Month: November 2021

Throughout the pandemic, moviegoers got used to studios delaying their blockbusters. After all, they couldn’t go to the movies. But even though movie theaters have slowly (if maybe not so surely) roared back, there’s still a whole lot of delaying going on. Disney bumped a slew of their movies, including MCU titles and the fifth Indiana Jones, to later release dates, partly due to production issues. And now Paramount is doing the same to two of their bigger projects — again.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio has rejiggered the release dates for two big movies in particular: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and whatever their next big Star Trek movie will be. The former will be the first in the franchise since 2018’s spin-off Bumblebee, and the first in the main series since 2017’s The Last Knight, which noticeably underperformed. Originally scheduled for June 24, 2022, it’s been delayed almost a year, to June 3, 2023.

Rise of the Beasts ditches series director Michael Bay for Creed II’s Steven Caple Jr, and swaps out Mark Wahlberg for Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback. It even jumps into the past, moving things to the 1990s and bringing in, as per Caple Jr., “prehistoric animals who travel through time and space.”

As for the next Star Trek film, who knows what’s up there. We do know that it will be helmed by WandaVision director Matt Shakman (and not, alas, Quentin Tarantino), though it’s unclear whether Chris Pine and team will be returning. But Trek as an overall franchise has never been more populated, with reams of shows on the studio’s streamer Paramount+. That film, whatever shape it takes, was once set to drop on June 9, 2023, but will now do so “only” half a year later, on Dec. 22, 2023.

(Via THR)

Bryson Tiller has a lot of music on the way. After he took just a little over five years without new music, he released his third album, Anniversary, at the end of last year. Once again, Tiller is gearing up to close out the year with a new release and he took to Twitter to make the announcement.

“Before we get into my next album, i wanted to share another special project i worked on for you guys,” he wrote in an Instagram post. “This one was really fun to make. Inspired by Bieber, Ariana, and by one of my loneliest holiday seasons ever.. A Different Christmas.” He added, “Happy Holidays from me to you, especially if you’re spending them alone!”

Tiller revealed that the project will arrive next Friday, November 19. Tiller also attached the cover art. The inspirational Christmas projects from Bieber and Grande that he refers to are most likely Bieber’s 2011 release Under The Mistletoe and Grande’s 2013 EP Christmas Kisses as well her 2015 EP Christmas & Chill.

The announcement comes after he gave an update on his upcoming album Serenity earlier this year. “Over the years, I realized how much f*cking music that I had for Serenity, all this different sh*t, so Serenity is now not one album, but it’s three albums,” he said. “It’s three volumes, one is a rap album, one is an R&B album, and then one is a pop album.”

You can view Tiller’s announcement for A Different Christmas above.

A Different Christmas is out 11/19 via Trapsoul/RCA.

The investigation into the tragedy at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival is still ongoing, but authorities took a moment to point out one incorrect piece of information that’s been floating around. Houston Police Chief Troy Finner spoke to reporters on Wednesday and walked back a previous report that said a security guard at the event was pricked with a needle and required Narcan after he went unconscious. “We did locate that security guard. His story is not consistent with those previous claims,” Finner said. “He says he was struck in his head, he went unconscious, and he woke up in the security tent. He says that no one injected drugs into him.”

The update comes after Variety and Complex both reported that Travis canceled a $5.5 million “one-off” performance in Saudi Arabia as a result of the Astroworld tragedy. He also canceled his upcoming headlining performance at the Day N Vegas festival which is set to occur on the weekend of November 12-14. According to Variety, a source said he was “too distraught to play.” Post Malone was later announced as a replacement for him.

The morning after the Astroworld Festival tragedy, Travis shared a written statement about the matter. “I’m absolutely devastated by what took place last night,” he wrote in part. “My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld Festival.”

How does one improve upon perfection? It’s something actor Jake Gyllenhaal and director Doug Liman may soon have to seriously ask themselves. As per Deadline, the two are circling a remake of Road House, the seminal, bonkers ‘80s action movie about an NYU philosophy grad student-turned-Deep South bouncer (Patrick Swayze) who eventually wages battle with an evil capitalist (Ben Gazzara).

MGM, hot off their big Amazon acquisition, as well as No Time to Die (with Licorice Pizza on the horizon), are looking to redo the film, though it’s unclear when their star will have time to do it. Gyllenhaal is on the cusp of shooting Guy Ritchie’s The Interpreter, with Everest due after that. (That one’s not to be confused with the 2015 film also called Everest, also with Gyllenhaal.) Still, the project is deemed to be “high priority,” though there’s no word if it will be a straight remake or take it in its own, possibly equally deranged path.

Then again, how does on remake Road House? It’s a flash-in-the-can masterwork, impossible to repeat. It had a beefcake star with a magnificent mane who took himself incredibly, beautifully seriously. Sam Elliott could still do roundhouse kicks (though perhaps he still can). It starts off as one batcrazy movie and turned into something even more surreal. It has a guy getting his windpipe ripped out and another being crushed by a stuffed polar bear. It’s not tongue-in-cheek but it’s not that serious either, in a way that’s strictly of the early Bush I era. It’s so great that people with smallish roles in it will, over 30 years later, still do interviews about it.

Then again, Gyllenhaal can at least fight. He got ripped back in 2015 for the boxing movie Southpaw. But even if it’s a dog, that shouldn’t affect fans of the 1989 original. After all, they know that pain don’t hurt.

(Via Deadline)

LeBron James has never shied away from making his feelings felt when it comes to issues beyond the basketball court, as the man who was famously told to “shut up and dribble” has used that to create his own mantra of “more than an athlete,” encouraging others to take stands and speak out on what is important to them.

He has been outspoken on issues of racism and police violence against the Black community, and the country is currently watching to see how the legal system will deal with Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot and killed two protestors in Kenosha, Wisconsin following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in the back, which left Blake paralyzed. Rittenhouse went on the stand on Wednesday and put on quite the scene, breaking down and causing a 10-minute recess so he could gather himself.

Many weren’t buying the Rittenhouse display on the stand, and among those calling BS on his tears was James, who tweeted that Rittenhouse “ate some lemon heads before walking into court” to try and fake tears.

James’ commentary can all but assure him of being a leading discussion point for conservative talk show hosts on Thursday, something he’s quite familiar with dating back to “shut up and dribble” and his infamous tweet calling Donald Trump “u bum” while he was the president.

The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse — the Illinois teen who shot three protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin last summer, killing two, and who was supported by both Fox News ghouls and has-been ’80s stars — started last week, and for the first week-and-a-half it was pretty quiet. That all changed on Wednesday. A lot happened. Rittenhouse himself took the stand and launched into a crying jag that left many doubting its sincerity. The judge melodramatically snapped at the prosecution. And at one point the former’s cellphone went off, which wouldn’t have been that big a deal except for the particularly song that was his ringtone.

It was the kind of perfect moment one sees only in movies. The defense team was in the middle of accusing the prosecution of trying to intentionally cause a mistrial — which, of course, they themselves later requested by the end of the day — when Judge Bruce Schroeder’s phone started blasting its ringtone. What was it? Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.”

First released in 1984, the tune was Greenwood’s attempt to forge a new patriotic anthem for the era of Reagan and cheesy synths. It was instantly dated and for years fell into obscurity…until it was revived during the Gulf War during the early ’90s…and again after the September 11 attacks. It was dusted off once more by Donald J. Trump, who has long used it as his walk-up song during rallies.

Was this is a giveaway — an accidental admission of Schroeder’s political biases? Or did he simply just really dig the song? Either is likely. And a quick perusal on social media reveals both left and right think Schroeder is against them.

Still, the moment — which would seem too on-the-nose in a work of fiction — did not escape people’s notice:

(Via The Daily Beast)

More than three years after Mac Miller’s tragic death, all three of his accused drug dealers have reached plea agreements for fentanyl distribution in connection to the rapper’s death. The last of the trio, Ryan Reavis, who is a 38-year-old resident of Lake Havasu, Arizona, agreed to plead guilty to the charge, according to Rolling Stone, who cited an announcement from the United States Attorney’s Office for Central District of California. Reavis was accused of giving counterfeit pills to a drug dealer who then sold them to Miller. According to the court records, the pills were given to Miller just two days before he passed away on September 7, 2018.

Reavis’ plea comes just weeks after the two other accused drug dealers in the case — Stephen Andrew Walter and Cameron James Pettit — pled guilty to the fentanyl distribution charge in the case. Walter “knowingly directed” Reavis to sell the pills to Pettit, who delivered them to Miller. “Reavis admitted in his plea agreement to knowing that the pills contained fentanyl or some other controlled substance,” the United States Attorney’s Office said on Wednesday. “In fact, the pills contained fentanyl.”

The United States Attorney’s Office says Petit’s case is still pending despite it being previously reported that he reached a plea agreement. In the coming weeks, Reavis and Walter are expected the officially plead guilty before a judge in Los Angeles.

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

Since Democrats took control of all three bodies of government, they’ve accomplished…well, not much. Despite lofty ambitions, they’ve ran into a number of obstacles, most prominently the filibuster and the mere two (2) intransigent Democrats who refuse to help them kill it so their party can get stuff done. One of the Democrats’ wishes is to enact the Freedom to Vote Act, which gives the nation’s election system a badly needed overhaul. But they can’t get that passed either. So the buck has been passed to celebrities, who did the best thing they could do drum up support for the bill: They made a parody ad.

It’s called “Electile Dysfunction,” and it stars a handful of famous faces making wink-winky sex jokes about our tragically broken system. The most prominent is MCU star and proud activist Mark Ruffalo, who joins Jake Johnson and Property Brothers’ Jonathan Scott as “regular people” hoping that voting was easier and better represented the people.

“Trouble maintaining a strong coalition? Tired of the parade of disappointing performances? Then you might be one of the 330 million Americans suffering from electile dysfunction,” the narrator crows.

“I get all excited about a new bill, a debate gets all hot and heated, we’ll move things to the floor, and right when we’re about to achieve a joint resolution — bam! A total government shutdown, premature capitulation,” one actor bemoans.

“Filibusting just doesn’t feel good anymore,” Ruffalo mourns.

There’s a lot of erectile dysfunction jokes to be had here, but it also makes a strong case for why people should care that the bill passes — which will almost certainly require axing that pesky filibuster. Should the Freedom to Vote Act pass, it promises, as per the fake ad, to end “your tired, sagging, floppy relationship with politics by making Election Day a holiday across the country, banning gerrymandering, expanding voter access and increasing integrity, blocking foreign interference, empowering everyday citizens and healing our democracy.”

Then again, the rapid-fire boilerplate warning at ad’s end claims the bill is “only for democracies healthy enough for electoral activity.” And that might not be America much longer…or it might not even be America right now.

You can watch the joke ad in the video above.

(Via The Hill)

After Monday’s night game against the Nuggets, where Nikola Jokic shoved Heat forward Markieff Morris from behind, no Miami players spoke to the media. Jokic did, saying he “felt bad,” but felt he needed to protect himself after what was deemed a Flagrant 2 from Morris. There has been plenty of chatter over the last two days about the shot from Jokic, with some like Shaq and Chuck saying they “liked” Jokic responding in that way, even if it was suspension worthy, and Jokic’s brothers getting into it with Markieff’s twin, Marcus, on Twitter.

In some of the first comments from a Heat player about the incident, longtime veteran and team captain Udonis Haslem said that he doesn’t believe that Jokic is a dirty player and that he wants Miami to “move on” from the incident.

“Obviously in a situation like that, alpha males and reactions take over,” Haslem said per the Miami Herald. “A couple of days later, we all want what’s best for everybody. I don’t think Jokic is a bad guy. I actually love him as a basketball player and I love him as a person. I think he’s a really good guy. I think emotions just got the best of everybody.”

“Looking at it a day or two later, I wish it wouldn’t have gone down the way it went down. But I don’t think he’s a bad guy, nor do I think he’s a dirty player. I’m also a guy who has definitely let emotions get the best of me sometimes. But I never hit nobody in the back, and I think that’s where it got a little murky. But I don’t think he’s a bad guy, and I don’t think he meant to hurt anybody. We don’t hold grudges, so it’s time to move on.”

Jokic was suspended for one game for the shove, while Morris and Heat guard Jimmy Butler were fined for their respective roles in the kerfuffle. Morris won’t play on Wednesday against the Lakers due to whiplash suffered from the shove.

These two teams play again near the end of November, so it will be worth keeping that game circled on the calendar simply because of this incident. However, if a veteran with the cache of Haslem says his side needs to move on, then perhaps there won’t be as much reason to worry about the rematch getting too physical.

Click to download here.

Kevin (Finnerty) Can Wait

On the latest Pod Yourself A Gun, Washington Post political reporter Dave Weigel joins Matt and Vince to talk about The Sopranos season six A, episode two, “Join the Club.”

This is the beginning of the Kevin Finnerty saga. Purgatory is a conference in Costa Mesa, heaven is a light in the distance, hell is the wildfire just outside of Costa Mesa, and the Buddhists are pissed about the scams you’re running, because David Chase is just a self-aware Janice.

Around here we of course appreciate Edie Falco, but please, put some respect on Robert Iler’s name as well. Tony, hanging on by a thread after catching a bullet with Pussy Malanga’s name on it, is all tubed up in a hospital bed and that has Carmela and AJ feeling big feelings. Dave and the PYAG boys agree, Iler and Falco are making these scenes, which are essentially monologues because Tony is in a coma, feel real as hell. Or at least as real as a fire outside of Costa Mesa.

There has been a lot of talk about what kind of adult AJ would be, but Dave has the freshest take, which is that AJ would think Elon Musk was cool and become an early Tesla investor, resulting in a fortune, and eventual death on Dan Bilzerian’s yacht.

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-Description by Brent Flyberg.