The State of Scary TV
‘The Returned’ and ‘Ash vs Evil Dead’ join ‘The Walking Dead’ in offering high-quality horror.
October 25, 2013
Robert Zemeckis Wants to Make Marwencol With Leonardo DiCaprio
Two years before he turned 40, Mark Hogancamp was beaten by five men after telling them he liked cross-dressing; in a trailer for the 2010 documentary Marwencol, Hogancamp says they “kicked my head to pieces.” He coped with the massive memory loss by constructing a town — Marwencol — of dolls and military toys, then […]
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NBC’s Dracula Finally Arrives Tonight: Does It Suck?
Wondering whether NBC’s Dracula is worth your time tonight? Andy Greenwald sums it up in two words: It sucks. Other than that, Ms. Harker, how was the show? Here’s the rest of his preview, if you require a little more detail to make your viewing decision:
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Grantland Reality TV Fantasy League: Saying Good-bye to a Survivor (and Google Images) Star
Things are just so bleak for the GRTFL. There’s no Bachelor or Bachelorette in sight; MTV’s Wednesday 10 p.m. slot, the most coveted of “10 spots,” is currently occupied by Girl Code; and Bravo will air four hours of 2 Fast 2 Furious tonight. What has happened to reality TV this fall? Did Bunim/Murray shut […]
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The Octavia Spencer Murder, She Wrote Reboot Is Going to Be Flawless
In the mid-’90s, my mother had an important job. She had to raise a little black boy, perfectly. There was no room for error. So, in this process, there were a number of highly purposeful maneuvers to make sure the job was done without hiccups. Where we lived, where I played sports, what conversations we […]
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Ridley Scott’s Trojan Horse Career
Jesus Christ was an alien. That may not necessarily be the first thing that comes to mind after you’ve seen Prometheus, director Ridley Scott’s 2012 prequel to his first hit, 1979’s Alien. But these are the kind of insane, inspired, somehow totally plausible extrapolations viewers draw from Scott’s movies. Scott doesn’t exactly lie as a […]
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The Parenthood Cry of the Week: All Fights, No Tears
Back around the time that a band of ordinary superheroes burst onto NBC, the network adopted a single voice to narrate most of its promotional spots. It’s that breathy, doom-filled guy who warned us of the importance of saving the cheerleader (and, ergo, the world). Heroes is long gone, but somehow that guy can still […]
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Attention, Triads: Stop Wasting Your Time Trying to Extort Michael Bay
We’d hate to see any of you get hurt.
Read moreVideo on Demand Report: Get in the Halloween Spirit With the Horror Hit The Conjuring
The Headliner The Conjuring Haunted houses are a staple of horror films, but this one comes with a little extra zing: It’s based on real-life ghost hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren (played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), whose supernatural escapades previously inspired (the many versions of) The Amityville Horror. In this story, which takes […]
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Star Wars Script Drama: Michael Arndt Out, Lawrence Kasdan In
This is ForceWatch, your as-needed check-in with the upcoming Star Wars reboot, including but not limited to Star Wars Episode VII. Full disclosure: Disney owns Grantland, and the rest of the universe. You may have noticed that our ForceWatch updates have been coming in few and far between in the last couple of months — this is partially […]
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The ‘Independence Day’ Sequel Has a Script With Will Smith and One Without Him
With an Independence Day sequel, there’s one way to feel if Will Smith is involved, and another way to feel if he isn’t. Whatever those feeling-balls look like for you, keep juggling ’em another minute, because director Roland Emmerich isn’t even close to done waffling on the subject. Deutschland’s version of Michael Bay says his […]
Read moreOctober 24, 2013
Afternoon Links: Stream Arcade Fire’s New Album Right Now, Because We No Longer Wait
You may now stream Arcade Fire’s new album, Reflektor, in its entirety days before its official release on October 29. Via SoundCloud, you ask? Or perhaps an iTunes stream? Nay, ye Internet savvy — the tracks you seek may be found within but a humble YouTube clip. Yes, it’s an album-length lyric video. Enjoy.
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Just a Little Logical Speculation About Ja Rule’s Upcoming Microwave Cookbook
There was no way to predict that 2013 would be the year that my strongest beat was “rapper cookbooks.” But here we are. Just over a month ago, in sync with the release of his album B.O.A.T.S. 2: ME Time, 2 Chainz released a cookbook. The product was released digitally with the purchase of the […]
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The Check-In: Chuck Lorre’s Mom Is Traditional, Filthy, and a Lot More Interesting Than His Other Sitcoms
The laziest thing you can say about multi-cam sitcoms, lazier than any of winking double entendres or the Maersk shipping containers of canned laughter that define them, is that they’re old-fashioned. Sure, the filming style and rhythms are familiar. Until about 10 years ago, nearly all network sitcoms were multi-cam, the industry term for a […]
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What the Hell Is on Lady Gaga’s Head? An Investigation
This week, Lady Gaga demonstrated that she was back in smash-single-releasing mode with the release of “Do What U Want,” and yesterday, she proved she was back in zero-sense-making-vaguely-terrifying-conceptual-outfit mode as well, debuting a brand-new headpiece outside her hotel in Berlin. What is happening here? Do we feel good about it? What is this, even? […]
Read moreThe Captain America: The Winter Soldier Trailer: In Which Cap Discusses the Murky Ethical Underpinnings of the War on Terror
Captain America, back to saving the world.
Read moreGirls in Hoodies Podcast: Kimye, Pop War Rankings, and Hello Ladies
We kick off this week’s pod with a general Girls in Hoodies blessing of the union of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, orchestral arrangements of Lana Del Rey songs be damned. Then it’s time to go deep on the current status of the Q4 pop wars, which this week were shaken up by an unexpected […]
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Tom Cruise May Pause From Saving the World to Go Like Hell (UPDATED)
The War of the Worlds star and Scientologist formerly known as Thomas Mapother IV has been on a sci-fi bender in the last year, headlining Oblivion while eyeing and/or joining Edge of Tomorrow, Our Name Is Adam, and Yukikaze. Now he’s considering a mission-less return to reality with Go Like Hell. What sounds like a […]
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Return to Hollywood Bowl: Katy Perry’s Benefit Concert With Tegan and Sara, Ellie Goulding, and More
Last night, Molly Lambert and Tess Lynch ventured once more into the Hollywood Bowl, for the Katy Perry We Can Survive breast cancer benefit concert. It was truly the night of a thousand women. Well, OK, seven — Bonnie McKee, Kacey Musgraves, Tegan and Sara, Sara Bareilles, Ellie Goulding, and the lilac-lipsticked “Roar”-meister herself. We wondered how the Katy experience […]
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Escape From Pop Purgatory: Toad the Wet Sprocket’s New Constellation
Welcome to Escape From Pop Purgatory, where we check out new music made by people who are more well known than 98 percent of the oppressively “cool” artists over whom the media obsesses, and yet are commonly perceived to be years past the point of their cultural relevance. (Pop Purgatory is fame plus time.) Because […]
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Gwyneth Paltrow’s Gooping Around on Chris Martin … and Other Tales of Betrayal From This Week’s Tabloids
In Touch Did Gwyneth Paltrow Cheat on Chris Martin? Paltrow asked friends not to participate in an upcoming Vanity Fair story about her. Now we know why. “Vanity Fair is looking into an alleged affair that the movie star, who’s been married to Coldplay singer Chris Martin since 2003, may have had with Miami billionaire […]
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Philip Marlowe Is Coming Back to Television, in Present-Day Los Angeles
So the guy who created Castle is rebooting Raymond Chandler’s archetype-defining private investigator Philip Marlowe for ABC. And get this: The Castle guy’s name is Andrew Marlowe! “Put your Marlowe pun in here,” writes Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva. Pretty sure that’s your job, Nellie. Anyway: Marlowe’s Marlowe project, which he’s cowriting with his wife, Terri Edda […]
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Now Fifty Shades of Grey Will Star Jamie Dornan
So many names have been floated and unfloated for this adaptation of your mom’s favorite erotic novel trilogy. (No judgment. I’m just happy your mom’s still reading books.) Sons of Anarchy’s Charlie Hunnam was the latest, accepting the lead for a month before bailing. Now one Jamie Dornan of Northern Ireland, male modeling, and Once […]
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