Month: March 2022

Just a few hours after being arrested in Hawaii for harassment and disorderly conduct, The Flash star Ezra Miller was hit with a temporary restraining order for allegedly threatening a couple in their bedroom and stealing their belongings. Miller was reportedly staying with the couple at a youth hostel. However, the situation took a turn for the worst when Miller began accosting the couple shortly after posting bail for the prior arrest at a nearby bar.

Via Variety:

According to Hawaii Police Assistant Chief Kenneth Quiocho, police escorted Miller off the property hours after they posted bail. A resident on the property called the police and asked for advice on removing two houseguests. The restraining order against Miller says the actor burst into the Hilo couple’s bedroom and threatened them. Miller allegedly stole some of the couple’s belongings, including a passport and wallet.

In light of the restraining order, local police also revealed that Miller has been the source of 10 police calls since arriving on the island on March 7. However, the AP reports those incidents were mostly of the nuisance variety “such as filming people at a gas station, refusing to leave the sidewalk area of a restaurant and arguing with people.” Clearly, the situation has escalated as Miller has now been arrested and hit with a restraining order for a separate incident all within the span of a few hours.

As of this writing, neither Variety nor the AP were able to get a comment from the actor’s agents, lawyers, or representatives.

(Via Variety, AP)

Only 49 movies have ever made over $1 billion at the global box office. It’s a lot of Marvel, and Star Wars, and Jurassic World, and James Cameron, but between Iron Man 3 and Captain America: Civil War at #22, there sits Minions. Rightly so: Kevin, Stuart, and Bob are banana- and fart-loving icons, and deserve to be treated as such. It’s unlikely that the sequel, Minions: The Rise of Gru, will cross the $1 billion mark (only one movie, the MCU’s monstrous Spider-Man: No Way Home, has joined the club since the start of the pandemic), but don’t be surprised if it’s another huge hit for Illumination.

Minions: The Rise of Gru follows Despicable Me evil mastermind Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) as a 12-year-old boy growing up in “1970s suburbia, plotting to take over the world from his basement,” according to the official plot description. His chaos is not going well until he “crosses paths with the Minions, including Kevin, Stuart, Bob, and Otto, a new Minion sporting braces and a desperate need to please… Together, they build their first lair, design their first weapons, and strive to execute their first missions.”

The Rise of Gru also introduces the Vicious 6, a supervillain supergroup made up Belle Bottom (Taraji P. Henson), Jean Clawed (Jean-Claude Van Damme), Nunchuck (Lucy Lawless), Svengeance (Dolph Lundgren), Stronghold (Danny Trejo), and Wild Knuckles (Alan Arkin) — until he gets ousted by the other members. That’s when Gru, a Vicious 6 fanboy, interviews to join the club, but he’s rejected. Here’s more:

The Vicious 6 is not impressed by the diminutive, wannabe villain, but then Gru outsmarts (and enrages) them, and he finds himself the mortal enemy of the apex of evil. With Gru on the run, the Minions attempt to master the art of kung fu to save him, and Gru discovers that even bad guys need a little help from their friends.

Also, the Minions fly a plane and get sucked into a toilet. That’s the good stuff. Minions: The Rise of Gru comes out on July 1.

A couple days ago, Diddy insisted that Will Smith and Chris Rock settled their differences after the former infamously slapped the latter during the 2022 Oscars. He said at the time, “That’s not a problem. That’s over. I can confirm that. […] It’s all love. They’re brothers.”

Since then, though, there have been reports that what Diddy said isn’t entirely accurate, as a TMZ report indicated Smith and Rock have not spoken since the slap. That report was later updated to note, “A source in Diddy’s camp tells us he never claimed Chris and Will met up — he spoke with them individually — and then reiterated what he said on stage, the two are brothers and ‘it’s all love.’”

Now, somebody close to Rock — his brother, actor and comedian Tony Rock — has weighed in, reiterating that Rock and Smith have not made up. Somebody asked Tony Rock on Twitter, “so Diddy was lying when he said Chris and Will made up that night and are good now?” He responded simply, “Yup.”

It would appear, then, the closest thing to contact the two have had since the incident was Smith’s public apology, which reads in part, “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”

While putting the finishing touches on his full-length debut album, singer Giveon spoke with Rolling Stone about his signature sound. Known for his deep, sultry, mature voice, Giveon has had a slew of hits over the past few years, including the viral TikTok hit “Heartbreak Anniversary” and “For Tonight.”

But the Grammy-nominated singer admits he initially wasn’t sure how to go about singing with his distinct voice, noting that the change in his voice in middle school took him by surprise.

“It was a baritone,” Giveon said. “I had no idea how to use it.”

After high school, Giveon attended a program at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, where he says he “gained confidence and support.” At the program, he was encouraged to listen to Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me To The Moon” for the first time. “I hadn’t heard anyone that sounded like me,” he said of hearing Sinatra’s voice.

Giveon also says he was surprised witnessing the success of “Heartbreak Anniversary” months after its official release.

“…[W]hat was also great was it had this [viral] moment, [and then] people stopped and listened to the song and decided they actually liked it,” he said.

Giveon is nominated for six Grammys this year, including Best R&B Song for “Heartbreak Anniversary” and Record Of The Year with his Justin Bieber and Daniel Caesar collaboration, “Peaches.”

Moon Knight is a very complicated show. One that, on paper, probably shouldn’t work. A show that dabbles in horror, comedy, adventure, and a serious discussion about dissociative identity disorder almost feels like it works through sheer force of will between its star, Oscar Isaac, and his collaboration with the filmmakers, one of them being Mohamed Diab, who directed over half the episodes, including the premiere. With Moon Knight, Oscar Isaac is going for it.

It helps that our protagonist, Steven (played by Isaac), knows about as much as we do. He’s a timid man who hears voices in his head. One is from Mark (also Isaac), a very confident alter ego. Another is from an Egyptian moon god with the booming voice of F. Murray Abraham. Steven is prone to blacking out, then waking up in far-off lands and having no clue what transpired in-between. He also sometimes becomes an entity known as Moon Knight. (Even writing this out is confusing and I’m still a bit dumbfounded that this series doesn’t just work, but is excellent.)

For his part, the Egyptian-born Diab has been making headlines lately, taking on Wonder Woman and The Rock for their depictions of Egypt. In that their depictions look nothing like Egypt. And, no, as Diab says ahead, Moon Knight also did not physically film in Cairo, but, as he explains they got as close as possible.

I guess you could say this with any project, but there’s a world where this easily does not work. There’s so much going on it’s remarkable this works as well as it does.

Smart, smart question. The biggest challenge for the director of this show was: how are we going to make this one unit? We have action, thriller, horror, comedy, and we’re talking about dissociative identity disorder very seriously. And at some point, the drama’s actually moving, so how can we feel that we’re not switching on and off from genres?

Right, that’s tough to do, because if it’s too scattershot it won’t work.

Absolutely. And I don’t know, we just kept working on this script, kept developing it, and kept going back to its core. And its core is the character study of it. Its core is someone who’s trying to live with himself and discovering that he is pulled into this crazy world. And in the same time, I think Jeremy Slater, who created the show, was leaning towards the Lemire run, which is disorienting, and it feels like we are in someone’s head. It’s just like you want to see the world. That was our intention, seeing the world from someone who’s living with DID.

I like how in the first episode we are only with Steven. In a show like this where it’s so complicated, if all the characters have everything figured out and know what’s going on right away, we in the audience going to be confused. But when the main character is as confused as we are, it brings us into it.

That was intentional. There’s so much to unfold, so much to talk about. So if the two of you, I mean the audience and the character, are having that journey? We can understand or actually wait and understand with him. And I think one of the most brilliant things from Marvel and Jeremy was grounding Steven into an everyday guy, because usually he isn’t. He’s actually a rich guy in the comics. Grounding him into an everyday guy and discovering, seeing things through his eyes and then discovering that he has another identity and going through that. I love that. I love that about it.

I’ll say this before I ask because when you watch the show it works great. But I’ll admit when the trailer came out, we all think we know what Oscar Isaac sounds like, so when you first hear his Steven voice, it’s like, what is this? Were you worried about the reaction out of context?

Well, in everything you do, you worry about how people are going to receive it. Because I was working closely with Oscar, I have absolute trust in what he’s doing. By the way, he’s the one who came up with this accent. And I thought it was such a brilliant add to the story because it immediately distinguished between the two of them. But I would say that what really makes the difference between them is his acting. He becomes each one of them. I always tell him, you get taller when you are Mark. You see the demeanor changes.

Yeah, now having seen it, it makes sense why everyone wants to be involved. Oscar is going all out in this…

He carries the show on his shoulders. But I want to tell you something to what you’re saying. Someone was asking me, what’s your dream project as a comic book fan or whatever? And I thought about it for a second, and then I said, I already did it. It is this show. What else would I dream of? You know what I mean? It has every element that any director would want to do. And at its core, my small intimate films, this feels like an extension of them. I feel like I brought who I am to the show.

I agree. And this is such a self-contained story. There’s so much going on in this, I don’t need anything else in the MCU to happen or show up…

I am proud that it stands on its own. It didn’t need any help from any other crossovers or whatever. And I’m proud that a lot of people are telling us that if there was no Marvel logo, you would think this is a different show. It stands on its own. It’s different. And it shows from the numbers of the trailer that people actually are eager to see something new.

When you said this is already your dream superhero project. Well, if there is another one you want to do, you’ve got every genre in this one to show someone to convince them to let you do it.

I agree, but it’s going to be… It is a risk, and it’s always crazy to do this recipe, and it worked. So I hope one day, I’m dreaming of one day expanding that world if I got the chance. By the way, Marvel doesn’t say anything about the future, so no one knows. I think it’s back to the fans. They decide if they want to see the character again or not. I’m optimistic that they’re going to love him.

I saw you mention that Marvel approached you, I think you said, just out of the blue. What does that mean? What does out of the blue mean? How does that work?

What I meant is usually I was writing my own projects. I am someone who doesn’t connect to every project. I only want to pitch to the projects that I feel I was born to do; I’m the best guy to tell that story. So my agents told me that project: it’s written, and they’re looking for a director. So I read it, and then me and Sarah, my wife, we put in this 200-page pitch and we knew right away we were going to get it. This is the project that we’re looking for. It has everything that we want: the drama elements, everything that as a director that I want to show. And it shows Egypt in the past and the future, which is something I’m so interested in. Ironically, one of the challenges was I kept saying I hate it when people shoot Egypt outside Egypt. That’s what we had to do at the end. But I’m so happy with my set designer, Stefania Cella, and my costume designer, Meghan Kasperlik, because they did what I dreamed of. What I kept criticizing in everyone else, they gave me Egypt. And without telling you what I just told you, you wouldn’t know. You would really think it’s Egypt.

Well, that’s what I wanted to ask you because as you just said, criticizing other projects, you’ve been making some headlines the last couple of days. You’re a braver man than me. You know, The Rock, he’s a big guy. I don’t know if you’ve ever been around him, but that’s a very large man.

Well, I want to tell you something. Honestly, the press is just like… I wish we only talked about Moon Knight, but sometimes I think I should focus on what we did, and that’s actually the best answer to those kind of things…

Well, I think you were talking about what you did, and I think what you’ve said are valid complaints. And what I did want to ask is, because you just kind of addressed it, how close did you get to actually getting to film in Egypt? And what was the final barrier to not being able to do that?

We wanted to get into production very fast, so the permits and stuff, it didn’t align with our schedule. Marvel really gave me everything that I dreamed of to create Egypt. We have a great visual effects supervisor, Sean Faden, and as I told you, Meghan and Stefania. The moment that we had that huge square in the middle of Budapest?

Yeah, it looked great.

That is Egypt. And I got all the Egyptian extras there. People, some of them were so emotional, told me, “I haven’t been in Egypt for five years, and I feel I am there.” I felt home all through the shooting because of that square being next to us every day.

Well, I’m out of time. Anyway, I’m over the moon for this. “Over the moon,” I didn’t mean to make a pun.

By the way, I wish we can talk again after seeing the rest of show because it gets darker and more emotional. It gets crazier.

I would love to talk to you again after the show.

I would love that.

‘Moon Knight’ begins streaming on March 30th. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

With Moon Knight now streaming on Disney+, Marvel fans not only got their first look at the live-action version the comic book hero, but also of the Egyptian deity who grants Moon Knight his powers: Khonshu. In the comics, Moon Knight is a “high priest” of Khonshu, who over the centuries has chosen a human avatar to do his bidding on earth. The mercenary Marc Spector (played by Oscar Isaac in the Disney+ series) has been the most prominent vessel for Khonshu in the comics. After a desert mission let Spector for dead, he was revived by the diety and began serving as his protector of the night.

Here’s how the Marvel Database describes Khonshu’s current iteration in the comics:

Khonshu is the nocturnal “God of the Moon”, “God of Vengeance” and the “Shepherd of to the Lost”. He was described as the “Greatest God of the Great Gods”. He represented the Moon, a universal symbol for the redemptive power of insubordination, femininity and sensitivity. He was protector of travellers in the night and guardian of travellers through time. He was a member of the Heliopolitan race of gods who lived in the extradimensional realm of Celestial Heliopolis adjacent to Earth and was worshipped by the people of Ancient Egypt.

A couple of things are going to jump out at MCU fans: Namely time-travel and the extradimensional realm business, which sounds a whole lot like the multiverse that’s been making its presence know in Marvel’s Phase 4 slate. As for whether the live-action version of Khonshu will explore those concepts remains to be seen yet. For now, he’s appeared briefly in the Moon Knight series during a terrifying scene where he attempts to rein in Steven Grant, one of Marc Spector’s split personalities.

However, Khonshu was heard several times during the episode. The disembodied voice calling Steven an “idiot” and telling him to protect the scarab from Ethan Hawke‘s Arthur Harrow? That was F. Murray Abraham as the Egyptian god. In true Marvel style, the live-action version of Khonshu will apparently have a little more… personality than in the comics, and frankly, we’re here for it.

Moon Knight is available for streaming on Disney+

On Machine Gun Kelly’s new album Mainstream Sellout, Lil Wayne makes two appearances, on “Drug Dealer” and “Ay!.” Kelly made an appearance of his own last night on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where he told the wild story of how Wayne got on the album at almost the last possible minute.

Kelly said he and Travis Barker called Wayne and asked if he wanted to drop by the studio and record a verse for “Drug Dealer.” Kelly continued:

“He was super down. He was like, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna pull up.’ This is around 8 o’clock. He pulls up around 1 a.m. The sprinter’s there and there’s all these security cameras. We’re like, ‘Dude, that’s Lil Wayne’s sprinter, this is crazy.’ We wait about an hour. The sprinter door opens, we’re like, ‘Oh my god, the door’s opening.’ He walks out, he comes in. He says ‘what’s up’ to everybody, I play the song, he’s like, ‘This is what we’re doing?’ I was like, ‘Yup.’

Then, he’s like, ‘You guys got time?’ We’re like, ‘All the time you need.’ He goes in this courtyard, walks around. He walks on the courtyard for like five… comes back in at like 6 in the morning. He’s like, ‘I didn’t make you wait too long, did I?’ We were all like, ‘No, man, no. What? No.” And he goes in the booth, does it in like one take. We freak out. I get in the car, I go wake Megan [Fox] up. I’m like, ‘Oh my god, Lil Wayne just got on the album.’”

As for how “Ay!” came together, that was a little more nerve-wracking, as Kelly continued:

“And then the album has to be turned in. We have this song called ‘Ay!.’ We’re like, ‘It just sounds like Lil Wayne should be on this one, too. Should we try?’ We call and they’re like, ‘Yeah, he’s gonna skate ’til 7 a.m. but like…’ And we’re like, ‘But the album needs to be turned in at 9:30.’ And they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, he got it.’

I set my alarm for 8:30. I woke up and I’m like, ‘Dude, Lil Wayne didn’t cut a song at 8 in the morning.’ Dude, the verse was there. He did a song at 8 in the morning.”

Watch the full interview above.

While filming Suicide Squad, Jared Leto famously went full Joker. You never want to go full Joker. He gifted Margot Robbie “the biggest black rat you could imagine,” and while promoting the movie at CinemaCon 2016, the actor said he presented “anal beads” and “used condoms” to “everybody” on set to “create a dynamic.” Leto now claims that he never did that (“99.9 percent of what people read is bullsh*t,” he told Entertainment Weekly as if he wasn’t the one who started the rumor), which would be easier to believe if Leto didn’t always take method acting to the extreme, including for Morbius.

“I almost never saw [Leto] getting into the role, it was more that Michael Morbius was on set,” director Daniel Espinosa told GamesRadar. “The moment he would exit his trailer, it would no longer be Jared Leto, and he would not want to be spoken to as Jared Leto.” He went on to praise Leto for being a “very committed actor” who’s “right in many ways.”

One such way: giving the best performance in House of Gucci, even with the most cartoonishly exaggerated Italian accent you’ve ever heard. He didn’t deserve a Razzie; he should have been nominated for an Oscar (I am being 97 percent serious here). Leto, as they say, understood the assignment.

After years of delays, Morbius finally comes out this Friday, April 1.

(Via GamesRadar)

As promised, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has launched a formal review of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars shortly after the comedian made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith. The incident has caused a significant amount of concern due to it overshadowing the other nominees — because one of the biggest movie stars in the world smacked a man on live TV and in front of hundreds of in-the-room eyewitnesses. On top of that, he was allowed to stay and give a speech, later after winning Best Actor. It was all very surreal.

To assuage concerns, the Academy sent a letter to members on Tuesday, which took a strong stance against Smith’s actions tarnishing the Oscars ceremony. The letter also confirmed a formal review is in process, but it’s gonna take a minute. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

To be clear, we condemn Mr. Smith’s actions that transpired Sunday night. As outlined in our bylaws, the Academy’s Board of Governors will now make a determination on appropriate action for Mr. Smith. As governed by California law regarding members of nonprofit organizations like the Academy, and set forth in our Standards of Conduct, this must follow an official process that will take a few weeks.

The letter also asks members to “respect your Board, Academy staff and the process,” which no doubt stems from the internal rift over how The Slap was handled. While some members feel the matter is best left to Smith and Rock to resolve personally (which, according to Diddy, they have), others have voiced their opinion that Smith should’ve been escorted out of the building immediately.

“Someone else should have accepted his award,” Academy branch member Rutanya Alda told THR. “Why did he get a pass?”

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

(Moon Knight spoilers will be found below.)

Moon Knight is upon us, and as promised by Kevin Feige, it’s far more “brutal” than anything we’ve ever seen before in the MCU. It’s also, overall, very unlike any other Disney+ show in its stunning depth, evident already in the first episode. It’s truly the “Oscar Isaac power hour,” which is how our own Mike Ryan put it, and my goodness, what a showcase of Isaac’s talents that show’s turning out to be. The show’s full of chaos and trippy moments, and Oscar Isaac might be Space Daddy, but he’s really going through the paces here while playing a character with dissociative identity disorder.

Ethan Hawke, so far, is also (unsurprisingly) captivating as his David Koresh-esque cult leader/villain whose full intents are (of course) not yet clear, but there’s one character who people already can’t get enough of.

I’m not talking about the two main Isaac splits (so far), mild-mannered Steven Grant and mercenary Marc Spector, although that dynamic is highly memeable with the mirror thing going on, which provides for some of the more stunning visuals (not actually Kermit).

Nope, I’m referring to the character who’s mocking the hell out of poor Steven and clearly preferring Marc. You know, that character with the booming voice (F. Murray Abraham) who happens to be an Egyptian deity. That would be Khonshu. He’s already far more intriguing than many MCU antagonists and feels like he’d be right at home next to a miffed Wanda Maximoff. Khonshu is a god, sure, but he’s also an outcast, and he has no patience whenever Steven’s in charge of Oscar Isaac’s body instead of Marc.

The effect of Khonshu calling Steven an “idiot” and a “worm” and a “parasite” is quite funny, although he’s not used as mere comic relief. There’s much more behind the exasperated tone, but for now, people are having a hell of a time with Khonshu hating on Steven. You gotta feel for Steven while the mystery begins to unfurl, right? But Khonshu’s scoring tons of points already for providing the momentum and the mockery.

There’s also this suggestion of more alters to come, with even Khonshu appearing a little bit confused in brief moments. As far as debuts go, this show has ’em hooked.

Disney+’s Moon Knight is currently streaming on Disney+