Ronald.phillips

Elden Ring’s Torrent is a brave and stalwart steed, the one who picks you up after death and decides you should be Melina’s knight in Tarnished armor, but valor only counts for so much in the action RPG – and, in the late game, not very much at that. Challenges in Leyndell and beyond often prove too much for the trusty Torrent, but a new Elden Ring mod aims to fix that. Modder Admiral30 created the Invincible Torrent mod to address the problem of Torrent’s HP and keep horseback combat viable throughout the game.

RELATED LINKS: The best Elden Ring builds, Elden Ring bosses, The best Elden Ring classes

Comparing genomes of intestinal bacteria in various primates and human populations begins to pinpoint the possibly helpful microbes that have gone missing from our guts. From a report: Deep in the human gut, myriad "good" bacteria and other microbes help us digest our food, as well as keep us healthy by affecting our immune, metabolic, and nervous systems. Some of these humble microbial assistants have been in our guts since before humans became human -- certain gut microbes are found in almost all primates, suggesting they first colonized a common ancestor. But humans have also lost many of these helpers found in other primates and may be losing even more as people around the world continue to flock to cities, a researcher reported last week at a microbiology meeting in Washington, D.C. Those absent gut microbes could affect human health, he says. "This work helps us develop a new understanding of the course of human biological and cultural development," says Lev Tsypin, a microbiology graduate student at the California Institute of Technology who was not involved in the new study. The microbiome comprises all the bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microscopic life that inhabit an individual, be it a person, a plant, or a planaria. For humans and many other species, the best characterized microbiome centers on the bacteria in the gut. The more microbiologists study these gut microbes, the more they link the bacteria to functions of their hosts. In humans, for example, gut bacteria influence how the immune system responds to pathogens and allergens, or interact with the brain, affecting mood. Andrew Moeller, an evolutionary biologist at Cornell University, was one of the first to show that gut bacteria and humans have built these relationships over a very long time. Six years ago, he and colleagues reported the work showing human gut microbes are very similar to those in other primates, suggesting their intestinal presence predates the evolution of humans. But his follow-up studies, and work by others, also indicate the human gut microbiome has, in a general sense, become less diverse than the gut microbes in our current primate cousins. One study found 85 microbial genera, such as Bacteroides and Bifidobacterium, in the guts of wild apes, but just 55 in people in U.S. cities. Splitting the difference, people in less developed parts of the world have between 60 and 65 of those bacterial groups, an observation that ties the decrease in microbial diversity to urbanization.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The sentence is in: Former socialite Ghislaine Maxwell will spend the next 20 years in prison (minus any time deducted for good behavior) for her part in recruiting, grooming, and sexually exploiting underage girls with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Although the 60-year-old will spend much of the rest of her life behind bars, prosectors had hoped the sentence would be longer. — Read the rest

It’s grilling season, and I—along with my fellow BBQ Dads (a genderless title)—are ready to grill for you. Gathering people to the yard so they may gaze upon expertly smoked meats is our favorite past time and, though we aren’t in it for the host gifts (we’re in it for the glory), it’s still a nice move to show up to…

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Retrovertigo

As part of this morning's Nintendo Direct presentation, it was announced that the iconic, smash-hit puzzle platformers Portal and Portal 2 are hitting the Switch platform in the form of Portal: Companion Collection. Even better news, the irreverent, brain-teasing title will land on the eShop today!

https://youtu.be/wMQASUA_1Do

Portal Companion Collection compiles 2007 hit Portal along with its 2011 follow-up — the two classics are freshly repackaged for their release on Nintendo's hybrid console. Return to the terrifying Aperture Science Enrichment Center and utilize the power of physics, gravity, and portals to guide our hero out of her cell, out of the system, and out of the hazardous clutches of the scarily sentient overseer, GLaDOS.

Combining dark humor, genuine pathos, and some fantastic lateral thinking shenanigans, the Portal games became instant classics upon release and have only welcomed more disciples into their twisted coven in the ensuing 15 years. Already available on practically every platform under the sun, this new compilation of two of gaming's finest and most beloved puzzlers will allow Switch players to set their heads fizzing and spinning whilst in bed, on a commute, or simply out and about. Just watch your step.

Portal: Companion Collection launches on the Nintendo eShop today for $19.99.

The post Break out the cake: Portal Companion Collection hits Switch today appeared first on Destructoid.

Soldering is an indispensable skill for electronics repair, which often involves replacing faulty PCB components. This makes desoldering the first order of business that precedes soldering. For the vast majority of makers, the solder sucker (or the desoldering pump) is the weapon of choice for this important task.

Rise of the Robots

A stone-cold classic of dystopian gaming is headed to Switch this year — as revealed during this morning's Nintendo Direct, Square Enix's apocalyptic and dramatic action adventure NieR: Automata will bring its wistful storytelling and dark, indelible worlds to the Switch platform this fall.

NieR: Automata: The End of YorHa Edition will see the award-winning 2017 release faithfully recreated for the Switch platform, bundled alongside all previously released content including DLC expansions, additional modes, and a fully-stocked wardrobe of snazzy duds for automated heroes 2B, 9S, and, A2. In addition, the Switch port will feature its own range of console exclusive skins, so you can ensure 2B is rocking all of her fineries as she picks her way through our miserable, dilapidated planet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGAmLykQsck

Originally developed by PlatinumGames, Nier: Automata sees an Earth lying in devastation, with mankind locked in a brutal proxy war against a seemingly insurmountable army of alien-created machines. In response, humanity builds its own automated protection in the form of sentient androids, who do battle with the machines in a never-ending war of attrition for control of the planet. NieR: Automata tells the story of three such androids and their dramatic, emotive, and often heart-breaking existence as pawns in a galactic battle for world domination.

NieR: Automata: End of YorHa Edition launches October 6 on Nintendo Switch. Pre-orders for the physical release are now live at the official Square Enix store and include a pretty rad-looking shirt.

The post NieR: Automata is coming to Nintendo Switch this fall appeared first on Destructoid.

A few months ago, Valve announced that both of its excellent Portal games were coming to the Nintendo Switch, but we didn't know when. Today's Nintendo Direct presentation cleared that up. Portal Companion Collection will arrive on the Switch later today for $19.99. The collection includes both the original Portal from 2007 as well as the more expansive, story-driven Portal 2 from 2011. Whether you missed these games the first time out or just want to replay a pair of classics, this collection sounds like a good way to return to one of the most intriguing worlds Valve ever created.

While the original Portal was strictly a single-player experience, Portal 2 has a split-screen co-op experience; you can also pay this mode with a friend online as well. And while these games originated on the PC, Valve also released Portal 2 for the PlayStation 3 — and if I recall, the game's controls mapped to a controller very well. Given that the Portal series is more puzzle-based than traditional first-person games, you shouldn't have any problems navigating the world with a pair of Joy-Con controllers. 

When I was very (very) young, I ate an entire box of crayons in the hope of having multi-colored poop. It did not work, but it did cause my mother a few hours of mild distress as she worried what might happen to me. The answer (disappointingly) was nothing. I didn’t extrude a rainbow, nor did I die horribly from…

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SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service sent out an email to users earlier today asking them for help in its fight to preserve the 12GHz spectrum for satellite internet use. Starlink lets its users connect to the Internet through user terminals that transfer data to and from satellites orbiting the Earth in low Earth orbit (LEO). These terminals use the 12GHz spectrum to connect with the satellites, and this spectrum is also used by multichannel video and data distribution services (MVDDS) providers and DISH - both of which have had rights to the spectrum for decades.

The 12GHz spectrum has been a point of contention at the FCC for quite a while now, and things heated up when SpaceX started to rapidly launch satellites, provided users with equipment and opened its network to the public. Now, it wants its users to help it end what it calls a 'lobbying campaign' which according to Starlink will spell the end of the service in America.

DISH Is Using "Paid Lobbyists" To Woo FCC In Its Favor Alleges Starlink

Today's email, shared by several users on the social media platform Reddit, follows the aggressive approach that Starlink has taken to the issue that is crucial to its survival. The 12GHz band, or 500Mhz of it to be precise, are a hot point of contention between the satellite and terrestrial internet providers, and Starlink has long argued that it and other non-geostationary fixed-satellite service (NGSO FSS) providers should retain access to it since all others granted the right of development have failed to meet their commitments to the FCC.

DISH and Starlink use the same frequency for their user terminals, and despite the fact that their satellites are vastly different, this opens up the scenario for significant interference between the two. This interference itself has been controversial, with the ongoing fight at the FCC seeing DISH and others initially argue that NGSO FSS companies cannot co-exist in the same spectrum, but then submitting more studies later on that showed that coexistence is possible.

After more than a year, Starlink countered with a study of its own earlier this month which raised shocking concerns about its operations. It is now using this study as part of an email that asks users in America to connect to their leaders in the House of Representatives and share with them the benefits of using Starlink.

A copy of the email, seen by Wccftech (present here), reads as follows:

Today we ask for your support in ending a lobbying campaign that threatens to make Starlink unusable for you and the vast majority of our American customers.

As recently reported, DISH Network has been hoarding spectrum for years as a strategy for preventing open and fair competition.

More recently, DISH has been attempting to claim new rights to the 12GHz band, which is the spectrum you currently use to download content with Starlink. Despite technical studies dating back as far as 2016 that refute the basis of their claims, DISH has employed paid lobbyists who are attempting to mislead the FCC with faulty analysis in hopes of obscuring the truth.

In reality, if DISH gets their way, Starlink customers will experience harmful interference more than 77% of the time and total outage of service 74% of the time, rendering Starlink unusable for most Americans.

The email then proceeds to share a link to SpaceX's latest study and to a website where users can share their views with government officials.

Here's everything you need to know about the 12GHz fight:

• Tick Tock – Clock’s Ticking For Starlink To Defend Itself In Crucial FCC Fight
• Elon Musk’s $70 Million Starlink Gamble Takes Heavy Fire From Opponents
• SpaceX Urges FCC To Not Co-allocate 12GHz Starlink Spectrum For 5G Use

The post Starlink Will Effectively Be Shut Down If DISH Wins Warns SpaceX To Users  by Ramish Zafar appeared first on Wccftech.

Apple's latest 13-inch MacBook Pro features the new M2 chip with enhanced performance capabilities. It was previously reported that the 256GB M2 MacBook Pro features a slower SSD performance compared to the M1 MacBook Pro with 256GB storage. It was discovered that the M2 model featured a single NAND storage chip, while the older M1 model was equipped with two NAND chips. In a real-world speed test comparison, the M1 MacBook Pro beats the M2 variant. Scroll down to read more details on the subject.

M1 MacBook Pro Beats The New M2 MacBook Pro in Speed Test Comparison Possibly Due to The Different NAND Storage Chip

The M1 and M2 MacBook Pro models part of the test are both 256GB variants. The M2 MacBook Pro with a higher storage configuration would perform differently. However, if you are looking to buy the base model of the M2 new MacBook Pro, check out the real-world speed test below.

It was discovered that the M2 MacBook Pro with 256GB of SSD storage and 8GB of RAM was slower compared to the M1 model with 256GB storage and 8GB RAM. The performance comparison has been conducted by the YouTube channel Max Tech with multiple usage tests that include Lightroom, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, file transfers, and multitasking.

In the multitasking RAM test, the M1 chip easily beats the M2 MacBook Pro with faster app launch times and content loading speed. The older chip was again faster in the image export test in Lightroom while apps were running in the background. The M1 variant took 3 minutes and 36 seconds to export 50 images while the M2 MacBook Pro took 4 minutes and 12 seconds. You can check out the M2 MacBook Pro speed test comparison against M1 MacBook Pro below for more details.

The built-in 8GB of unified memory of the M2 MacBook Pro is being used simultaneously for several processes. On the other hand, the notebook is using SSD for virtual memory. Due to the virtual memory swapping, the M2 MacBook Pro loses to the M1 variant in the speed test comparison.

At this point, Apple has not shared its side of the story of why it opted for a different NAND chip in the M2 MacBook Pro. We will wait for more tests to determine if the performance is indeed related to the NAND chips. This is all for now, folks. Share your views with us in the comments section below.

The post M2 MacBook Pro Speed Test Comparison Shows it is Slower Than M1 MacBook Pro – Video by Ali Salman appeared first on Wccftech.

You don’t need to intervene if you find a baby bird. Truly, fledglings don’t need your help. But an injured bird is another matter. If one flies into your streak-free window, for instance, and is now lying on your deck, it only makes sense that you’d want to help out your tiny, feathered friend. You can do that, but…

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Every high-profile actor has their own unique process for what roles they pick and why. Some embrace the challenge of doing something new and outside of their comfort zone, getting a crash course in new skills, and flexing different performing muscles that they might not have had a chance to do previously. Others relish the opportunity to work with the best and brightest in the business, becoming a particular filmmaker's "muse" of sorts and trusting them to bring out the absolute most in them with each and every role.

And then there are those who can afford (literally and otherwise) to just tune out everyone else and listen to the opinion of one specific demographic: their kids!

Christian Bale would hardly be in rare territory by prioritizing his parental instincts first and taking his cues from his children — Viggo Mortensen famously joined "The Lord of the Rings" at the last minute upon the urging of his J.R.R. Tolkien-obsessed son, for instance. But for those of us who wondered why exactly a thespian like Bale, a veteran of serious-minded movies such as "American Psycho," "The Machinist," and "The Fighter," would end up circling back to the superhero scene after seemingly getting that out of his system with Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" trilogy? Wonder no more!

Ahead of the release of "Thor: Love and Thunder," which is scheduled for July 8, 2022, Bale sat down for an interview and opened up about what drew him to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Was the character of Gorr the God Butcher just that compelling? Could he simply not pass up the chance to work under director Taika Waititi? Are his children just big ol' nerds? The answer, by his own account, would be "all of the above."

'They Gave Me My Marching Orders'

We've heard a lot about how Gorr the God Butcher is apparently a villain like no other and how the prospect of living it up as the antagonist role appealed to Christian Bale more than playing the hero. But the real reason(s) for joining "Thor: Love and Thunder" proved to be a combination of several factors — though perhaps none more important than the input from his family.

In an interview with Screen Rant, Bale commented on the various reasons that appealed to him about his role in the "Thor" sequel. As you'd imagine for an actor who has worked with so many acclaimed filmmakers over the years, Taika Waititi's talent was simply too much to ignore.

"For me, it was Taika. I loved 'Thor: Ragnarok,' as did my family. We also all loved 'Jojo Rabbit,' and then I had worked with Natalie [Portman, on Terrence Malick's 'Knight of Cups'] and wanted to work with Tessa [Thompson] and with Chris [Hemsworth]. It comes down to that, really. I just went, 'Great!' Loved the script, loved Taika's description of the villain. 'Let's go do this.'"

But even with so many compelling reasons to come aboard, the dreaded specter of scheduling conflicts almost prevented this collaboration from ever happening. The difference-maker at this critical juncture, as it turns out, happened to be some well-timed input from Bale's children.

"There were some potential scheduling conflicts. I said to my family, 'I don't think it's going to work out,' and they went, 'No, you make it work out. You're doing this, Dad.' They gave me my marching orders, and I dutifully obeyed."

We have Waititi, a particularly well-written villain, and Bale's family to thank for seeing the actor dressed up like a goth on a subpar makeup day.

Read this next: /Film's Top 10 Movies Of 2021

The post Christian Bale Took His Thor: Love and Thunder Role Because His Kids Forced Him to appeared first on /Film.

42 years ago, Robin Williams was not at the top of anyone's list to bring E.C. Segar's one-eyed comic strip sailor to life. Though "Mork and Mindy" had turned the stand-up comic into a major television star, he had yet to prove himself as a big-screen draw. Producer Robert Evans initially wanted Dustin Hoffman to top-line his live-action adaptation, but when the temperamental actor dropped out after clashing with screenwriter Jules Feiffer, he took a risk on the up-and-coming funnyman.

Williams' whirling-dervish energy wasn't entirely compatible with director Robert Altman's penchant for long, laid-back takes sprinkled with overlapping dialogue. Whereas characters tend to drift in and out of scenes in an Altman movie, Williams draws focus with his constant ad-libbing. If he couldn't disappear into the sea of eccentrics that populate the fictional village of Sweethaven, Altman's immersive aesthetic would be completely ruined.

Then again, if no one could understand a word stumbling out of Williams' mouth, this problem would be completely moot.

A Killer Whale Farting In A Wind Tunnel

Though Evans wanted Segar's comic strip to be the film's stylistic template, audiences would be expecting Popeye to sound exactly like Jack Mercer's Popeye from the popular, long-syndicated Fleischer Studios cartoons -- i.e. a little bit mumbly (as expected for a man who speaks with a corn cob pipe stuck in his mouth), but always decipherable. Williams failed miserably on his first pass.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, the actor confessed, "I had to dub that movie over twice... because people couldn't understand what I was saying. I sounded like a killer whale farting in a wind tunnel." He nailed it the second time through, to the point where you wonder how much of the character's tossed-off witticisms were improvised. While the Popeye of the comics and cartoons favored bad puns and groaner jokes, there's a wryness to Williams' dialogue that's new to the character. He's a little too sharp at times.

Surviving Sweethaven

Altman's "Popeye" was a modest box-office hit when it hit theaters in December 1980. Though Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert came through with a pair of upturned thumbs, the majority of critics were mixed-to-negative. Williams fared well with most reviewers, but his performance was completely overwhelmed by Shelley Duvall's uncanny embodiment of the lovably lanky Olive Oyl. While "Popeye" didn't help or hurt Williams' nascent movie career, he wouldn't become a bankable superstar until 1987's "Good Morning, Vietnam," where his stream-of-consciousness riffing was actually integral to the plot. If audiences missed any dialogue in that movie, it's because they were laughing too hard.

Read this next: 14 Sequels That Truly Didn't Need To Happen

The post Robin Williams Had Some Regrets About His Popeye Performance appeared first on /Film.

"Apocalypse Now" is widely considered to be one of the definitive war movies, and for a lot of good reasons. Not only is it a disturbing look at the physical horrors of the Vietnam War, but the mental ones as well. After all, Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) didn't just suddenly become the cultish military leader he is out of the blue. This is a film that shows how the U.S. military was thrown, ill-prepared, into a war they didn't belong in, resulting in the deaths of thousands of soldiers and the emotional scarring of many more. This is not even taking into account the trauma left on Vietnamese civilians, who dealt with the brunt of the warfare -- hundreds of thousands of lives were lost.

Among those thrust into the war were young men, since the minimum age for enlistment was only 17 years old, although many recruits were actually younger. If "Apocalypse Now" serves as a portrait of the American military during the Vietnam War, then the character of Tyrone "Mr. Clean" Miller (Laurence Fishburne) represents the naive young men who went to great lengths to fight in a war largely considered meaningless. In a strange way, Fishburne's story of getting cast in the movie is not that dissimilar to these young men, which brings their stories into a much more terrifying perspective.

A Bizarre Sight

In a 2013 interview on "George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight," Fishburne explained that he had auditioned for the role of Mr. Clean claiming to be 16 years old, a year younger than the character's age. However, there was just one problem with this -- he was actually just 14 years old.

"I think they knew," he joked. "I don't think I was fooling anybody, you know?"

He especially wasn't fooling producer Fred Roos, who Fishburne says knew him from a project he did when he was younger. Needless to say, the casting team wasn't entirely sure if he looked as old as he claimed to be, so they needed an extra set of eyes. It was this outsider's opinion that ended up changing Fishburne's entire life.

"A young woman who was working in the offices, a secretary, got up and walked through," he said, "and as she was walking, Francis [Ford Coppola, the director of "Apocalypse Now"] finally spoke up and he just looked at her and said, 'excuse me, you think this kid could be 18? And whoever this young woman was, she turned around, looked at me, and went, 'yeah.'"

With the validation of an unaffiliated third party, Fishburne got the part. Although he was 14 when shooting began, he was 18 years old by the time the movie was finally released in theaters.

The Horrific Real-World Parallels

Of course, Fishburne was able to get away with his casting because, at the end of the day, it was just a movie. A movie that would become a nightmare to make, but a critically acclaimed one nonetheless. The same cannot be said for the young men who lied about their age in order to serve their country in the Vietnam War. It's currently unclear just how many teenagers did this during the war, which makes the casualties and trauma even more tragic.

One tragic example is that of Dan Bullock, a U.S. Marine that was killed in combat at only 15 years old. He was enlisted because he had lied about his age, pretending to be 18. The New York Times reported in 2019 that he had been one of four Marines killed at the An Hòa Combat Base in June 1969, one of nearly 60,000 American deaths in the war.

It is stories like Bullock's that make the character of Mr. Clean, as well as the story behind Fishburne's casting, so poignant. Although the young actor in a movie about the Vietnam War would eventually go on to have a lengthy career, the young kids that died in the actual war didn't. Don't be surprised if this hangs over you the next time you watch "Apocalypse Now."

Read this next: The 20 Greatest War Films Of All Time

The post The Lie That Got Laurence Fishburne His Role In Apocalypse Now appeared first on /Film.

I am rolling a joint, then I will pour enough whiskey into my coffee that it becomes mostly whiskey, and I will settle in to watch the first episode of 'Star Wars: LARRY.' I have eagerly awaited the tale of Obi-Wan Ben Larry "Steve" Kenobi after the fall of the Republic, and the Jedi had totally run out of midichlorians to snort. — Read the rest

This will contain spoilers for "Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith."

"Shadow of the Sith" is the first "Star Wars" novel released by Adam Christopher. Christopher had been announced to be writing a book set in the time and place of "The Mandalorian," but when it was unceremoniously canceled, this book was what he eventually produced. It takes place in the time between "Return of the Jedi" and "The Force Awakens," documenting events we learned about in "The Rise of Skywalker." Lando Calrissian, still hurting over the loss of his daughter years before and looking to do something, stumbles upon a plot by Ochi of Bestoon to kidnap a young girl from a family. Lando does not know this young girl is Rey and that her parents, Miramir and Dathan, are fugitives from the Sith, but the old scoundrel takes it upon himself to save them. Knowing the Sith are somehow involved, Lando goes to Luke Skywalker for help.

Luke, however, was already on the trail of some dark shadow that filled his dreams. The place he saw? Exegol, the place where Darth Sidious as the Sith Eternal gathered his strength to once again attack the galaxy. When these two paths collide, Luke and Lando hunt to save Rey and her family from the Sith assassin pursuing them and put an end to the threat of the Sith once and for all.

The book takes all of the questions about the consistency of some of the storytelling in "The Rise of Skywalker" and re-contextualizes many of the things that had fans scratching their heads so they make sense.

Rey's Parents

One of the biggest questions coming out of "The Rise of Skywalker" had a lot to do with Rey and where her parents came from. If Palpatine was truly her grandfather and the blood of the Sith truly ran through her veins, how did that happen? Over the course of the last few years, some of the media has made hints about what really happened. Rae Carson's adaptation of "The Rise of Skywalker" confirmed that Dathan was a clone of Palpatine, but didn't offer his name or elaborate on him much further than that.

"Shadow of the Sith" delves deep into where Palpatine's "son" Dathan grew up, how he escaped, and how he fell in love with his wife, Miramir. The entire story plays like a tragedy, a train you know is going to crash. We saw Ochi of Bestoon — hunting for Rey herself — kill Rey's parents with the Sith dagger and we saw Ochi's ship leave her on Jakku. How could these two things be true? Christopher weaves a tale that makes sense of these disparities and shows us the sacrifices Rey's parents made for her and why she'd think they were nothing more than junk dealers on Jakku for the majority of her life.

You can't help but turn the pages without wanting to look away, hoping they can pull it off, but knowing they absolutely can't. Some would argue this robs the book of suspense, but it's utterly thrilling to see how close they came and how corrupting the influence of the Sith is in foiling their own plans.

Relics Of The Sith

One of the most interesting things explored in this book are the artifacts of the Sith and how they can influence their bearers. The two chief objects whose power the book explores are the Sith Dagger we saw in "The Rise of Skywalker" and wielded by Ochi of Bestoon, and the mask of Viceroy Exim Panshard.

The dagger Ochi wields is the key to finding the Sith Wayfinder, though Ochi doesn't know it as he stabs his way through the story. The dagger itself is bloodthirsty, demanding more and more as the story progresses. The influence of the knife dims Ochi's ability to think straight and, by the end, almost damns him to his fate beneath the sinking fields of Pasaana. In fact, Ochi dying in the way he does, under the influence of the Sith Dagger, evokes the death of Isildur and the loss of the ring of power in the Disaster at Gladden Fields in "The Lord of the Rings." It feels as though dagger wanted to be where it was and betrayed Ochi, just as the ring betrayed Isildur. This was how the Sith Eternal put the pieces together for the potential to resurrect himself to his former glory, the same as Sauron.

As far as the mask of the Sith used in this story, it has an interesting history. Over the course of the new canon, objects have been imbued with the spirit of the Sith. In their quest for everlasting life, they looked for cheats to preserve their spirits. One recent instance that Lando references in the book is the mask of Darth Momin. Momin was able to put his spirit in the mask that was ultimately retrieved by Darth Sidious and given to Darth Vader as he set out to build his castle on Mustafar. Momin inhabited an Imperial officer and then a Mustafarian as his spirit worked to build Vader's castle. Eventually, Lando would have a run-in with Momin's work in Charles Soule's first "Star Wars" comic. This mask of Viceroy Exim Panshard works similarly through Kiza, an Acolyte of the Beyond. She was first introduced as a member of this Sith worshipping cult in Chuck Wendig's "Aftermath." She obtained the mask of Panshard and he took over her body, working to find their way to Exegol and reunite with the Sith Eternal. The voices she hears, though, feel as though they could be all the Sith, or Palpatine, or just Panshard. It's unclear, but feels implied that Palpatine is pulling the strings, even at this point in the timeline.

Fortunately, Luke Skywalker was on the case to face her and take the mask.

The Puzzle Of Ben Solo

Ben Solo appears as a Padawan briefly in the book, an astute student of Luke and an eager teacher of the younglings. Fans of the character will be grateful to see him, however briefly, but these Sith artifacts create a compelling case for how Palpatine was able to get some of his hooks into the young Solo.

The mask of Exim Panshard ends up being taken to Luke Skywalker's Jedi temple on Ossus, still humming with the forces of the Dark Side and the voices of the Sith. Although the book doesn't get into it, it creates a compelling scenario where this could have been the thing Palpatine needed to further corrupt Ben. Snoke certainly got to him, as well as another puppet of Sheev Palpatine, but this mask could have easily aided in the corruption.

When Palaptine says in "The Rise of Skywalker" that he is every voice that Ben has ever heard inside his head and transforms his voice to match Snoke and Darth Vader, it makes sense that he could do it with Exim Panshard as well. Especially given his lines later in the movie about how he is all of the Sith.

It really feels like they might be heading toward stories that offer deeper explanations of Ben's corruption to the dark side and are putting the pieces that make it happen on the table.

Details To Watch Out For

There are a lot of really cool details and Easter eggs Adam Christopher laced into the narrative, and fans of other parts of the saga and the Legends universe will be very happy.

First, from the "Battlefront" games we have an artifact that Luke retrieved with Del Meeko on Pilio: a Jedi star compass. This piece features in the book and was made real for shots in "The Last Jedi" as well. This compass is the Jedi equivalent of a Sith Wayfinder.

Another character that appears in "Battlefront II" is Shriv Suurgav, a Duros with an attitude and friend to Lando Calrissian. He quickly became a fan favorite in that game and has no problem stealing scenes in "Shadow of the Sith."

Dominic Monaghan's character from "The Rise of Skywalker," the archeologist Beaumont Kin, makes an appearance as well as a much younger man before joining the Resistance on an archeological dig of interest to Luke Skywalker and Lor San Tekka.

At one point, Ochi of Bestoon thinks back on his time in the Clone Wars and before, making references to Mace Windu and his apprentice Depa Billaba in a way that evokes some of the imagery of one of the best "Star Wars" novels, "Shatterpoint" by Matthew Stover.

"Star Wars" author Michael A. Stackpole gets his due and proper in two ways. The first is the canonization of the Errant Venture, a ship he first mentioned in one of his X-Wing books. In the Legends universe, it was a massive Star Destroyer painted red and run by the smuggler and scoundrel Booster Terrik. Lando's mention of it implies that he ran with Booster and he's running around the galaxy somewhere. The second is a little more obscure. At one point in the narrative, Luke and Lando need speeders to chase down Ochi of Bestoon and his thugs. Lando happens to have a couple of classic speeders in The Lady Luck. They're Stacker Polaris Stormwolfs. One of them is a '57. Stacker Polaris is a nice nod to Stackpole, but his longtime website is www.stormwolf.com. Stackpole also happens to have been born in 1957.

Another deep cut reference comes in the form of the CAP-2. The CAP-2 Captivator was a tool used by the Empire and bounty hunters to capture people, and it has its roots in a toy that Kenner put out for "The Empire Strikes Back." It was nothing that appeared in the films, but designed exclusively for the toy line. The bounty hunter Bossk appeared on the packaging, using a CAP-2 to deliver a rebel to Darth Vader.

Lando Calrissian drops another deep cut comes when he looks back at his Calrissian Chronicles, reprising their function from "Solo: A Star Wars Story." He mentions an adventure on planet Lahsbane, which is a reference to an original 1983 issue of a Marvel "Star Wars" comic where Lando Calrissian joins Luke, Leia, Artoo, and Threepio to planet Lahsbane to retrieve datatapes vital to the Rebellion.

Maybe the deepest cut, though, might be the reference to Bria LaVorgna. LaVorgna is a Star Wars writer and, alongside myself, contributed essays to the back of the "Age of..." Star Wars comics. She's also written about Star Wars in other places, including StarWars.com. As Lando looks at some games to play, "LaVorgna's Age of Dragons" jumps out at him, referencing Bria's overriding love of the "Dragon Age" games.

The Verdict

Overall, Adam Christopher weaves a compelling tale that makes sense of some of the more glaring errors in "The Rise of Skywalker." One of the chief problems he solves is what I call the Anakin Skywalker problem. If Luke was searching for a Sith Wayfinder and one of them is in Vader's castle because it was in Vader's possession, why didn't he just ask the ghost of his father? Christopher is able to answer this question with a dramatic scene where Anakin's very spirit is in danger and he's doing his best to protect Luke from the dark forces approaching him.

Another he solves deftly is the confusing chain of events that allow Rey to be left on Jakku in Ochi's ship when Ochi is the one searching for her and can't find her and doesn't know where she is. Really, the book feels designed to fix this one confusing plot point, but never once does it feel like a chore. In fact, the entire book was nothing but a pleasure to read. As it filled in holes and expanded our knowledge of Luke Skywalker and his whereabouts in the time between "The Mandalorian" and "The Force Awakens", it gave us a thrilling adventure and suspense story.

The book also shed light on the undernourished and largely cut subplot about Lando's kidnapped daughter from "The Rise of Skywalker." The Lando in "Rise of Skywalker" now makes a lot more sense and Christopher is owed all the credit.

For fans of "Star Wars" hoping to fill in the gaps, this book is perfect. Fans looking for a fun read through a rollicking adventure will find a home in this book as well. Christopher writes Luke and Lando with a wry smile and gives us everything we'd need but didn't know we wanted.

"Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith" is available now at bookstores everywhere.

Read this next: Star Wars Plot Holes That Still Confuse Fans

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In case you forgot, we're really going back to see the Sanderson Sisters once again. "Hocus Pocus 2," the sequel to the original sleeper hit Disney film, is still happening, and the new installment now has a teaser trailer to try to get us hyped up for the return to Salem.

The sneak peek was released on Disney's YouTube channel, and the teaser sums up what to expect quite nicely. In the nearly minute-and-a-half long clip, the new story is set up to focus on three teenagers in modern day, played by "Gossip Girl" star Whitney Peak, "Total Eclipse" star Lilia Buckingham, and "American Horror Story" star Belissa Escobedo. After attempting to access their own potential powers, the girls seemingly summon the most famous witches of all time, the Sanderson Sisters, and are subsequently forced to stop Winnifred (Bette Middler), Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker), and Mary (Kathy Najimy) after they have once again been brought back to the land of the living.

A teaser poster was also released for the film, which features silhouettes of the three iconic witches in each of their signature colors — purple for Sarah, red for Mary, and green for Winnie — alongside the tagline, "We're back, witches," and the movie's title.

The movie will also star Sam Richardson, Tony Hale, and Doug Jones, who will reprise his role as the beloved Billy Butcherson.

The Burden Of The Sequel

This movie already has a lot riding on its shoulders, and we're still a few months off from its release. The original 1993 film, directed by Kenny Ortega and written by Mick Garris and Neil Cuthbert, wasn't actually a smash hit when it was released, but that doesn't mean the film hasn't found its dedicated audience since then. In fact, one could definitely argue that the movie is one of the most important Halloween stories in modern culture. It has become such an expected and relied-upon part of the zeitgeist; It's always on every Halloween movie line-up, you will always win at least third place in any group costume contest you enter with your friends while dressed up as the Sandersons.

Sure, there is a bit of nostalgia clouding my outlook on this new sequel, but despite my love of Whitney Peak (she's a very strong actor), I'm not convinced this new story of Sanderson proportions is going to live up to the heartfelt rollercoaster ride that was given to me in my childhood by the original film. I'm willing to light the black flame candle once again and give this a shot, but if it turns out to be an uninspired attempt to revive a classic that should've, like the Sandersons, stayed dead, I reserve permission to throw a 24-hour "Hocus Pocus" movie marathon once a week for the entirety of October for the rest of forever. Your invites will be in the mail.

This new installment, which was directed by Anne Fletcher and written by Jen D'Angelo, will premiere on Disney+ on September 30, 2022.

Read this next: 14 Sequels That Truly Didn't Need To Happen

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The James Bond franchise was in dire need of a reboot after the creative failure of 2002's "Die Another Day." Pierce Brosnan's fourth go-round as 007 was a box-office hit, but the silly, gadget-happy formula he'd inherited from Roger Moore's iteration of the character had hit a nadir with the introduction of an invisible car. Was it more ridiculous than much of "Moonraker" or "A View to a Kill?" Perhaps not. But the series' unrelenting disconnect from reality and anything approaching genuine human emotion had left the character with nowhere to go but bust.

Hardcore Bond fans were enthusiastic about returning 007 to his remorseless, Ian Fleming roots (something Timothy Dalton's late-'80s run had half-heartedly attempted), but, on the surface, it appeared that "Casino Royale" director Martin Campbell's big idea was to embrace the parkour foot chases of Pierre Morel's cult action sensation, "District 13." This smacked of desperation. If Campbell, who'd kicked off the Brosnan era with "Goldeneye," was resorting to gimmickry rather than going back to the character's cold-hearted basics, maybe it was best to let Bond go altogether. It had been a mostly sweet 44-year run. The future belonged to the frenetic, hand-held set pieces of Paul Greengrass's "Bourne" movies.

A Surprisingly Somber And Unsexy Shower Scene

"Casino Royale" hooked moviegoers with a dazzlingly deluxe parkour pursuit led by French freerunner Sébastian Foucan, but the true triumph of the film is that, for the first time since "License to Kill," people bought into Bond as more than a debonair superspy. Craig's 007 comes on as a straight-up killer, but as his mission to smoke out criminal banker Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) goes sideways, he finds himself falling hard for his contact, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green). Unlike most Bond movies, this isn't a frivolous case of intermingling business with pleasure. Bond goes from needing Lynd's assistance to caring about her mental well-being. They're kindred, messed-up spirits, and their relationship reaches a deeply moving climax when Bond finds a traumatized, fully-clothed Lynd balled up in her hotel shower. It's an unusually affecting sequence for James Bond movie, and it only went before cameras because Daniel Craig insisted on it.

According to producer Barbara Broccoli in the retrospective documentary "Being James Bond," the shower scene was supposed to be a stereotypically sexy sequence featuring Lynd and 007 hooking up in the shower in their underwear. Per Broccoli, "Daniel said, 'No, they don't get undressed. They are in their clothes.'" Producer Michael G. Wilson adds: 

"[I]t was just sort of hinted at in the script. I was about this thing that if we're going to go with the violence, if we're going to go with the reality of it... it's still a James Bond movie. But I wanted to see what happens. I wanted to see the effect it has on people. She's in shock, so she's sitting in the shower in her clothes. It made complete sense to me."

James Bond: Reformed, Rescued And Ready For Another Reboot?

This is a shockingly tender scene for a Bond movie, harkening back to the vulnerability of George Lazenby and Diana Rigg in another atypical 007 adventure, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." As Broccoli notes, it's the moment Lynd and Bond fall in love. It's why audiences reinvested in the character, and basically set the stage for the five-film arc that brought us to the heartbreaking, if controversial, conclusion of "No Time to Die." 

The path to this final film was anything but direct and often unsatisfying ("Quantum of Solace" plays like a protracted denouement to "Casino Royale," while "Spectre" is bizarrely misconceived on just about every level), yet the series acquired a narrative velocity that had never been present in previous entries. None of this would've happened without Craig's sensitivity to the needs of his co-star. This scene changed the James Bond franchise forever. Whether they'll continue to follow Craig's lead going forward remains to be seen.

Read this next: The 20 Greatest James Bond Villains Ever

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Uttering the television series title "The Twilight Zone" usually conjures up imagery of its most serious episodes; classic episodes like "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" were spirited call-outs on man's embarrassing ability to fail themselves and each other, over and over again. While series creator Rod Serling tapped into his hallowed influences from Edgar Allen Poe to Ray Bradbury for his monochrome anthology show, his comedic flare-up episodes didn't land as well as the stranger genre trips he was known for (wrongfully, says this writer). Two goofy episodes in particular originally had aims for their own series.

"The Twilight Zone" had paid off for Serling, who had earned an Emmy for writing the series by the conclusion of season one's production in the spring of 1960 (his fourth such award to date). Racism, xenophobia, and hubris were all made digestible through aliens, sentient machines, and anything the fifth dimension could summon. Marty McGee and Don Presnell's reference work "A Critical History of Television's The Twilight Zone, 1959-1964" reveals the proposed pilots that eventually spawned a loose pair of mid-tier series episodes:

"'Cavender Is Coming' was the second of two series pilots — the first was 'Mr. Bevis' that Serling was contractually bound to create for CBS. The proposed title of this second series was 'The Side of the Angels.' Whereas The 'Mr. Bevis' series would have dealt with the same recurring title character and his guardian angel, 'The Side of the Angels' would have followed Cavender's misadventures and predicaments with different persons each week. CBS didn't care for either 'Bevis' or 'Cavender,' and neither left the ground as a series."

Mr. Bevis

Chronologically, "Mr. Bevis" was the first. It aired amid instability on June 3, 1960, two days after the Lake Bodom murders and nearly two weeks removed from any resolution on an eight-month Writers Guild of America strike. Its director was William Asher, helmsman of several AIP beach party pictures of the decade. The show didn't feature Annette Funicello traveling through dimensions, but "Mr. Bevis" did have a triviality to it that made for a strange contrast with the rest of the series. Serling's spoken intro reveres his goofy star:

"But this can be said of our Mr. Bevis: Without him, without his warmth, without his kindness, the world would be a considerably poorer place, albeit perhaps a little saner ... should it not be obvious by now, James B.W. Bevis is a fixture in his own, private, optimistic, hopeful little world, a world which has long ceased being surprised by him."

Amid the aforementioned instability, and with Sen. Joseph McCarthy's Red Scare still visible in the rearview mirror, Serling felt that true individuality came at a premium, and sometimes it could redeem you entirely. Bevis, played by aw-shucks Orson Bean, is assigned a guardian angel, one J. Hardy Hempstead (Henry Jones). All the money in the world can't give Bevis true happiness if he loses the oddball energy that endears his entire community to him. Bean's character is corny, but the episode stands as a nice counterweight to all the show's self-destruction episodes ("What You Need," "The Fever"). "Mr. Bevis" proves that it's not all doom and gloom beyond the boundaries of imagination. You can turn your whole franchise around if you just shut up and read the room — evergreen advice, especially in times like these.

Starring Burgess Meredith

Given a series as Rod Serling wanted, "Mr. Bevis" would have dealt with the same title character every week and his misadventures with his guardian angel. Marc Scott Zicree's "Twilight Zone Companion" book pulls the curtain back more:

"Originally, Serling intended 'Mr. Bevis' as a pilot for a series starring Burgess Meredith, wherein each week the angel would get Bevis out of yet another scrape. But Meredith was unwilling to commit to a series, and turned the offer down."

Meredith was already a beacon of the series, having had four "Twilight Zone" appearances, including the unfair top 10 episode "Time Enough At Last" (his character's name? Henry Bemis). Going back to humor, Serling's "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" sees Meredith as a hapless vacuum salesman who finds his 15 minutes of fame when gifted superstrength by big-brained aliens. Peering through the episode's Looney Tunes physics and Don Rickles' delightful humiliation, Meredith's range comes into focus; he's a real smug weenie when empowered, flashing the kind of disaffected puffed-up grin, one that earns a swift swirlie in some regions.

Luther Dingle's inverse, bookworm Bemis of "Time Enough At Last," lets the vulnerability seep out of his bottle-thick eyeglasses — an exposure that weeps just under the husky grump and gruff of Meredith's Micky Goldmill in "Rocky." Daydreaming about it all, a "Mr. Bemis" series episode would have been as sentimental as the "Twilight Zone" episode. Dreaming a little deeper, Meredith would have married that Bemis tenderness to Dingle's grin to emerge in a prototype of William H. Macy's Frank Gallagher, the colossal screw-up of "Shameless." If greed screed "A Most Unusual Camera" or "What You Need" are any clues, it's a safe bet Serling isn't scared to make his characters self-destruct.

Cavender Is Coming

"Cavender is Coming" was the latter of the comedic series pilots Rod Serling drafted. It came near the end of season three, when the "Twilight Zone" fanbase had grown and Serling had picked up another Emmy for penning the bulk of the episodes. A lot weighed on Serling, whose plate was full with what would end up being 37 episodes, and who would begin recycling concepts like the guardian-angel conceit.

A surprise self-parodying appearance on "The Garry Moore Show" had Serling not only acknowledging his stardom — his face as recognizable as Alfred Hitchcock's silhouette by this time — but linking up with comedian Carol Burnett, who played opposite Serling in the segment. Gordon F. Sanders' book "Serling: The Rise and Twilight of TV's Last Angry Man" chronicles the collaboration as it grew, in which Burnett recalls Serling asking her, over burgers, to do a guest appearance on his show:

"After we taped Garry's show, went out and got a burger and went bowling, I think. Then Rod asked if I would do a guest appearance on his show. Of course, I was delighted to do it."

Serling's teleplay is directed by Chris Nyby (the director behind Quentin Tarantino's favorite "The Thing from Another World"), resurrecting the highlights of the "Mr. Bevis" pilot-turned-episode with a gender-flipped protagonist. Burnett stars as the unemployed Agnes Grep, a fixer-upper case for one Harmon Cavender (Jesse White), an apprentice angel who must earn his wings by shepherding the clumsy woman (Burnett also happened to work as an usherette at a miserable job, the "Serling" book reveals). Unlike the "Mr. Bemis" series and its proposed casting of Meredith in the lead, "Cavender Is Coming" didn't get that far into planning when the studio nixed it. Would Burnett have been up for it?

Read this next: The 15 Best Anthology TV Series Ranked

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If you had asked me in 1997 if I thought "South Park" was going to still be on the air when I reached an age to actually write about it for an online publication, I'd have asked you what "online" meant because I was in the first grade and it was 1997. As I made public knowledge (much to my mother's dismay) in my assessment of the "South Park" Paramount+ movie "The Streaming Wars," I've been watching "South Park" from the very beginning, and have spent way, way too much time analyzing this show's impact on pop culture. As genuine creative provocateurs are continually flushed out of the public eye, it's hard to not want "South Park" to live on, continuing the grand tradition of satire through the lens of offensive and bad taste.

It doesn't seem like "South Park" will be vacating the cultural conversation anytime soon, fortunately, as the show signed a massive $900 million deal with Paramount+ for five new seasons and 14 made-for-streaming movies, bringing the show into its third decade of programming. The show absolutely misses the mark from time to time and crosses the line from provoking to problematic with fervent frequency, but despite the seemingly "stupid" humor of their show, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are easily two of the smartest creators in the industry. Not only is the show's longevity and popularity a sign that they've tapped into something special, their decisions to embrace the evolution of how audiences consume entertainment have kept them ahead of the curve.

Don't Fight The Pirates

In an interview with Bloomberg, co-creator Matt Stone talked a bit about he and Parker's massive deal with Paramount+, and why he believes they were able to secure the deal in the first place. What many may not know, is that in addition to the episodes streaming on HBO Max and the movies on Paramount+, a variety of their "South Park" episodes across all seasons are available for free online through South Park Studios. "We said, 'Let's put the show online and build that audience,'" Stone said. "If we can own half that, let's just do that." This made fans felt seen, and felt like the creators of their favorite show genuinely wanted to provide for them.

Stone and Parker also knew that much of the "South Park" target audience are the kind of folks who would pirate their show if it wasn't easily accessible, so they made the decision to put the episodes online so there would be no need for piracy. "We built an online audience that was complementary," he continued. 

Well, the strategy absolutely worked, because "South Park" is still as profitable as ever. A quick search of "South Park" on Twitter results in an excess of fanart and fanmade gifs, proving the "South Park" fandom isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Read this next: The 20 Best Bob's Burgers Episodes Ranked

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The jokes and wacky characters of "I Think You Should Leave" find unconventional ways to nudge a laugh out of you. Whether it's via a washed-up Santa Claus dropping F-bombs or an alumni dinner that goes awry when a former professor gets envious enough of someone's burger to brazenly eat it. A lot of this is owed to the characters of Tim Robinson's zany sketches: people who end up in socially awkward situations who react either by doubling down against logic and reason or who rage in self-righteous indignation. The feelings of secondhand embarrassment, the cringe, and the shock that often follows are all indispensable to the comedy of "I Think You Should Leave."

Flipping the script appears to be the spirit in which Robinson guides the surrealist comedy of the show. But one area he is less cavalier about is the script, which he develops with co-creator and fellow former "Saturday Night Live" writer Zach Kanin. As a result, none of the blustering monologues or dialogues in the show are improvised. The rule applies even to the show's growing list of guest stars, which has included Steven Yeun, Will Forte, and Tim Heidecker. Yet at least one person was immune to such constraints: Bob Odenkirk, who started riffing off the script while shooting his season two scene.

Odenkirk Has Triples Of The Barracuda

The scene in question opens innocently enough: A father (Tim Robinson) enlists a lonely, slightly sleazy stranger (Bob Odenkirk) in a white lie about ice-cream machines to his daughter. But when the stranger starts to imagine for himself a fantasy life as a rich car collector, the absurdity becomes disconcertingly tangible. Speaking with the Los Angeles Times, Robinson heaped nothing but praise atop Odenkirk's performance and even revealed the actor left the script behind at one point:

"Bob did improvise a bunch at the end of that sketch, it was all really funny, and I feel like it elevated the sketch off of what was on the page a lot."

Odenkirk's decision to improvise lends a lot to his character's manic creation of new lies about his fake life. But it's also hard to tell when he starts going off script. Maybe it's during his hilarious contemplation over which cars he has doubles/triples of — "If I don't have triples, that other stuff's not true," he quips matter of factly. Or is it his constant urgings for Robinson to repeat the lies to his daughter? Especially during his rant over his beautiful, but dying model wife: "She's sick, but she's hanging in there. Tell her."

Long before he was Saul Goodman, Odenkirk was a sketch comedy pioneer in his own right. Alongside David Cross, he debuted "Mr. Show with Bob and David," and its offbeat, oddball humor became an unsurprising inspiration for Robinson when creating "I Think You Should Leave." Maybe it's because of that veneration that he was given such comedic latitude during his skit. Clearly when you let Odenkirk do Odenkirk, you get comedy gold.

Read this next: The 10 Best Comedies Of The Last 10 Years

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Actors often do a lot for their craft, and sometimes that puts them in harm's way. Such is the case for Viggo Mortensen, who stars in Ron Howard's upcoming film "Thirteen Lives," which recounts the events of the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue in the Chiang Rai Province of Thailand. Mortensen will play Richard Stanton, a central figure in the rescue and an accomplished cave diver, and discussed the lengths he went to learn the practice in a recent virtual press conference.

"One thing Rick [one of the divers training the cast for the film] kept talking about was, 'Remember to just breath calmly. Control your breathing," explained Mortensen. "The more nervous you are and you're breathing shallow, you're using up all your air."

Unfortunately for him, there was one moment on set where he was doing just that, leading to a harrowing experience that could've ended horribly if not for the trained professionals on set:

"I managed to get through this tight spot, but I really had a moment there where I started to breathe fast, and I was like [imitates trying to breathe], and there was nothing."

Just Be Calm. Don't Freak Out.

Part of Mortensen's training involved diving and swimming in very cramped spaces in order to simulate the rescue's actual conditions. Thankfully, these conditions were simulated with professionals, but there were times that it felt all too real:

"There were a lot of places that were so narrow that you had to just wiggle through. Sometimes you had to take your tank...off, while you were underwater, without disconnecting from the air — then go through this wiggle area, [and] put the tank on. Do this all calmly. We had two tanks. If something went wrong with one, just be calm. Don't freak out, because you can drown in a few seconds. Once you freak out and you swallow a little water, you're done. Even though it's a movie ... nobody can get to you fast enough, and so forth."

This led to a moment, Mortensen explained, where he accidentally rolled onto one of his oxygen tanks, turning it off in the process. He explained that he tried to remain calm and eventually was able to revert to his other tank, but there was a moment that felt like nothing he'd ever felt before. While he was thankfully able to get things back under control, this incident serves as another reminder of just how important proper safety protocols and training are on film sets. Without the expertise of the real-life divers, things could have gone much differently.

"Thirteen Lives" will premiere on Prime Video in August 2022.

Read this next: 20 Movies About Time Travel Ranked Worst To Best

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You might be surprised that a man named Robert Bartleh Cummings might be into vintage horror films and TV shows. A guy with that name is probably sitting on a yacht, reading the financial section of the Times as his butler brings out caviar and Cuban cigars on a silver platter. But if I told you that man is better known as Rob Zombie, then the surprise factor is out the window. The man's chosen stage name is "Zombie," for God's sake. Of course he loves horror.

Rob Zombie and horror imagery go together like peanut butter and chocolate. Genre has been part of his identity even before he became a horror filmmaker himself.

Mr. Zombie is wrapping up work on a new version of "The Munsters," a feature film adaptation of the classic lighthearted monster show. While it is a departure from his other feature film output in that it is happily rated PG instead of the hard R or even Unrated content of his past features, Zombie is pulling from the same love of genre as he has from the beginning of his career.

Starting With TV

Robert Zombie was born in 1965, which puts him in the golden era of TV, pre-VCR and cable TV revolution, where shows like "The Twilight Zone," "The Addams Family," and, of course, "The Munsters" were found on the few channels that existed.

Zombie cited those three shows in particular in a 2014 interview about growing up in a small, Sleepy Hollow-ish New England town where the easiest place to find monster stuff was on the boob tube, from the family monster shows to broadcasts of black and white horror classics.

So that might give you an early indicator as to why the dude behind such in-your-race gruesome horror movies as "The Devil's Rejects" and "House of A Thousand Corpses" is so gung-ho about his PG remake of "The Munsters." Yes, the man loves extreme horror, but he was brought up in an era of family-friendly spook stories. In fact, Zombie turned to "The Twilight Zone" right at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, posting to social media that he was rewatching the show and asking for his follower's favorite episodes.

Freaks And Monsters

Given his music and the vast majority of his film output, you'd think the more extreme horror would be what Zombie cites as his inspiration. But when asked in interviews about his favorites, he tends to focus on classic films, with a particular fondness for pre-Code horror.

Pre-Code means before the Hays Code, the very first and very strict morality guideline implemented by the studio system before the MPAA ratings we have today. This is the reason you didn't see things like married couples sharing a bed or open mouth kisses in a lot of older Hollywood films. The Hays Code was established in 1934 and lasted until 1968, so when Zombie praises pre-Code horror, he's talking about some very early horror movies.

Tod Browning's "Freaks" (1932) is a favorite of Mister Zombie. This horror classic, set at a carnival with a cast of real disabled performers, wouldn't cause modern audiences to bat an eye, but at the time, it was flat-out scandalous. People fainted, vomited, and one woman threatened to sue the studio, MGM, because she blamed the film for causing her to miscarry, as reported in Angela Smith's book "Hideous Progeny: Disability, Eugenics, and Classic Horror Cinema."

It makes a lot of sense that a critically reviled and extreme (for its time) horror movie like "Freaks" took up so much headspace for young Master Zombie. Also not surprising is his love of the classic Universal monsters.

The Movie Rob Zombie Named His Band After

Director Tod Browning is the connective tissue here. He directed "Freaks" and also directed a little movie called "Dracula" starring Bela Lugosi. You might have heard of it. When it comes to the classic Universal monsters, it seems their brevity is what really appealed to the musician:

"I love the Universal stuff 'cause a lot of it is 69, 70 minutes. Get to the point, boom, body out of the grave, let's build a monster! After 90 minutes, I get a little squirrely in the feet. Especially if you're seeing simple things, like I don't want a two and a half hour superhero movie. Cut out an hour of that."

Other pre-Code favorites of Zombie's include a trio of 1932 spook-a-blasts: "Island of Lost Souls," "Murders in the Rue Morgue," and "White Zombie."

"White Zombie" should ring some bells for fans of the musician, since he named his band after this Bela Lugosi shocker, which is often credited as being the origin of zombies on screen. However, it should be noted that this is the pre-George Romero definition of zombie, one that requires a witch doctor to use magic to turn dead people into mindless automatons.

Romero Zombies And Creatures

Creeping into the 1950s, Rob Zombie continues his Universal streak with "The Creature from the Black Lagoon." Zombie has spoken openly about his love of the design of the Gill-Man monster, and he even got caught up in the remake rumor mill because he once stated that "Creature" is good material for a modern remake. He since had to make sure everyone knew he wasn't planning on actually remaking it, but the point stands.

The 1960s saw many influential films for Mr. Zombie, but there are two that seem to stand above the others. One is the artsy, dreamlike "Carnival of Souls" from 1962, which Zombie ended up naming his 2002 album after. It should be noted that this is the album that gave us "Dragula," and we've been digging through the ditches and burning through the witches ever since.

The other major '60s title that captured Rob Zombie's imagination was George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead," released in 1968, the same year the Hays Code ended and our more modern rating system was implemented. It makes sense that Romero's first "Dead" movie was a favorite of Zombie's. It's a spunky, short game-changer that really annoyed off the squares with its in-your-face violence and on-its-sleeve social politics.

Monroeville Mall And Travis County, TX

Zombie's love of Romero doesn't end with "Night of the Living Dead." In fact, that movie tees up 1978's "Dawn of the Dead," which Zombie calls "The movie I love the most, and watched the most." Sounds an awful lot like he's saying "Dawn of the Dead" is his favorite movie there, doesn't it? He continues:

"It became one of those things where I had it on VHS and I'd watch it every single day. Even if I wasn't paying attention to it, the sound in the background was soothing."

That also explains why he has gone out of his way to cast "Dawn of the Dead" star Ken Foree in his films.

And that leaves a film which Zombie said changed his life: 1974's "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre." In a piece for Rolling Stone, Zombie shared his experience seeing the trailer for the first time on TV at the tender age of nine and how entranced he was by it. He also had a friend over who was so scared by the trailer that his mom had to come over and pick him up. Different strokes, different folks, etc.

The Anticipation Factor Paid Off

It took Zombie seven more years to finally see the movie. Remember, this was back in the day before video stores existed, let alone having every movie in the world available to stream or rent at a moment's notice. So Zombie had built "Chain Saw" up in his mind, becoming obsessed over the TV spots that ran in his childhood and whatever stills he could dig up in magazines.

When he finally saw it, it was everything he hoped it would be and more: "It was a genuine American nightmare caught on film for all the world to see."

Over the years, many of Zombie's fans (and harsh critics, for that matter) have pointed out the influence "Chain Saw" had on his films. "The Devil's Rejects" in particular feels like it's cut from that same sweaty, real southern nightmare cloth as Tobe Hooper's classic. It's also been noted that Zombie's version of Michael Myers in his "Halloween" films resembles Leatherface more than John Carpenter's original version of The Shape.

As a fan of all horror eras, there are countless more titles that Zombie champions, from "The Shining" to "Let the Right One In." But the titles mentioned here are clearly what shaped and formed the gleefully disturbed psyche of one of the top figures in the genre. Maybe it's time for a marathon?

Read this next: The 15 Best Final Girls In Horror Movies Ranked

The post The Movies and Shows That Kickstarted Rob Zombie's Love of the Horror Genre appeared first on /Film.

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"Thor: Love and Thunder" hits theaters soon, and we're getting a new MCU villain in Christian Bale. He plays Gorr the God Butcher, a character who, in the comics, loses his wife and child. He prayed to the gods of his people to save them, but they didn't. After, he vows to destroy the gods, and gains the Necrosword to do it with. That's an oversimplification, but for our purposes, it explains who Gorr is.

Gorr first appeared in Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic's run with "Thor: God of Thunder" #1 in 2013. He has quite the look in the comics, all black and white, as the best of the extremists are. In the upcoming film, as you can see from the trailers, he's chalk white with black eyes and lots of icky black goo coming out of his mouth. He wears a white robe, and sucks the color out of places he fights. In fact, in one of the trailers, you can see the entire world go black, white, and grey, with our heroes' weapons the only spot of color in the scene. 

Bale has mentioned a lot of things about his character, including the fact that there was almost a dance to a Kate Bush song, and that the video for Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy" was a visual reference he used for inspiration. First, I need to see that dance, and second, that video will haunt me for the next few weeks. Bale also said that there was a part of his costume that made him feel "pathetic," in an interview with Deadline. 

How Do You Do Anything With Those?

As you can see from the picture above, there is something you don't usually see on Christian Bale. It's the nails. He said on the carpet, "It rendered me completely incapable of everything. I was pathetic. I found myself thinking things like, 'I don't think I can walk because I've got long nails.' It affected my brain. I was like, 'I can't eat, I've got long nails.' I was trying to type. I couldn't do anything." 

I mean, I get it. I can't do anything with long nails either. I am endlessly fascinated by people who can type text messages on their phones with long nails. The ones he has in this film are really long, and frankly, I also don't know how he doesn't break them off when he goes a-sword-slashing. I can't keep my nails from breaking when I make the bed. Perhaps it's a bonus benefit from the Necrosword's magic? Nails (the part you see) are dead cells, from what I remember from biology class. Necro ... dead cells ... yeah, I'm reaching, but it does make sense. 

Having interviewed actors who have to wear claws as part of costumes, walking and typing weren't the activities they spoke about having issues with. It was using the restroom. You know what? Let's not think about that. 

"Thor: Love and Thunder" will hit theaters on July 8, 2022. 

Read this next: Every Pre-MCU Marvel Movie Ranked

The post Part of Christian Bale's Gorr Costume Made Him Feel 'Pathetic' appeared first on /Film.

Fans of both horror comedies and Amy Adams have been buzzing around her upcoming performance in "Nightbitch," the Marielle Heller-directed feature based on Rachel Yoder's book of the same name. If Amy Adams doing a horror comedy wasn't enough to generate a whole mess of interest, the evocative title and compelling premise is sure to do the trick. "Nightbitch" is about a suburban stay-at-home mom who is exhausted due to raising a hyperactive child on her own due to her husband's constant traveling for work, and she begins to transform into a dog at night as a means to cope. Esquire called Yoder's story "an outrageous Kafkaesque parable about the mundanity and monstrosity of early motherhood," and the story's film rights were sought after before the novel even hit bookstore shelves.

Yoder told Esquire the inspiration for "Nightbitch" came from the book "Dept. of Speculation" by Jenny Offill, when the narrator says, "It was never my plan to get married. I wanted to become an art monster instead." Yoder said it was that theme of a mother whose ambitions were viewed as monstrous that struck a chord with her and motivated her to write the book. Additionally, Yoder says "Nightbitch" is also an incredibly personal work, with her own frustrations and challenges during her early years of motherhood reflected within the book's protagonist. It's an interesting way to process the feelings we often have as women existing in the world, and similarly, werewolf movies have frequently served as metaphors for those feelings ... but "Nightbitch" sounds almost identical to the 2017 indie film "Bitch" from Marianna Palka.

An Act Of Simultaneous Invention ... We Hope

I am in no way accusing Rachel Yoder or Marielle Heller of plagiarizing Marianna Palka's work and truly believe this is an instance where two creatives had a similar idea. I am, however, using this opportunity to talk about Palka's "Bitch," a criminally underseen indie feature that wound up on two of our writers' Best of Sundance lists back in 2017. Palka wrote, directed, and starred in "Bitch," the story of a stay-at-home mom named Jill who is at her wits' end from stress. Her husband, Bill (the always perfectly cast Jason Ritter), isn't doing his share of the household chores and cheats on his wife while away for work. Jill feels like she's reached the end and attempts to take her own life by hanging herself with a dog leash.

Fortunately, Jill survives the attempt, but unfortunately, she endures a nervous breakdown and disappears, leaving Bill alone to take care of the home and their four children. The children are convinced their mother has been kidnapped, but one day after school they discover her hiding out in the basement, behaving like a dog. Bill decides to pretend everything is normal and keep Jill's behavior a secret, ignoring the request of his sister-in-law to get her the help she so clearly needs. Jill's breakdown forces Bill to completely change the course of his life, and their family is weirdly better for it. "Bitch" is a fantastic feminist satire and features phenomenal performances from Palka, Ritter, and Jaime King as Jill's sister, Beth, but it was unceremoniously released on VOD. To make matters even stranger, "Bitch" isn't even the first "stressed out mom turns into dog" film, either.

Entering Our Feral Era

Fifteen years before "Bitch" and two full decades before "Nightbitch," Kasia Adamik directed an indie drama called "Bark!" Heather Morgan stars as a dog walker named Lucy who slowly begins to assume the identity of a dog. Where it differs from both "Bitch" and "Nightbitch" is Lucy doesn't have the extreme stress of motherhood and a husband who weaponizes his incompetence to motivate her disconnect, just a general dislike of the normalized rudeness and abject cruelty present in the world at large. The film was based off a 90-second sketch comedy bit, and based on the 14% the film currently boasts on Rotten Tomatoes, it definitely shows. (To be fair, stars Heather Morgan, Lisa Kudrow, Lee Tergesen, Vincent D'Onofrio, Hank Azaria, and Mary Jo Deschanel are all an absolute delight.)

Rather than throw accusations of who copied whom, it's infinitely more interesting to see that three separate creative women across a 20-year span have all felt drawn to stories where women disassociate and turn into a dog as a means to deal with the world around them. When Roe v. Wade was overturned, I joked that I was "finally entering my feral era," because I was filled with so much anger and rage the only thing that felt worthy of my energy was ripping something to shreds with my teeth or pissing on the lawn of six Supreme Court justices. People have been calling women "bitches" to demean us for years, but maybe this cinematic hat trick is a way to say embracing our literal inner bitch doesn't have to be a bad thing after all. 

Read this next: Horror Roles That Changed Actors Forever

The post Amy Adams' Nightbitch Has Almost the Exact Same Premise as a 2017 Indie Movie appeared first on /Film.

nickwinlund77 shares a report from Phys.Org: A new study led by University of Arizona researchers may have solved two mysteries that have long puzzled paleo-climate experts: Where did the ice sheets that rang in the last ice age more than 100,000 years ago come from, and how could they grow so quickly? Understanding what drives Earth's glacial -- interglacial cycles -- the periodic advance and retreat of ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere -- is no easy feat, and researchers have devoted substantial effort to explaining the expansion and shrinking of large ice masses over thousands of years. The new study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, proposes an explanation for the rapid expansion of the ice sheets that covered much of the Northern Hemisphere during the most recent ice age, and the findings could also apply to other glacial periods throughout Earth's history. About 100,000 years ago, when mammoths roamed the Earth, the Northern Hemisphere climate plummeted into a deep freeze that allowed massive ice sheets to form. Over a period of about 10,000 years, local mountain glaciers grew and formed large ice sheets covering much of today's Canada, Siberia and northern Europe. While it has been widely accepted that periodic "wobbling" in the Earth's orbit around the sun triggered cooling in the Northern Hemisphere summer that caused the onset of widespread glaciation, scientists have struggled to explain the extensive ice sheets covering much of Scandinavia and northern Europe, where temperatures are much more mild. [...] "Using both climate model simulations and marine sediment analysis, we show that ice forming in northern Canada can obstruct ocean gateways and divert water transport from the Arctic into the North Atlantic," [said Lofverstrom, an assistant professor of geosciences and head of the UArizona Earth System Dynamics Lab], "and that in turn leads to a weakened ocean circulation and cold conditions off the coast of Scandinavia, which is sufficient to start growing ice in that region." "These findings are supported by marine sediment records from the North Atlantic, which show evidence of glaciers in northern Canada several thousand years before the European side," said Diane Thompson, assistant professor in the UArizona Department of Geosciences. "The sediment records also show compelling evidence of a weakened deep ocean circulation before the glaciers form in Scandinavia, similar to our modeling results." Together, the experiments suggest that the formation of marine ice in northern Canada may be a necessary precursor to glaciation in Scandinavia, the authors write. [...] "It is possible that the mechanisms we identified here apply to every glacial period, not just the most recent one," [Lofverstrom] said. "It may even help explain more short-lived cold periods such as the Younger Dryas cold reversal (12,900 to 11,700 years ago) that punctuated the general warming at the end of the last ice age."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Warning: The following contains spoilers for "The Umbrella Academy" season 3.

The "Umbrella Academy" season 3 finale feels like an ending. The latest batch of episodes sees the Hargreeves siblings endure a true apocalypse for the first time, but they also make it out of the Hotel Oblivion after hitting a reset button that sends them to a new version of their reality. Only, in this world, the Hargreeves siblings don't have superpowers.

"Oblivion" ends with Viktor, Diego, Allison, Luther, Klaus, and Five parting ways to try to live normal, apocalypse-free lives for once. It's not exactly closure, but it's a surprise ending that seems to take away the central conceit for the series entirely, leaving fans to wonder where the show could possibly go next. According to showrunner Steve Blackman, the series has at least one more season worth of familial dysfunction to explore. 

Blackman told The Wrap that he has had a four-season plan for the series for a while now, and that if the show gets another season (it's not yet renewed), it could be its last. "I think inevitably if we got a season 4, it's going towards an endgame," Blackman said. He continued:

"I think at a certain point, I'm not sure where we'd go after season 4. We have to be careful. My plan for next year is not to continually tread on the same ground we have before. It's a challenge to come up with a new way to subvert this storyline, and I think we have an idea how to do that."

The Showrunner Weighs In

The filmmaker says that the team's ideas for season 4 "would be a great ending for the run of the show," which seems like a pretty definitive clue that the series aims to wrap up after four seasons. Yet, the fourth season still has to be ordered by the streamer, which has very publicly been changing strategies and axing programming lately. Netflix typically doesn't renew series immediately after they air, so it may be a while until we hear more about the status of season four.

The series based on Gerard Way's comic books has reinvented itself with each new batch of episodes, beginning in the present day before time travelling back to the 1960s. The latest season saw the Hargreeves return to a version of the present-day that was fundamentally changed by their timeline meddling, so that the Umbrella Academy as they knew it never existed.

The show also introduced The Sparrows, an alternate timeline version of the Hargreeves that seemingly functioned as a much more well-oiled machine than their counterparts. By the season's end, The Sparrows seem to have vanished, while the Hargreeves are back to their pre-apocalypse selves — albeit without their powers. The show is also neck and neck with Way's comic series now, as its third arc was published in 2019.

Blackman doesn't sound entirely opposed to continuing "Umbrella Academy" beyond its initial four-season plan, but for now, one more season seems to be the goal. "I'm not saying I couldn't do more, but you know," he says, but "I think that would be very satisfying for the audience, four seasons."

Read this next: The 15 Best Netflix Original Series Of 2021 Ranked

The post Is The Umbrella Academy Ending at Season 4? appeared first on /Film.