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Well, cowa-freaking-bunga. Seth Rogen just teased his new TMNT movie with four turtle emojis, a radical poster, and some creepy ooze draining into the sewer. The CGI-animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is set to be in theaters August 4, 2023.

Obviously that’s exactly a year until the premiere date, but it’s also only a day away from the release of the Netflix-bound Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie. Put that together with the release of the fantastic Shredder’s Revenge video game in June, and it’s shaping up to be a heck of a Hot Turtle Summer.

That’s not even mentioning the potentially-some-day live-action movie that Paramount and Michael Bay are still dedicated to making a reality.

Mutant Mayhem is being directed by animation veteran Jeff Rowe (Mitchells vs The Machines), but there are no other details about it at this point, including plot, casting, or the vibe they’re going for. Our only real clue for what the project might be like comes from its screenwriters: Lindsey Beer (Chaos Walking and the upcoming Pet Sematary adaptation), who wrote the original draft, and Brendan O’Brien, the current scribe who wrote Neighbors, The House, and Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. In other words: irreverent and silly with opportunities for Zac Efron to take his shirt off.

But which turtle will Rogen voice? I hope it’s all of them.

After perfectly capturing the zeitgeist when he said, “I hate people individually, but I love mankind,” Larry David closed out the last season of Curb Your Enthusiasm by falling into a pool and pissing off national hero Alexander Vindman. It turns out that Larry wasn’t meant to leave the season alive.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Jeff Schaffer revealed that he thought the 11th season would be their last, and they planned the final shot accordingly.

“So Larry kept falling into that pool without the fence and banging his head [for the scene],” Schaffer said. “We actually have a shot after he’d fallen in, of the still pool with just the envelope floating in the middle, and maybe adding one bubble. . . We shot as if it was going to be the last one ever. I had to at least prepare for it.”

Fortunately, David, who jokes that he’s completely out of ideas by the end of every season, has some thoughts about a 12th and told Schaffer that he’s not ready to die. It also doesn’t mean that the series won’t end with Larry’s death, as Schaffer rejected the idea of always having a new death scene in the bag just in case.

What is in the bag for next season? More Young Larry! Rejoice. And maybe if we’re lucky, a reenactment of Larry screaming at “disgusting” lawyer Alan Dershowitz on Martha’s Vineyard.

(via The Hollywood Reporter)

YouTube is in some hot water after a lawsuit was filed by Pirate Monitor. Composer Maria Schneider claims the platform plays favorites when it comes to permitting powerful copyright owners to block or monetize unauthorized uses of their content, but the same does not apply to “ordinary owners.” YouTube claimed the lawsuit was inaccurate and inadequate evidence was provided, in the hopes the case would be thrown out. Sadly, Judge James Donato did not oblige.

Donato describes YouTube’s arguments as “unavailing” and “not well taken.” Thus, the case goes on. On a larger scale, this affects far more than just Pirate Monitor and Schneider. The composer says the application forces songwriters and rights holders of similar stature to endure an arduous process in order to monitor infringement. As a result, some offenders slip through the cracks.

YouTube believes they have done nothing wrong, citing over $100 million spent on developing “industry-leading tools” to hinder piracy and even countersued Pirate Monitor last year for deceptive behavior used to gain access to Content ID. While that is a whole other case in itself, with a rejected motion to dismiss in the initial case, this process will go on with major ramifications for all YouTube creators, composers, etc.

There is currently no comment from YouTube’s parent company Alphabet.

A Lollapalooza security guard who reportedly gave her supervisor a false threat of a mass shooting because she “wanted to leave work early” is now being prosecuted in Chicago.

Janya Williams reportedly sent a text message to her supervisor via a smartphone app called TextNow, reading “Mass shooting at 4pm location Lollapalooza. We have 150 targets,” according to court documents obtained by Billboard.

The documents also noted that Williams, 18, allegedly fabricated a Facebook post, reading, “Massive shooting at Lollapalooza Grant Park 6:00 p.m.,” which she screenshotted and forwarded to her supervisor.

The posts and texts were reported to FBI investigators, who quickly traced them back to Williams. When interogated by FBI investigators, Williams admitted that she “sent the message and created the fake post because she wanted to leave work early.” She was arrested Sunday (July 31) and is currently facing a charge for making a false terrorsitic threat. On the same day, a hearing took place, in which a judge set a bail of $50,000. At the time of Billboard‘s reporting, it was unknown whether Williams posted bail or remained in custody.

During Lollapalooza, no delays or cancellations due to terroristic threats were put in place. Over 100,000 attendees were present at the festival at each of its four days.

Earlier today (August 4) Lady Gaga confirmed the rumors that had been swirling since June, revealing that she will appear in Joker: Folie à Deux. In a tweet, the “Poker Face” artist shared a teaser video alluding to Joker, played by Joaquin Phoenix, and then Gaga’s silhouette. The video closed with the release date, October 4 2024, and with a significant wait until that day comes, the fans have been in a frenzy wondering who she will play.

Some people are confident she will take on the big shoes of Harley Quinn’s role, last played by Margot Robbie. Others immediately dug in their media libraries to find the funniest videos to match hilarious captions about Gaga’s first day on set or having to jump into chemicals. One fan simply marvelled at how Gaga will go from a tour to filming the movie, and what it says about her career.

Lady Gaga joins an elite list of musicians starring in major films, and the pressure is on for such a popular series as Joker. Fortunately, she’s got some previous acting experience having appeared in A Star Is Born, House Of Gucci, and two iteratitons of American Horror Story.

Check out fans reacting to Lady Gaga’s announcement above.

Rappers Mase and Cam’ron have appeared to settled their beef — one that has lasted for over two decades. In an Instagram video shared by Mase’s sister, Stason, Mase is seen calling Cam’ron on the phone.

“Killa, what’s good?” says Mase. He later jokingly asks “Where’s Mr. Petty at these days?,” referring to Cam’ron’s 2017 diss track “Dinner Time,” targeted toward Mase, on which he says, “You done opened up a door, I’m petty, ready for war.”

Stason captured the video, saying, “Ok now @rsvpmase and @mr_camron I DEFINITELY DID NOT SEE THIS COMING but I’m here for it!!!! Smh y’all gotta stop with this nonsense or I’m swinging on both of y’all!!!”

Their beef began back in 1999, when Mase relocated from New York City to ATL, which was rumored to be due to an ongoing beef with a Harlem street figure named Baby Maine. Around that time is when he retired from rap to become a pastor. He returned to hip-hop in 2004, with a single called “Welcome Back.” During an appearance on Hot 97 in July 2004, Mase explained why he left hip-hop, and Jim Jones and Cam’ron called into the radio station, questioning the legitimacy of his story and calling him a fraud.

Now, the beef seems to be over for good, as Stason’s video was hashtagged with the tags, “#The2KingsOfPetty, #WhenMenGrowUp, #ILoveIt, #Mase and #Cam.”

The 2022 campaign has been unkind to the Los Angeles Angels. After an encouraging 27-17 season that brought real optimism to the fan base, the Angels utterly cratered, prompting the team to sell key pieces at the trade deadline. On Thursday, the Angels suffered another loss and, in keeping with a recent meme including the club’s wild statistical performances in defeat, Los Angeles lost by an 8-7 margin despite hitting seven home runs against Oakland Athletics.

Headlining the group was, as often, Shohei Ohtani and his two home runs on the evening.

Ohtani and the currently injured Mike Trout are two of the best players in baseball but, simply put, the Angels have not provided that dynamic pairing with enough support to produce real success. That point was driven home yet again on Thursday with real history being made by Los Angeles, including the Angels becoming the first team in history to hit seven solo home runs and provide nothing else on the scoreboard.

In addition, this is only the sixth time in the very lengthy history of Major League Baseball that a club blasted seven home runs and lost.

Overall, the 61st loss of the season for the Angels won’t have tremendous impact, especially since it came against another struggling club in the A’s. However, the wild stat lines just keep coming for Los Angeles, and it is wild to see.

Next summer, HBO Max and Discovery+ will be smushed together to form a single streaming service. They don’t have a name for it yet, but today’s Warner Bros. Discovery presentation said HBO Max had a “male skew” and Discovery+ had a “female” one, so the nameless 2023-set marriage is safe from the Supreme Court for now.

Leaving aside the WTF nature of that labeling and whatever “genredoms” are, this is a pretty big gamble that Warner Bros. Discovery is treating like the natural evolution of corporate number-crunching. They didn’t reveal what the price point would be for the service (which I’m calling DiscHBOvery+ for the time being), and WBD is aiming to boost the services’ combined subscriber numbers from around 92 million to 130 million by 2025.

At the same time, CEO David Zaslav was explicit in the company’s focus on theatrical releases for their films, which was part of the reasoning to shelve Batgirl; they didn’t feel it would do well in theaters and didn’t want to put something that’s supposed to be “big” directly onto a streamer. The new HBO Max Discovery + hybrid will maintain the ad-lite and ad-free subscription models, but it’s unclear what strategy the company is employing to bring so many new subscribers to the behemoth combined service or what kinds of exclusive deals and originals will survive the culling process.

To put it plainly, they have an ambitious goal, but there’s nothing unique about these services beyond the specific titles they have (which is the same thing every streaming service boasts).

Luckily, Warner Bros. Discovery executives have us covered with a clear explanation:

(via Variety)

An iconic New Orleans event will not return next year. BUKU announced that the festival is not set to take place in 2023, despite receiving much anticipation. Though organizers didn’t cite any specific reasons for the cancellation, like the ongoing COVID-19 and Monkeypox pandemics, a statement indicated that in order to continue, a hiatus was necessary.

“From day one, BUKU was created to be something different… a gritty yet colorful event celebrating the progressive subculture of New Orleans,” said BUKU organizers in a statement. “It became a homecoming for the most amazing bunch of beautiful weirdos ever assembled and in 10 years we accomplished exactly what we set out to do: we created a community… a community that truly matters. But times are changing… and the current model of BUKU needs to take a break. For a myriad of reasons, we’ve decided that the festival will not take place in March 2023. We don’t know exactly what the future will look like – and that’s okay as there is freedom in the unknown– but we know that we will gather again someday, in some form, bursting with creativity and purpose.”

Organizers also confirmed that “This isn’t ‘goodbye’ – this is ‘see y’all down the road,’” for the festival, and encouraged festival-goers to keep visiting New Orleans and creating art.

After saving a few million dollars by not letting anyone see the Leslie Grace-led Batgirl, Warner Bros. Discovery has decided that Marvel might have been onto something with their whole superhero thing. Merger mastermind and CEO of the blended behemoth companies David Zaslav announced on an earnings call that the media corporation is pressing the reset button on their biggest superhero properties, cribbing straight from Marvel’s notes with a 10-year vision to build a cinematic universe worthy of Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, and more.

“It’s very similar to the structure that Alan Horn and Bob Iger put together very effectively with Kevin Feige at Disney,” Zaslav said. “We think that we could build a long-term, much stronger, sustainable growth business out of DC and as part of that, we’re gonna focus on quality.”

Thank goodness they’re going to focus on quality.

Cutting through the business jargon, you’ve got to give Zaslav at least a little credit for being upfront about copying Marvel’s wildly successful model of introducing characters, weaving them into each other’s movies, and then teaming them up for a major event. Granted, that’s also not specifically what he said, but it’s what we can hope he means. Plus, Warner Bros. and DC have been down this path before, convinced that Zack Snyder was shepherding a cohesive expanded universe that never felt connected.

The looming question is how big of a reset this really is. With Wonder Woman and Aquaman‘s popularity, can you really fully clear the slate? Will they recast the major heroes and genuinely start fresh? Or will it be a Frankenstein’s monster vibe where Gal Gadot and Jason Momoa buddy up with a brand new Batman and Supes? And how can we make sense of a cohesive DC universe when Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga are making Joker movies while Robert Pattinson’s Batman is somehow outside the greater DC continuity?

A pure reset is a pipe dream. The challenge, then, will be how to replicate Marvel’s technical schematics while already up in the air.

(via The Wrap)