going to separate for a period of time and you go figure out how to make yourself happy and I’ll figure out how to make myself happy,” the Aladdin star said, to which the Magic Mike XXL actress responded, “As time went on, I got into a different kind of entanglement with August.” That word — “entanglement” — has caught on in a way “conscious uncoupling” never did (thank god); it was also the basis of a joke on Smith’s Instagram:

On Wednesday, the actor took to Instagram to share a playful video of himself jumping rope. By attaching a camera to the rope, Smith showed fans its perspective while he jumped, causing many fans to marvel at the cool clip. One follower, however, found the opportunity to make a clever comment about Pinkett Smith’s recent relationship reveal. “Ok don’t get entangled,” they wrote, adding a laughing-crying emoji. (Via)

“Hahaha… Okay… I can admit it. That’s Funny,” Smith replied. “I’m definitely gonna block you. But the joke was Very Funny!” At least he’s not getting Genie jokes anymore?

(Via ET Online)

Taylor Swift’s newest album, Lover, only just came out last summer, but she’s already back at it. In a surprise announcement this morning, Swift revealed that she will be releasing a new album, Folklore, tonight.

In Swift’s announcement, she revealed the album will have a significant Big Red Machine presence: It features collaborations with Bon Iver (who co-wrote and sings on a song with Swift) and The National’s Aaron Dessner (who co-wrote or produced 11 of the 16 tracks on the album). Swift also cites William Bowery and Jack Antonoff as other folks who helped bring the record to life.

Swift wrote:

“Most of the things I had planned this summer didn’t end up happening, but there is something I hadn’t planned on that DID happen. And that thing is my 8th studio album, folklore. Surprise! Tonight at midnight I’ll be releasing my entire brand new album of songs I’ve poured all of my whims, dreams, fears, and musings into. I wrote and recorded this music in isolation but got to collaborate with some musical heroes of mine; Aaron Dessner (who has co-written or produced 11 of the 16 songs), Bon Iver (who co-wrote and was kind enough to sing on one with me), William Bowery (who co-wrote two with me) and Jack Antonoff (who is basically musical family at this point). Engineered by Laura Sisk and Jon Low, mixed by Servan Ghenea & Jon Low. The album photos were shot by the amazing Beth Garrabrant. Before this year I probably would’ve overthought when to release this music at the ‘perfect’ time, but the times we’re living in keep reminding me that nothing is guaranteed. My gut is telling me that if you make something you love, you should just put it out into the world. That’s the side of uncertainty I can get on board with. Love you guys so much [heart emoji].”

The National also offered a bit more detail when they shared Swift’s post this morning, noting the Bryce Dessner is also involved in the album. They wrote, “We are incredibly proud of the collaborative work @taylorswift13 & @aaron_dessner have created together on her new album ‘folklore’, with orchestrations from @bryce_dessner. We can’t wait for you to hear it!

Additionally, a video for “Cardigan,” which Swift wrote and directed, will debut tonight.

Check out the Folklore art and tracklist below, as well as the rest of Swift’s announcement tweets.

1. “The 1”
2. “Cardigan”
3. “The Last Great American Dynasty”
4. “Exile” Feat. Bon Iver
5. “My Tears Ricochet”
6. “Mirrorball”
7. “Seven”
8. “August”
9. “This Is Me Trying”
10. “Illicit Affairs”
11. “Invisible String”
12. “Mad Woman”
13. “Epiphany”
14. “Betty”
15. “Peace”
16. “Hoax”
17. “The Lakes” (bonus track)

Folklore is out 7/24 via Republic. Pre-order it here.

Things are pretty scary right now, and it’s the president’s fault. Not only is the pandemic that he failed to control surging across the nation, hitting new records in infections and deaths — and with an election looming — but he’s starting to send even more federal agents to cities to square off against mostly peaceful protesters, whose reign of terror began in Portland and are now expanding to Chicago and Albuquerque. It’s times like these we need a laugh, and Donald J. Trump is the kind of renaissance man who can inspire anxiety as well as mockery.

As it’s widely known, our sitting president has very thin skin, perhaps history’s thinnest, and one thing he has not been able to shut up about is a cognitive test he took about a year ago — an exam he boasted he “aced.” Over the weekend, Fox News aired an interview between Trump and Chris Wallace, one of the news networks most critical and tough employees, and one of the many tragi-comical highlights found Wallace pointing out that that test? Not that hard.

“They have a picture and it says ‘what’s that’ and it’s an elephant,” Wallace pointed out. Trump, as is his nature, insisted it was harder than Wallace claimed and that his presumptive presidential opponent, Joe Biden, couldn’t do it.

But Trump does not accept truth, especially if it makes him look a fool. On Wednesday, he was talking about the test yet again, this time during a more sympathetic Fox News one-on-one with Dr. Marc Siegel. A medical consultant with the network, Siegel stood there, patiently listening to the president of the United States laboriously explain that not only did he ace the basic test, he allegedly received extra points for being able to repeat five words over and over again without screwing up.

Trump gave an example, seemingly by looking at things that were at the time in front of him, and choosing five objects: “person, woman, man, camera, TV.” He kept repeating them, to show to Siegel, and to the whole world watching, that he was a smart man who can remember five words.

It was…strange. And certain swaths of Twitter, looking for a lighthearted distraction as American cities are increasingly turned into police states by the man whose mental faculties were ripe for mockery, was quick to turn it into a meme.

Some brought Biden, who has his own issues with saying weird things, into the mix.

Some were not amused. They were furious. And rightly so.

And some — including longtime Republicans who are about as anti-Trump as a good chunk of the nation is — tried to blend rage with humor.

Anyway, as of this writing, in the U.S. COVID-19 cases are approaching 4 million and have caused over 140,000 deaths, while federal troops in camo with no identification who’ve kidnapped protesters and dragged them into unmarked cars are heading to more cities. Enjoy this laugh while you can.

The first two records from J. Cole’s upcoming album The Fall Off have arrived. After teasing the new songs just days ago, Cole shared “The Climb Back” and “Lion King On Ice” to a clamoring fanbase that has been anticipating his new full-length release since he teased its existence at Day N Vegas last year. Check them both out below.

“The Climb Back” and “Lion King On Ice” represent the first new J. Cole solo tracks since “Middle Child,” his contribution to Dreamville’s Revenge Of The Dreamers III, and “Snow On Tha Bluff,” a song he released earlier this summer in response to reactions to civil unrest and demands for systemic reform from activists online. Although it’s been two years since his last album, KOD, became the latest to extend his “platinum with no features” streak, he has still been busy in the intervening years. He started a different kind of streak in 2019 — one of outstanding guest verses that began with his appearance on 21 Savage’s “A Lot” and continued through Gang Starr’s “Family And Loyalty.” Now, it appears the wait for The Fall Off has begun in earnest, and it’s already off to an exciting start.

Listen to J. Cole’s new songs “The Climb Back” and “Lion King On Ice” above.

Two months after sharing their collaboration “Excitement“, Trippie Redd and PartyNextDoor have finally dropped the song’s video. It arrives as the former continues work on his upcoming third album, Pegasus, which, if released this year, as the Ohio-born rapper has teased, would be his third album in as many years.

The video finds the pair chartering the restless seas of the open ocean on what looks like a party ship. It begins with PartyNextDoor, the ship’s captain, surrounded by a group of women while Trippie stands alone in a separate room on the ship. Trippie eventually finds his way to PartyNextDoor and asks for his help, but the singer wants nothing to do with him. Eventually Trippie his way off the ship and into a small boat, where he and a female companion began to paddle their way to safety.

The video arrives after Trippie shared the second single off Pegasus, “Dreamer,” to celebrate his 21st birthday. The two tracks served as his first releases since his 2019 tape, A Love Letter To You 4, a project that gave him his first No. 1 on the Billboard album charts. Months after its release Trippie would release its deluxe version with 8 new songs featuring Chance The Rapper, Young Thug, and more.

You can watch the “Excitement” video above.

PartyNextDoor is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In a better timeline, Black Widow would have hit theaters two months ago. But we don’t live in that timeline. We live in the one where an ever-surging pandemic has put almost everything on pause with no end in sight, including the MCU. But that doesn’t mean the end of Marvel content. Disney+ is rearing to release Marvel 616, a documentary series about how the comics and their characters have shaped the culture over the last seven decades. And now they’ve released sneak peaks at two of the episodes.

Let’s start with the second, which is from the fourth episode, called “Lost and Found,” and which follows comic performer and creator Paul Scheer as he digs into more obscure Marvel characters. That includes, apparently, Black Panther, and in the clip we see him chatting with Reginald Hudlin, the film director (of House Party and Boomerang) who wound up writing Panther comics in the mid-aughts. And to revitalize a character born in the ’60s during the Civil Rights Era, he drew inspiration from a certain musical act.

“I knew what the opportunity was with Black Panther if I did it right,” Hudlin tells Scheer. “I said, ‘I’m going to write the comic book equivalent of a Public Enemy record — a completely uncompromised, politically provocative book. And that was the key to its success.”

The clip also shows Scheer talking to other writers about far less known Marvel characters, such as Doctor Druid, The Whizzer, and one villain with the colorful name of Typeface.

The other clip is from the second episode, “Higher, Further, Faster,” which examines the female talent of Marvel. Among those is Sana Amanat, Marvel Entertainment’s Vice President of Character & Content, who says she was asked to draw on her own experiences as the daughter of immigrants, who was forbidden by her parents to date, even going to prom solo, when bringing back Captain Marvel. She was told by highers-up that, “It would be great if we had a character based on you, based on the young Sunas of the world.” That surprised her. “I was like are we allowed to do this? This is a concept I didn’t anyone was interested in,” Amanat says.

You can watch that clip below and the one with Scheer and Hudlin above.

(Via Deadline)

We’ve all had, for the most part, a bit of a shit year. But at least that’s a struggle that we’re experiencing collectively. While the United States is seriously fumbling its response to the coronavirus, people worldwide are also feeling the struggle of living in a world amidst a global pandemic. Which is exactly why Inspired by Iceland is inviting people from all over to record themselves screaming their frustrations about this shitty year out into the serene digital landscape of one of five regions in Iceland.

“You’ve been through a lot,” begins the campaign ad made in partnership with creative agency M&C Saatchi Group, which is running across the US, UK, Germany, Canada, and Denmark. “Looking for the perfect place to let it all out? It looks like you need Iceland.” Inspired by Iceland invites users to record a scream right from their computer’s microphone so that they can release the sound into Iceland’s jaw-dropping landscapes and open spaces, which will hopefully provide some sort of catharsis for the screamer.

Goofy as the campaign is, the act of screaming for stress relief is backed by science and has been utilized as a therapeutic tool since the 70s. According to therapist and mental health consultant Zoë Aston, “part of the beneficial effect of screaming comes from being able to make a loud noise into a wide, open, undisturbed space. This literally allows your amygdala to release the stress stored there and move forward.”

But before you start screaming your lungs out and scaring your entire neighborhood, it might not be a bad idea to skim some of the advice offered on the Looks Like You Need Iceland webpage so you don’t hurt yourself. The site suggests mimicking the way a baby cries, letting the sound of your scream come from your gut rather than your throat, which can put a strain on your voice.

“Stand with your feet hip-width apart, a slight bend in your knees, relax your shoulders. You may find it useful to put your hands on your hips or use your arms to help push out some of the pent-up emotions. Follow your instincts.”

The campaign page is full of screamers hailing from all parts of the world — from London to Munich to Berkeley, CA — though we’ve yet to come across a scream that truly matches the level of frustration with the world we’re all feeling. Still, if you need to let it all out, screaming while watching a feed of Iceland’s natural beauty is not a bad way to get some temporary relief. Especially if it gives you ideas on where to travel once that American passport is useful again.

The Denver Nuggets entered their first scrimmage game in the NBA bubble extremely short-handed, as they only had 10 players practicing and were holding two of them out for precautionary reasons. That meant there was just an eight-man rotation for Denver against the Wizards on Wednesday afternoon, which required some creativity from Mike Malone.

The starting lineup the Nuggets trotted out was hysterically big, with Nikola Jokic at point guard, Jerami Grant at shooting guard, 7’2 Bol Bol at small forward, and Paul Millsap and Mason Plumlee rounding out the starters. Luckily, the first scrimmage was just a 40-minute affair, allowing for even a strained, short rotation not to play too many minutes, but the load on some was very heavy. Bol was making his Nuggets debut, having only played in eight G League games this season after working his way back from injury, and he played a team-high 32 minutes and showed why he’s been the talk of the Nuggets camp in Orlando.

Bol registered a double-double in the scrimmage, with 16 points and 10 rebounds, and added a rather preposterous six blocks. Whie it should be noted this was a scrimmage against one of the worst teams in the bubble, it was still encouraging to see how well he was moving and how confident he seemed to be on the floor with other NBA players. Bol didn’t shoot the ball tremendously (2-of-8 from three) but showed why he is such a unique talent at his size in the first quarter with a sequence that saw him block a shot at the rim and then bring the ball up the floor for a pull-up three.

What was maybe most encouraging was how Mike Malone deployed Bol, in terms of how it could translate to success in an actual NBA game. Malone had the Nuggets playing a zone defense due to their lack of guards, and that allowed Bol to do what he does best, which is patrol the paint and hunt blocks. Bol moves pretty well for his size, but simply can’t get low enough to move with perimeter players on the edge, so he can be hunted on switches in pick-and-roll play if in man. In the zone, he can use his good feet to simply shuffle to stay in front of guys when they enter his area down low, and if he’s got a foot in the lane, he’s never more than one step away from being in range for a contest or block.

Taking much away from one scrimmage (particularly the first scrimmage after four months off) isn’t wise, and Bol is not playing 32 minutes in an actual NBA game anytime soon (and may never be a player that takes on that kind of load). Still, it’s encouraging to see him playing that well after seeing his draft stock plummet due to injury concerns — and viable concerns of his on-court role — but being in Denver has put him with a coach who isn’t afraid of bucking traditional positional roles because of height and that figures to offer Bol the best chance to emerge as a positive NBA player.

It might be for short bursts as a change of pace, throwing a 7’2 small forward on the court who is simply a wildly disruptive force on both ends and making teams adjust quickly to what Denver will do with him out there. They’ll likely go to the same 2-3 zone they played in this scrimmage, and their success with Bol on the floor may very well come down to his ability to consistently hit threes (he made 36.4 percent in his G League stint). But, with a center like Nikola Jokic that is so comfortable facilitating from the perimeter, they can open up some room for Bol and work a two-man game that would be an absolute nightmare to defend. He is an absolutely unique player who is in a situation with a coach who isn’t afraid to be creative with deployment, and that could lead to a fun and fruitful partnership, because there aren’t a lot of guys in the league that can do things like this and make it look so normal.

Depending on the Nuggets health and roster availability, Bol may not play much once the playoffs start, but in these scrimmages and in the eight-game restart (particularly if Denver locks themselves into a seed) there’s some serious value in getting Bol minutes and seeing how he can fit in the rotation going forward. If nothing else, his presence made Wednesday’s scrimmage a highly entertaining viewing experience.

The inevitable deluxe version of Gunna‘s latest album is coming this week, a little under two months after the original version of Wunna was first released. Gunna announced the new version today on Instagram, revealing the full list of features along with a reimagined color that subs in a verdant gradient for the original’s warmer colors. There are eight new tracks, including additional appearances from Gunna’s mentor Young Thug, trap pioneer Future, and freshly released rapper Yak Gotti.

The original version of Wunna debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 thanks to a strong rollout featuring the singles “Rockstar Bikers & Chains,” “Dollaz On My Head,” and the title track, along with appearances from stars like Lil Baby, Roddy Ricch, and Travis Scott. The deluxe version’s new tracks up the total number of Young Thug appearances to four. Gunna also had a custom Wunna Man action figure created to help promote the album, while he’s kept his profile high in general by popping up on songs from the likes of fellow YSL artist Lil Keed and Chicago all-star Lil Durk.

Wunna Deluxe Edition is due Friday 7/24 via YSL Records / 300 Entertainment.

Gunna is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.