Welcome to Development Hell, the fiery pit into which we fling recent developments in casting, distribution, and everything else that’s new and mildly interesting in the Boschian phantasmagoria of the entertainment industry.
Tenacious D, the weirdo rock act Jack Black fronts alongside Kyle Gass, hasn’t put out an album since 2012's Rize of the Fenix. Well, that might be because he’s found a replacement for Gass in Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle co-star Nick Jonas. Despite the action comedy having posited Guns ‘N Roses’ “Welcome to the…
Way back in February, we reported that Lego Batman Movie director Chris McKay and The Accountant’s Bill Dubuque were developing a DC superhero movie about Nightwing, a.k.a. Dick Grayson, the original Robin. Grayson has been one of DC’s most popular characters for years (partly due to his famous butt), so the idea…
Despite its title, the episode “All Talk” is much more dynamic than most of the Kingdom episodes that preceded it this season. Directed by Adam Davidson (who helmed the series premiere), it has all the elements of the strongest installments of the series, combining humor and a lively fight with Jay’s anguish, Alvey’s…
The “Ritual” of tonight’s episode title can refer to any number of practices the Kulina family and their associates have adopted throughout the years. When a buzzed Alvey waxes eloquent to his son Nate about how many cultures indulge in alcohol, he’s trying to make a point about the universality of enjoying a good…
There’s no way to look at the season three premiere of Kingdom without taking into account the fact that this is the final such outing for the show. DirecTV recently and regrettably decided not to continue with Byron Balasco’s superb MMA drama, so this batch of 10 episodes will be its last. And from the first hazy…
It doesn’t matter that The Shins have replaced Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” in the favor of mall proprietors with their cover of Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime.” Carey’s 1994 track is still the gold standard for “new“ Christmas music, whose enduring appeal has been attested to here at …
Booze, babes, and brotherhood: This is the image of Greek life that’s dominated movie screens in the four decades since Animal House basically invented the modern campus comedy. No wonder young men keep subjecting themselves to the rigors of rushing; to hear the movies tell it, good times are but a paddling away. But…
In this unpredictable year full of celebrity death and incoherent yelling we call 2016, there are only a few things left in this world that we can rely upon. The mediocrity of popular CBS sitcoms, for example, or the fact that McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets only come in four standard shapes. Aside from the comforting…
MTV isn’t incorrect in billing Goat as a “Nick Jonas and James Franco fraternity movie.” But that tagline doesn’t quite hint at the film’s true tone, as the trailer doesn’t call to mind the raunchy fun of Animal House and Old School so much as the horrors of the Stanford prison experiment. The film stars Ben Schnetzer…
Even though we’re now more than halfway through the second season of Kingdom, I wasn’t thinking we’d see the Kulina vs. Wheeler showdown just yet. Maybe I shared Jay’s doubts that Ryan would go through with it, or maybe I was more worried about Ryan’s knee than he was. But I thought something would happen to derail…
It’s hard to say what longtime Jonas Brothers fans will make of Nick Jonas’ starring role in the erotic thriller Careful What You Wish For. But in an effort to shake up his career and leave boyhood behind, the pop star may have overshot the mark. After spending the better part of a decade as a sex symbol, Jonas…
Every Friday, dozens of new records are released into the wild. Some make big splashes, and others sink almost immediately. For most music consumers, it’s almost too much information, and save for those precious few who spend their hours glued to reviews sites and release calendars, it’s hard to know what’s coming out…
“I’m not an actor, I’m a [comedy royalty, United States President, formerly neglected SNL] star!”
It’s Sundance season once again, that special time of year when Hollywood’s best and brightest load up their skis and head to Park City, Utah, for a week of vacationing, networking, and occasionally actually seeing a movie or two. In preparations for the festival’s January 21, 2016, debut, the Sundance Institute has…
If you could magically reach back into 2014, snatch up an average pop culture consumer, and bring them to the present day, one of their first questions upon landing in late 2015 would probably be, “When did people start liking Justin Bieber so much?” Even a year ago Bieber was critical kryptonite to such an extent…
When we announced that Ariana Grande had joined the cast of Fox’s upcoming Scream Queens as a recurring guest star, it was assumed that she fulfilled Ryan Murphy’s regularly scheduled “inexplicable pop singer” role on his new show. Now, it seems like that assumption was premature, and Murphy is hungry for more: Variety…
