Category: News

If you haven’t seen The Woman King yet…. get up off your a** and see the stunning historical epic from director Gina Prince-Blythewood (Love & Basketball, Beyond the Lights) in theaters. If you want to wait until you can watch it at home, fine: we are living in weird times that appear to be unending. The Woman King hit theaters on September 16, and it stars Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch, Thuso Mbedu, and John Boyega.

Here’s the film’s synopsis, from Sony Pictures:

In the 1800s, a group of all-female warriors protects the African kingdom of Dahomey with skills and fierceness unlike anything the world has ever seen. Faced with a new threat, Gen. Nanisca trains the next generation of recruits to fight against a foreign enemy that’s determined to destroy their way of life.

So, when is The Woman King streaming?

Okay, sorry, enough meandering. Time to get to it! First, The Woman King will be available to purchase digitally from Apple and Amazon on November 22. It will be available on DVD and Blu-Ray on December 13, and a short time after that, it will be available to rent digitally for a much lower price than it is to purchase. Streaming options for The Woman King aren’t available yet (at least publicly), which is a pretty rare occurrence in 2022. That’s because the film was distributed by Sony, the only major film studio that does not have its own streaming platform (yet). The Woman King could come to Netflix or Amazon Prime, but it probably won’t be available on any streaming service until several months after it’s been available to purchase or rent at home. Although nothing is definitive, it is safe to say that one day, somehow, you will be able to stream The Woman King somewhere.

Let’s get this out of the way quickly: Jon Bernthal is absolutely not playing Aaron Hernandez in a limited series for Netflix.

People have once again fallen for completely fake entertainment news on Twitter dot com. You’d think that the time a film Twitter news parody account said that Succession’s Jeremy Strong was cast as Stuart Little would get people to be a little more careful about what they believe, but it did not.

Earlier this week, the DiscussingFilm parody account DisbussingFilm tweeted, “Following the success of ‘DAHMER’, Netflix is producing an Aaron Hernandez limited series with Jon Bernthal in the leading role.” The tweet included a photo of Bernthal alongside a photo of Hernandez, which is emblematic of the DiscussingFilm format.

Netflix’s DAHMER is one of the streamer’s most popular series of all time, but it has received backlash for making profit out of tragedy rather than respecting the victims, which has spurred conversation over what true crime stories are appropriate for adaptation. Hernandez played football for the New England Patriots for three seasons. His career ended after his arrest for the murder of his friend Odin Lloyd in 2013. He was found guilty in 2015. Hernandez died by suicide in prison in 2017.

Here’s the tweet:

Following the success of ‘DAHMER’, Netflix is producing an Aaron Hernandez limited series with Jon Bernthal in the leading role.

(Source: Netflix) pic.twitter.com/gZZAdJhxDq

— DisbussingFilm (@DisbussingFilm) October 25, 2022

The tweet had many people fooled: so much so that fake news went viral, and Jon Bernthal became a trending topic on Twitter, according to The Spun.

The Los Angeles Lakers could be doing a lot better at the start of the 2022-23 NBA season. After losing to the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night, the team fell to 0-4 on the year, and find themselves as one of three teams in the league that have yet to win a game at this early point in the calendar.

While LeBron James and Anthony Davis have done about what you’d expect and the defense has been one of the stingiest in the NBA, Los Angeles’ total lack of shooting has been a gigantic problem. This includes James (25.7 percent from three) and especially Davis (18.2 percent), but as a team, the Lakers are at a hair over 22.3 percent on the season.

All of this has led to the return of one of basketball’s most well-known phenomenons: LeBron posting stuff on social media that can very easily be read as a cryptic message. James posted a video of himself dunking during the game against Denver with a simple caption, “How long will you be taken for granted…..”

In the aftermath of the Lakers’ first loss of the season, ESPN reporter Brian Windhorst did a detailed breakdown of a subtle move James made in his postgame press conference that led him to believe James is trying to get a point across about how things are going in L.A. This latest post by James will only fuel the belief that he’s working to make sure the Lakers’ brass won’t just let another season of his go to waste.

They said they’ll be famous 5eva, not on Peacock 5eva. The Peacock comedy Girls5Eva is moving over to Netflix for its third season, Netflix announced in a press release on Thursday. You might have to pay extra to share your account soon, but at least the money is going toward saving one of the best comedies on TV right now, right?

The comedy series, from creator/showrunner Meredith Scardino and executive producer Tina Fey, follows the reunited members of a popular girl band from the late 90s/early 2000s as they manage their reunion and adulthood. Netflix will be the exclusive home for the third season and the streamer has also acquired streaming rights to the first and second seasons of Emmy-nominated comedy. The series stars Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Paula Pell, and  Busy Philipps.

“Our deepest thanks to Peacock for bringing Girls5eva to life and supporting us creatively at every turn since the first pitch,” executive producers Meredith Scardino, Tina Fey, Jeff Richmond & Robert Carlock said in a joint statement. “And we are endlessly grateful to our partners at NBCU for their boundless commitment. Today, we are thrilled to announce that our reunited girl group will be re-reunited at Netflix. We are so thankful to everyone at the streamer who fell in love with our music-filled comedy. We cannot wait to introduce Dawn, Wickie, Summer, and Gloria to the global Netflix audience. Well, not fully introduce, if you look closely, Girls5eva can be seen in the background of the Woodstock ’99 documentary setting a porta potty on fire.”

Fey and Carlock have worked with Netflix before on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, a comedy series they co-created.

If you haven’t seen Barbarian yet, you should head over to HBO Max to watch it right now and come back in roughly 94 minutes. If you have, then congrats! And sorry, because it was pretty rough (in a fun way).

You may or may not recall one of the most disturbing scenes in the film where Justin Long’s jerk character is being breastfed by a human/monster hybrid that has lived in a basement since Reagan’s America. Or maybe you looked away during that scene because that’s also a very reasonable thing to do.

Director Zach Cregger recently told Yahoo! that there was an even darker scene in the script that he had originally taken out because he was afraid that Long would not want to be a part of the project. The scene involved the Mother being force-fed a dead rat, which isn’t that far-fetched from the actual plot of the movie.

Cregger explained, “I was like, ‘When he gets to Bulgaria, I will see if I can talk him into it. And so I very delicately tried to broach it. … And he was like, ‘We have to do that. We have to do that.’” This isn’t surprising considering that Long once played a podcaster who painstakingly transforms into a walrus. He’s into that stuff!

Long eventually did film the scene, but it ended up being cut. “Zach cut that out,” Long told Vulture earlier this year. “He felt like it was a bridge too far, gross-wise.” It would have been gross, yes, but is it really out of character for the basement monster who watches home-birthing VHS tapes? Probably not.

Barbarian is now streaming on HBO Max.

(Via ScreenRant)

Ahead of his upcoming album, What Had Happened Was, DRAM has released another new track, “Ppl” featuring BJ The Chicago Kid.

The Virginia crooner is set to drop the 19-track album on November 10. Last month, he released two more tracks off the upcoming project, including “Let Me See Your Phone” and “Wham.”

DRAM calls this his most “raw and open album yet.” He said What Had Happened Was takes fans on a journey as he reflects on his life and treks through his “personal traumas.”

The singer has been doing quite a bit of reflecting lately. Last year, DRAM decided to change his moniker to Shelley FKA DRAM. The name change was meant to acknowledge his birth name and speaks to the self-reflection process of creating his album of the same name, but this year, he changed it back.

What Had Happened Was is set to drop on 11/10 via Waver Records. You can pre-save it here.

You can check the new song, “Ppl,” above and see the tracklist for DRAM’s upcoming album below.

1. “Vibe of the Year”
2. “Ride Or Die”
3. “Wham”
4. “3s Company”
5. “Let Me See Your Phone”
6. “Where’s My Sunshine”
7. “Best That I Got”
8. “Can’t Hold You Down”
9. “Bad News”
10. “Angry”
11. “A Mother’s Love”
12. “Note To Self”
13. “Soul to Take”
14. “Big Baby DRAM”
15. “Ppl”
16. “Reflections”
17. “First Time Again”
18. “Wwyd”
19. “Wham (Remix)”

John Carpenter hasn’t directed a movie in 12 years, but even if he never steps behind the camera again, his legacy is secure as one of the most influential directors of the 20th century. In a 20-year span, he directed multiple horror movie classics, including Halloween, The Fog, The Thing, Christine, Prince of Darkness, and In the Mouth of Madness, as well as the still-relevant satire They Live, the wildly fun Big Trouble in Little China, and Escape from New York, starring Kurt Russell at his hottest. Hot take: pretty good filmography.

What has Carpenter been up to lately, besides making music and executive producing the recent Halloween films? When asked by Vulture what a typical day for the Horror Master looks like, he replied, “Day-to-day looks like preseason NBA and video games.”

If you direct Halloween, you get to spend your 70s playing PS5, too.

“I started with Sonic the Hedgehog,” Carpenter said. “I love that game. It was very hard. In the old days, they didn’t put save points in the right place. I evolved through the years. Let’s see: Horizon Forbidden West. Fallout ’76, I really like. Crash Bandicoot.”

Carpenter doesn’t need to make another movie. But if he wants to, Kurt Russell in Crash Bandicoot: The Movie is right there.

(Via Vulture)

Henry Cavill is having a bit of a moment. The Man of Steel star has confirmed that he’s officially back as Superman following an appearance in Black Adam, and now, he’s revealing just how close he was to being cast as James Bond after Pierce Brosnan exited the role in the early 2000s.

Cavill has opened up before about auditioning for Bond. Specifically, how Casino Royale director Martin Campbell called him “chubby.” However, what Cavill has never shared is that he actually made it pretty far in the audition process. According to The Witcher star, the decision was down to him and Daniel Craig, and Cavill has no doubt that the producers made the right call.

Here’s what he told Josh Horowitz during a live taping of the Happy Sad Confused podcast. Via Comic Book:

“They told me I was close. They told me it was ultimately down to, and this is what I’ve been told, it was just down to me and Daniel (Craig), and I was the younger option,” the Man of Steel star said. “They obviously went with Daniel and I think it was an amazing choice to go with Daniel. I probably wasn’t ready at the time. I think Daniel did an incredible job over the past movies, so I’m happy they made that choice. It was a fun adventure at the time, and definitely gave a boost to my career. That was the key element of it. I was getting a lot of auditions, which I went to, which went really, really well.”

Of course, the big question is could Cavill get another crack at Bond? Between The Witcher and getting another crack at Superman, his schedule’s about to become very full. There’s also talk of the Bond producers going a younger route, which ironically, would make the older option this time around. Then again, that worked out pretty well for Craig, so (yup, we’re going for it) never say never.

(Via Comic Book)

Casey Affleck is very proud of his work in Good Will Hunting, it seems. So much so that defending its honor is apparently worth taking issue an innocent employee at a Boston shop. According to TikTokker @JillyBees, who has since gone private on the social media app, the Affleck brother, who won an Oscar for his performance in Manchester by the Sea, thinks he should be credited for the phrase “wicked smart.”

“So the context for this is I work in a Boston tourist trap and we have these ‘wicked smart’ tees,” @JillyBees says at the beginning of her video, per Distractify. The TikTokker then describes the alleged incident. While working one day at a Boston “tourist trap,” a woman approached her and asked where the “wicket smart” T-shirts on sale originated. The employee said that it was just a joke about Boston accents and how Bostonians use the word wicked.

The woman’s boyfriend was unhappy with the answer. “No, I said it in a movie,” he allegedly said. When the woman with him said “Casey, stop,” to him, @JillyBees realized that the man was the actor Casey Affleck.

In Good Will Hunting, co-written by his brother Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Casey Affleck’s character says the phrase “my boy’s wicked smart,” in a heavy Boston accent at a bar. He’s referring to Damon’s character, Will Hunting, who is very smart. Various comments on the TikTok video suggested that the phrase “wicked smart” existed before Affleck said it in the film, including one user who recalls hearing it in “old SNL skits.”

“He was clearly very upset that we did not know who he was,” @JillyBees said toward the end of the video. Since sharing the encounter, @JillyBees has gone private on TikTok.

(Via Distractify)

Rishi Sunak made history on Tuesday, October 25 by becoming the first Asian and Hindu prime minister in the history of the United Kingdom. His appointment is seen by many in the U.K. as an important step toward representation in a country that is 7.5% Asian.

Sunak’s grandparents migrated to the U.K. in the 1960s from India and his maternal grandmother was born in Africa.

However, this issue is a little more complicated from an American perspective where people of Indian descent are rarely referred to as Asian. We reserve the label for people of the Far East such as Japan, China, Vietnam and Korea.

To complicate things further, if you go by what the U.S. government has to say, Asian refers to people “having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.”

Things get a little vaguer when you consider the different ways people divide one another by race and ethnicity throughout the world. For example, even the term “American” is up for debate worldwide. We consider ourselves American in the United States, but in Latin America, an American is someone from Latin America.

Comedian Ronny Chieng had some fun with the nuanced topic of racial classifications on “The Daily Show” in a bit called “Don’t call Rishi Sunak the U.K.’s first Asian PM in front of Ronny Chieng.” Chieng was born in Malaysia.

In the bit, he made fun of how the term Asian means something different throughout the world. “Indians are not Asians. I love how Indians try to have it both ways, like being Indian and Asian. Pick a lane, OK,” Chieng joked.

u201cDon’t call Rishi Sunak the UK’s first Asian PM in front of @ronnychiengu201d

— The Daily Show (@The Daily Show)
1666710180

The bit was funny because Chieng’s mock rage pokes fun at how we can be adamant about our identities even though, in many ways, they’re rather arbitrary. It’s all just lines on a map. Further, the concept of Asia wasn’t even created by Asians themselves, it was foisted on them by the Greeks.

Some folks thought Chieng’s jokes were spot-on.

The concept of groupings like ‘Asians’, are from a European worldview, an oversimplification for diverse populations. Funny, but Ronnie brings up an important point. Also, when British say Asian, they usually refer to Indian, differentiating Far Eastern.

— Anti-disinformant (@OioioiNiTwit) October 26, 2022

In the UK, when people say “ASIAN” they’re most often referring to people of South Asian descent. Whereas in the US, “ASIAN” refers to people of East Asian descent. It’s a cultural/semantic difference.

— Oscar (@NTPOscar) October 25, 2022

In UK Indians are labeled Asian. In the US not so much

— skfzzzzz (@skfphoenix2) October 25, 2022

India could be itself a continent along with neighbours

— Ravi Sharma 🛡 (@QuoraWithRavi1) October 25, 2022

More of a map thing to be honest pic.twitter.com/ifHEnbEjep

— Rob Pattenden 🔶 (@PolRobuk) October 27, 2022

But not everyone agreed on whether the joke was accurate or funny and the piece received a lot of serious responses. Such is the way of Twitter, if you make a joke, you get serious responses. If you say something serious, you get jokes.

Why do East Asians get to appropriate the name of the entire continent? Turkey and Iran are in Asia as well as Russia not to mention a whole list of others.

— troypwr (@troypwr1) October 25, 2022

Indians are Asians in terms of race and not ethnic background.

— RanjuSAM (@RanjuSAM1) October 25, 2022

That is shocking levels of racism. I am actually appalled. What! How is this acceptable.

— Antisentiment (@Antisentiment_) October 25, 2022

Also, it was a joke, meaning, he wasn’t being serious.

It’s a joke…chil

— Mira Das (@Mira_Dash07) October 25, 2022

The amount of people taking this at face value is legit embarrassing…

— Christopher Rennie (@TheRennDogg) October 27, 2022

The amount of people taking this at face value is legit embarrassing…

— Christopher Rennie (@TheRennDogg) October 27, 2022

In the end, what’s important is that the U.K. government and its people have progressed to the point where it has appointed the first person of color to represent their entire country. That’s a big step toward the ultimate goal of living in a world where people are judged by their abilities rather than the color of their skin.

This point got a bit lost in the discussion surrounding Chieng’s joke, where he made fun of the fact that people are so keen to define one another by race, they lose sight of what matters.