Month: December 2023

Is “Bongos” rapper Cardi B entering the new year as a single woman? Well, that’s what users online have begun to speculate based on her latest social media activity. Over the weekend, Cardi B was the center of conversation across social media due to her runway debut via Balenciaga’s Fall 2024 outdoor fashion show. But today (December 5), Cardi’s speculated relationship status is fueling her virality.

In a series of Instagram story posts, fans believe Cardi is hinting at a split from her rapper husband, Offset. The screenshots of Cardi’s uploaded, captured by users, read: “You know when you just outgrow relationships,” and “I’m tired of protecting people’s feelings…I GOTTA PUT MYSELF FIRST.”

Others also pointed out that the couple is no longer connected on the platform. So, why did Cardi B and Offset unfollow each other on Instagram? The formal answer is unknown. The pair have unfollowed, exchanged subtle jabs, and affectionately recounted on the app several times. It even inspired their latest collaborative single, “Jealous.”

But Cardi’s recent Instagram livestream has fans worried this could be the end. She previously took steps to formally divorce Offset, but the pair found a way to work it out. Hopefully, they can do the same thing this time, especially now that they have two young children.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In recent years, Epic Games has really ramped up its efforts to strengthen Fortnite‘s chokehold on pop culture, in part through the use of music stars appearing in the game as playable skins or performers in special events and virtual concerts. Most recently, Ed Sheeran, Kid Cudi, and Eminem have all found their way to the island, and soon, they’ll be joined by The Weeknd, who’ll also perform in the upcoming Fortnite Festival game mode.

When Does The Weeknd Come To Fortnite?

In a new trailer released this week, the skin for Abel Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd, can be seen as the star performs in a virtual concert — as well gameplay for the rhythm-based Fortnite Festival mode a la Rock Band (whose developers also made the new game) or Guitar Hero — in two different incarnation. While his After Hours persona is quickly highlighted, it looks like the big feature is Abel’s more recent, MF DOOM-inspired tour look, complete with a glimmering chrome mask and a white, robe-like hoodie.

The trailer also reveals when he’ll be available in the game: December 9. Fortnite Festival launches the same day, allowing players to play in a band for and with their friends. It sounds like a cool expansion on the core gameplay, especially as Fortnite attracts a larger and larger audience (who may not all want to shoot each other all the time).

Check out the trailer for Fortnite Festival above.

Yellowstone reruns have been keeping CBS primetime slots filled for this year and beyond. That show will finally begin filming its final episodes in late 2024, but fortunately, Taylor Sheridan has kept the Dutton ranch fires burning with spinoffs including 1983 and 1923. Eventually, there will also be 1944 and 2024, but there will be an outlier that enters the fray as well: 6666.

That series is not only titled for an entity other than a year but will also move away from the franchise’s usual stomping grounds. As it turns out, the location will be famous amongst cowboy and ranch-hand circles, too. Let’s talk about what to expect from 6666.

Plot

During what seems like a million years ago (Season 4 premiered in 2021), Yellowstone set the stage for this spinoff by bidding farewell to Jimmy (Jefferson White), who left the building and headed to the 6666 Ranch. Interestingly enough, it was Taylor Sheridan’s character (Travis) who had given Jimmy a ride to the ranch while perhaps intimidating the hell out of him:

“A horse is gonna be your only f*ckin’ friend” does not bode well for Jimmy getting any rest and relaxation. And speaking of sleep, Travis told him to get shuteye on the road because “you are gonna f*ckin’ need it.” Will those F-bombs be edited out when Season 4 eventually airs on CBS? I hope not.

The show will film on the real-life 6666 Ranch, also known as the “Four Sixes” or simply (as referred to in the above clip) “the Sixes.” The ranch was founded in 1870 and named for a head of branded cattle, but the prolific show creator and screenwriter actually purchased the soaring swath of land (which is reportedly twice as big as Chicago), and so, it is gonna be on to film on location for the entire series rather than in limited instance as in 1923. There’s every chance that this series could be most near and dear to Sheridan out of all his currently running series, but ideally, he’ll keep the cowboy soap opera flavor alive, too. Here’s the official 6666 synopsis:

Founded when Comanches still ruled West Texas, no ranch in America is more steeped in the history of the West than the 6666. Still operating as it did two centuries before, and encompassing an entire county, the 6666 has inspired a new scripted series where the rule of law and the laws of nature merge in a place where the most dangerous thing one does is the next thing. The 6666 is synonymous with the merciless endeavor to raise the finest horses and livestock in the world, and ultimately where world-class cowboys are born and made.

Cast

It would be awfully bizarre if one of the centerpieces of this show wasn’t Jefferson White as Jimmy, but we can probably expect an ensemble cast to flesh out all the events taking place in ranch-hand world. Speculation has also run rampant about Ryan Bingham joining the cast as Walker, but these days, Sheridan is also adding A-listers to his joints.

Over the past few years, Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone, Helen Mirren, Jeremy Renner, Sam Elliott, Nicole Kidman, David Oyelowo, and Donald Sutherland have done the small-screen thing with Sheridan, and Matthew McConaughey will likely be onboard for 2024. Surely, that trend will not stop here, but all casting details have been kept quiet so far.

Release Date

Sheridan previously revealed that the 2023 Hollywood chaos led to 6666 being delayed, but he’s probably also going to be writing this show by himself, so it wouldn’t be surprising to learn that he suddenly has a whole first season of scripts ready to film. Officially, however, no one knows when 6666 will arrive, only that it is on the way. Yet when the show does exist, we can expect it to stream on Paramount+ like every other Taylor Sheridan show other than Yellowstone, which streams on Peacock and now airs reruns on CBS.

Trailer

No trailer has materialized yet, obviously, so let’s imagine that this show is actually a horror series with 6666 being the theme of a cowboy exorcism. Yes, I concede that this is a dumb joke (because a year-based 6666 would be even worse, like with… cowboys and aliens, ugh), but perhaps that will motivate Sheridan (even more than he already is on every other day of his life) to get this show cranking.

Maybe we’ll get some more failed biker brawling? Don’t tell me that this clip wasn’t shading Sons of Anarchy.

Fingers crossed for more 6666 updates.

Brenda Lee has interrupted Mariah Carey’s regularly scheduled domination of the charts during the holiday season. Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” snagged the No. 1 spot on this week’s Billboard Hot 100, leaving Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” at No. 2. A adorably delighted Lee couldn’t believe it, thanked her”Brendanators,” and wiped away tears when UMG Nashville CEO Cindy Mabe delivered the news.

As per Billboard, Lee has waited a long time to hit No. 1 — in fact, it is “the longest wait from a song’s release [65 years]” to No. 1 in the chart’s history. The publication provided more mind-boggling context, as excerpted below:

“Lee is 78 years young; her new Hot 100 coronation will add to her birthday celebration December 11. She becomes the senior-most artist to top the chart, surpassing Louis Armstrong, who was 62 when ‘Hello, Dolly!’ led in 1964. Among women, Lee passes the likewise busy Cher, who was 52 when ‘Believe’ ruled the Hot 100.

In a bit of time-bending, while Lee is currently 78, again, the highest age for an artist atop the Hot 100, she was 13 when she recorded ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’; if the song had led when she was that age, she’d be the youngest woman to have reached No. 1.”

“Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” was first released in 1958, and its previous Hot 100 peak was No. 14 in December 1960.

Lee also spoke with Billboard about this achievement and the origins of “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree.” Read the interview here.

In the time it takes to watch Martin Scorsese’s latest crime epic, Killers of the Flower Moon, a person could fly from NYC to Miami, run a (quick) marathon, or even undergo a lumbar spinal fusion – essentially, a wielding of the vertebrae that constitutes a major surgery. None of those activities sound as watching the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert de Niro con and kill a path to becoming 1920s oil barons over the course of nearly three and a half hours (especially now that it’s on VOD), but the fact that they all last roughly the same amount of time is telling.

Scorsese is, of course, a director known for favoring longer runtimes, but he’s not the only filmmaker testing the bladder control of audiences. Masters like Ridley Scott, Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, and James Cameron are reliably (and often effectively) verbose. And in the past two years, award-winning and critically adored films like Elvis, Oppenheimer, Babylon, Avatar: The Way Of Water, and Tar all ran for close to or longer than, three hours, doing their part to keep driving this northward trend.

According to What to Watch, the average runtime of the top ten movies by decade has been slowly creeping up from a brisk 110 minutes in the 80s to 126 minutes in the early 2000s to a back-aching 141 minutes in 2022 — a 21 percent jump. It’s not your imagination, your social media dependence, or our collectively shrinking attention spans: movies are getting longer. Critics and film fans aren’t the only ones noticing either.

In a fascinating Vanity Fair investigative piece from earlier this year, writer Natalie Jarvey found that plenty of producers and executives agree that movie length is becoming an issue on the production and marketing sides. But, the studios and streamers they represent are in crisis mode at the moment, scrambling to justify rising subscription prices and ticket costs to court would-be fans. They’re starting to believe that hours-long epics are their key to remaining relevant and, in their misguided panic, they’re prioritizing spectacle over everything else.

Much has been said about studios and streamers chasing the franchise formula made popular (and profitable) by Marvel and, to a lesser extent, DC. Everything is clawing to earn that “event movie” label in order to stand out from the glut of comic book team-ups and TV binge-watches. It’s created a box office bottleneck that’s all but killed the concept of variety when it comes to movie-going.

“There used to just be a lot more balance,” Erik Anderson, founder and editor-in-chief of the website AwardsWatch, told CNN in 2022. “You go look at the top 10 films of any given year going back to the ’90s, ‘80s, ‘70s, and it was a mix of everything: action and science fiction and drama and comedies. What we see now is just Marvel, Marvel, Marvel, [DC Extended Universe], ‘Dune’ – these other existing IPs rather than original content.”

To compete, streamers are courting big-name directors and promising them unprecedented freedom. Most of the time, that manifests in minutes.

But why are filmmakers like Scorsese and Scott subscribing to this new motto of “bigger is better?” And what does it say about the state of filmmaking that those worthy of final cut approval and hours-long odysseys are so homogenous, that the films we’re getting are limited to overlong crime sagas, historical biopics, and CGI-bogged sequels that demand hours upon hours of movie-goers’ time?

Scorsese can craft a two-hour crime classic that hums like no one else – see Taxi Driver, Mean Streets, and Raging Bull for proof. Killers three-hour-plus runtime not only obliterates the final cuts of these films, but it also gets lost in its own weeds a bit by taking on the entirety of its source material, teetering between a crime thriller, a police procedural, and a more interesting character study of Lily Gladstone’s protagonist, Mollie Burkhart. And it’s not just Scorsese’s opus that struggles to confine itself to a more bearable runtime. Damien Chazelle’s gorgeously shot three-hour Babylon flop, Scott’s deliciously fun two-plus hour chronicle of the fall of the house of Gucci, Nolan’s fascinating three-hour history lesson about the man who drive The Manhattan Project, Cameron’s mesmerizing CGI-saturated sequel to Avatar — they all took hits for dragging in different acts.

And, like Scorsese, all of these directors have proven capable of doing more with less – time that is. Who remembers Whiplash? Blade Runner? Alien? Memento, Batman Begins, Terminator? Most of these films were under two hours but none approached the length these guys are now flirting with in each new project they announce. Perhaps it’s a way to wrestle back control of an industry and a broken system that’s prioritized the instant gratification of franchise fare over everything else for far too long.

Scorsese has made no secret of his distaste for comic book movies. By making three-hour dramas tailored to discerning adults, is he proving cinema should not be limited to spandex and multiverses? Cameron has griped that audiences are willing to binge hours of a TV show but balk at a film measuring the same amount of time. That type of “blitz viewing” isn’t really comparable as so many of these directors are asking fans to trek to theaters instead of streaming at home, but as studios continue to try to court audiences away from their couches, is it a hill Cameron and others are willing to bury their self-control under?

And is all of this added time really serving moviegoers?

After all, studies have shown that most people have an average attention span of just 90 minutes. That’s not a consequence of smartphones or social media, it’s just science, and it’s reflective of audience preference when it comes to theater trips. In a 2021 survey for the LA Times, 36% of respondents “said they often sought out a film’s runtime before deciding to see it.” Of that number, 57% “expressed trepidation about movies running past 150 minutes.”

Yet, here we are, with over a dozen of the year’s most notable films teasing anxieties around that 150-minute mark. Almost all are made by men, most trade on existing IP or history, and too few feature protagonists of color. While some of these movies have found breakout success at the box office, more still haven’t made a dent big enough to justify their “event viewing” bloat, despite being helmed by prolific directors, sporting star-studded casts, and boasting fascinating subject material. These movies aren’t categorically bad, just the opposite. Films like Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon are rich, engrossing awards contenders that deserve to be seen, but are their runtimes working against that objective?

As this is a piece debating the value and prolificacy of longer films, now is about the time Roger Ebert’s definitive stance on the subject would be wielded to argue against the correlation between more minutes and weaker storytelling. “No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough,” might as well be the bumper sticker attached to every marathon movie audiences have had to endure over the past few years. But, when it comes to the latest crop of overlong cinematic slogs, there’s another, more apt motto from Orson Welles that filmmakers might benefit from investigating: “The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.”

It’s not true for some, but it does apply to most. Hopefully, Hollywood remembers that.

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Hugh Grant is being all kinds of salty while talking to reporters. This time around, the actor is bemoaning his experience on the set of Wonka where he plays an Oompa Loompa across from Timothée Chalamet’s beloved chocolatier.

During a press conference for the film, Grant went so far as to equate the CGI camera rig he wore for Wonka with a “crown of thorns” because why not work in the suffering of Christ? Clearly, Grant was not a fan of the process, and he did not hold back his disdain for the Wonka experience and filmmaking in general. It’s all a big pain in the ass to Hugh Grant.

Via Deadline:

“I made a big fuss about it,” Grant said. “I couldn’t have hated the whole thing more.” Asked if the ends justified the means, he replied: “Not really.”

Grant later joked that it was nothing personal against Wonka and director Paul King. “I slightly hate [making films] but I have lots of children and need money,” he said.

Grant’s grouchy attitude towards filming Wonka arrives after a similar incident at this year’s Oscars ceremony where the actor could not have been more disinterested in a red carpet interview with Ashley Graham. Grant was bluntly dismissive of her questioning and made no effort to even act like he wanted to be there. It was palpable and increasingly on brand for the actor who’s openly admitted to having tantrums on set.

Wonka opens in theaters on December 15.

(Via Deadline)

Charli XCX shared last week that she and George Daniel, drummer for The 1975, will be “f*cking for life!!!” Charli XCX has since deleted her Instagram post, but People confirmed that the couple are engaged. Charli began this year remixing Caroline Polachek’s “Welcome To My Island” with Daniel, and she ended it on the red carpet at the 2023 British Fashion Awards at Royal Albert Hall in London, where she was asked by ES Magazine to identify the highlight of her year. (There was a bop for the Barbie soundtrack squeezed in there as well.)

The platinum-certified pop star stopped herself from saying the first thing that popped into her head before finally replying, “Um, I finished a record, but it’s not out. So, next year, that will be out, and then I can say that’s my highlight.”

Not to be that person, Charli, but technically, releasing an album will be your highlight of 2024, and we will never know what you refrained from publicly sharing as your true highlight of 2023.

Regardless, Charli XCX doubled down on album mode by posting an Instagram carousel from Monday’s (December 4) British Fashion Awards alongside the caption, “bye for now.” That can only mean one thing: The next time we hear from her, she will probably wipe all of her social media accounts and announce her aforementioned new album.

Charli XCX’s last LP, Crash, arrived in March 2022 and was met with such success that she wasn’t sure how to follow it up.

“It’s still a shock to me — and it’s quite stressful because I’m like, ‘Oh crap, what do I do now?’” she told BBC Music in August 2022. “I feel like the narrative around my work has often been, ‘She’s one step ahead,’ or, ‘She’s pushing the boundaries and no one ever quite gets her.’ So to achieve these things feels really special and unique, and it’s something I feel like I’ve achieved with my fans. But at the same time, what does it mean for me?”

It sounds like we’ll all find out together in 2024.

Charli XCX is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Barbie soundtrack is a Warner Music release. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Although Cardi B and Offset have been one of hip-hop’s favorite couples for the past few years, some fans are convinced that there’s trouble in paradise after the two rappers apparently unfollowed each other on Instagram.

Meanwhile, Cardi posted a few crypic messages on her Instagram Story, writing, “You know when you just out grow relationships,” and “I’m tired of protecting people’s feelings…I GOTTA PUT MYSELF FIRST.” Some fans have interpreted this as a sign that the relationship she’s outgrown is the one with Offset.

It wouldn’t be the first time the couple has had a seeming falling out online; in fact, in 2020, Cardi B reportedly filed to divorce Offset, although she later withdrew that request. It was the second time Cardi had made moves to break things off after previously announcing a breakup in 2018.

However, there are plenty of fans who believe that the move was made to garner attention for a rollout (including, of course, the Barbz, who would believe the sun shining in June was a conspiracy against Nicki Minaj).

There have been plenty of rumors over the last five years that Offset allegedly cheated on Cardi, but she’s shut them down each time. They’ve also recently collaborated on songs such as “Jealousy,” performed onstage together, and guest-starred on Baby Shark’s Big Show, with roles in the upcoming movie.

All of this points to at least a steady working relationship (bolstered by their co-parenting two children, Kulture and Wave, as well as Offset’s kids from previous relationships), if not a romantic one. Neither has made any concrete statements about a possible breakup, so we’ll just have to rule this one a “maybe” — but it doesn’t seem all that likely, considering the only evidence is a mutual unfollow. What if they just don’t like each other’s content?

Pink is ready to bring her fan-praised Summer Carnival Tour into the new year.

In 2024, the “Just Give Me A Reason” singer is scheduled to touch down in Australia, Europe, and North America for several dozen shows. Sheryl Crow, The Script, Gayle, and KidCutUp are slated to appear as featured guests for some dates. Outside of the confirmed itinerary, the next question on fans’ minds is how much of a dent this tour will leave in their pockets.

How much are tickets for Pink’s Summer Carnival Tour?

Although the general ticket sale for the newly announced dates won’t start until December 11, a rescheduled stop has given up a few clues. On Ticketmaster, Pink’s November 6, 2024, concert in Arlington, Texas, shows that tickets for the tour will range from $65 to over $1,185. For example, the lowest single ticket in Globe Life Field is standing-room-only admission in the arena’s main concourse area. This ticket will cost $65.20 before fees.

On the other hand, the most expensive ticket at the venue is a part of the VIP package. This ticket will run you about $1,190.85, but it includes one premium reserved ticket in rows 1 to 3, priority check-in & entrance, access to the pre-show reception with food, Pink carpet entry & photo op, crowd-free merch shopping, a limited edition lithograph, exclusive merch item, collectible laminate, and lanyard, as well 1 VIP parking space per order (when available).

Average tickets for Pink’s Summer Carnival tour are between $115 and $500. Find more information here.

Inflation has strained countless American households, forcing many to ask each other the big question: “How are people affording life right now?” A TikTokker named Loc_Rants responded by reframing the current moment into something more hopeful.

They believe we can get through challenging times by turning away from consumerism and focusing on what matters.

Loc_Rants describes themself as a “non-binary Christian Commie” and regularly creates videos on how economic life for the Average American has changed over the years.

The video begins with TikTokker Blaire Allison asking how people can afford to live right now, to which Loc responded, “We can’t afford life, so we’ve just stopped buying things, which is delightful because companies don’t know what to do about that,” Loc said in a video that’s been seen over 1.3 million times.

She then noted that older generations had credit cards with much lower interest rates so it was a little easier to get by during tough times. She’s right in saying that interest rates on credit cards were lower in the past, but her 2 to 3% quote is much lower than history would indicate.

@loc_rants

#stitch with @Blaire ✨ Allison #millennial #america

However, she’s spot on when she says that credit card interest rates are too high these days. The latest data from Bankrate shows that the average retail credit card interest rate is at a record high of 28.93%. “We’re not going to put things on our 24% interest rate credit; we’re not gonna do it,” Loc said in their post.

Even though the topic of Loc’s post seems bleak, it comes with a silver lining. The current economic environment allows people to rethink their relationship with American consumer culture and find value in things that matter, such as family and community.

“So we’re not we’re not living, we are surviving and we are finding new ways to define success and we are building communities,” Loc says. “We’re staying home and we’re going to our local libraries and we are just hand making things and it’s gonna be what it’s gonna be.”

Like many people, Loc’s Christmas gift to her family this year is her presence and that should be more than enough. “This year, my Christmas present to my family is the plane ticket to get there,” they said.

The post resonated with many in the comments who are making significant changes to their spending habits due to inflation. “We’re quiet quitting consumerism,” Smcsparrow wrote. “Previously buying brand new stuff, but right now just rather spend it on thrift stores to at least have stuff,” Monique added.

“I’m thrifting most things and avoiding retail stores like the plague,” MsSunshine58 wrote.

Even though inflation has posed a significant challenge to millions of Americans, Loc’s video provides a realistic ray of hope. Many of us may be in survival mode, and even though it isn’t optimal, it offers the opportunity to find joy in handmade and personal experiences and to realize that success and happiness come in many different packages.