Month: January 2023

If there’s anything TOMORROW X TOGETHER, or TXT, is doing ahead of their comeback, besides being on top of TikTok trends and whatnot, it’s dropping hints and teasers for their upcoming EP, The Name Chapter: Temptation.
Just a week ahead of the release, BigHit Music unveiled the tracklist to the forthcoming EP today (January 19), including a total of five tracks. ‘Temptation’ features the lead single “Sugar Rush Ride,” along with b-sides “Devil by the Window,” “Happy Fools (feat. Coi Leray), “Tinnitus (Wanna Be a Rock),” and “Farewell, Neverland.” The lead single was produced by Slow Rabbit, and gives credit to Sofia Kay, Supreme Boi, Moa “Cazzi Opeia” Carlebecker, “hitman” bang, Salem Ilese, Krysta Youngs, Myah Marie Langston, and OLLIPOP.

However, upon the unveiling, the tracklist also confirmed the ongoing rumors of Coi Leray’s feature on the EP after the “Players” rapper tweeted photos of herself out and about in a TXT shirt, showing love for the BigHit boy group.

Just this morning, TXT member Yeonjun quote-retweeted Coi Leray, returning the love with a video of him greenscreening her photo and adding pop-up effects featuring her face onto his shirt.

The Name Chapter: Temptation is set to release next week on Friday, January 27 at midnight EST. Ahead of the actual release, TXT recently announced the group will embark on their Act: Sweet Mirage Tour this March in the US and Asia.

Fear The Walking Dead‘s eighth and final season will arrive this spring on AMC, and from there, multiple other Walker-focused spinoffs shall arrive. In 2023, however, the movers and shakers behind the scenes realize that the TV landscape has changed, so they’re taking a new approach. For example, the Negan and Maggie spinoff that will bring us more terrifying Walkers will arrive in a six-episode season. This shouldn’t be too disappointing. Really, because Jeffrey Dean Morgan has used language that suggests additional seasons that could include crossovers (like maybe Rick Grimes and Michonne, or even Daryl Dixon after he’s done in France?) from other spinoffs.

The six-episode format appears to be universal for the three spinoffs that we’ll see in the next year or so, which sparks some curiosity about the franchise’s overall game plan going forward. Scott Gimple, the chief architect of The Walking Dead universe, was happy to oblige with an answer when quizzed by Collider:

“We can just be straight up about that, that was more of an AMC thing. But to tell you the truth, it really is also a 2023 thing, where it’s telling stories in a different cadence. It’s telling stories to be consumed in a very different way. I think it’s actually pushed us to tell stories in a very different way, which I think is a very good thing, after 12 years. I’m a dinosaur. Considering The Walking Dead universe and The Walking Dead storytelling in a very different way has been really rewarding and really interesting, and thank goodness, it’s given us different ways to go about it.”

Considering how viewers are often working through content overload on streaming services, this seems like a wise approach for many reasons. In addition, one can also consider that these spinoffs will arrive with well-treaded characters already, some of whom have received origin stories, and all of whom don’t need more groundwork. A leaner and meaner universe sounds like the way to go, and viewers can always rewatch the original series (and all eleven seasons) on Netflix or the first spinoff’s eight seasons (seven are currently on Hulu), or The World Beyond‘s two seasons (on AMC+), and then there’s also Tales of the Walking Dead floating around out there, too.

(Via Collider)

Paramore graces the latest Billboard digital cover as they gear up to release This Is Why next month. Hayley Williams told the publication, “I feel like we’re the most annoying band in the world because it’s always like, ‘Oh, we overcame this, and now we’re making an album.’” Taylor Swift, it would seem, disagrees with that assessment.

Elsewhere in the cover story, Williams described Paramore serving as an opener on Swift’s upcoming The Eras Tour as “really huge” and “a big deal,” and that’s where she and Swift agree.

“Having Paramore join me on tour is such an honor,” Swift told Billboard. “We came up alongside each other as Nashville teenagers writing our own music, so it feels insanely special to kick off the tour together nearly two decades later. I just remember being constantly floored and inspired by their writing, originality and artistic integrity. Hayley is such a riveting performer because she’s so multifaceted — bold and playful and ferocious and completely in command. It’s a dream come true to join forces like this.”

Williams also recalled those earlier years: “When we were 19, [Swift] told me — she was a country singer at that point — that she wanted to be like Carole King. And I was like, ‘Whoa, that’s a crazy thing to say,’ you know? Because we were kids. And I’ll be damned, this woman, she’s crossing genres and bleeding over into other aspects of pop culture, and she’s helping to shape it at the very least.”

The Eras Tour is scheduled to kick off at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on March 17. Paramore will open for the first two dates in Glendale on March 17 and 18 before embarking on their own North American tour this spring.

This Is Why is out 2/10 via Atlantic. Pre-save it here.

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

The 2023 Sundance Film Festival kicks off this week, marking its first time having actual movie-going guests watching movies in Park City, Utah since the 2020 festival. Though, Sundance’s online component during the two years it was fully remote was such a success, it will also remain in place, creating a hybrid model where people can also watch movies from home in the United States. (Also, it’s of note that the only movie to ever debut at Sundance and go on to win the Best Picture Oscar, the reigning champion, CODA, was an exclusively online debut.)

Sundance is one of the trickiest festivals to get a read on before it starts. Here’s a good example: currently, Bill Nighy is being pushed for the Best Actor Oscar nomination for his really great performance in Living. To the point I had to look up what Living even was. Where did this even come from? Well, turns out it premiered at Sundance a year ago, but just wasn’t really talked about much until now. I’ll never forget my first Sundance in 2012, I wrote one of these preview pieces and listed out a bunch of movies and, well, none of them really amounted to much of anything. Then a movie called Beasts of the Southern Wild came out of nowhere and got itself a Best Picture nomination. So all that’s a long way of saying … who knows.

Aum: The Cult at the End of the World

Sundance has a strong documentary slate this year and this one looks both fantastic and terrifying. Aum: The Cult at the End of the World explores what started as a yoga school transformed into something twisted and disturbing, eventually becoming the group that in 1995 would carry out a subway attack in Japan, using sarin that left 14 people dead. How does something like this happen, why are extremist groups still developing today, and what can be done to detect and stop them?

Infinity Pool

Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool stars Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth as James and Em Foster, a couple who visit a tropical resort and, wouldn’t you know it, the pair are in for more than the bargained for. Blamed for a crime with a really hefty penalty, the couple must navigate through the corrupt system to ensure their safe return home. Anyway, this movie will be “weird.”

Magazine Dreams

Elijah Bynum’s Magazine Dreams stars Jonathan Majors (who, if you haven’t noticed, is having quite the moment) obsessed with bodybuilding and the dream of becoming a bodybuilding star, perhaps to the detriment of his own health. What this movie promises to do is explore the emotional and physical damage done on the human body for this particular physique. Coming off his great performance in Devotion, and now between this and the new Ant-Man movie, the one that truly kicks off Majors’ role as Kang, Majors is about to have an even bigger 2023.

Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields

Brooke Sheilds’s first movie was in 1976. She was a superstar by the time The Blue Lagoon hit theaters in 1980. She’s been an immensely famous person for parts of six decades now, and she’s still only in her 50s. What was this actually like? As long as this documentary delivers on the idea of Shields really diving in on what any of this meant – and, I’m sure, plenty of harrowing stories to go along with all of this – an exploration of the life of Brooke Sheilds should be fascinating.

Sometimes I Think About Dying

It has to be tough to break free from Star Wars. The lead of each trilogy has, of course, had other success in their own ways, but Star Wars is what they are all still best known for. Daisy Ridley has sure tried to play against this type and has been at Sundance before with Ophelia. But what looked like another possible franchise on paper, Chaos Walking, didn’t work out. But of all the post-Star Wars films she’s made, Rachel Lambert’s Sometimes I Think About Dying seems the most promising, as Ridley plays a socially awkward woman who spends her days alone in a cubicle. Hopefully, this will be Ridley’s true breakout performance.

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A giant right-wing beef has been brewing for the past 24 hours, and the whole thing might come down to Steven Crowder not knowing how to read a contract. After announcing that he was leaving The Blaze after four years, Crowder started fielding offers from other right-wing media outlets. One such offer (which was revealed to be from The Daily Wire) seemed extremely lucrative until Crowder perused the contract and proceeded to throw a fit over the employment terms.

In a video shared with his audience on Wednesday, Crowder accused the outlet (without naming that it was Ben Shapiro‘s company) of colluding with Big Tech by essentially punishing him if he runs afoul of other platform’s content moderation. Via The Daily Beast:

“If any of the major platforms (e.g. YouTube, Facebook, Apple Podcasts, Spotify) issues a content strike (other than a ‘companywide’ content strike) such that Crowder content cannot be monetized on such platform, and the company is not able to resolve the issue within 90 days, then the fee will be reduced by 25% from that point forward,” read one portion of the contract that Crowder shared with his audience.

“Think about this for a second,” Crowder said. “Those in charge—the big conservative, the Big Con, and it really is the biggest con going right now—they’re making it known in their contracts that they will enforce the guidelines of big tech and punish conservatives on their behalf.”

However, what Crowder didn’t disclose is that contract was part of a $50 million offer from The Daily Wire that would pay him for producing 192 episodes a year for the next four years. That’s only four episodes a week, plus four weeks paid vacation. This information was brought to light thanks to The Daily Wire CEO Jeffrey Boreing releasing a lengthy video where he not only read the offer on the air, but explained how Crowder “misconstrued” the facts. Boreing also blasted Crowder for calling the cushy gig a “slave contract.”

“Steven’s philosophy appears to be: ‘I deserve to be paid millions and millions and millions of dollars whether my show drives the revenue or not.’ That’s not a business relationship,” Boreing said while walking through the contract line-by-line. “He’s looking for a benefactor.”

The Daily Wire CEO eventually called Crowder’s weird tirade one of the “saddest things he has had to face.”

(Via The Daily Beast)

If you have been itching to head back to Wisconsin in the late 90s to hang out (down the street) in the Forman’s basement, then you are in luck! Netflix’s That ’70s Show spinoff, That ’90s Show, dropped this week on the streamer, featuring both new and returning members of the Foreman clan.

Though the series focuses on Eric and Donna’s teenage daughter Leia, many familiar faces make an appearance in the series, including Topher Grace, Laura Prepon, Wilmer Valderrama, Mila Kunis, and Ashton Kutcher. Of course, Debra Jo Rupp is back as Kitty and Kurtwood Smith returns as Red, who seem to be having way too much fun jumping right back into their roles. But one key player from the original series won’t appear, and that’s Hyde, the edgy stoner portrayed by Danny Masterson.

Masterson has a long list of sexual assault allegations against him, which caused Netflix to cut ties with him and led to him being charged with three separate accounts of rape in 2020. The actor pleaded not guilty to all three charges in January 2021, but last month, it was declared a mistrial after the jury said they were unable to reach a verdict on any of the three criminal charges.

Throughout Masterson’s accusations and ties to Scientology, he has not been cast in any projects, including That ’90s Show. The series does not even attempt to address where Hyde’s character would have ended up after the series ended, and we likely will never know.

(Via People)

Paramore are preparing for the long-awaited release of This Is Why, their first album since 2017’s After Laughter. The singles so far include the title track, “The News,” and “C’est Comme Ça.” Even though it feels like a triumphant comeback, Paramore keep reiterating that they were never broken up in the first place. And bandleader Hayley Williams even feels like they’re “the most annoying band” for all that they do, according to a new Billboard interview.

“At this point, I don’t understand how we’re still doing it,” Williams told Billboard. “Because it just feels like against all odds every single time — which, honestly, I feel like we’re the most annoying band in the world because it’s always like, ‘Oh, we overcame this, and now we’re making this album.’”

This Is Why grapples with all sorts of themes about overcoming. About “C’est Comme Ça,” Williams previously said in a statement, “I’m trying to get un-addicted to a survival narrative. The idea of imminent doom is less catastrophic to me than not knowing anything about the future or my part in it. The guys and I are all in much more stable places in our lives than ever before. And somehow that is harder for me to adjust to.”

This Is Why is out 2/10 via Atlantic. Pre-save it here.

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

Austin Butler won Best Actor In A Motion Picture, Drama at last week’s 2023 Golden Globes for his popular portrayal of the late Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, but the real prize was learning that Butler has not abandoned his Elvis accent during his acceptance speech.

Everyone clamoring for Butler to speak like Elvis forever will be happy with what Irene Bartlett, Butler’s Elvis voice coach, told ABC Australia’s “Gold Coast” about the future of the beloved accent.

“He was never going to be — and [director] Baz Luhrmann didn’t want him to be — an Elvis impersonator, that’s the last thing they wanted him to be,” Bartlett said. “What they wanted was a true connection with the personality of Elvis and his story and that’s what Austin worked on.”

She added, “What you saw in that Golden Globes speech, that’s him. It’s genuine. It’s not put on. […] I feel sorry people are saying that, you know, it’s still acting [but] he’s actually taken [the voice] on board. I don’t know how long that will last, or if it’s going to be there forever.”

Butler addressed the hot topic at the Golden Globes:

“I don’t think I sound like him still,” he said, per The Hollywood Reporter. “But I guess I must because I hear it a lot. I often liken it to when somebody lives in another country for a long time, and I had three years where that was my only focus in life, so I’m sure that there’s just pieces of my DNA that will always be linked in that way.”

Norman Reedus stopped by Jon Bernthal‘s podcast to catch up with his old pal and reminisce about their days working together on The Walking Dead. During the REAL ONES episode, the two recalled getting up early to drive to the Atlanta set of the zombie series and listening to Howard Stern the whole way there. Apparently, Reedus is a huge fan of the shock jock, but that appreciation has been a one way street.

“He still won’t have me on his show,” Reedus said. “I don’t know why!”

However, Bernthal wasn’t letting Reedus off the hook. The Punisher actor argued that Reedus “knows full well” why Stern doesn’t like him, and it could have everything to do with the radio host’s wife. Via Comic Book:

The two actors have a friendly argument about the time they were at some kind of premiere event, and Reedus got seated next to Howard Stern and his wife, actress/model/author/activist Beth Ostrosky Stern. While Bernthal makes it seem like Reedus and Ostrosky hit it off maybe a little too well, Reedus insists that they only bonded over their shared love of cats (the Sterns foster hundreds of cats in their home on Long island every year), and that was it. Nonetheless, Bernthal points out that Stern was clearly bothered by the encounter, and talked about it “for like two hours” on his show.

But, wait, there’s more. Reedus also did a promotional drop for Stern’s show, and The Walking Dead star reportedly didn’t bring his A-game. Stern noticed the lackluster effort and made it a point to comment about it on the air. So while it seems like Reedus won’t be on the show anytime soon, there’s also the potential for one heck of an episode if he gets to make things right with Howard. That could be the hook to finally making Reedus’ dream of being a Stern guest come true.

(Via Comic Book)

Dak Prescott had one of the best games of his career during the Dallas Cowboys’ 31-14 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card round. Prescott completed 25 of his 33 pass attempts for 305 yards and four touchdowns, while the Cowboys never seemed to be especially threatened in a road playoff game against Tom Brady and the Bucs.

Of course, Prescott’s play was not the biggest Cowboys-related story of the game. That belonged to the team’s kicker, Brett Maher. While Maher has been extremely reliable for Dallas this season, he had an historically bad game against the Bucs, missing each of his first four PAT attempts before converting his fifth and final attempt of the game.

Maher missed his third PAT just before halftime after Prescott hit Dalton Schultz to make it an 18-0 game. As it turns out, Prescott was mic’d up during the game, and in the 50-second mark of the below video, his frustration with Maher’s bad night seemed to really boil over.

The Cowboys signed veteran kicker Tristan Vizcaino to the practice squad on Wednesday. Despite that, the team has made clear that Maher will be the team’s kicker for their divisional round game in San Francisco this weekend.

“I believe in the hot hand, and I believe in the yips, absolutely,” Dallas special teams coordinator John Fassel said, according to Todd Archer of ESPN. “And you know, you wonder sometimes how you get into the yips, and you wonder sometimes how you get back into the hot hand. I think it’s keep stepping up to the line and shooting that thing. We missed a couple of free throws [Monday] … He had a hot hand. Let’s face it, he only missed [six] kicks all season. The yips happen, so I expect a hot hand coming up.”