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After arriving on Netflix in September, Squid Game seemingly became an international smash hit overnight as it shattered records left and right. But according to its creator, the show’s production was nowhere near as effortless. While recently sitting down with CNN Film School, Hwang Dong-hyuk claims that filming the first season was so strenuous that he lost six teeth while finally bringing his creation to life. He’s still missing two molars on his left side and still hasn’t had time to get implants.

However, despite the physical toll that Squid Game‘s production inflicted on him, Hwang is not ruling out a Season 2, and he purposefully left the first season open-ended in case the show got renewed. Judging by the numbers the series has been putting up for Netflix, we’re guessing those talks have been happening with a quickness. Via IGN:

“There are some loose ends I’d like to explore if I were to make a second season,” Hwang admitted. “The Frontman’s unexplained past, detective Jun-ho’s story. Those are things I didn’t explain in Season 1. If I were to do Season 2, I’d like to explain those elements. And the man with the Ttakji in his bags, the man who was played by Gong Yoo.”

Squid Game has been a labor of love for Hwang. In a previous interview, Hwang shared that he’d been trying to sell the show for 10 years while living with his mother and grandmother, and the class struggles in Squid Game were deeply personal thanks to growing up in an impoverished neighborhood and going so broke while writing the show that he had to sell his only laptop. Now? The creator says he feels like BTS, the South Korean pop super group.

(Via CNN Film School)

Lil Wayne’s singles run in hip-hop is practically unrivaled — especially the singles from his fan-favorite album series Tha Carter, which are about to be collected into a 7″ vinyl box set, “Tha Carter Singles Collection.” Including every hit record from “Go DJ” all the way up to yesterday’s “Ya Dig,” the 10-disc collection is available for preorder at Lil Wayne’s online shop for $200.00. Included with the records is a booklet with rare photos, two lithographs, and an outer box covered in Wayne’s tattoos.

The release isn’t the first time Lil Wayne’s branched out creatively this year. In May, Wayne joined the growing fraternity of rappers with their own festivals, launching the Uproar Fest in Los Angeles. In August, Wayne partnered with Topps trading card company for a limited-edition collection of cards commemorating the 10th anniversary of Wayne’s album Tha Carter IV. In September, he lent his likeness to the Funko toy brand for the new Vinyl Gold collection, which also includes figures of Ice Cube, the Notorious B.I.G, and Tupac Shakur.

And while that’s all well and good, Wayne’s number-one focus in 2021 remained on the music. So far, he’s featured on tracks with Polo G (“Gang Gang“), Conway The Machine, Drake, Moneybagg Yo (“Wockesha Remix“), Run The Jewels (“Ooh La La Remix“), and Logic (“Perfect Remix“), while also releasing the Trust Fund Babies joint project with Rich The Kid.

YoungBoy Never Broke Again — also called “NBA YoungBoy,” to the chagrin of the sports league’s operators — has hit No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart once again with his new album Sincerely, Kentrell. It’s a feat made more impressive by the fact that he’s gotten little to no radio play, according to The New York Times, and that YoungBoy himself was unavailable to promote the album due to his March arrest on federal gun charges. However, his loyal fans, who helped stream the album to the top of the chart, have a plan to get him out.

A Change.org petition, “Joe Biden Needs To Free NBA YoungBoy,” has racked up over 100,000 signatures under the belief that “Mr. Gaulden [YoungBoy’s real name] would see this as a great opportunity to ameliorate himself as a person and an artist.” The petition’s writer, going by YB Supporter, contends that “the 21-year-old 79 RIAA certifications holder isn’t a menace to society but is instead a kind-hearted soul who was mistreated and targeted by the F.B.I and Louisiana Police Department.” Perhaps the petition was inspired by the recent Trump pardons of Kodak Black, Lil Pump, and Lil Wayne.

Kind-hearted or not, though, the rapper’s lengthy list of legal issues certainly includes more than its fair share of accusations of violent crimes. In 2016, he was arrested on two counts of attempted murder, pleading guilty to a reduced charge of aggravated assault with a firearm and receiving a suspended 10-year prison term against three years of active probation. He was arrested again in 2018 on assault charges when a hotel camera caught him slamming his then-girlfriend to the ground and dragging her down the hall.

In 2019, his probation on the downgraded attempted murder charges ended with a 14-month ban on him performing, but he was sentenced to a year of probation in his later assault case. Then, in September of 2020, he was arrested along with 15 others in his native Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and charged with the distribution and manufacturing of drugs and possession of stolen firearms. His March arrest this year on federal charges stemming from the same case reportedly came after a car chase and foot pursuit in which K-9 officers tracked him as he hid out.

Justin Bieber has a new video for Justice highlight “Ghost” out today and it has some real star power: Aside from Bieber himself, the visual also features Diane Keaton.

In the video, Bieber’s grandfather dies. After that, he focuses his efforts on making his grandmother (Keaton) happy by trying on new outfits, going out for drinks, and otherwise living their lives.

Keaton spoke to Vogue about the video ahead of its release, saying, “He called me up and I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ I thought the song was wonderful. This was just sheer fun. All my life, I’ve been an actress and had lines, and sometimes I’ve gotten to loosen them up a little — but this was just completely loose and relaxed. Nobody ever [told me to do] anything, which made it so much fun.” She also added, “He’s totally charming. He had to have his arm around me when we were walking into the ocean… If I felt like hugging him, I’d hug him. He was stuck with me. I kept thinking, ‘Oh, this poor guy.’”

As for Keaton’s outfits in the video, the fashion icon noted that a lot of them were actually hers: “The outfits were indicative of my style because they’re mine [laughs]. Some of the outfits are from my closet. I had some wonderful things from Gucci.”

Meanwhile, Bieber released the “Complete” edition of Justice today and it adds a trio of new songs to the tracklist: “Red Eye” featuring TroyBoi, “Angels Speak,” and “Hailey.”

Watch the “Ghost” video above.

This week marked the long-awaited return of Mitski, who has been more or less quiet since the Be The Cowboy tour wrapped nearly two years ago. Now, the acclaimed songwriter is back with “Working For The Knife,” bringing with it the always-insane discourse around her music.

The meat of this episode revolves around one of the biggest bands of the 21st century, Coldplay. With billions of streams on Spotify, Coldplay is almost a perfect poptimism-era rock band, in that they have no qualms with being a super pop band and doing whatever it takes to remain relevant (see: doing a song with BTS). After being nominated for Album Of The Year in 2019 with the double album Everyday Life, the band’s new Max Martin-produced album, Music Of The Spheres, is due out next week.

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Ian is plugging Illusory Walls, the epic new album from emo legends The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die. Meanwhile, Steve is enjoying Seventeen Going Under, the new album from English singer-songwriter Sam Fender.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 60 on Spotify below, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts here. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Extraction is Netflix’s most popular original movie ever, with a reported (by Netflix) 99 million accounts checking out at least two minutes of the “smorgasbord of ass-kicking.” Star Chris Hemsworth called the response to the action film “absolutely mind-blowing” and he’s getting ready to the shoot the sequel, as the Thor actor revealed on Instagram.

“Huge wins for @extractionfilm at the Taurus World Stunt Awards. Massive thanks and congrats to the incredible stunt team for putting themselves on the line, making Extraction the massive success in continues to be. Shooting for the sequel beings soon and believe it not it’ll be bigger and badder than the first. Stay tuned for more chaos!” Hemsworth wrote. The headline-worthy news here is about the sequel, but I needed to know more about the Taurus World Stunt Awards.

Extraction won Best Fight at the 2021 ceremony (over Birds of Prey and The Hunt), as well as Hardest Hit and Best Stunt Coordinator and/or 2nd Unit Director. The description for Hardest Hit reads, “Two stuntmen fall together over a 2nd story railing. They fall 6’ and hit an awning, then another 7’ to the top and side of a truck, then another 8’ to the ground. No wires were used and the stunt was all practical. The truck was padded and CGI was used to smooth out the edges of a thin pad on the ground.”

The time for a Best Stunts Oscar is now.

After getting publicly humiliated by Idaho officials who did not appreciate his baseless claims of election fraud, Mike Lindell is already moving full steam ahead on his latest crackpot theory. This time around, the MyPillow CEO claims to have found some extremely old Americans who allegedly voted in the 2020 election. We’re talking centuries old, but naturally, Lindell has very little in the way in specifics to back up his latest stunt. Via Salon’s Zachary Petrizzo on Twitter:

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s new claim tonight: he’s found someone who was 850 years old who voted in the 2020 election, but he won’t say from what state the alleged voter was registered. Lindell adds that he and his team have identified 2K people over the age of 200 that voted in a mysterious state that he wouldn’t name.

You can see a video clip of Lindell’s wild new claim below:

It goes without saying that Lindell has not found a smoking gun proving election fraud with these latest shenanigans. While deceased or impossibly old Americans occasionally showing up in voter rolls does happen, it’s very minimal, and there’s no vast conspiracy behind it. The “dead voter” theories start popping up immediately after the 2020 election, and experts explained to the Associated Press that this sometimes happens because of human error or a software issue. More importantly, election workers routinely catch these rare occurrences and correct them. In short, Lindell’s proof is as dead as his mysterious voters.

(Via Zachary Petrizzo on Twitter)

Tomorrow will mark Kim Kardashian’s debut as a Saturday Night Live host, and preceding the episodes are always some promo videos. Well, the ones for this week have dropped, and in them, Kardashian and musical guest Halsey shut down a proposal from Cecily Strong.

After Kardashian introduced herself and Halsey, Strong said, “Oh my gosh, this crazy thought just occurred to me in this exact moment right now: Should we start our own girl group?” Halsey was quick to respond, “Absolutely not.” Kardashian added, “We already said no when you pitched that backstage.” Strong replied, “OK, you could hear me. I wasn’t sure because security had me in a headlock.”

In another bit, Strong asked Kardashian if she was nervous about doing the show. She responded by asking if she has to write sketches, memorize lines, or if anybody else will look as good as her. The answer to all of those was no, to which Kardashian replied, “This is so easy.”

Meanwhile, it has been rumored in recent days that Kanye West has been helping Kardashian prepare for her big night: E! News cited “a source” as saying, “Kim has consulted with Kanye and asked for feedback. She values his opinion creatively and artistically. They’ve talked about some different ideas and he has been very supportive.”

Check out the SNL promo above.

On occasion, things break your way in the world of sports handicapping, and Week 4 of the 2021 NFL season was an example in this space. The result was a 5-0 performance and, for the most part, each win seemed to be the right side for good measure. Will we rest on our laurels? Absolutely not. In fact, Week 5 brings its own challenges, and we’ll hand out five selections below.

In the meantime, let’s take a glance at the progress through four weeks and twenty picks.

• Last Week: 5-0
• 2021 Season: 14-6

Come get these winners.

Atlanta Falcons and New York Jets UNDER 45.5 points

What a hideous matchup for the good folks of London to witness. The Falcons have not been much fun to watch this season and, with the exception of last week’s victory over the Titans, the Jets haven’t been anything special either. Honestly, I have a slight lean to Atlanta as less than a field goal favorite, but the total is also quite appetizing. Seven of the last ten London games have gone under the total and these are two offenses I don’t trust. Throw in body clock concerns and the fact that Atlanta is without its top two receivers, and we will be rooting for early morning punts and field goals.

Cincinnati Bengals (+3) over Green Bay Packers

This is a simple sharp/public split. The world is on Green Bay. The sharp side is Cincinnati. It is reflected in the ticket count and money on both sides. Cincinnati may be without Joe Mixon but, honestly, that could be a positive thing if it nudges them to throw more often against the Packers. Home underdogs please.

Cleveland Browns (+2) over Los Angeles Chargers

The Chargers got us home last week, but we’re fading this time around. This is a “buy low” spot on Cleveland, as the bandwagon seems to be emptying on the Browns. I buy Cleveland’s defensive front. I buy their running game here. Bottom line? I think the Browns are the (slightly) better team and they’re getting two points in a road venue that isn’t exactly intimidating for the opposition.

San Francisco 49ers (+5) over Arizona Cardinals

The undefeated Cardinals have been rolling, but this has been a spot I’ve circled all week. Arizona is 2-6 as a home favorite under Kliff Kingsbury and this number should be three or so in my mind. I do not trust the Cards just yet. Take the candy.

Kansas City Chiefs (-2.5) over Buffalo Bills

I honestly can’t tell if this is square or not. Usually, the Chiefs are a very public team, but they’ve been shakier than expected and the Bills won by about a million points last week. That leads us to a very rare spot in which Patrick Mahomes and company are home favorites by less than a field goal. There is certainly a concern that the Chiefs won’t be able to get stops, but Buffalo’s offense (and Josh Allen) hasn’t been quite as good as you may think. Lay the small number.

Matthew McConaughey has been “making calls” about running for governor of Texas and he’s reportedly polling higher than the current governor Greg Abbott (to quote Phoebe Bridgers, “suck my d*ck, Greg”), but he hasn’t made any decisions yet. The actor discussed what’s going through his mind on the New York Times podcast, Sway.

“One side of the argument is, McConaughey, exactly. That’s why you need to go get in there,” he told host Kara Swisher. “The other side is, pfft, that’s a bag of rats, man. Don’t touch that with a 10 foot pole. There’s another— you have another lane. You have another category to have influence, and get done things you’d like to get done, and help how you think you can help, and even heal divides. Maybe it’s much better outside of politics.” Use your powers for good, like boosting sales of Lone Star beer.

McConaughey also discussed the restrictive abortion ban in Texas:

Yeah, now, the abortion — this new SB 8, six week abortion ban — I’m not going to come out and tell you right now on this show, here’s where I stand on abortion. We’ve been trying to figure out that, and how to play God with that situation, since the beginning. But this latest move by Texas? It’s a little bit of… feels like a back to front sort of Roe v. Wade loophole that they’re trying to get into. It’s a — feels a little juvenile in its implementation to me. Like, hey, we’ll pay for bounties if you call in and see somebody going in there. And also, you know, how it deals — and doesn’t really — isn’t responsible for rape and incest, that’s — I got a problem with that. And also, six weeks. Six weeks? If you’re saying that your discussion of abortion is even on the table to consider, six weeks does not really make that a honest consideration.

In less political issues, McConaughey discussed how he’s going to die. “I got a feeling that I’m going down as part of the food chain,” he said. “I’d much rather go down that way than [getting] shot down in a drive by. You know, I’ll take one where it’s part of the natural order. There’s some grace in that. It may be ugly and painful and bloody, but at least it’s part of the natural order. And for that, I’ll purchase. And after I’m gone, I hope to say I partook.” That’s worthy of a tombstone: Here Lies Matthew McConaughey, He Partook.

You can listen to the entire episode here.

(Via the New York Times)