Month: June 2024

After years of killing it as an actor, Dev Patel got to kill it — and kill some bad guys — as a director.

Monkey Man is the Oscar nominee’s directorial debut. And what a debut! The action movie stars Patel as an unnamed man living in India who wears a gorilla mask in underground fights, befriends a dog, and gets revenge on the corrupt figures who killed his mom. There’s even a shirtless training montage in a hijra community. Soon you’ll be able to enjoy all that on streaming.

Monkey Man makes its streaming debut on Peacock on June 14.

Here’s the official synopsis:

Inspired by the legend of Hanuman, an icon embodying strength and courage, Monkey Man stars Patel as Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.

You can watch the trailer for Monkey Man below.

Soccer Mommy is scheduled to perform at Project Pabst 2024 in late July, but the artist born Sophia Allison is squeezing in a few headlining dates beforehand. The Lost Shows started at Stone Circle Theatre in New York City on May 31 and will continue this week in Los Angeles, California on June 4 and Chicago, Illinois on June 7 before wrapping in Nashville, Tennessee on June 9.

“Been busy working on some new music,” Soccer Mommy captioned, in part, an Instagram announcement on May 7. “[I] can’t say too much yet, but I really wanted to focus on the songwriting and keep the production more organic. I want to preview some of it in a more intimate way, so I’m excited to announce The Lost Shows!”

Below is Soccer Mommy’s The Lost Shows setlist, according to fans’ who chronicled it on setlist.fm from Soccer Mommy’s opening night.

Here Is Soccer Mommy’s The Lost Shows Tour Setlist

1. “Circle The Drain”
2. “Bloodstream”
3. “Skin”
4. “Evergreen” (Live Debut)
5. “Wildflowers”
6. “M” (Live Debut)
7. “Lost” (Live Debut)
8. “Night Swimming”
9. “Salt In Wound” (Live Debut)
10. “Driver” (Live Debut)
11. “Royal Screw Up”
12. “Your Dog”
13. “3 AM At A Party”
14. “Allison”
15. “Still Clean”

Encore:

16. “I’m On Fire” (Bruce Springsteen Cover)

Soccer Mommy’s The Lost Shows Tour Dates

06/04 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Masonic Lodge
06/07 — Chicago, IL @ Schubas
06/09 — Nashville, TN @ The Blue Room

Mike Flanagan recently wrapped up his time with Netflix to move onto other projects including an Amazon TV deal. This closes the door on an incredible streaming TV run (including The Haunting Of Hill House, Midnight Mass, and The Fall Of The House Of Usher) and — as was the hope for fans of Flanagan’s ongoing Stephen King adaptation list — opened the door for a long-desired and worthy TV series adaptation of The Dark Tower.

Or not? Flanagan has already unveiled his vision for that series’ opening shot, and horror audiences know that he consistently delivers at or above expectations. Also, there is no shortage of Reddit threads in which fans of both King and Flanagan hope that The Dark Tower will happen sooner rather than later, but it sure does not look like the Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep director will have the free time to hop on more King in the near future (although The Life Of Chuck has finished filming and should soon reveal a release date).

Yup, The Dark Tower appears to be on the shelf again because Flanagan has signed on to revamp The Exorcist franchise for Blumhouse. Let’s talk about what we can expect from this collaboration:

Plot

Expect something different than what you’ve seen before, not only where The Exorcist is concerned by also on a Flanagan-trademark note. Obviously, more than 50 years after the release of the 1973 classic starring Linda Blair, Flanagan wants to add to the franchise rather than be a rehash. That adds up to a new story instead of redoing events that have unfolded already in the six existing films (including David Gordon Green’s 2023 effort, The Exorcist: Believer) or the short-lived TV series.

We can also rest assured — and The Fall Of The House Of Usher is the most recent example of this success — that Flanagan is a master at reimagining source material in ways that we never knew that we needed. Additionally, some of the plans revealed by Flanagan at this past weekend’s ATX Festival give hints of how this will be different from his usual vibe in a key way.

As relayed by Indiewire, do not expect heavy, Flanagan-esque monologuing or an easter-egg-filled approach in his The Exorcist reimagining:

“Part of what I said to Blumhouse and Universal when we were discussing this was I don’t think this is a monologue project. The ritual itself is something of a monologue, but we’ve seen that. We’ve seen somebody shout prayers at somebody. That was scary 50 years ago, I don’t see that working here.

“Younger audiences drive horror. That’s a fact. A lot of the audiences who will come see this likely haven’t seen the original, and aren’t going to be impressed by any allusions to that. So this isn’t really where you want to do the long monologues about religion.”

What else? Flanagan reminded the audience that he got his sermon-heavy show “out of my system” already with Midnight Mass, and for The Exorcist, “This should just be really scary.”

A few weeks ago, Flanagan also told Variety that his “radical new take” would not take any form of a sequel, and he’s “terrified” because he loves this franchise but will leap headfirst into this project:

“‘The Exorcist’ is one of the reasons I became a filmmaker, and it is an honor to have the chance to try something fresh, bold, and terrifying within its universe. Reuniting with my friends at Blumhouse, with whom I’ve made some of my favorite pieces of work, only makes this more exciting.”

Jason Blum feels likewise, and he declared, “Mike’s voice and vision are indispensable for horror fans and we are excited to welcome him back to Blumhouse. I immediately responded to Mike’s new take on the world of ‘The Exorcist’ and can’t wait for audiences to experience it.”

Cast

Zero concrete casting news has surfaced yet, but Flanagan has worked with an enormous rotation of frequent collaborators. So, there’s gotta be a role for Carla Gugino in this overhauled franchise. It’s also likely that we could see Kate Siegel, Mark Harmon, Annabeth Gish, Rahul Kohli, Samantha Sloyan, and/or Katie Parker. Oooh, let’s have some Willa Fitzgerald in this franchise, please? And do not sleep on how well Hamish Linklater can do the priest thing.

Release Date

Blumhouse hasn’t forecast a release date yet, but there appears to be no reason that Flanagan — who seems to deliver something spooky every damn Halloween season — couldn’t have a film ready by fall 2025.

Trailer

No dice yet! But last year, 1973’s The Exorcist received a 4K release, preceded by the below trailer.

This is it for Power Book II: Ghost. After nearly four years on air, the spin-off series is set to enter its fourth and final season this Friday, June 7. The upcoming season will be split into two halves with part one beginning this Friday and part two airing later this year on September 6, which is the fourth anniversary of the Power Book II: Ghost series premiere. Season four promises a lot of action, drama, unexpected twists, and so much more. So, let’s see how many episodes of that you’ll receive altogether in the upcoming season.

How Many Episodes Are In Power Book II: Ghost Season 4?

Season four of Power Book II: Ghost will have a total of ten episodes. This is the same amount the series in each of its first three seasons. Some fans hoped that season four would deliver 20 episodes because the season was split into two parts months. Unfortunately, that is not the case as the series will stick to the usual 10 episodes for its final season.

Power Book II: Ghost Season 4, Part 1 & 2 Schedules

Part 1:

• June 7: Episode 1
• June 14: Episode 2
• June 21: Episode 3
• June 28: Episode 4
• July 5: Episode 5

Part 2:

• September 6: Episode 1
• September 13: Episode 2
• September 20: Episode 3
• September 27: Episode 4
• October 4: Episode 5

You can check out the Power Book II: Ghost season four trailer and stay tuned for more on the upcoming season.

Power Book II: Ghost’ season four, part one premieres on June 7. Part two debuts on September 6.

The 2022-23 season was a gigantic disappointment for the Dallas Mavericks. A year after reaching the Western Conference Finals, the franchise took a huge step back due to their own mistakes in judgement. The Mavs had scrapped their initial plan for how to build around Luka Doncic, initially pairing him with Kristaps Porzingis in what became an ill-fated tandem, and misjudged Jalen Brunson’s ascent, leaving them at a talent deficit going into the year after he bolted for New York.

Despite Doncic’s brilliance, the Mavs sputtered, and tried a Hail Mary at the trade deadline to bring in Kyrie Irving to provide Doncic with some needed offensive support. The two found success on that end, but the Dallas defense was a disaster, and they eventually tanked out of the Play-In race to increase the likelihood they held onto their first-round draft pick, which was top-10 protected in 2023. That was, at the time, a controversial move, but it paid off as they held steady at No. 10, giving them an opportunity to add young talent to a roster that didn’t have a lot of avenues for offseason upgrades.

It was critical for the Mavs to nail the summer of 2023, needing to right the wrongs of the summers prior and figure out how to build out a balanced roster around their two backcourt stars. They started with a Draft night trade that saw them drop back to 12th so they could dump Davis Bertans’ salary, still landing the player they had long been connected to in Duke center Dereck Lively II. Then, they added Richaun Holmes and the 24th pick, which turned into Olivier Maxence-Prosper, from the Kings by absorbing Holmes’ deal into the trade exception created by the Bertans deal.

They also had no choice but to give Irving a three-year max deal that was considered a bit risky given his recent history. From there, they tried to bolster their frontcourt defense by adding Grant Williams on a long-term deal as part of a sign-and-trade, hoping he could be a versatile wing defender and floor-spacer in a starting role, filling the void left by Dorian Finney-Smith after the Irving trade. They also brought in Derrick Jones Jr. on a minimum deal, adding the high-flyer in their continued quest to add some defensive-minded wings. Finally, they signed Seth Curry, bringing a familiar face back to Dallas in hopes he could regain his past form as a high-level three-point threat.

After spending years trying to figure out the formula to building a contender around Doncic, it seemed the Mavs finally had a vision. They felt they had the right secondary creator and shotmaker in Irving, and chose to build the rest of the surrounding roster out of defenders and play-finishers. It was a coherent plan, but required some further fine-tuning to get it right.

Not all of those offseason moves worked out. Lively emerged as an immediate impact player on both ends, giving Dallas some much-needed rim protection and a terrific lob threat for Doncic and Irving who didn’t need the ball otherwise. Jones Jr. quickly became their starting small forward, giving them some needed length on the perimeter and similarly embracing a role as a play-finisher while shooting a career-best 34.3 percent from behind the arc. The other three failed to pan out. Holmes was unable to regain his form and really crack the rotation, Curry likewise struggled to make a real impact, and Williams simply never fit in his new role in Dallas. As the deadline approached, the Mavs realized there was still work to do to make this team — which was at the time a bottom-10 defense in the league — a real contender.

The Mavs moved their three sputtering summer acquisitions in two trades that changed their trajectory as a team. Holmes got flipped to Washington along with a first round pick for Daniel Gafford, while they sent Williams, Curry, and another future first to Charlotte for PJ Washington. Gafford added another strong rim protector and lob finisher, meaning the Mavs are able to keep at least one elite shot blocker on the floor who is also a strong pick-and-roll partner for their guards at all times. Washington gave them the versatility defensively they were seeking by adding Williams, and seemed more comfortable in his role, even with spottier three-point shooting — of course, he caught fire in their series against the Thunder, which was crucial as Dallas won that series.

Potential was not the concern of this Mavs team, as they needed players that could impact winning now. However, when few teams want to be sellers at the deadline, you can’t often find players with strong track records in winning situations. The difficulty in adding players coming from aimless, struggling teams — like the Wizards and Hornets — is deciphering which deficiencies are the player’s and which are the product of their situation. Dallas provided a bit of a blueprint for how to do it with the acquisitions of Washington and Gafford, as they focused on finding players with strengths that would fit specific roles they had in mind.

There was undoubtedly risk involved in moving future first round picks for those two players, but they were calculated risks. The Mavs needed to build a contender sooner than later to satiate the desires of their young superstar, as the unforgiving clock we put on superstars was already ticking on the 25-year-old Doncic. The Mavs, as such, had to be willing to risk future assets to prove to Doncic they were moving in the right direction, particularly after some significant missteps in the past. They did just that and righted the wrongs of the past by having a plan for who they brought in that went beyond simply seeking out talent. By having a defined role waiting for them, they were able to immediately focus Washington and Gafford in ways they simply weren’t in their past homes. The same can be said for Jones Jr., who has long been a ball of potential, but was never given a role to fully thrive in that asked him to simply play to his strengths.

What Dallas did over the past calendar year, starting in June and continuing through the February deadline, has been an incredible job of crafting a plan with clear input from the coaching staff and executing on a team-building vision. Rather than trying to add more cooks to the kitchen, they recognized they had the two chefs they needed and worked to build a functioning team around them on both ends of the floor. The Mavs added players with a defensive mindset that would be able to execute Jason Kidd’s vision for what the defense should look like. They also realized that floor spacing isn’t just loading up behind the three-point line, using vertical spacing in the form of lob threats to further stretch the floor and take advantage of their lead star’s incredible gifts as a passer.

It’s not that every move Nico Harrison and his staff have made has been perfect, but there has been a humility with which they’ve operated that you don’t often see. Ego is the worst attribute of an executive, as it leads to being defiant in the face of evidence something isn’t working. Harrison, to his credit, recognized opportunities when they presented themselves and moved quickly to fix errant decisions, most notably the Williams addition. They were able to do that in part because they didn’t take a singular swing on a boom-or-bust third star once they locked in Irving — who deserves credit for embracing his place on this team and making that extension look like a no-brainer in hindsight when it was anything but. By working more on the margins, they always had outs in the form of tradable contracts that could bring back players they deemed misused or underutilized by other teams — it’s always easier to move an underperforming player who makes $16 million, rather than $32 million.

Thanks to a year of wheeling and dealing, the Mavs find themselves in the NBA Finals with a team that looks every bit a threat to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy. The credit for this run goes throughout the organization. The front office has steadily figured out the right build for this roster and pulled the necessary strings to put a strong two-way team together. Jason Kidd has pushed the right buttons, getting players to buy-in on both ends of the floor and crafting a system on both ends of the floor that plays to the strengths of not only his stars but role players as well. And most importantly, the players have embraced their roles up and down the roster, recognizing the opportunity to be a part of something special and being willing to put the team’s success first.

What do you need these days in order to make a successful blockbuster film? It’s not an award-winning cast or billions of dollars. In order to get people to see your movie in theaters, it needs to star at least one freaky little guy, who is often not little.

For Dune, it was the worms. In Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, it was, obviously, Godzilla himself. And now, the worm and Zilly are joined by VENOM HORSE, the next great movie star of 2024.

The trailer for Venom: The Last Dance dropped today, and it features Venom (the voice of Tom Hardy) back and better than ever, living in harmony alongside Eddie Brock (the body of Tom Hardy), but their time together might be nearing its end.

In addition to the action-packed first look (and Hardy wearing both crocs and cowboy boots), the trailer also shows the debut of Venom Horse, a new iteration of the alien, featuring his signature long tongue. It’s enough to make this movie worth it no matter what it’s about.

Obviously, the people are loving Venom Horse:

Just wait until the eventual spinoff, Venom Dog!

Here’s more on Venom: The Last Dance:

In Venom: The Last Dance, Tom Hardy returns as Venom, one of Marvel’s greatest and most complex characters, for the final film in the trilogy. Eddie and Venom are on the run. Hunted by both of their worlds and with the net closing in, the duo are forced into a devastating decision that will bring the curtains down on Venom and Eddie’s last dance.

Venom: The Last Dance hits theaters on October 25th. Check out the trailer below.

Actress, comedian, and Irish icon Ayo Edebiri can now add director to her list of accomplishments.

Edebiri stepped behind the camera for an episode of FX on Hulu’s The Bear season 3, which returns for more anxiety later this month. But which episode specifically? IMDb has Edebiri listed as the director of episode six, “Napkins,” which will probably involve Richie screaming at Carmy for buying the wrong kind of napkins. There are certain things (napkins and especially toilet paper) that you should never cheap out on.

Earlier this year, Edebiri talked to Vogue about The Bear creator Christopher Storer’s prediction that she would become a director. “The first time I met Chris, I was 21, and he was like, ‘You’re a director.’ I was like, Mind your business, bro,” she said (those are fighting words for a writer). “But then last season, he said, ‘Come to set, just come to set, see what happens.’”

So she started going every day. “And I was like, Oh, okay. Yeah. I think I want to do this.” She’ll make her foray into directing this spring on an episode of season three. Beyond that, who knows. Edebiri, down to earth, a little guarded, is loath to talk too far into the future or about anything she isn’t “sure to be 100 percent happening.”

The Bear season 3 premieres on FX on Hulu on June 27.

(Via Vogue)

Caitlin Clark once again was a headlining topic of conversation this weekend, as the Indiana Fever’s star rookie had a solid outing in a win over fellow rookie star (and rival dating back to their college days) Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky, before scoring just three points in a blowout loss to the Liberty on a back-to-back.

The win over Chicago was overshadowed by a late third-quarter incident in which Sky guard Chennedy Carter knocked Clark down with a forearm shiver as Clark waited for an inbounds pass. That became a multi-day discussion point about Clark’s treatment from other players that continued on Monday as the lead topic for ESPN’s various talk shows. First Take opened the show with 40 minutes of uninterrupted conversation about the WNBA, Clark, and Carter, ending with a rather contentious moment between Monica McNutt and Stephen A. Smith after McNutt called him out for not talking about the WNBA in this same manner until now.

Once First Take was done, The Pat McAfee Show began with a monologue on Clark, in which McAfee took issue with how many in the media are discussing Clark and this WNBA rookie class. McAfee brought out a slide show to try and make his point that race isn’t why Clark is such a superstar as a rookie, insisting that discussion of there being a strong rookie class overall is wrong, but instead there is “one white b***h for the Indiana team who is a superstar.”

That comment quickly made the rounds, and while there’s maybe a salient point somewhere in McAfee’s rambling diatribe, he managed to make sure none of that was considered because of his word choice, sparking yet another round of truly dreadful discourse. For whatever reason, the conversation around Clark has made it so no one can be normal when talking about the start of her career and the challenges she’s facing as a WNBA rookie.

If Ryan Murphy makes another season of Feud, it should be about Tom Hanks and Henry Winkler. The actors, who fall into the rare category of Celebrities Who Seem Like Decent People (along with Keanu Reeves and Dolly Parton), haven’t gotten along since the 1980s. We’ve gotten bits and pieces of what happened over the years, but on a recent episode of the How to Fail podcast, Winker offered some more details about the feud.

Winkler was the original choice to direct Turner & Hooch, the 1989 buddy cop comedy starring “Pops” and this good boy. But he was fired and replaced by Roger Spottiswoode 13 days into production. “I did 11 weeks of preparation,” the Barry actor said, according to the New York Post. “I knew this dog, this slobbery mastiff and I became friends. The star did not become my friend.” When asked if he meant Hanks, Winkler added, “I probably do.”

So what the heck happened?

Before he was fired from the film, Winkler and Hanks had an interaction with a fan that Winkler believes caused a strain on their relationship.

“We were in Carmel, this little seaside wonderful town on the coast of California, looking for a location,” he said, “and a woman comes, honest to God, comes running out of a shop and says ‘Henry, Fonz! Oh, my god!’ and I say, ‘And of course you know Tom Hanks.’ The director of photography, when I was fired 13 days into filming said, ‘I knew that this was going to happen, on that day in Carmel.’”

The feud has supposedly been buried like a dog’s bone in the backyard, but I won’t believe it until Hanks casts Winkler in Toy Story 5. If he voices the villain, then we’ll know they’re still at it.

You can listen to the podcast below.

(Via the New York Post)

Samuel J. Seymour was one of the approximately 1,700 people at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865, the night President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. He was also the last to live long enough to talk about that historic night on television.

Seymour was 5 years old when he went to see the play “Our American Cousin” with his nurse, Sarah Cook, and Mrs. Goldsboro, the wife of his father’s employer.

When Booth shot Lincoln, he pulled the trigger during the biggest laugh of the night so that it wouldn’t be heard. What caught Seymour’s attention was when Booth fell from the balcony after a scuffle with Henry Reed Rathbone.

Chaos erupted in the theater and Seymour was ushered out by his nurse. While they fled he overheard people screaming, “Lincoln’s shot! The President is dead!”

“I saw Lincoln slumped forward in his seat,” the old man later recalled. “That night I was shot 50 times, at least, in my dreams—and I sometimes relive the horror of Lincoln’s assassination, dozing in my rocker as an old codger like me is bound to do.”

Two months before Seymour’s death at the age of 95, he appeared on the game show “I’ve Got a Secret,” where panelists tried to guess his secret: “I saw John Wilkes Booth shoot Abraham Lincoln (April 14, 1865).”

Seymour didn’t speak much during the show but he did make a historic understatement when panelist Jayne Meadows asked if his secret was “a pleasant thing,” to which Seymour replied, “Not very pleasant I don’t think. I was scared to death.”

This article originally appeared on 2.3.23