Category: News

Amazon Prime Video’s unprecedentedly expensive The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power doesn’t premiere for another three months, but the showrunners are already thinking about the series finale. They must have learned from Game of Thrones.

“We even know what our final shot of the last episode is going to be,” J.D. Payne told Empire. “The rights that Amazon bought were for a 50-hour show. They knew from the beginning that was the size of the canvas – this was a big story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. There are things in the first season that don’t pay off until season five.”

Those five seasons take place thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. But don’t worry, there’s still plenty of little guys. The Rings of Power doesn’t feature hobbits, but it does have the equally hairy harfoots, “who [appear] in the original Tolkien lore as the hobbits’ predecessors,” according to Empire.

“We’re the traditional Tolkien little guy,” [actor Lenny Henry said]. “Traditionally, the little people in this world provide comedy but also get to be incredibly brave. You’re going to see us run the full gamut of emotions and actions in this adventure.”

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on September 2.

(Via Empire)

In recent years, there have been more stories about artists selling the rights to their music catalogues for some nice paydays. It’s mostly older artists with large discographies that have aged like wine and continue to resonate with modern audiences, but some younger folks have decided to cash out, too. OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder, for example, was one of 2021’s highest-paid musicians after selling his storied song catalogue — he co-wrote songs like Beyonce’s “Halo” and Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” — for $276 million.

Now, Julian Casablancas has decided that he too would like to get paid: Rolling Stone reports he has sold his stake in The Strokes’ catalog to Primary Wave for an undisclosed amount. The deal only includes Casablancas’ material with The Strokes, not his solo material or work with The Voidz.

While The Strokes haven’t been a huge chart success when it comes to singles — their sole song to make the Billboard Hot 100 is “Juicebox,” which peaked at No. 98 — they do have a number of tunes with staying power: “Last Nite,” “Reptilia,” and “Someday” have all been certified Platinum by the RIAA and they each have have over a quarter of a million streams on Spotify, with “Last Nite” currently sitting at a hair under 425 million plays. The band’s albums from the 2000s are also among the most revered of their era.

The Los Angeles Lakers figure to look a lot different next year. They have a new head coach in Darvin Ham, who joins them from Mike Budenholzer’s staff in Milwaukee, and a roster that figures to see some significant changes to the rotation pieces at the least, given most everyone beyond their top stars is a free agent this summer.

How they fill out the roster of minimum deals will play a big role in determining how successful they will be, but we won’t see how they attack roster building until July 1. For now, Ham is in the process of filling out his coaching staff and he’s apparently bringing an old friend back to the Association in Rasheed Wallace, who Ham played with in Detroit from 2003-2005, winning an NBA championship in the process. Wallace hasn’t been an assistant in the league since his one season with the Pistons in 2013-14, but has spent time coaching high school ball and most recently was an assistant for Penny Hardaway at Memphis.

Hardaway was asked about Wallace’s status for next season on Monday, and divulged that he is likely on his way to L.A. to join Ham’s staff.

Ham has been fond of Wallace’s coaching potential for a long time, so it’s not a surprise that he’d bring Rasheed back to the assistant coaching ranks of the NBA. Where Wallace’s presence figures to be an immediate help is with Anthony Davis and continuing to get the most out of him on both ends of the floor, with Wallace being able to relate to Davis about as well as any coach could given his skillset as a player.

It’s also part of why it’s important for people like Ham to get head coaching jobs, because they open up opportunities for an entirely different group of people to get on an NBA bench and show their value as coaches that might otherwise not get that chance.

Roots Picnic, founded in 2008 and hosted annually in Philadelphia, has evolved into a major staple within the Black community. Every June, attendees have been treated to some of the fresh faces in the music space as well as appearances from seasoned veterans. One thing that always occurs is Black Thought taking the stage and reminding everyone that there is a short list of rappers who can compare to what he brings to the microphone. This year was no different, as The Roots’ lead MC blessed his hometown at the 2022 event this past Saturday (June 4) alongside Rick Ross and Benny The Butcher during the “Live Mixtape” showcase.

Ross and Benny performed some of their most popular records before the 50-year-old hijacked Ross’ “Hustlin” and Butcher’s “Johnny P’s Caddy” beats and delivered momentous freestyles. It didn’t stop there either; Black Thought went back even further and spit over LL Cool J’s “I Shot Ya,” UGK and Outkast’s “Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You),” and Pharoahe Monch’s “Simon Says.” If that wasn’t enough, the “State Prisoner” artist joined the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul Mary J. Blige during her set later in the evening and added a new verse over her classic 1992 record “What’s The 411?”

Black Thought’s pen isn’t to be questioned, but this exhibition of sharp lyricism is especially noteworthy as he is on the road to releasing Cheat Codes, a collaborative project with Danger Mouse on August 12. The project, confirmed in May, is set to feature the late MF Doom, A$AP Rocky, Run The Jewels, Raekwon, Joey Bada$$, Conway The Machine, Russ, and more. So far, Thought and Mouse have released their first single “No Gold Teeth.”

Check out what you can expect from Cheat Codes in the 2022 Roots Picnic footage above.

Among their many similarities, Drake and J. Cole have always shared a love of hoops. While this translates in different ways — while Drake is content to win pick-up games at his home court, The Sanctuary, Cole has actively pursued a professional career in basketball, landing on two teams’ rosters in two different leagues — this is something that’s remained consistent throughout their parallel careers.

Until recently, Drake was the more visible one of the two, sitting courtside at NBA games to trash talk his player friends, but now that that number includes J. Cole, it looks like Drake will be popping up at some Canadian Elite Basketball League games as well. On Saturday night, Drake was spotted at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre for the game between the Hamilton Honey Badgers and Cole’s Scarborough Shooting Stars (you’ve gotta love a league that embraces alliteration like this). Drake even wore his fellow rapper’s jersey.

Although the Shooting Stars lost, 84-69, it didn’t appear to put a damper on Drake’s enthusiastic support for J. Cole, who he called “my brother” in a post on Instagram about Cole’s first game. Despite ostensibly competing for the number-one modern rapper spot in the eyes of many fans, Cole and Drake have always supported each other as rappers, with both going as far as calling each other “one of the greatest rappers” ever, so it only makes sense that this show of appreciation has expanded to the court. Since Cole’s spending so much time in Canada these days, you really have to wonder if or when some footage will appear of him hooping at Drake’s infamous Sanctuary runs.

As one of the first celebrity voices to speak out following the school shooting in his hometown of Uvalde, Texas, Matthew McConaughey has ramped up his advocacy for preventing gun violence. In a new op-ed for USA Today, the actor passionately argues for “gun responsibility” measures because “the debate about gun control has delivered nothing but status quo.”

“There is a difference between control and responsibility,” McConaughey writes. “The first is a mandate that can infringe on our right; the second is a duty that will preserve it. There is no constitutional barrier to gun responsibility. Keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous people is not only the responsible thing to do, it is the best way to protect the Second Amendment. We can do both.”

Speaking as both a father and the son of a kindergarten teacher, the native Texan believes there’s a needle to that can be thread that both slows down the “epidemic of indiscriminate mass shootings” and still protect the rights of gun owners. However, McConaughey argues that inaction is no longer an option, and the immediate problem is, in fact, guns. Via USA Today:

The need for mental health care, school safety, the prevalence of sensationalized media coverage, and the decaying state of American values are all long-term societal factors that must be addressed, but right now, we don’t have the luxury of time. We need to focus on corrections and countermeasures that can also and immediately reduce the gun violence tragedies that have become too common in our country.

As for McConaughey’s proposed “gun responsibility” solutions, those include: Background checks for all gun purchases, no assault rifle purchases for anyone under 21 (with an exception for the military), red flag laws, and a national waiting period for assault rifle purchases.

(Via USA Today)

When the rookie scale extension deadline came and went last year without a new deal in place for Deandre Ayton, despite Luka Doncic, Jaren Jackson Jr., Trae Young, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and teammate Mikal Bridges all inking new deals, it raised plenty of eyebrows.

Still, the expectation was, with Phoenix coming off of a Finals run, that another excellent season from Ayton and a deep playoff run would secure him the max extension he believed he deserved and the Suns would keep their core from the 2021 Finals intact. Ayton completed the first part of that, putting forth regular season averages of 17.7 points and 10.2 rebounds per game on strong efficiency as Phoenix locked up the West’s top seed and the NBA’s best record.

However, after getting bounced in the second round by the Mavs in rather stunning fashion, with Ayton being benched after 17 minutes of play in Game 7 during a blowout loss, the tone about Ayton’s future in the desert shifted. There are enough teams that believe in Ayton that he’s going to get a max offer sheet from someone, but no longer is it expected that the Suns will go ahead and match. In fact, per The Athletic’s John Hollinger, the expectation from those around the league is that Ayton will play somewhere else next year.

Rumors continue to intensify regarding Ayton and his relationship with the organization that drafted him. We’ll elaborate on this below, but sources tell The Athletic that it’s “more likely than not” that Ayton plays somewhere other than Phoenix next season.

This came from a Q&A about the Detroit Pistons, who Hollinger notes figure to have a good chance of landing Ayton given their cap space and how well Jerami Grant would seemingly fit in Phoenix as a strong return in a sign-and-trade, which is how most anticipate the Suns handling Ayton’s exit. There will be plenty of other teams interested in Ayton’s services, as the Hawks and Trail Blazers have each been linked to having interest in trading for the young center to pair with their star guards, and it will seemingly come down to where Ayton and the Suns can find common ground between where he’d like to play and where they can get the best value in return.

It’s a rather stunning rift that’s grown between the former top pick and the organization that took him first overall four years ago, choosing him over Doncic in part because of his ties to the state of Arizona having played his college ball in Tucson. Now it’s about how the Suns pivot in order to maintain their championship window and what teams see this as an opportunity to vault themselves into contender status by adding a young center still growing into his immense talents.

QAnon cheerleader Marjorie Taylor Greene’s proposed solution to mass school shootings is to embrace fascism/Christian nationality, and now, she’s taking aim again at Parkland survivor David Hogg after openly harassing him for year. Hogg, of course, is used to tangling with the far-right and even told Laura Ingraham where to stuff it, so he wasn’t afraid to push back when Greene goaded him on Twitter about bringing “your girls,” with whom he will “try to manipulate some of my gutless weak colleagues to vote for gun control that will violate our freedoms and leave Americans defenseless.” Greene demanded to know why Hogg wasn’t on her schedule because, well, of course.

In response, Hogg wasn’t here for Greene’s sensationalistic way of phrasing things. “I’m more interested in protecting children and meeting commonsense people who are looking for reasonable solutions to stop children from dying,” Hogg responded. “Don’t really have time to help you go viral for attacking survivors so you can fundraise.” He even added a “respectfully,” which likely wasn’t an easy move.

Greene’s goading actually isn’t too far base from the GOP party line. Down in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott actually proposed sending fake invaders to schools in order to test their defenses. Abbott seems to believe that the problem here is that schools have too many doors, not that lone gunmen have no problem purchasing assault weapons at age 18. As for Hogg, he’s sticking to his non-guns while offering advice on how to emotionally support activists against gun violence.

In the meantime, plenty of people are seeing through Marjorie Taylor Greene’s tactics, especially since she has no problem harassing mass shooting survivors but complains about CNN’s Jim Acosta daring to ask her questions

The midterm elections are gonna be a doozy, guys.

[This post contains spoilers for season four of Stranger Things]

One of the boldest choices in Stranger Things 4 was, early on, having two new characters share a scene together. There was no Eleven, no Joyce, no Dustin, Robin, or Steve — just Dungeons & Dragons dungeon master Eddie Munson (played by Joseph Quinn) and cheerleader Chrissy Cunningham (Grace Van Dien) bonding in the woods outside of Hawkins High School during a drug deal. The two performers had palpable chemistry, so it was a shame that Chrissy was killed by Vecna shortly thereafter. Her death is one of co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer’s biggest regrets about season four.

“We always have those moments [of ‘what have we done?’],” Matt told TVLine. “We shot the quote-unquote drug-deal scene in the woods pretty late, actually, into shooting.” So late, in fact, that Chrissy’s death scene in the Munson trailer had already been filmed. He continued, “The scene came alive in a way that was just so beautiful. And so much of that was Joe and Grace. It was just one of those fortunate scenes where we were able to have two cameras rolling capturing them simultaneously. Joe was doing a lot of stuff kinda spontaneously, and we were getting these amazing reactions from Grace.”

Van Dien’s time on Stranger Things is over, but the Duffers hope to work her again:

They’ve been down this road before, “when we killed Bob in season two,” says Matt. “I didn’t want to do that. We had fallen in love with both the character and Sean Astin. And Sean didn’t want to die. Winona Ryder didn’t want him to die. But we’ll find something else to do with Grace, something else to do with Sean.”

Maybe a prequel about Chrissy and Astin’s character Bob will appear in one of the inevitable spinoffs. They could open a detective agency together.

Stranger Things 4 returns for two more very long episodes on July 1.

(Via TVLine)

While Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World wasn’t a box office success, it has become one of the most fervently beloved cult classics in all of movies since its 2010 release. A lot of factors went into that but a big part was the movie’s music and one of the soundtrack’s most memorable songs is “Black Sheep,” which was written by Metric and sung in the movie by Brie Larson. Now, Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner has teamed up with Anamanaguchi for a cover of the song.

Anamanaguchi is the band behind the soundtrack of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game, and on June 2, they performed the soundtrack at Brooklyn’s Music Hall Of Williamsburg as one of the final dates of their Scott Pilgrim tour. During the encore, they brought out Zauner, who took lead vocal duty for the rocking rendition.

Last year, “Black Sheep” landed Larson on the Billboard charts: the movie soundtrack was reissued and it included the Larson-led rendition of the song. It ended up debuting at No. 7 on both the Billboard Rock Digital Song Sales and Alternative Digital Song Sales charts. It also made it onto the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart at No. 34. This was Larson’s second time on the charts, as “She Said,” a single from her 2005 album Finally Out Of PE, hit No. 31 on the Hot Singles Sales chart.