Month: July 2021

A new Chucky TV series trailer arrived during this weekend’s low-key, virtual San Diego Comic-Con, and the good-bad news is that the O.G. homicidal doll shall never die. Granted, James Wan’s murderous doll creation, Annabelle, actually surfaced in history before Chucky, but the Child’s Play movies debuted before The Conjuring universe, and even more importantly, Chucky apparently killed Annabelle in a poster during the lead up to the 2019 movie. Yes, that feels like a century ago, and the same goes for the mid-2020 teaser that kept things very mysterious regarding who would voice Chucky. Well, this trailer puts that mystery to rest. Mark Hamill may have been the most recent Chucky, but original voice actor Brad Dourif will return for this USA Network/SyFy sequel series.

Also notably, Jennifer Tilly will return as Tiffany Valentine, but this trailer largely focuses on Zackary Arthur’s Jake, who makes the mistake of adopting Chucky at a garage sale. He soon discovers that Chucky’s running the joint even without batteries, and it doesn’t take too long before the doll’s wielding a knife and you know what that means. As Chucky puts it, this will be the “World Series of slaughter.” Yep, this show likely won’t bring anything too new to the table, but at least it will stay consistent in an honest manner. That’s because Child’s Play franchise writer (and director of three of the movies) Don Mancini created the series and will act as showrunner. From the synopsis:

An idyllic American town is thrown into chaos after a vintage ‘Good Guy’ doll turns up at a suburban yard sale. Soon, everyone must grapple with a series of horrifying murders that begin to expose the town’s deep hypocrisies and hidden secrets. Meanwhile, friends and foes from Chucky’s past creep back into his world and threaten to expose the truth behind his mysterious origins as a seemingly ordinary child who somehow became this notorious monster.

The Chucky TV series premieres on October 12.

Netflix bet on dead with Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, and that bet apparently paid off handsomely, which is a good thing because there’s already a prequel in the can and on the way to your queue. The prequel doesn’t take place terribly far into the past, either. Matthias Schweighöfer returns to the franchise as Dieter, a then-bank teller who’s recruited by a very convincing Nathalie Emmanuel (who promises “a life less ordinary”) to begin his heisting career.

Of course, this prequel isn’t entirely devoid of zombies. The outbreak already existed, given that this is Snyder’s zombie universe, and soon enough, the safes start cracking, or rather, Dieter gets to cracking them. In the process, he gets sucked into a lot more action that he probably bargained for, including a speedboat chase. The rabid Snyder fans will be here for it. From the synopsis:

In this prequel to Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, small-town bank teller Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer) gets drawn into the adventure of a lifetime when a mysterious woman recruits him to join a crew of Interpol’s most wanted criminals, attempting to heist a sequence of legendary, impossible-to-crack safes across Europe.

Netflix’s Army of Thieves will debut this fall. Here’s some key art, which includes this tag line: “Nothing is a safe bet.” Nice.

There is a tremendous amount of planning required in putting on an Olympic event, as officials at the highest levels of each sport try to ensure that everything goes off without a hitch, as it is often the biggest stage some of the smaller sports will get to put their athletes on display.

Everything is meticulously planned, but sometimes you just can’t account for someone with a jumpy trigger finger as we learned at the start of the men’s triathlon competition. As the athletes all gathered at the starting platform for the swimming leg of the event, one of the boats that helps guide the athletes along and also houses camera crews was steadily trolling along in front of the platform, getting some long panning shots before the official start.

Unfortunately, the starter somehow didn’t see the giant boat that was blocking half the field from getting into the water and so when the flag went up to indicate all the athletes were in position, they smashed the start button leading to an incredible scene where half the field took off and the rest couldn’t go anywhere because of the big ol’ boat.

The boat trying to speed out of the way is an all-time “oh no” moment, and shouts to the guys at the far end who jumped in front of the boat thinking maybe they just had to beat an extra obstacle. They would eventually wrangle all of the guys who got in the water by driving boats in front to turn them around and restart, and from there the race would go on without another hitch, but it’s certainly an embarrassing moment for the folks driving the boat and the starter who jumped the gun, literally, on starting the race. The announcers were especially hilarious as they watched the replay, trying to figure out how the starter couldn’t see the boat that was right there. We’ll have to wait for the end of the race to see if any of the competitors blame the false start for a poor finish, but it was certainly an unusual sight on a stage as big as the Olympics.

Five years elapsed in between Bryson Tiller’s sophomore album, True to Self, and his third, Anniversary. While the wait for the album was a long one, the singer gave fans several loose tracks over the years as quick treat, incliuding “Blame” and his remix of Drake’s “Finesse.” Now, as fans wait for his next body of work, Tiller returns with another quick track. Called “One Sided,” it’s a soulful track that sees him attempting to pick up the pieces of a broken heart.

The song is produced by 30Roc, Bass Charity, Hue Strother and DaBlackMic, and with lines like “If he swear you wanna be, I guess you deserve him” and “And you don’t need no stress from me, I guess / I should just leavе, I guess,” it’s clear Tiller is writing from the heart.

On a more recent note, Tiller appeared beside HER on “I Can Have It,” from the latter’s debut album, Back Of My Mind. He also teamed with DJ Khaled, Lil Baby, and Roddy Ricch in a video for “Body In Motion,” their collaboration from Khaled’s most recent project, Khaled Khaled.

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

Just to recap: Donald Trump spent part of the last stretch before the November election he lost singing the praises of the forthcoming COVID-19 vaccines. Then he lost. Then the vaccines came out. Then he stopped talking about. Then a large chunk of his supporters didn’t get vaxxed. Now a lot of them are dying. And it’s caused some — but by no means all — major Republicans to belatedly beg people to get the thing that could save their lives.

One of them is Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s second — and second least-liked — press secretary. Over the weekend, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published a column from her, in which she finally implored people to get the life-saving measure her former boss has taken credit for, even if he stops short of saying they should definitely get it.

“Like many of you, I have had a lot of misinformation thrown at me by politicians and the media during the pandemic. And, like many of you, I spent a lot of time sorting through it all, trying to make the best decision I could for myself and my family,” she wrote. “Based on the advice of my doctor, I determined that the benefits of getting vaccinated outweighed any potential risks.”

Let’s ignore that a lot of that misinformation came from her former boss himself, who downplayed the severity of the pandemic, even after he knew how catastrophic it would be. Let’s even ignore one of the stranger aspects of her plea: that in her tweet directing vaccine skeptics to get vaccinated, she referred to it as the “Trump vaccine.”

Ordinarily this would be offensive. Trump has done almost nothing to steer his stubborn base to get dosed. When he has, he’s undercut that message, possibly out of fear of losing the support of people who would die if it meant owning the libs.

But a lot of people decided to take the high road: If giving it a bogus name it in no way deserves convinces people to not put their life unnecessarily at risk, call it whatever you want.

Some still laughed at Sanders, which one could say is deserved.

Others played dumb with the meaning of the term “Trump vaccine.”

And others broke down the logic of those who remain unconvinced that they need to get a perfectly safe vaccine to protect them from a perfectly un-safe disease.

So, yes, please get vaccinated, if you haven’t already. It’s not a plot against your freedom. It’s so you don’t die a preventable death.

A little over a year after the world received his posthumous debut album, Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, Pop Smoke’s team regrouped to unveil another one, entitled Faith. It arrived earlier this month, with 20 songs and appearances from Kanye West, Pusha T, Rick Ross, The-Dream, 42 Dugg, 21 Savage, Dua Lipa, and many more. A week and a half after its release, Faith just became the second No. 1 album for the late musician.

The album debuted atop the Billboard 200 for the chart dated July 31. Faith achieved this by selling 88,000 total album units, with 83,000 of that being streaming equivalent album units, thanks to over 113 million on-demand streams of the album’s tracks. Pure albums sales contributed an additional 4,000 units to its first week numbers. Faith joins Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon as the No. 1 projects in Pop Smoke’s catalog, and it makes for his third album to enter the top 10 of the Billboard 200.

Faith debut atop the album charts comes days after a deluxe edition of the project was released. In total, four songs with guest appearances from G Herbo, OnPointLikeOP, Killa, Dread Woo, and Travi were added to the album.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It was a good weekend for regular folks saying mean things to conservative figures. On Saturday, the internet blew up upon seeing video of a Montana man calling Tucker Carlson, to his face, “the worst human being known to mankind.” The gentleman in question went pretty light on him. He could have done what a Kentucky citizen did to Senator Rand Paul, and told him where to go, albeit not in those words.

As per HuffPost, the Republican lawmaker — and frequent Dr. Fauci punching bag, forever setting himself up to be schooled by someone who knows more about immunology than he does — held a virtual town meeting. But most people only saw one part: The part where he get cussed out.

The person doing the cussing was one Alexis Toon, who told HuffPost that “for some unknown reason” the people putting on the event called her to ask if she would participate. Despite being evidently not a fan of the son of libertarian superstar Ron Paul, who named him for Objectivist author Ayn Rand, she agreed. But she had more of a comment than a question, and her contribution to the event was a mere one sentence long.

“Hi, senator, I am a proud Kentucky citizen, and I just wanted to tell you to get f**ked,” Toon told the senator, who sat there awkwardly after hearing from one of his constituents.

The video was initially uploaded to TikTok, but it spread like wildfire when it migrated over to Twitter. It’s 25 seconds long, meaning you can play it ad infinitum. Maybe it will make you feel temporarily better that Paul is one of the leading Republicans when it comes to spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, which could save the lives of the many Trump supporters dominating new cases and related deaths these days.

(Via HuffPost)

There were a lot of panels at this weekend’s virtual San Diego Comic-Con, but among the biggest was for the forthcoming Dexter limited series, which will bring back everyone’s favorite serial killer-killing serial killer (Michael C. Hall) for at least one more batch of episodes. Unlike some participating shows, there was no trailer, but there were two big reveals: a premiere date and the season’s killer du jour.

First off, the still-not-named Dexter return will start its 10-episode run on Nov. 7, on Showtime, its original home. It will also not simply pick things up where it left off, especially as where it left off is highly controversial, even among die-hards.

“It was important that this not be Dexter season 9,” said Clyde Phillips, the show’s showrunner from Season 1 through 4. “We wanted to acknowledge that nearly 10 years have passed and we pick up with Dexter being in another place far away from Miami.”

They also revealed the new cast members, including Alano Miller, Johnny Sequoyah, and David Magidof. There’s also Clancy Brown, the seasoned character actor — you know him from Highlander, The Shawshank Redemption, Starship Troopers, and last year’s Promising Young Woman. Brown will play this season’s main antagonist, joining such august company as John Lithgow, Christian Camargo, Edward James Olmos, Colin Hanks, Jonny Lee Miller, and more.

Earlier it was reported that Lithgow and Jennifer Carpenter were both returning in some fashion, though it’s unclear how, given that both they’re characters [spoiler].

You can watch the full Dexter panel below.

Welcome back to UPROXX’s Athlete Heat Index, where sports marketing executive and self-described “brand geek” Michael Ehrlich ranks athletes by the strength of their personal brands. The latest ranking is inspired by the Tokyo Olympics kicking off with competition
already under way and the Opening Ceremonies on Friday.

With more than 11,000 athletes taking part in the Games across 33 sports, we focused on individual sport athletes. So you won’t find big name team sport personal brands like Kevin Durant, Megan Rapinoe, Damian Lillard or Sue Bird on this lis, but instead the athletes who compete on their own and leverage the Olympics stage to drive their ongoing career and brand trajectory.

The Games are a unique platform because every four years (five in this case), athletes have a small window of opportunity to build their brand and tell their story. Traditionally, Olympic sports do not receive consistent mainstream media or fan attention in non-Games years therefore it’s imperative for these athletes to leverage the time leading up to, during and after the Games to connect deeper with fans and potential sponsors to set them up for consistent brand success in non-Olympic moments.

Here are few U.S. Olympic athletes with the strongest personal brands ahead of the Games:

HONORABLE MENTION

Sha’Carri Richardson, Track & Field

Unfortunately, Richardson is technically not an Olympian but there couldn’t be a list of top personal brands without mention of her incredible trajectory over the last few weeks. Despite not being allowed to compete in Tokyo, she is absolutely a case study how to authentically build a genuine brand, especially during challenging times.

Her story – dominance at the Olympics Trials, failed drug test and ultimate suspension from the Games – are all well documented, but it’s how the 21-year-old handled the rollercoaster of a Summer that distinguishes her personal brand. Fans and media fell in love with Richardson’s personality during her success at the Trials – her dominance on the track, her confidence in interviews, combined with a heartfelt family backstory resonated with so many people and made her an early favorite for the most popular U.S. Olympian.

However, when news broke of her failed drug test and suspension, she didn’t run and hide, instead taking it all in stride while remaining true to her authentic self, only further connecting with fans, media and even future brand partners. Richardson opened up to The Today Show about why she failed the test, providing context as to the personal challenges she’s been dealing with and reiterating the fact that although she runs faster than most, she is still human. This genuine narrative extended as celebrities, athletes, fans and her main sponsor Nike showed love and support via social media and a “Let Sha’Carri Run!” fan petition quickly garnered close to its goal of 600K signatures.

Although she was still barred from competing in Tokyo, Richardson continued to own her story as she made her first public appearance at The ESPYs, where host Anthony Mackie included support for her in his opening monologue. The continued momentum for her skyrocketed her notoriety, social media footprint and ultimate interest from future brand partners.

Her personal brand fully crossed over into pop culture when she starred in a surprise commercial from Beats by Dre that premiered during the deciding Game 6 of the NBA Finals and highlighted the “Live Your Truth” message that resonates so authentically with Richardson. The spot featured a new Kanye West song and announced his highly anticipated new album was launching two day later. Richardson being associated with one of the most polarizing personalities in West and connected to one of the strongest brands in Beats took her narrative to new heights.

She will no doubt remain one of the most talked about athletes at the Games even without being in Tokyo and her next race in August should set viewership number records as she has plans for “putting on a show.” The stage is set for a major comeback on the track, but her personal brand is already in top shape for continued success as Richardson just scratches the surface of a long career.

BRONZE MEDAL

Christina Clemons, Track & Field

You might not know Clemons by name (yet), but you’ve probably seen photos of the U.S. hurdler who qualified for the Olympics while wearing mini Cool Ranch Doritos earrings. The organic placement – Clemons forgot to pack earrings for the Trials, so she grabbed a few pairs at a local store – and how she engaged with Doritos on social media, is a lesson for all public figures on how to create your own authentic brand partnership. She quickly jumped on a unique opportunity to engage with a brand and leverage the short window of momentum to capitalize.

After qualifying for the Olympics, Clemons took to Twitter to celebrate her achievement with a few photos showing off her excitement, unique earrings and asking fans to “blow Doritos mentions UP.” Of course, her earrings earned massive editorial and social conversation and the chip brand quickly responded, setting the stage for an authentic reactive partnership. A few days later, “Cool Ranch Clemons” received a personalized bag of Doritos featuring her face and a congratulatory message from the brand. The continued media coverage of Clemons all included mention of her earrings and the seeds were planted for a formal partnership with Doritos.

When asked about the social media groundswell with Doritos, Clemons told The Washington Post, “I didn’t expect it. I was just being, you know, I’m just being me.” This authenticity is what all brands look for so it was no surprise that Doritos quickly made things official with a formal partnership, a tongue in cheek press release they posted on Twitter and a gold pair of earrings they sent to Clemons to
commemorate the deal. Now as “Cool Ranch Clemons” heads to Tokyo with a new nickname and brand partnership, all eyes will be on her earrings to see what Doritos she’ll be wearing.

SILVER MEDAL

Allyson Felix, Track & Field

Entering her fifth Games and only one medal away from being the most decorated Olympian in women’s track and field history, Felix is the ultimate case study for sustaining success over time. Through the years, global competitions and ridiculous number of medals, Felix’s
personal brand has continued to evolve and her influence off the track will remain long after she hangs up her spikes.

It has been her personal challenges though – especially a frightening premature birth of her daughter that put them both in danger – that led to her greatest impact. Indeed, in typical Felix fashion and just 10 months after giving birth, she won her 12th and 13th gold medals at the World Championships eclipsing Usain Bolt’s previous record and making her the most decorated athlete in World Championship history. But it was her testimony before Congress about racial disparities in maternal care and providing women of color with more support during their pregnancies that set the stage for Felix’s greatest accomplishments.

Felix challenged her longtime sponsor Nike in a New York Times op-ed for not supporting pregnant athletes, ultimately leaving the brand to join women- focused Athleta as their first athlete partner and setting the pace for Simone Biles to do the same recently. Through Athleta, Felix has been able to continue to support working moms in new ways. Together, they created the Power of She Fund, which will help cover childcare costs for athlete moms. The first recipients who are competing at the Olympics will receive $10,000 each towards childcare.

Further innovating on the brand front and creating new opportunities for women, Felix founded her own footwear company Saysh, designing sneakers for and by women. Her Saysh One lifestyle shoe made an iconic appearance alongside Felix in a recent TIME Magazine cover story that tracked her career journey and lasting impact on society. Felix will likely make Olympic history in Tokyo, but her legacy extends well
beyond the track.

GOLD MEDAL

Simon Biles, Gymnastics

The GOAT of GOATS, Biles easily earns the Gold Medal for strongest personal brand ahead of the Tokyo Olympics and with her expected success in these Games, she will cement her legacy even further. She already has four gold medals to her name (in addition to 25 world
championship medals) and could take home five more in most likely her last Olympics. But at just 23-years-old, Biles has an even longer career ahead of her outside of Olympic competition.

Although the window for Olympics athletes to build and sustain their personal brands is limited, Biles extends her narrative better than anyone else. In the lead up to these Games – in conjunction with her U.S. Trials performances going viral as she made gravity-defying routines look easy – she graced covers from Health Magazine to Sports Illustrated to Wall Street Journal Magazine to Glamour while
giving fans an even closer look at her life through a Facebook Watch series, “Simone vs Herself.”

From a marketing perspective, she’s been the focus of NBC’s Olympic coverage promotions that lean heavy into her GOAT label and has stared in commercials for such brand partners as Visa, Oreo and Uber Eats. Her recent move from Nike to female-focused Gap sportswear brand Athleta earned massive coverage and conversation, joining Allyson Felix in a “Power of She” marketing campaign highlighting the brand’s message of female empowerment and success through unity.

But it’s her bubbly personality and extreme confidence – in a petite 4’8 frame – that resonates most with fans and brands around the world. Tom Brady or Michael Jordan might be known as GOATs in their respective sports, but neither has ever worn a literal goat logo on their uniform like Biles. During the U.S. Trials – while landing moves never done by women before and inventing her own signature routine – Biles debuted a leotard featuring a bedazzled goat plus matching post-performance goat slides, to “hit back at the haters” who doubted her continued greatness. The confidence and fun but more than anything the accuracy of this GOAT title, truly separates Biles from the pack.

In the days leading up to the Games, Twitter launched a new GOAT emoji – wearing a red leotard with a gold medal around its neck – specifically for #Simone and #SimoneBiles. She’s the first Olympian to receive this social media execution and the first woman, following Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes earlier this year.

In a recent Morning Consult study, Biles jumped 95 spots from 2020 to be among America’s top five most popular sports figures in 2021 – trailing only Brady, Jordan and LeBron James. It’s no surprise that in another Morning Consult poll, the most popular Olympic sport for U.S. fans ahead of the Games is gymnastics. Not only is she building a historic personal brand, but she is literally carrying her sport to new heights and will cement her legacy as the GOAT of GOATS not just in these Olympics but moving forward in her future endeavors. Biles transcends
her sport and the Games overall, continuing to etch her name in the history books as one of the strongest personal brands of all-time.

Young Thug last released a solo album back in 2019. So Much Fun, the rapper’s debut album, became his most successful project, selling over 100,000 album units in the first week. At the time of its release, it seemed like he’d be back soon. He even said its follow-up would arrive a mere two months later. That never happened. But two years later, it seems like it may belatedly arrive.

During his performance at Miami’s Rolling Loud festival on Saturday, Young Thug an update on the long-awaited album. “Yo so listen,” Thug said onstage. “I’m about to put this album out, right? It’s called Punk. If I can perform something off of the album say hell yeah!” After taking in loud cheers from the crowd, the rapper went right into the new song, which he said is titled “Tik Tok.”

During a 2019 profile with Fader, during which Punk was first announced, Thug shared details about it. “It’s most definitely touching music,” he said. “It’s music that the world is going to embrace. […] [Punk] means brave, not self-centered, conscious. Very, very neglected, very misunderstood. Very patient, very authentic.” He also described the album as “real rap,” saying, “[Real rap is] letting people in, letting people know what you go through. Let them know that you the same. […] I just want to open up, Let people know that I’m not just a rapper, I’m a human being.”
Young Thug is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.