Month: April 2024

Last week, news broke that Keanu Reeves was tapped to voice the elusive Shadow in the upcoming Sonic The Hedgehog 3, which seems like a no-brainer, considering his signature dark and edgy vibe.

Idris Elba, the voice of Knuckles in the video game-turned-movie series, could not confirm nor deny the rumors, which were seemingly confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter.

“I heard the rumors. Yeah, I know nothing,” Elba told GamesRadar+ during a recent interview for the Knuckles series. “But wow, Keanu, yeah? Big tings.”

While he couldn’t reveal anything about the upcoming film, he did say, “Everything’s in increments, right? So if that [hand in the middle] was Sonic 1, that [hand higher up] is Sonic 2 then Sonic 3 [puts hand even higher]. Ding ding ding ding.” Either that or he was learning to mime.

On the other hand, Jason Griffith, who voices the lil’ guy for the video game series, thinks that Reeves is “a great choice” and has no problem commenting on the rumors! He told TMZ, which is now a video game fan site for some reason, “One of the many rewards of being in this business is being asked to voice a character that’s so beloved and means so much to so many people. And then, to share that character with someone like Keanu… I mean, it’s such an honor.”

That honor will hit theaters this December. Please don’t get scammed by a Fake Keanu while we wait.

(Via Total Film)

The MTV Video Music Awards have built quite a legacy: This year’s show will mark the event’s 40th anniversary. Speaking of the 2024 VMAs, when is that going down?

When Will The 2024 MTV VMAs Be Held?

MTV announced today (April 24) that this year’s ceremony will take place on September 10 at New York’s UBS Arena.

In a statement (as Deadline reports), Bruce Gillmer — President of Music, Music Talent, Programming & Events, Paramount and Chief Content Officer, Music, Paramount+ — said, “We’re excited to bring this year’s VMAs to UBS Arena, one of the country’s newest and most cutting-edge venues. Celebrating one of music’s biggest nights with the incredible, robust New York area fans is something we’ve been looking forward to since the moment last year’s show ended.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul also said, “We are excited to welcome back the MTV Video Music Awards to New York State. From its origins at Radio City Music Hall in 1984 to this September’s event at the UBS Arena, the VMAs continue to captivate millions, showcasing the very best in music video artistry. As we prepare to host this 40th anniversary event, let’s embrace the spirit of creativity and innovation that defines our state’s cultural landscape.”

A specific time for the broadcast has not yet been announced. As Deadline notes, though, the ceremony will air “across MTV’s linear and digital platforms in more than 150 countries and territories.”

Anticipation is high for Billie Eilish‘s upcoming third studio album, Hit Me Hard And Soft. Eilish doesn’t plan to release any singles ahead of the album — which arrives next month — however, she’s been teasing some of the lyrics and concepts.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Eilish revealed that an upcoming song, “Lunch,” was inspired by her realizing and embracing her queer identity.

“I wrote some of it before even doing anything with a girl, and then wrote the rest after,” Eilish said. “I’ve been in love with girls for my whole life, but I just didn’t understand — until, last year, I realized I wanted my face in a vagina.”

Some lucky fans got to hear “Lunch” during a Do Labs party at Coachella earlier this month, where Eilish previewed some of her new music. As indicated by her interview, the songs lyrics contain some queer, sexual undertones.

“I could eat that girl for lunch / Yeah, she dances on my tongue / Tastes like she might be the one / And I can never get enough / I could buy you so much stuff / It’s a craving, not a crush,” sings Eilish on the song’s chorus.

Hit Me Hard And Soft is out 5/17 via Interscope and Dark Room. Find more information here.

Warning: Spoilers for Shogun’s season finale “A Dream of a Dream” below.

And so, this is how Shogun ends – not with a crimson sky but a realized dream.

Over the course of 10 episodes the FX drama has courted all-out war, reveling in political power plays and colloquial sleights of hand as powerful men nursing decades-old grudges fought for control over feudal Japan. Based on James Carville’s formative novel, Shogun may have begun as a fish-out-of-water adventure with an Anglo hero whose sole motivation centered on retrieving his battered ship, his tortured crew, and sailing for more prosperous waters. But, like the many red herrings littering this fascinating small-screen tale, Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) was simply a pawn, a small piece on a larger board controlled by a grandmaster of subterfuge who sacrificed everything to see his vision of peace come to fruition.

For Hiroyuki Sanada, a producer on Shogun and its lead as puppet master Lord Yoshii Toranaga, the show’s climactic final scene could only end one way.
“This was never an action Samurai drama,” Sanada tells UPROXX. “It was always a human drama. Strategy was important.”

That’s why the series’ parting shot needed to ground itself, not on a battlefield, but in a conversation between two men fighting on opposite sides. After turning on Lord Toranaga and inadvertently causing the death of Lady Mariko (Anna Sawai), Kashigi Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano) is invited to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) with Lord Toranaga serving as his second. The pair sit on a rocky cliff, staring out at a sprawling lake as Yabushige questions the purpose of all the bloodshed and deception. It’s here, for the first time, that Toranaga reveals his master plan, trusting no one save a dead man with the full scope of his scheming.

A scene so important required more from Sanada than he’d ever given before.

“We changed the script a lot,” he explains. “Most of dialogue I created and translated in way that Samurai [would speak] — choosing the word or switching their positions. [Showrunner] Justin [Marks] and I created that together.”

The scene was eight pages of dialogue, filmed on a particularly cloudy day in British Columbia which meant, to chase the light and avoid rainfall, Sanada mimed the scene first, skipping the dialogue and simply moving as his character would so that takes wouldn’t be wasted before the sun went down. Like choregraphing a sword fight, Sanada was constantly “calculating the time and lighting” during the back-and-forth with Asano, switching between his “producer mind and acting mind” so the director could capture a wide angle view, making the pseudo-showdown feel sweeping and grand despite the lack of armies and promised violence. For his close-up, Sanada completed his monologue in one take, something he said came easy because he wrote so much of the script.

“It was almost like [I had] no mind, I was just telling the story and history,” he says. “I loved it because [Toranaga’s] vision was so clear and it became real. He made a peaceful era last a long time. That’s why he became a hero in Japan, my hero. And we need that kind of hero nowadays.”

Sanada, who’s been acting for over 60 years at this point, starring opposite everyone from Tom Cruise and Keanu Reeves to Brad Pitt, is still surprised by the fan reaction to his FX adaptation – one that’s 70% subtitled and doesn’t prioritize its white male lead.

“Just like Blackthorne is learning our culture little by little, episode by episode, the audience [is too]” he says. And though there are no plans for a second season of Shogun, he hopes the series can serve as a blueprint for things to come.

“We’re showing the audience more culture with authenticity and respect,” he says of his show. “It’s going to be the new normal.”

All episodes of ‘Shogun’ are now streaming on FX on Hulu.

Last week, the film community and casual moviegoers alike were surprised by Quentin Tarantino’s decision not to make The Movie Critic (which apparently would have starred Brad Pitt and Paul Walter Hauser) as his tenth and final feature film. This news, according to Deadline’s initial report, occurred because QT “simply changed his mind.” Further, he will be “going back to the drawing board to figure out what the final [film] will be.”

Hmm. Perhaps part of this decision not to pull the trigger has to do with the pressure of this being a final movie (and publicized as such), so QT wants to make this project to reflect well upon his legacy. He surely doesn’t want to end with a Death Proof, which is actually a very fun throwback film that was erroneously released for a mainstream audience with commercial success in mind. However, is there any word from Tarantino’s camp on exactly why The Movie Critic fell by the wayside? Hollywood Reporter has some “close source”-type hints (and speculation below, too):

Those who know Tarantino (who had no comment for this story) aren’t saying precisely why he shelved the film, only that he had grown more excited by other ideas. “He has a lot of scripts that he’s thrown away,” says one longtime talent representative familiar with Tarantino’s thinking. The filmmaker had also previously emphasized that he liked the idea of “going out on top,” which perhaps added legacy-preserving pressure to his selection of a final film … He is a pure artist,” says a source close to the filmmaker.

As well, Hollywood Reporter surfaces some chatter about how Tom Cruise has been a dream “get” for Tarantino, and he reportedly had planned to use the Maverick man for the Cliff Booth role in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. As everyone is aware, that role went to Brad Pitt, and that’s probably how it should be because Tom Cruise has already completed too many bonkers, life-risking stunts to be phased by hanging out shirtless on a rooftop.

However, there will surely now be speculation regarding “a Cruise-Tarantino pairing” because “The Movie Critic wasn’t actually going to bring them together.” So, whatever the final Tarantino film turns out to be, perhaps Cruise will ride into that danger zone. That isn’t officially a “Tom Cruise Destroyed The Movie Critic” headline, but you gotta admit that this would be a funky and funny possibility. Maybe Tom Cruise’s Feet even did the deed.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

St. Vincent‘s seventh album All Born Screaming is almost here. This week, St. Vincent will release the album, which is a community effort by those she holds closest. Ahead of the drop, we’ve put together a guide of everything to know about the album.

Release Date

All Born Screaming is out 4/26 via Total Pleasure. Find more information here.

Tracklist

1. “Hell Is Near”
2. “Reckless”
3. “Broken Man”
4. “Flea”
5. “Big Time Nothing”
6. “Violent Times”
7. “The Power’s Out”
8. “Sweetest Fruit”
9. “So Many Planets”
10. “All Born Screaming” Feat. Cate Le Bon

Features

As of now, the only vocal feature on the album is Cate Le Bon. However, a press release announcing the album indicated that several of St. Vincent’s friends — including Rachel Eckroth, Josh Freese, Dave Grohl, Mark Guiliana, Cate Le Bon, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Stella Mogzawa, and David Ralicke — have contributed to the album’s production in some capacity.

Artwork

You can see the controversial All Born Screaming artwork below.

Singles

So far, St. Vincent has released “Broken Man,” “Flea,” and “Big Time Nothing” as singles from All Born Screaming.

Tour

You can see St. Vincent’s All Born Screaming Tour dates below.

05/22 — Ventura, CA @ The Majestic Ventura Theater*
05/25 — San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic*
08/08 — Bend, OR @ Hayden Homes Amphitheater #
08/11 — Vancouver, BC @ Orpheum +
08/13 — Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory +
08/14 — Ogden, UT @ Twilight Concert Series +
08/16 — Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theater
09/05 — Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway ^
09/06 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Met ^
09/10 — Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount ^
09/11 — Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount ^
09/13 — Washington D.C. @ Anthem ^
09/14 — Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall %
09/16 — Ann Arbor, MI @ Michigan Theater %
09/20 — St. Paul, MN @ The Palace Theater %

* with Momma
# with Spoon
+ with Eartheater
^ with Yves Tumor
% with Dorian Electra

South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut is not only of the most successful TV show-to-movie adaptations ever, it’s also one of the best big screen musicals of all-time (Stephen Sondheim was a fan). Now, 25 years after it taught Americans an important lesson (blame Canada), the South Park movie is returning to theaters for sing-a-long screenings.

Fathom Events is hosting “South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut 25th Anniversary Sing-A-Long” screenings on June 23 and 26, so you can follow the bouncing ball(s), so to speak, to “Mountain Town,” “Kyle’s Mom’s a B*tch,” and “La Resistance (Medley).” You can buy tickets here.

If someone starts talking during the movie, you can tell them to “shut your f*ckin’ face, uncle f*cka.”

Back in 2014, co-songwriter Marc Shaiman spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the stories behind the movie’s songs. For Satan’s power ballad “Up There,” he said, “Trey [Parker] knew what he was doing. That was definitely once again me adding this or that and then getting to orchestrate and arrange and make them sound like what he wanted them to sound like. But that’s Trey. It’s inspired by those Broadway ‘I want’ songs, the ‘Somewhere That’s Green’ type. Or that one from The Little Mermaid.”

You can watch the trailer for South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut below.

Billie Eilish is the subject of a new Rolling Stone cover story, and in it, she spends a portion of the conversation enthusiastically sharing her thoughts on sex and masturbation.

When asked what she does to decompress, Eilish responded, “Sex. I basically talk about sex any time I possibly can. That’s literally my favorite topic. My experience as a woman has been that it’s seen in such a weird way. People are so uncomfortable talking about it, and weirded out when women are very comfortable in their sexuality and communicative in it. I think it’s such a frowned-upon thing to talk about, and I think that should change. You asked me what I do to decompress? That sh*t can really, really save you sometimes, just saying. Can’t recommend it more, to be real.”

Of masturbation, she said, “TMI, but self-pleasure is an enormous, enormous part of my life, and a huge, huge help for me. People should be jerking it, man. I can’t stress it enough, as somebody with extreme body issues and dysmorphia that I’ve had my entire life.”

She then got into her interest in masturbating in front of a mirror, saying:

“Partly because it’s hot, but it also makes me have such a raw, deep connection to myself and my body, and have a love for my body that I have not really ever had. I got to say, looking at yourself in the mirror and thinking ‘I look really good right now’ is so helpful. You can manufacture the situation you’re in to make sure you look good. You can make the light super dim, you can be in a specific outfit or in a specific position that’s more flattering. I have learned that looking at myself and watching myself feel pleasure has been an extreme help in loving myself and accepting myself, and feeling empowered and comfortable.”

She concluded her thoughts on the topic by declaring, “I should have a Ph.D. in masturbation.”

Read the full cover story here.

In 2023, Spotify turned a ton of their employees into former employees via layoffs that impacted about 2,300 people. The biggest of those cuts was a round of layoffs that was announced in December, which left 1,500 folks without jobs. It turns out that getting rid of that many people had a significant impact on the company’s day-to-day, more so than they expected.

As Business Insider reports, per a transcript, Ek said in an earnings call on April 23, “Although there’s no question that it was the right strategic decision, it did disrupt our day-to-day operations more than we anticipate. It took us some time to find our footing, but more than four months into this transition, I think we’re back on track. I expect to continue improving on our execution throughout the year, getting us to an even better place than we’ve ever been.”

Per Business Insider’s report, Spotify reported a 2024 first-quarter profit of $210 million, compared to a loss of about $241 million in the same period of 2023.

Elsewhere, Ek said, “Next year, our focus may return to top-of-the-funnel user growth, but in the near-term, monetization remains our top priority. Bottom-line, we are really good at pivoting our attention when it makes sense. When I say pivot, I really mean making tweaks that will get us to an even better outcome. And because of our ability to do this, I have no doubt that we will be able to recapture top-of-the-funnel growth over time as it becomes more of a focus area for the team.”

(Insider defines “top of the funnel” as referring to “the marketing activities carried out to create awareness about a brand or product.”)

At the top of 2024, Halle Bailey revealed that she had given birth to Halo, her and DDG’s first child. Motherhood is a beautiful thing, but it’s not always easy. Bailey is going through a rough patch with it at the moment, as she has opened up about experiencing “severe, severe” postpartum depression.

As People notes, in a video that Bailey recently shared on Instagram, she speaks about what she’s going through, saying, “I have severe, severe postpartum [depression], and I don’t know if any new moms can relate, but it’s to the point where it’s really bad, and it’s hard for me to be separated from my baby for more than 30 minutes at a time before I start to kind of freak out.”

She later added, “Halo is a miracle. He is perfect. He is beautiful. When I look at him, I cry because of how special he is. The only thing that’s been hard for me is feeling normal in my own body. I feel like a completely different person. When I look in the mirror, I just feel like I’m in a whole new body. Like, I don’t know who I am.”

Bailey also said, “Before I had a child and I would hear people talk about postpartum, it would kind of just go in one ear and out the other. I didn’t realize how serious of a thing it actually was. Now going through it, it almost feels like you’re swimming in this ocean that’s like the biggest waves you’ve ever felt and you’re trying not to drown. And you’re trying to come up for air.”

She concluded, “Even though you may look up to certain people and you think that they are celebrities, and they appear it have it all together, you never know what somebody else is going through, especially someone who just had a baby literally.”