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Warning: This posts contains vague-ish spoilers for the horror hit Barbarian. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s best if you go in knowing as little as possible. That said, again, the spoilers contained within are on the vague side.

The box office hasn’t exactly been on fire in weeks, but it has had one genuinely sleeper/word-of-mouth hit: Barbarian, a genuinely original horror film that has both thrilled and amused moviegoers to the tune of (as of this writing) $33 million. A non-IP original with a tricky logline that isn’t afraid to be unlike anything else — sounds like one of those A24 pictures, like The Witch or Midsommar, doesn’t it? Well, as it happens, in this case, when the project was presented to them, the indie studio made like everyone else in Hollywood and passed.

A new piece by Vulture (as caught by The AV Club) breaks down the convoluted story of how this little indie horror that could somehow wound up being distributed by…Disney? It’s an incredibly byzantine story, but the short-ish version: Barbarian writer-director Zach Cregger — a co-founder of the sketch comedy troupe “The Whitest Kids U’ Know” — threw a wide net, betting that at least one production company would respond to a daring script. Problem is, it appears it was too daring:

“I made a spreadsheet of every production company that had made a horror movie in the last 15 years and sent it out to all of them, and every one of them said no … They didn’t like that the movie resets on page 50. They didn’t like that there’s a character who’s part of Hollywood. And they said nobody wants to follow a rapist for 30 pages. All of these things that people were picking on, especially the lack of a structure, were the things that excited me the most. I knew that if I were to polish those edges, I would be compromising this thing and defanging it before it had a chance.”

Eventually Cregger wound up teaming up with the micro-budget genre company BoulderLight Picture, whose team wound up wrangling in their industry mentor, Roy Lee, who happens to have produced little movies like The Lego Movie, the How to Train Your Dragon cycle, and the It diptych (which featured eventual Barbarian co-star Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise). Together, they tried to sell it to bigger indie studios. They almost worked out something with Neon, but it fell through. A24, meanwhile, straight-up ignored it.

How it wound up at Disney is even more convoluted. Barbarian’s producers were able to fund it through foreign financing, some of which abruptly fell through soon before shooting was to begin. They worked out a last-second deal with New Regency, who had a long-standing deal with 20th Century Fox for distribution. Fox, of course, had been absorbed by Disney (who later dropped the “Fox” part). Instead of the famously family-friendly company being turned off by an R-rated hard-to-sell horror grinder with some nasty stuff in it, they decided to market it as a film that gets “discovered” by audiences. And so it has. And it’s all thanks — eventually, sort of — to the company currently at war with the governor of Florida, who’s busy being belittled for his dorky boots.

Barbarian is currently playing in theaters nationwide.

(Via Vulture and The AV Club)

Willow has been having a great year, one filled with attention-demanding songs with razor-sharp edges, such as her collaboration with Camila Cabello for “Psychofreak” or her crossover with PinkPantheress for “Where You Are.” Her new album COPINGMECHANISM arrives in just a few days, and she’s celebrating by performing on SNL for the second time this year.

The last time she was on SNL was in April with Camila Cabello, and they gave an iconic performance of “Psychofreak.” It was just announced that she’ll be a guest on the show again this Friday, Oct. 8, the day after her album release.

“I’m honestly really, really surprised that I’m going to be on SNL twice in one year, five months apart,” she said in an interview. “That’s crazy. I’m really excited. I’m nervous obviously, because being with Camila, a really, really good friend of mine, there’s that feeling of comfortability there where you can look across the stage and be like, ‘Girl, we’re in this together. We’re doing this.’ I’m not baring my soul alone on the stage. But now it’s going to be me baring my soul alone on the stage, and I’m just so grateful and so excited, but also sh*tting my pants, slightly.”

For the first time since the 2016 campaign, the New York Mets are heading to the postseason. While the road has been a little bumpier than they would have liked — the team blew a 10.5-game lead over the Atlanta Braves and are in a battle to take the NL East instead of getting a Wild Card spot — the Metropolitans are a dangerous team as the postseason rolls around.

The chance to beat out the defending champs could go until the final day of the season, as Atlanta’s magic number entering Tuesday night was 1. All the Mets can do is win their games, and in the first inning of their contest against the Washington Nationals, Francisco Lindor helped mightily in that endeavor by hitting a moonshot into deep right field. It was Lindor’s 26th dinger of the year, it came off of a leadoff homer by Brandon Nimmo, and OH MY GOD LOOK AT THIS DOG.

It was not until right now, as I am composing this blog post, that it dawned on me that this dog, attending a Bark in the Park promotion and blissfully having a wonderful time, has caught more homers/foul balls at baseball games than I have in my 30-plus years on this earth. This is very humbling for me, but regardless, it is nice that the dog is having fun. Good dog.

Cardi B And JT’s beef has been taking the Twitter world by storm. You’ve probably come across one of their fights on social media, and maybe you were wondering what’s the context behind it. The tension between the two rappers actually dates all the way back to 2020.

The year after JT and Cardi B collaborated on the song “Twerk,” City Girls found themselves in a war of words with fans on Twitter shortly after a video dropped for another Cardi B collaboration: “WAP,” between her and Megan Thee Stallion. Some people online accused City Girls of not showing support for it. JT clarified: “We was not talking about any artist in specific. I was talking about those fan pages.” It seemed like she was clearing up the rumors. However, that was not the end of it.

The recent Twitter fight involves Nicki Minaj’s new remix of her single “Super Freaky Girl (QueenMix)” featuring JT and other female rappers, as well as Cardi’s new remix of a viral GloRilla song called “Tomorrow 2.” They came out around the same time and one person pointed out the difference in success for both of the songs. JT quoted it, writing, “im not like that at alllll I been doing remixes & never got credited ON A CHART BUT they get sung word for word and help push the original songs as intended unlike y’all well I can’t even say y’all cause you don’t rap,you TWEET! Congratulations Glo&stream FNF remix AND QUEENMIX.” Minaj responded by tweeting, “Go fetch.” JT then quoted it, writing, “Cardi you go fetch a real talent! We DM’ing why you come back here to put on a show for these KIDS?”

Though it looks like they’re just not meant to be friends, hopefully a truce is on the horizon.

By his incredibly lofty standards, Aaron Judge took his time hitting his 61st home run, and only produced one home run from September 20 through October 3. On Tuesday evening, Judge launched his American League record 62nd home run against the Texas Rangers and, in addition to the celebration of Yankees fans, college football observers are also throwing a party about the end of live television cut-ins.

The focus was largely on Judge but, with any momentous swing like that, there is always a scramble for the ball. Judge’s 61st home run ended up in the Toronto Blue Jays bullpen after a fan came up empty on a good chance to snag it, and folks were trying to position themselves for the best chance to catch No. 62. Tuesday’s eventual blast went over the wall and several people spotted what seemed to be a fan falling over the railing in pursuit of the ball.

However, it was later reported by Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News that the fan who went over the railing was removed from the building for seemingly attempting to jump over, acknowledging they did not suffer any injuries.

It will be interesting to see if this individual ends up going on the record about his pursuit. Still, it is a reminder that, when the monetary value of a baseball like this is in play, people will do strange things.

Aaron Judge officially stands alone atop the American League’s all-time home run list. After last going yard on Sept. 28 during a game against the Toronto Blue Jays to tie Roger Maris’ league record with 61 dingers in a single season, Judge went through his version of a mini-drought. But on Tuesday night during the second half of a double-header with the Texas Rangers, Judge stepped to the plate to lead off the game and made history.

The count stood 1-1 when Rangers pitcher Jesus Tincono tried to get an 88 mile-per-hour slider past Judge. That did not work, as Judge sat on the pitch and drove it deep into right field. It was a no-doubter from the moment it left his bat, and by the time he crossed home plate, Judge was greeted by those in his dugout.

It was the latest memorable moment in what has been one of the best seasons at the plate that we have seen by anyone in baseball history.

Of course, Judge has quite the way to go to reach the all-time single-season home run record of 73, set by Barry Bonds. Seeing as how the Yankees wrap up the regular season against the Rangers on Wednesday, well, that is probably not going to happen. But nevertheless, this is quite the moment for Judge and, also, college football fans (and broadcasters) who were getting annoyed at ESPN cutting into live shots of his at-bats as he chased 62.

There’s yet another new Trump tell-all, but this one has been spewing out more goodies than most. Confidence Man, from The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, has so far yielded dirt that’s more unflattering than damning. Most of the excerpts leaked before its release have been about Trump, but there’s a couple bits about Rudy Giuliani in there, too, including one about some really smelly poo. Another finds the vice president agreeing with one person’s unkind summation of the erstwhile “America’s Mayor.”

As per Insider, Haberman caught wind of a phonecall between Giuliani and then-Trump lawyer Justin Clark, who was with Trump and Mike Pence, after the 2020 election, during one of the recounts that were held in some states. Giuliani was not happy.

“No it’s all wrong,” Giuliani reportedly claimed. “We should stop the recount immediately.” Clark held steadfast, saying “is what it is.”

That made Giuliani flip out. “You’re lying to the president,” he yelled — to which Clark replied, “You’re a f*cking asshole.”

Trump himself then hung up the phone and ordered Clark to call Giuliani back and “make up.” But first Clark apologized to Pence, partly for cussing. But Pence was fine with it.

“There’s no reason to apologize when it’s the truth,” Pence reportedly told Clark.

While Clark supposedly apologized to the guy responsible for the Four Seasons and wine lady witness debacles, the next day Trump went and rewarding him, handing him the reins for the legal efforts to overturn the election. And the rest is history (i.e., they found nothing but continue to this day to assert the election was stolen anyway, all while Giuliani’s reputation and livelihood were destroyed). Clark, meanwhile, has gone and testified to the blockbuster Jan. 6 committee.

(Via Insider)

Saturday Night Live is back for it’s 48th season on NBC. The sketch comedy show has seen quite a few notable departures from its cast, including fan favorites in Pete Davidson, Melissa Villaseñor, Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon, and Kyle Mooney. But as they say, the show must go on and there are three new episodes in October. Here’s a quick breakdown of who the musical guests on SNL this month will be:

These Are Your Musical Guests For ‘SNL’ This Month

The first musical guest of the new SNL season is Kendrick Lamar. The Compton rapper appeared on this month’s first episode on October 1st, which was hosted by Top Gun: Maverick star Miles Teller. Kendrick performed a medley of “Rich Spirit” and “N95” as his first song and then played “Father Time” with Sampha for his second song. This was Kendrick’s third time appearing as the musical guest on SNL.

The October 8th episode will be hosted by Irish actor Brendan Gleeson and the musical guest is Willow. The daughter of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith is supporting her newest album, Copingmechanism, and the soaring pop punk star said that she’s “…just so grateful and so excited, but also sh*tting my pants, slightly.” This will be her second appearance on SNL this year after joining Camila Cabello five months ago to perform their song “Psychofreak.”

Finally, the October 15th episode of SNL will have the host playing double duty as the musical guest and it’s none other than Megan Thee Stallion. Judging by how Meg embraced her cameo on She Hulk: Attorney At Law last month, she’ll have no trouble singing and acting with the SNL cast.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

If you’ve been to a Costco in recent years, perhaps you’ve found yourself mesmerized by the robotic pizza sauce wheel in the food court. The way the pizza wheel spins as sauce gets squirted evenly onto the dough in a series of concentric circles is hypnotic. Well Jay-Z and his Marcy Venture Partners company are taking it a step further than just sauce. That’s because Jay-Z and the venture capital fund just became the lead investor in a new fully-robotic pizza making truck company called Stellar Pizza, to the tune of a $16.5 million Series A investment.

This is quite the leap of faith for the Brooklyn product and Jay-Z must really be sold on the quality of pizza being churned out by the Stellar Pizza bot, which was designed by SpaceX engineers. Orders are place through an app, the pizza truck robot receives it, makes the entire pizza toppings and all, and a human cuts and boxes the pie, all in about five minutes, according to Rolling Stone. Prices are said to cost $7 for cheese and $8 for pepperoni.

Stellar is based in Los Angeles and their website says that the company is, “Launching in Fall 2022.” It looks as though they’re targeting the college crowd for starters, as one of the Stellar Pizza Trucks will be debuting on the USC campus over Halloween weekend.

Marcy Venture Partners is beginning to build it’s investment portfolio. Last year, the company invested in NFT marketplace Bitski, and also claims Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty lingeries line as one of its investments.

As you may recall, Will Smith had a kind of bumpy night at this year’s Oscars. On one hand, he won his first Academy Award. On the other, he did so less than a half hour after slapping presenter Chris Rock on live television. Since then, his career has been in freefall. Projects were cancelled, he was suspended from attending the show for a decade, and his reputation has been perhaps permanently destroyed. (Also, there have been likely copycat attacks.) Before he slapped, though, Smith made a movie that could be considered Oscar bait. But when asked, a random group of Oscar voters were violently split about whether they’d fête him again.

The Hollywood Reporter spoke to dozens of members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, to see if they’d theoretically nominate Smith for Emancipation, in which he plays a runaway slave. Everyone — from actors to executives to publicists and so on — condemned Smith’s actions, but some were open-minded.

“I would consider voting for him if he is great in something,” one person — who, like most of them, remained anonymous — said. “If Will Smith’s performance is the best, he should win,” said another. One person put it bluntly: “Here we go again, art versus antics. If the work is great, then acknowledge it. Even if the artist is a moron.”

Others thought it was too soon, saying that “more time should go by before Will Smith is considered for any award.”

A number of people were adamant that Smith not be recognized by the Academy, with people saying things like, “Not a chance,” ““Heavy sigh. No chance I would vote for him” or “Nominating Will Smith would be a slap in the face to the Academy.” One person wrote, “NO F*CKING WAY,” adding that his “shameful violent outburst and pathetic sniveling ‘acceptance’ diatribe witnessed by millions — and his blatant disrespect of the Academy — should preclude him from any consideration and reward from AMPAS members for life.” (That person, producers. Branch member Lawrence David Foldes, did use his name.)

Among the most common response was that they wouldn’t vote for Smith while arguing that the film — which featured the hard work of lots of people who didn’t slap Chris Rock — deserves to be seen. “No chance I would vote for him. However, I support the release of Emancipation,” one person said. Said another, “Hundreds of people worked on that film, and they shouldn’t be penalized.”

One person had a game plan: “I hope the members of the Academy stick to their guns and ignore any award consideration for Mr. Smith. But I don’t think they should overlook all the other hard-working and talented people associated with the film. Just punish Mr. Smith.”

Emancipation, which had its first screening last weekend, will hit limited theaters on December 2. It will land on Apple TV+ a week later, on December 9.

You can read more responses over at THR.