The XFL was just five weeks into its 2020 reboot when the United States’ national emergency over the coronavirus pandemic forced it to shut down, and it appears the likelihood of a return for the young league is low. Konnor Fulk of XFL News Hub reported on Friday that the league has “terminated” all of its employees except for a “skeleton crew” of league executives.
Breaking News: The #XFL has terminated all of its employees. A small “skeleton crew” of league execs will continue to work at the CT HQ.
A message on the schedule page of the XFL website still says, “Currently, the XFL will not be playing its regular-season games. However, all players will be paid their base pay and benefits for the 2020 regular season. All XFL ticket holders will be issued refunds or credit toward future games. The XFL is committed to playing a full season in 2021 and future years.”
Understandably, year one was likely pretty low on revenue for the XFL. Like many fledgling sports properties, TV broadcasters aired the games for free, and attendance was meager. Vince McMahon has been determined to keep WWE going through the pandemic, taping matches (and WrestleMania) in the company’s Florida performance center to keep with its typical schedule, but football is a different beast, with more players, larger crowds and no centralized location to play in.
Maybe keeping league executives in place means McMahon maintains some degree of optimism about the XFL coming back, but it’s not looking good right now.
Whether the NBA season comes back or not, it’s clear the typical offseason schedule will fall away. To that end, NBA teams are petitioning the league office to push the regularly scheduled NBA Draft back from June 25 to Aug. 1 at the very earliest, according to a new report from Adrian Wojnarowski and Jonathan Givony of ESPN.
“Multiple top team executives expressed to ESPN their belief that shifting the draft date would give organizations more time to salvage the essential elements of the pre-draft process, possibly allowing for in-person workouts, interviews and medical evaluations of prospects that current social distancing and shelter-in-place guidelines make impossible,” the ESPN reporters wrote on Friday.
This comes after reports earlier in the week showing that the league put rules in place that would limit teams’ ability to carry out the usual pre-draft process, including nixing in-person interviews and preventing teams from organizing virtual workouts with prospects. It is no wonder, then, that this plan would allow most of that to happen as close to normal as possible.
Most importantly, as the NFL’s virtual free agency and draft processes have shown the sports world, medical evaluations must be able to take place, something that currently cannot happen as the United States uses mitigation efforts (i.e. “social distancing”) to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The ESPN report emphasizes that the “Aug. 1 date would be flexible, based on when the league restarts,” as well as the fact that the main priority underpinning the petition is that “team officials believe the draft and free agency should stay connected on the calendar once the season ends.”
There is no feasible way to pull off a draft or free agency before a decision is made on the nature of the 2019-20 season, or of course during gameplay. This plan would create flexibility for the NBA to respond more adequately to the constant changes in the country during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chicago rapper Polo G is already hard at work on the follow-up to his debut album Die A Legend. The first single, “Go Stupid,” is still hot off of its Valentine’s Day release, but Polo shows no signs of slowing down. Today, shared “DND,” the latest single from the upcoming album, along with its moody, Jordan Wozy-directed video.
The video sees Polo putting his phone on “Do Not Disturb” and isolating himself in his home, as well as taking a solo nighttime drive. The paranoid clip comes along at an opportune time, as more and more people are forced to isolate themselves, but it also reflects the traumatized messaging behind his lyrics. “I cut everybody off, keep hittin’ decline,” he rhymes on the chorus. “I swear these painkillers got me on the deep vibe.”
While Polo has yet to announce the upcoming album’s title or release date, fans can rest assured that with fewer distractions — after all, we’re all stuck in the house for the time being, and Polo comes from a generation of rappers used to recording with restrained means — Polo will remain hard at work, banging out even more hard-hitting, emotional anthems.
The NBA has been on indefinite hiatus for almost exactly a month now amid the coronavirus pandemic that is wreaking havoc across the globe. But that doesn’t mean both the league offices and the players’ union have been sitting on their hands. From the beginning, the two sides have been discussing possible ways forward once it becomes safe to do so.
There’s been talk about resuming with an abbreviated season, skipping the remaining games and jumping right into the playoffs, or in the worst-case scenario, cancelling everything altogether and starting fresh next season once the virus is under control. All options are currently on the table.
For now, though, everything remains on hold. Soon after the league shut down, they announced they were putting a temporary moratorium on all transactions until about the second week of April when things could be re-evaluated. Now that we’re here, both the NBA and NBPA have decided to extend that moratorium indefinitely, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.
The NBA and NBPA have agreed to extend the moratorium on transactions (agreements, trades, player/team options) indefinitely, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA@Stadium.
In the meantime, the two sides are currently focused on the new HORSE competition that will premier on ESPN this weekend featuring both NBA and WNBA stars. Beyond that, uncertainty remains surrounding just about everything league-related and otherwise.
Domhnall Gleeson’s character in HBO’sRun is far more complex than you’d think at first glance. In retrospect, that sounds about right for an actor who has managed to glide through mainstream Hollywood franchises (Star Wars, Harry Potter), more cerebral, indie fare (Ex Machina), and sweeping epics (Anna Karenina, The Revenant) with the same level of aplomb, like it’s no difficult feat. In Run, he stars as Billy, one half of a pair of college exes, who previously made a pact that a text from one of them was an invitation to abandon their lives and run away for a cross-country trip together. That seems like the worst romantic idea in the universe, yes? Well, Gleeson and Merritt Wever (as Ruby) pull off this romantic-comedy-thriller series and do so with feeling.
Oh, so many feelings, both positive and negative and everything in between those two opposites. The series hails from creative-dynamic duo, Vicky Jones and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, as a followup upon their Fleabag and Killing Eve success. The show is full of complex characters who must navigate their own flaws while searching for fulfillment, and Domhnall’s Billy is no exception. Gleeson was gracious enough to sit down with us to discuss our own bizarre times and the strange journey of his Run character, along with scattered other moments of his acting career.
Domhnall, I hope you are well. Your name is so difficult for Americans to pronounce, but I worked on it.
It is a tricky one. I’m doing good though, how are you?
Pretty good, considering these surreal times.
I know, it’s so weird to start these conversations now, and it feels like the new version of “hello” is “Jesus Christ, I hope you’re okay, for Christ’s sake.”
Yes, and it’s great to talk about shows that have elements of comedy to get us through this time.
I know, that’s where I’m going to. It’s either, like, comedies, or else full-on documentaries about death. Anything in the middle feels like a waste of time. It’s either total escapism, or try to understand these bizarre times.
With Run, you’re returning to a romantic-type role. Your first such role was in Anna Karenina, and you hadn’t considered yourself for that kind of character when Joe Wright cast you, but have you eased into it more now?
Right. That was certainly true at the time. But I think in the way that you aren’t sure that you can do certain accents or not, the only way is to try at 100%, and I adored the work on Anna Karenina, working with Alicia [Vikander] and with Joe, that kind of love story. I had the same sort-of experience on About Time, a very beautiful experience of concentrating on love for a whole job. It’s such a pleasant place to put yourself. It’s a positive way of thinking. On Run, I guess it was slightly different because I think they love each other, those two people, but their circumstances are stretched in a very different way. And there’s much more deception going on in Run. So it’s a different experience between these love stories, I think, but I enjoyed it.
Well, Billy seems to be a simple character at first, but we find out, slowly, how complex his life is, along with that of Ruby. What appealed to you most about him?
Well, he seems to be in love. He seems to be a bit of a liar, and he seems to be a weird mix of controlling and very eager to please. And he was on a journey, like, I didn’t know what was going to happen to him next. I didn’t know how his story would end, and I thought that was a very good thing in terms of wondering where this guy could go, and what I could discover. Most of all, I thought that he was in love, and he was changing his life to try and chase this, or so we think. Or we hope. And I found that very appealing.
I was wondering how much you knew going in. I’ve seen through episode 5, so it had turned into a bit of a caper at that point. Do you think Billy will be judged for texting Ruby?
Oh, that’s hard to say without seeing all seven episodes. I think there’s more of that story to tell. I hope that [people] find him to be complicated, and I hope that he’s not just definitely the person that you want to run away with or definitely the person that you want to avoid in your life. Because I think different people view each other in different ways. That’s part of what the whole thing is about, and sometimes your flaws match up well with somebody else’s strengths. Sometimes they match up terribly with somebody else’s flaws, and I don’t know, I think that without giving anything away, I think on Billy’s side of things, there’s a lot about his relationship with Ruby that would work for both of them, you know? Circumstances are everything. That’s something you normally don’t see in a whole story. Normally, circumstances are there to cut paths, and certain circumstances are a little trickier than that. And real life throws things in the way that are sometimes unassailable, and I think they find themselves in moments like that. I haven’t been talking about the show for very long, so my thoughts are still being formed, and I know we haven’t got much time, so I’m sorry about that.
Oh you’re good, I know that the script was so layered, and Vicky Jones parceled out bits of information on a need-to-know basis, so viewers are going to also work hard to solidify it in their own minds over time.
Yeah, hopefully. And hopefully, it also builds to a sort-of ending that is satisfying. I mean, hopefully, by the time that people have seen episode seven, they feel like a real story has been told. You know, I would like that.
What do you think of this question: “Should you text your ex?”
I think that would be the perfect Twitter conversation to have, but every situation is so different. I think that Billy is well within his rights to text Ruby because they made a deal.
And that’s very much a thing in this show.
I think that with a deal, you’re within your rights to ask, and the other person is within their rights to say no.
I was not clear, but it seemed like one party had instigated that pact. We’re not supposed to know for a while?
Yeah, I think once you see the whole thing, it might be worth another conversation. Because I think it’s complicated, the story of who texted and why, is complicated enough without being overly complicated. I mean, it’s the right amount of stuff going on with that element of that story, and I think that there are layers to that, which I think are interesting and worth talking about. So yeah, that’s something you’ve definitely got to watch to the end to find out.
What was it like to shoot in those tight confines on the train? It looked potentially claustrophobic.
There were elements of it that were rough because it played with your sense of balance because they had these big screens that were connected remotely to the camera, and depending on where the camera moved, the moving images would change perspectives, to make sense for the camera’s eye. It was all quite new technology. The problem with that is that your eye is not connected to the camera’s eye, your eye is just seeing the screen change perspective while moving. And then the train itself is moving from side to side. It was shot inside the studio, and that really makes you want to puke. So, that was not great, but I actually love trains, and I love kind-of smaller spaces.
There are also wonderful little moments in this show, like when Billy pretends to read Ruby’s palm. Was that all-scripted or slightly improvised?
I don’t think so, I think they left in a word here and there, but there were no sweeping changes from the script. The script was already drawn. So, sometimes there would be things that I’m doing in my acting, but I can’t remember how much of any of that was left in, and probably I imagine that all of it was scripted or what was agreed upon on that day, and depending on whether what was scripted was coming across or not.
We’ve gotta talk about Ex Machina for a minute. I recently talked to Alex Garland about the movie, but with you, I’m wondering how people bring up that “Get Down Saturday Night” dance scene to you.
Not often, surprisingly! My character’s role in that was representing the audience, and they probably ask Oscar [Isaac] all the time.
A24
I often find myself often saying, “After a long day of Turing tests, you gotta unwind.” And then your puzzled face pops into my head.
[Laughs] Well, I’m proud to be a part of whatever madness is going on in your noggin! Yeah, it’s funny though, I hear that Alex’s new show is amazing. I haven’t seen Devs yet. I’m looking forward to it very much.
Before we go, I wanted to mention that my daughter is a huge Star Wars fan.
Oh nice!
But your resumé is so diverse that when I mentioned your name, she started shouting about Bill Weasley.
Well, tell her that Bill Weasley said hello from Ireland!
Stay safe over there. Everything is so wild right now with even Peter Rabbit 2 delayed.
Yes, but that’s okay, It’s delayed until January. It’s already done. We lucked out there, and we’ll wait until January.
We will through all of this, as humanity.
Yes, we’ll get back to cinemas. I can’t wait!
HBO’s ‘Run’ premieres on Sunday, April 12 at 10:30pm EST.
By this point, it’s easy to feel like Rudy Gobert’s positive COVID-19 test and everything that happened in the aftermath occurred a decade ago. Instead, it’s been about a month, and there’s still a number of unresolved things that have yet to occur, like the NBA figuring out any sort of plan for playing games again.
The Utah Jazz are also trying to put out a fire that popped up due to Gobert’s test: the subsequent positive test received by Donovan Mitchell. It has previously been reported that Mitchell wasn’t particularly happy with Gobert, and a new piece by The Athletic takes things a step further, indicating that while the franchise is trying to stress to Mitchell that there’s no guarantee he got sick because of Gobert, there are major concerns about whether or not things will be cool between them going forward.
The Jazz have already begun working on the Mitchell-Gobert relationship, but sources say Mitchell remains reluctant to fix what might have been broken.
“It doesn’t appear salvageable,” one source with knowledge of the situation said.
Obviously the Jazz have a major problem on their hands if the two cornerstones of their franchise are not on good terms, especially considering Gobert is eligible for a supermax contract and Mitchell reportedly wants to put pen to paper on a new deal this summer. The good news is that at least one teammate isn’t particularly concerned with all of this — Joe Ingles told The Athletic the he has “no doubt when we go back to training, or when our season starts again, our team is going to be what we have been and what we are.” He was also appeared to address the report pretty succinctly…
Utah has plenty of time for this to all sort itself out — again, the Jazz-Thunder game that served as the major inflection point in all of this happened on March 11 — so we’ll see how this situation plays out over the coming days, weeks, and months.
This week, Selena Gomez dropped the deluxe edition of her latest album, Rare, which initially came out back in January. The expanded version of the album features a handful of fresh tracks, including the highly anticipated “Boyfriend.” Now Gomez has shared a video for the song, and in it, she has a choice to make, as she finds herself out on dates with multiple men.
Gomez sings on the track, “There’s a difference between a want and a need / Some nights, I just want more than me.” This mirrors what she previously said of the song, “Many of you know how excited I’ve been to release a song called ‘Boyfriend.’ It’s a lighthearted song about falling down and getting back up time and time again in love, but also knowing that you don’t need anyone other than yourself to be happy. We wrote it long before our current crisis, but in the context of today, I want to be clear that a boyfriend is no where near the top of my list of priorities. Just like the rest of the world, I’m praying for safety, unity, and recovery during this pandemic.”
Watch the “Boyfriend” video above.
Rare (Deluxe) is out now via Interscope. Get it here.
Plenty of artists are making music while in self-isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic. Charli XCX is going about it in an innovative way, though. She announced recently that she was making an album, titled How I’m Feeling Now, with help from her fans, sharing snippets of works in progress online and incorporating ideas from her followers into the music. “Forever,” the first official release to come from this endeavor, was just released, and now she is calling on fans again to help her with the song’s video.
Yesterday, Charli took to Twitter to ask her fans to submit clips to possibly be included in the “Forever” video. There are several categories of videos that Charli is looking for, like clips of places people had been to in the past, POV videos of people walking around their homes, a video of somebody’s reaction to a joke or compliment, and others. Fans are encouraged to select two or three video types, generate or find 5- to 30-second clips, and send them to the How I’m Feeling Now email address by Sunday, April 12.
i want to make a music video for “forever” and i need ur helppp if u want to be involved in the video please follow the instructions in the document below and send clips to [email protected]pic.twitter.com/bh3Eh3eo3f
There was a time when tales of aliens, space travel, and robots were believed to be the strict province of four-eyed basement dwellers, but the truth is that everybody can find something to enjoy in the weird world of science fiction. The best sci-fi works in both universal truths and hyperspecific detail, using fantastical yet fully-realized worlds to tell stories about our own.
Netflix‘s selection of good sci fi movies isn’t exhaustive, but there’s still plenty worth exploring nestled among the sequels and paycheck-generators. Keep on scrolling for 10 of the best sci-fi movies on Netflix streaming to watch right now, all taking you from the moon, the farthest reaches of space, and to the outer fringes of reality itself.
Harrison Ford’s lived long enough to see quite a few of his sci-fi franchises get the reboot treatment but this futuristic 80s flick still ranks as one of his best genre outings. Ford plays Rick Deckard, a blade runner charged with terminating four replicants — synthetic humans — who have escaped captivity and are plotting rebellion. Deckard treks across a dystopian Los Angeles, confronting ideas about humanity and morality while fighting off bioengineered humanoids and his fellow man.
Alex Garland’s sci-fi thriller breathed new life into the tired A.I. trope when it landed in theaters a few years ago. The film focuses on a naïve young programmer (Domhnall Gleeson) who’s selected amongst a pool of applicants to evaluate a new A.I. lifeform. The poor kid is whisked away to a remote villa to spend time with the eerily-human-looking robot, Ava (Alicia Vikander) and her eccentric, often cruel creator Nathan (Oscar Isaac), a genius with an ego to match his talent. The film takes some twists you don’t expect, and Isaac gives cinema one of its greatest dance sequences, in case you needed more reason to watch.
The Wachowski sisters created one of the greatest sci-fi films in cinematic history with their mind-bending Matrix trilogy, but the original is hard to top. Keanu Reeves plays Neo, a young man unplugged from the matrix — a kind of alternate reality that keeps humans docile, so machines can harvest their life energy. He teams up with a band of rebels fighting the machines (Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus and Carrie-Ann Moss as Trinity) and faces off against a henchman named Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving). The real draw of this trilogy, besides its inventive storyline, is the CGI effects. The movie also sports some of the most imaginative fight sequences you’ll ever see on the big screen.
Spike Jonze imagines a world in which Artificial Intelligence can become something more than just a personal assistant program. Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore Twombly, a depressed introvert going through a divorce who starts up a relationship with an OS named Samantha. Things get serious before Theodore begins to realize that romance with an A.I. is more complicated than he thought. What follows is a thoughtful exploration of love, relationships, and the ways human beings find a connection in a plugged-in world.
Christian Bale and Sean Bean star in this sci-fi drama set in an oppressive future where all forms of emotion are outlawed. Bale plays a man named John Preston, who’s charged with enforcing the law, but when he accidentally forgets to take a dose of the medicine that suppresses feelings and artistic expression, he begins to question the system he upholds and, eventually, leads an uprising.
Bong Joon-Ho’s send-up of corporate farming and environmental abuses isn’t subtle. Tilda Swinton goes all-out as the CEO of an evil corporation only to be outdone by Jake Gyllenhaal’s broad turn as an unstable TV host. But its tale of an endearing, genetically modified “super pig” and the girl who loves him is effective and contains both some terrific action set pieces and the most affecting child/strange beast relationship this side of E.T.
Chris Evans stars in this sci-fi thriller from auteur Bong Joon-ho. The film, set years into the future following a devastating ice age caused by mankind, follows Evans’ Curtis who lives in poverty on a train that continuously circles the Earth and contains all that remains of human life. Curtis is part of the “scum” the people relegated to the back of the train while the “elite” enjoy the privilege of wealth and status that comes with living in the front. Curtis sparks a rebellion that ends in bloodshed and a devastating reveal when he makes it to the train’s engine room and discovers just how the elite have been fueling their operation. It’s a dark, grimy action piece that should give fans a new appreciation for Evans’ talent.
In an alternate version of 1941 where France has been led by a line of Napoleons and leading scientists mysteriously disappear, young April, her talking cat Darwin, and the shady Julius go searching for April’s missing parents. It’s an interesting take on a history where technological advancement isn’t a thing, where “steampunk” is reality and TVs and cars don’t exist. April’s journey starts in the dreary, stuck-out-of-time France but leads her to fantastical advancements that still make sense in the world we’re presented with. The heart of the film lies in the love that plucky, stubborn April has for those she cares about, and the film’s driven by charming animation and a genuinely interesting concept. It’s enjoyable action that’s just out-there enough for adults while being accessible for the young and young at heart.
A beautiful, claustrophobic sci-fi film, Moon focuses on Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), an employee on an extremely isolated solo mission harvesting resources on the moon. With the end of his contract in sight, his hope of returning to his family is put in jeopardy once he has an accident in a lunar module and makes a startling discovery. It’s best not to know more than that about the story as it would pooch the twist. With Rockwell being pretty much the only actor in the movie, Moon obviously relies heavily on him, both for levity and existentially dramatic turns, and he doesn’t disappoint.
Scarlett Johansson stars in this sci-fi thriller about an other-worldly woman with a dark agenda. The film sees Johansson using her sex appeal to lure unsuspecting men to their watery doom while beginning to contemplate her own existence with every new partner she seduces. It’s a subtle reverse of rape culture, with themes of race and immigration mixed in, but if all of that goes over your head, you’ll at least enjoy seeing Johansson off a bunch of frat bros and rapists.
Recent Changes Through April 2020:
Removed: Men In Black
Added: The Matrix
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
if u want to be involved in the video please follow the instructions in the document below and send clips to 
