Last month, screenwriter David Goyer casually revealed that he wrote an “wrote an unproduced Star Wars movie that Guillermo del Toro was going to direct.” Naturally, people freaked out over the news that they missed out the visionary director getting a chance to put his stamp on the galaxy far, far away. It also didn’t help that del Toro leaned into the hype by confirming Goyer’s tale on Twitter.
“True. Can’t say much,” del Toro tweeted along with a clip of Goyer from the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “Maybe two letters ‘J’ and ‘BB’ is that three letters?”
The Pan’s Labyrinth director also clarified that the Lucasfilm talks happened “about 6 years ago.” Goyer had said it was about four years, so he was in the ballpark.
Well, apparently, something has changed because del Toro has opened up about the Star Wars project that never came to be. To the surprise of no one, the film would’ve centered around one of the greatest film creature creations of all time: Jabba the Hutt. del Toro loves creature work, and Jabba is the crown jewel of practical effects.
“We had the rise and fall of Jabba the Hutt, so I was super happy,” del Toro told Collider. “We were doing a lot of stuff, and then it’s not my property, it’s not my money, and then it’s one of those 30 screenplays that goes away.
From the sound of things, del Toro and his team got pretty far with design elements for the potential Jabba film. While it’s disappointing that the project never came to fruition, he looks at the missed opportunity as a chance for them to hone their craft.
“Sometimes I’m bitter, sometimes I’m not,” del Toro said. “I always turn to my team and say, ‘Good practice, guys. Good practice. We designed a great world. We designed great stuff. We learned.’”
There are only two albums left for Swift to re-record: her self-titled debut from 2006 and 2017’s shape-shifting Reputation. Swifties theorize that Reputation (Taylor’s Version) is next on deck. The rebellious record celebrated its fifth anniversary last November, which might matter more than you’d think. In November 2021, The Wall Street Journalreported on Swift’s re-record strategy in the context of Universal Music Group’s semi-recently amended policies — predating Swift beginning to re-record — an excerpt of which can be read below:
“Prior to Universal’s change, the industry’s standard rerecording restriction said an artist can’t rerecord until five years after the delivery of their last recording under the agreement, or two years from the end of the recording contract’s term, whichever is later. Universal’s new proposals increase those periods to seven and five years, respectively, and tack on another ‘seven year post period’ to the end of the rerecording restriction during which the artist is barred from rerecording more than two songs.’”
BIA is really her, and she wants to prove it on the Really Her Tour. The Massachusetts rapper, best known for her viral hits “Best On Earth” and “Whole Lotta Money,” is promoting her most recent EP Really Her ahead of the release of her debut album, and hitting the road for her first headlining tour beginning tonight in Los Angeles. The three-week tour will include a hometown show in Boston next Tuesday and conclude the day before Halloween back in California at the Observatory in Santa Ana.
BIA is bringing along two fellow rappers on the rise in Lakeyah and Lebra Jolie; you can find out more about them below.
Who Is Opening BIA’s ‘The Really Her Tour?’
Lakeyah
Milwaukee rapper Lakeyah got her big break when she left her hometown and moved to Atlanta for school but dropped out after two months. Shortly after that she was signed to Quality Control Music, which has supported a string of releases including the mixtapes Time’s Up and In Due Time, as well as two No Pressure EPs. In that time, Lakeyah was featured on the XXL Freshman cover for 2021, and has collaborated with Gucci Mane, Flo Milli, Latto, DJ Drama, and more.
Lebra Jolie
Signed to Interscope, Lebra Jolie hails from Houston, and just like other H-Town natives KenTheMan, Erica Banks, and Megan Thee Stallion, she’s got a razor sharp, punchy flow and the defiant, devil-may-care attitude to match. She’s dropped two EPs, 2018’s Briana and 2022’s Lebra Jolie, and recent collaborations with hood favorites Babyface Ray and Rob49 have seen her hype train slowly but surely picking up steam.
(Spoilers from The Walking Dead shows, including Fear The Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, will be found below.)
Daryl Dixon devotees have been hoping that Carol/Melissa McBride would make an appearance on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, and this has been a long and winding road, y’all. This spinoff was actually conceived as a Daryl-and-Carol road trip of sorts, and then McBride dropped out of the project, possibly due to the pandemic, although the reason really isn’t too relevant.
What is more important is that Norman Reedus later began suggesting that Carol could surface after all, although no one could possibly conceive of how she could mysteriously wash ashore in France, too. Then a paparazzo caught the two actors on (a) set together, which seemed to solidify the deal (that these two would ride together again). Well, some Carol did in fact happen on this week’s Daryl Dixon episode. However, we did not see Melissa McBride; we only heard her voice when Daryl called her on the radio.
Comic Book posted the transcript of their conversation, which includes Daryl’s promise to return home in around a week, and of course, he never showed up because he ended up taking a salty ocean bath. However, the end of the conversation included Carol cutting to static while telling Daryl that someone or something “came back.” The conversation cuts out completely, and we never find out who Carol is discussing.
My initial gut feeling was that this person can’t be too important because Carol didn’t mention this person right away while talking to Daryl, although I could be wrong. And the possibilities would seem to include Rick and/or Michonne along with either Dwight or Morgan returning from Fear The Walking Dead. Actually, Dwight does not seem like a possibility because Daryl threatened to kill him if he ever showed his face again. It seems as though the franchise would want to wait on official Rick Grimes return news until his spinoff with Michonne, and I doubt that she would return without him.
So that leaves Morgan, perhaps? Or Dog. I hope it’s Dog. Yet Morgan did leave all that PADRE sh*t behind midseason in FTWD to head back home, after which the timelines should intersect. Could we get a clue or some confirmation? Showrunner David Zabel told Entertainment Weekly that this was an “important” tidbit, although perhaps not in the way that people suspect:
“Well, it is important to what her ongoing story may be, and it is important in terms of what we were thinking is going on in Carol’s world at that moment. It’s also not what the audience expects or anticipates, if they’re anticipating something. So it will ultimately prove to be surprising. But that’s all based on the idea that we’re going to play out that story.”
Hmm. This person would be important to Carol, which doesn’t seem to point toward Morgan, although it could be him since Carol isn’t a fan of the guy, and she could have pushed that news out of the forefront at her mind, hence the offhanded mention. Obviously, Sophia is not back in super-walker form or anything like that. Could Ezekiel’s cancer “be back”? Actually, they’re not together anymore. Or perhaps they got back together. Who knows! Yet Zabel promises that this answer will be revealed. Perhaps for next week’s season finale? Only time will tell.
AMC’s The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon airs on Sunday nights.
After a surprising run to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2021, the Atlanta Hawks have needed to scrap through the Play-In the last two seasons just to make the playoffs and have been bounced in the first round in back-to-back years.
Coming into the 2023-24 season, the Hawks look fairly similar to last year’s squad, with the biggest difference being Quin Snyder getting a full offseason as head coach after taking over midseason last year for Nate McMillan. From a roster perspective, the most notable change is the departure of John Collins, who was traded to the Jazz in a salary dump as the Hawks wanted to move off the last three years of his deal. With Collins gone, Snyder will have to play around with the roster to fill those minutes at power forward, with the likelihood of more minutes for De’Andre Hunter at the four and smaller lineups to try and space the floor for Trae Young and Dejounte Murray. Snyder will want the Hawks to be much more of a three-point threat than a year ago when they were 28th in three-point attempts and 21st in three-point percentage in the NBA.
The expectation with their star backcourt is to be a playoff team. To get there and avoid the Play-In, there is one major question and one X-Factor on the roster that figure to play key roles in if they can take a leap back into the top-6 in the East.
Biggest Question: Will The Young Players Take A Step Forward?
With Collins gone, the Hawks will lean more on their youngsters, with much of their roster being 25 years old or younger. Hunter spent the summer in trade rumors but nothing ever materialized and how he responds to that will be fascinating. Hunter impressed as a rookie, but has somewhat stagnated in terms of development, mostly looking like the same player he was when he entered the league. Part of Snyder’s task is to see if he can coax something more out of Hunter in his fifth year, particularly in the absence of Collins. However, Hunter isn’t alone when it comes to young Hawks who will be relied on heavily.
Onyeka Okongwu could get more run this year both as Clint Capela’s backup (and the expected starting center in waiting whenever Capela is no longer in Atlanta), with the chance to run some big lineups with he and Capela sharing the floor now that Collins is gone. Saddiq Bey was lights out from three in his 25 regular season games in Atlanta, and AJ Griffin, likewise, is among the Hawks best three-point threats. Both of them being positive contributors on the wing is going to be important given Snyder will be asking for Atlanta to get up more threes, but to stay in larger roles they’ll have to provide something on the defensive end as well. Hawks fans are also high on Jalen Johnson, and he figures to get some burn with Collins gone as some power forward depth who can bring some bounce to the frontcourt.
If this team is to take a step forward it figures to be on the backs of internal improvement from their youngsters. Snyder’s task is figuring out which roles and lineup combinations they’re most comfortable in to get the most out of them and provide their stars with the right amount of support
X-Factor: Bogdan Bogdanovic
While Hunter is important, I think getting a fully healthy Bogdan Bogdanovic would be the thing that really allows the Hawks to be a factor in the East playoff picture. He has played in 44, 63, and 54 games in his three seasons in Atlanta, struggling to stay healthy and on the floor consistently. That’s been a big loss for a Hawks team that has a big need for a player of his skillset, who can be a shot creator and initiator with the second unit and a spot-up threat and off-ball worker with the first unit. Hunter isn’t at the level of Bogdanovic with either of those skills (but is a superior defender), and when Bogdanovic isn’t in the lineup or is banged up and playing at less than 100 percent, the Hawks just lack some juice offensively.
He’s coming off of a tremendous summer showing in the FIBA World Cup for Serbia and should be in great condition to start the season. The concern is whether he can maintain that conditioning throughout the 82-game season and into the playoffs, especially after taking on a big workload in the World Cup. If he can carry over that level of play, the Hawks should look much more dangerous offensively this season as he figures to bring a lot of qualities Snyder will want from Atlanta on that end of the floor this year.
With the writers strike finally over after nearly months, and the actors strike reportedly nearing an end, the big question on Game of Thrones fans’ mind is when will House of the Dragon Season 2 premiere? With TV schedules thrown to the wind, there’s a lot of uncertainty in the air over when shows will return. Fortunately, there’s good news for the prequel series and everyone itching for some more hot dragon action.
Thanks to using mainly European actors who weren’t affected by the strikes happening in America, House of the Dragon has reportedly remained on schedule. According to Variety, Season 2 is still locked into its previously announced release date, and HBO is determined to hit that window thanks to the first season being a juggernaut hit:
HBO is eager to take fans back to Westeros for more backstabbing, incest and power plays with the second season of “House of the Dragon,” targeting a summer 2024 premiere, and looking ahead to a yet-to-be-ordered third season of the “Game of Thrones” prequel. While “House of the Dragon” was able to wrap filming on Season 2 during the strikes, as the scripts were already complete and the production is under a U.K. union contract.
As for what to expect from Season 2, director Claire Kilner told The Hollywood Reporter that the episodes are so dense, she and showrunner Ryan Condal had regular concerns about them running over an hour.
“There are eight wonderful episodes with so much happening in every episode, and we have trouble, at times, bringing them down to one hour,” Kilner said. “Ryan’s decision was to give it a good opening and a good ending, and they’re jam-packed with emotional and visually exciting events.”
House of the Dragon Season 2 will fly onto HBO in Summer 2024.
Travis Scott will officially embark on his delayed Utopia: The Circus Maximus Tour this week, kicking off the 28-city swing for his new album Utopia in Charlotte, North Carolina at the Spectrum Center this Wednesday, October 11. He’ll be accompanied by fellow Texas genre-bending rapper Teezo Touchdown, who is also fresh off the release of an album, How Do You Sleep At Night? You can learn more about him below.
Who Is Opening Travis Scott’s Utopia: Circus Maximus Tour?
30-year-old Teezo Touchdown hails from Beaumont, Texas, and is probably best known for his unique look, which involves an elaborate fusion of high-fashion and punk aesthetics and his signature habit of draping himself in nails, usually in his hair. He first began to gain attention thanks to his detailed videos for tracks like “Strong Friend,” “Careful,” “Sucka!” and “Rooting For You,” and music that crosses over from emo to pop-punk to hip-hop, often mashing them up.
His eye-catching style and holistic approach to branding himself have won him such co-signers as Drake and Tyler The Creator — the latter of whom he toured with last year.
Since then, Teezo has collaborated with Don Toliver, Lil Yachty, Rico Nasty, Travis Scott, and more, appearing on Utopia and most recently landing a feature on Drake’s new album For All The Dogs.
While there’s still plenty of skepticism about him, he’s got the sort of momentum that ensures he’ll be a features fixture for the foreseeable future and with a performance style marked by exuberant crowd interactions, it’ll certainly be worth getting to Travis’ shows early to catch him do his thing.
Larry Charles won’t be seeing the next Star Wars or Marvel movie.
The legendary Seinfeld writer and Borat and Masked and Anonymous director was Marc Maron’s guest on a recent episode of the WTF podcast, where he discussed the state of cinema.
“I try to make things like Dangerous Comedy or this movie — this movie’s a very low-budget movie,” Charles said about A24’s first musical, Dicks: The Musical, according to Variety. “Politically for me, ethically for me, I find it offensive when movies cost $250 million and the world is in the state that it’s in. So I’m also looking to make a statement in the way these things are made.”
Charles wants to continue making “radical work” — like, say, a musical where Megan Thee Stallion makes leashed men crawl on the floor like dogs — by “saying that I could do it for a little money, and the way [producers and directors] say yes to it is they think, ‘Oh, that radical little work that’s not going to cost any money is going to make money.’ Absolutely. That is the system.”
He added, “I haven’t been able, I’ve been doing stuff on YouTube, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to get out of that, to move out of that. It’s very, very difficult to do. Because YouTube is owned by somebody, Instagram is owned by somebody. Everything, you know, it’s very hard to get your word out, your thoughts out.”
Dicks: The Musical is in theaters now. You can listen to the podcast below:
Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.
This week saw Drake finally come through with For All The Dogs and Megan Thee Stallion offer some newness of her own. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.
Adonis Graham does it all: He illustrated the cover art of his dad’s highly anticipated new album For All The Dogs, he co-starred in the “8AM In Charlotte” video, and how he’s offered his first verse on a Drake song via “Daylight.” The 5-year-old fires off bars that make some amount of sense maybe and it’s a fun and adorable way to cap off the track.
Megan Thee Stallion — “Out Alpha The Alpha”
Now that the Tory Lanez trial is behind her, Meg has been more publicly visible as of late: She reunited with Cardi B, she launched a mental health initiative, and she promises to pulverize the patriarchy on “Out Alpha The Alpha,” a new song from D*cks: The Musical (in which she also stars, by the way).
Janelle Monáe — “Champagne Sh*t (Remix)” Feat. Latto and Quavo
The Age Of Pleasure has been out for a minute now, but Monáe revisited the project last week with a new take on “Champagne Sh*t.” She brought Latto and Quavo into the fold for a remix, bringing some Atlanta flavor to the fan-favorite song.
Paramore — “C’est Comme Ça (Re: Wet Leg)”
Paramore just did something pretty cool with This Is Why: They released a new version of the album (Re: This Is Why) featuring reworks of the album’s tracks via artists like Bartees Strange, Panda Bear, Julien Baker, and others. Wet Leg came through with a particularly cool, laid-back-yes-rocking cover of “C’est Comme Ça.’
Sufjan Stevens — “Sh*t Talk”
It’s a bittersweet time for Sufjan Stevens right now: He just released Javelin, a new album that’s getting stellar reviews, but on the other hand, he dedicated the project to Evan Richardson, his late partner who died this past April. So, hopefully the success of the album is something Stevens can enjoy during a difficult part of his life.
Tems — “Me & U”
Tems recently found herself in the middle of a viral rumor, but now that we’re past that, the focus is back to music. Last week, the Nigerian favorite released the introspective “Me & U,” which is actually her first single in two years.
Jennie — “You & Me”
No, we didn’t do the same song twice. Blackpink’s Jennie offered a titular inverse to Tems’ comeback last week with “You & Me,” of which Uproxx’s Alex Gonzalez notes, “Pulsating bass beats imitate the sound of a heartbeat as she can’t deny the euphoria she feels.”
Earl Sweatshirt and The Alchemist — “Vin Skully”
Earl and Alchemist went on an interesting release journey for their new collaborative project: Back in August, they dropped it exclusively as an NFT, and last week, they gave the album a proper wide unveiling as it made its way onto streaming services.
Omar Apollo — “Ice Slippin”
“Ice Slippin” is a vulnerable new one for Apollo as he explained, “‘Ice Slippin’ is about reliving the thoughts I had passing through my mind the winter I came out to my family. Receiving cold judgment as opposed to the acceptance I felt I deserved. This song is a reflection and reaction of all the emotions I had to face before and after I decided to leave the icy streets of Indiana.”
NewJeans — “Gods”
The League Of Legends World Championship is coming to Seoul this year, so K-pop icons NewJeans had to get in on the action. Their contribution is “Gods,” an in-your-face new song that reflects the drama and intensity of the game it represents.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
1989 (Taylor’s Version), Swift’s fourth re-recorded album, is due out on October 27. Late last week, a full-blown merch collection appeared on Swift’s official website store. A photo of the collection can be seen below (as per Taylor Nation via email):
Courtesy of Taylor Nation and Taylor Swift
Accessory and clothing options range from several graphic tees and sweatshirts, including a seagull-themed crewneck, to a light blue tie-dye hoodie, taupe dad hat, and cream-colored sunglasses. The miscellaneous merch items include a 1989-branded viewfinder, photo coasters, tote bag, blanket (with seagulls printed on it), and patch set.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Swiftian release without a clever play on numbers, so all of the prices all end in 89 cents instead of rounding to the nearest dollar. Similarly, Swift set her ticket prices for her upcoming Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert film at $19.89 for adults and $13.13 for children and seniors (pre-tax and for standard screenings).
The movie’s advance global ticket sales eclipsed $100 million last week, as confirmed by AMC Theatres and reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
1989 (Taylor’s Version) is out 10/27 via Republic. Find more information here.
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