As recently reported, Tom Cruise is indeed going to win his unofficial space race with the Fast and Furious franchise to film a movie in the great beyond (or, at least, the very edge of the great beyond). The initial news revealed that Cruise would be teaming up with SpaceX CEO (and giver of strange baby names) Elon Musk to make the first narrative feature that actually films in outer space. And it won’t be part of the Mission: Impossible franchise (or any other current Cruise-associated projects), so mystery swirled on what studio would be picking up the dime, where this project would film, the level of Musk’s involvement, and so on.
At least one of those questions has been answered. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine confirmed on Twitter that the U.S. governmental agency would be participating in this movie. Cruise will film on the International Space Station, and Bridenstine expressed NASA’s hopes that the movie will “inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists” to boost the agency’s future plans.
NASA is excited to work with @TomCruise on a film aboard the @Space_Station! We need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists to make @NASA’s ambitious plans a reality. pic.twitter.com/CaPwfXtfUv
I’m certainly reading far too much into the omission of Musk from the tweet, other than Bridenstine maybe sidestepping an association with Musk’s recent (and very political) stances about the pandemic. After all, NASA’s gearing up to host May 1 briefings for the SpaceX Demo-2 mission, which places NASA astronauts aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. It should be a historic mission, and the Top Gun: Maverick star’s upcoming, space-set movie will do likewise. Sorry, Dominic Toretto, you’ve been Cruise’d.
Folks are itching to see live concerts right now, and people are trying to find ways to make it happen. One performer hosted a drive-in concert in Denmark. One designer has also come up with a protective suit that could be useful for safely gathering in large crowds. Now a venue in Fort Smith, Arkansas has a plan they’re implementing, and they have a show set for next week, on May 15.
Bishop Gunn frontperson Travis McCready is set to perform at TempleLive. The venue typically holds 1,100 people, but that number will be reduced to 229 for this show, and something called “fan pods” will be implemented. A lot of other measures are being taken as well, as Ticketmaster notes:
“Balcony only accessible by stairs. TempleLive COVID operating protocol capacity reduced 80% from 1,100 to 229. Venue will be sanitized by independent third party prior to each event via fog sprayers. Masks will be required by all attendees and employees. Masks will be available for purchase. Per CDC guidelines one way walk-ways in theater managed by TL employees. 6 feet of separation from all seating groups or fan pods. 10 person limit in all restrooms. All soap and paper towel dispensers will be no touch. Closure of bathroom fixtures to maintain 6 feet of distance during use. Temperatures of attendees to be taken at entry points. All beverages will be prepackaged or have lids. TL employees will be actively wiping down touch points in venue and restrooms.”
Notably, this show does not seem to adhere to a directive from Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, which is set to go into effect on May 18 and which “allows the venues to open for audiences of fewer than 50 and that requires strict social distance among performers, contestants, and members of the audience.”
Oh, you thought just because Westworld’s third season ended, we wouldn’t have any wild-yet-completely-plausible theories to obsess over during the show’s hiatus?
The world is on lockdown. Productivity is a thing of the past. Showers have become optional and months of the year are now 80 days long. We have nothing but time when it comes to falling down the Reddit theory rabbit hole and since Christopher Nolan and Lisa Joy are taking a break, we’re writing our own premise for season four.
Here are some hypotheticals we’re working with. As always, get your bullshit meter back online.
1. Dolores Is Only Kind Of Dead
The show’s third season ended with Dolores Prime sacrificing herself to save the world, having a quick heart-to-heart with Maeve before Rehoboam erased her memories, effectively killing her … for good. It was heartbreaking and bittersweet and exactly the kind of stakes the show needed to introduce in order to justify the chaos of season three. But, let’s get real for a second, this show is not going to throw away an actor as talented as Evan Rachel Wood. Luckily, Westworld’s already laid the groundwork for Wood to come back in some form — but it probably won’t be as the enlightened hero she went out as this season. Remember, Dolores still exists, at least partially, in her clones which include Charlores, Lawrence, Mushashi, and Connells (their pearls haven’t been shown to have been destroyed so we’re going to remain uncharacteristically optimistic). And though Maeve seems like a good choice to lead Caleb in this restoration of humanity project, eventually those two will need Dolores’ help in dealing with the enemies she created this season. We’re guessing she’ll pop up a few episodes into season four in some capacity, though don’t expect her to be as “woke” as she was at the end of this episode.
Tessa Thompson really put in work this season, first playing a confused and terrified clone of Dolores before shifting into one of her more dangerous adversaries. Halores was meant to infiltrate Delos and prevent Serac from buying the company, but she struggled with the influence of her host and the emotions tied to pretending to have a son and husband that she loved. Eventually, Halores chose them over Dolores’ plan and her reward was watching as her family became barbecued casualties of the bigger war. That trauma forced Charlores — look, we don’t make up the nicknaming rules, we just respect them — to effectively disassociate herself from her emotions. She popped up in the season finale a colder, more bitter version of herself, one intent on destroying humanity and manufacturing a robot rebellion. There were serious Wyatt vibes being thrown off by this new iteration of the character and that, coupled with the show’s crazy after-credits scene seems to suggest Charlores will be the big bad next season. Again, that would necessitate a Dolores comeback — who better to face off against her than herself? — but it’d also give Thompson more time on screen and present an interesting dilemma for Caleb in this new world he’s trying to build.
The Man In Black has had one of the more complex and, let’s face it, confusing storylines this season, first going mad trapped in his mansion, conversating with his dead daughter, then being forced out of his own company and sent to a reprogramming center. There, he confronted past versions of himself, eventually killing them all and emerging as the Man In White. His mission: kill every host and save the f*cking world. Well, it didn’t turn out too well for this heroic version of the character, but Ed Harris is probably happy with where Nolan and Joy seem to be taking William next season. Now that his clone has killed off the character’s human iteration, it looks like he’ll be taking a decidedly darker path to reshape this new civilization — one that sees him act even more ruthlessly than before and all in the name of Charlores’ master plan. Well, it does if you believe Reddit.
Look, by the thickness of dust currently coating Bernard’s body, a lot of time must have passed between the events of season three and what’s to come in season four. Now, the show could solve that problem by presenting multiple timelines so that Aaron Paul’s character can simply look the same, or they can age him up with make-up. Still, he can’t live forever so if we’re wanting to jump even 70 years in the future, it seems like Caleb’s mortality might present a problem. We don’t have an answer for how the show should handle that to be honest, but if Paul doesn’t want to sport the prosthetics, Reddit knows who should take his place. After all, Westworld and Breaking Bad do exist in the same universe. This is a confirmed fact.
Stubbs has really been through it this season but if we take into consideration just how terrible the show has treated him, we’ve got to assume he’s still in that damn motel tub, probably rotting away because the ice has melted, screaming “Eff you, Bernard” because his “friend” couldn’t be bothered to stitch him up real quick before taking a decades-long nap. #JusticeForStubbs
Within days of each other, Netflix and Hulu recently released two new titles… actually, Netflix and Hulu often release titles within days of each other, as the streaming wars faucet can never be turned off (how else to explain The Big Show Show?), but I would like to talk about two new shows in particular, Netflix’s Never Have I Ever and Hulu’s Normal People. They are both extremely good teen-focused series, one based on a New York Times best-selling book and the other on a… popular drinking game (the “Never Have I Ever” of it all is mostly a device for the episode titles) that adults can enjoy, too.
But which show is the right show for you? Let’s break it down, using eight “if” scenarios.
– If you, an adult, want to watch something alongside an actual teen
You should probably steer clear of Normal People. Here are some of the headlines that it has inspired:
I would not recommend watching the show with your child. Never Have I Ever, meanwhile, is perfect for the entire family. It tells the coming-of-age story of 15-year-old Devi Vishwakumar (played by the fantastic Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), who lives with her mother (Poorna Jagannathan) and cousin (Richa Moorjani) in California. After recovering from being paralyzed for three months following the death of her father (Sendhil Ramamurthy, mostly seen in flashbacks), Devi does normal teen things, like crushing on hunky Paxton (Darren Barnet) and feuding with her academic rival Ben (Jaren Lewison). The series goes through the beats of dozens of high school-set shows and John Hughes movies that came before it, but it finds clever new tweaks on tropes with a diverse cast. I would gladly watch Never Have I Ever, and not Sixteen Candles, with my teenager.
– If you want a story that takes place over years, not months
Spoiler alert for Normal People…
….I didn’t know about the time-hopping conceit when I started watching, and it didn’t decrease my enjoyment of the show. It follows Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell (Paul Mescal), two students at a secondary school in Ireland; they’re both smart, but they travel in different circles: he’s the athletically-gifted hunk, she’s an outspoken loner. They’re connected by his mom working as her family’s housekeeper — and also they’re both attracted to each other, and begin having near-constant sex in their senior year. But when he refuses to stick up for Marianne in public, and actively chooses to ignore her existence when they’re outside of the bedroom, they fall apart, only for a time-jump between episodes, where they both attend the same university. Had the show stayed with Marianne and Connell in secondary (high) school the entire time, the plot would have grown stale; moving the setting to university (college) keeps it invigorating.
– If it’s been too long since you’ve listened to Robyn
NETFLIX
The winner: Never Have I Ever. Any amount of time without Robyn is too long, btw.
– If it’s been too long since you’ve listened to Imogen Heap
HULU
If a song becomes forever associated with a TV show, other shows should be forbidden from using it. I’m talking “Don’t Stop Believin’” on The Sopranos, “With or Without You” on The Americans, “The Final Countdown” on Arrested Development. I’m still mad about Dexter using “Make Your Own Kind of Music,” which Lost already laid claim to, and that was seven years ago. The only exception to this rule: if the song is being used ironically or for parody, like when the Lonely Island used Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek” to spoof The OC on SNL. The song should have been retired from all soundtracks forever… and yet, it pops up in the second episode of Normal People. It’s very distracting, even if it cuts off before the part that Jason Derulo probably thinks he made famous. If I hear “Hide and Seek” in a show, I had better see Marissa shooting Trey or Andy Samberg shooting Bill Hader, and nothing else, especially not a montage of Connell and Marianne neglecting each other in school and having steamy car-sex in private. No thank you!
Good song, though.
– If you’re looking for a show with 30-minute episodes
It’s a tie! Both shows are regularly under 30 minutes, and Never Have I Ever is only 10 episodes, while Normal People clocks in at 12 episodes. There’s no streaming bloat here, unlike 13 Reasons Why, which is like Never and Normal, except it’s unwatchable.
– If you’re a fan of The Office
Never Have I Ever was created by Mindy Kaling, of The Office fame, and Lang Fisher, a former writer for The Mindy Project, and it feels like the show both Kelly Kapoor and Mindy Lahiri would have obsessed over as a teen. It’s up there among the best post-Office projects from the show’s core cast, alongside Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Ellie Kemper), Silicon Valley (Zach Woods), and hopefully Space Force, which finds Steve Carell re-teaming with The Office co-creator Greg Daniels (that show premieres later this month).
– If you’re looking for something sweet and delightful
The best word I can think of to describe Never Have I Ever: smitten. As in, I am smitten with Never Have I Ever. It tackles real issues, like feeling like an imposter within your own culture and the confusing pains of being a teenager (including how they can be wonderful almost-adults one second and monstrous jerks the next), but it never dips into melodrama or takes itself too seriously. The whole series (with the exception of one standout episode) is narrated by cranky tennis legend John McEnroe, for crying out loud. If you watch Never Have I Ever, expect two things: 1) to be delighted, and 2) to become way too invested in a love triangle (twist, I’m Team Devi’s hot dad).
– If you’re looking for something kinda sad and tender and horny
I know I mentioned this earlier, but it bears repeating: Normal People is a very horny show. Devi is horny, too, but it’s an awkward horniness, the kind that’s easy to look back at as an adult and laugh about. Meanwhile, the Normal People leads are frequently naked, and there’s one scene where, after Connell does something sh*tty to Marianne, his mom yells at him, “And you don’t think maybe you should have asked her, seeing as how you f*ck her every day after school?” With all due respect to Comedy Bang Bang, it isthat kind of show. But it’s not horny how Skins was horny; it’s horny in the way Barry Jenkins’ movies are horny, where the emotions between the characters are uncomfortably and relatably real, like you’re watching a private moment between real-life partners, not naked actors being paid for our enjoyment (did I just describe porn?). The sex scenes are too vulnerable to be hot, but they are horny as hell.
To call Kevin Smith a fan of Star Wars would be an understatement — he dabbles in fan theories, “wept” on the set of The Rise of Skywalker, and casts his movies with Star Wars alumni, including Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Look, if you had the opportunity to put Luke and Leia in your film, you would do it, too. During the May 4th (a.k.a. Star Wars Day) episode of “Silent Bob Speaks,” Smith shared a charming story about meeting Fisher and his subsequent interactions with her.
Smith and Fisher kept in contact after Strike Back (which she agreed to appear in, but only if she could be paid in not money, but two beaver chairs), so when someone on the View Askew message board mentioned that Fisher “shit on” the film during a live Q&A with her mom Debbie Reynolds, the Jay and Silent Bob Reboot director reached out to her via email. It read, “What the fuck, I thought we were buds,” basically. Her response is the “greatest gift Star Wars ever gave me,” according to Smith:
“She read my email, I guess, she wrote back to me in a relatively timely fashion and she said, ‘Oh Kevin, did you fall prey to the internet?’ And then she wrote about how like, ‘You’re like me, you get up on stages, you tell stories, you try to be funny. When you’re up there, you say anything if the audience attaches to it and laughs, you go with it. I was just being funny.’ She’s going, ‘You and I are friends, you know how I feel about you, you know what I think about your movie. Why would you let something somebody on the internet said change all of that?’ And then she dropped this truth bomb right in my lap, and I still use this today.”
The truth bomb Smith speaks of: “Carrie Fisher goes, ‘Sometimes you have to spin that microscope around, because the thing you’re looking at isn’t as big as you think it is.’ That came from Carrie Fisher herself. Now she may have just been like ‘F*ck, he caught me,’ but regardless, that is a piece of advice that I still adhere to today.”
Fisher was one of a kind. You can watch the entire tribute below.
Considering the often-sarcastic tone of Elon Musk’s Twitter presence in general, it seemed like perhaps he could have been joking when he revealed yesterday that he and Grimes had named their newborn baby “X Æ A-12 Musk.” Then again, both he and Grimes are outside-the-box thinkers, so the name seemed as plausible as it did unusual. Now it looks like Musk meant what he said, because Grimes has taken to Twitter to offer her breakdown of the meaning behind X Æ A-12’s name.
Last night, Grimes wrote:
“- X, the unknown variable [crossed swords emoji]
– Æ, my elven spelling of Ai (love &/or Artificial intelligence)
– A-12 = precursor to SR-17 (our favorite aircraft). No weapons, no defenses, just speed. Great in battle, but non-violent [white heart emoji]
+
(A=Archangel, my favorite song)
([crossed swords emoji] [mouse emoji] metal rat).”
Musk later offered a correction to Grimes’ tweet, writing that the aircraft mentioned is actually an SR-71. Grimes responded, “I am recovering from surgery and barely alive so may my typos b forgiven but, damnit. That was meant to be profound.”
She also offered a response to a fan who tweeted, “you realize this is a human child and not an EP right.” Grimes wrote, “I think it sounds like the name of the main character in the story. I hope he vibes with that. Ok, going back into the pain/ beauty reverie for sum time, just came on to add my thoughts. Peace to all.”
•X, the unknown variable •Æ, my elven spelling of Ai (love &/or Artificial intelligence) •A-12 = precursor to SR-17 (our favorite aircraft). No weapons, no defenses, just speed. Great in battle, but non-violent + (A=Archangel, my favorite song) ( metal rat)
I think it sounds like the name of the main character in the story I hope he vibes with that. Ok, going back into the pain/ beauty reverie for sum time, just came on to add my thoughts. Peace to all –
As for how to pronounce that name, Musk seems to have confirmed how it’s said, or he at least approved of one interpretation. He liked a tweet the guesses the name is pronounced “X Ash Archangel,” because “Æ” is said like “ash” and “archangel” is a code name for the A-12 aircraft. Grimes also liked a tweet that reads, “Baby Archangel.”
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metal rat)
小仙女 (@Grimezsz) 
I hope he vibes with that. 
