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Chloe X Halle‘s Halle Bailey has a lot to be excited about these days. Not only did she and sister Chloe release last year’s Ungodly Hour, Halle has spent the last few months filming Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, an experience she’s chronicled on Instagram.

“It has definitely been a whirlwind of an experience,” Halle told Flaunt in a new cover story about filming the movie in London and Italy. (The Little Mermaid also stars a Hollywood who’s-who, including Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, and Javier Bardem as King Triton, with Daveed Diggs, Jacob Tremblay, and Awkwafina as the voices of Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle, respectively.)

“I really connected with how Ariel feels,” Halle added. “She just wants to discover something new. She wants to see a whole different world that has never been introduced to her before […] There was a moment particularly when I was in London, and doing things on my own, and working every day, and working very hard, where I was like, ‘Okay, this must be what it feels like to have myself to rely on. I am kind of proud of myself. This has been a wild ride into adulthood.”

Halle also reflected on releasing the follow-up to her and Chloe’s 2018 debut, The Kids Are Alright, and how the sisters grew between both albums: “When we started to shape the album, it was kind of beautiful to see kind of a rebellious theme of heartbreak and love, and excitement, and all the things we go through as a young woman, pertaining to life and the hardships.”

Read the full interview here.

When R&B revivalists DVSN and Ty Dolla Sign announced they were working on a joint mixtape, the instant expectation was of chunky harmonies populating seductive but blunt come-ons over silky, ’90s-esque grooves. With their first single “Memories” and its accompanying video, the trio has not only met but exceeded those expectations ahead of the full project’s release on Friday.

Do you want extensive talkbox use? Check. A classic R&B sample (Silk’s 1992 hit “Freak Me”) courtesy of Nineteen85? Check. Were you looking to see glittery halters adorning the denizens of a grown-and-sexy club party in the video, a la millennial-era videos from the likes of Maxwell, Usher, Tyrese, and others? Yep, DVSN and Ty give you that, too. And yes, the harmonies are layered, lush, and lascivious as Ty and Daniel Daley describe all the immodest fantasies on their minds as they tell a potential paramour, “I want to make memories tonight.” We’ll leave just what those memories might consist of to your imagination.

The unofficial group first announced the title and release date for the project, Cheers To The Best Memories, earlier this month, a couple of weeks after dropping the lead single with Mac Miller, “I Believed It.” It’ll be DVSN’s first release since A Muse In Their Feelings, the duo’s third album, and Ty’s first since Featuring Ty Dolla Sign, his second album.

Watch the video for “Memories” above.

Cheers To The Best Memories is due 8/20 via OVO Sound and Warner Records. Pre-save it here.

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

What are some of the greatest TV duos of all-time? There’s Statler and Waldorf, of course. Mulder and Scully. Norm and Cliff. Troy and Abed. Olivia and Paula. Who are Olivia and Paula? They’re the terrifying teens at the heart of one of the best shows of 2021 so far, HBO’s The White Lotus, and if you don’t recognize their names, that’s fine. They don’t know you, either. But they will make fun of you on Snapchat.

The New York Times spoke to Sydney Sweeney (Olivia) and Brittany O’Grady (Paula) about the zoomer vacationers, including creator Mike White asking them to listen to a podcast to get into character. Which podcast? “Red Scare,” Sweeney revealed. “I mainly listened to it for the frequency of the voices of these girls and the timing and the monotone. It was so dry and drawn out and slow. I would just emulate and copy that as much as I could and then bring it into the present day, Gen Z-esque-type woke Twitter girl.” Hosted by Dasha Nekrasova and Anna Khachiyan, the Cut described Red Scare as “a critique of feminism, and capitalism, from deep inside the culture they’ve spawned.”

Sweeney said that when White told her and O’Grady to listen to the podcast, “I was like, ‘What is this?’ I have never really listened to podcasts.” You probably never thought “listening to podcasts” would make me feel ancient, but here we are.

(Via the New York Times)

Hulu is not playing around this month.

A ton of new and returning TV shows are landing on the streaming platform this September, all of it good, some of it award-worthy. First up is a new season of an FX comedy, What We Do In The Shadows, which promises to be a bloody good time (sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves.) Then, there’s the long-awaited Y: The Last Man, a dystopian drama based on a popular comic book series that sports an all-star cast. And speaking of talented A-listers, B.J. Novak got a bunch of them to sign on for his new anthology series, which is coming to FX on Hulu mid-month.

Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) Hulu this September.

What We Do In The Shadows: Season 3 Premiere (streaming on FX on Hulu 9/3)

Everyone’s favorite trio of Staten Island vamps is back (along with resident energy sucker Colin Robinson and newly-minted vampire hunter Guillermo in tow). The new season of FX’s hit comedy sees Nadja, Laszlo, and Nandor being named overlords of the vampiric council and having to navigate an uneasy transfer of power. Kickball matches with werewolves trips to Atlantic City and the genitals of Van Helsing all pop up this season.

Y: The Last Man Series Premiere (streaming on FX on Hulu 9/13)

It’s been a long road from comic book property to dystopian TV drama but Y: The Last Man has finally made it and judging by the show’s stacked cast, it looks to be worth the wait. After a mysterious event wipes the planet of nearly every being with a Y chromosome, the rest of the population must learn to survive in a new normal. Diane Lane plays the world’s de-facto president, and it’s her son who becomes the titular last man on Earth.

The Premise Series Premiere (streaming on FX on Hulu 9/16)

B.J. Novak has assembled an all-star cast to populate his latest anthology series for FX. Everyone from Jon Bernthal to Lucas Hedges, Kaitlyn Dever, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Daniel Dae Kim will play in his sandbox with each episode engaging with a different element of modern life.

Here’s everything coming to Hulu this September:

Avail. 9/1
50/50
A Fish Called Wanda
Anaconda
Angel Unchained
The Apparition
At the Earth’s Core
Blue City
Bull Durham
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Cannon for Cordoba
Cellar Dweller
Cold Creek Manor
Count Yorga, Vampire
Crazy Heart
The Dunwich Horror
Edward Scissorhands
El Dorado
Election
Exterminator 2
Free Willy
Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home
Free Willy 3: The Rescue
Free Willy: Escape from Pirate’s Cove
Friday the 13th – Part III
Friday the 13th – Part IV: The Final Chapter
Fright Night
Gattaca
Girls! Girls! Girls!
The Glass House
Grosse Pointe Blank
Hitman: Agent 47
Hoosiers
I Spit On Your Grave
I Spit On Your Grave 2
I Spit On Your Grave 3
Internal Affairs
The Interview
Jacob’s Ladder
Just Between Friends
The Killer Elite
Kiss the Girls
The Last Castle
Magic Mike
The Manchurian Candidate
The Mexican
McLintock! (Producer’s Cut)
The Mexican
Miss You Already
Mommy
Mosquito Squadron
Mr. North
Much Ado About Nothing
New Year’s Eve
Nixon
Office Space
The Omen
The Patsy
Phase IV
The Possession
Priest
Raising Arizona
The Ring
Road to Perdition
Salvador
Secret Admirer
Shaun the Sheep Movie
Slumdog Millionaire
Solace
Stephen King’s It
Sucker Punch
Tears of the Sun
The Tenant
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys
Under Fire
Vantage Point
Volcano
The Wedding Plan
The Wrestler
The X-Files

Avail. 9/2
Trolls: TrollsTopia Season 4 (Hulu Original)
Death in Texas
The Unthinkable

Avail. 9/3
What We Do In The Shadows: Season 3 PremiereAvail. 9/4
Flower

Avail. 9/8
Wu-Tang: An American Saga Season 2 Premiere (Hulu Original)
La La Land

Avail. 9/11
High Ground

Avail. 9/13
Y: The Last Man Series Premiere
Colette

Avail. 9/15
Dark Side of the Ring Season 3A
Joseph: King of Dreams
Love, Simon
Maze Runner: The Death Cure

Avail. 9/16
The Premise Series Premiere
Stalker
On Chesil Beach
Riders of Justice

Avail. 9/18
Dark Side of Football Season 1

Avail. 9/20
Grown Ups

Avail. 9/21
9-1-1 Season 5 Premiere
The Big Leap Series Premiere
Dancing with the Stars Season 20 Premiere
Ordinary Joe Series Premiere
The Voice Season 21 Premiere

Avail. 9/22
New Amsterdam Season 4 Premiere
Our Kind of People Series Premiere
The Resident Season 5 Premiere

Avail. 9/23
A Million Little Things Season 4 Premiere
Alter Ego Series Premiere
Chicago Fire Season 10 Premiere
Chicago Med Season 7 Premiere
Chicago P.D. Season 9 Premiere
The Conners Season 4 Premiere
The Goldbergs Season 9 Premiere
Home Economics Season 2 Premiere
The Masked Singer Season 6 Premiere
The Wonder Years Series Premiere
The Eric Andre Show Season 5
Funhouse

Avail. 9/24
Law & Order: Organized Crime Season 2 Premiere
Law & Order: SVU Season 23 Premiere
An American Haunting

Avail. 9/25
Gemini

Avail. 9/27
Bob’s Burgers Season 12 Premiere
Celebrity Wheel of Fortune Season 2 Premiere
Family Guy Season 20 Premiere
The Great North Season 2 Premiere
The Rookie Season 4 Premiere
The Simpsons Season 33 Premiere
Supermarket Sweep Season 2 Premiere

Avail. 9/28
The Good Doctor Season 4 Premiere
Felix and the Hidden Treasure
Home Run

Avail. 9/29
La Brea Series Premiere
Minor Premise

Sept. 30
New Order

Here’s the full list of what’s leaving Hulu in September:

Leaving 9/1
The Iron Lady
Our Family Wedding
Young Adult

Leaving 9/2
Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life

Leaving 9/23
An American Haunting

Leaving 9/29
Destination Wedding
Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
One for the Money

Leaving 9/30
2012
50/50
A Fish Called Wanda
A Hard Day
A Perfect Day
The Adventures of Tintin
Anaconda
Anaconda 3: Offspring
Anacondas: Trail of Blood
Angel Unchained
The Assassin
At the Earth’s Core
Australia
Bad Teacher
Beasts Clawing at Straws
Better Living Through Chemistry
Big Fish
Black And White
BOY
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Breakdown
Bruno
Bull Durham
Burning
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Caddyshack
Caddyshack II
Cannon For Cordoba
Cellar Dweller
Charles and Diana: 1983
Charlotte’s Web
The Chumscrubber
The Condemned
Contagion
Count Yorga, Vampire
Coyote Ugly
Dangerous Minds
Daredevil
Desperate Measures
Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings
Don’t Think Twice
Dumb & Dumber
Dumb And Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd
The Dunwich Horror
Eliminators
Exterminator 2
Fired Up!
Foxfire
Fred Claus
Fright Night
From Paris with Love
Galaxy Quest
Grandma
Grosse Pointe Blank
The Grudge
Gundala
Hard Romanticker
Hideaway
Himalaya
House of the Dead
House of the Dead 2
Housesitter
I Do…Until I Don’t
I Wish I Knew
Ice Age
In the Cut
Indignation
Intolerable Cruelty
It’s Kind of a Funny Story
Jacob’s Ladder
Johnny English
Just Between Friends
The Killer Elite
Knowing
Lady Vengeance
Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Lost in Hong Kong
Machines
The Man From Nowhere
Maximum Risk
Mercury Rising
Mosquito Squadron
Mountains May Depart
Mr. North
The Nightingale
Nixon
Old Stone
The Omen
Once Upon a Time in the West
Open Water
Open Water 2: Adrift
Places in the Heart
The Polar Express
Pop Aye
R.L. Stine: Mostly Ghostly
R.L. Stine’s Monsterville: The Cabinet Of Souls
R.L. Stine’s Mostly Ghostly: Have You Met My Ghoulfriend?
R.L. Stine’s Mostly Ghostly: One Night In Doom House
R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour: Don’t Think About It
Raising Arizona
Reno 911!: Miami: The Movie
The Ring
Rookie of the Year
Salvador
Scent of Green Papayas
Secret Admirer
Sk8 Dawg
Sleeping With the Enemy
Sleepwalkers
The Soloist
Somewhere
Sorority Row
Space Jam
The Stepfather
Sunshine
Super Troopers
Sweet Bean
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
Take Shelter
Taken
This Means War
Thunderheart
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
Tokyo Rising
Tooth Fairy
Train to Busan
Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys
Under Fire
Universal Soldier
Virtuosity
The Wailing
Whip It
Wilde
Wings of Courage
The Woman Who Left
Young Sherlock Holmes

Welcome to SNX DLX, our weekly roundup of the best sneakers to hit the market. The summer sneaker season is still burning hot as we’re hit with another jam-packed week full of great shoes and notable sneaker collaborations. This week, Nike drops Aleali May’s latest highly anticipated sneaker release, her second big release of the year, as well as a whole bunch of SB Dunks and Air Max sneakers.

But Adidas isn’t slouching either, the three-stripes is hitting us with a one-two punch that includes new Yeezy’s and Bad Bunny’s latest sneaker drop, and — considering Kanye remains one of the biggest names in sneakers with Bad Bunny trailing very closely behind — we’re actually going to go ahead and say Adidas has the better output this time around. We have all of that and more from New Balance, Kids of Immigrants, and Vans.

Let’s dive into this week’s best sneakers!

Bad Bunny Adidas Forum Low Back To School

It’s doubtful that any other musician will ever surpass Kanye West in the footwear game but right now there is a fierce battle over the second-place spot. Putting your money on Travis Scott makes sense, but Bad Bunny, just three sneakers in, is coming up fast. Travis may have Nike and Jordan on his side, but Bad Bunny has been able to create a lot of noise by utilizing a single Adidas silhouette, and an underappreciated one at that.

For his third sneaker drop, Bad Bunny is giving the Forum Buckle Low the triple black treatment with this stylishly stealthy take. Following a coffee-colored design and a triple pink iteration, the triple black features a mixed upper of leather and suede and sits atop a black rubber cupsole, with a wraparound cord lacing system, and Bad Bunny iconography throughout.

The triple black Bad Bunny Adidas Forum Low Back To School is out now for a retail price of $160. Pick up a pair at your favorite aftermarket site.

Women’s Nike Dunk Low Purple Pulse/Yellow Strike

Nike is continuing its campaign to cater to more WMNS-sized sneakerheads out there, almost every week they drop a new colorway of one of their classic silhouettes, and this week, they’re dropping two! The WMNS-exclusive Dunk Low Purple Pulse and Yellow Strike combine the SB Dunk construction we can’t seem to get enough of with over-dyed leather uppers that give each sneaker’s paneling a sort of acid-wash vibe. Keep ‘em coming, Nike!

The Women’s exclusive Dunk Low Purple Pulse and Yellow Strike are set to drop on August 18th for a retail price of $110. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or grab the Purple Pulse, which are already up at GOAT.




Kids of Immigrants x Vans ‘Anything Is Possible’

Los Angeles-based streetwear brand Kids of Immigrants consistently drops some of the best Vans collaborations and this solid partnership is continuing this week with the release of the ‘Anything Is Possible’ pack. The sneaker features an asymmetrical design that combines shearling, corduroy, velvet, leather, and some very subtle paisley designs along the upper.

The sneaker’s insole is inspired by Chinese laundry bags and the design sits atop a yellow sole that is meant to recall household lampshades, both are callbacks to Kids of Immigrant’s earliest days when the brand was still being run out of the apartment of co-founders Daniel Buezo and Weleh Dennis. It’s a dope design and feels like a victory lap for a brand that continues to grow and best itself every year.

The Kids of Immigrants x Vans ‘Anything is Possible’ is set to drop on August 20th at the Kids of Immigrants webstore. Hit up Greenhouse today to get early access. 


Nike Air Max Pre-Day Light Bone/Chlorophyll

As much as we love Nike — and if you follow SNX weekly, that’s pretty damn clear — the brand doesn’t take a whole lot of chances. It’s easy to drop amazing colorways of a Jordan 1-4, it’s easy to reimagine the Dunk, it’s easy to introduce yet another Air Force 1… but when will we get something new that’s actually, you know, worth wearing?

The Air Max Pre-Day is the Swoosh’s attempt at changing the game. It combines old Nike track aesthetics with a sleek and modern shape and is constructed with 20% recycled content by weight. It lands on a happy middle ground between Nike’s futuristic and sustainable Space Hippie line and another one of their classic silhouettes, the Air Max. This week it’s dropping in two colorways, Light Bone (which is our favorite) and a more in-your-face Chlorophyll colorway, which combines deep green with a peach Nike swoosh.

The Air Max Pre-Day Light Bone and Chlorophyll are set to drop on August 18th for a retail price of $140. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Women’s Air Jordan 14 Aleali May Fortune

Aleali May is the Virgil Abloh of the ‘20s. While she hasn’t had a big career-defining release like Abloh’s “The Ten” she’s been dropping hit after hit with her bold reimaginings of Air Jordans, this week she’s taking on the often ignored Jordan 14.

The WMNS-exclusive Fortune features a Light Sand colorway over an all-over hairy suede upper with metallic gold and jade detailing. Like all of Aleali May’s sneakers, this design is personal, the gold and jade accents are a reference to the first piece of jewelry the designer ever received, a gift from her grandmother. By continuing to infuse her own life experience into her sneakers, May brings a lot of heart and personality to her designs, that’s a rarity in modern sneaker designers.

The Women’s Air Jordan 14 Aleali May Fortune is set to drop on August 19th for a retail price of $190. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Nike Dunk High 1985 Red Acid Wash

If you’ve got big feet and you’re throwing a fit at those dope acid-wash WMNS-exclusive Dunks, Nike didn’t forget about you, so chill. Arguably the best Dunk to drop this week, the Red Acid Wash features a high top design that borrows its shape from the 1985 iteration of the SB Dunk High (when it was still just a basketball shoe) and features a grey leather underlay over panels of acid-washed University Red with a yellowed midsole and a thick padded collar.

The Nike Dunk High 1985 Red Acid Wash is set to drop on August 19th for a retail price of $130. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app.

Adidas Adicross ZX Primeblue Spikeless Golf Shoes

Adidas has this tendency to drop really dope golf shoes, which is cool I guess, but the problem is that they have spikes and you can’t wear them on the streets. Which, sorry for your golf players out there, makes them absolutely useless to me. But Adidas has heard my crying because now they’re dropping a spikeless version of their Adicross ZX Primeblue Golf Shoes, and it’s everything I could’ve asked for.

Featuring a textile upper with EVA cushioning atop a BOOST midsole, the Adicross ZX is designed with energy return in mind giving each of your steps a nice bounce regardless of what terrain you’re working with. You can hit the course, and then enter the real world after without an outfit change.

The sneaker drops in two colorways, the understated Halo Mint and Cloud White makeup and a more eye-catching Cloud White, Core Black, and Orbit Indigo makeup. Both colorways are made using recycled material from Parley Ocean Plastic.

The Adidas Adicross ZX Primeblue Spikeless Golf Shoes are set to drop on August 20th for a retail price of $130. Pick up a pair at the Adidas webstore.

New Balance 2002R Protection Pack

If you haven’t been paying attention to modern fashion — which is easy giving the Delta variant pushing us back home — you might not have noticed that streetwear is being heavily influenced by the stylings of the Y2K era. New Balance is capitalizing on this wave by reimagining the MR2002 sneaker with the new 2002R. The 2002R features an upper of mixed suede and mesh, making it much more lightweight than the original, with an improved impact-absorbing midsole with added arch support.

The sneaker expertly combines the shape of ‘00s footwear with modern touches. Check out that deconstructed upper! The 2002R will drop in three nature-inspired colorways, the greyscale Rain Cloud, the moody and dark Phantom colorway, and our favorite, an almost all-white pair dubbed Sea Salt.

The New Balance 2002R Protection Pack is set to drop on August 20th for a retail price of $130 per pair. Pick up your favorite colorway at the New Balance webstore.

Air Jordan 12 Utility

This week Nike is showing some love to the last truly great Jordan design (don’t come for me in the comments) with the Jordan 12 Utility. Featuring an outsole composed of 3% recycled scrap from used sneakers, the Utility features a ballistic mesh tongue, with a premium leather upper and nubuck mudguard.

It’s interesting to see Nike give a Jordan the sustainable treatment, while it’s only in the outsole it’s a positive step in the right direction.

The Air Jordan 12 Utility is set to drop on August 21st for a retail price of 190. Pick up a pair via the Nike SNKRS app or on the aftermarket at GOAT or Flight Club.

Adidas YEEZY Boost 350 V2 Light

What’s more likely to drop this weekend, the Yeezy BOOST 350 V2 Light or Ye’s Donda? Our money is on the sneakers which rumors place at an August 21st release. The V2 Light features a UV-sensitive upper that glows in a soft pink color when hit with the sunlight, the monofilament side stripe also darkens to a more amber color. Under artificial light, the sneakers will return to their yellow and Ivory make-up.

As frustrating as Kanye is these days, this is a pretty dope innovation to Ye’s best-selling Yeezy design.

The Adidas YEEZY Boost 350 V2 Light is set to drop on August 21st for a retail price of $220. Pick up a pair at Yeezy Supply or hit up GOAT.




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Disclaimer: While all of the products recommended here were chosen independently by our editorial staff, Uproxx may receive payment to direct readers to certain retail vendors who are offering these products for purchase.

People have been debating the merits and madness of school dress codes for years, arguing over how much shoulder, thigh, and collarbone should be visible in the classroom. But now a Texas school district has added a whole new layer to the dress code question—how much face should students be showing in the midst of a viral pandemic?

The Board of Trustees at Paris Independent School District in northeast Texas has decided to add masks to the school district’s dress code, a move that circumvents the governor’s ban on school mask mandates. Now instead of policing spaghetti straps and skirt lengths, schools can send home kids who are maskless or wear their masks as chin diapers. (Only enforcing masks makes a whole lot more sense for students’ safety and well-being than a plunging neckline.)

“The Texas Governor does not have the authority to usurp the Board of Trustees’ exclusive power and duty to govern and oversee the management of the public schools of the district,” the district stated in a press release. “Nothing in the Governor’s Executive Order 38 states he has suspended Chapter 11 of the Texas Education Code, and therefore the Board has elected to amend its dress code consistent with its statutory authority.”

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Thank you, Paris ISD. https://t.co/WooFN4aVyZ

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC)
1629252482.0

According to The Paris News, the decision came after an emergency meeting between board members, school employees, parents, and members of the local medical community. Though some parents objected to requiring masks, there were enough doctors, parents, and staff who wanted masks to be required that the board decided to take action.

The motion was passed 5-1, with the one dissenting board member saying that while he was not against masks, he believed using a loophole to skirt Gov. Greg Abbott’s mask mandate ban was against the oath of office of the board members.

The change to the school dress code is not permanent and will be revisited each month.

Even though Governor Abbott has used his state government authority to ban local government from mandating masks in schools, there’s apparently nothing he can do about a school district’s dress code. Sometimes loopholes are necessary, especially when the health and well-being of everyone in the community is on the line.

No one loves to see kids in masks, but it’s a far better option than giving a highly contagious variant free reign in schools. Kudos to the Paris ISD Board of Trustees for finding a way to get around a ban that makes zero logical sense in the middle of a pandemic, especially when the local hospital already ran out of ventilators and kids under 12 don’t even have the option of being vaccinated yet.

Val Kilmer has had a very unique acting career. He’s played the leading man in major hits such as “Batman Forever,” “The Doors,” and “The Saint” while also portraying memorable, scene-stealing character roles in “Tombstone,” “Heat,” and “Top Gun.”

He also showed a flair for comedy with his performances in “Real Genius” and the Zucker Brothers’ brilliant “Top Secret.”

But his career as an actor all but ended in 2015 after he lost his voice after undergoing treatment for throat cancer. The treatments reduced his voice to a creaky rasp and he uses a feeding tube because he can no longer eat.

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VAL – Official Trailer (2021) Val Kilmer Documentary

www.youtube.com

Kilmer’s struggles with life after his cancer treatment are documented in a moving new documentary “VAL” that follows his life through his personal home movie footage. The film shows how he’s grown as a person and persevered after losing such a valuable part of his craft.

After the film was finished, Kilmer’s representatives contacted Sonantic, an AI company, to see if they could digitally recreate the actor’s voice. “So that’s what we did,” said Zeena Qureshi, CEO and co-founder of Sonantic. “Val’s team wanted to give him his voice back so that he could continue creating.”

In the past, vocal recreations such as those used by Stephen Hawking or Roger Ebert sounded more like robots than humans.

However, Sonantic’s recreation of Kilmer’s voice using old audio of him speaking pre-cancer treatment sounds like the actor we remember.

“From the beginning, our aim was to make a voice model that Val would be proud of,” John Flynn, CTO and Co-founder of Sonantic said. “We were eager to give him his voice back, providing a new tool for whatever creative projects are ahead.”

The company says that its engineers pulled audio of Kilmer speaking, cleaned it up, and removed any background noise. They then ran it through “voice engine” algorithms which learned how to speak in Kilmer’s unique tone and rhythms.

The software is so sensitive that it can derive emotional patterns from the words to give them the proper inflection.

Take a listen:

Hear Val Kilmer’s AI voice – Sonantic

www.youtube.com

The great news for Kilmer is that he can use artificial intelligence to speak in a way that’s familiar with his fans. “It’s exclusively his model. He could use it for personal use or professional use if he wants to,” Qureshi said.

“I’m grateful to the entire team at Sonantic who masterfully restored my voice in a way I’ve never imagined possible,” Kilmer said in a statement. “As human beings, the ability to communicate is the core of our existence and the effects from throat cancer have made it difficult for others to understand me. The chance to tell my story, in a voice that feels authentic and familiar, is an incredibly special gift.”

Kilmer’s fans can look forward to him appearing in the long-awaited “Top Gun” sequel that’s coming out in November. After he initially wasn’t cast in the film, Kilmer made an impassioned plea to the film’s producers and Tom Cruise to reprise his iconic role as Iceman.

“As the Temptations sang in the heydey of Motown soul, ‘Ain’t too proud to beg.’ The producers went for it,” Kilmer recalled in his memoir, “I’m Your Huckleberry.” “Cruise went for it. Cruise couldn’t have been cooler. … Tom and I took up where we left off. The reunion felt great.”

With her latest song “Rumors,” Lizzo dove head-first into her new era of music. But the single’s release didn’t go as smoothly as she had hoped. A flood of hateful comments criticizing everything from her music to her body were thrown at Lizzo. So much so, that Facebook reportedly even had to step in to delete some of the unkind words. After a heart-tugging message to fans on Instagram Live, Lizzo is taking one more step in dispelling haters.

The singer sat down with Good Morning America for an interview about her “Rumors” video’s backlash. The singer said that, for the most part, she doesn’t let negative comments affect her. But at a certain point, it’s too much:

“I don’t mind critique about me, my music. I don’t even mind the fat comments. I just feel like it’s unfair sometimes, the treatment that people like me receive. […] Some people are like, ‘Don’t let people see you with your head down, sis.’ My head is always up. Even when I’m upset and even when I’m crying, my head is always up. But I know it’s my job as an artist to reflect the times, and this sh*t should not fly. This shouldn’t be okay.”

The singer continued to note that Black women’s achievements in the music industry have historically been swept under the rug. “Black women have been in this industry and innovating it for ever. It is unfortunate that we are the ones who do suffer from the marginalization the most and the erasure the most,” she said. “I feel like, if it weren’t for the internet, if if weren’t for social media, I could have been erased. But I chose to be undeniable, and I chose to be loud, and I chose to be great. And I’m still here. It’s difficult.”

Watch Lizzo’s full interview on Good Morning America above.

Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The world owes Neill Blomkamp an apology. First, they rejected (generally speaking) his 2015 masterpiece, Chappie, and these days they can’t stop asking him about his Alien movie that languished in development hell for years, or his Robocop prequel that he dropped out of.

Even in prepping this piece, a big part of me wanted to headline it “Neill Blomkamp Is Tired Of Answering Your ‘Alien’ Questions.” That’d be the provocative headline, the most surefire way to sell the interview and get people to read the piece, my ostensible goal. And yet, it would also, in a way, be doing the exact thing that my subject just asked me politely not to do. I suppose I can sacrifice a few clicks for the man who gave us Chappie.

Neill Blomkamp, by the way, is only 41, and the South African/Canadian already has an Oscar nomination (for co-writing District 9, with his wife Terri Thatchell) so there isn’t much sense pondering what-ifs and potential sequels. This month, the former special fx prodigy tries his hand at horror in Demonic, which takes place inside a computer rendering of one its characters’ minds (where a demon may also live).

Blomkamp, who wrote this one alone, says Demonic grew out of both a desire to shoot a movie during COVID, and to utilize a technology called “volumetric capture,” in which 260 cameras are arranged in a grid that captures the actors from all points of view. It turns subjects into these sorts of geometric shapes that shudder as the perspective jumps from camera to camera. Influenced by movies like Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project, Blomkamp says he worked backwards to try to explain VolCap’s unique renderings.

It’s somewhat ironic employing so much complex, cutting edge tech in the service of a movie inspired by hand-held, low-budget horror films. Yet it fits with Blomkamp’s usual retro-futuristic style — he’s been doing dusty, lo-fi futurism at least since District 9. Tonally it’s also a big departure, a straightforward horror film without many jokes, spare and sober and unsettling in stark contrast to Chappie‘s candy-coated madness.

I spoke to Blomkamp this week about what Demonic means for his future, the challenges of working with VolCap, and which high-profile sequel projects he isn’t allowed or doesn’t want to talk about.

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This is your first feature since Chappie. Were you stung by the critical reaction to that?

I think I was more not into the audience not liking it. I think the audience rejecting it was more problematic.

When you say that, what is your gauge for the audience rejecting a movie?

Well, I think any conversation about it is just always cloaked in negativity somehow. And I think people have a point of view of a film and it just locks in place and that’s the way that it is. So most of my interactions to do with it are quite, marginally negative, I would say. I think it was a case of misunderstanding the tone — or me not presenting the tone correctly and them rejecting it. But it’s all good. I mean, it’s like, you have to experiment.

I like to think of myself as the Internet’s foremost Chappie defender, but do you think–

I know. Your review cracked me up a lot. Because it felt quite spot on, but it was… it’s just hilarious.

I mean, I loved it. But do you think it had anything to do with Die Antwoord being at the point in their fame cycle where there was a backlash against them, and then the movie coming along right at that point?

I don’t think so. I think it’s more a case of how the film was trying to put forward these incredibly serious, massive questions about the nature of existence, and it was wrapped up in this kind of bubble gum, South African rap, pop color lunacy. I think that people didn’t want to see those two elements gel together, that they shouldn’t coexist. I think that was more of the issue. In other words, you could’ve put in rappers from anywhere, right? And the reaction would’ve been the same.

In Demonic, it seems like there’s less humor and that you, I don’t know, you “played it straight,” so to speak. Do you think that your Chappie experience had anything to do with that choice?

I don’t think so. I mean, I’m pretty sure I’ll come back to the craziness of Chappie, for sure. It’s just a case of… I was really inspired by Paranormal Activity and Blair Witch Project. I like the no-joking seriousness of those and that’s where it came from tonally. It was just wanting to be more direct, I guess.

Is there irony to the fact that there’s this sort of straightforward, horror, low-budget influence to it, and yet, at the same time, you’re using all these really sort of complex technologies to create that?

I know, it is weird. I mean, it’s like those two things shouldn’t exist at the same time. But it’s because the film is a result of wanting to shoot something during the planet being shut down. And so there were all of these separate elements that I had in my head that I wanted to use at some point, and it was like, this was just the stew that they went into. So the volumetric capture VR stuff I wanted to use, but because of the glitchy early developmental nature of VolCap, I didn’t know how to put it into a film unless it was justified as being a prototype piece of technology in the movie, in the narrative. But it’s almost like if you have the VolCap idea up on a shelf somewhere, and then you have the idea of wanting to do a smaller self-financed Blair Witch Project film and combining them… it’s like, that’s what happened.

So this grew directly out of the limitations of the pandemic…

Yeah, yeah, no. It was a case of… I mean, going back more than a decade, I always wanted to shoot a tiny horror film. I just loved the way that Paranormal Activity was made. And so I always had that in the back of my head and then this seemed like a perfect opportunity to do it, around March or April when it was clear that normal production was halted and so people figured out what was the best way to approach it. It felt like an awesome time to just do something like that.

What did you have to do differently on set as a result of it shooting during quarantine?

It wasn’t really quarantine, yet, it was more just the beginning of COVID. I don’t think lockdowns had happened. The issue was getting… Carly [Pope, star of Demonic] lives in the US and she had to cross the border and then she had to quarantine. There were things like that. But I mean, other than actors quarantining, the only other thing was just the typical stuff that you see on set now about sanitization stations and masks and the way you cycle in and out of sets and stuff like that.

You were working on an Alien project, sequel, whatever. Were you disappointed in not getting to do that? What did you think about the movies that they ended up making?

If it’s possible, I really don’t want to talk about Alien. I’m just so done with the whole discussion and it seems like it just never goes away. Alien, Robocop, District 10, I’m just like, “I can’t talk about it.”

Is that just you’re done with the studio process to a certain degree?

No, I don’t think so. I don’t have a problem with the studio process. I think the issue, just to be aware of going into stuff, is when it’s a piece of relatively large IP, that can cause complexities down the line.

Now we’re kind of in a situation where almost every studio project is driven by a piece of large IP.

Yeah. But I mean I think you can still make original stuff and that’s fine.

So with this, the volumetric capture system, how much different was it working with actors while you’re doing this versus when you’re not using that technology?

It’s ridiculously difficult. They’re in, essentially, a prison cage of 260 cameras, and they can’t move, they can’t really cross the set. It’s a four-meter volume, so it’s very confined. It’s the worst situation you could imagine filming in, basically. And it’s hard for them. I mean, it’s awesome that Carly and Nathalie were able to pull off what they did in there because it’s not an easy environment. It’s much more difficult than motion capture.

What are the major differences between this and the way motion capture is done?

Well, motion capture puts the performance that you’re gathering from the actor onto a different model or avatar that they are driving, right? So that can look like anything. It looks like whatever the artists design. Volume capture is more like capturing three-dimensional video. So the actors look exactly the way they look and it’s unmodifiable. They come in in full hair and makeup and wardrobe and they get captured in that way.

It seems like you tried to create a glitchy, like the feel of new technology in the film.

Well, that was a product of knowing that that’s how volumetric capture would look, but I sort of worked backwards. It’s like, “It’s going to look glitchy, so how do I write it into the script to be acceptable that it looks glitchy?” The look is the way that it comes out. It’s like, that’s how it’s captured, so you just have to embrace that.

Are you thinking of going back to more horror after this are you going to go more back towards sci-fi?

No, the thing I’m doing next is more, yeah… It’s more bigger science fiction. So yeah, I’m pretty excited about it.

Is there a certain freedom on something like this where you don’t maybe necessarily have to promise as much just because it is cheaper to make?

I don’t know. I mean, it didn’t necessarily feel that different other than we just had way less resources, you know? Yeah, I mean, going back to Chappie, it’s like, the issues with it are, the audience was coming down on choices that I had made. It’s not really like there was an issue with the studio if that makes sense. Shooting this is the same kind of process. It’s just at a smaller scale.

Right. But you don’t think you have to promise bigger things when you’re trying to get money for a bigger project?

No, I don’t think so. You mean in terms of scope? In terms of spectacle?

Yeah. Or just in terms of having more freedom to play around, I guess. I mean, it seems when you want money for a bigger project, you have to make certain promises, and if you decide to change them later you’re in trouble or something.

Yeah. I don’t think so. I mean, it’s just a process of figuring out the story, figuring out the budget, and seeing if the studio is willing to pay for it. The only thing really that happens there is just making sure that there’s a star that can support the level of budget. But once you’re off and making it, it should be fine.

‘Demonic,’ from IFC Midnight and Neill Blomkamp, will be in theaters, on Digital Rental & VOD on August 20, 2021. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

Less than a week after unleashing the final batch of episodes in all of their back-stabbing, last-minute-twisting, muscle-gleaning glory, HBO Max has officially renewed FBoy Island for a second season. The streaming service had already boasted about the numbers for the reality show’s premiere, and now they’re ready to take another trip to the island with a new batch of “FBoys” and “Nice Guys,” who will compete for a shot at love — or a buttload of cash. Per HBO:

“With a title like FBoy Island, we knew we would get the audience’s attention and we’re thrilled that they’ve responded to the self-aware, comedic nature of the format, proving that they are excited by this fresh approach that puts women in control,” said Sarah Aubrey, Head of Original Content, HBO Max. “Season one undoubtedly kept the audience guessing but we have even more big twists in store for season two. To the next batch of Fboys, beware, we’re coming for you!” added Jennifer O’Connell, Executive Vice President, Non-Fiction and Live-Action Family, HBO Max.

Comedian Nikki Glaser is locked down to return as the host for the new season, so naturally, she put her own spin on the renewal using her comedic wit that was easily one of FBoy Island’s highlights.

“I couldn’t be happier about returning to FBoy Island for season two,” Glaser said in a statement. “The only downside is that it confirms my greatest fear: that there are more than 12 Fboys on planet earth.”

Featuring 12 FBoys and 12 Nice Guys, FBoy Island tasked three women with not getting played by the FBoys as they looked for love in the Cayman Islands. However, the show routinely switched things up, which led to some tense and dramatic moments as the three ladies struggled to choose between going with a Nice Guy or taking a gamble on reforming an FBoy, who might have been lying the whole time just to get a shot at $100,000. It was great TV, is what we’re saying.