Michael Bay’s Ambulance, which our own Mike Ryan reviews as quite a ride, sounds like a throwback to 1980s and ’90s action films. It’s also a heist movie and stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Eiza Gonzalez, and Yahya Abdul-Matteen II, all likely dodging Bay’s customary booms and explosions. That last name’s exploded in the past handful of years, from Yahya’s turn as the naked blue god in HBO’s Watchmen to his turns in Candyman, Aquaman, and The Matrix: Resurrections. In short, the man’s a star and likely a legend in the making, but when it came time for Bay to cast Ambulance, he had no idea who Yahya was.
To Bay’s credit, however, he didn’t even try to cover this flub up while speaking at the Los Angeles premiere. There’s something for that unfiltered approach, and here’s how The Hollywood Reporter describes what went down when Bay had catch up on “his stuff” to realize that Yahya was his guy:
When it came to casting, Bay revealed to the crowd that he wasn’t previously familiar with Abdul-Mateen II. “[Universal Pictures president Peter Cramer] suggested I look at Yahya, and I’m like, ‘What’s a Yahya?’ He goes, ‘[He’s] an actor.’ I said, ‘I’ve never heard [of him],’” Bay recalled. “So, I see his stuff, and I’m like, ‘That guy is gonna be a movie star. I want to work with him.’”
And the rest, as they say, is history. For the record, Bay has also warned everyone that most of the film’s action includes genuine stunt work with minimal CGI. However, the CGI that doesmaterialize ” is sh*t in this movie,” according to Bay. And “[t]here’s a couple shots that I wasn’t happy with, okay?” However, he’s got Yahya, so it’s entirely possible that no one will notice the funky bluescreen effects at all.
Middle-aged women of England: Get a hold of yourselves!
Magic Mike’s Last Dance, the upcoming third installment in the strippertastic Magic Mike series, has begun rehearsals in London. But when a gaggle of lusty ladies got word of exactly where Channing Tatum, who plays the eponymous floor-humper, and his chiseled co-stars were busy dusting off their hip thrusts and other pelvic gyrations, all hell broke loose.
According to The Sun, the bosses at Warner Bros. have been forced to enlist the services of additional security personnel after confidential details about the film’s production schedule and studio location were leaked to a bunch of horny housewives with time on their hands and lust in their hearts. The paper reports that “details of the production schedule were leaked on a WhatsApp group of obsessed women, who immediately descended on the location and made it clear they would go to ANY lengths to see the actors in a state of oiled-up undress.”
While it was initially seen as being all in good fun, the fans reportedly progressed from amusing to disruptive pretty quickly, which led to some security concerns.
“It starts as a bit of fun and it’s great that the fans are so engaged. They’re just passionate—and plainly sex-starved!,” a source close to the production told The Sun. “But after a while it has become problematic and there are now a lot of fans trying to get hold of the guys pretty much everywhere they go.”
Whether these stripper movie super fans are actually unhinged or just really exciting about seeing Tatum’s rippling abs up close, the studio would clearly rather not find out whether they’ve got a lotta lawbreakers in the crowd the hard way. “Obviously the previous films have had a huge impact, but also left this legion of horny middle-aged women, who are making it their business to know the guys’ every move and follow them all over the place,” said the source, who, if there was a Pulitzer Prize for background quotes, would definitely be a top contender.
In the meantime, the filmmakers have brought in extra security to make sure every ounce of Mike’s Magic is saved for the screen.
Travis Barker took the stage at the Grammys last weekend, joining HER, Lenny Kravitz, and others for a performance of Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way.” After the show, though, reports started circulating that the Grammys wasn’t even the biggest part of his night, as he and fiancée Kourtney Kardashian apparently got married in Vegas. Other reports indicated, though, that the two didn’t have a marriage license, so the marriage wasn’t actually legitimate.
Now, Kardashian has gone ahead and confirmed that while the wedding did happen, there was no marriage license involved. So, right now, she and the Blink-182 drummer are not legally married, at least not as a result of that ceremony.
Kardashian took to Instagram today to share a gallery of photos from the ceremony and wrote, “Found these in my camera roll. Once upon a time in a land far, far away (Las Vegas) at 2am, after an epic night and a little tequila, a queen and her handsome king ventured out to the only open chapel with an Elvis and got married (with no license). Practice makes perfect.”
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Kevin Smith’s long-awaited passion project KillRoy Was Here is finally getting released, though only to a select few NFT buyers.
Smith released the trailer for the campy horror film at Comic-Con in 2020, which gave off major “direct-to-DVD” vibes (children chanting, creepy priests, Jason Mewes, etc.) and Smith confirmed last year that he was looking into NFTs. Now, the movie will only be available for NFT holders, and Smith has no plans to release it to streaming at this time.
The film, along with commentary and exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, will be launched as a 5,555-piece art NFT collection on Secret Network’s NFT mining platform Legendao, with the help of Curio, the NFT platform for brands.
That is a lot to take in, so here is an easier explanation: you probably won’t see this movie! As Smith tries to explain:
When you buy the KillRoy NFT, you get exclusive access to the movie. But more importantly, the specific version of KillRoy you get is YOUR KillRoy to do with whatever you want: Make your own movie, turn it into a cartoon, license him for lunchboxes! We started the story, now YOU get to continue it with your very own version of our titular character! And along with a brand new chapter I’ll shoot next year, the shorts and animation that the KillRoy NFT owners create with their own KillRoy’s will make up the bulk of our sequel anthology. The KillRoy NFT offers an exciting and unique opportunity to go from art collector to collaborating artist!
So, buyers of KillRoy Was Here NFT will have exclusive ownership over the film and other special features using their “crypto key” and Smith will even enlist NFT holders to help with the sequel. Does that make sense? Not really, honestly.
It took Bryan Cranston seven years before he agreed to star in another TV show (Showtime’s Your Honor) after Breaking Bad. Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk isn’t waiting that long. The multi-time Emmy nominee is attached to lead the AMC series Straight Man, based on Richard Russo’s novel of the same name. “It is described a mid-life crisis tale set at Railton College, told in the first person by William Henry Devereaux, Jr. (Odenkirk), the unlikely chairman of the English department in a badly underfunded college in the Pennsylvania rust belt,” according to Variety.
“I loved [co-showrunners Aaron Zelman and Paul Lieberstein’s] take on Richard’s excellent, entertaining novel,” Odenkirk said in a statement. “Once again a project with AMC with a focus on character depth and sensitivity. This milieu (academia) seems very pertinent to the conversations we’re all having. I am drawn to the tone of humanity and humor in the novel and I look forward to playing this role, something lighter than my recent projects but still closely observed and smart.”
I will now spend the next 15 minutes wondering how Odenkirk said the word “milieu.”
Straight Man — which is Odenkirk’s third show on AMC, because triples is best — does not have a premiere date, but it is “being fast-tracked in development” ahead of the final season of Better Call Saul, which premieres on April 18.
On Wednesday, the Chicago Bulls announced he “will not return for the remainder of the 2021-22 season” and “continues to experience pain with high-level physical activity.”
“He will continue daily treatment and rehabilitation in preparation for the 2022-23 season,” the press release read.
In 35 games with Chicago this season, Ball averaged 13 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 1.8 steals on 57.5 percent true shooting. He also shot 42.3 percent beyond the arc on more than seven attempts per game. Prior to his injury, he looked the part of an All-Defensive Team guard and helped anchor a Bulls defense that once ranked among the top 10.
His absence has been felt on both ends and is another unfortunate occurrence for a Chicago club riddled by injury. At one point, the Bulls sat atop the East and had the makings of a potential title contender. Injuries have hampered them in recent months, as they’ve tumbled to the six seed and lost eight of their past 12 games.
They’ll look to regain some momentum ahead of the postseason when they face the Boston Celtics at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Kentucky Peerless Distilling Co. is one of the hottest craft distilleries operating right now. Their flagship rye is considered one of the top rye whiskeys currently on the shelf. Meanwhile, their bourbon has piled up award after award while developing a devoted and enthusiastic fan base.
Part of that appeal is based on the perception that Kentucky Peerless never cuts corners with their whiskey. It’s an idea they do everything they can to perpetuate at their distillery at the far end of Whiskey Row in Louisville, Kentucky, which I was able to experience first hand on a recent tour.
In this new series for UPROXX, I’m going to be diving into the distilleries I love (and have been lucky enough to tour) around the world. This will serve as a guide to what to expect from the tour, whether the bottle shop is worth popping into, and whether it’s worth paying extra for a tasting, as well as the basic need-to-knows about the area, the vibe, and the overall experience.
Kentucky Peerless is a very small, mom-and-pop operation and they don’t hide anything. It’s sort of a miracle that they’re able to produce so much of their beloved rye and bourbon from this fairly compact operation.
Having such a centralized, streamlined operation means you really get to feel the whiskey being made. You can smell the fermenting tanks when you walk in, and realize very quickly that they’re not for show. That mash will become their whiskey, and you can feel the warmth coming off the still as it boils the mash into the distillate.
There’s an intimacy and veracity to this tour. That’s not to say other, bigger distilleries are only putting on a show for tourists (though some certainly are) but there’s an unmistakable familial vibe among the team at Peerless as you walk around their open-plan facility. You see their employees eating lunch together. Everyone says “hi” to one another. You’ll leave there with a greater understanding of their whiskey, but also with a small taste of what it’s like working with a tight-knit team who really care about the product. Bluntly speaking, as someone who has visited more than his share of distilleries, you don’t always get that vibe from these places.
THE TOUR:
Kentucky Peerless Distilling
Tours like these tend to highlight each step of the process and Kentucky Peerless is no exception. They begin their tour with the expected history lesson. Thankfully, Peerless has a particularly interesting brand story thanks to its founder, Henry Kraver, a Polish-Jewish immigrant who arrived in the U.S. to find freedom and fortune, and did just that by creating one of the biggest whiskey and beer empires in pre-Prohibition America. From there, you learn how Corky Taylor and his son Carson, Kraver’s direct descendants, reinvented the brand in the modern era.
After that you go directly to the fermenters, frothing with mash. You’ll see their bespoke Vendome still, working hard turning that mash into the spirit. From there, you’ll learn about Peerless’ low entry-point ABV when they barrel their product, which helps them create more approachable barrel-proof whiskeys.
Finally, you’ll hit the bottling room near the back dock, where the whiskey goes into Peerless’ iconic bottles, crafted in Georgia and functioning as a miniature replica of their still’s doubler.
WHY IT’S UNIQUE:
Kentucky Peerless Distilling
Frankly, a lot of the tours on Whiskey Row are for show. Huge brands have outlets there with small “distilleries” or bottling lines, etc., even though the bulk of their operation is done off-site at larger facilities on the fringes of Louisville or further afield. And that’s all good! Plenty of people want a small taste of their favorite brands and their process without having to trek out to a huge industrial facility in the middle of nowhere.
Kentucky Peerless isn’t that. This is a small craft distillery where everything is on display. And since it is right at the west end of Whiskey Row, it’s a great place to start or end your trip down Main Street.
TASTING ROOM:
Kentucky Peerless Distilling
There’s a nice tasting room at the end of the tour but you’ll need to book a tasting separately. Tastings are available by appointment only Monday through Thursday at 1:45, 3:45, and 4:45, and Fridays at 1:45 and 3:45. They last 45 minutes and cost $12, which is a bargain for the quality of rye and bourbon you’ll be tasting. You’ll usually be treated to their signature rye and bourbon and a single barrel version of each.
You can also book a “Heritage Tour” that includes a VIP tour and a private tasting. Those start at $75 per person and need to be booked at least two weeks in advance. That VIP experience runs Monday to Thursday only. You will get a chance to taste a few more expressions. What exactly those are will depend on which bottles have just hit the shelves.
The gift shop is pretty straightforward. You’ll find plenty of shirts, hats, sweatshirts. You’ll also find branded bar tools, whiskey books, and local specialty foods from the area.
The bottle shop is where it’s at. This is where you’ll find one-off single barrel and special limited-edition releases you simply cannot find elsewhere. Right now, the Absinthe Finished Rye and Double Oak Bourbon are on the shelves. Depending on the day, you might also find some single-barrel gems for your collection. The latter is what you want to keep an eye out for as you won’t find these bottles otherwise.
WHAT TO DO NEARBY:
Go To Louisville
As we mentioned above, Kentucky Peerless Distilling is the furthest west stop on Whiskey Row. So, you’re within walking distance of several other distilleries and whiskey experiences, the Muhammad Ali Center, the Louisville Slugger Museum, a slew of bars, restaurants, and hotels, and the Ohio River Waterfront Park.
BEST TIME TO VISIT:
Kentucky Peerless Distilling
Since this is right in Louisville, I’m going to say year-round. The city setting makes this a very easy place to visit no matter the weather. If you’re looking to score some special releases, you might want to consider early spring or early fall.
IF I HAD TO COMPLAIN ABOUT ONE THING…
Kentucky Peerless Distilling
There’s no bar to hang out in and just enjoy Peerless at your own pace. Granted, all of Whiskey Row is within walking distance, but it’d be nice to hang out in a place like the Tasting Room and order up a nice Peerless Rye Manhattan or Peerless Bourbon Old Fashioned and take in the still house or just enjoy the vibe of the place with a small crew looking to drink great whiskey and have a great time.
That being said, if you want to enjoy those drinks, hit up Repeal at Distil just down the road.
BOOK HERE:
Zach Johnston
The standard distillery tour costs $24 ($10 for veterans) and must be scheduled at least one hour in advance. Tours run Monday through Saturday at 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, and 2:30. They last one hour.
As streaming services become the predominant source of entertainment to the point where you even parents dropped their cable package and bought a Roku, more and more Americans are becoming overwhelmed by the insane amount of options available. In fact, according to a new survey, over two-thirds of U.S. streaming customers would like some sort of “bundle” that ties all of their accounts together into kind of a… package, maybe? Yeah, that’s the word. Do they make something like that?
Jokes aside, yes, obviously, what we just described is a cable package, which Americans just abandoned in droves to jump on the streaming boom. But, now, it’s getting out of hand, and as the results of Nielsen’s first State of Play report shows, customers would like to be shackled again, please. If you don’t mind. Via The Wrap:
“The inaugural State of Play really underscores the fact that we’ve entered the next phase of streaming, based on the trends we have been detailing about streaming over the past few years,” Brian Fuhrer, SVP, Product Strategy, Nielsen, said in a statement. “We’ve moved from infancy into adolescence, and all the complexities that one would expect at that point. It’s not just that streaming is increasing year over year. Now consumers want access simplified and the explosion of services has renewed discussions around bundling and aggregation.”
As the report highlights, consumers have every reason to be overwhelmed. As of February 2022, there are now “817,000 unique program titles” to choose from as the average user is now juggling at least three to four streaming services. That’s a whole lot of content and passwords to remember. Wouldn’t it be a neat if there was a box where the shows just up without having to choose Netflix or whatever the heck Philo is? Can science make something like that?
That Rihanna reign just won’t let up. The Bajan singer has made her debut on Forbes‘ 36th Annual World’s Billionaires List. Joining her peers and frequent collaborators Jay-Z and Kanye West, the Fenty Beauty founder comes in at No. 1,729 on the list. In addition to this accolade, Rihanna is also the world’s richest female musician, with a $1.7 billion net worth.
Her “Umbrella” collaborator Jay-Z comes in a No. 2,076. With his Roc Nation conglomerate, along with the sales of TIDAL to Square and Armand de Brignac champagne to LVMH last year, Jay is worth $1.4 billion.
Kanye West, who has produced and collaborated with both Jay and Rihanna, places at No. 1,513 on the list, with a hefty net worth of $2 billion. Ye has climbed up over 200 spots on the coveted list since last year, thanks to his partnerships with Adidas and Gap.
Ye recently dropped out of performing at Coachella, but given his rising net worth, he may not even need to take the stage. Perhaps the same is true for Rihanna and putting out new music, though fans have been starving for a follow-up to her 2016 album, Anti.
Jay-Z is often known to boast about his wealth in his songs, most recently on his Pusha T collab “Neck And Wrist,” on which he proclaims, “I put your mansion on my wall / Are you sh*ttin’ me?”
In case you didn’t know already, trap rap godfather T.I. has recently made a pivot to standup comedy. While some of his initial material has received mixed reactions online, he’s kept at it, refining his material and accumulating the most important part of any good standup career: Experience. However, he may want to also develop a thicker skin, judging from a video that recently surfaced on social media.
During a recent open mic night in his hometown, Atlanta, T.I. reportedly went from heckling the host to having an outright confrontation with her on stage when she retaliated by poking at a sore spot for the rapper turned comedian. In 2021, T.I. and his wife Tiny were accused of multiple instances of sexual assault by a group of women who claim that the couple drugged them on several instances in both California and Georgia. As he heckled the host, comic Lauren Knight, Knight apparently clapped back with a reference to the allegations, prompting T.I.’s outburst on stage.
Later, on Instagram, both parties detailed their respective sides of the story. Knight said, “I’m talking about marriage and sh*t [and] he keeps cutting me off, telling me to ‘shut the fuck,’ calling me all kinds of bitches—heckling me. So, I’m like, ‘Alright, c’mon. Stop playing with me. It’s crazy, like you keep going and I can’t say nothing to you.’” She said after T.I. jokingly told her to remove her wig, she struck back. “I said, ‘Alright, I’ll take my wig off when you speak on the allegations. Nobody was tight, except for him. Nobody called him a rapist. I responded to him telling me — in a room full of people — to rip my wig off, and made a joke just like he did. So if you got a problem with it, not mine.”
Meanwhile, T.I. addressed the incident in a separate live stream in which he defended himself, claiming that he did not call Knight any names. However, she responded with a video of her own that seemed to refute his statements.
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