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Over the past 44 years, George Lucas and the people who paid George Lucas billions of dollars have produced dozens of feature films, TV shows, and one awesomely terrible holiday special that, collectively, make up the Star Wars universe. Hundreds of actors have appeared in those projects, which makes Star Wars the movie equivalent of Law & Order. But when you consider that thousands of other actors have unsuccessfully auditioned for parts they didn’t get, it’s safe to round up a bit and assume that every actor you’ve ever heard of has been considered for a role in a Star Wars project.

Dev Patel included.

While discussing his new film The Green Knight with Total Film, the conversation turned to Patel’s brush with being whisked off to a galaxy far, far away. When asked to comment on the rumors that he auditioned for a Star Wars project, the Oscar nominee confirmed that indeed he had, but didn’t seem to think it was such a big deal.

“I don’t know if you’re allowed to talk about it, because you sign an NDA. But yeah, I think everyone did. Everyone auditioned for Star Wars. I remember, I think I was doing Marigold 2, and I sent them an iPhone video from my trailer in India. The next minute, I got a call-back, and I was there, and that was fascinating.”

Obviously, Patel wasn’t cast in whatever role he auditioned for. While the 31-year-old actor has always gravitated toward smaller, critically acclaimed projects like Slumdog Millionaire, Lion, and The Personal History of David Copperfield, he’s not against becoming a Wookiee or an MCU superhero — just as long as it makes sense for him.

“I mean, look, I’m not opposed to it,” Patel said. “Those movies are a real spectacle when done right. I guess if I fit in these worlds… I don’t know. The alchemy hasn’t been right for me, personally yet. These journeys with people like David [Lowery, director of The Green Knight], and stuff like that, have really been the most nourishing.”

(Via Total Film)

Vaccination rates are the talk of the football world these days, as the NFL has made it clear to teams that it will not be moving games due to COVID-19 outbreaks among unvaccinated players and coaches. Should that happen, the league said in a memo on Thursday, teams will be forced to forfeit and accept a loss, while players on both teams will not receive game checks.

On Friday, reports indicated that Vikings offensive assistant Rick Dennison had left the team as a direct result of not getting vaccinated against COVID-19. According to ESPN, Dennison refuses to get the vaccine, which the league is requiring for coaches, and it is unclear if Dennison was fired or resigned.

Dennison, who had served as the Vikings’ offensive line coach/run game coordinator the past two seasons, is believed to be the first NFL position coach to leave his team after choosing not to receive a vaccine.

The vaccine is required for all Tier 1 staff, including coaches, front-office executives, equipment managers and scouts. Players are not required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine but will face strict protocols during training camp and throughout the season that vaccinated players will be able to forgo.

The move will make Dennison a martyr to some anti-vaxx members of the league, but it shows just how serious franchises are about avoiding the pandemic-plagued season it had in 2020. With games played on basically every day of the week last year because of outbreaks and no vaccines available, the pandemic looks very different in the summer of 2021. While vaccination among players is still a choice that offers some significant downsides to not getting the jab, the league has made it clear to teams that it will not be coaches causing problems for its schedule this season.

[via ESPN]

The United States Olympic Team took a moment to celebrate Kevin Durant’s birthday on Friday. While the team was waiting to walk out during the Opening Ceremonies at the Olympic Ceremony in Tokyo, a number of athletes came together to sing “Happy Birthday” to the Brooklyn Nets’ star. The catch: Durant looked like he did not have any fun as folks sang along, presumably because his birthday is not until the end of September.

Durant turns 33 on Sept. 29, and while I am sure he is appreciative of whatever kind sentiments were sent his way here, he also is very visibly not enjoying this, presumably because it’s not his birthday and it’s awkward enough when people sing “Happy Birthday” to you then. As the video shows, JaVale McGee, a former teammate of Durant’s with Golden State, was in on the joke, but a different ex-teammate ended up admitting that they were behind this effort to mess with KD.

Let it be known that if you are friends with Draymond Green and he has the opportunity to have the rest of the United States Olympic Team get a joke off at your expense, he is going to take it. Then again, this is probably not useful advice for anyone other than Kevin Durant and he learned that lesson the hard way already.

If you’ve been looking for a new fantasy series to fill the giant Game of Thrones-shaped hole in your heart, boy are you in luck. After nearly three years in the works, we are merely months away from the premier of The Wheel of Time series over on Amazon Prime Video. To help reignite excitement for the upcoming show, Amazon has finally shared a first look at Rosamund Pike’s Moiraine in the official poster for the series, along with the caption, “See you in November, Dragonsworn.”

For those not familiar with the The Wheel of Time, the upcoming show is based on the best-selling fantasy novels by Robert Jordan. While the series 14 novels sprawls across years and features numerous characters, the show follows the hero of the first three books — Moiraine Damodred — as she embarks on a dangerous journey with five young men and women. Moiraine takes on this mission as she believes one of her traveling companions could very well be the reincarnation of an incredibly powerful individual, the Dragon, whom prophecies say will either save humanity or destroy it.

The Wheel of Time makes its big debut this November on Amazon Prime Video. The six-episode season is being adapted for television by Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Chuck writer Rafe Judkins, and will be produced by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon Studios. For all you longtime fans of the popular series, rest assured Judkins has said is a fan of the books, and is “honored to be the one finally bringing that world to life.”

“For so many people, including me, this book series has served as a world to escape to, to lose yourself in, to devour and inhabit completely. And I couldn’t be more honored to be the one finally bringing that world to life on screen, for old fans to lose themselves in all over again and new fans to discover for the very first time.”

(Via Deadline & Amazon)

The “serial killer gets impregnated by a car” movie of your dreams is almost here.

When Neon released the first trailer for Titane, director Julia Ducournau’s follow-up to Raw, the distributor provided no information about the plot. All we had was the definition of the title (“A metal highly resistant to heat and corrosion, with high tensile strength alloys, often used in medical prostheses due to its pronounced biocompatibility”) and an orgasm of visuals, including a shirtless buff dude, a woman in ecstasy on the hood of a car, and a child that looks like season one Eleven from Stranger Things.

But after Titane won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival (previous winners include Parasite, The Tree of Life, and Dancer in the Dark), Neon announced a release date — and we finally know what the heck it’s about.

Titane will hit theaters on October 1. As for the plot:

The film centers around Alexia (Agathe Rousselle), a serial killer impregnated by a car who disguises her gender and goes incognito as a lonely fireman’s (Vincent Lindon) long-lost son.

A tale as old as time, really.

Between The Many Saints of Newark, No Time to Die, Halloween Kills, Dune, Jackass Forever, The French Dispatch, Last Night in SoHo, and now Titane, October 2021 is shaping up to be a movie month for the ages.

(Via Variety)

Veteran Chicago radio personality “Ramblin’ Ray” Stevens was driving in his car two weeks ago when he passed Braxton Mayes, 20, several times.

“I was on my way home from work Friday and saw a young man walking down Kirk Road,” Stevens later recalled. “I dropped my friend off at the studio I work out of and headed home. This young man was still walking. So I drove around the block and asked him if he needed a ride.”

“In our town, we help people out,” Stevens said.

After some hesitancy, the young man agreed. During the ride, Stevens learned that every day Mayes walks 12 miles between the west suburban towns of Montgomery and Batavia just to get to work. “It’s just one of those things,” Mayes told ABC 7. “You gotta do what you gotta do.”

Chicago area man’s car fixed after having to walk 6 hours a day to and from work

www.youtube.com

Mayes hits the road walking every morning at 4 am to make it to his 7 am shift on time. Then, after his shift, he walks another three hours home. His long commutes on foot started after his 2006 GMC truck broke down.

The former high school football star says that he had no trouble walking because he was raised with a strong work ethic. “I was struggling to get a job for a good amount of time, and once I finally got a job, I mean, that was my chance, I had to keep it,” Mayes said according to FOX 32. “So I had to do whatever I had to do.”

Inspired by Mayes’ commitment, Stevens put together a social media campaign to help get his car fixed. “Let’s help Braxton get his truck fixed! Any other leftover money will go to Chicago area food banks,” Stevens wrote on a GoFundMe page.

In just a few days, the campaign raised enough money to get the car fixed. “It brought me to tears,” Mayes said. “I didn’t know when I would come up with the money to fix it or how many times I would have to walk.”

Over the course of two weeks, the campaign has already raised nearly $11,000.

“This guy checks all the boxes,” Stevens said, according to People. “He’s a good, solid human being. People are having a hard time finding people to work and here’s a guy walking three hours one way just because his truck broke down.”

A local Ford dealership stepped up and paid for all of the repairs the car needed to get it rolling down the road again, so the money from the GoFundme campaign will go to local food banks.

Now, Mayes should be able to get to work in about 25 minutes.

Thanks @BurtonABC7 and @KrasheskyABC7 for telling Braxton’s story pretty cool ending) @friendlyfordros https://t.co/ku4JNkR1KM

— Ramblin’ Ray (@ramblin_ray)
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“The story of Braxton who was walking 3 hours to work one way has come to an end! Thanks to. @friendlyfordroselle for picking up the bill,” Stevens wrote on Instagram.

Stevens hopes to take Mayes and his family to dinner in the near future to get to know them a bit better.

With the Olympics officially beginning we’re about to see much of the world’s attention turn to Tokyo as fans cheer on their country, favorite athletes, or for the sake of sport itself. We’re also going to see many celebrations of the Olympics. One of those celebrations is coming from Friday’s Google Doodle.

The Google Doodle for Friday is a JRPG starring an adorable cat named Lucky competing in the Olympics. Players will take Lucky on a mini-adventure where she will compete in events like skateboarding, table tennis, and rugby to become the ultimate Olympian. Of course, since this is a JRPG, that means there is an anime-inspired art style alongside a handful of quests that the player can complete.

There’s actually a decent amount of content in the Doodle so anyone that wants to complete it may want to set aside a little bit of time to do so.

Welcome to the Doodle Champion Island Games! Over the coming weeks, join calico (c)athlete Lucky as she explores Doodle Champion Island: a world filled with seven sport mini-games, legendary opponents, dozens of daring side quests, and a few new (and old ;)) friends. Her ultimate goal? Defeat each sport Champion to collect all seven sacred scrolls—and complete extra hidden challenges across Champion Island in the purrr-ocess.

Are you feline Lucky ? Click on today’s Doodle, join one of the four color teams to contribute to the real-time global leaderboard, and let the games begin!

As for the game itself? It’s nothing too overly complicated, nor should it be considering you play it in a browser, but it is radiating with charm. The character sprites are all detailed and the character portraits all feature just enough detail to get the personality of whoever is being spoken to at the moment.

The entire game can be played with an arrow key and the spacebar so it should be relatively accessible to most players. The games themselves aren’t really meant to be a challenge, but there is a scoreboard for anyone that wants to compete in getting the highest scores. There’s a little bit of exploration, with a few NPC’s to talk to, and it hits all the right notes that one would expect from a JRPG. The only thing it’s really missing is a save the world plot, but maybe that is simply the start of the next great JRPG.

Washington DC hardcore punk band Minor Threat was only active for a few years in the early ’80s, but despite their short tenure, they’re regarded as one of the most important bands of their genre. The group’s members have gone on to great success outside of the band, including Ian MacKaye (who went on to form Fugazi) and Brian Baker (now a member of Bad Religion).

Then, there’s Buckcherry, who had some success in the mid-2000s — including a top-10 album with 2008’s Black Butterfly and a pair of multi-Platinum singles, “Crazy B*tch” and “Sorry” — but are not as historically revered. So, when Buckcherry singer Josh Todd recently brought up the idea of himself fronting a potential Minor Threat reunion, people weren’t feeling it.

In a recent interview with Classic Rock (as Consequence notes), Todd spoke about running into Baker and saying to him, “Hey, man, if you ever want to do a Minor Threat tour and Ian doesn’t want to do it, I’ll shave my head and we’ll f*cking do it!” As for Baker’s reaction, Todd reported, “He just laughed.”

Also laughing were Twitter users, many of whom were decidedly not into the idea of Todd taking the Minor Threat reigns. Classic Rock summarized the differences between Todd and MacKaye well: “Given that Todd is best known for the song ‘Crazy B*tch’ and the lyric, ‘I love the cocaine” (from ‘Lit Up’), whereas MacKaye is the author of the song ‘Straight Edge’ and sang, “I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I don’t f*ck…” on the title track of Out Of Step, this would be a bold recruitment by Baker, to put it mildly.”

That Baker anecdote came after Todd spoke about his admiration for Minor Threat and the band’s lone studio album, 1983’s Out Of Step, saying, “I was fifteen and I felt like an outcast. I was dealing with a lot of dysfunction in my personal life at that time, a lot of adversity at home. I couldn’t trust the men in my life. There was a lot of anger inside of me. So I spent all my time at the record store. I had a crazy independent punk rock collection – and Minor Threat’s Out Of Step was one of them. I felt like it was describing what was going on with me at that time. I truly connected with the recklessness and aggression of songs like the title track. It made me feel like I was part of a tribe when I listened to Out Of Step. You can hear Out Of Step in what we do, too.”

Check out some more reactions below.

USA Basketball will begin Olympic play on Sunday morning when it takes on France at 8 a.m. EST. It’s a highly-anticipated game, as the French — which are ranked seventh in the world in the most recent FIBA rankings — shocked the United States by knocking it out in the quarterfinals of its last major international tournament, the 2019 Basketball World Cup.

One major issue facing the Americans is that three of its most important players are flying to Tokyo after battling in the NBA Finals, with Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns hopping on a flight alongside Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton of the Milwaukee Bucks. The trio are expected to arrive by Saturday, and according to U.S. coach Gregg Popovich, the team is hopeful they’ll be able to play against France.

“I have no idea [how to use them],” Popovich said, per Brian Windhorst of ESPN. I’m not trying to be glib. I’m trying to be transparent. Maybe they’ll be OK for the game [Sunday] and it’ll hit them two days later. Maybe we should play them in the first half and see what they’re like.”

It’s certainly going to be a tricky needle to thread for Popovich, who will need to figure out on the fly whether to throw them in right away during the United States’ presumptive toughest group stage game — Iran and the Czech Republic round out Group A — with the hopes that they carry over their form after the playoffs, or let them gradually ramp things up. All three should, theoretically, play important roles for the Americans, which lost Bradley Beal’s scoring punch in the lead-up to the tournament and could have used reinforcements in the backcourt even before that.

Just as no one feuds as hard as celebrities, it turns out that no one pranks as hard either. Yesterday, actor and comedian Kevin Hart took his funny guy status to the next level in a prank involving some giant billboards and “best friend” Nick Cannon’s supposed phone number. For lucky passerby’s in Los Angeles, New York City, and Atlanta, you might have seen the prank in action, as Hart paid for billboards advertising “For any advice on fatherhood? Call my best friend Nick Cannon” followed by the star’s phone number.

The cheeky prank pokes fun at Cannon’s ever-expanding family, as the actor just welcomed twins twins Zion Mixolydian and Zillion Heir with their mother Abby De La Rosa on June 14, followed by newborn son Zen — whom he shares with model Alyssa Scott — on June 23. Cannon is also a father to four other children: Powerful Queen and Golden, whom he shares with Brittany Bell, and twins Moroccan and Monroe whom he had with his ex-wife Mariah Carey.

However, Hart’s little jab was not unprompted. According to Hart’s Instagram, he organized the stunt after Cannon surprised him with a llama on his birthday earlier in July. On July 9, Hart shared pictures of him with said llama, along with a caption to call Cannon “one of the biggest a**holes on the planet.”

Since then, Cannon has shared his phone ringing nearly off the hook on his Instagram story, along with the simple caption, “thanks Kevin Hart.” No telling on how much further things will escalate between the pair, but we’ll be watching eagerly.