Category: Viral

Dune director Denis Villeneuve fired off a scathing essay Thursday night that blasted Warner Bros. decision to stream its entire 2021 film slate on HBO Max, and two major stars are already backing him. In the op-ed, Villeneuve doesn’t hold back his anger and frustration at the studio for making the decision without even consulting him, and at one point suggests that “Warner Bros. might just have killed the Dune franchise.” Calling the HBO Max move a “hijacking,” Villeneuve echoed Christopher Nolan‘s earlier criticisms that Warner Bros. switched overnight from a studio that champions filmmakers to a lackluster streaming service. The Arrival director laid the blame at AT&T’s feet. Via Variety:

With this decision AT&T has hijacked one of the most respectable and important studios in film history. There is absolutely no love for cinema, nor for the audience here. It is all about the survival of a telecom mammoth, one that is currently bearing an astronomical debt of more than $150 billion. Therefore, even though “Dune” is about cinema and audiences, AT&T is about its own survival on Wall Street.

While Villeneuve doesn’t deny that public safety comes first, he says he readily made the concession to delay Dune up to a year so that it can be viewed safely in theaters where it is meant to be seen. The director also said that “no matter what any Wall Street dilettante says,” the future of films will be the big screen. “That is my strong belief. Not because the movie industry needs it,” Villeneuve wrote, “but because we humans need cinema, as a collective experience.”

Shortly after his op-ed was published, Villeneuve received support from Dune stars Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa who both shared his essay on Instagram with the message “Long live the theater experience!”

(Via Variety)

The American military is central to David Robinson’s identity. It’s why we call him “The Admiral,” a nickname that took root during his time at the Naval Academy and has followed him ever since. It was at the Naval Academy that Robinson blossomed into a force on the basketball court, winning the Naismith College Player of the Year Award, the Wooden Award, and being named a consensus first-team All-American, giving us the first tantalizing hints of his future Hall of Fame career.

But his time at the Academy wasn’t just about basketball. Robinson took his military obligation seriously. When the Spurs drafted him in 1987, they had to wait two years while he fulfilled his active duty requirements. Because of height restrictions, Robinson was prevented from serving at sea, but eventually became a commissioned officer in the Naval Reserve — despite the nickname, Robinson’s rank topped out at lieutenant.

Today, Robinson still keeps close ties with his fellow service members. He’s partnering with the USAA to promote one of college football’s biggest annual rivalries, the Army-Navy game that is set to kick off on Saturday, Dec. 12 at West Point. Though civilians won’t be able to attend because of COVID, the Army-Navy House promotion is giving fans an opportunity to win a trip to next year’s contest and offering an interactive way for fans to join the fun from home.

We caught up with Robinson this week to talk about the game and what it means to be able to help bring sports to the masses amid the turmoil around the country and restore some semblance of normalcy as we wrap up a year that has been anything but.

Obviously, it will be a different atmosphere without having fans in attendance on Saturday, so what’s the key to maintaining that fan engagement from afar?

Yeah, with the limited attendance at the game this year, just the Midshipmen and the Cadets will be able to go, but we know a lot of people want to be connected to the game. It’s such a big event for our nation and always a timely event when everyone needs encouragement. So we have ArmyNavyHouse.com, so people can come in and still feel connected to the game. They can send pictures of themselves celebrating, and someone’s going to win a trip to the next year’s game. So it should be an exciting way for people to be connected and enjoy the celebration together.

You’re talking about an Army-Navy game, so the energy is going to be there. No one wants to lose this game. There’s a lot at stake. The Midshipmen, students at both of the schools are counting on trying to get some extra days off or some kind of liberties or something. So there’s going to be some intensity there one way or the other. But it’s also a great feeling knowing that the whole country pays attention to it and it means something to others. So in that sense, it’s going to be a little disappointing that fans can’t be there, but certainly the intensity is going to be there. I think these guys know how to compete. They want bragging rights and they’re going to go out and play for it.

Your military service has always been a big part of your identity, so what are you personally most excited about for this game?

Well, I think for me just…I wasn’t able to really go to any games when I was there. So these last few years, about four years ago, I was able to go to my first game, and now, I just enjoy the pageantry of it. So to me, now that I know what it feels like to be in the stadium when all of this stuff is happening and the planes are flying over and just all this, it’s an amazing game and an incredible intensity. So I look forward to just seeing that and seeing how the guys are going to respond. You never know what’s going to happen in a game like this.

This is truly the heart of college sports, or what you kind of hope college sports is. There’s two teams. Either one of them can walk away with this win. And they’re going to play hard, and they’re going to play fair, and at the end of the day, they’re going to shake hands and work together to save the world. Yeah, it’s kind of the ultimate of what sports is about to me.

The game is typically held at a neutral site, but because of COVID, this will be the first time since 1943 that it’s going to be held at West Point. Is there a little bit of a home field advantage there?

[Laughs] A little bit. It’s all right. Without the full crowd there, maybe it’s not as intense as it would be, but it is what it is. I love it at the bigger venues. It means so much to the country, I think it’s nice to see them at those bigger venues. But certainly it’s not going to take away anything from this game.

It’s been such a challenging year, in so many ways, as we all try to navigate the pandemic. What does it mean for college sports, in general, to be able to move forward amid all these challenges and still host these major annual competitions that are such a huge part of the tradition?

I think it’s very meaningful. I know just personally, my wife and I were just sitting around when sports was kind of not happening. And we were looking at each other like, my goodness. We didn’t even realize how much it really meant to us day by day, just to have something to watch and something to cheer for. And you’ve always got a lot of things happening, but I think it means a lot to everyone to have some of these rivalries happening, just to show that life is going to get back to normal at some point.

You have three sons who are all athletes and have competed at the college level, so what does that mean to you just in terms of being able to come out and support all these young people, whose futures have really been put on hold and thrown into uncertainty this past year?

I love being able to support these kids because they’re our future. I know what it’s like when we’re there. We all feel like we’re young. We don’t know what we’re doing. But we’ve been trained as leaders. We’ve been trained in probably the best place on the planet to be trained as a leader. And so we know we got a lot of responsibility, and we know that we got to go, hey, if we got to lay down our lives for our country, that’s what we’re going to do. These are the most exciting kids to support.

They’re going to take on tremendous responsibility. They call me The Admiral, but nobody’s life is in my hands. The real admiral’s out there; they’re making decisions that impact people’s futures. And so it’s a big deal for these young guys because they know they’re going to be in that role of leadership soon.

You played in the basketball version of the Army-Navy game. What are some of your fondest memories from that experience?

I think part of it was just no matter how good we were, we never felt safe. We were ranked, I think we were 8th or 10th in the country at the time. And I think we beat them by one point. We went into West Point and you just never know what you’re going to get in a game like this. And I guess that’s part of what’s exciting about it.

To switch gears a little bit, what are you looking forward to most with the Spurs in the coming season?

Just kind of getting back at it. We have a lot of really good, young, talented guys, and it’s hard to keep a culture that you built for so many years. Obviously, our young guys want to maintain it and build upon it. But they really have to build their own culture. They have to figure out what being a part of the Spurs means to them. There’s not a Tim Duncan or Manu Ginobili or Tony Parker around anymore. So how do you maintain and build upon that and really take it to the next level? This is not their team anymore. This team belongs to these young guys, this young team.

And so, I just want to see our guys embrace it and accept the responsibility and enjoy the challenge of being Spurs. It’s what we’ve been able to do over the last 25 years that has been incredible from a worldwide standpoint, and in a small market, too. And so is it easy? No. No, it’s not. But it’s a great challenge for these guys to step up to it and say, look, we want to keep this excellence going. Can we do it? And my answer is, yeah, I think you can. But that’s not easy.

With Cyberpunk 2077 finally soldered into our membranes, we thought it’d be a fantastic opportunity to make an entire episode dedicated to one of our favorite genres: open-world.

Cybernetic fashion icon, SushiBAE, and card-carrying Maxxinista, me, AJ Lodge, aren’t afraid to prey on your nostalgia during this trip down open-world memory lane. We’re talking about great games in the genre that paved the way to today like SuperMario 64, spinning a yarn about our time wasted spinning webs in Spider-Man 2, and trying not to get in trouble with our stories about Grand Theft Auto driving school.

But it’s not just two millennials reminiscing about the good ol’ days of gaming! We’re deep-diving into the sCiEncE of what makes an open-world game so successful in the modern era and all the things that excite us (and scare us) about where the genre is headed. What makes an open-world game iconic? What can developers do to extend the longevity of an open-world game past its story campaign? What even is open-world anyway?! Big questions and entertaining (we hope) answers. If nothing else, it’ll be a nice break from your efforts to become best friends with pixel Keanu.

So take a break from Night City because UPROXX Recon is here to remind you about the fantastic world of open-world and that when it comes to these games map size doesn’t matter.

Griselda Records’ debut feature film Conflicted, which they announced in June this year, now has an official release date. With theaters shut down due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the title will come to Pay Per View, January 15, 2021. The announcement also features expanded cast information, identifying roles for Benny The Butcher, who leads as Hunter — basically, he’s playing himself — as well as R&B singer J Holiday, veteran actor Michael Rapaport, and Griselda godfather Westside Gunn.

The Buffalo-based label also announced the film’s soundtrack release date, January 8. Naturally, it’ll feature the Griselda core: Benny The Butcher, Conway The Machine, and Westside Gunn, as well as new signees Armani Caesar and Boldy James. In addition, Dave East, Lloyd Banks, Ransom, and more will appear, with production coming from late Griselda mentor DJ Shay, their in-house beatmaker Daringer, 808 Mafia, and more. The lead track, Benny’s “3:30 In Houston” has already been made available; you can check that out below.

The announcement caps one of the busiest years for the burgeoning indie label — actually, for possibly any indie label anywhere — as each member of the crew dropped multiple projects, from Pray For Paris to The Liz to Burden Of Proof. The sheer volume of releases has established Griselda as one of the most prolific rap groups in a long time, but their consistency has won them an ever-loyal fanbase who will undoubtedly be pressing play when the label’s film Conflicted hits next year.

Check out the trailer for Conflicted above.

The first time Margret Aldrich saw a Little Free Library she didn’t know what to think.

“I think I saw my first one back in 2010, 2011. And I’m a book person, my background is in publishing, so I immediately loved it. But, probably being Midwestern, I was like, ‘Is it really okay to take a book? Is this really free?’”

She’s not alone in that reaction. So much of our lives involves trading money for goods and services it’s disarming to encounter an unattended box — sometimes plainly decorated, sometimes whimsically designed — that simply gives away value items asking only that anyone taking a book also consider leaving a book. (If it’s convenient. No big deal if not. Please enjoy your book.) The idea takes some getting used to. But with 100,000 Little Free Libraries now spread around the globe, it’s starting to seem less shocking — and this year has made it seem more welcome than ever.

Aldrich was immediately drawn to the project. She wrote a book about it published in 2015 and joined the non-profit Little Free Library organization as its director of communications in 2016. By then, an idea that had begun in a garage in Hudson, WI — a small, riverside city not far from Minneapolis — had long since outgrown its humble origins, which can be traced back to a handful of wood from an old door.

A teacher who later shifted into arranging nursing fellowships, Todd Bol built the first Little Free Library in 2009. It was almost an afterthought, an attempt to pay tribute to his late mother, a teacher and avid reader, using materials left over from a home renovation project. Bol built a small box in the shape of a one-room schoolhouse and placed it atop a post. And that might have been the end of it. Except, the idea caught on.

With the help of Rick Brooks, outreach program manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Little Free Libraries started to spread. A second Little Free Library placed on a Madison bike trail led to others, and the Little Free Library began issuing charters to keep track of what libraries existed where. Beyond that, they kept the project simple, and easily replicable: a weather-proof box with a hinged door, some books, and a spirit of sharing and goodwill. Positive press inspired more libraries and the project spread beyond the Midwest, quickly surpassing the organization’s goal of outnumbering the 2508 libraries opened by Andrew Carnegie in the early years of the 20th century.

The project has outlived Bol, who died in 2018. It’s also run into some problems here and there, from occasional acts of vandalism, to permit issues to a trademark dispute involving another member of the Bol family. But the fundamental idea has prevailed, thanks to enthusiasts like Grant and Ashlyn, who serve as stewards (the organization’s preferred term) of a Little Free Library in Mid-City Los Angeles.

“As the daughter of a librarian, I’ve been kind of obsessed with Little Free Libraries for a long time,” Ashlyn says. “The idea of having your own place to help give books to others just seemed like the dream. I wondered if our neighborhood had enough foot traffic to justify it, but when the opportunity presented itself, we set it up and I was honestly so pleasantly surprised! We wish we’d done it sooner.”

Setting up a Little Free Library is just the beginning of a steward’s job. “I think it’s important that the Little Free Library is a source of recommended titles, as opposed to a dump pile of unwanted books,” Grant adds. “That can be a challenging ideal to live up to because it means you literally have to get rid of some of your favorite books! But it’s also a great way to pass things forward. We take the ‘curator’ role seriously. Whether it’s our addition or not, if something’s been in there for two weeks, we pull it and replace it with something else.”

Grant and Ashlyn try to maintain a diverse selection of titles, aiming for a mix of “kids books, YA, comics, non-fiction, genre fiction, self-help, memoir, and so on.” Of course, what gets dropped off remains beyond their control. The first book someone donated, From Scrawny to Brawny, got the hook after two weeks of sitting there without a taker and, as Grant notes, “There have been a few more kids’ books about the dogs who served in the Iraq War than we expected.”

The Little Free Library served as a welcome pandemic project for the couple, as it has for British artist and filmmaker Jeanie Finlay, who found herself stuck in her Nottingham home after spending 2017 and 2018 making the acclaimed documentaries Seahorse and Game of Thrones: The Last Watch then much of 2019 touring with her work. She sees her Little Free Library as an extension of the spirit of support and sharing necessitated by the pandemic. “There was a lot of sharing of plants, tools, food, etc.,” Finlay says via email. “People would leave things on their wall so they could be shared in a covid safe way. It got me thinking that it would be good to have a place for sharing books.”

To do so, she started from scratch. “I am a newcomer to carpentry but I thought I’d give it a go — making the library out of reclaimed wood and donated materials,” she writes. “I learned how to make it, designed and printed signage, created bookplates, and set up social media. I decided to launch on my birthday in August, my gift to the community.” That social media element is no small part of the project; Finlay regularly updates her library’s Instagram and Twitter accounts to shine a light on new arrivals and titles of particular interest. The library has also introduced her to some new acquaintances. “I was woken up a few weeks ago by one of the bin men,” she recalls. “His colleague had borrowed a book the week before so he’d brought me a bag full of crime novels to put on the shelves.”

Finlay’s not alone in using a Little Free Library as a way to foster community spirit in the midst of the pandemic. “This year of course is a year like no other,” Aldrich says, “We’ve really seen little free libraries both being established faster. And we’re hearing from [our stewards] their libraries are getting visited more than ever. More books are coming and going out of their Little Free Libraries.” The organization has found other ways to respond to the events of 2020 as well. Little Free Library’s Read In Color encourages the reading of diverse books by asking stewards to share books by Black, indigenous, people of color, and LGBTQ writers and by supplying some free books that fit that description free of charge.

Whether growth will continue at this pace post-pandemic remains to be seen. But then unpredictability is hardwired into the project itself. It’s flourished thanks to both stewards and visitors seeing the value in sharing books with no strings attached. And from there it’s taken on different permutations depending on each neighborhood and the stewards in charge. “Our goal with the little free library is to make sure that people who walk by always see something new,” Ashlyn says. (They’ve gotten good feedback, including a note reading, “Most Little Free Libraries have a garbage selection but this one is great!”) But the libraries also have a way of taking on a life of their own.

“One night, I noticed a strange light near the library at 11:30 p.m. one night and realized it was two very drunk women, with a torch, giggling and browsing the titles,” Finlay recalls. But she also feels like that’s as it should be. “It’s similar to when a film I’ve made is released: it’s not mine anymore. The library is now owned by the community. I am just a librarian.”

Tasting History host and creator Max Miller credits The Great British Bake Off for his success.

“A lot of the historic things that they cooked on that show in the first few seasons were medieval or renaissance,” he says. “So that just stirred me in that direction. It was only after a few episodes of my show when I started to branch out from that time period.”

Miller started his channel when COVID-19 lockdowns forced him into a work furlough from his day job in sales distribution at Walt Disney Studios. Over the past nine months, his following has exploded, garnering nearly half a million followers — many just as passionate about ancient foods and how to make them as Miller himself. He’s gone deep on ancient Aztec Tamales, Roman Parthian chicken, and even pancake recipes from the 1600s.

“I didn’t really start the channel expecting it to be a thing,” he says. “I started it to be something to keep me busy… I figured I would talk about what I enjoy and what I know and that’s history, specifically food history.”

With the quarantine dragging on, we reached out to Miller to talk about where he plans to take his channel next and tapped him for his legit Tudor Butter Beere recipe — so you can live out your Harry Potter cosplay fantasies as god intended: drunk and in the comfort and privacy of your own home.

***

Before we dive into the Butter Beere, what other colonial historical periods interest you and what’s getting you excited in the food world right now?

I really enjoy the Victorian era. I think it’s a really great transition to modern cooking. When you see the recipes it’s like “Oh I can recognize this as something that I’m eating today, but it’s just something different enough where it’s like “Oh, that’s a weird ingredient — canned squid jelly?”

They were big fans of anything made of gelatin.

Another time period, it’s more of a culture I’m fascinated with, is Chinese cooking. It’s so foreign to me. I’ve never cooked it until very very recently. Not only are the ingredients different, but the cooking methods are different… Everything about it is very interesting, seeing the tidal shifts in how it was done. When the Mongols came in, cuisine completely changed, and then when Western cooking came in and introduced chilis, again, it completely changed. But you can’t imagine Szechuan cooking today without chili peppers.

The throughline for Chinese history is so long and we know so much about it, relatively unbroken. It’s a nice thing to look at because it’s so big and has changed so much.

What type of food do you enjoy cooking yourself when you’re not on a historical quest? I imagine you’re not living on a diet of Medieval snacks.

Definitely! My diet does not consist of just medieval recipes! It’s nice when I find a dish that is so good that I can incorporate it into my daily cooking, like the Parthian chicken. But I’m much more simple when it comes to my daily cooking. Really simple, like sandwiches, hamburgers, pasta, it’s not as exciting as one might hope. I

It’s definitely not like Gordon Ramsay’s kitchen, for sure!

What’s the most challenging cuisine to approach?

Medieval cooking is rather daunting, I’m becoming more comfortable with it, but there are so many different aspects of it that take a lot of research. From the quantities that they’re talking about to the methods that they just leave out. You sort of have to guess or look at other recipes from the era to get context clues.

It’s also very very easy to assume you know what they’re talking about, and you don’t. When you look at a very ancient recipe, you can assume you know nothing about it, so you research every aspect of every word in the recipe. Whereas with medieval you see the word “marrow” and you assume you know what it means, but it might not actually be that way, because the word “marrow” in the 14th century could refer to different things.

It’s easy to stumble over things that you’re not expecting simply because you get a little cocky. You know what a pint is, but a pint in the 16th century is different than a British pint today.

Where are you planning on taking the channel in the future?

I’m hoping to get to do more mini-series within the series. I want to do an entire series of the foods they ate on the Titanic and an entire series of what specific groups of people in medieval Europe were eating. I just did an episode on peasant food, I want to do what monks would eat, and what knights would eat.

More throughlines in multiple episodes is what I’m looking forward to next.

When the pandemic is over do you plan on visiting a specific country for cooking inspiration?

Absolutely! That is my goal. The two places I’d like to go to most are Scotland and Japan. Japan because they treat food as an art form over there, so learning even just one bit of that would be amazing. And Japanese history is so fascinating.

Scotland because I really want to make haggis the way that haggis should be made, but it’s hard to find some of the ingredients outside of Scotland. Sheeps lung isn’t even legal in the United States, so you can’t make it here. I’d also love to talk to people who are making the food as their traditional food, not just historic recipes, but the food in Transylvania today, look into what they’re making today where it comes from. Those kinds of things.

Personally, why do you think it’s important to keep the history of recipes alive?

I think that history, in general, is so important to have because as they say history repeats itself. If we don’t learn the mistakes of the past we’re doomed to repeat them. We’re probably doomed to repeat them regardless! But while I won’t say that the foods were necessarily mistakes, it’s interesting to see how the food comes full circle, and ingredients that we haven’t really used in several hundred years crop up again and then we say “oh what a fantastic new ingredient that we just found” and then you look back and you see the Romans have been using that ingredient and it’s not new at all, we just forgot about it.

It helps you appreciate the work that goes into food. Not just the cooking, but the planting and the growing and the shipping, all of it, it’s such an important part of our lives that we often take for granted. To be able to see that history, see that work that went into developing these foods, is so important so that we don’t take it for granted today.

HOW TO MAKE 400-YEAR-OLD BUTTERED BEERE

Ingredients

• 3 Pints (1500ml/48oz) of good quality British Ale
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 lb (225g) demerara or brown sugar
• 5 egg yolks
• 1 stick (113g) unsalted butter

ORIGINAL RECIPE – “The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin” c.1594 (or 1588) Take three pintes of Beere, put five yolkes of Egges to it, straine them together, and set it in a pewter pot to the fyre, and put to it halfe a pound of Sugar, one penniworth of Nutmegs beaten, one penniworth of Cloues beaten, and a halfepenniworth of Ginger beaten, and when it is all in, take another pewter pot and brewe them together, and set it to the fire againe, and when it is readie to boyle, take it from the fire, and put a dish of sweet butter into it, and brewe them together out of one pot into an other.

Modern Method:

• Take five room temperature yolks and beat them with the demerara or brown sugar until light and frothy. Set aside.
• Pour the ale into a saucepan. Try to not create too much foam. Stir in the spices.
• Over medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil, then turn down to low and simmer for two minutes. For a non-alcoholic drink, leave at medium heat and boil for 20 minutes.
• Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the egg and sugar mixture. Then return the pot to low heat until the liquid starts to thicken. Simmer for 5 minutes.
• Add in the diced butter and stir until melted.
• Froth the buttered beer with a hand whisk and let simmer for 10 minutes.
• Remove the saucepan from the heat and allow buttered beer to cool to a warm-but-drinkable temperature.
• Whisk again and serve warm. *This can be served cold by chilling the beer, then mixing it with cold milk (1 part beer/1 part milk)

“The true purpose of Uprisers is to collaborate, and tell the stories of activists, trendsetters, and people who we call “warriors of change” because collaborating and working on collections that provoke conversations and actions allow us to mobilize our communities.”

On the latest episode of The Show Up, we sat down with Michelle Hanabusa, the founder and head designer of Los Angeles-based activism-focused streetwear brand Uprisers for an inside look at the genesis of the brand, Hanabusa’s imaginative design process, and her efforts to help lift up her community when it was hit hard by the realities of Covid-19 and the racism toward the Asian American community that came with it.

Hanabusa left a cushy job in the music and fashion industry for the creative freedom that comes with running your own company. A risky move no doubt, but Hanabusa has never been one to shy away from risk, which is why when Covid-19 shutdowns threatened her young three-year-old brand, instead of giving up on her dreams she took that time to regroup with the rest of the Uprisers team. Together, they found a way to both build the brand and help people in need by starting a campaign to raise $1 million in support of BIPOC communities strongly hit by Covid-19 and shed a light on the racism facing the Asian American community.

“When I first started Uprisers there was this level of uncertainty because I wasn’t sure how people were going to respond to this type of messaging because we had this rebellious take… but overall it’s been so positive, people really resonate with that… Uprisers commitment to the community is really where Hate is a Virus was born.”

To find out more about Uprisers, Hate is a Virus, and how Hanabasa’s designs get from her mind to the page and into your closet, check out the latest episode of The Show Up above.

Mulatto and Lil Baby put on an elaborate burlesque show with the help of DC Young Fly in the video for “Sex Lies” from the deluxe version of Mulatto’s debut album Queen Of Da Souf. Depicting the Atlanta rappers getting prepared backstage, the video employs DC Young Fly as the host, who welcomes the masked guests to “Big Latto’s Sex Lies Experience.” Latto herself appears in some classic costumes, cavorting in a giant martini glass and carousing on a massive fruit spread.

The video makes reference to Mulatto’s recent live show controversty as well. The 21-year-old was criticized for performing at a concert in a semi-packed club, where attendees weren’t wearing masks. In the video, the showgoers are seated at the recommended six-foot space and wearing bulky paint respirators, while DC Young Fly reminds them repeatedly to “wear your masks.” Of course, it’s showy and sarcastic, which isn’t really needed — that cow has left the barn, so to speak — but it does make for a cool image thanks to the contrast between the guests’ classy dress and their Bane-ish headgear.

Watch the “Sex Lies” video above.

Queen Of Da Souf (Extended Version) is out now on RCA Records. Get it here.

Disney had itself quite a Thursday, especially on Twitter. Through its various platforms covering Disney, Disney+, and Pixar it announced or teased dozens upon dozens of shows, movies and projects it hopes to deliver fans in the coming years, whether on its streaming platforms or in movie theaters, once that’s a more reasonable way to turn a profit following the coronavirus pandemic.

Though the rash of announcements had a lot of Marvel and Star Wars fans plenty excited, there was a lot of tidbits for more sports-minded fans. You just had to know where to look and, quite frankly, the endless stream of tweets didn’t make it easy. For example news about several sports movies, including a pair set to chronicle the lives of Chris Paul and Giannis Antetokounmpo, came right after the revelation that they’re remaking Three Men And A Baby with Zac Efron.

But there was actually a lot of sports news in the massive drop of future content. And perhaps the biggest is official word that they’re rebooting The Mighty Ducks, and noted bad coach Gordon Bombay back in the fold. This time, he’s bringing Lorelai Gilmore with him.

Mighty Ducks: Game Changers is an extremely 2020 show name, but it’s big news to say the least. And it’s not the only Disney+ sports show in the works.

Meanwhile, Stephen A. Smith will also continue his quest to appear on television every hour of the day with a new ESPN+ show called Stephen A’s World.

Disney also announced a new ESPN+ show that will sound familiar to anyone who has ever watched, uh, SportsCenter.

There’s also a Tom Brady-focused show called Man In The Arena, which had been announced in the past on the heels of the success of The Last Dance.

The Mighty Ducks news alone is certainly intriguing for anyone who grew up watching the original movies, and it seemed inevitable given the sheer number of reboots and remakes on the way. As for all the ESPN+ content, well, I think they just might have something there with a show recapping what happened in the previous night of sports.

The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.

ITEM NUMBER ONE — Good for Bob Odenkirk

It is the position of this column that every actor and actress should get to play John Wick at some point in their career. Not “John Wick” specifically, of course, because that is Keanu’s role and no one should be allowed to take it from him without a Constitutional amendment. But a John Wick-type, a rampaging lunatic who is out for revenge because someone wronged him in some deeply personal way without realizing he was once a highly trained assassin or assassin-type. Denzel Washington was John Wick in both Man on Fire and The Equalizer. Liam Neeson was John Wick in Taken and most other Liam Neeson movies. Charlize Theron was John Wick in Atomic Blonde. And now, in a development that brings me more joy than any of you can possibly imagine, Bob Odenkirk will play John Wick in Nobody, a new film from the writer of the actual John Wick movies, Derek Kolstad. There’s a trailer and everything. It whoops ass.

How cool is this? Bob Odenkirk, a man who spent the first few decades of his career writing and starring in comedy sketches (go watch a million Mr. Show sketches this weekend, trust me), is now a legit action star, in addition to being a legit leading man in Better Call Saul, one of the best shows on television. That’s awesome. And it’s fun to see him talk about it all, which he just did, in an interview with IGN that was timed to the trailer’s release.

“The hardest thing about doing Nobody was to be deprived of the ironic dimension of the performance. I wanted to play a sort of earnest action hero like Charles Bronson in Death Wish, in these ’70s movies that I loved growing up, Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry and that s***. So I was going to deprive myself of being a wisecracker and making fun of myself,” he said. “It’s hard for me to do a scene that’s utterly earnest. … And this goes for Better Call Saul, too. When I don’t get to have a little wink to the audience, when the character knows they’re being funny and I can do that, that’s more my natural state.”

This is great. I’m so happy for Bob Odenkirk. And for me, too. Did you watch that trailer? Go watch that trailer. He’s running around pounding on punks in buses and shouting about stolen kitty cat jewelry and describing himself as a former “auditor,” which sounds kind of like a cross between a hitman and an accountant, which reminds me that Ben Affleck kind of played John Wick in The Accountant, a movie that also contained a straight-up montage of him doing accounting. We’ve discussed this. A lot. We will again. I can’t help myself.

But this is what I’m getting at. Everyone should get to play a role like this, even just once. It’s fun when it’s casting to type, like your Neesons and Therons, and it might be even more fun when it’s casting against type, like this one. Odenkirk in the role opens up so many possibilities I had not considered. Like, picture John Mulaney as John Wick. Amy Poehler. Tracy Morgan. David Letterman. It’s impossible to stop once you get started. Picture Jay Leno dressed in full-denim and mowing down mobsters because someone scratched his steam-powered fire engine. I need to stress that I’m not joking around here. I want these to happen. Maybe not the last one, but the other ones, definitely. I want to see Mulaney with like four days of stubble and a knife in each hand and rage in his eyes. Do this. For me.

It’s strange that this excites me so much. I hate guns. I do not believe in taking the law into your own hands. If the John Wick movies happened in real life I would be firmly in the camp that he belongs in prison. I would be absolutely horrified reading the headlines about the things he does. (“Well-Dressed Gunman Kills Dozens In Crowded Nightclub In Suspected Mob-Related Killing.”) But put this in a nice little two-hour package and show it to me on my television screen? Yes, please. I will watch it on basic cable every weekend from now until some retired assassin takes me out for some perceived slight that dishonored his family and/or beloved pet and/or muscle car. Add Nobody to this list. And make the one with Mulaney. And Poehler. Do one with them together. I do not ask for much.

ITEM NUMBER TWO — Mixed feelings about the chicken movie, folks

This one is tricky. Let’s try to figure it out. Facts first: Lifetime and KFC have produced a kind of fake “Colonel Sanders… but sexy” project that will air this weekend. It’s 15 minutes long and it stars Mario Lopez as Steamy Colonel Sanders and it is described in the press release thusly: “As the holidays draw near, a young heiress contends with the affections of a suitor handpicked by her mother. When the handsome chef, Harland Sanders, arrives with his secret fried chicken recipe and a dream, he sets in motion a series of events that unravels the mother’s devious plans.”

So there’s that. There are things in here that I like very much. I like goofball antics that turn conventional stuff on its head. I like the chaos of dropping a Steamy Colonel Sanders short film at noon on Lifetime on a Saturday in December. I like that, at one point in the trailer, someone says the phrase “secret’s out, chicken man.” I did not know how much I wanted to hear someone say that collection of words in that order. Turns out the answer is “a lot.”

But it’s… weird. It’s weird. The whole thing is a big commercial, sponsored content run amok, in a way that feels… weird. If this had been some Adult Swim fever dream that wasn’t tied to a marketing campaign — just some rascal/renegade production that stretches the doctrine of Fair Use to its limits and beyond — I think I would adore it. Knowing KFC is the driving force behind it and the whole point is to make your brain say “hmm, I want some chicken” makes it feel different. I don’t know exactly why, either. All television shows and movies are money-making ventures, even the bozo Adult Swim productions I referenced earlier. They have commercials and product placement and all of it. This is just kind of cutting out the artifice and coming at the viewer straight on. And if we’re going to make advertisements for chicken, we can at least try to make them completely insane like this.

Do you see what I mean? I want to like it… but I’m conflicted. I want to hate it… but I’m conflicted there, too. Maybe what I’ll do is watch it and then go out and get Popeyes. That feels like a reasonable compromise.

ITEM NUMBER THREE — Yes, I will watch this

Disney announced about 500 new shows and movies yesterday, which is fine and possibly even exciting depending on your feelings about the Star Wars Extended Universe and various Marvel properties. And yet, somehow, despite all those projects, one of which will star Donald Glover as Lando and one of which will star John Mulaney and Andy Samberg as the Rescue Rangers, none of the ones announced during the event were the most intriguing new show announced that day. That honor goes to The Curse, an upcoming Showtime comedy that features a fascinating collection of names in a fascinating collection of positions.

Start at the top. The show will star Emma Stone and Nathan Fielder as a married couple. Fielder will also direct. The Safdie brothers, the maniacs behind Uncut Gems, will produce. One of the Safdies, Benny, also has a role on the show. The plot description goes like this, per the press release: “The Curse is a genre-bending scripted comedy that explores how an alleged curse disturbs the relationship of a newly married couple as they try to conceive a child while co-starring on their problematic new HGTV show.”

This sounds wild as hell in all the best ways. I am already cringing over how awkward and uncomfortable a Fielder/Safdie collaboration could be. Good, almost assuredly, given the track records of the people involved (Fielder just got done producing How to With John Wilson, for the love of God), but still very uncomfortable. Emma Stone is no slouch either, and she’s got experience with daaaaark comedy, as anyone who has seen The Favourite can attest. This is fascinating on a whole bunch of levels. I might end up watching through my fingers because it all gets too stressful, but I’ll definitely be watching. I’m very happy for you if you all jazzed up about the new Star Wars and Marvel shows. But I vote for more like this, please.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR — Listen, if everyone is going to talk about Spider-man all week, I’m going to talk about the basketball scene (yes, again)

Spider-man is in the news. The next live-action movie in the franchise is going full Spiderverse, with Alfred Molina returning to play Doctor Octopus and Jamie Foxx returning to play Electro and Andrew Garfield and Kirsten Dunst circling the project in one way or another. Maybe Tobey Maguire, too. Who knows? It’s a whole thing. But if everyone’s going to spend all week talking about it, then I am going to talk about the basketball scene in The Amazing Spider-man.

Superhero movies have a long history of bad sports scenes, and by this I mostly mean “the basketball scene in Catwoman,” which deserves its own multi-part docuseries on some streaming network. There’s a reason for that: showing someone who was previously a dork suddenly excelling at sports is a nice shorthand to highlight their new powers. But come on. Watch that clip. Watch it twice. Notice the following things:

• The blatant traveling
• The thing where he takes off from the three-point line
• The thing where he soars through the air with his entire body rising above the regulation rim
• The thing where he shatters the backboard with the force of a monster dunk

But none of that is what bugs me. I can suspend my disbelief long enough to believe Spider-man can do sick dunks, because Spider-man has superpowers and who among us wouldn’t use our superpowers to do sick dunks every now and then. No, my issue is much simpler: This should have been all anyone talked about for the rest of the movie. Look at this freaking kid.

Do you understand? A high school student just did the single greatest dunk in history, in his high school gym, in front of dozens of teenagers. This should have been a huge deal. The high school basketball coach should have been banging on his door every night begging him to play. Word would have spread throughout the community. Someone probably would have gotten it on video. Are you following me yet? Do you see the world where this ends up on YouTube with 25 million views and news organizations start hounding him? Believe me. I’ve seen enough basketball recruiting highlight reels to know how this works. Barack Obama showed up to watch a college game Zion Williamson played in and Zion never did anything close to this. I remember watching this scene in the theater and having it take me out of the movie completely. It was all I talked about at dinner after the matinee. It was all I talked about for a week. I’m talking about it again now, many years later, and I bet I would have talked about it earlier if I had an excuse 80 percent as good as this one.

My point here is that you probably do not want to watch a movie with me. I have issues.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE — Good, keep it on the air forever

FX just renewed It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia for four more seasons. Four! Four seasons! This will bring the total to 18 seasons. For some perspective, consider this:

“Always Sunny” will now run for at least 18 seasons. It was previously renewed for Season 15 back in May. The Season 15 renewal officially broke the record previously held by “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,” which ran for 14 seasons on ABC. The renewal is no small feat for the unconventional and genre-defining sitcom, which started out as a pilot shot on a home video camera nearly two decades ago.

Kudos to Variety for remaining professional by using words like “unconventional” and “genre-defining.” That’s no small feat, considering what Always Sunny does week-in, week-out, going on two decades now. For example, there’s this screencap, which I will post without context in part because it’s funnier that way and in part because context is not necessary even a little.

What a treasure. What an absolute joy. It’s thrilling to me that this show holds a prestigious place in television history. It’s not just because it’s insane and set in Philadelphia, either (go Birds, though). It’s also because it has retained a ridiculously high-quality despite being on the air as long as it has. It premiered in 2005, the same year as The Office and How I Met Your Mother. It’s been on the air for a Phillies World Series and an Eagles Super Bowl. This is a serious accomplishment. I am not joking. I’m so proud of them. I hope they keep making them until the Sixers win a title, too.

READER MAIL

If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.

From Rob:

I have an idea. Dolly Parton has been in the news a lot lately with her Netflix specials and charitable works. The Fast & Furious franchise still has a few films left after the next one (probably) goes to space. What if Dolly joins the Family? Maybe she’s Dom’s mom, or Brian’s mom, or maybe she’s a legendary moonshine runner from Tennessee who they recruit for a mission through the hollers. She could be a villain, too. The details aren’t important. I just want to see Dolly Parton in a Fast & Furious movie and I bet you do, too.

Rob, this email is shameless. Combining Dolly — a top-five living American, as we’ve discussed — with the Fast & Furious family is so squarely inside my wheelhouse that it’s started to get mail delivered there. Of course I want this. I like the idea about her being a famous moonshine runner. I also like the idea of her being the President who authorizes the Toretto space mission, which I just thought up as I was typing that last sentence. Or her being the only person who ranks above Kurt Russell in the secretive government agency that has an unlimited budget, apparently. But mostly I think I like the idea of her and Ludacris making a whole Fast & Furious collaboration concept album.

There. We’ve put it out into the universe. We did our part. The rest is up to Hollywood. I see no reason it can’t happen. In conclusion, look at this picture Vin Diesel posted on Instagram this week.

Thank you, Rob and Vin.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To Moscow!

Police in Russia said on Wednesday they were searching for thieves who plundered technical equipment from a top-secret military aircraft known as the Doomsday Plane that is designed for use during a nuclear war.

I’m sorry. I am. This seems bad. I do not see how you can read “Russian Doomsday Plane targeted by plunderers” any other way. And yet… AND YET…

All I can think of is Kelsey Grammer’s character in Money Plane — currently on Hulu! — being the mastermind behind it. Like, read this in his voice, but just replace “Money Plane” with “Doomsday Plane.” Do it, out loud, right now.

You see my point now, yes?

The robbery, which raises questions about the security of sensitive military-related installations, took place as maintenance work was being carried out on the Ilyushin Il-80 plane.

Remember this line from Money Plane?

How about this one?

We’re probably all going to die from black market Doomsday Plane related tragedies and I’ll be looking up at the reddish-orange sky quoting this movie as my skin melts off. I feel okay about it.

Police said the aircraft had been at an aerodrome in the city of Taganrog, but gave no details about the nature of the stolen equipment except for its estimated worth — more than 1 million roubles ($13,600).

Hold on.

Wait.

Wait.

They stole $13,000 worth of stuff.

That’s, like, a Kia.

They stole a Kia worth of stuff off the Doomsday Plane.

Well, I feel much better about making those Money Plane jokes now. And about, like, not dying in a Doomsday Plane tragedy. But mostly the jokes.