Category: News

RZA has filed a lawsuit against multiple e-commerce stores that he claims illegally sold products with the Wu-Tang Clan logo on them. In documents obtained by Complex, the rapper is suing the alleged bootleggers for trademark infringement, counterfeiting, and false designation of origin. It’s also believed that the stores, who are seemingly running their business from China, used the rap group’s brand to convince buyers that they were selling authentic Wu-Tang Clan merchandise.

“Many defendants also deceive unknowing consumers by using the Wu-Tang Clan Trademarks without authorization within the content, text, and/or meta tags of their e-commerce stores to attract various search engines crawling the Internet looking for e-commerce stores relevant to consumer searches for Wu-Tang Clan products,” the documents read. “Other e-commerce stores operating under the Seller Aliases omit using the Wu-Tang Clan Trademarks in the item title to evade enforcement efforts while using strategic item titles and descriptions that will trigger their listings when consumers are searching for Wu-Tang Clan products.”

RZA wants to block the stores from selling the inauthentic merchandise in the future. He is seeking $2 million for the use of Wu-Tang trademarks, or all profits and damages for trademark infringement. He also wants to ask companies like Amazon, eBay, and AliExpress to stop promoting these products.

The lawsuit comes after RZA teamed up for Flatbush Zombies for a pair of tracks: “Quentin Tarantino” and “Plug Addicts.”

Over the weekend, Evan Rachel Wood appeared in the new documentary Phoenix Rising at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. In the film, she claimed her ex-partner Marilyn Manson “essentially raped” her during a music video shoot. The experience, she said, was “traumatizing” and added that even the crew at the shoot was “uncomfortable.” Last spring, Wood accused Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, of “grooming” and “horrifically abusing” her during their relationship. She also said she was “brainwashed and manipulated into submission.”

Days after the premiere, Manson’s lawyer, Howard King, released a statement that refuted Wood’s claims.

“Of all the false claims that Evan Rachel Wood has made about Brian Warner, her imaginative retelling of the making of the ‘Heart-Shaped Glasses’ music video 15 years ago is the most brazen and easiest to disprove, because there were multiple witnesses,” King wrote in the statement, which was obtained by Spin. “Evan was not only fully coherent and engaged during the three-day shoot but also heavily involved in weeks of pre-production planning and days of post-production editing of the final cut. The simulated sex scene took several hours to shoot with multiple takes using different angles and several long breaks in between camera setups.”

In conclusion, King wrote, “Brian did not have sex with Evan on that set, and she knows that is the truth.”

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the 1999 film Fight Club.

When it came out almost a quarter century ago, Fight Club was — and very much still is — one of the most radical and politically charged movies ever released by a major Hollywood studio. It turned one of the biggest dreamboats, Brad Pitt, into an anti-capitalist cheerleader who advocated dropping out of society, destroying property, and slipping lone frames of hardcore pornography into animated family fare. (He also forms an all-incel terrorist organization that now seems like a precursor to the Proud Boys, lest you forget.) It even enraged Rosie O’Donnell.

In any case, it took some 23 years for one nation to realize it was too subversive for the masses. According to Variety, Tencent Video, the largest streamer in China, recently released a new version of the film, which now has a new and “happier” ending. In the 1999 original, Edward Norton’s protagonist thwarts terrorist leader Tyler Durden (Pitt), who it turns out is really his alter ego. Newly cured, he holds hands with lady friend Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) as the bombs Tyler and team planted go off anyway, destroying buildings that had been evacuated of people, all while wiping out the nation’s credit card information.

Well, no more, at least not in China! Their version ends before the buildings explode, cutting instead to a title card explaining that Durden, who again it’s revealed is actually Norton, gets busted.

“The police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding,” reads the new card. “After the trial, Tyler was sent to lunatic asylum [sic] receiving psychological treatment. He was discharged from the hospital in 2012.”

Well, at least Tyler Durden has back amongst us for a good decade.

It’s not clear exactly how this new ending came about, but China’s censors are famously vigilant, removing anything that could disturb social order, celebrate criminal behavior or, well, show people of the same gender kissing. (They also do things like add scenes to Marvel movies in which characters praise Chinese scientists.)

At least audiences in China can finally see Fight Club. When it was first released in 1999, Pitt’s movies were still banned because he starred in 1997’s Seven Years in Tibet, which showed the Dalai Lama before China’s invasion of his nation. The nation’s ban on Pitt films lasted all the way up to Allied, in 2016.

When news of the censored ending hit the news, some people naturally made Poochie jokes.

In the meantime, you can watch Fight Club on Amazon Prime. And you can see the original version of that ending below.

(Via Variety)

Which director created the modern superhero movie? You could say Jon Favreau, who helmed the original Iron Man, the one that birthed what became the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You could go all the way back to 1978’s Superman: The Movie, the first blockbuster to take superheroes seriously, and say it’s the late Richard Donner. You could also say Sam Raimi, whose 2002 movie Spider-Man revamped the genre after the fall of the Batman franchise in the late ’90s.

Jump two decades and Raimi is in an unusual situation. Not only has the comic book movie he’s now helming undergone “significant” reshoots, but even he — Sam Raimi, the director of said movie — isn’t sure if it’s done filming. That film is Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, the long-awaited solo sequel for a character who also plays a major role in the new, money-gobbling Spider-Man: No Way Home. Raimi chatted with Variety (in a bit teased out by The AV Club) about, among other things, the status of that project. And, well, maybe someone else knows.

“I wish I knew the answer to that question,” Raimi replied when asked if they’d wrapped filming. It’s not as earth-shattering as that may sound. Marvel movies have simply become, well, bigger than the people credited with directing them, some of whom aren’t even allowed to direct their own action scenes. Raimi explained:

“I think we’re done, but we just cut everything. We’re just starting to test the picture and we’ll find out if there’s anything that’s got to be picked up. If something’s unclear or another improvement I can make in this short amount of time left, I’ll do it. One thing I know about the Marvel team is they won’t stop. They’ll keep pushing it until it’s as close to being great as it could.”

Mind you, Raimi’s not complaining. He says Marvel is a “great team to work with” and that he’s been “super-supported” by everyone, including honcho Kevin Feige. There is one thing, though: It is slated to hit theaters pretty soon, on May 6 of this year. But Hollywood is a place of magic, and if Ridley Scott could film Christopher Plummer’s scenes for All the Money in the World about a month before it hit theaters nationwide, Marvel can still film some new stuff for Doctor Strange 2 with a whopping four months until release day.

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness hits theaters on May 6.

(Via Variety and The AV Club)

It’s been a couple of years since Yo Gotti released a solo album, namely 2020’s Untrapped. Not that the Memphis native has been unproductive. He’s been running one of today’s most successful hip-hop labels: Collective Music Group, home to popular hip-hop artists like Moneybagg Yo, EST Gee, 42 Dugg, Blac Youngsta, and more. Now in 2022, Gotti is ready to release some new music.

In a teaser shared on his Instagram page on Tuesday, Gotti revealed that his tenth album, CM10, will drop on February 4. “I’m gone Finish This SH!T just how I started!!!” Gotti wrote in the caption. “Wit No Regrets, Standing on Business & Principles. Motivating All Hustlers, knowing we took da Highest Risk for a Better Outcome. To the Streets, Plugs, Fans & Consumers. I’m FOREVER GRATEFUL.”

Gotti previously announced that CM10 would be released on November 26, but prior to that date, which was shortly after the death of Young Dolph, the rapper decided to push the album back. CM10 was originally billed as a double-disc and it remains to be seen if Gotti will still release it in that format.

You can view Yo Gotti’s post announcing CM10 above.

42 Dugg is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Green Bay Packers saw their season come to an end this past weekend as the team fell to the San Francisco 49ers in the playoffs. Despite the fact that the Niner offense didn’t get much going, their defense was able to keep them in the game and their special teams carried them home, and as a result, San Francisco will play for the chance to go to the Super Bowl on Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams.

As for the Packers, the loss is a disappointing cap on a season that had a whole lot of promise. Green Bay was sensational during the regular season, but the Packers will now head into a potentially franchise-changing offseason, as there is a whole lot of speculation that this could be the end of the road for star quarterback Aaron Rodgers. While it’s unclear if he’d retire or join a new team, the possibility exists that Rodgers will not play for the team next season.

Rodgers went onto Pat McAfee’s radio show on Tuesday to talk about, well, a lot of stuff. In the midst of that interview, Rodgers expressed that he believes people were tuning into games with the hopes that he’d lose, all because of his well-documented status as a person who is not vaccinated against COVID-19.

“There were a ton of people tuning in, rooting against us, for one reason and one reason only,” Rodgers said. “It’s because of my vaccination status, and them wanting to see us lose so they could pile on and enjoy and revel in the fact that my vaccination status was some sort of reason why we haven’t had success in the playoffs.”

Unlike most things he has said about COVID on McAfee’s radio show, this might be true!

Gucci Mane and Lil Durk have been quite productive over the past year. Gucci released his fifteenth album, Ice Daddy, last year, feautring appearances from Pooh Shiesty, Lil Baby, Lil Uzi Vert, 2 Chainz, Young Dolph, and more. He also released two compilation albums with his 1017 Global Music imprint: So Icy Boyz and So Icy Christmas. As for Lil Durk, he dropped a deluxe version of The Voice to start 2021 before returning months later with Voice Of The Heroes, his joint album with Lil Baby. Now, to kick off their 2022 years, Gucci and Durk unite for “Rumors.”

It’s the rappers’ first collaboration in almost eight years and it’s a laser-focused effort that sees both rappers brushing off rumors they’ve heard about themselves. They also issue some warnings for their peers. “In this industry, ain’t what it seem, this sh*t be counterfeit,” Durk raps before Gucci steps in and adds, “Watch the sh*t you say, the feds be listening to the music / And they gon’ take your lyrics and build a case and try to use it.” They also released a music video.

“Rumors” arrives after Durk released the full dates for his upcoming 7220 Tour. Gucci Mane, on the other hand, recently honored the late Young Dolph with a somber music video for “Long Live Dolph.”

You can watch the video for “Rumors” above.

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

Believe it or not, it’s already time to start booking your summer 2022 National Park travel. Why so soon? Because over the past two years, National Parks have absolutely boomed — with many parks experiencing record visitation.

To accommodate demand and prevent over-tourism, there’s been a move towards more reservation and permitting systems at some of the heavily impacted parks. While some call this the end of spontaneity, as a frequent National Park traveler, I can tell you that the hassle on the front end is usually worth it. Reservations and permits lead to fewers crowds and frustrations, just what you want on a summer trip.

Here’s exactly what you need to do to start planning your next trip today.

Arches National Park – Utah

This is the pilot year for timed entry tickets at Arches National Park. As a frequent visitor to Moab, where the park is located, I understand why. Arches is one of the smaller National Parks by land size at 76,518 acres, but has become significantly more congested over the past few years – always landing in the top 20 most visited parks.

In an attempt to make the experience more enjoyable, you’ll now have to secure a timed entry permit before arrival.

How It Works:

If you’re visiting from April 3 – October 3 you’ll need a timed entry permit. For a $2 processing fee, permits are available three months in advance on a first-come, first-serve basis. Timed entry passes are already available for April, with the next release date of February 1 for permits for May visits. They become available at 8am MST on the release dates here.

What if I Don’t Get a Reservation?

Tickets are only necessary until 5pm – so spend the day at the nearby Canyonlands National Park or Dead Horse State Park until after that time.

Rocky Mountain National Park – Colorado

Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colorado started requiring timed entry tickets during the high visitation season last year. This year the park is continuing the program — which will operate very similarly to last year.

How It Works:

There are two timed entry ticket options for entering the park between May 27 and October 10 of this year. The first option is full park access that includes Bear Lake Road – which gets you to some of the park’s most popular and epic hiking trails. You’ll need a reservation between the hours of 5am to 6pm.

The other option is park access without Bear Lake Road – which still includes a huge amount of space to explore. These reservations are needed to be in the park between 9am and 3pm. Permits are released monthly for the following month starting on May 2 at 10am MST for May 27 – June 30, then continuing thereafter. Initially, 25-30% of the permits will be held back from reservations to be released at 5pm for the next day.

Permits can be reserved here.

What if I Don’t Get a Reservation?

It’s a little simpler to visit Rocky Mountain without a reservation, as you can access the park after 3pm and then Bear Lake Road after 6pm.

Glacier National Park – Montana

Last year the hottest National Park Reservation to score was undoubtedly for the Going to the Sun Road at Glacier National Park in Montana. This year, the park is banking on the same enthusiasm and crowds, and is continuing it’s reservation system for the road and also a new area of the park.

How It Works:

From May 27 to September 11 vehicles will once again need a permit to access Going To The Sun Road. If you’ve never visited Glacier it may not seem like a big deal not to have access to just one road, but the thing is, almost every gorgeous vista, trail, or lake you have seen on Instagram is accessed through that road.

This year, Glacier is also instituting a reservation permit system for the North Folk Area that is accessed through the Polebridge Ranger Station.

Tickets will be available here by early March – costing $2 for processing and valid for just three days for Going to The Sun Road and just one day for North Folk (changed from seven last year). Each area of the park will require their own permit for entry.

What if I Don’t Get a Reservation?

You can still drive the road after 5pm without a ticket. Not a great solution for someone hoping to hike, but definitely still a great way to watch some epic sunsets.

Yosemite National Park – California

Yosemite is a crown jewel of the National Park system, and it’s no surprise the valley has experienced overcrowding for years. Despite that, there is still no official word on permitting or reservations to simply enter the park this summer (yet). For now, there are only reservations required to hike Half Dome and to camp in any campground or the backcountry.

How It Works:

Permits are required to hike the iconic Half Dome whenever the cables are up – which is traditionally the Friday before the last Monday in May through the second Monday in October. Only up to 300 hikers are allowed past the base of the subdome each day, so securing a permit in advance is crucial.

There is a one day hiker lottery that will take place in March, with 225 permits being issued each day.

What if I Don’t Get a Reservation?

There are daily lotteries for permits the next day that can be secured here during the season.

Acadia National Park – Maine

Acadia National Park has long been a favorite for summer road trippers. Less than a day’s drive from NYC and Boston, it is accessible for huge parts of the United States population. It is also just 65 square miles. So it can, and does, get very crowded.

Due to this, Acadia has had a reservation system for just one popular part of the park the past couple of years – Cadillac Mountain Road.

How It Works:

If you want to drive to the summit of Cadillac Mountain between May 25 and October 22 you will need to secure a permit in advance. Thirty percent of the permits are released 90 days ahead of time and the other seventy percent are made available at 10am EST two days before they are valid.

Tickets are $6 and can be reserved here.

What if I Don’t Get a Reservation?

You can still hike to the summit of Cadillac Mountain to catch one of the first sunrises in the US (the first sunrise can be seen between October 7 – March 6) or the most beautiful sunset you’ve ever seen. The hike is just 2.2 miles each way and rated as moderate.

Zion National Park – Utah

Zion, like many National Parks, has become increasingly popular over the past few years. It’s impressive rock formations draw visitors from all over the world, and many of them are interested in one particular hike – Angel’s Landing. The hike is just 2.4 miles each way, but up a 1,488 ft rock formation with an extreme amount of exposure (and views). It’s become a social media sensation and bucket list item for many travelers.

How It Works:
If you want to hike the iconic trail after April 1 you will need a permit to do so. The seasonal lottery for April 1 – May 31 is already closed, but you have plenty of time to get into the June 1 through August 31 lottery that runs from April 1-20.

The permits are non-transferable and will cost you $6 to apply.

What if I Don’t Get a Reservation?

There are also permits available the day before they are valid. These open each day after March 31 at 12:01am until 3pm MST. The permits that are granted are then issued at 4pm that day via email and a $3 charge.

On Monday, comments Peter Dinklage made about one of Disney’s next live-action remakes — of the company’s first feature-length animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs — went viral. What did he say? Well, he didn’t much care for how they were giving the hero a progressive face-lift, casting Latinx actress Rachel Zegler (West Side Story), but, he presumed, not doing the same for the septet of gentlemen who come to her aid. Dinklage’s comments prompted a response from Disney, who hoped to reassure people that, no, that’s not what they’re doing.

On a recent episode of Marc Maron’s podcast WTF, Dinklage railed against the Snow White reboot. “Literally no offense to anyone, but I was a little taken aback when they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White — but you’re still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” he said. “You’re progressive in one way, but then you’re still making that f*cking backward story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together? What the f*ck are you doing, man? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I’m not loud enough.”

In a statement provided to The Hollywood Reporter, a Disney spokesperson revealed that actually they are trying to do something new with the seven dwarf characters.

“To avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community,” the statement read. “We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period.”

Disney did not reveal exactly what they’ll be doing with those seven characters, but they are reportedly working with cultural consultants, as they did on their redos of Aladdin and Mulan, which avoided casting Caucasian actors in roles meant for Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian characters, respectively.

(Via THR)

When You Finish Saving the World, Jesse Eisenberg’s directorial debut, follows an obnoxious do-gooder mom (Julieanne Moore) and her obnoxious vlogger son (Finn Wolfhard) who are both mostly unpleasant in an almost-funny way that doesn’t quite rise to the level of comedy or satire. A24 is distributing the film but hasn’t yet set a date for the wider release.

Moore plays Evelyn, a gentle Earth mother but a dark cloud in the break room, who often seems like the fun police, both at the battered women’s shelter she runs and at home, where she answers the requisite questions from her husband (Jay O. Sanders) about how her day went with a litany of other people’s problems appropriated as her own. Her son Ziggy (Wolfhard), is a sort of proto-Justin Bieber, prone to telling everyone how many followers he has on HiHat, a fictional site where he gets paid for live-streaming his Ben Kweller-ish folk-rock (with music by Emile Mosseri). The rub is that they’re both narcissists, who don’t take each other for granted so much as barely see each other to begin with.

Evelyn eventually meets Kyle (Billy Bryk), the teen son of a woman staying at her shelter, who seems respectful and engaged in exactly the ways that her son isn’t. Soon Evelyn makes Kyle her project, lavishing the kind of attention on him that she withholds from Ziggy, taking him out to Ethiopian food and trying to get him a scholarship to Oberlin. Kyle doesn’t actually want any of these things, obviously, and Ziggy is in any case preoccupied with Lila (Alisha Boe), a deadly earnest social justice girl who reads poems about the Marshall Islands at the local open mic for obnoxious art youths.

The Kyle and Lila storylines never converge with the Ziggy/Evelyn story, which is fine, I guess. The bigger problem is that while Evelyn and Ziggy are both unlikable in believable enough ways, they’re never quite deliciously unlikable, compellingly unlikable. Their mutual shittiness (and Lila’s as well) don’t quite land as jokes, and aren’t really explored enough to work as satire. It’s hard to figure out what exactly Eisenberg wants to say about these ostentatious characters. The music is probably the strongest element, nicely riding the line between gratingly cloying and genuinely catchy.

To his credit, Wolfhard is much more effective here than he was in the most recent Ghostbusters movie, maybe because Ziggy’s obnoxious is more intentional. Moore is solid as always, but oddly enough, the most interesting character in the film is a kid who dresses like an Irish day laborer from 1925 and sings pro-union folk songs, who we see only in passing at Lila’s open mic. Who is that guy? What’s his deal? Where everyone else is playing a slightly different flavor of shitlib caricature, the mini Woody Guthrie at least feels like a bit of a wild card.

To its credit, When You Finish Saving The World is only 85 minutes long, so even if it doesn’t exactly set the world on fire at least it doesn’t overstay its welcome. There was maybe something here but it feels a little undercooked.

‘When You Finish Saving The World’ is currently playing the Sundance Film Festival. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.