Month: April 2021

Throughout her entire career, Thandiwe Newton has allowed her name to be misspelled. Not anymore. In a new interview where the Westworld actress goes deep on the racism and sexual harassment she’s faced over the years, Newton opens up about how she’s begun to assert herself in the past decade for herself and for her daughter, up and coming actress Nico Parker, and how she will “talk until the cows come home” if she sees any type of abuse from Hollywood. Regaining her confidence has prompted Newton to no longer be complicit in pretending race doesn’t exist.

“The thing I’m most grateful for in our business right now is being in the company of others who truly see me. And to not be complicit in the objectification of Black people as ‘others’, which is what happens when you’re the only one,” Newton told British Vogue before revealing her name will be correctly spelled as “Thandiwe” from here on out:

All her future films will be credited with Thandiwe Newton, after the W was carelessly missed out from her first credit. Now she’s in control. Many lives lived and she’s come out triumphant, preserved in the magic of the mist and sun that made her, and wanted her to shine. “That’s my name. It’s always been my name. I’m taking back what’s mine.”

In case it was’t clear how committed Netwon is to not taking anymore crap, last summer, the actress called out her Mission: Impossible 2 co-star Tom Cruise, who is easily one of the biggest names in Hollywood. To Newton’s shock, people were here for it. “I was surprised by the appreciation I had got,” she told Variety and iHeart’s The Big Ticket podcast. “I thought that I would be in trouble because that’s kind of what I’m used to.”

(Via British Vogue)

Before and after the release of 2013’s Artpop, Lady Gaga spoke on multiple occasions about the possibility of a sequel of the album. In 2012, she suggested that a second volume of Artpop would feature experimental material from the album’s sessions. The Artpop sequel ultimately never materialized, but fans haven’t forgotten about it.

Over the weekend, a fan started a Change.org petition titled “Release ARTPOP Act II and give Lady Gaga full creative freedom over her art.” The petition was started in response to DJ White Shadow (aka DJWS), who co-produced and/or co-wrote the majority of the songs on Artpop, telling fans they “gotta petition Gaga” if they want to hear the Artpop sequel. In just a few days, the petition has nearly 30,000 signatures.

Now, DJWS has shared a lengthy response on Instagram, in which he explains the difficulties both he and Gaga experienced while Artpop:

“Making music and delivering it the way ARTPOP was made and delivered was particularly difficult. Imagine it as if you were going skydiving and you are stuck in a free fall for what seems like forever. Then, smashing into the ground after your parachute doesn’t open, and having to do it again and again and again. Then imagine a bunch of people just standing on the sidelines watching you, and stealing your wallet from your lifeless body every time you hit the ground. There are SO many stories I can tell you about what it took to get ARTPOP into the world, and one day I might. […] I am ready to get back in. I am ready, and whenever LG is, we can get after it. That being said, try and be nice to her. She has feelings (like any other normal person) and this ‘era’ was a hard time for her too.”

He then noted, “I am sure she will be ok with revisiting it one day and building on it when the time is right. I will continue to push for those songs you want so badly, that LG and I did, and I hope you will get to hear them. Don’t let them die. Continue to get your message to the people in charge. You have the power, don’t give up.”

DJWS concluded that he has actually gotten in touch with Gaga about the petition, writing, “Oh, and I sent LG a text. I don’t feel right about sharing our private talks but I promise you all I did. :).”

Find DJWS’s post below.

“First off let me say how grateful I am for all of you. You are completely badass and some of the most incredibly loving and rabid fans in the world. I love you all dearly, even when you hate me most. I made an April fools day joke about ‘Tea’ (sorry) and am amazed how much you all still care about that era, and about some songs you have never heard. I can only say to you that I am humbled every day that I am able to share some of myself with you and for it to be loved in such a special way.

To answer a couple of the questions and in an effort to clear some stuff up with some honesty I wanted to tell you a couple things. Making music and delivering it the way ARTPOP was made and delivered was particularly difficult. Imagine it as if you were going skydiving and you are stuck in a free fall for what seems like forever. Then, smashing into the ground after your parachute doesn’t open, and having to do it again and again and again. Then imagine a bunch of people just standing on the sidelines watching you, and stealing your wallet from your lifeless body every time you hit the ground. There are SO many stories I can tell you about what it took to get ARTPOP into the world, and one day I might. So many scum bags trying to latch on to the train I had worked so hard to get out of the station. So much transition and turmoil. Let me tell you that I have never been so broken as a human being the day when that record was turned in. I was nearly dead. I felt trampled on, and finished with music. At times I felt finished with life. This is not an exaggeration. In the years to follow, actually, largely up until last year, I have been trying to undo the trauma of completing that phase of my life. Some still lingers.

That being said, I am much better now and much better for having gone through it. I am strong and can hear the music with a happy heart finally. While I want you to hear the ‘extras’ that you guys want to hear, I would also like to make you some new things. l am 100x better at what I do now, and am at an all time creative high. I have eliminated all the dirty rat f*cks that were in my life and have surrounded myself with joy and love. I am ready to get back in. I am ready, and whenever LG is, we can get after it.

That being said, try and be nice to her. She has feelings (like any other normal person) and this ‘era’ was a hard time for her too. I am sure she will be ok with revisiting it one day and building on it when the time is right.

I will continue to push for those songs you want so badly, that LG and I did, and I hope you will get to hear them. Don’t let them die. Continue to get your message to the people in charge. You have the power, don’t give up.

Lastly, thank you to Nick and Dino and Dave Russell too. I wouldn’t be sh*t without you guys.

Oh, and I sent LG a text. I don’t feel right about sharing our private talks but I promise you all I did. 🙂

[heart emoji] P.”

“Here’s Negan,” the stand-alone installment of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comic, has been talked about as a television adaptation since the day it was released. It tells the origin story of Negan, of his baseball bat Lucille and his leather jacket, and it explains why Negan became the man that he was when he recruited and led the brutal Saviors. As we have learned in 10 seasons of The Walking Dead, bad people like Negan or even The Governor do not always start out as bad people. Grief, guilt, trauma, and shame can do a powerful psychological number on the human mind.

Negan got a heavy dose of all four, which transformed him into the brutal, sadistic, dictatorial clown-show that he would eventually become before having his throat slashed by Rick Grimes and spending roughly years inside of a prison cell. Negan’s story began pre-apocalypse when he was fired as a high-school gym teacher for beating the hell out of a man who wouldn’t keep it down while Negan played he and his wife’s song in a bar on the jukebox. His wife is Lucille (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s real-life wife, Hilarie Burton), and their song was “You’re So Beautiful,” by Joe Cocker, and it meant a lot to Negan.

Seeing red and beating up that man, however, led to Negan getting fired as a gym teacher, and it also meant that his wife, Lucille, had to pay for the lawsuits, even as Negan racked up a $600 credit card charge for a leather jacket that Lucille snatched away from him pre-apocalypse but gifted back to him later. As if Negan didn’t feel enough guilt about losing his job and the lawsuit, he was also having an affair while Lucille was at the doctor learning that she had been diagnosed with cancer. Negan called off the affair immediately, but that’s when the guilt and the shame nevertheless began to take over.

Lucille was midway through chemo treatments when the apocalypse began, which meant that Negan had to figure out how to complete the chemo treatment while trapped at home and surrounded by zombies. Unfortunately, Negan forgot to turn the generator that kept his wife’s chemo treatments cool back on after he’d turned it off because it was attracting walkers. That led to even more guilt.

Against his wife Lucille’s wishes, Negan set out to find more chemo treatments for her because (as he later admitted) he was too much of a coward to stay and watch her die. It took him six weeks to find the treatment (thanks to the help of Laura, who gave him a baseball bat to protect himself, and who would later become one of his most loyal Saviors before Beta killed her earlier this season). When he finally retrieved the meds he needed from a mobile medical van, he was abducted by some bad men who beat Negan (until he revealed the location of the med van) before letting him go.

By the time he made it back home, however, it was too late. Lucille could no longer take the pain of cancer, and she’d killed herself. Negan walked in on his zombified wife tied up in bed with a plastic bag wrapped around her face. If that doesn’t turn you into a supervillain, I don’t know what would. Negan — now saddled permanently with the guilt of cheating on his wife, spoiling her chemo medication, and leaving her while she died — took that baseball bat that Laura had given him, wrapped barbed wire around it, and beat the living hell out of the bad men who abducted him and kept him from his wife.

It was the birth of the “Negan” we know from the All-Out War. He became viciously, brutally loyal to those he sought to protect to the exclusion of everyone else. The whole ordeal warped his mind, and until he spent all those years in prison, he was unable to un-warp it. It was not a normal reaction to the death of a loved one, but in the context of everything else, it kind of makes sense.

Does that redeem Negan? Not exactly, but at least we can understand why he became the man that he was. He’s also spent the last couple of years trying to undo what he had done to Alexandria. Maggie, however, has every reason to continue hating Negan, because he brutally murdered her husband. But given the strength of his loyalty, he’s also a good guy to have on your side.

Beyond the origins story, the episode was also bookended by the present day, which is interesting in and of itself. Carol and Daryl banished Negan from Alexandria and sent him packing to Leah’s old house, which is exactly what happened in the source material. He was barely ever seen again in the comics. At the end of the television episode, however, Negan — having re-examined his life — decided not to accept the banishment. He returned to Alexandria.

“If you stay here, [Maggie] will kill you,” Carol tells him. “I just didn’t want your death on my conscience, and now [that you refused to accept your banishment] it’s not.”

“Fair enough,” Negan says, as he flashes that old-school Negan smile and metaphorically winks at Maggie in the distance. What does it mean? I have no idea. All we do know is that Negan unburied his bat, Lucille, and burned it, so the old Negan is gone, but it doesn’t mean he’s going to be a pushover. According to showrunner Angela Kang, that smile basically said, “I’m here, we are going to have to deal with each other and I belong here and I have a place here.” Negan has made Alexandria his new home, and it’s clear that he’s not willing to give that up, even if it means that the threat of being killed by Maggie will constantly hang over him.

It’s a fitting end to the season, and a great teaser for the final season, which returns this summer. Despite the woeful last couple of episodes, “Here’s Negan” sets the series back on the right path toward its last 24 episodes, which will begin airing on Sunday, August 22nd.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Success is never a guaranteed thing. No matter the task, it’s never promised that one will complete it on the first try. This doesn’t mean that it’s unlikely, but rather, it’s a logical expectation when the absolute random ways of the world and how things can play out are taken into consideration. With that being said, we like to think that success will arrive at some point along the way. Even if it takes a million tries, the eventual accomplishment proves that we are capable of getting it done. Unfortunately for Gallant, this self-serving moment doesn’t arrive for him on his latest body of work.

The singer’s Neptune EP presents eight elegant songs that float freely in the spacious night sky. On it, Gallant repeatedly comes up short in tying down a longtime partner for the tumultuous ride that is life. Whether it slips through his hands or flies by when he lets his guard down, he repeatedly plays from behind on Neptune in an attempt to gain ground and capture the very thing that’s escaped him too often.

As elusive as love can be, Gallant’s inability to experience the best of it is due to his faults. Blocking your shot can be extremely frustrating, especially when it occurs as a reflex, and the annoyance of it all only skyrockets when the stakes of said shot are realized. In what sounds like a file uprooted out of Usher’s early 2000s hard drive, Gallant confesses to his wrongs on “Comeback” with the hope that his exiting partner will do just that: return his now-prepared arms where he offers a much better experience for her. “I shouldn’t have ever listened to the demons,” he admits, adding, “You can come back / There’s no better time / I’ll leave on the lights.”

Gallant’s blunders continue with “Julie.” The free-floating track, which could very well be classified as “singing in the rain” music at some points, presents the singer as a klutz whenever love comes his way. Despite these neverending mistakes, he still finds himself in short-lived moments of intimacy with a partner who is very much skeptical about his abilities to not ruin yet another chance with her. While her hesitation is still present, she seems a bit more open to a second stab at it than the partner she sings about on “No More Tries.” Back by a guest appearance from VanJess, who play the role of his exhausted companion, Gallant’s journey towards a fulfilling love is cut short by their command to turn around and take him and his inconsistencies to someone else. “Even if we try / It would only end up causing us more pain,” they sing. “’Cause your love was enough for me until / There was nothing left for both of us to lose.”

It’d be criminal to paint a picture of Gallant’s perceived loneliness as something of his own doing. The singer stumbles across individuals who ruin the few moments he has it together. Take “Dynamite” with Brandy, for example, Gallant deals with a woman who’s both insecure and blinded by the fame and money that surrounds her. Blowing up their lives to the most basic element would be nice but it’s highly unrealistic, something he accepts in the song. Gallant even deals with his frustrations on “Scars.” The uptempo, dance-friendly track is enwrapped with both the physical and emotional pain that the singer carries on his shoulders. He balances nonchalance with discontent with a track that ultimately finds him moving one to the next awaiting soul who is hopefully ready for what he has to offer.

Gallant will eventually figure it out, or hey, maybe he won’t. It’s all up to the singer to tie his laces and finally stop tripping over himself on this winding road towards companionship. At least, in that case, he’ll limit his failures to outside circumstances like inapt companions or just sheer bad luck. Despite these missteps, it’s admirable that he at least recognizes his faults, and with each admission comes the claim that he’s fixed them and is far better. Neptune is filled with ear-pleasing music that encapsulates Gallant’s versatility as a singer. From traditional R&B to alternative sounds and everything in between, Gallant proves that his talents span as wide as the distance between Earth and the planet in which this project was named after.

Neptune is out now via EMPIRE. Get it here.

St. Vincent was the musical guest on this past weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live, but the show began with nods to Britney Spears and Lil Nas X.

The SNL cold open skit was a talk show hosted by Spears (wonderfully portrayed by Chloe Fineman). Her first guest on the program was Lil Nas X (played by Chris Redd), who spoke about his “Satan shoes” and his “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” video. He explained the backlash to the video, “People are afraid of me because I’m different, but really, I’m just your typical gay, black, country-rap sneaker entrepreneur.” Then, at Spears’ suggestion, she brought out God and Nas gave him a lap dance to “even things out.”

Not long after the skit, Nas took to Twitter to share his thoughts. He tweeted a screenshot from the sketch and offered a tongue-in-cheek caption: “snl going to hell.”

Now that Nas has been parodied on SNL, he just has South Park left. He tried to will an episode of the long-running cartoon about his Satan saga into existence last week when he tweeted, “this gone be a good ass south park episode lmao.”

Watch the Saturday Night Live skit below.

“Do you really believe in this Loki Variant?” “Luckily, he believes in himself enough for the both of us.”

That’s Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s character speaking to that of Luke Wilson’s Time Variance Authority officer, and yes, those two lines are quite encouraging for the Loki standalone series coming to Disney+. Not only will Loki be made to atone for his time crimes — in particular, the fine mess he’s made by snatching the Tesseract during Endgame — but the God of Mischief have to help fix them, too.

In other words, Loki is still burdened with glorious purpose. The timeline, of course, is a bit confusing here. We know that the show takes place following the events of Avengers: Endgame, but we also know that this show’s entire theme has to do with time, so expect some extra theatrics on that subject. Yet we also witnessed time-travel shenanigans at the end of Endgame, and Steve Rogers presumably fixed some things, but obviously not everything. Hey, Steve was distracted by returning to Peggy, so cut him a break.

With that said, we know that Thanos killed Loki at the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War. Yet we saw the Trickster reappear and snatch that Time Stone at the end of Endgame. So, it’s impossible to know Loki’s true essence here — is he the somewhat reformed version, or nah? — and we rarely truly know what’s going on inside of that unlikely Frost Giant exterior. Whatever the case, he’s bound to keep us on his toes.

Loki will debut on Disney+ on June 22.

People thought Charlize Theron was just another model-turned-actress. They were shocked when it turned out she was good. Then they were shocked when it turned out she could be funny. Then they were shocked she could be serious. Then they were shocked when won an Oscar. Then they were shocked that she could do action. Then they were shocked that she could do villains. They were even shocked that she could almost literally turn into Megyn Kelly.

Perhaps some people are still shocked whenever Charlize Theron pivots for the umpteenth time, revealing yet another skill she’s mastered, yet another innate talent. To be steadily employed by Hollywood, as Theron has for some 25 years, and especially if you’re a woman, requires being good at everything. If one hustle dries up, find another. When that dries up, another — and so on and so forth. The people who last in the industry — not just the big stars but those who’ve simply been on screens consistently for decades, such as the recently late George Segal — know this all too well.

It would be easy to say Theron got her foot in the door thanks to her looks, but that’s unfair. And it’s untrue. On the surface, her breakthrough did treat her like eye candy. She first caught attention during the post-Pulp Fiction avalanche of generic imitators, with 1996’s 2 Days in the Valley, in which she played a moll to James Spader’s casually amoral assassin. Spader’s character treats her like an object, like a living air doll. The movie’s ad campaign featured her prominently, scantily clad, beckoning horndogs who’d seen Reservoir Dogs too many times.

But watch her performance. She’s alive, hungry, more thirsty than the men who lust after her. It’s even her first brush with action: She gets into a show-stopping melée with Teri Hatcher that ends in tragedy. She spends her final minutes expiring slowly and agonizingly, tearfully begging for her life with each short breath. Allowing Theron the space to give a great, painful death scene is maybe the movie’s only smart and novel move. But this is more than a better-than-the-movie-deserved performance. It’s Theron’s future career in miniature: She excels at a lot, sometimes with limited resources, all without breaking a sweat.

Less than two months later audiences learned another thing about Theron: She’s hilarious. Tom Hanks had the foresight to cast her in That Thing You Do!, his chronicle of a ‘60s one-hit-wonder. Theron’s role is small: She’s the girlfriend of Tom Everett Scott’s drummer protagonist — at least for a while. On paper she’s a sexist stereotype: impossibly vain, unenthusiastically going to his gigs and spending more time touching up her makeup than rocking out. But Theron makes an art of it. She’s just not that into him, perhaps sensing — rightly, it turns out — that he’s not going anywhere beyond a brief dance with fame. The best scene finds her stuck on the phone with him as he brags about a successful show. Bored by his boasting, she casually hangs up the phone without saying goodbye. It might be the funniest thing Theron has ever done — unexpected, perfectly timed, perversely badass.

There was a period early on when Theron was treated as a mere pretty face. But she always brought gravitas and wit. It’s devastating to watch her come slowly and epically undone in the over-the-top trashy The Devil’s Advocate, where she delivers another heartbreaking death scene. And there are early signs of the durable and versatile Renaissance Person that would soon become impossible to ignore. Theron won her Oscar for Monster, from future Wonder Woman steward Patty Jenkins, in which she uglied herself up and struck gold. But her work doesn’t seem calculated just to win trophies. It seems that by literally transforming her face, she thought she’d finally get the plaudits she’d always deserved.

Still, she might be even better in another, less auspicious movie from that year, the remake of The Italian Job. Everyone else — Mark Wahlberg, Jason Statham, Mos Def — is having a blast, but she’s not. The movie begins with the baddie (Edward Norton) murdering her father (Donald Sutherland), and while the boys are cracking jokes and stealing minis, she’s furiously committed to furious vengeance — a turn as serious as her raw nerve work in the movie that made her an Oscar-winner.

That pain is really what unites Theron’s characters, across genres and across types. They’re all dealing with something dark, even in the lightest comedies. Sometimes they can’t deal with it (The Devil’s Advocate). Sometimes they stew, hilariously, in their misery (her twin Jason Reitman-Diablo Cody movies, Young Adult and Tully). Sometimes their pain makes them tough (most of her action movies, and let’s not forget when she stole Seth MacFarlane’s spoof A Million Ways to Die in the West without a single joke). Sometimes it fills them with righteous fury. Speaking of which, there’s Furiosa, the real star of Mad Max: Fury Road — a supremely damaged woman who has quietly planned her vengeance against the men who wronged her.

Fury Road was when Theron officially added action to her arsenal. She’d done it before — not just 2 Days in the Valley but also the big-screen take on the MTV Liquid Television staple Aeon Flux — but here is when she became a real ass-kicker. It’s not like it came out of nowhere. In Atomic Blonde and The Old Guard, she was drawing on yet another talent: She’s a trained dancer. She’s a natural at fight choreography, but she doesn’t have the ego that comes with a perfect ass-kicker like Steven Seagal or Chuck Norris. In the more strenuous parts of her action films, she loves getting hurt, receiving as good as she gives.

Right now action is Theron’s main business, but not her only one. She can juggle kicking butt with being even funnier than Seth Rogen in Long Shot. Or getting an Oscar nomination for playing a justly wronged Fox News host everyone otherwise despises. The business that hesitantly welcomed Theron, that assumed she was just another hubristic looker who would be quickly put in her place, does not remotely resemble the one today. But she’s endured and evolved in part because she knows that you can’t just be good at one thing. She’s a model not only to those who want a sturdy Hollywood career, but to anyone in today’s weird economy, where cushy full-time gigs are rare and patchwork existences, sometimes culled from different skill sets, are becoming the norm. Who knows that life better than an actor? And who knows how to be great at lots of things more than Charlize Theron?

At this point, there’s no denying 2020 changed the entertainment industry, though to what extent is yet to be determined.

However, while there are plenty of questions about what comes next for both filmmakers and viewers alike, one truth remains completely untouched: the need to build upon popular IPs is as vital as ever. While comic books and long-standing film and television series continue to act as a never-ending source of inspiration for creators, it’s hard to ignore just how many upcoming films and televisions are based on video games–especially when you consider their reputation for disaster that stretches as far back as 1993’s Super Mario Bros. So, what’s changed to restore faith in the appeal of video game based movies and television series? Everything, really.

Over time, the public’s perception of video games as a whole has steadily improved. Despite several industries reporting massive losses in 2020, the games industry reportedly grew 12%, reaching a total revenue of nearly $140 billion during the pandemic.

More people are playing, more people are watching others play, and the amount of folks doing the playing and watching is growing and diversifying dramatically. According to a TechJury article from earlier this year, one-third of the global population now plays video games, with 65% of American adults playing daily. The average age at which people are playing games is also climbing higher as more and more adults and seniors begin to pick up the controller. We’re also seeing a steady rise in women who play games, who now account for nearly half of all players.

All these numbers, alongside growing recognition from Hollywood (see Keanu Reeves starring in the Cyberpunk 2077 and Christopher Nolan presenting an award at The Game Awards) have led to a greater appreciation of the medium on a larger scale. It comes as no surprise then that filmmakers have taken notice of the games industry’s growing impact and are growing more and more interested in reinvigorating game-based films. But what about the curse you say? Well, slowly but surely, it appears the spell might just be lifting.

In the mid to late 2000s, a small boom in video game-based films did not result in an increase in happy movie-goers. When averaging the scores of eight of the most notable game-based films from 2005-2012—films such as Doom, BloodRayne, Max Payne, and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time—the average Rotten Tomatoes audience approval score is 21%. Comparatively, the top game-based films from 2016-2021 (Monster Hunter, Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed, Sonic the Hedgehog, Warcraft, and Detective Pikachu), have an average audience approval score of 46%—over double what it was a decade ago. With this in mind, filmmakers are taking a chance–a pretty big one, as a matter of fact, and as of right now, there are more than thirty game-based movies and television shows in the works across several studios.

Unsurprisingly, one such studio is Netflix, which is proving to be a valuable ally to the cause of adapting games into successful movies and television shows. After a fantastic first season that quickly broke the record for the most-watched new series over at Netflix, The Witcher—a show based off the popular Polish games series—has been renewed for a second season coming later this year. In addition, Netflix is currently working on a live-action Assassin’s Creed series, a Mega Man movie, and anime based on Beyond Good and Evil, Splinter Cell, Tomb Raider, and Cyberpunk 2077–all popular video game series. However, the execs over at Netflix aren’t the only ones pushing hard to popularize game-based movies and propel them into critically-acclaimed status.

One of the more ambitious studios is Sony’s PlayStation Productions, which announced late last year that seven television shows and three movies based on Sony Interactive Entertainment titles are currently in the works. Presumably one of these films is the upcoming Uncharted movie, which features Spider-Man’s Tom Holland as treasure-hunter Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as his affable father-figure Sully. The February 2022 film is being directed by Ruben Fleischer of Venom and Zombieland fame with a script by the team behind Transformers and Iron Man. The second Sony title confirmed to be getting a film adaption is Ghost of Tsushima, a massively popular 2020 game that follows samurai warrior Jin Sakai as he dismantles the violent occupation of his homeland. As of right now, no names are attached to the project.

The final PlayStation Productions title currently confirmed is a The Last of Us television show that’s headed over to HBO. The heart-breaking, post-apocalyptic series is to be directed by Craig Mazin, the director of HBO’s Chernobyl and stars two Game of Thrones veterans as the lead characters–Pedro Pascal as smuggler Joel, and Bella Ramsey as Ellie. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the series will cover all the events of the first game with possible additional content based on the game’s sequel, The Last of Us Part II. If this already seems like a lot of content, brace yourself.

As of right now, Ubisoft Film and Television is right behind Sony and has six films based on games in the works. Perhaps most noteworthy as of right now are Tom Clancy’s The Division, and Ghost Recon, both of which already have some pretty big names attached to the project. The Division will be directed by David Leitich–the director behind Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, and Hobbs and Shaw–and star Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain as its two leads. Ghost Recon, another Tom Clancy game, will be directed by none other than Michael Bay.

Also at it are Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal, and Lionsgate Films, which each have several projects of their own. Warner Bros. currently has their hands full preparing for the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie releasing on April 16, while also working on a Detective Pikachu sequel and a Minecraft movie scheduled for release in March 2022. Universal is hard at work on pre-production for a Gears of War film, as well as Just Cause, an action film which is to be directed by Michael Dowse and star Jason Momoa and Brad Peyton. At Lionsgate, a movie based on the comedic looter-shooter series Borderlands is in production with director Eli Roth at the helm and Cate Blanchet, Jamie Lee Curtis, Haley Bennett, Jack Black, and Kevin Hart set to star.

If that’s not enough to sate you, sequels are in the works for both Alicia Vikander’s Tomb Raider movie as well as last year’s Sonic the Hedgehog, while the Resident Evil series is rumored to be getting a reboot here soon, and both Halo and Fallout television series are coming to Paramount+ and Amazon Prime respectively. It’s also extremely worth mentioning that Oscar Isaac is set to star in an upcoming adaptation of Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid while Donnie Yen has confirmed he is already preparing for his role in the upcoming Sleeping Dogs movie, meaning we have two more potentially fantastic action movies ahead of us — and with the rate these films based on popular video games are being picked up, more will soon follow.

There’s a running joke among folks in both the games industry and games media that pokes fun at the query, “are games art?”

The joke exists because unfortunately, at one point, the artistic merit of video games was something that was fiercely debated. Because at one point, video games were the new, contentious medium, and were put in the position of having to defend their significance to folks wary of them. However, as time progresses, and as we witness the countless stories told through games transcend their own medium, it seems we’re reaching a greater understanding of just how important video games are. Last year, the games industry grew because it provided us a way of connecting when we had none. Through games, we were given not only a way to pass the time, but a way to fall in love with characters and stories unlike any we’ve ever experienced. It’s safe to say this growing love of gaming has led to a desire to experience them in new forms, and a content revolution that will shape entertainment culture for some time. While so much in life remains uncertain, I think it’s safe to say games and their growing influence are here to stay.

Over the past few days, Justin Bieber has been sharing photos and videos of himself in the studio working on something. It turns out that what he was working on was a quick follow-up to his Justice album: On Easter Sunday, Bieber shared a surprise new EP, Freedom.

The 6-track effort runs for about 22 minutes and features all new songs, including collaborations with Pink Sweats, Tori Kelly, Judah Smith, Beam, Brandon Love, Chandler Moore, and Lauren Walters. As Billboard notes, the project became available at around 6 p.m. ET yesterday. Shortly after that, Bieber shared the album art, which is a screenshot of the album title written in the notes app on a phone (not his phone), and wrote, “Freedom on all platforms.”

Bieber’s videographer Rory Kramer noted that the project was made extremely quickly, writing on Instagram, “was insane to witness the creation of this project in its entirety. created from Thursday to Saturday and put out today.”

This comes after Bieber made some chart history: Justice and “Peaches” debuted at No. 1 on their respective Billboard charts last week, making him the first solo male artist to debut an album and song at No. 1 in the same week.

Stream the Freedom EP below.

Freedom is out now via Def Jam. Get it here.

John Oliver never misses a chance to take on one of his favorite targets: Tucker Carlson. The Last Week Tonight host even devoted a recent deep-dive segment to bashing the Fox News host, and that celebration landed after multiple other instances, including Oliver having a field day over the former’s Dr. Seuss outrage (over “cancel culture”) and Elmo tantrum (over Black Lives Matter). Oliver also lit up Tucker’s preposterous defense of Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse, so Oliver was bound to be beside himself with glee over Tucker’s uncharacteristic pushback at a fellow right-winger, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), last week. And Oliver loved to see it during his latest episode.

“Wow, imagine being the one white man on earth that Tucker Carlson won’t defend. Tucker was so clearly trying to ‘nope’ his way out of that interview. He looks like he wants to walk out of his own show. The problem is, if he did that, it wouldn’t be Tucker Carlson Tonight anymore. It would be the Matt Gaetz Digs His Own Grave Adventure Hour.”

With that, Oliver proclaimed that we’ll probably hear more about Gaetz during a “sentencing” phase (he’s facing multiple allegations, including a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old that he apparently transported over state lines, which points toward federal crimes), so he put the issue to sleep for the evening, but it’s also worth noting that the host declared that “Lil Nas X twerking on Satan seems positively wholesome compared to the news this week concerning Matt Gaetz.”

To briefly recap, you’re almost certainly aware of how Tucker described his interview with Gaetz, who (poorly) attempted to defend himself against the sex trafficking allegations against him, as “one of the weirdest” that he’s conducted. Mere days after the congressman wished for a Gaetzgate, he sure got one. Not only that, but Gaetz wildly claimed to Carlson that he was being extorted by an ex-DOJ official for $25 million, and — in what was certainly the detail that pushed Tucker over the edge — he tried to drag Tucker into it by claiming that the host had met Gaetz’s lady “friend” at a dinner.

Tucker swiftly denied recalling any such meeting — CNN further reported word that he was “pissed” about Gaetz’s attempt to link him to the scandal — and as mentioned above, Oliver erupted with glee over the mess. This is an interesting twist in the followup to Gaetz making himself the only member of Congress (both House and Senate) to vote against an anti-sex-trafficking bill in 2017. So far, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is the one person who has “no idea” why Gaetz cast his vote that way. Oliver’s correct: the followups to this whole scandal will definitely provide some return visits in the future.