The State of Scary TV
‘The Returned’ and ‘Ash vs Evil Dead’ join ‘The Walking Dead’ in offering high-quality horror.
October 9, 2013
YouTube Hall of Fame: Tom Hanks
Arguably America’s most beloved living movie star, Tom Hanks is back in theaters this weekend with the release of Paul Greengrass’s Captain Phillips, and we here at Grantland couldn’t help but dive into his decade-spanning filmography and relive some of the highlights. Chocolates, volleyballs, and giant keyboards abound in this week’s YouTube Hall of Fame.
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American Horror Story: Coven Promises to Deliver More Twisted Believable-Unbelievable Goodness
During American Horror Story: Asylum, the second season of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s epic and award-winning horror saga — I personally would give it all the Emmys, because it’s daddy’s favorite show — there were moments when we viewers were so assaulted by the over-the-top violence and totally bizarre twists that we simply had […]
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Kanye’s Beef With Jimmy Kimmel Ends Tonight, on Your Television
Recap: Kanye West donated an hour-long interview to the BBC; some were creative enough to call it “cuhraaazy,” while others tagged it “THE FIRST PIECE OF HONEST MEDIA IN YEARS”; Jimmy Kimmel put Yeezus’s words into the mouth of a charming kiddo for a parody; Kanye drove a Maybach made of caps lock keys straight […]
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Do You Like Prince Movies? Podcast: Miley Cyrus, Sandra Bullock, and the Shining Sequel
This week, Alex and Wesley discuss what’s wrong with Miley Cyrus and what’s right with Sandra Bullock. Plus: Lifetime’s Versace movie and Stephen King’s Shining sequel. Listen to the podcast here: ESPN.com Podcenter. Subscribe to Grantland Pop Culture on iTunes, and check out our podcasts page.
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Underselling the Overview: Gravity and Lowercase-‘s’ Space
The Futurist is a periodic dispatch from the front lines of tomorrow — a gleefully wigged-out examination of science, science fiction, technology, culture, and all their lunatic fringes. To paraphrase Douglas Adams, we will think the unthinkable, do the undoable, and eff the ineffable. In the mid-1970s, the U.S. State Department prohibited the internal use […]
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What’s in the Sex Box? Not Much, It Turns Out
What is Sex Box? A. A new program on British public television B. An R. Kelly song C. A dystopian game show D. The new Xbox E. A pornographic riff on Houdini’s water torture cell trick F. A natural brand extension of The Box G. A 1991 La Toya Jackson dance single H. A box you keep […]
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Peter Dinklage Starring in What Basically Has to Be Called Bad Leprechaun
Lately, Paramount has been building movies around Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, and Ron Burgundy. Now it’s Peter Dinklage’s turn, in a project The Hollywood Reporter describes as “deep in R-rated territory but wrapped around an emotional heart.” Dinklage, who has won dragon dunghills of praise for Game of Thrones, will star as a man who […]
Read moreOctober 8, 2013
Afternoon Links: Maybe Don’t Go Into Any Coffee Shops Until Carrie Comes Out
Any video that opens with “time to fuck with some customers” is good in my book. While this one’s built in the mold of candid-camera shows designed explicitly to freak people out, something about it going down in a New York coffee shop, skewering even the most jaded espresso-swilling souls in the process, elates me. […]
Read moreClarifying Paris Hilton’s Intentions in Her New Song ‘Good Time’ Featuring Lil Wayne
Paris Hilton: Oh I love it By beginning the song with an open-ended expression of approval, Paris creates an inviting atmosphere. Despite her reputation as an heiress and/or snob, she is informing us that she is a generally accepting person, and effectively asks us to be just as accepting of her impending song Are you […]
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Mumford & Chainz: Five Rock Pairings More Wonderfully Nonsensical Than Stone Temple Pilots + Linkin Park
Stone Temple Park. Linkin Temple Pilots. Stoned Linkin, Piloted Park.
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Sandra Bullock: Most Powerful Woman in Hollywood
Whatever Sandra Bullock’s doing, she should keep it up. Get stuck in space again! Play an even more bumbling FBI agent! Adopt two illiterate black football players! We don’t care. We might just watch her do anything, including star in another movie with Bradley Cooper, maybe even if it’s as rotten as All About Steve. […]
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My Emancipation Don’t Fit Your Equation: Lauryn Hill Postponing House Arrest to Go on Tour
Lauryn Hill’s $1 million tax debt sentence was a two-parter: three months in the Orange Is the New Black prison, three months in home confinement. Now, a few days after Hill headed home and dropped a new track, TMZ reports the house arrest is being postponed to permit a tour. The dates on Hill’s request […]
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Literary Parkour: @Horse_ebooks, Jonathan Franzen, and the Rise of Twitter Fiction
When it was revealed a couple of weeks ago that the heavily followed “spambot” Twitter account @horse_ebooks was, in fact, not an algorithmically generated series of random word-strings, but the consciously crafted work of two net-based performance artists, many of the account’s followers felt they had been punked. While some appreciated the revelation of artistry […]
Read moreThis Is What It Would Look Like If Tom Hanks’s Biggest Movies Were Really Just One Continuous Epic
From simple man, to enlisted man, to astronaut, to Gravity-esque survivor, to castaway, to solo ocean navigator who lost his best friend to the sea, to rescued wild man, to reluctant manscaper, to brave captain of a vessel under siege by terrifying pirates. Wow. And there’s even beard continuity. Tom Hanks: The Movie is going […]
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The First Twitter TV Ratings Are Here, But Do They Actually Tell the Truth?
Last December, Nielsen announced it had partnered with Twitter to create a ratings system based on tweet chatter. The press release seemed as though it had been written by aliens or robots, even more so than the usual PR statement: You know, everyone’s “looking forward to collaborating with Twitter ecosystem partners on this metric” and […]
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A.C.O.D.: Are We Having Fun Yet?
The first thing you should know about comedic actors is that most of them really want to act dramatically. The second thing is that, yes, A.C.O.D. is infinitely better than R.I.P.D., but that’s not asking very much. The third thing, which is really the first and only thing you actually wanted to know, is that A.C.O.D. stands for Adult Children of […]
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Hollywood Prospectus Podcast: Gravity, Homeland, and New Music
Nobody says “movie magic” anymore because it is not 1955, but corny or not, that is basically the subject of the first 30 minutes of this week’s pod. Andy and I were starstruck, slack-jawed, and overjoyed upon viewing Alfonso Cuarón’s space disaster, Gravity. It’s the best 3-D movie ever (shout-out to Unobtainium), and easily one […]
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Tom Hanks Will Have You Starstruck No Matter What Kind of Badass You’re Playing
Tom Hanks popped into David Letterman’s late-night television show on Monday. After a bit of diabetes II chatter (Hanks now has it, but he’ll be all right), Tom and Dave wound up discussing Paul Greengrass’s Captain Phillips. “They were so free-form when we were shooting — I didn’t even meet the guys, my good friends […]
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