Month: August 2024

Two men accused of shooting and killing Philadelphia rapper PnB Rock at a Roscoe’s Chicken And Waffles in September 2022 have been found guilty on all the charges against them, which included murder, robbery, and conspiracy to commit a felony. According to Rolling Stone, the jury deliberated for less than four hours before returning the guilty verdict; 42-year-old Freddie Trone was found guilty of murder, two counts of robbery, and one of conspiracy for masterminding the deadly shooting, arming his 17-year-old son and sending him into the restaurant to rob Rock, while Tremont Jones, 46, was found guilty of two counts of robbery, and one of conspiracy for tipping off Trone.

Earlier this summer, it was reported that the teen shooter was not competent to stand trial. He remains in detention on the recommendation of expert evaluators.

Rock’s mother, Deannea Allen, told Rolling Stone she was “elated” by the outome, saying, “I wanted to jump up and scream, ‘Hallelujah.’ I’m so happy it was quick. We got justice for Rakim. I feel better knowing they’ll be in jail for a long time.”

While Jones’ defense argued that he didn’t have anything to do with the robbery plot, and Trone’s argued that his son acted independently, stealing his car keys and going around to pick up a separate group of people to commit the robbery, the jury didn’t believe that the alibis provided by either held up.

Rebecca Ferguson stars in showrunner Graham Yost’s adaptation of Hugh Howey’s Silo books, and after only one season, the show landed on our list of best Apple TV+ shows ahead of renewal. The series’ vast accomplishments cannot be understated, either, because Howey’s Wool excelled at world building in a way that felt both palpable and impossible to execute onscreen/in real life. Yet Yost did the thing, and now, it’s time to turn to where the books arguably dove into much more of the “fiction” leg of science fiction, which makes the challenge even larger for the small screen.

With that said, the second season of Silo will head into territory explored in Howey’s Shift book, and this sleeper TV series heads from where the first season ended (on the surface with Juliette being exiled from her silo, only to walk over the hill and see more silos) back underground. Let’s get down to business on where this sci-fi thriller plans to take us next.

Plot

We won’t focus too much on the book-related events here other than to say that the Shift book is expansive with multiple timelines and many additional characters, and none of those characters have been mentioned by Yost or the cast other than a key addition: Solo.

The prospective casting of that character has been of great interest to fan forums, and dare we say that the perfect actor for this role joined the second-season cast? Steve Zahn (whose first season turn in The White Lotus helped make the franchise the ongoing sensation that it remains today) was cast as the neighboring-silo survivor who will form the basis of Juliette’s human interaction for the season. Solo has been alone for decades after a mysterious event left him fending for himself, and as Rebecca Ferguson recently (during San Diego Comic-Con) revealed to Variety, he is a “scary and weird” dude.

Solo probably isn’t exactly feeling like befriending Juliette, either, but sometimes, you just gotta roll with it, and both Zahn and Ferguson confirmed that process. And as Graham Yost further detailed, “There are two storylines in Season 2. One that follows Juliette and one that happens in her home Silo.” This checks out, but again, there’s another timeline in the book that might or might not make it into the second season. For simplicity’s sake, Yost could have decided to simply stick with the Solo/Juliette stuff in one silo while making visits to Juliette’s old stomping grounds.

As viewers will also remember, Juliette’s season-finale decision not to “clean” after being pushed out of her home threw her silo’s occupants into a tizzy. This could be tantamount to the start of war, as Apple TV+ teased with an ominous little clip containing the following message: “In the event of a failed cleaning, prepare for war.” — The Order

Bernard (Tim Robbins) and Sims (Common and his un-silo-like attire) will be left with a mess to deal with, but that’s what Juliette would probably want, so we’ll respect it. Meanwhile, Ferguson has detailed how she works to infuse Juliette with “this awkwardness. What happens to people with trauma who have blocked things within themselves, but are so good at fixing other things.” She also previously confirmed that Juliette will continue attempting to fix
things by teasing, “It gets incredibly intense… wet” in this second season.

Finally, would you care to see some BTS tattoo action? Sure, why not:

The weight of this second season was surely heavy to balance from a storytelling standpoint because “intense” doesn’t even begin to describe what Juliette will go through, but in Graham Yost, we trust.

Cast

Rebecca Ferguson returns as Juliette with Steve Zahn being her main scene partner as Solo. Common and his damn leather jacket will continue to embody Sims with Tim Robbins as Bernard. Harriet Walter will also return in Juliette’s home silo, and other confirmed second-season cast members include Alexandria Riley, Shane McRae, Remmie Milner, Clare Perkins, Chinaza Uche, Avi Nash, Billy Postlethwaite, Rick Gomez, and Caitlin Zoz.

It does not sound like the second season will touch on the other timeline of characters previously mentioned above, so perhaps those actors shall appear in the third season, or the show will eschew them altogether.

Release Date

The second season debuts on November 15.

Trailer

We should see a formal teaser trailer soonish, but for now, here’s the full Variety group discussion (with Graham Yost, Hugh Howey, Rebecca Ferguson, Common, and Steve Zahn) from SDCC:

The United States women’s basketball team is headed to the semifinals of the Paris Olympics. The Americans took on Nigeria on Wednesday in Paris, and thanks to a double-double from A’ja Wilson and some stifling defense, they were able to pick up an emphatic, 88-74 win to keep their hopes of winning an eighth consecutive gold medal alive.

Every American who took the floor on Wednesday scored at least once, with Wilson leading the way as she’s done for most of the tournament. Wilson, the Las Vegas Aces star, went for 20 points on 9-for-11 shooting and 10 rebounds, marking her third double-double in four Olympic games.

Three other American players reached double-figure scoring: Jackie Young (15 points), Breanna Stewart (13), and Brittney Griner (11). While the team turned the ball over 16 times, they had 31 assists on 34 turnovers and out-rebounded Nigeria, 43-28

While the United States took its collective foot off the gas in the fourth quarter, the team was able to open up a 30-point lead on Nigeria, which struggled to get much of anything going from the field — the team shot 28-for-68 (41.2 percent) and 6-for-25 (24 percent) from three with 14 turnovers. Promise Amukamara, an American-born guard who played collegiate ball at Arizona State and currently plays in France’s top league, led Nigeria with 19 points.

With the win, the United States set up a semifinal matchup with Australia, which lost to Nigeria in group play. The U.S. and the Aussies played one another in the first knockout game back in the 2020 Olympics, and the Americans came out on top, 79-55. This time around, they’ll take the floor on Friday with a spot in the Olympic final against either France or Belgium on the line.

Taylor Swift‘s The Eras Tour would have continued in Vienna, Austria this weekend with shows on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (August 8-10), but all three concerts have been canceled in the wake of a terrorist plot to attack “major events in Vienna” which was uncovered and foiled today, according to CNN.

Barracuda Music, the promoter for Swift’s concerts in Austria, posted confirmation of the cancelation on social media. “With confirmation from government officials of a planned terrorist attack at Ernst Happel Stadium, we have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone’s safety.”

At a press conference today, Vienna State Police announced they had arrested two men who had been “radicalized through the internet” over a detailed plot to attack the events — which are now confirmed to include Taylor Swift’s concerts. Authorities found chemicals when arresting the men that are being investigated to determine if they could be used to create explosives. While initially police reported no plans to cancel the concerts, as “the concrete danger has been minimized,” it looks like no one is willing to take chances, as there could be other plans in place.

Taylor’s Austrian fans will undoubtedly be disappointed, but Barracuda has a point: It’s far better to be safe than sorry. It looks like we really can’t be normal about Taylor Swift in 2024.

The track and field events at the 2024 Olympics have been nothing short of spectacular. The combination of a fast track and the lack of dominant favorites in many (but not all) events has led to some thrilling finishes at Stade de France.

For Team USA, it’s been an Olympics of incredible comeback wins. It started with Noah Lyles’ incredible kick in the final 40 meters of the 100 to win gold by .005 seconds in a photo finish, and was continued by Cole Hocker running down the field in the final 100 of the men’s 1500 race to win a shocking gold for the Americans. On Wednesday night, the cardiac kids were at it again, this time in the men’s 400 as Quincy Hall made the final turn in fourth and looked gassed, but somehow was able to dig deep and made an unbelievable charge down the final 100 to pass everyone and win gold at the line.

It was the fastest race in Olympics history, as five men ran sub-44, with Hall somehow turning it on and fighting through the pain to pass everyone on his way to gold. Hall spends that last 100 meters in Tom Cruise mode, arms pumping, trying to get absolutely everything out of his body, and even if it wasn’t the prettiest form it was incredibly effective as he earned yet another gold for Team USA on the track.

While things are going pretty well for the American men in the 5-on-5 Olympic basketball tournament, the 3×3 team didn’t exactly put their best foot forward. The team came in seventh out of eight squads that qualified for the Olympics, and were one of the team teams that missed out on qualifying for the knockout round.

The United States tends to pride itself on its basketball program — its men’s and women’s 5-on-5 teams are dominant at the Olympics, while the 3×3 women’s team followed up a gold in 2020 with a bronze in 2024. The men’s 3×3 side, though, didn’t qualify in 2020 and laid an egg this time around. In the eyes of Draymond Green, this is not acceptable, and we need to start sending NBA talent to participate in this, and identified some of the players he believes would have a positive impact.

“Why are not young NBA players on the 3×3 team?” Green asked on his podcast. “Like, guys that, A, has not gotten an opportunity to play on the national team yet, or B, guys that may never get the opportunity? Naz Reid, animal. Naz Reid would destroy them dudes. Naz Reid gives guys fits in the league, everybody. Naz Reid, Jalen Green, you got, like, big Jalen Duren. A fourth? Number one, again, this is about building a resume. However, I think he’s on his way to being a superstar, and he’ll probably be on the next Team USA, Tyrese Maxey.”

Green then pointed out how he saw Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young lead the 3×3 team to a medal in Tokyo, and now, both are playing for the women’s 5-on-5 team. Now, it is a bit difficult for reasons that the fine folks over at USA Today laid out right here to have NBA players on the 3×3 team, which is a big reason why the American roster was made up of Jimmer Fredette, Canyon Barry, Kareem Maddox, and Dylan Travis. But if NBA players ever could make it, it certainly would be fun to see some of the dudes Green identified play on that level.

Taylor Swift’s world-dominating The Eras Tour is over in Europe at the moment: Swift played Poland last weekend, and she’s heading to Vienna, Austria’s Ernst Happel Stadion this upcoming weekend. Swift concerts tend to draw quite the crowd, and it turns out that her upcoming shows could have ended in tragedy had Austrian police not stepped up and made some arrests.

NBC News reports that today (August 7), two men were arrested in connection to “alleged planned attacks at major events in Vienna,” which would have included Swift’s concerts. At a news conference today, Vienna State Police Director Franz Ruf and Police Chief Gerhard Purstl said said one of the men, arrested by Austrian federal and state police, was a 19-year-old who had allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS. Both men arrested had apparently “become radicalized through the internet” and had specific plans on how to execute an attack.

A bomb squad allegedly found chemical substances when the 19-year-old was taken into police custody, and investigators are currently determining if the substances could have been used in the creation of a bomb.

According to a police official, “the concrete danger has been minimized” and there are currently no plans to cancel Swift’s concerts.

On the cover of his 2022 album Dawn FM, Abel Tesfaye, a.k.a The Weeknd, aged himself to look like an old man with wrinkles and a gray beard. But you know what’s even scarier than beholding the ravages of age? A haunted house attraction!

The Weeknd is returning to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood this year for The Weeknd: Nightmare Trilogy, an “authentic, one-of-a-kind horror experience with surprises at every turn and music by The Weeknd scored by seminal producer, artist, and seven-time Grammy award winner Mike Dean.” You can watch the announcement video above.

“The Weeknd: Nightmare Trilogy” is one of eight haunted houses coming to Universal Studios Hollywood, along with “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Legacy of Leatherface,” “Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines,” “Insidious: The Further,” “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” and “A Quiet Place.” There’s also “Terror Tram: Enter the Blumhouse,” which features characters from Blumhouse movies like M3GAN, The Black Phone, Freaky, The Purge, and Happy Death Day. I don’t know what The Weeknd is teasing, but it better involve M3GAN.

Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood begins on Thursday, September 5, and continues on select nights until Sunday, November 3. For more information, including how to buy tickets, click here.

With the success of movies like The Super Mario Bros Movie and Sonic, it seemed like the video game adaptation era has been going pretty well lately. That, on top of hit shows The Last Of Us and Fallout, have proven that these beloved games can translate well onto the big (and small) screen with the introduction of well-rounded characters and a bit of action, or, in some cases, Walton Goggins.

So a game like Borderlands, with a massive fan base and an elaborate world, would make total sense for a big-screen adaptation, as long as it’s done right. It sounds like it was not done right.

Borderlands, based on the post-apocalyptic video game of the same name, is the latest movie adaptation from director Eli Roth. In the film, Cate Blanchett stars as Lilith, an outlaw who returns to where she grew up in order to find the missing daughter of the most powerful man in the universe. The stacked cast also includes Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Edgar Ramírez, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Gina Gershon, and Jamie Lee Curtis, so you might have thought that it would be a guaranteed blockbuster hit, but these things aren’t very predictable these days. Early reactions are not very promising and call the film “forgettable” even while (mostly) praising the actors:

The movie has had a rough start: the film was announced in 2015 and production began in 2020. Last year, Tim Miller stepped in for reshoots, while Craig Mazin denied any sort of screenplay involvement, which might not have been the best sign. Even Jack Black’s video game magic can’t seem to make it a crowd pleaser. You’ll have to see for yourself when Borderlands hits theaters on August 9th. Or don’t!

For the first time in his career, Drake is the underdog. Okay, that’s a bit dramatic, but a comeback of sorts is certainly expected from the Toronto rap star. That, or proof of resilience — evidence that his defeat by Kendrick Lamar won’t be marked as a major turning point in his career. Admittedly, we’ve already seen this resilience from Drake.

His 2018 beef with Pusha T ended with a semi-low-blow knockout punch in the unveiling of Drake’s son Adonis, but in the end, Drake went on to put out his biggest hits and run the summer as he’s done many times this year. But this time, Kendrick Lamar beat Drake at the game he hoped to play, and now the Compton rapper owns the summer thanks to “Not Like Us.” That leaves the fall and winter months up for the taking, and in extremely smart fashion, Drake is gearing up to take them over.

Over the weekend, Drake announced that a joint album with PartyNextDoor will arrive this fall, and it’s the perfect next move for him in his career. “I know you girls are outside,” Drake quipped during a guest set at PND’s Sorry I’m Outside Tour stop in their hometown of Toronto. “When it gets a little chilly, a PartyNextDoor and Drake album will be right there for you.”

Mr. OVO himself has a long track record of big moments in the year’s colder months, though it wasn’t until last year’s For All The Dogs that he actually released an album in October. His breakout mixtape Comeback Season was released in September, as was arguably his best album Nothing Was the Same as well as What A Time To Be Alive and Certified Lover Boy. The Grammy-winning Take Care saw the light of day in November, as did Her Loss, while other highlights like So Far Gone and If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late debuted in February.

In addition to the argument that Drake’s best work arrives outside of the summer months, there’s also one for PartyNextDoor being one of — if not the — best collaborator Drake has consistently worked with in his career. Drake and PND have created over 20 songs together, including collaborations like “Recognize” and “Loyal,” songwriting contributions for each other’s songs, like PND’s “Not Nice” and Drake’s “Come Thru,” and work on other artists’ songs like Rihanna’s “Work” and Popcaan’s “Twist & Turn.”

Drake — music’s versatile superstar — and PND — a modern-day R&B wizard with an unmatched pen — are the perfect combination for a collaborative album. Fans often request joint albums from artists after two or three decent collaborations, all for the finished product to fall flat and underwhelming when it comes to fruition. Drake and PND, have already proven to be a match made in heaven that will only be solidified with this upcoming release.

With all this being said, what makes Drake and PND’s upcoming joint album the perfect move for Drake? Well, for the first time in a long time, Drake can be the cohesive tunnel-visioned artist he hasn’t been in nearly a decade. The beauty of albums like Take Care, Nothing Was the Same, Views, and If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late is they each exist in one individual world. You read their titles and can feel the texture and atmosphere they exist in, whereas with other projects, it’s a bit more scattered and all over the place.

PND thrives at this cohesion, as his most recent album PartyNextDoor 4 proves. He also subscribes to a simpler and more focused approach to his projects, which Drake can also benefit from. Furthermore, Drake and PND’s joint album marks the return of a beloved duo after both reached heights fans previously thought they could only dream of. It makes use of nostalgia, thanks to a decade-long catalog of collaborations, and fulfills a longtime request. For once, Drake is actually listening to us.

Drake will never take a break from music, he’s told us that plenty of times over the last few years. So fans who have begged him to step out of the spotlight will just have to suck it up and deal with the ever-present rap star. There is a compromise here, though. In the aftermath of the infamous rap beef, Drake is seemingly stepping out of the character that played the role of Kendrick’s fuming and disgruntled opponent, and replacing him, is one who wants to prove that good music can erase the bad times, or blur them at least. Drake’s recent release of “100 gigs” of unreleased material included plenty of evidence to show how calculated he is as a musician.

Announcing a joint album with a longtime friend and beloved collaborator is another example of that, and it’s one that could benefit everyone involved, from Drake and PND themselves to waiting fans, as well — if they deliver and meet the expectations laid before them.