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As the cast of Matt Reeves’ dark-secret concealing The Batman stands by for the all-clear to resume reshoots, a Marvel Cinematic Universe actor is spreading word that he won’t be among them. Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Dave Bautista, who stepped out of the wrestling ring and onto the big screen as Drax the Destroyer, won’t be bouncing over to DC as well to menace the cowl-clad Robert Pattinson. Rumors that he’d be joining the production as Bane weren’t exactly discouraged by Bautista, who tweeted a photo of himself outside a Warner Bros. building last December.

Yup, the “It won’t come to you so get after it!! #DreamChaser” caption was suggestive of a major comic-book role, to say the very least.

However, the role is not in the cards for Bautista who has now told a fan on Twitter that “unfortunately,” it wasn’t happening, but he “[t]ried my best.”

Of course, The Batman is shrouded in as much mystery as humanly possible, and we don’t even know at this stage whether the Bane character will appear in the movie at all. The film, which will co-star Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman and Colin Farrell as The Penguin, is scheduled to hit theaters on October 1, 2021.

Frank Ocean (real name Christopher Breaux) seems to have suffered a major personal loss this weekend: It is reported that the singer’s younger brother, Ryan Breaux, passed away at 18 years old as the result of a car crash.

KABC and CBSLA report that Breaux — along with Ezekial Bishop, a friend and fellow recent graduate of Oak Christian High School — died in a single-vehicle collision early Sunday morning (August 2) in Thousand Oaks, California. As a result of the crash, the car was cut in half upon impact with a tree and burst into flames. Law enforcement responded to a call of smoke in the area at about 1:30 a.m. near Skelton Canyon Circle. The occupants of the vehicle were pronounced dead on the scene. The Ventura County Medical Examiner has not officially confirmed the identity of either victim, but friends gathered near the scene for a memorial named Breaux and Bishop as the victims.

Ocean fans are familiar with Breaux, or at the very least, they’ve heard his voice before: An interview conducted by Breaux appears on Ocean’s Blond track “Futura Free.” Ocean has yet to publicly address Breaux’s reported death.

Friends of Breaux have shared condolences online, including Pierce Brosnan’s son Paris Brosnan, who posted photos of them together, a screenshot of a text conversation between them, and wrote, “Thank you for being there for me when I needed you most, thank you for all the wild nights, thank you for your music and all the late night studio sessions with Fray, thank you for blessing us ALL with your presence on this earth. I will carry you in my heart always. Until I see you again brother.”

50 Cent says it’s time for him to take a break from Instagram after being reported for bullying in a new post… on Instagram. 50 posted a screenshot of the “your post goest against our community guidelines” report to his page, joking that he didn’t quite understand why the post in question would need to be removed. “I don’t understand this,” he captioned the post. “Why am i getting this? It says the post is removed for bullying but the post is still on my page. OK, time to take a break from IG.”

It’s likely 50 could still see the post while it was removed from his public timeline because the questionable post has been scrubbed. Meanwhile, it appears his “break” only lasted a few hours as he’s posted several new photos and videos since, although they have all been promotional posts for his Branson cognac with two exceptions. Considering his usual online activities, some fans in the comments were shocked he hadn’t been reported for bullying a long time ago.

A well-known troll, 50 has directed mocking posts at everyone from his erstwhile rap rival Ja Rule to his own son, although in an unprecedented move, he did issue an apology for a post teasing Megan Thee Stallion about being shot, claiming he didn’t believe the news when it was first reported. Megan might be the only person to receive an apology; Nick Cannon, Will Smith, and others certainly aren’t holding their breath.

Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw bold new material from two major artists from different parts of the pop spectrum: Billie Eilish and Beyonce. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.

Billie Eilish — “My Future”

Instead of touring behind her wildly successful debut album, Billie Eilish and Finneas have been getting to work on new music. The first fruit of those efforts, “My Future,” surfaced last week, and impressively, it was recorded in just two days.

Beyonce — The Lion King: The Gift (Deluxe)

The big Beyonce story of last week was the Disney+ premiere of Black Is King, but alongside the movie, Queen Bey also dropped a deluxe edition of The Gift. Additionally, the new release spawned a fresh video for “Already.”

Travis Barker — “Forever” Feat. Run The Jewels

There’s no such thing as too much Run The Jewels, so thank goodness for Travis Barker. He recruited the hip-hop duo do join him on “Forever,” a new single on which the intensities of all three artists amp each other up.

Fontaines DC — A Hero’s Death

The band’s guitarist Carlos O’Connell told Uproxx of the group’s new album, “We just came to accept that we were feeling differently and the music we were to write shouldn’t in any way keep in mind what we’ve written before. We should just be allowed to write as honestly at the time of writing it. I look forward to playing these songs live and I don’t really know what the performance will be like. I’m excited to see what it feels like to be full of energy and feeling vulnerable at the same time.”

Lil Wayne — “Thug Life” Feat. Jay Jones and Gudda Gudda

After kicking off the year with Funeral, Lil Wayne is ready for new endeavors. His latest is “Thug Life,” a look at, well, life as a thug, that features Young Money rappers Jay Jones and Gudda Gudda.

Dominic Fike — What Could Possibly Go Wrong

After delaying his album due to incidents of police violence in the US, Fike has finally released What Could Possibly Go Wrong. The genre-crossing artist impresses on his debut album, which should be the first of many fascinating endeavors.

ASAP Ferg — “Move Ya Hips” Feat. Nicki Minaj and MadeInTYO

A month ago, Nicki told her fans to pester ASAP Ferg into sharing their then-unreleased collaboration “Move Ya Hips.” That tactic apparently worked, as now, the track is out. Between the two rappers trading bars, MadeInTYO also contributes a catchy chorus.

NLE Choppa — “Narrow Road” Feat. Lil Baby

Lil Baby has had a substantial 2020, and last week, he shared the wealth with NLE Choppa. He joined the rising rapper (whose major-label debut comes later this year) on “Narrow Road” and its driving beat, on which Choppa offers a more patient delivery than is typical.

Angel Olsen — “Whole New Mess”

Olsen’s 2019 release All Mirrors came a few years after its predecessor, but she’s not waiting as long for her next album. Whole New Mess is coming in 2020, and its title-track, a stylistic return to Olsen’s roots, has already come out and had its late-night TV debut.

Guapdad 4000 — “Choppa Talk” Feat. TyFontaine

Guapdad has been nonstop in 2020, pandemic be damned, and he continued his prolific streak last week with “Choppa Talk.” Recruiting newcomer TyFontaine, the pair take things in a less energetic direction than is characteristic of most of Guapdad’s work.

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

DaBaby’s first new song from the upcoming deluxe version of his No. 1-selling Blame It On Baby album is “Peephole,” a sober look at the downsides of fame. DaBaby shared the video for the new song today to hype up the impending release later this week. It’s once again directed by Reel Goats but unlike their previous efforts for DaBaby, it’s a relatively tame, low-key venture, with DaBaby rapping directly to the camera in designer clothes.

The departure from DaBaby’s usual unhinged comedic approach is likely the result of pandemic precautions, which have reportedly curtailed the rapper’s income this year by millions of dollars. Although he’s seemingly tried to mitigate the impact of lockdown, he landed himself in hot water when it turned out the “safe” show he performed in Georgia last month didn’t live up to the standards promised by its promoters.

Fortunately for the North Carolinian star, his Blame It On Baby single “Rockstar” with Roddy Ricch continues to be a fan favorite, generating enough streams to keep his name near the top of the charts. He also has contributions with Jack Harlow and Pop Smoke keeping him in the top ten, making him one of only a handful of performers with multiple top ten records at the same time.

Watch the “Peephole” video above.

The deluxe edition of Blame It On Baby is due 8/7 via Interscope and South Coast Music Group.

Hollywood blockbusters can’t be stopped from production for too long, it seems, even as theaters struggle to know exactly when they can bring them to audiences in the largest U.S. cities. Jurassic World: Dominion resumed in the U.K. about a month ago, and we should have known that nothing can prevent Tom Cruise from performing daring stunts longer than necessary for the Mission: Impossible franchise. What’s on the menu? Well, he’s throwing out Fallout vibes by hurling himself out of a helicopter again, as seen in photos published by the Daily Mail. Business as usual is on again for the Cruise!

Meanwhile, the M:I 7 production is stirring up controversy elsewhere in Europe. According to a report from The Independent, the film is planning to film a stunt at Poland’s Lake Pilchowickie that isn’t going over well. Locals fear that the production aims to “blow up” a century-old suspension bridge that’s beloved by locals, who want it to be declared as a national monument. However, the bridge was actually decommissioned in 2016, and Deputy Culture Minister Pawel Lewandowski issued a statement about “only a small part” of the bridge being on the table for the production. He also appears to be signaling that stunts are about to be afoot with these words:

”I would not be fixated on the fact that the Pilchowicki Bridge is a monument. It stands in ruins and has no value. Not all old things are monuments. The law clearly states that a monument is only that which has social, artistic or scientific value. In art and culture, that value only emerges when there is a relation between the cultural object and people. So if an object is unused, unavailable, it has no such value. Therefore it is not a monument.”

It must be noted that the plans to film this stunt at the Pilchowicki Bridge haven’t been fully confirmed by the M:I 7 production, even though the argument has grown heated for both locals who wish to preserve the structure and those who think it’s nothing to fuss about. However and if the story is true, then maybe a Tom Cruise film should choose CGI at least in this one instance, if for nothing else at all.

Lewandowski also maintains that the shoot will bring more public attention to Poland, which could help with tourism and such, but it doesn’t seem like tourism is too hopping these days, so that might be a moot point. The stunts must go on, somewhere, but Cruise can probably satisfy those urges in any number of ways. I wouldn’t even put it past the daredevil actor to want to jump out of the International Space Station in his upcoming space movie (like the rebooted Magnum P.I. pretended to do) at some point. That’s probably not doable, but one can dream.

(Via Daily Mail & The Independent)

While essentially every music festival that was set to take place this summer has been canceled, some of those have found ways to continue celebrating and propagating music. A common way that has happened is for fests to host some sort of online event in place of the in-person festival. Newport Folk Festival did just that this past weekend, and the virtual event managed to produce at least one highlight: Phoebe Bridgers and Courtney Barnett came together virtually to perform a cover of Gillian Welch’s “Everything Is Free.”

The pair kept their set-up simple, with Barnett sitting on her floor with a guitar in hand and both artists singing, sometimes harmonizing and other times trading verses. The whole thing went off without a hitch and whatever digital barriers may have existed didn’t get in the way of two of indie’s finest.

Bridgers has had a big 2020 so far with the release of her new album Punisher, which she recently promoted with a video for “I Know The End.” Barnett hasn’t had as big of a year, although she did manage to tour the US solo for the first time before the pandemic essentially shut down the music industry completely.

Watch Bridgers and Barnett perform “Everything Is Free” above.

John Oliver failed to respond to Sean Hannity calling him “not funny” (sick burn, Sean), but don’t let that you stop from watching the new episode of Last Week Tonight, which detailed “how the history of race in America is currently taught in schools — what some of the gaps are, why they’re there, and how we can fill them.” Turns out, it’s not taught well! (As seen by the number of people, myself included, who learn about the Black Wall Street Massacre from Watchmen.) A 28-minute segment can’t possibly cover everything that needs to be updated in high school history textbooks, but Oliver did outline the “three big mistakes” that historians say need to be corrected “in schools and beyond.”

Those mistakes: “We don’t fully acknowledge white supremacy,” “We view history’s progress as if it was constant and inevitable,” and “We don’t connect the dots to the present,” with Oliver noting that history books tend to “trail off” after the civil rights movement. (Crazy how the United States went straight from the 1960s to September 11, 2001, with nothing in between. At least the books looked good in a paper bag cover.)

You can watch the whole segment above, but Oliver’s main takeaway is, “History, when taught well, shows us how to improve the world, but history, when taught poorly, falsely claims there is nothing to improve. So we have to teach it well and continue to learn it.”

A lot has happened with Britney Spears’ conservatorship and the #FreeBritney movement over the years. Now, Jamie Spears — her father, who has had control over her finances since 2008 — has spoken out, and he disagrees with his critics. In fact, he claims #FreeBritney “is a joke.”

Speaking to the New York Post over the weekend, Spears called the movement’s supporters “conspiracy theorists,” saying, “All these conspiracy theorists don’t know anything. The world don’t have a clue. It’s up to the court of California to decide what’s best for my daughter. It’s no one else’s business.”

Denying rumors that he is stealing money from his daughter, he continued, “I have to report every nickel and dime spent to the court every year. How the hell would I steal something?”

He then spoke about the backlash he and others involved have received, saying, “People are being stalked and targeted with death threats. It’s horrible. We don’t want those kinds of fans. I love my daughter. I love all my kids. But this is our business. It’s private.”

This follows a report last month that refuted speculation of the singer being held hostage by her conservator.

Get caught up on the #FreeBritney movement and read our timeline of everything that has happened here.

The Orlando Magic have been one of the most pleasant surprises through two games of the NBA’s restart in their backyard at Disney. The Magic have routed the Nets and Kings in the first two games, and although those are two of the worst teams in Orlando, it’s still been an impressive start for a team few discussed going in.

The Magic had gotten a big boost during restart camp when Jonathan Isaac was announced as available to play, after having suffered a sprained left knee on January 1 that ended his season. Orlando had initially said they’d be cautious with Isaac and were going into the restart not expecting him to play, but he cleared all of the necessary medical hurdles to get back on the court once scrimmages began.

Isaac showed flashes of the incredible defensive talent he is as he ramped up his on-court minutes, and the boost he gives the Magic on that end of the floor is undeniable. Sadly, on Sunday, Isaac was taken off the court in a wheelchair after a non-contact injury to that same left knee early in the fourth quarter against Sacramento. Later that night, the Magic confirmed that an MRI revealed Isaac had torn his ACL.

It’s a brutal way for Isaac’s season to end once again, and now he faces another arduous rehab and lengthy recovery that could potentially keep him out for much of, if not all of, next season depending on when the league starts the 2020-21 campaign. The Magic lose a versatile defensive presence as they look to challenge a top seed, likely Toronto, in a first round series, and maybe more importantly, lose significant time with their young budding star for next season.