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The last five Palme d’Or winners at the Cannes Film Festival have gone to Neon movies: Parasite (which also won Best Picture at the Oscars), Titane, Triangle of Sadness, Anatomy of a Fall, and most recently, Anora.

The film has been praised by critics for its remarkable performance from Mikey Madison, who you know from FX’s Better Things and as one of the Manson Family followers in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and writer and director Sean Baker’s funny-yet-earnest script. (This should not be a surprise to anyone who has seen his other movies, like Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket.)

Here’s everything to know about Anora, one of the must-see films of the fall, including plot details and when it’s coming to theaters.

Plot

Let’s begin with the official plot synopsis, courtesy of Neon: “Anora, a young sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.” Based on the trailer, you will be charmed.

Mikey Madison was offered the lead role as Anora without even auditioning. That’s how much Sean Baker loved her performances in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Scream. “I said ‘yes’ even before I read the script,” she told The Cut. “I knew whatever he created was something I would want to be a part of.” Her preparation to play Anora included talking to “multiple consultants, sex workers, read memoirs, anything that I could do. I went to strip clubs and watched women in Los Angeles… That sounds creepy.”

Sex work is a common theme in Baker’s films, and Anora is no exception. “There’s a million stories to be told in the world of sex workers… It’s livelihood, it’s a career, it’s a job and it’s one that should be respected,” he shared to The Hollywood Reporter. “In my opinion, it should be decriminalized and not in any way regulated because it is a sex worker’s body and it is up to them to decide how they will use it in their livelihood.”

Cast

Outside of Mikey Madison, Anora also stars Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, and Aleksei Serebryakov.

Eydelshteyn, the 22-year-old actor who plays Ivan, the son of a Russian oligarch who impulsively marries Anora, has apparently been dubbed the “Russian Timothée Chalamet” (I can see it). “For me, it’s a mind-blowing situation, because in Russian people are saying I’m a Russian Timothée Chalamet and now you’re saying it in English. It’s crazy, it’s like a joke that has gone out of control,” he told Variety about the comparison. “It did become a little annoying, but then I watched Dune, and now I think he’s probably one of the best actors of my generation. Him and Barry Keoghan.”

Release Date

Anora hits theaters on October 18, the same weekend as Flight Risk. Please go see Anora instead of the Mel Gibson movie.

Trailer

Below, you can find the trailer for Anora.

Sabrina Carpenter’s album Short N’ Sweet barely managed to edge out Travis Scott’s tape Days Before Rodeo on this week’s edition of the Billboard 200 chart, earning the approval of Nicki Minaj.

The recording industry can be a competitive business, but no one takes that competition more seriously than Nicki and her minions. And while she’s usually the one in the lead on any given release week, she apparently still considers her No. 2 debut for Queen in 2018 a black spot on her record because of Travis Scott’s Astroworld. Nicki has clearly been out for revenge ever since, and this past week, she finally got it, in a way, thanks to Sabrina Carpenter. Nicki thanked Carpenter for avenging her by sending her a massive bouquet of white roses. Carpenter posted a photo of the bouquet on her Instagram Story with a caption reading, “I adore u + the barbz :’) this is so thoughtful!!!! and these are so beautiful.”

Carpenter took up the challenge of putting Travis in his place when the release dates for their respective projects — her album Short N’ Sweet and his mixtape Days Before Rodeo — fell on the same day. “This one’s for Nicki,” she wrote on Twitter, reminding fans of Nicki’s 2018 feud with the Houston rapper for outselling her by skirting Billboard‘s counting rules (she did the same, but that’s neither here nor there for Nicki. If she wins, it’s because she’s the best; if she loses, there was a conspiracy rife with chicanery to keep her from her deserved success). Nicki clearly appreciates the thought.

In the parlance of Neil Young albums, “Ditch” refers to the trilogy of records he put out in the mid-1970s after the success of 1972’s Harvest and Neil’s star-making turn in Crosby, Stills, Nash, And Young. According to well-worn legend, these albums — 1973’s Time Fades Away, 1974’s On The Beach, and 1975’s Tonight’s The Night — represent Young’s rebellion against fame and mark an aggressive turn away from mainstream accessibility.

Here’s the problem: In the parlance of public esteem, those records endure as some of the most beloved music in Neil Young’s discography. You would have to look long and hard to find any Neil fan who believes that On The Beach and Tonight’s The Night are provocative or alienating. If anything, they are now considered entry points for newcomers into the man’s work.

I would argue that if we are talking about the actual “Ditch” in Neil Young’s career, you have to look one decade later, to the mid-’80s. At that time, Neil was battling crises on multiple fronts. He was pushing 40. His record sales had fallen off a cliff. The head of his label, David Geffen, was openly hostile to his new material. Not even music critics — usually a reliable base of support — could make sense of his idiosyncratic artistic whims. He appeared to be flailing, moving from one misbegotten experiment to the next. Synth-rocker one year, country traditionalist the next, rockabilly cat the year after that.

With the benefit of historical hindsight, we know that Neil Young pulled out of this tailspin by the end of the ’80s, and in the ’90s he enjoyed renewed popularity and cultural relevance. But in the moment, it must have seemed as though the icon had, well, lost his damn mind.

The most intriguing aspect of Neil Young Archives, Vol. III: 1976-1987 — a massive box set composed of 17 CDs (plus five Blu-Rays containing 11 films in the deluxe edition) — is that it’s not necessarily designed to dissuade you from questioning the sanity of ’80s Neil. On the contrary, it takes a warts and all approach to his most polarizing era, encouraging fans to revisit albums they might have dismissed years ago without quite making the case that they’re “secretly great.” There are gems buried in the mix, but there’s also plenty of misfires that will register as either fascinating or tedious, depending on your level of Neil fandom. (Who are we kidding — if you care about this box set, you are definitely a fanatic.)

To be sure, there are also some unequivocal triumphs contained here: The box covers the making of American Stars N’ Bars, Comes A Time, and the monumental Rust Never Sleeps. And it also has glimmers of the comeback that commenced with Freedom in 1989. But for the most part, Archives, Vol. III covers the stretch of time in Neil’s artistic life — ages 31 to 42 — when he teetered on the brink of permanent has-been-ism.

As always, Neil’s lack of vanity sets him apart from his peers. Unlike Bob Dylan, who seems utterly uninterested in his own voluminous vaults and leaves the reissue business to his dedicated team, Neil has always been hands-on with his archives. And that seems doubly true of Archives, Vol. III, which is accented with brief “raps” where Neil gives sparse details about the sessions compiled on each disc. (It sounds like he’s talking into a tape recorder in a remote log cabin.) But the biggest revelation of the box are the films, directed by Young under the “Bernard Shakey” pseudonym. Some of these movies have been fitfully available before going out of print, while others have never been distributed. Together they form a portrait of a great man losing his grip on greatness right before he regained it.

With a box this large, it might be hard to know where to start. With that in mind, I’ve created a listening and viewing guide with three tiers. Of course, Neil would likely disparage this approach. Why stay on the road someone made for you when you can just head for the ditch?

Tier 1: The Essentials

A lot of the music on Archives, Vol. III is either an acquired taste or of interest only to the most serious (or perverse) Neil heads. Across The Water is the exception. The double album and corresponding concert film document Neil’s world tour with Crazy Horse in 1976, with stops in London, Glasgow, and Tokyo. Can I interest you in live versions of “Cortez The Killer” and “Down By The River” culled from the mid-’70s, when this all-time world-class badass rock band was at the zenith of their powers? I thought so. (If Neil were only about showcasing his greatest music, we would have an entire box set focused solely on this tour by now.)

As for the film, it surely is the best-looking live footage of the Horse from this era in general circulation. The music is interspersed with fly-on-the-wall, cinema verité clips that emphasize the dullness of backstage life, as was the norm for “on tour” rock docs post-Don’t Look Back. And yet, for diehards, there might be something mesmerizing about watching Eliot Roberts take what feels like 20 minutes to order an elegantly extravagant breakfast from hotel room service. And it is definitely a blast watching the guys enjoy a post-show joint after blazing through an epic “Like A Hurricane” for a room full of reverent Scottish hippies.

In 1978, Neil commenced another legendary series of shows at San Francisco’s Boarding House, a tiny club with a capacity fewer than 300 people. Unlike the iconic stoner persona he adopted for the ’76 tour — and revived off and on countless times after — he cut a relatively clean-cut figure at these solo gigs. His short hair was a sign of allegiance with punk-rock, as was his emerging partnership with Ohio social deconstructionists Devo, who snuck off with Neil to record an anarchic version of one of his latest songs, “Hey, Hey, My, My (Into The Black).” You hear that take on the second of two Boarding House discs, which otherwise concentrate on Neil’s uniformly stunning acoustic performances. (The accompanying film is somewhat static as a cinematic experience, but still required viewing as an adjunct to the albums.)

In the late ’70s, Neil worked on two movies — the first was Rust Never Sleeps, rightly regarded as one of the great concert films, capturing Neil by himself and with Crazy Horse. The second was Human Highway, which was one of the oddest projects of his career — a largely improvised slapstick comedy about the downsides of capitalism and the dangers of nuclear apocalypse featuring a shockingly committed performance by Young as a Jerry Lewis-esque auto mechanic. Co-starring the members of Devo and some of Neil’s old running mates from the Laurel Canyon days — Dean Stockwell (credited as co-director), Dennis Hopper, and Russ Tamblyn — Human Highway hangs together surprisingly well and benefits greatly from the cinematography of David Myers, an Oscar winner for shooting Woodstock whose other credits include The Last Waltz and Wattstax as well as George Lucas’ feature-length debut, THX-138. The final result feels like a precursor to ’80s “outsider” cult classics like Repo Man, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, and Blue Velvet.

Human Highway was not released in theaters until 1982, a truly bonkers year for Neil Young and one of the craziest years ever for any major rock star. Neil’s original plan that year was to put out Island In The Sun, a collection of breezy, synth-accented love songs recorded in Hawaii with members of Crazy Horse, Buffalo Springfield, and long-time buddies like Ben Keith and Joe Lala. But when David Geffen heard the record, he insisted that Neil go back to the drawing board and come up with something better.

If only Geffen knew what Neil had up his sleeve. Taken on its own terms, Island In The Sun (rechristened here as Johnny’s Island) is a charming (if also inconsequential) record. It’s not Neil’s best work by any means, but in 2024 it sounds more contemporary than any of the records he actually put out in this period. A yacht-rock pastiche made with acoustic guitars and cheap keyboards, it resembles any number of indie singer-songwriter records coming out of Brooklyn or Philadelphia in the past 10 years.

Instead, 1982 became the year of Trans, Young’s heartfelt attempt to merge his music with synthesizers as an allegory for the communication struggles he was experiencing with his young son Ben, who was recently diagnosed with cerebral palsy. While it was eventually reassessed in later years as an artistically brave detour, at the time Trans rankled critics and mystified fans. On the road, Young tried awkwardly to integrate the new material into a setlist still rounded out by the likes of “Heart Of Gold” and “Helpless.” Hopped up with ambition after seeing The Rolling Stones on the Tattoo You tour, he aspired to a similarly large-scale show and poured a fortune into tour production. But unlike the Stones, he wasn’t just sticking with the hits, he was also playing some of the least Neil Young-like music of his career. The hostile crowds drove the members of his backing band to pre-show drinking and drugging just to gin up the courage to get on stage. This naturally further incensed Neil, who wound up losing $750,000 on the shows.

Two films from Archives, Vol. III depict this era: Berlin finds Neil and his band performing in the titular city with something approaching professionalism. Highlights include a deeply strange and theatrical take on “Transformer Man,” in which Neil stalks the stage sans guitar while Nils Lofgren (who more than earned his paychecks for this tour) does what can only be described as an interpretive dance in the background; and the rarely performed song “Berlin,” which was abandoned after this era but nonetheless stands out as a spooky, noirish rocker. And then there’s the Hal Ashby-directed Solo Trans, a missive from the stateside tour that includes a mock TV reporter doing backstage athlete-style interviews throughout the show. It culminates with a preview of Neil’s Elvis-inspired Everybody’s Rockin’ guise with yet another backing band, The Shocking Pinks, which must have confused the already befuddled audience even more.

The multi-media elements of Solo Trans carried over to In A Rusted Out Garage, a concert film that originated as a pay-per-view simulcast from the close of Neil’s 1986 tour with Crazy Horse. Once again, the on-stage action is interrupted by a smarmy newscaster, this time dubbed Dan Clear. More importantly, Young was sounding more like himself than he had in years. These shows eventually produced 1987’s Life, Young’s most underrated album of the decade, which bridged the experimentation of the Trans period with the mid-career comeback signaled by Freedom. On In A Rusted Out Garage, this results in some bizarre juxtapositions — on one song, Neil storms the stage decked out in sleeveless flannel while stomping through “Cinnamon Girl,” and on the next tune Billy Talbot rolls up with a keytar.

The dark underbelly of In A Rusted Out Garage is Muddy Track, a truly singular gonzo document of the 1986-87 European leg of the Crazy Horse tour. Shot in part by Young himself on a video camera — he calls his handheld device “Otto” — Muddy Track unfurls one “bad vibes” vignette after another, with shows plagued by bad weather, low ticket sales, and the creeping sense that Neil is over the hill and past his prime. When the band screws up a song — given this is Crazy Horse, the screw ups are plentiful — we see an irate Neil cursing out the musicians. Whether this is real or staged is open to question; Neil seems predetermined to show the tour in a bad light. (As he gleefully instructs one camera operator, “Anything that’s bad happens, keep rolling.”) It’s a rough but riveting watch, playing like a cathartic, self-imposed bottoming-out at the heart of the Reagan era.

In that context, Summer Songs feels like a ray of light. Recorded in 1987, these demos were later reworked as album tracks for the so-so Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young comeback record American Dream as well as Freedom. In the case of the latter record, songs like “Someday” and “Wrecking Ball” actually sound better in stripped-back form on Summer Songs, positively sparkling as spare piano ballads. In the seeds of these tracks lie the next great artistic outburst of Young’s career.

Tier 2: Worthy Listens

Of all Neil Young’s musical collaborators, Nicolette Larson ranks among the most unjustly overlooked. In the late ’70s, she was Neil’s duet partner on American Stars N’ Bars and Comes A Time, and she even brought him back into the U.S. Top 10 with her cover of “Lotta Love.” But Larson drifted from Young’s orbit after that, and later died at the tragically young age of 45 in 1997.

Fortunately, Larson is well represented on Archives, Vol. III. She first appears on Snapshot In Time, an extraordinarily intimate live album from 1977 literally recorded at Linda Ronstadt’s kitchen table in Malibu. Ronstadt was among the people who recommended Larson to Young, and on this album you can hear him introducing songs like “Hold Back The Tears” and “Star Of Bethlehem” and the spontaneous harmonies they contribute. Later on, Larson returns on Union Hall, another circa ’77 live release covering rehearsals with a battalion of Nashville studio musicians dubbed The Gone With The Wind Orchestra. Highlights include lovably ragged versions of classics and deep cuts like “Are You Ready For The Country?” and “The Losing End (When You’re On).” The trifecta of Neil Young country records from 1977 is completed with Oceanside Countryside, culled from sessions in which Neil ran through songs mostly by himself that ended up on Comes A Time and Rust Never Sleeps.

Let’s pivot from the sublime to the ridiculous: Evolution charts Neil’s ’83-’84 years, with a sizeable (too big?) chunk reserved for previously released material from Everybody’s Rockin’. As for the unreleased songs, many of them utilize soon-to-be-obsolete technology, in mostly clunky but nonetheless compelling fashion. “Razor Love,” officially released 20 years later as a gentle country-folk number on 2004’s Silver & Gold, is presented here in a radically different form as a synth-rock ballad.

Neil treads more familiar ground on Touch The Night, which samples live selections from a brief run with Crazy Horse at the Catalyst nightclub in Santa Cruz. (The corresponding concert film Catalyst is appropriately ragged and grainy.) In the set, Neil and the Horse capably perform crowd-pleasers like “Barstool Blues” and “Welfare Mothers” but mostly stick to dunderheaded new material that strains to keep up with the era’s hard-rockin’ headbangers. (The first song is literally called “Rock.”) A more satisfying sample of live Neil from this period is Grey Riders, a document of his Old Ways era band The International Harvesters, with songs previously released on the archive LP A Treasure mixed with more Old Ways live material and country standards. (Meanwhile the concert film A Treasure relies on fleeting, choppy, and mostly incomplete live clips, and is largely unwatchable.)

Tier 3: Take Your Time

Followers of the Archives series are aware that Neil likes to repackage previously released material with music from the vaults. The positive way to spin this is that Neil is “remixing” his albums and creating something new. (I would argue he did this with the Dume disc from Vol. II, which remakes one of my favorite Neil albums, Zuma, and possibly improves upon it.) The negative spin is that Neil is making you repurchase music you already own.

Either way, there is a fair amount of this on Archives, Vol. III, which may or may not be a problem depending on how closely you keep up with past archival releases. (Some of the music is pretty great, but this designation is based on volume of familiar material, not quality.) This applies to Hitchhikin’ Judy (which draws largely from Hitchhiker and Songs For Judy), Windward Passage (composed mostly of songs from the live LP High Flyin,’ with his side project band The Ducks), Sedan Delivery (Live Rust and Rust Never Sleeps), Coastline (Hawks & Doves and RE-AC-TOR), and Road Of Plenty (Landing On Water).

Sadly, Rich Homie Quan died at just 34 years old yesterday (September 5). The heartbreaking passing has hip-hop fans and acts in deep mourning over the mixtape legend.

Now, Rich Homie Quan’s untimely death is bringing the late “Spin” rapper’s former collaborators back together. Yesterday, former Migos members Quavo and Offset revealed that have seemingly ended their tension-fueled feud, as Rich Homie Quan’s passing sparked a conversation between them.

Quavo reflected on the calamities Atlanta’s biggest hip-hop figures have faced (viewable here) in his Instagram Stories. “May God be with us. Never saw this being apart of our journey,” he wrote reflecting on Young Thug’s incarceration and Takeoff’s and Rich Homie Quan’s deaths.

In another upload (captured by The Shade Room), Quavo shared an update regarding the pair’s relationship, writing: “Good convo with my bro.”

At the end of the upload, Quavo tagged Offset as he used his song “Nothing Changed” with the late Takeoff to seal the deal. During the 2023 BET Awards, the pair performed a touching tribute to Takeoff. However, rumors claimed the pair were not in the best place.

Fans even cited several bars Quavo that rapped on his album, Rocket Power, to back the reports.

But in April, Offset silenced the whispers by publicly wishing Quavo a happy birthday, writing: “Happy gday my brother @quavohuncho love you 4L (or for life).”

With Quavo’s recent Instagram Stories post, it is abundantly clear that the two have mended their relationship. Although fans will probably never get another Migos album, at least they can rest assured knowing the surviving members are reunited in another way.

In the past year, Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney, and Bruce Springsteen have all become the billionaires. The latest member of the club: Selena Gomez.

Bloomberg reports that the singer and actress is one of the youngest female self-made billionaires in the United States. Of her estimated $1.3 billion net worth, over 80 percent — roughly $1.1 billion — comes from her Rare Beauty brand. But Gomez is also making money from her “brand partnerships, acting deals, and a mental-health startup, an array that should help ensure wealth longevity should she ever decide to stay away from the public eye.”

I know I’ve personally contributed to her fortune by streaming Selena Gomez & the Scene’s “Kiss & Tell” every week for the past decade.

“Selena is not just a pop star,” Hollywood Branded founder Stacy Jones said. “She’s a multifaceted businesswoman with diverse income streams contributing to her impressive net worth.” Carolyn Sloane, a professor at University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy, added, “It’s smart that she’s kind of created a career that’s not so dependent on music being a big part of the financial piece.”

Gomez’s career also includes roles in Only Murders In The Building, which just returned for season 4, and Cannes Film Festival sensation Emilia Pérez. She’s involved with the Wizards Of Waverly Place sequel series, as well.

Robert Eggers is known for his compelling and often disturbing horror films, but it turns out that that just runs in his family. Sam and Max Eggers, Robert’s two brothers, are venturing into horror with The Front Room, a new creepy tale from A24, the leader in creepy tales.

The Front Room is adapted from a short story by Susan Hill, who also penned The Woman In Black amongst other harrowing horror stories. It also marks the return of Brandy to horror movies after her performance in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. Maybe Osgood Perkins will invite her to join his next story if this goes well.

Here is everything to know about The Front Room.

Plot

The story follows Belinda and Norman, a young couple with a child on the way, who are asked to take in Norman’s mother Solange. Norman is hesitant at first, warning Belinda of his mother’s religious affiliations and offensive outbursts, but after Solange offers money, the duo have no choice but to take her in. Suddenly Solange has a keen interest in the unborn child, and nothing will get in her way.

It’s got your classic A24 horror tropes: creepy house, some light cult activity and an unsettling old woman. It’s a recipe for success! It’s also personal for the Eggers twins. Max explained to Script Mag, “The subject matter was something we’d lived through ourselves. Taking care of someone as they declined. We took care of our grandfather as he declined. When the story was presented to us through Lucan Toh and Babak Anvari, we knew exactly what to do with it. How to make it personal. How to enlarge it. Taking care of someone, as Susan Hill writes, and as you can see, is not easy.”

Cast

After a long acting hiatus, singer/actress Brandy is finally making her comeback as the film’s pregnant protagonist Belinda. The actress hadn’t taken many movie roles over the years, but she was excited by the emotional aspect of The Front Room. She told Screen Rant, “I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into when I first read the script. I knew it was a lot, and there was so much to it. It was all over the place emotionally” she revealed. Even though she was unsure at first, after meeting with the Eggers, she was on board. “But I didn’t know until I met Kathryn, and met Sam and Max, and Andrew Burnham, and what it was going to really be about, and being in the scenes and reacting, and really being on your toes as an actress.” Andrew Burnap plays Belinda’s husband, Norman.

Poor Things‘ Kathryn Hunter plays as Solange, Belinda’s mother-in-law who comes to visit and really makes herself at home. Hunter is known for her physical acting work, which she seems to put to good use in the film.

Release Date

The movie hits theaters on September 6th.

Trailer

Check out the trailer below:

The NFL is back, and the Kansas City Chiefs managed to squeak out a win over the Baltimore Ravens yesterday (September 5). Taylor Swift was in attendance to cheer Travis Kelce on, but what caught fans’ eyes was Swift’s outfit.

As Cosmopolitan notes, she was spotted wearing a pair of red thigh-high boots, with Swifties immediately noted are pretty darn similar to the ones she wore in 2017 in the video for her Reputation hit “Look What You Made Me Do.” So, the theory now is that Reputation (Taylor’s Version) is set to be announced soon and this outfit Easter egg was Swift’s subtle way of teasing it.

Worth noting is that this isn’t the first time fans have thought Swift was teasing Reputation (Taylor’s Version). Cosmopolitan points out, “Of course, we’ve been burned before. Like when Taylor showed up at the Grammys and everyone was convinced that (1) her entire outfit was a Reputation easter egg and (2) she’d announce Rep TV that night. But instead she one upped herself by announcing The Tortured Poets Department. Oh, and there was the time fans figured out that TTPD upside down is Irish for ‘Reputation’ and thought the announcement was coming during Tay’s Dublin shows.”

Swift spoke about the re-recorded album in her 2023 Time Person Of The Year interview, saying of revisiting the project, “It’s a goth-punk moment of female rage at being gaslit by an entire social structure [laughs]. I think a lot of people see it and they’re just like, ‘Sick snakes and strobe lights.’” She also promised the “From The Vault” tracks will be “fire.”

In 2012, The Hunger Games franchise introduced young adult audiences to the dystopian world of Panem, an alternate version of North America way in the future after society collapses, which might be sooner than we think after the sudden dissolution of Bennifer.

Suzanne Collins penned three novels in the original series, which became the massively successful movie franchise starring Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, and Josh Hutcherson. Once those movies had a significant cultural moment, Collins began working on the next generation of Hunger Games books with 2020’s The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (and the 2023 movie adaptation). Now she’s at it again with another prequel story, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. That novel is expected to hit shelves March 18th of next year.

Shortly after the fifth novel was announced, a movie adaptation was promised, and while we don’t even have the book yet, the theatrical version won’t be too far behind.

“From the beginning, Lionsgate has been a wonderful home and partner for the Hunger Games franchise, and I’m very excited to be collaborating with Adam and the team as we bring this next story to theaters in 2026,” Collins previously declared in a statement.

Here is everything to know so far about the upcoming reaping.

Plot

Stick with me here: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes takes place 64 years before Katniss’ storyline, while The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping will take place 24 years before Katniss’ own Games, so we will get to see what it was like during those in between years when Snow rose to power. Sunrise is expected to tell the story of Haymitch Abernathy, played by Woody Harrelson in the original trilogy, on the day of his own reaping. Haymitch was a tribute in the 50th Hunger Games, also known as The Second Quarter Quell. We know he wins his own games and goes onto help Katniss, but he was left traumatized before becoming a mentor.

Throughout the series, the Second Quarter Quell is often referred to as the most gruesome Hunger Games. In the Catching Fire novel, Haymitch details how he was able to win, so the novel and movie adaptation will likely follow the same (bloody and gruesome) storyline.

“The Second Quarter Quell is legendary and looms large over the history of the Games, even into the time of Katniss Everdeen a quarter-century later. Like fans around the globe, we are eagerly anticipating this exciting return to Panem,” read a statement from Lionsgate after the movie was first announced.

Since the novel and the movie were announced at the same time, it’s possible that Collins wrote the story with the big screen adaptation in mind, so it should be pretty faithful to the book. We’ll have a better grasp of plot points when as the book release moves closer.

Cast

Obviously, Woody Harrelson is a little too old to play a teen, but you never know how fare they might go with de-aging. For now, there has only been speculation regarding casting, since it is relatively early. Rumors have been swirling that Challengers star Mike Faist could be in the running, and fans have been quick to point out that he would be a little too old for the role, though that hasn’t stopped him before!

No other cast has been announced at this time. We know that there are 48 tributes, so there will probably be some good casting announcements to come, in addition to whoever will play a middle-aged President Snow.

Release Date

The movie is set for a November 20th, 2026 release date. The book will be released on March 18th, 2025.

Trailer

No trailer just yet, but you can take a look back at The Hunger Games just to jog your memory a bit.

Gracie Abrams announced a 2024 North American The Secret Of Us Tour this summer, and followed that with some added Europe and UK dates for 2025.

Well, the North American leg kicked off in Portland, Oregon last night (September 5), and the setlist (via setlist.fm) could serve as an indicator of what upcoming shows will look like.

As an Abrams fan account notes, Abrams is following in Taylor Swift’s footsteps by reserving one part of her set for a rotating surprise song. In Portland, the surprise song was “Right Now.”

Find the setlist and Abrams’ upcoming tour dates below.

Gracie Abrams’ The Secret Of Us Tour Setlist For 2024

1. “Felt Good About You”
2. “Risk”
3. “Blowing Smoke”
4. “21”
5. “I Love You, I’m Sorry”
6. “Where Do We Go Now?”
7. “Gave You I Gave You I”
8. “Mess It Up”
9. “Full Machine”
10. “Right Now”
11. “Good Luck Charlie”
12. “I Knew It, I Know You”
13. “I Know It Won’t Work”
14. “Friend”
15. “Normal Thing”
16. “Feels Like”
17. “Let It Happen”
18. “Tough Love”
19. “I Miss You, I’m Sorry”
20. “Free Now”
21. “Us” (encore)
22. “Close To You” (encore)

Gracie Abrams’ 2024 & 2025 Tour Dates: The Secret Of Us Tour

09/06/2024 — Seattle, WA @ WAMU Theater
09/08/2024 — Berkeley, CA @ The Greek Theatre
09/11/2024 — Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre
09/15/2024 — Denver, CO @ The Fillmore Auditorium
09/19/2024 — Irving, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
09/20/2024 — Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall
09/22/2024 — Austin, TX @ Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park
09/24/2024 — Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater
09/25/2024 — Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory
09/27/2024 — Chicago, IL @ Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
09/29/2024 — Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
09/30/2024 — Atlanta, GA @ Coca-Cola Roxy
10/02/2024 — Washington, DC @ The Anthem
10/04/2024 — New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall
10/08/2024 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Met
10/09/2024 — Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway
10/10/2024 — Portland, ME @ State Theatre
02/09/2025 — Madrid, Spain @ Palacio Vistalegre
02/11/2025 — Lisbon, Portugal @ MEO Arena
02/15/2025 — Stuttgart, Germany @ Porsche Arena
02/17/2025 — Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Ziggo Dome
02/19/2025 — Hamburg, Germany @ Sporthalle
02/21/2025 — Düsseldorf, Germany @ Mitsubishi Electric Halle
02/22/2025 — Berlin, Germany @ Velodrom
02/24/2025 — Zurich, Switzerland @ The Hall
02/25/2025 — Milan, Italy @ Alcatraz
02/27/2025 — Paris, France @ Accor Arena
02/28/2025 — Brussels, Belgium @ Forest National
03/03/2025 — Nottingham, UK @ Motorpoint Arena Nottingham
03/04/2025 — Leeds, UK @ First Direct Arena
03/06/2025 — London, UK @ The O2
03/07/2025 — Manchester, UK @ Co-op Live
03/08/2025 — Cardiff, UK @ Utilita Arena Cardiff
03/10/2025 — Dublin, Ireland @ 3Arena
03/12/2025 — Glasgow, UK @ OVO Hydro

Over the past couple weeks, Linkin Park has been teasing something, and the prevailing theory has been that the group was getting ready to reunite following the death of singer Chester Bennington.

Yesterday (September 5), they made the big reveal: The band is indeed back, and there’s a new album (From Zero) and tour on the way. The biggest follow-up question from the announcement, though, is who is the new singer they just added?

Who Is Linkin Park’s New Singer Emily Armstrong?

Armstrong is the lead singer and co-founder of Los Angeles rock band Dead Sara. The group released a self-titled debut album in 2012, and it spawned what remains Dead Sara’s most successful single: “Weatherman,” which ranked on the Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. Their 2015 album, Pleasure To Meet You, was a top-10 release on the Billboard Top Hard Rock Albums chart. In a 2013 interview, Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl proclaimed, “Dead Sara should be the next biggest rock band in the world.”

Also joining Linkin Park is Colin Brittain, a songwriter/producer for artists like G Flip, Illenium, and One OK Rock who will play drums for LP. The band lineup currently features Armstrong, Brittain, Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Phoenix, and Joe Hahn. Rob Bourdon, a founding member of Linkin Park, is no longer in the group.

In a press release, Shinoda said of Armstrong and Brittain, “The more we worked with Emily and Colin, the more we enjoyed their world-class talents, their company, and the things we created. We feel really empowered with this new lineup and the vibrant and energized new music we’ve made together. We’re weaving together the sonic touchpoints we’ve been known for and still exploring new ones.”

The new members’ first song with the band, “The Emptiness Machine,” is out now, so watch the video above. Find the From Zero cover art and tracklist below, along with Linkin Park’s upcoming tour dates.

Linkin Park’s From Zero Album Cover Artwork

Linkin Park’s From Zero Tracklist

1. “From Zero (Intro)”
2. “The Emptiness Machine”
3. “Cut The Bridge”
4. “Heavy Is The Crown”
5. “Over Each Other”
6. “Casualty”
7. “Overflow”
8. “Two Faced”
9. “Stained”
10. “IGYEIH”
11. “Good Things Go”

Linkin Park’s 2024 Tour Dates: From Zero World Tour

09/11 — Los Angeles, CA @ Kia Forum
09/16 — New York, NY @ Barclays Center
09/22 — Hamburg, Germany @ Barclays Arena
09/24 — London, UK @ The O2
09/28 — Seoul, South Korea @ INSPIRE Arena
11/11 — Bogota, Colombia @ Coliseo Medplus

From Zero is out 11/15 via Warner Records. Find more information here.