Category: Viral

Troy Kotsur became the first deaf man to win an acting Oscar earlier this year for his portrayal of a fisherman struggling to make ends meet as his daughter, the only hearing member of his family, struck out on her own in a school choir. If you’ve never teared up at watching a man “listen” to his daughter sing by feeling her vocal chords, you owe it to yourself to snuggle up, get comfortable, and cry your heart out while streaming CODA. Now that he’s conquered the Academy, Kotsur is heading to Disney+, where he’ll star in a series about the football team at California School for the Deaf Riverside. According to Variety, Kotsur will play the team’s coach and tell the story of the real-life CSDR’s epic 2021 season as they rolled toward championship victory.

It’s also got a stellar, surprising name writing and directing the pilot. Ron Shelton (a list of credits too long to mention, including Bad Boys II and Bull Durham) is set to helm the project, drawing on veteran status writing complicated sports stories and directing powerfully dramatic narratives. Shelton was most recently a writer for L.A.’s Finest, the Bad Boys spinoff TV show.

Disney+ is working alongside CSDR for the project, and Kotsur’s CODA co-star Marlee Matlin is also executive producing. Plus, they’re promising that the cast and several members of the crew will be deaf. It’s a very cool story that has found the right home and the right leading man, but he probably won’t have nearly as cool a beard for it.

(via Variety)

Dwight Howard remains unsigned by an NBA team. And while he’d like to continue playing in the NBA, he also has his eyes on the WWE.

Per Arash Markazi, Howard said he’d make the move to the WWE if an NBA deal does not materialize. Howard was a participant in the WWE’s tryout today ahead of Saturday’s SummerSlam in Nashville, cutting a promo before talking to Markazi about his future, both on the court and in the ring.

“I think it’s something that is in my future,” Howard said. “I love the WWE. I love wrestling. I love being a part of something that’s, you know, built up by characters and stuff like that.”

“I would love to play in the NBA,” Howard said. “That’s where I’ve been my whole entire life. I love basketball, it’s my passion. I still have years left in me. So I would definitely love to play and just end my career on a high note, a great note and then transition to the best business in the world, the WWE.”

Howard, 37, spent last year with the Los Angeles Lakers, playing in 60 games with averages of 6.2 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. He won a title with the Lakers in 2020 and was one of the league’s best players while a member of the Orlando Magic early in his career, leading them to the 2009 NBA Finals, before bouncing around the league with stints with the Lakers (three times), Houston Rockets, Washington Wizards, Philadelphia 76ers, Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Hornets.

“I’ve been watching this my whole life and I told myself If I had an opportunity to do this, I would do it with my whole heart and be the best that I can,” Howard said about a wrestling future.

Dwight wouldn’t be the first NBA player to make the jump to pro wrestling, as Dennis Rodman rather famously had a run as a member of the NWO while still playing for the Bulls — and skipping a Finals practice to do so. Howard won’t try to replicate that level of double duty, but sure seems genuine about at least making a go at a wrestling career whenever he reaches a point where NBA teams aren’t calling anymore.

First, Michael B. Jordan picked up the gloves as Apollo Creed’s son, Adonis, and then Florian Munteanu jumped in the ring as Ivan Drago’s son, Viktor. Now, it’s time for the spin-offee to become the spin-offer. The thing that does the spinning off. You get it.

According to The Wrap, MGM is moving forward on a project that focuses on the Russian boxer. Despite weirdly missing the opportunity to call it House of the Drago, the film is being written by Film Academy Nicholl Fellowship winner Robert Lawton, who won over the scholarship panel and producers with a Rocky-centric spec script. Back in 2019, Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren were trying to sell an action drama to network TV, and the project never quite got off the ground, but late last year, Lundgren nodded toward the possibility that Drago would get his own movie following an appearance in Creed II. At the time, Lundgren told The Hollywood Reporter that “when I played the character, I did a backstory about how he was brought up by the state and they controlled him. He didn’t have much say. He wasn’t really an evil person; he was just a product of the system. He’s Frankenstein’s monster. He’s not Dr. Frankenstein; that was the Soviet Union. So I always played that, and some of that came across in ’85.”

So, essentially Ivan Drago is Black Widow. Noted.

There are currently no plot details for Drago, but Creed III is still set to hit theaters November 22, 2022, and they could presumably keep spinning off new stories about new contenders every year if they wanted to.

(via The Wrap)

Earlier today, Kelis voiced her frustrations over one of her records being sampled on Beyoncé’s upcoming album Renaissance without it being cleared. She commented on the @kelistrends Instagram page and went back and forth with fans who were excited about the “collaboration.” Evidently, the Harlem artist had much more to get off of her chest in the form of a near three-minute rant that a fan posted to Twitter, where Kelis called out Pharrell and Chad Hugo for purposely participating in the “theft.”

From the very beginning of the video, the 42-year-old clarifies that her beef is not only with Beyoncé, who she says has copied her before much like many other artists. “The issue is not only are we female artists, Black female artists, in an industry that there’s not that many of us,” Kelis says. “We’ve met each other, we know each other, we have mutual friends. It’s not hard, she can contact me.” She then compares the situation to when Ashnikko went through the proper channels to connect with her to clear “Deal With It,” where she sampled Kelis’s “Caught Out There.”

Kelis continued her diatribe by calling the “Bey Hive” sheep for defending her and pointing out how Kelis doesn’t own her music before turning her attention to Pharrell and Chad Hugo.

“Chad really is like an amoeba, he’s spineless. It’s a miracle he can keep his neck up, but Pharrell knows better. This is a direct hit at me, he does this stuff all the time. It’s very petty–very, very, very–and the reality is that it’s frustrating. I have the right to be frustrated. Why? Because no one had the human decency to call and be like ‘Yo, hey, would like to use your record.’ Which, by the way, is the reason I’m annoyed because I know it was on purpose.”

A new Beyoncé release always causes hysteria, so this situation isn’t too surprising, but it will be interesting to see how it unfolds. As of now, there have been no comments from the Lemonade artist, Pharrell, or Hugo.

Signs are pointing at a new Nicki Minaj era imminent. As the Barbz wait on bated breath for her upcoming single, “Freaky Girl,” Minaj surprised fans today by sharing the trailer for her upcoming six-part docuseries, Nicki.

The trailer is filled with footage from several eras of Minaj’s career, from her mixtape era of the mid-aughts, her breaking into the mainstream pop landscape in the early 2010s, all the way up to the era of her most recent album, Queen. Fans will also see clips of Minaj alongside her husband, Kenneth Petty.

The docuseries, produced by the Canadian Bron Studios, was first announced in 2020, with plans to stream on HBO Max. However, she appeared to indicate on Instagram she is looking for a new platform on which to release the docuseries.

“Coming out SOONER THANK YOU THINK,” she said in a caption. “I took some time to perfect this very intimate, delicate, electrifying, inspiring body of work. As I decide on a home for this project, I can’t help but reflect on what I’m including in this doc. Some things are so personal, it’s scary. It’s like NOTHING you’ve seen before & I need it to be handled with care. Love you so much. Thank you for the continued support.”

Check out the trailer above.

Never one to mince words, Gucci Mane is issuing a directive for fellow rappers to stop speaking ill on the dead. On the new ATL Jacob-produced song, Gucci acknowledges having slandered deceased artists in the past and seems to reconcile with his poor choices of words.

“I know my tongue is a sword / I know I should be more careful with sh** that I said / I feel like I started a trend that’s never gon’ stop / They gon’ keep dissing the dead,” he raps.

Though it’s not clear which works he is referring to in the lyrics, perhaps one of the most obvious songs is a 2012 diss track targeted toward Jeezy called “Truth,” on which, he tells him, “Go dig your partner up, bet he can’t say sh*t.” The “partner” he is referring to is Pookie Loc, whom Gucci shot dead in 2005 after he attempted to rob him.

In the song’s accompanying visual, directed by Omar The Director, Gucci is seen in a graveyard, wearing a hoodie that reads “R.I.P. Trouble,” referring to rapper Trouble, who was allegedly shot and killed by a woman’s scorned ex.

Check out “Dissin The Dead” above.

Gucci Mane is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

When Russell Wilson was traded from Seattle to Denver, many fans around the NFL immediately began to wonder if the Seahawks would be looking to deal other offensive stars, most notably receiver DK Metcalf, as they entered a rebuild.

The massive receiver has not always been the most consistent performer (whether that’s on him or the offense is a different debate), but he possesses all the traits of a dominant receiver with his size and speed that makes him nearly impossible to cover one-on-one. Plenty of teams were interested in the young receiver out of Ole Miss, but the Seahawks and Metcalf were apparently not interested in parting ways, even with a lack of clarity about their future at quarterback — Geno Smith and Drew Lock enter camp as the top two QBs in Seattle.

On Thursday, word broke from Adam Schefter that Metcalf was signing a massive three-year extension worth $72 million, with the all-important guarantee figure being just north of $58 million — including a receiver record $30 million up front in signing bonus form.

That deal continues to show where the market is for elite receivers, and is not exactly what a team like the rival 49ers wanted to see, as they are currently in discussions with Deebo Samuel on a new deal, who will absolutely be looking for a much higher annual figure than the $24 million here (and likely closer to the $30 million per year Tyreek Hill is making in Miami). In any case, the Seahawks ensure they’ll have the star receiver in Seattle for the foreseeable future, which is an important position to have filled when you are a team soon to be on the hunt for a young franchise QB. Metcalf, meanwhile, gets paid but also gets to hit free agency again at 27 years old, firmly entering his prime where he ought to be able to secure another massive payday.

What do you have to do to get a whole gallery dedicated to you? Apparently you have to be “Weird Al” Yankovic.

The gallery, curated by an artist who simply goes by the name “Nikki,” is full of framed portraits of colorful pictures that depict Yankovic and others complete with the artist’s personal views on some of the pieces. Most of the pictures are drawn with what appear to be crayon and colored pencils.

In the caption of a video uploaded by Nikki’s cousin, they reveal the exhibit is from 10 years ago but it took her an entire decade to put all of the clips together. In the video Nikki is interviewed by someone who asks why she decided to dedicate her gallery to Yankovic and she responded, “he was an influence to me. Why do you think I dedicated this entire display to him? Because I do art parodies and food and stuff,” she added, “I just love him.”

From the clip it looks like Nikki had a great turn out to her exhibit dedicated to the parody giant and at the end of the clip, Nikki gets a surprise by the man himself. Yankovic appears on her computer screen to personally wish her a happy birthday. It’s obvious that Nikki can barely contain her excitement as she squeals and seems to run in place while seated in her chair.

Nikki’s not letting down syndrome keep her from living her dreams. And thanks to Yankovic’s birthday message I’m sure she’s probably still floating on cloud nine a decade later.

The far-right’s still completely obsessed with Hunter Biden’s laptop. Donald Trump wanted Vladimir Putin to help him dig for dirt on Joe’s troubled son, and Gina Carano is making a movie about that guy (for Ben Shapiro’s joint), and two of the messiest people in Congress (Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz) periodically freak out over Hunter.

Of course, Matt Gaetz is in his own legal hot water (being under investigation for sex trafficking), so he’s presumably got a big beef with law enforcement, and he’d like them to look in another direction: at Hunter. Gaetz is vigorously arguing the point while dissing the Department of Justice, and Greene chimed in on Twitter to trash the federal executive department that’s tasked with administrating law enforcement. The MAGA cheerleader would like them defunded, pronto.

“We don’t answer questions about an ongoing investigation,” Greene tweeted. “This is the controlled fall. Claim Hunter Biden is under investigation so that all information is sealed, and the outcome is under their control. What an incredible injustice to the American people! Defund the DOJ!!!”

Wait, what will the “gazpacho police” do now? In all seriousness, Greene may not have realized that defunding the DOJ is another means to say “defund the police,” and that’s the accusation often volleyed at the Left by the Far Right. Then again, this is a lawmaker who’s tweeting obviously photoshopped images of mass shooting suspects in a totally serious way. So, it’s probably of no use to point much out to her.

New dream team alert: Oscar winner Charlize Theron is joining Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón for a project at Amazon.

The Hollywood Reporter exclusively reports that Theron and Cuarón have teamed up as producers on Jane, a feature film for Amazon based on the personal and family life of acclaimed science fiction author Philip K. Dick. Producer Isa Hackett and Phillip K. Dick’s daughter will also produce alongside Theron and Cuarón. While THR cannot confirm, Theron is rumored to be starring while Cuarón is rumored to be directing the project. Hacket has previously helped produce projects based on her father’s work for Amazon including The Man In the High Castle and Electric Dreams.

“The story of Jane has been with me for as long as I can remember,” Hackett told THR. “Jane, my father’s twin sister who died a few weeks after birth, was at the center of his universe. Befitting a man of his unique imagination, this film will defy the conventions of a biopic and embrace an alternate reality Philip K. Dick so desperately desired—one in which his beloved sister survived beyond six weeks of age. It is her story we will tell, her lens through which we will see him and his imagination. There is no better way to honor him than to grant him his wish, if only for the screen.”

The “genre-bending” project is based on the deceased author’s relationship with his twin sister, Jane, who died six weeks after their birth. Jane’s death had a profound effect on Dick and influenced some of his creative work. Per THR, the project is described as follows:

A moving, suspenseful and darkly humorous story about a woman’s unique relationship with her brilliant, but troubled twin, who also happens to be the celebrated novelist Philip K. Dick. While attempting to rescue her brother from predicaments both real and imagined, Jane plunges deeper and deeper into a fascinating world of his creation.

Cuarón is one of our best visual filmmakers, and has worked in a variety of genres including family drama (A Little Princess, Roma), fantasy (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban aka the best one), and sci-fi (Children of Men, Gravity). We are always excited to see what Alfonso Cuarón will do next no matter what it is, but very much look forward to what he can do with work inspired by Philip K. Dick. Will Jane be Cuarón’s Blade Runner or his Total Recall?

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)