Category: News

Billy Crudup believes in what he’s selling. In this case, it’s a new show (Hello Tomorrow!, which just premiered on Apple TV+) about a traveling salesman wrestling with regret while hawking lunar timeshares.

This guy, Jack, is a merchant of hope for the hopeless in a time of supposedly great innovation that might just be a boom of hollow convenience. Sound familiar? Though the show takes place in a world giving 1950s vibes with a heaping load of jet-packs and robot-dog-in every-yard futurism, there’s a lot of sameness to our relationship with invention and our longing for something real to look forward to, even if both might be contrivances of commerce. So, is Jack a flawed but ultimately good man trying to sprinkle a little hope into people’s lives or is he something else? The show is worth watching to explore your own thoughts on it (and whether you view hope as a commodity to be protected or a fantasy to be indulged), but here are a few from Crudup that seem to veer in one direction more than the other.

Why this setting, why the futurism angle?

I guess it felt, to me when I read it, that the writers were suggesting that the past, present, and future, when they’re all based upon the same idea, are all going to be the same thing. It doesn’t matter. The gadgets are going to change, but daily life will be the same. The struggles of relationships will be the same. Living with your mistakes will be the same. Trying to find optimism will be the same. Overcooking your food will be the same. Traveling will still be a pain in the ass. There’s just no end to the sameness of living and the suffering of life in some ways if it’s all based upon thinking of the future. And when you have a premise where your whole belief system is based upon a better tomorrow, sometimes that can take you away from the value of today.

Do we still live in a society where there’s a better version of tomorrow? Is that belief still alive and well?

Or is it a different belief system that goes along with it? I would imagine if the world starts to function in a way that delivers on its promises, we might have a different experience of living and we might alter our belief systems. But fundamentally, I feel like all of those things are created by human beings and human beings seem to share. One central characteristic is that we’re all flawed, that we make mistakes and misjudgments. We sometimes don’t think through things properly and take chances on things that are a wild gamble. And so I would imagine any world that we create is going to continue to have those kinds of flaws.

I’m not a very religious person, and maybe I’m looking too deeply into it, but I saw a metaphor for heaven as far as living on the moon.

Are you kidding me, man? You’re preaching to the converted here. That’s how I imagine Jack; as a preacher, as an evangelist, and what he is selling is hope. That is heaven. And to me, it wasn’t so different from religion in the same way that when you go to Sunday church service, you put $20 in the tithe and they fill your heart with hope. They absolve you of your transgressions. They paint a picture of utopia to come, and that’s enough to get you through the week. And in some ways, whatever the belief system is, it doesn’t matter. It’s your investment in it that matters. And for Jack, what he’s invested in is capitalism and consumerism and that’s religion for him.

One thing I love about the show is that some people live their life with that hope hanging in the balance and they’re happier because of it. And for some people, that hope leads them down a dark path. I’m curious how you look at it. Because obviously there’s the commerce side of it, but in terms of weaponizing people’s hope, is it a fully bad thing or can it be a good thing?

I guess it depends upon the price, right? If it doesn’t cost you too much… I think that’s Jack’s constant question: “What’s the right price point for hope? And how much can I reach as a salesman or as an evangelist for hope to sell to the most profound and uplifting story? What’s the greatest story that I could tell somebody?” And I think for many people it would be that you can leave your troubles behind and that there’s a place that is sort of metaphorical, a physical haven for you and for him. It’s a place called the Brightside. But to the question of whether it is ethically, morally reprehensible or a challenge? I think that’s one we continue to ask. We see this time and time again in parishioners who have felt betrayed because their pastor has misled them in some way. And so the journey then of forgiveness and understanding and hope has to start. But the demoralizing experience of putting your faith in something that in itself is being negotiated amongst humans, it’s sometimes a recipe for disaster.

I mean, there’s so much nuance. We all think we want the full truth and we all think we want full hope, but we really want something in the middle.

Agree. Where’s that sweet spot?

Exactly.

Where being content isn’t giving up, where being satisfied isn’t showing a lack of ambition. If we could live in the present moment in a way that we can see things for what they are, it seems to me there’s an increased probability that you’ll be able to take in the joys.

Whether he’s good or bad is open for debate, but he is definitely running, he’s definitely trying to just survive. Is that part of the appeal?

Most definitely. Well, only because (series co-creators) Amit Bhalla and Lucas Jansen have done a brilliant job of making sure that his life catches up to him in the first five minutes. They can put him right on the railroad tracks running away, and here comes the steam engine right towards him. The appeal for me was really the belief that selling hope was a valuable way to spend your time. And that in fact, you could make people’s lives better by telling them a story is essentially what Jack is doing. And, yes, he gives them a product on the side, and whether it’s the timeshare on the moon or the veggi-dice that he sells them, it’s attached to a story of a better promise. And I think that’s the part that really appealed to me. His conviction with the blinders on. The running is still a feature of the same kind of belief system. He is exploiting the best of his potential for the good of humanity.

Do you think you need to believe in the product that you’re selling or in the benefit that you’re giving to be a good salesman?

I think it’s a hundred percent crucial.

That could apply to being an actor too.

That is what we do. The most interesting acting comes from authenticity. I mean, listen, there’s some acting where the style and the craftsmanship is just a thrill to watch. The authenticity is irrelevant. But for me, I grew up watching people like Al Pacino and Robert Duvall and Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep and Paul Newman, and they were wielding authenticity and truth. They were selling us this story by getting into these characters. And in a way that wasn’t the tradition before. There was the great movie, Giant, where you get to see this moment between Rock Hudson and James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor, and you’ve got Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor performing this stylized kind of way that was just about to go by the wayside with James Dean, who is introducing realism with behavior and stuff. And that really was the moment where authenticity became a commodity for actors. And the crucial thing about authenticity is that you have to believe it yourself. So you do a lot of work. That’s where the sort of method acting came from. You do a lot of work to try to convince yourself to find that right voice. And so for me, there is a great parallel between the two.

I feel like the relationship to chaos is also interesting between this character and your character on The Morning Show. Because Cory is entertained by the chaos at times. And this character definitely feels like it’s sort of a thing chasing him around a corner. That’s just my armchair analysis.

No, no, you make a great point. I think it’s the alternate side of both coins. I think Cory is looking for chaos because he has power and he knows how to exploit chaos. Chaos puts everybody else on their heels, but the person in power actually becomes even more powerful when people are struggling. I think Jack is cozy with chaos because he’s constantly creating it, but I don’t think he likes the destabilized nature of the people around him. I think what he’s ultimately hoping to do is have that massive (group of) customers who are kind of chasing him — “Where’s my timeshare?” — to be like a group of parishioners sitting quietly and hopefully, uplifted by his speeches about the benefits of lunar living.

I’ll close with the gimme question. Not necessarily, “would you want to live on the moon?” I guess the more now thing is Mars. Do you want to go live on Mars, Billy Crudup?

Nah, I’m cool. I’m good. I’m going to let other people figure that out. I feel like there are still some things to solve around here.

‘Hello Tomorrow!’ just premiered on Apple TV with new episodes launching every Friday

On February 17, 1972, Taylor Hawkins, best known for his time as the drummer of Foo Fighters, was born. Tragically, though, he died nearly a year ago on March 25, 2022. Today would have been his 51st birthday, and Foo Fighters marked the occasion with a brief but sad post.

Sharing a black-and-white photo of Hawkins on social media this morning, the band wrote simply, “Miss you so much.”

This comes after the band wrote about Hawkins in a message shared at the end of 2022, which reads in part, “As we say goodbye to the most difficult and tragic year that our band has ever known, we are reminded of how thankful we are for the people that we love and cherish most, and for the loved ones who are no longer with us. […] Without Taylor, we never would have become the band that we were — and without Taylor, we know that we’re going to be a very different band going forward.”

That post sparked fan speculation about who should be Foo Fighters’ drummer going forward. Some drummers who were mentioned most frequently included Josh Freese (an experienced touring/session drummer who’s currently a member of Devo and The Vandals), Rufus Taylor (son of Queen’s Roger Taylor and member of The Darkness), and Grohl himself.

It’s been almost a year since news broke that Will Smith is starring in an I Am Legend sequel with Michael B. Jordan, but we’ve finally got an update on the project and how it’s going to work around the original film’s ending. According to screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, the sequel will be taking a lot of cues from the hot post-apocalyptic series of the moment, HBO’s The Last of Us.

For the record, neither I Am Legend nor The Last of Us is about zombies per se, but they do both grapple with a virus that alters humanity and brings civilization crashing down. Via Deadline:

“This will start a few decades later than the first,” he said. “I’m obsessed with The Last of Us, where we see the world just post-apocalypse but also after a 20-30-year lapse. You see how the earth reclaims the world, and there’s something beautiful in the question of, as man steps away from being the primary tenant, what happens? That will be especially visual in New York. I don’t know if they’ll climb up to the empire state building, but the possibilities are endless.”

As for how the sequel will deal with the original film’s ending, which ended with Smith’s character sacrificing himself, Goldsman is apparently going to ignore it altogether.

“We trace back to the original Matheson book, and the alternate ending as opposed to the released ending in the original film,” Goldsman said. “What Matheson was talking about was that man’s time on the planet as the dominant species had come to an end. That’s a really interesting thing we’re going to get to explore. There will be a little more fidelity to the original text.”

(Via Deadline)

Rihanna’s Super Bowl LVII halftime show performance still has the world talking (including radio pundit Howard Stern). Whether the public is raving about her pregnancy reveal, the clothes she wore (inspired by the late fashion icon André Leon Talley), the high-energy ASL performer that translated for her, or making memes about her floating set design, the “Work” singer is a trending topic across the internet — not just Spotify’s music charts.

Now, the Oscar nominee’s featured background dancers during Super Bowl LVII are providing fans with a behind-the-scenes look at how they prepared for the elaborate moving set design. One dancer by the name of Siah Helise, took to social media to share raw rehearsal footage with a lengthy caption outlining her personal journal as a dancer as well as how she and others were prepped for Rihanna’s set.

“Week one, I was learning these steps on the ground, and the next week I was told I would be dancing 60 ft in the motherf*cking air on a platform,” wrote the dancer, adding, “This footage is super rough this is one of the first couple of days of being on the platforms. This ish was NOT easy.” Ultimately, Helise was unable to perform at the Super Bowl due to COVID, but she wanted viewers of the big game to know how much work went into the 13-minute mini-concert.

Helise wasn’t the only performer sharing clips. The choreographer Parris Goebel, who’s worked with Rihanna in the past for her annual Fenty Fashion Show, also uploaded clips of rehearsal, thanking Rihanna for tapping her once again for such a major career milestone.

The Kansas City Chief players may not have been banned from watching Rihanna’s set live, but they now have both the full performance clip and behind-the-scenes teasers to look back on.

Vladimir Putin is in it to win it, but it sure doesn’t seem like he’s winning anything with his war in Ukraine. The carnage is a rough subject to discuss, obviously, especially when headlines focus upon how Russia’s Viagra supply has gone limp, and the Russian president might also be missing out on his beloved Botox. However, one cannot ignore the reality of the situation, which is that Putin has been recruiting and drafting his citizens (and convicted felons) by the hundreds of thousands. They’re largely untrained and shooting each other while apparently getting blackout drunk in Ukraine (can you blame them?), and Russia hasn’t even provided adequate first-aid supplies to treat battle wounds.

The situation is a grim one, a full year into Putin’s quest to make Ukrainian President Zelensky kiss the ring of power. And there’s no way to sugar coat these numbers as reported by the UK’s Evening Standard newspaper. The total number of Russian deaths in Ukraine has reached 60,000, and the casualty number has reached a whopping 175,000-200,000. According to the publication, that ratio can be directly attributed to Putin’s lack of prioritizing any semblance of medical care for troops:

They stressed that the death rate among Putin’s troops was a “high ratio” compared to the number wounded which they blamed on “extremely rudimentary medical provision across much of the force”.

The Russian casualty rate had “increased significantly” since Putin order his partial-mobilisation of 300,000 last autumn to rebuild his armed forces in Ukraine, they added.

Granted, this report was met with an immediate Kremlin denial. In addition, Russia is deflecting by somehow blaming the U.S. for how this war has escalated. According to Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova (via Reuters), “Now the American warmongers have gone even further: They incite the Kyiv regime to further escalate the war.” The reasoning behind this is that Russia considers only “crazy people” to fight back against Russia and dare to try and defeat Putin. And the delusional hits keep coming.

(Via Evening Standard & Reuters)

Skrillex is making his big comeback this year. His new album Quest For Fire is finally out, and it’s his first in nine years. He already released loads of compelling singles with exciting collaborators; “Real Spring” had Bladee, “Way Back” had PinkPantheress and Trippie Redd, “Xena” had Nai Barghouti, and there’s even more on the record.

Quest For Fire is a dynamic adventure through and through, especially with the track “Ratata,” which features Missy Elliott and Mr. Oizo. From the kickoff, the track is sensory-overload; the beat vibrates and buzzes and the flows are quick and full of quips.

Skrillex is going to be taking over Madison Square Garden in New York City alongside Fred Again.. and Four Tet. It’s taking place tomorrow, February 18. In January, Skrillex and Fred Again.. released their collaborative song “Rumble,” which also featured Flowdan.

About his comeback, Skrillex clarified on Twitter, “People ask why ‘I’ve been gone’ or ‘fell off,’ rightfully so,” he wrote. “Like I said, 22 was sort of my tipping point, I had to put everything on ice, especially my projects/career.”

He continued: “For the first time in 4-5 years I’ve found a new sense of peace. It took so much work and sacrifice to get here.”

Listen to “Ratata” above.

M3GAN had a good run (on all fours).

The murder doll movie is currently 2023’s highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office, but that will change by the end of the weekend with the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Not even M3GAN can stop the Marvel machine.

Universal Pictures should re-release M3GAN into theaters with the unrated cut to juice the numbers (and/or build M3GAN Land at Universal Studios), but instead, we’ll get to see M3GAN the way it was meant to be seen — a.k.a. more violence — at home soon.

Released into theaters with a PG-13 rating, we had been hearing than an Unrated version of box office hit M3GAN was on the way, and indeed it has been officially announced today. M3GAN arrives on Digital February 24 and on Blu-ray & DVD March 21, including the Theatrical Version and the Unrated Edition!

Screenwriter Akela Cooper previously teased the unrated version in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “No shade to Universal, love them, and I understand that once the trailer went viral, teenagers got involved and you want them to be able to see it. There should be an unrated version at some point,” she said. “I heard it is on the books. But yes, it was way gorier. Her body count in the script was higher than in the movie.”

M3GAN is coming for other franchises next.

(Via Bloody Disgusting)

The White Lotus season one was set in Hawaii, followed by Italy in season two. Where will season three take place? If you guessed Dollywood, sadly, you are wrong.

In an interview with Vulture, Jackass star Johnny Knoxville was asked about the cancelation of the Hulu series Reboot and whether he’d be interested in more sitcom acting. “My first inclination is to focus on film. I love acting and producing films, and making documentaries,” he said. “If a good television show comes along, of course I’ll pay attention, because television is so good now. I’d be foolish not to pay attention.” When the interviewer brought up The White Lotus, Knoxville replied, “Mike White is a very close friend of mine. He and I had been in Tokyo together. I think that’s where the next… oh, I’m not giving anything away. I might call him again as soon as this is over.”

Never trust expect someone who’s been walloped by a bull to keep your secret.

Knoxville mentioning Tokyo goes along with something White said in a featurette that aired following the season two finale. “The first season we highlighted money and then the second season is sex and I think the third season, it would be maybe a kind of satirical and funny look at death in Eastern religion and spirituality — it feels like it could be a rich tapestry to do another round at White Lotus,” he teased. That led viewers to assume he meant somewhere in Asia, like, I don’t know, Tokyo.

Assuming White forgives Knoxville for potentially giving up the location, he should add him to the cast. And Chris Pontius. And Wee Man. Hell, make it the whole Jackass crew.

(Via Vulture)

Rihanna is of course fresh off performing the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Just a few years ago, though, it was Katy Perry’s turn in the NFL spotlight, when she put on a memorable Super Bowl performance of her own (never forget Left Shark) in 2015. Rihanna and Perry are friends, but despite having a former Super Bowl halftime performer at her disposal, Rihanna opted not to seek advice about the big show from Perry (which Perry totally gets, by the way).

Perry and Lionel Richie were on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night (February 16) to promote American Idol. During the interview, Kimmel asked Perry if Rihanna called her before the Super Bowl looking for some halftime show insight, and Perry said, “She don’t need no pointers: she’s Rihanna!”

The host then wondered if Perry knew about Rihanna’s pregnancy beforehand. She noted that she was filming American Idol in Hawaii on the day of the Super Bowl, and that she had to go to set right when Rihanna was about to start her performance. She continued, “So we were trying to drag our feet, because we all want to see Rihanna play the Super Bowl. We actually had to film and then it happened and we came back, and we found a cut of it, and no, we all saw it then for the first time then, and it was amazing! It was so beautiful.”

Watch Perry and Richie’s Kimmel interview above.

The social media world is cutthroat in terms of different platforms trying to compete with each other, to either stay relevant or increase their market share. One way to gain an edge is by introducing new features, which Instagram understands: they’re currently rolling out a new feature allowing users to comment on posts and Stories with animated GIF images.

As for how the feature is being received, it appears Cardi B isn’t quite sold yet. On Twitter last night (February 16), she wrote, “I don’t know them gifs ain’t hitting like they hit in the twitter ghettos.”

As for how to make use of GIFs on Instagram, 91mobiles explains, “To reply with a GIF, users have to type the keyword of the GIF they’re searching for in the ‘Send Message’ or comment box and then tap the GIF icon that appears. A series of GIFs from GIPHY’s library will be presented to users based on the search phrase. The feature is being rolled out in phases and should be available to all shortly.”

Speaking of Instagram Stories, Cardi took to hers recently to reveal that she nearly missed Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime show.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.