Month: October 2023

In an era when Hollywood has gone almost all-in on comic book movies and franchises, it was a big deal this summer when two of the biggest hits were neither. One was Barbie, which, to be fair, is based on a popular toy line (and which kicked off its own Mattel cinematic universe). The other was Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s supersized look at the father of the atomic bomb. Just don’t call it a biopic, at least not around Nolan.

Per Variety, the filmmaker spoke at an event at the City University of New York, where he unloaded on the idea of getting too into Psych 101 analyses when depicting real-life figures.

“There is a tendency in biography post-Freud to attribute characteristics of the person you’re dealing with to their genetics from their parents. It’s a very reductive view of a human being,” Nolan explain. “If you’re writing a book that’s 500 pages or 1,000 pages, there’s a way to balance that with their individuality and experiences. When you compress and strip down to the necessary simplicity of a screenplay, it’s incredibly reductive.”

He continued:

“This is where the concept of a biopic fails you completely as a genre … It’s not a useful genre. I love working in useful genres. In this film…it’s the heist film as it applies to the Manhattan Project and the courtroom drama as it applies to the security hearings. It’s very useful to look at the conventions of those genres and how they can pull the audience and how they can give me communication with the audience.”

Nolan continued to slag the biopic tag: “You don’t talk about Laurence of Arabia as a biopic. You don’t talk about Citizen Kane as a biopic. It’s an adventure film. It’s a film about somebody’s life. It’s not a useful genre the same way drama is not a useful genre. It doesn’t give you anything to hold onto.”

Oppenheimer is due on digital platforms on Nov. 21 — a rarity in this era when even big movies (like Barbie) are available for home viewing a couple months, if not a couple weeks, after hitting theaters. When it is, streamers better not place it in the biopic category.

You can watch Nolan’s full CUNY appearance in the video below.

(Via Variety)

With the contract extension deadline for the Class of 2020 arriving on Sunday evening, a handful of players who had not yet gotten long-term deals done yet reached new deals to avoid hitting restricted free agency next summer.

While the max level guys were already done, there were some role guys teams wanted to lock up for the future. In Denver, backup big man Zeke Nnaji got a 4-year, $32 million deal to remain with the Nuggets, as they are very dependent on drafting and retaining their homegrown talent given their cap sheet. The opposite situation is playing out in Washington, where the Wizards have tons of future cap space after trading Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis, and can use that to seek out some long-term value on their young players. The first beneficiary of that approach is Deni Avdija, as the forward and Wizards agreed to a new 4-year, $55 million deal on Sunday afternoon to keep him in Washington for the foreseeable future.

Avdija averaged 9.2 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game a year ago with 43.7/29.7/73.9 shooting splits, and the Wizards are certainly hoping there’s a step forward coming in Year 4. Avdija benefits from the Wizards kickstarting their rebuild and hoping to lean more on player development, which could give him a bit more opportunity.

Lil Uzi Vert made good on their promise to drop their highly anticipated album, Pink Tape, in June. Shortly after, Uzi revealed they would hit the road on a North American tour. The tour finally kicked off Saturday, October 21 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The national run marks their first full-length time on the road since 2018’s Endless Summer Tour.

Given the lapse in Uzi’s tour runs, fans are curious about which tracks from Pink Tape, their forthcoming album Luv Is Rage 3, and their other mixtapes will be performed live. Here’s the full setlist according to Setlist.fm, and the remaining The Pink Tape Tour dates below.

1. “Suicide Doors”
2. “NFL”
3. “Of Course”
4. “x2”
5. “Amped”
6. “POP”
7. “444+222”
8. “Money Longer”
9. “Do What I Want”
10. “Aye”
11. “Fire Alarm”
12. “The Way Life Goes”
13. “Sanguine Paradise”
14. “Neon Guts”
15. “20 min”
16. “Wokeuplikethis*” (Playboi Carti cover)
17. “Spin Again”
18. “Crush Em”
19. “XO TOUR Llif3”
20. “Shoota” (Playboi Carti cover)
21. “Just Wanna Rock”

Encore:

22. “Sauce It Up”

10/23/2023 — Chicago, IL @ Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
10/24/2023 — Cincinnati, OH @ The Andrew J Brady Music Center
10/25/2023 — Detroit, MI @ Fox Theatre
10/31/2023 — Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway
11/02/2023 — Hampton, VA @ Hampton Coliseum
11/03/2023 — Raleigh, NC @ PNC Arena
11/05/2023 — Birmingham, AL @ Avondale Brewing Company
11/06/2023 — Atlanta, GA @ Coca Cola Roxy
11/08/2023 — Dallas, TX @ South Side Ballroom
11/09/2023 — Austin, TX @ Moody Center
11/10/2023 — Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall
11/13/2023 — Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
11/16/2023 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Kia Forum
11/18/2023 — San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
11/20/2023 — Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
11/22/2023 — Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

One of the biggest differences between the NFL and college football revolves around what happens when a ball carrier hits the ground. In college ball, if a football player has possession of the ball and they are on the ground, they’re not able to get up and continue playing.

In the NFL, however, players are ruled down by contact, which means that a player has to be touched once they hit the deck. Apparently, the New England Patriots forgot about this while playing the Buffalo Bills on Sunday afternoon. Amid a bid to pull off an upset against one of the best teams in the AFC, the Patriots found themselves with a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter thanks to a touchdown pass by Mac Jones.

That lead got cut into on the very next drive thanks to Stefon Diggs, who caught the ball while sliding at New England’s 8. But for some reason, Diggs was able to stand up from there, got out of a tackle by J.C. Jackson, and ran into the end zone.

It’s a tough one for the Patriots, which did a good job stymieing Buffalo’s offense for much of the day. Diggs is normally a pretty incredible playmaker under normal circumstances, and letting him get up when he’s on the ground gives him even more of a chance to do that.

Reese Witherspoon has done her share of darker fare. One of her Oscar nominations is for 2014’s Wild, in which she plays a damaged woman trying to overcome a grief-induced self-destructive patch. But at the movies, at least, she mostly does rom-coms and nice escapist fare, like Netflix’s Your Place or Mine from earlier this year. There’s a reason for that: She thinks that’s what her fans want.

“I’m not meant to be doing dark, heavy, intense, horror, gore, darkness movies,” the actress said at an event for her media company Hello Sunshine this weekend, as per The Hollywood Reporter. She elaborated:

“People like to see me do light movies, and I was like, OK. It doesn’t put you in the cool kids club a lot but I don’t care, I don’t want to be in the cool kids club. I want to make optimistic stuff that makes girls excited to be women in this world, because it is a wonderful thing to be a woman in this world.”

At the event, Witherspoon also talked about launching her company in 2016, which she did after noticing how few female-centric movies and shows were being made at the time.

“After I did a whole lot of soul searching and a lot of complaining to anyone who would listen, namely my mother, I realized what so many people in this room have realized, is that if you want to fix a problem, you have to be part of the solution. I would like to also point out women are always part of the solution,” Witherspoon said. “We’ve had enough of people telling our stories for us. One of the biggest rules in my family is you get to tell your own news, and a version of that in Hello Sunshine terms is women get to tell their own stories.”

Of course, Witherspoon is on a dark-ish TV series, namely The Morning Show, which can get pretty intense, with or without Jon Hamm.

(Via THR)

Neil Young has released nearly three dozen studio albums as a solo artist and with other artists throughout his career. Now the “Love Earth” singer’s discography is growing yet again. On Friday, October 20, he took to social media to announce that he would share tracks from his vault.

Young’s forthcoming album, Before & After, is slated to be dropped on December 8. In a statement he teased what fans can expect from IT. “The feeling is captured, not in pieces, but as a whole piece — designed to be listened to that way,” he wrote. “This music presentation defies shuffling, digital organization, and separation only for listening. That says it all.”

Although Before & After will feature several reworked versions of some of Young’s more obscure songs, he guarantees fans will enjoy it. “Sometimes buried by hits, these are songs from my life 1966-2022, newly recorded, in a music montage with no beginnings or endings,” he wrote on X.

View the official artwork and tracklist below.

1. “I’m The Ocean”
2. “Homefires”
3. “Burned”
4. “On The Way Home”
5. “If You Got Love” (Previously Unreleased)
6. “A Dream That Can Last”
7. “Birds”
8. “My Heart”
9. “When I Hold You In My Arms”
10. “Mother Earth”
11. “Mr. Soul”
12. “Comes A Time”
13. “Don’t Forget Love”

Before & After will be available for purchase in four formats: vinyl LP, clear vinyl LP, Blu-Ray disc, and CD. Before & After is out on 12/8 via Reprise Records. Find more information here.

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

The list of NFL players who are more terrifying than Cleveland Browns edge rusher Myles Garrett is extremely short. Over the course of his career, Garrett has shown the incredible ability to impose his will on a game — whether he’s blowing up a run or sacking a quarterback who thought he had way more time to get the ball down the field on a crucial third down, Garrett has a knack for making a big play when the occasion calls for one.

During Sunday’s game between the Browns and the Indianapolis Colts, Garrett showed that he’s able to make game-changing plays on more than just the defensive side of the ball. Colts kicker Matt Gay lined up for a 60 yard field goal, which would normally be difficult enough even if Myles Garrett wasn’t out there trying to ruin your afternoon.

Unfortunately for Indianapolis’ special teams unit, Garrett was, indeed, out there trying to ruin their afternoon. Showing off the freakish athleticism that has turned him into an All-Pro, Garrett jumped over the line of scrimmage shockingly easily and swatted the kick away like he was Evan Mobley trying to send a layup into the third row.

Might be a bit of a hot take here but Myles Garrett is extremely good at football.

Despite Drake’s best attempt to rain on Rihanna and ASAP Rocky’s post-baby bliss (with a messy diss record), the pair remain unbothered. After the track was released, fans rushed to social media, hoping that the two would issue a response to Drake’s throwaway bars. Although they have yet to do so, that day may soon come. Rocky’s forthcoming album, Don’t Be Dumb, is nearly complete, and according to Mirror, Rihanna is gearing up for a significant comeback.

The outlet alleged that Rihanna inked a $32 million deal with Live Nation to kickstart her return. In the report, they suggested that the deal terms included a world tour. But with no album out, such a venture wouldn’t make sense. However, the publisher suggested that Rihanna will drop two new albums over the next two years.

Following her Super Bowl LVII halftime show performance, Rihanna told British Vogue she planned to drop a new album in 2023. However, her second pregnancy put that on the back burner.

“I want it to be this year,” she said at the time. “Honestly, it’d be ridiculous if it’s not this year. But I just want to have fun. I just want to make music and make videos. And I need the right background music with the visuals. I can’t just go shoot a video of me talking.”

Fans took to social media to react to the alleged news. Check out a few of them below.

Hollywood is still in a bit of a pickle right now. No sooner had they started to rebound from the early days of the pandemic did the AMPTP allow a two-pronged strike to slam on the breaks once more. Studio execs settled with the WGA a few weeks back, but they’ve yet to do the same with SAG-AFTRA. They’re not the only ones in the industry dragging their feet.

In a new interview with The Guardian (in a bit caught by Deadline), the producers of the long-running Bond franchise gave an update about their latest reboot. Surely there’s some big news given that No Time to Die, the one that ended the Daniel Craig era with a bang, came out two dang years ago. And yet here’s producer Barbara Broccoli, telling the publication that they “haven’t even begun” to work on it.

And yet Broccoli admits they have “a big road ahead” of them when it comes to reinventing a character who’s been repeatedly reinvented over the last six decades. Still, she’s optimistic that they can nip this one in the bud, again.

“I go back to GoldenEye when everyone was saying ‘the cold war is over, the wall is over, Bond is dead, no need for Bond, the whole world’s at peace and now there’s no villains’ – and boy was that wrong!” Broccoli told the paper.

The last time they modernized Bond, with the tougher, more brooding, less gleefully sexist Daniel Craig, they “wanted to focus on what a 21st-century hero would look like”.

Craig, Broccoli said, “gave us the ability to mine the emotional life of the character … and also the world was ready for it. I think these movies reflect the time they are in, and there’s a big, big road ahead reinventing it for the next chapter and we haven’t even begun with that.”

Broccoli also vowed to avoid one modern trend: They won’t be world building across movies and television.

“Our focus is making the feature films. When we get going on a Bond movie it takes our full attention for three or four years so that’s our focus,” she said. “We make the Bond movies for the big theatrical screen and everything about the Bond movies is for audiences to see around the world on that format, so we’ve not wanted to do television.”

In the meantime, if it’s Bond you’re hankering for, there happens to be dozens of movies — and even books — that will get you through till whenever there’s yet another reboot.

(Via The Guardian and Deadline)

The Memphis Grizzlies will not have the services of Steven Adams during the 2023-24 season. In a statement released on Sunday afternoon, the team announced that Adams will not play this year due to surgery on his injured right knee.

“Grizzlies Center Steven Adams will undergo season-ending surgery on his right posterior cruciate ligament, after non-operative rehabilitation did not resolve ongoing knee instability,” the team announced. “Adams is expected to make a full recovery ahead of next season.”

Adams, who started all 42 games in which he appeared for the team last season, suffered a knee injury last January and has not appeared in a regular season game since. The decision to now go under the knife comes after Adams attempted to play during the preseason, as he took the floor in two games while Memphis got ready for the start of the 2023-24 campaign. He’s one of two key members of the team’s frontcourt who will be sidelined due to an injury, as big man Brandon Clarke is working his way back from suffering a torn achilles in March.

Adams is also not the only member of the team’s starting lineup who is slated to miss an extended spell, as the Grizzlies will play the first 25 games of the year without standout point guard Ja Morant due to suspension.