Month: January 2024

There are a lot of good reasons to visit the Disney theme parks in 2024, none more exciting than the opening of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.

Inspired by Disney’s 2009 animated film The Princess and the Frog, the log flume ride is the attraction that replaced Splash Mountain in Disneyland‘s Critter Country and Frontierland in Disney World‘s Magic Kingdom. There will be new animatronics and new songs, but the terrifying drop remains the same.

Here’s how Disney describes the ride: “Join Princess Tiana and jazz-loving alligator Louis on their journey through a shimmering bayou as they prepare for a spirited celebration during Mardi Gras season. Along the way, you’ll see familiar faces and make new friends as you’re brought into the next chapter of Tiana’s inspiring story.”

Dr. Facilier, an underrated Disney villain voiced in the movie by the great Keith David, had better make an appearance. We need more scoundrels in Disney rides.

So when can you experience Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in person? There’s no official opening date, but it’s definitely going to be this year, as confirmed on the official Walt Disney World (“Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is scheduled to open in Magic Kingdom park at Walt Disney World Resort in 2024”) and Disneyland (“Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will open in 2024 at Disneyland Park”) websites.

Until then, Disneyland guests can visit Tiana’s Palace.

There’s no denying that Pappy Van Winkle is the most sought-after American whiskey in the world. And for good reason — it’s pretty damn good whiskey. It’s also some of the most expensive American bourbon and rye brands on the shelf. But it’s not supposed to be. The suggested retail price from Buffalo Trace Distillery for Pappy bottles — there are six expressions — ranges from $69 (10-year Old Rip) to $299 (Pappy 23-year) per bottle.

The real-world prices of those bottles range from $1,000 for an Old Rip to up to $5k for a Pappy 23. Ouch.

Here’s the good news — you don’t have to pay those aftermarket prices if you want to drink some Pappy. It’s certainly the easiest way to get bottles of the brand, but it’s not the only way. You really have to be on top of your game to score a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle at suggested retail. And the only real way is to know when the bottles are released on the open market.

Pappy Van Winkle’s lineup — Old Rip Van Winkle 10-Year, Van Winkle Special Reserve “Lot B” 12-Year, Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 15-Year, Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 20-Year, Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 23-Year, and Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye — are all released once per year. That “once-a-year” release schedule means that there are vintages of Pappy out there. The 2020 vintage, for instance, or the 2017 Pappy, etc. That also raises the cost of some bottles, as some years are simply more sought after than others, for various reasons (similar to wine).

So when is Pappy released every year? November. That’s the time. Though some start to trickle out in late October.

Pappy is released just in time for the holiday buying/celebrating season. Since the bottles are highly allocated, only a select few cases go to prime retailers, bars, and restaurants. When it comes to retailers, you’re going to have to be a member in good standing and enter a lottery to get a chance to buy a bottle at the suggested retail. Otherwise, you’ll be paying a secondary markup that’s completely up to the whims of the retailers. The only other avenue is pours at good whiskey bars and restaurants that receive an allocation.

If you want to dive deeper, read our full Pappy line review for 2023 here. If you are interested in understanding different Pappy vintages, check our 2022 line review here. 2020’s line review is here.

For a more robust Pappy Van Winkle buying guide, see here. Good luck out there, Pappy stans!

Justin Timberlake continues to roll out his new era. Last weekend, the pop hitmaker performed his upcoming single, “Selfish,” at a free show in Memphis, Tennessee. The single is set for wide release later this week, and next week, Timberlake will perform another show in New York City. Once again, the show is free for fans who are able to get tickets in time.

How To Get Tickets For Justin Timberlake’s Free New York City Concert

Timberlake announced the news via Instagram, and they are now available to request via Ticketmaster. Fans can request a maximum of two tickets each, but tickets are not guaranteed.

Although tickets are free, there will be an authorization charge of $1 held on fans’ credit cards to ensure that they are active. The surcharge will be immediately refunded.

Those who received tickets will be notified on Tuesday, January 30, and the tickets will appear in their Ticketmaster accounts the following morning — the day of the concert.

With a new single arriving soon, fans believe Timberlake is gearing up to release his first album in six years. In a teaser shared to Timberlake’s social media account, Timberlake is seen staring into a model town. A title card at the end reads Everything I Thought It Was, which is what fans believe is the title of his upcoming album.

In the meantime, fans can pre-save “Selfish” here.

Jennifer Lopez will be returning to Saturday Night Live as the musical guest on February 3, alongside the episode’s host, The Bear star, Ayo Edebiri. As the SNL account on social media hilariously put it, it will be Ayo and J-Lo in the same room — making for some fun casting.

Lopez will be promoting her upcoming album, This Is Me… Now, which is set to drop on February 16 — so fans can expect some performances tied to that record, whether it’s her “Can’t Get Enough” single, or something completely different.

The pop star previously hosted the show twice in 2001 and 2010, and last appeared as the SNL musical guest in 2019. However, a lot has changed since then, including her rekindled relationship with Ben Affleck.

The same day as her album release, Lopez will also be putting out a film, with a trailer that has made the rounds online. Instead of being visually tied to the record, Lopez’s Amazon Prime flick will take viewers through a “narrative-driven cinematic odyssey, steeped in mythological storytelling and personal healing.” Affleck, Fat Joe, Trevor Noah, Post Malone, Keke Palmer, Sofia Vergara, Derek Hough, and more will be appearing in it as well.

As for Edebiri, this is her first time hosting Saturday Night Live, and comes on the heels of her winning an Emmy.

After 10 years, The Blacklist finally wrapped up its final season last summer, and fans were forced to say goodbye to James Spader‘s inquisitive face and little fedora.

The series stars Spader as Red, a tough FBI informant with a hidden agenda and a little black notebook filled with secrets (and dangerous criminals). The show ran for 10 seasons before the finale aired in July 2023.

Seasons one through nine have been available to stream on Netflix, and fans have been anxiously waiting for the final season to be available for binging purposes. The good news is that the final season of The Blacklist will drop on Netflix on Sunday, February 11 at 3:00 a.m. Just in time for what could be the best Valentine’s Day ever for you and your loved one.

The final season followed Spader as Red who is set on taking down former Blacklisters. Here is the official season 10 synopsis: “With Reddington’s covert role as an FBI informant facing exposure, former Blacklisters will unite against him in their lethal desire for revenge — testing Red and the FBI Task Force as never before.” Season 10 also stars Diego Klattenhoff, Hisham Tawfiq, Anya Banerjee, and Harry Lennix.

If that’s not your jam, you can always wait until later this spring when Sex and the City is slated to appear on the streamer. Unfortunately, James Spader is not in that, but it’s still sort of worth watching.

(Via Decider)

So, fairly obviously, the team of director Yorgos Lanthimos, screenwriter Tony McNamara, and actor Emma Stone is working. The three have now teamed up twice – for The Favourite and now Poor Things (McNamara also wrote Cruella, which starred Stone) – and both times this has happened all three have walked away with Oscar nominations. (Poor Things wound up with 11 nominations in total.) Poor Things, based on Alasdair Gray’s Poor Things: Episodes from the Early Life of Archibald McCandless M.D., Scottish Public Health Officer, this time McNamara is nominated for Adapted Screenplay and this time he actually watched the nomination ceremony, at the request of his wife, which he didn’t want to out of superstition, but it still all worked out.

Ahead, McNamara tells us what’s different about, now, having two Oscar nominations. And he tries to explain why he and Yorgos Lanthimos complement each other so well that it’s lead to all this Academy Award success.

I assume you’re doing pretty well.

[Laughs] It’s not a bad night, that’s for sure. It’s fair enough.

This is your second nomination. Does it feel different this time? What’s the difference?

Yeah, I think the first one’s amazing. I don’t know. They’re both amazing. I think the first one’s amazing because you get one and then you get a second one and you’re like, “Really?” The other difference for me is my wife was in Australia and I was in London last time and this time we made sure we’re in the same country.

Well, that’s nice. That’s a big difference.

That was a big difference.

Well, the first time you become “Oscar nominee.” Now this time you get “multiple Oscar nominee” before your name.

It’s true. I know. It’s amazing.

A brand new designation.

It’s true. Hadn’t thought of that. It’s very good.

Obviously, you and Yorgos had success apart from each other. But now you’ve teamed up for two movies in a row, The Favourite and now Poor Things, and they keep getting Oscar nominations. Do you think about why this collaboration works so well?

I mean, it’s hard to not think about that really. I don’t know. I think you just kind of like … we just click. We did from the very first conversation we had. We kind of very much knew something. We kind of knew we got each other. I think he’s a really push-the-envelope kind of guy and I am, too. And in a way, I’d never had that opportunity and so he gave me that opportunity. And yeah, I don’t know, we’re just a good mix of whatever it is that works between us and it’s actually very simple and easy between us. All our collaborations are kind of easy and fun and I think we just get each other and I understand what he is looking for and he kind of understands what I do and that voice that I can give into the movie. And it’s his movie for sure, but I think he kind of likes what I bring. He’d just moved to London when I met him, so he’d only made the Greek films. But similarly, I had watched Dogtooth and went, “Oh well they don’t have to pay me. I’ll go hang out.”

Now they have to pay you.

Now they have to pay me. Back then, I’d do it for fun.

By now Poor Things was expected to do well with Oscar nominations and it did. But when you were making this, would this have surprised you?

Yeah. I think the idea of this would’ve happened? If you’d told us that when we were making it, I don’t know what Yorgos thought, but I think we all thought we’re making something that we like and is out there and bonkers. But I don’t think we thought people would like it the way people have liked it by this big stretch than I think we dreamed of. It’s kind of hit with people in a way that I don’t think any of us imagined it would.

With The Favourite, I’m guessing you two were more like, okay, audiences are going to really like this. With Poor Things I’m wondering if it was more, “Wait until people get a load of this?”

Yeah, to be honest, we don’t really think like that. We just try and make the film we want to make, almost for us. He very much makes films that he would like and I very much write films that I would like and then it’s like, I don’t know, “Will people like it? Will they pay us to do it anymore?” And I think with this one, it was just such an out-there story and such an out-there everything. The script was out there, then the production design was out there, the music, everything, and then the performances off the charts brilliant. So I think it was just like it could have gone either way. It was a very high-risk movie in a lot of ways. I mean, we always knew it was going to be very funny. I think even in rehearsal we were like, “Oh, well we know it’s very funny.” And then hopefully it’s got something to say and Yorgos is so good at bringing all these disparate elements together.

You mentioned the cast. This is the third movie you’ve written that Emma Stone stars in. Does it change how you write knowing she’s playing the lead? Knowing she can do anything?

Yeah, I sort of have a voice in my head that’s the character and not usually the actor, but I think I have an incredible confidence when I know it’s Emma. Like you said, I mean she can do anything. I’m not worried about getting from comedy to tragedy and back and I just can do anything. And I know she’s a fearless person and a fearless actor, so there’s sort of nothing you can write that I know she’s not going to go on the ride and take it somewhere we couldn’t have seen, and she’s just that person.

When I wrote about Poor Things, my headline was literally that she’s fearless. I think it’s very easy to become self-conscious while acting, which is why she’s so impressive. And this is a movie that requires her to do a lot and I’m guessing you knew there’s no way she’s coming back and saying, “I can’t do this.”

No, not at all. She produced on the film and she just wanted to make a great film and we were all on some kind of creative adventure of how far can we all go and still make a movie that means something and is kind of accessible.

You mentioned how you and your wife were together this time. Do you watch the ceremony? Because some people who might get nominated don’t like watching it?

Usually, I don’t watch it, but today I did.

How was that?

She had an audition and then I was like, “Oh, I don’t know whether to watch.” And then she reorganized her audition so she was like, “No, I’ll be home.” So since she decided to stay home for it, I decided we should at least watch it and then, yeah, it was great.

If this were the first time you watch it and it did not turn out well, you’d probably never watch it again.

Totally. Yeah. I was nervous. I was superstitious about watching it because I never do.

But now you have to watch it again because it did work out.

Well, I guess so, that would be great. If it ever happened again.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

With a new month comes a fun assortment of new titles being added to your favorite streamers, and with things getting cancelled left and right, it’s a good way to plan what to watch before it possibly disappears forever.

Netflix announced which new crop of TV shows and movies will be added next month, and first up is Channing Tatum and his thrusting pelvis. It’s not Step Up, but hopefully, one day that will make it back on the streamer too.

Magic Mike’s Last Dance might be the last time we get to see Tatum on stage, but thankfully, it’s heading to Netflix on February 1st so you can watch, rewatch, rewind, and use Dutch subtitles, if that’s how you would prefer to watch the movie. The point here is that you will be able to stream it next week. Also landing on the streamer the same day will be Anaconda, X, and Young Sheldon season six, so it should be an interesting weekend.

If you haven’t seen any of the Magic Mike cinematic masterpieces, then you’ll be happy to know that Magic Mike and Magic Mike XXL are both streaming on Hulu. The films follow Tatum as Mike, the aspiring furniture designer who also moonlights as a dancer at an all-male venue. Magic Mike’s Last Dance is the final piece in the franchise, which director Steven Soderbergh described as a “variation on All That Jazz.” What more could you ask for?

For the second time in his career, Doc Rivers has parlayed a short stint on television into a high profile coaching job. Rivers spent one year with ABC between his coaching gigs with the Magic and Celtics, and this time around he didn’t even make it to the All-Star break before moving from the booth back to the bench.

After making a rather stunning move to fire first-year coach Adrian Griffin just 43 games into his tenure, the 30-13 Milwaukee Bucks have turned to Rivers to try and bring them the structure they’ve lacked, even amid a strong first half of the season. The Bucks have not been happy with their defensive scheme and effort, and on offense Damian Lillard hasn’t been the most comfortable in Griffin’s system. That, along with some missteps along the way from Griffin, led to his swift ouster and the Bucks turned to a respected veteran coach in Rivers.

While the Bucks will have to prove they can overcome some of the shortcomings of Rivers’ teams in the past come playoff time, ESPN is busy trying to figure out what to do with their lead broadcast booth after making major changes to their NBA team this offseason. ESPN let go of Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson as part of layoffs last summer, hiring Rivers and elevating Doris Burke to the lead commentary team alongside Mike Breen, with their No. 2 team became J.J. Redick and Richard Jefferson alongside Dave Pasch.

Rivers’ departure makes for a bit of a conundrum for the Worldwide Leader. There aren’t many options to hire externally in late January that have TV experience to just jump into the lead booth, which means they can either elevate one of Redick or Jefferson, or simply roll with a Breen-Burke pairing. As of now, it appears the latter option is the expected outcome, as Mike McCarthy of Front Office Sports reports ESPN is likely going to pivot to the two-person team.

Meanwhile, all the talk about the Bucks raises questions about Rivers’s role with ESPN, where he currently broadcasts as part of a three-person NBA booth, alongside play-by-play commentator Mike Breen and analyst Doris Burke. ESPN sources told FOS’s Mike McCarthy on Wednesday morning that if Rivers left, the network would likely pivot to a two-person team rather than replace Rivers, though JJ Reddick and Richard Jefferson are under consideration to take Rivers’s spot. Many at the network, according to those sources, feel that Burke has earned the right to be the sole analyst on the top broadcast team, which would make her the first woman to call the NBA Finals as the lead game analyst. (ESPN declined to comment to FOS on Rivers’s broadcast situation.)

Burke has been doing the Finals as lead analyst on radio for years after being the lead sideline reporter for ESPN/ABC’s top team prior to that, and she can unquestionably handle the role. ESPN could dabble with adding Redick and Jefferson on occasion, but it makes the most sense to go through this season with Breen and Burke and then assess their options this summer.

Four years after Netflix pulled the plug on its Marvel series, Charlie Cox got his redemption as a new Daredevil series was officially ordered for Disney+ in May 2022. The actor had previously made a cameo appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but given the multiverse shenanigans happening in the MCU, there was no clear answer on whether his version of Ol’ Hornhead was making a full return. The announcement of Daredevil: Born Again changed all of that.

Set to film in February 2023, the series would deliver 18 episodes that would bring back Cox’s Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin, who made his own MCU return in Hawkeye. While Born Again made it in front of the cameras, the dual writers and actors strike stopped production. Unbeknownst to Marvel fans, dramatic changes were happening behind the scenes, and we’ve got all the details.

Here’s everything we know about Daredevil: Born Again:

Plot

Like all things Marvel, the plot details for Daredevil: Born Again are being kept tightly under wraps. Complicating matters is the fact that everything we did know went out the window in October 2023 when Marvel confirmed that the series was getting a full creative overhaul. Kevin Feige reportedly didn’t think that what had been filmed would help put Marvel shows back on track.

Via The Hollywood Reporter:

Sources say that [Matt] Corman and [Chris] Ord crafted a legal procedural that did not resemble the Netflix version, known for its action and violence. Cox didn’t even show up in costume until the fourth episode. Marvel, after greenlighting the concept, found itself needing to rethink the original intention of the show.

Feige wanted the series to more closely resemble the Netflix version of Daredevil, and so he went to work making that happen. The series was handed over to Dario Scardapane whose previous work on Netflix’s The Punisher made him a prime candidate to serve as Born Again‘s new showrunner. On top of that, Marvel also brought back Philip Silvera, who was the stunt coordinator for the original Daredevil series.

To further cement that Born Again would be a gritty return that fans have come to expect, Vincent D’Onofrio confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that the Netflix series officially became canon when the overhaul was issued. Marvel had previously suggested Born Again would be a quasi-reboot, but this is no longer the case. The series will now be a full continuation of the Netflix series.

As for the story, Marvel is keeping things very close to the chest. However, the end-credits scene in Echo may offer a clue. In the stinger, D’Onofrio’s Kingpin becomes extremely interested in the New York City mayoral race. Should he enter and win, the position of power would make Kingpin an even greater threat to Matt Murdock and the city at large.

Cast

In addition to Cox and D’Onofrio returning as Daredevil and Kingpin, Marvel has confirmed that Jon Bernthal will also reprise his role as The Punisher. More recently, Comic Book broke the news that Wilson Bethel will return as Bullseye after delivering a fan-favorite performance as the classic villain in Daredevil Season 3.

There are also uncorroborated reports that Deborah Ann Woll and Elden Henson will reprise their roles as Karen Page and Foggy Nelson, respectively. The two were not expected to return for Born Again, but things have rapidly changed following the show’s creative overhaul and the subsequent decision to recognize the prior Daredevil series as official canon.

While Marvel is staying mum, we would not be surprised to see Alaqua Cox’s Echo make an appearance in Daredevil: Born Again. Her solo series played a pivotal role in restoring the more gritty, street level elements of the Netflix shows as well as teed up the full return of Cox’s Daredevil thanks to a cameo that had Marvel fans losing their minds on social media.

Release Date

As of this writing, there is no official release date for Daredevil: Born Again. Given the show only just resumed production in late January 2024 following a top-to-bottom overhaul, we would not expect the series to start streaming until 2025 at the earliest.

Trailer

Obviously, there’s nothing in the way of a trailer for Daredevil: Born Again given the current state of its production. However, Marvel released a promotional reel for Echo that fully cements the original Daredevil series as canon and reintroduces MCU fans to Cox’s Matt Murdock and D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk:

Justice announced that they have a new album, Hyperdrama, on the way, and have shared two tracks from it. The first, “One Night/All Night,” is a collaboration with Tame Impala (Kevin Parker), which also received a music video.

“We wanted this track to sound as if a dark/techno iteration of Justice had found a sample of a disco iteration of Kevin Parker,” the band shared in a statement. “Kevin has a sense of melody that’s fascinating in the sense that he manages to write melodies that feel both simple and natural, but very peculiar at the same time.”

The second song is titled “Generator,” and Justice opened up about their thoughts about it also.

“To us, this one sounds like ‘Getaway’ by the Salsoul Orchestra, but with gabber and classic 90s hardcore techno sounds,” they added. “Disco/funk and electronic music at large have always been core elements of the music we make as Justice. In Hyperdrama, we make them coexist, but not in a peaceful way. We like this idea of making them fight a bit for attention.”

Justice will be playing Coachella this year, before heading out to perform at other European festivals throughout the summer. More information about their shows can be found here.

Check out Justice’s “One Night/All Night” and “Generator” above.

Hyperdrama is out 4/26 via Ed Banger Records/Because Music. Find more information here.