Month: May 2021

The popular murder mystery film Knives Out premiered in 2019 featuring a cast of stars like Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, and Jamie Lee Curtis. It saw a major success at the box office, raking in an impressive $311.4 million worldwide. Now, Netflix has secured the rights to Knives Out 2 and Knives Out 3, and even more celebrities are joining the roaster.

Janelle Monáe has officially been cast in the upcoming Knives Out sequel alongside the recently-announced newcomers Edward Norton and Dave Bautista, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The plot details are still under wraps, but both sequels will once again be directed by Rian Johnson and the filming is reportedly set to commence this summer in Greece.

What is known about the film is that Netflix shelled out some major cash for the projects. It was recently reported that the streaming service paid between $400-450 million for the two films, a major increase from the original’s $40 million budget.

This is far from the first time Monáe will appear on the silver screen. Last year, the singer starred in the thriller film Antebellum and before that, she made appearances in Rio 2, Moonlight, Hidden Figures, and more.

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

Months after the Jan. 6th insurrection on Capitol Hill, Republican Representative Paul Gosar is attempting to rewrite history with a truly bizarre rant, in which he claims that the rioters were just “peaceful protestors” and accuses Capitol police of “executing” a well-meaning patriot.

During a hearing held by the House Oversight Committee concerning the riots on Capitol Hill, Gosar — who’s been a staunch Trump supporter and a proponent of Trump’s “Stop the Steal” campaign — used his time to pepper former acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen and other officials with fairly useless questions about the Jan. 6th attack. Gosar tried to paint insurrectionists as “law-abiding U.S. citizens” and “veterans” who were being unfairly targeted by the FBI and turned on by their own neighbors following the attacks.

In his lengthy speech, Gosar claimed the DoJ was “harassing peaceful patriots,” and painting pro-Trump supporters as criminals while spreading lies about his fellow Republicans who encouraged and supported the Jan. 6th march on Capitol Hill. At one point during the proceedings, after questioning whether Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick was actually killed by a fire extinguisher — the chief medical examiner of D.C. already ruled Sicknick had died because of two strokes suffered during the chaos of the events that day — Gosar went on to demand answers in the killing of Ashli Babbitt, a rioter he described as a “veteran wrapped in the American flag.”

“Who executed Ashli Babbitt?” Gosar shouted at Rosen before implying that she, along with the rest of the rioters, was of little threat because most of them weren’t carrying lethal weapons at the time of the attack. Of course, Gosar’s grandstanding is pointless since the DoJ has already investigated the shooting and determined the officer had reason to use deadly force after Babbitt and others attempted to breach a set of doors into the Chamber where officials were sheltering in place. Gosar’s outrage at the police treatment of these “protestors” is off, too, considering he waded into controversy last year by supporting Kyle Rittenhouse, a teen who’s been charged with killing people taking part in a Black Lives Matter protest.

In that instance, Gosar tweeted his belief that Rittenhouse had a right to bear arms and labeled him as simply an “armed citizen defending himself.” The Congressman tweeted his outrage at Babbitt’s death while the hearing was still taking place — though presumably after he’d been given ample time to rant in front of the mic.

Torres (real name Mackenzie Scott) had a strong showing in early 2020 with her fourth album, Silver Tongue. Now, a bit over a year later, she’s already returning with more: Her next album, Thirstier, is set for release on July 30 via Merge Records.

She previewed the effort today with a video for “Don’t Go Puttin Wishes In My Head,” an upbeat rocker that Scott says shows off a newfound sense of joy she has felt in her life recently: “I’ve been conjuring this deep, deep joy that I honestly didn’t feel for most of my life. I feel like a rock within myself. And I’ve started to feel that I have what it takes to help other people conjure their joy, too.” She also says of the album, “I wanted to channel my intensity into something that felt positive and constructive, as opposed to being intense in a destructive or eviscerating way. I love the idea that intensity can actually be something life-saving or something joyous.”

On top of that, she also announced big North American and European tours. She’ll be in the US between August and October, then she’ll hit Europe in March 2020.

Watch the “Don’t Go Puttin Wishes In My Head” video above. Below, find the Thirstier art and tracklist, as well as Torres’ upcoming tour dates.

1. “Are You Sleepwalking?”
2. “Don’t Go Puttin Wishes In My Head”
3. “Constant Tomorrowland”
4. “Drive Me”
5. “Big Leap”
6. “Hug From A Dinosaur”
7. “Thirstier”
8. “Kiss The Corners”
9. “Hand In The Air”
10. “Keep The Devil Out”

08/29/2021 — Fairfield, CT @ StageOne
08/30/2021 — Portsmouth, NH @ Press Room
08/31/2021 — Cambridge, MA @ Sonia
09/03/2021 — Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place
09/13/2021 — Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Tavern
09/14/2021 — Columbus, OH @ Ace of Cups
09/15/2021 — Detroit, MI @ Marble Bar
09/16/2021 — Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
09/17/2021 — Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
09/18/2021 — Kansas City, MO @ Record Bar
09/19/2021 — St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway
09/21/2021 — Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
09/22/2021 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
09/25/2021 — Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Festival
09/27/2021 — Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern
09/28/2021 — Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
09/30/2021 — San Francisco, CA @ Brick & Mortar Music Hall
10/01/2021 — Santa Cruz, CA @ Atrium @ Catalyst
10/02/2021 — San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
10/03/2021 — Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour
10/04/2021 — Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge
10/06/2021 — Dallas, TX @ Deep Ellum Art Co.
10/07/2021 — Houston, TX @ Bronze Peacock
10/08/2021 — Austin, TX @ 3TEN @ ACL Live
10/11/2021 — Chattanooga, TN @ House Show
10/12/2021 — Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
10/13/2021 — Asheville, NC @ ISIS Asheville
10/14/2021 — Nashville, TN @ EXIT/IN
10/15/2021 — Knoxville, TN @ Open Chord
10/16/2021 — Durham, NC @ The Pinhook
10/17/2021 — Washington, DC @ Union Stage
10/18/2021 — Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
10/21/2021 — New York, NY @ The Bowery Ballroom
03/11/2022 — Glasgow, UK @ Mono
03/12/2022 — Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
03/13/2022 — Manchester, UK @ Night & Day
03/14/2022 — Bristol, UK @ Exchange
03/15/2022 — London, UK @ Bush Hall
03/17/2022 — Paris, FR @ La Boule Noire
03/18/2022 — Gent, BE @ Charlatan
03/19/2022 — Utrecht, NL @ Ekko
03/21/2022 — Berlin, DE @ Frannz Club
03/22/2022 — Hamburg, DE @ Uebel & Gefährlich (Turmzimmer)
03/23/2022 — Cologne, DE @ Bumann & SOHN
03/24/2022 — Heidelberg, DE @ Karlstorbahnhof
03/25/2022 — Zürich, CH @ Rote Fabrik
03/26/2022 — Bologna, IT @ Locomotiv

Thirstier is out 7/30 via Merge Records. Pre-order it here.

The Venture Bros. took notoriously long breaks between seasons, so I held out hope that Adult Swim canceling Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer’s brilliant animated series last September was a late-April Fools’ Day prank. It wasn’t, but Hank, Dean, Rusty, Brock, the Monarch, Dr. Mrs. the Monarch, and Master Billy Quizboy are coming back: Adult Swim announced that The Venture Bros. is getting a follow-up movie, as are Metalocalypse and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Mastodon better perform the intro again.

Each film will be released “on Blu-ray/DVD and On Demand for a 90-day exclusive window,” according to the Hollywood Reporter, followed by HBO Max and Adult Swim premieres.

Here are the descriptions for the movies:

Metalocalypse: “The power-hungry TRIBUNAL unveils their secret and deadly “Falconback Project” as the world grows in embattled chaos and the menacing Doomstar breaches the Earth’s atmosphere while the mysterious and twisted dissent of a band member threatens the future of Dethklok. Picking up directly after the heroic rescue of Toki Wartooth: Can Dethklok choose between their egos and the greater good of the world to embark on a gauntlet of dangers that will try their very souls and finally write the song that will be their salvation? The new movie is created by Brendon Small and Tommy Blancha. The movie soundtrack will be released on WaterTower Music.”

The Venture Bros.: “Doc’s latest invention will either bankrupt the Ventures or launch them to new heights, as Hank searches for himself, Dean searches for Hank, The Monarch searches for answers, and a mysterious woman from their pasts threatens to bring their entire world crashing down on them. The Venture Bros. is created, written and executive produced by Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer.”

Aqua Teen Hunger Force: “A continuation of the hit animated series, fans will find out what happens next with Frylock, Meatwad, and Master Shake, who consider themselves crime fighters, but the truth is they never fight crime. Aqua Teen Hunger Force is created by Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis and follows the strange everyday lives of three human-sized food products living in New Jersey.”

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

It’s been nearly a year since Lady Gaga released her energetic album Chromatica, and she’s already working on a remix album. The singer has tapped producer BloodPop to take the reigns on the project, and they’ve so far confirmed that the hyperpop musician Dorian Electra will appear on the project. Fans are hoping that UK singer Rina Sawayama will land a spot on the project, and it looks like they will get their wish.

Sawayama appeared at the 2021 Brit Awards Tuesday night where she teased her appearance on the Chromatica remix project. Speaking in an interview on the red carpet, the singer dropped some hints that points to her remix of Gaga’s “Free Woman” track. “The wish is on the internet. I’ve done my bit, I’ll just say that,” she said about her feature on the project. “It’s a song that was hard to sing with my new braces. My S’s are fine, it’s my F’s that are a bit weird, so I’ll leave you with that.”

When asked if she had plans to open for Gaga’s rescheduled 2021 stadium tour The Chromatica Ball, Sawayama said she knows her music is on the singer’s radar. “It’s my actual lifetime goal,” she said about taking the stage ahead of Gaga. “I heard so knows me, her team knows about me, so fingers crossed, I’ll have to be wheeled out in a stretcher every night because I’ll just be gagged.”

Watch Sawayama’s red carpet interview at the 2021 Brit Awards above.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and his phone shenanigans continue to accelerate, this time while disrespecting his Senate colleagues to tweet about.. huh? What a year it’s been for the much maligned senator from Texas when it comes to phones. Someone leaked his wife’s texts about his ill-advised Cancun vacation during a devastating ice storm, and Ted also got busted playing on his phone during opening Senate testimony about the MAGA insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, which Ted helped to incite.

Well, Ted is at it again, and this time, he’s not even trying to pretend otherwise because he was Cruz-ing Twitter while Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) directly spoke to him during the Senate Rules Committee meeting on Tuesday. The Recount tweeted out the below video of Cruz blatantly ignoring Klobuchar as she berated him for pushing the falsehood that the presidential election results were wrong. “So you wonder why we want to make sure that people have the right to vote?” Klobuchar asked (via Mediaite) while referencing the failed MAGA coup. “Well, it’s because of this kind of rhetoric and this kind of behavior… when you ask why we are still interested in protecting our democracy from that day of January 6th on, I think that’s your answer.”

So, what was Ted so busy doing on Twitter? He was, strangely enough, replying to a tweet from The Recount, which pointed out that he “appears to be a Diet Dr. Pepper guy.” Cruz’s answer, timestamped to 4:17 while he was ignoring Klobuchar, was “Yep.”

Here’s a visual of the time stamps in action:

Well, at least he wasn’t caught “liking” porn again on Twitter?

Naturally, people dragged him for this on Twitter. “Deadbeat of the Senate” seems like a fair label for a guy who won’t put his phone away while drawing a generous government salary, regardless of party affiliation.

MF DOOM‘s peers and admirers are still grieving his loss. When his death was announced on New Year’s Eve last year, many lamented the untimely demise of one of the foremost underground rappers in hip-hop and a pioneer for the genre. Run The Jewels member El-P took it a step further during the latest episode of Open Mike Eagle’s Stony Island podcast What Had Happened Was, calling DOOM’s death “a severe blow to the writing world” as a whole.

“I don’t just mean the rap world, lyric writing, [but] human writing,” he clarified. “The world lost an important writer.”

The episode, which was recorded in early January after the news broke, mainly focuses on El-P’s experience producing Killer Mike’s R.A.P. Music LP, which laid the groundwork for their future partnership as Run The Jewels. It’s part of a multi-part series exploring El-P’s near-30-year career as a producer and rapper, from his beginnings in the New York underground as a member of Company Flow through his work as a label owner and near-mythic figure in the hip-hop world, much like DOOM.

Open Mike Eagle, meanwhile, paid tribute to his fallen collaborator in January, recording and sharing a freestyle borrowing DOOM’s iconic flow and paying tribute to the villain’s penchant for trolling his fans with doubles at one point in his career. You can listen to Open Mike and El-P’s latest episode of What Had Happened Was here.

Youth squads throughout MLS will head to Dallas for the inaugural MLS NEXT Cup next month. The league announced on Wednesday morning that the event, which takes place from June 25-July 3, will pit 32 teams in four different age groups against one another in a single-elimination knockout tournament based on the number of points per game accrued during the MLS NEXT regular season.

“The MLS NEXT Cup Playoffs will provide more opportunity for clubs to play important matches and our players to further showcase their abilities in front of scouts and coaches,” MLS NEXT technical director Fred Lipka said in a statement. “This will be the culmination of an exciting season and serve as a celebration of everything our players, coaches, referees and staff achieved over the last year.”

Four of the six age groups that make up MLS NEXT will be represented during the tournament, as teams from the U15, U16, U17, and U19 levels will make their way to Dallas. Per a release, 25 of the games will air on MLS’ official website, while six of them will take place at FC Dallas’ home, Toyota Stadium. It’s the next step forward for the youth soccer league that MLS launched 2020, which includes a total of 521 teams and more than 11,000 players across the United States and Canada.

As for the location, FC Dallas has been one of MLS’ premier clubs with regards to developing young talent — Juventus standout Weston McKennie and Bayern Munich youngster Chris Richards both came up through the system before making their respective jumps to Europe. This commitment to being a springboard for young players was mentioned in Dallas manager Luchi Gonzalez’s statement about the tournament coming to the city.

“We are very excited to host the inaugural MLS NEXT Cup at our facilities,” Gonzalez said. “As a club, developing homegrown talent is something we have been focused on for many years and is evident in the talented players emerging from our club. MLS NEXT is an extremely valuable component as we continue to enhance the professional player pathway and we look forward to welcoming the best players in our country to Dallas in June.”

Kelly Clarkson won the first season of American Idol, recorded “Since U Been Gone” (a perfect song), and hosts a successful talk show. But to millions, she’ll forever be most associated with Steve Carell having his chest waxed — and Seth Rogen is to blame.

“I want to know if it’s true… it’s your fault that people scream my name everywhere I go,” she told guest Seth Rogen during Tuesday’s episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, referring to the iconic line from The 40-Year-Old Virgin. “I could literally do anything in the world, doesn’t matter how many hits, [or] what I do in life, I could save a family from drowning, fires… and literally the one thing people know me from is ‘ahh, Kelly Clarkson!’” After apologizing, Rogen explained where “ahh, Kelly Clarkson!” came from.

“We knew Carrell was going to be waxed and he wouldn’t be able to think clearly probably, so we wanted to just be able to feed him things to say,” he said. “We don’t always like to have profanities. Judd was like, ‘You should write a list of jokes that are dirty jokes and a list of clean jokes.’ And it was hard to write the clean jokes” (Apatow previously shared the full list of clean and dirty joke ideas, including “trash heart” and “burger panties”). Rogen “honestly” thinks that he was “sitting on my couch writing the jokes and you came on television. I saw you and it was Kelly Clarkson!”

You can watch the interview above.

After her major breakout moment, Olivia Rodrigo has continuously praised Taylor Swift as her hero. The singer was over the moon when her song “Drivers License” was placed next to Swift on the iTunes chart, and Swift even tapped her and fellow Gen Z singer Conan Gray to help her tease some snippets of her Fearless (Taylor’s Version) album. Despite their numerous interactions, Swift and Rodrigo have never actually met in person — until Tuesday night.

Rodrigo was finally able to link up with Swift in person at the 2021 Brit Awards ceremony. It was Rodrigo’s first-ever trip to the UK and she had been invited to perform her “Drivers License” hit on stage. Meeting up backstage, Swift and Rodrigo snapped a picture together to commemorate the moment.

Along with the photo, Rodrigo made a sweet gesture. She apparently penned a handwritten letter to Swift and delivered it to her at the ceremony, where she also handed out notes to stars like Harry Styles and the Little Mix members.

Rodrigo’s hand-delivered letter to Swift wasn’t their first piece of written correspondence. After Rodrigo’s breakout, Swift mailed the singer a letter about the importance of kindness. “I just adore her and that’s what I’ve literally been thinking about since I opened that thing last night, it’s the only thing in my brain,” Rodrigo said about Swift’s letter. “I actually can’t talk about it, I’m, like, going to cry. It’s so insane, I can’t even comprehend.”