Two of the most powerful people in Hollywood right now are Joe and Anthony Russo, and with good cause: They made some of the biggest movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including delivering the goods with the one-two Avengers punch of Infinity War and Endgame. But they came from lowly beginnings. Indeed, one of the reasons they nabbed the MCU gig was because of their work directing some of the most genre-heavy episodes of Community. So why not finally make a movie about the Greendale Community College study group?

Good question! And Collider asked about it! While speaking about Extraction, the Russos-produced action thriller that just debuted on Netflix, Joe pointed out that also new to that streamer is no less than Community. And it’s been doing really well. So why not finally give the show, which ended in 2015, the full six-seasons-and-a-movie treatment it never quite got? Says Joe:

“We’d certainly be willing to do it. We love our Community family. That cast, we’re all still very close to all of them. It’d certainly be schedule-depending for us. But I believe there will be a Community movie, especially now that it’s doing so well on streaming. Someone like Netflix could step up and make that movie.”

Of course, a big screen Community wouldn’t be best if it was too big. “I don’t think you’d want to see it with a really big budget,” Joe pointed out.

“Part of what is so compelling about the show is that it’s very quaint, it’s Greendale as an underdog. I don’t think you’d want to suddenly execute it with crazy high production value and set design. Unless we were going somewhere fantastical or doing one of our genre exploration concepts. But I think you’d easily pull that movie off for a budget.”

Joe also spoke about the ways directing a comedy about a study group prepared them to helm MCU titles. For one thing, Community is an ensemble show, just like their Captain America: Civil War and their Avengers diptych. There wasn’t just the main group; there was everyone else at the college. “Sometimes we’d have 20, 30 speaking roles in an episode of Community that’s 21 minutes long,” Joe pointed out. He also spoke about how the show regularly had “bottle” episodes — one-offs where they’d do, for example, action movie send-ups.

Another thing we learned from working on Community is that we were just constantly exploring and subverting genre. It seemed every week we were chasing up our style and our tone, the look and feel of it, the score, the way the characters behaved. We were able to explore genre on a very deep level. When you’re subverting genre, you’re studying it to such an extent that you’re really understanding the nuances of it. That was critical and certainly the paint ball episodes were a huge part of our Marvel career.

So there you have it: There’s nowhere near a definitive word on whether or not they can get the gang back together, but at least it’s on the mind of two people who can get stuff done in this industry…at least when the industry, and the rest of society, is back on its feet.

(Via Collider)

The first two episodes of The Last Dance featured some fantastic stories, from Scottie Pippen’s instantly iconic “I’m not gonna f*ck up my summer” quote about putting off surgery to Michael Jordan’s 63-point playoff outing in 1986 being fueled by a bad golf game the day before with Danny Ainge.

Those helped set the tone for what figures to be a highly entertaining documentary, that will provide first-hand accounts and perspectives on some stories we’ve heard before (and, hopefully, some we haven’t). Missing from the first two episodes was the presence of Dennis Rodman, but for those wanting all the details of wild stories involving The Worm, have no fear.

The third and fourth episodes will look back on the Pistons-Bulls rivalry in the late 80s and early 90s — during which Rodman was on the Pistons — and then look into Rodman’s time in Chicago. One story we know will appear was teased in partial form by ESPN and the NBA, as Michael Jordan tells the story of Rodman’s request for a vacation after Scottie Pippen returned to the lineup.

The best part of this are the reactions from Rodman, Pippen, and Phil Jackson, who all get to watch Jordan tell the story on a phone. Jordan’s exasperated, “if anybody f*ckin needs a vacation, I need a vacation,” is incredible, as is “if you let him go on vacation, we’re not gonna see him; if you let him go to Vegas, we’re definitely not gonna see him.” This will surely be among the highlights of the upcoming episodes, but the entire Jordan-Pistons rivalry is fascinating and hearing all parties involved looking back and then finally getting to Rodman stories figures to make this week even more must-see TV.

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Tonight, in the With Spandex WWE Raw open discussion thread:

Seth Rollins seemed lost after his WrestleMania defeat, but he found a new target: WWE Champion Drew McIntyre.

The Monday Night Messiah issued cryptic warnings, promising to “stomp out all doubt,” then followed through quite literally last week on Raw. Left vulnerable after a chop block by Angel Garza following his victory over Andrade, McIntyre felt the wrath of Rollins’ superkick and a devastating Stomp.

Rollins’ gaze lingered on the WWE Title, making his next mission clear without a word.

How will McIntyre respond to Rollins’ dastardly actions? (via WWE.com)

On tonight’s card: Rey Mysterio vs. (Buddy) Murphy, Apollo Crews vs. MVP, and Aleister Black vs. Austin Theory in qualifying matches for the men’s Money in the Bank ladder match. Plus, as you read in the intro, “How will Drew McIntyre respond to Seth Rollins’ attack?” With kicks! Sorry, I should’ve typed “spoiler alert.”

As always, +1 your favorite comments from tonight’s open thread and give them a thumbs up and we’ll include 10 of the best in tomorrow’s Best and Worst of Raw column. Make sure to flip your comments to “newest” in the drop down menu under “discussion,” and enjoy the show!

In case you missed it, the first two episodes of “The Last Dance” aired Sunday night on ESPN, giving viewers a deeper look into the legend of Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls. But the documentary also showed the often-fraught relationship between general manager Jerry Krause and the players.

The late Krause was hired as general manager in 1985, one year after the Bulls had drafted Jordan. The stout executive was undoubtedly an architect of Chicago’s six titles, but he did some things along the way that caused him to become hated by many fans and a villain in history. He brought in Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, Dennis Rodman and more, but he also traded away Charles Oakley, a close teammate of Jordan. There was also Pippen’s disrespectful 7-year, $18 million contract extension that made him just the sixth-highest player on the Bulls and the 122nd-highest in the league by the time it was ending, and the fact that Krause openly considered trading Pippen on multiple occasions. Krause also did not get along with head coach Phil Jackson — he explicitly didn’t invite him to the wedding of his stepdaughter and he reportedly tried to force him out of the organization following the 1997-98 season. Jackson of course won his sixth title with the Bulls that year and then departed to the Los Angeles Lakers where he won five more championships.

In a roundtable discussion on SportsCenter after the episodes aired, ESPN sportswriter Jackie MacMullan, who has covered Jordan for more than three decades, spoke about Krause’s role in the organization and how it deteriorated over time.

“[Jordan] and [Pippen] were both so disrespectful to this man, but there were times when, really, I felt like Jerry deserved it,” she said on the show. “He wanted to be one of the club, and he just wasn’t going to be. And so he decided, ‘Well, I’m going to break up the club.’”

MacMullan also explained how Krause got the nickname, “Crumbs.”

“Jerry Krause wanted those players to love him — they didn’t,” MacMullan said. “They used to call him ‘Crumbs,’ because he’d have a muffin or something and all the crumbs would spill down his shirt.”

The New York Times wrote that doughnuts were a particular favorite snack of the general manager’s — the flakes from the doughnut would stick on his face and shirt, and the name stuck. “Crumbs” was not meant to be an endearing nickname, but rather yet another example of how players — Jordan, in particular — despised everything about Krause. In the documentary, there are plenty of snide comments and toward the former general manager. Jordan is seen mocking Krause’s physical appearance, asking him in front of everyone, “Are those the pills you take to keep you short or are those diet pills?” Then there was the time Jordan joked that they’d have to lower the rim for Krause if he wanted to join them in the layup line during pre-game warm ups.

During that last Bulls’ championship run in 1998, Krause wanted to tear the team down and rebuild. Obviously, this did not go over well with Jackson, Jordan, Pippen and others, further leading to more bad blood between the general manager and the team he was in charge of. After Jordan left the organization in 1999, the Bulls could never hit the same heights of success again. Krause, facing immense pressure from fans and media, resigned from his post. But, as the first two episodes of “The Last Dance” showed, the stories of his missteps continue to be told.

My mother went to the hospital when I was 14, and it was the first (but certainly not last) time she talked about what my sister and I should do if she died: “Don’t be sad. Say goodbye, and then go to a movie.”

She was released the next day, but her guidance has always stayed with me. When times are tough, movies are an escape into a different world, one we enter for a couple of hours and then leave, emboldened, entertained, moved and sometimes even changed. Things don’t have to be bad for movies to work their magic; they are equally transformative when life is grand.

Coronavirus has wreaked havoc upon movies and movie theaters around the country. For the first and only time since movies were invented, cinemas across the globe have shut down. World War II couldn’t do that. The Great Depression couldn’t do that. The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Kennedy assassination couldn’t do that. Nothing has ever gotten in the way of the movies, until now.

Recent news that AMC Theatres, the biggest cinema chain in the U.S., could be facing bankruptcy, combined with reports that streaming services like Disney+ are seeing record growth during the unprecedented stay-at-home period, have led some to speculate that once the coronavirus threat has passed, moviegoing won’t recover.

Moviegoing will survive.

To be sure, there’s reason to worry. The number of tickets sold each year has eroded – 14 percent fewer people went to the movies in 2019 than 20 years earlier. Ticket prices, meanwhile, have risen steadily to offset that decline (it cost an average of $9.11 to see a movie last year, while in 1998, the year Titanic was released, the average ticket cost $4.69). Complaints about rude, talkative, device-addicted audiences are common, and long before the virus there was growing concern in Hollywood that people just wanted to stream at home. Movie studios, streaming services and film exhibitors have been eyeing each other warily for years, battling over the right of cinemas to show movies before they appear on Netflix or Amazon.

Photo by Felix Mooneeram on

That movie “window” has been in contention for decades, ever since studios discovered in the late 1980s that they could sell movies directly to consumers. Then, it took nearly a year for a huge hit like Top Gun to come to VHS tape, which was just one of the “ancillary revenue” streams studios could use to ensure a movie earned money long after its box-office run. Home video was at the top of that secondary revenue stream, but there were also sales to cable and network TV, to airlines and hotel chains, even theatrical re-releases.

On its own, chasing after the dream of a pure “direct-to-consumer” business, Hollywood drained that revenue stream. VHS gave way to DVD, which was subsumed almost entirely by streaming – and the ubiquity of streaming services meant travelers didn’t need to pay to watch movies in hotels or airplanes.

And yet … none of that killed movie theaters. If fewer people, on average, saw movies in cinemas each year, about 3 million people were still going to movie theaters every day, and despite the fluctuations, that number had remained fairly constant.

Photo by Krists Luhaers on

It may be nothing compared with pre-television moviegoing; in 1946, 90 million people went to the movies once a week, but by 1960 that had plummeted to 40 million. Naysayers predicted the death of movie theaters then, but larger-than-life gimmicks like CinemaScope, Cinerama, the first wave of 3-D and even Smell-O-Vision cropped up, and movie lovers proved that they could be passionate about movies and TV, that one didn’t have to usurp the other.

Likewise, those 15 to 20 million people who go to the movies each week despite the advent of streaming prove that sitting in the dark is a habit moviegoers don’t want to break.

There’s no doubt movie exhibitors have a difficult task ahead. They’re going to need to reassure audiences – quickly and constantly – that moviegoing is safe. To begin, they might need to limit the number of tickets sold, and to show movies less frequently, with vigilant and high-profile cleaning in between screenings.

They’re going to need to be scrupulous about cleanliness – more scrupulous than they have been, for sure. Snack bars, restrooms and auditoriums will need to be equally spotless, and movie theaters will need to offer many options for audiences to clean their own seats and spaces. It’s not going to be easy. The most important innovations won’t be on screen, they’ll be in the auditoriums themselves.

But all those wonderful people out there in the dark are going to return. It’s in their nature. And “their” means “our.” We need movies. We need the reassurance, hope, excitement, belief, happiness and promise that they bring. We have always craved stories in the dark. The brilliant light of the projector is our fire, and just as we have for eons we will gather around it to be told stories that help us make sense of our terrifying, glorious, overwhelming world.

That will never be more true than after this collective trauma, when we finally all begin to stagger out of our houses to see how the world has changed. That time will come, and like the victims of any disaster, we will take stock and find that some have fared better than others. We will assess what we have retained, mourned what we have lost, and we will all follow my mother’s words: “Don’t be sad. Say goodbye, and then go to a movie.”

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Better Call Saul (AMC, 9:00 p.m.) — Nacho inches closer to the cartel while Jimmy and Kim make a business move that carries serious repercussions.

The Last Dance (ESPN, Hulu, Netflix UK) — The first two episodes of this 10-part docuseries aired last night on ESPN, and while our friends across the pond get to relive Michael Jordan’s glory days on Netflix, Hulu and ESPN’s streaming site is the place to go, stateside. Still, if you’ve got a login, this is more than worth it. The series combines rare unseen footage of Jordan at the height of his career — during the famed 97-98 season — along with commentary from some well-known athletes and celebrities measuring his influence on the game, and the world.

9-1-1 (Fox, 8:00 p.m.) — A rescue mission involving a child stuck in a well forces Eddie to confront his own past.

Roswell, New Mexico (CW, 9:00 p.m.) — Isobel’s night out takes an unexpected turn while Liz suffers another blow in her quest to save Max.

The Plot Against America (HBO, 9:00 p.m.) — In the series finale, Herman takes drastic measures to keep his family safe in the turbulent buildup to Election Day while Alvin is recruited for a top-secret mission.

Prodigal Son (Fox, 9:00 p.m.) — Malcolm and Ainsley call a Whitly family meeting after their suspicions about Nicholas Endicott are proven true.

Breeders (FX, 9:00 p.m.) — Paul and the kids are losing sleep while Ally’s away and they’re not handling it well.

Songland (NBC, 10:00 p.m.) — Luis Fonsi comes to the show to hear unknown songwriters pitch their original material.

Dispatches From Elsewhere (AMC, 10:00 p.m.) — While the rest of the group pursue new interests, Fred finds it hard to let go.

The Last Dance has been highly anticipated by NBA fans since it was announced over two years ago, and with stay-at-home orders around the country halting live sports, viewers pushed, successfully, for ESPN to push up the release from June to April.

On Sunday, it made its debut to the delight of fans and, unsurprisingly, drew big numbers for ESPN. The broadcasts on ESPN and ESPN2 (where they showed a “clean” version with cursing bleeped out) averaged 6.1 million viewers for the two hours of episodes 1 and 2. Episode 1 had 6.3 million viewers, while Episode 2 drew 5.8 million, making it the most watched broadcast on ESPN since the College Football Playoff National Championship game.

They also make for the two most watched episodes of ESPN original programming, topping the previous record-holder, “You Don’t Know Bo,” the 30 for 30 on Bo Jackson that drew 3.6 million viewers. It’s a strong number for ESPN in a time where sports networks are desperate for anything that can draw eyeballs to them, and it will surely continue to do well streaming on ESPN+. Those that thought it might rival Game of Thrones viewership were overestimating how big a draw this would be, but for a documentary about a 20-year-old subject, it is a pretty massive number and represents a big win for ESPN.

With the NBA season on hiatus, fans and TV partners are turning to old games to pass the time. ESPN pushed up The Last Dance documentary on the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls to the delight of fans and NBA stars past and present, but that only fills two hours on Sunday nights.

In the meantime, NBA TV is running marathons of Hardwood Classic games, along with some Film Room episodes that have players and personalities look back at pivotal games from the past — this week, Kevin McHale and Bill Simmons will look at Game 7 of the 1987 playoff series with Milwaukee. ESPN is also running some old NBA games to fill the time, although their basketball schedule is light this week due to the NFL Draft.

We will be bringing you a viewing guide each week, focused on full game broadcasts — not various cut up, hour-long broadcasts — that you can watch. Here are this week’s offerings.

Monday, April 20

NBA TV: 2019-20 Regular Season, Jazz at Bucks; 8:00 p.m.
NBA TV: 2019-20 Regular Season, Lakers at Mavs: 10:30 p.m.

Tuesday, April 21

NBA TV: 1991 East Playoffs, Pacers at Celtics, Game 5; 8:30 a.m.
NBA TV: 1993 East Playoffs, Celtics at Hornets, Game 4; 10:30 a.m.
NBA TV: 1994 West Playoffs, Suns at Warriors, Game 3; 1:00 p.m.
NBA TV: 2000 East Playoffs, Bucks at Pacers, Game 5; 3:00 p.m.
NBA TV: 2002 East Playoffs, Pacers at Nets, Game 5; 5:00 p.m.
NBA TV: 1984 East Playoffs, Knicks at Pistons, Game 5; 8:00 p.m.
NBA TV: 1987 East Playoffs, Bucks at Celtics, Game 7 (Film Room with Bill Simmons and Kevin McHale); 10:00 p.m. ET
NBA TV: 2006 West Playoffs, Suns at Lakers, Game 4; 12:30 a.m.
NBA TV: 2002 West Playoffs, Rockets at Mavericks, Game 2; 3:00 a.m.

Wednesday, April 22

NBA TV: 2009 East Playoffs: Celtics at Bulls, Game 6; 8:30 a.m.
ESPN: 2008 NBA Finals, Celtics at Lakers, Game 4; 7:00 p.m.
NBA TV: 1994 West Playoffs: Nuggets at Sonics, Game 5; 8:00 p.m.
ESPN: 2008 NBA Finals, Lakers at Celtics, Game 6; 9:30 p.m.
NBA TV: 2007 West Playoffs, Mavericks at Warriors, Game 4; 11:00 p.m.
NBA TV: 2000 West Playoffs, Sonics at Jazz, Game 1; 2:00 a.m.

Thursday, April 23

NBA TV: 2006 East Playoffs, Cavaliers at Wizards, Game 6; 11:00 a.m.
NBA TV: 2009 East Playoffs: Celtics at Bulls, Game 6; 1:00 p.m.
NBA TV: 2006 West Playoffs, Suns at Lakers, Game 4; 3:00 p.m.
NBA TV: 2008 West Playoffs, Suns at Spurs, Game 1; 5:00 p.m.
NBA TV: 2007 West Playoffs, Mavericks at Warriors, Game 6; 8:00 p.m.

Friday, April 24

NBA TV: 2014 NBA Finals, Heat at Spurs, Game 1; 11:30 a.m.
NBA TV: 2014 NBA Finals, Heat at Spurs, Game 5; 1:30 p.m.
NBA TV: 1999 NBA Finals, Spurs at Knicks, Game 5; 3:30 p.m.
NBA TV: 2006 West Playoffs, Mavericks at Spurs, Game 5; 5:00 p.m.
NBA TV: 2003 NBA Finals, Nets at Spurs, Game 6; 8:00 p.m.
NBA TV: 2003 West Playoffs, Spurs at Lakers, Game 6; 10:30 p.m.

Saturday, April 25

NBA TV: 2013-14 NBA Regular Season, Clippers at Warriors; 6:00 a.m.
NBA TV: 2013-14 NBA Regular Season, Warriors at Heat; 8:30 a.m.
NBA TV: 2013-14 NBA Regular Season, Warriors at Thunder; 10:30 a.m.
NBA TV: 2013-14 NBA Regular Season, Heat at Bulls; 12:30 p.m.
NBA TV: 2014 NBA Finals, Heat at Spurs, Game 1; 8:30 p.m.
NBA TV: 2014 NBA Finals, Heat at Spurs, Game 5; 10:30 p.m.

Sunday, April 26

NBA TV: 2014-15 NBA Regular Season, Cavaliers at Heat; 7:00 a.m.
NBA TV: 2014-15 NBA Regular Season, Blazers at Cavaliers; 9:00 a.m.
NBA TV: 2014-15 NBA Regular Season, Kings at Warriors; 12:00 p.m.
ESPN: “The Last Dance” Episode 3; 9:00 p.m.
NBA TV: 2015 NBA Finals, Cavaliers at Warriors, Game 2; 9:00 p.m.
ESPN: “The Last Dance” Episode 4; 10:00 p.m.
NBA TV: 2015 NBA Finals, Warriors at Cavaliers, Game 6; 11:00 p.m.