Author: GoneTrending

Earlier today (October 5), Netflix unveiled a new four-part documentary series about David Beckham, appropriately titled Beckham. Given that he’s been married to Victoria Beckham for over two decades now, she gets some screen time, too. In one particularly charged moment, David pushes back on a claim from Victoria (who, keep in mind, is also known in Spice Girls as “Posh Spice“) that she had a “working class” childhood.

In a clip shared on social media by Netflix today, Victoria tells an off-camera interviewer, “We’re very working… working class.” Then, from off-camera, David interjects, “Be honest.” Victoria insists she is as David repeats, “Be honest.” He continues, “What car did you dad drive you to school in?” Victoria starts, “So, my dad did…,” but David interrupts, “No, one answer: What car was it?” Victoria says, “It’s not a simple answer because…,” then David again interrupts, “What car did you get your dad to drive you to school in?”

Victoria responds, “It depends,” which got a “No no no no no…” out of David. Victoria then conceded, “OK: In the ’80s, my dad had a Rolls-Royce.” David says “thank you” and leaves the room, after which Victoria takes a frustrated pause.

Check out the clip above.

At a time when it seems like things need to be either epic or edgy to pop, MAX’s pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death made its mark on the strength of its quirky goodness, its ability to (as showrunner David Jenkins puts it) make its audience feel seen, and a resistance to condescension in service of comedy and servicing its main relationship.

While resultant buzz and hard numbers surely helped the show secure its second season (which debuts tonight on MAX with 2 episodes), it’s easy to assume that the passionate fanbase played an outsized role in MAX’s decision-making. Check Reddit, Tumblr, and other social sites for fan posts and you’ll discover a powerful love fest comprised of fan art, fan fiction, and excitement for the places the show might go with the love-struck lead characters at its heart: Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) and Blackbeard aka Ed (Taika Waititi). Who would want to let down such a vocal group?

Eager to get a sense of the impact of that explosion of love and support from fans and where things are going with Stede and Ed as we head into the new season, Uproxx spoke with Jenkins about last season’s finale, the meaning of happy endings, comparing the show to The Sopranos, and whether we’re going to get Muppets on the show.

Do you feel an enhanced level of responsibility because people are feeling seen by the show and have an affection for the show? Going into creating this second season, you’re obviously exposed to that, you know that that’s there, is there a danger of overcompensating and over-delivering for fans when you’re creating the second season? How do you defend against that?

I try not to think about it too much because I think the strength of the show is that it’s not super back patty. And I think once you get to the point where you’re like, “We’re doing a great job, we’re really doing an amazing thing,” then it’s going to suck. I do think that if you staff the room well and you create a good sociological imagination for the room of a bunch of people who have a bunch of different backgrounds and a bunch of different perspectives and you listen to them and then you try to keep the fan art out of it, keep the things people are asking for and clamoring for… As much as you can, I try to keep that out of the writer’s room and out of the creative. It’s fun to enjoy when you’re going through your thread, but it can’t come into the room. If you’re logically following what the characters are doing, it keeps you from getting high on your own supply hopefully.

Why did we need that break with Ed and Stede at the end of last season? Why couldn’t we continue the momentum of the coupling into season two?

I think because they’re both clumsy and they don’t know enough yet and they’re both emotionally very immature and there’s no way that they’re going to be healthy enough to sustain a relationship knowing what they know. And I think seeing Stede learn that he doesn’t even know what love is until his ex-wife tells him about it at the end of the first season. And Ed’s never let himself be vulnerable before and he gets really burned. Stede never knows what he’s done, he always underestimates his own power and how he can damage something just by doing things impulsively. And then Ed, what does a really damaged guy look like after he’s had his heart broken? I think to skip over those storylines I think gives us a lot less fuel to see them rebuild each other and just try to find a more mature way to be in a relationship.

Is there hope for these characters or are these fatal flaws? And by hope I don’t mean is everything going to be perfect for the rest of the run of the show? Is there hope for something more than just this cyclical thing where they break up, they get back together, they break up, they get back together, the Sid and Nancy of the sea. Is there hope for them to grow?

Sid and Nancy of the sea, that’s a good pitch. (Laughs) I think that, to me, the fun of it is there’s the ending of the thing, they lived happily ever after. Which apparently all cultures have different ways of doing that. Other cultures, instead of saying they lived happily ever after, they say, and the story goes on and on and on. And our insistence that it’s happily isn’t like what our relationships are. Our relationships are constant work and constant, is it going to capsize? Is it not? Oh, it’s really good right now, but what happens when it shifts? And so I like the idea that I want to see these two guys learn what a more mature idea of love is and then see them struggle to maintain it, which seems to be the story of all of our romantic relationships and a lot of our friendships.

Yes, it’s constant work, but there’s also constant reward, it’s micro treasures that you uncover along the way. And so seeing them do that, when I talked to Rhys, there was a notion expressed that it’s nice to see characters just hang out and be together. Can we anticipate seeing that at some point in the future with these characters where they can get over some of this and over the hurt?

I think so, and I think we get there in this season, but I think what, to me, mature love is being comfortable with a thing called midlife, which is just life without volatility. Sometimes being comfortable, just being okay is the hardest thing. It is their struggle to be, can we just be together and fine? Is an interesting struggle. But I think that has to be a struggle for it to be interesting and I think that there have to be moments where things are good. Tony and Carmela on The Sopranos, very troubled marriage. There are moments where things are all right.

I hope Stede and Ed aren’t modeled after Tony and Carmela.

That’s a different relationship.

Slightly different. Who’s who in that? Ed is Tony, maybe? No, maybe not.

Ed’s got strong Carmela energy.

That’s a good point. I think you’re actually right. I think Ed is Carmela and Stede is Tony.

I think that looking at Aunt Bonny (Minnie Driver) and Mary Read (Rachel House) as a George and Martha couple, where’s it’s like, that’s a very, very messed up, way more mature (relationship) than Stede and Blackbeard’s relationship because they’re dealing with marriage and committing to each other for a long time and they have a very poisonous view of it. But I think they’re looking at, who are couples that are successful? They’ve never seen a successful relationship. Ed’s parents are messed up, Stede screwed up his marriage. And to watch these two people who are damaged just learn how to be okay, that seems like a good journey to me. And I think you want to reward that with some times that are okay. That’s where it’s fun that they could die at any minute because they’re pirates, so other things can happen.

The ensemble was so strong in season one, it’s great in season two and you also have some guest stars this season. As a showrunner, do you ever get nervous that you’re going to lose the thread of the characters, that you’re not going to be able to service all of these characters with the same level of affection?

Always.

How do you balance that?

It’s tough. I think you can tell if a guest star is even (within) the script. You’re like, okay, this is a lot. And then you look at the page count. I think that was a thing with Will Arnett. We can get Will Arnett to play Calico Jack and it’s a fun, big character and it’s really easy to be, “Woo, Calico’s got a lot to do, let’s look at page count here. Let’s add a good sea story for Frenchie and Wee John, I haven’t seen them in a minute.” And I think with this show we’re blessed. We have so many muppets and everyone’s such a brilliant actor and any of these characters could have their own show. I think that the balance is always striking. Does everyone have enough to do? Does everyone have enough of a meal or even a bite in an episode and then with two fewer episodes, it’s definitely a constant struggle through this season.

You mentioned Muppets. Can you add literal Muppets?

You can always add Muppets. I would argue that Karl the Seagull is a Muppet in a way. We couldn’t use a seabird in New Zealand in season two, and so we had to figure out how to do it so all of Karl’s stuff was shot in Los Angeles. But maybe we should have made him a Muppet, that would’ve been a little easier.

As far as season three, do you have a plan in place or do you wait, take a breath, see how things are received?

Take a breath, see if this is something that Max wants to do again. They were really gracious in giving us season two and in helping us rightsize the show so that this is something that they would want to do post AT&T. Warner Discovery is being, I think, a lot more fiscally responsible. God bless AT&T and Jason Kilar for giving us the first season. But I think it’s a big show. I think for season three, if it makes sense for them and we have the fan response, we loved making it, they’re wonderful partners. I have a very strong notion of where I’d like to take that show for a third and final season. I’d love to go on this ride again. It’s a joy to make.

Without spoiling anything, does season two end in a way that if that was the last bit, that people aren’t going to light things on fire, that people will accept that as an ending? Is it satisfying or do you have to leave it open to try to push?

It was very important to me to land season two in a place where if this was it, this particular audience would feel like Ed and Stede had their due and it wasn’t just pain, but it was something that could be construed as a happy ending. And I think there’s a clear way forward for a season three, but I think if this were it, I think this could be a kind and non-upsetting and gratifying way to wrap the show up.

With Muppets.

With Muppets.

Over four years ago, the world first received news of the next Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg followup to HBO’s Band Of Brothers. A lot has gone down since then, but the pair did not forget about their audience. Not by a long shot, and Spielberg’s Amblin Television has officially joined forces with Hanks and Gary Goetzman’s Playtone for Masters Of The Air, which will be coming fairly soon to an Apple TV+ streaming device near you.

When? On January 26, 2024. That was easy.

This shall be the second such followup, more than 20 years after Band of Brothers on HBO in 2001. They later launched The Pacific in 2010, and the gang is now back together for a limited series starring post-Elvis Austin Butler and Barry Keoghan, along with Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle, Nate Mann, Ncuti Gatwa, and more. Yes, this new project is obviously based upon a true story as related in Donald L. Miller’s book, Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany.

Apple TV+’s description further promises “a true story of brotherhood and American airmen in WWII Europe,” and back in 2019, Deadline summarized the project as “the story of the American bomber boys in WWII who brought the war to Hitler’s doorstep.”

Masters of the Air will stream on January 26.

(Via Deadline & Apple TV+)

Kara Coley, a bartender at Sipps in Gulfport, Mississippi, got an unusual phone call on the job last week.

“Good evening,” Coley answered. “Thank you for calling Sipps!”

A woman on the other end of the line asked, “Is this a gay bar?”

Sipps welcomes everyone, Coley explained to her, but indeed attracts a mostly LGBTQ crowd.

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“Can I ask you a question?” the caller followed up. “Are you gay?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Coley said.

Then things got interesting.

“What was the one thing you wanted from your parents when you came out?” the woman continued.

Coley, who’s tended bar for about 17 years, was a little caught off guard. In all her years of experience fielding requests and helping others working in the service industry, she’d never received a question like that.

“My son just came out to me,” the woman continued on the other end of the line. “And I don’t want to say anything that may mess him up in the head.”

Coley thought for a moment. Then she asked the woman if she accepted her son for who he is.

The woman answered “yes.”

“You should definitely let him know that you love and accept him!” Coley said. “I think everything will be OK from there!”

The woman thanked Coley for her input and they parted ways.

Later that night, in the early hours of Jan. 19, Coley decided to post the entire interaction to her Facebook page, noting how “random” it all had been.

In the days following, her post went viral, amassing over 1,500 likes and hundreds of shares.

So I got the most random phone call at the bar tonight! 😀Me:Good evening Thankyou for calling Sipps!Lady on phone: Is…
Posted by Kara Coley on Friday, January 19, 2018

The post’s comment section soon filled with love and gratitude for Coley’s simple but endearing answer.

“My heart is truly touched by this,” one Facebook user wrote. “A parent wanting to support correctly, and a beautiful response. This is progress. This is love and acceptance in the rawest form.”

“Kara, this old granny lesbian is so grateful for you, and for a parent that thought outside the box to get advice!” another user chimed in. “Keep being you!”

“[The response] has been amazing,” Coley writes. She believes her post struck a chord with friends and strangers alike because people are looking for encouraging news: “Every day people wake up and there’s so much negativity in the world — people just need a breath of fresh air!”

For parents to an LGBTQ child, it’s still vital to understand the facts too, Coley noted: “Educate yourself [on LGBTQ issues] and do a little research.”

Ideally, parents should have access to better resources than their local gay bar when it comes to getting help with LGBTQ parenting. At the end of the day, though, the best thing you can do as a parent is make sure your kid understands you’re there through thick and thin.

“Just knowing you have someone in your corner takes a little weight off your shoulders,” Coley wrote.

Learn more about being a good ally as a parent of an LGBTQ child at PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). If you’re a young LGBTQ person who needs help, resources are available at The Trevor Project.

This article originally appeared on January 24, 2018

In every home, the laughter and dreams of children echo the loudest, filling spaces with joy and imagination. In this spirit, Max & Lily, a vibrant family-run company, was founded. For over two decades, this husband and wife team has been crafting kids’ furniture that is not only sturdy and safe but also brimming with fun and creativity. It’s not just a business; it’s a journey of crafting love and safety into every piece of furniture, making bedtime an adventurous story rather than a routine.

Imagine a household where the children are the creators, sketching dreams with their vibrant imaginations, and parents are the skilled craftsmen, bringing those vivid dreams to life with an artisan’s touch. This is the everyday reality at Max & Lily. With input from their children, this dynamic duo has brought forth furniture designs that are both incredibly fun and functional, crafting a loving balance where every piece of furniture celebrates the magical outcomes of dreaming and creating together as a family.

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Max & Lily crafts furniture with solid wood that stands sturdy and looks timeless, promising years of memories and laughter. It’s the kind of quality that lets you sit back, relax, and know that you’ve brought nothing but the best into your home.

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The Walking Dead has been taking viewers on the franchise’s first French tour with Big Ass Kicker Daryl Dixon. Norman Reedus is hopefully avoiding bed bugs (surely, you’ve heard what’s going on over there), and whaddya know, his character has joined forces with, as he calls them, “killer nuns.”

Ah yes, nuns who will — if it comes down to it — defend themselves through deadly force. Never seen that before in a horror franchise, right? I’m being ornery, but The Walking Dead chose the perfect venue to go there with the sisters of the Union Of Hope resistance. They are, obviously, much more advanced in their ability to survive than Father Gabriel when Rick Grimes stumbled upon him. To be fair, Gabriel eventually got it together, but Daryl Dixon picks up with the nuns already in fighting form. Isabelle (Clémence Poésy) is particularly industrious, and she also takes us into the earliest hours of the apocalypse in Paris. She’s not a prim and proper nun, and Daryl might be enjoying that revelation a little too much.

So, let’s be silly, too, and consider recent TV and movie nuns and rank them for sheer fun. Also, this entire list is an exercise in recency bias because badass nuns have been rising again in the streaming era. You can’t get away from them. Here are five prominent nuns ranked from least to most badass, but I wouldn’t want to run into any of them in a darkened hallway.

5. Valak From The Nun

Powers: A formidable demon and supposedly the Great President Of Hell. Can scare the pants off you by standing there and doing nothing. Can possess a human. Yells very loudly.

Execution: The issue with Valak, unfortunately, is that the chosen form of a Marilyn Manson-looking sister was what spooked audiences most. That unholy scene in The Conjuring 2 where Valak lures Lorraine Warren down a hallway and transforms from a shadow into a portrait was full of the right kind of tension. The expected jump scare never arrived, so the tension continued to build to shambolic heights with no resolution. Yet that promisingly scary beginning for Valak fell to pieces by the end of the movie because Lorraine easily defeated the demon simply by the power of saying its name. That was somehow enough to condemn this demon back to Hell.

Then The Nun movies happened, and although the first movie grossed $366 million worldwide, you can’t talk to anyone who’s seen The Nun 2 without hearing complaints about jump scares, which takes Valak into comedy territory and away from what made this demon so sinister in the first place. Valak could have been a badass contender, but The Conjuring universe dropped that demonic ball.

4. Sister Night From HBO’s Watchmen

Powers: Being a cop, obviously. She’s adept at martial arts and can run fairly fast, although not fast enough to catch the slippery Lube Man. Maybe she can walk on water now? We never received a clear answer there.

Execution: I struggled with where to place Angela Abar, a.k.a. “Sister Night.” On one hand, she is a whirling dervish in a fight, and much of her arc is shadowed in generational trauma that evokes powerful messaging. Yet on the other hand, I also have to consider that much of Sister Night’s “power” has been handed to her by the state. The show’s decision to take on both racism and police brutality was a daredevil turn that not everyone felt worked out for the best. Perhaps that’s because Damon Lindelof raised questions rather than hinting at answers, and not everyone was a fan of his approach.

In the end, I decided that it’s best not to overthink here. Angela can be inferred to have inherited some badassery from her grandfather, who was the original Hooded Justice. However, there’s the reality that the Earth-bound “heroes” of Watchmen are merely people in costumes, and in Angela’s case as with the other policemen in this show, they wear costumes to conceal their identities. Angela, who wasn’t in the Watchmen graphic novel, likely chose to wear a “nun-like” costume (with rosary-like beads hanging from her waist) because she was brought up by nuns. And yes, she is more badass than you or I, but I do have to dock points for how she failed to capture Lube Man.

3. Simone From Mrs. Davis

Powers: She is fearless and can fight. She also inexplicably survived a crossbow shot to a vital organ (from her own mother) during childhood. She’s in tight with Jesus, who does have powers to bend time and reality and make some mean falafel and all that.

Execution: Yes, we’ve got another Damon Lindelof nun, although Tara Hernandez must receive all due credit in the writing department. This terrific show grappled with some of the bigger questions that confound mankind in 2023, which is also why it hits too close to home to be a mainstream winner. This, after all, is probably not the most fantastic time for a free-wheeling parable about an algorithm to hit with the masses. And if you squint hard, there are parallels between this show and two recent box-office smash hits — Barbie and Oppenheimer — perhaps a subject for another day.

Mrs. Davis was simply too “oddball” to reach those audience numbers, but it did give us Sister Simone, who ended up being one of the most dauntless and bravest humans on Earth, if not the bravest. She can be laid back enough to get boozy with a nun portrayed by Margo Martindale but never lets go of her own fierce determination to take out the AI by destroying the Holy Grail, even possibly at the expense of her own life. The whole exploding-head phenomenon did not even deter her, nor did the “Buffalo Wild Wings” twist that showed exactly how dangerous and humanity-altering that AI can be when it manages to run amuck.

Simone, however, ends up being a riveting paradox, a woman who literally marries Christ yet accepts his adultery even though she’s clearly not happy about it. On the other hand, she also does not operate upon blind faith, nor does she subscribe to society’s vision of how a nun should behave. Simone does not need rescuing, and the show leaves open a very interesting question: have she and Cowboy Wiley actually been rendered immortal by their shared liver? It’s a question that we’ll probably never know the answer to, and for that missing information, Simone takes a hit.

2. Ava From Warrior Nun

Powers: Ava has been implanted with a powerful glowing Halo, which ideally helps her (and her fellow kickass nuns) to fight demons and settle the score between Heaven and Hell. She’s not the strongest fighter, but she is the chosen Warrior Nun.

Execution: The Halo’s powers expand upon facets of the bearer’s character, which is one reason why, once embedded, Ava was able to free herself from her human trappings and seize upon super strength and, on some level, invulnerability and ability to move through matter unabated. Unfortunately, the Halo’s power has been waning for some reasons that are not totally clear, but it’s fair to assume that Adriel is siphoning some energy, and the combination is affecting Ava’s power to sustain her powers.

Ava’s route to nun-dom was also not a typical one. She had been paralyzed in a car accident and committed suicide, and suddenly, she woke up with those Halo powers on the road to being the Warrior Nun. She also doesn’t trust the church or wish to embrace its tenets, let alone take Catholic nun vows and consider herself married to Jesus. So I suppose she is a quasi-nun, but the story takes a non-linear route to a coming-of-age story that makes Ava not only endearing but also more of a rebel than the church would prefer. However, she does have plenty of backup, especially ultra-badass Beatrice.

Additionally, Warrior Nun fans are such an enthused legion that, even though Netflix canceled this series after two seasons, a rabid campaign led to the news that a trilogy of films will be on the way. Where that will happen, no one is saying yet, but Ava and her crew will fight again.

1. Isabelle From The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon

Powers: Her powers are very earth-bound: fighting like hell, protecting Laurent, and giving Daryl a hard time for not speaking French. And in response to Daryl’s “killer nuns” quip, Isabelle insists that the Union Of Hope convent is merely capable of defending themselves. She’s not kidding.

Execution: Look, if it wasn’t for Isabelle, Daryl Dixon might no longer be alive and would be another walker stalking through France. And perhaps even more importantly, if it wasn’t for Isabelle, Daryl would have never done the unthinkable and taken a bath. That was a brave feat in and of itself.

Again, I’m arguably guilty of recency bias with this top ranking, but Isabelle happens to be one of the more compelling characters to enter into The Walking Dead universe in some time. She’s not cartoonish like many of the entrances we’ve seen on the current season of Fear The Walking Dead. She’s more layered than new Dead City characters, and Isabelle might be making “good choices” nowadays, but how she reacted to the first moments of the apocalypse set the stage for her survival instincts to kick into high gear. She quickly swept away the life of being a hardcore partier/thief and ditched Quinn when his instincts felt both inhumane and “off.”

It wasn’t long before she watched her sister turn during childbirth amid the “miracle” birth of Laurent, and Isabelle had a new purpose shocked into her. She’s devoted although not devout in her faith, and these nuns aren’t exactly sticklers for the whole “being married to God” thing. She would also be a “fun” nun to hang out with under better circumstances. That’s why I hope that Isabelle will be around for the long haul and not simply for one mission with Daryl to deliver Laurent to “the Nest.” Daryl obviously won’t make it back to The Commonwealth this year (Norman Reedus is currently shooting Season 2 in France), so hopefully, Isabelle will be back alongside his crossbow, too.

‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’ airs Sunday nights on AMC.

It’s interesting, from David Gordon Green’s perspective, it’s not like he just jumped straight from doing three Halloween movies into, now doing three Exorcist movies. For him, The Righteous Gemstones is in between and it’s more of a back and forth. But for horror fans looking at Green’s filmography, it sure does feel like he’s going straight from one classic horror franchise to the next. But it would be impossible to argue with Green’s success: his three Halloween movies combined cost around $60 million and the three movies combined grossed around half a billion. (With the second and third movies being released on streaming the same day as theaters.)

In The Exorcist: Believer, Leslie Odom Jr. plays Victor Fielding, a widower father raising a teenage daughter, Angela (Lidya Jewett), on his own. Angela and her friend, Katherine (Olivia Marcum) go into the woods one day and, three days later reappear possessed by demons (as what happens in Exorcist movies), as now everyone frantically tries to figure out how to save the two girls. A woman with some experience with possessed daughters is enlisted to help, marking Ellen Burstyn’s first return to an Exorcist movie since the original.

Ahead, Green explains why he wanted to make three Exorcist movies, what he thinks of the original sequel, Exorcist II: The Heretic (now that’s one crazy movie), and how he plans on figuring out how to tie this Exorcist movie in with the next two.

Explain to me how this happens. You just did three Halloween movies. So you and Danny McBride get together and say, “Let’s do three The Exorcist movies now?” Was it brought up that people will think you just make classic horror trilogies now, or did you not care and moved forward?

It does seem weird now when you put it like that. But we’re juggling horror movies at the same time we’re doing The Righteous Gemstones comedy series. We go back and forth. So, for us, if you’re just in our creative workshop in our office, it never feels redundant. First of all, because you finish a project, you go into a comedy, you go into a horror movie, whatever it is. But then also with this movie, it’s so different from Halloween in terms of horror. Until marketing started happening, I don’t even think I thought about it as a horror movie. The Exorcist is certainly a very unnerving, fucked up movie that affected me in my nightmares as a youth and forever, but it doesn’t feel like what I’ve at least come to know in the vernacular of genre horror movies. It doesn’t fit into that category, the original film.

The original film, yes, but I think where it does fit in is because they did make a bunch of sequels to it that once again, like Halloween, we’re ignoring? Do I have that correct?

We’re not really ignoring… I guess we are ignoring them. We’re not dismissing them. I don’t think anybody steps on anybody’s creative toes.

Where do you stand on Exorcist II: The Heretic then?

Heretic is one of the boldest, fucking craziest art films I’ve ever seen.

It is bold.

It’s certainly worth a re-watch.

It is fucking nuts.

It is absolutely bonkers. I was actually talking to Linda Blair about it yesterday. It’s so funny just hearing her stories from that set.

What did she say that you could repeat?

None of it.

Okay.

None of it, but you know what? I’ll follow up with her and make sure she puts it in her biography that she’s writing because it’s so fun.

It’s a crazy cast.

It’s so legit in so many ways, and then it just goes buck wild so I don’t know. There’s an affection I have for anybody taking bold swings and not just trying to recreate… I don’t know, I just remember seeing Revenge of the Nerds II, and being like, “You’re just making a larger, longer belching contest.”

Nerds in Paradise.

Yeah. Can’t you do something different with nerds?

I love that Anthony Edwards had just done Top Gun and I assume he didn’t want to do Revenge of the Nerds II but had to. In the movie he has a broken leg and he just calls to check in on the guys every now and then.

So good. So I’m sorry for him. He missed paradise.

He did miss paradise.

But that being an example of a movie that you’re like, you’re just making a different version of the same movie again. And I love somebody saying, “Ah, let’s shake it up and let’s do it this way.” So not that it’s a success or my favorite movie in any way, but it’s something to watch and ponder.

Is that why you put the line in that Chris MacNeil hadn’t seen Regan in so long? Because the events of Heretic could have still happened then.

One hundred percent.

Regarding Ellen Burstyn returning as Chris, this is a Jamie Lee Curtis situation where she had come back in the past for Halloween movies before yours. Ellen Burstyn hasn’t been in an Exorcist movie since the original.

Yes. It was an ingredient that I thought would be really helpful to have, some sort of grounding to the original film and not just licensing tubular bells and playing the theme song. But Jamie brought so much integrity to what we were doing on Halloween movies, and she’s a respected person in culture…

And now just won an Oscar…

Well now, yeah, but at the point when we’re making that movie, she’s a charismatic celebrity of interest and brings credibility to something that can just be a slash genre that people can roll their eyes at. And so I guess that’s what my hope was in this movie, too, is not seeing it as a traditional horror movie, but a drama in the sub-genre of possession movies. Can I try to bring some pedigree to it that would help us navigate the drama and as scary as we want to make it? And as unnerving as we want this movie to be? I think if we don’t have a real human story within the movie that’s relatable, that has history to it, I think it’s less dramatic.

So the idea of bringing her back was important to me. And then getting to know her, and talking to her about what she might be interested in, and trying to structure something that felt personal to her and appropriate for her, it was fun. It took a little bit of trust and a few tea parties at her house before she signed on. And those were extraordinary moments, too, and if it had not gone any further, I would’ve thought I’ve had a brilliant insight into one of the icons. But the fact that she trusted us and dove in with us was amazing.

So how will this trilogy fit together? Because when you start doing Halloween, we didn’t know exactly where it was going, but it’s like, well Michael Myers and Lori Strode are going to have their showdown over the next two movies. But this one seems a little more complicated, at least to me, how they will all fit together.

And we’ve got a roadmap, but also, like we did with Halloween, our first Halloween, 2018, was two-thirds of our first script. And then the success of that gave us permission to just make the second one just anarchy and go ballistic. In this one, we have a roadmap of where we go with two and three, but nothing sacred, nothing confirmed. Wherever you go, there are problems. I literally finished the movie last week…

Oh, wow.

I haven’t seen it finished yet. We finished the sound mix, I approved the credits in their own separate entity, and the music is all done. Tonight I’m watching it all for the first time. You saw the fucking completed movie before I did. So the ink is still wet on this movie in reality and, in my mind, I haven’t reread our notes from where we wanted our ambitions of the trilogy since before we started shooting.

So it’ll be really interesting. I’ll say three weeks from now, four weeks from now, after I go and take a deep breath after the release of a movie, which is where I always just disappear for those weekends and go somewhere and vacuum my brain because it’s not healthy to read reviews and box office reports and that kind of stuff. I’m going to be off in Mexico running around on some sort of weird adventure. And then I’ll come back with a clear head and I’ll watch the movie again. And before I say goodbye to it for a creative chapter, I’ll watch it one more time and say, all right, now having processed it, completed it, done the journey… And at that point we can acknowledge the realistic relationship our film will have with the world, then let’s see where we want to go. And sometimes it is making a longer, louder belching contest. But, for me, usually, it’s reinvent it, fuck it up, shake it up, do something different, or take a deep breath and do a pallet cleanser. So what becomes the priority is yet to be seen.

And that does make a lot of sense why you like Heretic so much, from everything you just said.

“Like” is a strong word.

“Admire,” is that the right word?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Great. I totally admire John Boorman. A guy at that point in his career, John Boorman made the choices he made. I salute him.

Well, that and Zardoz alone.

Yes! Oh, come on. Of course.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

It’s been a year since Better Call Saul wrapped up its chicanery, and all eyes are on creator Vince Gilligan to deliver another award-winning series, though this time, without all of the drugs and stuff. His next series will be for AppleTV+, and while details are slim we know one thing: it stars Rhea Seehorn. And that was enough for Apple to order it without knowing much else!

Gilligan told Variety that the series is heading back into production this week. Now that they are back on track, he can reveal a bit about the new show, which is a major departure from the Breaking Bad universe. Gilligan explained, “I wouldn’t call this heavy science fiction, I would call it mild science fiction. But it does have a sci-fi element to it, at its core. And there’s no crime, and no methamphetamine. It’s going to be fun and different,” he explained. Can we really have fun without crime?

The series itself is pretty under wraps at the moment, though Gilligan gave an ominous description. “The world changes very abruptly in the first episode, and then it is quite different. It’s the modern world — the world we live in — but it changes very abruptly. And the consequences that that reaps hopefully provide drama for many, many episodes after that.” Could this be an alien invasion scenario? Or perhaps a time jump?? Will Rhea Seahorn finally get to deliver an earth-shattering, Emmy award-winning monologue while destroying some aliens? Only time will tell us. Cause Gilligan sure won’t.

While he didn’t give away much info on Seehorn’s new role, Gilligan added, “Rhea will be playing a very different character than she played on Saul. The weird thing is that it takes place in Albuquerque, except it’s a whole different world. There’s no overlap that I can see. She’s playing a character who is not Kim Wexler, but hopefully people will roll with that. I’m nervous. It’ll be interesting to see how folks react to it.” However they react, it has to be better than whatever Kim had been up to in the later years. That was some bleak stuff.

(Via Variety)

Wheel of Fortune is falling apart without Vanna White.

The game show’s co-host, who recently renewed her contract through the 2025-2026 season, is off this week after she tested positive for COVID. “You’ll notice Vanna is not here, and I have to say that Ms. White has tested positive for COVID. That’s the bad news,” co-host Pat Sajak during Monday’s episode, which was taped back in August. “The good news is I talked to her just a little while ago and she feels fine. She has a little sniffle. But she tested positive and that’s the way it goes, so she will not be with us here this week.”

It’s not White’s responsibility to look out for grammar mistakes, but I still bet she would have caught this unfortunate typo.

If Wheel of Fortune was celebrating one teacher, then Teacher’s Week would be correct. But because this run of episodes is dedicated to all teachers, it should be Teachers’ Week.

(A case has been made for “Teacher’s Week” using the justification that it’s Mother’s Day, not Mothers’ Day. But that day is dedicated to a specific mother: yours. The chances are slim that you’re rooting for your seventh grade teacher on Wheel; you’re cheering for every teacher. Except for the one teacher contestant who spins the wheel too slowly. Screw them.)

The typo was noticed by TV Insider and numerous viewers, including X user @tom_sanidas, who wondered, “BTW, should it not be Teachers’ Week? Unless I’m missing the ONE teacher with a week…” Here’s a thought: maybe this is Wheel of Fortune‘s subtle way of showing why teachers are important? “Without teachers, you would make silly mistakes like this.” You won’t find me making a grammatical error, though. Never. It’s unpossible.

(Via TV Insider)

Jason Derulo has been named in a lawsuit filed by 25-year-old Emaza Gibson in Los Angeles County Superior Court, according to an NBC News report from Thursday, October 5.

The report specifies, “Gibson alleges that Derulo, 34, the ‘Whatcha Say’ singer, turned cold after she rejected his sexual advances and repeated invitations to dine and drink alcohol and that he eventually dropped her deal altogether. She accuses Derulo of quid pro quo sexual harassment.”

The lawsuit also alleges sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, a failure to remedy workplace harassment, and violation of California’s civil rights act against Derulo, his Future History imprint, and Atlantic Records.

NBC News exclusively interviewed Gibson, who said she was approached by Derulo in August 2021 to sign as a solo artist to his imprint Future History’s joint venture with Atlantic Records. Gibson recalled several instances of Derulo allegedly pressuring her to drink with him — in both professional and social environments — in late 2021 despite her telling him that she “wasn’t a drinker.”

“The suit alleges Derulo responded by telling Gibson she might have to take part in ‘goat skin and fish scales,’” NBC News relays. “Gibson told NBC News that she was aware that ‘fish scales’ referred to a strain of cocaine but that she had to look up what Derulo meant by doing ‘goat skin.’”

The report continues, “Gibson said she learned from online articles about rituals involving sex, goat sacrifices and blood that appeared to be what Derulo was talking about. […] The lawsuit states that Gibson considered Derulo’s statement an ‘explicit demand for sex-in-exchange-for-success’ that was reinforced by other behavior, such as repeated pressure to go out with him and the scheduling of late-night studio sessions.”

The lengthy report additionally notes that Gibson last saw Derulo in June 2022, when he “charged at Gibson in front of her mother, [his] own staff, a videographer, and Gibson’s engineer,” which came after Derulo was allegedly neglecting to support Gibson with proper guidance and resources for her music and thus complicating her ability to meet her contract demands.

According to the lawsuit cited by NBC News, Gibson was dropped by Atlantic and Future History in September 2022. Gibson and her mother, Sandra Bales, stated that their attempts to contact Atlantic’s human resources department regarding Derulo’s “sexually, emotionally and physically inappropriate behavior” went unacknowledged.

NBC News had requested comment from representatives for Derulo and Altantic Records, but neither party responded by the time of this writing. Frank Harris, Derulo’s manager, is also a defendant in Gibson’s lawsuit.

Jason Derulo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.