Category: News

Better work on those archery skills because a new bow-wielding beast slayer is joining Genshin Impact. On Thursday, PlayStation, Guerrilla Games, and Genshin Impact developer miHoYo announced a major crossover between the companies — in the form of Horizon Zero Dawn protagonist Aloy joining the massively popular action RPG exclusively for players on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. The limited time release is scheduled to launch with Genshin Impact‘s upcoming 2.1 update, which should hit sometime in August.

While the tweet made by PlayStation was fairly vague, miHoYo went into more detail about the collaboration in a blog post. According to the studio, “all Travelers who have reached Adventure Rank 20 or above will be able to obtain the event-exclusive 5-star character ‘Savior From Another World’ Aloy (Cryo) directly through in-game mail.” In addition, players above Adventure Rank 20 will also be able to obtain Aloy’s famous Predator Bow, which comes with a four-star rating as well as the move Strong Strike.

This event marks the first time Genshin Impact has teamed up with another studio and might very well be the first of many. Within six months of the game’s launch, Genshin Impact solidified itself as one of the most popular mobile games ever, having surpassed $1 billion in player spending. While Genshin has been criticized for it’s “gacha” mechanics, or selling addictive loot boxes containing random characters that improve player’s game play experience (if they can find them), the game has retained its popularity and is sure to grow with more crossover events.

(Via miHoYo)

Just 24 hours ago, fans of Yasiin Bey’s film work were excited to learn he’d be returning to the screen in the fascinating role of jazz legend Thelonius Monk. However, it took less than a day for those hopes to be dashed, as Bey revealed he’d been advised to join the project under false pretexts on social media. In a rare video posted to Instagram, Bey says that he was originally informed that the project had the Monk estate’s approval, however, after the project was announced, the estate made a statement condemning it.

As he says in the video, “Let me be clear. If the Monk estate is not happy with it, if Mr. Monk III is not happy with it, then neither am I.” He goes on to explain, “I was given every indication by the production company that the family was on board, one of my primary questions. Just as important as the music, if not more important, is that the family supported the project. I took them at their word and clearly that wasn’t the case.”

The rapper/actor also expresses his disappointment at the project not receiving the go-ahead, as he was eager to begin acting again. “I’m tight,” he says. “I haven’t done a film in a while. I haven’t had a great yearning to do one but this one, I was really excited about. Perhaps another time under better auspices. C’est la vie.”

Watch Yasiin Bey’s explanation video above.

Some people wish they could go back in time and relive their 20’s. For most, the wish is nothing but a nostalgic pipe dream. But with Paul McCartney‘s latest video, the singer was able to go back in time and relive the days of Beatlemania — sort of.

McCartney dropped his funky “Find My Way” video Thursday featuring Beck, a song which appears on his collaborative McCartney III Imagined LP. The far-out visual uses de-aging technology to show McCartney in his Beatles days shimmying through the halls of a vintage-looking hotel. “Step back in time and onto the dancefloor,” McCartney wrote alongside the video.

So how were directors able to make it look like a 20-something McCartney was actually dancing through around a hotel? They tapped creators from the company Hyperreal Digital to take on the task, a company which specializes in the creation of hyper-realistic digital avatars. “The technology to de-age talent and have them perform in creative environments like this is now fully-realized, even with one of the most recognized faces in the world,” Hyperreal’s CEO Remington Scott said in a statement about the visual.

Watch McCartney’s “Find My Way” video above.

McCartney III Imagined is out now via Capitol Records. Get it here.

Nicole Kidman’s one of several A-listers who’ve made themselves at home on the so-called “small screen” in recent years, and she’s taken home award gold (and nods) as a result. She took home a few Emmys and a Golden Globe for Big Little Lies and a Globe nomination for The Undoing, and she’s not done yet. The Paddington villain is here to shake up your little world again as a wellness guru in Hulu’s upcoming limited series, Nine Perfect Strangers.

The story’s another adaptation of a Liane Moriarty novel because heck, why not? Her material pairs well with Kidman’s acting style, and this time around, Kidman aims to give you some chills. She portrays a wellness guru that might remind you of certain celebrities who shill bizarre products and claim that they’ll change your life with a dash of snake oil. In the process of this trailer, we see several “strangers” — including Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon, and Bobby Cannavale — fall under her guidance before things start to go very wrong. From the synopsis:

“Nine Perfect Strangers” takes place at a boutique health-and-wellness resort that promises healing and transformation as nine stressed city dwellers try to get on a path to a better way of living. Watching over them during this 10-day retreat is the resort’s director, Masha, a woman on a mission to reinvigorate their tired minds and bodies. However, these nine “perfect” strangers have no idea what is about to hit them.

Nine Perfect Strangers also stars Luke Evans, Regina Hall, Samara Weaving, Melvin Gregg, Asher Keddie, Grace Van Patten, Tiffany Boone, and Manny Jacinto. The eight-part series streams on August 18.

Hide your Judy doll, put your manger scene cookies in a safe place, and make sure you’re not blocking the ice cream freezer at the grocery store: Larry David is coming back! AT&T CEO John Stankey delivered the pretty, pretty, pretty good news that Curb Your Enthusiasm’s 11th season will debut by the end of the year during a Q2 earnings call on Thursday morning.

“Our lineup in the back half of the year is even stronger, with new seasons of popular series such as Succession, Raised by Wolves, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Love Life,” Stankey said, according to The Wrap. OK, so that’s not a ton of information—but it’s the first piece of news we’ve gotten about a potential release date for the new season.

HBO announced that Curb Your Enthusiasm would be getting an eleventh season in late June 2020. David’s response? “Believe me, I’m as upset about this as you are. One day I can only hope that HBO will come to their senses and grant me the cancellation I so richly deserve.”

According to David’s Curb co-star Jeff Garlin, fans shouldn’t expect too many more seasons of the largely improvised comedy. In June, Garlin predicted that, “We could maybe do one more [season], maybe. You know, Larry is in his 70s.” Ouch!

(Via The Wrap)

In theory, Timothée Chalamet is the star of Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming adaptation of Dune, but you wouldn’t know it by the reactions to the newest trailer because people are all about one thing and one thing only: Oscar Isaac‘s beard. Almost immediately after the new trailer dropped on Thursday morning, social media started thirsting over Isaac’s look as Duke Leto Atreides when the latest Dune preview gave them even more chances to screengrab his space beard. Man, are they here for it.

Here’s just a taste of the reactions on Twitter, where Isaac is already being hailed as a “bearded space DILF,” which is one of the internet’s highest honors, or something that people just came up with today after being beguiled by them whiskers.

Of course, the beard love shouldn’t arrive as a total surprise as people we’re already going to town on the Dune character posters that were released earlier in the week. Case in point, one intrepid Twitter user changed Isaac’s character name to simply “Daddy,” and it plays.

Here’s the official synopsis:

A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, “Dune” tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive.

Dune rides a sandworm into theaters and HBO Max on October 22.

Florida rapper Ski Mask The Slump God continues the bloody revenge tale from his Sin City-themed “Admit It” video in his new video for “Dr. Suess,” delivering martial-arts hijinks, shootouts galore, and a final, satisfactory conclusion. As in the previous video, he uses the CGI coloring techniques from the Sin City films, resulting in some truly stunning imagery, including a shot inspired by Marv’s contrast bandages using Ski Mask’s tattoos and grill.

Ski Mask’s latest project — the aptly titled Sin City The Mixtape — dropped at the end of June, nearly three years after his debut album Stokeley. Intriguingly enough, it became his second-highest charting project after Stokeley, peaking at No. 39 on the Billboard 200 albums chart despite minimal promotion. That indicates a growing interest in the amped-up rapper, who only released one single, “Burn The Hoods,” in 2020. He also featured on DJ Scheme’s “Soda” with Cordae, likely contributing to his increasing popularity.

After announcing the release date for Sin City The Mixtape, Ski Mask promised his fans that the next album wouldn’t take nearly as long. We’ll see if he can stick to that promise and maintain the momentum he’s built.

Watch Ski Mask The Slump God’s ultraviolent “Dr. Suess” video above.

This week, Brandi Carlile announced the follow-up to 2018’s By The Way, I Forgive You, an LP titled In These Silent Days. Last night, the Grammy winner performed an impassioned rendition of lead single “Right On Time” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Wearing a shiny, embroidered blazer, Carlile kept the first part of her performance relatively spare, singing and playing piano. Later, she stepped onstage with an electric guitar and completed the single with help from a backing band.

“Never before have the twins and I written an album during a time of such uncertainty and quiet solitude,” Carlile said in a statement around In These Silent Days. “I never imagined that I’d feel so exposed and weird as an artist without the armor of a costume, the thrill of an applause and the platform of the sacred stage.

“Despite all this, the songs flowed through — pure and unperformed, loud and proud, joyful and mournful. Written in my barn during a time of deep and personal reckoning. There’s plenty reflection…but mostly it’s a celebration. This album is what drama mixed with joy sounds like. It’s resistance and gratitude, righteous anger and radical forgiveness. It’s the sound of these silent days.”

Watch Carlile’s “Right On Time” performance above.

In These Silent Days is out 10/1 via Low Country Sound/Elektra Records. Pre-order it here.

Brandi Carlile is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Cardi B oftentimes raps about enjoying the finer things in life and judging by her massive collection of designer handbags, she’s not lying. It’s no secret that Cardi is a sucker for Hermès Birkin bags, which can range anywhere between $5,000 and $220,000. In fact, Cardi loves them so much that she owns over 20.

Cardi gives her Birkin bags a shout out in her “Up” song and she can oftentimes be seen clutching one from her collection when out and about. Even Cardi’s three-year-old daughter Kulture owns her own Birkin bag. The rapper has shared a few of her favorite handbags in the past, but this week, Cardi showed off a large portion of her Birkin collection on social media.

Continuing to flaunt her baby bump in an Instagram photo set, Cardi posed alongside a tan leather Birkin bag while sporting a burgundy body-con Mugler dress. The next photo sees Cardi picking out the perfect Birkin bag to go along with her outfit, and she has a lot of colors to choose from. The picture depicts 26 Birkin bags lined up in her living room, spanning from a crisp white to a green camo design.

See a sneak peak of Cardi’s impressive Birkin collection above.

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

It appears that Halsey may be joining the ranks of musicians — which pretty much just boils down to Beyoncé — who opt out of doing press to promote their work. In now-deleted tweets (which were archived by PopCrave), Halsey wrote that she would not be doing press anymore after Allure Magazine failed to use their correct pronouns in its August cover story. Halsey also accused the magazine of taking their quotes out of context while promoting the feature.

“First your writer made a focal point in my cover story my pronouns and you guys deliberately disrespected them by not using them in the article,” Halsey wrote. (The pop performer announced last March that they would be using she/they pronouns going forward, then explaining that “the inclusion of ‘they,’ in addition to ‘she,’ feels most authentic to me.”)

Halsey, who is releasing their latest album, If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, in August, continued, writing in a now-deleted Tweet: “Your admin bastardized a quote where I discuss the privilege of being the white child of a Black parent and intentionally used a portion that was the antithesis of the point I was trying to make.”

Upon further investigation, it appears that Allure shifted Halsey’s pronouns between July 14 and 15. On July 14, a passage reads: “Halsey, who has a white mother and a Black father, calls herself ‘white-passing.’ ‘A lot of people try to write off a lot of my experiences because I present white,’ she says.” The piece has since been updated to say: “Halsey, who has a white mother and a Black father, calls herself ‘white-passing.’ ‘A lot of people try to write off a lot of my experiences because I present white,’ they say.”

Halsey also mentioned in the piece itself that they would not be doing press in the future, saying that they often end up feeling “exploited and misquoted” when the piece publishes. “I don’t do press anymore. I just don’t translate very well in print,” Halsey said. “Even saying this is going to get me in trouble. I already know that it is […] I think sometimes [with] women who are articulate, people read it as pretentious.”

If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power is out 8/27 via Capitol. Pre-order it here.