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Six men have been convicted of murdering Chicago rapper FBG Duck in 2020, according to The Chicago Sun-Times. The jury came to the conclusion after two days of deliberations, determining that the six men — members of the O Block set of the Black Disciples gang associated with rappers like Chief Keef and King Von — were all guilty of at least one count.

The six men, Charles “C Murda” Liggins, Kenneth “Kenny Mac” Roberson, Tacarlos “Los” Offerd, Christopher “C Thang” Thomas, Ralph “Teezy” Turpin, and Marcus “Muwop” Smart, were accused of shooting Duck (real name Carlton Weekly) outside a clothing store in August 2020, hitting Duck’s girlfriend and another bystander. The shooting was prompted by a series of diss tracks exchanged between Duck, representing the Tookaville set of the Gangster Disciples, and Von, who prosecutors say put a bounty on Duck before his own death in Atlanta that autumn. (Two years later, another member of FBG, FBG Cash, was also shot and killed in Chicago.)

Five of the defendants were identified from surveillance footage and tracked through the shooting through city surveillance cameras, while shell casings found in one of Roberson’s car tied the vehicle to the scene. One other defendant, Ezell Rawls, killed himself during the investigation. Although defense lawyers argued that the evidence was slim and circumstantial, the evidence presented was convincing enough for the jury.

Richard Simmons isn’t wasting any time distancing himself from The Court Jester, a new biopic about his life starring Pauly Shore. A teaser for the film was released on Wednesday, and within hours, a rep for Simmons made it clear to TMZ that the fitness guru did not authorize the production:

We’re told Pauly and Richard’s team spoke last year about PS portraying him in a film, but Richard’s people told the comedian the timing wasn’t right for Richard to get on board.

We already knew Pauly didn’t have RS’ blessing for this project — something Pauly really sought — and now … we know Richard’s position hasn’t changed, though his rep says there will come a time when Richard wants to tell his story. Pauly’s thing just ain’t it, though.

The Hollywood Reporter recently confirmed that The Court Jester will screen at Sundance this week on January 19. From there, the film will reportedly be available on YouTube.

“I’m really excited about sharing Richard Simmons’ life with the world. We all need this biopic now more than ever,” Shore said in a statement. “Simmons represented mental health, getting people in shape and being his authentic silly self! Whenever he was on TV you could never take your eyes off of him and he brought such a joy to his appearances that represented nothing but a good time.”

You can watch the teaser for The Court Jester below:

(Via TMZ, The Hollywood Reporter)

On Wednesday, the NBA announced the game between the Warriors and Jazz in Salt Lake City had been postponed after a medical emergency involving Golden State Warriors assistant coach Dejan Milojevic. While the details of what happened were sparse, things were serious enough that the league viewed this as a necessary move.

The National Basketball Association game scheduled for tonight between the Golden State Warriors and Utah Jazz has been postponed due to a medical emergency in the Warriors family. The date for the rescheduled game will be announced at a later time.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, Milojevic suffered a “sudden and serious health issue” while at a restaurant with some players and coaches from the Warriors. Several hours later, Wojnarowski and Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report announced that Milojevic died at age 46.

TMZ confirmed the news, saying that Milojevic passed away in the aftermath of a medical emergency. And not long after, the team released a statement saying that Milojevic suffered a heart attack, with Kerr saying the organization is “absolutely devastated.”

Milojevic joined the Warriors as an assistant coach in 2021, and previously served as head coach of Serbian team Mega, where he coached Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic in the early days of his career. Milojevic had a 15-year playing career in Europe prior to becoming a coach.

This almost wasn’t going to happen in theaters. The Bikeriders, a star-studded biker drama that looks like Martin Scorsese helming Sons of Anarchy, had a setback last year on the way to theaters. Disney/20th Century pictures decided to pull back on its release plan, but fortunately, Focus Features saw the value in bringing this film to the big screen.

This year, Tom Hardy and Austin Butler will join many more rough-riding actors (who you know and love) while roaring through cities and cornfields. Let’s get down to some finer details about this movie.

Plot

The Bikeriders takes its name and inspiration from photojournalist Danny Lyon’s stunning, same-named black-and-white photography book, which he gestated during and after his time with a real-life biker club in the 1960s.

The film revolves around an ensemble cast led by two Oscar nominees, Hardy (as Johnny), the mentor of Austin Butler’s up-and-comer Benny. Jodie Comer steps in as Benny’s Old Lady, Kathy, as their lives revolve around a Chicago-based meeting of the rumbles over the course of a decade. Naturally, the bike will transform from being an idealistic group of outsiders to a more 1%-focused outlaw gang, and I can’t wait to see Hardy lose his sh*t over it.

Biker soap operas are a mood, as the kids say, and Butler recently revealed (while speaking to Josh Brolin for Interview magazine), that one of the greatest parts of this project was Tom Hardy being a total hoot:

“[T]here’s an intimate sensitivity to The Bikeriders. It’s the roaring engines and the smell of grease that we got to be around. It was nice to go to something that felt more independent and play in that space for a bit. But one of the things I was thinking about earlier, when you were talking about that relaxation on set, was that Tom Hardy surprised me. I pictured him to be this grizzly bear, always serious. And really, he’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. He’d be joking around until action is called, and then go into being the most intense guy I’d ever seen.”

Will this eventually be an awards-circuit film? Don’t count on it. TheInSneider previously relayed how the film went over well in festival format, but executives decided that a commercial focus would be better. So, it should be fun, which we need more of in theaters.

Cast

In addition to Hardy, Butler, and Comer, The Bikeriders stars Norman Reedus (as Funny Sonny), who already spends much of his own time zooming around on a bike, even with the likes of Happy Keanu Reeves. The film also features Boyd Holbrook, Michael Shannon, Damon Herriman, Karl Glusman, Beau Knapp, Mike Fast, Toby Wallace, and Happy Anderson.

Release Date

Six months later than its planned Disney release date, Focus Features will drop The Bikeriders into theaters on June 21, 2024. Given that superheroes will almost certainly not be dominating the box office this summer, these can be moviegoers’ antiheroes, and you know what? It’s about damn time. Let’s ride, y’all.

Trailer

Below, you can see Jodie Comer wash away the last of Villanelle while falling for semi-greasy Butler.

Shygirl is taking us out to the dancefloor. Today (January 17), the ethereal recording artist has announced her new project, Club Shy, set to arrive next month.

Club Shy will feature Shygirl tapping into her affinity for club music and EDM. Ahead of the project’s release, Shygirl has shared her new single, the transcendental “Tell Me,” which features production by Boys Noize.

On “Tell Me,” Shygirl falls into a hypnotic state, as she finds love in the club.

“Tell me what you want, I can read it on your face / Eyes write the words that you wanna say / I’m watchin’ your mouth, keep it movin’, babe / One step closer, you’re gettin’ into me,” sings Shygirl on the chorus.

Club Shy features addition contributions by SG Lewis, Karma Kid, and Sega Bodega, as well as vocals by Kingdom, Empress Of, and Cosha. The project was inspired by Shygirl’s nightlife experiences in East London, Los Angeles, Brazil, Chicago, and New York City.

You can see the Club Shy tracklist below.

Shygirl’s Club Shy tracklist

1. “4eva” Feat. Empress Of & Kingdom
2. “F@k€” Feat. Kingdom
3. “Thicc” Feat. Cosha
4. “Mute” Feat. Lolo Zouai
5. “Tell Me” Feat. Boys Noize
6. “Mr. Useless” Feat. SG Lewis

Club Shy is out 2/9 via Because Music. Find more information here.

Pascal Siakam is headed to Indiana. After years on the trade block, the Raptors finally moved the former All-Star forward ahead of this February’s trade deadline, as Toronto embarks on its rebuild in full around Scottie Barnes.

In return, the Raptors got Bruce Brown and three first round picks from the Pacers, who add Siakam to bridge the gap on the wing between star guard Tyrese Haliburton and Myles Turner. There’s an obvious fit with Siakam in Indiana, as they were in desperate need of a high-level defender on the wing. While Brown is an elite Swiss-army knife defender who can elevate a group, the Pacers need a strong individual defender to build a structure around, and they’ll hope Siakam gives them that.

The holdup on Siakam trade talks with Indiana and around the league leading up to this deal was about the asking price versus the lack of long-term control over Siakam’s contract. He can be a free agent this summer and it was made abundantly clear over the past year that he would not sign an extension with a new team once traded to them. However, on Wednesday after the Pacers traded for him, Siakam’s agent made clear to Marc Spears that Pascal is excited about the prospects of playing in Indiana, with Woj reporting Siakam’s “excited” and wants to work out a long-term deal this summer.

The Pacers certainly wanted to know they would at least be strongly considered by Siakam this summer before forking over three picks to the Raptors for him. While it’s not an absolute guarantee, this kind of statement from Siakam’s agent seems to show there’s an understanding in Indiana of what Siakam wants from a contract this summer and they’ve given Siakam an indication they’re willing to meet that. We’ll find all of that out once July 1 hits, but in the meantime the Pacers will try to cement their place in the East playoff race and show Siakam they’re a great basketball fit for him long-term.

It’s hard to think of a time before big-budget superhero movies became so common, but over 20 years ago, it was still a pretty risky genre to be involved in. At the time, rising actor Paul Walker was starring in the Fast & Furious franchise (which is…still going….) and he was approached to be the man of steel himself, Superman.

The doc I Am Paul Walker, which was first released in 2018 and recently aired on The CW, includes conversations with the late actor’s manager, Matt Luber, who said that it would have been a major deal for the star. “I think it was a $10 million deal, and he was the frontrunner,” Luber, who had known Walker since childhood, said in the doc. Despite going in for an audition, Lehman didn’t think Walker was right for the role. “I knew he did not want to do three or four Superman [films] and be Superman for the rest of his life,” Lehman continued.

Luber then recalled when Walker’s response to his Superman audition, which was not pleasant: “‘I’ve got an ‘S’ on, I got a cape, boots, tights … this is not me. I’m getting the f*** out of here. Gotta go. F*** you.’ And he was gone,” Luber said. Maybe that was part of his audition? To prove he is faster than a speeding bullet? But maybe not.

In 2003, the actor confirmed to The Chicago Sun-Times that he “could have made a gazillion dollars on that franchise” but he didn’t “need” that kind of money. “My favorite brand of running shoes costs $23. I rarely pay more than $40 for my jeans,” the actor said at the time.”Throw in a T-shirt and that costs me $20 or $10 if I buy it on the beach. I don’t need a gazillion dollars to manage that kind of lifestyle.”

Walker passed away in 2013, and while he was never a superhero, he did his fair share of action-packed movies. Just without tights.

(Via Deadline)

In the aftermath of OG Anunoby’s trade to the New York Knicks, all eyes north of the border were on what the Toronto Raptors would do with Pascal Siakam. An unrestricted free agent at the end the this season and someone who reportedly wants to test the market, Siakam is the latest player who the Raptors risked losing for nothing.

The rumor mill around a potential Siakam trade began really churning in recent weeks, with talks between the Raptors and the Sacramento Kings apparently getting off the ground before eventually falling apart. But on Tuesday, we got some clarity on the Siakam situation, as Shams Charania and Sam Amick of The Athletic reported that a deal was taking shape between the Raptors and the Indiana Pacers. And one day later the trade finally happened, as Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Toronto and Indiana came to terms on a trade that would send Bruce Brown and a trio of first-round picks to the Raptors. Additionally, the New Orleans Pelicans got pulled in on the deal.

The news was confirmed by Charania.

It’s a steep price to pay for Siakam in the event he leaves in free agency, but it’s not hard to see how he’s a hand-in-glove fit in Indiana alongside Tyrese Haliburton. At the time of the trade, the Pacers sat at 23-17, good for sixth place in the Eastern Conference and only one game behind the Cleveland Cavaliers for the 4-seed.

Yes, 2023 was a big year for cinematic sex scenes, from Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo in Poor Things to Ben Whishaw and Franz Rogowski in Passages to the discourse-causing “now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds” scene between Cillian Murphy and Florence Pugh in Oppenheimer. But none of those made the list of the most searched movie sex scenes of the past year.

Sexual wellness brand LELO used Google data to “determine which movie sex scenes captivated audiences the most, leading to repeated searches over the past year.” Number one on the list with 849,000 searches is Eyes Wide Shut, director Stanley Kubrick’s final masterpiece before his death. Anyone expecting a sex scene between then-married couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman will be let down (and the famous orgy scene isn’t exactly titillating).

In second place is Blue Is the Warmest Color (both of the film’s stars, Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux, have spoken out against the “horrible” filming conditions) followed by Mulholland Drive and Titanic, and later on, Atonement and The Handmaiden. If that leads to people watching Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden, one of the best movies of the 2010s, I’ll take it.

Here’s the top 10:

1. Eyes Wide Shut (849,000 searches)

2. Blue Is the Warmest Color (458,000 searches)

3. Mulholland Drive (113,000 searches)

4. Titanic (74,000 searches)

5. Last Tango in Paris (39,000 searches)

6. Atonement (37,000 searches)

7. Monster’s Ball (27,000 searches)

8. Original Sin (24,000 searches)

9. The Handmaiden (23,9000 searches)

10. American Pie (20,000)

Some people want to see Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet have sex in a car. Others want to watch Jason Biggs hump a pie. No judgement.

(Via LELO)

Early January is just a bleak time for movies. It’s that part of the year when things are light on new offerings – though both Mean Girls and The Beekeeper (which is way more fun than it needs to be) did really well – but mostly it’s that time where we are still bogged down by the same handful of 2023 awards movies that we are all kind of sick of hearing about already and we still have a couple more months to go, somehow. And you can see it on social media, people are starting to get ornery about their individual awards favorite. I decided to take a unique approach this year: I do not have a favorite. People do ask, some version of, “I know you’re sick of being asked, but what’s your favorite?” To which I reply, “Oh I don’t have one.” I honestly don’t and, strangely, I’ve been much happier this year about the whole thing. I really do like movies like The Holdovers and American Fiction. Should they win Oscars? Sure, but maybe other movies should to? Who’s to say? I digress.

But whatever, here comes Sundance. It’s like going on a juice cleanse. At least for a while we can stop talking about movies we’ve been talking about since September and, instead, talk about brand-new movies. And like the last few recent years, a good number of offerings will be available online for you through the Sundance Film Festival. Let’s take a look at a few movies that, from their descriptions, look pretty good!

Freaky Tales

Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s most successful movie to date is, of course, Captain Marvel. It’s weird to sit back and think, wait, the directors of Half Nelson made a movie that grossed over a billion dollars? Regardless, I will watch anything that the directors of Mississippi Grind make. (For me, that movie is a lifetime pass. Also, they re-team with Ben Mendelsohn here.) In Freaky Tales – the duo’s first movie since Captain Marvel – we get four interconnected stories set in Oakland featuring teens fighting Nazis, a rap duo, an NBA all-star, and a henchmen. With Captain Marvel, though, again, very successful, it did kind of feel like some of what makes the duo’s films special and unique was held back. Whatever this winds up being, at least that does not seem the case here.

Love Lies Bleeding

Rose Glass’s Saint Maud was a 2019 sleeper hit that did get critical accolades, but in retrospect should have gotten more and has only grown in stature since. Glass is back with Love Lies Bleeding about a gym manager (Kristen Stewart) who falls for a bodybuilder (Katy O’Brien, who you probably know from The Mandalorian). This would make the second Sundance in a row where one of the hottest titles is about the world of bodybuilding (you’ll probably never see last year’s), though as opposed to last year, since the official Sundance synopsis calls it “bombastic,” this doesn’t sound near as intense. But then again, it later offers a description of “the darkest ilk.” Whatever, this sounds great.

The American Society of Magical Negroes

Director Kobi Libii’s satire has Justice Smith (who was great in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) being recruited by David Alan Grier (I do not know his character’s name, but I’ll assume he’s not playing himself) to join a mystical society that’s stated goal is to make white people feel comfortable. Because, as it says in the trailer, bad things sure seem to happen when white people get uncomfortable. Speaking of the trailer, the tone seems biting, but light and does seem to center on a love story. I am curious if the tone will be as light in the actual film.

A Different Man

Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man, on paper, sounds like a pretty great concept. Sebastian Stan plays an actor who goes through, according to the Sundance official synopsis, “a radical medical procedure,” for a role … that he does not get. Reading between the lines, this sounds way more like a movie that is going to be disturbing and bizarre, as opposed to the laugh riot that the premise could easily be. Disturbing and bizarre can go a lot of different directions, but still sounds pretty intriguing.

Devo

How has there not been a defining documentary about Devo before? This is a band that seems to have its own unique fanbase and niche, but also had their cover of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” featured prominently in Martin Scorsese’s Casino and have had a top 20 hit with “Whip it,” with a video that played on MTV on a constant loop. Everyone knows Devo, but I suspect most people can’t name three of their songs. Especially three songs that aren’t covers. Everything about Devo is fascinating. Or, maybe the documentary will tell me this is not true. Maybe I will learn they are boring! I am looking forward to finding out.

The Greatest Night in Pop

Bao Nguyen has made a documentary about the making of the song “We are the World” by USA for Africa (which, if you somehow don’t know, was a collection of nearly every single popular recording artist at the time, plus Dan Aykroyd, who was a Blues Brother so, sure, why not?) that, if you were around at the time, was played on a never-ending loop for what I can only guess was “eternity.” I never once even considered I’d want to see a documentary about the making of this song and video, but now it’s all I want to see.

Hit Man

Richard Linklater’s Hit Man actually premiered back at the Venice Film Festival before Netflix bought it and now it still continues on its festival tour – but who cares, it’s a great movie and is a lot of fun. Glen Powell plays mild-mannered Gary Johnson, a New Orleans college professor who, as a side hustle, works with the local police department as a tech specialist during sting operations to catch people trying to hire contract killers. When the officer who usually poses as the hitman is out of action, Gary steps in and … is pretty great at it. So great he starts to really like the personas he adopts more than he likes the real Gary. Though, Gary gets into some hot water when he starts to date a suspect (Adria Arjona), still in his cool guy hitman persona of Ron. Hit Man is kind of, sort of based on a true story and is a whole heck of a lot of fun.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.