Category: Viral

If you were looking forward to streaming Dune on HBO Max in 2021, you might want to sit… dune for this. According to a new report, the ongoing battle between Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros. could result in the highly-anticipated sci-fi film being pulled from the list of 17 films being simultaneously released in theaters and on HBO Max. The two sides have been warring ever since WarnerMedia unveiled its aggressive streaming release plans at the beginning of December without informing concerned parties until mere minutes before the announcement. Via Deadline:

Legendary is in a big fight that might result in lawsuits after it financed 75% of tent poles Dune and Godzilla vs. Kong and was completely blindsided. Rumors have the solution to that breach being to preserve Dune as a traditional theatrical to preserve its franchise potential and since its October 1 release date falls well after the estimated late spring date when Covid vaccines should achieve herd immunity.

Whether Legendary will be successful in halting Dune‘s HBO Max release remains to be seen, but the studio was quick to threaten legal action against WarnerMedia when it became aware of the streaming plan. Dune director Denis Villeneuve also entered the fray and blasted Warner Bros.’ parent company AT&T in an open letter to Variety that was backed by Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa. “With this decision AT&T has hijacked one of the most respectable and important studios in film history,” Villeneuve wrote. “There is absolutely no love for cinema, nor for the audience here. It is all about the survival of a telecom mammoth.”

Villeneuve even went so far as to say that the streaming decision “might just have killed the Dune franchise.”

(Via Deadline)

It’s been quite a year for Bam Adebayo. The up-and-coming 23-year-old blossomed into a full-fledged star last season with the Heat, helping lead Miami to stunning Finals run in the Bubble as they managed to topple the other Eastern Conference contenders who many picked to finish ahead of them.

He made his first All-Star team last season as well, gaining well-earned recognition for his well-rounded game and his part in transforming the Heat back into true title contenders. Adebayo also earned handsome compensation from the Heat in the form of a five-year, $163 million contract extension.

And now it appears he’s putting some of his money toward noble altruistic purposes. In true holiday spirit, Adebayo has pledged to pay a full year worth of rent to a local family that has been struggling to make ends meet after a car accident and was facing eviction.

Via Adam Caparell of Complex Sports:

Adebayo showed up to the house of Travillia Bogan, a single mother of two sets of twins on the verge of facing eviction, and presented her with a year’s worth of rent. A week before Christmas, it’s the best present Adebayo has ever had the privilege of giving.

“It’s gotta be No. 1,” Adebayo told Complex exclusively. “Just helping somebody like that, in that situation, and all the negative situations that’s happened to her the last couple of months, that’s definitely top of my list.”

Beyond the rent money, Adebayo has also promised to pay to maintain the property over the next year. And this isn’t his first foray into giving. Adebayo’s foundation, BBB (BAM, Books, and Brotherhood), is in charge of a number of charitable endeavors in his community each year. For a player who is just beginning to shine on the court, his generosity of spirit is burning even brighter.

(Via Complex Sports)

Over the course of the year, Lana Del Rey has gradually dropped tidbits of information about her upcoming album, Chemtrails Over The Country Club. She declared earlier this year that it would be released in September, but the month came and went without the album. In October, however, she shared a new song, “Let Me Love You Like A Woman.” Now, she has given fans another reason to look forward to 2021, as she has announced a new video for the album’s title track with a teaser clip.

The video includes rapidly changing shots of Del Rey dressed as a cheerleader, some summer-themed B-roll, and what looks like Del Rey as a werewolf, given that she has fangs and is hanging out with an actual wolf. The clip also shows somebody (presumably Del Rey, although the person’s face isn’t clearly visible) in outfits that are more revealing than what Del Rey has traditionally worn in her professional endeavors. The full video is set to be released on January 11.

Del Rey recently noted that she plans to release a covers album on Christmas to make up for the Chemtrails delay, writing, “[There is a] 16-week delay on the vinyl process, so in the meantime, I’m going to give you a digital record of American standards and classics for Christmas because I can’t get the record plants to open until March 5. That probably goes for a lot of people out there.”

Watch the teaser clip above.

Although the emerging youth rap collective AG Club — short for “avant-garde” — proudly represents San Francisco, their breakout single is hardly beholden to the sonic conventions of the Bay Area. In fact, “Memphis” sounds much more like the bass-heavy trap rap of its namesake as it does the post-hyphy party rap of fellow NorCal denizens SOB X RBE or Guapdad 4000.

So the addition of guest rappers ASAP Ferg and NLE Choppa to the song’s remix, “Memphis Pt. 2,” is actually fitting in many ways. Like AG Club, the ASAP Mob eschewed local solidarity for an omnivorous sound that saw the blog era breakouts sampling from places like Houston, London, and yes, Houston to form their sonic playgrounds. Meanwhile, NLE Choppa is a resident of Memphis who has shown an increasing versatility beyond regional sounds as his popularity as a featured artist grows — yet here, he sounds right at home. The video finds them all linking up to wreak havoc in Los Angeles, just to really mix things up.

In an introductory interview for Vice’s i-D Magazine, AG Club gets compared to ASAP Mob as well as the LA-based diversity collective Brockhampton, while the group’s members Baby Boy, Jody Fontaine, and Mick Antony say their mission is “to take over every form of media from music to TV, film, and fashion.” Beginning with the breakout viral hit that is “Memphis,” we’d say they are well on their way.

Watch AG Club’s “Memphis” video above.

NLE Choppa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Denver Nuggets are looking to get over the hump this season. After being the only team in the league to make each of the last two conference finals, the Nuggets are banking on internal development from a number of players alongside the brilliance of Nikola Jokic to get them to the NBA Finals.

Perhaps the player who needs to take a leap the most is Jamal Murray, who needs to show that his magnificent performance in the NBA’s Orlando Bubble is sustainable and capable of giving Denver a second superstar. It’s not a bad bet to make, because Murray is one heck of a player, and in what must be an endorsement of what he can become, a new report indicates that the team has no plans on trading him, even for a former league MVP.

According to Mike Singer of the Denver Post, the Nuggets refuse to include Murray in any deal that might pop up for James Harden.

But a league source said Tuesday that Murray would not be traded. His transcendent postseason run in Orlando reaffirmed why the Nuggets gave him a max contract extension last summer and underscored why they view him as a franchise cornerstone, along with center Nikola Jokic.

ESPN had previously reported that Denver and Houston had talks about a potential deal for Harden, although there is no word on what those conversations entailed. We can probably make some assumptions here — Michael Porter Jr., for example, seems like someone who would have to be included in a Harden deal — but barring a major change of heart, we can safely assume that Murray will not be going anywhere. If that’s the case, the Rockets likely won’t be jumping at a Denver offer, but depending on how MPJ performs this season, it might be worth revisiting closer to the deadline.

It’s the season of giving and Mulatto has found a way to do just that. Rather than spending big bucks on a flashy video alongside her recently released Queen Of Da Souf (Deluxe) LP, Mulatto instead used those funds to by gifts for the less fortunate in her generous “Spend It” video.

The visual depicts Mulatto gathering her team to purchase iPads, laptops, toys, and food items from Walmart for selected families and those living in Atlanta’s Section 8 housing. Speaking about her charitable actions and explaining the concept behind her video, Mulatto said:

“It’s called ‘Spend It’ so I was originally going to have this super flexed-up video, pull out them racks, pull out the foreign, and just talk about how I’m the youngest and the richest. But, it’s Christmas time, holiday time, and I feel like a better way to spend that sh*t would be giving back to the community, the people who are less fortunate than I am. Because I could spend that sh*t on me all day but today we’re going to spend that sh*t on people who need it.”

Watch Mulatto’s “Spend It” video above.

Queen Of Da Souf (Deluxe) is out now via RCA. Get it here.

The 2020 NBA Finals only just wrapped up in mid-October, but due to the league’s pandemic-altered schedule, the 2020-21 season is already starting tonight after a quick offseason with a pair of games. Both will be broadcast on TNT, and DaBaby and Dua Lipa are helping the network and the league start things right with a new promotional video.

The soon-to-be-former rapper begins the video by saying, “‘Tis the season, the season of believing. NBA opening night gives everyone hope. Every fan, every city, every team, every player. You see that look. This game keeps us looking up. That’s where the ball is. That’s where the banners at. Sure, there’s a time to hit the floor, but sometimes, you gotta tell gravity, ‘Hold on, hold on, hold on: I got something to do. Let’s levitate.’”

From there, he calls on Lipa, at which point the video for her and DaBaby’s version of “Levitating” plays between clips of the NBA’s biggest stars doing their thing. DaBaby later ends the video, “Hope is a launchpad. There’s power in powering forward, so keep your head up, because after this year, I feel like we all need to rise up with our eyes up. It’s a new season of the NBA on TNT.”

Check out the video above.

Dua Lipa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

As a self-proclaimed workaholic, Charli XCX needed to channel her creative energy somewhere at the onset of quarantine earlier this year. She began by chronicling her life and mental health through a series of quarantine diary entries before pivoting to write and record an entire album in just two months. Now, Charli has returned to her digital diary to summarize an entire year in pop culture trends with her final entry.

Penning the reflection for Dazed, Charli’s diary touched on some of the more upsetting events of the past few months. “Well, let’s just start by saying that 2020 proved to us what we knew all along: the world is a terrible place,” she wrote. “We live in a world that is burning, a world bent out of shape by a virus, a world of job losses and health scares, a world where an orange-hued madman advises us to inject bleach into our skin, a world where JK Rowling is no longer your favourite children’s author but the internet’s most outspoken transphobic troll, a world of real bullets, rubber bullets, and violent police. An unjust world filled with racism, corruption, and pain. Hasn’t it always been this way for some?”

The singer continued to say that she thinks of 2020 as the year of “WAP“:

“2020, in my eyes at least, is the year of ‘WAP’, the year of Kamala Harris, the year of Michaela Coel. It’s the year I finally saw Hugh Grant in a different light (if you know, you know). It’s the year I really experienced Paris, via Netflix, with my infuriating friend Emily. 2020 brought us Joe Exotic, Carole Baskin, and the super-weird and creepy Doc Antle. This year was the year of the pop-star open letter, from Lorde to Lana (controversial). The Lakers did it for Kobe in 2020, and I was introduced to the wonderful budding bromance between LeBron James and Anthony Davis (it’s so cute, I can’t even). Face mask fashion boomed out of face mask necessity, and everybody forgot about phone calls and FaceTime, instead choosing to communicate exclusively on Zoom. 2020 is the year of dancing in your bedroom while your favourite artist performs at their own virtual concert. It’s the year that Taylor went to the woods, Dua went to the 70s, and Ariana went to the White House. It’s the year of the puzzle, the spontaneous marriage, the inevitable break-up. 2020 is the year we finally celebrate frontline workers and all that they do for us. It’s the year we edge towards discussing our mental health more openly. It’s the year of the family group chat and trying our best to stay in touch with friends. It’s the year our communities come together – virtually, of course.

Read Charli’s full entry here.

Charli XCX is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Taika Waititi’s time as an executive producer on What We Do in the Shadows will soon lead down another rather intriguing road. FX has announced that the eclectic auteur will take on more duties at the network, this time for a comedy series that he co-wrote with Native American filmmaker Sterlin Harjo. They’ll both executive produce, along with WWDITS‘ Garrett Basch, for a show called Reservation Dogs, and if the mere sound of that title didn’t swiftly bring Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs to mind, then FX’s first promotional photo (above) will get that job done. This time, a group of teens will be rocking awfully familiar looking suits, and perhaps this shall carry some parody vibes. No official language has surfaced yet on that end, so we’ll have to be patient.

A press release reveals that Reservation Dogs “follows four Native teenagers in rural Oklahoma who spend their days committing crime… and fighting it.” I’m hoping to also see some shades of Crystal Moselle’s The Wolfpack, which followed a band of brothers (reference intentional) as they explored the streets of New York City, but with Waititi’s new show, these teens are strutting through Okmulgee, Oklahoma (the home of the Muskogee Creek tribal headquarters). And we’re getting crime capers, perhaps? Here’s FX’s revelation of the leading quartet’s character names:

D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (Creeped Out) as BEAR
Devery Jacobs (American Gods) as ELORA DANAN
Paulina Alexis (Beans) as WILLIE JACK
Lane Factor (newcomer) as CHEESE

You can’t beat a guy who calls himself “Cheese.” He’s already my favorite, and I (obviously) know nothing about him. According to FX Original Programming President Nick Grad, “Sterlin Harjo draws deeply on his experiences as a Native Oklahoman to make Reservation Dogs a true-to-life and incredibly funny story of youth, courage and misadventures.” As for Harjo’s own sentiments, he declared that “[a]s longtime friends, it was only natural that Taika and I found a project together, and what better than a show that celebrates the complementary storytelling styles of our indigenous communities–mine in Oklahoma and Taika’s in Aotearoa.”

There’s no word on a specific release date yet for Reservation Dogs, but the pilot already shot in Okmulgee, and eight episodes will arrive sometime in 2021.

As far as albums that aren’t yet confirmed to actually exist, Rihanna’s ninth may have been the most talked-about of 2020. Throughout the year, she dropped hints about the nature and progress of the album, and before the year is over, she has offered yet another promising tidbit.

In a conversation with UK publication Closer, Rihanna suggested that she wants to make some musical moves in 2021, saying, “2021 is a little unknown for everybody and nobody is sure what restrictions there are going to be. My creativity is within my control, though, and I want to take my music and my brands to a different level.”

She also spoke about how the pandemic has given her an opportunity to slow down, saying, “I love what I do, but I am always busy and quarantine gave me the time to do things I wouldn’t always have been able to do — watch an entire box set in a day, cook, go for walk. It’s important we do little things we enjoy and are kind to ourselves.”

Speaking of cooking, Rihanna also revealed her plan to release a cookbook that features her favorite Caribbean recipes. She said she “loves food from my Barbadian roots and eats a lot of fresh fish” and also gets down with “mac ‘n’ cheese, shepherd’s pie, and rum punch.”

Check out the full interview here.