culture

it’s-the-enterprise-vs.-the-gorn-in-strange-new-worlds-clip

It’s the Enterprise vs. the Gorn in Strange New Worlds clip

culture, New York Comic Con, Star Trek, Star Trek Section 31, star trek strange new worlds, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy / /

The S2 finale found the Enterprise under vicious attack by the Gorn, who were in the midst of invading one of the Federation’s colony worlds. The new footage shown at NYCC picked up where the finale left off, giving us the kind of harrowing high-stakes pitched space battle against a ferocious enemy that has long been a hallmark of the franchise. With the ship’s shields down to 50 percent, Captain Pike (Anson Mount) and his team brainstorm possible counter-strategies to ward off the Gorn and find a way to rendezvous with the rest of Starfleet. They decide to try to jam the Gorns’ communications so they can’t coordinate their attacks, which involves modulating the electromagnetic spectrum since the Gorn use light for ship-to-ship communications.

They also need to figure out how to beam crew members trapped on a Gorn ship back onto the Enterprise—except the Gorn ships are transporter-resistant. The best of all the bad options is a retreat and rescue, tracking the Gorn ship across light-years of space using “wolkite, a rare element that contains subspace gauge bosons,” per Spock (Ethan Peck). Finally, the crew decides to just ram the Gorn Destroyer, and the footage ends with a head-to-head collision, firing torpedoes, and the Enterprise on the brink of warping itself out of there, no doubt in the nick of time.

Oh, and apparently Rhys Darby (Our Flag Means Death) will guest star in an as-yet-undisclosed role, which should be fun. Strange New Worlds S3 will premiere sometime in 2025, and the series has already been renewed for a fourth season.

Lower Decks

The final season of Star Trek: Lower Decks premieres this week.

Ars staffers are big fans of Lower Decks, so we were saddened when we learned that the animated series would be ending with its fifth season. Paramount gave us a teaser in July during San Diego Comic-Con, in which we learned that their plucky crew’s S5 mission involves a “quantum fissure” that is causing “space potholes” to pop up all over the Alpha Quadrant (“boo interdimensional portals!”), and the Cerritos crew must close them—while navigating angry Klingons and an Orion war.

The new clip opens with Mariner walking in and asking “What’s the mish?” only to discover it’s another quantum fissure. When the fissure loses integrity, the Cerritos gets caught in the gravitational wake, and when it emerges, seemingly unscathed, the ship is hailed—by the Cerritos from an alternate dimension, captained by none other than Mariner, going by Captain Becky Freeman. (“Stupid dimensional rifts!”) It’s safe to assume that wacky hijinks ensue.

The final season of Lower Decks premieres on Paramount+ on October 24, 2024, and will run through December 19.

poster art for Section 31 featuring Michelle Yeoh in striking purple outfit against yellow background

Credit: Paramount+

Credit: Paramount+

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The Sisterhood faces a powerful foe in Dune: Prophecy trailer

culture, Dune: Prophecy, Entertainment, HBO, HBO Max, streaming television, Trailers / /

Dune: Prophecy will premiere on HBO and Max on November 17, 2024.

New York Comic-Con kicked off today and among the highlights was an HBO panel devoted to the platform’s forthcoming new series, Dune: Prophecy—including the release of a two-and-a-half-minute trailer.

As previously reported, the series was announced in 2019, with director Denis Villeneuve serving as an executive producer and Alison Schapker (Alias, Fringe, Altered Carbon) serving as showrunner. It’s a prequel series inspired by the novel Sisterhood of Dune, written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, exploring the origins of the Bene Gesserit.  The first season will have six episodes, and it’s unclear how closely the series will adhere to the source material. Per the official premise:

Set 10,000 years before the ascension of Paul Atreides, Dune: Prophecy follows two Harkonnen sisters as they combat forces that threaten the future of humankind, and establish the fabled sect that will become known as the Bene Gesserit.

Emily Watson co-stars as Valya Harkonnen, leader of the Sisterhood, with Olivia Williams playing her sister, Tula Harkonnen. Mark Strong plays Emperor Javicco Corrino, while Jodhi May plays Empress Natalya, and Sarah-Sofie Boussnina plays Princess Ynez.

The cast also includes Shalom Brune-Franklin as Mikaela, a Fremen woman who serves the royal family; Travis Fimmel as Desmond Hart, “a charismatic soldier with an enigmatic past”; Chris Mason as swordsman Keiran Atreides; Josh Heuston as Constantine Corrino, the illegitimate son of Javicco; Edward Davis as rising politician Harrow Harkonnen; Tabu as Sister Francesca, the Emperor’s former lover; Jihae as Reverend Mother Kasha, the Emperor’s Truthsayer; Faoileann Cunningham as Sister Jen; Chloe Lea as Lila; Jade Anouka as Sister Theodosia; and Aoife Hinds as Sister Emeline.

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rebellion-brews-underground-in-silo-s2-trailer

Rebellion brews underground in Silo S2 trailer

Apple TV Plus, culture, Entertainment, Rebecca Ferguson, Silo, streaming television / /

Where we left off

The first season opened with the murder of Juliette’s lover, George (Ferdinand Kingsley), who collected forbidden historical artifacts, which silo sheriff Holston Becker (David Oyelowo) investigated at Juliette’s request. When he chose to go outside, he named Juliette as his successor, and she took on George’s case as well as the murder of silo mayor Ruth Jahns (Geraldine James). Many twists ensued, including the existence of a secret group dedicated to remembering the past whose members were being systemically killed. Juliette also began to suspect that the desolate landscape seen through the silo’s camera system was a lie and there was actually a lush green landscape outside.

In the season finale, Juliette made a deal with Holland: She would choose to go outside in exchange for the truth about what happened to George and the continued safety of her friends in Mechanical. The final twist: Juliette survived her outside excursion and realized that the dystopian hellscape was the reality, and the lush green Eden was the lie. And she learned that their silo was one of many, with a ruined city visible in the background.

The official S2 trailer picks up there but doesn’t provide many additional details. We see Juliette in her protective suit walking across the desolate terrain toward the other silos, human skulls and bones crunching under her feet. When Juliette’s oxygen runs out, she finds shelter and survives, and we later see her trying to enter a silo—whether it’s her original home or another one is unclear. Meanwhile, Holland gives an impassioned speech to his silo residents, declaring her a hero for sacrificing herself.  But rumors swirl that she is alive, and rebellion is clearly brewing, with Juliette becoming a symbol for the movement.

The second season of Silo debuts on Apple TV+ on November 15, 2024. Ferguson has said that there are plans for third and fourth seasons to wrap up the story, which will hopefully be filmed at the same time.

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Disney likely axed The Acolyte because of soaring costs

culture, Disney Plus, Entertainment, star wars, streaming television, The Acolyte / /

And in the end, the ratings just weren’t strong enough, especially for a Star Wars project. The Acolyte garnered 11.1 million views over its first five days (and 488 million minutes viewed)—not bad, but below Ahsoka‘s 14 million views over the same period. But those numbers declined sharply over the ensuing weeks, with the finale earning the dubious distinction of posting the lowest minutes viewed (335 million) for any Star Wars series finale.

Writing at Forbes, Caroline Reid noted that The Acolyte was hampered from the start by a challenging post-pandemic financial environment at Disney. It was greenlit in 2021 along with many other quite costly series to boost subscriber numbers for Disney+, contributing to $11.4 billion losses in that division. Then Bob Iger returned as CEO and prioritized cutting costs. The Acolyte‘s heavy VFX needs and star casting (most notably Carrie Ann Moss and Squid Game‘s Lee Jung-jae) made it a pricey proposition, with ratings expectations to match. And apparently the show didn’t generate as much merchandising revenue as expected.

As the folks at Slash Film pointed out, The Acolyte‘s bloated production costs aren’t particularly eye-popping compared to, say, Prime Video’s The Rings of Power, which costs a whopping $58 million per episode, or Marvel’s Secret Invasion (about $35 million per episode). But it’s pricey for a Star Wars series; The Mandalorian racked up around $15 million per episode, on par with Game of Thrones. So given the flagging ratings and lukewarm reviews, the higher costs proved to be “the final nail in the coffin” for the series in the eyes of Disney, per Reid.

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report:-apple-changes-film-strategy,-will-rarely-do-wide-theatrical-releases

Report: Apple changes film strategy, will rarely do wide theatrical releases

Amazon, Apple, Apple TV, culture, movie theaters, movies, Tech / /

Small screen focus —

Apple TV+ has made more waves with TV shows than movies so far.

–

George Clooney and Brad Pitt stand in a doorway

Enlarge / A still from Wolfs, an Apple-produced film starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt.

Apple

For the past few years, Apple has been making big-budget movies meant to compete with the best traditional Hollywood studios have to offer, and it has been releasing them in theaters to drive ticket sales and awards buzz.

Much of that is about to change, according to a report from Bloomberg. The article claims that Apple is “rethinking its movie strategy” after several box office misfires, like Argylle and Napoleon.

It has already canceled the wide theatrical release of one of its tent pole movies, the George Clooney and Brad Pitt-led Wolfs. Most other upcoming big-budget movies from Apple will be released in just a few theaters, suggesting the plan is simple to ensure continued awards eligibility but not to put butts in seats.

Further, Apple plans to move away from super-budget films and to focus its portfolio on a dozen films a year at lower budgets. Just one major big-budget film is planned to get a wide theatrical release: F1. How that one performs could inform future changes to Apple’s strategy.

The report notes that Apple is not the only streamer changing its strategy. Netflix is reducing costs and bringing more movie production in-house, while Amazon is trying (so far unsuccessfully) to produce a higher volume of movies annually, but with a mixture of online-only and in-theater releases. It also points out that movie theater chains are feeling ever more financial pressure, as overall ticket sales haven’t matched their pre-pandemic levels despite occasional hits like Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine.

Cinemas have been counting on streamers like Netflix and Apple to crank out films, but those hopes may be dashed if the media companies continue to pull back. For the most part, tech companies like Apple and Amazon have had better luck gaining buzz with television series than with feature films.

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tiny-dancer:-ana-de-armas-is-a-fierce-assassin-in-ballerina-trailer

Tiny dancer: Ana de Armas is a fierce assassin in Ballerina trailer

Ballerina, culture, film trailers, John Wick, Lionsgate, Trailers / /

Vengeance has a new face —

“To stop the assassin, you must become the assassin.”

–

Ana de Armas stars as dancer/assassin Eve Macarro in From the World of John Wick: Ballerina.

John Wick fans hoping for a fifth film in the hugely popular action franchise will at least be able to return to “Wick-World” next year with the release of a spinoff film, Ballerina, set between the events of 2019’s Chapter 3—Parabellum and Chapter 4 (2023). (The full title is the decidedly unwieldy From the World of John Wick: Ballerina.) Lionsgate just dropped the first trailer, and it has all the tight action choreography and eye-popping visuals we’ve come to expect from the franchise—including a cameo by none other than the Baba Yaga himself (Keanu Reeves).

(Spoilers for John Wick Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 below.)

Parabellum found Wick declared excommunicado from the High Table for killing crime lord Santino D’Antonio on the grounds of the Continental. On the run with a bounty on his head, he makes his way to the headquarters of the Ruska Roma crime syndicate, led by the Director (Anjelica Huston). That’s where we learned Wick was originally named Jardani Jovonovich and trained as an assassin with the syndicate. The Director also trains young girls to be ballerina-assassins, and one young ballerina (played by Unity Phelan) is shown rehearsing in the scene. That dancer is the main character in Ballerina, now played by Ana de Armas.

Screenwriter Shay Hatten sold a spec script featuring the ballerina character to Lionsgate in 2017 and ended up contributing to the Parabellum screenplay and serving as lead writer on Chapter 4. While Chad Stahelski has directed all four John Wick films, for Ballerina the studio brought on Len Wiseman (the Underworld franchise). But Stahelski is still a producer on the film and worked closely with Wiseman on those all-important action sequences.

  • Winston (Ian McShane) recruits a young Eve as a child.

    YouTube/Lionsgate

  • She loves the ballet.

    YouTube/Lionsgate

  • Sharon Duncan-Brewster plays Nogi, who trains Eve and the others to be assassins.

    YouTube/Lionsgate

  • Firearms training.

    YouTube/Lionsgate

  • Lance Reddick makes his last (posthumous) appearance as Charon.

    YouTube/Lionsgate

  • Winston still looking suave.

    YouTube/Lionsgate

  • The young assassin in action.

    YouTube/Lionsgate

  • John Wick (Keanu Reeves) finally makes an appearance.

    YouTube/Lionsgate

Huston returns as the Director, Ian McShane is back as Winston, and Lance Reddick makes one final (posthumous) appearance as the Continental concierge, Charon. New cast members include Gabriel Byrne as main villain the Chancellor, who turns an entire town against the titular ballerina, Eve Macarro (de Armas); Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Nogi; Norman Reedus as Pine; and Catalina Sandino Moreno and David Castaneda in as-yet-undisclosed roles.

Attendees at Cinemacon in April were treated to a teaser trailer; much of that footage seems to be in the trailer. We see Winston recruiting a young orphaned Eve with some scenes of her learning boxing, martial arts, and gun and knife skills. She’s looking for her father’s killer and naturally encounters some opposition, requiring her to fight a lot of nasty people, some armed with flamethrowers. Finally, she comes face to face with Wick, asking how she can start doing what he does. His response: “Looks like you already have.”  De Armas looks fierce as hell and up to the physical challenges of her role. We’re looking forward to this one.

From the World of John Wick: Ballerina hits theaters on June 6, 2025.

Listing image by Lionsgate

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FBI: After dad allegedly tried to shoot Trump, son arrested for child porn

assassination, child sex abuse, culture, Law, Trump / /

family matters —

“Hundreds” of files found on SD card, FBI agent says.

–

Picture of police lights.

Alex Schmidt / Getty Images

Oran Routh has had an eventful few weeks.

In August, he moved into a two-bed, two-bath rental unit on the second floor of a building in Greensboro, North Carolina.

On September 15, his father, Ryan Routh, was found in the bushes of the sixth hole of Trump International Golf Club with a scope and a rifle, apparently in a bid to assassinate Donald Trump, who was golfing that day.

As part of the ensuing federal investigation, the FBI raided the junior Routh’s apartment on September 21. A Starbucks bag labeled “Oran” still sat on a dresser in one of the bedrooms while agents searched the home and Routh’s person, looking for any evidence related to his father’s actions. In the course of the search, they found one Galaxy Note 9 on Oran’s person and another Galaxy Note 9 in a laptop bag.

On September 22, the FBI obtained a warrant to search the devices. The investigation of Oran Routh quickly moved in a different direction after the FBI said that it found “hundreds” of videos depicting the sexual abuse of prepubescent girls on an SD card in the Note 9 from the laptop bag.

The other Note 9, the one that Oran had with him when raided, contained not just downloaded files but also “chats from a messaging application that, based on my training and experience, is commonly used by individuals who distribute and receive child pornography,” said an FBI agent in an affidavit. (The messaging app is not named.)

According to the agent, whoever used the phone had been chatting as recently as July with someone on the Internet who sold access to various cloud storage links. When asked for a sample of the linked material, the seller sent over two files depicting the abuse of young girls.

On September 23, Routh was charged in North Carolina federal court with both receipt and possession of child pornography. According to the court docket, Routh was arrested today.

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prepare-to-be-entertained-by-latest-action-packed-gladiator-ii-trailer

Prepare to be entertained by latest action-packed Gladiator II trailer

culture, Entertainment, film trailers, Gladiator II, Paramount Pictures, Trailers / /

Choosing gladiators is an art —

“You have something in you. Rage. Never let it go.”

–

Are you not entertainment? We’ve got a shiny new trailer for Gladiator II.

When the first trailer for Gladiator II dropped in early July, it racked up more than 180 million views in its first 48 hours, so clearly there’s an audience for Ridley Scott’s long-awaited sequel to his 2000 blockbuster Gladiator. And no wonder; as I noted at the time, the film “promises to be just as much of a visual feast, as a new crop of power players (plus a couple of familiar faces) clash over the future of Rome.” We’ve now got a shiny new trailer, and I stand by that initial assessment—especially since this trailer confirms what had previously been hinted about the protagonist’s biological father.

(Some spoilers for Gladiator below.)

Gladiator II centers around Lucius Verus (Paul Mescal), son of Lucilla and former heir to the Roman Empire, given that his father (also named Lucius Verus) was once a co-emperor of Rome. Lucius hasn’t been seen in Rome for 15 years. Instead, he has been living in a small coastal town in Numidia with his wife and child. Like Maximus before him, he is captured by the Roman army and forced to become a gladiator after the death of his family. Per the official premise:

Gladiator II continues the epic saga of power, intrigue, and vengeance set in Ancient Rome. Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius is forced to enter the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical Emperors who now lead Rome with an iron fist. With rage in his heart and the future of the Empire at stake, Lucius must look to his past to find strength and honor to return the glory of Rome to its people.

Pedro Pascal plays Marcus Acacius, a Roman general who trained under Maximus, tasked with conquering North Africa. Although the young Lucius once idolized Maximus, Marcus Acacius apparently will be a symbol of everything Lucius hates. Connie Nielsen reprises her Gladiator role as Lucilla, who does not recognize her son when she first sees him fighting in the arena as a gladiator. But she figures it out, since we see her urge Lucius to “take your father’s strength. His name was Maximus, and I see him in you.”

Derek Jacobi also returns as Senator Gracchus, who is opposed to growing corruption in the Roman court. Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger play young co-emperors Geta and Caracalla. Denzel Washington rounds out the cast as Macrinus, an arms dealer who keeps a stable of gladiators. Tim McInnerny plays Thraex, Alexander Karim plays Ravi, and Rory McCann plays Tegula.

Gladiator II hits theaters on November 22, 2024, in the US. Internationally, it will premiere on November 15, 2024. Scott recently said that he is already developing a third film, Gladiator III, which would also star Mescal as Lucius. So we already know Lucius will survive, which might be why Scott has compared the ending of this film to The Godfather: Part II (1974).

Listing image by YouTube/Paramount Pictures

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Florence Pugh’s depressed assassin finds her crew in Thunderbolts* teaser

culture, Entertainment, film trailers, marvel studios, mcu, MCU Phase Five, Thunderbolts, Trailers / /

Careful who you assemble —

“Everyone here has done bad things. Someone wants us gone.”

–

Florence Pugh heads an assembly of misfits in Marvel’s Thunderbolts*.

Marvel Studios has dropped an extended teaser trailer for the final feature film in its Phase Six slate: Thunderbolts*, now with a mysterious asterisk to the title. The studio has touted the film as having a different tone from other recent MCU offerings—thanks in part to hiring “a crew of indie veterans who sold out” to make the film—and judging from the teaser, it looks like they just might deliver on that.

As previously reported, Thunderbolts* is a follow-up of sorts to 2021’s Black Widow. It’s directed by Jake Schreier and stars Wyatt Russell as US Agent/failed Captain America from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Contessa Valentina Allegra, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, David Harbour as Alexei/Red Guardian, Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr/Ghost, Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster, and Lewis Pullman as Bob/The Sentry.

In addition, Geraldine Viswanathan plays Valentina’s assistant, Mel, and Harrison Ford will appear as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, aka Red Hulk, aka the US president. (Ford’s character will also appear in February’s Captain America: Brave New World.) Laurence Fishburne and Rachel Weisz will reprise their MCU roles as Bill Foster and Melina Vostokoff, respectively.

There’s no official synopsis yet, but the studio describes the film as “an irreverent team-up featuring depressed assassin Yelena Belova alongside the MCU’s least anticipated band of misfits.” It’s basically the MCU’s version of The Suicide Squad; in fact, James Gunn was originally attached to direct Thunderbolts but bowed out after making The Suicide Squad because he felt the projects were just too similar.

Enlarge / “Look at you. So adorable.” Valentina Allegra de Fontaine assembles the Thunderbolts.

Marvel Studios

The three-and-a-half-minute teaser trailer appears to be similar to the footage shown to attendees at San Diego Comic-Con. It opens with Yelena visiting Alexei, who initially thinks it’s a DoorDash order. Alexei is clearly not doing well despite insisting that he has plenty of work and is “so full, so filled.” But Yelena confesses feeling empty despair since Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) died in Avengers: Endgame, despite throwing herself into her assassination work. As she describes herself as drifting and lacking purpose, we see Bucky and US Agent looking similarly depressed.

We see Yelena doing her work with impressive efficiency until she walks into what appears to be a trap. As she battles US Agent and Ghost, they stumble upon a nebbishy Bob lurking in the background—and then the room locks down. Cue Valentina shown at a fancy gala as she ruminates about the long-standing belief in good guys and bad guys. “But eventually you come to realize that there are bad guys and there are worse guys, and nothing else,” she says. Naturally she wants all those depressed assassins and antiheroes for her own warped version of the Avengers.

There’s plenty of action and lots of wisecracking humor, including an amusing shot of Bucky removing his arm from the dishwasher and reattaching it. And unlike Alexei’s “bulletproof-ish” car, Bob turns out to be truly bulletproof (thanks to a hefty infusion of super soldier serum).

Thunderbolts* hits theaters on May 2, 2025.

Marvel Studios

Listing image by Marvel Studios

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“not-smart”:-philly-man-goes-waaaay-too-far-in-revenge-on-group-chat-rival

“Not smart”: Philly man goes waaaay too far in revenge on group chat rival

bomb threat, crime, culture, fantasy football, hoax, Law, Norway / /

Think before you post —

Pleads guilty to some spectacularly bad behavior.

–

Picture of two rivals fighting.

Enlarge / Guys, it was just a group chat! Over fantasy football!

John Lamb | Getty Images

Philadelphia has learned its lesson the hard way: football makes people a little crazy. (Go birds!) Police here even grease downtown light poles before important games to keep rowdy fans from climbing them.

But Matthew Gabriel, 25, who lives in Philly’s Mt. Airy neighborhood, took his football fanaticism to a whole ‘nother level. For reasons that remain unclear, Gabriel grew incensed with a University of Iowa student who was also a member of Gabriel’s fantasy football group chat.

So Gabriel did what anyone might do under such circumstances: He waited until the student went to Norway for a study abroad visit in August 2023, then contacted Norwegian investigators (Politiets Sikkerhetstjeneste) through an online “tip” form and told them that the student was planning a mass shooting. Gabriel’s message read, in part:

On August 15th a man named [student’s name] is headed around oslo and has a shooting planned with multiple people on his side involved. they plan to take as many as they can at a concert and then head to a department store. I don’t know any more people then that, I just can’t have random people dying on my conscience. he plans to arrive there unarmed spend a couple days normal and then execute the attack. please be ready. he is around a 5 foot 7 read head coming from America, on the 10th or 11th I believe. he should have weapons with him. please be careful

Police in both Norway and the US spent “hundreds of man-hours” reacting to this tip, according to the US government, even though the threat was entirely bogus. When eventually questioned by the FBI, Gabriel admitted the whole thing was a hoax.

But while the government was preparing to prosecute him for one false claim, Gabriel filed another one in March 2024. This time, it was a bomb threat emailed to administrators at the University of Iowa.

“Hello,” it began. “I saw this in a group chat I’m in and just want to make sure everyone is safe and fine. I don’t want anything bad to happen to any body. Thank you. A man named [student’s name] from I believe Nebraska sent this, and I want to make sure that it is a joke and no one will get hurt.”

Gabriel then attached a screenshot pulled from his group chat, which stated, “Hello University of Iowa a man named [student name] told me he was gonna blow up the school.” This was no fake image; it was in fact a real screenshot. But it was also a joke—made in reaction to the previous incident—and Gabriel knew this.

The government found none of this humorous and charged Gabriel with two counts of “interstate and foreign communication of a threat to injure.”

This week, at the federal courthouse in downtown Philly, Gabriel pled guilty to both actions; he will be sentenced in January. (Though he could have faced five years in prison, local media are reporting that he reached a deal with the feds in which they will recommend 15 months of house arrest instead.)

Gabriel’s lawyer has given some choice quotes about the case this week, including, “This guy is fortunate as hell to get house arrest” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “I don’t know what he was thinking. It was definitely not smart” (NBC News), and “I’m an Eagles fan” (Inquirer again—always important to get this out there in Philly).

US Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero offered some unsolicited thoughts of her own about fantasy football group chat behavior, saying in a statement, “My advice to keyboard warriors who’d like to avoid federal charges: always think of the potential consequences before you hit ‘post’ or ‘send.'”

At least this international bad behavior isn’t solely an American export. We import it, too. Over the summer, the US Department of Justice announced that two men, one from Romania and one from Serbia, spent the last several years making fake “swatting” calls to US police and had targeted 101 people, including members of Congress.

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Robert Pattinson gets the crappiest immortality in trailer for Mickey 17

bong joon-ho, culture, Entertainment, film trailers, Mickey 17, Robert Pattinson, science fiction film, Trailers, Warner Bros. / /

How (un)lucky can one guy get? —

“Let’s blow up these second-hand baloney boys.”

–

Robert Pattinson’s character didn’t read his contract’s fine print in Mickey 17, director Bong Joon-ho’s latest film.

It has been five long years since director Bong Joon-ho’s film Parasite topped Ars’ list for best films of the year, whose prior work on Snowpiercer and Okja are also staff favorites. We’re finally getting a new film from this gifted director: the sci-fi comedy Mickey 17, based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton. Judging by the trailer that recently dropped, it feels a bit like a darkly comic version of Duncan Jones’ 2009 film Moon, with a bit of the surreal absurdity of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (1985) thrown in for good measure. And the visuals are terrific.

Ashton’s inspiration for the novel was the teletransportation paradox—a thought experiment pondering the philosophy of identity that challenges certain notions of the self and consciousness. It started as a short story about what Ashton called “a crappy immortality” and expanded from there into a full-length novel.

Ashton told Nerdist last year that Bong’s adaptation would “change a lot of the book,” but he considered the director a “genius” and wasn’t concerned about those changes. The basic premise remains the same. Robert Pattinson plays the space colonist named Mickey Barnes, who is so eager to escape Earth that he signs up to be an “expendable” without reading the fine print.

Expendables are basically disposable employees (aka “second-hand baloney boys”). If they happen to die on the job, their consciousness is uploaded to a new body, and the cycle starts all over again. When a multiple unexpectedly survives while on an expedition to colonize the ice world Niflheim, Mickeys 17 and 18 discover that the policy in such cases is to exterminate all the multiples, and they must fight for their right to keep existing.

In addition to Pattinson, the cast includes Steven Yeun as Berto, Toni Collette as Gwen Johansen, Mark Ruffalo as Hieronymous Marshall, Naomi Ackie as Nasha Adjaya, Holliday Grainger as Red Hair, Angus Imrie as Shrimp Eyes, and Steve Park as Agent Zeke. Anamaria Vartolomei, Thomas Turgoose, Patsy Ferran, and Daniel Henshall have also been cast in as-yet-undisclosed roles. Perhaps one of them plays the person in the giant pigeon costume who briefly appears in the trailer.

Mickey 17 hits theaters in the US on January 31, 2025. It will premiere in other countries on January 28, 2025. Ashton penned a sequel, Antimatter Blues, which was published last year, so maybe Bong Joon-ho will adapt that one, too.

Listing image by YouTube/Warner Bros.

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Final trailer for Venom: The Last Dance introduces Knull, god of symbiotes

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The end is near —

“This world can’t survive if you stay together.”

–

Tom Hardy returns for one more round as host of an alien symbiote, in Venom: The Last Dance.

Tom Hardy is back for one last hurrah as investigative journalist Eddie Brock, host of an alien symbiote that imparts superhuman powers to its host, in the final trailer for Venom: The Last Dance. The trailer has all the wise-cracking “buddy cop” vibes and fast-paced action we’ve come to expect from the franchise, including a trip to Vegas where Venom discovers the addictive allure of slot machines. But there are also hints of an inevitable bittersweet farewell—because this time they’ll face off against Knull, god-creator of the symbiotes.

(Spoilers for Venom and Venom: There Will Be Carnage below.)

As previously reported, the first film in the franchise served as an origin story for our antihero. A bioengineering firm called the Life Foundation discovered a comet covered with symbiotic lifeforms and brought four samples back to Earth. Brock’s then-fiancée, Anne Weying (Michelle Williams), showed him classified documents revealing that the foundation was conducting human/symbiote experiments. The symbiotes needed oxygen-breathing hosts to survive, but they invariably ended up killing those hosts.

Brock ended up infected with one of the symbiotes, named Venom. Venom revealed that the symbiotes are intent on taking over Earth by possessing/devouring all humans, but Brock ultimately struck up a bargain with Venom, and they decided to protect Earth instead. Together, they took on Life Foundation CEO Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), infected with a symbiote called Riot. Naturally, they won.

Venom was released in October 2018 and was roundly panned by critics, several of whom specifically bemoaned the lack of a Spider-Man connection. Audiences, however, begged to differ. Venom racked up $856 million globally. Hardy had already committed to two sequels, and a mid-credits sequence featured Harrelson’s Cletus Kasady taunting Brock (who was interviewing Kasady for a story) from his cell. Kasady vowed to escape and bring “carnage,” leaving little doubt as to the villain’s identity in a sequel.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage, directed by Andy Serkis, was released in 2021, also to mixed reviews and a strong box office, grossing $506.9 million worldwide. That film ended with Brock and Venom victorious over Kasady and heading off for a well-deserved vacation while the duo pondered their next steps. In a post-credits scene, Venom told Brock that he and his fellow symbiotes knew about other universes, at which point there was blinding light, and they were transported into the Marvel Cinematic Universe—a direct result of the spell cast by Doctor Strange in Spider-Man: No Way Home. (At the time, there were plans for a future crossover film with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.)

“With you to the end”

Serkis was unable to return as director for The Last Dance, but Kelly Marcel, who wrote the screenplay for Carnage, stepped in to make her directorial debut. Per the official premise:

In Venom: The Last Dance, Tom Hardy returns as Venom, one of Marvel’s greatest and most complex characters, for the final film in the trilogy. Eddie and Venom are on the run. Hunted by both of their worlds and with the net closing in, the duo are forced into a devastating decision that will bring the curtains down on Venom and Eddie’s last dance.

In addition to Hardy, Peggy Lu is back as convenience store owner Mrs. Chen, who befriended Eddie and Venom early on. Also returning is Stephen Graham as Detective Patrick Mulligan, who figured prominently in There Will Be Carnage and is now infected with his own symbiote named Toxin.

Cristo Fernández will reprise his role as the bartender in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man. Rhys Ifans played Curt Connors/Lizard in that film but will play a man named Martin in The Last Dance. Is there a secret connection? We’ll have to wait and see. (It seems after two outings, Williams won’t be reprising her role as Anne in the third and final film.) The cast also includes Chiwetel Ejiofor as a soldier intent on capturing Venom; and Alanna Ubach and Clark Backo in as-yet-undisclosed roles.

Venom: The Last Dance hits theaters on October 25, 2024.

Listing image by YouTube/Sony Pictures

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