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Bob Odenkirk is best known for creating one of the greatest sketch-comedy series of all-time (Mr. Show) and for playing a crooked lawyer (Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, one of our favorite shows of 2020). He’s not known as an action movie star, which is why I’m very excited for Nobody, in which Odenkirk goes full John Wick.

Directed by Ilya Naishuller (Hardcore Henry) and written by (all three John Wick movies), Nobody stars Odenkirk as Hutch Mansell, a husband and father who fails to defend his family when their house is robbed. The humiliation he feels, and the pity he gets from neighbors and co-workers, unleashes something in Hutch. Something violent. “I get the sh*t kicked out of me in this movie,” Odenkirk told Entertainment Weekly. “I really wanted to go way far outside, like 180 degrees outside my comfort zone. Just commit to this guy, commit to his rage, and commit to his commitment to what he’s doing.” He added, “It’s not a clean, vengeful narrative. It’s almost like collateral damage causes him more trouble than his initial problems.” But don’t worry, no dogs are hurt… Probably.

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

When two thieves break into his suburban home one night, Hutch (Bob Odenkirk) declines to defend himself or his family, hoping to prevent serious violence. His teenage son, Blake (Gage Munroe), is disappointed in him and his wife, Becca (Connie Nielsen), seems to pull only further away.

The aftermath of the incident strikes a match to Hutch’s long-simmering rage, triggering dormant instincts and propelling him on a brutal path that will surface dark secrets and lethal skills. In a barrage of fists, gunfire, and squealing tires, Hutch must save his family from a dangerous adversary (Aleksey Serebryakov) — and ensure that he will never be underestimated as a nobody again.

Nobody comes out on February 26.

Colin Kaepernick is getting into the ice cream game. The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback and social justice advocate announced on Thursday morning that he is teaming up with Ben and Jerry’s to create a new non-dairy flavor of ice cream that prominently features Kaepernick on the packaging.

The flavor is called “Colin Kaepernick’s Change the Whirled,” and all of Kaepernick’s proceeds from the dessert will go towards the Know Your Rights Camp.

In a statement released by Ben and Jerry’s, Kaepernick said “I’m honored to partner with Ben & Jerry’s on Change the Whirled. Their commitment to challenging the anti-Black roots of policing in the United States demonstrates a material concern for the wellbeing of Black and Brown communities. My hope is that this partnership will amplify calls to defund and abolish the police and to invest in futures that can make us safer, healthier, and truly free.”

As Kaepernick’s tweet indicates, the ice cream is slated to hit stores sometime in 2021. While Kaepernick has not appeared in an NFL game since 2016, he’s pursued a number of off-field interests in recent years. In 2020, this has included the announcement of a pair of docuseries — one on Netflix titled “Colin in Black & White” written by Ava Duvernay and Michael Starrbury, and one on Disney in conjunction with his Ra Vision Media.

Chance The Rapper and Jeremih‘s Merry Christmas Lil’ Mama holiday album is finally coming to streaming services and to hype the anticipation, Chance has released a new song, “The Return.” Produced by Smoko Ono and Beat Butcha, the song features a mellow beat evoking holiday classics of old with a piano and bass combination that leaves plenty of room for Chance to get busy lyrically. “Look, it’s Mister ‘Christmas Bonus,’” he rhymes. “Mister ‘Made His Brothers Bands,’ Mister Nicholas Jonas.” There is some stupendous wordplay here, giving Chance the — ahem — chance to reset the narrative after the lukewarm reception of his last album.

Meanwhile, Merry Christmas Lil’ Mama: The Gift That Keeps On Giving — as the retail version of the album is now called — will apparently feature a tracklist mashed up from both “discs” of the 2017 SoundCloud reissue, Merry Christmas Lil’ Mama: Re-Wrapped. While fan-favorite tracks like “Are U Live” and “Ms. Parker” will come from disc two, “Joy,” “Snowed In,” and “Stranger At The Table” come from disc one. “The Return” and “Who’s To Say” are two new Chance The Rapper tracks which will bookend the compressed runtime.

The retail version of Merry Christmas Lil’ Mama arrives as Chance’s collab partner Jeremih recovers from a stint in the hospital with a bad case of COVID-19. It’s due out this Friday, 12/11. You can pre-save it here.

Dallas police have arrested a man they suspect killed local rapper Mo3, according to TMZ. Homicide detectives received a tip from a witness, leading to a 21-year-old man named Kewon Dontrell White who police believe is the man seen fleeing the scene of the murder in surveillance video. They say White appeared to be tailing Mo3, with evidence placing him near the rapper on the day of the shooting — and the day before. White was transferred to federal custody — apparently, there was a previous case on him — and he’s been charged with possession of a firearm in addition to murder.

Mo3 was a burgeoning star on the Dallas rap scene and seemingly one hit away from becoming a national star at the time of his death. He was reportedly shot multiple times while fleeing on foot after a car chase on the freeway. A bystander was also hit and hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. Video of the shooting quickly circulated on social media depicting another bystander attempting CPR on the wounded Mo3, who was hit in the back of his head. Incidentally, the rapper had survived another shooting last year. Since then, his career had been on the upswing, with the collaborative mixtape Badazz MO3 alongside Boosie.

Christmas music gets a lot of attention around this time of year. Mariah Carey is back near the top of the charts, and the list of artists who have released original holiday tunes or covers of Christmas classics includes Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, 100 Gecs, Finneas, Phoebe Bridgers, and Justin Bieber, among others. Hanukkah can get lost in the holiday music shuffle, though, but now Dave Grohl is doing something about it: Grohl (who is not Jewish) is teaming up with Greg Kurstin (who is) for “The Hanukkah Session,” for which the pair will cover eight songs by Jewish artists, one for each night of Hanukkah.

Sharing a video announcing the series, Grohl wrote, “With all the mishegas of 2020, @GregKurstin & I were kibbitzing about how we could make Hannukah extra-special this year. Festival of Lights?! How about a festival of tasty LICKS! So hold on to your tuchuses… we’ve got something special coming for your shayna punims. L’chaim!!” In the video, Grohl says, “This year, instead of doing a Christmas song, Greg and I decided to celebrate Hanukkah by recording eight songs by eight famous Jewish artists, and releasing one song each night of Hannukah for you.”

This year, Hanukkah begins tonight at sunset, so expect the first song from the series to be released soon.

The James Harden trade saga is continuing to run its course. While the former league MVP has reported to Houston, he’s made it clear that he wants the Rockets to send him elsewhere, with the Brooklyn Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers reportedly on the list of places where he’d like to go.

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Harden has expanded his list of potential destinations. The report indicates that he would be willing to go to either Miami or Milwaukee, potentially joining forces with the defending Eastern Conference champions or the team expected to win the conference during the upcoming season.

A trade to Miami wouldn’t be too hard to figure out, as the Heat have a number of players it can include in a deal for Harden (or any other superstar), although it is very fair to wonder if a package centered around guys like Tyler Herro and Kendrick Nunn would pique Houston’s interest compared to what other teams can offer up. Milwaukee is much more difficult to see a path forward — the team parted with a ton of draft capital in its acquisition of Jrue Holiday, they don’t really have the kind of young cornerstones that the Rockets apparently want, and unless they’d part with one of Giannis Antetokounmpo or Khris Middleton, making this work financially is quite difficult. This also ignores that things have been frosty in the past between Antetokounmpo and Harden over the former’s back-to-back MVP awards.

All of these teams would appeal to Harden’s desire to go to a team that has a chance to compete for a ring. Whether he ends up going to one of them any time soon or if Houston really is willing to wait this out remains to be seen.

The Office ended over seven years ago, but it’s still one of the most popular shows on Netflix (until it moves to Peacock in 2021). It’s also wildly popular on celebrity booking website Cameo, where you can get a personalized greeting from Leslie David Baker (Stanley) and Kate Flannery (Meredith) for $300 and $180, respectively. That’s a good payday to congratulate “Steve for winning your fantasy football league,” or whatever, but it’s Brian Baumgartner who’s doing the best among his co-stars on Cameo.

Steven Galanis, the app’s co-founder and CEO, told the New York Times‘ Sway podcast that “the person that did the most in revenue this year” is Baumgartner, who plays Alanis Morissette fanatic Kevin Malone. “He’ll do over $1 million this year in bookings.” Galanis chalked Kevin’s financial success to “his persona. He really takes a lot of pride in his craftsmanship of the videos. And I do think the quality of the cameo is something that is really important to people. And he just is somebody that takes it seriously and does a great job. He’s reliable. He turns them around quickly. And the content is really funny.” Think how much chili you can buy for $1 million, plus whatever he makes in residuals.

As for the most-requested celebrity not on Cameo, that’s David Dobrik, who is “one of the top vloggers in the world,” according to Galanis. “So he’s number one, which would surprise a lot of people. A lot of people would think it’d be The Rock.”

Me rather book Kevin than vlogger or Rock.

(Via the New York Times)

With less than two weeks to go until its streaming debut, Netflix has released the final trailer for George Clooney‘s sci-fi epic The Midnight Sky. The film focuses on Clooney’s character as he finds himself in a desperate effort to stop human astronauts from returning to Earth, which has been completely ravaged and left uninhabitable. And, yes, Clooney is aware that a global catastrophe might seem a little on the nose right now, but the themes of humanity failing to reckon with its effects on the planet existed before the pandemic and will be here long after.

“It’s science fiction, which unfortunately is less fictional as we move through the days,” Clooney told Vanity Fair. “The sickness of hate and the elements that come from that, battles and wars — that has been percolating for quite some time.”

Despite the film’s post-apocalyptic setting and somber tone, Clooney says that, ultimately, The Midnight Sky is a story of hope. “I wanted it to be about redemption in a way. I wanted there to be some hopefulness in a fairly bleak story about the end of mankind.”

You can see promotional stills from The Midnight Sky below:

Here’s the official synopsis:

This post-apocalyptic tale follows Augustine (George Clooney), a lonely scientist in the Arctic, as he races to stop Sully (Felicity Jones) and her fellow astronauts from returning home to Earth, where a mysterious global catastrophe has taken place. Clooney directs the adaptation of Lily Brooks-Dalton’s acclaimed novel Good Morning, Midnight, co-starring David Oyelowo, Kyle Chandler, Demián Bichir and Tiffany Boone.

The Midnight Sky starts streaming December 23 on Netflix.

(Via Netflix)

Rudy Giuliani can’t keep his hair dye on, but he can receive the best COVID treatment ever. And he’ll tell you all about it.

The most visible member of President Trump’s “Elite Strike Force” (meant to overturn the election, but that ain’t happening) has miraculously left the hospital after receiving treatment that’s growing increasingly out-of-reach to ordinary Americans (the issue’s being exacerbated by overcrowded ICUs). And it all happened very fast (although one can’t take the timeline for the whole truth), given that Trump announced on Dec. 6 that Rudy had tested positive, and on Dec. 10, Rudy tweeted that he’d emerged from treatment “better than ever.” He also praised the “all-star team” who apparently did away with his “serious symptoms.”

Rudy also popped onto WABC radio to talk about how great it is to be him, basically. Via the New York Times, he declared, “If it wasn’t me, I wouldn’t have been put in a hospital frankly.” He added, “Sometimes when you’re a celebrity, they’re worried if something happens to you. They’re going to examine it more carefully and do everything right.”

According to CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz, Giuliani has also admitted that Trump made the call to get him admitted in a jiffy, and he had the same treatment course as POTUS: “Exactly the same. His doctor sent me here, talked me into it. I didn’t really want to go to the hospital and he said don’t be stupid, we can get it over in three days if we send you to the hospital.”

The New York Times has published an indictment of Rudy’s casual attitude, including his declaration that Covid-19 is “a treatable disease,” and he believes that Dems have taken masks and business closures to ridiculous, unnecessary lengths. He also appeared not to realize that hospitals are forced to ration care for coronavirus patients, yet he gained immediate access to an antibody treatment that’s not happening for most patients:

In fact, the antibody treatments are so scarce that officials in Utah have developed a ranking system to determine who is most likely to benefit from the drugs, while Colorado is using a lottery system. Dr. Matthew Wynia, director of the Center of Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado, said that giving the powerful access was patently unfair.

Presumably, Rudy will soon be back (in person) to spread more election misinformation.

(Via New York Times & CNN)

This morning, Taylor Swift decided she wanted to own the internet today. She did so by announcing another surprise new album, Evermore, which will arrive tonight just months after its predecessor, Folklore. Not long after she made the unexpected reveal, topics related to her and the album took over the Twitter list of trending topics. The most tweeted-about song as of this post is “‘Tis The Damn Season,” primarily because fans are realizing she actually revealed the song title before the album announce.

Yesterday, Swift took to her Instagram Story to share a photo of herself from a recent Entertainment Weekly feature and wrote alongside the picture, “This outfit really screams ‘TIS THE DAMN SEASON.” When it clicked this morning that the post was actually an Evermore Easter egg from Swift, fans took to Twitter to share their amazement and delight.

Some fans are also wondering if the track is a holiday song and are hopeful that it is.

Another Easter egg from Evermore is the role Swift’s lucky number 13 plays in it, as she explained while announcing the album, “Ever since I was 13, I’ve been excited about turning 31 because it’s my lucky number backwards, which is why I wanted to surprise you with this now. You’ve all been so caring, supportive and thoughtful on my birthdays and so this time I thought I would give you something!”

Evermore is out 12/11 via Republic. Pre-order it here.