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Like Geralt of Rivia crawling out of a muddy bog to fight another day, Netflix’s The Witcher has resumed its season two production after a series of setbacks courtesy of the ongoing pandemic, and Henry Cavill is celebrating being back on set with a shout-out to his hair and make-up team. In a humorously candid and unflattering photo posted to Instagram, Cavill can be seen sitting in a make-up chair while a layer of medical tape is pulled from his head to make way for his luxurious white wig.

“No bald cap this year. Just pounds of 2 types of medical tape and some glue,” Cavill wrote in the caption. “Removal is a joy. Jacqui and Ailbhe here, though, have the deft touch of angels. Jacqui more so an Angel of Vengeance, but that’s all part of her charm.”

You can see the photo below:

Like most film and TV productions, season two of The Witcher was shut down in March as the pandemic went global. However, the hit Netflix series had a very close call after actor Kristofer Hijvu texted positive for COVID-19 after being on set. Fortunately, Hijvu and his wife made a full recovery, and there were no reports of other cast and crew members being infected. But the incident was enough to halt production on season two even though the show was filming in remote, outdoor locations outside of London.

After working out the logistics of filming with the threat of COVID still hanging in the air, The Witcher resumed filming in early July, which raises questions around just how long fans will have to wait for the next season to premiere on Netflix. Not to mention, Cavill returning to the set has deprived the world of his thirsty computer building videos and nerdy obsession with meticulously painting roleplaying game miniatures. You win some, you lose some.

(Via Henry Cavill on Instagram)

Bats have gotten a really bad rap after the whole COVID-19 thing. But a video that’s going viral on Reddit shows when you look at them from the way they see the world, they’re actually pretty hip.

In the video shot by Das Kraftfuttermischwerk, a group of bats appear to awkwardly gyrate to music while strutting their stuff on a lighted floor. The jittery sway the bats have appears to mimic the vampiric dance moves you’d see at a Goth club.

Yes, Goths dance, they just do it a lot creepier than everyone else.

Things get a little scary the moment you notice that one of the bats is foaming at the mouth and another is flexing at the camera like somebody’s ’bout to get their blood sucked. The buckets hanging in the video look a lot like fancy club lamps when they’re seen upside-down.

The video is set to the eerie sounds of Russian Goth group Molchat Doma and their song “Ship (Boris Rizhiy).”

Hanging bats filmed upside-down look like a Goth nightclub

www.youtube.com

The oft-oft-oft-oft-oft-delayed The New Mutants is (definitely) coming out on August 28 (maybe). The standalone X-Men movie, which is “probably the hardest PG-13 ever made,” was originally going to be the first of three movies, but plans changed when the former-20th Century Fox was acquired by Disney and changed to 20th Century Studios.

“There still are references to the X-Men universe. It’s just like we made this at such a strange time in the circumstances under which we made it was strange, which was, we didn’t know there was gonna be a merger till we finished shooting. So we made the movie thinking it was the first of three,” director Josh Boone told Comic Book.

The plan was for The New Mutants gang, including Maisie Williams as Wolfsbane and Anya Taylor-Joy as Magik, to “dovetail” with the recent X-Men movies, the ones starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence, “in a big Marvel-type way,” Boone added. But then “everything sort of got flipped upside down where it’s like, we had to do a really good job this last time I went into the edit, making sure it didn’t feel too much, like there were too many loose ends to be followed up on in another movie.”

Boone also teased that while The New Mutants is a “full-fledged horror movie set within the X-Men universe,” the sequels would have been “an alien invasion movie based on a Warlock and his dad coming to earth and all that” and “a demonic supernatural horror movie.” At this point, I think he would settle for the just first one to finally come out.

(Via Comic Book)

A quick look at TikTok star Bryce Hall‘s Instagram reads like someone at the New Yorker decided to write a fictional short story about an influencer, then got carried away. There’s Bryce flipping off the camera. Here he is closing one eye in a way he must feel favors his angles. Next, he’s sticking out his tongue. Tongue out, eye closed. Flipping bird, tongue out. Eye closed, tongue out, flipping bird (trifecta!). Beer pong. Post-boxing pic. Von Dutch hat. Von Dutch hat pulled low. Von Dutch hat pulled low and on backwards. Flipping bird. Abs.

You get the idea. Hall has a clothing line called Party Animal University. He owns an energy drink. He’s been crtisized for homophobia. Basically, he’s the Lonley Island’s “Spring Break Anthem” come to life.

Through the quarantine, Hall and the collective of internet influencers that he lives and parties with at Sway House [which has its own merch line, modeled exclusively by young white men with tongues out and one or both eyes closed (a pretty on the nose metaphor)], have insisted on throwing all out ragers. This caused them to essentially get subtweeted by Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, when his office issued the following statement on August 4th:

“The highest-risk settings are large in-person gatherings where it is difficult for individuals to remain spaced at least 6 feet apart and where face coverings are not worn. The consequences of these large parties ripple throughout our entire community because the virus can quickly and easily spread.”

A day later, Garcetti amended his original June 1st public order related to gatherings to allow utility shutoffs at party houses. Between the fifth and the nineteenth, Hall defied that order twice in his Hollywood Hills rental and then again at a rented home in Encino, where he hosted his own birthday party on August 14th. A night that included strippers, more than 100 people, and mandatory nondisclosure agreements.

Here’s a glimpse at what that looked like:

Now, Hall’s rental has had the power shut off, according to Taylor Lorenz of the New York Times and confirmed by the mayor’s office. The city issued the following statement yesterday:

Despite several warnings, this house has turned into a nightclub in the hills, hosting large gatherings in flagrant violation of our public health orders. The City has now disconnected utilities at this home to stop these parties that endanger our community.

If we wish to reopen more businesses, return our kids to school, or get back to our normal lives, we must continue to wear masks, wash our hands frequently, and as we’re emphasizing today, avoid gathering with others. All of these actions save lives.

Hall was quick with a rebuttal, posting a TikTok of himself and another influencer (who, dammit, I refuse to look up), bobbing their heads to the song “Electric Love.” At the very least, it’s nice to hear that Børns will be getting some royalty money out of all this.

The power shut off comes after weeks of LA-based influencers partying in direct contradiction to city ordinances. Jake Paul and another influencer mansion called the Hype House have also been critisized for throwing excessive parties.

To date, 173,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States.

https://www.instagram.com/brycehall/?utm_source=ig_embed

In case it wasn’t already clear that The Batman will have a huge presence at DC FanDome, director Matt Reeves has tweeted the first official logo from the latest take on The Dark Knight, which will star Robert Pattinson. But that’s not all. Reeves also shared a cool little piece of artwork from comics pro Jim Lee, which showcases a surprisingly detailed look at the new Batsuit for the film. The last time fans caught a glimpse of the new Bat-armor was back in February when the paparazzi snapped photos of an action sequence filming in Glasgow, although that was more than likely an overly padded version of the suit built for stunt shots. Regardless, the Jim Lee art looks way cooler.

You can see the official logo for The Batman along with the Jim Lee poster below:

This latest update from The Batman arrives on the heels of news that filming will resume in early September. Like virtually every film in Hollywood, production on The Batman was shut down in March as the global pandemic became an untenable situation for making a blockbuster movie. Via Variety:

The comic book adventure was roughly seven weeks into production when filming had to be halted in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. “The Batman,” which is said to be a grittier and more realistic take on the Dark Knight mythos, has approximately three months of material left to shoot. It could potentially be wrapped by the end of 2020. Crew members have been constructing sets for the film this month, which spurred rumors that filming could resume shortly. Of course, given the fast-changing nature of the pandemic, those plans could be upended and cameras may not roll for several more weeks or even months.

Despite the uncertainty of resuming production, Warner Bros. seems to be feeling very confident about the status of The Batman given the latest efforts to heavily promote its presence at DC FanDome. Should filming be delayed again, its October 2021 release is still over a year away, which could still give the studio plenty of time to keep the highly anticipated R-Batz film on track.

(Via Matt Reeves on Twitter)

While you’ve been distracted by some awesome playoff basketball, the NBA draft lottery might have snuck up on you. The annual allocation of draft picks, as determined by ping pong balls, will occur on Thursday evening, and as you can guess, it will look a bit different due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For those who are interested in a quick primer on what you can expect this evening, here’s what you need to know:

When is the NBA draft lottery again?

The virtual event will take place Thursday at 8:30 p.m. EST on ESPN following Bucks-Magic, with Rachel Nichols and a panel of analysts guiding you through the evening. It will last 30 minutes between playoff games.

Who’s involved?

All the teams who either weren’t invited or have since had to leave the Bubble. That’s the Warriors, Cavs, Timberwolves, Hawks, Pistons, Knicks, Bulls, Hornets, Wizards, Suns, Spurs, Kings, Pelicans, and Grizzlies.

Each team will have a representative at the dais as usual, only this time it will be virtual, similar to what the NFL and WNBA did for their drafts back in April. Those reps include Steph Curry, D’Angelo Russell, and De’Aaron Fox.

Didn’t the NBA change the odds for this thing?

Yes, that happened last year. It means the bottom three teams in the league all have a 14 percent chance at the top pick, while each team in the lottery has a better chance at hopping up into the top four than before.

Golden State, Cleveland and Minnesota have the best odds at picking first overall, but last year, the Pelicans won the lottery while having just a 6 percent chance at No. 1 heading into the night, while the Lakers hopped up from No. 11 all the way to No. 4. Here is what this year’s odds for the No. 1 pick look like.

Golden State Warriors: 14%
Cleveland Cavaliers: 14%
Minnesota Timberwolves: 14%
Atlanta Hawks: 12.5%
Detroit Pistons: 10.5%
New York Knicks: 9%
Chicago Bulls: 7.5%
Charlotte Hornets: 6%
Washington Wizards: 4.5%
Phoenix Suns: 3%
San Antonio Spurs: 2%
Sacramento Kings: 1.3%
New Orleans Pelicans: 1.2%
Memphis Grizzlies: 0.5%

Who’s the top prospect?

That’s a harder question to answer. A few guys have claim to that crown right now, including Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball, and James Wiseman. Ball is an even more interesting prospect than his older brother, while Edwards looks like an heir apparent to Bradley Beal and Devin Booker and Wiseman has the chance to be another generational defensive center if he works out. This class is not viewed as particularly top heavy, drawing comparisons to the miserable 2013 draft, but as always, there is exciting talent among this group.

Moses Sumney recently released his adventurous new Grae album, which nobody would correctly categorize as “pop.” That doesn’t mean Sumney couldn’t handle pop well, though, as he has proven his chops in that department: Today, he shared a cover of Ariana Grande’s smash hit “Thank U, Next” as an Amazon Music exclusive.

Of course, Sumney put his own spin on the track, and it’s profoundly unlike the original. The track begins minimally, with Sumney’s heavily AutoTuned vocals over drums and a soulful bass line. He works plucked strings, synths, and other instrumentation into the mix as he works through the track, which ends up being a wildly and pleasingly different take on the source material.

As for Grande, she recently commemorated the two-year anniversary of Sweetener and ranked her favorite songs from the album. She also jokingly teased the title to her Thank U, Next follow-up, which will probably not be named “was holdin my tiddies up with the other arm thats cropped out.” Grande has had plenty to celebrate lately, as she recently passed Rihanna to become the most-streamed female artist in Spotify history. Rihanna responded by asking for new Rihanna music, saying, “now can rihanna pls drop her album so she can rightfully snatch this back and fill my ears again please or…”

Listen to Sumney cover “Thank U, Next” above.

After rising to fame on YouTube as a high schooler, 21-year-old Conan Gray signed a major-label deal with Republic and shared his heartfelt debut album Kid Krow in March. Gray has followed-up his album’s release with a tender visual alongside his lovelorn ballad, “Heather.”

Directed by Dillon Matthew and Gray himself, the video is an intimate visualization of the singer fluidly moving between feminine and masculine beauty standards. Gray opened up about his inspiration around the track, saying he penned the song as a reflection on a crush he had in high school who didn’t love him back:

“when i was in high school, i had a crush on the same one person all four years. but that one person did not love me back, instead my crush liked a girl named heather. heather was gentle and beautiful, inside and out. she was warm like a summer day, and had so many friends. she was soft and so easily lovable– everything i am not. the heather video is my way of becoming all of the things that i envy about heather. i would’ve done anything to be like her. wear the right pretty clothes and act the right effortless way. reject all the things that made me who i am. anything to be loved back by the person i loved. anything to be their first choice. the slow transformation throughout the video was made to represent the feminine and masculine traits i constantly switched between in order to become who i knew my crush would like. somebody soft and sweet. somebody like heather.”

Watch Gray’s “Heather” video above and revisit Uproxx’s interview with the singer here.

Kid Krow is out now via Republic. Get it here.

In 2017, Jay-Z paid homage to all the rappers who inspired him throughout his legendary career. He mentioned the “usuals” like Notorious BIG, Rakim, and Big Daddy Kane — but he also showed love to a slew of unheralded MCs like Showbiz & AG, Nice and Smooth, Digable Planets, Sean Price, and others, reflecting that he’ll always be a rap nerd at heart.

A month ago, rising Buffalo MC Che Noir told DJBooth that, “I treat every song like Jay-Z gon’ listen to it.” He may have already heard her work with 38 Spesh and Apollo Brown, including the recently released As God Intended. He’s lent support to the “underground” rap scene in myriad ways, from signing Griselda’s Westside Gunn and Benny The Butcher to Roc Nation management to recently making Mach Hommy’s Mach’s Hard Lemonade album a Tidal exclusive.

There are a million reasons to think that Jay-Z wouldn’t be tapped into the underground: he’s a busy family man with constant entrepreneurial exploits. He’s expressed a penchant for fine art, yachting, and other caviar class hobbies which would conceivably take time out from music discovery. His infamous “you only get half a bar” diss on “Takeover” implied that there are some MCs that aren’t selling enough to be on his radar.

But of course, he would’ve had to hear the obscure disses to know they weren’t worth his time. Jay-Z doesn’t miss a thing. The perception that people hold of Jay-Z being above and beyond the fray misunderstands the reality that before all of his other bonafides, he’s an MC at heart.

There’s a YouTube clip of pioneering DJ Mr. Magic promoting Jay-Z performing at a rap showcase in 1986, 10 years before his Reasonable Doubt debut. There’s also footage of him battling on a street corner in 1993. He used to rap with a swift, multi-syllabic style, then adjusted it to reflect changing times toward the mid-’90s. All these details paint the picture of someone with an immense passion for their craft. Anyone who’s listened to Jay-Z discuss his life knows that if he didn’t genuinely love rap, it would have been easy for him to leave it behind. He even noted that friends in his “other career” used to clown rappers because rap wasn’t a lucrative industry — but he stuck at it.

Understanding Jay’s passion for the craft makes it easier to contextualize his excitement to hear dope rap anywhere from a rap battle to an “underground” MC. His longtime engineer Guru told Complex that “Jay-Z has probably watched every SMACK DVD, Grind Time battle, freestyle, and every battle that has ever been on YouTube. If you ever battle in any situation that has any remote type of promotion, he’s seen it.”

The Battle rap scene is regarded by traditionalists as the purest form of rap, with no gimmicks, marketing, or “hook” to the festivities. For the most part, the best rapper prevails. Battlers have taken what used to be a street corner/barbershop affair and turned it into performance art, fusing poetic devices like wordplay, (extended) metaphor, imagery, and assonance with charismatic showmanship. The craftsmanship and veritable theory of battle-rap holds power for lyrics junkies like Drake, Lupe Fiasco, Joe Budden, Lloyd Banks — and Jay-Z.

His 2012 “y’all gon get this work” tweet, referencing Loaded Lux’s classic performance against Calicoe, is collectively regarded by the Battle rap culture as a watershed moment that helped boost the sport’s visibility. The battle scene is still on the fringes of pop culture, but battlers can be assured they have one high-powered spectator.

Guru also noted that “Jay watches these dudes freestyle on YouTube. Like, if you’re a battle MC from Philly, you may not have been in a battle but you just get on YouTube and start rapping, Jay watches those religiously. It’s just the weirdest thing in the world but he really loves it to the point where I’m like, ‘Yo, turn it off.’”

Rap commentator Taxstone once quipped that even mailmen can rap in Philly, reflecting a culturally shared sentiment that Philly is “home of the spitters.” It’s no surprise that when Jay-Z and the rest of the Roc brain trust wanted to expand their label, they opted to do so with a Philly crew. First, he sought Philly legends Major Figgas, but it didn’t work it. It did with State Property. The team of raw, gritty spitters led by Beanie Sigel and Freeway wasn’t a glove fit with a label that had previously been so flossy, but Jay-Z loved their hard-charging style and respected their pens.

Listen to the way he raves at their rhymes during their classic Hot 97 freestyle, or the way he subtly gives Freeway his approval by noting, “keep going,” on the classic “What We Do.” He probably could have sold more by signing artists that were more commercially palatable (though they had), but he may not have had more fun doing it. For someone who loved bars, and wanted to stay connected to that raw feel, it didn’t get much better than collaborating with prime State Property.

In a way, his proximity to Philly’s Meek Mill is a continuation of that dynamic — as was his signing of Griselda, a group of uncompromising spitters who bring your favorite crime flicks to life over immersive production. Their big 3, Conway, Westside Gunn, and Benny The Butcher have been rapping for over a decade but picked up steam in the mid-to-late 2010s with a sound that harkened to beloved acts like The Lox, State Property, and Wu-Tang.

Jay was all in the mix with those artists, which apparently made him a big fan of Griselda. Benny reflected on meeting Jay and being told that the rap vet “sees a lot of the old Roc-A-Fella in us.” That’s probably a big reason why he signed Westside Gunn and Benny. He’s served as an OG figure for the crew according to Benny, being “a guide,” and also letting Conway know that emotion is okay after overseeing a stirring performance of “The Cow.”

Mach Hommy is a former Griselda collaborator who doesn’t exactly harken to prime Roc-A-Fella, but he’s also garnered Jay-Z’s respect. One can look at Jay-Z’s prolonged admiration for Jay Electronica, who he actually did a collaboration album with, and figure that he has a love for Mach’s abstract, esoteric lyricism. The two took an ominous picture in November of 2019, which sparked rumors of a signing that never manifested. Still, Mach maintains proximity to the Roc, releasing his latest album exclusively on Tidal. Both Mach and Jay are so reclusive that there isn’t much public insight into their relationship, but it likely stemmed from mutual respect for bars.

Jay-Z, like Diddy, is a rap figure who accrued great wealth and commercial stature but has always shown love to the purest form of the art. Whether it was a simple tweet, signing State Property, or attempting to sign revered spitters like the late Sean Price, he’s always looked to make a way for those of his ilk. The lyricist fraternity is like the mafia. They were once the most dominant force in rap before modernization pushed them to the fringes. But luckily for many of them, Jay-Z is the Godfather of the scene, and he tries to make sure everybody eats.

Netflix is preparing to release a French film called Cuties (Mignonnes) on September 9, and people are not pleased about how part of the film’s U.S.-based marketing (specifically, a poster) appeared to be sexualizing young girls. The film, which won a directing award at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, holds an 82% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has been generally well received by critics for handling delicate subject matter (an 11-year-old girl joins a neighbor’s dance clique that runs counter to the protagonist’s family values) in a deft way.

As Deadline reports, a backlash occurred over the unquestionably different tone of the French and American posters promoting the movie. Here’s a peek at the two images: (1) The French poster kinda makes it look like the girls went shopping; (2) The U.S. version looks, well, like an invitation for a demographic that shouldn’t be courted.

Netflix has addressed the matter with an apology. “We’re deeply sorry for the inappropriate artwork that we used for Cuties,” the streamer tweeted. “It was not OK, nor was it representative of this French film which premiered at Sundance. We’ve now updated the pictures and description.”

Here is the film’s synopsis from the Sundance website:

Eleven-year-old Amy lives with her mom, Mariam, and younger brother, awaiting her father to rejoin the family from Senegal. Amy is fascinated by disobedient neighbor Angelica’s free-spirited dance clique, a group that stands in sharp contrast to stoic Mariam’s deeply held traditional values. Undeterred by the girls’ initial brutal dismissal and eager to escape her family’s simmering dysfunction, Amy, through an ignited awareness of her burgeoning femininity, propels the group to enthusiastically embrace an increasingly sensual dance routine, sparking the girls’ hope to twerk their way to stardom at a local dance contest.

With a keen eye for and an understanding of adolescent behavior, Maïmouna Doucouré — whose short film Maman(s) won the Short Film International Fiction Jury Award at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival — focuses tightly on her rowdy protagonists, crafting a spirited film that nimbly depicts the tweens’ youthful energy and vulnerabilities while exploring their fumbling eagerness to be identified as sexualized. Fathia Youssouf captivates as Amy, shifting like a chameleon between the different identities her character is juggling and deftly anchoring the film’s immensely watchable, vivacious young cast.

As one can gather, “twerk”-ing is involved in this movie, and Cuties definitely looks like a film that should have been marketed with the utmost care (in order to avoid the suggested appearance of impropriety). The poster with the booty-popping poses was not a great look, and Netflix has since updated the description on the film’s streaming page. The old description read, “Amy, 11, becomes fascinated with a twerking dance crew. Hoping to join them, she starts to explore her femininity, defying her family’s traditions.” In the updated version, the word “twerking” has disappeared:

Netflix’s trailer appears below. While the dancing could still be interpreted as suggestive, and there’s a scene where the dance group is wearing the same outfits from the posters while performing a routine, the trailer looks less salacious than the poster. However, the YouTube comments are predictably full of backlash.