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For the longest time, video games have faced a kind of paradox in the world of entertainment; despite their cultural acceptance, they’re often scapegoated for the atrocities of our reality, and game developers seem to understand this more than anyone else.

An American Soldier in Modern Warfare 3 – Image Credit: Treyarch.

For instance, when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the franchise at its absolute peak, the game’s producer, Mark Rubin, essentially predicted what would happen in the future: Video Games would continue to remain the quintessential scapegoat for real-world violence.

Games Like Modern Warfare 3 Getting the Blame for Violence Is a Debate That Just Shouldn’t Exist The starting sequence of Postal 1 – Image Credit: Running With Scissors

Unfortunately, blaming games for real-world violence has become part of a cycle, cropping up after every major tragedy. From Doom in the 1990s, Grand Theft Auto in the 2000s, to Spec...

The Goonies star James Brolin will star opposite Glen Powell in Edgar Wright’s take on Stephen King’s The Running Man.

As Edgar Wright’s take on The Running Man continues to edge closer to production, another key piece of casting has been announced. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Josh Brolin will play the film’s lead antagonist, most likely the lead hunter pursuing Powell’s Ben Richards, the titular ‘running man.’

Set in a dystopian future where America has become largely ghettoised, reality TV is the ‘opiate of the masses’, pumping out violent shows that distract viewers from the misery that surrounds them. The most popular show of all, The Running Man, charges a contestant with running and hiding for a month as hunters attempt to track them down and murder them.

If it sounds dark, that’s because it is. King’s original book is so bleak...

In the wake of Hurricane Helene, many musicians have used their platforms to try to deliver some much-needed relief. Some have donated money, others have announced benefit concerts — now, joining those efforts is a massive compilation album featuring 135 previously-unreleased tracks from artists like R.E.M., Jeff Tweedy & Karly Hartzman, Jason Isbell, Fleet Foxes, Waxahatchee, Sylvan Esso, and many more.

Titled Cardinals at the Window, the compilation was officially released today, and is now available to purchase on Bandcamp. Curated by three North Carolina natives — musician and community organizer Libby Rodenbough, New Commute founder David Walker, and music journalist Grayson Haver Currin — the album will raise funds for three organizations: Rural Organizing and Resilience, BeLoved Asheville, and the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina.

Across its 135 tracks, Cardinals at the Window features a combination of new recordings and previously-unreleased live tracks. In addition to the aforementioned artists, the compilation’s stacked lineup includes Mj Lenderman,...

On Monday September 23 2024, Discovery broadcasts Contraband: Seized at the Border!

Running on Empty Season 5 Episode 10 Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of *Contraband: Seized at the Border* titled “Running on Empty” airs on Discovery and dives into the intense world of law enforcement at the US-Mexico border. This border is known as the busiest in the world, where Customs and Border Protection officers are on high alert to intercept illegal activities. As they work tirelessly, they are seizing record amounts of illegal drugs, laundered cash, firearms, and ammunition.

In this episode, viewers will witness the ongoing struggles of officers as they confront the powerful cartels that operate in Mexico’s border towns. The episode highlights the dangers and challenges faced by law enforcement as they battle to keep these illegal substances and weapons out of the hands of criminals. The high stakes involved in these operations illustrate the complex dynamics at play in this critical region.

When making the arrangements for his YouTube mash-up documentary to screen at Fantasia 2024, Javier Horcajada Fontecha could not have anticipated the twist that was about to develop in the story of the US’ relationship with guns: the very presidential candidate whom the gun lobby looked to for support being scuffed by a bullet at a rally. That incident has led to the usual pro-gun rhetoric around elections becoming unusually subdued – but Fontecha’s film reminds us just how bizarre some of it gets.

Edited together from material which people have mostly submitted themselves (though at least one accident was likely made public by the victim’s highly amused friends), the film provides a journey through US gun culture as experienced not by politicians or lobbyists but by ordinary people. It’s in its establishment of what they see as normal that it makes its own statement.

Running throughout is an advice video,...

EA Sports College Football 25 is essentially the long-awaited return of NCAA Football, but the new game distinguishes itself from that series in several ways. Most notably, it features the names and likenesses of many of college football’s biggest players.

That also means that EA Sports College Football 25 places more emphasis on recreating the attributes of those players. So, while player ratings were always valuable in these games, the very best players in EA Sports College Football 25 will be able to alter and take over the biggest games like you’ve ever seen before. So far as that goes, here are the best overall players in EA Sports College Football 25 at every major position.

Quarterback

Shedeur Sanders – Colorado (93 Ovr)

Carson Beck – Georgia (93 Ovr)

Quinn Ewers – Texas (92 Ovr)

Shedeur Sanders’ place atop the Qb rankings will undoubtedly raise a few eyebrows, but there’s some logic to it in this context.

Every manga’s beginning comes with a risk and Naoki Urasawa’s Monster stands as one of the biggest examples. Selling a trope that is not as common comes with the possibility of it being directly rejected by the editorial staff because of the risks that come with it. Not only that but where it is to be picked up, it is the audience that ultimately decides the success or failure of the projects.

Monster | Credit: Madhouse

To make a project successful is to crack the formula that makes it so special. For Urasawa, it wasn’t just the audience he had to prove a point to but also the editors. The tropes he proposed were ones they couldn’t find interest in it. However, with enough consideration, it was the formula of success that finally kicked in.

Naoki Urasawa Had His Editors to Convince

During an interview (via Reddit...

On Wednesday July 10 2024, Investigation Discovery broadcasts Fear Thy Neighbor!

Better Get To Running Season 9 Episode 10 Episode Summary

In this episode of “Fear Thy Neighbor” on Investigation Discovery, titled “Better Get To Running,” viewers are thrust into a tense narrative of neighborhood conflict turned deadly. The episode unfolds with a couple relocating to the countryside, unwittingly disrupting the peace that their new neighbors have cherished for years. As parties, noisy children, and a cluttered lawn become points of contention, tensions escalate between the newcomers and a Vietnam veteran living next door.

The storyline intensifies when the veteran, pushed to his limits by the disturbance, decides to erect a fence to establish boundaries. However, what begins as a simple attempt to reclaim peace and privacy soon spirals into a violent confrontation over disputed property lines. Viewers are drawn into the escalating conflict as misunderstandings, resentment, and deep-seated animosities culminate in tragic consequences.

There are few directors as willing to get as fully weird as Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven, whose satirical, wildly over-the-top films are sometimes so ridiculous that they come around to being taken seriously again. After all, it's been nearly 30 years and people still don't understand that "Starship Troopers" is a satire about the dangers of fascism! Out of all of Verhoeven's films, however, nothing is as intensely weird as the 1990 science fiction classic "Total Recall," which follows a construction worker named Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who has the memory of an adventure on Mars implanted into his brain as a kind of virtual vacation, only to have the details of his supposedly fake adventure cross over into his reality. He ends up going to Mars to try and take out a tyrannical dictator, meeting up with all kinds of mutant Martians along the way, including one that's pretty impossible to...

Often times actors have an unusual habit or scene that is present in most of their movies. While Tom Cruise is often running in his many movies, Brad Pitt can be spotted eating one thing or the other during his films. Famous for these habits, it seems both Cruise and Pitt have found an unusual contender in Barbie star, Ryan Gosling.

Tom Cruise running in Mission: Impossible | Paramount Pictures

From the Oscar-winning La La Land to Barbie, fans have noticed one cute habit of the actor, which is sure to outshine Cruise’s iconic run and Pitt’s always-eating habit!

Ryan Gosling Gives Tom Cruise & Brad Pitt Strong Competition

Ryan Gosling in The Fall Guy | Universal Pictures

Tom Cruise is a definite action star, whose stunts are famous across the film industry for being death-defying and setting an unreachable bar to recreate or outshine. Yet, what stands out the most...

Pearl Jam concluded the spring US leg of their 2024 tour with a rousing hometown show in Seattle on Thursday night. Among the many highlights was a cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” performed solo by frontman Eddie Vedder.

“In any other city there’s no guest list as big as the one that we have when we’re in Seattle,” Vedder said in introducing the song. “To be honest, I wish it were longer. There are certain names that I so deeply wish were on the guestlist tonight, but we lost them too early and in ways that we could never imagine. Damnit if I can’t stop thinking about them. But that’s a good thing too.”

Get Pearl Jam Tickets Here

Vedder’s version of “Hurt” is much more in line with Johnny Cash’s Grammy Award-winning ballad than Nine Inch Nails’ original. He’s performed it solo...

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Pearl Jam kicked off their world tour in support of Dark Matter Saturday in Vancouver, where the band delivered the live debuts of the majority of their new album’s songs.

Of the 11 tracks on Dark Matter, Eddie Vedder and company performed nine of them — only “Waiting for Stevie” and “Got to Give” were omitted — at the Rogers Arena, seven of which were played live for the first...

Pearl Jam kicked off their 2024 tour in Vancouver on Saturday night with a rousing 25-song performance.

The show kicked off with “Wash” from their Lost Dogs compilation and was followed by performances of “Low Light,” “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town,” and “Given to Fly.” From there, Pearl Jam showcased material from their new album, Dark Matter, with “Scared of Fear,” “React, Respond,” “Wreckage,” and “Dark Matter,” and then dusted off “Leatherman” at the request of drummer Matt Cameron for the first time in eight years.

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The second half of Pearl Jam’s set consisted of songs like “Corduroy,” “Red Mosquito,” a cover of Mother Love Bone’s “Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns,” and “Porch,” with the encore featuring performances of Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down,” “Black,” “Do the Evolution,” “Something Special,” “Alive,” Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World,...

Welcome to our weekly rundown of the best new music — featuring big new singles, key tracks from our favorite albums, and more. This week, Normani cuts right to the chase with the first single from her highly anticipated debut album, Myke Towers and Bad Bunny link up, and Anitta brings the funk on a super-charged dance hit. Plus, new music from Cash Cobain and Ice Spice, Tems, St. Vincent, and more.

Normani feat. Gunna, “1:59” (YouTube)

Myke Towers feat. Bad Bunny, “Adivino” (YouTube)

Anitta, “Grip” (YouTube)

Cash Cobain, Bay Swag...

Pearl Jam appeared The Howard Stern Show this week, where they not only shared fascinating stories — like how drummer Matt Cameron once got a cease-and-desist letter from Kiss — but also performed a number of songs, including tracks from their new album Dark Matter and older hits like “Daughter” and “Yellow Ledbetter.”

The appearance was in support of the band’s 12th LP, Dark Matter, which debuted last week on April 19th and has earned praise from many, including Stem himself, who called it “a phenomenal fucking album.” When asked to perform a track from the record, Pearl Jam chose the opener, “Scared of Fear,” delivering the song’s heavy feel with uproarious energy.

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Playing the Dark Matter single “Running,” the band demonstrated their sharpness, bringing the upbeat tune to life with its growling bassline and scorchin’ guitar solo. Additionally, they played older hits, like “Yellow...

Pearl Jam return today with the release of their 12th studio album, Dark Matter.

Originally announced back in February, Dark Matter was produced by Andrew Watt and features the band “playing together with a burst of inspiration.” The band recorded the album with Watt over a three-week period at Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, California, which arrives today via Monkeywrench Records/Republic Records. The 11-track album was preceded by its title track as well as the singles “Running” and “Wreckage.”

Get Pearl Jam Tickets Here

In an appearance on Kyle Meredith With…, Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard discussed the harmonious experience of working with Watt on Dark Matter, and even hinted at more music to come. “I think this record was an energizing experience for everyone,” the guitarist said. “It was a little bit of a journey, but working with Andrew [Watt]… I think Andrew really made a difference by his natural...

Pearl Jam first previewed their forthcoming studio album Dark Matter in mid-February, sharing the LP’s title track as its lead single. A second look inside their 12th record arrived in late March when the band dropped “Running.” Now, with Dark Matter set to arrive on Friday, April 19, Pearl Jam are offering one last pre-release single: the return-to-form “Wreckage.”

“That one probably has the biggest build for me personally, in terms of hearing it at first and thinking, it’s kind of an Ed song. I wasn’t quite aware of its potency until later,...

Pearl Jam’s new album Dark Matter doesn’t arrive until this Friday (April 19th), but the band is already excited about the prospect of making new music thanks to their positive experience working with producer Andrew Watt for the first time.

On the latest episode of Kyle Meredith With…, guitarist Stone Gossard spoke about Watt’s impact on their recording process and how the “energizing experience” made them want to come back for more.

Get Pearl Jam Tickets Here

“We’re excited about making more music,” Gossard said on the podcast. “I think this record was an energizing experience for everyone. It was a little bit of a journey, but working with Andrew [Watt]… I think Andrew really made a difference by his natural nature as a producer and as a fan. It would be cool to do more.”

To be precise, Watt helped Pearl Jam tap into “another avenue” to approach songwriting that,...

It kicks off with a big emotional bang: “We used to laugh/We used to sing/We used to dance/We used to believe,” Eddie Vedder sings on “Scared of Fear,” the rocking opener from Pearl Jam’s 12th studio album, one of their best and most personal records ever. When it came time to work on their follow-up to 2020’s Gigaton, band members headed out to Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La Studios in Malibu and worked with versatile producer Andrew Watt, who helmed Vedder’s 2022 solo album, Earthling, and has...

Handsome man Glen Powell better get his sneakers on, because he's about to become "The Running Man." Powell will star in Edgar Wright's new adaptation of the Stephen King/Richard Bachman novel, as was announced today at CinemaCon, where we have boots on the ground in the form of our own Ryan Scott. Powell will play the lead character Ben Richards, a man living in a dystopian future where people desperate for money participate in a reality game show where they're hunted for sport. He'll also likely spend the movie looking very handsome and being very charming, because that's his whole thing.

Powell stole the show in "Top Gun: Maverick," and was recently seen in the surprisingly delightful rom-com "Anyone But You." Next, he'll appear in the "Twister" follow-up "Twisters" and the Richard Linklater comedy "Hit Man," which is headed to Netflix. Powell has been working for a while now,...

In support of the upcoming release of Dark Matter, Pearl Jam just announced a special “Pearl Jam – Dark Matter – Global Theatrical Experience.” The one-night-only event will take place in 800 movie theaters worldwide on April 16, 2024, with the album dropping on April 19th.

Dark Matter, produced by Grammy winner Andrew Watt, is the band’s first album since 2020’s Gigaton. Pearl Jam – bassist Jeff Ament, rhythm guitarist Stone Gossard, lead guitarist Mike McCready, lead singer/guitarist Eddie Vedder and drummer Matt Cameron – recorded the album at Shangri-La Studios in Malibu.

Dark Matter Tracklist

1. Scared of Fear

2. React, Respond

3. Wreckage

4. Dark Matter

5. Won’t Tell

6. Upper Hand

7. Waiting for Stevie

8. Running

9. Something Special

10. Got to Give

11. Setting Sun

Pearl Jam was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2017. The alt-rock band has sold more than 85 million albums and continues to use its popularity to raise...

Pearl Jam have dropped a second single, “Running,” from their upcoming album Dark Matter, set to arrive April 19.

“Running” is a two-minute blast of break-neck rock and roll, punctuated by a heavy, half-time breakdown and a scorching guitar solo. Eddie Vedder delivers a characteristically mighty vocal performance as well, bellowing during the bridge — “Living in the shadows, crossing my fingers/A date with the gallows and a reprieve not looking likely” — before letting out a throat-scorching hallow during the final refrain, “You got me running!”

“Running” follows “Dark Matter,” which...

Pearl Jam have unveiled “Running,” the second single from their upcoming album, Dark Matter. The hard-charging rocker follows the release of the album’s title track (which we named Song of the Week). Dark Matter, the album, arrives in full on April 19th via Monkeywrench / Republic Records.

Additionally, Pearl Jam have announced a one-night-only “global theatrical experience” celebrating the release of Dark Matter. Taking place on April 16th in 225 theaters in the US and an additional 300 locations in 30 countries worldwide, “Dark Matter in the Dark” will feature two playbacks of the album, first in a dark cinema with just the music playing and then a second time experiencing the record with added visuals on screen during playback. The audio will also be presented in Dolby Atmos where available. Tickets are now available for purchase.

Get Pearl Jam Tickets Here

Finally, Pearl Jam have a number of different vinyl variants of...

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has decided on a vice presidential running mate from a short list that includes NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura. According to his campaign manager, Kennedy is close to announcing his pick.

Other prospective candidates include Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and motivational speaker Tony Robbins, according to two anonymous people with knowledge of the campaign.

Not everyone on Kennedy’s list has agreed to run with him. Paul said that he would decline an offer to be on the presidential ticket.

“I’m supportive of his ability to have a platform to speak out,” Paul said. “I think he’s saying a lot of good things. But I have no plans to get involved in the campaign.”

Similarly, Gabbard has stopped cooperating with Kennedy’s campaign and has seemingly turned her attention to former President Donald Trump’s.

A day after Norah Jones released her new album Visions, the singer appeared on CBS Saturday Morning’s Saturday Sessions to showcase three tracks from her latest LP.

Making a return appearance, Jones delivered first single “Running,” “All This Time,” and “I Just Wanna Dance” from her ninth studio album and first non-Christmas LP since 2020’s Pick Me Up Off the Floor.

“The reason I called the album Visions is because a lot of the ideas came in the middle of the night or in that moment right before sleep,...

Thanks to the generation-defying success of "Star Wars" and the obsessive passionate fanbase that followed, no stone has gone unturned in documenting the making of George Lucas' epic, fantastical space opera. Whether it's acknowledging how Lucas revived a 1950s form of filmmaking technology to pull off the effects or how Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund, helped Mark Hamill land the role of Luke Skywalker, you don't have to be a film historian to put together a timeline of how "Star Wars" came to be. As impressive as it is to hear all about the technical mastery that went into making spaceships, planets, alien creatures, and the iconic costume designs, there's also a lot of fun to be had to learn about the backstage hijinks the cast and crew got into.

Like the time Biggs Darklighter, Luke Skywalker, and Laze "Fixer" Loneozner went on an unsanctioned horse riding adventure.

If that...

Wheel of Fortune viewers are livid and have accused host Pat Sajak of cheating a contestant out of $50,000.

While Pat Sajak finishes out his 41st and final season as the host of Wheel of Fortune, fans of the show have been more outspoken about his behavior on-air.

In recent months, many have claimed that Pat is robbing contestants of big money, either because he heard them incorrectly or he has a personal vendetta against them.

During a recent episode of Wheel of Fortune, a contestant named Tamara from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania tried her hand during the game’s Bonus Round.

The category was “What Are You Doing?” and after being supplied with the customary letters R, S, T, L, N, and E, Tamara chose her own, G, D, B, and A.

This left Tamara with a puzzle that read “_ _ _ N _ N G / A / B_ _ _ / _ L _ B.”

“Now, pay attention [to] what’s up there,...

I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Then again, nobody needs to have the foresight of Galadriel to have caught wind of the latest round of rumors and speculation running rampant among "The Lord of the Rings" fans in recent weeks. While the obsessive fandom waits for more movies to arrive down the line, we at least have Prime Video's "The Rings of Power" series to keep us occupied in the meantime. But no matter how far removed we are from a first season that attracted all sorts of discourse in late 2022, from theories about the mysterious Stranger's identity to the guessing game surrounding the reveal of the Dark Lord Sauron, that hasn't stopped many from attempting to read the pipeweed anyway and make their best guess about which major figures from author J.R.R. Tolkien's lore might appear next.

Norah Jones has announced a North American summer tour in support of her upcoming album, Visions. Additionally, she’s shared a new single from the album in the form of “Staring At the Wall.”

The 31-date tour kicks off on May 6th in Boston and includes spring shows in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and New York, where Jones will play the historic Apollo Theater. Her tour’s itinerary also includes summertime shows at Red Rocks in Morrison, Co; The Masonic in San Francisco; and the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.

A Live Nation ticket pre-sale for Jones’ newly announced tour dates begins Thursday, February 29th at 10:00 a.m. local time (use access code Energy), with a public ticket on-sale following on Friday, March 1st via Ticketmaster.

Get Norah Jones Tickets Here

Fans can look for deals or get tickets to Jones’ sold-out shows via StubHub, where orders are 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s FanProtect program.

Pearl Jam have announced new album, Dark Matter, along with a 2024 world tour. The album’s title track, which doubles as its lead single, is out now.

Due on April 19th via Monkeywrench Records/Republic Records, Dark Matter marks Pearl Jam’s 12th studio album, following their 2020 release, Gigaton. Produced by Andrew Watt, it was recorded over a three-week period at Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, California, capturing “the band playing together with a burst of inspiration,” according to its press release. Pre-orders are ongoing, and you can check out the tracklist below.

As for the tour, Pearl Jam will launch a North American run of shows beginning in Vancouver on May 4th. They’ll play a string of shows along the west coast, including in Portland, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, as well as headline the BottleRock Napa festival. A visit to the UK and Europe follows beginning in June,...

Hours after dropping their new single “Dark Matter,” Pearl Jam have rolled out details of their new LP along with dates for a 35-date world tour, which kicks off May 4 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and wraps November 21 in Sydney, Australia.

Dark Matter will hit shelves on April 19. It was produced by Andrew Watt and recorded over just three weeks at Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, California. The album was unveiled to the public on January 31 during a listening event at the Troubadour in Los Angeles that the band attended.

“I’m getting chills,...

Welcome to our weekly rundown of the best new music — featuring big singles, key tracks from our favorite albums, and more. This week, a great new one from rising country hero Megan Moroney, Green Day return with a subversive love song, Eladio Carrión hits big on his sixth studio album of explosive latin trap, and SISTAR19 reunite to release their first new single in seven years. Plus, new music from Madi Diaz, Kim Gordon, Sleater-Kinney

Green Day, “Bobby Sox” (YouTube)

SISTAR19, “No More (Ma Boy)” (YouTube)

Eladio Carrión, “Rko” (YouTube)

Sleater-Kinney,...

Norah Jones has returned to announce her ninth studio album, Visions, out March 8th. She’s also mapped out a brief East Coast tour and shared the album’s lead single, “Running.” Stream it below.

Visions serves as Jones’ first album since 2020’s Pick Me Up Off the Floor, and is described in a statement as being about “feeling free, wanting to dance, making it right, and acceptance of what life brings.” Produced by Leon Michels, Visions features a more uplifting and soulful sound than her previous record.

“The reason I called the album Visions is because a lot of the ideas came in the middle of the night or in that moment right before sleep, and ‘Running’ was one of them where you’re half asleep and kind of jolted awake,” Jones said in a press release. “We did most of the songs in the same way where I...

Norah Jones has announced her new album Visions, her first new (non-Christmas) LP in nearly four years.

Ahead of Visions’ March 8 release, Jones has shared its first single “Running,” which — like the majority of the album — is a collaboration with producer and multi-instrumentalist Leon Michels, a contributor to both Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and the Arcs.

“The reason I called the album Visions is because a lot of the ideas came in the middle of the night or in that moment right before sleep, and ‘Running’ was one of them...

There are plenty of stories out there about actors getting injured by other actors on set. Harrison Ford was famously (accidentally) punched in the face by Ryan Gosling on the set of "Blade Runner 2049." Dolph Lundgren punched Sylvester Stallone so hard in "Rocky IV" that the latter's heart swelled. Usually, however, they aren't injured by someone who isn't going to be seen on camera. However, during the shoot for 1999's "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace," Andrew Secombe, the actor who played the CG character Watto, caused a big injury for Liam Neeson, aka Qui-Gon Jinn. In fact, he nearly broke Neeson's nose, according to "Star Wars Insider" #196. 

This all happened on Secombe's very first day of shooting. Watto, of course, is the Toydarian character who owns the secondhand shop in Mos Espa and forces the enslaved Shmi Skywalker (Pernilla August) and her son Anakin (Jake Lloyd) to work as his underlings.

There are a multitude of ways to incorporate characters singing on screen in a film. Traditionally, the actors record the tracks separately from their on-set line delivery and lip-sync during the actual filming, as shown with Ryan Gosling and his army of Kens in Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" movie for "I'm Just Ken." But every once in a while, a filmmaker will elect to record the raw, on-set delivery of a vocal performance. Director Tom Hooper took this route with both "Les Miserables" and "Cats," with ... one turning out infinitely better than the other. There are pros and cons to both approaches, but the second option is exponentially riskier. And yet, "Hunger Games" franchise director Francis Lawrence went that route on "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" with star Rachel Zegler's performance as Lucy Gray Baird.

In the book as well as in the movie, Lucy Gray Baird is a performer.

In the 31st century of Matt Groening's and David X. Cohen's "Futurama," Christmas has evolved. Instead of fir trees, for instance, people decorate palm trees. Gift exchanges are still common, but families don't merely gather together to enjoy the warmth of the holiday season. They gather together because a rogue robotic Santa Claus, judging the entire world to be "naughty," annually flies around the Earth murdering anyone outdoors with guns and missiles. Families gather out of fear. Robot Santa was initially played by John Goodman, but the role was taken over by John Dimaggio after his first appearance. 

Eventually joining Robot Santa in his holiday shenanigans was the Kwanzaa-Bot played by late rapper Coolio, and, with the release of "Bender's Big Score" in 2007, the Chanukah Zombie played by Mark Hamill. The machinations of the film's plot had all of Earth's denizens stranded at the North Pole of Neptune,...

Run the World has stopped running. Starz has cancelled the female-led comedy series after two seasons and 16 episodes, per Variety.

Starring Amber Stevens West, Bresha Webb, Corbin Reid, Stephen Bishop, Tosin Morohunfola, Erika Alexander, Nick Sagar, Jay Walker, and Tonya Pinkins, the Starz series follows four female best friends as they live in Harlem, lean on each other, and deal with the ups and downs of their personal and professional lives.

Read More…...

The latest episode of "Futurama," the season 11 finale entitled "All The Way Down," covers a lot of territory. Professor Farnsworth (Billy West) devises a new machine called the Simputron, which is able to render a full-scale simulation of the known world. Only, because he hasn't tapped a reliable power source for the process, the simulated universe is at first rendered in 8-bit. 

The main action of the episode spirals into Nolanesque territory, pondering the dread-filled existential quandary of whether by now it's pretty much certain we're living in a simulation and, if so, whether that even matters. The Planet Express crew decide to send Bender (John Dimaggio) down into the body of simulation Bender, "Inception" style, and reason with them not to blow up a magnetar and thus glitch out the coding of their "universe," thereby revealing the man behind the curtain, so to speak. The episode ends with a powerful moment of pathos,...

You just never know what quirky aspects of a long-running television show will begin to take on a life of its own over the course of the series. In "Peaky Blinders" alone, much has already been made of the frankly horrifying amount of herbal cigarettes the cast had to smoke throughout each season, or the somewhat shocking reveal that those distinctive hats worn by the Peaky Blinders weren't actually all that historically accurate to the real-life gang. But there's one oddity in particular that stood out to lead actor Cillian Murphy in the early going, which soon transformed into a running gag that everyone was in on.

If you ever noticed during your viewing of seasons 1 and 2 of "Peaky Blinders" that the gang ringleader Tommy Shelby never actually ate a lick of food -- despite several scenes taking place in dining rooms and bars with plenty of options to choose from -- you're not alone.

I have mixed feelings on fan films. I’d prefer to see indie filmmakers invest their resources in an original concept rather than someone else’s intellectual property, but I also understand the reality that content with an established fanbase guarantees more engagement. Moreover, when beloved properties like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th become entangled in ongoing legal disputes, fan films can sate viewers’ hunger for more.

Even if a new Elm Street movie is produced with Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, it’s highly unlikely to acknowledge the events of New Nightmare, given its blurring of the lines between fiction and reality. (Freddy vs Jason ignored it as well.) YouTuber-turned-writer/director Cecil Laird teamed with producer Vincente Disanti — the filmmaker behind the popular Friday the 13th fan film Never Hike Alone — to fill that void with Dylan’s New Nightmare: A Nightmare on Elm Street Fan Film.

NewFilmmakers Los Angeles (Nfmla) hosts its May Monthly Film Festival and celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with its annual InFocus: Asian Cinema Program, spotlighting Asian filmmakers and stories from around the world across two shorts programs featuring work by emerging Asian and Asian-American talent in front of and behind the camera. The day’s programming also features the west coast premiere of Brutal Season by Gavin Fields, presented in partnership with Filmmakers Alliance.

The day begins with InFocus: Asian Cinema Shorts I, a collection of films that explores individual identity within a greater culture. It includes stories of queer identity in Asian and Asian-American communities, explorations of immigrant identity, the individual struggling to survive in a dystopian future, as well as motherhood as an identity and context.

The day continues with InFocus: Asian Cinema Shorts II, a selection of films that spans a range of genres as it tells stories of family,...

A group of seven diverse emerging filmmakers has been awarded Bavc MediaMaker Fellowships, an “immersive 9-month experience” that includes $10,000 in unrestricted funding, mentorship, industry access, feedback sessions and workshops.

Recipients of the prestigious fellowships are Paige Bethmann (Remaining Native), Aurora Brachman (Dear You), ilana coleman (The Inventory), Tommy Franklin (You Don’t Know My Name), Cyrus Moussavi (Somebody’s Gone), Hannah Myers (Daddy) and tashi tamate weiss (Kizuna). See below for bios on the filmmakers and details on their documentary projects.

“The program will feature two intensive convenings in San Francisco, a slate of virtual workshops, and all-access travel to the Camden International Film Festival in Maine and the New Orleans Film Festival in Louisiana,” according to a release from Bavc Media, formerly known as the Bay Area Video Coalition.

“We’re thrilled to welcome this year’s Bavc MediaMaker Fellows and their projects,” said Brittney Réaume, associate director of artist development at Bavc Media.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge didn’t have a writer’s room on “Fleabag,” just a trusted inner circle of collaborators she shared script pages with and relied on for feedback. “Phoebe is the ultimate writer, of course,” said “Fleabag” director Harry Bradbeer. “But, she always describes Gary as being another writer on it.” Gary is Gary Dollner, the series editor, and the “writer” distinction goes beyond the filmmaking cliche of how all stories get rewritten in the editing room. Waller-Bridge is constantly rewriting, shaping the material with the cast and Bradbeer, fine-tuning right up to and throughout post, and there are depths and layers to her writing that need the speed of the camera to capture and the mastery of Dollner to fully unlock. It’s more than honing pacing and comedic timing, it’s the way Dollner is able to allow Waller-Bridge’s accumulation of backstory and characterization to collide with...

Welcome to this week’s Friday Night SmackDown review, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and we have the first SmackDown of 2020, so let’s enjoy it. I’m here at the home of renowned meth dealer G-uzi and his Kevlar-clad crew of pushers. They do Cross-Fit and drive-bys. We’ve got the TalkTech going to capture the whole thing. G-Uzi: Nice to have you. Nathan: Good to be wanted. G-uzi: Want some meth? Nathan: No…thanks though. G-uzi: You’re welcome.

Match #1: Lacey Evans & Dana Brooke def. Sasha Banks & Bayley and Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross The following is courtesy of wwe.com:

SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley and Sasha Banks kicked off SmackDown with a familiar message – that they are the leaders of the SmackDown Women’s division, all the while continuing to talk about Lacey Evans’ daughter. Evans and Dana Brooke hit the scene...

On the first day of December, Lil Uzi Vert — a rapper who can dance but is not known to make songs about dancing — introduced a new move to the cosmos. It was called the “Futsal Shuffle,” apparently a reference to small-side Brazilian street soccer, which is played with a smaller ball and last had a global cultural moment in the run-up to the run-up to the 2014 World Cup. Lil Uzi Vert has, so far, declined to explain the reference.

In the dance’s debut, Vert is decked in a tank...

In today’s film news roundup, Taryn Manning, Shane West and Alexander Skarsgård have new roles, and Warner Bros. unveils a modernized logo.

Castings

Alexander Skarsgård has signed on to join Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga and André Holland in “Passing.”

The film marks Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut and is based on a screenplay that Hall adapted from the novel of the same name by Nella Larsen. It tells the story of two African American women, each of whom can “pass” as white but choose to live on opposite sides of the color line in 1928 Harlem.

Nina Yang Bongiovi and Forest Whitaker of Significant Productions, Margot Hand of Picture Films, and Hall (through her Flat Five Productions) are producing alongside support from Film4, Aum Creative, Xrm Media, Gamechanger Films, Tgck Partners and Sweet Tomato Films. Endeavor Content is handling worldwide sales. The news was first reported by Deadline.

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Taryn Manning,...

A retired Navy Seal who for a time was a military advisor on the Colombian drug trade, Jason Cabell conceived his first solo feature as writer-director to tell the story of that particular commerce “from the point of view of the drugs.” The result isn’t exactly a docudrama indictment like “Traffic,” a thriller a la “Sicario,” a plea for innocent victims, or a Tarantino-esque bloody crime comedy. Rather, “Running With the Devil” is all the above, confidently blending together many narrative and tonal elements into a surprisingly cohesive whole.

With a cast of familiar faces toplined by the inescapable Nicolas Cage, . It will find viewers primarily via home formats, as “Running” bows this weekend on just 10 U.S. screens simultaneous with VOD and digital launch.

After an ominous prologue that we’ll eventually get back to involving the grim fate of a bound, naked man, Cabell’s script begins...

Julia Louis-Dreyfus knew the bar was high when it came time to end “Veep.”

“It was very important for us to stick this f—ing landing and then some,” she told Variety‘s My Favorite Episode podcast. “Because I really feel this has been the job of a lifetime for me thus far. I feel and felt very protective of it from the beginning. I was fiercly determined to get this sucker right on the way out.”

In the end, President Selina Meyer’s legacy “is a dismal one and to be forgotten, and it’s appropriate,” Louis-Dreyfus noted. And then, of course, there is the heartbreaking moment where Selina sells out her one true loyalist, sycophant bag boy Gary Walsh (Tony Hale), who is sent to jail to clear the path for her election.

“That moment where she sent him to jail, that was a gift to Gary because...

Opening with a slashing guitar riff and the wail of singer Cody Cannon, Whiskey Myers’ new song “Die Rockin'” is a blast of potent rock & roll with a Southern flavor. “I’m gonna rock until I die/I’m gonna die rockin’,” Cannon sings, letting you know exactly where he lands on the rock versus pop debate.

“Die Rockin’,” written by Cannon with Texas country rebel Ray Wylie Hubbard, is the first release off the Texas band’s upcoming self-titled album, out September 27th.

“I wrote ‘Die Rockin’’ with the...