Month: April 2024

If it only seems like yesterday since Invincible‘s second season returned from hiatus, you’re not too far off with that internal calendar. The weekly series recently returned with four more episodes, and now, the season finale is already (almost) here. At least the weekly release schedule draws out the deliciousness of Amazon’s ability to keep the Supe fires burning while the rest of that world tries to regain its access.

What Time Will ‘Invincible’ Season 2, Episode 8 Be On Prime Video?

Thursday, April 4 is the magical day when you can gobble up the episode called, “I Thought You Were Stronger.”

That title actually corresponds to a well-known set of comic book panels for those who are into reading that medium, but we shall not spoil anything here.

Instead, we’ll note that once this episode is over, you’ll start wishing it was already time for the third season. And do not worry on that front because Amazon renewed the second and third seasons at the same time. Hopefully, we’ll see the next season drop sooner than the 2 1/2 year wait we had between the first and second seasons, but thank goodness that Robert Kirkman’s other brainchild, The Walking Dead, will continue to churn out second seasons of the new spin offs on AMC in 2025. And of course, Amazon will bring us more of its adaptation of Garth Ennis’ The Boys comics soon, too.

With Abigail, directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin were prepared to make a fun little horror flick featuring a star-studded cast and some ballerina motifs. You know, to prepare you for 2025’s John Wick spinoff, Ballerina. But it turned out to be a lot bloodier than one would think a vampire flick would be. At least compared to Twilight, anyway.

Gillett revealed that while making the film, there was no such thing as too much blood. He told Collider, “It’s fun… At the end of the day, shooting your actors with a blood cannon, they’re excited for it, as well.” Yes! You read that right: A Blood Cannon. Just picture those Nickelodeon slime canons but with fake blood. We come to this place for magic, after all.

The filmmakers wanted there to be so much blood, you can almost feel it seeping out of the screen. Bettinelli-Olpin joked that they used “all the blood on planet Earth” while filming, much like when Barbie used all the pink paint on Earth. It balances itself out eventually.

Abigail follows Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Angus Cloud, and Kathryn Newton as a group of kidnappers who look after Abigail, the aforementioned ballerina and daughter of a crime boss. Unfortunately, that crime boss happens to be Dracula, and Abigail has an appetite for blood. She would be besties with M3GAN.

The movie is over-the-top, but that’s the point. “For us, the audience can just latch onto something if it’s real, whether they know it’s fake or not , it’s obviously not real blood, but you feel it in the room,” Bettinelli-Olpin explained. “The actors can interact with it. Everything just becomes more alive, and it has that energy to it when you’re doing it for real on set. We came up trying to shoot everything almost doc style — running around, you can shoot up, down, left, right, spin around, go anywhere you want.” This seemed to work for Immaculate, so things are looking good!

Abigail hits theaters on April 19th.

(Via Collider)

Wisp’s debut EP Pandora might be the most audacious shoegaze release of 2024, simply because it exists. After all, what’s a greater risk than putting reality in competition with a narrative developed by the online hivemind? For the past year, Wisp has been the semi-anonymous New Face of Shoegaze, a blank canvas upon which nearly 1.8 million monthly Spotify listeners and a much smaller crowd of skeptics could project their hopes and fears for the genre’s future. If Interscope is signing artists like Wisp off one song, last year’s viral TikTok hit “Your Face,” is this the first sign of Gen Z and Alpha rejecting therapy-speak and pop hegemony to usher in an unprecedented commercial boom for one the most ego-free forms of guitar music? Or, is it just proof that no genre is immune from TikTok? Is Wisp an artist that happened to arrive fully formed or, sigh, an industry plant? Or, as some have speculated, a veteran musician going incognito to jumpstart their career?

But when I talk to Wisp the day Pandora is officially announced, she’s simply a 19-year-old with braces named Natalie trying to get decent wifi in a parking lot.

If the influence of Interscope or the pressure to score a second “Your Face” weighed on Wisp, it’s not apparent here. “Every time I wrote something that I thought wasn’t as good as ‘Your Face,’ I would get a little upset,” she admits, but ultimately, the practical desire to have an actual release to tour behind won out; plus, she points out that shoegaze is a genre in which EPs have been celebrated as canonical events.

The resulting Pandora is an assured, reverent collection of sultry shoegaze, albeit reverent of a mutant, distinctly American lineage that likely baffles anyone over the age of 40 – sure, all bloodlines eventually lead back to My Bloody Valentine, but Pandora draws more from the fuzzed-out reveries of Siamese Dream, Hum’s stargazing and the knife’s edge glimmer of Deftones. She claims that both Beach House and Title Fight helped her through the darker times in her life and of course Hyperview, the latter’s once-divisive shoegaze/hardcore hybrid, is her personal favorite.

Nothing about Pandora seems designed to game TikTok algorithms, but it’s about as punchy and direct as you can expect for songs that hover below 80 bpm. This reflects Wisp’s own listening habits, skimming through the “shoegaze” tag on Bandcamp, often determining within the first five seconds whether or not she has a keeper – a process that can seem diametrically opposed to shoegaze’s immersive qualities until you remember how quickly “Only Shallow” or “Vapour Trail” announced their intentions.

Considering what even a viral tweet does to anyone’s ego, Wisp appears enviously, even eerily, level-headed. Her decision to remain anonymous at the outset was not part of a Weeknd-style, protracted multimedia campaign. “If she breaks kayfabe, don’t worry,” her PR rep joked beforehand, although her name was already published in a small college blog interview from January and she performed her two sold-out shows at Los Angeles’ El Cid without any sort of cloaking device (a la Parannoul). As the DistroKid proceeds started rolling in from “Your Face,” her biggest splurge was a new phone; her previous one was actually used to record the vocals from that song. Likewise, as a result of her Interscope advance, “I would just constantly take my parents out to eat, they just ate really good food,” she laughs. “That’s how I treated myself.” Even beyond their approval of her decision to put college on hold, Wisp appreciates how her father helped man the frontline as the bidding war commenced. “When ‘Your Face blew up, I got a lot of phone calls from labels and I would take them myself,” she laughs. “And I remember not knowing the difference between managers and A&Rs.”

Perhaps not every teenage musician has the dream of posting a song on SoundCloud and almost immediately being flooded with phone calls from label execs, A&Rs and managers. But who wouldn’t want to be in the position of Wisp, able to ask every single one of these suits the same question – what can you do for me that I can’t already do for myself?

I suppose that answer arrives in Wisp’s decision to uproot herself from the Bay Area to Los Angeles, a move that seemingly confounds the hazy, heavy shoegaze that she actually makes. “I feel a lot more creative in LA,” she explains, and yeah, the weather, but also closer proximity to her collaborator Max Epstein, the producer better known as Photographic Memory.

Again, practicality wins out as Wisp gears up to speedrun the apprenticeship she seemingly missed out on due to the immediate success of “Your Face.” Her only prior experience playing live music came in middle school when she shifted from orchestra to playing in a cover band that favored Oasis and Black Sabbath selections. For the next month, she’ll be opening Panchiko, a band who emerged from total obscurity to stunning online fame in 2020 upon the rediscovery of an album made before Wisp was even born. “They were probably the first or second concert I ever saw,” she recalls.

Wisp and Panchiko make for a fascinating contrast, one artist that became labelmates with Eminem, Imagine Dragons, and Kendrick Lamar after releasing three minutes of music and another that turned down the chance to relive their thwarted major label dreams at 40 because it involved too much paperwork. Yet, both withstood accusations of being deep fakes or astroturfed artists in light of their path to online fame because the alternative explanation is that of a pure meritocracy – that the promotional muscle of the majors are, at times, powerless against the vicissitudes of TikTok and Reddit users. Besides, even Wisp herself can’t even wrap her head around how to make another “Your Face,” though many have already tried. “A lot of people ask me for tips on how to make music…and I don’t think I have said anything that was super mind-blowing,” although she does have one jewel of wisdom for the next Wisp – “definitely don’t take so many phone calls in one day.”

While most of the focus this weekend will be on the Final Four action in Glendale and Cleveland, respectively, it’s also a big weekend in the basketball world because the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2024 will be officially announced. During NBA All-Star Weekend, the 14 finalists were announced, with the biggest names on the NBA side being Vince Carter and Chauncey Billups getting a chance to go in the Hall.

On Wednesday, Shams Charania reported what most assumed when the finalists were announced, which is that those two players will headline this year’s Hall of Fame class.

Carter was an 8-time All-Star, with two All-NBA nods, and finished 21st on the NBA’s all-time scoring list after playing an NBA-record 22 seasons. He was also part of the gold medal winning USA Basketball team in 2000, authoring one of the greatest in-game dunks of all-time. Billups, meanwhile, won the 2004 NBA title with the Pistons and made his way onto five All-Star teams and three All-NBA squads, playing 17 total seasons in the league.

We’ll learn the rest of this year’s Hall of Fame class over the weekend, with Seimone Augustus, Michael Cooper, and others hoping to hear their name called along with Carter and Billups to be enshrined in Springfield.

The new Netflix series 3 Body Problem centers around a terrifying alien invasion of Earth that’s been hundreds of years in the making. However, behind the scenes, a terrifying real-life story unfolded and ended with one man dead and several poisoned in a revenge plot over the high-stakes dealings of the burgeoning sci-fi franchise.

In 2014, China’s “millennial billionaire” and Yoozoo Games founder Lin Qi snatched up the rights to Liu Cixin’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past book trilogy that kicks off with 3 Body Problem. After negotiating a multi-million dollar deal with Netflix to adapt the best-selling series, Lin would die in a hospital on Christmas 2020. The cause of death: poisoning.

Why Was A ‘3 Body Problem’ Producer Poisoned And Killed?

According to Business Insider, the situation started going south at Yoozoo Games in 2017 when Lin hired former lawyer Xu Yao to head up a new division called “The Three-Body Universe.” Turns out, Xu wasn’t the best employee and was demoted three years later for “poor performance.” He also had his pay slashed and retaliated by poisoning his colleagues.

Three months after Lin negotiated the Netflix deal for 3 Body Problem, Xu started poisoning his co-workers’ beverages. While Lin was the only one who died, four others were hospitalized with symptoms of poisoning. Xu was arrested three days after Lin’s death and is set to be executed for his crimes.

With 3 Body Problem now streaming on Netflix, Lin has been posthumously credited as an executive producer on the series.

(Via Business Insider)

It seems Billie Eilish just might be gearing up to start the cycle for her next album. Fans online have spotted billboards in major cities around the globe that seem to tease lyrics for a new song — as they also have her logo. So far, they can be spotted in New York, Los Angeles, and Sydney, according to NME.

“She’s the headlights / I’m the deer,” one reads. Others have “Did I cross the line?,” “I try to live in black and white,” “But I’m so blue,” and “Man I’m the greatest” on them, which are likely lyrics to a new song or songs of Eilish’s.

It’s also worth noting that over the past few months, Eilish has suggested that whatever she has in store is practically finished. “At some point, you will know more, but I’m not going to say anything else,” she shared during a December appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

In February, she then made an Instagram post confirming that the new album was “mastered,” meaning it very well could drop at any point this year. Given Eilish’s last release was back in 2021, it has also been a few years and fans have been waiting to hear more.

Check out some pictures of what are apparently Billie Eilish’s new music teaser billboards below.

How long has Curb Your Enthusiasm been on HBO? It premiered nearly a year before 9/11. Even weirder: the first episode came only two years after the series finale of Seinfeld, which everyone famously loved. Is Muppet attacker Larry David setting up the Curb finale (which airs this Sunday) to essentially re-do the last episode of Seinfeld?

Our own Jason Tabrys made the case for why that could happen in February, but since then, there’s been even more evidence suggesting that Curb could end in a similar fashion as Seinfeld, with the main character(s) in jail.

Curb viewers sure seem to think it will:

Speaking about the reaction to the Seinfeld finale to The B.S. Report in 2014, David said, “I got so much grief from the Seinfeld finale, which a lot of people intensely disliked, that I no longer feel a need to wrap things up… I wouldn’t say I’m mad about it, but it taught me a lesson that if I ever did another show, I wasn’t going to wrap it up.” David doesn’t think people hated the episode; instead, “They were disappointed. A lot of people were disappointed… I think people just didn’t like the fact that they wound up in jail, you know?”

It would be a Larry David move to do it all over again.

The Curb Your Enthusiasm series finale airs this Sunday, April 7, on HBO and Max at 10 p.m. EST.

Glass Animals is back. Today (April 3), the band has announced their new album, I Love You So F*cking Much, which is set to arrive this summer. Ahead of the album, Glass Animals has shared their new single, “Creatures In Heaven.”

On the spacey “Creatures In Heaven,” lead vocalist Dave Bayley looks back on a past relationship — but with fondness, not regret or bitterness.

“I don’t think I realize / Just how much I miss you sometimes / We were young and so in love / We were just creatures in heaven,” sings Bayley on the chorus.

The band’s upcoming album was born by way of an existential crisis Bayley was experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the world was locked down, the band’s 2020 song “Heat Waves” had propelled the band into newfound stardom. I Love You So F*cking Much centers around a space odyssey theme, as Bayley and the boys navigate the chaos.

“I love you so f*cking much, I LOVE YOU SO F*CKING MUCH, I love you SO f*cking MUCH, I love you so F*CKING much, I LOVE you so f*cking MUCH. These words take on a different meaning every time you say them,” said Bayley in a statement. “The universe may make us feel overwhelmingly small, but we have this human connection that is far vaster and more mysterious. Love comes in an infinite number of forms and shapes and sizes. It is so complex, and so powerful that even witnessing the tiniest instance of it can change your life forever.”

You can listen to “Creatures In Heaven” above and see the I Love You So F*cking Much artwork and tracklist below.

1. “Show Pony”
2. “whatthehellishappening”
3. “Creatures in Heaven”
4. “Wonderful Nothing”
5. “A Tear in Space (Airlock)”
6. “ICMYFILA”
7. “How I Learned To Love Bomb”
8. “White Roses”
9. “On the Run”
10. “Lost in the Ocean”

I Love You So F***ing Much is out 7/19 via Republic Records. Find more information here.

The fine folks of Ireland are having a moment these days, as every Irish actor out there is taking on critically acclaimed blockbuster roles, and now it’s time for Fleabag‘s Hot Priest to have his time in the spotlight.

Andrew Scott stars as Tom Ripley in Netflix’s upcoming series, Ripley. The show is the latest adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s popular crime novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley. The novel was previously adapted into the 1999 film of the same name starring Ben Affleck, Jude Law, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Originally, the TV adaptation was set to premiere on Showtime before Netflix snatched it up, and now it’s heading to screens this week. Here’s everything we know about the black-and-white thriller.

Plot

The series was written and directed by Steven Zaillian, known for penning The Irishman and Schindler’s List. Ripley will follow the elusive Mr. Ripley, who is charming yet untrustworthy, as he accepts a job looking for a man named Dickie.

Here is the official description:

Scott’s Tom Ripley is a grifter scraping by in early ’60s New York. He’s hired by a wealthy industrialist to travel to Italy to try to convince the man’s dilettante son, Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn), to return home. Accepting the job is Tom’s first step into a complex life of deceit, fraud, and murder.

Dakota Fanning, who plays the suspicious Marge Sherwood, recently told The LA Times what makes Mr. Ripley so appealing to viewers. “I think Tom Ripley is the original catfish,” she began. “What kind of separates it from other interpretations of con men, or whatever you want to call it, is you kind of get to see how he does it all, in pretty gripping detail. Sometimes some of those details are glossed over; in this, you’re on that ride of how it’s all done and I think that makes the particular character of Tom Ripley even scarier. Also, you start sympathizing with him,” she concluded.

Despite his complex background, Scott says Ripley never intended to be all that bad. “He’s not a natural-born killer,” Scott explained. “He’s not going over there with any of this in mind. He’s trying to survive.”

Cast

Scott stars as the titular Mr. Ripley, while Johnny Flynn portrays Dickie Greenleaf, the wealthy heir who Ripley becomes obsessed with. Meanwhile, Dakota Fanning portrays Marge Sherwood, Dickie’s girlfriend who becomes wary of Ripley. Eliot Sumner, Margherita Buy, Ann Cusack, and John Malkovich also star.

Release Date

All eight episodes will be released on Netflix on April 4th.

Trailer

Here is the official trailer:

The Charlotte Hornets have had a dreadful season, currently sitting at 18-57 with a merciful end to the year just two weeks away. One would expect some significant changes this offseason, as they already moved off of two veterans in Terry Rozier and Gordon Hayward at the trade deadline and seem to fully realize the need for a rebuild.

Brandon Miller and LaMelo Ball figure to be the centerpieces of that build, and going into the 2024-25 season, they’ll be getting a coach with some new ideas about how to utilize the two dynamic offensive talents. On Wednesday, Adrian Wojnarowski reported Steve Clifford will not return as head coach next year, deciding instead to move into a front office role going forward.

Woj also offered up a handful of potential candidates for the Hornets job, as they figure to mine the assistant coaching ranks for a younger coach.

Clifford’s second stint in Charlotte did not go as well as his first, as the Hornets have gone just 45-112 in his two seasons back with the team. That hasn’t been helped by Ball’s consistent absences with ankle issues and a shaky roster, but it stands to reason that a change is best for all parties involved. Clifford can remain around the team as a well-respected voice in whatever his front office position will be (I’d assume some advisor type role) while also no longer having to grind through the season on the bench.