Friday, 29 September 2017
Thursday, 28 September 2017
Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese are working on a Teddy Roosevelt biopic
Leonardo DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese are reportedly working together on Roosevelt, a new biopic about 26th U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.
According to a Deadline report, the Paramount production will also see DiCaprio taking a production role, alongside Jennifer Davisson.
Roosevelt has been a passion project of DiCaprio’s since 2006 – he had intended to adapt Edmund Morris’ The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt book, although it remains unclear whether these initial plans have significantly changed in the last decade.
This would be the latest in a long line of collaborations between DiCaprio and Scorsese. They’ve previously worked together on The Wolf of Wall Street, Shutter Island, The Aviator, The Departed and Gangs of New York.
DiCaprio is also reportedly starring in a biopic of namesake Leonardo da Vinci, plus two further productions alongside Scorsese: The Devil in the White City and Killers of the Flower Moon. On top of this, he’s been touted for a lead role in an origin story tale of Batman villain The Joker.
Earlier this year, the actor donated $1 million to relief efforts in response to Hurricane Harvey, which devastated the Texas region back in August.
“We are incredibly grateful for the generosity of Leonardo DiCaprio and his foundation,” said United Way Worldwide president and CEO Brian Gallagher. “Responding to Hurricane Harvey requires the best of all of us — and that’s what this gift represents.”
The post Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese are working on a Teddy Roosevelt biopic appeared first on NME.
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Wednesday, 27 September 2017
Here’s how much Frances Bean earns from Kurt Cobain’s publicity rights
The amount that Frances Bean receives from the estate of her father, late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, has reportedly been revealed.
As part of her ongoing divorce proceedings against estranged husband Isaiah Silva, court documents are said to show that the 24-year-old Frances earns more than $95,000 a month from her late father’s publicity rights.
The documents, obtained by The Blast, allegedly show her earnings between July 2016 and June 2017. They state that the student, model, and daughter of the Nirvana frontman and Hole singer Courtney Love, takes $95,496 (approx. £71,149) a month from the rights, and $6,784 in dividends. The papers also declare that she has allegedly outgoings of $206,000 per month, and is worth a total of around. $11.3 million.
Frances Bean and Kurt Cobain
As part of the divorce proceedings, Silva infamously tried to lay claim to the acoustic guitar that Kurt Cobain played on ‘MTV Unplugged‘.
Earlier this year, she also claimed that she “doesen’t fucking care what they did in the ’90s“.
“I wasn’t around and it’s not relevant to me,,” she said. “Yes the ’90s were influential, for sure, but it’s just not my cup of tea. When it’s shoved down your throat every day for 24 years, you just stop caring.”
She went on to talk about the revival of grunge fashion: “I find it interesting where grunge originated from, and then where it was taken, which was high fashion. My dad was so poor that they kept going to Goodwill to get donated ripped jeans. It wasn’t a fashion decision; it was an ‘I don’t have any money, I have no other choice’ type of decision.”
The post Here’s how much Frances Bean earns from Kurt Cobain’s publicity rights appeared first on NME.
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The 1975 offer up signed guitar for Festifeel charity auction
The 1975 are among artists donating to a charity auction for Festifeel – an event set to raise awareness of breast cancer.
The band is offering up a signed guitar for the auction, which will also feature signed items from Bastille, and opportunities including a painting session with Fearne Cotton, and attending a gig with Greg James.
Proceeds from the auction will go towards CoppaFeel, a breast cancer awareness charity. Tickets for the raffle auction are on sale for £5 from this Sunday, with just 200 tickets available for The 1975’s signed guitar – get yours here.
The 1975’s Matty Healy at Latitude 2017
Festifeel is set to take place on October 14th, with Busted headlining the event at House Of Vans, London. Tickets for that are available here.
Alongside Busted, performances from Will Heard, Pixie Lott, Denai Moore, The Staves, and Fleur East will fill out the day, alongside DJ sets from Basement Jaxx, Mystery Jets, Goldierocks, Radio 1’s Abbie McCarthy, and Bear Grooves.
The post The 1975 offer up signed guitar for Festifeel charity auction appeared first on NME.
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Tuesday, 26 September 2017
Kit Harington ‘engaged’ to fellow ‘Game Of Thrones’ star Rose Leslie
Game of Thrones stars Kit Harington and Rose Leslie are engaged, according to reports.
The couple have been dating since 2012, having met on the set of the HBO show. Harington’s character Jon Snow shared an on-screen romance with Leslie’s character Ygritte before the latter actor left the show in 2014.
The Sun now reports that the couple are engaged, with a source telling the paper: “They’re yet to set a date, but told friends and family last week that they’ve got engaged. Kit’s known for ages he’s wanted to marry Rose but he wanted them to get a house and settle down a bit first. After moving in together in January he felt it was the right time to take the next step.”
The couple have not yet addressed the reports.
Harington, meanwhile, previously said of their relationship: “If you’re already attracted to someone, and then they play your love interest in the show, it becomes very easy to fall in love.”
Game Of Thrones season 7 recently concluded. Find out everything we know about season 8 here.
It was recently reported that season 8 might air later than previously expected.
The show’s producers are reportedly considering a plan to begin filming Game Of Thrones season 8 in October 2017, with production set to carry through all the way until August 2018. This could delay the episodes’ air date until 2019.
HBO programming boss Casey Bloys said: “Our production people are trying to figure out a timeline for the shoot and how much time the special effects take. The shooting is complicated enough — on different continents, with all the technical aspects — and the special effects are a whole other production period that we’re trying to figure out. That is a big factor in all of this.”
The post Kit Harington ‘engaged’ to fellow ‘Game Of Thrones’ star Rose Leslie appeared first on NME.
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Monday, 25 September 2017
Def Comedy Jam alums reflect on the life-changing series: 'It was everything'
Premiering in 1992, the HBO stand-up series spanned five seasons and helped launch the likes of Dave Chappelle, Leslie Jones, Jamie Foxx, Chris Tucker, and Martin Lawrence. Now, 25 years later, many of the legendary alums reunited in Los Angeles to film a reunion special for Netflix and reflect on how Def Comedy Jam changed their lives.
“It was everything,” D.L. Hughley told EW at the event. “Imagine training for something your whole life and never believing that you would have access to it, and then, all of a sudden, they open the floodgates.”
Alongside television producer Stan Lathan, the man to open those floodgates was music mogul and Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons, who was struck by the difference between his industry and the comedy world. “Music can’t be stopped by gatekeepers. You throw a song out the window, it’s going to explode,” he explained to EW. “It seemed like every place I went, the coolest thing that was happening at any club was their comedy night. You’d get there and see all of these talented people that were underserved and belonged in the mainstream. But the gatekeepers wouldn’t acknowledge them because they were too edgy.”
The first up-and-coming comedian to get a big break courtesy of the groundbreaking program was Lawrence, as Simmons tapped the House Party alum to be the host and face of Def Comedy Jam.
“When I look back, I was a young kid and I was fearless, so I just wanted to seize the moment every chance I got to get onstage,” shared Lawrence. “I tried to have fun and make it as big as possible.” And soon, he was as big as possible, thanks to the hosting gig and his own Fox sitcom, Martin. Within a few years, Lawrence was starring in franchise blockbusters like Bad Boys.
“Martin Lawrence was a star waiting to happen,” adds Simmons, refusing to take credit for the success of his famous alums. “Chris Tucker, Dave Chappelle, Steve Harvey. I could go on. There are so many that deserved a break and Def Comedy Jam gave them that break.”
Not everyone saw an immediate meteoric rise following their appearance on the stage, though. For some, like Ghosted star Craig Robinson, the “brilliant and necessary” series was the first step to “putting them on the map.” But for others, the sitcoms and big movies never came — or in one case, it just took a while.
Tiffany Haddish was one of summer 2017’s breakout stars thanks to her scene-stealing performance in Girls Trip, and although her recent success has been treated like a surprise, the actress — who appeared on Def Comedy Jam in 2008 — has been grinding away for over a decade. “I feel grateful and thankful and honored that they even thought to call me,” she joyously exclaimed. “Out of all the people they could have called, they called me?! When I was trying to get on Def Jam, I submitted a tape and was showing up at all the auditions and they wouldn’t let me get onstage, and someone saw that tape and said, ‘We got to get her on.’ And when they gave me the opportunity, I lit that ass up. I always light it up if someone gives me the chance to.”
Unfortunately, not all of the renowned alums were able to attend the reunion. On a night that featured Hughley, Harvey, and Cedric the Entertainer, one king of comedy was missing — but not forgotten. “I remember Bernie Mac telling me, ‘Just be whoever the f— you are. Either they’re going to like you or they’re not,'” Hughley fondly recalls his late friend, who died in 2008, advising him before his first Def Comedy performance. “And I’ll never forget that.”
Def Comedy Jam 25 debuts Tuesday on Netflix.
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Miley Cyrus is a girl gone mild on Younger Now: EW review
“No one stays the same,” Miley Cyrus cautions on the contemplative title track from her sixth studio album, her voice lifted to an airy chorus of oh-whoahs. Oh, the worldly, weary burden of being 24! Not that she’s wrong: For every season there is a Cyrus, and it turns, turns, turns — from her dizzy tween alter ego on Disney’s Hannah Montana more than a decade ago to the neon pop hedonist of 2013’s Bangerz and the loopy bohemian sprinkling body glitter all over her acid-hazed Dead Petz era. And now, on the cusp of another milestone — she’ll reach the quarter-century mark in November — comes her next metamorphosis: stripped down, analog, back to whatever basic means today to the girl born Destiny Hope in Franklin, Tennessee. On Younger Now she is fully her father Billy Ray’s daughter, leaning into the echoey twang of spaghetti-Western stomper “Bad Mood,” rhapsodizing about dirty feet and backyard creeks on “Inspired,” and duetting blithely with godmother Dolly Parton on the summer-camp jamboree “Rainbowland.”
There is some precedent for the new (old) Miley: In the limbo between Montana’s end and her next act, she began releasing a series of intimate lo-fi covers on YouTube dubbed “The Backyard Sessions.” Those recordings — faithful, playfully organic takes on songbook classics like “Jolene” and “Lilac Wine” — seemed to unlock the potential that always lurked in her precocious vocals, an oak-barrel-aged rasp far too interesting for most of the candy floss it had been yoked to before. Except that vintage material met her talents more than halfway; here the lyrics, attributed solely to Cyrus (with additional songwriting credits for Oren Yoel), land heavy on Instagram koans and “rough/tough/enough” rhyme schemes, unchallenged by featherweight melodies. They’re all too well built to fail — and sometimes the simplicity serves her beautifully, as on the crystalline ballad “She’s Not Him.” But without the mad spark of a collaborator like Coyne or Bangerz mastermind Mike WiLL Made-It, she’s just a girl gone mild: younger, wiser, and never quite as fun as the bad old days. B
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Taylor Swift goes nu-metal in this bizarre Limp Bizkit parody
“It’s more important to be edgy and sexy and cool than anything else.”
“I feel so defeated and sad. Nobody ever listens to me.”
“The media has fictionalized my personal life.”
These are all actual quotes by the American pop superstar Taylor Swift, but YouTube account Super Deluxe has stitched them together, Cassetteboy-style, roaring them out Fred Durst-style over a raging nu-metal riff in the vein of Limp Bizkit. The audiovisual soundclash is something like the combo you’d get putting a hyperpop beat over Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. It’s hilarious.
But weirdly, it kind of works too – especially when Swift begins reading out the names of breeds of cat she supposedly likes “to chop up”, which include but are not limited to: British Shorthair, Scottish Fold, Himalayan, Exotic Shorthair, Exotic Longhair, Sphynx Cat, Munchkin, and Siamese. “If you knew my nightmare world,” adds Durst-Swift towards the end, “you’d be terrified”. Not far wrong. Check out the video in all its glory in the video at the top of this page.
Taylor Swift’s new album ‘Reputation’ is due for release on November 10.
Her sixth album has so far been preceded by singles ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ and ‘…Ready For It?’
The post Taylor Swift goes nu-metal in this bizarre Limp Bizkit parody appeared first on NME.
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Teen Wolf cast members say goodbye to their characters
EW was on set for the filming of the show’s last episodes and spoke to some of the cast members about what they’ll miss most and any final thoughts they had about their experience in Beacon Hills. Here’s what they had to say …
Tyler Posey (Scott)
“I love Scott. He’s such a goober; he’s such a sweet kid. I think he’s the greatest. He’s inspired me a lot and motivated me to be a better person and be calmer and more zen about things and take a different approach. I just learned a lot from him. I’m going to miss him a lot. He’s a badass. He’s a cool dude.”
Dylan O’Brien (Stiles)
“I loved everything about [Stiles]. You spend so much time with a character, you do get an attachment, and for me too that was tenfold because it was my first role ever.”
Colton Haynes (Jackson)
“Life has changed so much since I joined the show. The biggest takeaway from being a part of Teen Wolf was: Friends are the family you can choose. I said that in a really sappy text message to Dylan and Hoechlin and Posey. The friends are the family that you can choose.”
Charlie Carver (Ethan)
“What was so fun about Teen Wolf was like the first couple of episodes with my brother, getting to be the bad guys, there was that scene where we beat the crap out of each other on the lockers in the school hallway. Going from that to where we ended up, where he got stabbed by the Oni and the whole sort of last stretch of 3B, was just a blast. I felt like as an actor I just got to try a bunch of different things and work in a bunch of different genres or worlds.”
Holland Roden (Lydia)
“The sass of Lydia is what I’ll miss the most. I’ll miss being a genius and knowing the answer to everything. I’ll miss magically being in perfect hair and makeup while ready to attack a creature at 3 in the morning. I’ll miss the life behind the scenes of Teen Wolf, that’s what I’ll miss the most.”
Melissa Ponzio (Melissa)
Linden Ashby (Stilinski)
“I think my character is that paternal vibe and he’s such a person of integrity and honesty. And he’s a good person and I’ll miss wearing that skin, walking in those shoes.”
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Friday, 22 September 2017
Fergie: 'I really opened my heart' on 'emotional' new album, Double Dutchess
More than a decade after her solo debut, The Dutchess — which spawned five Top 5 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 after its 2006 release — the newly single Fergie, 42, returns with her soul-baring second album.
Below, EW catches up with the star to discuss motherhood’s effect on her music, working with Nicki Minaj, and why she’ll never record only one genre of music.
You married actor Josh Duhamel (Transformers, Safe Haven) in 2009, and then in 2013 you welcomed your son, Axl. Is that why this record took so long?
Yes! They can keep banging on my door [to release an album], but I’m like, “I’m with Axl. I’m off the grid! Bye!” [Ed. note: After this interview took place, Fergie announced that she and Duhamel had separated earlier this year. “We are and will always be united in our support of each other and our family,” she said in a joint statement.]
How else did becoming a mother change your relationship with music?
Becoming a mom and getting pregnant reset me. I just got on my game. I’ve never taken on this much responsibility — I’m executive- producing [the album] — and I kept wanting to make it better and better. I wanted to strive for greatness.
You tackle a wide spectrum of genres on this LP, from the hip-hop sounds of “Hungry” to the tropical vibes of “Love Is Blind.”
The Dutchess was all over the place too. That album had all kinds of different styles, but the common thread was that they’re all organic to me. I can’t put out an album of just one style of music — of just what’s “on trend.” I would feel like a fraud.
You also teamed up with Nicki Minaj on the funky “You Already Know.” What was that like?
We’re both highly detail-oriented. I like when people are like that, because I can understand that. I can’t see something that’s unfinished and be okay putting it out. I don’t want to put out “okay” stuff. She and I just get along. I know she’s had beef with other people, but for me, she’s great!
What were your lyrical goals for the album?
There was a lot of emotional stuff that I needed to clean out from inside me. I really opened my heart on this album. I’m not holding anything back. It’s funny, because I would go to these different producers and I’d have this stack of composition notebooks. They’d be like, “What are you doing?” Everybody else texts, and I’m like, “Nope, I’m old-school, these are my life experiences here!”
It feels like you really went through something to get songs like “Love Is Pain.”
For sure! That song is not just about one person. It’s about several relationships in my life. It was nice to be able to focus on a feeling and really take it there. I went [for] big drama. That’s a big ’80s rock-anthem ballad. Like, get out the lighters!
Being in a high-profile relationship, though, means that everyone is going to make assumptions about the lyrics.
Of course, but some of these relationships [that inspired the songs] are not romantic at all!
In July, the album leaked onto the internet. How did that feel?
You know how they say, “God only gives you as much as you can handle?”
Yes.
Well, sometimes I wish he wouldn’t trust me so much! [Laughs] That was like a punch in the gut. It was the same thing when I joined the Black Eyed Peas. I was so excited, and then everyone had their comments about how this girl is terrible. That just happens to be the way everything has happened for me in my life. I’m used to going to battle.
For more on Fergie’s new music, stay tuned to EW and pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on stands Friday.
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How Kingsman: The Golden Circle brought Colin Firth back to life
The question of whether Harry Hart a.k.a. “Galahad” aka “the main reason Kingsman: The Secret Service ruled in the first place” didn’t last long. Almost as soon as director Matthew Vaughn has confirmed a sequel to 2014’s insane spy movie riff, there was talk about how Firth could returns despite his character’s mid-movie demise.
Last year, a poster not-so-subtly suggested that Harry would be back and that maybe he didn’t die outside the church in Kentucky at the hands of Samuel L. Jackson’s Richmond Valentine afterall. “Reports of my death have been greatly, exaggerated,” the poster reads, quoting Mark Twain.
So with Kingsman: The Golden Circle in theaters now, how does Harry make his death-defying return?
Don’t continue reading unless you want the beginning of the new film spoiled.
All good?
That wasn’t a false alarm in The Secret Service. Valentine actually did shoot Harry in the head. What we didn’t see, however, is the Statesmen — Kingsmen’s American counterparts — swooping in to save the day.
Alerted by the killer frequency from Valentine’s phones, the Statesmen dispatch members to the church, which isn’t far from their Kentucky-based distillery HQ. It’s there that they find Harry with a gunshot wound to the head.
Thanks to some techno mumbo-jumbo about a healing gel headwrap with nano-bots, the Statesmen are able to freeze the damage to Harry’s brain before the bullet can kill him. There is a minor side effect, however — temporary amnesia.
But, you know, not too bad considering.
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Gaga: Five Foot Two is a strangely unironic documentary about the trauma of fame: EW review
It follows its subject through career high-lows, personal trials, Malibu banalities. She’s working on her latest album, Joanne, and preparing to play the Super Bowl. A relationship ends, distantly. It’s part of that odd and trendy new documentary genre: The Celebrity Trauma Hagiography, a sponsored celebration of a star’s splendid sadness. This isn’t a portrait of a famous person suffering trauma, mind you; the goal of a film like this is to portray the trauma of fame, forever up in the air, surrounded and alone.
So there are moments in Five Foot Two that you recognize: The lonely grand hotel rooms, the mournful confessionals delivered in the backseat of a car or a plane, tears in the makeup room, a strenuous focus on how strenuous the subject is working, handheld camerawork that suggests the truth behind the advertising. Musicians release movies like this as brand extensions – Katy Perry had Part of Me, Metallica had Some Kind of Monster – but you could also point to a fashion doc like The September Issue, or the Icarus mythmaking of Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop (Harmontown if you’re cultier).
If you had to pick the Ur-Moment for the Celebrity Trauma Hagiography, it the Tokyo scene from Paris, Not France, the forgotten portrait of forgotten Paris Hilton. The socialite’s being driven through the city; she’s on the phone, giving an interview or speaking to a loved one. “Where I travel, I’m always working,” she says. “Basically, it’s all work.” Paris, Not France is awful, as is much of what Paris Hilton brought to culture, but it’s important to recall how completely she helped form the idea of celebrity in the last decade and a half. That’s the fame Gaga sings about all across The Fame, her blithe and wonderful first LP, the paparazzi, the beautiful and dirty and rich.
That Gaga appears in Five Foot Two only in flashback, as a reference point for what not to do. “Everyone thinks I’m gonna come out there on a throne, and a meat dress, and ninety shirtless men, and unicorns,” Gaga says, sounding a bit disparaging as she plans her Super Bowl performance. There’s a brilliantly crosscut sequence later, with Jean-Phase Gaga walking through a crowd of fans. As she walks and signs and selfies, we see cuts of Early Gaga, the wigs, the hats, the sunglasses, hair of every color, teeth crazy for the hell of it, Wiccan contact lenses, a general aesthetic that suggests an alien empress dressing for an Ascot Race in a Clive Barker hellscape. You think of, like, the Taylor Swifts at the end of “Look What You Made Me Do,” these nominally different “personalities” that symbolize trending topics from forty zeitgeists ago. Whereas you could pick any random Gaga style-persona from the turn of the decade – say, like, Sydney, 2010, Diet Coke curlers – and it still feels vibrant, weird, audacious, never in style and so never out.
I guess I should admit here my curious, profound, frustrated Gaga fandom. There’s no pop star in my adult life I’ve loved more than who Gaga was back then. Meta and dramatic, sincerely sarcastic, she had an Andy Kaufman-esque instinct for media stuntcraft but also an old-fashioned willingness to put on a show! She could sing and still can, that’s indisputable. And director Chris Moukarbel captures her indelible performance of “Poker Face” at Tony Bennett’s 90th birthday. It’s mostly just Gaga on piano, decelerating the dance-pop groove to a hypnotic, John-Woo-Slow-Mo croon.
There’s a noirish glamour to that sequence. Conversely, there are moments of raw and casual power. Early in Five Foot Two, we find Gaga at her house, feeding her dogs. She’s comfortably dressed, gray tank top, just-woke-up hair; she casually mentions a fight with her then-fiancé. The singer initially seems loose, having a ball working with producer Mark Ronson; she talks about Madonna, about being a woman in the music industry, about Marilyn Monroe, about Anna Nicole Smith. “We can use none of that footage,” she tells the camera. She’s a credited producer, so she must have changed her mind, or maybe she recognized something authentic in that moment, freewheeling, digressive.
Her engagement breaks up, and there’s the hint of some genuine sadness on the margins. “I go from everyone touching me all day, and talking at me all day, to total silence,” she says at one point. “I’m alone, every night.” And there’s pain. Throughout the documentary, Gaga struggles with the after-effects of a hip injury, which causes full-body-pain so debilitating that it occasionally renders her unable to move.
It could seem, a few years back, that the singer had gone messianic, had started believing what used to seem like playful self-hype. (It’s tough to be funny when you title an album Artpop, even tougher when you tattoo the title on your arm.) But she’s got a sense of humor, the trench wit you get from constant pain. There’s a moment when the whole right side of her body is spasming, and she lays on a couch, crying. The pain’s one thing, but also, while we’re going dark, what would it be like to carry a child, a hip this busted, a body so inflamed? “Let’s put Trump on,” she ruminates, turning toward the TV. “That’ll knock me out.”
Example: You see Gaga on the set of American Horror Story: Roanoke, having some kind of argument about the dialect she’s chosen for her ghost-witch-forest-lady. There’s something interesting here: Is Gaga upset about the directions she’s receiving? Does she get bored after a couple takes? But you also get the sense the scene was largely kept in because of the brief shot of Cuba Gooding, Jr. The doc’s fascinated by fame – before the Bennett birthday party, there’s a lingering shot of the place cards, a close-up on the name “MARTIN SCORSESE.” There’s a moment at the Super Bowl when former First Lady Barbara Bush passes Donatella Versace, why not.
In fairness, the old Gaga herself would’ve loved a moment like that. This doc captures her trying to change, become less a figure of artifice and conceptual style: “This is me with nothing,” to quote Gaga herself. The result of that transformation was Joanne, an album unquestionably more personal than her earlier work. Your mileage may vary. (I like “Million Reasons.” I miss the million wigs.) Five Foot Two wants to honor Stefani Germanotta, but it’s drawn to her great self-creation, a character she can’t shed. By the end, it’s trafficking in the kind of brand-building propaganda an earlier Gaga satirized. “There really isn’t anything bigger than this,” she says of the halftime show, and “It doesn’t get bigger than this.”
So forget verité, embrace the huge. The film’s best moment is its first, an upward-facing shot of Gaga rising on wires to the top NRG stadium. She’s ascending, like Jesus always does in his movies, but he usually waits till the end. B
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Thursday, 21 September 2017
Nathan Fillion celebrates Firefly turning 15: 'My heart still lives there'
Wednesday marked the 15th anniversary of Joss Whedon’s short-lived but beloved sci-fi series premiering on Fox, and Fillion, who starred as the spaceship Serenity’s owner and captain, Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds, celebrated the milestone with a message about how much Firefly means to him.
Alongside a picture of himself on set with Whedon, Fillion wrote, “Has it really been 15 years since a little sci fi show that couldn’t, did? I would be hard pressed to list all the ways in which Firefly has changed, blessed, pushed, lifted, and humbled me. I made my closest friends there, and even lost one along the way. I’ve often said that Firefly is close to my heart, but I think more accurately, my heart still lives there. But, there’s no place I’d rather be- you know how it goes. For those of you in the fold, a knowing nod between us. For those that are not- we’ll see you soon enough. #Browncoats.”
Debuting in 2002, Firefly was canceled after 11 of the 14 produced episodes aired. Strong fan support helped continue the story on the big screen with the 2005 release of Serenity.
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Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age announce South American tour
Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age have announced a new set of joint stadium gigs in South America.
The two bands have been closely affiliated for many years, with Foos frontman Dave Grohl even enjoying a brief stint in Queens of the Stone Age as their drummer from 2001-02.
With Foo Fighters set to embark on a world tour in support of their ninth studio album ‘Concrete and Gold’, the band have now announced that Queens of the Stone Age will join them for a string of huge gigs in Brazil and Argentina – kicking off at the famous Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janerio on February 25.
A pre-registration for tickets to these shows is open now. You can see Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age’s joint South American tour dates below.
February
25 – Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janerio, BR
27 – Allianz Parque, São Paulo, BR
March
2 – Pedreira Paulo Leminski Quarry, Curitiba, BR
4 – Beira-Rio Stadium, Porto Alegre, BR
7 – Velez, Buenos Aires, AR
Foos’ recent show at The O2 in London included a on-stage collaboration with Rick Astley – with the two artists performing a cover of the latter’s hit ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’.
However, the show was somewhat marred by confusion over ticketing – with hundreds of fans reportedly turned away at the door of The O2 for failing to present an ID which matched the name of their booking. The venue, Foo Fighters and promoters SJM Concerts have since released statements addressing the matter.
The post Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age announce South American tour appeared first on NME.
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Dave Chappelle returns to Def Comedy Jam in trailer for Netflix anniversary special
Many of today’s biggest comedians got their start on Russell Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam, a series that showcased stand-up sets by black comics — and now, those comedians are returning to the franchise for a Netflix special celebrating its 25-year anniversary.
“Some of you millennials may be asking, ‘What the hell is Def Comedy Jam?'” Cedric the Entertainer says at one point in the just-released trailer, which also features throwback clips of Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Martin Lawrence, and more. “That’s why we hate you lil’ motherf—ers!”
The stacked lineup includes Tracy Morgan, Adele Givens, Sheryl Underwood, D.L. Hughley, Deon Cole, Craig Robinson, Steve Harvey, and many more big names — including Chappelle, who released his first, highly anticipated specials since 2004’s For What It’s Worth earlier this year.
According to a previously released press release, Def Comedy Jam 25 will celebrate “the impact and legacy of the long-running comedy series with surprise guests, tributes, and performances in a can’t-miss evening of unbelievably funny and raw moments.”
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Johnny Depp introduces himself in new Murder on the Orient Express trailer
The new, full-length Murder on the Orient Express trailer rolls in with an impossible task: suss out the killer on a luxurious train bound through Europe, but don’t trust anyone.
That’s the position “world famous” Detective Hercule Poirot is thrown in for Murder, which focuses on the mystery left in the wake of shocking death.
If you’re not sick of hearing Imagine Dragon’s “Believer” in movie trailers yet, the new preview offers more looks at the rest of the star-studded cast, including Daisy Ridley, Josh Gad, Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Leslie Odom, Jr., Tom Bateman, Derek Jacobi, Marwan Kenzari, Olivia Colman, Lucy Boynton, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Sergei Polunin, and Johnny Depp as the victim.
With guns, suspicion, a dead body, intrigue, a mysterious note, and suspects on suspects on suspects, all the secrets are bound to come out in the wash.
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Harry Styles covers One Direction and Ariana Grande, waves gay pride flag at tour launch
Heartthrob (and newly-minted blockbuster movie star) Harry Styles kicked off his highly-anticipated first solo tour in San Francisco and Los Angeles earlier this week to much excitement, anticipation, and, of course, some fangirl screams.
Showing love for the LGBTQ community, Styles took the stage with a rainbow flag draped over his microphone. Later in the show, he waved the flag around stage, much to the delight of fans in the audience. Styles is a known supporter of the LGBTQ community, previously donning the flag and also showing support for former tNFL player Michael Sam after he came out as gay in 2014.
i think people undermine how safe ur idol waving around a pride flag on stage can make u feel. thank u for being my safe place @Harry_Styles http://pic.twitter.com/E6OS8NTBlr
— . (@lgbtqiaddie) September 20, 2017
The second night of the tour brought Styles to L.A., and though the setlist was the same, fans noticed a certain fan in the audience: Niall Horan, another 1D member. Horan himself has his own debut solo album coming out in late October, Flicker.
Niall looks so proud of Harry!!! Pick someone who's supportive ???? http://pic.twitter.com/i7iSl5L2Kr
— nameless biatch k. (@lxrryxmofo) September 21, 2017
Earlier this year in an interview with Rolling Stone, Styles defended his concertgoers and general fanbase.
“Who’s to say that young girls who like pop music — short for popular, right? — have worse musical taste than a 30-year-old hipster guy? That’s not up to you to say,” Styles told the magazine. “Music is something that’s always changing. There’s no goal posts.”
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Wednesday, 20 September 2017
Sean Penn joins Hulu series from House of Cards creator
The two-time Oscar winner will star in The First, a new Hulu original drama created by Beau Willimon, the mastermind behind the Netflix awards darling House of Cards.
The show, which received a straight-to-series order, is set in the near future and follows humanity’s first mission to Mars as they take the first steps toward interplanetary colonization. Penn’s role is being kept under wraps for the time being, but The First will focus on the astronauts, their loved ones, and the ground team on Earth.
Series creator Willimon will executive-produce the drama with Jordan Tappis. “I have such deep admiration for Sean’s immense talent and extraordinary body of work,” Willimon said in a statement. “I feel very lucky to be collaborating with an artist of his caliber.”
While Penn has made appearances on Two and a Half Men, Friends, Ellen, and Little House on the Prairie (his first credited gig), this marks his biggest foray into the medium. He was announced to star as Andrew Jackson in HBO’s American Lion biopic, but the project hit a snag last year when director Phillip Noyce bowed out of the series, reportedly over disagreements with the depiction of Jackson’s more unflattering policies. Updates have been scarce since.
Penn recently voiced himself on Fox’s Family Guy and a character in The Angry Birds Movie, and he’ll be seen opposite Mel Gibson and Natalie Dormer in The Professor and the Madman. He also directed Charlize Theron and Javier Bardem in 2016’s The Last Face.
The news of his casting comes after Hulu received 10 Emmy wins at the awards ceremony this past Sunday, including best original drama and best actress in a drama for The Handmaid’s Tale.
The First will premiere on Hulu in the U.S. and on Channel 4 in the U.K. and Ireland.
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Simon Pegg and Nick Frost partner with Sony Pictures Television
It was announced Wednesday that Sony Pictures Television (SPT) has taken a minority stake in U.K.-based Stolen Picture and signed an exclusive television distribution deal. Stolen Picture, the new production banner founded by Hot Fuzz stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, will produce television, film, and digital projects geared toward a global audience across genres and formats.
Pegg and Frost are longtime friends and former roommates who have also appeared together in the British sitcom Spaced and the films Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Paul, and The World’s End. Pegg is currently reprising his Mission Impossible role in the latest installment of the blockbuster franchise, while Frost is filming the third season of AMC’s Into the Badlands.
Stolen Picture’s first project is the film Slaughterhouse Rulez, currently in production for Sony Pictures International Productions (SPIP). The film stars Finn Cole, Asa Butterfield, Hermione Corfield, and Michael Sheen alongside Pegg and Frost. The comedy-horror is directed by Crispian Mills from a script he co-wrote with Henry Fitzherbert. Sony Pictures Releasing International has worldwide rights to distribute.
It has also been announced that Stolen Picture will add Miles Ketley as CEO. Ketley was previously COO at the independent production company Bad Wolf.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to announce this,” said Wayne Garvie, chief creative officer for International Production at Sony Pictures, in a statement. “Nick and Simon are good friends of the Sony group already, and this deal will help us take things to the next level. I’m sure that their boundless zest and creativity, coupled with Miles’ insight and energy, will help build Stolen Picture into an exceptional production company.”
“We’re inordinately excited to be partnering with Sony and hope to create a diverse range of television and film in line with our own sensibilities,” said Pegg and Frost. “More than that, we hope to receive free Walkmans and a lifetime’s supply of cassettes.”
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Tomb Raider: Alicia Vikander steps into Lara Croft's boots in first trailer
Alicia Vikander has strapped on the boots as the globe-trotting adventurer in the action-packed first trailer for Tomb Raider.
“She has all the fierce, tough, curious, intelligent traits,” Vikander previously told EW, “but we’ve stripped away all of her experience. She hasn’t gone on an adventure just yet. She thought [her father] was a stuck-up businessperson living in the modern youth culture of suburban London, but then this whole box of information. This is the beginning.”
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Iron Maiden announce ‘The Book Of Souls’ live album
Titled ‘The Book Of Souls: Live Chapter’, the release will feature live recordings taken from the band’s The Book Of Souls World Tour in support of their recent album ‘The Book Of Souls’.
The live LP will be released on November 17 and consists of 15 tracks in all, each recorded in a different city, apart from title-track ‘The Book of Souls’ and ‘Blood Brothers’, which were both recorded during the band’s Download festival headline set in 2016.
‘The Book Of Souls: Live Chapter’’ will be released physically on CD, deluxe CD and vinyl formats, along with a photo book. A live concert film will be available digitally.
Bassist Steve Harris says of the news: “We spent a huge amount of time working on this as I wanted to get it as close to the Maiden live experience as I possibly could and to represent our fans from different parts of the world. This meant listening to literally hours upon hours of tapes from every show, to select material and construct a sound that would run consistently across the whole album and capture the excitement of a new country like El Salvador alongside such regular favorites as Donington or Wacken.”
See the live album’s full tracklisting below:
- ‘If Eternity Should Fail’ – Sydney, Australia
- ‘Speed of Light’ – Cape Town, South Africa
- ‘Wrathchild’ – Dublin, Ireland
- ‘Children of the Damned’ – Montreal, Canada
- ‘Death or Glory’ – Wroclaw, Poland
- ‘The Red and the Black’ – Tokyo, Japan
- ‘The Trooper’ – San Salvador, El Salvador
- ‘Powerslave’ – Trieste, Italy
- ‘The Great Unknown’ – Newcastle, UK
- ‘The Book of Souls’ – Donington, UK
- ‘Fear of the Dark’ – Fortaleza, Brazil
- ‘Iron Maiden’ – Buenos Aires, Argentina
- ‘Number of the Beast’ – Wacken, Germany
- ‘Blood Brothers’ – Donington, UK
- ‘Wasted Years’ – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Meanwhile, Iron Maiden recently responded to rumours that they could retire.
Guitarist Dave Murray said: “We’re not stopping after this tour; this isn’t the last tour by any means. We’re going to finish this one out, which we’re having a lot of fun [doing], and then we’re going to take some time off and next year there’s going to be some surprises.”
The post Iron Maiden announce ‘The Book Of Souls’ live album appeared first on NME.
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Tuesday, 19 September 2017
St. Vincent details new album MASSEDUCTION and 'pretty bananas' tour
The 34-year-old musician hit a groove with her visionary self-titled fourth album — EW’s favorite of 2014 — which fused jagged guitar riffs worthy of Robert Fripp with a high-concept Bowie-esque stage persona. But leave it to the creatively restless Clark to flip the narrative once again.
For her fifth album, MASSEDUCTION — from which she has already released “New York” and “Los Ageless” — Clark recruited pop hitmaker Jack Antonoff (Lorde, Taylor Swift) to give her intricate compositions some addictive ’80s-inspired verve. “I found it to be like shaking up a can of soda and then opening the top,” she says. “I found it very effervescent and exciting. Oftentimes great things would happen — they would just burst out.”
The results were revolutionary, for both Clark and Antonoff. Her off-kilter melodies and typically sly lyrics, here touching on topics including chemical dependency (“Pills”) and bedroom role-playing (“Savior”), shine on top of Antonoff’s grooves.
Religious imagery also pervades the album. “As far as costumes go and showbiz, I think the Catholic church does an incredible job,” Clark notes. “I’m very obsessed with the aesthetic of nuns and priests. They got a lot of things wrong, but they got their costumes right.”
Beyond the lyrics, Clark and Antonoff concocted an array of sounds for MASSEDUCTION that stands apart from previous St. Vincent albums. “I wanted it to be all programmed beats, and I wanted it to have a lot of pedal steel,” she says. “I love the sound of pedal steel — it’s the sound of heartbreak.” (Clark, whose ex Cara Delevingne sings backup on “Pills,” is vague about the details: “I didn’t pull any punches,” she says, “but at the same time it should be deeply noted that this is art, and it’s not a diary.”)
She’ll tour the LP on this fall’s Fear the Future dates, with a “pretty bananas” aesthetic Clark describes as “going full dominatrix in the mental hospital.” Despite the ominous messaging of this era, though, Clark promises the album won’t be a bleak affair. “It is definitely speaking to the manic panic of our time,” she says, but “all we have is each other in times like this, when the world seems like it’s completely falling apart.”
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Gossip Girl turns 10: Read the first EW review
The coming-of-age drama leaned heavily on the sex, scandal, and fashion of New York’s Upper East Side and created instant stars of its young cast — including Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, and Ed Westwick. Ahead, read Ken Tucker’s original EW review of the show’s pilot episode.
Gossip Girl is The O.C. with ADD, The Hills as an asphalt jungle. In adapting the bestselling book series, the O.C. brain trust—producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage—has given Gossip speediness and grit. The books worm inside the social circles of a Manhattan private school, giving off a dank musk, but the TV version is bright and energetically jittery.
The show is structured around the “Gossip Girl” blog, whose author is a voice-over (Kristen Bell, crossing her Veronica Mars character with Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex and the City—she’s breezy and WASPish). The initial hookups and breakups mostly involve Blake Lively’s Serena van der Woodsen, who in the premiere is returning to the catfight fray after a boarding-school stay. Among the many eruptions of jealousy and status-seeking, Serena and Blair (Leighton Meester) both covet Nate (Chace Crawford).
I’ll play geezer worrywart and wonder whether young viewers really need a show in which teens swill martinis, talk breezily of recreational Viagra, and use “tap that ass” as a term of fond feeling. And Schwartz and Savage might have fared better had they just built their own show from the ground up: The Gossip books have been around since 2002—a generation in the young-adult publishing trade. The GG brand may have peaked.
Whatever. The cast is as good as the pilot script, and I may not be its target demo, but I admire its fleet pace and sly craft.
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Watch Sia's latest video with Maddie Ziegler… for My Little Pony: The Movie
Rainbow (From The 'My Little Pony: The Movie' Official Soundtrack) (Official Video) by Sia on VEVO.
Sia’s creative collaborations with teenage dancer Maddie Ziegler continues to expand — first with “Chandelier,” then “The Greatest,” and, now, with My Little Pony: The Movie. Yes, really.
Cut between footage of Songbird Serenade performing for a packed crowd — which of course includes Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and the rest of the Mane 6 — Ziegler dances on a stage of water, successfully battling and conquering the elements. As she smiles (yes, she’s smiling in this one!) and twirls, don’t miss the heart-shaped cutie marks on her cheek to match those on the animated Songbird Serenade.
Additional tracks on the My Little Pony: The Movie soundtrack feature Rachel Platten, DNCE, and more, as well as songs performed by the film’s voice actors, including Taye Diggs, Zoe Saldana, Kristin Chenoweth, and Emily Blunt.
My Little Pony: The Movie arrives in theaters on Oct. 6. The soundtrack will be released on Sept. 22 and is available for pre-order today.
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Drake's new tattoo is Denzel Washington's face
Inal Bersekov, a Toronto-based tattoo artist, posted photos of Drizzy’s latest ink to Instagram on Saturday. The Washington tat is a portrait of the actor as Bleek Gilliam, his jazz trumpeter character from Spike Lee’s 1990 film Mo’ Better Blues.
“Mo’ better blues’ first session on my brother @champagnepapi,” Bersekov wrote. “Thanks as usual for your trust.”
Washington joins the late Aaliyah, R&B singer Sade, and Lil Wayne, all of whom are immortalized as tattoos on Drake.
Bersekov also gave the “Hotline Bling” rapper a tattoo of Anthony “Fif” Soares, a friend and OVO Sound affiliate who died in a shooting in Toronto last week, according to reports. “Was honored to pay tribute tattooing ‘FIF’ on my brother @champagnepapi. Rest in peace,” the artist wrote.
Drake wrote a tribute on Instagram at the time of Soares’ death. “RIP to one of our family members…our brother… I still can’t even believe this morning was real,” it read. “It was a honor to have shared years together and I will always keep your memory alive Forever Fif.”
Drake also has images of his mother and father on his back, as well as a “mini portrait” of his father’s mugshot on his arm. He recently told Celine Dion that he wants one of her, too, so maybe his body will get some of that “Power of Love.”
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Weird Al Yankovic, John Stamos, Finn Wolfhard to star in Willy Wonka Hollywood Bowl concert
Stamos will play the titular chocolatier in a live-in-concert adaptation of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory at the Hollywood bowl this November, according to Variety, and will find his Charlie Bucket in Stranger Things and It star Finn Wolfhard. The event will draw from all three Wonka properties: the iconic Warner Bros. film, its Broadway adaptation, and the original Roald Dahl children’s book.
“Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory In Concert at the Hollywood Bowl: A Live-to-Film Celebration” is also reeling in other stars to play the memorable characters. Weird Al Yankovic will lend his musical talents to the role of orange factory workers, Oompa Loompas, Elle King will sing “I Want It Now” as the bratty Veruca Salt, Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad) will appear “The Candy Man,” and Richard Kind as Grandpa Joe. After leaving Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812, it seems Ingrid Michaelson isn’t done with her stage musical pursuits, as she is slated to play Charlie’s mother, Mrs. Bucket.
The Hollywood Bowl has found success with its previous concert editions of hit movies and musicals, including this summer’s Mamma Mia!, the 2016 The Little Mermaid concert, and the “La La Land In Concert” event in May. Richard Kraft, who directed the Little Mermaid and La La Land concerts, will also helm the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory concert.
Tickets for the Nov. 3 and 4 live event go on sale Sept. 23.
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Monday, 18 September 2017
All the historic wins at the 69th annual Emmy awards
On the acting side of things, Sterling K. Brown, Donald Glover, Riz Ahmed, Alec Baldwin, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus all had historic wins.
With his win for This is Us, Sterling K. Brown is the first black actor to win the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series since Andre Braugher in 1998, while Riz Ahmed’s win for The Night Of makes him the first Asian man to win an acting Emmy ever. Only one actor of Asian descent had ever won an acting Emmy prior to this evening, and that was The Good Wife’s Archie Punjabi in 2010.
Donald Glover doubled down on historic wins, as the first black actor to win Outstanding Lead Actor in a comedy series since Robert Guillaume won for Benson in 1985 and the first black person to win an Emmy for comedy directing ever. Both of his wins were for his work on the FX series Atlanta, which he also created.
For his win for his portrayal of Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, Alec Baldwin is the first actor from a variety show to win Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy since Tom Poston on the Steve Allen Show in 1959.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus earned her place in the history books with her sixth straight win for Veep. She now holds the record for most Emmys won for the same role in the same series, as well as the most consecutive wins. Additionally, this win ties her with Cloris Leachman for most total Emmy acting wins (they both now have eight). Louis-Dreyfus is also the first woman to win comedy Emmys for three different roles — Elaine Benes (Seinfeld), Christine Campbell (The New Adventures of Old Christine), and Selina Meyer (Veep).
Master of None‘s Lena Waithe also made history with her comedy writing win. She is the first African-American woman to win in this category. Waithe’s win was doubly historic given her nod to the LGBTQIA community, which she called her “family,” in her acceptance speech.
“I see each and every one of you,” Waithe said. “The things that make us different, those are our superpowers. Every day when you walk out the door, put on your imaginary cape and go out there and conquer the world because the world would not be as beautiful as it is without us in it.”
As for behind-the-camera achievements, The Handmaid’s Tale’s Reed Morano is the first woman to win the Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series Emmy since Mimi Leder won for her work on ER in 1995.
Saturday Night Live scored a record 22 nominations for their zeitgeisty forty-second season and their Emmy hardware reflect it. In addition to Baldwin’s win, Kate McKinnon became one of only 14 women to win Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy more than once (Modern Family’s Julie Bowen was the most recent). The show also took home its first Outstanding Variety Show Emmy since 1993.
Lastly, Hulu made major Emmy history with its six The Handmaid’s Tale wins, becoming the first streaming series to win Best Drama (an honor many long expected to go to Netflix or Amazon), as well as the first streaming show to produce a winner in the Outstanding Actress in a Drama category with Elisabeth Moss.
Head here to see the full list of winners.
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Hear CHVRCHES cover Tegan and Sara's 'Call It Off' for The Con tribute album
Scottish synth-pop group CHVRCHES are taking on the beloved Tegan and Sara classic “Call It Off” for The Con X: Covers, a tribute album that celebrates the 10th anniversary of the duo’s seminal LP, The Con. Bleachers, Ryan Adams, Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Sara Bareilles, and others have contributed to the collection, due Oct. 20. Net proceeds from the album will go to the Tegan and Sara Foundation, which “fights for health, economic justice, and representation for LGBTQ girls and women.”
“Lauren [Mayberry of CHVRCHES] was one of the first artists we approached for The Con X: Covers project,” Tegan Quin tells EW of the track, which is premiering exclusively on EW. “We are massive fans of CHVRCHES and the music they make. Lauren is an ally to the LGBTQ community and has been outspoken and political, so she fit the ethos of the project perfectly. CHVRCHES are in the studio making a new record, so we were touched they made the time to cover ‘Call It Off.’”
Fans of the original song might not recognize CHVRCHES’ version, however. Mayberry & Co. took the short and sweet acoustic number and stretched it out into a ghostly, five-minute keyboard daydream. “Their cover could not have been more unexpected and we think it’s beautiful,” Tegan says. “Our hope was that each artist would reinvent and reimagine each song, and they did not disappoint!”
The covers album arrives the same day that Tegan and Sara kick off The Con X: Tour, which will feature stripped-down arrangements of every song from the album, played in order, in addition to other songs from the band’s extensive catalog.
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Hear Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers achieve bluegrass nirvana on 'The Long-Awaited Album'
The 72-year-old’s music career has blossomed in the new millennium: His 2002 collaboration with Earl Scruggs won a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental Performance and his 2009 solo debut, The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo, won a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album.
Now, Martin has returned with his second collaborative album with North Carolina bluegrass outfit the Steep Canyon Rangers. The Long-Awaited Album, which EW is excited to premiere below, follows their first rendezvous, 2011’s Grammy-nominated Rare Bird Alert, and flashes both Martin’s comedic chops and the instrumental acumen he and his collaborators share. “I’m so excited that it’s available on CD, streaming, and, a first, implant,” Martin says of the record, joking.
Tracks like lead single “Caroline” are boisterously funny: “Can you tell me why you left me standing in the parking structure?” Martin sings to a lover. “Caroline, I was the almost perfect boyfriend ever for you / And you even said that to me one time at the Olive Garden.”
But more significantly, the album impresses with its musical flair. (The Steep Canyon Rangers won the Best Bluegrass Album Grammy for a record of their own in 2012.) The most riveting parts of The Long-Awaited Album might actually be the instrumental ones; tunes without vocals like “Angeline the Barista” whirr along like rootsy, well-oiled machines.
Hear The Long-Awaited Album, out everywhere this Friday, above.
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‘Rolling Stone’ magazine is up for sale
Rolling Stone magazine is up for sale, as its publisher announces that it is seeking a buyer for its controlling stake in the long-running music publication.
Founded in 1967, Rolling Stone has been known for covering music and pop and counter-culture as well as politics and gonzo-style journalism. Its writers have included the likes of Lester Bangs, Tom Wolfe and Hunter S Thompson.
Founder Jan Wenner – who started the magazine with music critic Ralph Gleason – has controlled the magazine through his company, Wenner Media, since. However, Wenner Media has now said it is exploring “strategic options” in an effort “to best position the brand for future growth”.
“I love my job, I enjoy it, I’ve enjoyed it for a long time,” Wenner, 71, said, describing the business move as “just the smart thing to do.”
“We have made great strides transforming Rolling Stone into a multi-platform company, and we are thrilled to find the right home to build on our strong foundation,” added Wenner’s son and the company’s chief operating officer, Gus Wenner.
“There’s a level of ambition that we can’t achieve alone,” Gus Wenner told The New York Times. “So we are being proactive and want to get ahead of the curve. Publishing is a completely different industry than what it was. The trends go in one direction, and we are very aware of that.”
It is not known whether the company is already in talks with potential buyers. Singapore-based BandLab Technologies already owns a 49% stake in Rolling Stone, acquired last year.
Wenner Media recently sold off other publications, such as Us Weekly and Men’s Journal to American Media.
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Friday, 15 September 2017
First listen: Hear three new songs from Pixar’s Coco
Coco is not exactly Pixar’s first musical — certainly not in the traditional break-into-song sense of the word — but it is the studio’s most music-driven film yet, telling the story of a young boy with a serious penchant for guitar who traces his passion for performing back to his ancestors, by way of an accidental trip to the Land of the Dead whereupon he learns just why his family has banned music for generations.
Along the journey, there’s no lack of diegetic songs, especially by the film’s fanciful main characters: 12-year-old Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez), his skeletal sidekick Hector (Gael Garcia Bernal), and Miguel’s late musical idol, Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt). While Gonzalez and Bratt have both already performed one of their songs at Disney’s biennial fan expo this summer, you can thank the guise of animation for even allowing Bernal to grace us with a vibrato: “I couldn’t do that otherwise!” laughs the actor. “But singing through the character lets us non-professional singers be able to actually do it in front of people.”
Ahead of Coco’s November 22 release, EW has a first listen to three of the songs that you’ll see — well, hear — fully rendered in Disney/Pixar glory in the film (and on the soundtrack, available Nov. 10).
The first: “Remember Me,” which you’ll quickly come to know as the signature song of Bratt’s character Ernesto de la Cruz and perhaps the film itself. Why is it so catchy? The bolero ranchero-style song (an homage to the Mexican Corrido style folk ballad of the ‘20s and ‘30s) is written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, the Oscar-winning team behind Frozen.
Second: “Un Poco Loco,” a delightful tune that Miguel and Hector find themselves performing on the fly at a talent show in the Land of the Dead. Written by Germaine Franco (Dope, Shovel Buddies) with lyrics by Coco’s co-director/screenwriter Adrian Molina, the son jarocho-style song pulls in indigenous, African, and Spanish musical elements (and seems to be a prime example of director Lee Unkrich and the filmmakers’ serious dedication to its key cultural advisors and research trips).
Finally, take a listen to “The World Es Mi Familia,” a Huapango-inspired song (once again written by Franco and Molina) which Miguel sings in a bid to capture the attention of Ernesto de la Cruz. Spoiler: He gets it.
Coco hits theaters Nov. 22.
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‘John Wick 3’ release date revealed
The release date for John Wick 3 has been revealed after the huge success of this year’s sequel.
The first film, John Wick, grossed $88 million worldwide in 2014, while the 2017 sequel, John Wick: Chapter 2, grossed an impressive $171.5 million worldwide.
- Read more: ‘John Wick: Chapter 2’ – The NME Film Review
Lionsgate have set a release date for May 17, 2019 for John Wick: Chapter 3. Keanu Reeves will return for his starring role as John Wick.
Earlier this year, Keanu Reeves spoke about the possibility of reviving The Matrix franchise.
Asked about a fourth film by Yahoo! Movies, Reeves replied: “The Wachowskis would have to be involved. They would have to write it and direct it, and then we’d see where the story is.”
He added: “That’d be weird, but why not? People die, stories don’t.”
Writer-directors The Wachowkis have more recently overseen cult Netflix sci-fi series Sense8. Their last film was the notorious 2015 flop Jupiter Ascending starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis.
Reeves also spoke about bringing back another of his iconic film franchises, Bill & Ted.
Discussing the plot of the mooted third movie, Reeves said: “Basically, they’re supposed to write a song to save the world and they haven’t done that. The pressure of having to save the world, their marriages are falling apart, their kids are kind of mad at them, and then someone comes from the future and tells them if they don’t write the song it’s just not the world, it’s the universe. So they have to save the universe because time is breaking apart.”
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Listen to Björk’s new single ‘The Gate’
Björk has released her new single ‘The Gate’. Check it out below.
The single was announced earlier this month and is the first to be taken from her upcoming tenth album, which is expected to be released in November.
The album is her first since 2015’s Vulnicura and she recently described it as her “Tinder album”, explaining: “It’s about that search (for utopia) – and about being in love. Spending time with a person you enjoy on every level is obviously utopia, you know? I mean, it’s real. It’s when the dream becomes real.”
Artist and frequent Björk collaborator Andrew Thomas Huang also teased the record, and described it as “future facing”.
When asked about the sound of the record, he told The Fader: “I think it’s a bit too early for me to say at the moment, but, you know, Björk’s already written quite a bit of it. We just want to evolve what we did in ‘Vulnicura,’ which was so personal and introspective.
The post Listen to Björk’s new single ‘The Gate’ appeared first on NME.
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Thursday, 14 September 2017
Futurama EP on the show’s ‘bigger and longer’ podcast revival
The beloved animated comedy, created by Matt Groening and starring Billy West and Katey Sagal, first ran for five seasons on Fox starting in 1999, then remained a part of the network as a direct-to-DVD movie series, then was picked up for two super-sized seasons by Comedy Central. In 2013, though, it looked like the series could really be done.
But Futurama has come back in a big way in 2017 — just not in any way you’ve experienced it before. In June, a mobile game version called Worlds of Tomorrow was released, and its company, Jam City, negotiated with the original series’ producers to create an additional (double-length!) podcast-only episode of Futurama as special promotional material. (The podcast, released by The Nerdist Podcast, debuted Thursday morning.) Of course, much of the original team got back together, making this another vital entrant in the Futurama canon. With two distinct chapters now newly available, the show’s future again appears in flux — if, at the same time, more boundless than ever.
Co-developer and writer David X. Cohen spoke with EW about reviving Futurama for the fourth time, how the show has evolved in tandem with TV, and just how many endings one TV series gets to have.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I remember reading an interview with you, when Futurama “ended” in 2013, saying that when it comes to animated shows, you can end things several times.
DAVID X. COHEN: Well, with our animated show, things sure ended several times!
I know you were pretty happy with that 2013 finale, so how have your thoughts evolved on that philosophy?
You know something’s gone horribly wrong when you feel like you’re getting very experienced at writing your last episode ever. A bad sign, usually. The last one we wrote, it was the fourth time we’ve written an episode where at the time we wrote it we thought it would likely be our last episode ever, so that’s more than usual. Each time I felt like we left it in a pretty good place where I could live with myself if it didn’t come back — try to leave a little bit of hope alive for the future. One thing I’ll say is that the first couple times we thought we were going away, those were the more deeply cutting ones, where it was more emotional, and we felt like, “No, we’re just getting started here.” Now I feel like the third, fourth time it’s a little harder to work up that degree of deep emotion because you just go like, “Hm, I guess I just do not know what the future is anymore.” We’re lucky we got to come back, and if we get to come back again, that would be awesome. If not I’ve cried two or three times, but this time I’m just going to say, “Well done, everybody!”
Particularly with that 2013 finale, this idea of things ending, but also continuing on, is really baked in — it’s an idea that lends itself really well to the show’s premise.
Yes, absolutely. When you’re in science fiction territory, you can always time-travel to the spot you want to restart in, or the universe can loop around and big bang again. Someone’s consciousness could be downloaded from the Cloud. We have much more good excuses than other genres for starting our show again.
Sure enough, it has happened. I got a couple of the writers on board, specifically Ken Keeler and Patric Verrone, who were two of the longest-serving writers on Futurama, and the three of us wrote this script — which is a double-length episode. It’s almost 45 minutes long; it’s about as long as two episodes of the show. Although it’s one continuous epic thing. We’ve got the entire cast on board and Chris Hardwick guest-starring as well, as this horrific creature that evolves from billions of podcasts that no one ever listened to. It just kind of came together in this miraculous way. Once we started doing it, I will say, at first we thought, “Well, it will be a little easier than making the full animated version,” but we ended up getting sucked in and making it bigger and longer, and all of us putting in a lot more work than intended. But I think as a result it also turned out better than intended. It’s going to be, I hope, pretty exciting for all the fans.
What can you tease about the episode, and the making of it?
Part of the fun of doing the audio episode is to do a few things that are difficult, or that you wouldn’t do with animation. So things really get set in motion when Fry, who is always trying to win the heart of Leela, makes what he considers to be a very romantic gesture, and gives to her the gift of a holographic nude self-portrait of himself, which he has created in her honor — and the details of which would be hard to show in animation. But because it’s this complicated 3-D thing and also because Fry is unpleasantly nude, for various reasons it would be harder to do animated, but we’re like, “Alright.” It works in radio where you can describe all the amazing things that you’re not seeing. That’s part of the fun of writing it. And she does not take too well to this so-called gift, for one thing because she has only one eye and she can’t even see in three dimensions, so she doesn’t get to enjoy the full degree of Fry’s nudity. They go to dispose of this contraption on a planet designated for disposing of electronic junk and while there they accidentally unleash this horrific creature played by Chris Hardwick on the universe.
You really focus on the Leela-Fry romance in that 2013 finale and end with a big romantic gesture. How did you go into this episode, in terms of their relationship?
The thing that I like about Fry and Leela is the direction it started to turn in, in the later seasons, which is that Fry — who had been this bumbling moron with no particular direction — his love for Leela is great enough that it actually does cause him to improve himself. That ended up being a little better direction, that he actually is getting a little smarter and trying a little harder. And it’s actually starting to work a little bit with Leela, as opposed to either he just fail completely and fall on his face or that she would fall for him for no particular reason, in the beginning. I like the ones where he actually steps it up a notch and makes an impression, and in this episode — although things start out badly for him — you’ll see that his intent is good and he has some tricks up his sleeve still.
They take up most of the space in the 2013 finale. Is there, perhaps, a supporting player who shines in this new episode?
In the most recent finale, we decided to really zero in on Fry and Leela and shrink the world — the whole universe was their universe. The podcast, in a way, is the opposite of that because we really wanted to hear everybody. We don’t want anybody to not hear their favorite characters. That’s part of what caused the episode to grow: “We want a Fry-Leela story, yes, but then of course we’ve got to have a Bender story.” There’s this, believe it or not, fairly emotional story about Bender and his mother, who we only very briefly touched on in the series — his mother being a robot arm with no mouth. So it was kind of a challenge to tell her story in a podcast where she can’t talk. But I think we did it. We made it a challenge for ourselves. There’s some deep emotion there between Bender and this robot arm, his mother. And then it’s science fiction. We had to have our threats of the Earth, and that’s where Chris Hardwick’s space villain comes in. So this is all taking place under the shadow of this horrific creature menacing the world. There’s three A-stories going on, really. And then there’s a lot of cameos from many of the side characters who we’ve had over the years. So this was an attempt to broaden things out and get everybody in there.
What did Chris Hardwick bring to the world?
He’s fantastic. I want to find a weak link in that guy’s talents; you feel inadequate when you’re in the room with him.
If you want a guy who can speak loudly for a long time and do crazy voices, he’s your guy — again! He’s everywhere. You’ll see when you hear the podcast that we wanted to try to find a voice that went with the idea of a character who was literally made out of billions of podcasts, so what we ended up doing was we had him record his part in multiple different voices. So he did many takes. I wouldn’t have asked most people to do this, but he was very enthusiastic, him being a big Futurama fan too. So we had him do the part multiple times in different voices, and he speaks in this harmony of voices, all of which are really him. You’ll hear it. It’s not an electronic effect — I want to give him, again, too much credit, but he’s really doing the part in all these different voices you’ll here.
Would you be eager to return to a podcast format again?
Yeah. My feeling about any Futurama stuff that I work on at this point is that I love to do it, and if I can come back, that is fantastic. I don’t want to do the bad version. Anything we do, I want it to be the good version of that. I don’t want to bring Futurama back as a TV show, but it’s in a real cut-rate animation style or where we can only get one and a half writers, or whatever it is. We’ve got to be able to do the good version. Same for the audio. We started to do it with a certain goal and as we were doing it, we just got sucked in — “Let’s make it better; instead of doing one episode let’s make it a double-length episode.” We make life hard for ourselves, but that’s the only way I think that I feel satisfied: if we try to make the improved version rather than the disappointing, step down from what people have seen before.
Because these new formats were appearing, Fox said, “Hey, wait a second, this isn’t what we’re used to, but the show is still finding an audience.” So that’s what led to them bringing us back with these direct-to-DVD movies, another area which you wouldn’t have thought of, even, when we were started to work on the show. That show found an audience, so Comedy Central said, “We’ll bring you back for primetime on cable TV.” So then we came back in HDTV, which had been invented at that point. And now we’ve got this mobile game — another format that didn’t exist when we started. The podcast, I can’t really say it didn’t exist since this is basically a format that dates to the 1920s I believe, so suddenly we’ve jumped to a 100-year-old format. That breaks the chain a little bit of new-and-improved formats. But even so, if you call it a podcast, then you can kind of pretend it’s the newest, latest thing. So we were just kind of hitting each format as it’s unleashed on the world, and that gives us a second, third, fourth lease on life. It’s just really been fascinating and unexpected at every turn.
I don’t know if there’s any left, but is there another format — a newer format — that you think Futurama could work in the future?
My hope is that within a year or two it will be beamed directly into people’s sinuses and will be shot onto their retina from behind. I think that would be extremely effective and you wouldn’t need a device or anything. That would work.
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South Park parodies Kendrick Lamar’s ‘HUMBLE.’
The show’s 21st season was launched with episode which explored the rise of white nationalism in America, framing many of the troubles to be based around Americans’ fear of the rise of technological automation. The ‘DAMN.’ track was turned into a country tune by the show’s hillbilly character Jim Bob, who himself was playing the role of a real-life Amazon Echo.
Watch the clip below.
It’s the latest in a long line of South Park musical parodies, including Lorde, Radiohead, Kanye West and many more.
‘HUMBLE.’ was the lead single from Kendrick Lamar’s most recent album, ‘DAMN.’. Released back in April, the record features credited guest spots from Rihanna and U2 on the tracklist. The full credits for ‘DAMN.’ also revealed that the likes of Kaytranada, James Blake, BADBADNOTGOOD and producer Mike WiLL Made-It contributed to the record.
- Read more: The twenty best South Park songs
Earlier this month, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone talked about the “headfuck” of attempting to satirize Donald Trump.
“Last year was such a headfuck, and we were so happy when it was done,” Parker told The Hollywood Reporter. “And we just wanted to go back to the kids, which we still do. But it’s also like, you can’t avoid [Garrison as Trump]. So, we are not actively putting it in, but we are not actively leaving it out. It’s the world we live in.”
Stone also confirmed that the new season won’t adopt the same narrative thread as last year as “it was just really hard” to produce on a weekly basis.
“In some ways it was cool and in some ways it trapped us,” he said. “The way we do that show is not compatible with full serialization. We’re going to do the first show [this season] and maybe don’t have to sitcom wrap it up at the end.
“The first 18 seasons of the show, we spent so much time thinking how do we get this back to resolution” he continued. “And no TV shows do that anymore. You’re so used to watching shows now where it doesn’t end at the end, it teases the next one.”
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