Month: November 2022

After years of hinting, scheming, and being vaguely threatening about it, Avatar: The Way Of Water is finally heading to theaters…for better or for worse!

The long-awaited second installment in the franchise brings the cast back to the lush blue planet of Pandora where the Na’vi are thriving and majestically riding aquatic animals, and those pesky humans are still trying to ruin everything and take their resources (sound familiar?).

The sequel stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Jemaine Clement, and Kate Winslet. Here is the official description:

Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, Avatar: The Way of Water begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.

The Way Of Water is the first in a series of announced sequels that will hopefully come out within the next 50 years, but you can never be too sure with Cameron. While the hype might have died down a bit since the first movie soared into theaters in 2009, the director insists that the movie will reignite that, uh, passion for the franchise!

Just like its predecessor, Avatar: The Way Of Water will make its way into theaters just in time for the holiday season on December 16th. There have been no updates as to when (or if) the movie will make its way onto streaming, though don’t hold your breath just yet. Get it?! Ha!

Dreamville Festival has quietly become one of the better artist-founded music festivals around after being rescheduled and postponed by both inclement weather and a pandemic. However, when it returned with an expanded lineup earlier this year — and secured a streaming partnership with Amazon, no less — it turned out that its organizers displayed a unique aesthetic sense and a gift for curation that led to one of the more interesting lineups of the year. While it naturally showcased the talent assembled by J. Cole onto his label, it also turned out to be pretty diverse, with cool legacy acts and top contemporary ones.

Fans of Dreamville Fest will likely be delighted by the news that Cole and co. are already plotting its return to North Carolina. Today, the Dreamville Fest social accounts announced the upcoming 2023 dates, April 1 and 2, and shared a highlight reel of this year’s festival, which featured a Gangsta Grillz presentation from DJ Drama (along with mixtape mainstays Jeezy, Lil Wayne, and T.I.), Ja Rule and Ashanti, the beginning of Larry June’s 2022 breakout, and Lil Baby. Likewise, the Dreamville roster, including Ari Lennox, Earthgang, JID, Lute, and J. Cole himself, all put on a show, as well.

While this year’s lineup and ticket info hasn’t been released yet, you can sign up for the mailing list at DreamvilleFest.com. Let’s all hope for blue skies and no more viruses.

After years of hinting, scheming, and being vaguely threatening about it, Avatar: The Way Of Water is finally heading to theaters…for better or for worse!

The long-awaited second installment in the franchise brings the cast back to the lush blue planet of Pandora where the Na’vi are thriving and majestically riding aquatic animals, and those pesky humans are still trying to ruin everything and take their resources (sound familiar?).

The sequel stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Jemaine Clement, and Kate Winslet. Here is the official description:

Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, Avatar: The Way of Water begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.

The Way Of Water is the first in a series of announced sequels that will hopefully come out within the next 50 years, but you can never be too sure with Cameron. While the hype might have died down a bit since the first movie soared into theaters in 2009, the director insists that the movie will reignite that, uh, passion for the franchise!

Just like its predecessor, Avatar: The Way Of Water will make its way into theaters just in time for the holiday season on December 16th. There have been no updates as to when (or if) the movie will make its way onto streaming, though don’t hold your breath just yet. Get it?! Ha!

Jennifer Lawrence is one of the most celebrated performers of her generation, with four Oscar nominations and one win to her name. But she’s also starred in some stinkers: Dark Phoenix (the most contractually obligated movie of all-time), the mop biopic Joy, the House at the End of the Street remake, etc. They can’t all be winners like Winter’s Bone, and no movie in her filmography is less like than Winter’s Bone than Passengers.

The ill-fated science-fiction movie is about a horny, lonely dude on a spaceship, played by Chris Pratt, who wakes up a female passenger (Lawrence) from induced hibernation 30 years into a 120-year journey, effectively killing her. Passengers was called “creepy and misogynistic” by critics, and one of Lawrence’s famous friends wasn’t a fan, either.

The actress told the New York Times that after the Hunger Games franchise wrapped up, she could sense her fans weren’t enjoying her post-Katniss films. “I was like, oh no, you guys are here because I’m here, and I’m here because you’re here. Wait, who decided that this was a good movie?” Was there one movie, in particular, that made her feel this way? “Passengers, I guess,” she said. “Adele told me not to do it! She was like, ‘I feel like space movies are the new vampire movies.’ I should have listened to her.”

That’s good advice, generally: listen to Adele.

Lawrence’s movie with Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway, hits Apple TV+ on November 4.

(Via the New York Times)

The British royal family is not pleased with Netflix’s The Crown for obvious reasons, even more so because the show turns up the heat on Prince Charles amid his disintegrating marriage to Princess Diana. After pushback, Netflix did add a disclaimer to note that this is a “fictionalized” take on the Windsors, which was likely due to a contested subject involving Charles reportedly growing salty about having to wait in line for the throne.

Also at issue? The next season includes plenty of canoodling between Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles after Season 4 heavily went there as well. And the show dives into the infamous “Tampongate” scandal, in which Charles was nonconsensually recorded telling Camilla that he envied her tampon. Gross? Yes. Josh O’Connor reportedly declined to film the scene in Season 4, but Dominic West is apparently doing the honors in Season 5. The actor discussed this wildness with The Guardian and emerged with some perspective. In short, he believes this was a “sweet” gesture:

“My memory of it is that it was sort of filthy and dirty and really embarrassing, but actually, in the playing of it, it was much more like two middle-aged lovers being sweet to each other,” he said.

“If any one of us had our intimate phone conversations reproduced verbatim in every newspaper in the world, imagine what that’s like. Imagine how awful that is. It just strikes you as being a horrible breach of privacy that no one should have to suffer.”

From there, yes, it’s entirely awful that these phone calls made public by newspapers in Britain. That goes right along with the season’s theme of the monarchy enduring not only a constitutional crisis but also one of public reception. Diana and Charles were also living separate lives, and the princess’ side of the under-siege coin led to tragic results. The show will not film the car crash in question for Season 6, but expect tensions to remain high regardless.

Netflix’s The Crown returns with Season 5 on November 9.

(Via The Guardian)

Spooky season is officially behind us! With our Halloween costumes neatly tucked back into their packaging, we can now swap out your pumpkin-spiced drinks for apple cider lattes instead. The holidays are quickly approaching, and no one is more excited about this transition than the ‘Queen Of Christmas’ herself, Mariah Carey.

In the songwriter’s annual “it’s time” video shared to social media, Carey sporting her signature red velour bodysuit with white fur trimmings gleefully laughs as her 1994 song “All I Want For Christmas Is You” plays in the background. While most musicians stir clear from works that they feel could pigeonhole how they’re viewed, Carey and her superfans (The Lambs) completely embrace her holiday association.

Within 24 hours of the Carey social media posting, “Christmas” racked up just over 1.2 million streams, shooting into the No. 96 slot on Spotify’s global daily music chart for November 1. Pulling these numbers on a song that just celebrated its 28th birthday, Carey retains her spot on the wreath decorated throne.

Throughout the years, singers have recorded holiday songs hoping to strike gold, most recently Dolly Parton and Jimmy Fallon, but none has quite had the impact Carey’s has. For the past four consecutive years, the track has earned the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 chart, becoming the first song in history to do so (according to Billboard).

We will keep an eye on the charts to see if “Christmas” can secure the top spot for a fifth time.

As it turns out, even the most devoted Adele fans might have been pronouncing her name wrong the entire time. In a new Happy Hour With Adele on YouTube, in support of her new music video for “I Drink Wine,” she praises a fan for getting her name correct — which is “Uh-dale” rather than the commonly-believed “Uh-dell.”

“Love that,” Adele reacted. “She said my name perfectly!” She even shared that she told the host how to pronounce her name before the interview.

The fan, Annie from London, sent in a pre-recorded question as a video message for the pop star. “On your journey to self-love while writing 30, did your perspective on how you saw yourself when you wrote 25 change?” she asked.

Adele answered by opening up about raising her son. By the time 30 was written, she felt like she “had no control” over her life and “felt like a bad person.” The studio pulled her out of that sadness to “restored faith” in herself.

Throughout her career, Adele has used just her first name on the stage — rather than her full name or a made-up moniker. She opened up about this decision in the past, as it was a planned career move.

“I could have never used my surname,” she told YouTuber NikkieTutorials (via E Online) about her name in the past. “Adele Adkins does not have the same ring as Adele.”

“Adele still feels like my name,” she added. “My mum still calls me it. My friends call me it.”

Watch the moment Adele corrects her name above.

The $20 million sexual assault lawsuit against Trey Songz filed by an anonymous woman earlier this year has been officially dismissed, according to Rolling Stone. According to Trey’s lawyers, the statute of limitations on the alleged incident, which supposedly took place in 2016, had already passed; as the Jane Doe’s lawyers failed to issue a rebuttal by October 19, a judge said today that she had no choice but to dismiss the case. According to Rolling Stone, Jane Doe’s lawyer even failed to attend this morning’s hearing and declined to give a statement.

[Trigger warning for description of sexual assault.]

The suit, filed in February, alleged that in March 2016, Jane Doe attended a house party with Songz in Los Angeles, where he invited her to an upstairs bedroom. Once they were there, she claimed that the singer threw her to the ground, pulled her pants off, and anally raped her. The woman said that she went to the hospital, where a test confirmed assault, but that she did not name Trey Songz fearing reprisal. A previous report that she’d voluntarily withdrawn the lawsuit was apparently incorrect.

Earlier this year, Trey was cleared of a separate sexual assault allegation by Las Vegas police, stating a lack of evidence in that case. It’s unclear if that was the same incident of which he was accused by former UNLV basketball player Dylan Gonzalez.

Trey Songz is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

You would be hard pressed to find someone who refers to The Nightmare Before Christmas by its official title, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. That’s like calling the Star Wars section of Disneyland and Disney World, which technically goes by Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, anything other than Star Wars Land.

Burton has a “story by” credit on Nightmare and he undeniably played a large role in shaping the film’s look, but the screenplay was written by Caroline Thompson and it was directed by Henry Selick. The stop-motion animation legend told the AV Club that it’s a “little unfair” that “it wasn’t called Tim Burton’s Nightmare until three weeks before the film came out.” Selick would have been fine with the possessive title if that’s what it was called all along, “but Tim was in L.A. making two features while I directed that film, and I mean, Tim is a genius — or he certainly was in his most creative years.” (Solid burn.)

He continued:

“I always thought his story was perfect, and he designed the main characters. But it was really me and my team of people who brought that to life. Now, of course, if you ask [Jack Skellington’s singing voice] Danny Elfman, well, that’s his movie [laughs].”

There’s no misattribution surrounding Selick’s new movie, Wendell and Wild: he directed it and co-wrote the script with Jordan Peele. It’s on Netflix… which is also the home of Burton’s Wednesday Addams series, Wednesday. Selick can’t escape him.

(Via the AV Club)

It looks like a new Pharrell project is on the way. In a conversation with BTS’ RM for Rolling Stone, the super-producer revealed that on his upcoming album, he has a collaboration with RM and the boys of BTS.

“Well, my project, it’s called … it’s [under] my name, and the title of the album is Phriends,” Pharrell said. “It’s the volume one. You guys [BTS] are on there, obviously. And I’m actually talking about this way more than I’m supposed to, but it’s a song from my album that [BTS] sang and it’s amazing, and I’m super grateful.”

Also during the conversation, Pharrell revealed that he has, in fact, previewed the collaboration for some people already.

“Everyone that hears it is like, ‘Whoa.’”

On RM’s side, he revealed that he is “90 percent done” with his solo album. Pharrell offered to help with “that last 10 percent.”

Last month, BTS announced they were taking a hiatus until 2025 to complete their mandatory time in the military. BTS member Jin made an appearance during Coldplay’s performance in Buenos Aires. Coldplay’s lead vocalist Chris Martin recalled how Jin wanted to gift fans with a song, “The Astronaut,” to say goodbye for a short period of time.

“About six months ago, one of [BTS’] members called me up,” said Martin, “and he said, ‘I have to leave the band in December [to join] the army in Korea because that’s the rules there. And he said, ‘I need a song that says goodbye to everybody for a little while, and tells them that I love them… And so I said, ‘OK, we’ll do a song together.’ And instead of being worried about it, I feel so excited about it, so grateful for this relationship that we have with BTS. And then this song arrived, and I was like, ‘This is one of our best songs – let’s give it to this gentleman.’”

At the time of writing, there is no announced release date for Phriends, or for the Pharrell and BTS collaboration.

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