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In January 2022, Winnie the Pooh and the wonderful story of a cute little bear and his pals entered the public domain. The bear and his iconic bright red shirt has historically been most heavily associated with The Walt Disney Company, but the original story is now open to all different creators and director who can make any type of Pooh-related drama they wish (except Tigger. He still belongs to Mickey Mouse).

But, instead of a fun CGI reboot, or a quirky stop motion feature, Pooh is getting the horror movie treatment. And today we have the first trailer, complete with blood and, you guessed it, honey.

Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey follows Pooh and Piglet as they go on a rampage after being abandoned by their beloved owner, Christopher Robin, who is now a full-grown adult who is about to get married. They begin to stalk a group of friends who are staying just outside the hundred-acre wood for a getaway that turns deadly.

Earlier this year, director Ryhs Waterfield said that it’s not the Pooh and Piglet you’ve come to know and love: the duo has become vicious versions of themselves after Christopher left them, “Because they’ve had to fend for themselves so much, they’ve essentially become feral,” Waterfield explained. “So they’ve gone back to their animal roots. They’re no longer tame: they’re like a vicious bear and pig who want to go around and try and find prey.” Who would win in a fight? Pooh or The Predator?

The moral of this story? Never get married and abandon your imaginary animal friends.

Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey does not have a release date at this time…unfortunately.

The White Lotus is officially an anthology series with a fairly quick turnaround after the show premiered in July 2021. The brilliant satire landed as a sleeper series, and the show generated so much conversation that HBO couldn’t resist re-upping for a second tour. Sadly, we won’t be seeing Murray Bartlett return (as Armond) to drop a deuce in Italy. That wouldn’t be possible anyway, since this isn’t a prequel series, and his character obviously didn’t make it through Season 1.

Who will appear in Season 2 (which will premiere in October)? The show takes place in Italy with the sole returning cast member being Jennifer Coolidge. She’ll return as boozy socialite Tanya McQuoid, and from there, a whole new assortment of angsty wealth-mongers will manage to be pretty miserable in idyllic surroundings. This season, we’ll see Aubrey Plaza, Theo James, F. Murray, Abraham, Michael Imperioli, and Haley Lu Richardson. They’ll likely be judging everyone, so we can feel free to judge them, too.

There’s no real word on plot yet or if there will be another mystery body bag, but one can hope that we’ll at least receive an intriguing mystery. Sydney Sweeney won’t be around to send withering glances toward clueless vacationers, and I’m sad that we won’t be able to see Alexandra Daddario’s new bride come to her senses and dump her insufferable husband, played by Jake Lacey. Well, there’s always Season 3 for that.

The White Lotus will air on HBO (and stream on HBO Max) in October.

Every month, Uproxx cultural critic Steven Hyden makes an unranked list of his favorite music-related items released during this period — songs, albums, books, films, you name it.

1. Arctic Monkeys, “There’d Better Be A Mirrorball”

One of the best and most popular British rock bands of the past decade announced their first album in four years, The Car, this month. Judging by the tracklist, the Monkeys appear to be continuing their GBV-like descent (or is it ascent?) into screamingly obscure song titles. (I am excited to hear “Jet Skis On The Moat” myself.) As for the music, the one sample we have so far is this heartbroken lounge ballad that hews close sonically to the debauched torch-song vibe of 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino (minus the sci-fi element). I was a big fan of that strange, singular and polarizing record — and still am, having revisited recently — but I hope The Car also includes some nods to the riff-heavy, sexy and leather-jacketed rock of their 2013 landmark LP A.M.

2. Cass McCombs, Heartmind

Earlier this month a reader asked if this perennially underrated singer-songwriter has passed my Five Albums Test upon the release of his latest LP (and 10th overall), Heartmind. Actually, he passed it well before now. It just depends on how far back you go with him. For me, he’s been one of the most reliable artists in the indie sphere going back at least a decade, to the sparkling 2011 double shot of Wit’s End and Humor Risk. Though hardcore fans will likely make a case for his aughts-era work, particularly albums like 2007’s Dropping The Writ and 2009’s Catacombs. For me, Heartmind doesn’t quite meet the standard of recent masterworks like 2016’s Mangy Love and 2019’s Tip Of The Sphere, in which McCombs unleashed his inner Jerry Garcia and snaked dreamy guitar solos throughout his enigmatic songs. Heartmind is less guitar-centric, favoring a jazzy vibe that is less immediate. But over time, it really gets under your skin.

3. The National and Bartees Strange, “Mistaken For Strangers” (Live in Dillion, Colo. 8/10/22)

This month I traveled to Utah to meet up with Bartees Strange on a short tour through the western U.S. and Canada with The National. It was a fun and wonderfully strange experience. If you ever get the chance to visit Salt Lake City, do it. To quote myself: “When you’re downtown, you can’t take in the mountain vistas that ring the city without also seeing a monument to the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints lurking in your peripheral vision. But I don’t want to reduce Salt Lake City to a series of Mormon cliches. There are other distinctive attributes. The High School Musical films were made here. There is a surprisingly vibrant Mexican restaurant scene. You can’t order a cheeseburger without someone putting some pastrami on it. Famously, if you get pizza delivered to your hotel room, you might get sick and subsequently be willed to iconic feats of sports excellence. There is no other city quite like it.”

A highlight of this tour was Bartees joining The National for “Mistaken For Strangers.” The video above was taken the day after the show I saw.

4. 2nd Grade, “Strung Out On You”

This Philadelphia band will release one of my favorite albums of 2022, Easy Listening, in September. I’ll have more to say about that next month, but for now, let’s celebrate this deeply pleasurable slice of power-pop goodness released in advance of the record. Led by singer-songwriter and Beach Boys fanatic Peter Gill — who also plays in another very good band, Friendship, which dropped a very good record, Love Is Stranger, in July — 2nd Grade play very short and very catchy songs that draw on a well-curated set of indie-leaning pop-rock sources: Big Star, Guided By Voices, The Raspberries, Teenage Fanclub, Sloan. On “Strung Out On You,” Gill utilizes all of the best tricks for this kind of music — jangly guitars, handclaps, gooey vocals, and irresistible rhythmic bounce.

5. Kiwi Jr., Chopper

This prolific Canadian band — Chopper is their third album in three years — is typically compared to Pavement, because the singer sounds a little like Stephen Malkmus while affecting a slightly aloof and witty lyrical posture. (Which means that they’re also described as a northern Parquet Courts.). Being compared to great bands is a double-edged sword, of course, and given Kiwi Jr.’s rapidly growing body of work it seems unfair at this point. Produced by Wolf Parade’s Dan Boeckner, Chopper is their best and slickest record yet, tightening up their patented slacker rock with shiny New Wave accents. At its best, Kiwi Jr. sound like The Cars for the agitated TikTok generation. (Yes, I just compared them to another great band but I swear it’s appropriate.)

6. Eli Winter, Eli Winter

Every August needs at least one Americana-tinged instrumental guitar record, in which blissed-out finger-picking designed to soundtrack sunsets occasionally slip into storms of noise and feedback. This month, Eli Winter was that record for me. So many instrumental guitar albums feel more like collections of jams rather than a set of actual songs. But Winter knows how to balance exploratory solos with a sense of purpose and structure, and he builds this six-track self-titled album in such a way that the cumulative effect amounts to something greater than the attendant parts. It helps that he has precisely the supporting cast you would want on an album like this, including Ryley Walker, David Grubbs, and Yasmin Williams.

What will surely go down as one of the year’s most emotional music events is taking place this weekend, as the first Taylor Hawkins tribute concert will go on at London’s Wembley Stadium this Saturday, September 3. The surviving members of Foo Fighters — Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett, and Rami Jaffee — are currently in the city getting ready for the show, and now the first new band photo taken since Hawkins’ untimely death earlier this year has surfaced.

A UK-based Twitter fan page for the band shared the image, indicating it was taken in London on August 30. Longtime music photographer (and Sea.Hear.Now Festival co-founder) Danny Clinch confirmed that to be true and that he took the photo, sharing the image on Twitter and writing, “A quick portrait of @foofighters last night in London.”

The Hawkins-less image stirred up some heavy feelings in fans. Reactions range from people expressing sadness to calling the photo “incomplete” to saying it’s weird to see a Foo Fighters band photo without Hawkins in it. One fan noted, “This picture makes it real… he’s not there and won’t come back.”

As for the tribute concert, fans who won’t find themselves at Wembley this weekend will still be able to watch it live on a variety of platforms.

Check out some responses to the image below.

Dwayne Johnson, or Mr. The Rock himself, is known for many things: his giant arms, his ability to crush any role he takes on, and his friendship with Kevin Hart. But recently, he has been more and more open about his straight-up bizarre eating habits, which is certainly respectable but still a little curious. It makes sense: the actor was a WWE wrestler for many years and his public image is a huge part of what makes him THE Rock, as opposed to a pebble or something along those lines.

Recently, writer/director Stephen Merchant, who worked with Johnson on 2019’s Fighting With My Family, opened up about Johnson’s work ethic when it comes to eating his own meals. While appearing on SiriusXM’s Jim Norton and Sam Roberts Show, Merchant recalled an interesting approach that Johnson has when it comes to eating out. “I think someone told me, maybe he told me, that when he goes for dinner with friends he has to take his food to the restaurant and have them heat it up because it’s such a structured diet he has to have,” the director explained.

Not only is his life structured around what he eats, but it’s also important for him to eat certain things at certain times. Merchant recalled a time when he was meeting with Johnson before one of his WrestleMania events when he learned of just how strict the actor is when it comes to his eating plan.

“I do remember having a meeting with him just in Texas just before WrestleMania and we were having a meeting about the movie and his alarm would go off at like 3:17 p.m. and he would go to the fridge and there would be turkey and rice with ‘3:17 p.m.’ written on it and he would microwave it,” Merchant explained. “It was so regimented.” Why he didn’t just round up to 3:20 or down to 3:15 we will never know, but he certainly has his schedule down.

Johnson also loves sharing his various “cheat day meals” so we know that he has got this schedule down to a science and even has some fun with it. Maybe he really just likes 3:17 pm?

(Via Page Six)

Björk is set to release her first album in five years next month. The titled of her 10th album, Fossora, refers to a word she created — a feminized version of the word “fossore,’ which is a Latin word meaning “digger, ditcher, or delver.”

Earlier today, the Icelandic pop star took to Instagram to reveal the album’s cover and release date, while also explaining how the record came together.

“Each album always starts with a feeling that i try to shape into sound,” she said in a caption. “This time around, the feeling was landing (after my last album, Utopia, which was all island in the clouds element air and no bass) on the earth and digging my feet into the ground.”

She continued, revealing that being home during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic inspired her to write, produce, and record music.

“It was also woven into how I experienced the ‘now,’” she said. “This time around 7 billion of us did it together, nesting in our homes quarantining, being long enough in one place that we shot down roots.”

Elsewhere, she explained that the album is sonically “about bass” and will feature “six bass clarinets and punchy sub.” She also revealed she collaborated with Serpentwithfeet.

Check out the cover art above.

Fossora is out 9/30 via One Little Independent. Pre-save it here.

If there’s one thing worse than a liar it’s a bad liar, and Lindsey Graham is most definitely that. On Sunday, the South Carolina senator appeared on Fox News where he said these exact words: “If they try to prosecute President Trump for mishandling classified information after Hillary Clinton set up a server in her basement, there literally will be riots in the street.”

The backlash to Graham’s words was swift, with many interpreting his warning as more of a threat. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell went so far as to compare him to notorious Nazi sympathizer Vidkun Quisling. But it seemed to take Joe Biden weighing in to get Graham to react. On Tuesday, the president—a longtime friend and colleague of Graham’s—told a group of supporters: “The idea that you turn on a television and see a senior senator and congressmen saying if such and such happens, there will be blood in the street. Where the hell are we?”

Which, in turn, prompted Graham to go back on Fox News in an attempt to walk back that thing we all heard him say, and essentially claim that he didn’t say it. As the senator explained it:

“What I said Sunday was… I reject violence, but I also reject the double-standard here. So, if they try to prosecute President Trump for mishandling classified information after the [Hillary] Clinton debacle, when she was secretary of state, people in this country will lose faith in law enforcement.”

Which is not at all what he said, as you can see for yourself — again — above.

With a whopping $715 million price tag, Amazon has a whole lot riding on its new The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series. Set a thousand years before the events of the blockbuster films, the show will delve deep into J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth lore as it goes toe-to-to with another high-profile fantasy prequel, HBO’s House of the Dragon that’s already dominating streaming charts. Will audiences who’ve come to expect the more violent and graphic world of Game of Thrones still tune in for The Lord of the Rings‘ more family-friendly, yet no less epic fare? That’s the huge question weighing over Amazon’s head.

During The Rings of Power U.K. premiere, Jeff Bezos revealed a more personal challenge for the massive series: Not failing his son who’s become obsessed with all things Tolkien. Via Variety:

“My kids have become Tolkien fans as well. In fact one of my boys I think approaches the level of a Tolkien scholar he knows so much about this universe. And after Amazon got involved in this project, my son came up to me one day, he looked me in the eyes, very sincerely, and he said: ‘Dad, please don’t eff this up.’ And he was right. We know that this world is important to so many people, we know it’s a privilege to work inside this world and we know it’s a big responsibility.”

While introducing the series, Bezos also thanked the showrunners, Patrick McKay and John D. Payne, for “ignoring” his notes and proving that Amazon made the right call in choosing the untested newcomers to lead newcomers into Middle-earth.

“Everybody here in this audience, you are all about to see that we made the right choice,” Bezos told the crowd.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres September 1 on Amazon Prime Video.

(Via Variety)

The White Lotus turned out to be a genuine sleeper series, one of those rare shows that arrived without much advance press and simmered quietly for weeks before people realized, “Holy hell.” Soon enough, the most passive-aggressive rivalry in recent TV memory culminated with a wallop, and viewers were left craving more following what appeared to be a limited series. The show’s officially an anthology series, and we’ll all benefit from this. Jennifer Coolidge previously turned up as a boozy delight, and as it turns out, her Tanya McQuoid will continue that iconic tour as the show’s second season will head to Italy.

When will this happen? We don’t know a precise date as of yet, but Variety reports that we won’t have to wait too long. The White Lotus Season 2 will premiere sometime in October. The show will air on HBO and be streamable on HBO Max, and unfortunately, Sydney Sweeney won’t be silently side-eying the resort’s guests this time around, nor will we get to see whether Alexandra Daddario’s character will eventually come to her senses and drop Jake Lacey’s horribly spoiled brat of a character.

Yet we will see a whole new crop of actors representing the malaise of the (largely) idle wealthy class who can’t just be happy on vacation. Coolidge represents the one constant character in the franchise thus far, and she’ll be joined by Aubrey Plaza, Theo James, F. Murray, Abraham, Michael Imperioli, and Haley Lu Richardson. Be prepared to judge them accordingly.

Lorde’s August 29 concert in Washington DC was noteworthy for an unusual reason. At one point during the performance, Lorde told the audience, “I was thinking today, I was lying in the Potomac River. […] I love getting to swim in water where I’m playing.” It took a few moments, but when fans realized that Lorde actually swam in the infamously unclean waterway, they laughed and were audibly grossed out.

Now Lorde has been filled in on what was going on there and she was a good sport about it. A video of Lorde chatting with fans following the show seems to capture the moment right after the Potomac’s shortcomings were explained to her. After offering a shocked reaction, she told the small group, “I think all is well, but now I know why you were laughing. I’m happy to be a DC meme, you know?”

As for the Potomac, it has a long history and reputation of being concerningly unclean. In fact, swimming in the river has actually been illegal in DC since 1971, although the Potomac Riverkeeper Network thinks it’s time to lift the swimming ban. Locals still seem hesitant about intentionally getting in that water, though: ARLnow.com conducted a poll this summer asking if people would swim in the river in the DC or Arlington, Virginia area. Over 2,100 people responded and about 23 percent said yes, 12 percent said “only at a public beach or somewhere with lifeguards,” and the remaining 65 percent gave a hard no.