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Is ‘Masters Of The Air’ Based On A True Story?

2019 feels like a decade ago for countless reasons (some more obvious than others), but that was when we first heard about Masters Of The Air from Apple TV+. The world has since gone chaotic and most recently into two Hollywood strikes, but finally, incredibly promising details are upon us. To briefly recap, this limited series will hail from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television along with Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman’s Playtone. The project arrives over two decades after Hanks and Spielberg brought their first World War II-inspired limited series, Band of Brothers, to HBO in 2001. They later followed up with The Pacific in 2010, and the third time might be an even bigger charm.

At least, the leading man and his supporting players promise enormous performances. Oscar winner Austin Butler has stopped Elvis-ing it up for this project, and he will be joined by BAFTA winner and Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan. The cast further includes Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle, Nate Mann, and Ncuti Gatwa, and here’s a peek at the ensemble in action:

Masters Of The Air
Apple TV+

The story will draw heavily upon Donald L. Miller’s book, Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany, and Apple TV+ looks to be pushing further towards streaming supremacy in its own right with this project. As Apple TV+ announced this week, this limited series will follow “a true story of brotherhood and American airmen in WWII Europe. Here’s a blast from the past via Deadline:

The book tells the story of the American bomber boys in WWII who brought the war to Hitler’s doorstep. It becomes the first series greenlit with Apple serving as the studio as the company is joining major streamers like Netflix and Amazon, which also produce and own content. Deadline hears that the miniseries will be more than eight hours in length, and that it will cost well north of $200 million to produce.

That $200 million figure was reported to be accurate back in 2019, and in a time of inflation, god only knows how much producers have invested in this project. It should be a hell of a ride.

Masters of the Air will stream on January 26, 2024.

(Via Deadline & Apple TV+)

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Hugh Jackman Is Writing A ‘Memoir Full Of ‘Big Bombshells’

Last month, Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness announced that they were ending their marriage after 27 years. “We have been blessed to share almost 3 decades together as husband and wife in a wonderful, loving marriage. Our journey now is shifting and we have decided to separate to pursue our individual growth,” they said in a statement. “Our family has been and always will be our highest priority. We undertake this next chapter with gratitude, love, and kindness. We greatly appreciate your understanding in respecting our privacy as our family navigates this transition in all of our lives.”

Now that Jackman has joined Taylor Swift’s posse of recent divorcees, he’s in the “early stages” of writing a memoir full of “big bombshells.” A source told US Magazine that the actor decided now is the time to share his life story “because he’s finally [being] honest with himself [and] the divorce, and this book is the first step.” The insider added, “The content will be Hugh speaking about his life. He’ll be opening up about his life like never before. It’s been very healing for him.”

Jackman will obviously spent a lot of pages on playing Wolverine, but there had better be at least one chapter, although ideally seven, on Movie 43. Why did he agree to have balls on his neck? The people (me) need to know.

(Via US Magazine)

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Björk And Rosalía Will ‘Help Fight Fish Farming In Iceland’ With A Song, And Björk Shared A Moving Snippet

Last December, SZA told Entertainment Weekly that Björk is “the GOAT to me” because the Icelandic artist is “the realest b*tch alive.” Björk is underscoring SZA’s claim by teasing a song she made with Rosalía that will serve to raise awareness and funds for an important issue in her homeland.

The 75-second song snippet arrived on Thursday morning, October 5, alongside a simplistic video. Björk’s intention for the song scrolls atop of a photo of a fish underwater (copyrighted to Veiga Grétarsdóttir), as Björk and Rosalía repeatedly sing, “Is that the right thing to do? / Is that the right thing to do? / I just don’t know / Oh, I just don’t know.”

Read Björk’s written message below, and listen to the snippet above.

“I am offering a song me and rosalía sang together. The profits will to help the fight against fish farming in Iceland. It will come out in October. People at the fjord Seyðisfjörður have stood up and protested against fish farming starting there. We would like to donate sales of the song to help with their legal fees and hopefully it can be an exemplary case for others.

Iceland has the biggest untouched nature in Europe and still today it has its sheep roaming free in the mountains in the summers
its fish has swum free in our lakes, rivers and fjords

So when Icelandic and Norwegian businessmen started buying fish farms in the majority of our fjords, it was a big shock and rose up as the main topic this summer, we don’t understand how they had been able to do this for a decade with almost no regulations stopping them. This has already had devastating effect on wildlife and the farmed fish are suffering in horrid health conditions and since a lot of them have escaped, they have started changing the DNA in the Icelandic salmon to the worse and could eventually lead to its extinction.

There is still a chance to safe the last wild salmon of the north. Our group would like to dare these business men to retract their farms! We would also like to help invent and set strict regulations into Iceland’s legal system to guard nature. The majority of the nation already agrees with us so this protest is about putting the will of the people into our rule-systems.

warmth

björk.”

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Ime Udoka Explained Why The Rockets Chose VanVleet Over James Harden: ‘Fred Is Just A Better Fit’

For months there were rumblings that James Harden and the Houston Rockets might end up reuniting this summer in free agency. Eventually, those rumors cooled off and many wondered if Harden had been trying to use Houston’s massive amount of cap space as leverage in talks with the Sixers (which ultimately did not work out for him and now he’s demanded a trade).

The Rockets ultimately signed Fred VanVleet to a three-year max deal with a team option on the final year, adding the veteran point guard they felt they needed to help bring along Jalen Green and the young roster. However, Harden was certainly in the mix for the Rockets, but head coach Ime Udoka and the Rockets front office decided VanVleet was the better fit for what this Rockets team needed. As Udoka explained to Zach Lowe, they wanted VanVleet because he’d be a better fit in an offense that took a more egalitarian approach rather than having a ball dominant guard like Harden.

“Nothing against James,” Udoka told ESPN, “but Fred is just a better fit. I coached James in Brooklyn. He’s one of the smartest players I’ve ever been around. The words ‘Ime doesn’t want James’ never came out of my mouth. It was, ‘Let’s look at the best fit.’ If we want Jalen and the young guys to take the next steps, we need them to have the ball. As for me saying I don’t want James, that was never the case. It was about fit.”

When the Harden return rumors first started, many pointed out how this could be an issue, as Harden is someone who needs the ball constantly to be at his best. Adding him would either stymie the development of Green and the rest of the Rockets youngsters who also need to continue getting consistent reps on the ball, or if they insisted on still trying to run that kind of offense, you would not be getting Harden at his best. As a result, they opted for VanVleet, who has much more experience playing in an offense that shares ball-handling and creation responsibilities.

That quote from Udoka is also part of what is making it difficult for Harden to find another basketball home. He is a player that needs the ball in his hands to be his most effective (and has never shown much of a desire to change) but few teams are in the market for a player like that, particularly one that is getting older and has dealt with injuries in the past. Building a team around Harden at this point in his career is probably not good business, as the risks outweigh the rewards — unlike back in his prime in Houston when he was capable of carrying a team.

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Miguel Announced His New Album ‘Viscera’ With A Neon Video For ‘Give It To Me’

It has been over six years since the release of Miguel’s last album, War & Leisure. Since then, the California singer has shared a handful of EPs, featured on a few hit singles, and seen the resurgence of a fan favorite via TikTok, but it appears it’s at last time for him to put out a new full-length LP.

Miguel announced his new album, Viscera, with a moody video for its first official single, “Give It To Me.” The sparse beat is matched with equally sparse visuals, which mainly consist of neon-lit shots of Miguel and his leading lady showing off their physiques and intimately embracing as the camera swirls around them.

In the months leading up to this release, Miguel also shared two other songs in very different ways. The first, “Number 9” with Lil Yachty (who has truly been everywhere lately), had a very traditional release with a trippy visualizer. The other, “Rope,” had a less standard release. Miguel debuted that song with a performance piece that found him suspended in the air by literal ropes stuck into his back with hooks. Given the title of his new album, perhaps we should expect to see more viscera on display before it receives its official release, which is “soon” according to a press release.

In addition to these songs, Miguel also popped up on Jesse Reyez’s new single “Jeans” and its sexy, sultry music video. Check out the video for “Give It To Me” above.

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Brian Cox Will Apparently Follow-Up His Emmy-Nominated Role In ‘Succession’ With… A James Bond Reality Show?

After locking down an Emmy nomination for the final season of Succession, where he dominated every scene as brash media tyrant Logan Roy, Brian Cox has revealed his next big TV project: A James Bond reality competition.

007: Road to a Million will take pairs of contestants across the globe as they compete in Bond-like situations for a hefty chunk of change. The reality series was announced last year in March, but what wasn’t announced is Cox’s involvement in the series. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cox will essentially serve as the competition’s villain known only as The Controller.

Described as the “mastermind of the game,” The Controller “dictates where the pairs go, what they must do, and sets their questions. He monitors each pair’s quest, delighting in the unfolding drama of his intricately devised and often relentless challenges.”

There’s no word on whether the contestants will have to perform a birthday rap to win The Controller’s favor, but fingers crossed.

Here’s the official synopsis:

Nine pairs of everyday people scramble over rugged terrain, attempt stomach-churning challenges and answer questions for a chance to win up to £1 million each. Meanwhile, Brian Cox calls the shots as The Controller. Will they rise to the challenge, or fold like a pack of cards in this true test of intelligence, endurance and heroism.

007: Road to a Million starts streaming November 10 on Prime Video.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

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Joel Embiid Committed To Join Team USA At The 2024 Olympics

While locked into his NBA squad long-term, Joel Embiid was the hottest free agent on the international basketball market, as he had a choice to make between joining USA Basketball, France, or Cameroon ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Given the general lack of big men on the USA Basketball roster, landing Embiid was the biggest task for Grant Hill and Steve Kerr to addressing their biggest weakness, particularly since him choosing France would’ve given the French squad a truly gigantic roster the U.S. would’ve had little in the way of obvious answers for. At Sixers media day, Embiid said he was close to making his choice, noting Cameroon would be the easy selection if they were qualified for the Olympics.

On Thursday, word broke from Ramona Shelburne and Shams Charania that Embiid made his selection, choosing USA Basketball and giving them the star center they desperately wanted for the 2024 Olympics.

With Embiid on board, the U.S. squad can look to add some of the more versatile bigs in the player pool like Draymond Green and Bam Adebayo, and if they can get commitments from those two they figure to have one of the best frontcourt rotations in the Olympics after that being one of the glaring issues at this year’s World Cup. France, meanwhile, will roll with Rudy Gobert as their starting center with Victor Wembanyama likely joining the roster for the Olympics after skipping the World Cup.

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Blink-182 Dresses Up As The Ramones For Their Fun ‘Dance With Me’ Video

Blink-182 is preparing for the release of their new album One More Time… arriving later this month. So far, they’ve shared “Edging” and “One More Time,” and now they’re back with the new single and video “Dance With Me.”

In the video, they’re dressed up as The Ramones. It kicks off with a mock interview, in which Mark Hoppus gives his definition of punk: “Punk is doing what you think is right on your own terms and not answering to anybody else and not letting people tell you how you should live your life.” They don’t hesitate to rock out; the clamorous song is as fun as it is loud, and the lyrics are as chaotic as the sound: “I’ve been waiting around to lose / So dumb, trying to make believe / You’re mine, what are you gonna do / Come here, do you want to come dance with me?”

One More Time… is highly anticipated, considering it has Tom DeLonge for the first time since he left the band in 2015. Upon his return, he posted on Instagram, “What if I was to tell you we just made the best album of our career.”

Watch the video for “Dance With Me” above.

One More Time… is out 10/20 via Columbia. Find more information here.

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The WNBA Officially Announced An Expansion Team In The Bay Area That Will Start Playing In 2025

On Thursday, the WNBA confirmed reports that the Bay Area was getting an expansion franchise in 2025, officially announcing the WNBA Golden State franchise on Twitter, with a press conference to follow.

The franchise will play at the Chase Center in San Francisco, which is the recently built home of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, and will give the league 13 teams, although the expectation is for a second expansion team to be announced in the coming months to bring the total back to an even number at 14 squads. The team will be operated by the Warriors ownership group.

As for where that second team will be located, Howard Megdal of The Next reports Portland is expected to be named as the other expansion location. Fans have been asking for expansion franchises for years, and with the recent growth of the league and more interest in ownership opportunities, the league finally chose 2025 as the year to expand. By adding teams in cities that already have an NBA presence, they mitigate some of the cost and logistics issues of launching a new team as there is already an arena in place to host games — which allows those teams to get going in just two years time.

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Mxmtoon Announced A Reimagined Version Of Her ‘Plum Blossom’ Project With A New Take Of ‘Feelings Are Fatal’

Around the release of her Rising album in early 2022, Mxmtoon reflected on her initial success in music. “It’s terrifying when someone becomes so much bigger than you ever imagine, especially when you’re just a teenager,” she told Uproxx at the time. “I felt so vulnerable having millions of people critiquing, complimenting, or criticizing me for art I had just made in my own bedroom when I was 17. It was simultaneously very exciting and also scary.”

Mxmtoon is revisiting those formative releases in a more literal sense with Plum Blossom (Revisited), which is described in a press release as “a reconsideration of the early songs that propelled her to fame.” The first offering from the EP, due out on November 10, is “Feelings Are Fatal (Revisited).”

“A lot of change happens over the course of five years, and that’s especially true when you go from being a teenager to an adult within that space,” Mxmtoon said in a statement. “I released my first EP when I was eighteen, and Plum Blossom was comprised of songs I wrote when I was seventeen. I didn’t have the tools or vocabulary to effectively get every idea I had in my head into song at that point, so the music I was making never quite made it into the form I had envisioned.”

She continued, “Now, at twenty-three, I’m so grateful to say I do have the resources to make those dreams come true for my younger self. To honor and thank her for being brave enough to even make art in the first place, and make her songs shine the way she always wanted them to. Plum Blossom (Revisited) is my way of paying homage to where I started from, to thank everyone who’s grown up with me over the last five years, and encourage people not to shy away from embracing our younger selves.”

The Oakland-bred artist shared more about the project on X (formerly known as Twitter):

The press release also confirms that another full-length album from Mxmtoon is “on the horizon in 2024.” For now, though, listen to “Feelings Are Fatal (Revisited)” above.

Plum Blossom (Revisited) is out 11/10 via AWAL. Find more information here.