Category: News

As if Mission: Impossible — Fallout didn’t already have an impressive enough cast, with Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby, Michelle Monaghan, Henry Cavill, and franchise mainstay Ving Rhames, Mission: Impossible 7 will add Shea Whigham, Pom Klementieff (Mantis from Guardians of the Galaxy), Esai Morales, and Hayley Atwell to the ensemble. The Agent Carter star, last seen sharing a dance with Steve Rogers in Avengers: Endgame, is an exciting new face to the long-running action franchise because Peggy Carter rules, and she’s hard at work preparing for the role.

Atwell recently shared a shirtless photo of her back on Instagram with the caption, “Backbone #missionimpossiblemovie.” Basically, she’s getting shredded / ripped / jacked / another word that means she’s in better shape than you to scuba-dive in lava, or whatever, with Cruise’s Ethan Hunt. It’s still unknown who she’s playing in the Christopher McQuarrie-directed movie, and we might not find out for a while, as production has been shut down until September due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We hope to start shooting again in September. We were days from shooting in Venice — we were right at the epicenter when it all kicked off — so we had to shut down in Venice where we were four or five days from shooting,” first assistant director Tommy Gormley told BBC Radio 4’s Today program. “We hope to visit all the countries we planned to and look to do a big chunk of it back in the UK on the backlot and in the studio, so September through to end April/May is our targets. We are convinced we can do this.” Mission: Impossible 7 is scheduled to come out on November 19, 2021.

Since NPR Tiny Desk Concerts are no longer taking place at the NPR offices in Washington, DC, artists have been shooting their own, at-home concerts for the popular segment. While this has resulted mostly in artists trying their best to reproduce the office environment with stripped-down performances of their favorite songs, the latest participant, Roddy Ricch, seems to have decided to bend the rules a bit, delivering his performance from a space that looks bigger than the whole office where the segment is usually filmed.

Cramming several members of 1500 Or Nothin’ into what looks like a garage, Roddy’s Tiny Desk Concert rivals most mid-size venues for production value, complete with lighting, amps, backup singers, and two sets of drums on the back line. Roddy himself starts the show at his keyboard, playing the opening chords of “Perfect Time” before emerging to rap as he roams the makeshift stage. He’s joined on “Bacc Seat” by LA crooner Ty Dolla Sign and gives a short speech touching on current events before delivering a warm rendition of his album closer “War Baby.”

Watch Roddy Ricch’s Tiny Desk Concert above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Billie Eilish’s admiration of Justin Bieber is longstanding and well-documented. She got to collaborate with him on a “Bad Guy” remix, and the single art was a photo of a younger Eilish in front of the Bieber posters lining the wall of her bedroom. A bit before that, the two met in person at Coachella, which was clearly an emotional moment for Eilish. It turns out Eilish’s life has been full of emotional Bieber-related moments, which she discussed on a new episode of Me & Dad Radio — the Apple Music show she launched with her father, Patrick O’Connell, earlier this year.

During a chat with her father and guest Maggie Baird (her mother), Baird described driving Eilish to a dance studio while listening to the song, saying, “Driving to the dance studio with Billie, playing this song, sobbing, and then driving back and sobbing. It was either Marina And The Diamonds or this, sobbing… not just this. It was all of Justin Bieber. […] But I just happen to remember this one really well, and the video, and Billie talking to me about it, and being excited that it was coming out, and just crying and crying.”

Eilish added, “I would watch the music video for this song and just sob.” They then listened to some of the single, but Eilish cut the track short because she was getting too emotional. After O’Connell spoke about the power of music, Baird added (perhaps jokingly), “I just want to say, we did consider taking you to therapy for help.” Eilish laughed at the idea that her obsession was that significant, and Maggie added, “You were in so much pain over Justin Bieber.”

Listen to the conversation above.

Young Thug is not through with Pusha T, with whom he shared an unpleasant exchange yesterday when a leaked record featuring them both revealed Pusha using the opportunity to once again diss Drake. While Thug doesn’t seem to care all that much about Pusha’s ongoing feud with the Canadian star, Thug definitely took issue with Push’s chosen forum — a song recorded for the deluxe version of late Brooklyn artist Pop Smoke’s debut album. Now, Thug is continuing to air his grievances with Pusha’s antics via his Instagram Story, captured below by gossip monger DJ Akademiks.

In the video, Thug gives jabs to Pusha’s verse on the leaked track and wonders why the older rapper didn’t just reserve those bars for his original Drake diss, “The Story Of Adidon.” “First of all, your verse was ‘seven days,’ if you know what I mean,” Thug snipes. “That motherf*cker weak. Second of all, you already done went crazy the first time, so it ain’t nothin’ but a sucka going on double takes, triple takes and quadruple takes. You should have just got all of that out on the first song when you put the first song out.”

But soon enough, Thug gets to the thrust of his argument: that using Pop Smoke’s debut album to draw attention is a bad business move and disrespectful to Pop’s memory. “You didn’t even have to do all that,” he says. “You just feel like you wouldn’t get enough views on your own sh*t, so you came and put some bullsh*t on a whole ‘nother n**** — who’s resting in peace — music. Trying to f*ck up a n**** whole vibe ’cause you feel like it’s the perfect platform. Thug, Gunna, and Pop Smoke. ‘This is the perfect platform to go at this n**** ass’… Do that sh*t on your own song!”

The back-and-forth between the two drove even more debate about Drake and Pusha’s feud on Twitter yesterday and it doesn’t appear that it’ll slow up anytime soon.

Watch Thug’s video above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Umbrella Academy adapts the graphic novels by Gabriel Ba and My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way, and the fan reception remains fiercely supportive. Netflix certainly knew what they were doing when they released a quarantine video that was an affectionate take on a beloved first-season scene, in which the cast danced to “I Think We’re Alone Now.” Now the anticipation grows for the second season (which arrives on July 31) with a trailer (including a new song from Way) that reveals how the Hargreeves siblings must now face yet another apocalyptic threat despite jumping back in time.

We were warned of this prophecy by Klaus (Robert Sheehan) himself:

Oh boy, Klaus is angry about the updated doomsday date ruining what he told his new hippie cult. As photos previously revealed, some time travel shenanigans are actually afoot, and the group is (mostly) in 1960s Dallas. Everything’s bigger in Texas, so one can assume that this apocalyptic threat will follow that rule. Five (Aidan Gallagher) screwed up, though, and finds himself in a war zone.

So, is this a pre-apocalypse apocalypse? It’s complicated. We last saw the Hargreeves siblings attempt to calm down the furious Varya (Ellen Page) while she used her recently discovered (by her) powers to embody the apocalypse that the group had aimed to prevent. Even while subdued, she inadvertently took a chunk out of the moon, which began to crumble down on earth, and Five used his powers to grab the group and get the hell out of there. Now they must find each other amid a fresh set of obstacles and hairdos. Godspeed.

The Umbrella Academy returns on July 31.

It was reported earlier this year that a new Tron TV series, which wasn’t previously announced, was scrapped by Disney+. Rumors of a new installment in the Tron series have floated around for years now: The ball was apparently rolling on a Tron 3 movie as far back as 2015. However, it looks like the Tron 3 film is finally getting off the ground. Excitingly for music fans, it looks like Daft Punk could be involved, following their score of 2010’s Tron Legacy.

Mitchell Leib, Walt Disney Studios’ President Of Music & Soundtracks, recently guested on Light The Fuse, a podcast about the Mission: Impossible movies. He said, “We’re looking at making a sequel to Tron [Legacy] now. We’re making a Tron 3,” adding the film has “a really phenomenal script that we’re very excited about.” Leib explained why the movie is finally happening now, saying, “Whereas the timing wasn’t right to have done it years ago, I think we feel like the timing is right now and we learned a lot of lessons from that last movie.” Jared Leto could also star in the film.

He also suggested that meetings with Daft Punk’s manager Paul Hahn had taken place, and said, “The right and first thing to do is to bring Daft Punk back and see if they want to [return]… We don’t even know who will be directing yet. We’re hopeful that Joe Kosinski will come back and do another one. A lot of things gotta fall into the right places.”

These aren’t the first rumblings of Daft Punk scoring a movie to emerge in recent days, as they were rumored to be involved in Occhiali neri, a new film from influential Italian horror director Dario Argento.

That last time I spoke to Andy Samberg was when he was promoting Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, and shortly before I spoke to him he had gotten the news that his film, which would later go on to be a cult favorite (or, honestly, much more than “cult” since pretty much everyone I know loves that movie), was headed for a rough time at the box office. He was noticeably, let’s say, bummed out. And the thing I’ve noticed about Samberg as an interviewee is that he wears his emotions on his sleeve. He doesn’t try to power through with a smile if something is bothering him. He just kind of acts like you or I would act — which is I guess the best way to describe is, “human,” but that’s not something often seen in an interview situation where the goal is to be some iteration of “on.”

Today, Samberg looks back on that now saying, yes, he’s always happy when one of his projects hits the target demo, even if it takes awhile. But, also, it wouldn’t be terrible to also have one of his movies make some money.

Samberg’s new film is Palm Springs. Directed by Max Barbakow and written by Andy Siara (which is notable because this is a Lonely Island production, yet not written or directed by one of its members), Palm Springs‘ claim to fame is setting a record at this year’s Sundance Film Festival for the highest price ever paid for a movie at that event. In a weird turn of events, since that purchase happened, this movie about Samberg’s character, Nyles, being trapped in a time loop of an always-repeating day sure does feel prescient since a lot of us are sure experiencing that phenomenon right now.

Though, before we get to either Palm Springs or Popstar, there’s a little unfinished business. Last time we spoke, for whatever reason, one of Samberg’s more esoteric Saturday Night Live sketches, “One Take Tony,” (about a old-timey movie star who can do every scene in just one take) was brought up. I casually mentioned Samberg had done that character twice, and he was quick to correct me that it was only once. Ahead, I submit my proof that One Take Tony does appear a second time, which seems to delight Samberg as he starts googling old sketches that he appears in, yet doesn’t remember.

Andy Samberg: How are you?

I’m okay. I’m in New York, staying inside, mostly. How are you doing?

I’m in LA, staying inside. Everything here is terrifying, but doing our best.

So, the last time I spoke to you was when you were in New York to promote Popstar. And there’s been something that has been haunting me ever since, but I figured it out. I brought up your SNL sketch “One-Take Tony”…

[Laughs] Oh I’m already so happy about this…

And then I mentioned in passing you did it twice. And you’re like, “No, we did it once.” And I was like, “I swear you did it twice.” And you’re like, “Dude, I promise we only did it once. I think I’d know.” It turns out you were correct.

[Laughs] Right.

But the reason I thought you did it twice, and it took me forever to figure this out, was because there’s a sketch called “All My Children Wrap Party” where you show up for five seconds and I swear it looks like One Take Tony. And you back out of the room the same way One Take Tony does.

Okay. So, I have zero recollection of the sketch. But I will say this, if I was in it, there’s a very high chance it was the One Take Tony voice because I have about five total voices and I just re-use them in everything on SNL. It’s called “All My Children Wrap Party?”

Yeah. It’s from your last season. It’s the season premiere in 2011 with Alec Baldwin hosting. Though you are wearing an eye patch, so maybe it’s not One Take Tony?

Oh my God. Now I need to figure out what sketch you’re talking about. Don’t be offended if I Google this while we talk.

Oh, go ahead.

Yeah. I found it. I found “All My Children Wrap Party.” Like, looking at it, I thought, maybe I’d be like, “Oh, now I remember.” I have genuinely no recollection of this at all.

I’m glad we’re getting to the bottom of this.

We’re going to waste this whole interview. By the way, if this whole thing ends up being about One Take Tony, you know I’m happy.

I think this will read well. I think people reading this are going to go, “Wow, they’re both watching a YouTube video. This is pretty riveting.” Anyway, you come in at 2:35.

Here, okay. So I’m there now. Hey, I got a good laugh!

Is that One Take Tony or not?

Oh, the way I backout is very similar. But the voice is different. The One Take Tony voice is much more old-timey. Whereas this is a modern voice. This is voice number four instead of voice number five.

This sketch does take place in the present and One Take Tony was in the ’40s. So I guess it didn’t make a lot of sense.

This character could be related to One Take Tony? It could be like the grandson of One Take Tony. I did have gray hair in the new one.

And he lost an eye somewhere along the line.

Well, yeah, but that happens.

So are you saying yes or no? Definitively?

I’m saying, definitively, it is not One Take Tony. But thank you, because it was really fun to get to see a sketch that I had zero recollection of and see myself walk into and get a laugh. It really helped my self-esteem.

So, Palm Springs…

[Laughs] Right.

That was a good segue. Anyway, I saw this back at Sundance and rewatched it recently, during quarantine. Being stuck in the same day sure does resonate more now. Though having a fun wedding to go to every night seems pretty good.

Yes. It would be an improvement for sure.

I think people are going to relate to it pretty well now.

I would say it certainly speaks to the quarantine aspect of present time, I guess.

It’s unusual because it’s a Lonely Island production, but none of you wrote or directed it.

Well, the script came to me, just kind of cold through my agent, basically saying would you want to be in it? It was an offer. They were offering for me to play Nyles and also for our company to produce it if we were interested. And I read it and just immediately said “yeah” which is not something that happens all the time. There was something about it that I really connected with. Like the comedy and also, not comedy.

Because usually it’s like, “Ah, the three of them did it again,” I feel this is kind of rare for you.

I mean, it’s interesting. Obviously Akiva or Jorma didn’t direct it. I mean, I guess it’s totally very different, but I would say Hot Rod was a movie that was already written and then we just rewrote. I don’t know that we ever would have been like, “Let’s make a movie about a stuntman.” But there was so much wonderful stuff in it that you’re like, “Well, yeah, this is great. This is a great jumping-off point.”

(This) was different because I think it intersects with our tone and sensibility enough that it felt comfortable for me and for us to take it on. But it also, very much by design, is sort of intermingling a lot of different genres: including, rom-com and sci-fi and existential dread. I mean, the Andy Siara and Max Barbakow part of it is definitely the new thing for me and why it was like, hey, this will be interesting and not something we’ve seen before, maybe.

And obviously we’ve seen time loop movies before, but love the rules of this movie and how it works…

Yeah, no for sure. I mean, by the way, when I said something they haven’t seen before, I meant something you haven’t seen before from me, not from, “the world.”

Oh, I didn’t take it that way.

Okay, good.

Not, “We were the first people who ever even come up with this idea of a time loop. That’s never been done in a movie.”

We live in a time when a lot of things have been made at this point. So it is hard to be like, “we’re coming at this whole brand new thing you never even thought of.” But I will say to what you were saying in terms of there were some variations of the rules, and also the timeline of where you’re jumping into the story is a different spot than I think I’ve seen in other time loop movies? It’s much farther along for my character.

It’s like, what if we started a hundred years after where Groundhog Day ended? And then bringing in other people and all of that stuff. Also, the self-referential stuff, sort of acknowledging that we’re aware this is a thing and that you know the rules of these things and trying our best at always to reward the audience for having watched a million hours of everything and not act like we’re re-inventing the wheel or something, just being like, “Come with us on this fun ride, you know the rules, let’s go.“ That was sort of a crutch.

Now, back to One Take Tony…

We need to set up a whole different call just for One Take Tony.

Though, the reason that got brought up was from when I talked to you for Popstar, I remember you were pretty bummed out that day. Someone told me you had just gotten the tracking numbers right before I talked to you, but are you pretty happy where that movie is in culture right now? Does it matter that it didn’t do what it was supposed to do at the box office considering everyone has seen that movie now?

I mean, what matters and doesn’t matter? It’s all perspective. I would have probably preferred that it did better. It did so badly that it was depressing, but yes, it’s also about how much you put in. We went on a huge press tour and put all this energy in to promote it, and then when you realize that none of that really made a difference, you feel embarrassed or whatever. But never about the content of the movie. And certainly knowing now that people are finding it, loving it. And that the kind of people who are finding it and really loving it seem to be the people who we care the most about, consistently. I’m always like, oh, these are people who like the other things we love. And then they’re putting Popstar in with that.

So, that’s always the goal for us. The goal for us is never how much money can we make at the box office. It’s just, it would be nice if it was also that. But the other thing to say about it, there are two comedies a year that make any money, in the last five or six years? And ours was a mockumentary that was intentionally very dense. So, I think when we started working on it two years plus earlier, we had different expectations than when it even came out. And now it feels like most comedies, unless they’re a huge global-spanning, big-budget thing, are going to streaming. And the theaters are for Tenets and Avengers and Star Wars. And right now, literally nothing.

So, it’s a good time to have comedies that are re-watchable and that people love and that they can find on streaming. And that’s certainly what we are told that we make. And always, for us, is the goal: to make a comedy that you want to watch a bunch of times and quote with your friends and all that kind of thing. So I think, yes, ultimately, I’m very happy for where Popstar ended up … but also I would have rather it made tons of money and made us all tons of money.

Speaking of money, I do have one idea for you for a movie. Griff Banks, The Sensitive Bully: The Movie. What do you think?

[Laughs] You got fucking deep cuts!

When we spoke last you mentioned being bummed out it never got past dress (rehearsal)…

We did it!

Oh, you did do that one? On Seth Meyers?

Yeah, we’ve done it. “Second Chance Theater,” I did Griff Banks, it’s online, if you want to check it out.

Now, do you want to wait while I look up a video and watch it?

More than you know.

‘Palm Springs’ begins streaming via Hulu this Friday, July 10. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Kanye West recently sat down for an expansive interview with Forbes, and the main headline from the conversation was about Kanye’s political life. He said he no longer supports Donald Trump, that he’s serious about his run for POTUS, and that he wants his presidency to work like Wakanda from Black Panther. Elsewhere during the conversation, though, he said that he previously had the coronavirus.

Kanye said he was sick with COVID-19 back in February, describing the experience, “Chills, shaking in the bed, taking hot showers, looking at videos telling me what I’m supposed to do to get over it. I remember someone had told me Drake had the coronavirus and my response was, ‘Drake can’t be sicker than me!’ [laughs].”

When asked about the hope for a cure, Kanye said, “We pray. We pray for the freedom. It’s all about God. We need to stop doing things that make God mad.”

He went on to discuss vaccines, calling them “the mark of the beast,” saying:

“It’s so many of our children that are being vaccinated and paralyzed… So when they say the way we’re going to fix COVID is with a vaccine, I’m extremely cautious. That’s the mark of the beast. They want to put chips inside of us, they want to do all kinds of things, to make it where we can’t cross the gates of Heaven. I’m sorry when I say they, the humans that have the Devil inside them. And the sad thing is that, the saddest thing is that we all won’t make it to Heaven, that there’ll be some of us that do not make it. Next question.”

Check out the full feature here.

Since Hamilton made its off-Broadway debut in February 2015, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical has been praised for its diverse cast, while also facing backlash for how it depicts slavery. Which is to say, that it glosses over the fact that the Founding Fathers owned slaves. That discussion has popped again since Hamilton hit Disney+ (minus a couple of swear words), and Lin-Manuel Miranda believes the criticisms are valid.

“I’m late with the Hamilton criticism stuff & I’m clearly biased, tweeted (sic’d) Tracy Clayton, the writer and host of Netflix’s Strong Black Legends podcast, “but… I really like that this conversation is happening. Hamilton the play and the movie were given to us in two different worlds & our willingness to interrogate things in this way feels like a clear sign of change. I totally get the frustration about it being a play about slaveholders that is not about slavery. I’ve felt that in lots of things I watch, but I flex the same muscle I use when I listen to hip hop as a black woman. We enjoy problematic things all the time.”

Miranda retweeted Clayton, and added, “All the criticisms are valid. The sheer tonnage of complexities & failings of these people I couldn’t get. Or wrestled with but cut. I took 6 years and fit as much as I could in a 2.5 hour musical. Did my best. It’s all fair game.”

For more on Hamilton, including how it highlights hip hop’s potential for storytelling and an interview with Okieriete Onaodowan, click here.

Yesterday, Kanye West sat down with Forbes for what the publication describes as “four rambling hours of interviews,” and now parts of that conversation have been shared. In a new feature published this morning, Kanye says a lot of things. For example, he insists that he no longer supports Donald Trump and compared his vision for the White House during his presidency as being like Wakanda, the fictional country from Black Panther.

Addressing his distancing from Trump, Kanye noted, “I am taking the red hat off, with this interview.” He also said, “It looks like one big mess to me.” He didn’t do a total 180 on his previous support of Trump, though, and still had some kind words for the POTUS, saying, “Trump is the closest president we’ve had in years to allowing God to still be part of the conversation.” He also gave his reasoning for wearing a red MAGA hat, saying, “One of the main reasons I wore the red hat as a protest to the segregation of votes in the Black community. Also, other than the fact that I like Trump hotels and the saxophones in the lobby.”

He went on to criticize Joe Biden, saying, “I’m not saying Trump’s in my way, he may be a part of my way. And Joe Biden? Like come on man, please. You know? Obama’s special. Trump’s special. We say Kanye West is special. America needs special people that lead. Bill Clinton? Special. Joe Biden’s not special.”

Kanye also discussed his own presidential campaign, about which he appears to be serious. Although Kanye has missed filing deadlines to make his candidacy official, he believes he could still get on ballots anyway due to “coronavirus issues.” He is also running under a new political banner, the “Birthday Party,” “because when we win, it’s everybody’s birthday.” Kanye says his running mate is Michelle Tidball, who Forbes describes as “an obscure preacher from Wyoming.”

He also talked about his vision for the White House under his presidency, comparing it to Wakanda:

“A lot of Africans do not like the movie [Black Panther] and representation of themselves in… Wakanda. But I’m gonna use the framework of Wakanda right now because it’s the best explanation of what our design group is going to feel like in the White House… That is a positive idea: you got Kanye West, one of the most powerful humans — I’m not saying the most because you got a lot of alien level superpowers and it’s only collectively that we can set it free. Let’s get back to Wakanda… like in the movie in Wakanda when the king went to visit that lead scientist to have the shoes wrap around her shoes. Just the amount of innovation that can happen, the amount of innovation in medicine — like big pharma — we are going to work, innovate, together. This is not going to be some Nipsey Hussle being murdered, they’re doing a documentary, we have so many soldiers that die for our freedom, our freedom of information, that there is a cure for AIDS out there, there is going to be a mix of big pharma and holistic.”

Kanye talked a lot more about his presidential candidacy and political ideals, so read the full feature here.