Month: September 2022

EuroBasket 2022 is going on right now, with a number of the NBA’s best European players taking the floor for their national teams and going head-to-head on a daily basis. The latest example of this came on Friday when Greece, led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, went up against a Croatia team that features a number of current and former NBA players, like Bojan Bogdanovic, Dario Saric, and Ivica Zubac.

It was a thrilling game, with Croatia doing everything it could to claw back from a double-digit deficit against the Greeks. They ultimately came up a little short, as Greece picked up an 89-85 win in large part because Antetokounmpo is the best basketball player on the planet.

As you might expect, Antetokounmpo’s numbers were ridiculous, as he went for 27 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, three blocks, and a steal while only turning the ball over once. But his biggest impact came late in the game, when Croatia got the lead down to two with less than a minute left and he decided that was as close as they were going to get. He had a ridiculous block on Zubac, a reverse alley-oop, another block (this time by erasing a corner three despite being in the paint when the shooter got the ball), and then a Eurostep where he was fouled but banked in a shot, anyway.

I truly have no idea how anyone is supposed to stop this guy. Greece will next take the floor on Saturday against Italy.

In 2003, Jay-Z was preparing to retire from the rap business. But before he went, he wanted the people to know why he’d hung on so long. After all, he was only supposed to release one album, 1996’s Reasonable Doubt. To hear him tell it, rap was just a way to launder the wealth he’d acquired by illicit means throughout the ‘80s. He’d stuck it out for another seven albums – eight if you include The Dynasty – and along the way, had multiplied that wealth. He wanted to focus on the business dealings that had allowed him to do so, but it seems he felt he owed his loyal listeners an explanation.

So on “Moment Of Clarity” from his supposed swan song The Black Album, he rhymes, “We as rappers must decide what’s most important / And I can’t help the poor if I’m one of them / So I got rich and gave back – to me, that’s the win, win.” Of course, the years after The Black Album’s release turned out to be more of an interlude than an ending; within the decade, he was right back at it, detailing his hustler mentality and defying both the odds stacked against him and the critics who found various ways to denounce his success.

That trend continued right on up to last week’s New Music Friday when Jay contributed a rare guest verse to DJ Khaled’s new album God Did. His rhymes on the title track are just as weighty, inspiring, insightful, and motivational as ever, prompting a week’s worth of praise and discussion that spanned Twitter, YouTube, and even MSNBC as Ari Melber broke down the verse in an analysis of the failed drug war that formed the foundation for Jay’s present success. But it also sparked controversy when Jay compared being called a “capitalist” to racist slurs during a Twitter Spaces discussion with journalist Rob Markman.

“Before it was the American Dream,” he mused of the ways in which the US’s socioeconomic and political systems stack the deck against the nation’s Black citizens. “‘Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. You can make it in America.’ All these lies that America told us our whole life and then when we start getting it, they try to lock us out of it. They start inventing words like ‘capitalist.’ We’ve been called ‘n****rs’ and ‘monkeys’ and sh*t. I don’t care what words y’all come up with. Y’all gotta come with stronger words.” Fans were flabbergasted at the comparison, which seemed to suggest that Jay equates “capitalist” to a dirty word – and that he also thinks it’s being leveled at him specifically for being a Black success story. But why?

First of all, let’s get one thing out of the way: Jay-Z is a capitalist. I shouldn’t need to give a dictionary definition here, but clearly, this is the level we’re working on, so here it is: A capitalist is “a wealthy person who uses the money to invest in trade and industry for profit in accordance with the principles of capitalism,” according to Oxford Dictionary. Jay-Z is a wealthy person. He invests in various industries to make a profit. He is a capitalist. Now that we’ve established that, let’s play junior armchair psychologist to figure out why being called one seems to hurt his feelings so much – or at least why he thinks it’s meant to.

It helps to look at his words from “Moment Of Clarity,” because they’re so instructive about what he thinks and why. Jay wants to get rich, in his own words, to “give back.” And from what we’ve seen from him in the last few years, it really does seem that way. He and Meek Mill founded the REFORM Alliance to use their shared wealth to pressure lawmakers to make sweeping changes to the criminal justice system, from ending cash bail to improving conditions in prisons to rewriting legislation – which he calls “draconian” in “God Did” – that is unfairly skewed against Black Americans. He’s also offered financial education classes to residents of Brooklyn’s Marcy housing projects, where he grew up, and in general, seems really keen to teach and support other aspiring Black entrepreneurs how to overcome a system that’s weighted against them.

We know the laws punish us the most. We know the police target us. We know that the powers that be are shorting Black Americans’ opportunities in education and business. Jay looks at all that and has decided that the best way to defy a system that is set up for you to fail is to succeed within that system. This is his rebellion. If all your life you are told that you are destined only for an early grave, a life sentence in prison, or a dull life spent in blue-collar drudgery, then to him, the only way to win is to do the opposite, then to push others to do the same. It even makes sense, when you consider the context under which he evolved as an artist and a person.

Think about it: Jay’s a product, literally, of the Reagan eighties. His concepts are very much in line with the idea of “trickle down” economics, the idea that as the rich get richer, they will open up their coffers and share those opportunities with the lower class and less fortunate, providing a ladder to success. But the problem is, we know – as well as we know the truisms that I listed above – that there is no trickle-down effect. The rich get richer and pull that ladder up right along behind them to keep as much distance between them and the great unwashed masses as they possibly can. And I think this might well be the crux of Jay’s offense at being called a capitalist.

It’s guilt by association. In his heart, he’s doing what he’s doing out of a sense of universal altruism. His intentions are pure, so he doesn’t want to be painted with the same broad brush as his contemporaries. He isn’t pulling up the ladder. He isn’t denying opportunities, he’s giving them. He’s not like those other, nasty capitalists who are keeping folks downtrodden while counting their profits and swimming in gold bullion like Scrooge McDuck. He’s no miser. And the thing is, we’ve seen him wounded by critical rhetoric before, and he’s used the same defenses.

On the title track from Blueprint 2, Jay raps about critics condemning some of his misogynistic content on songs like “Big Pimpin’” and “Give It To Me.” “They call me this misogynist,” he complains, “But they don’t call me the dude to take his dollars to give gifts at the projects / These dudes are all politics, depositin’ checks they put in the pocket, all you get in return is a lot of lip.” He wants us to judge him by his positive deeds as much as by his negative ones, especially in comparison to other wealthy businessmen who say they want to help but don’t. Why can’t we just see that he’s different?

There’s the rub, though: He isn’t. As much money as he gives away, he still has more. While he pours some of his funds into prison reform, he also boasts that “new planes gettin’ broken in” – meaning he’s bought a private jet. We see Jay’s lavish lifestyle because he shows it to us, every bit as often as he tells us about his latest philanthropic endeavor. Yes, he offers an example to aspire to, but there can only be so much wealth to go around – and acquiring it often leaves others at an increased disadvantage.

This is the analogy I came up with listening to Jay speak on Twitter that night. Imagine you’re playing Monopoly but all of your opponents have advantages you don’t have, and you have been saddled with disadvantages none of the others face. Your bank is a tenth of that of your rival players, you can only collect $50 when you pass “Go” instead of $200, you only get to roll one die while everyone else can roll two, and your property cost is 25% above the price listed on each space, you make 25% less from each time an opposing player lands on a space you own, and you must avoid the “go to jail” card at all costs or you are out of the game entirely. And somehow, despite all that, you win the game. Yes, that is impressive, and yes, you absolutely deserve congratulations.

However, your win doesn’t materially change the conditions for the next person to play Monopoly. The skewed rules remain in place, with the exception that you can coach the next player on avoiding pitfalls you fell into or taking advantage of loopholes you discovered. The game of Monopoly still sucks. It’s still fundamentally unfair. And in the end, it’s still about a bitter, spiteful competition in which the only way to win is to make sure everyone else loses. (It also still takes FOREVER, making it an absolutely pointless party game.) Wouldn’t it be better to put Monopoly back in the box, throw that box out of the goddamn window so no one ever sees it again, and play a game where everybody has fun – or at least an equal chance of winning?

That’s what Jay has missed in the critiques of his strategy for overcoming oppression. He wants the praise, but none of the criticism – which isn’t so much about him being a good or bad person but more about how his success at the game of American Economic Monopoly does not, ultimately, help Black people as much as he thinks it does. He’s welcome to continue using his success to influence politics and law and education and industry to open doors that would ordinarily be closed to most of us, but in the end, he may learn that it could be more effective to change the game entirely.

That’s what Black revolutionaries like Fred Hampton and Malcolm X – who Jay loves to name-check in his songs – ultimately wanted, too. Even Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. “Content of their Character” himself, was a socialist. These men recognized that if the system is inherently unfair, there’s no amount of individual success that can offset the cost to the wider population. It took Jay a while, but he eventually expressed remorse for the misogynistic content that he once defended, and has actually seemingly changed his views in that respect. The hope is that one day, he’ll realize the same need to rethink his economic views as well.

The xx’s Oliver Sim is unveiling his debut solo album Hideous Bastard in a week. He was set to kick off a tour on September 29 in Seattle and head out to other states and eventually end up in London at the end of October, but he announced today that the shows are canceled.

“Part of the reason Hideous Bastard came to be was imagining playing the songs live,” he wrote in a post on Instagram. “But timing is everything and sometimes things don’t quite come together the way we’d hoped. The shows booked for September and October are sadly not able to happen so we’ll have to wait a little longer to hear these songs in a room together. I’m sorry for any inconvenience caused but I look forward to putting on a truly hideous show for you very soon.”

So far, Sim has released the singles “Romance With A Memory,” “Fruit,” “Hideous,” and “GMT.” The latter was written with Jamie xx and sampled The Beach Boys, about which he said, “You’re not just sampling because of how beautiful it sounds, but because of all of the emotional memories you have locked into it.”

Hideous Bastard is out 9/9 via Young. Pre-order it here.

Despite the fact that Lord of the Rings: Rings Of Power shares a name, location, and even some characters with the iconic Lord of the Rings franchise, the show’s executive producer does not want you to think you know what’s about to happen on the show, which takes place nearly 2,000 years before our familiar fellowship friends embark on their journey.

Executive producer Lindsey Weber stopped by Deadline’s Hero Nation podcast to set the record straight about what to expect from the highly-anticipated (and expensive) series. “The first thing I would say is we don’t really think of it as a prequel, though it is before,” Weber explained. “Something about the word prequel seems to suggest you need to know what comes later to appreciate it. It’s sort of like an appendage to a preexisting thing, and we don’t feel that way about this.”

Even though fans might be familiar with some of the storylines and references, Weber says that this story is for everyone, not just seasoned fans of Tolkien’s universe. “This is a story that you can appreciate if you’ve not read the books, if you’ve not seen the movies, there is an on-ramp for you,” Weber added. “This could be your first introduction to Middle-earth and we would be honored if it does become that for people, and it winds up turning people on to read the books – it would be a thrill for us.”

Of course, there are some familiar faces that might appear. When a curious character only named “The Stranger” appeared in the season premiere, many were speculating that he is a much younger incarnation of everybody’s favorite wizard Gandalf. Weber won’t reveal any more about the stranger, but she did give a cryptic clue: “What I can say is that he is a bit of an onion with many layers to peel. And I think it will be a fun journey for fans to peel as the season goes along.” Onions? Layers? Perhaps this is a Shrek crossover event.

(Via Deadline)

“Everybody wants to not get yelled at.” –PFT Commenter

Just like every episode of The Wire begins with a quote from the episode, every episode description for Pod Yourself The Wire: A The Wire Podcast, now begins with a quote from the podcast. Today’s quote comes from writer, podcaster, cohost of Pardon My Take and the Macrodosing podcast, PFT Commenter. Matt and Vince welcomed PFT to talk about season one episode two of The Wire, “The Buys.”

To hear it now, subscribe at Patreon.com/Frotcast. Episode one is available for free.

PFT breaks down the subtext of the episode right from the start. What we all really want from our job is to not get yelled at. The Wire does a great job of reminding you that cops are guys who will absolutely shirk their duties at work if it means they won’t get yelled at, but also they have guns, and if they think shooting or pistol whipping some poor mope’s eyeball out of his socket will lead to less yelling in his direction, he’ll do it.

It’s easy to judge because, you know, they are abusing their power to avoid accountability, but can you imagine if they gave you a gun at work? Like, how quickly would you make some entitled customer shut up and leave your Quizno’s if you could wave a glock around? Would you wield that power responsibly? I’d be a terrible cop, and I bet you would too. It’s almost like the whole system is broken. It’s a cliché, but if you talk about The Wire long enough you will eventually say “the whole system is broken.” It’s unavoidable.

A friendly reminder that cops are allowed to lie to you during interrogations, and you are allowed to lie in podcast reviews, so even if you don’t like the show, give us five stars on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe to Pod Yourself A Gun on Apple Podcasts (Or Stitcher)

Email us at [email protected]; leave us a voicemail at 415-275-0030

Support the Pod: become a patron at patreon.com/Frotcast to get more bonus content than you could ever want. Sign up for the Pod Yourself a Shoutout tier to hear Vince give you a corner nickname on the podcast.

-Description by Brent Flyberg

Last week, Boston Celtics forward Danilo Gallinari suffered a knee injury while representing Italy in a FIBA World Cup Qualifier game against Georgia on Saturday. The Celtics announced Friday that Gallinari tore his left ACL and the timeline for recovery is six-to-12 months.

Initially, Gallinari’s injury was diagnosed as a torn meniscus, which tends to be a more manageable injury with a briefer recovery period. This updated news obviously changes things. First and foremost, the wish is the 34-year-old Gallinari can make a full recovery as quickly as possible. Nobody deserves to endure this sort of injury and the rehab can be grueling.

Boston signed Gallinari to a two-year, $13.2 million deal last month, so he at least has some financial security. According to the timeline reported by The Athletic’s Shams Charania, he could return as soon as late February, if he adheres to a six-month rehab. He could also be sidelined for the entire season, if he needs 10 or more months to recover. Gallinari was set to begin his 14th NBA season and was viewed as an important depth piece for Boston, which could really use his shooting and veteran savvy off of the bench. Back in 2013, he missed the entirety of 2013-14 due to a torn ACL in his left knee.

ASAP Rocky has been out of the spotlight for a while as he adjusts to being a new father, but it looks like he might be preparing to make his return. Earlier today, he posted a new song snippet on Instagram featuring none other than fellow festival favorite — and fellow hip-hop dad — Playboi Carti. In a video accompanying the snippet, Rocky captures the chaos of their live shows, where fans have formed massive mosh pits at the behest of the two rambunctious, rebellious rappers.

Although Rocky hasn’t released much new music lately, he remains a Rolling Loud fixture; he’s set to headline the upcoming New York City edition alongside Future and Nicki Minaj. However, due to his late arrival at a festival in Manchester, he had to perform to a smaller crowd than usual after fans who showed up for headliners Red Hot Chili Peppers left the stage. In terms of music, he was recently featured on Black Thought and Danger Mouse’s new album Cheat Codes, rapping alongside Run The Jewels on “Strangers.”

Carti, meanwhile, also performed in the UK, where he fell off the stage but was unharmed. He also had trouble at a recent show when his Smoker’s Club Fest set was cut short by fans rushing the barricades.These two guys definitely know how to get a crowd riled up — and you can see the results in the video above.

Michael Stipe is changing the game this Friday (September 2) on both the music front and the environmental front. His new, double-sided single “Future If Future” (a song originally released in 2018) will be the world’s first commercially available bioplastic 12″ vinyl record, coupled with Beatie Wolfe’s “Oh My Heart.”

This release is part of a larger Bandcamp project in collaboration with “Future If Future” producer Brian Eno’s environmental charity EarthPercent that will include over 100 other songs. The bioplastic vinyl, designed by British music sustainability organization Evolution Music, is said to be “a genuinely revolutionary moment for both the music industry and record collectors, offering a non-fossil fuel future for vinyl recordings that globally amount to around 180 million LPs — or 30,000 tons of PVC — a year. The solution uses circular economy principles to replace the harmful production and use of single use plastics and minimize waste in the music industry.”

The goal is to replace polyvinyl chloride, a plastic labeled “the most environmentally damaging” according to Greenpeace, with a more viable alternative. The single will be limited to 500 copies pressed on fossil-fuel-free vinyl. Stipe says, “Simply showing that this type of solution-based project is possible opens pathways to a brighter future.”

Check out images of the vinyl and Wolfe holding a test pressing above.

Blending whiskey isn’t just for the experts. I know, that sounds insanely stupid — because expertise certainly does help here — but bear with me. There’s precisely no one stopping you from blending your whiskeys at home to slide the flavor profile in one direction or another. In fact, a ton of pros do it all the time.

Want to add a little smokiness to a cherry-bomb bourbon? Grab a bottle of Islay malt and see what happens. Looking for a spicy layer in a fruity Highland single malt? Layer in a little Indiana rye. Does that hazmat whiskey taste too much like burning? Add a little 80-proof juice and water to calm that f*cker down! Again, no one is stopping you from doing whatever you want with your whiskey.

We live in an era where every pro chants, “enjoy your whiskey the way you want!” as if the thought is revolutionary. Blending your own glass of whiskey is the best way to embrace that. Of course, I’m speaking in massively big brush strokes here but this is a real thing that whiskey drinkers do all the time. So I’m going to give you some tips on how to do it yourself with your favorite bottles of whiskey.

Ready to get weird? Let’s go!

Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months

• We Blind Tasted A Whole Bunch Of $30-60 Bourbons To See If Any Could Beat Weller
• We Put A Whole Bunch Of Bourbons To A Giant Blind Test And Discovered Some Absolute Gems
• We Blind Tasted Classic Bourbons And Were Shocked By The Winner
• The Best-Known Basic Bottles Of Bourbon, Blind Tasted And Ranked
• All The Double Gold-Winning Straight Bourbons From This Year’s San Francisco World Spirits Competition

Keep It Simple

This is the most important “rule.” You don’t want to overdo it. What you should be aiming for is augmenting the flavors that are already there with a single, bold flavor note that make sense. I know that’s a very broad thing to say, as we all have varying palates and desires, but it’s important to keep things simple when making your own blend.

A hard and fast rule is that more is not better. You really want to keep this to a two, three at most, whiskey venture. Too many flavors from too many whiskeys simply mutes everything and leaves you with a muddled-tasting waste of perfectly good juice. Also, you cannot make bad whiskey good by adding good whiskey to bad whiskey — don’t even bother.

Rule: Bad whiskey will always win on the flavor profile. Don’t try to improve it by tipping a shot of 15-year into the bottle.

Keeping it simple also means starting out small. You should always be aiming for a final pour that’s two ounces (which is pretty standard these days). My best advice is to start with a one-ounce pour of the whiskey you want to adjust and slowly build in increments toward two ounces.

Lastly, you should be looking to “add” something more than take away or cover up a flavor note. That said, flavor notes get lost when blending all the time which leads us to…

Trial and Error

You’re going to need to be patient. I can tell you blends that work for me (more on that below). But that’s my palate and what I’m looking for. Blending whiskey at home is very much about you. Know what you’re aiming for and then tinker. Try different bottles, combos, and even spirits. For example: sometimes cutting down a higher proof whiskey isn’t about adding water or a lower proof whiskey, it’s about adding a super neutral 80-proof vodka. After all, that’s all blended American whiskey/bourbon is.

Again, we’re talking about an ounce or two of your whiskey at a time, not whole bottles. That means that you have a little wiggle room to play before you start really pouring cash down the drain.

Your Base and Additions

This is where everything begins and ends. You generally want to be using a bigger base that you already like but want to add a little something to. I generally look at it this way, I want to add big and bold notes (smoke, peat, cherry, black pepper, ash, coal, corn husks, to name only a few) to a base that’s already subtle and dialed.

I tend to look for a creamy, fruit-forward base that has a little honey, vanilla, caramel, and maybe some spice to it. You don’t want to add sweetness to an already sweet base. That said, a mildly spicy base — maybe a little warm winter spice — can really pop with the addition of dried chili or earthy black peppercorn notes. I like to think of it less as “what is this whiskey missing?” and more as “what can I add to make this something new and exciting?” This is where the additions come in.

Can I get a chili-spiced honey note in a Speyside honey bomb with a little Texas bourbon? Can I build a lemon-pepper vibe with a crafty American single malt and an MGP of Indiana rye? “Building” is the takeaway here. You should always be thinking of what you’re building in the glass and then follow your senses on whether it’s working or not.

Water

Another option is to add a little water. Water can lower proof, which makes a lot of whiskeys way easier to drink. Water also helps break down fatty acids in the actual juice, which releases more chemicals/flavor notes into the glass for you to pick up.

Okay, this is going to get deep for a moment. To calculate how to proof by adding water, you need to run an equation. It’s the volume you want (2 ounces in this case) times the proof you want (let’s say 40 percent) that’s then divided by the original proof (let’s say 65 percent). That will give you the volume of the base alcohol you’ll need which you minus from 2 ounces to get the volume of the water you’ll need to hit exactly 40 percent ABV in your blended two-ounce pour.

That means you’ll need approximately 1.23 ounces of base alcohol to 0.77 ounces of water to turn a 65 percent ABV pour into a 40 percent ABV pour. Naturally, you can round these numbers off to 1.25 ounces and 0.75 ounces of water to keep things simpler.

Now, this may seem wildly inappropriate to do to a whiskey that so many people spent so much time perfecting. But here’s a little insider information for you: Every single distiller and blender proofs their whiskey down to around 20 percent ABV/40 proof to taste and blend their whiskey before deciding on what to blend/bottle. Basically, that’s the scientific sweet spot when all the chemicals and fats in the spirit find the perfect balance for the ultimate flavor profile that we can actually sense.

Start Blending

I like to get an idea and then start simply. If I’m going from sweet bourbon to smoky bourbon, I’ll start with 1.5 ounces of bourbon and add about 0.25 ounces of peaty whisky at a time. If that’s not quite enough, I’ll add in another 0.25 ounces of the peaty. You can always add more but you can never go back.

For this, you’ll need a jigger or some sort of measuring glass that marks ounces or milliliters. You’ll also need to swirl the glass for about 15 to 20 seconds and let the glass sit for maybe a minute (maybe two) to let it blend and settle. Don’t rush in.

One of my all-time favorite and can’t-miss blends is a base of Kentucky bourbon accented with Scottish Islands peated malt. For this, I’ve combined 1.5 ounces of Knob Creek 9-Year Small Batch Bourbon with 0.5 ounces of Talisker 10 (a peated single malt). The Knob Creek is a classic cherry-bomb bourbon with big notes of woody vanilla, cedar bark, caramel sauce, and even some apple skins with a dry grassy finish. The Talisker is a subtle peaty with hints of beach campfires, soft stone orchard fruits, old bales of straw, and a hint of sea brine.

When combined, you get a nose of bold orchard fruits (a cherry/plum/apricot mix) next to lightly spiced malts and a hint of a sourdough apple fritter with a hint of cream soda that leads toward Martinelli’s Apple Cider. The palate is a lush mix of bright orchard fruits next to a line of winter spice attached to malts with a hint of dark chocolate oranges sneaking in. The vanilla creates a silky foundation for a whisper of old campfire smoke in the distance with a hint of cherry to it. This finish is light but bold with a sense of thin whisps of smoked cherry next to a velvety plummy vanilla husk backed with a note of fresh cedar bark.

This is a tried and true blend of two very different whiskeys and it definitely works. Going deeper, you can figure out the ABV on that pour as well with another equation: base volume times ABV (1.5×0.5) plus added volume times ABV (0.5x.485) divided by total volume (2) that’s then timed by 100, which puts this pour at 49.625 percent ABV or 99.25 proof.

Now, it’s time for you to experiment. Flip the volume on this recipe! Add some water! Hell, try a peat monster like Laphroaig instead of Talisker to bring some serious ashy and medicinal notes (it’ll lean into a cherry cough syrup vibe with a fatty brisket to it). The point is, have fun blending and enjoy the fruits of your labor. This is a recreation, after all, not rocket science.

As The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power makes it debut after months of headlines touting it as the most expensive TV show ever produced, Amazon reportedly has another costly series waiting in the wings. However, this time it wasn’t by design. According to a new report, the Russo Brothers have been struggling to shepherd a new spy series, Citadel, which has gone way over budget due to expensive reshoots and creatives leaving the project.

Starring Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra, Citadel was meant to bring a team of international spies together (Yup, like The Avengers.) for a debut miniseries that would “generate local spinoffs” centered on each character. Reportedly, there was trouble right out of the gate, which led to creative conflicts behind-the-scenes. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

According to sources, Amazon had some reservations about early footage, with the Russos, who were less involved due to a focus on their own pricey action project, The Gray Man, parachuting in. This brought about creative differences and led to two competing cuts, one pushed by the Russos, the other by [writers] Appelbaum and Nemec. As weeks rolled on, other project commitments had whittled down the creative camps to two opposing forces, Joe Russo and Appelbaum, who was the series’ showrunner.

Amazon chose to bet on the Russos, and days before Christmas, Appelbaum was let go.

According to the report, Amazon dropped an extra $75 million on reshoots earlier this year, which now makes Citadel their second most expensive TV series behind The Power of the Rings. As for why the Russos have been able to extract huge budgets out of streamers (The Gray Man is reportedly the most expensive movie on Netflix), they deliver when it comes to views.

As THR notes, “Extraction stands as Netflix’s sixth-most viewed original film ever, while Gray Man is the fourth-most viewed original, according to Netflix.”

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)