Month: June 2023

Zack Snyder’s post-DCEU life is going swell. After rehabbing Justice League into a well-reviewed epic, he’s found a new home at Netflix, where he directed the hit Army of the Dead. His next project is another biggie: Rebel Moon, a space opera that will be split into two parts. At Tudum this weekend, he and his team debuted a new behind-the-scenes look at what he has in store.

The video shows his cast — including Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, and Charlie Hunnam — working both on location and in a studio fitted with green screen. The trend these days for sci-fi movies and shows is for what’s called “Virtual Production,” in which digital artists create worlds before they start shooting, allowing cast and crew to work in a “volume.” But the BTS video shows Snyder and company doing it the old-fashioned way: a mix of green screen and the great outdoors.

Based on an original story, Rebel Moon stars Boutella as Kora, a woman trying to stir up the populace against an authoritarian regime, which includes an enforcer played by Ed Skrein. Hounsou, Hunnam, and Doona Bae are some of the fighters Kora recruits to take down the evil empire. The cast also includes Ray Fisher, Michael Huisman, Jena Malone, and Anthony Hopkins.

Rebel Moon will be released on December 22. You can watch the BTS video above.

Coming off of an enticing 2022 season, the brightest glimmer in Atlanta in nearly half a decade, the Dream went out and made a significant splash in the offseason, trading for standout Dallas Wings guard Allisha Gray. At the end of the 2022 season, Gray requested a trade out of Dallas, wanting to find a better fit after spending the first six years of her career in Texas. And as it turns out, Dream star and 2022 WNBA Rookie of the Year Rhyne Howard also wanted Gray to find a new team, too.

“I actually asked (Dream coach Tanisha Wright) to try to get her here, and so when it happened, I was super excited,” Howard tells Dime.

A native of Sandersville, Gray was ecstatic when her agent called her to say she was headed to Georgia, back in her home state and closer her family. The Gateway Center Arena in College Park, the Dream’s home arena, is a few hours away from Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina where Gray played in college — Gamecock fans frequently make their way to watch the Dream, the closest W team to their university.

Roughly a quarter of the way through the 2023 WNBA season, Gray is putting forth a career year. She’s averaging a career-high 18 points per game without a drop in efficiency, and it would not be a surprise if Gray becomes a first-time All-Star.

“You want to be happy when you come into work, and everyday, regardless of what’s going on, the people here are amazing, positive… Coach T brings the same energy every day,” Gray says. “You don’t understand how happy I am here, I feel like a brand new person, I feel like I’m slowly coming out of my shell. It’s actually a blessing that I got traded here, it’s refreshing.”

Opportunity and space to be a more aggressive offensive player has paid dividends for Gray and the Dream as a whole — Gray dropped a career-high 27 points against the Sun in Atlanta’s overtime victory. Wright’s offense is predicated on reading and reacting. It’s less about set plays and more about triggering actions. Gray fits that perfectly, as she is a player who can make good decisions with the ball, drive hard to the rim, and shoot from anywhere on the court. She brings one of the best motors in basketball, and is a tireless and versatile defender.

“She’s growing into this role as a scorer, and she’s gonna have to keep getting a bit more comfortable in that because of what she came from and how she was utilized in Dallas,” Howard says. “We want her to be aggressive, we want her to score. Teams have to focus on both of us.”

Gray was traded to the team in January, and didn’t have a prior relationship with anyone on the Dream. Howard texted her and welcomed her to the team as soon as the trade happened, and the duo have been playing video games together since, particularly bonding over Fortnite. Gray is a big time gamer; she brought her console with her to the Tokyo Olympics, where she won a gold medal in 3×3, and can often be found live-streaming Call of Duty on her Twitch channel.

“I’d never met her in person, and the first time we ever had a conversation was actually over the gaming headset,” Gray says of Howard.

Naz Hillmon, a second-year forward on the Dream, shares an agent with Gray. They’d met at an agency dinner, but got to know each other during the Athletes Unlimited season in Dallas during the spring. Every week, captains would draft a new team and play three games together before rotating and drafting again, with players earning points on the AU leaderboard for in-game accomplishments. Hillmon and Gray played four out of the five weeks on the same team, and that was intentional.

“Naz knew to pick me with her first pick. Second pick, do what you do, but that first pick better have been me or I wouldn’t have been happy,” Gray says before laughing heartily.

“I wanted to build that chemistry together knowing that we’d be coming to Atlanta together,” Hillmon says.

She wanted to find every opportunity she could to learn Gray’s game, find how to better play off one another, and get to know her personality. As the W season has gone on, so has the blossoming friendship between the trio of Gray, Howard, and Hillmon, with Gray being given “no choice but to have fun here” upon her arrival in Atlanta. She’s been roped into TikTok dances, and fans are continually reminded about Goggles Lish, one of Gray’s nicknames due to her on-court eyewear.

They’ve embraced who she is while also bringing her personality and star-power to the forefront. Howard knew Gray was funny, but prior to the trade, she was known for being on the quieter side. As such, Howard made it a point to empower Gray to show off her personality.

“She acts like she’s quiet and she’s got this little Southern accent, but she’s a jokester,” Hillmon says. “She likes to talk trash a little bit to us, not so much on the court. She just has this little sneakiness about her, where if you’re not as close to her, she’s more reserved.”

Hillmon’s even given out a new nickname, Big Al, in recognition of how the first syllable of Gray’s first name is pronounced.

“That’s why she has two L’s!” Hillmon says with a laugh. “I found that out and was like, oh, your name is Big Al. So I’m trying to get Big Al caught on to the rest of the world. I feel like it just fits her.

Gray’s a fan of the new nickname, possibly because she’s just excited to be in Atlanta. She’s excited to be embraced by a new organization and new teammates, and excited to spread her wings as a player in a way she’s known she’s capable of. Her goals include getting that first All-Star nod and make an All-Defense team, and so far, she’s made quite the case for both.

But above all of the individual accolades, Gray has one goal in mind.

“Keep building, being able to win a championship here,” she says. “I feel that’s the key thing. Everybody wants a championship.”

The team is still young and finds itself in the second year of a rebuild. It’s not time to compete for a title quite yet. Instead, this season is about preparing to be ready for that next stage, and embracing Gray has proven to be a pivotal next step in the Dream’s, well, dreams.

Today’s Republican Party is deeply afraid of Donald Trump, and with good reason: He’s still, inexplicably, killing it in the polls, on top of being infamously petty. But so far one rival candidate has been punchy: Chris Christie. When he entered the 2024 presidential race earlier this month, he vowed to come for Trump. And so far he hasn’t.

As per Raw Story, the former New Jersey governor went on CNN Sunday morning, where he torched Trump over saying he’ll hire the best people — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis — only to fire them after they prove, to him at least, disappointing. In both cases, and more besides, Trump went from hyping them up to calling them mean names.

“If you believe what he said about them in the beginning, the great stuff, that means this person is the worst manager in the history of American presidency,” Christie told host Jake Tapper. “Either way, he’s a petulant child when someone disagrees with him. Whether it’s Bill Barr, General Milley, if you disagree with Donald Trump, the petulant child comes out and he calls you names like the one you just mentioned and the ones I mentioned.”

Christie then twisted the knife further.

“I’m trying to save my party and country from going down the road of being led by three-time loser Donald Trump,” Christie said. “Loser in 2018 by losing the House, loser in 2020 by losing the White House, and the United States Senate, and the worst midterm performance we’ve seen in a long, long time … loser. loser, loser.”

So far most of the GOP pushback against Christie has been fat jokes, but clearly immaturity hasn’t kept him from trying to de-MAGA the GOP.

(Via Raw Story)

Every single week, our TV and film experts will list the most important ten streaming selections for you to pop into your queues. We’re not strictly operating upon reviews or accrued streaming clicks (although yes, we’ve scoured the streaming site charts) but, instead, upon those selections that are really worth noticing amid the churning sea of content. There’s a lot out there, after all, and your time is valuable.

TIE: 10. Beau Is Afraid (A24 film streaming on VOD and Amazon)

Joaquin Phoenix joins forces with Hereditary director Ari Aster for a new, mother-focused nightmare that follows the protagonist’s battle to exist in the outside world. The story crosses generations to follow Beau, a “[a] paranoid man [who] embarks on an epic odyssey to get home to his mother in this bold and ingeniously depraved new film.” Mother is played by Patti LuPone, and this film sure feels like an acquired taste and a wilder-than-usual swing from A24. The film has been described by critics as being both “gobsmacking” and “exhausting,” so prepare your own sense of panic accordingly.

TIE: 10. Reality (HBO movie streaming on Max)

Sydney Sweeney shakes up her body of work with this tense drama about an Air Force vet and former NSA translator whose run-of-the-mill civilian existence is shattered when FBI agents descend upon her home. Soon enough, her name, “Reality Winner,” trended on social media and didn’t seem quite real to most, but Reality was eventually very much imprisoned for leaking classified documents related to 2016 election interference. Sweeney makes an impressive, textured turn as a seemingly ordinary 20-something who has seen some sh*t and feels the walls closing in on her.

9. Platonic (Apple TV+ series)

In an overcrowded area of streaming, this raunchy comedy is not-so-quietly toiling away to resurrect that golden era of entertainment. Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen are absolutely charming here while attempting to resurrect their college debauchery, and sometimes, it’s nice to contemplate a few hours where “adulting” can take a break. Not sure it’s worth the hangover, of course, but Rose Byrne remains funnier than a lot of people give her credit for being, and Seth Rogen lives and breathes jolliness combined with a chaotic fashion sense that rivals Portia on The White Lotus. Come for the horse tranquilizer jokes and stay for the portrayal of friendship’s rollercoaster ride.

8. The Crowded Room (Apple TV+ series)

Some hefty creative liberties don’t exactly help this inspired-by-true-crime story land in a believable way, but this show still gives us Tom Holland as you’ve never seen him before. Here, he portrays “Danny Sullivan,” who is arrested for a shooting, among other crimes, and Amanda Seyfried plays an investigator who is charged with piecing together a complicated chain of events that raises more questions than answers about the defendant’s own inner turmoil. This fictionalized spin on actual events follows long after Leonardo DiCaprio was floated to star as the real-life version of this character who successfully invoked a certain criminal-defense strategy for the first time.

7. The Idol (HBO series streaming on Max)

HBO recently spoke out against rumors that this series had already been taken out of the running for a second season. So, we may or may not have too many more chances to sit through exceedingly uncomfortable sex scenes starring Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye and Lily-Rose Depp. Euphoria creator Sam Levinson sure didn’t skimp on the controversy with this series, and no one expected prestige drama, so we’ll see if the show can rally more of an audience who isn’t mostly curious about how far the scandal will go. At least we can see more of the rise of Blackpink’s Jennie and Rachel Sennott.

6. Silo (Apple TV+ series)

This series just received a second-series renewal, and it does justice to Hugh Howey’s best-selling Wool omnibus, which is a minor miracle, considering the difficulty that must have been involved with building this underground world. Still, it deserves to be much higher on the list, and perhaps with the approaching finale, it will get there. Justified creator Graham Yost brings us the story of Rebecca Ferguson’s Juliette, who rises to the top of an 180+ story silo after saving the entire joint from an eternal blackout. The show painstakingly fleshes out some character who don’t receive much airtime in the book series, which brings a procedural vibe, and the mysteries that further unfurl prove that this was the right storytelling move.

5. I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson (Netflix series)

This show’s rabid audience proves that there’s always a place for awkward comedy these days, especially while the world awaits more highly uncomfortable content from Nathan Fielder. If you’ve watched this season already, do take a gander at Brian Grubb’s comprehensive ranking of sketches, and get ready to watch these sketches be meme-d into oblivion while people hope that another installment will swiftly be on its absurd way to the audience.

4. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Sony movie available for rental on Amazon)

The wait was fully worth this sequel, which swung into theaters with an even better dazzling display than its predecessor, which landed at the top of our Favorite Comic Book Movies (of last decade) list, so people are reliving the original film before heading out for the second offering that proves extra-delightful for Gwen lovers. The franchise remains a game-changer that proves how well both Disney and Sony are filling in infinite facets of Spidey for the masses. Peter Parker and all his incarnations are served well here, and let’s check back at the end of the year to see if this film remains the top comic book movie of 2023.

3. Based On A True Story (Peacock series)

Kaley Cuoco can’t seem to miss, and that’s a glorious realization, given how underestimated she was following the Big Bang Theory‘s lengthy run. Cuoco’s comedic bent takes on the true crime with a frothy mystery involving a married couple who might be too close for comfort to stories about a local serial killer. Chris Messina portrays Cuoco’s husband, and since this show hails from producers of The Boys and Ozark, one can expect an incredibly bent ride.

2. Flamin’ Hot (Searchlight Pictures film streaming on Hulu and Disney+)

Eva Longoria presents her directorial debut, which follows the “true” story of Richard Montañez (Jesse Garcia), a Frito Lay janitor who rose up through his Mexican-American heritage to transform Flamin’ Hot Cheetos in the eye of the American snack-craving public. Actually, this was no mere snack but a full-on sensation. After this film quickly became Searchlight Pictures’ most streamed movie ever, Longoria is apparently buried under a deluge of additional scripts from which to pick her next project.

1. Black Mirror (Netflix series)

After four years of real-life dystopia, Charlie Brooker’s brainchild is finally following up on those endless permutations of Bandersnatch — because clearly, there are more than enough technologically-fueled existential crises from which to draw material. The “Joan Is Awful” episode (starring Salma Hayek) has been trending on social media, and Netflix even allowed this show to take shots at Netflix, so you won’t want to miss this one. Other episodes feature Aaron Paul, Annie Murphy, Josh Hartnett, Michael Cera, Paapa Essiedu, Rob Delaney, Rory Culkin, and Zazie Beetz as an unlikely paparazzo.

Following a pair of controversies over the last month and a half, longtime West Virginia men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins‘ time with the university is expected to come to an end. According to Jeff Goodman of Stadium, Huggins addressed the team on Saturday night after an arrest for a DUI and informed them that he will not coach the team next season, and Pete Thamel of ESPN reported that the expectation at the university is that Huggins will resign in the coming days.

Huggins first earned negative headlines back in May on the heels of a radio appearance where he disparaged Xavier fans. Huggins, who used to be the head coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats, referred to fans of the Musketeers as “Catholic f*gs” twice while appearing on a radio show in Cincinnati. While he was not fired for the incident, West Virginia handed down a handful of punishments for the incident, which included a suspension for the first three games of the 2023-24 college basketball season and a salary reduction.

The straw that broke the camel’s back for Huggins, however, came on the evening of June 16, when the 69-year-old was arrested and charged with Driving Under the Influence in Pittsburgh. According to the local authorities, Huggins was in an SUV that was blocking the middle of the road, and upon finding him, the vehicle’s driver’s side door was ajar and the car had a shredded tire.

Huggins, a Morgantown native and graduate of West Virginia, got his first head coaching job at Walsh University in 1980 and has been in charge at Akron, Cincinnati, and Kansas State in his career. In 2007, he left the Wildcats to take the head coaching position at his alma mater. Over the course of his career, Huggins has accrued a 935-414 record, and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022.

Filming on season five of Stranger Things has yet to resume but fans were given some good news about their favorite sci-fi series during Netflix’s TUDUM event: Linda Hamilton is joining the cast.

The show is currently on hiatus due to the writer’s strike with the Duffer brothers committed to standing in solidarity with the WGA while they fight for better wages and fair working conditions. The creators tweeted out their support of the strike when they delivered an update on season five’s timeline last month.

But it sounds like the pair haven’t just been snacking on pineapple pizza and playing Dungeons and Dragons during the break. They’ve been adding some ’80s action heavyweights to the final season’s lineup. The Terminator star is joining the show in an as-of-now undisclosed role. When season four ended, Vecna had been temporarily defeated but not before he managed to open another gate, ensuring The Upside Down could invade the town of Hawkins. Max was in a coma, healing from her near-death encounter with Dr. Brenner’s villainous “offspring” and the rest of the group was left to wonder when and where Vecna might pop up next. Now that the supernatural has made itself known to the residents of the town, there’s a good chance even more government agents will be flooding the streets so perhaps Hamilton will play one.

Where’s Eleven’s psychic abilities when you need them?

A report from Shams Charania indicates that we may be in the final stages of a Bradley Beal trade. Earlier in the day on Saturday, Charania brought word that the Washington Wizards are sitting down and trying to hammer out a deal with one of two teams: the Miami Heat and the Phoenix Suns.

The Heat have been listed as a potential suitor ever since the rumors began circulating that Beal’s time with the Wizards could be coming to an end, while the Suns are a bit more surprising, as they hadn’t really been linked to Beal all that much. This does beg the question: What, exactly, could both of these teams offer?

According to multiple media reports, we have a sense of what is being put on the table. According to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, the Heat would build a deal around Kyle Lowry, a collection of players who can make the salaries match, and draft capital. Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald added that, if Miami has its way, Tyler Herro won’t be involved in the deal.

As for Phoenix, Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report brings word that Deandre Ayton could be safe, as the plan would be for Chris Paul and Landry Shamet to head to D.C.

It’s worth mentioning that the negotiating going on here is a bit unique, as Beal has the NBA’s only full no-trade clause and has the ability to veto a trade. There is no word on how close either the Heat or the Suns are to getting a deal across the finish line.

Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B Weiss are teaming up on another sci-fi epic — for Netflix, this time — and they’re getting fans a sneak peek at the mind-bending, timeline-hopping saga that might help us all forget that cursed final season of their HBO hit.

With 3 Body Problem, the duo is attempting another tricky adaptation of a brilliant work of fiction written by award-winning author Liu Cixin. The show, like the book, spans decades, following a young woman in 1960s China who sets off a chain reaction that could mean the end of life on Earth. In the present day, her attempt at finding life beyond our planet leads a group of brilliant scientists to confront a threat so great, it might just unravel the laws of nature and destroy mankind.

The short clip Netflix dropped during its TUDUM event introduces some of the key characters in this fight against the unknown — everyone from Benedict Wong and Eiza Gonzalez to GoT veterans like John Bradley, Liam Cunningham, and Jonathan Pryce are set to star — along with dizzying amounts of CGI. The show is set to premiere on Netflix in January 2024, which means fans should have plenty of time to brush up on their physics knowledge before the world gets thrown into chaos.

Ted Cruz is allegedly a U.S. senator, but he seems to spend most of his time getting into fights. Sometimes his spats are with people more famous than he is. One of the stars of his favorite movie hates his guts. Ditto Stephen King. Last week he added another celebrity to his sh*t list: Pat Benatar. What did ’70s and ‘80s rock icon do to Cancún’s most infamous tourist? Who knows, but whatever the case she isn’t having it.

It all started when Cruz was chatting with conservative radio host Joe Pags. The two were moaning about Donald Trump’s legal woes, bringing up a false equivalence with the vague and so far unfounded allegations against his successor, Joe Biden. Cruz claimed Democrats don’t care about his alleged crimes.

“I don’t think Senate Democrats, if you had video of Joe Biden murdering children dressed as the devil under a full moon while singing Pat Benatar, they still wouldn’t vote to convict.”

Ignoring the random Benatar diss, it’s a strange line that seemed to accidentally evoke Trump’s old boast about how he could “stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” Considering his polling went up after he was arraigned a second time, he’s not wrong.

But let’s not ignore the Benatar diss, which seems to suggest the singer of “Love is a Battlefield” is a Satanist? Maybe Cruz hates her because she made a video in which she killed a bunch of Nazis.

Whatever the case, the line did not escape Benatar’s notice. As per Mediaite, on the Facebook page she shares with her husband and collaborator Neil Giraldo, she wrote a simple, two-word response: “NICE TRY!”

In other words — and sorry for this but this dumb joke must be made — Cruz clearly didn’t hit her with his best shot. Again, we apologize.

(Via Mediaite)

Netflix has been hard at work turning its South Korean breakout drama Squid Game into a fully-fledged reality competition series and now, we’re finally getting a sneak peek at this game show from hell.

As part of the star-studded TUDUM event, the streamer unveiled a quick teaser for Squid Game: The Challenge — its highly-anticipated, somewhat-controversial follow-up to the Emmy-winning survival drama that dropped in 2021. The show features 456 players competing for a collective cash prize of $4.56 million. It’s been touted as the biggest reality competition series ever, but it’s also been plagued by injury reports, rumors of “cruel” and “inhumane” treatment, and stories of something colloquially known amongst contestants and the “38-second massacre.”

Unfortunately, this early look at the show glosses over any mayhem happening behind the scenes, but what it lacks in gameplay it makes up for in creepy vibes and an unsettling feeling that this entire thing was a giant mistake. The 30-second clip gives fans a view of how the series has perfectly- replicated the drama’s main arena — from the massive hanger filled with bunkbeds to the colorful winding staircase and the enormous schoolyard where contestants will be forced to play a less deadly version of “Red Light, Green Light.” As for when the show might premiere, the teaser seems to suggest sometime in November of this year.

Let the torture Olympics begin.