Year: 2022

When Spider-Man: No Way Home dropped late last year, it did more than clean up at the box office. It also united the last three live-action actors to play Peter Parker on the big screen. Tom Holland got to hobnob with Tobey Maguire, who assumed him the role 2002 through 2007, and with Andrew Garfield, who played him in 2012 and 2014.

It was a big deal for Holland, and it was clearly a big deal for Garfield, as he recently revealed on an episode of The Graham Norton Show. Garfield recounted his drama school days, when he no doubt did plenty of classic theater — but also some of the Maguire-era Spider-Man films.

“He’s my Spider-Man,” Garfield said of Maguire. “I would practice his lines in the mirror when I was in drama school.” He added, “I was very high at the time.”

Garfield said one of his friends used to “crack up” at his Maguire-Spidey takes. ”[He] would look at me like, ‘Yeah, you’ll never play Spider-Man, Andy.’ And then here we are.”

It’s been a big last few months for the actor. He co-starred in The Eyes of Tammy Faye with Jessica Chastain, who received and Oscar nomination for her work. Garfield, meanwhile, got one for Tick, Tick…BOOM! Indeed, No Way Home aside, he’s moved on from playing Queens’ favorite web-slinging superhero.

“I’m far too old to be playing Spider-Man now,” Garfield said before discussing his super-secret return to the role. “But they asked me back and it’s the sweetest thing ever because I’d put that to bed. I was like, ‘I’m good, I’m done, that’s lovely.’ And Tom Holland is just the best, so I just kind of became a fan again.”

You can watch Garfield’s appearance on The Graham Norton Show below.

(Via The New York Post)

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden unveiled a “first tranche” of US sanctions against Russia, who is on the verge of an invasion of neighboring Ukraine. This came after a flurry of military vehicles were seen heading into the nation from Russia early Tuesday morning. The rest of the world awaits what will happen next in the conflict. In the meantime, one person decided to reach out to Cardi B for her opinion on everything, as she’s been very open in the past on political matters.

“Wish these world leaders stop tripping about power and really think about whose really getting affected (citizens) besides the whole world is in a crisis,” she tweeted in response. Another person didn’t believe that Cardi was behind the tweet, so she replied with a video of herself speaking further on the matter.

“This phone is not hacked, it’s really me,” she said. “I actually want to say a lot of things, but I’m just gonna mind my business because sometimes, I feel like I have such a big platform that if I don’t say the right things, I might get killed.” She continued:

I’m really not on NATO’s side, I’m really not on Russian side, I’m actually [on] the citizens’ side, because at the end of the day, the world is having a crisis right now. This inflation not only in America, but everywhere in the world! It’s really hard to get the economy back up. There is so much shipments and embarkments backed up, China’s not really messing with us, so a lot of things are behind, a lot of goods are behind, and this shit just made it a lot more complicated, so I’m just really annoyed by this.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The original Halloween, from 1978, turned Jamie Lee Curtis from daughter of Hollywood royalty (and a Columbo bit player) into a big name, someone who became as famous as her parents, Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis. She’s returned to the role of Final Girl Laurie Stode many times. She even got killed off once, before being resurrected in 2018’s reboot/sequel. But on Tuesday, she officially bid farewell to the series that made her a star.

The actress announced that she’d wrapped filming of Halloween Ends, the third entry in the wing of the series helmed by David Gordon Green (who can also be found cranking out The Righteous Gemstones along with his co-writer Danny McBride — that’s range).

“A bittersweet END for me on the Halloween movies,” Curtis wrote. “I’ve made great friends and have collaborated with wonderful artists on these three movies and today my part in the film has been completed and with it the END for me of this trilogy.” She thanked the fans, her co-stars, the production companies, and her character herself for giving her what’s arguably her signature role.

Curtis played Laurie in the first two Halloween movies, then returned for 1998’s Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. She bid adieu to the character in 2002’s Halloween: Resurrection, getting offed in the opening sequence. Another near two decades later, Laurie was brought back to life with the 2018 revival, which was a direct sequel to the original, ignoring all other entries, and which found Laurie struggling with PTSD, all while baddie Michael Myers starts to kill anew. With Ends and last year’s Kills, it’s one of the longest runs anyone’s had of playing the same character, so hats off to a scream queen.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

Earlier this month, Yo Gotti returned from a two-year absence to drop his eleventh album, CM10: Free Game. It’s a double-disc effort, with the first side titled “Free” and the second “Game,” and it presents features from 42 Dugg, EST Gee, Moneybagg Yo, Shenseea, Blac Youngsta, and Kodak Black. Now he has a new video from the album, calling on rising rapper 10Percent to join him in for their collaboration “Dolla Fo’ Dolla.”

The video sees Yo Gotti and 10Percent as authoritative figures as they roll through the city with a fleet of luxury cars while flexing the confidence. Prior to the release of CM10: Free Game, Yo Gotti held an open verse challenge for “Dolla Fo’ Dolla,” which allowed rising rappers to add a verse to the song on social media with the chance of being chosen as a feature for the song on the finished album. Yo Gotti selected rapper 10Percent to appear on the song, but afterward, he allowed everyone else who submitted verses on the song to upload it to streaming services and make a profit from it.

Yo Gotti’s new video also comes after he signed West Coast rapper Mozzy to his label CMG.

You can watch the video for “Dolla Fo’ Dolla” above.

CM10: Free Game is out noa via CMG/Inevitable II Records. You can stream it here.

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

Much of the world waits in horror at what Russia will do the Ukraine. Under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin, the nation has threatened to invade the neighboring nation and former Soviet territory, sending troops into Russian-friendly areas of the country under the guise of “peacekeepers.” Democrats and Republicans alike, as well as countries worldwide, have condemned Putin’s actions. One exception, of course, is Donald Trump.

The former U.S. president, who has long praised the authoritarian leader known for human rights violations, went on a radio show hosted conservative talk show host Buck Sexton. There, he seemed in awe, even jealous of the aggression Putin has displayed.

“I went in yesterday, and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius,’” Trump told Sexton. “Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine — Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful.”

“I said, ‘How smart is that?’ He’s going to go in and be a peacekeeper,” added Trump, who regularly praised and sought close ties with Putin during his time in office. “That’s the strongest peace force. We could use that on our southern border. That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen. There were more army tanks than I’ve ever seen. They’re going to keep peace, all right.”

Conservatives, though no doubt miffed that Trump has made it harder for them to condemn Putin’s actions, have remained silent on the matter. Democrats, however, are unafraid to speak up. One of them was Jen Psaki, current White House press secretary, who reminded people why it’s a good thing Trump lost re-election in 2020.

“As a matter of policy we do not take advice from anybody that praises President Putin and his military strategy, which I believe is what happened there, expresses an openness to lifting sanctions about the seizing of territories in Crimea, or at any point in time told leaders at the G7 that Crimea is a part of Russia, regardless if they are a former president,” Psaki told reporters. “It’s a bit of a different approach, and that’s probably why President Biden and not his predecessor was able to rally the world and the global community in taking steps against Russia’s aggression.”

Her comments were reflected all over social media. Trump’s comments were met with widespread disdain — again, not amongst Republicans. Some weren’t exactly surprised.

Some made jokes.

Meanwhile, Republicans tried desperately to spin Trump’s comments.

At least Trump has a noted conservative who disagrees with the rest of the world: We’re speaking, of course, of Tucker. And his own son. Oh, and Russian state TV.

(Via NYT)

In a little over a month, the long-awaited third season of Donald Glover’s Atlanta will premiere on FX, almost four years since the last season aired. Ahead of the new episodes, which are predominantly set in London, Stephen Glover, Donald’s brother, recalled that the cast and crew of the show were racially profiled while shooting scenes in London. One of the harassers claimed the group was carrying guns with them. But now Donald has clarified what he meant.

“He’s making a reference that we all have hammers, and we can just break into this place, which we kind of ignored,” Donald said during a TCA press tour. Atlanta co-writer Stefani Robinson added, “It was so insulting but not insulting at the same time because it took us five minutes to fully understand.” Naturally, the story made its way around social media, but according to Donald, the cast and crew of Atlanta didn’t take the situation as seriously as everyone else did. “That ‘racially abused’ headline about us is lame,” Donald wrote in a tweet. “The story is tru. but we were all laughin tellin it.”

Donald’s clarification comes after it was confirmed that Atlanta would come to an end after its fourth season. The news was shared by FX chairman John Landgraf, who said that the third and fourth seasons of Atlanta have already been shot.

It looks like BTS’ mini-tour model is holding strong for the K-Pop supergroup. After their very successful launch of not just the titular single, “Permission To Dance,” — which was co-written with Ed Sheeran, no less — but a four-night show run in LA, they’re now extending that setup to other cities. Just recently announcing another four-night stint in their native Seoul, marking the group’s first live shows in Korea since 2019, those performances will take place at the Seoul Olympic Stadium on March 10, 12 and 13.

And following up those dates, they’ve now added yet another set of shows in April. Returning to the United States this time, BTS will be performing at the entertainment capitol of the world — Las Vegas. Across April 8, 9, 15 and 16, the pop icons will grace the stage at Nevada’s Allegiant Stadium. This means any local California fans who missed their chance to see the group when they were in Los Angeles in late 2021 are getting another shot. Fans can register to purchase tickets for the new dates, beginning now and running through Saturday, February 26 at 5pm PST. You can register to do so right here — tickets officially go on sale on March 8. Godspeed to everyone trying to get a spot, and in case you don’t, check out our review of their LA show right here.

The Oscars telecast hasn’t been a TV juggernaut for a long time now. Nearly a quarter century has elapsed since 57.25 million viewers tuned in to watch Titanic, for a good decade-plus the highest grossing movie in history (not adjusted for inflation), sweep up. By contrast, last year’s semi-awkward pandemic-era show, where the biggest trophies went to the comparatively little seen Nomadland, brought in a telecast-worst 10.4 million.

Tensions are no doubt high at ABC, which airs the ceremony, especially considering the highest grossing Best Picture nominee — Dune — “only” $107.9 million in North America (though was evidently widely seen enough on HBO Max that it was quickly awarded a sequel). That probably explains this: As per The Hollywood Reporter, the live show is going to nix about a third of the awards they have traditionally aired — eight out of the total 23. Those awards, of course, will still be given out. They’ll just be taped in the hour before the broadcast begins. Those awards also still be shown; they’ll simply peppered in throughout the show.

The nixed awards are a mix of the technical and semi-obscure, namely: documentary short, film editing, makeup/hairstyling, original score, production design, animated short, live action short, and sound.

The Oscars aren’t the only awards show to not air certain trophies during the live broadcast. The Tonys do something similar. The Academy Awards have long insisted on airing all 23 awards, THR reports, “in order to keep the peace within its own board of governors, which includes representatives of the Academy’s 17 branches, most of which have at least one award which honors people from the profession practiced by its members and wants them to be treated the same as actors, directors and producers.”

That might also explain why some shows last longer than some of the epics that have taken home the prize in the past, such as Lawrence of Arabia, Gandhi, and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

So will this year’s Oscars be shorter? Possibly. Will it be seen as an insult to the talented filmmakers whose speeches will no doubt be diced up for broadcast (including editors)? Almost certainly. It will still take three (3) hosts to present it all, namely Amy Schumer, Regina Hall, and Wanda Sykes. The big show goes down on March 27 on ABC.

(Via THR)

Last month, Kanye West announced that his eleventh album, Donda 2, will arrive on February 22. He even gave an astronomy-related reason for the specific release date. And yet the day is almost over the album is nowhere to be found. It shouldn’t be a surprise, given Kanye has failed to drop an album on its initial release date since 2013’s Yeezus. That being said, Kanye is still hosting a listening event for the album tonight at Miami’s LoanDepot Park Stadium. For those who will not be there in person, Kanye revealed where a livestream can be found.

An announcement from the social accounts of Kanye’s Stem Player device revealed that the listening event for Donda 2 will livestream exclusively from the company’s website. The event is set to begin at 8 pm EST, but it remains to be seen if there will be any delays.

The announcement comes after Kanye said Donda 2 will only be available on the Stem Player, which he co-created with Alex Klein and which retails for $214.50. He said the album will not be available on streaming services like Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, and others.

“Today artists get just 12% of the money the industry makes,” he said in the announcement. “It’s time to free music from this oppressive system. It’s time to take control and build our own.” Afterward, Kanye revealed a 22-song tracklist for Donda 2 in a now-deleted Instagram post.

Nearly six long years after their last movie and after many failed iterations (including Quentin Tarantino’s R-rated take on the franchise), a new Star Trek film with the Chris Pine-led crew was finally announced. Hooray! It was a slightly surprising move, again, because it’s been so long since 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. But the news came as a shock to a few others who probably shouldn’t have learned about it alongside everyone else.

Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that some but not all of the actors were, in THR’s words, “not aware that an announcement for another film was coming, much less that their clients would be touted as a part of the deal, and certainly not that their clients would be shooting a movie by year’s end.”

One person who definitely was was Pine, seen as the “lynchpin” of this wing of the series. It’s not clear who wasn’t informed ahead of time, but the Pine-led cast includes Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana and John Cho. (Anton Yelchin, who played Anton Yelchin, tragically passed away shortly before Beyond was released.)

That cast first appeared in 2009, which breathed new life into a franchise long dormant from the big screen, but which continued to survive on television. Since Beyond, the Trek-verse has greatly expanded, with numerous shows lurking on the relatively newish streamer Peacock, including Discovery, Picard, and the animated Lower Decks. Anyway, here’s hoping everyone’s schedules towards the end of the year are clear!

(Via THR)